Keeping it in the Family

The First Day

She was running, running fast and hard, choking through the heavy smoke. I can't see anything. I can't hear anything. Get me out of here! Flames licked eagerly at the hallway, she saw doors engulfed in them. What was worse, she could hear the shrieks of people trying to get out. Although she knew that there was no time to waste, she pointed furiously at a random door. Water spouted from her finger, quenching the flames, and the door burst magically open. Through a wall of flames, she could faintly see what looked like Professor Caedwulf leaning over a black body. He looked up with a pale, haggard face and immediately shrieked at her, "Go! Go! There is nothing you can do here! Save yourself!"

"Professor!" she screamed, unable to do anything for him, on the other side of the flame. She had so many questions to ask, there were many things she could not understand. Why could this fire die only by water from her hand? What was in it? She couldn't leave! What would happen to her friends, classmates, teachers...

"Go, Keira!" the Professor yelled again. "It's useless to remain here! You, especially, cannot die now..."

She went on, stumbling and sobbing, hardly seeing a thing, yet water was spouting from her hands continuously, killing the flames and clearing a path to the front door. For the first time in her life, she was helpless, unable to save anyone but herself. As she went up to the door, it again burst magically open like all the others before it.. Running down the front steps, she sank down on the grass, overwhelmed by her grief, fatigue, and despair, powerless to do anything but watch her school burn down, with tears running down her cheeks and sorrow filling up her heart...

Her eyes opened immediately. She had broken out in a cold sweat, and for a moment Keira had no idea where she was. It took a moment to calm herself down, remind herself that she was in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, about to start her first day... She sighed and got out of bed. Sleep would never come to her tonight, now. It had never followed the countless other times she had dreamed this. Her heart was still beating fast, her head spinning. She could smell ash, smoke, hear the cries...

"Keira?" Hermione Granger sat up in her bed. "Is everything alright?"

Keira pasted a smile on her face and turned to Hermione. "I'm fine, just jittery, that's all..."

"Oh." Hermione had sounded a bit suspicious at first, but she suddenly gave Keira a small smile. "You'll be fine, don't worry. Come on, you're going to be even more nervous in the morning if you don't get some sleep now."

"Alright, then." Grinning slightly, Keira walked back to her four-poster and climbed in. Judging by the sky, it was about 3 o' clock in the morning... Good, she thought. Only about three hours of sleep would be lost tonight. She spent early morning with her eyes closed, unable to sleep, horrifying pictures flashing through her mind.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Keira walked down to the Great Hall the following morning by herself for breakfast. On the way, she had gotten lost three times, being pointed in the wrong way by various students, so this, coupled with her nightmare last night, had put her in a grumpy mood.

Entering, she saw the Gryffindor table, and sat down at the first vacant seat she saw. Making herself comfortable, she looked up and realized that she was sitting right across from Harry Potter, who glared at her immediately as if trying to menace her from seat. Keira's finger twitched, eager to upend his jug of pumpkin juice in his face, but she merely raised her eyebrows briefly at him and greeted Hermione, Ron, and Neville, pointedly ignoring Harry. While he simmered, she took Advanced Protection Spells for the Hardy and Stout-Hearted out of her bag, stood it up on the table and began to read as she calmly buttered some toast, as if she didn't feel the tension, but the people around her noticed that the marmalade-jar next to her was twitching slightly.

"Er- I'll just get our schedules from McGonagall..." said Hermione lamely, and she quickly left the table while Ron and Neville suddenly became very interested in their own marmalade.

"Here are our schedules..." Hermione tossed Harry and Ron theirs, and then started handing out slips up and down the Gryffindor table.

Ron looked incredulous. "I got in Snape's Potions class? This is unbelievable..."

"I don't believe mine, either," said Harry wryly. "It seems almost impossible for me." He, also, had gotten a slot in Potions.

Keira, however, looked happy. "Good, we have Potions right after breakfast!" Harry, Ron, Neville, and Hermione (who had just returned), looked surprised.

"You like Potions?"

She nodded fervently. "It's my favorite subject!"

Neville cringed automatically. "I suppose it could be fun, but our Potions master..."

"He's awful?"

Harry spoke up suddenly. "No, as a matter of fact, I think you and him will get along very well, two of a kind, you know..."

Hermione immediately stepped on his foot, and he stopped. Keira only looked mildly surprised.

"What's his name?"

"He's Snape... Severus Snape," Neville answered. "Up there at the staff table, see..." He pointed to Snape, as hook-nosed and greasy haired as usual.

The color drained out of Keira's face. "Wasn't he a Death Eater?" she asked silently.

Hermione shrugged. "Well, he's not anymore, and that's all that matters."

Keira couldn't believe it. Taking her favorite subject with her aunt and uncle's former fellow Death Eater... she would never have thought it. And Harry had said something about getting along with him...two of a kind.... Realizing what he meant, she scowled at Harry so fiercely that he could feel the daggers on his skin. She stood up immediately, closed her book, put it in her bag, and grabbed her buttered toast off her plate.

"Excuse me." They could all feel the coldness as she walked out.

"Don't provoke her!" Hermione turned to Harry, very annoyed. "She's trying her best to get along with all of us and here you are taunting her!"

Harry just shrugged. "Keira's a Lestrange, and her aunt killed Sirius. Nothing will change that."

"Don't you see how she apologized to everyone yesterday? She's sorry that her aunt and uncle killed or wrecked all the people they did!"

"Well, she's still related to that filth," he snarled. "How do we know that she's different?"

Hermione now looked outraged. "Can't you see? Won't you even give her a chance? You're prejudiced, Harry, you know that, and-"

Neville butted in. "We ought to give her a chance. If she was rotten like her aunt and uncle, the Sorting Hat would have probably put her in Slytherin."

"That's right," Ron said. "I don't think that Godric Gryffindor's hat would put someone in a house they didn't deserve to be in..."

Harry looked furious and his voice rose. "Well, are you all ganging up on me now? WHAT ARE YOU ALL TRYING TO PROVE?"

"NO!" Hermione said, raising her voice to match Harry's. "We're not ganging up on you! All we're doing is just trying to tell you to give Keira a chance!"

"You all don't UNDERSTAND!" Harry shouted.

Neville's face suddenly darkened as he said, "Just give her a break, will you? She may be a Lestrange, but that doesn't mean that she's only her aunt's carbon copy!"

Harry looked incredulous, then his face suddenly took on a sarcastic sneer. "That's right, I remembered that none of you have relatives who were KILLED by her aunt..." Harry grabbed his schoolbag and stormed out of the Great Hall.

Neville stood up now, his round face looking angry, but Ron yanked his robes and pulled him down. "Oh, let him go," he said. "His hormones are just flaring up again..."

Hermione was stirring her pumpkin juice angrily. "Remember the Sorting Hat's song last year? About how 'Hogwarts must be united?' How are we going to achieve that if everyone has the same mentality here as Harry?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As she stalked down to the dungeons, flames danced in Keira's eyes and pounded in her head. The suits of armor rattled faintly as she walked by, and the paintings on the walls jiggled, but she didn't notice a thing. However, she could see that people were looking at her strangely again. So what's new? she thought. If they want to flatten themselves to the wall like flobberworms, let them. They all probably share the same views as that stupid Harry Potter... Stereotyping, prejudice, who cares? As long as someone can be the butt of rumors and jokes... Reaching the dungeon classroom door, she tried it, but found that it was locked. She sat down on the cold flagstones and again brought out Advanced Protection Spells for the Hardy and Stout-hearted. She should have known people would be this way. Books had been her only true friends for many years before Rosehill, and now it looked like that would happen again. Eagerly turning to page 186, she began to read about Casting Firewalls for Self-protection and Offensive Purposes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

At Hermione's insistence, she and Ron had hurried down to the dungeons soon after breakfast, the latter very half-heartedly.

"Oh come on, Hermione! Why should we fix Harry's problems for him? He's the one who made her mad in the first place! We stuck up for her and all too...."

"Well, we have to at least apologize to her, seeing as Harry's too thick-headed to do so," Hermione reasoned. "Besides, what harm would it do?"

Hermione stopped and cleared her throat. She expected Keira to look angry, hateful, and brooding, but instead Keira looked like she was floating in her own private dreamland, reading her book. Hermione cleared her throat again, louder this time. Keira looked up, a bit wary at first, but smiled when she realized who it was.

"We just want to say-" But Keira cut her off.

"There's no need to," she explained in her soft voice. "It's alright. Besides, it wasn't you who did it anyway..." Scowling, she closed her book with a loud thump. "But never mind about that. Is Snape really as awful as Neville was saying?"

Ron made a rude gesture towards the closed Potions classroom. "That's the biggest understatement I've ever heard."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Somehow, Keira found herself sitting herself to a Ravenclaw girl at the Potions classroom. She was fingering her badge, something she did only when she was extremely nervous. This is ridiculous, she thought. I've never been nervous at any of my Potions classes! Why start now? Trying to content herself with the knowledge that she could surely handle anything related to Potions that a former Death Eater could throw at her; she bit her lip and placed her hand at her side.

Snape swept in, his eyes no-nonsense and cold. Going to his desk at the front, he took one roll of parchment and faced the class. "As you are here in my advanced Potions class, I assume that you are among the, if not best in your year. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule..." His eyes wavered slightly over Harry, his mouth forming a slight sneer. Harry fidgeted, but otherwise glared stonily back. "Today, we will start our lesson on Truth Serums by making a basic weak one, which has some power, but which a competent wizard could easily overthrow." His eyes searched the room for victims, spotted Keira, and he sneered again.

"Lestrange!" Keira stood up straight as a ramrod, shaking with nervousness. "What is the common basic ingredient which forms the basis of any type of Truth Serum?" She felt her stress slowly ebbing away... this was one question she could easily answer!

"Feathers of a Jobberknoll," she answered. However, Snape continued to glare at her, and she wondered what she could have possibly forgotten, but suddenly, it struck her. "Feathers of a Jobberknoll, um, sir?"

"Dear, dear," said Snape in a quiet, deadly voice. "And I thought every student would know enough to acknowledge their professor's superiority. Five points from Gryffindor. Sit down, Lestrange, and don't look at me that way, or I will make it ten."

Keira opened her mouth, but noticed Hermione shake her head slightly. Furious, she sat down, trying to convert the angry look on her face to blankness. Five points just for not attaching 'sir'! It was odious! Snape was now pulling out a blackboard on wheels, which he stood next to the classroom blackboard.

"As I was saying earlier, in our lesson today, we will start making our Truth Serums. It will take three days for the moonflower to boil, and there are dozens of other ingredients that have to be added at an exact time. So-" -he pointed to the blackboards with his wand- "Those are the instructions for today." Tiny cursive covered the two boards entirely. Snape pointed again to the ingredients cupboard and the doors flew open. "I expect this class to finish those steps today, as you are certainly capable of it."

Ron groaned. "This has got to be the longest and most intricate potion he's ever assigned us... and this is only the first day! It's impossible to make!"

The blond-haired Slytherin boy Keira had seen, Draco Malfoy, sniggered. "That's right, Weasley. Only superior students can even attempt to make that potion. I don't even know what you're doing in this class! Everyone saw the things you made last year..."

"Watch it, Malfoy," Harry Potter said in a soft, threatening voice.

"Watch yourself, Potter," Malfoy threw back. "Or it'll be... let's say fifteen points from Gryffindor...."

Keira looked around for Snape, expecting him to place Malfoy in detention, but he appeared not to have even heard anything that had just happened.

"Eyes on your cauldron and the instructions, Lestrange!" Snape's voice rang out harshly. "You have enough to worry about without your lazing around!"

Keira rolled her eyes yet again at his turned back and went on. While assembling her cauldron, She squinted at the tiny writing and tried to make some sense of it. It was not the trickiest potion she had ever done, but it came close to it. They had prepared Truth Serum in Rosehill, but the writing had not been as tiny as this and their teacher had tried to help them, unlike Snape, who seemed intent to see every student accidentally add blossom of murtflap before heating. Keira also knew that this was no basic Truth Serum. The most basic one was easy to make, but it could be overthrown by sixth-year students. This was a more advanced version, whatever Snape said.

Half the class was in panic 10 minutes before the session was about to end. "By now, your preliminary potions should be clear, with a faint minty smell!" Snape called out sinisterly. Ron Weasley was stirring what looked to be orange goop in his cauldron, his face grey, while a Hufflepuff girl was biting her fingernails, looking worriedly at her potion, which had the odor of newly-mixed cement.

Pulling yet another face at Snape, whose back was turned, Keira added more hornwort leaves to her potion and stirred feverishly. She would barely make the deadline, she thought. Only two more steps to go... Craning her neck, she read the last two. Stir clockwise for 10 seconds, until clear and thin. Add moonflower and leave on heat overnight.

"Err... Keira?" the Hufflepuff girl tapped her on the shoulder. "Yes?" "Is your cauldron self-stirring?"

"Self-stirring?" Keira asked, still absorbed. "No, of course not..."

"Then how do you explain..." The girl indicated Keira's cauldron, where the stirring stick was still going round and round with no one touching it.

"Oh!" Keira immediately laid a hand on the stick, and it stopped. She was so used to automatically tapping her stick to stir that she had completely forgot not to in her moments of panic. But, there was no time to explain. She stirred her solution manually and vigorously for 10 seconds, then added moonflower, just as Snape called them to cover their potions with cloths labeled with their name. On the way out, Keira saw Hermione, Ron, and Harry, and immediately headed for the first two. "You two were right. Words can't even begin to describe him..." They grinned, in contrast to Harry, who was still scowling at her, but Keira didn't care too much anymore. Let him sulk. Finally, Potions was over and that was all she cared about.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*

By the end of her last class, Transfiguration, Keira was no longer upbeat, but had retreated to her earlier foul mood. The classes themselves were hard, and homework had been piled upon them all, but the worst of it all were the students themselves, who had been unfriendly and forbidding. Everyone was treating her like Voldemort's daughter! Once they saw that she didn't appear to get angry, they started playing tricks on her, poking fun, saying disparaging things aloud as she went by... Hogwarts had begun to feel like one big and never-ending dungeon for her, and the only high point in her day had been the thought that it must end, somehow. Our last subject, finally, she thought. At least I can eat dinner soon, do some homework, and fall asleep... Finally, the students were now filing out of the classroom. Keira gathered her bag and slung it over her shoulder, but suddenly she heard Professor McGonagall's voice. "Lestrange? Please remain..."

Nervously, Keira tried to recall what she had done during the day that had earned her detention, but her mind was just too tired. It could only remember her unpleasant Potions class, but surely that wasn't it.... It must be a record, she thought wearily. I bet no one has ever gotten detention on the first day of school... Miserably, Keira walked to McGonagall's desk, ignoring the stares and hidden smiles and snickers of her classmates.

"Yes, Professor?"

McGonagall nodded to the chair in front of her. "Sit down please." Keira followed, and she continued, "I know you must be tired, as this is your first day, but are you too weary to have your first wand lesson? I thought we could start today with the basics..."

Yes, I am too tired! Leave me alone!, Keira's heart wanted to say, but she swallowed and said, "No I'm not, Professor, thank you. Let's start now..."

"Very well, then." Professor McGonagall cleared her throat then brought out her wand. "As your Head of House, I am obliged to teach you the basics, and then Professor Nymphadora Tonks will take care of the rest. Bring out your wand and let's start now!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Two hours later, Keira stumbled into the Gryffindor common room, even sleepier than before. She had had no idea how hard learning how to use a wand was, when you were so used to just thinking a spell. To her it was useless to waste time by swishing, flicking, or jabbing a wand to get your spell to go where you wanted it to when you could just do it in an instant. Wingardium Leviosa was one of the easiest spells of all, but with a wand, her feather had only levitated two inches off the surface. She smiled slightly as she remembered losing her temper in the middle of the lesson. She had glared fiercely at the feather and had made it suddenly rise to the rafters of the room. Professor McGonagall had then punished her by making her practice swishing and flicking for fifteen minutes afterwards.

"You must learn to control your temper and then your magic!" Keira remembered her angry words. "It just can't suddenly burst out of nowhere..."

Dressing quickly, she crawled into her bed, all intentions of doing homework forgotten. She fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow, her last thought being happy that she was too tired to dream about anything.