Charlotte

Chapter Three: That Snake In Your Pocket

"Who are you?"

The girl's voice turned cold, which would have sent shivers down everybody's spine, as she regarded the boy in front of her. He did not flinch or let her know in any other way that he had noticed the icy undertone, and that was precisely the thing that annoyed her to no end.

His cool grey eyes roamed over the girl a while, stopping to look directly into her dark eyes for a brief moment, and he smirked arrogantly at her. His dark hair shone in the dim light of the street lanterns but that same light also revealed the two prominent white streaks in his hair, the only sign that there was something peculiar about him. The girl had already been unnerved by the way he treated her - as if I am nothing more than litter from the street, she thought with a sneer - but at the very moment her eyes fell upon the white streaks she jumped back.

"Demon," she hissed after a minute of consideration. "Do you have to make my life even worse?"

"You think you know of whom you speak," the boy replied calmly. "Yet... will you not give me a chance to explain?"

"I do not want to get an explanation from a half-life," the girl whispered. "Get away from me, omas ryun'irer tuy jôna-ira e kinna ea luci!"

"Fall down with the ones you call your kin?" the boy repeated incredously. "What have they told you, Charlotte-seide? Don't you know that you belong in the other world?"

"Stay away from me," the girl called Charlotte hissed. "I don't know how you found out about me, nor do I know how you found my name out, but I want you to leave right now," she said, glaring at the boy in front of her. "And don't call me beloved."

"I am called Raphael," the boy said after a moment. "You think that you are safe here but I know that he shall come for you sooner or later. And then... what will happen, Charlotte? If you don't know how to defend yourself you will die."

"What are you talking about?" Charlotte whispered, despite herself she found that she wanted to know more. She craved... what did she really crave? Power; perhaps, and certainly love of the kind she had never known. "Who will come for me?"

"Grindelwald," Raphael muttered and, even though Charlotte protested greatly, pulled her aside so that they heard nothing more than the wind. "He is the greatest Dark Wizard the world has ever seen."

"A wizard?" Charlotte asked and then began to laugh. "You come here to tell me that wizards exist? You are raving mad, the both of you!"

"What are you talking about? Is there somebody else here?"

"That snake in your pocket that's talking to me all the time," Charlotte mumbled.

"Hold on a second," Raphael said, suddenly alert. "You can talk with snakes?"

"They can talk to me," Charlotte nodded, "but I never say anything to them. My family..." here her lower lip trembled and she bit it to prevent her from crying, "they say that being able to talk to snakes is the mark of the devil because in Genesis the snake in the Garden of Eden was the devil in disguise."

"That's not true," Raphael whispered, "for I can talk to snakes too. I am not some kind of demon, Charlotte, no matter what my looks tell you."

She snorted with laughter moments later. But then...

"Girl! Is that you?"

"Now you've done it," Charlotte sighed and looked around the corner. "That is my foster father. If he sees me with you I'll get a beating..." she shuddered at the mere thought of it, and then continued: "It will be the worst yet."

"I don't think so," Raphael muttered.

Charlotte looked at him with surprise in her eyes, for he had sounded kinder than ever before and his eyes softened slightly. Great. He pitied her now, she could see it, and pity was never a good thing. She registered something in the back of her mind - namely that demons could not feel pity - before Raphael nudged her in the back of her ribs.

"I say that you step out to meet him," he murmured, "and that I shall keep him busy with... let's see... flying trash."

"Are you kidding me?" Charlotte hissed. "What am I supposed to do then?"

"You are supposed to pack everything you have," Raphael sighed. "Gods, how I wish that there was another way... but there isn't. Professor Dumbledore was supposed to haul you out of this hellhole - or so I heard, anyway - but I didn't want to let you go with a Gryffindor. Even I have my pride."

"What are you going on about?"

"You are a witch. You have to be trained. Hogwarts is the place you should go to; it is a school for children to learn witchcraft and wizardry in all aspects. Dumbledore is the Deputy Headmaster there and a great wizard, but he is also a Gryffindor and that is the one House I cannot stand."

"Let me guess," Charlotte muttered, "All explanations will come later on."

"Right in one," Raphael grinned. "So, what do you think? Do you want to get out of here, or not?"

"More than anything," Charlotte whispered.

"Then let us begin."

~*~