Of Silver and Green

Ch. 03 Enter the Snake

Aydrian Flint stood just outside the Potions classroom watching, as he had been the whole class period, growing angrier and angrier. The seventh-year Slytherin was tall, with jet-black hair and eyes so brown they were almost black. And at this point, his eyes were black, and were firing lightning bolts at this fifth-year rich kid who was chatting up his girlfriend. He heard Brynne laughing and emitted a low growl. He had had enough. He stalked into the room, and to his complete chagrin was not noticed by either of them. He growled again, louder this time, and both Brynne and Draco spun around, Brynne looking terrified while Malfoy carried his usual indignant expression.

"Yes? Did you need something?" Draco asked nonchalantly.

Aydrian, ignoring Malfoy completely, directed himself at Brynne. "You were supposed to meet me outside the classroom tem minutes ago for dinner."

"I'm sorry, Aydrian. Draco and I were just talking," Brynne nearly whispered, eyes on the floor. It pained Draco to see this out-going girl so submissive, automatically taking a disliking to this Aydrian.

"Oh, I see," said Aydrian darkly, turning to Draco. "And you would be Draco Malfoy, I presume? Ah, yes. My brother's told me all about you. You may remember him as your Quidditch Captain, Marcus? Yes, he's told me all about how you bought your place on the Quidditch team second year. Oh, wait, I mean your daddy did!" he exclaimed with a triumphant sneer. Beside him, Brynne cringed but remained silent.

Draco's face turned beet red with fury. Contrary to popular belief, he hadn't bought his way on the Quidditch team. Once he made it on the team, he had asked his father to contribute the racing brooms to help the Slytherin team improve. Marcus of all people had known this. Draco couldn't conceive of why he would have told his brother this half-cocked rumour. Draco let out a vicious snarl, but before he could respond, he saw Brynne widen her eyes and shake her head vigorously. He took a deep breath, released it, and said in a voice so calm it was deadly, "You do not understand the things of which you speak so freely. I suggest you hold your tongue lest you should wake one morning and find it on the pillow beside you."

Aydrian's eyebrows plunged, and he looked about to explode, but all of a sudden he laughed, saying, "C'mon Brynne, let's go eat," making it obvious it was not a request. Then he turned and walked from the room.

Brynne turned to follow, but at the door looked back longingly at Draco. "Bye," she mouthed.

"Now!" Aydrian shouted, and she scurried out.

Draco was simply fuming. No one treated him like that and got away with it! And yet he couldn't help remembering what had held him back. This puzzled him. Why had he listened to her? He could have taken Aydrian out, couldn't he? Maybe she was protecting Aydrian. Then an unpleasant thought occurred to him. What if she had been protecting him? Could she know something he didn't? Probably. She appeared to be Aydrian's girlfriend. He frowned at this. She was definitely out of his league. But wait, why was he thinking about this? People didn't matter! They were just a means to an end...and yet he felt a need to protect this girl. The thought terrified him. He couldn't even protect himself...

Aydrian stalked down the empty hallway, Brynne following a few feet behind. She didn't understand why she subjected herself to this. Most of the time, Aydrian was a great person to be around, but when he got into a bad mood, which happened quite frequently, everyone was in for it.

Suddenly Aydrian whirled around to face her. "What was that?" he demanded. "Who do you think you are dealing with?"

"It was nothing," she said casually. "We were just talking."

"I don't buy that for a minute!" he shouted. "I saw the way you were looking at each other!"

"No," she protested weakly.

He advanced on her slowly, like a lion stalking its prey. "You will not be two-timing me," he said dangerously. By this time, Brynne was cowering before him, her back pressed against the wall, his face mere inches from hers. "You belong to me, and I will not tolerate any more of this behaviour from you."

Brynne was thoroughly frightened at this point. She slowly released the snake she had coiled around her left arm. It was a copperhead named Mordechai. It dropped quietly to the floor and slithered down the hallway in the direction from which they had come.

Draco was sitting in the Potions classroom when, out of the corner of his eye he saw something moving in the doorway. When he looked up, however, nothing was there. He must be seeing things, he was so furious at himself. He thought back to the things he had said to Crabbe and Goyle. What did they think? He growled at himself. What they thought didn't matter to him; they were beneath him.

As he was staring at his feet, thinking dark thoughts to himself, a copper-coloured snake with intricate patterns of golden brown slithered up to him and wrapped itself around his ankle. Draco stifled a scream. He looked up quickly, thinking that Potter had sent this snake after him. When he saw no one, he dismissed the idea. The snake was tugging on his leg, trying to take him somewhere. Draco stood up, not in the habit of being led around by animals, he wasn't quite sure what to do. He started walking in the direction the snake was pulling him. As he walked further down the hall, the snake became more frantic. Not knowing what to expect, Draco pulled out his wand. As he approached the next corner, he heard a raised voice, and whenever the voice stopped, a soft whimpering in a voice he recognized.

The sound made his blood boil, but he composed himself. He walked quietly to the corner and peered down the hallway. There was Brynne, pinned to the wall with her arms wrenched painfully above her head. Aydrian looked down at her predatorily, and leaned his head down to kiss her. Brynne winced, and as Draco made a move to step in, the snake came out of nowhere and bit Aydrian's ankle.

Brynne was immediately released and slumped to the floor against the wall as Aydrian howled in agony. As Aydrian's attention was focused elsewhere, Brynne scooped up the snake and concealed it in one large sleeve of her robes.

Aydrian turned and glared down at Brynne. "That wouldn't have been Mordechai, now would it?" he asked through gritted teeth.

Brynne, eyes wide, shook her head quickly.

"I would certainly hope not," he said threateningly. "You never know what could happen, if I found out it was." And with that, he turned and limped down the hall in the direction of the hospital wing.

When Aydrian was out of sight and earshot, Draco stepped out from around the corner and went over to Brynne. "Are you OK?" he asked softly.

"Yes, but I think my wrist is broken," she answered, not meeting his eyes.

Draco's eyes flashed angrily. "Why do you let him treat you that way? You are entirely too good for a troll like him!" he exclaimed.

"Really. You think so?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," he stated forcefully, reddening when he realized how he sounded.

"Can you fix my arm?" she asked, wincing as she tried to move it.

"I don't think so," he whispered. "I think you're giving me too much credit." He cringed inwardly as the words came out of his mouth, seemingly of their own accord.

"Well then, watch and learn," she said, producing her wand from the folds of her robes. Her wand was her pride and joy. Ten inches long, made of cherry wood, and containing a dragon's heartstring. It was a beautiful auburn colour. She gently touched its tip to her wrist and mumbled some words. She then made a fist and released it. "Much better." She looked up and found herself staring into silver eyes, extraordinarily close to her face. "Um, uh...Draco?" she whispered.

"Yes?" he whispered back.

"Could you help me get up?" she asked rather bluntly.

"Oh," he said clearing his head. He'd been expecting something else. "Yeah, sure," he replied, sounding a bit disappointed, and cursing himself for hiding it so ineffectively. He reached for her arms, but she only gave him one. When he reached for the other, she pulled away sharply. "But that's not even the one you hurt," he said inquisitively.

"I know that, but you don't want to mess with what's up this sleeve." She pulled it back, revealing the very same copper snake that had led him to her. It was entwined comfortably around her bicep.

"Oh, this guy. Yes, I've already had the pleasure. He's really a gorgeous snake. Copperhead, right?" he asked, looking up at her as he carefully disentangled the snake from her arm and let it slither through his fingers. Her eyes were wide with wonder. "What?" he asked.

"Um, it's just that typically copperheads are very aggressive. Mordechai doesn't like any people other than me. But look at him!" Mordechai was lounging on Draco's shoulders. "He is as docile as anything!"

"Well, I'm not a Parselmouth, if that's what you're thinking, you would have heard me use Parseltongue."

"True," she muttered thoughtfully. "I'd like to see how you fare with my other familiar," she said, more to herself than to Draco. She had recalled something from a book on familiars she had read over the summer. It had said that, more often than not, a familiar could sense its master's soul mate before they did. This would explain Mordechai's unusual behaviour. But still, she wanted to see Aidynn's reaction to Draco Malfoy before she jumped to any hasty conclusions. Especially considering Aydrian. She didn't need any more disastrous run-ins unless they were really necessary. She knew she could put Aydrian in his place if needs be, but then she would have to deal with half the seventh year boys in Slytherin. Not a pleasant prospect. Of course, with Draco, the Golden Boy of Slytherin, on her side they would all be a little less apt to fight.

"Other familiar?" asked Draco, breaking her thoughts. "You mean you have two?"

"Yes," she replied. "I just couldn't decide between them. Mordechai I've been raising ever since he was a hatchling. That must have been two and a half years ago. But Aidynn, I just found him over the summer. Still quite young. Took to me like I was his mother," she said smiling.

Draco wondered to himself what kind of creature this "Aidynn" could be. He also wondered if this one was also hidden in her robes. 'I bet it's another snake,' he thought to himself. "Is it another snake?" he asked.

"No," she answered. "Although I have been wanting a python of some kind. Aidynn is a red fox."

A fox! Now that seemed an interesting choice for a Parselmouth from Slytherin. He wondered at the reasoning behind such a choice. Although he was sure they looked marvelous together, Brynne's hair being the shade of red that it was. He reddened unconsciously and cursed at himself inwardly for having such thoughts. "I would be delighted to meet your fox," he said. He looked closely at her clothing. "You don't happen to have him with you, do you?" he asked with a wry smile.

Brynne turned scarlet. "No," she said. "I keep him in my room. Unless you're hungry, we can go visit him now. I seem to have lost my appetite," she said bitterly.

"No, now's fine," he answered quickly, noting her bitterness.