Snake, Thy Name is Lion

Leaena’s first class was not fun. But perhaps it would have been more so if she had gotten there in time to have at least half of it. She followed Kasie, Jacqueline, Lila, and Margaret down several hallways and turns, but soon it became apparent that Kasie, who was leading, had no idea where she was going. When they began to go up a stairway that Leaena knew to go to the seventh floor, she stopped following them and tried to find her way back to the common room to find a map of some kind. About halfway there though, she got sidetracked.

Leaena had a knack for other categorizing people, always had. Within a matter of minutes she could define the person’s persona. And she had an endless fascination with other people and their lives. It seemed to her that her life and person was far too uninteresting, and she preferred to watch everyone else instead of actually living her own. She loved to tuck herself into a corner and find out things about someone: their name, life, family, problems… But always as an observer.

So when Leaena came upon a group of girls looking around fourteen to seventeen, she passed them without appearing to look, but doubled back to take cover in a niche, as invisible as it was humanly possible to be without an invisibility cloak, to watch them. There were perhaps sixteen of them, but four seemed to be the leaders.

The tallest was a girl around seventeen. Ebony-hair was tall and very pale; her hair was dark and seemed to be the complete opposite of her ashen skin. She carried herself proudly, the black of her hair seen above the rest. She had a perpetual sneer and her longish nose was stuck in the air.

The next was slightly shorter, her hair dark brown and her skin tan. She wore her locks in a pristine ponytail and wore laboriously applied make-up. This girl carried herself in a way that radiated a feeling that she had been brought up being the best and getting nothing but the best.

Another was of equal height to the former, auburn haired and hazel eyed, carrying a grey and black cat. She looked the least threatening of the four leaders, but that wasn’t saying much. This one, judging by appearances, was very cunning and tricky. The cat had the same coloured eyes as her.

The last leader was petite, trim, with blue eyes and long strawberry-blond hair. She gave off an aura of egotism and seemed to have a continual look of imperial condescension. Her long sheet of hair flowed down her back without a tangle. Her eyes had a sort of veil over them, concealing dangerous intelligence with a thin layer of narcissism.

She suddenly realized why this particular group of children looked familiar to her. They were Slytherins, from the train. She suddenly felt a sick sensation swooping down on her, one that was very, very common to the suddenly nauseated girl. She stumbled on her retreat away from the group, but her sudden infliction of gaucherie made quite a lot of clatter, awakening the four leaders to her presence. Leaena caught a conniving look on each of their faces out of the corner of her eye. Her scramble to leave was in vain, for the sixteen Slytherins had her surrounded. The strawberry-blond opened her mouth to speak: “Leaena Rafferty, correct?” Leaena nodded mutely. “I’m Alyssabeth Windsor.” One by one people introduced themselves. Ebony-hair was named Tarillyn Jolissa, Auburn-hair was Phoenix Keit, and the last girl was Adrienne York. She withdrew further and further toward the wall as they exhibited fake sounding affability.

“See, here’s the thing,” began Phoenix, “Now you know we were particularly unhappy that someone we had all lined up for Slytherin turned Lion on us, eh, Leaena?”

“Well, we were thinking- Maybe your being stuck with the Gryffs might turn out to be an advantage,” suggested Alyssabeth, sounding as if she had just thought of this. Leaena, however, knew that Alyssabeth was just a good actress.

“For us and for you,” continued Adrienne, “See the Slytherins have been unjustly downtrodden and-”

“You know it’s only because of favouritism- all the houses like them better than us, horrible stereotype, and the teachers-” Adrienne and Alyssabeth seemed to always know what the other was about to say.

“Aren’t fond of us either. You’re a Slytherin, we all know and so do you, the Sorting Hat just made a mistake. So you should have no problem getting us some information, planting things in the common room, fetching us items, that sort of thing. A spy, a mole, if you will, hidden within the Gryffindors. Shouldn’t be much trouble, right? Good. Why-”

“Why are you looking so hurried?” finished Adrienne.

“Transfiguration class. I’m late,” murmured Leaena.

“Oh, sure, we’ll show you the way. A token of our authenticity,” avowed Phoenix. They ushered her to the room. Leaena pulled open the tall, heavy oak door and braced herself to deal with McGonnagal’s wrath. To her surprise, Tarillyn followed after her. Leaena ducked into a seat as all the students turned to find out who it was, and then, realizing it was Leaena, glared threateningly at her.

“Oh, Professor,” said Tarillyn in a voice so syrupy sweet it would have dissolved the unlucky pancake it was decanted upon, “Miss Rafferty, here, got lost on her way. She’s new, you know.”

“I’m aware of that, Miss Jolissa. All first years tend to be new, it’s a side affect of arriving for the first time,” informed McGonnagal with ice in her voice.

“Yes, Professor,” Tarillyn began again after muttering rather inventive curses on the professor, “Poor Leaena was caught by… she was caught by Peeves. Wouldn’t let her go anywhere, was horrible, it was… Well, anyway, I helped find her way here, but it was too late!”

“You found her? In the middle of the time you were instructed to be in class, eh? Wandering around avoiding learning, I suppose. You can’t possibly say you were lost, Jolissa. You’ve been here six years. Now get off to class before I take points off Slytherin!” Tarillyn scampered out, and McGonnagal turned her acid gaze on Leaena, who slumped, humiliated, toward the ground.

Their lesson consisted of attempting to turn matches into needles. Leaena waved her wand and did all the things the stern professor told her to do, but her match stayed a match. She kept waving it, but nothing happened. Leaena didn’t understand all this. Weren’t you intended to be able to wave the wand and say the words and just get the results? Was there something she had forgotten? Was she meant to envision the match changing? Or was it that she was saying the words wrong, or not waving her wand correctly, or thousands of other things… Leaena didn’t get it. Wizardry was harder than it looked. Much harder than it looked.

Leaena squeezed her eyes shut, a feeling of despair at a thousand different things coming over her. On the other side of the castle, five Slytherins discussed things in low voices.

“How long’ll we use her?” asked

“I think the question isn’t how long, but how,” said Draco Malfoy.

The five looked at each other, seeming to question without speaking. Then, slowly, Alyssabeth smiled. A very, very, threatening smile. But hidden in the grey stones of the hallway, someone else’s was more so.

A hissing whisper could have been heard if someone pressed their ear against the wall. Draco Malfoy left, still plotting in low voices with Alyssabeth. The last three had a different class, since Draco was a seventh year and Alyssabeth was a fifth year, and they both had classes on one side of the castle. Phoenix, Adrienne, and Eliselyn were all sixth years.

One by one the three girls departed, finally leaving only Adrienne. Oh, not to go to class, of course not. They considered themselves far too good for class. Adrienne started to go off. But she never did leave. Hissing words came out of the wall, hissing words commanding magic and the magical…

“You will not make Persephone unhappy,” instructed Vivienne.

Adrienne slumped toward the ground.

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Leaena, unknowing of what had happened to Adrienne, went to the Gryffindor common room, her eyes cast toward the ground. She felt like the embodiment of despair. Why me? She questioned in her mind, Why do I have to get this? It isn’t fair…. Life is never fair….

Leaena reached the Gryffindor common room and, remembering the password and Ginny Weasley giving it to her, scowled. She opened the portrait hole and went in to find, not the usual happy clusters of students, but whispering, fearful children, exchanging information. Leaena knew no one would tell her what they knew, and so she positioned herself close to where a group of older students were fervidly talking.

“Who was it?”

“No one knows. Adrienne York, that Slytherin bitch, it was to, anyway.”

“Is she alive?”

“Yeah, she’s alive. But whatever did it to her meant to, of course.”

“How do you know?”

The student shrugged. “You can’t mistake a spell like that.”

Leaena sat down. Adrienne York, one of the Slytherins, the one with dark brown hair, had been attacked. But by what? And by whom? She slipped back out of the portrait hole onto the stone floor of the corridor and set off toward something that she didn’t know. Wandering through, she didn’t pay attention to who else was there.

“Hello, Persephone,” hissed a voice Leaena could not hear, “She won’t bother you anymore. But next time, I will be better. Remember, I made a promise, Persephone. I promised your grandfather. And I’m going to keep that promise.” Leaena walked past the dark ghost unknowingly. The possessor of the voice in the wall smiled menacingly.