Lucretia's Bane

Chapter 1

The sky seemed to be torn into two halves. A battle was raging between the all-encompassing darkness of night and the dying rays of a sleeping sun as it sank beneath the landscape. Morgan Lucretia lowered her eyes from the twilight outside of the carriage and focused on the pale hands that lay in her lap. She refused to let the queasiness of anticipation grow in her stomach, what would be so different about this place? She would only receive the same hostile fear and disgust that she did everywhere else. It was hard to believe that she had once been happy, had once had her proper place in a society geared for nurturing young people. But that had all changed now and she wouldn’t regress on memories of easier times. The carriage paused for a moment before continuing its swinging ascent and Morgan leaned out of the window to observe the surroundings. Directly in front of her was a set of large stone steps that led into a huge castle like building. The sun had not yet resigned to letting darkness have control and its dying rays illuminated the windows with an inner fire. Hogwarts, she thought grimly.

She remembered the nervous witch from the Ministry of Magic telling her how lucky she was to be given this opportunity to finish her education. "What am I going to do with an education? Maybe I could get a job someday, a Muggle holiday rep. Perhaps?" She had replied dryly from her darkened room.

The witch had stuttered a few shaky words about a werewolf teaching classes before hurrying off, locking the door behind her.

The carriage lurched to an abrupt halt and Morgan gave an apprehensive sigh. Pulling the hood of her travelling cloak further over her face, she picked up her suitcase and pushed the carriage door open with a creak. In the time it had taken since she had observed Hogwarts and the carriage had arrived at its doors, a Wizard had appeared on the steps. Morgan eyed his long white beard and half moon spectacles with suspicion before advancing toward him.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Miss Lucretia, we are delighted to have you in our number."

The Wizard gave her a warm smile and Morgan felt a little of her distrust and doubts about the school melt. The Wizard gave a sense of immense power and wisdom and she knew this was someone that demanded respect, consequently she bowed her head a little and mumbled her choked thanks.

The Wizard, noticing her difficulty in expressing gratitude, gave an inner smile and proceeded to motion her towards the open doors. "I am Professor Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts." He continued, following her into the entrance of the school.

Morgan rested her suitcase onto the marbled floor and gazed appreciatively up at the huge staircase in front of her. To her right she could hear many voices raised in conversation, and the chinking of cutlery upon plates. Dumbledore, seeing her gaze turn to the closed doors of the Great Hall, urged her towards the steps.

"That is the Great Hall. The other students are currently dining. I’m sure you don’t mind if we settle you into your dormitory before we introduce you to everybody?"

Morgan raised her eyes to meet Dumbledore’s and gave a dry swallow, "Is that necessary? Introducing me, I mean."

She felt she should explain more, but the Headmaster was nodding understandingly. "I’ll try to keep it as informal as possible, if you so wish?"

Morgan gave a thankful nod and proceeded to follow Dumbledore to his office.

* * * * *

It was black outside by the time Morgan had been sent to her dormitory. She sat upon her bed fully clothed, her travelling cloak lying discarded over her unpacked suitcase. All around her was the sound of deep, regulated breathing. She let her eyes wander over the sleeping figures of the girls in the beds surrounding hers and wished that she had been sorted into a House that was nearer to some windows. More than anything right now she felt trapped. She was in the dungeons of a castle surrounded by strangers and all she wanted was some comforting night air. With a wry laugh she remembered that she had once been afraid of the dark, now it was the only friend she could trust.

She had felt like a caged animal in the Headmaster’s office. He had introduced her to the caretaker, who had taken her suitcase from her, and then he had asked her to sit down at his desk. He explained that Hogwarts had four Houses into which students were traditionally sorted into by an enchanted hat at the start of term. This Hat’s job was to determine which of the House’s qualities students possessed. He had brought the Hat to her and she had reluctantly agreed to follow tradition, once it was upon her head she could feel the tremors run through her ice-cold body. She had fought to keep herself from physically shaking in front of the Headmaster and listened fearfully as the Hat whispered in her ear. Dumbledore had not questioned her as to what the Hat had told her before announcing that she was best suited to the House called Slytherin, and for this she had been immensely grateful. Dumbledore continued to inform her that it was agreeable that she had been sorted into Slytherin, as the Head of that House was the Potions Master, Professor Severus Snape. He had explained to her that Professor Snape was highly skilled and had aided a past Professor of the school by providing him with regular potions to help him control the werewolf side of him. She had been ready to argue that no potion had been concocted that could help her when he had apologised for Professor Snape’s absence and reassured her that the Potions Master would do all he could to help her also.

* * * * *

A girl in the bed next to hers gave a fretful moan and rolled over in her sleep, her hair covering her face. Morgan watched the girl’s chest rise and fall with the breaths of sleep and was again astounded that the Headmaster had allowed her to share a room with other students. When the Ministry of Magic had been responsible for her they had kept her isolated, she was a danger to other people, and a danger to herself. She wasn’t quite sure if she liked this extra freedom that Hogwarts was allowing her. At the Ministry she had followed a routine, she had no responsibility and had merely existed. Now she felt like an animal that has been born and raised in captivity and is suddenly released into the wild to fend for itself.

She knew she could survive on her own, but could she trust herself to survive in the correct way, in the human way? She didn’t want to hurt anybody, even if her instincts screamed at her to attack at every opportunity.

With a forced sigh she began to unlace her boots and proceeded to undress for bed, she wasn’t tired, but she didn’t want to let her thoughts consume her tonight. She had spent too many nights alone in the dark in the Ministry’s Safe-House thinking, and she knew only too well the frame of mind it would put her in. Tomorrow was the first day of the rest of the year that she had to spend with these strangers and she knew it was going to be a struggle.

* * * * *

Pale light was just beginning to blotch the morning sky as the students in the Slytherin 7^th year girls’ dormitory began to wake. Morgan had resigned to sleep a little and was still unconscious as the girls around her began to dress. The other Slytherin’s peered curiously at her as she slept, and finally one girl tapped her gently on the shoulder in an attempt to wake her. Morgan was instantly awake; lurching forward in her bed with an iron fist clamped round the girl’s wrist. The girl let out a surprised squeal and the others jumped a little, shocked by the sudden movement. Morgan glared round at the gathering, her eyes wild and accusative.

She heard a distant vibration as if someone were whispering far away and she tried to slow her breathing down from the harsh gasps that were tearing from her throat.

"I said you’re hurting me! Didn’t you hear me?" The girl in front of her repeated angrily, struggling to unclasp Morgan’s bone white fingers.

Morgan opened her mouth, but no words came out, the girls were looking predatory now, advancing towards her bed to help their friend. She removed her hand from the girl’s wrist and felt a stab of guilt as she saw the red marks burning into the girl’s wrist where her own fingers had clenched her flesh.

"I…I’m sorry…I didn’t mean…" She managed to stutter, but the girl had swept furiously away from her, her friends following her out of the dormitory.

Morgan sighed and swung her legs out of her bed and onto the cold floor. Her guilt was instantly replaced with anger, mainly at herself for overreacting. She clenched and unclenched her fists and wasn’t surprised that she could still feel the heat from the girl’s skin upon her palm. She dressed quickly in the robes that had been laid on the bed for her and hurried out of the dungeons and towards the Great Hall. The doors to the Great Hall were open as she passed through the main entrance and past the stairs to the upper floor. She slipped in as unobtrusively as possible and took a free seat at the very end of the Slytherin table, keeping her head bowed and her hair covering her face.

The Hall was of yet not filled and so few people noticed that there was a new student among them. Morgan sat quietly and sipped on a glass of orange juice, her stomach lurching at the acrid liquid as it slid icily down her throat. She squinted up at the enchanted ceiling and shaded her eyes from the overcast sky, she wondered if perhaps she would have once appreciated it, whereas now it merely irritated her. The students on her own table and the other three were chatting animatedly about homework, lessons and Quidditch and nosily eating toast and cereal and Morgan again felt a pang of doubt about her coming to this place. She didn’t belong here, how could she ever fit in with all these people? They knew nothing of the outside world, as they sat here in their protected haven talking of everyday pleasures. She felt more alienated than ever as she skulked to her first lesson of the day, students were bustling around her and the noise of raised voices and laughing was beginning to make her head throb.

As her first lesson was Potions, she returned to the dungeons and followed the stream of Slytherin students into the classroom. As well as the familiar green House emblems of the Slytherin students there appeared to be students from another House, whose emblem was gold and red and pictured a lion. She took the nearest available seat at the back of the classroom and ignored the three students who took the seats next to hers, pulling her robes over her hands and playing absent-mindedly with the quill and parchment that the Ministry of Magic had provided her with.

Feeling eyes on her, she raised her head slightly to glare through her hair at a youth sat two seats away from her. She hoped that nobody else would occupy the empty seat between them as the boy turned to his friends and began to whisper, glancing at her now and then.

Ron Weasley shot another look at the strange girl sat down the desk from him before elbowing his friend Hermione roughly in the ribs. "OW! Ron, what the…"

"Sssssssh!" Ron hissed anxiously, cutting Hermione off.

"New girl!" He whispered dramatically and Hermione peered curiously over Ron’s shoulder at Morgan before giving him a scolding look, "Don’t stare Ron, think how awful it would be to start at a new school in your last year! She must be so scared!"

Ron rolled his eyes in exasperation at Hermione and leaned over her to poke their friend Harry, "Harry, look, there’s a new Slytherin."

Harry finished rolling up the sleeves of his robes and leant forward past Hermione and Ron to see what all the interest was about. At the very end of the long wooden desk was a girl of about the same age as him and his friends, although there was something about the expression on her face that made her seem much older than seventeen. Her hair was the same colour of his own black unruly hair, but unlike his, hers fell neatly into place and was currently hanging deliberately over her extremely pale face.

Feeling that she was being watched again she raised her darkly lashed eyes to scowl dangerously at Harry and he sat back in his seat with a jump.

"She has yellow eyes!" He hissed to Ron and Hermione, staring straight ahead.

"What?" Hermione asked, looking mildly disapproving, as if Harry was trying to poke fun at the new student, "So does Madam Hooch, Harry."

"No. They’re different to hers. They’re like…hawks eyes or something." Harry answered and Ron swung round on his stool to try and see if Harry was telling the truth, completely forgetting to be discrete, but at that moment the Potions Master swept into the room, and the whole class fell silent.

"Good morning class."

Morgan’s attention was drawn away from the three students beside her by the liquid voice issuing from the front of the classroom. A pale man with long black hair was magically lighting the fire beneath the cauldron on the front desk and Morgan assumed that he must be her Head of House, Professor Snape.

Snape’s eyes did a clean sweep of the class, resting only momentarily on Morgan before continuing to scowl at the three students next to her.

"As you are all fully aware, I will be testing you today on your Sixth Sight Potion. These will most likely show them themselves in your N.E.W.T.S at the end of the year, so I suggest…" He slammed one pale hand down on the desk in front of boy at the front of the class who had been staring obliviously at the ceiling, "that you pay due attention. Mr Longbottom, perhaps you would like to go first?"

The boy shuddered and looked apprehensively up at the leering Potions Master towering above him. He looked as if he was trying to say something, but the words seemed to catch in the back of his throat. Morgan found herself smiling a little and quickly straightened her face back into an impassive stare.

"Spit it out, Longbottom. Unless of course you don’t feel up to it?" From the sly smirk that melted across Snape’s lips, Morgan knew that this was a trick question.

The boy’s cheeks had flushed bright crimson by now and he seemed to be stuck rigidly in a cowering stance, he shook his head in neither a positive or negative and a triumphant gleam sparked in Snape’s eyes.

"Because if you would rather not go through all the hassle," He paused for affect and the boy flinched before him, "Then I’ll just fail you right now and you can explain to your grandmother why you have just wasted seven years of your life."

The boy’s eyes rolled desperately around as he shook his head in a strong negative now.

"I’ll do it!" He choked, gasping for breath as though he had held his breath the whole time, which Morgan suspected he indeed had.

"So good of you to privilege us with your participation Mr Longbottom. I’m sure we could all do with a bit of amusement this morning." Snape said smoothly, seating himself casually upon his desk, still facing the boy as if he was going to do some sort of comical trick.

A few of the Slytherins’ sniggered and Morgan allowed her attention to be diverted from the front of the classroom to take in the other students. The nosy ones next to her seemed to have lost interest in her for the moment as they glowered at the Slytherins’, who seemed to be enjoying the façade immensely.

"I…uh…don’t have any…um…" The boy spluttered and Snape raised his eyebrows dangerously.

"Thistle, sir. I don’t…have any."

Snape sprang from his desk, glided out of the classroom and emerged a few moments later from his office with a small bundle of Thistle leaves in his hands.

"Lets see if any of you actually have the potential to pass you N.E.W.T.S, shall we?" Snape said in a mocking voice, tossing the leaves on to the boy’s desk. "Who can tell me why we are using Thistle in our Sixth Sense potion?"

Morgan gazed serenely around the classroom and noted that the only hand raised was that of the girl sat with the two boys on her own desk. Snape’s eyes flashed around the room and paused only to sneer at Hermione’s raised hand. "Perhaps our new student can prove herself worthy to hold the Slytherin name?"

Morgan tore her gaze away from the girl and stared indifferently at Snape, "Thistle." She repeated and Hermione obviously assumed that this statement meant that she did not know, as she raised her hand again more zealously.

"Thistle strengthens Spirits and so using it in a Sixth Sense potion enables them to be more clearly seen by the person or persons who have taken the potion."

A faint smile flitted across Snape’s pursed lips and he gave a barely noticeable nod to show that he was impressed. "It seems, Miss Granger, that Miss Lucretia has come to give you a run for your money."

Hermione’s arm drooped listlessly and her cheeks went a little pink as she scowled at the back of Snape’s head.

Morgan continued to stare passively at the front of the classroom, fully aware of the stares she was receiving from the rest of the class. The three students next to her seemed to have renewed their interest and were openly staring in her direction.

Snape, however, was honing back in on the trembling boy on the front desk. "Chop those Thistle leaves more neatly, Longbottom! We’re trying to see spirits, not join them."

Morgan watched with a sort of fascinated horror as Snape loomed above the boy who was attempting to finely cut the leaves with a shaking hand.

"And what are you going to add to that, Mr Longbottom? Or were you planning to concoct a Thistle soup?" Snape’s sneering voice sent such severe tremors through the boy’s body that he slipped with the knife and cut a small groove into the wooden table he was seated at.

"I…uh…Mastic gum?" He said in a strangled voice.

Snape raised one eyebrow and motioned the boy to continue mixing the ingredients, "Well, as amusing as it is for us to watch Mr Longbottom blunder his way through this, the rest of you are by no means exempt from the exercise. Please light your cauldrons and mix your chopped ingredients into the simmering water."

* * * * *

As the lesson came to a finish, Morgan was feeling vaguely pleased with herself as she peered at the bubbling potion in her cauldron. It was a pale luminescent blue with silvery tinged bubbles popping with a slight hiss on the surface, which was exactly how it was supposed to look. Professor Snape was informing the class that these needed to stand for one night and that they would continue with them the next morning. Morgan was ready to follow the rest of her classmates out of the door when she heard her name called.

She turned from the busy doorway of the classroom and walked briskly to the front desk where Professor Snape was waiting.

"I assume Professor Dumbledore has informed you that I will be attempting to make some potions to help with your…ailment, Miss Lucretia?"

Morgan met his unsmiling gaze steadily and then nodded, her face rigid. "Sir, I don’t see what potions would help."

Professor Snape nodded and seemed to be trying to determine what her blank facial expression could mean; "Professor Dumbledore informs me that the Ministry of Magic allowed you access to their resources. You have been researching possible cures for your problem I assume?"

Morgan gave a brief nod and wondered if perhaps this Professor had the knowledge that she had not been able to obtain herself.

Snape continued to stare questioningly at her before turning to his desk and writing on a piece of parchment. "Here, hand this to Madam Pince in the library."

Morgan took the parchment and read it quickly, "Restricted Section?"

Snape nodded, "You should be able to continue your studies, and I will notify you when your first batch of potion is ready for you to try."

Morgan gave an appreciative smile and left the classroom feeling something that she had long thought would be lost. Hope was filling her chest as she made her way to the library, planning to spend her free lessons researching. Somewhere deep in her mind was a small voice that was not unfamiliar; it was whispering that she was stupid to even let herself think that there would be anything different in the books here. Why should she find the cure for her disease here, when months of endless reading by candlelight at the Ministry had got her nowhere? She would just feel more downcast than last time, but something about the warm and inviting atmosphere of Hogwarts aided her to push the voice deep down where it could be silenced.

After asking a pair of students which direction the Library was in, Morgan entered the bookshelf-lined room and headed towards a desk with a strict looking librarian, "Madam Pince?"

The women squinted suspiciously at her and then back at the signed form in her hand.

"I didn’t forge it if that’s what you’re thinking." Morgan said coldly in answer to the unspoken question. Madam Pince scowled at her and scanned the signature one more time.

"You can ask Professor Snape if you want." Morgan added, with a smug smile.

This seemed to convince her and Morgan threw an icy glance over her shoulder at the girl from her potions class who was watching from behind a pile of books.