Author: Zilent1
Warnings: Swearing, OC. 'thinking'; "speaking"
Disclaimer: I do not, and will not, own any characters that J.K. Rowling has created. However, Zephlin is my own.
Previously... Grimacing slightly, she turned away from the Great Hall and made her way towards infirmary, muttering things about stupid redhead Gryffindors under her breath. Unbeknownst to her, a figure emerged from a darkened corridor near where the accident happened, a snarl etched on their face.
After having her wrist mended by Madam Pomfrey, Zephlin quietly walked back towards the common room, seeing as it was too late to go into the Great Hall without drawing attention to herself. Ignoring her rumbling stomach, she walked through the silent and still common room towards her dorm. Once there she plopped herself onto her bed and lay down. Massaging the tender and healing wrist, she drifted into a deep slumber, thoughts of old running through her mind.
//++FLASHBACK~Dreamscape++\\
"R-ron? What are you doing here?" Zephlin asked shakily.
"Well, I just came to apologise about Harry. He's had a rough day. And not to mention that he hates Slytherins. Quite understandable if you ask me," said Ron.
Zephlin looked at him. 'Man, he is soo cute! But he won't like me. I'm a Slytherin!'
"Well, I think Harry should apologise himself instead of getting his friends to do his dirty work. Anyway, you just wasted your time. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to eat, unless there's something else?" she said chokingly, still very shy around her crush.
"Well, put it that way, I wanted to know if you're O.K.? You just ran off crying,""Yeah, I'm O.K. Thanks for asking. I've also had a rough, er, evening," she replied then stood up and started to walk away.
Ron stood there for a second then called out, "By the way! What's your name?""Zephlin." And with that, she walked off, happy, knowing that she finally talked to Ron.
\\++END FLASHBACK~Dreamscape++//
Shifting onto her side, the dream continued.
//++FLASHBACK~Dreamscape++\\
Draco sat there, at the dinner table, waiting Zephlin to arrive.
"Where is she?" he muttered to himself."Dracy? Who are you talking about? I'm right here?" cooed Pansy.
'Uck! Get away from me!'"I wasn't talking about you. And if you don't mind, I would like to eat my dinner, in peace."
"Fine, whatever you want Draco," Pansy sulked and turned her attention to the person beside her."Finally." And he resumed eating his dinner. Just as he was reaching for his cup, he spotted her, all on her lonesome, at the end of the table. He smiled and walked up to her. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the Weasel admirer," he whispered snidely, so that only she could hear. She gasped. "No need to fear. Your secret is safe with me. Er…what is your name?"
"Zephlin," she managed to choke out."Ah, Zephlin, unusual name. Do you have an excuse for being late or have you finally come to terms that you cannot possibly 'admire' a Gryffindor?"
"I've think lost my appetite. I'm going to bed," she muttered angrily and walked out.Stalking back to the common room, she muttered aloud to herself. "The nerve of him! Telling me what I can and cannot do! I'll show him!"
Zephlin was still fuming with the encounter she had with Draco, that she hadn't noticed Pansy following her. She was about to enter the Common Room, when Pansy grabbed her collar from behind and pinned her against the wall. Zephlin stifled a scream of both shock and surprise."P-Pansy, what are -?," she stammered. Pansy cut her off.
"Stay away from Draco, Loser, or else!""B-but…"
"And don't call me Pansy! You're no friend of mine!"With that Pansy dropped her onto the stone floor and walked into the Common Room. Zephlin was still shocked at the outburst.
'Stay away from Draco, Loser….' Still echoed through her mind. 'Draco? 'Why in seven hells would I even want to hang around with the slimy git!?'Straightening her robes, she quietly walked into the Common Room and could hear whispers and sniggers coming from the corner. She dared to look and saw Pansy, surrounded by her two friends looking towards her. Zephlin whipped her head back around and ran into her bedroom. Her evening had just gone from good to bad.
\\++END FLASHBACK~Dreamscape++//
Even as she slept, her face mirrored her dreamscape emotions, except her sadness was substituted by anger. Opening her eyes, she blinked and turned onto her other side so she could see the entire room. As she began to drift off into oblivious once again, she caught a whiff of an edible scent and her stomach rumbled in reply. Rolling her eyes up so that she could see her bedside table, she was surprised to see a plate of roast beef and vegetables, a bowl and a goblet.
Sitting up she saw that the bowl was filled with trifle and custard, and the goblet with pumpkin juice. Jumping off her bed, she ran to the door and looked to see if anyone was there. 'This has to be a trick. Who would do something like this? For me?' Seeing no one there, she walked back over to her bed and gingerly picked up a bit of meat, seeing whether it had been hexed or poison. Ever since her poisoning with Sommeil-Vertigineux, she had been cautious in what she ate. Seeing nothing wrong with it, she popped it into her mouth, which watered in delight.
Fifteen minutes later, she placed the spoon in the empty bowl. Sighing happily, she flopped back onto her bed and stared at the top of the canopy, thinking.'Ok. So someone cares enough to notice I skipped dinner, so they brought me dinner. Not to mention my favourite dessert. Must've been a house elf or something. No one else really cares.'
Hearing voices, she quickly shoved the dishes under her bed, pulled back her curtains and lay blinking in the darkness. While the other girls talked loudly to each other, neither of them queried about the contemplating brunette hidden behind her curtains. Once they had retrieved what they had come in for, they left, deliberately slamming the door on the way out, thinking that Zephlin was sleeping. Said girl sighed out loud. She had only been back a month and they still acted like they had last year.'What am I thinking? All Slytherins are like this.'
Doing a mental checklist of homework completed, she searched amongst her textbooks for the navy-blue book. Swearing out loud as she couldn't find it, she flung the curtains open and searched everywhere for the book. She searched under her bed, on her bed again, around her bed, under the other beds, but the book was nowhere to be found. Knowing her search was going to be fruitless, she sunk back onto the bed and bowed her head so her dark brown tresses fell over her face. Taking deep breaths, she muttered under her breath.
"Ok, I'll just look for it tomorrow. No biggie. So what if they read it? It's just crap. Tomorrow morning I'll look for it."
Slipping out of her daywear and into her nightwear, she drew back her curtains and slid beneath the black sheets. Burrowing her head deep into the dark green pillow, she drowned out the voices of the remaining conscious Slytherins and drifted into a deep slumber.Waking up the next morning, Zephlin realised that she had woken earlier than usual. Quietly slipping out of her bed, and dressing into her daywear, she walked out into the common room. The room was typically empty for that time of morning, the embers of last night's fire scattered across the blackened fireplace and on a table, beside the exit, was her book. Muttering a spell, the book flew into her hands, where she looked at it indifferently. Opening the book to the first page, she noticed scrawls of somebody's handwriting. The thin, scratchy lettering embedded itself deep within the tan pages, making it permanent. Reading what it said, as well as recognising the handwriting, she felt sick. But on noticing the muggle lock hanging from the side, she slipped it off and looked at it thoughtfully.
'I only bought this piece of junk because I thought they wouldn't go near something they thought of as muggle material. How wrong I was.'
Suddenly spinning around, she threw the lock as hard and far as she could. The silver lock sailed through the air at a rapid pace and collided into the far wall. On impact, the lock shattered noisily and fell to the stone floor, broken beyond repair. Opening the book, she ripped out all but one of the pages and let them drop soundlessly onto the ground. Calling the levitation spell, she levitated the pages so they were in front of her and, hissing the fire spell, began to burn the pages, watching as the magically held pieces burnt into nothing.A few people had wondered out of their rooms by now but ignored the pyro display. Once there was nothing left but a pile of ashes, she ripped out the remaining page then replaced the pageless book on the table and walked out the exit, ignoring the remark that came from Malcolm. Said boy smirked and when Graham appeared, both walked off towards the Great Hall, grinning evilly at passing first-years.
Zephlin walked to the Great Hall, fingering the bit of paper she hadn't burnt. Thinking of a plan on how to approach the suspect, she sat down at her usual place at the Slytherin table, her back to the Gryffindors, and poured herself a glass of milk. On reaching across the table to retrieve a piece of golden-brown toast, someone sat down beside her and another in front. They began to snigger, but Zephlin ignored them, already knowing who they were.
"Spectacular fire display you showed in the common room!" exclaimed Malcolm, sarcastically. Zephlin ignored him."Couldn't've done it better myself," piped in Graham, reaching over to steal Zephlin's spare toast. On seeing him reach over, she smacked his hand and glared at him, directly in the eye.
"Get your own, Pritchard!" she hissed, sliding away from them.
"But he wants yours, Zeppie-dear," mocked Malcolm, grinning. Graham spat out the water he was drinking."Why can't you two leave me the hell alone?" she spat.
"Yeah, why don't you leave her alone?" mimicked a voice. Zephlin spun around to be face to face with Harry Potter's number one arch nemesis: Draco Malfoy, who was flunked by his two goons, Crabbe and Goyle. On seeing them she growled."What do you want?"
Draco, however ignored her and, instead, looked at the two second-year boys. "Heed my warning, Baddock, Pritchard. She might get a crush on either of you two. Don't want a Gryffindor-loving cradle-snatcher now, do we?" he said snidely then walked away laughing.Malcolm's eyes flashed for a second, Zephlin went red with rage while Graham muttered about stupid blonde gits.
The rest of breakfast between the trio was silent as Graham and Malcolm talked between themselves, which suited Zephlin just fine, although she had to reluctantly eat three extra pieces of toast and an orange in waiting. Once the brunette and black-haired boy got up, Zephlin waited a few seconds before following them. As all three headed back to the common room to gather their things for the day, Zephlin grabbed her already-prepared bag and hid behind a suit of armour near the Slytherin entrance. When the two boys retreated from the room, she waited until the coast was clear then rushed up behind them.Grabbing the backs of their collars, she spun them around and shoved Malcolm against the wall. "What the hell is with this note of yours?" she hissed.
"What note?" he said, confused.Zephlin pulled out the folded slip of paper from her pocket and shoved it against his chest. "This note! The one in which you wrote in my journal. The journal in which you stole yesterday!"
He quickly read the note then looked up at the angry girl with a genuine look of confusion on his face. "I didn't write this!"A not-so-well muffled snigger was heard behind the pair, making Zephlin spin around and whack Graham upside the head. "What's so funny? Did you write this?" she demanded.
Graham's tanned face literally paled, not expecting the girl to turn on him. Receiving no answer from the other brunette, Zephlin growled in defeat and looked both of them in the eye. "If I find out either one of you did write it, you'll be in serious shit! Keep the note as a reminder, Baddock," she hissed then stalked off to Defence Against the Dark Arts, leaving behind a bewildered Malcolm and a nervous Graham.Malcolm read the note again then glared directly at Graham, who was whistling and looking down the hallway, nervous. Other students, who had seen the situation, ignored them and bustled past. Grabbing his best friend by the front of his shirt, Malcolm dragged Graham into an empty classroom and recited the note.
"'D'ya honestly think that your lock would keep me out? Haha! Guess again. It's very obvious it was a non-magical one. Anyways, I ain't going to apologise about stealing this ...very interesting book... but I am going to tell you something: you're a Slytherin. Act like one! Next time hex Weasley so he's covered in boils. You've always been one to do your own dirty work, even though someone would gladly do it for you, coz he ain't happy now.' You idiot! Don't you think that she would've guessed it was from either of us?" he hissed.Graham grinned sheepishly and rolled his eyes, his brown hair covering one eye before he flicked his head back.
"And," Malcolm continued, grinning, "Did you have to add the last bit? You would've given 'him' away."Graham's grin grew wider. "What she don't know won't hurt her," he said then looked at his watch. "S'pose we should hurry to Transfiguration. Don't wanna lose points now, do we?"
As both ran down the corridors towards the Transfiguration room, the note floated soundlessly towards the ground.
End Chapter One.
To be continued…
