The Dark Lady (Severus x OC)

1. The Lady arrives at Hogwarts

This is a COMPLETED story. Each chapter will be published daily until the epilogue

This story takes place during the first months of the Half-Blood Prince story (HP6) at the beginning of the school year and may be continued by the canon story.

This story is a translation of my original fanfic "La Dama Oscura". Please, forgive any spelling and grammar mistakes.

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It was the strangest dream Harry had ever had, and yet he felt a strange familiarity. It seemed to him that he had been there before, but he couldn't remember when.

At first, he only heard the sound of the waves, calm and close, but when his eyes became accustomed to the darkness, he could make out the shape of a fantasy beach, smooth, elongated, covered by soft, white sand, bordered by endless rows of palm trees. The water whispered, crawling across the sand. It had not yet dawned, and he only felt peace and tranquility.

Harry couldn't remember where he had seen that place before, since he had never visited a beach like this in person. But he kept having that strange feeling of having been there before, although perhaps with another body and another name.

But then the rustling of water transformed into something else: the hiss of a snake, close and threatening. Harry put himself on guard, sensing that he was in danger, but there was nothing and no one near him.

The once calm water became a surface of moving scales, illuminated by the soft moonlight. The palm trees fell to the ground and grew in size, joining together, forming an elongated, hissing mass. The snake's skin was infinite and seemed to enclose the world. Harry found himself surrounded by that very long, scaled body, with no possibility of escape.

Suddenly, the circle closed, and Harry felt the animal seize and immobilize him in a cold embrace, and he found himself trapped, unable to escape or breathe. In the distance, he heard a woman's screams, but he couldn't understand her words.

His left eye began to hurt, as if it were burning...

***

Several kilometers away, the woman opened her eyes.

It was the same dream again, with the beach, the sea, and the snake. And that unbearable pain... But this time she had felt something different, like a presence next to her. She could have sworn it was a boy...

"Is the mistress all right?" a house-elf looked at her with concern, from the foot of the bed. Her huge, rounded green eyes shone in contrast to her grayish skin.

"It's nothing, Win," she answered, with a tired voice. She hadn't been able to sleep for several nights, and it was taking a toll on her. But with an effort, she stood up, ignoring the pain in her head, and let Win prepare her clothes.

Even though she didn't want to do it, she looked at the mirror and groaned. She was in her mid-thirties, but her reflection looked like that of an older person. Her black hair fell in disarray over her shoulders, disheveled after the hectic night, and her eyes were framed by deep circles.

But what stood out most about her face was the scar that ran from the left side of her forehead to her chin. The dark line crossed her eye, her cheek, and almost touched the corner of her lip. Her left eye was, for that reason, opaque gray, like a sphere filled with smoke, and contrasted with her healthy eye, which seemed immersed in darkness.

That scar was a mark that allowed her to be distinguished from the other death eaters and made everyone recognize her. She was the Lady, and that was how they should refer to her.