⚯͛ Unfortunate - Remus Lupin ⚯͛

2.

At the whole-school feast the Slytherin table were quieter than usual, and the majority of the students had begun to notice it. Typically the Slytherins were quieter and more closed off than the other houses, but this year it was more extreme than usual.

Most of them were silently focusing on getting through the meal, because Slytherins weren't ones for small talk and they knew everything they had to say to each other could not be heard by anyone else. The Dark Lord was on the rise, and he made sure to visit every Slytherin above the age of 14 that there was (which, minus Barty, was every Slytherin in fourth year and above) to ensure they would follow him.

The kids needed to talk to each other about what was happening, but they couldn't do it here. So they waited in silence.

When Dumbledore dismissed them, all the older Slytherins rushed to the common room.

Maeve gripped the arm of Cissa, for a reason unbeknownst to her, it was a subconscious thing she did to make her feel safe. They walked to the dungeons as fast as they could and the prefects quickly got them all in.

Maeve perched on the arm of the leather sofa, as the rest of the Slytherins gathered round the fire. All the younger Slytherins who filtered through to the common room were sent straight to their dorm rooms by the older Slytherins so their conversation was completely private.

"So," Bellatrix, a seventh year clapped her hands together to start, "we need to talk about what happened in the Summer."

"Bella don't get ahead of yourself, first we need to establish if everyone experienced the same thing as us," Lucius, a sixth year sneered.

"But how do we even-"

"Alright twats," Maeve stood up, "Who met the dark lord in the Summer holiday?"

Every hand in the common room was raised almost immediately. Maeve smirked at Bellatrix who laughed slightly, impressed by the fifth year.

"Wait, Crouch didn't put his hand up," a fourth year piped up.

"You know how my family are, a bunch of pathetic Gryffindors, the Dark Lord coming over wouldn't be safe," Barty defended himself.

"Believe him, I've met his family and they're the worst," Liz snapped to the group.

"Okay then," Bella said, "did you all receive the dark mark?"

"What?" Dahlia spluttered in a higher frequency than usual.

There was a chorus of "I didn't"s from the fourth and fifth years, but a collective "I did" from the sixth and seven years.

"So we'll get it after fifth year?" Regulus asked.

"Shit," Cissa breathed out as she sank further into her seat.

Shit indeed.

"Do we have a choice?" Liz asked.

"No," Lucius said.

"Show us," Regulus said quietly.

Bellatrix hesitated, and shared a look with the other older kids before nodding and reluctantly pulling up her sleeve. It was a snake, but it was emerging from a skull...it was a velvet black and the skin around it was still slightly pink and sore.

The common room was silent once more, before a fifth year called Severus spoke up.

"Does it hurt?" He asked.

"Yeah," Bellatrix responded.

Great.

≿ ————————　❈　———————— ≾

Maeve quickly wiped her makeup off with her wand and splashed her face in the tap water. She looked in the mirror at her reflection, imagining what it would be like to be an official death eater. How much freedom would she have? What if she worked her way up and one day actually became liked by the dark lord...could she even do that? She would try. If she pleased him, she would please her family and everyone in her inner circle. She needed this.

She brushed out her light blonde hair and tied it into two loose braids. Quickly changing into her pyjamas, she left the bathroom to let Cissa use it.

In their dorm room was just Liz, Cissa and Maeve. It was quite big, and always seemed to have a slight draught running through it. The theme running through the room, as in every Slytherin room, was green and silver. It wasn't exactly what you would call homely, but it was their home.

Maeve clicked her tongue as she climbed into her bed, and her cat Sofia quickly padded along the floor and jumped into Maeve's lap. Sofia was an elegant grey cat with stormy eyes, who was soft and gentle with Maeve but with any other person she disliked she was extremely dangerous. She often fell asleep on her owner's bed, and Maeve had given up trying to fight it and instead began to invite her up rather than being surprised with a cat butt in her face in the middle of the night.

"Cissa, you alright?" Liz asked as Cissa walked out of the bathroom looking pretty miserable.

"I don't know," Cissa said, "Not really. It's about the whole death-eater thing."

"What about it?" Maeve asked as she stroked Sofia.

"Well...aren't you just a little bit scared? Nervous?" Cissa asked.

"Not really, perhaps a bit nervous but nerves are fine Cissa. You know the adrenalin from nerves can push you to do better in everything," Maeve told her.

"I think my nerves will just make me kill myself but okay," Cissa laughed slightly and flopped onto her bed, "I don't want school."

"No one does," Liz said.

"You guys going to sleep now?" Cissa asked.

"Yeah," Liz shrugged.

"I'll try," Maeve said.

"Okay, night guys," Cissa smiled, before waving her wand and turning off the lights.

Maeve stared at the now dark ceiling for what felt like hours. Yeah, she wouldn't be able to sleep for a while. She eased Sofia off of her lap (was met with a very indignant meow) and got out of her bed quietly.

After throwing on her Slytherin robe over her pyjamas, she grabbed her book and silently slipped out of the room.

Not that she would ever tell anyone, but Maeve loved muggle fiction. As in fiction written by muggle authors. In her life, anything to do with muggles was frowned upon, so she would always keep her reading private.

She sneaked out of the Slytherin common room and walked to the library, making sure she wasn't making any noise. Just as she reached the library she didn't enter but turned right and walked through the wall. Yes, she walked through the wall. And instead of being met with a ton of bricks, she was met with a narrow staircase instead. This part of the castle was unknown to most people, but the stairs led up and up to a large window with a wide bench-like window sill. It was the best place for her to privately read with absolutely no one disturbing.

She comfortably sat on the window ledge and leaned her back on the side, opening her book and beginning to read.

Maeve wished that she could stay like this forever, isolated from everything else, but she knew that wasn't possible. For now she wouldn't think about that, she would focus on her book.