The Black Queen | F. Weasley

18. A dreamless sleep

"Fucking finally, boiler." She heard Cassius Warrington mutter under his breath, but loud enough for Kenneth and a bunch of others to hear. Kenneth ducked his head down in embarrassment avoiding everyone's stares.

That's it, Salem thought and drew her wand. She was going to take care of this herself since McGonagall wasn't paying enough attention to her students to notice the bullying which was happening in her class. The girl stood up abruptly knocking over her stool, gaining everyone's attention.

She pointed her wand at Cassius Warrington while glaring at him and heard the outraged cry from Professor McGonagall, but that wasn't going to stop her. She saw her Head of House draw her own wand, but she wasn't quick enough to disarm the girl.

"Calvorio incorversibilis!"

Both Gryffindor as well as Slytherin students watched on wide eyed how Cassius Warrington lost his hair within seconds. The now bald Cassius glared murderously at Salem and moved his hand to draw his own wand, but was halted by Professor McGonagall who had finally disarmed the girl.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor, miss Black, I don't tolerate this kind of behaviour. Go to the Headmaster's office, right now."

Salem didn't care at all that she had just lost her house fifty points, in the end Harry would probably earn them back anyway since he was Dumbledore's favourite. She nodded at her head of house once before turning her attention back on Cassius.

"If you, or anyone else for that matter, ever bothers Kenneth Towler again you'll be losing more than just your hair."

"Black!" McGonagall yelled in warning. Salem turned around abruptly and walked to the door. She sent a wink Kenneth's way who blushed as he simply stared at her, not really knowing how to react to the fact that someone actually stood up for him. She avoided eye contact with Fred, George and Lee who were probably as shocked as the rest of the class, but before she had made it out of the classroom she overheard Cassius once more.

"...fucking nuts, no wonder she's related to Sirius Black."

She halted and merely turned her head to look at the boy. An evil smirk and a mischievous twinkle in her eyes lit up her face as she looked at the Slytherin.

"Oh sweet Cassius, you have no idea, do you?" She mocked him and clacked her tongue in a tsk-ing manner while shaking with her head in disagreement. "I'm far worse than my uncle."

And with that she finally disappeared out the classroom and made her way to the man she had come to dislike severely these past few months.

♠️♠️♠️

Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, leafing through one of his books when Salem walked inside after knocking politely on the door. A slight smile wanted to break through on his face as he recalled the message Minerva had passed onto him. The girl had removed Cassius Warrington's hair, but she had altered the curse slightly which had made it irreversible. Warrington would be walking around bald until his hair would grow back naturally.

But he couldn't let his amusement show, it was still a serious matter.

"Miss Black, please take a seat."

He gestured to one of the stools in front of his desk and Salem sat down quietly. He folded his hands in front of his mouth, shielding the little upward lilt of his lips from view.

"Professor McGonagall informed me about what happened during class, but I would also like to hear your side of the story."

Salem merely raised an eyebrow at her headmaster. Eventually she sighed as the silence grew uncomfortable and she looked away from his piercing gaze. She didn't want to be here and she certainly didn't want to explain to Dumbledore what had happened with Cassius. She just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible and was prepared to accept any punishment he would come up with.