"Alya, it's you! I thought I would never see you again!" exclaimed Merope, giving Alya a look full of relief.
But Alya was unable to reply. She looked at Merope with a horrified gaze. On her friend's face were the clear signs of violence. One eye was bruised and swollen, circled by a livid, purplish halo.
"But what happened to you? Who --?" she stammered in terror, pointing a trembling finger at Merope's face. The latter lowered her gaze, almost in shame.
"M-my brother," Merope confessed in a whisper, trying in vain to hide her face between her knees. "This morning I broke a plate -- I'm not very good with the levitation spell --" she explained sadly, as if that were a plausible justification for the blows she had suffered.
"Your brother? Your brother did that to you? That's horrible!" ranted Alya, scandalised.
"Don't shout, they might hear you!" Merope implored, casting a frightened glance at the wall beside her.
Alya knew that Merope's father and brother shared the room next to hers: at that moment, they were probably sleeping on the other side of the wall. Alya had never seen them, she only knew their names: Marvolo and Morfin. However, she could imagine them perfectly; in her fantasy, they both looked shady and had a malevolent expression perpetually painted on their disproportionate and grotesque faces.
Judging from Merope's stories, neither her father nor her brother spared themselves from bullying her whenever possible, regarding Merope as the scapegoat for all their frustrations.
Alya felt upset about it; the idea of that unknown boy unfairly mistreating his sister and making her suffer was very close to home. Without realising it, Alya's thoughts went to Sirius and the hateful words he had spewed at her in the woods, during their summer stay at Arcturus Black's estate, then on the Hogwarts Express, just two days before.
Apparently, the two girls had something in common besides their names. Alya perfectly understood how her dream friend felt about her brother.
Merope, who didn't seem inclined to pursue the matter further, quickly glossed over the topic.
"So you got into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! You must be thrilled." she commented with a slight smile.
Alya was interjected.
"How do you know I attend Hogwarts?" she squeaked in puzzlement. She hadn't had a chance to say anything about it yet.
"Well, your uniform --" retorted Merope, pointing her finger at Alya.
The latter automatically looked at her clothes: Merope was right. Alya was wearing the school outfit, consisting of a jumper, shirt and skirt and black stockings, including the silver-green tie. Although she was in a dream, the uniform appeared identical to reality.
"And you're a Slytherin, I see. You must be proud." Merope said smugly, alluding to the colours of the tie.
"Yes. So is my whole family, after all. Everyone in my family went to Slytherin. Everyone, except my brother."
"Slytherin is a great and noble House. As is its founder, Salazar Slytherin." as she spoke, Merope's black pupils glowed with remote pride.
"I never told you this, but my mother was a direct descendant of the great Salazar." she added with a changed look. The memory of her deceased mother always made her very sad. But Alya didn't mind this time. She was much more impressed by what her friend had just said.
"What? Your mother was descended from Salazar Slytherin?" she exclaimed in amazement.
Merope nodded shyly. She reached out her slender arm towards the bedside table grabbed a large jewel and showed it to Alya, proudly. It was a locket, very similar to the one worn by Alya's mother, except for a few, but significant differences. Merope's pendant was made of gold, as opposed to Walburga's, which was made of silver; moreover, instead of the engraving of a branch, a serpentine S appeared on the surface, studded with green diamonds, Salazar Slytherin's unmistakable initials. It was an object of inestimable value, whose opulent form contrasted with the poor and ragged appearance of its owner.
Alya admired the jewel with wide eyes.
"My mother left it to me before she died. Together with the doll, it is all I have left of her," Merope explained in a wistful voice. "Fortunately, my father didn't requisition it, allowing me to keep it and, even, wear it."
Little Black could hardly believe her ears. Yet, that golden pendant was clear proof of the blood link between Merope and the illustrious Slytherin lineage.
"But this is incredible! That means you are heir to Salazar Slytherin, as was your mother! That's why you speak Parseltongue so well!" exclaimed Alya amazed, looking at her dream friend with new admiration.
In the veins of that sickly-looking girl ran the same blood as one of the greatest wizards in history. It was unbelievable. To hear the older schoolmates of his House at Hogwarts talk, Salazar Slytherin was considered a figure of prestige and an example of nobility and power.
Alya's praise was too impetuous for poor Merope, who had never been used to so much enthusiasm: she made herself small, almost curling in on herself, unable to sustain so much praise all at once.
"You can speak Parseltongue very well too," she muttered, as if to say that her skill was nothing so special.
But Alya reprimanded her instantly:
"Of course, it's because I had you as a teacher!"
"Believe me, Alya, I had nothing to do with it. Not all the wizards and witches, even the most powerful ones, have that ability. It is a rare gift." Merope explained, in a solemn voice.
Speaking of snakes and Parseltongue, Alya recalled Koboro, the big black cobra she had rescued in Cornwall. She told the whole episode to her friend, omitting no detail.
Merope listened in amazement.
"And you managed to communicate with him without any problems -- very impressive!" she finally commented with a hint of pride. "You know, Alya, I believe you'll become a truly powerful witch," Merope added, sincerely.
Alya looked impulsively at her feet to show a semblance of modesty, but did not hide a smug expression.
"Do you really think so? I don't know -- there's so much I don't know yet" she mumbled, embarrassed.
"I'm sure of it!" declared Merope, with conviction.
Alya didn't have time to lift her gaze to her friend to thank her, that the environment around her had changed again, catapulting her into the usual black and insubstantial slime of nothingness.
As always, the meeting with her dream friend had been interrupted without warning.
However, Alya could not yet consider herself awake. Her consciousness was lucid, but her body was still trapped in the vagueness of the dream world.
She felt herself extremely light. Alya walked with graceful fluidity through what seemed to be an intricate forest, dark and mysterious. A faint blanket of mist hovered above the ground; Alya herself was part of that cloud of moisture. It was not a place familiar to her; Alya was definitely sure she had never seen the place. Nevertheless, there was something familiar about it. Alya had a strange feeling, like a remote awareness: sooner or later, the child was certain she would set foot inside that currently unknown forest.
Alya observed her surroundings meticulously. A gloomy darkness permeated around the gigantic trees with mighty trunks and dense, tangled branches, whose tangles didn't allow light to filter through. The stillness of that place seemed surreal.
The little girl's silver gaze wandered for a few seconds, bouncing from plant to plant, until Alya felt inexplicably drawn to a huge yew tree, a few metres from her. She observed its brown bark and mighty branches, reaching out like arms as if to grasp something unreachable. The green and needle-like leaves looked like long tapering fingers, which were studded with scarlet arils.
Alya stared for a long time at the figure of the yew tree, silhouetted gloriously in the unknown forest.
Then, all of a sudden, the darkness became denser and wrapped itself around Alya like tentacles of an octopus.
Little Black's grey eyes opened and she woke up instantly. The images of Merope and her precious locket, as one of the mysterious forest with its mammoth yew tree had disappeared.
Alya was in her bed again, at Hogwarts. And, the only thing her eyes could see now was the evocative landscape of the depths of the Black Lake.
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A/N:
This chapter is pretty short, I know, but I preferred to stop here, in order to create suspense.
What do you think about the mysterious forest that Alya saw in her dream?
Let me know your opinions in the comments 😉.
Thank you for reading ❤!
Vale♡