The bluish white wisp took the shape of a Phoenix, listening close enough, Finley heard a familiar voice of Dumbledore and sighed. Knowing that the old man found out about her being alive this soon, it was problematic to the things she was planning to do.
"I would like to have a word with you. I favour lemon drops lately, don't you?"
Wand tucked in her hoodie pocket, she was standing in front of Dumbledore's office, the last time she was here, she disappeared for two days, returning later on dead. She somehow still had the compass that he gave her, it was in Harry's possession during her funeral, but he didn't really know what it was. Muttering the password, entering the office where she saw a beautiful bird perched on the corner.
She's heard many stories of Dumbledore having a phoenix as a pet, she's convinced that it was real but never really desired to see for herself. She only got the confirmation from Harry in their second year when it healed him from the basilisk venom.
"Good evening Miss Zabini," a voice said from behind her. "Or would you prefer me to call you Miss Potter still?"
"Anything is fine Albus," Finley spoke, her tone now guarded and cold, her red eyes snakelike as a defence mechanism against the man who lead her to death, essentially.
"I believe a welcome back is long over due?"
"Cut to the chase Professor, what is it that you want?" Finley sharply spoke, impatient at the Headmaster's unrelated exchange of words. Anticipated to learn how the old man found out that she was back in Hogwarts in another name.
Dumbledore chuckled, finding the girl's impatience amusing. He has turned a blind eye on her subtle rebelling against the new professor, he could see the mistrust in her as well.
"Do you so wish to unite the houses Miss Potter?" He finally asked.
"I do actually," Finley replied, no hesitation in her voice. "But not in the way where you can use them," she adds. Dumbledore's eyes flicked with amusement.
"And why do you think I would like to use you?"
"Because you just can," Finley shrugged, she was holding a grudge about her death, you can't really take that away from her in the first place. "I hope that you would think twice about betraying me or my house, or Harry, Professor," she declared. "Because if what I've seen through your mind about Harry's fate, I will so much haunt you til your dying days."
The Defence Against Dark Arts meetings were very successful, every student that joined (which is not to Finley's surprise, the majority of the school) had the progress that could definitely over throw Umbridge and her tyrannical teaching. Of course she was going to laugh at how hilarious the joint lessons for the four house were going to be, but still it made her worry.
She stood next to her best friends and Astoria in the corner, she could hear the twins bet on who was going to win the mock duel, Harry had suggested. This was between Hermione and Ron, she had confidence that Hermione could do it, after all, she's the brightest witch of her age.
"Weasley's going down," Blaise mused as he saw Ron walk to the other side of the room, confidence weighed on his shoulders like he was better than The Hermione Granger because he was a boy. Okay, that was wrong, but at the moment, he had confidence that he was going to finally be a good at something she isn't.
"Weasley twins are betting sickles, what are you going to bet?" Finley heard Theo ask.
"My 37 karat gold pocket watch."
Finley face palmed, of course they were going to make bets on this one. She was thankful that Draco wasn't here, he volunteered to go and keep watch of Umbridge's moves for the time being. The woman creeped them out, that small woman held so much terror that she wanted to shove her in somewhere holy and cleanse her there.
"Stupefy!" A female voice chanted, followed by a yelp and a thud. Hearing disappointed sounds, she heard coins being passed over, a pocket watch being slammed on someone's palm.
"I'm going for a walk," Finley shakes her head slightly, as she saw Hermione being praised by the girls in their year. This was a moment where she would be skipping this lesson, going to a corner and exiting the room.
Clutching her wand tightly to her side, she walked out the school in the early evening towards the lake. It had been a month since they started practicing, also a month since her last detention. She made sure to be much of an ass kisser for Umbridge as possible, though she hated that woman with a burning passion, but she certainly can't afford Remus, or Sirius to come over and kill her themselves. Taking off her shoes and dipping her feet into the water as she sat on the lake's dock, she reminisced the events of last year, well, all of the previous years.
She grew up in Snape's care with the assistance of Mirelle Thorns. She went to Hogwarts and got sorted into Slytherin. She made friends, one in particular turned out to be her brother. She found out about her parents and their sacrifices to keep her and Harry safe, and she also learned that there were more people who were her family. She met the boy she hard come to like despite him being a git and all that. Her house loved her though she wasn't a pureblood, and she knew they would do everything for her.
Within those years, she almost got eaten by a three headed dog named fluffy, almost stabbed by a queen chess piece. Got petrified by a big ass snake in the girl's bathroom. Almost got her soul sucked out by a dementor, and died at the end of last year.
A wild four years it has been, and on the fifth, they were being taken over by a small pea brained toad who liked giving scars. When will it ever be good?
She tied her hair up, taking off her grey uniform vest and tie, then her skirt, leaving her in a pair of leggings. Rolling up her sleeves properly, mentally chanting the bubble head charm, she jumped of the dock and swam. Once in the water, she took out the chain on her neck, the compass that Dumbledore had given her last year. This time it pointed towards the deeper parts of the lake, not at all bothered by the cold, as she got deeper it was warmer.
She could hear the grindylows passing her, mermaids watching her, until she saw an arch. The compass still pointing towards the arch's direction, she had no other choice but to swim in further. There was a reason she returned to this place, Dumbledore said that this was where she was going to find answers about the things that happened to her. She doesn't know why, and much of her distrust in him, this was something she wanted to proceed with. Finding a fallen castle in the bottom of the lake, muttering the alohamora charm, not needing at as it had opened when her runespoor wand glowed, sucking her in.
Gasping for hair as the bubble charm broke, she looked around, and in a sort of de ja vu moment, she found herself sprawled on the floor in a pitch black room.
"We have been waiting..."
Gulping, Finley clutched on to her wand tightly. "Here I am. I need answers."
She heard menacing laughs, then a sound of hissing accompanied by it. The room began producing light on the torches, revealing a snake head. Then another, and another. She had read about Runespoors before, she knew that they were originally in Africa, but to see one so close to Hogwarts and inside a fallen castle? Was this what Dumbledore wanted her to find?
"What answers are there to seek when you are already given them?"
"How do I stop this curse," she breathed, the sight if the three headed snakes were intimidatingly scary. "I can't—"
"Can't what little one?" One of the snake head scoffed. "Isn't it because of your curse that you are alive? That you are able to walk around with your love ones?"
"What will happen if I die one last time?" Her chest hammering, these were questions she normally didn't want answered. But given the opportunity, she needed to ask them anyway.
"My, your ancestors have asked the same thing for generations." Her breath hitched, ancestors? So she wasn't the only one.
"And our answers are always the same."
"The curse lives on."
"But why?" She finally asks, at this question the three headed snake slithered their way towards her, three heads setting themselves next to her. It was the runespoor's right head that kept looking straight into her eyes with it's neon green ones.
"Curses don't always need reason, they just do."
She glanced the two snake heads that had identical neon green eyes as the one that spoke to her. Three heads representing different things, the strategic left, the idealistic middle, and finally the critical right. Why was she here again? She seemed to forget. Staring up at the middle head that looked lost, she doesn't know why but she used her legilimency to look into it's mind and recoiled back.
"What is it, that you truly want?" She heard the left head demand, her mind blank, caught up at what she had seen in the middle snake's mind.
"I—I don't know," she stuttered, her blouse and leggings stuck on her, the room's temperature gone colder than the Slytherin common room.
"Then leave..."
"Have any of you seen F—Blythe?" Harry asked the snakes, though he was skeptical to why his sister asked that they get involved with lions, she understood that she didn't want her house to be left unprotected by not learning how to defend themselves.
"She went out for a walk," Blaise Zabini replied to him as they both exited the room of requirement.
At the moment, both of them were Finley's brother, both held the need to protect her, though one of them wasn't actually her brother, but he wanted to be. No one would point it out, but the competition of being the better brother was real in these parts, especially if Finley's name wasn't her original name at all. With Blaise always having the upper hand of having Finley by his side, Harry struggled to be in the same room as her to prevent everyone else to get suspicious.
"Mind telling me where she might be? I have something to ask her," he tells Blaise.
"I don't know Potter, she could be anywhere," Blaise reasoned, genuinely worried for Finley. After all she had been gone for more than three hours, she should've been back to for their last classes with Harry before grabbing some food that Cedric happily offered to the group.
"She might be in the lake," Astoria suggested, over hearing the conversation by these two boys. "She's been going there a lot lately," she adds.
"She'll be back Potter, if you see her though, could you do me a favour and tell her to go see Madam Pomfrey?"
Harry's brows scrunched. "Why?"
Emerging from the water, she hoped that no one would be there to see her in such state, her whole body soaked with lake water, her white school blouse was turning into this murky dirty colour, and she basically looked like a wet hairy creature. Forgetting the drying spell, again, she clutched onto her grey school vest, putting it on to hide the colour of her bra incase someone was around. Grabbing her skirt and shoes, she walked back to school, freezing and bare footed. It was one thing to be soaking wet and wear a dry vest, it was another to wear socks and shoes on soaking wet feet. Barefoot was the way to go.
"Bloody hell, did you jump into the Black lake? What happened?" Ron gasped just as she reached the clock tower courtyard. Behind him was Hermione, the twins, and Harry.
"That's exactly what happened," she deadpans as she glares at Ron and the twins who were staring at her funnily. Snapping her fingers catching their attentions, "Eyes up here ginger," she snapped.
"Oh for god's sake," Hermione huffed, taking out her wand, casting a drying spell on her clothes. Her clothes now less clutching on her body that emphasised her curse too much that it made her uncomfortable.
"Why did you jump in the lake anyway?" Harry asked, taking off his jacket and tying it on her waist. "It's practically snowing."
"I fell."
"But you had your vests and shoes off?"
Finley pursed her lips together, holding back her tongue from spilling something she shouldn't spill at the moment. Especially with Harry's mind tampered. "I was just soaking my feet."
"Yeah, right," Harry rolled his eyes at her, getting the hint that Finley didn't want to talk about it. In the months that they returned to Hogwarts, he learned that there were things he shouldn't be poking at his sister with. But times like this, she was suspicious.
"Well, Zabini said Pomfrey wants to see you."
"Uh, why?" Finley raised her brow at him, confused why the matron would need to see her—
"Oh shit!" She gasped, dropping down her shoes her skirt, proceeded to untangle Harry's jacket from her waist and slipping on her skirt. Taking out her socks and shoving her feet in her shoes.
"Why? What's wrong?" Hermione asked the fumbling slytherin.
"My shift starts today!" Was the only thing the five Gryffindors could hear as they watched the Slytherin girl run in the castle, leaving them curious at what she meant.