Memoirs of a Serpent's Son

Memoirs of a Serpent’s Son

--Age 17—part 3

The escape –continued

And then I woke up here.

Though I don’t know exactly where ‘here’ is.

I opened my groggy eyes and realized that I was no longer collapsed on the hard ground outside in the fog but I was lying on a bed with a simple canopy very much indoors.

I thought I was dreaming for a moment as I languidly stretched under the covers and arched my back so that it would crack comfortably against the mattress.

And then, when the mattress creaked unpleasantly under my movements and the room came into full focus, I realized my mistake and bolted upright and out of bed.

Very gracelessly, I might add.

Once I’d picked myself up off the floor I frantically searched around myself, to get my bearings and possibly figure out where I was.

The room was empty apart from the bed. There were no windows and just one door, which was conveniently locked from the outside. Thinking that I’d ended up back where I’d begun, locked in a dark room with Snape as my prison-guard.

I started trembling again and reached into my pocket to hold my wand for comfort when I realized that I didn’t have a pocket to go into.

My ROBE was GONE along with EVERYTHING IN IT.

MY WAND WAS GONE.

They… THEY TOOK MY WAND FROM ME!

I let out an inaudible gasp and shook violently as I staggered around the room hoping that something would falter and show me that this was all an illusion… show me that my worst nightmares were not indeed fleshing out and that I would wake up soon and everything would be alright. Everything would be alright…

Then I turned and came face to face with an elaborate green and black shield with a venomous, hissing serpent on it. Above the shield were the words ‘Toujours pur’ in an elegant scrawl that spoke of pure-blood and dark magic.

And then I backed myself up against a wall knowing that it would all be over soon.

The Death-Eaters had caught me and I was being held captive until they were good and ready to torture and kill me.

There was no other explanation for it.

I began heaving tearlessly and felt my knees threaten to buckle under my weight.

This cannot be happening… this cannot be happening… I can’t be here… I can’t… I asked them to…and then I…

I CANNOT DIE TODAY!

I banged my fists against the bedposts painfully and then jumped. There was a distant sound of creaking footsteps.

I made up my mind in a split-second and positioned myself just at the entrance of the door, prepared to attack. I may not have my wand but I can still do some sort of damage. Maybe if the person was weak enough, or small enough, I could overpower them and make my escape…even if I had to leave my wand behind…

Maybe…just maybe…

The footsteps drew closer and closer as I felt nothing but my heart race and beat loudly in my ears. My throat was closing and my stomach churned as I shook, waiting for the door to slide open if only a sliver.

I would hit them so hard, with everything I have, and then…and then just run. Run for it and hope that I don’t get hit on the way…

The footsteps stopped right in front of the door as I brought my hand back in preparation, heaving soundless sobs as the seconds crawled by.

Then it opened and in the strangest slow-motion scene I felt my arm swing forwards a few inches before my eyes fell on my captor.

When I saw who it was, I felt as though my hand had hit an invisible brick wall and then just fell limp at my side, the energy I pulled from the motion throwing me off-balance. I staggered a step forwards and then back as I tried to regain my footing and come to terms with the person who was keeping me locked up and wandless.

I stared in mute shock and horror at the mildly confused face of Harry Potter.

“Oi! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Weasel’s voice broke through the silence from behind Potter. “What kind of thanks is that? We save your arse from the danger and cold and you try to repay us by attacking us??”

“Honestly, Ron, calm down.” The mudblood was there too. I couldn’t see them. I didn’t look. My eyes were trained on Potter as though I was afraid that looking away might make him disappear.

He gave me the strangest look in return, though he said nothing to me then. My mouth was hanging very slightly open as I searched for words, even just ONE word, that could adequately phrase what I was feeling at that moment.

None came to me and I stared mute and dumb for another few moments before Weasel and the mudblood pushed their way into the room.

“Have you stopped talking, Malfoy?” Weasel asked rather hopefully.

And then I snapped out of my stupor and found myself replying before I could even stop myself. I answered before I had even thought of the answer.

“I don’t talk to vermin.”

In retrospect, that was likely the worst thing I could have said at that moment short of calling Granger a mudblood to her face. Thus, I paid dearly for it.

Almost instantly after the words fell on still air, I felt a bone-crushing punch land on my jaw and throw me off-balance. I fell backwards into the wall and hit my head against the old wood.

I stared at Potter through the pain and said nothing else. He rolled his eyes at me and shook his head.

“Can’t you be civil just once? We did rescue you,” Potter snapped at me. He was irritable and he showed it brilliantly.

“You took my wand, my robe, all my possessions and locked me in a room with no windows,” I recounted acidly. “This is not to mention the attack I just suffered. You call that ‘rescuing’, Potter??”

He grimaced at me. The mudblood huffed indignantly behind him and the Weasel let out a dry laugh. I stayed still and stared only at Potter as he shook his head.

“It’s better than you deserve,” he spat, looking me over once.

I whimpered inwardly at the stinging insult he’d flung at me. I knew I was undeserving of any form of hospitality on his part, but that didn’t mean I was going to admit that to him…and it did NOT mean that I didn’t expect better from him.

I let my lip curl into a snarl and stood more proudly on my feet, trying to seem as though I had all the strength I’d always had. I know I must have looked terrible, mind you, after everything that has happened…

“Then give me my wand back, Potter, and I’ll be on my way,” I demanded, holding out my hand. His eyes brows raised quickly and disappeared into his hairline as he looked at me with a mildly amused smirk.

“Are you daft, Malfoy?” he laughed humourlessly. “Why the hell would I do that? I’m not a bloody fool.”

“No, clearly not,” I told him scathingly. “I am clearly not wanted here amongst you and your little horde of blood-traitors, so it would benefit us both if I just left now.”

They exchanged looks with one another before looking back at me as though I was the only one who was unaware of some fantastic inside-joke.

“The way I hear it, Malfoy,” Potter explained with a kind of drawl that seemed very uncharacteristic. “You’re just as much of a blood-traitor as we are now.”

I stared at him and felt myself get hit again. It was as though I no longer had any form of guard up… I felt completely vulnerable to anything and everything in that moment. I felt Potter’s sneering gaze on me as my entire being diminished before his eyes. It was a terrible feeling to sense myself shrink in front of him like that…

In front of HIM, like that.

“Shut up,” I snapped quietly, feeling my lungs get tighter and tighter in my chest. I would have given just about anything to be back with Snape in that moment, instead of standing in front of Potter and his friends and letting myself be destroyed so completely.

“I bet all your little death-eating pals weren’t too happy with you, were they?” he jeered, pushing it as far as he thought it could take me. It was as though he was fueled by my reactions and my words. I felt my brow furrow and my breaths were becoming sharper. “You’re just as much of a failure now as your pathetic father in your master’s eyes, aren’t you?”

“SHUT UP!” I screamed, pushing him into his friends with all the strength I had and it took all of my self control not to throw myself against him. “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!”

I stopped myself and let him go and turned away from him, needing to shut my eyes and screw up my face to stop myself from crying… I couldn’t give him that kind of satisfaction. I couldn’t…

I was shaking. I was shaking so hard they must have noticed. They had to have. My fists were balled and I let my head hang in front of me as my back was turned to them. He would never understand how painful it is… how painful it was for him to say that… how much he can hurt me with so little effort… He would never understand and even if he did he wouldn’t care…

“Bloody hell, well that’s just great,” Weasel’s voice came full of sarcasm. “I knew we should have left him, Harry. I still can’t figure out why you thought we should bring him in. Look at how he’s treating you! Ah bloody fantastic birthday present, isn’t it?”

There were far too many elements of what he said there for me to analyze in a moment’s time so I concentrated on the most important one. I whipped around and stared at them all for a moment before talking as though it was a life or death situation.

“It’s your birthday?” I asked sharply, my eyes falling on Potter. “What day is it?”

They gave me the strangest looks. It was as though I’d just asked them all to witness my marriage to a goat or something; you’d think that I was asking for something unreasonable.

“Why do you need to know my birthday??” Potter asked incredulously. I rolled my eyes.

“Please, Potter, it’s not as though I’m going to be sending you any presents,” I sneered. “Just tell me what day it is today!”

“It’s the thirty-first,” he answered with that confused and disbelieving expression still etched on his features.

“Of?”

“Of July, you idiot,” Weasel responded for him. I didn’t register the insult though… the date hit me too hard.

“It’s…it’s July?” I whispered to no one in particular, staggering backwards until I could let my knees give out and fall onto the bed. My mouth was open and my eyes were distant.

It’s been… two months… I have been locked away in Snape’s room…for……

What has happened? What else have I missed??

I’ve been locked away in limbo and the world just went on without me as though I had never been there at all… no one had missed me… never given me a second thought…

Not for two months… It was summer… summer half gone and…

And I was nowhere better. I was still just as lost and confused and… I’m still just as worthless.

I feel like a part of my life was stolen without my consent… I feel like…

Oh god I don’t even know what I feel…

I was shaking again and I buried my face in my hands and started mumbling things to myself… I couldn’t believe that I’d been gone and held captive for that long and didn’t even realize it… how could I not have noticed???

“Where the hell have you been, Malfoy?” I’m not sure who asked the question. I wasn’t paying enough attention. I know that it wasn’t meant to be answered, but I did anyway.

“With Snape,” I muttered through my hands, refusing to look up completely. “He kept me locked in a room like this one…but it was magically sealed.”

“Snape kept you locked in a magically sealed room for two months?” Weasel asked, clearly disbelieving. “And then what, he just decided that you were well-cooked enough and let you go on your merry way??”

“No, you brainless twat,” I snapped, coming back to myself slowly. “He didn’t let me go, I escaped.”

“You escaped.” It wasn’t a question. Potter was staring at me now as though he was waiting for this wonderfully elaborate hoax to end. “You escaped from this magically sealed room that he had kept you in for two months… just now.”

“What is so damn hard to believe?!”

“Enlighten us then, how did you escape?” Potter walked over to where I was sitting, drew a chair in the air and sat himself down in front of me. I surveyed him for a moment before looking away at the ground again.

“I…I didn’t trust him,” I muttered as though it was important for them to know the details. I don’t know what possessed me to tell them these things. Normally I would just have given them the most cryptic answer possible but something was compelling me to be honest. “I knew he only came up when he was alone in the house so I waited for him to come up with the food tray and used the same ploy that I used…”

I stopped. I couldn’t bring myself to mention that night… not just yet and definitely NOT in front of Potter…

“What?”

“I… I had some left over Peruvian Darkness Powder… and my Hand of Glory… so just before he opened the door I threw the powder and held up the hand to see. When he opened the door I cast a non-verbal stunner and bolted…” I trailed off a bit, my head beginning to pound dully with pain. “I honestly didn’t think it would work, but it did… I still don’t know how. I have no idea where I was… I just ran and ran and ran until I couldn’t run anymore.”

“And then you fainted…” Granger finished. I nodded briefly but held my head, feeling terribly dizzy. There was a painful growl in the pit of my stomach.

“What’s wrong with you?” Weasel’s voice sounded distant.

“F-feel…dizzy…” I whispered before feeling myself fall back through nothingness.

The next thing I knew I was waking up to Potter standing over me with a smoking glass.

“Drink it,” he ordered, handing me the goblet.

“What is it?” I was not about to drink anything he offered me.

“It’s a potion for strength,” he explained, slightly more kind in his words. I tried to sit up a bit.

“Who brewed it?” He gave me a look.

“What does it matter??” Potter snapped.

“Well depending on who brewed it I’ll know if it’s safe or not,” I retorted.

“Hermione.” The name was filled with a kind of icy sarcasm as though to see what I would do.

I picked up the cup and drained it, much to his surprise. He gaped at me as I drank and handed him back the empty goblet. Already the effects of the potions were setting in. I sat up and brushed my hair out of my face.

“Have some food,” he muttered, still amazed that I would so readily drink something the mudblood brewed, but I’m no fool.

“I don’t want any.” He made a disapproving noise and shrugged at me.

“Fine, if you WANT to starve to death, then be my guest,” he explained. I glared at him and took a bite of the bread on the tray.

“C’mon, Harry,” Weasel’s voice urged. “People will be coming any minute. Just leave the food with him and come!”

Potter nodded to his friend and walked away. Just before he closed the door, he turned back to me.

“Your robe is on the chair I made,” he explained. “I didn’t take anything, except your wand. And you cannot have that back just yet. It’s staying with me.”

Then he left without another word or glance. He left me with my things and took a little piece of me with him as he went down to his friends and guests.

He went down to celebrate his ‘coming of age’ and laugh and enjoy. As for me, I’m stuck up here, my back against the door and sitting on the ground, wishing so hard that I could be down there with him…wishing that I could feel the warmth of him and his happiness wash over me like it does for everyone else.

Wishing that everything was different and that I wasn’t so screwed up.

Two months have gone by and I hardly blinked to notice them…and Potter went on with his life without noticing my absence…

Now that I’m near him again, I feel the emptiness inside me even stronger than before…and he will never fill it, because while he’s downstairs eating cake and opening gifts, I’m sitting up here on my own, locked in a room to slow dance with my misery once more.

Just a few more tears and then the song is over.

-----IIIII-----

A/N: Kind of random ending there, O_o sorry about the wording just ran away with me ehehhhh anyway, I hope you like it! Yes Harry is going to be a jerk for a little while longer. Old habits die hard, and all that jazz. OH and about the timeline, I don’t know exactly how much time is between Dumbledore’s death and Harry’s birthday, so let’s just pretend two months is accurate ^^; The entries are going to get longer and more detailed from now on, obviously…and the whole plot will wind down a tad bit for a short while because too much angst and crazy action-suspense is hard on me X_X But have no fear, there will be much more exciting stuff thrown in there ^_^ I hope you liked it!

Now I need to plot out more hahaha X_X I failllllll lol