Dark Beauty *Newly Updated Chapters*

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter Four: Hogwarts Year One First Semester


The first week of her first year at Hogwarts proved that Calli wasn’t like the other children. She kept to herself, preferring her own company to that of the vapid girls in her dorm. She could still hear the whispers, still feel the looks as she walked through the castle and during classes. She kept her temper, kept her head held high. Regardless of what the others thought, regardless of what they assumed to be true of her due to her parentage, she wouldn’t let them see a reaction from her. Let them have their petty gossiping.

Her classes, that’s where the rumors really grew. During Charms, while practicing Wingardium Leviosa, she’d drawn attention to herself. Not only by performing the charm before any of her classmates, but because she did it without speaking. Professor Flitwich fell from his stack of books and the glass buzzed with this new knowledge. To counteract the damage, she’d picked up her wand and said loudly and clearly the incantation, causing her feather to blow up by concentrating on wanting it in flames. The professor and students stopped looking at her as though she’d been born with three heads, considering the first nonverbal attempt a fluke, and the second verbal one more in tune with the abilities of a First Year.

Potions, with her Head of House, was the most calming class she had. For once, being able to use nonverbal and wandless magic worked to her advantage. Professor Snape paid little mind to the fact that her herbs were chopped alarmingly fast or that her fire seemed perfect level every time. She wasn’t perfect, however, merely using her power to her advantage. She was better than Harry Potter, she noticed, and the Longbottom chap. Definitely better than Longbottom, she thought, as Professor Snape broke into a diatribe about how large of a dunderhead the boy was.
She knew, without having to listen to the murmured conversations about her, that her presence didn’t help Neville’s confidence. He equated her with her parents, and considering what her parents did to his own, she could understand how difficult her being near him would be. Harry Potter, and the two that were always with him, steered clear of her as well. They acted as though she were tainted, but she expected that. Realistically, she was the daughter of convicted criminals. Criminals who tortured people into madness. She thought her uncle must be mad to think that anyone would go out of their way to befriend her. Well, anyone not in Slytherin, anyone not interested in using a connection to her to their advantage.

The teachers, they tried to hide how they felt about her attending classes with the “normal” students. But she could see how uneasy her presence made them. How Professor McGonagall made it a habit to pretend she wasn’t there, not calling on her like she did the other students, not praising her perfect Transfiguration progress as she did people like Hermione Granger.

Actually, not all of the teachers were so quick to judge. Her Head of House, Professor Snape didn’t go out of his way to demean her like he did the other students. He’d actually complimented her on one of her potions. And, she thought uncomfortably, there was Professor Quirrell. He didn’t ignore her at all. In fact, he was rather pushy about getting to know her. It wasn’t as though he was looking at her like she was a woman, it was more fatherly than that. And it made her very uncomfortable. Actually it hurt a bit to be near him. Her blood felt boiling hot when he was near, but she couldn’t understand why that was.

She considered telling Professor Snape, but imagining how embarrassing that conversation would flow had stopped her. Professor Snape hardly seemed like the type of teacher who would welcome personal conversation. She knew he was a friend of her uncle’s, but her aunt had always kept her away from his attention when he visited. It was like she was a horrible secret or something. So, unlike Draco who felt like he could tell the Head of House anything, Calli wasn’t so sure.

Sighing she bent back to the potion she was working on and vowed to keep her head up and her mind on the task at hand. She would work hard. She would finish school. She would prove them all wrong.