𝕄𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝔻𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕

There was a commotion down the hall. Shoes could be heard hitting the stone floors sharply and small, quiet, menacing voices could be heard to her left. All the paintings went dead silent glancing in the direction of the noise. Some even left their portraits.

Sekhmet guessed it was only her luck that something should happen while she was on patrol alone. Remus was out “sick” tonight. Yesterday was a full moon and from what she could gather with him not being in class it was a rough one.

Sekhmet picked up her pace, her steps beginning to echo in the nearly deserted halls. It was late, but not late enough that there was no light shining into the halls. The setting sun still cast its minuscule rays through the windows, so along with the candles along the walls Sekhmet’s vision wasn’t impaired whatsoever. That’s why, when she finally walked up on the scene, her heart nearly dropped out of her chest.

“Boys! Cast one more hex on her and I’ll deduct 20 house points from each of you! Not to mention how I’m already planning to talk to your head of house for such behavior!” Sekhmet said loudly, though not shouting.

It was enough to catch their attention it seemed. The three Gryffindor boys' heads shot up, indignant shock on each of their faces for having been caught. Sekhmet stood tall, her face severe and currently sporting a look that could have grown men trembling. It wasn’t a mean look per se, but it most certainly wasn’t nice. Evan liked to call it her “ancestral-all-powerful-goddess-face”, saying it looked as though she was going to smite someone where they stood with a simple glance.

“Who do you think you are?! You look about as dirty-skinned as her!” Sneered one of the boys, his hair blonde. He looked about fourteen years old and was around four inches taller than Sekhmet.

“My name is Sekhmet Arafa,” Sekhmet stated calmly, letting the information set in— she knew the weight of her family name—“I’m the Slytherin prefect this year.”

A young girl, a first-year Sekhmet assumed, lay on the ground groaning. She had blood on her face and most likely a bruise around her ribs if how she held herself was any indication. Her thick hair was a rich black, her skin a dark mocha tone.

Sekhmet knew exactly what was going on. She knew the look in the eyes of people who hated someone for how they were born, and she saw it right in those three boys’ gaze.

“Oh yeah, is that supposed to mean something then? Should we bow at your kind feet just because you’re some sort of authority figure? They probably assigned you as prefect for some diversity points” Mocked another boy. He had brown hair and looked a little bit older than the blonde boy.

Sekhmet didn’t recognize any of them, not that she normally would. She knew that if they didn’t know her name then there was no chance that any of them were from the wizarding world. Must be muggleborns she thought to herself.

Sekhmet said nothing, standing completely still and looking forebodingly at the three while simultaneously not showing any sort of emotion on her face. She cast a silent spell on the injured girl, trying to help her face stop bleeding. The boys stepped forward, the one who had said nothing the whole altercation casting the first spell. He cast a Petrificus Totalus at Sekhmet, attempting to bind her. Sekhmet easily deflected the hex and before the other two could even react she cast a nonverbal Levicorpus, causing both of them to immediately shoot up into the air and dangle upside down. Their wands fell from their hands, rendering each of them useless.  She wandlessly cast a silencing spell on them for good measure.

“Do you truly think it wise?” She asked the last boy as she moved her focus away from his friends. He looked younger than the other two, his hair a dim hay color.

The boy said nothing, but his face turned red. He was angry and embarrassed, a combination that Sekhmet knew made people do crazy things. The boy moved his wand to try and cast another spell, but before he could finish casting it Sekhmet stunned him straight in the chest. He fell to the ground with a loud thud. Just as soon as the boy fell the caretaker of Hogwarts came running onto the scene.

“Kids out of bed! Kids out of bed!” Filch hollered, his finger pointing accusingly at Sekhmet before he could even comprehend what was happening.

“Ah, perfect timing. Filch, I was just about to send these boys to a professor and recommend that they be punished. You see, they have broken many school rules: being out of bed after curfew, casting spells at other students that are considered unacceptable, and injuring one of their fellow Hogwarts students based on their skin color. But, considering that you are here, I suppose the job would now fall to you” Sekhmet offered the boys up on a silver platter to Filch, a smug grin on her face as she spoke to the man.

Filch looked like a child being told that they were about to get a puppy on Christmas. He happily took the boys, rounding them up from their previous positions, not even bothering to check on the injured girl or inquire if Sekhmet was a prefect.

As Filch turned the corner with the boys Sekhmet quickly ran over to the girl on the floor. She knelt beside her, running her wand over the body to scan for any injuries. She swiftly cast some healing spells on the girl, fixing her head wound and stopping the bleeding.

“Are you okay?” Sekhmet inquired softly, trying to look into the eyes of the girl.

“I- it all hurts…but I don’t- I don’t know how-” the girl said with a thick accent Sekhmet immediately recognized.

“Do you speak Arabic?”Sekhmet questioned the girl, speaking in her native tongue with ease.

The girl's eyes shot up to Sekhmet in surprise.

“Yes! I didn’t think anyone in this school spoke of it. My name is Amina Yassin. I’m from Jordan,” the girl, Amina, said in excitement. Her face quickly changed to a wince though whenever she moved to get up.

“Those boys kicked me in the ribs. It hurts to just breathe. They cornered me in the hall and heard me muttering to myself in Arabic. Said they didn’t want any ‘dirty sand crawlers’ in their country” Amina confided to Sekhmet, her tone hurt and confused.

Sekhmet knew the feeling too well. As if it weren’t bad enough that she was alone in being the only girl in her family, she was also the only one who had gotten harassed for her skin color. Her brothers didn’t know that she had dealt with it, but the girls at Beaubaxtons were horrendous in their behavior. When she was a first year she had girls talking about her skin color and its dark tone almost every day. She too had been confused at the time. Growing up in Egypt meant that most people looked like her, or at least similar. She didn’t quite understand racism at such a young age.

“It’s not your fault Anima. Their ignorance will get them in trouble one day. But let’s get you to the Hospital Wing before that day, shall we?” Sekhmet calmly led Anima to her feet, slowly walking with her to the Hospital Wing.

On the walk there Sekhmet found out that Anima was a Ravenclaw and was in her first year, just as she’d assumed. She learned that Anima was having some trouble learning English, and as a result, often spoke Arabic when she could. This led to her getting in some trouble with bigoted people.

“I can try and teach you some if you’d like. Or I can get someone else to help you, someone you could be seen with more,” Sekhmet offered to Anima, who looked at her in confusion about her wording.

“I’m a Slytherin. People in Slytherin aren’t the most accepting. They only accept me because I’m a pureblood.” Sekhmet explained. Anima put her head down in disappointment, her face wincing from the movement.

“Tell you what, how about once we get you to Madame Pomfrey we can figure out what to do about your English lessons?” She hummed, leading Anima down the last hall toward the Hospital Wing. Anima smiled in response.

The two made their way to the doors, calling for Madame Pomfrey. Although it was late, when Sekhmet and Anima came in Madame Pomfrey quickly came to greet them. Pomfrey rapidly got to work, leading Anima to a nearby bed and casting multiple spells to assess her condition. While she was working on her, Sekhmet made her way around the room.

“Sekhmet, what are you doing here?” A voice to her left spoke softly.

As Sekhmet looked to her side she noticed a barely awake Remus Lupin. He looked to be in rough shape. Remus had multiple bandages wrapped around him along with several ointments that Sekhmet could smell from where she stood. She gave him a once over trying to assess how he was handling himself. For the past few weeks, Sekhmet had been grappling with herself over whether or not she should let Remus know that she was aware of his condition. She wanted so badly to help him. She had decided just last night, after a long time contemplating, that she would give him something that might help without directly telling him that she knew he was a werewolf.

“Remus, it’s good to see you. There was something I wanted to give you.” Sekhmet exclaimed as she started to pull a small note out of her bag.

Remus looked at her in bewilderment, clearly not expecting this from her. Sekhmet stepped toward Remus’ bed, pulling the curtain that semi-shielded him to the side. That was when she saw a half-asleep James Potter, glasses falling off and drool running down his chin. Sekhmet quickly handed the note to Remus, advising him not to read it until he felt better. He seemed confused but nodded nonetheless. As Sekhmet started to move away James shot up as if he’d been shot.

“Arafa? What in the bloody hell are you going here?” James inquired his voice groggy and his eyes still half closed.

Sekhmet gave him an unimpressed look when she suddenly remembered something. James was from Sudan. The Potters had left whenever the first Civil War started in 1955, putting them where they were now in Britain. Although there were some dialect differences between Egyptian Arabic, Sudanese Arabic, and Jordanian Arabic they all had very similar features and could often be understood by one another. Sekhmet knew that James spoke Arabic, perhaps he would be willing to help Amina? Sekhmet figured she’d take her chances. James was nice enough, and nobody would think anything of it if James Potter were helping a young girl from a different house. Sekhmet would not be so lucky to be seen conversing with, much less helping, someone with a different blood status from a house other than Slytherin.

“James, would you mind speaking to me? There was something I wanted to talk to you about.” Sekhmet replied, completely ignoring what he had said prior.

James grew more awake. He stared at her dumbly but moved to nod hesitantly after looking at Remus for confirmation. He sat in his chair as if waiting for her to burst into song or something else just as dramatic.

Sekhmet sighed in exasperation, “I meant alone.”

“Right!” James said as he shot up out of his seat next to Remus.

He quickly made his way to Sekhmet, who was making her way into the hall outside the door of the Hospital Wing. James shuffled his feet, his hands in his pockets. Sekhmet turned to look at him.

“You speak Arabic do you not?” Sekhmet got straight to business, her face not wavering in the slightest.

“Yes?…” James answered with a questioning tone to his voice. His head tilted to the side and his eyes were skeptical as he watched Sekhmet.

“Would you be willing to help a girl learn English? I was patrolling this evening when I found a young girl, Anima, who was being bullied for not speaking English. She moved to Britain recently from Jordan and seems to be having trouble fitting in with the language barrier.” Sekhmet divulged, her tone and demeanor much softer than it was previously, “She’s actually why I was at the Hospital Wing.”

“Of course, I’d be happy to help. When would I need to be free?” James asked in high spirits.

“Whenever she says is okay. I plan on going over this with her, but I haven’t quite told her yet as I hadn’t worked out the details.” Sekhmet confided in him, her eyes less closed off than they usually were. Her face looked young, a lively innocence to her that wasn’t commonly seen.

James and Sekhmet made their way back into the Hospital Wing. Sekhmet made her way to Anima’s bed. She told Anima all of the details of her plans, trying to figure out if she was on board with the idea. Anima readily agreed, so Sekhmet went to inform James.

The plan was to have Anima meet James on Wednesdays after class in the library, and for her to meet Sekhmet on late Saturday nights in the Ravenclaw Common Room after she had hung out with Pandora.

Perhaps this year wouldn’t be as dreadful as Sekhmet figured it would be.