Rivalry
“Narcissa Black”
Bella comes back into the common room late at night. She’s been dating Rita for a couple of months now and, even though she’ll never admit it and I’ll never tell her, she’s changed.
She has a smug expression on her face and I can see a lovemark starting to form on her neck.
“Have fun?” I ask teasingly, not taking my eyes off of my book. She stops in her tracks and turns to face me. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” she answers and walks away to her dorm.
I’m left alone in the common room again and my mind won’t leave Bella. She seems happier with Rita, but I know it won’t last.
Bellatrix is loyal to the Dark Lord already, without ever having met him before. If I’m being honest I’m scared, scared for her. If she has something in her head she’ll go the furthest she can and than further.
She’ll have to hurt Rita, and she’ll hurt herself in the process. Bellatrix will never admit it, but she has come to care for the blond haired ravenclaw in the last couple of months and if I’m not mistaken that care is both ways.
I sigh as all the thoughts become to much for the night. I lay the book down beside me on the table and head to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day I head to my potions class straight after breakfast, I have a free period and nobody’s using it at the moment.
Me and some other students who are taking advanced potions have to make the counter potion for veritaserum. I suspect no one will be here at this point in time, that’s why I chose this moment.
Working on potions in silence, without people interrupting you is one of my favorite things to do.
When I get to the potions room I grunt in disappointment. The door is ajar, meaning someone is in here already. I hear a faint humming to a song I don’t know. I’m intrigued to say the least and proceed quietly.
I push open the door calmly and walk in, trying not to startle the person inside already. A brown haired girl is working on a potion with her back to me.
Her hair and posture I recognise straight away and I sigh defeatedly. Why is she here? Hearing the noise the humming stops abruptly and her shoulders tense. Without turning around she says: “what do you want Black?”
“Nothing from you, I’m just coming to do my potion,” I answer back stiffly. I walk to my cauldron and start preparing my potion.
Alice eyes me from the other table and when I look back she frowns and looks back down. God do I hate that girl, she’s always been on my toes.
Looking at all of my actions intently, I didn’t make it easier for her either though. Because when Bellatrix heard I didn’t like her, she hexed her in the corridor once.
I told her to stop, but I think that fueled her hate towards me even more.
Not to mention me being a Slytherin and a Black. She’s always been so proud to be a Gryffindor and always thinking she’s better than me.
I roll my eyes and continue on my potion. “Shouldn’t you be in class?” She asks me eventually, breaking the silence. “Free period, shouldn’t yóu be in class?” I ask her in return. She shrugs: “Skipped, I forgot I had to do the potion, so I’m doing it now.”
Goddamn Gryffindors, always thinking so highly of themselves, skipping classes and doing projects at the last moment possible!
She scoffs, seamingly knowing what I’m thinking: “You’re doing yours now too, so I don’t see the problem.” “The problem is, Alice,” I sneer her name, “that I have an extra week to complete it, because we got the project later and I planned my time in advance.”
“Oh so you think you’re so much better than me, do you?” She snaps, pushing herself away from the table and walking up to me. I get of my chair too and stand up to her. “Oh no, but you do don’t you. And you’re not shy to tell everyone that!”
We’re standing very close, I can feel her breath on my skin and I look down at her lips. Breath caught in my lungs. I hate Alice with passion, but there is no ignoring her beauty. Because she is beautiful.
When I was younger it was harder to suppress, but the hate grew and it was easier to hide behind it.
“You filthy Slytherin! Trying to turn around the tables!” “Me turning around the tables? How dare you, you were the one who started this,” I yell, forcing myself to look away from her lips and into her eyes, which wasn’t much better.
She has green eyes, which always reminded me of a tree, like a fairy tree. But up close it’s like a forest, overgrown and not trespassable to humans.
She stares at me angrily and I pull myself out of my stupid thoughts. I hate this witch like I’ve never hated someone before.
“You know what, screw this and screw you, Narcissa!” She turns around and walks back to her cauldron, calming herself before continuing.
And I hate it to be honest, I want her to talk to me, to look at me, I don’t care if it’s yelling and filled with hate. And that makes me pathetic doesn’t it?
After a few seconds I turn around as well and continue my potion too, even though I’m not totally here anymore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alice must’ve felt bad, because when she leaves she turns around to me and looks me in the eye. I want to squirm under her gaze but I don’t and manage to keep a neutral look.
She opens her mouth and hesitates, then she gets up and leaves the classroom. My shoulders hang low as I watch the spot she had been sitting in for the last hour.
I pick myself up again and leave quickly, heading for my next lesson: transfiguration, that I, funny enough, follow with Alice.
“Miss Black,” Professor McGonagall nods at me in greeting politely. “Professor,” I answer the greeting.
I head to my desk and sit down, dropping my books on my desk. The only other student who’s here already is Alice, because everyone else is still in their previous lesson.
It takes another ten minutes before all the students have entered and settled down and McGonagall starts her lesson.
I pay attention, I’ve always love transfiguration and it has always interested me. The way McGonagall teaches it it’s very easy to follow, so I’ve always been top of my class.
This time she shows us how to turn a cat in a mouse. “You may use your pets and transform it into another animal,” she begins loudly so everyone can hear, “start with transforming it into an animal close to the size of your animal to begin with.”
Some peope start to whisper to each other and I get to work. I read the page in my book a couple of times and practice my wand wave. I mutter the spell a few times until I think it’s pronounced correct enough.
Then I add both of them together and am content enough with it.
McGonagall ends the lesson and I pack my bag. On the way out Sirius catcges my eye. He’s huddled up with his friends and is whispering stuff to them.
They’re talking about something and by the looks of it, it’s not something they want to share. I walk over to them trying not to be obvious and open my ears when I pass directly by them.
They’re talking about something completely different than I would’ve thought and my body freezes.
“Sirius,” I call out. All of his friends tense and shut their mouth. His head whips up and stares at me. “Come,” I tell him and walk away, I hear his footsteps following behind me.
When we’re far away from his friends I spin around and watch him walk over to me anxiously. “What the hell are you doing?” I sneer at him, trying to keep quiet. “What do you mean what am I doing?” He asks me, not caring if he’s loud.
“What the hell are you telling Potter and your other friends!” I whisper at him angrily. “Nothing, I-.” He starts, but I interrupt him. “Nothing,” I snort sarcastically, “you were talking about,” I look around us to see if there’s anyone around, “about the Dark Lord!”
Shock is written over his face for a second before he hides it. “So what?” He asks daringly. “So what? Sirius, you can’t be serious right now? You should not talk to those kinds of people about the dárk lórd!”
“What do you mean with those kind of people?” he snaps at me. “Oh you know damn well what I mean!” “No, I don't, please explain it to me.”
I shut my eyes tightly and pinch the bridge of my nose. “You shouldn’t tell your friends, who are probably going to be on the other side of the war, about the dark lord. It could get you in trouble, but also your friends,” I tell him, trying to speak some sens into him.
“You cannot go around telling people about the dark lord. He’s staying hidden at the moment!”
He looks at me, anger, confusion and curiosity flashing over his face in a matter of seconds.
It seems like he’s going to say something else to start a new discussion, but he swallows it down and just nods. “Okay,” he mutters softly, before turning around.
As he’s leaving I put my hand on his shoulder, making him face me again and I give him a small smile. “I just want to keep you safe Sirius. And your friends seem nice.”
He smiles back in return and then our moment’s broken. He leaves and heads back to his friend. A small sigh escapes my mouth, I think he understood.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After my last lesson of the morning I head to the Great Hall for lunch. I’m not really paying attention and walk into somebody on my way over.
Both me and the person I walked into fall to the ground and I can hear their books sliding through the hall. A curse is muttered under their breath and I shut my eyes, recognising the voice.
And indeed when I open them again, Alice is sitting in front of me on the floor, rubbing her head and cursing quietly. “Shit,” I say and stand up quickly. I grab her books which are all scattered across the hallway and help her up.
I hand her her books and she takes them from my grasp delicately, making sure not to touch me and I want to roll my eyes.
She hesitates before taking my hand to help her up. “Watch out where you’re going next time,” she tells me, but there’s no hate in her tone. “Maybe you should watch out!” I tell her.
“Oh I have to watch out?” She snarls at me, now anger is covering her tone and I curse myself. “Maybe you should’ve, cause even if I wasn’t watching out you also didn’t see me coming cause you would’ve moved out of the way. Or did you walk against me on purpose!” I shout at her.
She doesn’t seem to have a response for me and just stares at me in anger. “Whatever, Black! You’ll always blame me won't you?” she tells me in anger. “No I won’t, you’re just always looking for a reason to start an argument with me!” I yell back at her.
She grunts in annoyance, but seems to deflate a little bit. Her anger seeps out of the corners.
We’re still standing there, in the middle of the hallway, me on the way to the Great hall, she on her way to god knows where. She walks past me in a hurry, brushing past me softly.
And I don’t know if it’s my imagination or not, but I could swear she muttered the words: “thank you,” as she walked past.
I can’t help the smug expression that paints my face as I continue my walk to the Great Hall.