What Difference Will It Make?

“Most jokes state a bitter truth.”-Larry Gelbart

Shadow POV

“They marked her! Why is she here then?” Professor McGonagall was the first to break the foreboding silence with a comical shriek. If it weren’t for the air being too tense to breathe, I would have laughed.

“Quiet!” Sev hissed at the hysteria building up in the room and came to my defense, “She didn’t have a choice! Most are marked by perhaps another Death Eater, but Shadow was the only one besides Bellatrix that was marked by the Dark Lord himself. That’s because he knew the her willpower was strong enough to defeat the rest if they tried. You heard the hat. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have considered even for a moment to put her in Gryffindorr if she had wanted it and it spent the longest amount of time with her. Another thing I might add. If she keeps this attitude up around Him she’ll be dead quicker than you can say oops.” He had just snapped and the others stared at him as he sighed. I guess he wasn’t one to lose his temper like this often.

“What kind of attitude?” Dumbledore politely asked. Oh boy...

“For starters, she has a habit of calling him it and the thing just to irritate him and calls him Tom since she thinks that Voldemort is idiotic. At his ball, Draco was supposed to make sure she obeys the Dark Lord, but she made sure he wouldn’t be having a child. I am truly surprised that she’s still alive.” Sev replied and I frowned.

“Now Dark Lord sounds like something from Star Wars.” I muttered under my breath, but apparently it was loud enough for everyone to hear. Sev shook his head, Professor Mcgonagall raised an eyebrow, Dumbledore thought it was hilarious, but there was something serious in his eyes, Flitwick was rather startled, Sprout was in hysterics, and last but, not least, Madam Hooch was biting her lip with a rather fierce expression on her face.

“All right, but why?” This time, it was Flitwick who asked.

“Because he thinks she’s innocent enough to remain unnoticed. With her temper and resistance, I doubt it.” Sev answered coolly. Hey!

“I suppose. Now, by the looks of the prophecy, she is not to be around Harry?” McGonagall was half-questioning what I was curious about as well.

“Actually, no. She can be around Harry as long as he doesn’t know. I would’ve never thought about sending both of them to Hogwarts if that was the case.” Well, as long as I’m around him, I can deal with that. Then, I saw that Sev was gauging my reaction to the words, but I made sure he found nothing.

“Well, it’s settled then. Shadow, you have Charms in the morning and it’s best you go to sleep.” I nodded at Dumbledore’s words, gave a little wave and headed back to my dormitory. Well, the good news was I could be around him.

The bad news was I couldn’t tell anyone anything and I had to not only lie to them, but make sure I didn’t kill Harry.

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Weeks passed. I grew wary. For one, I had to keep on telling Sev off for being rude to Harry. On the up side, Luna and I have become closer. Today, she was going to have me meet Harry, Ron and Hermione. I was nervous as hell. Ok, I’m about to meet my twin brother whom I know every single thing about and he doesn’t even know I exist yet. With that, I may kill him according to prophecy. Perfect, just perfect.

I quickly got dressed, with no time for breakfast, and headed towards class. It was a Friday, so it went by rather slowly. By lunchtime, I headed to the great hall and saw Malfoy, Zambini, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, and her minions around a group of people I recognized as Luna, Neville, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He never learns his lesson does he.

I tapped on his shoulder, he turned around with a look of pure terror on his face. I smiled sweetly, put my hands on his shoulders, and did the bang-cock. Or, more appropriately, Bangkok. It was a knee, twist in, out, knee, twist in and side to side, out, and kick with heel of shoe. I was wearing high heels. His face disoriented in pain and he fell to the ground, cupping his balls while his friends picked him up and left.

I looked at the little group and saw Luna with a big smile on her face, Neville grinning nervously, and the Golden Trio looking a bit uncertain.

“Thank goodness you’re here! By the way, I’d honestly be surprised if he ever had a child.” Luna said, giving me a small hug and moving aside.

“Alright, you already know Neville, but this is Hermione, Ron, and Harry.” She said going from left to right. I held out my hand and they, still uncertain, shook it.

“Come on guys, she won’t bite.” Luna joked as my lips twitched. Then, Ron began to speak.

“You do know they call you the Slytherin Queen.” He blurted, then blushed. I raised an eyebrow. Are you kidding me?

“You’re joking, right?” I asked with my eyebrow still raised. They shook their heads.

“Oh well. Now they know I’m more powerful than Malfoy. By the way, does he ever learn his lesson?” I was rather amused since he didn’t heed to my warning. Hey, I don’t like keeping false promises.

“I suppose not. Hey, you just did flying didn’t you? It’s amazing isn’t it?” Harry asked with a grin. I shuddered. We may be twins, but I don’t think we have similar interests.

“Not really.” I replied. The guys looked at me in shock while Hermione smiled at me. Typical.

“Well, why not?” Ron exclaimed.

“I have, er, a little problem with heights. Considering the fact that flying includes going really high,” I shook my head, “As long as I’m close to the ground, I’m fine, but high up.” I shuddered yet again as they looked at me amused. I narrowed my eyes.

“You would be too if you fell out of a thirty foot tree!” They winced. Well, ouch. I still have the scar.

“True, very true.” Ron replied with a smile. We were going to get along just well. We spent the rest of lunch period playing twenty questions before we headed off to class. Well, I didn’t kill anyone. It was a pretty good day to me.