Another Year at Hogwarts

I sat in the room I had awoken from and tried to take in everything Snape had just told me. As much as I wanted to deny it, I was back in the wizardry world. Snape had summoned me here for my own protection, as he said, and also because he needed my help—supposedly. He never specified what he needed my help with, though. And then there was the fact that Violet Bell from this world is dead, and Draco Malfoy was the one who killed her.

Thinking about it, it made sense. The sudden pain I felt while in the shop was probably from the moment Draco killed the other me. It would explain why it suddenly became hard for me to breathe. It explained why I saw his face looking down at me, and why I whispered his name.

Though I was finally able to piece together why I passed out, the more I thought about what happened with Violet-Number-Two and the Death Eaters, the angrier I was becoming. Whether Draco was forced to do it, or did it out of his own free will didn’t matter. Of course, I had a good reason to be pissed off. I mean, he killed me after all. But for some reason, I thought I was taking this too dramatically than I should be. In that moment, sitting in Snape’s guest room thinking about Draco murdering me, I wanted to find him and punch him a few thousand times and just scream at him until I turned blue.

Then I realized that I wasn’t just mad about him killing me, I was still hating him for what happened last year. I was still angry about him betraying me. I was still angry about him stealing my book when we were still dating. Also, I hated him for letting Death Eaters loose at Hogwarts because he thought I was “cheating” on him with Harry because he misheard our conversation. Now, he went and put a lovely poison berry on top of all that misunderstanding and betrayal by murdering me!

“AH!” I screamed as I jumped to my feet with my hands clutched tightly into fists. “You little—AH!” I groaned as I popped back down onto the bed with my head buried into the pillow and screamed. “I hate you so much.”

“What are you doing?”

I looked up through the strands of hair in my face and saw Snape standing in the doorway. I rudely answered, “I’m pissed off—that’s what.”

Snape narrowed his eyes at me because of the tone I was using with him, but he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he ordered me to stand up.

“Why?” I asked as I slowly got off the bed and stood.

With a blank of the eye, Snape pulled his wand out and zapped me with something. I tumbled backwards and fell onto the bed. I laid there for a moment stunned at what just happened. But I quickly recovered and jumped back onto my feet.

“What the hell was that for Snape?” I demanded.

“I don’t have time to explain,” Snape replied as he walked over to me. He took me by the arm and pulled me towards him a little bit. As he looked down at me, though, he suddenly froze for a moment. Without warning, he reached for my neck and ripped my necklace off.

“What the hell, Snape?” I screamed as I pulled away from him.

Snape’s grip tightened around my arm to hold me in place. He then shoved the necklace Harry had given me into my hand, and said, “Keep that out of sight.”

Just as he said that, everything around me began to spin and move at an incredibly fast pace. Images blurred before me as Snape dragged me with him. I felt like I was on a roller coaster—spinning and turning all over the place. There was also this large pressure pressing on me. I felt my lungs squeeze tightly together, which restricted me from breathing.

Finally, we came to a stop, and I immediate fell to my knees and gagged a few times. Thankfully, I had yet to eat anything, or else it would have been on the ground at this point.

“Warn me before you Apparate,” I growled as I stuffed Harry’s locket, which was amazingly still in my hand, into my pocket.

“Get up,” Snape simply said as he pulled me from the ground.

My vision was still a little hazy as Snape pulled me along, but I was able to recognize where we were going the moment my vision cleared.

“Why are we were?” I demanded.

“The Dark Lord has called a meeting,” Snape replied.

“You can’t take me in there!” I reminded. “They know me—Bellatrix, Lucius and Draco! You said so yourself that I will be killed if any of the Death Eaters were to see me!”

“Take this wand,” Snape said as he handed me a wand. It was dark, cherry wood wand with flowers and vines engraved on the handle.

“Who’s wand is this?” I asked as the two of us neared the large iron gates of the Malfoy Manor.

“Scarlet’s,” Snape simply answered.

I didn’t have time to say anything else because we were at the gates, and a woman was approaching us. I knew immediately who she was because of her long blond hair that was similar to that of her son and husband.

The dark shadows of the iron gates casted a shadow onto Narcissa Malfoy’s pale, slim face as she glanced at Snape with her cold blue eyes. I have to admit that she was very pretty, though her skinny figure makes her look fragile.

My thoughts were immediately cut when I saw Narcissa’s eyes shift to me. Her lips formed into a frown as she asked, “What is that?” A look of disgust was on her face as she looked me up and down. I immediately lowered my eyes to the ground before her eyes reached them.

“A new recruitment, so to say,” Snape replied.

“A new recruitment?” Narcissa repeated. “She looks more like trash you picked off the street.” She scoffed. “Those disgusting Muggle clothing.”

With that final comment, she finally unlocked the gates and allowed Snape and me entry.

The entrance to the Malfoy Manor came closer and closer, and by heart began to beat faster with each step I took. I figured that it was because Narcissa had never seen me before that she didn’t react. But as the three of us walked through the doors of the Malfoy Manor, I caught a glimpse of myself in the glass. I guess it was because of everything that was going on that I didn’t realize the changes in my appearance.

My hair was jet black and in large curls that reached my armpit. My face was slimmer, and my skin a lot of paler than it usually is. I had large doe eyes and longer, fuller eyelashes as well. If I didn’t know better, I would think myself to be a porcelain doll.

We enter in the drawing room, there a large table was set up. The furniture in the room was pushed against the walls in order to allow room for the table, were the Death Eaters all sat. At the furthest end of the table, sat him—Voldemort.

He was even more hideous in person than in the books. His face was slim and was white as snow. He had no hair, lips of nose—at least that of a human nose. Instead, there were two black slits in the middle of his face that substituted for nostrils.

Everyone was still talking and didn’t notice Snape and me by the entrance as Narcissa made her way back to the table. I followed her as she went and sat beside Lucius. Strangely enough, he was sitting only a chair away from Voldemort with this proud look on his face.

“Draco,” I whispered as I looked to the seat that separated Lucius from Voldemort.

For a second, I felt my heart leap as I stared at him. There was a cheerless expression on his face as he listened to the Death Eater mumble their reports to Voldemort. Draco’s eyes were lowered, and he was staring down at his hand. As I followed his gaze, I let out a light gasp when I noticed the silver ring on his finger.

My eyes widened when Draco’s eyes snapped up and met mine.

“Severus, who is this you brought with you today?” Voldemort inquired.

It when then that I noticed that everyone was now looking at Snape and me.

“Victoria Baker, my Lord,” Snape replied while giving me a small push forward. “She’s a half-blood. She had run away from her orphanage and broken in my home.”

“And why did you bring her here?”

“She holds great potential,” Snape answered. “I believe that she will be of use to you.”

Voldemort narrowed his dark scarlet eyes. “What makes you think she would be of any use to me, Severus?” Voldemort slowly rose out of his chair as he said this. As he did, I noticed how his black robe sagged from his slim figure. As he walked over to Snape and me, his robe dragged on the floor, making it seem as though he was floating over to us. “What makes you think that I would even want the help of some child?” Voldemort asked as he circled me.

“You know I would not have brought her here if I did not think her to be of some use to you,” Snape calmly replied.

I kept my gaze to the ground as Voldemort circled me. Every nerve in my muscle tightened as I tried to keep myself calm. My heart kept pounding the entire time because I knew he could kill me in any moment.

“Bellatrix,” Voldemort simply said as he gracefully walked back to his seat.

“Yes, my Lord,” Bellatrix giggled.

My eyes immediately flickered up just in time to see Bellatrix pulling her wand out. I quickly reached for the wand Snape had given me earlier just in time to deflect whatever horrendous spell Bellatrix had decided to throw at me. As I continued to block the spells Bellatrix was throwing at me, my mind raced to remember some spell that I could use against her. Though it only had been a year since I looked at my Harry Potter stuff, many of the spells had escaped my mind. Not to mention, I haven’t dueled in such a long time, too.

“Avada Kedavra!” I suddenly heard Bellatrix shout.

I quickly drove behind the table. As I did so, the Death Eaters at the table immediately jumped out of their seats to get out of the way.

“Oh, she’s quick,” I heard Bellatrix laughing. “But that won’t help you!”

I clutched onto my jaw and gripped my wand as I tightly as I peeked my head above the table to see where Bellatrix was. I, however, was welcomed with a blue light flying towards my face. Luckily, I was ducked back down just in time. The Death Eaters found amusement out of this, and laughed when I let out a terrified yelp.

“Crap,” I groaned. I gasped as I glanced beneath to table. I saw that Bellatrix was approaching me, so I knew I had to think fast. “Here goes nothing,” I whispered.

I quickly jumped to my feet, and this surprised Bellatrix for a quick moment. I took this chance, raised my wand up and shouted, “Everte Statum!”

Bellatrix let out a loud gasp as she went flying backwards. She fell onto one of the Malfoys’ couch and bounced onto the ground. As she got up, I quickly took the chance to knock her wand out of her hand with a disarming charm. I was about to strike her when someone suddenly grabbed me from behind.

“Let me go!” I screamed Narcissa ripped my wand from my hand.

I struggled against whoever was holding me, but they were too strong. My attempt to free myself ended when Bellatrix casted the Crucio curse and I fell to the ground in pain. I felt something hot—something burning—pierce through my body. Tears began to form in my eyes as I lied on the ground and cried in pain.

Just as the pain disappeared, I pulled to my feet by my hair. A yelp of pain escaped from my mouth.

“You bloody twit!” Bellatrix growled as she jammed her wand against my throat. “Avada—“

“That’s enough Bellatrix,” Voldemort calmly informed from his seat.

Bellatrix looked from me and then to Voldemort. I could tell she wanted to kill me right there and then, but she couldn’t disobey Voldemort. Thus, she shoved me to the ground and stormed out of the room.

“I see you were right about her Severus,” Voldemort commented. “She is very talented. I think we can find use for her.”

In response to Voldemort’s comment, all Snape did was bow.

“Narcissa,” Voldemort address, “bring Victoria upstairs and get her out of those wrenched Muggle attire.”

Narcissa didn’t say anything back to Voldemort. She simply waited for me to get off the ground.

It took me a second to compose myself, but I eventually got onto my feet. The moment I was up, Narcissa began to walk out of the room. I, too, was about to walk off when I realized that Voldemort now recognized me as someone of use to him. My loyalty was to belong to him now. So, playing my part, I turned to Voldemort and bowed.

“You’re a quick learner,” Voldemort smirked as I straightened. He then gave me a small wave, signaling me to leave.

As I walked out of the room, I noticed Draco. As I approached him, his eyes flickered up and met mine for a moment. Once again, I found myself stuck in the eternity within a second. Butterflies began to flutter in my stomach, and despite everything I have been telling myself for over a year, I wanted to reach out to him and just touch him. I wanted know that this wasn’t a dream. I wanted to know that if I reached out for Draco, he will actually be there. But out moment soon ended when Draco diverged his eyes to the ground as I passed.