"You don't know who..." Karen blinked in shock. Then she leaned in quietly. Her voice was very nervous as she spoke. "Black's dark wizard who escaped from Azkaban. He killed thirteen people with one curse."
Kodachi had studied enough by now to know that was a very powerful curse and she gasped in shock.
"And he is about the school grounds?" Kodachi asked. She had little doubts as to her ability against a full grown adult fully trained magically. "Why?"
"He's coming for Potter," Melody said. "That's what it is. He wants to kill Harry Potter for stopping...Him."
"It does prove that not every dark wizard was in Slytherin though," Karen said. "I heard that Black was James Potter's best friend before he went over to the Dark Arts."
"Oh, is the mighty Hecate afraid of the nasty dark wizard," a familiar voice asked. The three girls frowned and turned around to see Draco smiling down at him with his arm in the sling and flanked, as usual, by his overly muscled goons. "It's funny to watch all the useless flotsam flounder in the water. You're as cowardly as Potter, hiding in the castle and letting the dementors tend to his business."
"Can't you save this rubbish for tomorrow?" Melody, emboldened by her friends' presence, asked.
"We're trying to get settled, Malfoy," Kodachi said sharply, indicating the sleeping bags.
"Not here you don't," Malfoy said, and suddenly it wasn't just Crabbe and Goyle with him, but large not of the older Slytherins, such as the quidditch team captain, Flint, and his neanderthal-like features. "This is for real Slytherin's, why don't you take your whining little baby selves and go sleep with the Hufflepuffs?"
Kodachi's lip curled and she started to step forward, but was held back by her friends. She accepted the restraint reluctantly, realizing that, while her martial skills could make up the gap between her and two idiotic boys two years her senior, it wouldn't make much of a difference to a much older athlete such as Flint, much less a crowd of other older boys. Especially in quarters too close to effectively use the only weapon on her person.
"Just what I thought, Hecate," Malfoy said. "A coward. Just like Potter a pampered little self-important brat."
"Malfoy," Kodachi said in a hushed whisper looking around the room. "I would refrain from using that word so often if I were you. It might stick after a while."
"And what do you mean by that?" Malfoy demanded angrily.
"I think it would be obvious," Kodachi growled.
"Yeah, you're hardly one to talk about cowardice," Eric Garnet said, drawing a look of surprise as his presence was noticed. At this point, Kodachi looked around and noticed that she and her friends were no longer alone.
"This is not the place for a row," Vito snapped in a quiet rage, glaring at both Kodachi and Draco both. "Behave yourselves, this is your last warning, next time, I take both your names to the faculty."
"Yes, sir," Kodachi responded with appropriate humility at her behavior.
She bowed to him slighty, as was her habit, and sought another part of the room to settle down, taking a number of the younger Slytherins, few of the middle classes, and many of the sixth and seventh years along with her.
The Slytherin prefect nearly growled as he watched. Granted, Kodachi had from the bat made it obvious she did not like Draco, but Draco was the one heightening the tension and bringing it to the public eye. Again and again. And now, it would be impossible to hide the division.
****
Harry, Ron and Hermione watched with some amount of surprise as virtually a quarter of House Slytherin walked across the room and settled down in the sleeping bags between them and the Hufflepuffs.
"The insufferable," Kodachi paused and then she delved into a spate of ill-tempered Japanese that had Hermione's face turning red from what she could understand of the rapid speech.
"Kodachi, I don't care if you can fight," Karen was saying, unaware they were being overheard. "They would have flattened you, and probably used magic besides."
"And we don't want to be like him and make this more public again," Melody added.
"Yes," Kodachi said, taking a deep breath. "You are right. I should not sink to his level. It will interfere in my studies."
"How is potions going?" Karen asked as she set about getting ready for bed. Kodachi gave an exasperated sigh.
"It wracks the brains," Kodachi said.
"Is Potter that good?" Karen asked.
"Upperclassman Potter?" Kodachi said. "He is competent, but he is far from exceptional from what I can tell in that class." Harry frowned at that description.
"So he's as hopeless as Malfoy claims then?" Melody decided.
"Feh," Kodachi said. "Upperclassman Potter is a very worthy opponent, just not in potions class. I'm sure he'll make a fine example for Gryffindor."
"You've got an admirer," Ron said softly to Harry, elbowing him in a teasing manner. Harry sighed, at least Kodachi didn't seem to clam up everytime he came near her like Ginny sometimes did.
"But for competition in potions, I look to Upperclassman Granger...and," Kodachi's mouth twitched irritably. "Malfoy."
"You actually admitted Malfoy was good at something," Melody said. "He must be very good."
"Almost as good as Upperclassman Granger," Kodachi said reluctantly.
"Should I take that as a compliment," Hermione asked tersely.
The Slytherins whirled, for the first time in their fervor noticing the Gryffindors around them. Kodachi's face was almost pink, the pale tone blushing away in the face of being overheard by the subjects of the conversation. She tried to come up with a response, but found her tongue tripping before Granger and Potter in a way it didn't in front of Malfoy.
She was saved, ironically, by another Gryffindor.
"The lights are going out now!" Percy Weasly shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and to stop talking!"
The three Slytherin girls eagerly took the escape.
****
Kodachi was awakened by the sounds of quiet conversation later that night and heard Dumbledor, Snape and Percy discussing things. After a moment Percy walked off at the subtle encouragement of the Headmaster's.
"You must do something about your House, Severus," Dumbledor said, Kodachi, through thinnly split eyelid, watched him gesture at the divided Slytherins.
"It is a delicate situation," Snape said reluctantly. "But it shall be worked out soon enough."
"I hope so," Dumbledor said. And then he looked away as if in thought and it seemed to Kodachi that he was looking straight to her. "We cannot afford to be divided now, of all times. Petty grudges are a luxury for more peaceful days."
"As you say, Headmaster," Snape said, obviously feeling a little put upon. Perhaps he thought that lecture was directed at him.
"Ah well," Dumbledor said. "I'm sure it will be forgotten with the upcoming Quidditch match. Good luck, Severus."
"Indeed," Snape said, nodding tightly. Kodachi wondered if perhaps the professors knew what the Slytherin quidditch team was planning.
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Mon, 23 Dec 2002 16:09)
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