Black Plague

Chapter 15

I began practicing my Mind magic with even more determination. I was driven to get good enough to read someone's mind without even a slight tingle. I practiced on everyone I passed in the hall. I practiced on the teachers as they taught. I practiced on my roommates. I practiced while eating. And when I wasn't working on that, I began working on my wordless magic. I did Legilimecy without it. And mind blocks. But I started working on everything. I had all the spells I knew on flashcards so I could review them each weekend. I started doing that this last year. I knew too many spells to do them all in one day, even if I did one right after another. So, I would pull a card and practice the incantation and wand movement. Now, I began practicing the wand movement but silently thought the incantation. It took a lot more effort. In the beginning, it took me a few hours to get a spell to work, but soon I was getting them in maybe 30 minutes. The more I practiced the quicker I got.
Between practicing my wordless magic and talking to Tom, I didn't have a lot of time to work on new spells. But, I knew I would get this down quickly and be able to go back to learning new spells again. I decided that I would start learning magic without a wand during the summer when I had more time. I would only practice Wandless magic a couple hours and focus most of my time on my books. I loved learning magic.
I noticed I was becoming more confident in myself. And it was all thanks to magic. I knew I was powerful. And that knowledge and power gave me the confidence to hold my head up high and no longer cower before others. I didn't need to. I no longer needed to hide. And I loved it. I still hated being the center of attention. That would take time to overcome. But I didn't cower in fear from it. I mostly found the itch from someone watching me irritating. This was a huge change for me. I had come a long way in the last year and a half.

Saturday quickly snuck up on me. I had been so focused, I didn't even notice the week passing by. I woke up early, showered and brushed my teeth, then put concealer on my scar. Yes, I could use spells and I knew them now, but some people could train themselves to see through them. I had. So, I stuck with makeup.
I dressed in a dark gray V-neck shirt, black slacks, a black robe, and a black dragon hide belt and shoes. I brushed my long wavy black hair, and decided to leave it down. I don't know when the last time I left it down was, maybe years ago. It reached over half way down my back. But it looked good today and I decided I needed a change. I grabbed the diary, and I was walking down for breakfast just past 7 o'clock.
I had a small smile on my face as I sat down to eat.
Draco came over and sat next to me. "So, I hear your coming to my house today." I lightly glared at him and scoffed.
"Could you say that louder? Someone might not have heard you." I said quietly.
"Right sorry."
I sighed. But a small smile slipped onto my lips. "Ya, do you know why I'm going there." He nodded and puffed his chest out like he thought he was important. I smirked at him.
"Yes."
I giggled at his antics. "Ya, we're bringing Voldie back. But, I will admit, we are trying to bringing his teenage self back, from before he went mad. We think the Dark faction might get more done, and bring in more followers that way. A crazy Dark Lord isn't going to help anyone." I whispered.
His jaw dropped "you can do that?" He screeched.
"Shhhh. Jesus. Yes, we think so." I whispered.
"Well my father says I can come if you can." He said puffing his chest out again.
I smirked. "Ok. Hopefully you don't get too squeamish, I heard your father has to sacrifice a couple fingers. But I'm sure magic can fix it. Well, probably. The Dark Lord will be there, and he's the most powerful wizard on earth. I would be shocked if he couldn't do something about it afterwards."
Draco nodded and seemed to steel himself for what was to come. I wanted to laugh. He was hilarious. Unintentionally, but still.
I scanned Draco's thoughts and did end up laughing. He was terrified. And horrified to know his dad would lose a couple if his "beautiful fingers". He looked at me funny.
I just shook my head at him. I wasn't about to admit I had seen what he was thinking.
Gods, he was silly.

I continued to eat my yogurt with fruit and granola on it, slowly. "So, are you almost ready to go? I think a Snape wanted to leave by 8." He nodded and grabbed a green apple and took a bite. I glanced at my stolen watch and saw we were leaving in just a couple minutes. "Alright, I'm going to head to his office now than. I'll see you in a bit."
I got up and walked confidently out of the dinner hall.

I knocked on the door and entered. Then slowly walked to the front of the room and sat infront of his desk. "I just talked to Draco for the first time. Holy shit, he's hysterical. Unintentionally." I shook my head in amusement.
Snape looked up at me. "Oh ya? Why do you say that?"
I giggled quietly. "It's in how he plays overconfident when he's scared shitless. And puffs his chest like he's the best thing to ever grace this earth. And Jesus, it's all just hilarious." I laughed again. "It's too bad I couldn't have been in Slytherin, it would have been a riot housing with him. But we all know the world would have come to an end."

Snape nodded in agreement.
"Wait you could have been a Slytherin?" I turned to the door and saw Draco standing there.
"Ya, that's where the hat wanted to put me. But the whole wizard world would have had a collective heart attack. And started spouting ridiculous shit about me being the next Dark Lord. And god knows what else. Dumbles would have probably began stalking me all over again to make sure he could sway me for greater good. Fuck, it would have been a mess."
Snape scoffed. "Except you do want to be the next Dark Lord."
I groaned. "That's besides the point. And I only said I would take over if Voldie keeps trying to kill me. If he is willing to make me his equal I'm more than happy to help him run that bitch. Hell, I'd settle for being his second. I just refuse to be a pawn. Or worship him."
Snape rolled his eyes."well good luck with that. The Dark Lord doesn't share his glory or power." I just shrugged.
"Well, either way, I have a lot of work ahead of me if I want to be as powerful as he is."
I glanced at Draco and saw him watch us with his mouth hanging wide open. Maybe he wasn't as classy as he likes to pretend.
I smirked at him and stood up. Snape grabbed everything and lead us out the door.
"You know, I should learn to apparate this summer." I mentioned off hand.
Snape's nodded.
"You can't learn that! You're not old enough" came Draco's snotty reprimand.
I just laughed. There was no point arguing with him about hypotheticals. Well, it wasn't really a hypothetical. I would learn it. "I've decided to learn wandless magic this summer too. I've already pretty much gotten Wordless magic down. Is it possible to do Wandless and Wordless magic? Maybe I'll practice that next summer"
Snape nodded. "You can. But it won't be easy." I shrugged again.
"That's fine. I'm not concerned with easy. I'm concerned with being the best."
Snape sighed. "And I have no doubt you will be at this rate. You probably already know more than most 7th years."
Draco interjected again. "There is no way that's true. We're only half way through our 2nd year!"
I just grinned. And stayed silent. But Snape defended against his assertion. "No, I have no doubt that it's true. If I gave him a list of NEWT spells, he could probably do most of them perfectly right now. He doesn't have friends or even acquaintances, all he does is study magic."
I grinned. "That would be a fun experience. Seeing if I could pass NEWTs. Thank you. Your belief in me means everything."
"It's just the truth. I wouldn't doubt if you are the best Legilims in the world. I've never heard of anyone who can scan someone's thoughts without leaving a single trace. Did you read Draco's mind earlier?" I nodded.
"No, He didn't. I would have felt it. I've been trained to detect it." He said with his usual superior tone.
I began laughing "he was worried about his daddies beautiful fingers." His jaw dropped again. He stood stock still. "But that's impossible!" He screeched.
Snape nodded gravely.
"As I said. He's probably better than me, or Headmaster Dumbledore, or even the Dark Lord. He could very well be the best Legilims in the world, at twelve. I have no doubt if he continues to work this hard at learning Magic, he will be as powerful as our Lord in just a couple years." I nearly preened at the praise.
Draco collected himself and we finished walking to the school gate.
Once we stepped out of the school property, I felt the weight of Snape's hand come down on my shoulder, holding securely on to me. Then I felt the twisting and a strong pull on my belly as we all were apparated away. We stood in front of a big black gate. Before us, high up on a hill, was a manson.  I stood in awe a moment. I had never seen a house so big in my life. It was enormous. Could it even be could a house? It looked like another castle. Just a bit smaller than Hogwarts.
It had four, or maybe five floors. I counted the floors by the windows, but wasn't one hundred percent certain. No, it looked like probably four floors. With six turrets, two looked like they were on the back side, and two in the front corners,and two turrets on the ends of each side. I noticed the others seemed less impressed with the home and we're walking through the gate. I quickly ran to catch up. But subtly looked at this monstrous house, as we walked up the hill. Then I noticed white peacocks wandering the yard. My insides shook at I tried to hold in the laughter. Yes, this was definitely Draco's house. There was just something about Draco that screamed peacock. And I think I was still caught off guard by the enormity and grandiosity of the home, so the peacocks just pushed me over the edge. I cleared my throat and got myself back under control. I didn't want to make a fool of myself. I hurried to keep up with Draco and Snape. This was going to be an interesting day.