The Rightful Heir of Slytherin (Year 6 - Book 1)

Ch7: Merula Snyde (1)

I'll be able to find it, he said. It'll be easy, he said, and yet an hour after walking around this castle I am no less closer to actually finding his office. I could, of course, use magic to get there but I've decided to take the more scenic route and now it is costing me dearly. At the very least, however, I'm learning more about the layout of the school while I'm at it.

Valentina: Haven't we gone down this corridor before?

Me: I don't know. They all look the same to me.

Valentina: We could just ask-

Me: Feel free to.

She stops talking, earning modest laughter from me in response. It seems neither of us has any particular interest in conversing with the few students we come across every now and then.

Me: Surely we'll eventually find it.

Valentina: I thought the same at first but we've pretty much walked the length of a small city and still haven't gotten any closer to finding anything.

Me: Now that you mention it, we haven't come across any of the classes either, have we?

????: Hey, you!

Turning around, I find a girl storming toward us. I have no idea who she is but going from the face she's making she's clearly upset with us for whatever reason.

????: You think you're all that, huh? Walking around like you own the place!

Valentina looks ready to pounce but I take her hand before smiling at the girl then turning away. I have to pull her but Valentina eventually complies and begins following me. However, the girl simply will not let up and continues walking after us while hurling insults after insults.

????: How dare you ignore me, do you know who I am?

Me: A dead body if you keep talking.

Her mouth slams shut but not before Valentina's hands wrap around her neck. Her eyes widen at the sheer speed with which she's moved from where she stood to being choked out against the wall but despite her attempts to break free her efforts are futile.

Me: Since you're so interested in following after our heels, how about you be a good little dog and lead us to the headmaster's office? Hmmm?

Valentina lets her go and she falls to the ground gasping for air.

Me: Chop chop. We don't have all day here and if you aren't going to be useful then we might as well get rid of-

She glares at me but after looking between Valentina and I, she decides against reaching for her wand and instead gives in. Walking ahead of us, she leads us down a string of paths until we've made it back to the opening with the moving stairs. From there, she selects one and it takes us to the floor above where she again leads us down a few more corridors before finally stopping in front of a door.

????: Right through here.

Me: Thank you.

She steps aside and together we both head in but the minute we're through the door, it closes behind us locking us in. There's laughter on the other end that soon fades away but what catches my attention the most is an eerie sound that keeps making its way toward me. The room is dark, too dark to see.

Summoning my wand to my hand, I immediately move to cast a spell but after some thought, decide to use the only safe light creation spell I know. It's one I'd created for myself back when being taught by my father but extremely effective so I've never tried to adapt it for anything beyond what I had wanted it to do at the time. For a situation like this, however, it'll be perfect.

Me: Lux.

Immediately, a ball of light forms in front of me. Its bright light immediately illuminates the entire room and what I see is truly surprising. Backing away from me, from the light, are what look at first like snakes but are actually vines. There's an alarming amount of them but they are still just vines.

Valentina: Is that Devil's Snare?

Me: It definitely looks like it.

Valentina: I thought they only grew in the wilds.

Me: A lot has changed since then so perhaps this is just one of those changes. Could also be that they could always grow inside but no one tried given what they are.

She nods in agreement.

Valentina: So what are we gonna do about this one? Kill it? Leave it be?

Me: We're going to teach that little fiend a very important lesson.

She laughs but serious as always, I grab her hand before apparating us out of the room. Landing on the other side of the door, I quickly make my way towards the direction we'd come from but it isn't long before Valentina picks up her voice and takes the lead. 

????: I should have stayed behind to hear their screams. HAHAHA.

????: Merula, you really shouldn't go around bullying everyone like that.

Merula?: But these ones deserved it. They treated me like a dog.

????: You started it.

Merula?: You're no fun.

Rounding the corner, we come face to face with our foe and another dark-haired girl. Both their eyes widen at seeing us but the latter quickly step away from beside her companion, putting some distance between them.

Me: I believe you owe me a corpse.

Merula?: What?

Without warning or even a flick of the wrist, I transport the entire Devil's Snare right on top of her. Her friend screams as the Snare snatches at everything it can reach whilst attempting to recoil away from the lights within the corridor.

Merula gets enveloped by the Snare almost immediately. She pulls out her wand but before she's able to utter a spell, the wand is knocked from her hand by one of the flailing vines. Her friend tries to get to the wand but is cut off by even more vines who begin making their way steadily towards her.

????: Please, help her!

Me: What are you willing to give in exchange?

She looks at me like I'm the evilest being she's ever seen and I can't help but laugh at her expression. Beside me, Valentina is also finding the entire situation amusing. However, I know that eventually a teacher or some other students will come and investigate the source of all the screaming so I begin moving to assist.

????: I'll do anything.

Me: Oh?

????: Just please, help my sister.

Me: This ought to be fun.