𝙢𝙚𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙮 𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧

chapter 28

"oh, there's that katie girl." pansy said, nudging talia in the side to look up.

pansy, blaise, talia and a few other students from the other houses were in the great hall, eating. draco wasn't there, probably busy working on the cabinet. it has been taking up a lot of his time lately, and talia noticed.

"what's wrong with her?" tal questioned. blaise smirked and looked up.

"are you serious?" he asked. talia shrugged, not understanding.

"she was hexed, tal. on a trip to hogsmeade. and no one knows by who. not even her." pansy explained. talia's eyebrows furrowed, thinking.

"honestly, how did you miss that? oh, i know. one word that starts with d and rhymes with break-o." blaise laughed. pansy nudged kicked him in the knee, making him cough to avoid groaning in pain.

talia remembered draco and snape's conversation she overheard, and she remembered draco saying he might have hexed "that bell girl". only thing was, talia didn't know who "that bell girl" was.

"hey, what's her last name?" tal asked. pansy looked over.

"bell. why?" she informed.

talia put her fork down. if she was right, draco was the one who hexed katie bell. but, there was no way draco could actually hex someone.

unless voldemort told him to.

meaning it had something to do with his task, which talia still knew nothing about.

but she had no proof.

just then, draco started walking into the great hall and heading for talia, pansy and blaise were sitting. but, on his way there, he made eye contact with katie bell, who was now chatting with harry.

the look on draco's face was the same look he had the first time he saw talia turn to a snake, which is how talia knew he was terrified.

it was also when talia put the pieces together and figured it out; draco definetly hexed katie.

she watched as draco turned around and left the great hall, harry following him. she had a gut feeling this wouldn't end well, so she quickly got up and followed them.

"tal? where are you going?" pansy asked. talia didn't look back.

"i gotta pee." she said.

getting stuck in a small crowd of hufflepuffs, talia lost where harry and draco went for a second. it took her a couple of moments to catch up, and eventually she just guessed draco went to the abandoned boys bathroom for some time alone.

by the time she got there, though, draco and harry were throwing hexes and spells at each other. one of the sinks was spilling out water from one of the boys missing and hitting it.

"harry? draco?" talia called out, hoping one of them would stop.

"sectumsempra!" harry yelled.

"no!" talia yelled back.

she knew that spell, because she studied it in case she needed to defend herself if voldemort ever found her. it was a curse that lacerates the target and cashed severe hemorrhaging. but, talia only knew about it because her mom sent a list of defensive spells and curses to her in a letter. she wasn't supposed to know.

so, she wondered, how did harry know about it?

but she didn't have time to think about that. she knew she curse had hit draco, because he fell to the floor and started gasping.

talia cried out and ran past harry, water splashing every step she took from the now flooded bathroom floor. she fell down by draco's side, blood filling the floor and his white shirt. the room was steamy.

"what did you do?" talia yelled at harry, looking up at him through tears.

snape came running into the room, talia standing up as he knelt by draco's side. he started undoing the curse, slowly healing draco with his wand.

talia was out of breath and panting, and she looked at harry angrily. harry had never seen anger like that before. talia couldn't believe he had yelled such a curse at draco, and how draco actually ended up getting so hurt.

she was fuming.

"harry..." talia mumbled. her eyes began to turn back, and fangs began to grow from her mouth. she was unable to control the anger that built up inside of her. all she knew was that draco was in pain, and she needed to make harry feel the pain he had caused.

but it wasn't talia slowly turning into a snake before him that scared harry. it was the fact that when she said his name, she had the same look in her eyes tom riddle did when he got mad that harry saw in the memories dumbledore stored.

"run." talia said, her head melting into the ground to the snake's body. it was the biggest snake harry had ever seen.

he started running in the opposite direction away from the bathroom, talia slithering behind him quickly. she hissed and bit harshly at harry's feet, trying her best to get a bite out of him. snape was too busy healing draco to stop her.

harry ran as fast as he could, talia right behind him. talia's rage was getting the better of her. draco could have died, and now, she wanted harry dead.

harry tried his best to hit talia with a spell, but she quickly dodged it. eventually, after he did this three times, he finally hit the edge of her tail.

talia's snake was quickly replaced with her human form, in pain and not able to slither around. she looked down at her ankle and saw a bad burn there, some blood getting onto her hand when she held it. she winced in pain, looking up and seeing harry continuing to run away.

she stood up, looking around the empty hallway. no one had seen what had just happened.

talia began walking back to the bathroom, knowing snape was there, healing draco. she was out of breath, but she didn't care.

that was when talia's hatred for harry potter began.