Spectre: The Dark Riddles #1

15: Manticore*

[Chapter warning: mention of murder]

***

"As dangerous as the Chimaera, and as rare, the Manticore is reputed to croon softly as it devours its prey. Manticore skin repels almost all known charms and the sting causes instant death."

--from the textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander, 1927

***

I'm halfway to the dungeons when I collide into someone. I'm sprinting so fast around the corners that I don't have a chance to check that the path is clear before I turn down another hall. I hear a girl grunt out "oomph!" and then we both crash to the ground. The rough stone scraps against my hands, cutting open my palms.

"Ella?" Rowena's voice.

I turn to find my best friend staring at me, rubbing her shoulder. "What are you doing? Where are you running off to?" She laughs. "That desperate for another dose of Nott, huh?"

"Sorry, Row, I can't talk." I rush to my feet, ignoring the throbbing in my hands.

"Wait!" She grabs me by the arm, looking from me to the end of the hall, where the stairs to the dungeons are. "Ella, what's going on?"

"I can't tell you right now. I need to find Draco—"

Her grip tightens on my arm until I can't get free. "Ella, you can't go. I won't let you."

I frown. "What? Rowena, I have to tell him something important—"

"I know!" She hesitates. "I mean, I don't know what you have to tell him, but... I saw this. Last night. I couldn't make sense of it until now but... I saw you in the Slytherin common room with Draco and Mattheo and all the other guys. You were crying. They were circling you. It didn't look like the start of something great."

"Rowena, you have to let me go."

"If you go there, something bad will happen. I know it."

"Aren't you the one who said you can't interfere with the prophecies?"

As if realizing what she's doing, she releases me. "Ella, please. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Draco won't let any harm come to me."

Reluctantly, she nods. "But come find me after. I'll wait up in my common room."

"Promise." I take a step, and then look back at Rowena. "Row—you were right. About Dumbledore. You were right."

She frowns, and then her face falls. She knows something bad has happened.

I don't give her the chance to ask, though.

I had run like this through the halls once, just one other time. The end of Fourth Year, when I had been delivering the grand news of our Italian summer trip to Draco. My life had changed that day. The day I met Theodore Nott and realized the beauty of learning the secret crevices of a stranger until they were imprinted on the inside of your heart.

My life will change again tonight. But not for nearly as grand a reason.

The Malfoys hold onto their anger until its been forged into a weapon. We learn how to move through the world alone and be okay. We learn the things we can live without.

I have gone without food, and I have not withered away. I have gone without warmth, and the cold has not killed me. But faced with a life without love, without hope, without light—it would drive me mad.

I will not let Draco be driven mad in the dark.

The floor shakes beneath my feet as I enter the Slytherin common room. It's Saturday night, and another party is in full swing. Blasting bass, drunk dancers, singing students. I move through the crowd. There's a lot of people here tonight, and I catch some blue ties mixed in with the green. Ravenclaws. They're as rowdy as Slytherins, but a lot more witty—lethal combination.