Persephone Black

Chapter Ten: Seventh Year

            The Hogwarts N.E.W.T. exams took place two weeks before term ended, and being the beginning of March, Snape had thought it was time that Persephone joined in with his seventh-year class. He only had seven students in his N.E.W.T. level class, eight with the inclusion of Persephone, and he did not like any of them. It would be a relief to have Persephone lighten the mood in the dungeons, and she was thrilled to work alongside students at her academic level.

Despite this news, Persephone was exhausted. She had much more work than the rest of her classmates, and while she had been fine with sleeping alone, she had developed some serious nightmares. One in particular had her waking up from a late-night nap with Pansy and Draco standing above her, a look of concern sketched on her cousin's face. She sat up immediately, noticing the drips of sweat beading down her face.

"You were screaming," Pansy said, a smirk playing on her lips. Persephone scoffed, and looked toward Draco who seem annoyed with Pansy, and worried about his cousin.

"Leave us alone," he said.

Once Pansy left the room he began to pace, "she said this isn't the first time you've screamed or talked in your sleep. What's going on?"

"Nothing, Draco."

"Well obviously something's happening because you keep dreaming about it."

"What do you want me to say?" Persephone asked, her voice raising.

"I want you to tell me what's wrong with you!" He snapped back.

"There's nothing wrong with me!"

"Persephone!"

"WHAT DO YOU—"

"Miss Black, I assure you that the entire house does not need to hear you and Mr. Malfoy's family disagreements," said Snape. He stood at the door, Pansy behind him, snickering, "come with me."

"Professor I didn't—"

"—I don't want to hear about it Mr. Malfoy. You will both come with me."

Persephone snarled, and stood up, following her cousin out the door. All the eyes in the dormitory followed the small group as they left the room and started down the dungeon corridors. Draco tried to look at his cousin, now feeling bad that he had yelled at her. Into Snape's classroom they went, not stopping until they reached the doors to his office. Walking inside, both children stopped, staring at the two seats being occupied by Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy.

"Draco," Lucius said, nodding his head toward his son.

"Father," he said back.

"Sit," Snape said, whipping out his wand and making two more chairs appear.

The children sat, looking expectantly toward the adults in the room. Persephone shuffled her feet nervously, her eyes flitting around the room to the different jars lining the walls. She found one full of nasty eyeballs and studied it carefully.

"You've been brought here so that your mother and I can assign you two a task." The kids looked at each other, "I want this Miss Granger to be petrified."

"Father, there's no way to control the beast—"

"—Silence," Lucius interrupted. "The only way I will be able to convince the remainder of the school governors to sack Dumbledore is if more students get petrified. From what I've heard, the only way to make a statement would be to take out the cleverest mudblood Hogwarts has to offer. I want Miss Granger to be petrified or killed."