NEST OF SNAKES (HP FANFIC)

(1.2.) The Rise: 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦.

October 1990

Elsie liked to think she was smarter than most kids her age.

Still, for some strange reason, it never occurred to her how many rumours and gossip she would be the centre of as a professor's daughter at Hogwarts. And she also learned that children do not have the same filter for being politically correct as adults.

Elsie's official story was that when she was about a year old, her mother had died from complications due to childbirth. Because of the war, her parents had secretly married and Elsie had been born in a Muggle hospital. So she could have been cured with magic, she became the cause of her mother's death, who did not return to the wizarding world after she was hidden in France by Severus when the conflicts began. And she didn't do it either when she started getting sick for fear of being found.

Most of the adults, who asked where their mom was when they found out that Elsie existed, quickly stopped asking when her dad told them that she was no longer with them. Understanding the possible implications of that answer and not wanting to get into the subject any further, for their own comfort more than anything.

Kids don't have that wisdom, so Elsie spent a lot of her first month in Hogwarts answering questions from other students who wanted to know where she came from. Most of them said and were adamant that she was adopted or that their mom had left them, even when she explained the story every time. Which had puzzled her at first. Then just annoyed her. And by the end of the month, a second-year Ravenclaw was the victim of a Jelly Legs hex for saying too much. That stopped the questions, but the rumours started, and those were worse.

There were those who believed that Elsie's mother had been killed by her father, because she was not a pureblood and therefore unworthy of life according to Death Eater beliefs. Among the people who accepted this theory, there was a group that believed that Severus had killed her in person. And another group that assured that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named himself had been the murderer.

All were discussed with such intensity that one would believe that they had been like this at the time of the death of her false dead mother. Or that it will be part of the O.W.L. of this year.

There was also a part of the students who believed that Elsie was the daughter of dead Death Eaters who had been adopted by Snape after the fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Or that she was the product of her father's experimentation with the Dark Arts, so she didn't really have a soul.

Or that she was the daughter of the Dark Lord himself, left with Snape for him to raise her. And so, one day, she will carry on her father's legacy, as the leader of the Death Eaters and the Supreme Dark Lady.

(This last rumour always seemed particularly ridiculous and nonsense to Elsie.)

All rumours include one way or another that she learned the Dark Arts from a very early age, though. So no one could say they weren't conscious on some level, Elsie gave them that.

By the time Halloween came and went, Elsie was ready to throw someone out of a window, and the boys feared they might be the closest victims to her fury. The only peace the four of them could find was in the Slytherin Common Room, where none of her housemates passed on the rumours or even mentioned them. But they couldn't hide there, that would show weakness to the other houses.

Elsie already knew how a boarding school worked. No matter how many teachers, caregivers, or security you have, children have an inordinate amount of control and freedom, living more with each other than with adults.

It reminded Elsie a lot of the book 'Lord of the Flies' by the muggle William Golding.

Gryffindor was Jack, the stubborn and brave boy who wanted to be the leader. He knew that to remain the leader, and so, a common enemy was needed for his followers to stand behind him. So Jack made in everyone's mind Ralph, the real leader, the enemy in common. Slytherin was Ralph.