Narcissa

Poison

By the end of March, lessons had become even more grueling. Often, when the spring drizzle ceased for a few minutes, Narcissa could indulge in studying outdoors and get some fresh air after hours spent in the library. That morning she had also gone to the garden to review some pages of Ancient Runes, but she was unable to concentrate as she would have liked because of some first-year boys who were arguing loudly. Narcissa gathered her books and notes and followed the noise. She was not at all surprised to find her cousin Sirius with his wand raised against another student.

"Alright, Snivellus, spill it. The easy way or the hard way?" he was saying, and his threats elicited laughter from a young bespectacled Gryffindor standing next to him. "Yeah, you better give us your notes right away."

"Never!" retorted a Slytherin boy who, kneeling on the wet grass of the garden, clutched some yellowed parchments to his chest. Narcissa watched him from a distance and groaned when she saw him pull his wand out of his pocket and yell a spell at Sirius.

But he was agile enough to dodge it and fight back: "Expelliarmus!"

The young Slytherin watched his wand fly out of his hand.

"Accio Snivellus' Notes!" said Sirius. The parchments slipped from the Slytherin's grip and soared into the air under his distressed gaze. Sirius caught them in mid-air and examined the notes with little attention.

At first Narcissa was undecided whether or not to intervene. After all, she didn't care about Sirius and what he did at school, or even about that scared boy unable to defend himself. But then she could no longer stand aside, disturbed by her cousin's behavior.

"Sirius!" she called him, advancing towards him, her smooth, disdainful face slightly illuminated by the pale sunlight.

"Cousin," Sirius greeted her, with a grimace of obvious contempt.

Narcissa stood beside the Slytherin boy, without taking her eyes off Sirius. "I see you're having fun being a bully. Aunt Walburga won't be happy at all when I tell her that, incapable and stupid as you are, you need to steal other students' notes to get decent grades," she scolded him. "Aunt is already so upset that you ended up in Gryffindor House. How much more grief do you want to cause her?"

Sirius shook his head and, tired of that lecture, rolled his eyes skyward. "Come on, James."

But Narcissa had no intention of letting him go like that and added: "Every time I see you, dear cousin, I am seized by an attack of pure and simple horror."

"The feeling is mutual."

"You are capricious and irresponsible," she continued, staring at him with disgust. "I am sure Regulus uses you as a bad example to never follow. I mean... your brother is younger than you and yet he shows many more years."

"Yes, I know," Sirius snorted. "He follows your rules. But I happen not to want to be like him. You all keep telling me who I am and it makes me want to be the exact opposite. You try to suffocate me with your attempts to always tell me what I should or should not do. Who needs that?"

Narcissa shook her head, disturbed by her cousin's audacity. "You don't want any sense of responsibility, that's the truth. You're immature," she reiterated, emphasizing the last word.

"Luckily there's you, who will always do the right thing. Well done," Sirius told her, with a cocky air. He looked her straight in the eyes, and for a moment Narcissa had the impression that he was trying to read into her. But it was only a moment. He nodded to his friend, and together they walked towards the castle.

Meanwhile, the Slytherin boy had gotten back to his feet and adjusted his scarf around his neck. He didn't even hesitate for a moment with his gaze towards Narcissa, and she was surprised. She was not used to being ignored in that way.

"I could have handled myself perfectly well without your help," he said suddenly, in a hostile tone.

Narcissa smiled, as if his harsh words had not affected her in the least. "In other circumstances I would have minded my own business, but my cousin always manages to irritate me beyond measure and... I wanted to humiliate him a bit," she explained by way of justification.

"I hate Sirius Black and that show-off James Potter." His eyes were dull, veiled, as he bent down to pick up his parchments.

Narcissa took one and was surprised to discover that there were detailed notes on the preparation of unknown potions. "What is this stuff?"

"Give it back to me!"

With a quick rereading, Narcissa realized that they must be potions of his own invention, one of which seemed quite poisonous, at least judging by the ingredients listed. "Very interesting," she whispered, then returning the parchment to its rightful owner. "So is this what you want to do? Prepare a potion to kill Sirius?"

Finally, the Slytherin raised his head to give Narcissa an amused smirk. "Maybe."

She closed her eyes and her thoughts flew to Lucius. "I could also use... a little poison." A light gust of wind ruffled her long hair. She looked back at the first-year boy who had gone to retrieve his wand. He seemed like a really strange guy, with his sickly air and his obvious passion for the dark arts. He wasn't particularly attractive, but Narcissa thought there was something about him that she liked. Something told her that he was an intelligent and capable boy, even though he had so far shown himself to be mostly touchy and withdrawn.

"Who are you?" she asked him finally.

He hesitated for a moment before answering. "My name is Severus Snape."

She held out her hand, as is customary when introducing yourself to someone, and the boy shook it, slightly intimidated. Above them, rain clouds loomed ominously. The two exchanged smiles as they slowly walked back to the castle.