The Lost Story

Chapter 5: The first magical Christmas

Her POV:

Over Christmas I stayed in the castle. Most of the other Slytherins went home, but I had calmly explained that I was staying here. They laughed at me and said I had no home. I ignored the insults without saying a word. In fact, they were right. The Dursleys were not my home and I would never call this place that, ever. If I had a home anywhere, it was here, in the castle.

So I woke up on Christmas morning in an empty dormitory, expecting a present from my brother and maybe from Emily, where I found a small pile instead. The top present was from Emily, who had also stayed in the castle; she had given me a necklace with beautiful green stones. There was a note with it.

To emphasise your beautiful eyes.

Happy Christmas,

Emily

The second present was, as expected, from my brother. He had bought me a book about magical creatures, how sweet of him, knowing how much I loved to read. And yet I suspected that he had an ulterior motive, because on one of the first pages I found something that seemed so familiar that I had to read it right away.

The Black Veela

She is found in pure-blood families, but is a creature of the night. Born from the souls of stillborn magical children, her skin is made of silver-black scales and her face is more beautiful than death, because death sent her back to bring disaster to the world. Her wings carry her far and high and her claws are deadly. But even more terrible than her claws are her teeth, which contain a Venom whose effects shall not be described here. What she can do to her victims is too terrible. Her screams are rarely heard, but they freeze marrow and bone. Her greatest power, however, is that of fire. It is as much a part of her as her unbridled strength, which simmers inexhaustibly within her. A Black Veela is immortal, unless you cut off her head, which is actually impossible, because nothing we know of so far can weaken her. But they are as rare as the Metamorphmagi (see page 366) and yet much more evil. Silver reveals her form, which she knows how to hide. The truth always comes out of her mouth, she is incapable of lying. Should she try, the consequences will be terrible.

Underneath was the image of a being that I had looked at in the mirror all too often. In one half of the picture was a beautiful woman, so beautiful that she couldn't possibly be human. She was flawless and seemed to have a perfect body. On the other side was a being with large, multi-colored bat wings, a long tail with a sharp, shiny tip, sharp claws on its hands and pointed teeth. I stared at the picture and stood up as if paralyzed. In the corner of the dormitory was a man-sized mirror. This was a girls' dormitory, there were more than one. But this was the biggest. Looking out of the mirror was a being that always looked at me when I stood in front of a mirror. It was scaled, the black scales shone silver in the light of the candles on the walls. Large, black-green wings extended over its shoulders and a scaled tail with a black-green tip waved weakly behind its back. The hands ended in silvery claws. I smiled weakly and the creature revealed sharp teeth with long canines. The green eyes with the cat pupils glowed out of the mirror. The only thing that prevented this image from being a hallucination was the fact that it was holding the same book as me, who was standing in front of the mirror. The very creature that I saw in the book in front of me looked at me from the mirror. That was me! I was a Black Veela! That meant I could do a lot more than just look scary, right? I shook my head and put the book aside. Later, Christmas first. Because there were still four presents left... I opened the first, somewhat messily wrapped present first. Inside I found a wonderfully warm, knitted, moss-green sweater with a black rose on it. Next to it was a small box of very tasty-looking Christmas cookies and a note.

Ron told me that you and your brother never get presents, which I didn't like. I hope you like the sweater.

Molly Weasley