Thirteen years after The Battle of Hogwarts, two wizarding children are about to embark on their own adventure. They both have been lied to their entire lives, one to protect her from the wrath of the wizarding world, and the other to protect him fr...
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Bel pelted through the corridors with Scorpius and Cat close on her heels. They were late for Transfiguration, and Professor Patil was going to kill them. Bel swung around the final corridor and yanked open the heavy wooden door. The classroom was already packed, and it was not immediately clear where the three remaining desks were located. However, as Bel's eyes swept the classroom—filled to bursting with half the Slytherin first years still sitting on desks and talking up a storm—it was immediately apparent that Patil had not arrived yet. She let out a sigh of relief that suddenly shifted into a groan half-way through. There are the three empty seats, she thought. They are even together. Too bad they are in the front row, directly in front of Patil's desk. Probably why they are empty five minutes after class was supposed to start. Bel walked reluctantly up the center aisle between the rows of desks. Scorpius and Cat trailed her dejectedly. Bel thought she heard Scorpius mutter something almost inaudible under his breath. It probably was something along the lines of "better to skive off than sit there." Although Bel heartily agreed with the sentiment, sitting under Patil's nose was not quite as bad as her wrath if she found out they were skipping class. Bel dumped her bag on the flagstones under her desk, and plopped into the seat. Her heart was still pounding swiftly from running all the way from the library and putting away all their books after Madam Pince had yelled at them, that she did not hear the small voice hissing up at her for several seconds.
When Bel registered the voice, she glanced angrily at Cat, pretending to be a snake Bel would have to ignore would—and had—strike her as funny, but she was busy digging through her own bag, trying to find her copy of the textbook. Her heart sinking, Bel's eyes slid over her desk until they came to rest on the little creature twisted through a branch on the top of her desk. Pleasssse, Pleasssse don't hurt me, said the tiny emerald grass snake only a foot from Bel's astonished eyes.
This day just keeps getting better and better, thought Bel. First being late and now a snake. Of course it somehow knew I could understand it. They always did. Bel twisted in her seat so she could get a look at the door into Pavarti Patil's office. Still closed, I can still escape before she comes. If I were sitting in the back of the room, she might not notice, but here, only a few feet away, she is bound to notice something. Bel quickly weighed her options and stuffed her book and wand back into her bag. Best not to risk it. A shudder ran through her as she hurried back up the aisle to the door remembering the only time she had spoken back to the snakes that had always plagued her. Aunt Narcissa had yelled at her for nearly three hours. It was the only time that she had ever yelled at her, and it was impossible to forget. It had ended with a five-year-old Bel in tears, promising ardently to never do it again, even if no one could see or hear. She had never broken that promise, and in the weeks before leaving for Hogwarts, Uncle Lucius had made her promise not even to let anyone suspect her talent. She had not known that he even knew about that incident.
Bel strode across the open stretch of grass on the quad, intent on going back to the library. She would use the extra time to finish her Defense Against the Dark Arts homework so she could continue researching her past with Scorpius and Cat later. As she walked, Bel was quite unaware of the distant pair of eyes following her truant progress across the grounds.
