Thick Smoke

Remember a Malfoy

"You have greatly disappointed me," he started, drawing all the joy and peace and transforming the house into an icicle.

The woman looked at him with defiance but she was incredibly calm considering how the man was towering over her.

"You wanted me in order to fulfill your dream of immortality, that's all. You groomed me," she said in a tone that resembled the man's.

"And that would have made you unstoppable and unbreakable. The power we would have...we could have ruled the world," he said, moving around the room as if he were a snake. "Give me the little one," he said, his eyes narrowing at the woman.

"You will never find her," The woman said firmly.

The little girl couldn't see exactly what was happening outside but she suddenly heard a loud sound before."Avada Kedavra!"

Eliza woke with a sharp intake of breath, her body jerking upright as if pulled out of the dream by force. Every muscle trembled, and for a few long moments she could do nothing but sit there, trying to steady her breathing and convince herself that she was no longer there.

It took time before she calmed down enough to move. The dormitory was still quiet, the other girls fast asleep, so she slipped out of bed and made her way to the bathroom.

The hot water helped, at least a little. As it ran over her, she closed her eyes and let her thoughts return to the dream. Something had changed. It was not much, only a small detail, but it was new. The man had not seemed important, not in the way the others were, yet the way he looked at Ophelia—disappointed, almost conflicted—lingered in her mind longer than anything else.

Perhaps Remus had been right. Perhaps the change of environment had begun to affect something.

When she stepped out and faced the mirror, it was clouded with steam. She wiped it with her hand until her reflection became visible. Her gaze lingered on her own eyes. The shade of green was not quite the same as her mother's, but the resemblance was undeniable. The rest of her features were softer, less severe, though there were traces of the man who had escaped Azkaban in the shape of her face.

She exhaled quietly and turned away. By the time she returned to the dormitory, the others were awake, making their beds.

"Oh, you're already up," Hermione Granger said, still half-asleep. "Did you already shower?"

Eliza nodded and reached for her clothes. For the first time, her robes carried the colors of her house, and she found them far more pleasant than the plain ones she had worn before.

*****

The first class of the day was Divination with Sybill Trelawney. From what she had gathered during breakfast, it was one of the optional subjects, along with Care of Magical Creatures. Eliza had not chosen anything herself; her timetable had simply been arranged for her.

As she glanced toward the staff table, intending to find Remus, her attention was caught instead by another professor. The man was watching her with unsettling intensity, his gaze fixed in a way that made her immediately look away.

Finding the Divination classroom proved far more difficult than expected. By the time she managed it, she was already ten minutes late and had to slip quietly into the nearest seat.

The classroom itself was strange, filled with heavy fabrics and scented air, but the professor appeared kind, if somewhat detached from reality. Eliza was relieved to see familiar faces around her, even if not all of them seemed entirely convinced by the subject.