When Myths Meet Magic || 5

24|| Piper

Piper reached up and cracked her back as she stretched. "You're getting it," she said to Callum Knight, the first year. "It's not that hard once you get the hang of it."

Callum sighed and blinked back tears of frustration that had formed. "I don't think I like Hogwarts very much," he grumbled. "Meelie said it was great when she came but there are just so many rules..."

"I swear it was different," Amelia, his sister, claimed doubtfully from the armchair next to him. "We didn't have... Her Most High Inquisitor. We actually learned crap. Real spells."

Piper pursed her lips. Callum and Amelia and several other younger Slytherins, in fact, were not as content with Umbridge as they seemed. Amelia was good with taking out her frustration in Quidditch practice and the bludgers, but Piper could tell she was getting testy.

"Please tell me you're free tomorrow," Amelia pleaded. "Binns's gone and given us a three parchment long essay on the origins of the Centaur Revolution, and you know how screwed over Binns's class is—"

"I can't," Piper said immediately, thinking of the DA meeting Annabeth had informed her about. "I've got..." but she couldn't think of a lie.

"Where d'you keep disappearing off to?" Amelia demanded.

Piper bit hard down on her lip as she stacked her loose parchment into a pile. "D'you want to come with me?" She finally asked. "You and Callum... it'll help with Defense Against the Dark Arts, I swear."

"Anything," Callum agreed immediately.

"Be in here at four-thirty, Alright?" Piper asked before walking up to her dorms. A strange throbbing sensation had suddenly appeared tingling on her forehead, like there were billions of little balls of fire at war on her skin. She glanced into the mirror of the bathroom and stared at her reflection— her forehead had turned a bright red and letters could just barely be made out on the skin— S.... N... E.... but just as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone as a sharp pain flared through her forehead. The skin suddenly glowed faintly pink and then it was unblemished, then the burning was back and the letters along with it— S. N. E. A. K... then it was gone.

Piper tore her eyes away from the mirror. The letters that appeared were faint enough to be unnoticed, but the alternating intervals of sudden pain was going to keep her awake all night....

>>>•Hermione POV•<<<

Hermione looked up from the book on defensive curses she was reading as the door opened to the first of the people coming in for DA. Her eyes widened and she folded the corner of her page and set it to the side.

"Piper?" She asked with a forced politeness. "Um, who are they?"

"This is Callum and Amelia Knight," Piper introduced. "It's alright if they join us right?"

For a moment, Hermione wasn't sure what to say. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then her eyes flicked up to Piper's forehead.

"Yeah, it's fine," she said distractedly. "You didn't— um, you don't happen to have a... um... did you get any marks on your forehead?"

Piper's smile dropped immediately. "That was you?" She exclaimed, her hand rising to her forehead. "I couldn't sleep all night because of it!"

Hermione frowned. "Because of what?"

"The marks!" Said Piper. "They hurts like crazy!"

"They shouldn't have," Hermione protested.

"They kept flickering," Piper continued. "They were here then they weren't then they were then they weren't—" Suddenly she winced. "See, again!"