||Rain's Storm||The Chamber of Secrets||Year 2||

Chapter Four: Dairy

Supper that night lasted longer than it ever had before. Everyone, just the teachers and Rain, sat around one table in the Great Hall. Rain felt everyone's gaze on her, but she just stared at her plate, eating slowly. She didn't know how much the other teachers knew, but they knew something based upon their starring and whispering. She ignored it all, focusing on finishing her meal.

Once she finished the food on her golden plate, she looked up at Snape who sat beside her. She wanted, needed, to leave, but she didn't dare to without permission. Snape ignored her as he finished off whatever he was chewing. When he finished, he looked at her slowly. After several moments, he nodded. Rain smiled her gratitude before quickly leaving. She went straight to her room.

Rain tossed one of her robes on, and then hid under the covers on her bed. She kept herself busy going over her plan in her mind over and over again. She didn't know what else to do; she had to wait until most of the teachers were in bed. 

Rain woke with a start, relieving she must have dozed off. She jumped up, dashing to the window. The moon, bright and full, was high in the sky. The castle was dark everywhere she could see. She smiled; now was the time to act.

Putting her hood on, she crept through the dark hallways. She kept to the walls, and made sure to avoid whatever light she saw or voices she heard. More than once approaching footsteps had forced her to back track and go another way. She surprised herself on how well she knew the outlay of the castle. 

Finally, she reached one of the doors leading outside. She hunkered behind a column, and waited several minutes. When no one came by, she felt it was safe. Getting up, she dashed to the door, barley opened it, and squeezed outside. She closed it softly in her wake. Pleased with herself, she dashed for Hogsmead.

*

Standing in the tower with Dumbledore, Snape spotted the small, dark figure dashing across the grounds. "Where could that child be going?" he growled.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Children do tend to get themselves into trouble quiet often, don't they?"

Snape glared at him. "Despite what she has gone through, I will not allow her to keep getting away with things Dumbledore."

*

Rain entered the creaking building unafraid. The darkness didn't bother her, nor the whistling of the wind, or unexplained sounds. She made her way slowly through the place, not sure at all what she was looking for. She just knew something was there.

She stopped after a few minutes, sensing something or someone was behind her. She turned around slowly, and gasped. Sitting there was a pure white wolf with oddly gray-tipped ears. Its yellow eyes bore into hers, but the girl felt no fear. Following some strange instinct, she placed her hand out. The wolf gave it a sniff before licking it. The beast then stood up, and walked down the hallway. It stopped and looked back at her. Rain took a deep breath before following.

The wolf led her upstairs and into what appeared to be the master bedroom. It then padded to one side of the bed, and touched its nose to the dust covered bedside table. After, it looked back at Rain before padding off to one of the corners. It laid down.

Rain glanced back at the wolf before getting on her knees in front of the table. She pulled open the top drawer, and to her great surprise, found an old, tattered book inside. Lifting it up, she wiped away the dust. "To My Droplet of Rain," she read from the cover.

"What exactly are you doing here?" a voice growled. 

Rain jumped up, hiding the dairy behind her back as she turned around. Snape was in the doorway, looking as furious as the night the troll had attacked last year. She dropped the dairy into one of her inside pockets as Snape stalked up to her. He grasped her arm, and half dragged her along behind him. Rain looked into the corner; the wolf was gone.

*

"Why were you in the Shrieking Shack in the earliest hours of the morning?" Snape half-way yelled, standing in front of her. Rain gazed past him, her eyes on anything in Dumbledore's office but Snape or Dumbledore himself. She feared Snape's rage, but she couldn't bare Dumbledore's disappointment.

"I was only curious about the place. Nothing more. I'm use to being allowed to go wherever I wished whenever I wished it," Rain lied through her teeth. There was no way she was going to tell them the truth. There was no way she was going to express the longing she felt for the place, or the diary she had found there. She most certainly was not going to tell them of the strange wolf either.

"Rain," Dumbledore said gently, speaking for the first time. Holding her breath, Rain dared to look at him. His face, to her great surprise, was gentle. "Rain, you're hiding something. There's no reason to keep anything from me or Snape. We're here to help you, that's all."

Rain looked into the blue orbs for a countless time. She wanted to tell them everything. She wanted to tell them about the strange dreams, the frightening powers, the sudden bursts of anger she had no control over. She wanted to tell them how Mama Poppy believed her parents were two of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's greatest allies, how she felt unexplained connection to a place she had never seen before, and how a white wolf had led her to a diary with her name on it. But terror, terror of their reaction, held her tongue. Instead, she became angry.

"I'm not hiding anything sir," she stated coldly, a sneer upon her face.

"Do not disrespect him or any of your professors in such a manner!" Snape spat.

Rain clenched her fists, rage coursing through her blood. "Do you have any idea of the life I've lived? Do you have any idea of the pain I've been through? I saw a boy murdered for stealing an apple when I was four. My only 'friends' tortured me. You have nothing to offer me. You see me as everyone else does. The filthy, unwanted child of Death Eaters." She then stood up, and not looking at either of them, marched through the door. They did not try to stop her.

*

Rain sat alone in her dorm, clenching the charm. Warm blood trickled down her arm from holding it too tightly, but she didn't care. She cried silently, tears running down her face. She couldn't believe she had just spoken to Snape and Dumbledore in such a manner. Dumbledore had always been kind to her, and Snape had opened up his home to her when she had no where else to go. "What's wrong with me?" she whispered to the air. No one responded to her.