𝓛𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓪𝓰𝓮 - 𝓐 𝓗𝓪𝓻𝓻𝔂 𝓟𝓸𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂

Year 3: Chapter 2

"Wake up! WAKE UP!" Ursula shouted, throwing her pillow at Clarissa's still sleeping figure.

"Go. The. Hell. AWAY!" Clarissa yelled back and Penelope was thankful that this year it was only the three of them in a room. The number of arguments and the number of jinxes fired last year were too many to count.

"Well Clarissa, you're on your own, I'll be in breakfast and Penny is coming too."

"Does it look like I care?" Clarissa sniped back, ready to throw a hairbrush but Penelope pulled Ursula out of the room just in time, the brush hitting the back of the door with a thud.

As they walked out of the Slytherin common room, Penelope kept her eyes trained forward, mind in a daze as her feet absentmindly stepped forward, one after the other.

One, two.

One, two.

She thought if she could keep counting her steps, she would keep going, never having to stop or lose her way.

"I know that look. Don't worry about waiting at breakfast with me, go for a walk or something. I can bring you something before class." Ursula said, and Penelope, though startled, smiled at her best friend.

"Thanks." she replied, before walking in the opposite direction.

She stolled towards the Black Lake, knowing no where else where she could get some peace of mind. When she he arrived at the shore, she sat in the base branches of a tree, before knocking on the tree three times. Instantly, a small door, big enough only for a few pencils and a note book, opened revealing those exact contents. Flicking through the contents of the book, Penelope realised that she wasn't in the mood to draw another landscape, and instead let her hand take over rather than her mind, her thoughts too distracted to focus on anything.

Rumours had been swirling and piling up. Was he coming to murder both the boy who lived and his niece, two birds with one stone. She was his closest surviving relative and reports said he and his brother, Penelope's father - Regulus Black, hated each other, and there was speculation that he was in fact the reason that the younger Black father had gone missing.

Penelope shuddered, dread filling her. It would make sense, after all, he had the motive, means and opportunity. His motive would presumably be either revenge, or a desire for the last of the Black Fortune and properties which he would have been eligible for, if it hadn't been for Penelope. The means, if he hadn't gotten hold of a wand, could even be any sort of muggle weapon he could have picked up since his escape, and the opportunity could be a moment just like now, Penelope sitting all alone far away from the castle.

Narcissa and Lucius had been strict about it all Summer, scolding her if she went out into the meadow or the forest alone, needing to have at least one of the girls or Draco with her at any point. If they saw her right now, all alone by the lake, she would be instantly reprimanded, chastised for foolish and ignorant behaviour.

The girl looked down at her drawing, pushing their disapproving voices out of her head and her eyes widened at who she had drawn on the parchment. Eyes, in such immense detail she could almost touch the drawing on the page, and bring it to life. So gracefully sculpted, as though it had been moulded by the titan Prometheus himself, before he succumbed to his downfall at Zeus harsh hand.

Penelope immediately ripped the page off, before crumpling it up and whispering.

"Incendio,"

The paper burst into flames immediately, and ironically, they say Prometheus was the one who gave the people fire first.

~*~

After her and Penelope split ways, Ursula walked towards the Great Hall, wanting to grab some breakfast and any available gossip scoops some of the older Slytherin girls might have. As she sat down on the benches next to Tracey Davies and Daphne Greengrass, who were trading stories about the many places they had visited over the summer, Ursula had an absent minded glance at her timetable.