MARA WILLIAMS

"You don't understand." Hissed voice that made my heart drop. "—Shes insufferable."

  A sick feeling rose in my throat and I swallowed the bitter taste down.
  —It was me... They were talking about me.

  I was still midway through the process of trying to comprehend what I had just heard when the door swung open.

  Smoke.

  He smelled like smoke... Fresh laundry... And rain.   My eyes widened as for a brief moment we just stared at one another in shock, until he composed himself and with a vicious snarl he growled,
  "Didn't daddy ever tell you it was rude to eavesdrop, Half-Breed?"

  Whatever enchantment had previously clouded my judgement shattered, showering down upon me like a thousand pointed shards of ice. A creeping cold crawled down my spine as the horrid realisation set in.

  "Half-Breed?" The shout was unintentional but I couldn't stop myself. My lineage was all I had left, I wouldn't allow this boy to dare deface it. "You don't even know me! Who the hell do you think you are?"

  My fists balled by my sides, and I felt hot. So hot. Rage bubbled up within me, coursing like acid through my veins and threatening to explode at any given moment.
  —My mother always told me I was quick to anger, I couldn't help it, I was my fathers daughter.

  He took his time, lazily dragging his eyes down my body, scrutinising every flaw with a sickening smirk.
  "Drop the act," Malfoy shrugged, crossing his arms and leaning back against the doorframe. "—I know exactly who you are, Mara Williams."

  My body language didn't do much to hide how I felt, I could tell it by the mild amusement on his handsome face. Disgusted, furious, degraded.
  —Humiliated.

  "I don't know what you're talking about."

  He let out an eerily humourless laugh, the empty sound echoed off the high halls.
  "Don't lie." Pushing off the wall he took a step closer, trying to pressure me into submission.
  But I refused to back down. I stood my ground, lifting my chin to stare him dead in the eye as he began to taunt me.
  "Poor little Mara, all alone." With every hate-filled word he inched closer. "No parents... No friends... No boyfriend, not anymore atleast."

  I could feel my self shaking with anger and I clenched my fists tighter to prevent me from raking my nails down his pretty face. "You know nothing."

"Is that so?" He cocked his head, now mere inches from me as he drawled, "Maybe you should just go back to where you came from..." My skin erupted with electricity as he raised a hand, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. "—Oh wait, you can't."

  I wanted to slap him away, but some small part of me leaned into his touch, that achingly sinful part of me that longed for his torment, —Took a sick kind of pleasure in it even.

   Malfoy leaned in close so that even if anyone were to come down the hall, they wouldn't have a hope of overhearing his whispered words. His warm breath fanned the side of my neck and the smell of fresh rain before a storm invaded my senses. "I wonder what poor Krum did to deserve the Cruciatus Curse?.."

  —And that was it. I snapped. My fist flew towards the harsh line of his jaw before I could even process what I was doing. I expected to hear the impact, to see him recoil, but instead all I felt was the crushing of my bones as Malfoy caught my wrist, holding it in midair as his face darkened to liken that of a winters night. 

  Starless and empty, even the godless moon hid behind a shield of clouds as the cruel-hearted Slytherin boy locked eyes with me, leaving only an all consuming blackness in it's wake. His eyes were dead, cold and empty beyond any semblance of sanity.

  My head span dangerously and all promise of air was violently torn from my lungs as I was slammed back into the brick wall.
  "Try me, Mara..." He hissed, the look in his eyes was nothing less than unholy. He pulled me from the wall a few inches, just to throw me back harder, my bones quivered and shook as the second wave hit harder than the first. "I dare you."

  I bit my tongue so hard it drew blood because I refused to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream. The thick copper tase filled my mouth and I swallowed it down. "Do your worst." I snarled back.

  If he thought he could break me with a little violence he was dead wrong. He would never make me crack.
  He looked as though he were about to kill me.
  I thought I knew rage, I had seen it many times before, felt it, experienced it in all forms.
  —But I had never seen rage like this before, the type that struck fear into the hearts of those at the end of it.
  This was different, for many rage was taken out with the hard end of a fist... That was my father's method of choice. For some it came with vile words, forked snakes tongues striking out with the every vile intent.

  But for Malfoy, it didn't come instantly. He was far smarter than that. He let it sit, he let it boil.
  He let it manifest inside of him until it could no longer be controlled. He let it consume him.
  He took it out on everything and everyone around him, for what could he say? Just like me, he was a product of his father.

  We were our parents children. Born in blood and raised in ashes.

  —But one thing was certain, I had never known hatred like this before.

  I expected him to strike me at least, and he looked like he was about to until a sharp voice pierced the thick atmosphere. "Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall said sternly.

  He pulled away slowly, shooting a look so deadly, it nearly killed the flowers hanging above a crimson painting, in the Professor's direction.

  "Until next time, Mudblood." He snarled, before disappearing down the hall just as swiftly as he had appeared.

• • •

  Twisting my mothers quill between my fingertips, I stared down at the still blank parchment. I felt like I should write something, I just didn't know what.

  I hadn't written to her since I'd left for Hogwarts and though I highly doubted she would even read my letter, let alone care, I still felt obligated to update her out of principle.
  My great aunt was a callus old woman from my mothers side of the family, part of me doubted I was even related to her at all, she was such a stark contrast to my mother and I, with her pale, wisened old skin and flaming red hair, whilst we favoured our darker features.

  She had practically ignored me in person since I had came to stay with her, so there wasn't much chance she would pay my letter much mind. She hadn't chosen me to come stay of course, I had been forced upon her... And she didn't let me forget it.

  But after everything that had happened at Dermstrang, I was given no choice but to move, and Beauxbâtons would never dare accept a student with a history as mine, dare they tarnish their pristine reputation with the black mark of crime. Leaving the only other respectable school of magic in the Western Hemisphere; Hogwarts, who wouldn't turn me away due to a few minor discrepancies...

  In the end, after an hour of staring at the blank page I decided to give up. I couldn't concentrate anyways, what with Percy still missing and my encounter with the Slytherin boy.

  One last look at the parchment and I stood to my feet, the vile boys words echoing in my head like a broken record. 
  —Until next time, Mudblood.

  I slumped down into the armchair besides Parvati and Hermione, who had her nose buried deep in some book of Herbology. "What's wrong?" Parvati frowned, "Still worried about Percy?"

  With a sigh I shook my head, "I just don't know where he could possibly be... Or where to even look,"

  "Like I said earlier he won't have gone far, he's probably in the kitchens harassing the house elves." She laughed, and I couldn't help but shoot a look over to Hermione.
  She didn't look up, but all I could think of that my beloved Percy was in the belly of her mangey cat. I would make sure to give a good old kick next time I passed it, or maybe I could team up with Ron and feed it to Hagrid's dog.
  Either way Percy was gone, and I doubted I would be seeing him again anytime soon. This was by no means the first time the little piss ant had ran off, but he'd always just disappeared at home or somewhere he knew. This was different. The castle and it's grounds spanned for hundreds of miles, he could literally be anywhere.

  Hermione chose this moment to tear herself away from her book and stick her beak into the conversation. "I heard you had a run in with Draco Malfoy earlier."

  She phrased it like a fact so that I wasn't sure how to respond. "Yeah?" I said slowly, "Why? Who told you that?"

  I thought that no one had seen us, other than McGonagall, and she didn't exactly seem like one to go around spreading rumours.

  "Doesn't matter." She said sharply, raising her chin. Did she really think she was that superior? "—But I would stay away from Malfoy if I were you. He's bad news."

  "So I've heard." That was exactly what Blaise has said hours prior.

  "Seriously." Hermione raised her lip in distain. "He's a vile, evil, loathsome little cockroach, who has nothing better to do than belittle others."

  "Trust me." I replied, unconsciously rubbing the darkening bruise that had begun to form around my wrist, an unwanted gift from the boy with the grey eyes. "—I know."

***
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