MARA WILLIAMS

The air around me exploded with cheers and yips from the centre table. Gryffindor.
  Two boys with flaming red hair jumped to their feet, shouting something and patting me vigorously on the back as they lead me back to the table but I couldn't hear them over the noice of the hall.

  You'll regret it, the sorting hats final words to me echoed throughout the empty caverns of my mind.
  What did it mean? Or was it just trying to scare me?

Parvati waved me over, telling the boy besides her to budge up to make room for me to sit.

"Congratulations!" She jeered, engulfing me in a massive hug. I froze, sitting there awkwardly for a moment before I remembered where I was and embraced her back.
  You're okay, a small voice within me whispered, you're safe here, Dermstrang is the other side of the world. He cant hurt you here.

  "Thank you." I said quietly. Parvati turned to the boy besides her, "This is Neville."

  The boy gave an awkward smile, "Hey." He moved as if to shake my hand but instead knocked over a goblet brimming with red liquid into the lap of the girl next to him.

  "Neville!" She shrieked, jumping for her feet. "You great oaf!"

  Neville shrunk back, "I'm so sorry Hermione, I didn't mean to it was an accident!"
  The two boys sat opposite Hermione began to snigger, "Nice one Neville."

  I gave Parvati a nudge under the table, slightly tipping my head in the direction of the two boys.
  "Who're they?"

  "Who are they?!" She whispered, "Are you joking? That's Ron Weasly and Harry Potter, and that girl there," She discretely motioned to the girl Neville had just drenched, "—Is Hermione Granger."

  I shrugged, "Never heard of them."
  But it was a lie, I recognised one of the names.
  —Hermione Granger.

  My fists gripped the edge of the table, to prevent them from wrapping them in the girls messy hair and wrestling her to the floor.
  So this was the girl that he obviously thought was better than me.
  More worthy of his affection than me.
  —Prettier than me.

  I sat up abruptly as a stab of pain shot through my chest. The already fragmented shards of my heart moving to pierce my lungs so that I couldn't breathe.

  "Hey." A soft voice said, and I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Are you ok? You look..."

  "—I'm fine."

  I was always fine.

  I shot one last resentful glance at the mousy haired girl. I loved him, so completely and utterly it had taken over my entire being. My whole life evolved around trying to please him, so why was I still not good enough for him?

  It didn't matter anymore. He didn't matter anymore, or at least that's what I tried to tell myself.
  He was the other side of the world, oceans between us, yet still he plagued my thoughts like a deadly disease.

  Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the dark haired boy with thick rimmed glasses, Harry I think his name was, staring at me. When he realised I had seen him he looked down at his hands embarrassed, and his ginger friend shot me a knowing smirk.

  All of a sudden I felt my skin begin to burn, and a shiver ran down my spine for no apparent reason, the fine hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

  "What was that about?" Parvati laughed, obviously noticing the exchange. "I think you might've gained an admirer."

  I brushed it off with a chuckle pretending not to notice, "Who? Harry?"

  The searing feeling didn't subside, so I took deep gulps from the goblet before me but the wine did nothing to quell the heat rising within.

  "Umm not exactly... Mara, don't look now." Her face fell as she focused on something directly in front of us. I shifted uncomfortably, why did I feel like this? "—But the entirety of Slytherin is staring directly at you."

  That was probably why.

  I looked over and sure enough, almost every face on the far table was glaring at me.
Jesus, what had I done to upset them already, I thought... And then I saw him.

  He was the reason I felt like this. The pressing weight of his glowing grey eyes was unsettling to say the least.
  Everything behind them screamed of hollow darkness, the kind that came right after the moon reached its crest and the evil came out of the night.
  The kind that suffocated any kind of light it found beneath its thick cloak.

  A single strand of his platinum blonde hair fell over his face, every angle of his face was violent as his intentions. From the cruel line of his jaw, to the harsh slant of his high cheekbones. An ungodly kind of beauty, not often seen among men, living or dead.

  He looked like a freshly woken storm, brimming with thunder and cursed by lightning. Everything within me screamed danger, screamed at me to run.  
  But I couldn't, I was transfixed. Frozen in time by the boy with the piercing eyes. The colour of thick smoke.

  My mother always told me not to play with fire.
  —But that never stopped me, and this time I was willing to burn.

  • • •

  I breathed a sigh to relief when I saw Percy's cage perched next to my bed when we entered the dorms.

  "Looks like you'll be with Hermione and I." Parvati grinned, motioning to the centre bed, "All your stuff's already been put away so don't worry about unpacking."

  My heart dropped. It was hard enough watching her strut around like nothing had happened, let alone having to sleep less than five feet away from the horrid girl. I wondered if she even knew what she had taken from me?

  After changing out of my robe, I returned back to the common room where Harry and Ron sat before the fire. Parvati and Hermione has opted for an early night, but I wasn't quite ready to go down yet.
  Bright red flames shot up to kiss the base of the mantle, soft tendrils of inky black spiralling like fingers to the sky disappearing up the chimney. I stood there for a while, watching the smoke transfixed, because now all I could think about when I saw smoke was the Slytherin boy.

  "Mara." Ron called, motioning me over to where they sat on plush couches before the hearth. "Come sit with us."

  "Just a moment..." I replied, quickly grabbing a still sleeping Percy from his cage before joining them, tucking my legs up beneath me on the periwinkle love seat next to Potter.

  Both boys stared at Percy with a frown, Ron spoke first, "Is it... Is it—"

  "He's not a rat or a weasel if that's what you're going to ask... He's a stoat." I had been asked that question many times before and had long since grown bored of it.

  "I was going to ask if it's definitely alive." Weasly looked horrified as he eyed the creature on my lap, "I haven't seen it move once since we got here."
  I couldn't help but smile, "He's alive, I promise. He just likes to sleep."

  "—Bit like you then Ron." Harry said, giving him a sharp prod in the ribs.

  "Oi watch it!" The red head flinched, "I'd be careful if I were you... If Crookshanks sees him he'll think Christmas has come early this year."

  "Crookshanks?"

  "Hermione's bloody cat." Rob snarled, scanning through room for the mangey tabby. "Horrid thing, we should've just fed it Hagrid's dog when we had the chance."

  I held Percy a little closer. "He's joking." Harry assured me, seeing the distress in my face.

  "No I'm not!"

  Like pet like owner, I thought checking one last time to make sure the cat wasn't around.

  "So anyways..." Harry cleared his throat, "You're a transfer from Beauxbâtons?"

  "Dermstrang." I corrected.

  "Dermstrang?" Ron didn't even try to hide his confusion, "You don't look like you're from Dermstrang?"

  "Oh yeah?" I raised my eyebrows at him. "—And what's that supposed to mean?"

  Ron's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water as he fought for what little words he could find. "Well.. Nothing.. Ah, Um... I—"

  "What he's trying to say is you don't look like a boy."
  Ron nodded, "Exactly."

  The edges of my lips tugged upwards into a hearty grin, "Strange that..."

  "Wait." Ron's eyes lit up and he sat at the edge of his seat, "...So if you went to Dermstrang, does that mean you've met Viktor Krum?"
  Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You're obsessed!"

  "But Harry there is a chance-"

  "No." I felt my throat tighten and the affirmation came out hoarse. I cleared my throat and tried again,  
  "No... I've never met him."

  The ache in my chest was back, with every pulse a dull stab echoed throughout my ribcage. Every weak beat caused a whole new symphony of hurt.
  —There was no escaping this.

  "...But have you at least seen him, or even been in the same room with him? Bloody hell Harry can you imagine seeing him in the flesh I think I'd—"

  "Ron." Harry's knitted brows indicated he'd picked up on something his friend had not. He knew I was lying, and he could see the hurt beneath the facade.
  "Leave it."

  "I think I'm going to go to bed." Standing up, I gently placed a still sleeping Percy back in his cage, careful not to stir the stoat.

  "Night." Both boys said in unison, but I could tell by the look in Harry's eyes that he already knew too much.

  I went to bed that night praying that with the break of a new morning would come some semblance of sanctity from my mind's wicked torment. It was unlikely but I still prayed that I would wake up without a single memory of my previous life at Dermstrang.

  Maybe one day I would move on... I hoped so.

***
QOTD-What do you think Mara's hiding?
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-TFOA