Hatching

After their class in DADA, Rowan was all out of sorts for the rest of the day. Thankfully that had been the last class of the day, and yet by the end of the day, she still found herself entirely vexed by DADA's afternoon lesson. It would have been bad enough to watch a poor creature being tortured and killed, but it was infinitely far worse when she could understand the creature in question. Instead of going to the library, she spent her time in the dorm room away from others. She wasn't in any mood to even be civil to her friends or Severus.

Luckily, the fifth and seventh years gave her a wide breath as they worked in silence on their own essays and studies with the occasional sounds of teacups and chewing on food, breaking the silence. After last year, Professor Slughorn had finally relented under the persistent clamoring of the fifth and seventh years and had permitted the existence of an official snack table in the common room. However, under the condition that the common room must ALWAYS be tidy, all of the students would have to properly pick up after themselves. There had been a bit of protest from some of the purebloods, but in the end, they too had agreed to Slughorn's conditions.

From now on, there will always be piping hot tea and various trays of biscuits for those studying or mingling in the common room to enjoy. It was greatly appreciated by everyone in Slytherin not just by the fifth and seventh years as with winter coming, there would always now be steaming hot drinks to enjoy and keep warm. As such, a single teacup not picked up, and placed on the dishes table for the house elves to gather would cause the culprit to be sternly chastised by the entire house especially the fifth and seventh years as none of them wanted their hard-won privilege to be so easily revoked.

She might have eaten one too many biscuits and drunk more than a few cups of tea, but that night, Rowan found herself rather restless, unable to sleep nor read. Feeling rather out of sorts, she teleported to one of the towers and merely sat on the ledge. The night sky rushed through her hair and numbed her nose. But still, she sat there staring at the night sky.

It was so easy to make excuses for herself, that at times she frightened herself. But was she any different than those before? She had often accused Dumbledore of being so caviler with life for being the chess master that he was. But she was no different. No, in some ways she was infinitely far worse.

With a sigh, Rowan rises to her feet and shakes her head. She simply had to stop being so melancholic. She knew the risks and that triumphed over everything else. If she lived through it, she could always beg for penance. But that was only IF.

Closing her eyes, Rowan feels the knowledge that the albino Horned Serpent had given her, the gift of flight. The Horned Serpent could have easily given her the gem embedded in its forehead, but a good portion of its magic portion had been stored therein. Instead, the giant Snake Mother had given her the gift of flight, something that no wizard could do without aid. The only one that could fly was Riddle and his minions, but even then, it was more a shadowy ash form than an actual flight. (Naturally, Severus could too, but that was years away from now if he learned it all on his own or Voldemort….)

Rowan can hear the giant Horned Serpent hissing in her ears as if it was still present, "Close your eyes feel the wind on your skin. Did you know that wizards and witches once could fly? Oh, yes, but they betrayed our kind out of greed. And ever since that day, the gift of flight was taken away until today."

Feeling the cool wind on her face, Rowan breathes in and out as if meditating and loses herself within her surroundings. "Now simply let go and jump. I know that seems impossible to do and a frightful experience but simply trust in your magic. It will guide you much like how a wizard or witch without knowing how to cast a spell does so via a wand, but the wand always knows."

Taking a deep breath, Rowan jumps as she tries to feel the magic within her and ignores the rush in her ears as the ground rapidly approaches. Suddenly, something dormant inside of her awakens. The wind begins to slow down in her ears as she opens her eyes and finds that she is simply flying on the wind.

Grinning Rowan instinctively knows what to do like a baby kicking in the water. Like a bird, she flies on the currents and in the moonlight. Giving a whoop of delight, she forgets herself as she flies just over the surface of the inky black lake in the moon-lit lake. Her fingers trail down to skim across the top of the lake before she zooms infinitely high up in the air. She hovers there for a moment, before allowing herself to simply fall.

Rowan free-falls for what seems more than several seconds, before catching herself and flying back to the tower. With a grin, she lands on her feet barely noticing her rosy cheeks and nose that are cold. It had been simply perfect.

Tired, but happy Rowan teleports back to the dorms. Flying had been a wonderful experience, but she was rather sleepy now. Flying had cost her a good deal of magic and wouldn't be something she would do frequently unless she wanted to be utterly exhausted and left devoid of magic.

Lost in her inner thoughts, Rowan didn't notice a kind of magical pounding coming from her trunk as she undressed until it grew into a loud drumming. Whirling around, she hurriedly, but trying to be as quiet as possible quickly opened her trunk and reached into the hidden compartment. Using both hands she slowly lifted the watermelon-sized egg that suddenly jerked forward causing her almost to fall flat on her face.

Holding still, she quickly, but silently closes the school trunk, before Rowan teleports back to the hidden chambers. She teleported back to a dark chamber, but with a wave of her wand, the lanterns sprang into flames. With great care, she placed the large egg onto the floor and hurriedly walked over to the bookshelf.

There was a book on rare exotic creatures, and she didn't know a single thing about Great Horned Serpents. Fine, she was lazy, but she had thought she had a lot more time given that the egg wasn't supposed to be born for many months! At least that was what the great mother serpent had said!

Skimming through the book Rowan finds absolutely nothing on the subject beyond how to go about harvesting the rare body parts of the creature. With a sigh, she returns the book to the bookshelf and ponders on what basic science she knew. Since she knew what mother snake looked like the hatchling inside the egg would probably be albino like her mother. If that was indeed the case, it'd be born pink and slimy like any newborn. It would need to eat something, but not right at first as it'd have eaten the yolk found inside the egg for nutrients.

In the wild baby snakes ate living things starting off small by eating things like small rodents, other small snakes, small lizards, and so forth. But if she were to feed the baby she needed to wait until it had shed its first skin which was about over a week away. The egg yolk eaten while in the egg would nicely tide the newborn over. In the meanwhile, she'd need to find a nice warm, and dry place. But considering that this was a magical water-like snake, maybe, a nice warm tub of water instead? She would just have to wait until it was born.

Sitting down Rowan waited as the hours slowly trickled by until the first large crack appeared. The rocking of the egg stopped as the creature inside seemed to be gathering its strength. A bit like a xenomorph, the snake burst out into the cool air. Flicking its tongue, the pink slimy creature slithered tiredly out of the egg to curl up on the rug. "Tired," the tiny snake hissed to herself, despite being the size of a small sand boa constrictor. The creature was probably no more than 47 inches long.

A tiny blue sapphire gem can already be seen on the forehead of the creature. Her eyes are half-closed and dark. But they can easily be seen as remaining sapphire in the future. The tiny snake raises her head and sniffs the air, "Mother?"

"No, guardian," Rowan hissed back.

"Name?" The little snake asked in a little girl's voice.

"You are Nadira."

"Nadira. Like it."

"Your mother chose it for you before she passed away."

Seeing the tired snake curling up to sleep, Rowan asks, "Would you like a nice warm box or a pool of water?"

"This nice," Nadira in her little girl voice, before coiling up.

"Stay here and do not leave this room," Rowan sternly instructed as the sleepy baby merely mumbled in reply. Rising to her feet, she carefully gathered the eggshell. No doubt, the eggshell held magical properties and could later be used. With care, she stored the egg in an empty container, before teleporting away.

It was not dawn yet, but it was only two hours away. The exhaustion from her eventful night caused Rowan to stumble into bed. She hadn't even finished pulling the covers up over her head when she began to snore. It came as quite a surprise the next morning to the girls when Rowan was the last one to wake up as she usually was long gone by the time they woke up.

But it was quickly concluded that her new apprentice classes were to blame. And as a result, she was allowed to sleep in until the last minute. For which, Rowan would be profoundly grateful.