Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. All rights go to respective owners.
I Can't Go Back to Yesterday
"Miss Davis, if there is nothing else, you may go."
Tracey heard the words, but simply couldn't process them. They sounded garbled and distant — the exact opposite of the terrified cries from the first year Hufflepuff, who had just been dragged into the Headmaster's office by Alecto Carrow.
The boy's eyes were wide in fear. He glanced frantically around the room, looking for an escape that Tracey knew he wouldn't find. The boy suddenly locked eyes with Tracey and, for one moment, his face lit up in desperate hope — before realizing the color of her tie and robes. Tracey felt her heart constrict in that instant: When the boy slumped in defeat and realized that there was no one here to help him.
I'm not like them! The unbidden, but completely true, thought raced into her mind.
"Miss Davis, if there is nothing else, you may go."
Startled out of her reverie, Tracey's attention snapped back to the Headmaster. She tried to shake off the growing feeling of unease and horror, and to instead focus on the message in her hands. Careful not to meet her old Head of House's gaze, she slid a sealed roll of parchment across the desk.
"I'm sorry, sir, there is one more thing. Professor Flitwick wished for me to give this to you—"
The parchment spontaneously burst into flame. Tracey yelped, jumping back. Headmaster Severus Snape sneered at her, before slowly turning to look at Alecto.
"I believe what the Headmaster meant," the Death Eater said, not lowering her wand, "was that if there was nothing else important, you may go."
As Alecto's face twisted into a sadistic grin, Tracey suppressed a shudder at her vicious behavior. The Death Eater then roughly yanked the small student forward. He stumbled and fell to his knees.
"Besides," she continued, "I have a detention to work out with the Headmaster."
Tracey knew she should leave, but she glanced at the first year and felt herself hesitate for a moment. The boy was openly weeping and, for the first time since he had entered the room, Tracey noticed that his arms were covered in welts and bruises.
How could I have possibly missed that? she thought, an uncomfortable feeling settling in her stomach.
"What did he do to deserve this?"
"Excuse me?" Alecto snarled. The boy looked up in shock and Tracey belatedly realized she had spoken her thought out loud.
"I, uh—" Tracey stuttered, trying to come up with an explanation. For the first time since being sorted into Slytherin, her ability to lie and smoothly con her way out of any situation seemed to have failed her.
"Miss Davis," Snape interrupted, his voice like cold steel, "your presence is no longer required here. Return to your dormitory immediately."
Tracey stole one last glance at the horrified first year, before quickly and silently leaving the office.
.oOo.
"What in Merlin's name did you do, Tracey?"
Theodore Nott, one of her closest friends, had her cornered in a secluded section of the library. Tracey sent Theo a withering glare, before throwing up multiple privacy wards.
"I don't know what you mean," she replied icily, once the spells fell into place. "And anything that you think might have happened, should be discussed privately. Really, Theo. You of all people should know that everyone is always listening." She tried to step around him, but he moved and blocked her.
"What I mean," he repeated slowly, as if he was speaking to a child, "is what did you do to put the Carrows in a foul mood?"
"Oh, you mean they're acting unusual?" she snapped back. "I hadn't noticed." She once again tried to brush past him. Theo caught her arm and firmly held her in place.
"Let me go, Theo," she growled.
"Tracey," he whispered, his eyes searching her face for answers, "you have to be careful."
"Or what?" she replied sharply, unfiltered words quickly tumbling out of her mouth. "I'll disappear like Longbottom? Or the Patil twins? Perhaps you mean like the other muggleborns and half-bloods in this school. One morning, I could just not be here because I won't fit into the grand 'Pure-bloods are the Greatest' plan, and no one will ask why. I'll have been forgotten!"
Theo's eyes were growing wider by the second, but Tracey was too caught up in her turbulent emotions to truly take notice.
"And you know why I'll be forgotten? Because I'll have done nothing that matters, Theo! Nothing! I'm useless and I'm supporting them and Morgana, my heart is hurting!"
At the last proclamation, Tracey collapsed into heartbreaking sobs. She could feel Theo tentatively take a step forward and pull her into an awkward hug.
"You're not supporting them, Trace. You and your family are neutral in this war—"
Tracey abruptly pulled away from him, shaking her head. "They were torturing him, Theo! And they were going to continue! And I didn't stop it. I didn't cast the curse, but what I did was just as bad. He thought I was like them. Just because I was a Slytherin."
Theo loosened his grip. Tracey took the opportunity to pick up the stack of books she had been collecting from the desk next to them and stepped past the dumbfounded Theo.
"'Was,'" Theo repeated slowly, a strange expression on his face. "What do you mean, was a Slytherin? Trace?"
"I mean," Tracey said with a shuddering breath, "if this is the freedom Slytherins are passively standing by and supporting, then I want no part of it."