I'm in the process of rewriting this story, keeping most of the plot threads in place but just putting it together better.
This story wasn't finished by any means and this incarnation ends rather abruptly, so I apologise for that.
The rewrite is in early stages (at the time of this edit) but will surely move a long.
First Story, hope you enjoy! Constructive Critique welcome!
Thanks for the help with the spacing :)
I can't fit the pairings in to the summery so here are the current pairings, though they may evolve:
HarryxOC Friendship
DracoxOC Friendship
SnapexOC Hateship
HermionexOC Friendship/One sided infatuation/admiration
I hope that these pairings do not interfere with your enjoyment of the story if you are not fond of them.
I awoke with a gasp and my body heaved with sobs.
Tears streamed down my face and though I wiped them away with my wrist, they kept coming.
I hugged legs tightly and wept in the cold winter morning.
I had just had one of the most terrifying nightmares I had ever experienced.
Shadows, pale skin, and I was running for my life.
I couldn't place what was happening, but it was terrifying.
I poked my wet face out of the curtains that were drawn around my four poster bed and saw that the dorm room was completely empty. Relief fluttered through my stomach briefly as I realised that no one would witness my dramatic start to the day. It comforted me slightly, knowing that I could get over this without people fussing about.
I took several deep breathes and stood shakily off my bed. I tried to remember what the nightmare was about, but could remember nothing but the dark, the shadows, the glow of pale skin. What in the world could have terrified me so?
I was still shaking with fear, but decided that since it was just a dream I didn't need to be too worried about it.
I forced myself to stop thinking about the nightmare and changed into my Hogwarts uniform.
I brushed my hair quickly, applied some make up to cover up my sleepless, bruised looking eyes, grabbed my already-packed tote bag and rushed out to the common room.
"Hello Amanda!" Ron greeted me enthusiastically. He and Harry were the only two in the area.
"Hello Ron." I replied, then turned to Harry who sat to Ron's right on the sofa in front of the fire, "Ready for breakfast?"
"Sure am," Harry replied and then indicated to the entrance of the common room with his head, "Hermione went on ahead with Candice, they're going over Candice's potions assignment."
"Candice sure does ask Hermione for help a lot," Ron started, a skeptical look crossing his face.
"And we don't?" I reminded him, "just last night you had her read over your potions assignment!"
Ron nodded and shrugged with a smile, "Probably just notice it more because it's not me asking."
Harry stood and grabbed his bag off the ground near his feet, and as Ron did the same he said;
"Let's go then!"
It took us the usual amount of time to arrive at the Great Hall but once we were there it was almost a nightmare to find a spot! The Hall was packed with students, but Candice managed to shoo away some younger Gryffindors so we were able to get seats next to her and Hermione.
"Hey Candi," I greeted Candice by her nickname. She gave me an angry look over her rectangular glasses before turning back to Hermione.
I ignored it, as I knew it was just a reaction to the use of her childhood nickname, and turned back to Harry and Ron.
"So, Potions first, ay?" I said as I helped myself to bacon, eggs and toast.
"Ugh, I'll hate leaving the morning sun behind to go down to that dank place." Ron said, "we could be practising Quidditch right now."
Harry and I nodded, our mouths full of food. Ron shovelled food into his too but kept talking.
"Since the Slytherins have potions with us, it'd be great if we just have this morning for practice because then Malfoy wouldn't be able to spy on us!"
I swallowed and said, "I don't usually see Malfoy on the grounds when we practice...but I wouldn't be surprised if they had some way of knowing how we went each time."
Ron and Harry agreed, and we ate in silence and listened to Hermione and Candice pore over her work.
We were almost late for potions and as a result, weren't able to find the best tables.
Hermione and Candice had a table together as did Ron and Harry, but they were dreadfully close to Slytherin side of the room. I had to take a table to myself as No one apart from my friends would sit with me in this class, or really any class. I was once told by Neville Longbottom that he found me an explosive distraction. He sat now 3 tables away with a Slytherin, no doubt finding him less scary.
Today, we were continuing our brewing of Trundlewar; A Potion that will cause the drinker to lose their eyesight for 24 hours; named after its creator Tusker Trundlewart, the notorious prankster. I sat slicing Cowbane when Snape slowly came up behind me to glower.
"Only up to Cowbane, Miss Marlin?" He sneered, "you should be adding Shrivelfig by now."
"I started my potion late last class, Professor Snape." I countered, feeling agitated at the intrusion, "I was too busy being enamoured by the declaration of your feelings towards Neville's failures."
Snape did not falter.
"If you were so enticed by me, Miss Marlin, You would have heard that I asked everyone to start before I began to converse with Mr Longbottom. 10 points from Gryffindor, and Detention."
I scoffed at his figure as he departed my table. I threw the sliced Cowbane in to my cauldron and looked over at Harry and Ron, who were chuckling quietly at my retort. I smiled at them briefly and looked over to Hermione and Candice, who were not so pleased. Hermione seemed impatient and Candice looked at me over her glasses, her brow furrowed with a worried expression. I gave a small, reassuring smile back.
At the end of the lesson, the class cleared up our tables and carried our cauldrons into a separate storeroom and set them up to continue to brew. After, I joined everyone outside the front of the dungeon classroom.
At the end of the lesson, I carefully placed everything back into my tote bag expect for my cauldron that along with the rest of the classes, was moved to a separate room to continue to brew, and joined the gang outside the front of the dungeon classroom.
"Ugh," I began as I locked eyes with Harry, "ugh ugh ugh."
"I couldn't have said it better," He chuckled.
"An astute observation." Ron replied with faux class and waved his hands dramatically in front of him.
Candice gripped her messenger bag closer to her body and shot me a worried look.
"Don't worry Candi," I whispered, "it'll just be scrubbing cauldrons. He's as imaginative as a string of fish crap." She gave me a wry smile.
We all headed towards the Great Hall, but at last minute Candice turned towards the stairs.
"where are you going?" I asked her in shock. Wasn't she going to hang out with us?
"To study," she replied, looking at the ground. She fidgeted with her messenger bag.
"But we've got study time after next period," I said, "just do it then!"
She began to turn red.
"She wants to study Arithmancy, Amanda." Hermione said suddenly and then walked off to join Candice and in a quieter tone said "come on I'll go over last lesson again with you."
"Thank you." Candice whispered in reply, not looking up from the ground.
"Ugh, studying between classes? This is why I chose Divination. TOTAL bulge period, aye?" I turned to Harry, who laughed and nodded.
We went into the Hall and sat down next to Neville, who was stressing over his copy of the Potions Manuel we used in class today.
"What's wrong, Neville?" Ron asked him as we sat down.
"My potion turned green!" Neville said, "GREEN!"
We looked at him with puzzled expressions.
"It's not even supposed to become a COLOUR!" He shouted nervously at us and then flipped back to the previous page in his book, going over the potion again.
I shrugged at Harry and Ron, and poured them both a cup of Pumpkin Juice.
I lifted my cup in celebration.
"TO DETENTION!" I declared, and toasted with the others.
We lined up outside our Divination class early. Ron had already taken out his textbook and was pretending to read the fortunes of those behind us.
"You will meet a STUNNING YOUNG MAN with FLAMING RED HAIR whom you will SET YOUR ROMANTIC SIGHTS UPON WITH HASTE."
Harry and I were roaring with laughter, as was Neville, the current recipient of the reading. He had temporarily lost his nervous interest in his failed potion over Ron's dashing romantic spectacle. The roof hatch flung open, and Professor Trelawney's head poked out, hair cascading everywhere.
"Alright Class!" She said, "today we're reading Tea Leaves!"
She pulled herself back up and disappeared into the classroom, leaving us to enter at our leisure. As we did the scent of many different flavours of tea wafted through the air, thankfully overpowering the usual smell of perfume. Harry, Ron and I took to our usual seats near a window which we would crack open to relieve ourselves of the overwhelming nature of the room sometimes. I started to brew the hot water for the tea.
Professor Trelawney began her usual spiel on divination; a flowery and prosed speech about how all of us are gifted, how wonderful it an opportunity it was to predict the future and how we all can and will do so in her class today.
Barely listening, my thoughts roamed to the detention that was going to be inflicted upon me tonight. What boring thing will I have to do this time? Scrub cauldrons? Do lines? Disgust slowly filled my stomach as I thought of Snape but suddenly I was snapped out of it by Harry.
"Time to 'divine'," he said quietly as he nudged my arm. I glanced at him quickly before taking my tea off the table. It had just been poured by Ron who was now slowly sipping at his own.
"Breathe deeply, My Students, and clear your mind...for you cannot expect the future to unfold in front of you if you are unwilling to perceive it!"
I settled back into my chair and took a deep breath in, savouring the sharp scent of the mint tea.
I took a sip and relaxed, closing my eyes and listening to Harry and Ron talk about Quidditch. Eventually, I made it to the bottom of my cup and I huddled together with Harry and Ron as we tried to make out the symbols.
"Mine kind of looks like an egg…" Ron said quickly, and started flipping through pages in the our textbook Unfogging the Future.
"An Egg?" Harry repeated and took the cup out of Ron's hands to inspect it, "It looks rounder than an egg."
He looked into his own cup; "mine looks like...a shovel?"
I gave him a funny look and peered down into my own cup. It looked just like-
"A Skull?" Harry spoke quietly, "That can't be good."
Ron began feverishly flipping pages and stopped at S.
"Skulls." he began to read, " Skulls represent 'Danger that Lies Ahead.'" Ron looked at me in surprise, "Trelawney likes danger. She'll have a field day with this, You're gonna get great marks."
I smiled sheepishly. Trust him to find the best of this.
"What's shovels about then?" Harry asked, and Ron flipped back a few pages.
"Says here you're going to 'Dig Deep' soon."
"Dig Deep?"
Ron shrugged and began looking for the egg entry.
"Study Period is for studying, Amanda, not whining." Hermione muttered dryly as she made an impatient face at Harry, Ron and I.
"Really, Hermione? I can't tell with the example you're setting." I quipped back, embarrassed that she had to say something. She shot me a dirty look and went back to checking Harry's potions assignment 'for the final time'.
I glanced at Candice, who was too deep into her Arithmancy textbook to notice anything around her, and turned back to Harry and Ron.
We were sitting in the Library during the double study period; opting for a more enclosed environment then the study hall we usually sat in.
"So anyway," I began to whisper to the boys again, "how annoying is Snape giving me detention. I mean really."
"Only 10 points taken though," Ron stated, "if that tells us anything it was that he was being lenient."
We chuckled together.
"But seriously, he gives us a hard time, ALL THE TIME. Like I said, he was badgering Neville something fierce last lesson; nearly gave him a fully fledged panic attack but I get detention for talking back? How is that even allowed?"
"We've tried to talk to other teachers about it before," Harry replied as he looked up from his Divination Work, "It's like he's untouchable. He's the only teacher that acts this way. Even Quirrell was polite and he was harbouring Voldemort!"
Ron and I grimaced at the mention of He-who-shall-not-be-named but Harry ignored us.
"That's true, though," Ron said, "Quirrell was positively adorable compared to Snape…"
"Compared to Snape, the entirety of The Monster Book of Monsters are cuddly creatures, including the book itself."
"That would be a more believable observation if you actually read books, Miss Marlin." A deep, gravely voice sounded out behind us. I nearly fell out of my chair in my haste to turn around.
"Professor Snape, shouldn't you be out chasing Neville about the liquid lawn he created today?" I spoke harshly, surprised and angry as the words came out of my mouth.
"You cannot talk, Miss Marlin, Your potion has exploded."
"What?" I gaped at him.
"Your potion," he spoke slowly, "has exploded."
I sat for a few moments in confusion. I followed the instructions exactly!
"How?" I asked, the words falling from my mouth.
"A sudden release of energy caused the liquid to find itself coating the room." Snape spoke coldly, then chuckled. It was a concerning sound.
"Luckily, You will not be alone tonight, Miss Merlin, as your friends -all of them- will be joining you." he looked over my head towards the whole of our table.
"Detention. All of you. Tonight. 5pm." He leant forward, locking his eyes with mine. They were angry; furious even.
"Do. not. be. late."
He turned sharply and walked away, taking my breath with him.