McGonagall kept looking at her as if she was something to be pitied. Leia looked out to the students and saw that many of the students met her glance with pity. Even Hermione looked at her that way. Was it something about her?
Leia ate without talking. She couldn't figure out what might be so pitiable about her. Her uncle talked to Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall talked to the woman sitting on her other side. Finally, she stood up and put her hand on her uncle's shoulder. "It's a little hot in here. Can I go outside for a minute?" Her uncle turned and handed her a pair of gloves.
"You can if you put these on." He said. She looked at them and back at him. Where had they come from? It must have been a magic thing. She shrugged and slipped them on. Then Leia turned and walked between two tables to get to the door. She walked down the deserted main hall and out into the cold. Hogwarts had magnificent grounds. There were many beautiful paths she could walk on. She was walking down a path when the sounds of approaching footsteps stopped her. Turning around, she saw it was Hermione. The girl was puffing her way down the path, carrying a sack load of books on one shoulder, and waving her free hand.
"Hullo there Leia!" Hermione called as she approached. "Your uncle wants me to escort you to his classroom." Leia waited until Hermione was close and then grabbed some of the books out of the sack to lessen the load. Leia turned to Hermione as they started the walk back and asked her the one question that had invaded her thoughts during her walk about the grounds.
"Why does everyone pity me?" Leia asked looking at her.
"Pity you?" Hermione asked, clearly confused. "Who pities you?"
"Everyone does. You all look at me with pity in your eyes. Am I so ignorant or ugly that I must be pitied?" Leia asked then took a deep breath. "Because if so, maybe I should find somewhere else to stay. I don't need or deserve..."
"Whoa!" Hermione interrupted her. "We don't pity you because of who you are. It's who you're with. Snape isn't very popular with the students. That is, unless they're Slytherin."
"So everyone feels sorry for me because my uncle is mean?" Leia asked slowly. Hermione nodded then grimaced as Leia burst into fits of laughter. "My uncle is the farthest thing from mean. I swear you must have the wrong man." Hermione shook her head, believing Leia to be delusional. They walked on down to the dungeons and Hermione took a deep breath as she prepared to enter the Potions classroom. When they walked in, Snape smiled at his niece then glowered at the boy sitting in the front row.
"Mr. Potter, if you wish to blow up the school, continue with your wanton potion brewing on your own time. In my class you will follow the procedure. Ten points from Gryffindor." Snape walked over to Leia and led her up to the front of the classroom...er…dungeon. "This is my niece Leia. She will be observing in here for quite awhile. You had better get used to her now." The class sent her curious looks. Leia just smiled. It was a bit weird that Snape could be so apparently terrible in class and yet so nice in private. It was a mystery she was going to solve later. For now, she was going to catch up on her sketching. There were some interesting faces in the class that begged to be drawn.
Re-Uploaded- I added more! W00t!
First Post Author's Note: I know it's short. Unfortunately, December is my month of performances. I have to leave now. I just wanted to give y'all a little instead of making you wait forever and a day. : )