Chapter Eight

Friend?

"You did yourself proud in there." Snape said, his voice dark. He gave a pat to one of my shoulders, which I didn't expect. We passed the gargoyle at the bottom of the stairs and walked into the dimly lit corridor.

"Thank you Sir." I replied in almost a whisper. There were quick female footsteps approaching from round a corner.

"Elixa Amethyst, what are you doing out of bed-?" Professor McGonagall caught sight of me and then Snape as she spoke.

"Dumbledore." Snape told her. She nodded.
"Is there news?" the deputy headmistress asked in low tones to Snape.

"He's dead, as they feared." McGonagall shot a concerned look towards me, but all I wanted to do was get away from it.

"Later Minerva." I heard Snape say, and we continued along the corridor together. When I thought McGonagall was far enough away, I asked Snape a question of my own.

"Sir, did you know my parents?" The potions master raised an eyebrow.

"Yes I did. Your father was in my year, along with Potter's father and friends. Your mother was in the year below." I'd never thought Snape knew my parents, but it didn't really surprise me that he did. Those years gave a particularly good group of witches and wizards from Hogwarts.

"You'll come to my office at the time we arranged to create the lenimentus audio potion before, but tomorrow. You can ask me further questions then Miss Amethyst, but now, you need to get to bed." We went into the Slytherin common room. Snape noticed the group around the fire first.

"Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Alanis, and the rest of you- it may be after curfew, but you don't move until I get an explanation for you all being up." Snape had folded his arms and his eyebrows had lowered into a frown.

"We…" Crabbe started.

"Were waiting for Elixa." Kerry filled in. Snape fixed them all with a stare. He spoke to Kerry first, then Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle.

"You I can almost consider to be telling some truth, but the rest of you I know don't know anything of the sort."

"How would you know Sir?" I asked from behind him. Malfoy looked surprised that I was sticking up for him.

"Get to bed the lot of you. If I catch any of you putting a foot out of line again I might be considering taking points from my own house." His eyes flashed angrily, and we all moved across the room to the dormitories. I followed Kerry and glanced back at Snape before I shut the door.

"Tomorrow," He said, "And be punctual."

Next morning at breakfast I sat down opposite Kerry. Soon after Malfoy had seated himself on my right, Crabbe on my left and Goyle on Malfoy's right. Kerry looked remotely surprised.

"Anything you want Draco?" I asked coolly, reaching for the orange juice.

"Crabbe." Malfoy snapped. His minion grabbed the jug and poured the orange juice into my glass.

"Thank you Crabbe." I said to the Slytherin on my left.
"Is this about last night?" I asked, looking round at Malfoy.

"Well it could be." A movement of black from the teacher's table caught my eye. Snape had seated himself in his normal place and cast a black eye up the Slytherin table. I couldn't help but notice that something in his look warned me to be careful.

"I lied." I replied. Malfoy looked oddly at me.

"What…?"

"Snape knows I haven't got any respect for you." Draco kept his confused look.

"But, I might just be tempted to have some respect for you if you return my favour." He seemed to understand.

"What do you want done?" He asked.

"I'll have to see. It won't be anything too drastic, don't worry." I flashed a smile his way.