Chapter Twenty-seven
Pained Souls
Mrs Norris appeared in the corridor.
"Yes Mrs Norris. I'm on my way back. Nice cat…" I skirted round her and jogged down the corridor.
"Liar." Came a voice. I looked round.
Draco stood with his arms folded. "You said you were going to see Professor
Flitwick, but you saw Harry Potter instead."
"Draco, I don't-."
"I thought you and I were going to last."
"I said I wasn't that sort of person, remember?" It sounded awful out loud, but it was too late to take it back.
"You're seeing Potter- I hope you're happy!" I reached out to stop him, but he threw me off.
"Draco!" I called, sounding pitiful. I watched his back as he walked away. There was movement to my right, on another corridor, I glanced towards it.
"You should be upstairs." Snape told me.
"Did you just set that up?" I asked, my voice verging on angry if not disbelief.
"No, I didn't. Mr Malfoy did it all himself. Proves you're right, he does have a brain in there, even if it isn't used correctly."
"I bet you're pleased then."
"Oh, no, come on, I quite enjoyed watching you make a fool of yourself…I never supported your decision." The first part of his sentence could almost be interpreted as a pathetic kind of sarcastic joke. It didn't go down well with me.
"Just shut up." I'd lost my temper for the first time in a long while. "I'm sick of everyone judging me! I've enough worry at the moment with my exams and losing my parents without you all trying to make me into someone I'm not. My father was a Gryffindor and there's nothing you can do about it, so do you mind giving it a rest?!" My uncle's face was slightly surprised, then it turned darker. He seized me by the shoulder and pushed me against the wall.
"If you so much as dare talk to me like that again, I will personally see that you do go back to that house and you don't come out of it alive. You think you're under a lot of stress, try having the mark on your arm, piles of paperwork and everyone suspecting you of being a traitor without having a stupid niece who thinks she know everything!"
"Behind you." I whispered. Severus let go and stepped back, looking round slowly.
"Good evening Severus, Elixa." Professor McGonagall looked suspicious, her eyebrows raised.
"Good evening Minerva." Snape replied. I was still flat against the wall.
"Could I have a word Miss Amethyst, about how you're catching up?" She shot a slight glare at Snape, and beckoned me with a finger.
"Is everything alright?" She asked quietly, once we'd moved away from Snape.
"Fine Professor, I just lost my temper and so did he. It's been threatening to happen for a while." She frowned.
"Elixa, if he's hurting you, you don't want to have him looking after you."
"He's not hurting me Professor. We're both hurting inside that's all, and there's nothing much you can do about that." She nodded.
"My door is always open, as deputy headmistress and as your teacher, you know that Elixa." I nodded. She patted my arm in a motherly way. I realised how much I missed my mother again. I glanced towards Snape who was watching us from where he'd pushed me against the wall.
"Perhaps one day I'll walk through it Professor. Perhaps one day…"