Bitter Rejection

Suddenly the purple liquid began to pour excessively, unceasingly from the hole in her side. Still she felt no eternal pain. She looked at the faces of the people in the group, each one wearing a look of utter shock and horror. Beni turned and ran down the corridor, back towards the dungeons, leaving a river of purple behind her.

Beni burst into Snape's office, gasping for breath. He chocked on the beverage he was sipping, threw a glance at the headmaster who was sitting next to him and rushed to her side, the headmaster at his heels. Beni cringed to think of the conversation she had interrupted, but she needed help. She didn't know what was happening, and worst of all she had never heard of this potion before, which was odd, she should have studied it at school. Snape and Dumbledore however, must have known what it was from the looks on their faces. They laid her down on the desk, poured more potions down her throat that that didn't come pouring out of the hole in her side. When the flow of purple liquid stopped and had been replaced by blood they muttered words to heal the wound in her side conjured up a small bed and left her in the office to rest.

* * * * *

Beni woke up where they had left her. She glanced at the clock on the desk, and realised she had been sleeping for two days. She sat up and swung her long, slender legs over the side of the bed, and stood on the cold stone floor. She found her wand on the desk and transfigured a quill into a hairbrush. She spent thirty minutes brushing out her extremely knotty hair, with help from her wand as well. She found a cloak on the wall and wrapped it around herself; it was excruciatingly cold in Snape's office. She took the opportunity to have a look around.

She sat down at the high-backed chair of his desk. Bottles of ink, bundles of quills and piles of parchment covered the dark wooden desk. She bent down and opened the top drawer on the right hand side of the desk. It was filled with class plans for his first, second, third and fourth years. The drawer below that was filled with class plans for his OWL class and his sixth years and the bottom drawer was filled with the plans and assignments for his NEWT class. She moved over to the left hand side of his desk. The top drawer was filled with letters. She flicked through a couple. A lot of them were from Dumbledore and Fudge, she assumed they concerned his work. The second drawer was also filled with letters and had files in it too. The letters were all from people whose names she recognized – death eaters. She slammed it shut quickly, feeling a burning sensation in her stomach.

Feeling sick she left the bottom drawer alone, and moved clumsily to the bookshelves facing the desk. She found it strange at first that Severus had no photos of his family around his office, but then remembered the terrorizing vision of his childhood that she had seen in her crystal ball a few nights ago. She scanned the spines of the books – they were all thick volumes full of complex potion recipes. She got a funny feeling that there wasn't just a plain brick wall behind that bookshelf – a secret lab perhaps, but she didn't want to pry that much.

She moved past heavily locked entrance to his office to stare at the large cabinet that dominated the left hand wall of the room. On top of the cabinet were open shelves filled with glass jars containing various types of floating objects. Beni recognized most of them from her studies at her old school. The cupboard doors at the bottom of the cabinet were chained and padlocked shut – she assumed this was his private stores.

She crossed to the back wall of the room, which was completely bare except for a tall, prestigious, almost domineering wardrobe type box, which radiated an aura of secrecy. Beni could sense the powers of the excessive locking charms placed upon it, this she knew was where Severus kept the more personal things concerning his confidential occupation. Next to the cabinet was a set of black, twirling stairs that could only lead to one place – his bedroom.

Cautiously, warily, discreetly she proceeded to climb the staircase. She found the heavy, black door at the top unlocked, and pushed it open. His room was simple. Almost everything was drab – the grey stone of the walls, floor and roof and the black of his wardrobe, the small desk in the corner and the large couch against the back wall where he lay - fully clothed, in a deep sleep. A Nundu skin lay in the centre of the room. Beni moved onto it, feeling the furry skin of the monster under her bare feet. The she moved to sit down in front of Severus, his cloak around her protecting her from the deathly cold of the stone floor.

She brushed his medium length, dark, matted hair out of his eyes, and lightly touched his cold cheek to wake him. He stirred slowly and opened his eyes.
"Beni." He croaked her name, "W…What are you doing up here?" He sat up quickly. She felt it might be wrong, being in his bedroom and all.
"I should go – I came to tell…oh – I'll tell you later, I should – I'll go." She stammered, standing up with a jolt and moving quickly towards the door. Severus jumped up and pulled her back, one hand gripping her arm just below her elbow, and the other hand firmly gripping her waist. He steered her back to the dark, tattered couch that was obviously his bed, and motioned for her to sit down, now seeming a little embarrassed of his untidy, drab living space. He sat down beside her, feeling a little awkward at first – no one but himself, and often a post owl ever came into this room, but Beni was one of his best friends, one of his only friends, so he loosened up after a moment.

"What did you have to tell me?" he asked her gently. Beni sighed deeply.

She knew she needed to tell him; in herself she couldn't stand it any longer. The feelings needed to be freed.

"I think I'm in love." She said hesitantly, biting her bottom lip in uncertainty.

"With who?" he asked, surprised and feeling a strange jolt run through his gut.

"You." She said simply, her voice full of a dull anxiety. Severus gaped at her, undecided as to what to say to her sudden, unexpected confession.

"I'm sorry." She said quietly, avoiding his eyes, almost shameful.

"Beni…how can this happen?" He asked her. She couldn't pinpoint whether his tone was irritable, exasperated or aggravated.

"I'm sorry." She said again.

"What do you want me to say?" he asked her, suspicious and confused.

"I don't know Severus!" she moaned, "Something! Anything!" her voice a desperate cry.

"Beni…I – just…don't under – I don't know…what, I mean – " Severus stammered. He seemed to be having trouble coming to terms with what Beni was saying.

"What am I, I mean – what are we going to do?" she asked helplessly.

"Oh my God! How can you do this?" He yelled at her, although his sudden aggressiveness didn't affect her.

"I needed to tell you how I felt, Severus! Wouldn't you have done the same?" she yelled back at him, matching his temper and the volume of his voice.

"NO!" he yelled, his black eyes flashing.

"People can't keep their feelings hidden forever!" Beni screamed at him, she thought he would have reacted differently, she had admittedly expected him to feel the same, but if not she hadn't expected him to be this way about it.

"Yes they can Beni! They can if their feelings SHOULD be kept hidden!" He yelled, feeling incredibly out-of-place, this was a new experience for him.

"What's so wrong with my feelings?" she whined loudly, feeling her eyes flash red and the tears welling up behind her eyelids.

"I'm…I'm a teacher and you're…a student…I" he spluttered loudly, feeling a little pathetic.

"Severus! We're only a few years apart!" Beni yelled at him, willing him to stop saying the things he was, she wished he would just shut up and agree with her, but this was Severus she was dealing with.

"Did you actually think that this would go anywhere?!" he continued to yell at her.

"What do you mean?" she asked him, completely distressed, the colour of her eyes now a perfect mirror of blood.

"Can you imagine if we began dating? The things people would say?!" He said, looking completely insane.

"PEOPLE WOULDN'T HAVE TO KNOW!" she screamed at him, realising he must be embarrassed about it. She was about to walk out, although she felt like hitting him as hard as she could for being such a bastard. She did think the better of that idea though; she honestly didn't think anyone could take Severus down.

"PEOPLE WOULD FIND OUT, BENI!" he yelled, wishing that she would just leave.

"Why are you so worried about what other people think all of a sudden, Severus?!" She shrieked, tears pouring down her pale cheeks.

"Because people are going to think and say dirty things, and that's what makes it seem so wrong!" He explained, lowering his voice slightly, knowing that he was offending her.

"Fine." She sighed, finally giving in, "If you're going to be that way about it, just forget it!" she said bitterly, through gritted teeth.

"WHAT ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY?! HOW ELSE IS THERE TO REACT, BENI?! I'M THE ONE BEING REALISIC HERE!!" He hollered at the fragile figure in front of him, although she stood her ground well.

"Fine! Just you be realistic. Forget it, Severus!" she said in a deathly quiet voice that did not show her tears. She wished she was dead, no, she wished she was dying slowly…painfully. She turned briskly and stalked towards the door.

"BENI! COME BACK HERE!" he roared at her, willing everything that had just happened to be a dream, he wished it had never happened.

Beni slammed the door of his bedroom shut, walked lightly down the stairs and threw his cloak on the floor, the thick folds of cotton immediately absorbing the dampness on the ground. She slammed the office door shut, the walls around her vibrating from the force and the inertia.

"Beni! Wait!" he cried after her, almost glad that no one was there to hear the tears and the desperation in his voice, the smooth, deep manliness in it gone haywire. He stood, stunned, in the middle of the room.

* * * * *
Beni stormed through the corridor. She knew she shouldn't have done it, but it had seemed inevitable…until now. She wanted to disappear, to hide away in some dark corner where no one could ever find her. She turned a corner and came face to face with a large mirror.

She stared at herself, at her long, now brushed, black hair, her cold, pale skin and her flashing silver eyes. She scowled, and wished she had a cloak or something to hide her nightdress. It was clingy, black and almost see-through. She wasn't wearing anything underneath it either, and the top of the dress, just above her breasts was made of lace.

She hurried down the corridor and into the Slytherin common room, stalking in the shadows, out of people's eyesight. It was fairly empty, because it was early Monday morning, and she slipped through un-noticed. She hurried to her bed and dressed quickly. She wasn't hungry, so she skipped breakfast, taking refuge in the library instead.

When the bell rang for first period, she stayed in the library, hidden in her own safe, protective corner. She didn't feel like going to second period either, but the library was boring her. She got up and wondered around empty corridors, staring at the pictures, trying not to think of reality.

She turned a corner and inevitably, there was her class, all of them facing her with their hands behind their backs. They smiled malignantly when they saw her, like they had been waiting for her. She quickly observed the fact that there was no teacher present. Malfoy and his little 'gang', who were standing at the front of the group, began to walk towards her.

She had immensely strong impulses to turn and run and never look back, but once again she stood her ground. A second later she knew she should have trusted her instincts and gone with the former action, because Goyle grabbed both of her wrists and twisted her hands behind her back, and drove her into the wall. Her head smashed against it, and she felt a tiny line of blood trickle down her face right next to her eye.

Then the rest of the class advanced upon her, and began to spray her with deodorant, and throw small buckets of petroleum at her. She squirmed and screamed, trying to bite Goyle's arm so that she could get free. It was only so predictable what they were about to do, but escape was not a current option.

Malfoy and Potter, who had both disappeared for a few seconds returned, pouring a huge drum of petrol over her head, soaking her hair and her clothes. She shut her eyes tightly and held her breath, trying to block the foul liquid out of her senses.

Then Goyle let her go, and it seemed like everyone was moving away from her. She took a breathe, and slowly let it out in a sigh of relief. She looked around and realised that the people moving away were also covered with spots of petrol. Then Granger stepped forward. Beni winced as she realised that even though Potter and his friends hated Malfoy and his friends, so much that each wished the other to be damned to the depths of hell for all eternity, they could still join forces to try and rid themselves of Beni.

Granger pointed her wand at Beni, who glared back her. Whatever Granger had to do to her was probably no worse than something that had already happened to Beni. They were Beni's last thoughts before a long, thin, jagged flame came flying from Hermione's wand towards her, and immediately caught the deodorants and petroleum that covered her.

They watched as Beni was consumed in flames, as she fell to the floor, screaming. A terrified, painful, blood freezing scream, they caught sight of her face every so often as the flames thinned. Her eyes were wide open, the silver colour so distinguishable through the flames. Her moth open in one long, never ending scream. Her pale skin darkening, burning and curling before their eyes, each millisecond that they watched her seemed like an hour.

Beni panicked at first, but when she fell to the floor and began to roll around, trying to smother the flames, she had realised she would burn to death even quicker if she kept it up. She reached into her robes, expecting to find ash instead of her wand, but it was still there, melting more than burning in the heat.

She quickly muttered a freezing spell, using a mixture of ice, snow and water to kill the flames. The class dispersed with groans of disappointment, while Beni lay groaning on the floor in pain. After a while she picked herself up and limped to the nearest bathroom.

She quickly walked to the mirror. She looked at herself, to see the damage that the fire had done. The end of her hair was burnt severely, and was now hung around her lower rib-cage area, instead of below her backside. The skin on her face was not burnt as badly as she had expected it to be, but the skin on her legs was black, in some spots it even had a blue tinge to it, and looked as if she was rotting. And her arms - when she looked at her arms she was forced to look away quickly. The skin was not black, but red raw, and hung from her arms as if it were dripping from her.

She used her wand to fix it up, and to heal her various other wounds. She sat in front of the mirror hating everything around her. She hated her class. She hated this school and it's teachers. She hated the world. She hated everyone. She hated life, and she hated herself.