/

Chapter twenty one

Evil on the third

/

Harry was hypnotizing the entrance to the Great Hall, unconsciously tapping his fingers on the table. Almost nothing disappeared from his dinner plate since he had arrived. Hermione was observing him closely, shifting the small pile of fries from one side of her own plate to another with the fork. Ron, unlike them, was stuffing himself with a proper load of mashed potatoes, while reading the voluminous evening edition of Daily Prophet with interest. It included similar articles as the morning version had offered, yet he was not the only one flipping through it.

There was an unusual calm in the Hall. Almost all the teachers sat in silence at the professors´ table, except for Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore. Students of all Houses were strangely quiet. Most of them kept whispering to each other, while peering at the Slytherin table with three more empty seats, above which an ominous silence was hanging. A few students were also missing from the other Houses´ tables – the siblings of children affected by the terrible disease, who were still lying in the St Mungo´s hospital.

Ginny grimly observed the empty chair across from her, which Daria usually occupied – her friend had been absent from school ever since breakfast as well.

Hermione gave up trying to eat more and pushed her plate away. She glanced at Ron, who still had his mouth full, while reading the page with the headline ´Unknown saviour of wizarding children´ and below it ´Who brought the antidote against the deadly epidemic? The hospital director remains silent!´. Then she turned to her best friend, determined to make him talk.

"Harry?" she addressed him sharply.

"What is it?" he growled gruffly.

"How´s Lupin? You haven't said a word about him since you came back."

"Good. He will be okay. Madame Pomfrey had him transported here for observation. He's lying in the Hospital Wing," Harry replied, not even glancing at her.

"That's great," Hermione stated with relief. "Are you looking out for Angela?"

"What?" only now he finally paid her some attention.

Hermione put on a very reproachful expression.

"Well, yes," he admitted glumly. "She promised that she'll be back in the evening," he added already rather nervously.

"Where did she even go?" she wondered.

"Home, she said…" Harry sighed.

"You shouldn't have let her go alone," noted Ron, who had been listening to them the whole time.

"I know that too!" he hissed angrily. "But I had no heart to oppose her in that moment. She's terribly stubborn..."

"That reminds me of someone," Hermione murmured quietly.

"Ahem… Harry, is it true, that thing with her mother? That she's dead?" Ron asked then, unable to suppress his curiosity any longer.

Harry shot him a look that he had never given his best friend before. "Yeah," he confirmed frowning.

Hermione watched him thoughtfully, while Ron continued his questions: "And you know how that happened?"

Harry stopped tapping the table and nodded grimly: "What I didn't see, I can easily guess."

"Did someone kill her? One of you three?" Ron blurted out and Hermione gasped. Only now did she realize that Harry, Bill or Angela could have caused Mary Rosier's death. She wondered why she had not thought of it sooner, but… maybe she just did not want to think about any of them as of a murderer.

Harry clenched his fists and barely stopping himself from yelling at his nosy friend.

"Could you finally give me a break?" he barked in a rather unpleasant voice.

Ron's expression clearly told him that he was insulted.

"We are your friends, Harry. You can tell us everything, you know that," Hermione defended him.

"Of course I do! You keep repeating it to me over and over again. But you don't need to know literally everything, do you?" stated Harry rather harshly, stood up and walked away to wait for Angela in the Entrance Hall instead.

"What's going on with him again?" wondered Ron.

His girlfriend eyed him somewhat tiredly.

"Well, first of all, he´s still worried about Lupin, that's for sure. And he blames himself for what happened to him. And secondly… Something serious has happened at that castle," Hermione stated with absolute certainty. "And I think it has a lot to do with the death of Angela's mother…"

/

Angela sat strapped with a new belt in a comfortable seat on the ground floor of the Knight Bus, staring blankly into the dark, which was here and there lit by the yellow lights that flickered outside its windows.

After locking down and securing the Rosiers´ house with a new witchcraft protective field, she preferred to use this wizarding transport to Hogwarts. She did not feel up to the proper apparition to Hogsmeade or to suffer shifting through the dusty fireplaces. Although the main reason was that she wanted to delay her return as much as possible. Actually, she did not want to go back to school at all.

Neither Draco nor Claire would be there anymore, but Snape was, who was unfortunately impossible to avoid. She doubted that she would be able to hide from him the hatred, which she now felt every time she thought of him. Not to mention that the children of the Death Eater parents would most likely be familiar with what she did. If not the entire Slytherin House…

The only person she was dearly missing was Harry. Even though she was a bit worried that he would be upset with her… She pushed him away when he wanted to help her. And now, after that ugly confrontation with Draco, she just could not wait to hide in his arms.

Thanks to her pondering, she only noticed at the last bus stop before Hogsmeade, that Stan Shunpike, the guide of the bus, was watching her intently. For a moment, she detached herself from the passing dark landscape outside the window, looked at him and turned away again. She did not care. Let him stare.

But Stan moved closer and still carefully examined her face from the side. Angela was getting depressed. She was tired, her nerves were frayed, her eyes and ears were always on alert for horribly pissed off Voldemort or his minions emerging from somewhere, and now she was being observed by such a guy as if she were a rare animal in zoological garden.

She turned to him sharply, but before she could make a nasty enough objection to his behaviour, he raised a question: "Miss, have we met before?"

Angela gritted her teeth.

"No," she replied sharply. This was her first ride on the Knight Bus and he was too old to be her classmate at Hogwarts.

"But I still feel like I've seen you somewhere before," Stan countered, scratching his nose. Immediately after that, the bus suddenly started moving again and the guide fell into the seat opposite to hers.

Angela did not answer and looked outside again. Nevertheless, she noticed when Shunpike realized who she was. His eyes widened and he paled somewhat.

"Of course, I remember now! You look like that Death Eater, Mary Rosier. Her photo was in the Prophet," Stan gaped at her.

"Really?" Angela drawled, her heart throbbing at the mention of her mother.

"You're not… well, her…" Stan sweated, his face growing even paler. "Her daughter?"

She gave him a hard look: "And if I was, then what?"

"Nothing, nothing, of course that absolutely nothing," Stan assured her repeatedly, struggling to get up.

Angela watched him all the way to the front of the bus where he leaned over to some sturdy man sitting by the door and started whispering to his ear. She sighed heavily. She regretted not using the Floo powder now. An unknown wizard – for one hundred percent an Auror – began to eye her closely. She rather looked away. Unfortunately, that evening she was given one more opportunity to deeply regret not getting to Hogwarts in some other way…

/

As soon as her feet touched the ground near the main gate to the Hogwarts, the doors of the Knight Bus slammed shut and the vehicle shot away at nearly the speed of light. She just shook her head dejectedly, pulled her coat closer to her body because of the evening chill, and made her way to the gate. She noticed a patrol near it, yet she walked calmly on until they sprang upon her from the darkness, wands fully alight, like cheetahs on their prey.

"What do you want here, Miss?" barked one of the patrolling Aurors.

"I'm studying here," Angela retorted teasingly. She was not really in the mood for stupid questions.

"And you're coming back to school this late?" asked the other suspiciously. "It's long past dinner at Hogwarts!"

"And where have you even been?" the first came at her again.

"I was out of school with the permission of the headmaster," she replied coldly.

"Don´t say... With Dumbledore's permission, huh?" the Auror chuckled. "And we're supposed to believe you?"

"Do you have any proof that you are really a student here?" asked the other.

She remembered about the badge Dumbledore gave her last year, but she felt her pockets empty. It probably stayed hidden in her older coat. "Not really…" she admitted unwillingly. "But I belong to the Slytherin House and…"

"No proof, no passing through," the Auror cut her off.

"Then feel free to ask someone!" snapped Angela, already quite annoyed.

"You won't be ordering us around here, young lady!" the second one snapped at her.

"Either go and ask or let me through and stop suspecting me so absurdly!"

"How dare you…" the Auror took a breath for the barrage of curses, but was interrupted by a cold voice.

"That's all right, gentlemen. I know Miss Rosier personally."

Angela almost wailed in despair. Did this bastard have to be the one to come here now?

The Aurors turned to Snape who was standing behind the locked school gates. He was smiling slyly and was already pulling out his wand to unlock the entrance.

The first Auror muttered something about having to check everyone coming in and he and the second one finally moved out of Angela´s way. Snape opened the gate and she walked in, stubbornly avoiding the professor's eyes. She started striding toward the school. Behind her, she heard the closing of the gate and the voices of the two Aurors and then the brisk steps. Snape easily caught up with her.

"Still ill-mannered, Rosier," he snapped as soon as he reached her. "Not saying hello or even thanks. Your arrogance is truly unmatched."

Angela pressed her lips to prevent something vulgar from escaping through them and stared intently at the lit windows of the school, which now seemed impossibly far away.

"Well, you had someone to inherit it from. And now, unfortunately, it's too late for your mother to fix it," Snape continued sarcastically. "She has unlearned that pride eventually."

Angela felt her fingernails digging into her palms.

"I think it won't be a problem to teach you as well," Snape hissed.

She sped up and he did the same.

"If you're interested, I can start this unlearning right now!" the Bat snapped suddenly, grabbing her arm and bringing her to a sudden halt.

"What do you think you´re doing?" Angela snarled like an upset cat, trying to squirm away. His touch made her stomach turn.

"You're more like your mother than you are willing to admit yourself," Snape stated, almost amused.

"Just leave me alone!" shouted Angela, losing control of her emotions.

Severus presented her with his nastiest smile. "I won't do that, Miss Rosier. You can just forget about it. You have no idea what you've caused with your stupid betrayal!"

"I never intended to let myself be burnt with the Dark Mark, never! It was all just pretence, you know that very well!"

"Yes, and a very good one," Snape assumed. "I must admit that."

"Yeah, since you're a master of this field, aren't you?" Angela could not help but go for the scathing dig.

"What do you mean?" he asked suspiciously.

"Nothing what should interest you!" she snorted disdainfully. "Now let me go! I'm sick of you!"

Snape stiffened a little: "You're overreacting, Rosier," he strained through his teeth in such an icy tone; she would not be surprised if an icicle grew from his mouth. "Watch your tongue."

"What? Don't you like to hear an honest opinion?" she sneered.

Snape held her tighter and brought his face closer to hers.

"Rosier, be a little more careful. Such behaviour might not pay off for you," he hissed, his nostrils almost flaring.

Angela was silent because she struggled to keep herself from pouncing on him.

"Otherwise, you could end up like your mother. And she died by the hand of her own daughter, as a selfish hypocrite and a whore!"

Angela's eyes darkened with rage. She barely realized what she was doing at that moment. She took a breath and spat with all her might right into Snape's face. He was so shocked that he released his grip, so she could free herself and almost ran those few remaining meters to the castle entrance.

Gritting his teeth, Snape wiped the glistening saliva from his face and glared after her until she slipped inside.

/

"Angie!" Harry called in a low voice with noticeable relief.

But she dashed past him without looking left or right.

"Angela!" he quickly followed her and grabbed her arm.

His girlfriend turned to him sharply. "What!?" she blurted out so angrily, that he took a step back in surprise. Then Angela finally realized who was standing in front of her and stiffened. "Damn… Harry… I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you," she apologized hastily.

"And who were you expecting?" Harry wondered, pulling her into the shadow of one of the Hall's pillars.

"Do not even ask…" Angela sighed, placing a hand over her forehead tiredly.

"Angie… How are you?" Harry asked seriously, looking at her inquisitively.

She avoided his worried gaze: "Better," she said, although in real, she felt twice as bad as yesterday, especially after that shit which Snape spat on her.

"Liar," he reacted quietly. Of course that Harry did not believe her. He knew her well enough to know she was not all right.

Angela finally returned his look properly. Her eyes were shiny and red.

"I… I just…" she stuttered shakily. "I could not wait to be with you again…"

There was not much of what Harry could say to make her feel better, when she was like this. So, he just pulled her close and hugged her tight. Angela snuggled in his arms gratefully. They stood there wordlessly for a long while. Then Harry pulled her away from him and looked intently into her face.

"You should get a good night's sleep," he urged her worriedly. "You look exhausted..."

"I'm going to, for sure," Angela nodded, trying to smile. However, only an unhappy smirk came out of it. "How is Lupin?"

"Well, he's all right, at least that's what Madam Pomfrey says, but he's in a bad mood and he also scolded me for risking our lives for him. If you want, we could go see him tomorrow. Madame is still keeping him in the Hospital Wing for observation."

"I'd love that," she nodded and looked around. "But… We should rather part our ways now…" she added dejectedly.

Harry glanced around the hall as well and only when he checked that there was no one around, he softly kissed Angela on the lips.

"Thanks, Harry…" she whispered.

"No need to," he assured her.

"Bye for now," she said, pulling out of his embrace.

Angela was not even two steps away from Harry, when a voice echoed through the hall.

"There you are, Rosier!"

She froze like a pillar of salt and Harry backed even further out of sight. Snape rushed to his student with a rather ominous expression. He was paler than usual, his jaws and fists clenched, and his cockroach eyes were sending out metallic lightning.

"This behaviour of yours is beyond all limits!" he hissed angrily. "It wasn't enough for you to stand up against the Dark Lord! You had to really screw up with me too! Remember that you will eat what you cook!"

Only now did Angela look up at him with a disgusted, but surprisingly calm expression: "Go to hell."

Snape went completely red with anger. Angela turned on her heel and was gone in an instant. The professor stood there for a while, before walking away at a very fast pace as well.

Harry stepped out from behind the pillar where he had been hiding until now and looked thoughtfully behind him until he was out of sight. What could Angela have done to make him so angry?

/

Angela sat blankly at her Sunday breakfast, ignoring the hateful looks that the vast majority of her House table sent toward her, including her roommates, who had made it clear the evening before that they were going to make her life very unpleasant.

At least Claire will not show up again, she thought gloomily. Otherwise, it would be maybe ten times worse.

She suspected that some of her classmates were well informed about what happened in the Dark Castle. Especially those, who had one of their parents in Voldemort´s ranks. She still wondered how no one had heard about her and Harry yet.

In front of the plate with toasts lay an open Daily Prophet. Right on the first page, headlines that were somewhat optimistic appeared: Little patients released from the hospital, Rufus Scrimgeour has forbidden the disclosure of the unknown saviour´s identity.

Dumbledore must have arranged this, she thought sourly, wondering why Snape had brought that antidote in the end.

There was also an open letter on the newspapers that the school owl had brought her. Snape had rewarded her with nightly school detentions for two whole months. She was seriously considering not showing up for today just to see how that disgusting Bat would react. She supposed he would not be far from throwing a tantrum.

Then her gaze drifted over to the Gryffindor table and she realized she was missing someone there. She waited a few more minutes to see if she had just fallen asleep, but her bad hunch made her connect with Harry.

Harry, where´s Daria?

He looked up in surprise.

Ah, you don't know it yet…

Not knowing what?

I forgot to tell you yesterday. Daria´s with her grandmother in the hospital.

Angela was horrified. Please, no more bad news…

Why? What happened? she asked.

Someone attacked her in their own home. McGonagall came for Daria on Saturday at breakfast and she hasn't shown up since.

Nobody would have found blood in Angela´s veins at that moment.

"Someone attacked her in their own home…" she repeated to herself.

Angie, sorry, I forgot to tell you. I know you and Daria are friends and… Harry addressed her worriedly.

Never mind, she cut him off curtly. The main thing is that I know it now.

Good, Harry smiled. He then scowled at the rest of the Slytherin table, most of which was staring at lonely Angela.

Angie, where´s Malfoy?

What? she raised her head in surprise this time, unable to understand why Harry asked about it in the first place. It was more than clear that Draco could not be here… Only then she realized that Harry was not aware of her confrontation with him.

How come Malfoy isn't sitting here? Harry repeated his question.

I… He won't come back to school again, she replied, feeling depressed.

Why should he not… Harry stopped mid-question when he remembered that Angela was supposed to have her initiation the night before yesterday. He understood quickly. Wait, is he already… he started, but she interrupted him for the second time, her tone anxious even in thoughts.

I saw him… He came to cancel our engagement.

Harry frowned and his eyes immediately slipped lower to check his girlfriend´s hands on the table. One of her rings was really missing.

I knew that I shouldn´t have let you leave alone… Did he do anything else?

No. He did not, really, she emphasized seeing Harry ´s incredulous expression.

And he´s not here because?

He just cannot come…

Angie…

Let s not talk about him anymore, okay? she closed the matter, got up from the table and quickly left.

Harry felt entitled to be offended now, but he knew that Angela had been through a lot recently. For him to be angry with her just because she was not up to any long talks would be over the top.

/

Angela originally wanted to go back to the bedroom, lie down and not get out of the covers until lunch, but her feet started up the stairs on their own, and she did not find out where they were headed until she stood in front of a large stone gargoyle.

She hesitated for a moment, but then told herself that she had nothing to lose. At least she could ask about Daria. Luckily, the password had not changed since Dumbledore had revealed it to her at the beginning of the school year, so the gargoyle got out of her way without a problem.

She let herself be taken upstairs and knocked softly.

"Come in, Angela," said a noticeably tired voice from behind the door.

Surprised, she walked in and closed the door behind her.

"How did you know it was me, Professor?" she asked instead of greeting.

Dumbledore sat slumped in his chair, the last five copies of the Prophet on the table in front of him, absently cleaning his half-moon glasses with the tip of his robes.

"It was clear that sooner or later you would come. And you probably noticed Daria Prescott's absence this morning."

"Yes," she admitted, her worries even greater now.

"Sit down," the headmaster motioned to the chair across from him and put his glasses back on his nose.

Angela obeyed and looked at Dumbledore inquisitively, forgetting what she wanted for a moment when she realized how awful he looked – dark circles under the eyes, silvery hair and thinning beard, cloudy eyes and a weak voice.

Jus what's going on with him? she thought worriedly.

"So… Is it true that Daria is in the hospital with her grandmother?" she asked urgently.

"Yes, until last night her grandfather was also placed there after a nervous shock, but he is fine now."

"What actually happened?"

"Looks like two Death Eaters burst into their house unexpectedly. Mrs Merrill is in a very bad shape. Her husband was able to call for help thanks to the new alarm system they had."

"Anyone know who it was?"

"Umm, no, but I think Mr Merill saw the attackers."

"Why do you think that?"

"I have a hunch. Moreover, the first thing he wanted, when he recovered a little, was to have his granddaughter Daria sent to him and talked to her for quite a long time."

"That's a bit odd," she admitted, unable to shake off a strange feeling regarding this piece of news.

"But now – let´s get to you, Angela. First of all, I would like to thank you and express my appreciation for saving Remus Lupin, even though you underwent an incredible risk to do so."

"Harry and Bill took just as much risk as I did," she countered.

"I've already spoken to both of them, but you… You lost more than was necessary."

Angela remained silent and peered over the headmaster´s shoulder somewhere in the distance.

"I'm sorry your mother is dead," Dumbledore offered his condolences quietly.

"She was a dangerous Death Eater, so I guess you're not, but that doesn't matter," she reacted quietly. "I'm sorry for both of us."

Dumbledore was silent, watching her thoughtfully.

"I killed her," she stated in a low voice, but still looking away. "I murdered my own mother."

"How did that happen?" asked Dumbledore after a moment of silence with participation. He did not seem too surprised though.

"I didn´t mean to, it was in self-defence, she… I… I don't want to talk about it, if I don´t have to, Professor," Angela requested pleadingly.

"Of course, you have every right to," Dumbledore nodded as if he expected nothing else. "How is Draco Malfoy?" he asked suddenly.

She looked at him in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"You talked to him, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did… But how can you know that?"

"You no longer have the Malfoy family ring on your hand. The only way you could take it off was by cancelling the engagement. And as far as I know, when you left Grimmauld Place, you still had it," Dumbledore explained and Angela finally managed to at least partially banish the worries about the professor's health that were brewing in her. He was still extremely observant.

"You're right, Professor," she sighed. "Even though the term 'talking' didn't quite match it, I saw him. He knew where to look for me. I should have guessed that much…"

"Did the initiation take place?" Dumbledore asked, watching her intently.

Angela stared indecisively at her hands for a moment. She did not want to irreversibly condemn Draco. She could not bear that it should be her because of whom he would be included in the wanted list. Slowly, she shook her head.

"I don't know. I'm not sure," she replied hesitantly.

"He didn't tell you about it?"

"No," Angela replied, but avoided the old wizard´s gaze.

"But he probably won't come to school again, right?" asked the headmaster, giving no hint that he knew Rosier was lying.

"No. And Claire Nott neither."

"I thought as much," Dumbledore sighed heavily, pulling out a parchment from his desk drawer that contained a list of students who had been disappearing from the Hogwarts student desks over time. Angela grimly watched him dip his quill and add Draco's and Claire's to the column of names.

As Dumbledore straightened up again, he saw a flash of despair on Angela's face, but it was immediately replaced by the previous sad expression.

He eyed the young student seriously: "I want to strongly ask you to stay exclusively in the castle premises or at the headquarters. Do not put yourself in unnecessary danger. Lord Voldemort does not forgive betrayal."

"You don't have to remind me of that," she murmured. Besides, he probably already knows about me and Harry too, she thought, almost shuddering. "Still, I'd like to go and see Daria at the hospital."

"But Angela, didn't you listen to me at all?"

"I heard you very well, but Daria is my best friend and I will not leave her alone in such difficult times. Besides, the hospital is brilliantly guarded."

"Then at least I'll send someone with you. For example, Professor Snape, who…"

"No!" the suggested name literally terrified her. "Just not him!"

"Oh, yes, I heard you´ve received a two-month punishment. What did you do to deserve this?"

"Don't rather ask, Professor," she sighed. "You don't have to send anyone with me. Nothing will happen to me at Mungo's," she emphasized each word. "I will be careful and be back as soon as possible."

"Very well," Dumbledore agreed finally. "Use my fireplace and come back for lunch, all right?"

"Yes, thank you very much, sir."

Daria was sitting on a grey couch on the sixth floor of the hospital, staring blankly ahead. There was already a third cup of black coffee on the table next to her. She was tired because she had not slept much at home, she was wearing the same clothes the second day in a row and she was shaking with worry about her grandmother, who was still unconscious. And the most of all, she was completely devastated by the cruel betrayal of the person she loved.

At first she could not and did not want to believe it, but her grandfather was absolutely sure. He heard their voices, he saw their faces. Both of them – father and son.

How could he do that? Why my grandmother?

She was snapped out of her thoughts by the voice of a girl who rushed over to her with a sympathetic expression.

"Daria! Here you are!" breathed out Angela, who had been searching the mess in the hospital for maybe a quarter of an hour. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner, but I didn't know what happened. How is your grandmother?" she blurted out and sat down next to her.

Daria glared at her: "Not particularly. Still unconscious."

"That's terrible. I'm so sorry. What did the healers say?"

"What are you so interested in?!" she snapped.

Angela looked at her in astonishment: "Why are you like this, Daria? Why are you so mean to me?" she asked quietly.

"You certainly knew about it, didn't you?" her friend accused her. "You should have done something like that yourself!"

"What are you talking about?" Angela asked, but Daria´s mood and words were beginning to confirm what she had been thinking all along.

"About that fucking last task! A test from Voldemort!"

Daria's voice echoed down the hall, making Angela look around nervously.

"You don't mean to say that..." she began, but Daria interrupted her angrily.

"So did you know about it or not? You went to the last exam too, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't know! I just suspected something... That..."

"That it was Draco?!" Daria finished for her. "Yes, he was! It was him! Draco hurt her like this, one of the last members of my family!"

Angela swallowed hard. "Daria, be quieter, please," she tried to calm her down. "How do you even know that?"

Daria jumped from the sofa to her feet. "Grandfather saw him with his own eyes! Even his slimy father!"

"I can't believe this…" Angela whispered almost to herself.

"You mean my grandpa's lying?" growled Daria.

"No, of course not…"

"I hate him, I hate him!" Daria interrupted her again. "I just hate…"

Tears welled up in her eyes, the first ever since she had learned of this horror. Angela stood up.

"He said he loved me," Daria was speaking more and more quietly. "So how could he do such a thing?"

Without a word, Angela hugged her and Daria burst into tears.

"Why? Why? Why?" she repeated between sharp gasps for air.

It took a long time for Angela to calm Daria down a bit.

Then they sat down again and Daria starting talking quietly.

"They said it was an hour before midnight when my grandfather was woken up by screams and voices from the kitchen. Grandma wasn't in her bed. He first alerted the Auror Headquarters and then went down. He peeked into the kitchen and unmistakably recognized Draco and his father, whose photo was always in the papers. Draco… Draco was torturing her. The moment he raised his wand at them, Draco's father noticed him and cursed him. It looked bad with him and he probably wanted to kill him mercilessly, but the Aurors had already arrived and they both ran away.''

Angela thoughtfully turned around the silver bracelet that she still had on her left wrist, painfully realizing that she had ruined three lives with her betrayal. She killed her mother, condemned Draco to serve the Dark Lord and was indirectly responsible for breaking Daria's heart. If both of them took that last exam, maybe everything would be different... She screwed up so much…

How can you live with this, girl? the nagging voice in her head asked.

Daria carefully wiped her tear-stained face with a tissue and said more firmly: "When you talk to him, kindly tell him that I never want to see him again in my life!"

Angela looked into her eyes and knew she was serious.

"I don't think I'll ever… talk to him again," she trailed off, looking at the oddly empty fingers on her right hand.

Daria also looked there and widened her eyes: "How did you…"

"A lot has happened, Daria, but I don't want to burden you with it now. You've had enough of your worries."

"No, just talk," her friend urged. "At least I'll have something else to think about… What happened?"

"All right… My mother is dead…" Angela started talking in hoarse voice.