Chapter Three
Narcissa sat down against the tree. She had nowhere left to go. Nowhere at all. She checked her bag and found out she hadn't brought any money. She couldn't believe she had been so stupid! She sighed. She had been so sure that Severus had forgotten about what had happened… it had been so long ago. Suddenly she found something hard poking out of her bag; her diary. She took it out, and flipped to the first page, set 17 years ago…
Dear Diary,
Snape played another prank on me today. I got him back though, a really good jinx. Everyone started laughing, but inside I actually felt bad. He's not really that bad, just really annoying. No one really knows him since he's always reading that stupid book. I know a lot of girls who would want to know him though, for his looks. He'd be okay if he washed his hair more often! Anyway, I'm certainly not one of those girls!
Dear Diary,
Today something strange happened. We were celebrating in the common room, and everyone was getting pretty drunk. Severus kept refusing to drink anything other than water, and I guess Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle took it pretty personally 'cause they forced him. He was pretty resistant at first, but soon he started to really party! I felt bad for him again, so I led him to his dormitory. He would probably hate me in the morning for having helped him… but oh well.
"You should take it easy on the alcohol next time," I told him.
"Why?" he asked, his head rolling.
"Why? Because you could get hurt! You're not used to it," I answered.
"Would you care?" he laughed harshly.
"Not really. You wouldn't care if I got hurt either though," I said reasonably, as he threw up.
"Yes I would," he said at last. "I just wouldn't show it." I looked at him carefully, trying to figure out if he was joking or not. In the end I just said:
"Well that's not healthy, is it? I have to go now. Goodbye," and I started to leave.
"Don't go," he said, throwing up some more. I was so grossed out though, that I pretended I hadn't heard and left anyway. Wasn't that weird?
Dear Diary,
That idiot didn't even thank me today! I was so mad that in the end I just walked up to him and asked him:
"Aren't you going to thank me?"
"For what? You didn't do much. You carried me up the stairs and watched me throw up. You would have been a lot more help if you had stopped them forcing me to drink in the first place," he said, and turned away. The nerve! I, a Black, spoken to that way by Severus Snape, a nobody. I was so mad that as soon as he turned away, I cursed him, and he grew an extra finger (which I'm very proud of; the nurse said it would take a week to get rid of). Lucius Malfoy was being exceedingly annoying today too.
"Narcissa… I heard you helped little Snapy yesterday… went up to the dorm with him… will you come up with me too? I can help you in a different way…"
"Well there is one thing you could do for me…" I said, stepping closer so that we were REALLY close. "You could go away," I said, and then I slapped him. Bellatrix has liked him for ages though, and she jinxed me later… which hurt a lot.
Dear Diary,
As a punishment for cursing Snape, I had to go visit him at the hospital, and spend a whole day with him. It wasn't that bad though. It was a little awkward at first.
"I'm sorry for giving you an extra finger," I said, unconvincingly.
"It's ok. I guess I was a bit of an idiot," he said. "Besides, I think it looks pretty cool!" I was amazed. Snape… accepting an apology so easily?
"So… what do you want to do?" We ended up playing exploding Snap, which was really fun. In the meanwhile, we were making fun of everyone we knew.
"Have you seen his head? It's HUGE! No wonder Evans won't go out with him!" I laughed. "He deflated it the other day, but as soon as he wasn't looking I cast a spell to make it double the size it was before… it was hilarious!"
"Lucius Malfoy: he thinks way too much of himself," Severus said.
"Yeah, and Bellatrix is like his little puppy, following him around everywhere!"
"More like his little pig. She's not very pretty is she?" he laughed. We heard a bell ring and I looked at the time. A whole day had gone by, and I had hardly noticed.
"I better get going then," I said, looking up into his eyes for the first time.
"I guess so," he said. Neither of us moved though. I felt him edging closer, and I closed my eyes.
"Time to go, Miss Black," the nurse interrupted. I left. I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't though.
Narcissa closed the book with a snap. If only she had known then what she knew now…