Annabelle

With the dawn, the higher powers took pity on me and I fell into a dream. Waking up with an alarm clock a couple of hours later, I regretted that I could fall asleep at all, as my head was breaking incredibly hard. I struggled out of bed, my muscles buzzing from Draco's grasping hands. The girls around were noisy, getting ready for breakfast, but I didn't feel like talking to anyone.

After cleaning myself up and drinking a headache potion, I stared into the round mirror with a gilded frame hanging on the wall beside my bed and was horrified by my own reflection. The skin was too pale and somehow lethargic, the eyes were swollen from tears, and under them there were huge dark circles from a sleepless night. Even my naturally bright beauty did not save my appearance. I braided my long hair into two braids, otherwise they would randomly stick out in different directions and tried to clapped blood to my cheeks so that at least some blush appeared, but everything was in vain and I abandoned this idea.

Going downstairs to the common room, I found Aurora, who had long since awakened.

"Well, where did you go yesterday? You left me alone in Hogsmeade and there was like... In Merlin's name, what's wrong?" she gasped at the sight of me and I, taking her by the arm, went out into the corridor with her.

On the way to the Great Hall, after making sure no one was listening, I told her the events of the previous evening. Ora was horrified.

"What a nightmare! Is he all right?" My friend blurted out and immediately added. "And how are you?"

I didn't answer, just bit my lip and shrugged. How am I? Even I didn't know. I was still tormented by Draco's words and what I had done. And I was terrified of what would happen to me now.

Sitting down at the table, I didn't feel like eating. A piece didn't go down my throat, and the smell of fried sausages and fried eggs just made me sick.

"Annabelle!" suddenly someone called me cheerfully. "You got a note! Oh, Anna, what's wrong with you?"

It turned out that it was third-year Astoria who ran up and stopped, as if rooted to the spot, staring at me. Well, apparently, I make a "wonderful" impression.

"Thanks Astoria. You can give me a note," Ora helped out, noticing that I did not react in any way and sent the girl away. "It says here that Professor Snape is expecting you right after breakfast..."

I took a deep breath. That's what needed to be proved — I would definitely be expelled, since he did not consider it necessary to postpone this conversation until the evening, after school.

"Anna, stop it! Wouldn't they exclude you now? Professor Snape is a very understanding person." My friend lowered her voice, trying to cheer me up.

I smiled weakly at her in response and decided there was nothing to delay, time was only killing me, I should go to our Head now.

As soon as I got up from the table, the owls flew in, delivering the mail, and one, a huge brown owl, was heading towards me. I did not immediately notice what she was carrying in her paws, but when the red color loomed before my eyes, it was too late and I was horrified.

The owl released a blood-red envelope right in front of me and it immediately came to life. Merlin, all I needed was a Howler! It's better right away with Avada, why delay?

The envelope opened, preventing me from running away from it. The letter burst into a deafening yell:

"Annabelle Lucretia Black!

How dare you embarrass your family like this? Your behavior is outrageous! I am extremely disappointed!

I closed my eyes to a lot of things, but to this ...

You managed to break a lot of rules and traditions of our family, for which you will be very severely punished!

How dare you use a combat spell inappropriately, damaging your fiancé, a pureblood wizard?! You shamed us in front of the Malfoys!

It's your luck that the engagement cannot be terminated, otherwise they would absolutely definitely refuse such an ungrateful daughter-in-law! This is a humiliation for our family! We did not expect such an outrageous and low act from you!

I'm starting to wonder if you should be disinherited and exiled from our noble Black family!"

The letter ended this angry tirade and tore itself to shreds. My heart was beating wildly from the shame I had experienced. Tears welled up in my eyes, and, trying not to look at everyone who, of course, witnessed my humiliation, I ran out of the hall like a bullet.

Why is everything like this? Why should I suffer because I was hurt? And I just fought back... Now the whole school will laugh at me, point the finger at me, as if I were the last fool. Who will need me if I am expelled from my family? Dishonored, disinherited Black. I even have nowhere to go... None of my friends will accept me, because I will be a stain on the reputation of their family. And what should I do then? I won't have any money, no roof over my head, no family...

I knew that my grandmother was really capable of doing this, because she had burned out the names of objectionable relatives from our family tapestry more than once. Such was the fate of Aunt Andromeda, whom I had never seen, and her name was forbidden to be mentioned in our family. But... is it okay?

Why is it so easy to take and delete a person from life just because of his actions or beliefs? After all, blood is blood. She does not cease to be our relative, even if she dishonored the family by marrying a mud-blooded wizard. And what, now the same fate awaits me? But I do not mess around with mudbloods, I do not neglect our beliefs, but on the contrary, I share and support them. What is wrong with me?

*

After sobbing in the toilet for about an hour, I remembered that the Head of our faculty was waiting for me and, with a heavy heart, I went to him.

As I got closer and closer to Snape's office, I began to thrash again with the horror of not knowing what he was going to tell me. Hesitantly, I knocked on the door and, hearing a cold "come in", went inside.

"Well, Miss Black, you're finally come. So, I take it your grandmother is already aware of what happened?" Snape was sitting at his desk, busily sorting through scrolls and papers.

"Yes, sir…" I swallowed nervously, not daring to look at the Head. "Should I go pack my things?"

"Miss Black, expulsion from Hogwarts would be too light a punishment for you," professor emphasized the last words, abruptly rising and taking a step towards me. "Do you realize what you have done?"

"Yes, I'm sorry... It won't happen again." I was still drilling the floor with my eyes.

"Of course it won't happen again! Do you understand what would have happened yesterday if I had not been there? Answer!"

"I... We had a fight and... he..."

"I don't care about your family problems! Black... You're the same as your pathetic father! A vile, arrogant, presumptuous fool! He, too, thought about himself Merlin knows what... And right under his nose he was not able to see the obvious, just like his daughter!"

I glanced at Snape, indignant overflowing. How could he talk about my father like that? After all what's this about now?

The professor came close to me and lowered his voice almost to a whisper, which made my heart sink somewhere in my heels from fear.

"You certainly know, Miss Black, that Draco is in the process of completing an assignment from none other than the Dark Lord?"

I glared at him in shock. Does Snape know everything?

"I know. But..."

"Be silent!"

I froze in my tracks, as if I'd just been cast with a hold spell.

"Now, listen to me carefully. Surely the thought of what would happen if Draco failed the task did not enter your empty head? What if the Dark Lord kills him? Have you thought about it? Answer!"

"No…" I whispered.

"The Dark Lord is not at all merciful. He will spare no one, neither his servants nor his enemies. He does not forgive mistakes — Lucius is proof of this, and he is still very lucky! He will kill Draco. And if he kills him," Snape paused, giving me a menacing look, "he will come for you too, Black."

There was horror in my eyes, and it seemed as if Snape was reveling in it.

"And if you are so indifferent to the fate of your fiancé and so stupid that you do not understand the threat and do not value your life, then think what can happen to your precious father!" caustically said he at the last.

My lips were trembling and tears were in my eyes. What? I won't survive if something happens to my dad. I love him very much and I don't have anyone, well, except for my grandmother.

"Well, think about it at your leisure," the Head was convinced that I understood this message in full. "In the meantime, as a detention, I'm taking fifty points off you and you're banned from Hogsmeade and Quidditch for the rest of the school year. You can go now."

I walked out of the office shaking with fear. My legs gave way and it seemed as if I was about to lose consciousness.

The Dark Lord will kill us. He will kill if Draco fails.

I couldn't wrap my head around what I just heard. It seemed to me that something inside me was bursting at the seams and crumbling into a thousand pieces. My world was crumbling right before my eyes, and the feeling was so... irrevocably terrible, as if I was falling into an abyss that has no end or edge.

For some reason, I never doubted Snape's words for a moment. I heard about the Dark Lord's cruelty, but I didn't care until it affected me. Not so much me as my father. I didn't really think what would happen to me, but dad... No, I have to protect him. At any cost.

It's amazing how a whole life can be turned upside down in just a moment. Until recently, I thought that there was nothing more terrible than being expelled from Hogwarts or even being disinherited. And here's how things turned out. How wrong I was...