/

Chapter twenty seven

November quarrels

/

A few days later, Angela was heading up the main staircase for her afternoon class, flipping through the voluminous textbook titled ´The Most Important Symbols of Witchcraft and their most common use´. She still enjoyed studying for a Witcher, but it took a lot of work and efforts, especially when she spent almost any of her free time with Harry, in whose presence it was somewhat impossible to study properly. Not to mention that he was quite persistent about seeing her as often as was only possible, so recently, the Hogwarts students were very slowly getting used to seeing them together all the time. Their so obviously admitted dating earned a mocking comment or two from time to time, but ever since Zabini and Parkinson ended up in care of Madame Pomfrey for a week, unable to get rid of loud and annoying buzzing, nobody else dared to bully Angela, at least not in front of Harry. She just hoped it would not get worse again.

By memory, Angela overstepped one treacherous stair and continued up to the third floor. She wanted to move on to the wide corridor, but a strange screeching sound that echoed throughout the vast space of moving staircases stopped her. She was now standing by the carved railing high above the Entrance Hall, looking around for the source of the strange sound.

The corridors and stairs were already almost empty, as there was only a minute left until the start of classes. The sound suddenly stopped and instead, there was a strange thud and rubbing of metal against stone. Angela sensed some kind of danger and jerked her head up. A blurred dark outline of something large was falling straight at her at high speed.

With the trained instincts of a cat, she lunged to the side and rolled away from the railing just before the largest armour in the entire castle landed on the spot where she was standing with a huge crash and parts of it rolled away bouncing in all directions.

She was in such a state of shock that more subconsciously than intentionally, she stood up briskly and looked up. In the last second, she caught a glimpse of a familiar face fringed with long red hair leaning against the railing on the sixth floor before the assailant retreated.

Breathing rapidly Angela lowered her head to the pile of heavy black metal and found out her hands were shaking violently. In moments like these that she was truly grateful for the gruelling training for a Death Eater that had already helped her countless times. If she had not jumped out of the way, she would have ended up with a concussion at the very least. This was the second direct attack on her in a week. First, it was the ice on stairs, on which she could have broken her legs, and now this. Not to mention, she was now almost sure who was responsible for both incidents. Up there, that was Ginevra Weasley. Apparently, she was also the one who sent her that nasty threatening letter.

Angela bent down to pick up her textbook, which lay with pages down on the floor, and sullenly headed to her class. She did not even think about that mess by the stairs.

She suspected that she would not be able to pay much attention to her lessons that day. It was sickening to realize just what someone was capable of out of jealousy. Even worse, she had no idea what she was going to do with it. After all, Ginevra was Ronald's sister and a good friend of both them Gryffindor trio and Daria.

/

The evening edition of Daily Prophet brought up a rather long article, written by none other than Rita Skeeter, about their headmaster – Albus Dumbledore. She juicily enlarged on his inability to continue leading Hogwarts, and that someone sensible should finally replace him in his position. She bluntly drew attention to his advanced age and to several anonymous statements by school staff that Dumbledore was already senile and something had to be done about it.

The article made Harry sick, Hermione was indignant, and even Professor McGonagall looked quite menacingly reading it, but the headmaster himself did not seem to be moved at all.

Harry rather rolled up the Prophet and threw it away, further on the table, just to keep it out of sight. Ginny sat down next to him and a good while later blushing Daria sat down not far from them. He noticed that Angela was giving Ginny a rather sharp look from across the Hall and wondered what may have caused it. He also noticed that Ginny and Daria were ignoring each other and it caught his attention.

"Is something wrong, Ginny?" he asked curiously. "Why doesn't Daria sit with us?"

"We had a fight," the younger girl replied grimly.

"You two? That quite surprises me quite. Why if I may ask?"

"Hmm!" Ginny snorted. "She still has some secrets from me! I know something is wrong with her, but she just won't tell me! She hardly even answers my normal questions!" the youngest Weasley spoke quite loudly, as she was glad that someone was finally listening to her. Especially when that someone was Harry. "And a while ago, she even told me that I had nothing to do with it! That I'm just curious and sticking my nose to other´s business! As if I was not her friend at all!"

Daria heard her well but did not react in any way.

"You're not going to believe me, but I totally understand how you feel," Harry stated. "I've been in a pretty similar situation for a long time," he added, his eyes focusing at Angela.

"Really?" Ginny perked up, looking at him with interest. "You're talking about your… girlfriend?" she asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"I am," Harry confirmed, but he did not intend to comment the matter any further, even as Ginny continued to eye him curiously.

"Is she keeping something from you?" she asked nevertheless.

Harry looked at her. "Yeah," he nodded hesitantly. "I'm sure of it, and I've asked her several times, but…"

"But she won't tell you anyway, will she?" Ginny added for him.

Harry gave a wry smile: "Exactly."

"You two don´t just fit together. I've been saying that since the beginning," Ginny remarked, turning to dinner.

"And who do you think fits me?" Harry asked after a moment.

"Maybe me," Ginny hummed.

Harry almost laughed. "Please, Ginny, keep the jokes," he said.

Weasley glared at him.

"But I'm serious," she said slowly, looking him straight in the eye.

Harry's smile fell from his face. There was something about her look that he did not like at all.

/

Angela, on the other hand, was clutching the cutlery in her hands so that she could feel its contours being imprinted on her palms. She stared motionless as Harry talked with the obnoxious redhead and choked with jealousy and rage.

How she clings to him! How slyly she smiles! What does she even think of herself? she thought grumpily.

Angela, are you okay? Harry suddenly asked as he turned his face away from Ginny to see that she was pale and clenching her fists.

Me? Sure! What would be wrong with me! Angela retorted angrier than she had intended, causing Harry to look at her in surprise.

Angela did not feel hungry anymore. It occurred to her that maybe she should apologize, but her pride would not allow it. On the way out, she met Daria in the doorway.

"Hello," she greeted.

"Hi!"

"Are you still mad?"

"Yeah!" Daria snapped at her, still in an argumentative mood.

"Well, fine! As you wish!" retorted Angela, sharply turning her back on her.

/

Harry and Angela met in the Room the next evening, but they were not on the best of terms. They sat in silence on the sofa, each looking away.

"When McGonagall came to see Daria three days ago… Did something happen to her grandmother?" Harry finally asked, unable to bear the strange silence any longer.

"Yes, she's woken up," Angela replied quietly.

"That's fine," he smiled. "And what actually happened to her? Does anyone know who did this to her?"

Angela froze. "Why do you ask that?"

"I just think about it," Harry shrugged. "And I also remembered how Daria looked when she came back that day. She was screaming about hating someone."

Angela did not react.

"Wasn't she talking about Malfoy?" Harry asked, glaring at her.

She sighed and decided not to lie to him in that: "Yeah, she was talking about him."

"So it was him?" Harry propped himself up on his elbows.

She just nodded.

"That's really disgusting! He was dating her, wasn't he? And why didn't you tell me anything?" he asked hurt.

"Why should I?" she answered him with a teasing question. "You don´t like talking about Draco anyway."

Harry frowned. Angela stood up from the sofa and pulled her hands out of her jeans pockets, inadvertently catching one of her fingers on a chain that fell out. She completely forgot to take it out after she made that deal with Harry and it remained hidden in her favourite jeans.

She quickly bent down to grab it before Harry could see it, but he was already on his feet and literally snatched the little dragon from her hand.

In that moment, dark clouds began to gather over their so far quite calm and loving relationship.

"Are you kidding me? You still have it with you?!" Harry snapped at her.

Offended by his attacking tone, she did not feel up to explaining him that it was just a mistake.

"Yes, I have! And what?" she growled, not in the mood for discussions about something what should have meant nothing for Harry.

"What? After all, I asked you to..."

"Asked? You practically ordered me to throw it away!" she cut him off grumpily. "And I don't take orders from anyone!" she added angrily, yanking the dragon chain from him.

"That´s nonsense!" Harry fumed. "It was something in return! You wanted to borrow the Cloak and to tell Daria about it, so I only wanted this small thing from you!"

"Why does it even bother you so much?" Angela protested. "It´s just a chain. What do you want with it, when I'm the one wearing it around my neck!"

"Quite enough!" he retorted. "I've already told you clearly that I don't want you to have anything from that bastard!"

"You have no right to judge him! You don't know anything about him!" Angela snapped.

"Well, of course, and you know him like the back of your hand, huh? I'm not even surprised!"

She took a shaky inhale: "What do you mean by that?"

"Try to figure it out yourself!"

"You know what? Instead of reproaching me of crap like that-!"

"It´s no crap, it´s my opinion!" he cut her off.

"Let me kindly finish!" Angela growled. "Instead of that, you should worry about what kind of friends you have!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"A certain person has already attacked me twice for no reason and quite dangerously! First, I got a threatening letter, then I slipped on the trap on the stairs and finally the biggest armour in the whole castle almost fell on my head! Try to figure out who's responsible for all that!"

"What are you blabbering about, Angela? You didn't mention anything!"

"I do mention it now! I didn't want to make unnecessary fights!"

"So who did all that then?"

"Ginevra!" Angela shouted with conviction.

Harry could not muster an answer for a moment.

"That's bullshit," he said then. "She wouldn't be capable of such a thing!"

"She would not? I saw her with my own eyes! I've had my suspicions for a longer time, but now it's been confirmed!"

"Why would she do that?"

"Because she's in love with you and jealous of me! You didn't realize that in all this time? She's been awful to me since the holidays!"

"Please…"

"You don't believe me?"

"Yes I do, I just think you're exaggerating a bit."

"I'm exaggerating literally nothing!"

"You're jealous, aren't you?" Harry suddenly asked with a smirk. "That's why you're so attacking against Ginny."

"What? That I am…" Angela gasped offended, even though she knew it was true. "Who here first started talking about Draco, huh?"

"So you won't admit it," Harry sneered.

"What should I?"

"That you're jealous of her!"

"Do I have a reason to be?" Angela blurted out.

"No. Because I never had anything with Ginny apart from friendship."

Angela gritted her teeth: "What are you getting at with this again?"

"I think you know very well!"

She took a sharp breath: "Fine! As you wish! Yes, I slept with him one! I slept with Draco Malfoy in the holidays before my sixth year! Is that what you wanted to hear? I fell in love with him, but it meant nothing to him! Is that enough for you?" Angela shouted, trying to hold back the tears that unexpectedly sting in her eyes. She hated to remember how she felt back then.

Harry was dumbfounded and just stared at her. He somewhat knew that the answer on his unspoken question would be positive, yet hearing the details was different from what he had been expecting. Teary Angela looked away.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Too late!" she retorted angrily.

Harry scowled: "You lied to me."

Angela shot him a burning look. "No, I didn't lie in this, Harry. I just didn't tell you about it. It was my personal thing."

"It is the same in the end! You're still hiding something from me!"

"And you don't?"

"No, not now!" snapped Harry. "I told you about the prophecy! While you…"

"I didn't ask for it! I didn't force you to tell me!"

"I told you because I trust you!"

"I trust you too!"

"Then why don't you tell me that secret that has been choking you for quite a long time?"

"I can't!" Angela declared.

"Can't or won't?" he asked teasingly.

"Harry, damn it… It´s both. I can´t tell you."

"That's just great! Really typical! And that's how it's always been!"

"What now?"

"I'm already annoyed! You are simply unteachable! You always leave me torturing myself, just like before! Then, after three months, you solemnly decided to tell me the truth! As if you couldn't tell me straight up!"

"You know I couldn't! After all, I explained it to you!"

"Yeah, but that didn't mean I felt any better! Then you also told me that I won't see you at all during the holidays, and you ended up coming to the Order's headquarters all the time, looking like a martyr!"

Angela paled. "Why didn't you tell me how you felt about this all before?"

"It's only because of you that I've been suffocating it all inside me! I didn't mean to blame you! But you… you're just always the biggest poor thing, huh? After all, what did I expect? From the one who has Death Eaters as relatives and friends?"

"You've just gone a bit overboard," Angela snapped icily.

"Did I?"

She gasped: "Did you forget everything what I… Never mind, I've just had enough!"

"Are you running out of arguments?" Harry asked with a cynical smirk.

"When you calm down and are willing to talk to me normally again, let me know!" Angela concluded angrily and stormed to the door.

"Likewise!" Harry snapped after her.

The door slammed shut right after that.

/

They successfully ignored each other for the next few days. As if the other was only the air. Many people noticed this and gleefully gossiped that they must have broken up. Hermione and Ron preferred not to ask upset Harry about it. They themselves had something unresolved between them.

There was quite stuffy atmosphere again at the combined two-hour potions lesson. Snape glided through the classroom, critiquing the students' creations as best he could. However, his attention was most attracted to Angela and Harry.

He especially enjoyed himself after Pansy had thrown an extra handful of fennel leaves into Angela's cauldron as she bent down to get the fallen knife, causing her potion to bubble and smoke in an ugly way.

"Rosier, what's going on with you?" Snape shook his head with a slimy smile. "Your potion is useless now!"

"But it's not my fault, sir!" Angela defended herself. "Pansy did…"

"Don't try to blame your stupidity and carelessness on others, Rosier! That won't help you!" Snape cut her off.

"But she's telling the truth, sir," said Hermione unexpectedly, who was also already fed up with him.

"You better stay out of this, Granger!" snapped Snape. "As far as I know, you're definitely more intelligent than your classmate here," he remarked with a sneer meant to insult Angela, inadvertently actually praising Hermione.

"You are wrongly insulting me here, Professor!" Angela frowned.

"Save that bloated crap for another time!" growled Snape as he waved his wand and her steaming creation disappeared. "I can't rate you again!"

"You have no right for this!" Hermione shouted indignantly. Ron, sitting next to her, widened his eyes at her, while Harry flamboyantly worked on his potion.

"You want to argue with me about what I'm and what I'm not entitled to, Granger!?" Snape glared at her.

Angela was clenching her fists and teeth, trying to control herself, but she'd had too much of a bad week to keep herself from saying something this time.

"What's your problem?" she snapped loudly at Snape who had already turned his back on her.

"Excuse me?" the Bat stared at her as he turned sharply again.

"Why do you always have to pick on me? To soothe your complexes from childhood?" Angela wondered insultingly.

"How dare you, you blunt…" Snape gasped in surprise.

"I dare much less than you! What do you even think of yourself? That you´re better than all of us?!" she interrupted him angrily. "You're wrong then!"

"Exactly," Hermione joined her quietly.

"Shut up now! Both of you!" Snape hissed.

The whole class watched the verbal exchange with interest.

"A guilty conscience is a self-accuser!" Angela barked back.

"I´m warning you, Rosier! Shut your unwashed mouth!" Snape raised his voice hatefully.

"Why should I? It's true!" she retorted. "Everyone at school hates you! Even Slytherins! And we don't call you Bat for nothing either! It's not a very cuddly animal, you know?"

Snape gritted his teeth. "You know nothing about me and certainly not the right person to judge me!"

"I'm not judging anyone here! Nothing I just said was a lie!" Angela argued. "What did someone do to you that you hate the whole world and make life hell for others?"

Snape's face was so changed with anger that it was almost unrecognizable. "GET OUT! IMMEDIATELY!" he roared with rage.

"Gladly!" Angela sputtered, making her belongings disappear with one swipe of her wand. "I definitely don't need a bighead like you to handle NEWT exams from Potions!"

She stormed out of the classroom, slamming the door behind her.

Hermione glared at Snape, fiercely holding back a laugh. The rest of the Gryffindors bowed their heads, hiding their smiles of satisfaction that someone had finally given him an earful. The Bat flew across the classroom with a searing glare.

"Is there anything you want to add, Granger?" he asked in a voice as hard as rock.

"No, sir," she replied with a sneer.

"Then stop grinning at me! Ten points down from Gryffindor´s score! The class is over! Get out!" he announced angrily and stormed into the room where Harry and Draco once had their detention.

The students cheered wildly and quickly began to pack before Snape could change his mind.

/

Come tonight at seven o'clock to the caretaker Filch, where you will serve your school punishment.

prof. Severus Snape

"Damn it," Angela growled grumpily, crumpling the school letter into a tiny ball. She expected that Snape would not just let her get away with everything she said, she just did not think he was such a coward as to send her to Filch instead of handing out the punishment himself.

She did not want to cause any more problems for herself, so at exactly seven she appeared at the door of the caretaker´s room and knocked. The door flew apart in front of her with a screech almost immediately, and Filch gave her a pointed look.

"You're here," he croaked.

"Yes," Angela replied dryly.

"You are tasked with sweeping and mopping the back stairs. Here are your supplies," he informed her with a smirk.

Angela first looked in disbelief at the chipped tin bucket, disgusting rag and plucked broom, then back at the caretaker.

"Professor Snape made that up?"

"Sure," he agreed mischievously. "Ms. Norris will watch over you to make sure you don't use any charms. You have all night. Good luck!" he hissed, petting his little one and slamming the door again.

Angela stood there in disbelief for a while.

"The scumbag!" she hissed in a low voice.

Filch's remark about the whole night was not without reason. The back staircase, which was steeper, shorter and less used than the main one, led from the ground floor to the top of the tower, and by this time it would be full of mud and stones that the students had carried there, as it had been raining for good two weeks outside. She moaned loudly as she imagined how long it would take her to clean it up.

Norris beast watched her reproachfully, so she picked up the broom and the bucket in disgust and headed into the depths of the castle.

/

During sweeping and then laborious mopping of the stairs, about a dozen students walked up and down them, all of them staring at her curiously or mischievously. The stairs seemed endless to her and it was difficult to move on them.

She also had plenty of time to think, so a lot of things came to her mind. Or rather people. Draco, Daria, Snape, Voldemort, Dumbledore and especially Harry... She had to admit to herself that they had argued completely pointlessly. Most of those things were trivial. Not to mention that it was not too long ago when Dumbledore gave them his nice speech about love and understanding...

If only he could hear us like that, she thought gloomily. Maybe I should apologize. Is such nonsense worth not talking to each other? We should rather enjoy every minute and instead…

She sighed and went two floors down to change the water. As she carried it back, she was surprised to feel her knees buckle beneath her. She put the bucket on the step and looked at her watch. It was almost eleven-thirty.

"Benevolent Merlin," she sighed wearily, sitting down on the already washed steps and resting her head on her elbow. "And I'm still missing a good half."

Angela did not know how long she had been sitting like that when she suddenly felt someone looking at her. She raised her head and was surprised to see Harry below her, who was watching her in astonishment. They stared at each other for a moment before he moved a little higher and asked:

"So, Snape rewarded you properly, right?"

Angela just nodded her head.

"Hmm," Harry hummed. He did not like to see Angela so tired and upset, but their argument was still too vivid in his mind to let her know.

On the landing above them, Mrs. Norris meowed.

"Yeah, yeah," Angela mumbled, standing up. She was surprised to feel a little dizzy. "And you still like night walks, don't you?" she asked.

"Sort of," Harry guessed. "I'd better go," he added, walking quickly past her and heading upstairs.

"Harry!" Angela blurted out suddenly.

"Yes?" he turned back to her. "Are you finally going to apologize to me?" he asked from upstairs.

His tone hurt her and her face took on a cold expression. "No. You should be the first to apologize to me," she retorted.

"As you think," Harry shrugged and turned away from her again, even though he did not feel well from the way he spoke to her.

Angela looked after him for a while, and then, even more dejected than before, she started to clean the stairs again.