"I am NOT going to wear it!" exclaimed Talia as she slapped Draco's hand away from her chest.
"Oh, come off it," scoffed Draco, rolling his eyes. "Show some house spirit, Talia."
"Parading around with a button that says "POTTER STINKS" is NOT showing house spirit!" she exclaimed haughtily, pointing at the glowing lapel button on Draco's chest.
All the Slytherins were wearing it, a button that said—"SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY—THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION!" in glowing red letters that burned brightly. If you pressed the button, the words would swirl around and change, showing "POTTER STINKS" in the same luminescent red letters. It was all Draco's doing; he'd been inspired by the S-P-E-W button that Talia always wore. However, his buttons served a greater purpose…
It was Friday after lunch, which meant Double Potions with the Gryffindors, and as soon as Harry and Hermione strolled up to the queue of students outside of the Potions classroom, all the Slytherins pressed their buttons so that the words "POTTER STINKS" shone brightly. At the sight of Harry's quickly reddening face, they all howled with laughter, pointing and sneering.
Not good, thought Talia with a sigh, already picturing the fight that would soon ensue as Draco squared his shoulders and pivoted towards Harry.
"Like them, Potter?" laughed Draco, pressing his button so that the words changed and showed "POTTER STINKS".
"Oh, very funny," hissed Hermione, glaring at Pansy and a group of Slytherin girls who were laughing the loudest, "really witty."
"Pansy, shut your mouth," snapped Talia, glaring, "your breath is stinking up the place!"
Pansy stopped laughing immediately, her round face violently turning pink. This little spat caused some of the attention to be driven away from Harry and on to a loudly blushing Parkinson, but Draco was not going to allow the attention to be away from the Gryffindor for long.
"Hey, want one, Granger?" asked Draco suddenly, holding out a button to Hermione, "I've got loads, but don't touch my hand. I've just washed it, you see; wouldn't want a Mudblood sliming it up—"
Many things happened all at once as Draco said his last words. Wands were drawn, students scrambled down the corridor to get out of the way, Talia and Hermione screamed for everything to stop, and curses were shouted. The curses collided with a brilliant bright light in midair and then bounced off each other—Harry's curse hit Talia in the face, sending her flying backwards, and Draco's curse hit Hermione, not strong enough to send her flying, but enough to make her stumble back, whimpering in pain.
"Natalia!" Draco screamed, realizing what had happened.
"Hermione!" Ron's voice suddenly shouted amongst the Gryffindors. He could be seen quickly pushing his way through Slytherins and Gryffindors alike to get to his friend, his blue eyes wide and a look of pure terror on his pale face.
Talia saw spots dancing across her eyes as she looked up at the stone ceiling blankly from her place on the ground. Her back hurt and the wind was knocked out of her lungs. She was confused for a moment; her mind going blank, but then the last few seconds came rushing back to her—just as a rush of pain flooded her face. She screamed in pain and panic, sitting up and clutching her cheeks. The skin on her entire face began to bubble, and then large boils began to sprout all around her eyes, nose, mouth, and cheeks. Blisters formed on her lips and eyelids, swelling up to a point where she could barely talk and her eyes were nearly shut.
Everything burned, stinging and sizzling as the curse matured; Talia didn't know what to do as tears began running down her cheeks, the wetness adding a new burning sensation to the open sores developing on her skin.
All she could do was hold her face and look down, allowing her hair to act as a barrier against all the stares that were coming her way. But Merlin, how it hurt to simply brush the skin of her cheeks with a feather-light touch of her fingertips.
Draco, after a moment of simply standing still (in shock), quickly rushed towards his fallen friend, dropping to his knees in front of her and grabbing her hands, trying to pull them away from her face to see what damage had been done, but Talia didn't want her face to be seen. She could just feel the boils burning and pulsating beneath her fingertips.
She could only imagine what a disgusting sight she must be—she didn't want Draco to have that image of her in his mind.
"Talia, just let me—"
"NO!" she screeched, keeping her head down and scooting away from him, holding back the sob of pain caused from moving her lips.
"Talia," said Draco quietly, glassy-eyed, "I'm just trying to help."
In that moment, Talia came undone. She snapped her head up at him, ignoring the pain and the stares, removing her hands as tears rolled down her marred cheeks. Draco visibly flinched at the sight of the abrasions and pink skin.
"You've helped enough," Talia spat, eyes narrowed in anger and hurt.
"Talia, I'm—"
"What is the meaning of this?" hissed a voice, quiet and deadly.
Severus had arrived, and immediately all the Slytherins gathered around him, all shouting explanations about what had happened, all blaming Harry for the cause of Talia's state.
"Mr. Malfoy," said Severus quietly, his eyes narrowed down at the Slytherin, "explain."
"Potter attacked me, sir—"
"We attacked each other at the same time!" yelled Harry in protest.
"—and he hit Talia—look," continued Draco, pointing a finger at Talia, which up until that moment had escaped her uncle's gaze.
At the mention of Talia being assaulted, Severus' eyes widened slightly.
Isabella was going to kill him.
Shoving Draco out of the way none too gently, Severus kneeled before Talia, cupping her cheeks gently and being mindful of her wounds. He used only the gentlest of touches as he looked down his nose at her, turning her face from side to side, examining her skin.
The curse was getting worse. Pus was beginning to ooze out of the larger boils and blisters, followed by a small trickle of blood that came down her nose. Severus' eyes flashed in anger for a moment then softened just the slightest as a whimper escaped Talia's lips.
"How much does it hurt?" he asked quietly, drawing his hands away.
"Too much," mumbled Talia, ducking her head and allowing her hair to shield her face once more. "Make it go away... please."
"I will," Severus told her softly, "let's go."
Carefully, Severus helped Talia to her feet, wrapping an arm around her shoulders protectively and tucking her into his side. Seeing her on the floor, crying, bleeding, being the victim of a curse thrown by a Potter—it brought back too many painfully memories of his own school days. Of being the butt of James Potter's pranks, of being hurt and humiliated, of having Isabella and Lily constantly fighting for him because he was just too damn weak...
"Malfoy got Hermione too," shouted Ron as Severus escorted Talia to the Potions classroom. "Look!"
Hermione was directly pushed in front of Severus, and Talia nearly gasped as she saw through blurry eyes what was done to her friend. Hermione's front teeth, which were already big to begin with, were now growing at an alarming rate. They went past her lips, down her chin, and were reaching her collarbones; she resembled a beaver.
"I see no difference," said Severus coldly.
Talia nudged him just the slightest in the ribs, looking up at him briefly with a glare.
"However," he continued with a glare of his own, tightening his arm around Talia as if to say 'stop it', "I suggest you go see Madam Pomfrey, Miss Granger. We wouldn't want you to carve up my desks."
Hermione, relieved and slightly amazed that her professor was giving her a "free-pass," so to speak, tried to nod, but her teeth were now well past her collarbones. She merely squeaked out what sounded like a muffled "okay", and took off running down the corridor, going up the stairs to the main level of the castle, and disappearing from sight.
"Now, let's see," said Severus in his deadliest voice, rounding on Harry, "Fifty points from Gryffindor for injuring Miss Snape—"
"What—that's not fair!" exclaimed Ron, "Malfoy hurt Hermione too!"
"—and a detention each for Potter and Weasley," hissed Severus, eyes narrowed. "Now get inside... or it'll be a weeks' worth of detentions."
With that being said, Talia allowed her uncle to usher her into the Potions classroom, keeping her head down so that no one could get a clear look of her face. She was aware of Pansy and her friends snickering behind them, and she did not want to give them anything else to laugh at. Once inside Severus quickly walked to the front of the room, waving his wand at the chalkboard to start the lesson.
"Antidotes!" he barked. "You should all have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be selecting someone on whom to test one…"
With that he and Talia quickly disappeared behind an old wooden door off to the side of the room-the Potion Master's office. With a sigh that sounded vaguely of relief, Severus steered Talia towards a chair, and then flocked over to a tall glass cabinet that was filled with many different types of bottles and jars, all in variety of colors and shapes.
"What really happened, Talia?" he asked over his shoulder, rooting through jars, setting back the ones he did not need.
"Draco started it," admitted Talia quietly, keeping her head down, "he called Hermione a Mudblood..."
Severus' hand froze over a tin canister at the mention of that word, but he said nothing.
For the duration of Double Potions, Talia remained in her uncle's office with the door tightly shut. It wasn't that she didn't want to go out and face anyone, even though it was a relief when her uncle told her that she was excused from that day's lesson, but the cream that would make her boils go away needed up to an hour to work.
With her uncle's instructions in mind, she lathered the cream on thickly, enjoying the cool and refreshing tingle it left on her skin. True to her uncle's words, Talia's face was blemish-free within the hour, and looking better than before. Her skin was smoother, softer, her laugh lines were gone, and the acne that she'd started to sprout since the summer disappeared with no looks of returning any time soon.
"Class is over, Talia," her uncle said as he returned to his office. "Let's see your face."
Talia allowed her uncle to cup her cheeks and examine her skin, a small smile on her face as she looked up at him brightly.
"No pain?"
"Not anymore."
"Good," sighed Severus. He hesitated for a moment, at war with himself, but in the end he leaned down and placed a quick kiss on Talia's forehead. "You can keep the cream; it'll serve you better than me."
"Thank you," said Talia softly as she quickly wrapped her arms around his waist, nuzzling his chest and breathing in his scent of potion chemicals and the odd hint of ginger root tea.
Severus allowed himself a moment of weakness to hug Talia back, running a hand through her hair before quickly coming to his senses. He unwound himself from her, taking a step back and straightening up, saying in his typical no-nonsense tone, "Out of my sight, Miss Snape."
"Love you too," smiled Talia, before walking out of his office with a spring in her step. However, she was halfway across the empty classroom when she detected a rather familiar smell still lingering close by. It smelled of mint, with a hint of some very expensive cologne.
Oh dear Merlin not-
"Talia—"
"Shove off, Draco," Talia hissed as she walked out of the classroom. She only got five steps down the corridor before Draco latched onto her wrist and pulled her back. "Let me go!"
"Talia," said Draco forcefully, turning her around to face him. His eyes softened at once and he said gently, "C'mon, just hear me out."
"No," said Talia in a deadly whisper, struggling to pull away from Draco's grasp. "Let go of me, Draco, before I start screaming."
"Look, I didn't think it would turn out the way it did," said Draco pleadingly. "I honestly didn't know!"
"Yeah?" scoffed Talia, glaring up at him, "you're lucky that Harry's spell was weak or else I'd have a whole forest of mushrooms sprouting out of my pores!"
"Look, will you just—"
"It's your entire fault!" yelled Talia, tears brimming her eyes, finally managing to wretch her wrist free from Draco's grasp, "if you'd only kept your mouth shut, then none of this would have happened! It's your fault that a curse hit me in the face! It's your fault that Pansy and her stupid friends will make fun of me when they see—"
"I fucked up—okay!" exclaimed Draco, uneasy, his eyes wide and filled with guilt. "I didn't know that—"
"That's right!" yelled Talia, scowling, "you didn't know!"
"Talia—"
"Just stay away from me, Malfoy. I don't want you to talk to me ever again!"
Talia began walking down the corridor as quickly as her short legs would carried her, but Draco, being several inches taller than she is, was able to catch up with her quickly. He put himself in front of her, and when Talia tried to walk around him, he grabbed her arms and forced her to look up at him.
"You don't mean that," he said quietly, looking down at her with remorse.
Talia couldn't even look him in the eyes as she said, "You've no idea how much it hurt." His eyes and the guilt-ridden expression they bore would surely make her cave in.
"We can just forget about it," pleaded Draco, "I'll hex Pansy if she dares to laugh at you. I'll—I'll do whatever you say!"
"I want you to let go of me," said Talia quietly, glaring down at her feet.
Draco quickly withdrew his hands, and Talia speedily walked around him.
"Talia—"
"It's Snape, Malfoy," Talia hissed, keeping her sights ahead of her. "And I meant what I said."
"Talia, c'mon—"
"You broke your promise!" screamed Talia, chancing it and turning around to face him, allowing him to see her tears, "You promised that you'd protect me—you promised that I wouldn't ever be hurt after what happened with Moody—AND YOU LIED!"
"I didn't—"
"You lied, Draco Malfoy," Talia spat, her bottom lip quivering. "You lied, and broke your promise…"
AN: I seem to like making my characters suffer... and also cheesy lines, I seem to love writing cheesy scenes.
FYI/DISCLAIMER/WHATEVER: The title for this chapter was taken from a song by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls of the same name. The lyrics of that song have nothing to do with the contents of this chapter... kind of. Certain lyrics can kind of relate to certain parts of this chapter, but other than certain key lyrics, that song is basically irrelevant to the contents of this chapter.
Just listen to the song; it's classified under "wizard rock," for those who didn't know, so basically it's a song inspired by the Harry Potter series.
Look up Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls, or Let's Lumos!, or Ministry of Magic... etc.
For more wizard rock bands, just PM me!
[shamelessly promotes wizard rock]