Here's Chapter 2, thanks for the reviews so far! I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Constructive Critique Welcome!
I dragged the scrubbing brush across the stone wall for what felt like the hundredth time. My potion was plastered to the wall and had set like cemete. Harry and Ron had been tasked with empting the other cauldrons, as their contents had been compromised by mine. This left Hermione and Candice scrubbing the floor. Hermione was red in the face; absolutely fuming! but so far had not said anything. I was just as angry, maybe even more so, but I was letting everyone else know about it.
"Man, this is impossible. I KNOW I followed the instructions, and the warnings in the book NEVER mentions exploding as a negative reaction!" I grumbled.
Harry and Ron washed out the contents of another cauldron and stuck it back on the counter.
"What do you think, then? Snape added something? Eye of Bomb? Sea of Four?" Ron joked.
I gave an unimpressed smile, and Harry shook his head.
"I don't think so, why would he do something like that to Amanda? I know he's impossible, but he wouldn't go around sabotaging a student's potions for no reason." he said. I picked up a paint scraper from it's place in the cleaning bucket that Flich had supplied for the evening and started trying to scrape the walls.
"There's a first time for everything, ay?" I muttered sorely, and Hermione threw her scrub brush at the floor and stood up, bristling with anger.
"You're really ready to blame a teacher for your own mistake?" She yelled, "So what if you followed the potion perfectly, mistakes happen! You can't go blaming a teacher for everything you're sore on! It was a mistake! and that's okay! at least own up to it!"
My face contorted with rage, my chest tightened and I dropped the paint scraper at my feet.
"I'm not blaming the teacher, Hermione, I'm saying that for a reaction this VIOLENT to occur, that it COULD have been sabotage! If i made a mistake, then probably the worst that could have happened was a colour change, like Neville's potion! but the thing EXPLODED, HERMIONE." I yelled at her, my hands planted firmly on my hips, "How is that possible WITHOUT sabotage?"
Hermione rubbed her forehead with her wet fingertips and sighed,
"Creating potions, especially at our level of education, is hard work. Weird things happen when you don't have the methods down, I'm saying that, couldn't it have possibly just been a weird thing?" She huffed, "Sure, you put in all the correct ingredients, but what if some were contaminated? Maybe the shrivelfig had been grown next to a bursting mushroom? Drawing conclusions when you haven't even BEGUN to explore the evidence is amazingly short sighted!"
"We're scraping the evidence off the WALLS, HERMIONE. I can't do much with it BUT draw conclusions!" I spoke harshly back.
The storeroom door flew open and from the darkness emerged an angry Professor Snape.
"This level of noise is too much for detention." He said in his low tone, his eyes were slits.
"Just a healthy disagreement, Sir." Harry said nonchalantly. I hoped that Snape had not been around long enough to hear the start of the argument.
"Detention is not the place for disagreement, Potter, it is the place for punishment." he said dryly, then pulled a pocket watch out of his breast pocket and glanced at it, and then around the room.
"It is time for you all to leave," He said slowly and returned the watch to his pocket, "Miss Marlin, join me in my office." He turned quickly and walked away.
I looked at Harry and Ron, who exchanged confused glances at each other and then at me, and then I looked to Hermione, who sighed in relief at the end of detention. I had a sudden snap of guilt for yelling at her. I swallowed my anger and gave her an apologetic look. She did not return it but she nodded at me, as if she accepted it.
Candice was gathering the scrubbing brushes and heaped them into the cleaning bucket.
I walked past them, grabbed my bag from beside the door, and walked out without another word.
"Miss Marlin," Snape began in his usual low tone; the words practically dripping with a cold anger.
"Yes, Sir." I replied.
Standing upright with my tote bag over my shoulder. I pretended not to care about being in his office, but the whole room was dimly lit with heavy shadows, and it gave everything a uncomfortable feeling. It reminded me of my nightmare; the darkness, the coldness. A slither of fear snaked through my stomach, but I barely felt it over my anger; which was steadily reaching boiling point.
"It has been brought to my attention that you were the instigator of the conversation today in the library."He spoke slowly, as if to empathise his point.
The conversation was my fault.
It is my fault that my friends had spent the last four hours scrubbing muck off walls.
"Yes, Sir." I replied, what of it, I thought harshly. I was practically radiating hostility.
"and since you were the instigator," he spoke again, "you will be the only one receiving detention."
My body began to relax. All my fault, but only I will feel the repercussions from now on. I stared down at his desk and processed the feeling, letting the relief work its way to my toes.
"but," he began again, and my head snapped up to meet his eyes, "You will have to explain to the class why all their hard work has been washed down the drain."
He had a sly smile on his face; already enjoying the fact that I was to going to be hung out to dry.
"I didn't screw up," I hissed. His smile dropped.
"Speak up." he spat back.
"I didn't do anything to make my potion explode." I repeated louder, slowly beginning to yell, "I followed the instructions, I made sure to be careful when moving it to the store room, hell I even put it far away from Neville's cauldron in case his started spitting!"
I moved closer to the desk, towering over Snape as he sat in his chair. I was on a roll now, too angry to stop or care about repercussions.
"I didn't cause that explosion, I didn't screw up. I didn't do ANYTHING that could have even LEAD to the bloody thing doing ANYTHING other then the desired result. But if you want me to tell the class WHY the bloody thing ruined everyone else's work, I'll go to the front and say 'I don't know, but it did.' and that will be the all you'll be able to get out of me."
Snape stood up out of his chair and peered down at me. His expression was one of disgust, one that mirrored my own anger, but when he spoke, it was his usual calm, slow tone.
"Detention for a month," he said, "100 points from Gryffindor."
I swallowed hard. 100 points would put us behind Slytherin. I regretted my outburst, but it still felt justified.
"Leave." He spat.
I turned around and left, slamming the heavy wooden door behind me. I all but ran out of the dungeons once I reached the Main Hall, I breathed deeply and tried to regain my composure. How could I explain this to Harry, and Ron? It felt nearly impossible. Would they agree with my outburst? I knew that Hermione would not. My chest started to tighten and I felt tears spring to my eyes. I couldn't stand being still, so I started to walk to the Common Room.
Halfway there, I saw a figure three floors above me, wearing the green garb of Slytherin house.
I grit my teeth and in my disgust and anger I began to follow them. Quietly but quickly, I shadowed them up the staircase and through corridors, and watched as they opened a door that lead to the roof.
As the bright moonlight hit their face, I gasped silently.
It was Draco Malfoy, with the most worried, anxious and defeated look I had ever seen.
Instantly, my anger dissolved, and it was replaced a throbbing worry that he might actually do something drastic.
I waited outside the stone door and listened. I heard him walk to the railing and sigh, and then nothing. I stood with an ear to the door for maybe 5 minutes; my own worry growing slowly as the absence of noise became more and more overwhelming.
Slowly, I removed my ear from the door, and rubbed my eyes in frustration before taking a deep breathe and let it out slowly. I mentally prepared a story for my intrusion; I needed fresh air after detention...was that believable enough? would he recognise my existence for me to even relay my story? I shook my head, and opened the door.
The moon was full and bright, and it caused the railings to cast long shadows, and gave the area a sombre feel. Draco stood at the railing, his hands gripped the stone surface. He turned with an expression of surprise as I walked out, which I mimicked for a moment before forcing a calm demeanour.
He turned back around, focusing his attention away from me. I casually walked towards the railing and leant against it a 5 feet away.
"Marlin." He said once in acknowledgement to my presence.
"Draco," I responded, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him grip the banister tighter.
I knew I had caught him at a bad time. He was hunched over the bannister, his shoulders heavy. He forked his fingers through his hair, and rubbed his face quite hard. I pretended not to notice it, but my worry grew as I heard him choke a sigh.
"Draco…" I whispered, and he shot up straight and snapped his face towards me, as if he had forgotten I was there.
"What?" he hissed. I gave him an impatient look, but continued.
"Are you okay?"
"Why do you care?!" he spat, gripping the banister so tightly I was sure it would crumble beneath his fingers.
"I'd ask the same of anyone who looked like they were about to take a swan dive off the side of a castle." He dropped his gaze and squared his jaw. I felt disgust at myself for being so crass as it was probably the worst thing for him to hear.
"I'm… sorry." I whispered. We stood in silence for a few moments. My face felt hot. I was embarrassed by myself for being so hostile to his valid expression of defence.
His grip of the stone railing relaxed and he sighed deeply.
"I'm going through some...shit right now." He muttered, and flattened his hair down again.
He stared at me, as if daring me to ask what.
"Doesn't everyone?" I countered slyly, not playing his game. He gave a wry smile and massaged the palm of his right hand with his left hand's thumb.
"Why are you up here?" he asked, and my stomach flipped.
"Detention," I lied, "I wanted some fresh air, after being in those stuffy dungeons half the night."
He cocked an eyebrow at me as if I had insulted his home. Well, I had, actually, so I made a cheeky face at him in an attempt to lighten the mood.
He looked up at the moon, and I watched him contemplate something; his expression changing second by second as his thought process progressed.
"Have you ever," he begun, "been forced to do something, that just might destroy you emotionally…if you actually did it."
"I spent 4 hours scraping gunk off the wall, don't talk to me about being emotionally dead inside." I said dryly. Draco gave me a sour look.
"Seriously though, no. I haven't." I replied. He pursed his lips tight and furrowed his brows.
"Look Draco, I'm probably the last person you'll ever want to talk to, but if you ever need someone-"
"Then I'd talk to my own house members." He cut me off, staring at me angrily.
I gave him a worried look. A genuine look. Every ounce of worry and empathy I could ever possibly express was cultivated in to this one moment of expression. He looked at me quizzically. I knew that he was wondering if I was messing with him, that I didn't actually care, but decided, as he nodded slowly and looked away, that I did mean it. That it didn't matter if we had hated each other; I was worried about him at this moment, and that must have meant something to him.
"Okay," he continued, brushing the railing with his hand, "Alright."
I turned around and leant back against the railing.
"I won't let Harry know." I said, and Draco shot me a dark look. I laughed.
"I won't let anyone know. Not even Candice." I spoke seriously, and tilted my head towards him, "There's no way anyone would even know we're talking. We hate each other, remember?"
He nodded, and bit at his lip, then put his right hand out for us to shake hands. I took it.
"Marlin." He said, keeping his eyes locked on mine, "it's late, and you've been terrible."
"Likewise, Draco." I replied, "You've got a shit head teacher and I hope you hate yourself for it."
He grinned, and left.
