Another Year at Hogwarts

I awoke the following morning to the sound of someone kicking my door open. My eyes snapped opened to find Bellatrix Lestrange standing over me. I could see a raging fire burning in her eyes as she peered down at me.

“Morning,” she said with a sinister grin on her face.

“What are you doing in here?” I whispered as I quickly sat up and scooted away from her. As I did this, though, Bellatrix’s hand darted out and grabbed onto me so that I couldn’t get very far.

Bellatrix pulled me close to her before asking more to herself than to me, “Why does he allow you to stay here?” She continued to glare at me as she commented that I was nothing more than Mudblood.

All the while, I was paralyzed with fear. What Snape had said to me the previous day was echoing through my head the entire time Bellatrix was insulting me. I kept wondering when she was going to pull out her wand and kill me. But thankfully, she never did such a thing, despite how angry she was.

“You’re disgusting. If the Dark Lord and that wretched Severus didn’t have some use for you, you’d be dead right now,” Bellatrix growled before shoving me back down onto the bed and walking towards the door. But before she left, she turned back to me with a wide grin across her face.

“I look forward to the day you become useless, so that I can slowly kill you, Mudblood,” Bellatrix smirked. She then let out a sinister laugh before exiting my room.

The moment she walked out of the room, I hurried over to the dark dresser and grabbed onto my wand. I picked it up and waved it at the door, closing it shut.

I later headed out of my room after getting ready. As I stepped out into the long, dark hallway, I heard the sound of a door closing and turned to see who it was. To my surprise, it was Draco, who had stepped out of the room beside mine. As usual, he was wearing a wearing a black turtleneck shirt with his black suit. As I looked at him, I noticed how much thinner and paler he had become.

As Draco and I stared blankly at one another, I had expected him to walk by without a word, but instead he asked, “Would you like me to show you down?”

“No,” I quickly answered. “I—I’ll find my own way down,” I said as I turned my heels and started down the hall opposite of where Draco was.

“You’re going the wrong way!” Draco called out to me before I had gotten too far.

I sighed heavily as I turned back around and hurried passed Draco before he could make a comment. I swore I heard a soft chuckling from him as he followed behind me.

We had made our way to the first floor without a word. I was glad because I didn’t know how I would react if he tried to start a conversation with me. Unfortunately, that silence didn’t last.

“I’m Draco Malfoy,” Draco suddenly said from behind me.

“I’m don’t care who are you,” I snapped back.

Draco, however, ignored my comment and went on with the conversation. “I’m amazed that the Dark Lord allowed you to remain here. You’re basically a nobody, and on top of that you’re a Mudblood—“

“Excuse me?” I snapped while turning around to face Draco. He immediately stopped in his tracks. “What did you just call me?”

“Well, you are,” Draco replied.

I scoffed. “And just when I thought you couldn’t become more of an ass then you already are,” I said while glaring at him.

“What do you mean?” Draco questioned while scrunching his eyebrows together.

Crap, I shouldn’t have said that. I thought to myself. I simply kept a straight face as I changed the subject. “You make fun of me because of my background, but from my understanding you—Draco Malfoy—fell in love with a Muggle,” I snapped. The very mention of this made Draco’s eyes widen.

“Who told you that?” Draco demanded.

“It doesn’t matter where I heard it from,” I answered. “What’s important is that you should be going around saying crap about others—especially when you yourself were guilty of loving a pathetic Muggle,” I said while emphasizing the word ‘pathetic’.

The next thing I knew I was pinned against the wall with Draco hovering over me. As I looked up at him, I could see his jaw tighten and his breathing was rapid and heavy.

“Don’t you dare say anything about her,” Draco growled.

“Why?” I bravely questioned. “Because you still love her? Are you still in love with that Muggle?”

“Shut up!” Draco ordered.

“You claim to love that Muggle yet you were the one who killed her!” I shouted back. “You, your father, aunt and Snape broke into her home and slaughtered her family!”

“SHUT UP!” Draco bellowed as he slammed his hand against the wall—just centimeters away from the side of my head.

I restrained myself from crying as I asked, “Was that your way of showing that Muggle that you loved her?”

Draco leaned closer to me, and I could feel his warn breath beating on me. Our eyes were locked as he said, “She was not some Muggle. Her name was Violet, Violet Bell.”

“What are you two doing?” someone gasped.

Draco and I turned to look down the hallway to see his mother standing there petrified by the scene before her. Despite this, Draco said nothing and slipped away.

Once he was gone, Narcissa walked up to me. Her eyes remained in the direction that Draco had headed in as she said, “Severus is expecting you in the garden. You’ll be having your breakfast there with him. I’ll show you the way. But before we go,” Narcissa said as she finally turned to look at me, “I’m warning you to not interfere with my son. He’s unstable at the moment, and if you do anything to upset him more than he already is, you will pay dearly. Do you understand?”

I nodded while quickly blinking away my tears. “Yes, ma’am.”

Narcissa lead me to the back of the house before leaving me by the door. She told me that Snape would be waiting outside by the fountain for me before hurrying off.

I walked outside, and quickly found the fountain where Snape was waiting. I imagined the garden to have been once a beautiful place—one full of life. But I assumed that since Voldemort made the Malfoy home his headquarters, tending to the now dead plants was the last thing on anyone’s mind.

“Snape,” I addressed as I approached the small white table where our breakfast was placed upon. There was a small silver try on the round white table with a tea set and a plate of food for Snape and me.

“Hurry and eat,” Snape said as he turned around to face me. He took a seat in the chair across from me as he continued. “You and I have a lot of things to get done before we head to Hogwarts tomorrow morning.”

“What kinds of things?” I asked while also taking a seat.

“Occlumency,” replied Snape.

“Occlumency? Why?”

“Think about your questions before you ask them!” Snape snapped. “That’s probably the stupidest question you could ask.” Snape took a quick bite into his food before going on to explain. “As I had said to your yesterday, the Dark Lord will not easily trust you. Eventually, he will try to penetrate your mind to make sure you truly are who you say you are, and that you will not try to betray him. We must prepare you for that.”

“Oh…of course,” I whispered as I stared down at my food. I immediately looked back up at Snape and asked, “Why does he allow me to stay here if I’m a Muggle-born? Isn’t he trying to achieve complete purity?”

“He’s allowing you to stay here because of who your parents—well, who one of your parents were,” Snape replied.

“M—my parents?” I repeated. “And…who are they exactly?”

“Charles Baker and Scarlet Angel.”

I froze instantly.

“Yes, I told him that you were the child of Scarlet Angel. I told the Dark Lord that Scarlet and Baker were married and had a child together. I told him that she had changed her husband’s memory to think that she was dead, and left him with their daughter. Baker, however, died two years later, leaving their daughter—you—as an orphan,” Snape explained.

“And how much of that story of yours is true?” I asked.

Snape looked up at me, and in his eyes I could see he was struggling to keep his composure as he spoke. “Charles Baker was her fiancé. The two of them were supposed to get married, but then, as you know, the Death Eaters were after Scarlet. Scarlet erased Baker’s memories of her before she was captured,” Snape explained before quickly taking a sip from his tea. “Now finish your breakfast so we can begin,” Snape said as he got up and began to walk away.

“Wait!” I called out.

Snape stopped and glanced over his shoulder at me.

“This—this new body of mine…how long with I remain like this?” I questioned.

“As long as you are in the same location me, the spell will remain,” Snape answered. “And that,” Snape said as he began to walk away again, “is why you must come with me to Hogwarts.”