My Beautiful Blackbird.

“Miss Von Teese!” I jumped at the sound of Mad-Eye yelling my name, pulling me out of my daze rather unpleasantly. I looked up at him, my heart racing.
“Can you please tell me what Inferi are?”
He was obviously trying to humiliate me for dozing off. I sighed.
“They're corpses. Corpses that are taken under the Imperius curse to do a dark wizard's bidding.”
Looking a bit taken aback, he continued. “Very good. Now tell us, how can you fight off these corpses?”
“They're dark creatures, therefore they despise light and heat. Firestorm or a spell that summons light would work, but no spell that inflicts pain would work since, y'know, they're dead.”
“Excellent. Now who can tell me which dark wizard has one of the largest armies of Inferi to date?”
No one said anything, so I spoke.
“Voldemort.”
There were scattered whispers and all eyes were on me, Mad-Eye staring me down; obviously he wasn't too pleased with me for saying the name.
“Yes. The Dark Lord.”
Another long and painful silence. I sighed, bored and wishing Fred and George were with me; they had Charms when I had Defense Against the Dark Arts, making those two classes excruciatingly boring for me.
“These Inferi are powerful, more powerful than the average human. Therefore, when an army, it's extremely difficult, almost impossible, to defeat them. Yes Miss Parkinson?”
A couple of fourth and fifth years were in my classes because they were advanced and sadly Pansy Parkinson was one of them. She cleared her throat. “So you're saying that the Dark Lord is creating an army of these- things?”
That's how you could always tell if someone was the child of a Death Eater or they were a Death Eater themselves; they called Voldemort 'the Dark Lord'.
“Yes, indeed he is. A large one, at that.” He glanced up at the clock. “Alright, off you go. Remember your homework is due Friday.”
I gathered my books and made my way out of the classroom with the class, students scattering once we were in the hallway. I began my trip down to the dungeons and met the twins along the way, waiting for me at the stairs.
“Hello Blackbird.” They said together.
“Hey guys. What's up?”
“The ceiling.” They said again.
“Ha-ha. How was Charms?”
“Wonderful.” George stated.
“So how was Defense Against the Dark Arts? Moody kill anyone yet?” He questioned.
“He almost killed me with his boring lectures on Inferi,” I thought for a moment. “Have you guys ever noticed the way he talks about-”
“'The Dark Lord'” They mocked in Moody's voice. I laughed.
“Yeah.”
“Yes, he seems to have quite a fascination with him, doesn't he?” Fred added.
“Quite. But who doesn't nowadays?”
I quickly forgot about the topic as we entered Snape's classroom, him sitting at his desk reading as the students sat at their tables. I sat between Fred and George at the table in the back of the room, the place we usually sat, before pulling out my Advanced Potion Making book.
Once everyone was seated Snape stood and cleared his throat, the room falling silent as he did so.
“Good evening,” He began. “Today we will be brewing a rather dangerous substance, one that could be, as you would say-” He thought for a moment. “Potentially problematic.”
He removed the lid from a cauldron sitting on his desk, making sure to stay away from the aroma ascending from it. “Amortentia, the most powerful love potion in the world.”
“Don't let Harry get ahold of that, he might slip it in Cho's pumpkin juice.” George whispered in my ear. I couldn't contain my laughter and began snickering, gaining Snape's attention.
“Something funny, Von Teese?”
“No sir. Nothing at all.” I grinned. He glared at me, his black eyes showing anger and frustration.
“Why don't you come up and explain to us what exactly Amortentia is, Miss Von Teese?”
I frowned. “Uh, no, I'm good.”
“Do it.”
Fred and George snickered as I made my way to the front of the room, stopping in front of the cauldron. I turned to the class.
“Erm- Amortentia doesn't create actual love, just like- obsession, if you will. It also smells different to each person.”
“And why don't you tell us what it smells like to you, Juliette?”
Oh my God, was he serious?
“Uh- I'd rather not.”
“But I'd rather you did.”
Everyone's eyes were on me and the twins watched me, their shoulders moving up and down in silent laughter. I sighed and unwillingly inhaled the aroma, hoping by some miraculous miracle that I wouldn't smell anything, but I did.
“Erm- a wooden broom handle, cardboard record sleeves and-” I wasn't sure what the third smell was, but I knew that it was some sort of warm scent that I usually smelled at the Burrow. Only later would I realize that the smell was actually George's cologne.
“New parchment.” I lied.
The class stared at the cauldron, the want visible in many pairs of eyes.
“Thank you, Miss Von Teese. Sit down.”
I quickly walked back to my seat and Snape gave us the instructions for the potion, me wracking my brains as to what that third smell could have been. Before I knew it, the class was over and we were walking to the Great Hall for dinner.
“Hello Harry. Hermione.” I said as we sat across from them. They smiled in hello.
“Hello Juliette, how are you?” She asked.
“Excellent. And you?”
“Just great. I've been- well, I'll have to tell you later.” She motioned toward Ron and I immediately knew someone had asked her. I nodded.
“Found a date yet?” The twins asked Ron. He rolled his eyes.
“And I suppose you have?”
“Yes actually, we have.” Fred stated. Wait, 'we'?
“What?” I asked George. He smiled.
“Yes, I forgot to tell you! See that Veela over there?” He pointed to a tall, thin, and beautiful brunette Veela who was talking to Fleur Delacour. “That's Alexandra, I'll be going with her.”
“As of when?”
“Charms, a group of Veela just transferred to our class.”
I literally felt my heart ache, sinking lower and lower into my stomach.
“That's, erm- that's lovely. I'll be going then, I just remembered some homework Charms- I mean Charms homework. I have Charms homework.”
I stood and began walking quickly out of the Great Hall, hoping no one saw the pained expression on my face. I got to the girls dormitory and sat on my bed, pulling my legs up to my chest.
“Don't cry, don't cry.” I whispered to myself. I hated crying, it made me feel weak. Weak and vulnerable.

That's when the dam broke, and the awaiting tears drenched my face.