Scars

Herbology was Eliza’s favorite class; it was the only course she could confidently say she was good at. In fact, if it wasn’t for Neville Longbottom, she would easily have the highest marks in her year—he always liked to keep things close, though. Today, Professor Sprout was teaching the sixth years about the Venomous Tentacula. This was a green, spikey plant with teeth and long feelers that were commonly used to reach out and capture its prey. It was kept in greenhouse three, and the students rarely got to be around it because of how dangerous it was. Eliza remembered once, during her second year, Sprout warned her class to not go near it because it was teething at the time. She did, however, promise them that if the plant were to ever attack them, they could swear loudly without any repercussions—Eliza didn’t find this very reassuring; she much preferred to avoid getting attacked by poisonous plants all together.

Suddenly, the greenhouse door burst open, and McGonagall appeared in the doorway. Her face was flushed and she looked like she’d ran the entire way from the castle to here.

“Pomona—Professor Sprout, m-may I speak to you…privately.” McGonagall said after catching her breath.

Sprout furrowed her brow. “Of course—class, I will only be a minute. Please review the lesson with a partner, and be careful not to get too close to the Tentacula.”

Sprout followed McGonagall outside, and immediately the greenhouse filled with chatter; to no surprise, no one talked about the lesson.

Eliza listened half-heartily as Susan described her encounter with a dreamy Ravenclaw boy that morning. Susan started fancying a new bloke practically every day, so her stories about “love-at-first-sight” rarely gained much enthusiasm from her friends. Liza, Hannah, and Ernie merely nodded every few seconds to feign interest—it was their standard protocol. Unexpectedly, Eliza felt a tug at her sleeve. Quickly, she turned to see Harry had appeared at her side.

She smiled. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “How have things been going—“ he paused a second and looked around. After verifying that no one was listening, he continued, “with Malfoy.”

Eliza bit the inside of her cheek. “Alright, I guess.”

He raised a brow in response, forcing her to elaborate. “We’ve been talking more, but he hasn’t told me anything that would verify his…membership…or anything.”

Harry nodded slowly. At first, his expression was strained, but eventually he forced a weary smile. “Well, thanks again for agreeing to do this. You just have to get him to trust you—to view you as his confidant.”

Easier said than done, Eliza thought, but instead she replied, “I’ll try my best.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “I know.”

Before Liza could say anything else, Professor Sprout burst back into the room. She looked visibly upset, and for a moment didn’t say anything. Eventually, after gaining her composure, she spoke, “Students, we will be ending class early today. Please read the chapter on Venomous Tentaculas by next week and write a one page summary on what you learn. Ms. Abbott, please stay behind, I need to speak with you.”

Several eyes turned to Hannah, who appeared just as surprised as everyone else that Sprout asked to speak with her alone. Eliza assumed it had to do with prefect duties or something considering Sprout was their head of house; she offered her friend a smile before filing out of the greenhouse with the others.

Later that day, Professor Sprout informed Eliza and her friends that Hannah would not be returning to school any time soon. Her mother had been found dead at home. Although it was uncertain how exactly she died, the Ministry suspected it was at the hands of Death Eaters. Hannah was very close to her mum, so Eliza couldn’t imagine how she was feeling. Sure, she had also lost a parent to Death Eaters, but she had been too young to remember any of it. She had no memories of her dad. Everything she knew about him, including the way he looked, was from pictures and stories. Although her Mum wasn’t very open to talking about her father, her Aunty Molly had hundreds of anecdotes to share from the time they were children up until his death. Eliza could sit and listen to Molly talk for hours about her father without getting bored.

Sprout took care of getting all of Hannah’s things together, so Eliza didn’t even get to tell her friend goodbye. She figured she would write to her in the next few days, after Hannah had a chance to process everything. That night, people were constantly coming up to her, Susan, and Ernie, asking about what happened. Although they all pretended to be sincere, Liza knew most of them were just being nosey, trying to find out as much as possible about the latest Hogwarts gossip.

It felt strange that night sleeping next to Hannah’s empty bed. Hannah was the only person that knew about Eliza’s nightmares. She didn’t have them often, but when she did they were horrible and caused Eliza to feel like she couldn’t breathe. It was scary, being half asleep and feeling like there was no oxygen. Like no matter how many breaths she took, she would never have enough air. Hannah always knew what to do, though. Sometimes, she’d conjure a paper bag to help Liza control her breathing, other times she would tell her a story to distract her. Eliza didn’t know what she would do now when her dreams decided to haunt her.

The next day, Eliza spent her entire Saturday in an isolated corner of the library, getting caught up on homework. She wasn’t in the mood to spend time with anyone, and she knew she wouldn’t have very much time to work on her assignments tomorrow, given she’d be stuck in detention. Now, more than ever, she wanted to know if Malfoy was a Death Eater or not. It was hard to believe, no matter how arrogant or rude he was, that he could associate himself with something so evil. She needed answers. How exactly she was going to get them, she wasn’t sure. She didn’t have the first idea about how she was supposed to get Malfoy to trust her. For starters, he didn’t seem like the type to be overly trusting, anyway, and they barely even knew each other. She supposed, for now, all she could do was force him to talk to her as much as possible.

Sunday afternoon arrived rather quickly, and before she knew it, Eliza found herself on the way to Filch’s office. She actually hoped he would be holding detention today and not Hagrid. Another trip to the Dark Forest did not sound appealing; even if it was in the middle of the day. The room was empty when she arrived. She stood off to the side, resting her back against the wall. A slew of chains and shackles hung overhead, which she tried to avoid as much as possible. Malfoy appeared minutes later, but instead of taking his usual seat in Filch’s chair, he walked over to Eliza.

“I heard about the girl in your house.” He said, rocking back on his heels.

“She’s my friend.” Eliza said, and Malfoy nodded.

“Do you know what happened?” he asked, and she raised a brow. She found it suspicious that he had any interest in Hannah.

“They think Death Eaters. Her mum was a muggle.” As she said this, Eliza tried to pay extra attention to Malfoy’s reaction, but his face remained the same, his expression flat—he didn’t even flinch.

“That’s unfortunate,” he said, and she nodded. She wasn’t sure if he meant it was unfortunate that she’d been killed or if was unfortunate that she was a muggle, and she wasn’t about to ask him to clarify. Seconds later, he spoke again. “I’ve given it some thought, and I will help you with Potions.”

Liza’s eyes widened. “Thank you-”

“There are some conditions,” Malfoy said, and her face fell. She should have suspected Malfoy wouldn’t help her out of the goodness of his heart.

“Go on,” she said, biting the inside of her cheek; she was quite weary about what his conditions would entail.

“You can start doing my part of detention, and in exchange, I will try to teach you what I know about potions. There are no guarantees that you will get any better, though. I’m not a miracle worker.”

Eliza decided to ignore Malfoy’s insult, and instead focused on the fact that he wanted her to do double the work during detention. Given some of their tasks, it would take her far too long for her to finish everything on her own. They would be there for hours.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Eliza said, placing her hands on her hips. “It will take me forever to finish all of our work!”

“I’m just trying to do you a favor.” Eliza furrowed her brow in frustration. She wished she looked intimidating, but she knew that was highly unlikely. Someone of her stature and a face full of freckles didn’t intimidate many people. Malfoy rolled his eyes. “Well, I guess you don’t have to do all the work, but you will definitely be doing more! Especially the stuff I don’t want to do.”

Eliza sighed. “Fine.”

He smirked. Before either of them could speak again, Filch hobbled into the room. If it was possible, he looked even worse off than before. There definitely didn’t appear to be an end in sight for their detentions.

“Hello Mr. Filch-” Eliza began before he interrupted her with an unpleasant grunt. She pressed her back further to the wall; she wished she could disappear inside it.

“Today I will need you lot to clean the Owlery. It hasn’t been properly cleaned in months.”

Eliza inwardly groaned. She hated going to the Owlery. The floor was covered in owl droppings and regurgitated skeletons of mice and voles; it was disgusting. And now that she had her agreement with Malfoy, she knew she’d be doing most of the grunt work.

“We will start right away, sir.” Malfoy said, grabbing Eliza’s arm. He pulled her out of the room before Filch could say another word. Eliza narrowed her eyes, he was far too excited right now, and it was annoying.