Some things stick with you forever. For me, it's May 2, 1998. The Battle of Hogwarts. The day I lost some good friends. The day my second home became a war zone. The day a man I once trusted showed his true colors.
The biggest thing then was survivi...
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"How do you know Brian Stevens?" Neville repeated.
"He...he was my boyfriend."
"What?"
"Must I repeat that for you?" I asked solemnly.
"No, I heard you the first time. It's just...it sounds wrong."
"Why?"
"You don't seem to be the type of girl to get mixed with—"
"I'm not." I sneezed. "I don't fall for bad boys or smartasses. He just happened to be wearing a mask during the time I knew him."
"How come you never told me this?"
"Well, for one thing, prior to his escape, he wasn't a direct threat to me. And for another, I don't open up to people I don't know right away."
"Right. Sorry, I forgot."
"I noticed."
"You sounded really scared, like he was going to murder you or something."
I cleared my throat. "In order to understand my hysterical episode you were at the tail end of, you need to understand the history behind it. And there is quite a bit.
"Honestly, I can't remember exactly how it happened, but once he and I started talking, we shared a bond." I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, looking down at my feet. "I think it was my...fifth year things went bad. Yeah, it was. Dumbledore's passing had been then. Anyway, we had started dating back in my fourth year, your fifth obviously. He was—still is—two years older than me. Slytherin House, pureblood of course. When he was with me, he didn't care about my blood status. I found that to be a good quality, because you know how some purebloods are."
"I'm pureblood, and honestly I don't care about that nonsense."
I paused momentarily. "I was shy around new people, but I quickly got attached to Brian. I got along with some of my girlfriends that quickly, but he was, I think, the only guy I ever talked to so openly.
"He hadn't joined that Inquisitorial Squad when Dolores Umbridge took over Hogwarts, so I was grateful for that. He would go out of his way to be with me—sometimes breaking the rules. I thought it was sweet, with a hint of stupidity.
"My fifth year...that's when things changed." My tone went low and somewhat dark. "Brian had been a bit...off that year. It was his last year at Hogwarts. I never got a straight answer out of him. Not right off the bat. It was the night that Dumbledore died that I got my answer."
I had to fight back the urge to hurl and continued on: "He was to be branded with the Dark Mark soon. I thought that he was afraid of being pulled into that world, so I tried to convince him to pull out of it. It was evident that I didn't know him very well. He actually wanted to be one of them. He just couldn't wait to join that cult. And then he went on about how—how I could be a useful ally to them. He wanted to recruit me.
