Eleanor Snape- Book 1

My Uncle's Theory

I was confused when I woke up later that day. My eye hurt? I was sore? Then I remembered what had happened.

Slowly I got out of bed, smoothing down my greasy hair. I put my hand to my forehead and closed my eyes. Merlin, did my eye hurt. I opened them back up and stole a glance at myself in the mirror across the room. A tender, purple bruise was forming around my left eye.

Sighing, I went to the end of my bed and opened my trunk. I pulled out a pair of pants. I put them on and bent down to close the lid when I saw something laying at the top of the trunk; My potions book. My eyes widened. What time was it?

I grabbed the book and rand down the stairs into the Common Room.

"Ellie, where are you-?" Draco grabbed my arm, but I shook him off.

"No time to talk." I said, rushing to the door. "What time is it?"

"5:20." He was following behind me.

"Okay." I ran out the door and around the corner.

5:20. 'I'm twenty minutes late.' I thought as I ran up some stairs. I was halfway up the stair case when it lurched and changed paths.

"Ugh!" I exclaimed and turned around, running into someone.

"Where are you off to, Eleanor?" Sarah Beth sweetly asked, blocking my path.

"Move, Sarah Beth. I don't have for this."

"Oh, but why not?" She smiled her smile, making me cringe.

"I mean it." I growled as I failed to squeeze between her and the railing. "I need to get through."

"I'm just trying to make conversation. Who's is this?" She asked, picking up Draco's ring that hung around my neck on it's chain. I sighed. Maybe if I answered her she would go away.

"Draco's." I said, trying again to push through the girls.

"Wait, wait." she stopped me by putting her left hand to my chest, holding me back. "Malfoy?" By that point I knew she could tell that she was trying to keep me from getting to my destination. I mean, seriously, how many Draco's were in the school?

"Yes." My patience was wearing thin. She paused.

"Oh yeah!' she exclaimed after a moment of fake thought. "You were at the Christmas Ball!" She was trying to kill me with kindness.

"Yeah. I saw you." I took Draco's ring back. "You were the one wearing the soiled dress, right?" I saw anger flash in her eyes at the mention of the Ball mishap.

"Yeah, I saw you too!" She started playing with one of her curls as she spoke with mock cheerfulness. "You were the drunk, right?" Her posse laughed again.

"Yeah, well, at least I had a date!" This was getting absurd, but I wasn't going to let her win this time.

"At least I was wanted there!"

"I was wanted there!"

Suddenly, Sarah Beth's face morphed into an Innocent one.

"What's going on here?" Said a voice behind me.

"No- Nothing Cedric." She giggle-blushed. I rolled my eyes.

"Well, you guys need to get off the staircase." Cedric said.

"Gladly." Finally. I pushed my way past Sarah Beth, leaving her behind.

To my annoyence, when I stepped off the last step, the staircase changed again to it's original path.

I ran back up the stairs ,past Sarah Beth, and into my Uncle's office.

"You are thirty minutes late." Uncle Severus looked up from the book he was reading to notice my eye. "What caused that? Is that why you were late?"

"Yes and no." I panted, trying to catch my breath.

"Explain." He put the book down.

"Why I'm late or why I have a black eye?"

"Both."

"Okay." I ran my hand through my hair. "Sarah Beth and I got into a fight." He got up and summoned a cauldron for my lesson.

"Accio cauldron." Then he continued to ask, "What did you do to her?"

"She started it!" I exclaimed, "What makes you think I did anything!?"

"Temper, Eleanor. You must remember to control your temper." He warned. "What happened?"

"Well, Flitwick sent us to Dumbledore."

"And...?"

"Dumbledore told us to take a nap."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I don't believe you." My jaw dropped.

"What!?" I exclaimed.

"I don't believe you." He said again.

"Why not!?" I yelled. "I"m telling the truth!"

"Temper..." He reminded me, but it was no use.

"Shut up!" He darted across the room.

"What did you just say?" Uncle Severus sounded surprisingly calm.

"Shut up! Just shut up! You don't believe anything I say, so I don't know why I'm even wasting my time telling you all this!"

"You do not talk to me in that manner!" He snapped. "And I don't believe you because you have lied to me before."

That hurt. So it was true. He didn't believe me. The anger that was already in my body intensified. I picked up the cauldron on his desk.

"Well, I"m not lying now! " He jumped out of the way as the cauldron flew towards him.

"What is wrong with you?" He didn't yell or scream, but said it softly, almost as if he were asking himself. He walked up to me and lifted his hand to put it on my shoulder, but I smacked it away.

"Don't touch me." I could feel tears pricking behind my eyes. I silently cursed myself. Why was I so vulnerable?

"Eleanor. Don't act like this...you're acting like your Father!" 

We were both silent for a moment. 

"My father wouldn't have cared! He never did!" I spat.

"Did he tell you that!?" Uncle Severus looked down and went silent. "That's what I thought." He grabbed my shoulder and whipped me around to face him.

"Even so...It's over... he's gone, Eleanor. Don't let your past influence you...it- it's not a good thing at all." I just looked at him. His tone sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and I wanted to believe him, but I couldn't. He didn't know what he was talking about.

"That's it, isn't it? That's why you are so angry at everyone...your aren't angry at them: You're angry at your father..." He continued. I felt a tear slide down my cheek.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Ever since your father's death, you have been causing trouble. Lying... getting drunk.... doing things behind my back. You are trying to get the love and attention you had never gotten. But you are getting it...But when you feel that the love is going away, you do something drastic.

"No." I answered, although I felt that he might have been right. It made sense. Maybe, just maybe, I was, unconsciously, craving attention...love. Merlin knows I didn't get any from my father. "No... you're wrong." My voice sounded desperate.

Silence filled the room as Uncle Severus let go of me. I could tell that he felt uncomfortable about discussing my feelings, but that he wanted to continue, but didn't know how, so he changed the subject.

"Where you really telling the truth?" He asked. It took me a minute to realize that he was talking about why I was late.

"Yes." I said, quietly.

"Very well, then." And suddenly, things were back to normal: The way I liked it. "Turn to page 156 and we will begin."