The Watchers Destiny

Chapter 12- Beaten

I wandered the corridors for the rest of that day, anyone who came up against me pressed themselves up against the wall and stared as I went past. Bramble trailed around with me, telling me all the things that had happened here since I'd been gone.

"Snape walked in  here and took over," meowed Bramble, "this place has changed so much. The cats have all run away to Hogsmeade where they'll be safe, but me and a few others, even Purrel left. I stayed, knowing you'd come back sometime soon. There has been so much hurt already and it's only the 28th of September. How long will you be here for?"

"As long as it takes me to escape," I purred back.

I visited all my old haunts that day, but something was different, wrong. I had no friends here, none at all. I may have had few in the past, but they'd been there. Ron, Draco, Seamus and Sookie as well as others around here that I knew.

After that day I kept track of dates and times, unlike during the rest of my travels because I didn't know. Bramble kept me updated with the gosip of the castle, most of it was about me. After a week of my presence here people started to stare at me more often, trying to work me out. I never went near the staffroom, but Bramble said he'd heard the teachers talking about me, about how I looked too young to be doing anything like that with Snape.

Most of the rummors going around were along the lines of I was a kidnapped pure-blood, forced into being with Snape. Others were that I was related to the Dark Lord and was here to keep Snape in check. Another was that I wasn't really a human and I was actually a Vampire or Were-Wolf. The most popular one I'd heard was that I was a pure-blood with Veela in me and I had been forced into marrying Snape against my wishes to form a bond with my family and the Dark Lord. It made me laugh so much when I heard that. 

A week later I was walking down the corridor when a first-year came around the corner, ran into me and knocked us both to the floor. I got up and brushed myself down, looking down at the frightened boy, who looked as though he wished he was dead, there were tears running down his face and he had  a split lip and a swollen cheek. There were other pounding feet and Pansy Parkinson and Goyle came around the corner. They stopped dead when they saw me, furry in my eyes.

"Why are you chasing this boy?" I demanded of them, the first words I'd said to a person other than Snape in the time I'd been trapped here.

"He gave us cheek!" said Goyle.

"Shut up," hissed Pansy to Goyle, "that's her." 

They both stared at me and then Pansy spoke up.

"If you'll excuse us, Lady Snape, we'll take the boy and give him the proper punishment."

I swallowed back a smile at the term 'Lady Snape' and bent down to the boy, who flinched away from me. I took his uper arm and pulled him to his feet.

"You'll do no such thing," I growled at them, "I'll take him away for it."

They both smirked, thinking that I was more evil than them. They both ran off back where they'd come for and I looked down at the quivering boy. I took his hand and led him down the corridor a little way. I looked around and stopped, then bent down to his height.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I said to him softly.

He wouldn't meet my eyes, he was so frightened. I put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"It's alright," I said gently, "I couldn't hurt you, not ever."

He looked up then, meeting my eyes with his own brown ones. Something in my eyes made him feel calmer and he stopped shivering. I smiled and he gave a nervous one back.