The Potions Master's Daughter Part 2

CHAPTER 10 Worst day ever

Alice stared at Daphne for what must've been minutes. Her friend reached for her hand and squeezed it, smiling.

'It'll be okay, Alice. We've got each other.'

Alice pulled her hand back and fixed her gaze on the floor. 'So you've all always known? And no one ever told me?'

'Look,' Daphne stood up and straightened her back. 'We never really talk about it with each other. It's just... It's just something we all know, kind of... subconsciously.'

'How?' Alice didn't understand. The thought of being left out from the Slytherin group she thought she had belonged to made her queasy. She imagined them meeting up behind her back, making sure she couldn't hear them, and bonding over their secrets. 'How do you know?'

Daphne scoffed. 'The same way you've always known. Your parents must've had their little secrets and one day you must've realised. Right?'

Alice's eyes darted at her and she opened her mouth mutely. Daphne looked at her knowingly.

'I don't know what you're talking about,' Alice muttered and stood up.

'Alice, stop,' Daphne jumped in between her and the door. 'You're not angry at me, are you?'

Alice shrugged.

'You didn't tell me either, did you? About your parents being Death Eaters.' Daphne said provocatively. 'You've hidden things from me. From us.'

'I never said my parents were Death Eaters,' Alice said coldly. 'It's just a weird feeling, you know? It's weird now that I realise that you've all known for years and no one told me anything. You didn't say a single word. It was your own little secret. I was the only one who didn't know.'

'And you know why that is?' Daphne raised her voice. She was visibly upset. 'That's because no one knows who your parents are! The only reason we've all known about You Know Who is because our parents are in on it. Our parents have met up with each other, talked, shared information. Out of the whole Slytherin group you're the only person who's a stranger!'

Alice felt a lump in her throat and shook her head. 'I should go.'

And without looking back, she ran out of the room.

The next day Alice realised she couldn't bear to look at her friends. She woke up the next morning and left the common room early before anyone else woke up. She wolfed down her breakfast and sneaked out of the Great Hall onto the grounds. Outside was cold, grey, and rainy but Alice knew she couldn't go back inside the castle.

Their first class of the day was Herbology so she walked over to the greenhouse and found a spot near the entrance, shielded from the rain by a gargoyle protruding from the castle wall. She dropped her bag onto the damp ground and sat beside it, sighing. She hid her face in her hands.

She felt stupid. Dumb. For four years she thought she knew all about her friends. And only now did she realise that all this time she was being kept in the dark by the people she trusted.

She stared in the distance absent-mindedly. Shouldn't she feel better knowing her friends were in just as much trouble as she was? It should be comforting to know that she wasn't alone in this whole conundrum. "Your parents are Death Eaters too?" she should've said. "How cool! We're in it together!"

But she couldn't help but feel betrayed. She felt betrayed even though, from the start, it was she who had led a double life. It was she who pretended Severus Snape was just a teacher to her. She knew perfectly well that out of the whole Slytherin house she was the biggest liar; she was the one who should feel ashamed.