𝖶𝖨𝖢𝖪𝖤𝖣 𝖧𝖠𝖳𝖤 | 𝖥𝖱𝖤𝖣 𝖶𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖫𝖤𝖸

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐈𝐈 : 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀.

___

DECEMBER, 1973.

I was sat outside of the Faculty of Life Sciences building which belonged to the University College of London, reading one of the letters my brother had sent me with my wand hidden inside my bag and only showing my muggle books. Bouncing my leg while focused on the paper and whatever Severus was complaining about now, I heard some people coming out of the building in groups, as usual. I accommodated on the bench, trying to get as far from them as possible.

How ironic.

Who would have told me I would end up avoiding people?

I couldn't help but remember my years at Hogwarts; the first years had been incredibly amazing, I used to be one of the most popular Slytherins, had quite a good number of both friends and suitors and really good marks - I even got to crown myself as Professor Slughorn's favourite student. They used to be my golden years, next to my best friend; Andromeda Black.

But all changed when my brother arrived at Hogwarts and his disturbing group of friends started to drown Slytherin's name and good reputation in the mud with their stupid ideas of blood supremacy and rejection towards muggles. I knew that Severus had processed our trauma with our father in a different way - way more withdrawn and obsessive - than me, but when he told me about this weird group of folks called the Death Eaters and that particular lord of them... I had to admit that my little brother was definitely losing it. No one wanted to listen to me when I warned it and by the time it blossomed inside Slytherin, it was too late; we had already been demonized even if we disagreed with those views, we had been already bullied into insolation and we had already lost many of ours by wanting to join that horrid group. I wanted my mum to slap Severus into reason, but deeply I also knew my poor Eileen didn't have any kind of control over him.

This was all my father's fault. As usual.

And Severus's himself! How is he, as a Half-Blood, willing to enter a cult that only worships purebloods? Pathetic.

Since Tobias, also known as the man who left my mum pregnant with me and my brother, left us a couple of years ago, Severus had felt more liberated but also, more rebellious than ever. He was, in my opinion, acting incredibly wrong.

I sighed, still reading the letter; as usual, he was having trouble with this Potter bloke and, as usual, he was obsessing over his friend; Lily Evans. Quite a nice girl, but I knew she only loved my brother as a friend, although he still held stupid hopes in making her fall in love with him one of these days.

Oh, Sev, I don't know if you are miserable or just an idiot.

"Look who we have in here!" I heard a masculine voice approaching me. "Hello, love."

I lifted my eyes, lazily and quite uninterested, to find Ares Arambella himself leaving his group of friends to walk towards me. I rolled my eyes, putting my book down and crossing my arms in front of my chest, as I kept bouncing my leg, with the only sound of the little tiny chains in my Doc Martens.

"What do you want, Arambella?" I asked him, trying to keep my dry tone.

He smiled, putting his hands in the pocket of his jeans.

"I like your leather jacket," he said in a playful tone. I arched one of my eyebrows.

"Go straight to the point, I don't have time for you."

He clicked his tongue, still amused.

Ares Arambella was one of the students of my Faculty. He was doing a Biological Sciences degree specialised in genetics and he was a muggle, like most people in here. I was one of the few witches studying here and even though I tried to avoid muggles because it would be so difficult to explain how and why I had different and unique subjects outside of my Chemistry degree, this particular boy seemed to be a bit obsessed with me. I couldn't help but observe him from up to down; he was quite handsome, that was undeniable. Piercing and hypnotic green eyes, messy curly brown hair, long nose, rosy lips and trimmed beard, a quite punky style and a cigarette hanging from his lips.