The Disgraced of the House of Black - A Multi-Character Fanfiction - Part Two

229. Diffidence

Ellis jerked awake, the pitless eyes of Althea Black imprinted on his mind. Releasing a harsh breath, he sat up, knocking back the blankets as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed to rest on the floor. He felt cold and shaky, rather like an invisible dementor was in the room, hovering just out of sight. Then, before he could prepare himself, he was on the ground, huddled over the rubbish bin as he hurled violently. He was given only a moment's respite before with another gagging sound, he threw up again.

Laying his hot forehead against his hand, he drew in a shaky breath before instantly exhaling. Before he knew it, he was gasping painfully for breath that seemed to leave as quickly as it came. Shifting to sit, he leaned back against his bed, pressing back fully as he looked up, attempting to open up his lungs but it did little to help. As he drew in another harsh gasp, tears sprang to his eyes. He just wanted it to stop, he wanted the pain to stop, the sleepless nights, the nightmares, the terror. He wanted it all to be gone. He couldn't do this, not anymore, not anymore.

.

By the end of their fourth Potions lesson, Slughorn was raving to anyone who would listen about Harry's abilities, often with a quick follow-up about how talented Althea was. They had both quickly risen to the top spots in the class, often ending up with results that were exactly the same or exceptionally close, often with Althea's just slightly less impressive.

This had resulted in a very angry Hermione indeed, despite the fact that Harry and Althea had both offered to share their notes. Harry's, of course, came purely from his book, but Althea had been spending much of her time understanding the notes of the Prince's, which occasionally resulted in better results than Harry's and entirely resulted in a better understanding of the potions they were brewing. Ron, however, could not read Althea's handwriting and had too much trouble with the Prince's to look on in class. Hermione, however, was holding fast to what she considered to be the 'official instructions' and grew more and more angry, overwhelmed, and confused when those instructions yielded poorer results than Harry and Althea's.

Much to Harry and Ron's dismay, their free periods, which for the two of them and Althea were numerous, were not time for blissful relaxation as he had thought. Instead, they found themselves studying as though they had an exam every day. Hermione was nearly frantic with her work while Harry suddenly found his best subject to be Potions. Althea, meanwhile, was excelling at Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Herbology, but struggling with Transfiguration and even somewhat with Charms, although that was more due to the workload itself.

Althea's one advantage over her classmates was her premature mastery of nonverbal spells, which allowed her to focus less on them than her classmates as nonverbal spells were now required in Transfiguration, Charms, and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Instead, she spent her time cooped up in the library, writing essays and researching for Snape's increasingly difficult work and Slughorn's potions. Although she was not as determined as Hermione to outwit the Half-Blood Prince, Althea was determined to understand his notes and scribbles. She had taken the better part of several days to copy over all the Prince's notes and spent increasing time studying them, researching different topics, and trying to determine what the spells he had written were for.

There was on in particular that sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place where she knew it from. Sectumsempra. She had researched in several books, but she didn't have nearly enough free time to study with any great vigour.

She was staring at the scribble with a frown as they sat at breakfast the second Saturday of the term when Harry remarked, "I dunno why the team's this popular all of a sudden."

"Oh, come on, Harry," Hermione said impatiently. "It's not Quidditch that's popular, it's you! You've never been more interesting, and frankly, you've never been more fanciable." Ron gagged on his kipper as Althea looked up at her, restraining an amused smile with difficulty. "Everyone knows you've been telling the truth now, don't they? The whole Wizarding world has had to admit that you were right about Voldemort being back and that you really have fought him twice in the last two years and escaped both times. And now they're calling you 'the Chosen one' - well, come on, can't you see why people are fascinated by you?"

Althea was amused to see Harry's cheeks were growing bright red.

"And you've been through all that persecution from the Ministry when they were trying to make out you were unstable and a liar. You can still see the marks on the back of your hand where that evil woman made you write with your own blood, but you stuck to your story anyway..."

"You can still see where those brains got hold of me in the Ministry, look," Ron said, rolling back his sleeves as Harry muttered something about Thea having the same marks.

"And it doesn't hurt that you've grown about a foot over the summer either," Hermione added.

"I'm tall," Ron said, but everyone ignored him as the post owls arrived.

Althea had received no post so far. She tried to pretend like it didn't bother her, but she had hoped her parents might write to her. It was harder than she had thought it would be, not having her mother at the school, but she hadn't thought she wouldn't hear from her at all. To her surprise, however, an owl landed before her, bearing a letter from her mother. Althea quickly tore it open, ignoring Harry as he opened his new textbook and exchanged the binding for the Half-Blood Prince's copy.

Dear Althea,
Dumbledore came to see us two days ago about what he told you before term. Honey, I'm so sorry this is happening to you. If there was anything I could do to change it or fix it, I would. Please be safe, Althea. We are safe. Don't write back. We're being watched. Be careful, darling. Your father and cousin send their love.
Love,
Mom

Looking up directly at Harry and cutting across Hermione's protests to him keeping the book, Althea said, "They know."

Hesitating slightly, he asked, "About...?"

"Yeah," Althea said softly.

"Know what?" Hermione demanded.

"I-" Althea began before meeting Harry's gaze. There was no reason to hide it any longer. "Listen, there's something I need to tell you, something I should have told you sooner, but...well, I didn't want you to worry."