Behind the Shadows [Book One]

Chapter Twenty:

Chapter Twenty:

On January fourth, the second day back to school, the news came of Broderick Bodes death.  The news article gave away all the details, how the potted plant was supposedly given to him by his niece, a plant that contained Devil's Snare.  I knew, as I read it and glanced over to Harry and his friends, that they knew what I'd done.

No room was left in my mind for doubts, the Golden Trio glanced at me first with suspicion and then Hermione Granger's eyes lit up with knowledge and her eyes hardened.  Standing up from the Great Hall's Gryffindor table, I made my way out of the large doors and into the corridor.  The students pushed past me in their haste to make it to breakfast before classes started; however my mind screamed at me to get out of the school; to run before they told the headmaster what they'd seen on Christmas Day.

Snow still covered the grown, freshly fallen and beautifully white but now it just looked ugly.  The entire world looked ugly.  I'd officially killed a man.  I thought I'd feel upset, I figured I'd lose sleep over it or at least regret what I'd done but that wasn't the case.  My body filled with adrenaline at the thought of having actually caused a man's flame to fizzle out.  I had the power to make someone's eyes go dark, to make their chest stop moving with breath, to make their heart stop beating.  I had the power to do all these things... I was proud of myself.

That scared me more than anything else.  Normal people wouldn't feel proud, normalcy dictated that I feel guilt and turn myself in or act differently than I did before.  I should lose sleep, I should be going crazy but the only thing that worried me was getting caught and then not being able to do it again.  I wanted to feel this rush of power again, that I knew for sure.

Crunching steps gave away the fact that at least two people had recently begun to follow me as I made my way towards the restricted forest, but I didn't let on to the fact that I heard them, I continued on as if nothing had changed. Snow gave way to leaves and pine needles, making me speed up so that I could hide myself behind a large oak not to far away.  Once I'd made it there, I dashed behind and looked around the other side.

Of course it'd be them.

"Where'd she go?"

"She knew we were following her, obviously.  Amaryllis!  Please, we just want to talk."  Hermione Granger's voice grated against my ears like nails on a chalkboard or a fork against teeth.

"I somehow doubt that." I stepped out behind them before speaking, watching as they whirled around, Ron seeming more spooked that Hermione or Harry.  I smirked at him before turning to face the genius girl who also co-starred as my brothers best friend.  "What do you want?"

"That plant you had at St. Mungos, it was a Devil's Snare.  Ron saw it before I did, but didn't think you'd be handling one of those, but it was you.  It was, wasn't it?"  Glancing at Harry, I could see he was having trouble believing his sister would do something like that, so I used that to full effect.

"Of course not, I didn't... I would never.. That's terrible, how could you ask me that?" I stared at Harry, letting my eyes brim with tears as I attempted to look as innocent as I possibly could.  My guts raged against me at looking so helpless but my mind told me Harry was my strongest defense in dealing with his friends and keeping their thoughts to themselves.

"But I saw it, I know it was Devil's Snare, and the writing said Uncle Brody!"

"I was only doing something nice for some old man who had no family!  How could you think I'd actually.. kill someone?  Harry, how could you let them actually think something that terrible?"  I let the tears brim over before I turned on my heel and ran back out of the forest, going back to the one place I really didn't want to return to.

I smiled the whole way back.

***

Nearly a month after that confrontation, something rather unexpected happened; I got asked out on a date for Valentine's Day.  That wasn't the bit that was unexpected, in truth it was the fact that Collin Creevey, a boy I'd hardly spoken to since our second year, was the one who asked me.  He'd always seemed so shy, always kept his head behind his camera and though he was attractive and showed much promise in becoming even moreso; I had absolutely no interest in him.  By the tenth of February, I'd had four boys and a girl ask me out to Hogsmeade for Valentine's day, and I said no to all of them.

My eyes were set on Draco Malfoy, because I'd loved him for too long to give up on him now.  I had been so sure that he'd ask me out eventually, and Valentine's day would have been the perfect time except that he didn't.

By Friday the thirteenth, that was rather obvious and instead he insulted me by asking out that pug-faced, smug looking arse Pansy Parkinson.  She hung off him like a parasite, the ugliest parasite I'd ever seen and how he could choose her over me was a complete mystery.  I glared at them, looking pompous at the Slytherin table like they were the King and Queen and I suppose they were in that moment but all I saw in my minds-eye was a slug sat next to a snake, each telling their frog-minions what to do.  But eventually.. the frogs will slurp the slug up, so I needn't worry.  I was a fox to his snake, each sly and cunning and beautiful in their own way.

I played with my food before leaving it sat at the Gryffindor table as I left to do something...anything... that didn't involve Draco Malfoy.

Stupid Draco Malfoy with his stupid grey eyes and white-blond hair, idiotic Malfoy with his tall, skinny stature that wasn't good for fighting or anything but maybe for giving hugs.  Stupid Draco Malfoy who didn't realize that the girl he was with only wanted his King-snake status, not his actual self.  So instead of going to Hogsmeade, I stayed at Hogwarts and actually bothered to do my homework, feeling rather pathetic.

I wondered if it was how Hermione felt when Harry and Ron left and all she did was study.  Thinking of that, led me to wondering if Hermione still assumed I'd killed Broderick Bode, which led me to wanting to know if she ever told anyone besides Harry and Ron her theory.

I'd have to trust Harry to get her off my case, I didn't actually have any other options than that obvious one.

***

The rest of February  and March came and went quicker than most single weeks, it seemed; with just a few important moments that stood out among the rest.  Gryffindor lost a Quidditch game against Hufflepuff, 240 to 230 even though Ginny Weasley caught the snitch.  I'd never really understood Quidditch but I seemed to be the only one in the entire school with that issue.

Late in February the March edition of the Quibbler came out. Harry had done an interview with a woman named Rita Skeeter, speaking out about the Dark Lord and all that happened last year during the Triwizard Tournament where one boy, a Hufflepuff, was killed before the Dark Lord returned.  The day after the interview had come out, Dolores Umbridge made so much as having a copy of the Quibbler an expulsory offense.

In March, there was this huge fight apparently; between Umbridge, Trelawney (the nutter Divination professor) and McGonagall, where Umbridge at fired Trelawney and then attempted to kick her out of the school completely.  The look on Trelawney's face, her large glasses just making her crying eyes pop out even more had me nearly dying of laughter.   I managed to withold it all, obviously, I didn't want anyone to think I was as cruel as I sometimes acted.

"Dumbledore ran off like a scared little girl!"

Draco laughed with Crabbe and Goyle, bringing me quickly back to the present instead of the past, where Dolores Umbridge was Headmistress, I was in detention every day of the week, Draco and his little posse were her evil minions, and Fred and George Weasley were more popular than ever due to their Wildfire Whiz-Bangs.  It was the beginning of Easter holidays, and I had been summoned home.

Draco decided to stay here with Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle but decided to see me off at Hogsmeade at least.  It would have been very thoughtful of him if he had left his pets behind, but instead I was forced to deal with their idiotic words and demented laughter (and Pansy's snorts of amusement).

"Amy, I have letters, will you give them to Mother and Father?"  Draco smirked, making my blood boil.  Was he making fun of me, was he laughing behind my back at some inside joke?

"I'm not your stupid post owl, Draco." I huffed, stomping away from his little group of imbeciles and made my way to the Hogwarts Express without their unneeded help before climbing into one of the compartments.