Things Better Left Unsaid (Snape love story)

Chapter Twenty Eight: The Gray Lady

I swallowed, feeling anxious. "Um, hello. I'm hoping you could help me with something--"

"Why would I want to help you?" She spat the last word with distaste, as if holding a personal grudge against me, and hovered to the far left of the room.

I blinked a few times in recovery. This would be a lot harder than I had thought. "Well, because its for the good of Hogwarts. If I can find the diadem and destroy it--"

She cut me off again. "What is your business with my diadem? I shall never fall fool to that again!" Her voice rang out harsh in the cold stone room, and I flinched at her wailing, the apparition of the woman casting herself out the window once more.

I ran forward, yelling. "Wait! Please, you don't understand!"

"I understand perfectly. The last person to one here and ask the diadem of me soiled it." She snorted with disgust, floating just a few feet away. "He said he would protect it. He used it for dark magic." Her voice suddenly became sad now, though her face retained a never ending loathing as she recalled the memories.

Realization hit me then. "Tom Riddle..." So, it was true. He really did use the diadem as one f his Horcruxes.

She snapped her was towards me, zooming forward. "That boy made a fool of me! He used my diadem for his own evil purposes!" She shrieked, and it took all my courage not to fall backwards.

I shook my head, taking a deep breath to steady my skyrocketing nerves. "What Tom did to you was wrong, but I swear to you, I'm here to change that. I'm here to kill the darkness he put into it." I said with steady confidence. For a moment, I was thoroughly impressed with myself.

However, that soon ended as my attention was jerked back to the ghastly apparition of a woman before me. "How can I trust you?!" She screeched, thigh there was a falter to her tone, giving away the crumbling structure of her defiance. "How do I know you won't do what he did again?!"

Well, first off, it was already done. However, this was no time to be shooting snarky quips at the emotionally unstable dead woman, especially since I was supposed to be buttering her up and getting the details to destroy the diadem. Now that I knew we were on a hot trail, this shouldn't be much harder. At least, I hoped not. "What's done is done-- I can't so any more damage to your diadem. I can only destroy it, and I swear to you, that's all I want."I lifted my hands, palms exposed, in a truce.

Her resistance visibly broke. Hesitantly, she spoke again, though now much calmer. "If you need to ask, you'll never know. If you already know... you need only ask." Slowly but surly, the floated beyond the window, an back into the foggy darkness outside.

Befuddled, I nodded as if I understood her puzzling phrase, and quickly left the room. Merlin, I hated ghosts. I found the twins where I left them, leaning up against the wall just a few feet from the oaken door, and George grinned.

"Well well well, you look as if you've seen a ghost." He said nonchalantly, a swim of humor to his tone.

Fred elbowed his brother appreciatively. "Oh stop, George; she's obviously scared to death."

They both chuckled.

I rolled my eyes at them, simultaneously popping the back of their heads. "You must have been cooking up those ingenious quips ever since I accepted this ridiculous task." I responded.

Fred snorted. "Why else do you think we came here with you?"

"To protect you?" George waved his hand jokingly in the air. Another unison laugh was emitted before we were suddenly back to where we began.

Luckily, we caught Harry. I spilt the riddle to him, though to my displeasure, he looked confused as I was. Nevertheless, he assured us that he would figure it out.

I laid a hand on Fred's shoulder, drawing him near to me. "Listen, Freddy..." I began, clearing my throat.

Fred gave me an odd look, but made no move in intervene.

I took a deep breath. "This is dangerous business, eh?"

He nodded slowly.

"And we could die..." I continued.

He nodded again, a small smile slipping into his face. "This is hardly the time for a surprise shag, my dear." He laughed, poking my chin.

I sighed heavily, hooting him a blatant look. "Freddy, I'm serious." I was suddenly scared. We were in the heart of a war zone, and one of us could easily be killed. "What if one of us dies? Then what?"

It was a terrible thing to force upon him, but I couldn't help it. I've already felt the pain of what I thought was love loss before, and it hurt. I didn't want to lose Fred. He wrapped a warm arm around me, hugging me to his chest. "Don't you fret, my dear. Everything will be alright." He assured me, kissing the top o my head.

And yet, my thoughts wandered to Snape. Was he still here? What if he died during the fight? What if I saw him? Merlin, just the thought of running into Snape filled me with a mess of anger and nervous delight. I hate him, yet, I couldn't deny that a part of me still loved him. Even if he did hurt me, I couldn't truly say that I detested the man.

I brought Fred's hand to my lips and kissed it. "There's something I need to take care of."