NUMB | D. MALFOY {EDITING}

vi. professor snape

« PROFESSOR SNAPE »

Anastasia really wanted to say she was having a good time in professor Slughorn's dinner, but it was extremely awkward that she desperately needed to leave the place.

The moment Slughorn stopped asking her dumb questions about what her parents were doing, she zoned out to the moment where Draco's fingers caressed her cheek with such compassion she felt the walls she built evaporate and her heart melt at the touch.

Her hand instantly flew to her cheek, her fingertips brushing the now red skin of her tinted cheek. The heat accumulating in particular area made her look down at her lap and pretend she was eating the food.

She looked up only to find most of the students standing up from the big table, everyone had a relieved expression clinging in their faces as they thanked Slughorn and walked out of the place. She wasn't the exception. After all, she had somewhere to be.

"Thank you so much, professor." She smiled kindly at the man in front of her.

"No, thank you, Miss Rosier." He returned the smile. "You look so much like your mother." A lump formed in Anastasia's throat at the mention of her mother. "But I'd like to point out that your smile reminds me of your father."

"You— You know my parents?" She prayed for her voice to not break.

"Of course I do!" Slughorn exclaimed happily. "Very, very intelligent people. They complemented each other, in the bad way but thankfully they found the right path. Now look at them, with two wonderful kids and a lot of fortune." Anastasia felt her heart pounding in her chest at the thought of her parents being Death Eaters back in the day.

The brunette didn't know what to say now that she knew that if she said something, she would break down and she didn't want that. When Harry approached them with the intentions to talk with the professor, she quickly excused herself and jogged out of the room and towards the Room of Requirement where she knew Draco would be trying to fix the cabinet.

As her steps echoed behind her and were just empty sounds for her ears, Anastasia found herself walking to a completely different direction and towards the Owlery. She anxiously got rid of her expensive bracelets and earrings when she felt like her heart started to get too heavy and the feelings she had trapped inside started to flood her eyes of tears.

With a deep sigh, she entered inside the Owlery and took the closest piece of paper she could find. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably when she took the quill in her hand and started to write a note for her family, trying to explain her situation and making a vain effort to not sound as evil as she felt like she was.

"Hey!" She stopped dead in her tracks when she heard footsteps getting closer to her.

Hurriedly, she scrunched the paper and shoved it inside her pocket. Impatiently waiting to be found by the caretaker.

"What are you doing here?" He shouted, Mrs. Norris trailing behind him. "Come here!" He quickly took her arm and dragged her to the halls where she walked in silence.

Suddenly, Snape's shadow appeared in front of them and soon after he stood right before their eyes. With his emotionless expression, he looked back and forth from the old man to the silent girl who couldn't bear to look up to him.

"I'll take care of it." He slowly said, looking at the girl.

Filch pushed her away from him and then he was away in the other side of the corridor. Anastasia was silently looking at her feet when she felt Snape getting dangerously closer to her, which made her head to snap up to face him.

"I heard the rumors about your situation, Miss Rosier." He said, looking directly at her green eyes.

"What rumors?" She quickly demanded, frowning at his direction.

"That you've become one of them." He said, causing the girl to look at him terrified. "Is it true?"

"Yes." She replied, looking directly at his empty eyes.

"Let me see it." The man ordered, catching the girl out of guard.

"Excuse me?" That moment Anastasia felt like she was dreaming. She eventually rolled up her sleeve to let him see the horrendous mark taking over her forearm.

"You're helping Mister Malfoy fix the Vanishing Cabinet, I suppose?" The whole scene started to get confusing for the girl.

"How do you know?" It was a rhetorical question because she had a clue what the answer would be. "You're one of them too, right?" She asked.

"It's none of your business." He snapped with his monotone voice. "Now go."

As she walked away and towards the seventh floor, Anastasia really wished to disappear that moment from her mind.

▲ △ ▲

"What took you so long?" Draco practically shouted at the sight of the girl.

But her wand was already raised up and pointing at the boy who looked confusedly at her, like if she was a lunatic that had recently escaped Azkaban. He raised his hands with a frown and admired her cold and angry expression.

"Why does Snape knows I'm a—A Death Eater?" She asked, frowning.

"I, uh—" He began but couldn't articulate the right words to ask her for an explanation as to why she had suddenly got that angry at him. For God's sake, she could kill him right in that moment.

"Answer me, Draco Malfoy!" She shouted at him, the fear of her parents knowing about what she was took control of her emotions.

"If you could just listen to me!" By then, he was as angry as she was. And that was not good. "Put your fucking wand down so I can explain!" He ordered.

Hesitantly, she lowered her wand but the angered expression didn't leave her face. Inside her head, she had listed an incredibly big amount of ways to kill the boy in front of her.

"Talk." Because of the anger, her voice quivered.

"I don't know how he got the news, but I didn't tell him anything." He said, his heart still pounding in his chest.

"Who told him?" She asked.

"I'm telling you that I don't fucking know!" He yelled, the desperation of not being able to fix the cabinet was now taking over his emotions too.

"You're impossible, Malfoy!" She spun around and walked away from him.

"Well, I'm not the only one here!" He yelled back. "You are not the only one suffering!"

But she kept walking and pretending he wasn't yelling at her.

"Come back, coward!" He roared.

"I'm not in the mood to hear a spoiled git scream at me about how unfair his life is!" She turned around. "Let me break it to you! I don't care about you and your stupid feelings!" Even for Anastasia, the words were painfully weird to split out but as soon as she did it, she immediately regretted it.

She was just too stubborn to apologize.