Headstrong

Chapter 10

The next day Amanda almost cried when she saw her schedule. She had never remembered so many Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons. She loved these lessons, but the less she was around Lockhart, the better, in her opinion.

She grumbled as she loaded some sausages and toast on to her plate. She watched as the owls in the hall flew in. She could see Errol, who flew and landed in front of Ron. Amanda could see the distinct red colour of the Howler that was tied to Errol's leg. She braced herself for the screaming.

"STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT HAD GONE..."

The shouting continued, but Amanda almost cried when her morning got worse. Francis's owl had landed in front of her, and she could see another Howler waiting for her.

She quickly grabbed it and raced out of the hall and made it outside when it exploded. She could hear Francis's booming voice and she cried as she listened to the abuse it was saying.

"HOW DARE YOU LEAVE MY HOUSE, YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE CHILD! I AM ABSOLUTELY ASHAMED OF THE WAY YOU TURNED OUT TO BE, JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER, A FILTHY MUDBLOOD WHO DID NOT KNOW WHAT WAS GOOD FOR HER! MARK MY WORDS, YOU WILL TURN OUT AS FILTHY AS SHE DID! NOW BE WARNED, A STORM IS BREWING, AND THE SECOND YOU GET BACK HOME, YOU WILL BE IN FOR A NASTY SURPRISE YOU LITTLE BRAT!"

She cried at the mention of her mother. Her crying had turned to whimpering when she heard someone walking toward her. She looked up into the eyes of Draco Malfoy. He had obviously followed her outside and had probably heard the entire thing. The look in his eyes almost confirmed it.

He sat down next to her and she hugged him. Draco and herself were good friends. Living with a fatherly figure who threatened and scared the children made them have something common, so they had stuck together for support.

Draco knew that at this moment, she needed the support, so he let her cry on his shoulder. When the bell rung for the first class of the day, the two raced off to go to their separated classes.

On the way to her first class, she bumped into Harry, Ron and Hermione. She raced past them, ignoring the looks of bewilderment they were giving her upon seeing her puffy red eyes from when she had been crying.

There was no way she would tell anyone about that Howler. Ever.

...

Unlucky for Amanda, her first class was with Lockhart.

He gave the class a test about himself and Amanda groaned. She made no effort to answer the questions, and on the last page had written in capital letters, "THIS IS STUPID!", diagonally across the middle.

Lockhart tutted as he looked at the class. Amanda could see that he expected people to know a bit more about him, considering he was so 'famous'.

Then suddenly, "Miss Potter!"

Amanda dived to the floor, and when he asked, "What are you doing?", she almost whimpered, but stood up and said, "I was hugging the floor because it was lonely."

Lockhart looked bewildered. Even more bewildered than usual, she thought.

"The floor has emotions?"

"Oh yes. You see, now it feels sad, because you are in the classroom."

Lockhart looked angry at her. He ripped up the test she had 'tried' so very hard on, and promptly said, "Now now Miss Potter. I don't give these very often, but I am afraid that you will have detention tonight. Eight o'clock sharp. I will see you then."

...

Amanda sat at the table at lunchtime, her head in her arms. She was having a terrible day. First the schedule, then the Howler, then DADA class, then a detention for tonight, and now she had a problem with that Creevey kid bothering Harry for photos and autographs. When she had tried to stop him, he had asked her as well. And to top it all off, Lockhart had turned up again.

This just wasn't her day.

...

At the end of the day, after she had finished her detention with Lockhart, she popped up to the seventh floor and walked to the stretch of wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy.

"I need a place where I can be away from it all...I need a place where I can be away from it all...I need a place where I can be away from it all." She thought.

A door appeared and Amanda stepped into the room. She looked around. There was a fireplace with a cozy armchair, a shelf full of her favourite books, a tub filled with some sort of essence (which she had no idea why it was there or what it was), so she ignored it, with an updated Marauder's map on the wall and a corner surrounded by candles with pictures of her parents. She looked at them and tears sprung to her eyes as she looked at their smiling faces.

She found a photo album and flicked through the pages. The photos were all of her parents, her and Harry playing together, and there were a few of her Uncle Jacob, Wisteria, Sirius and Remus as well. She hugged the book to her chest and started to cry.

She cried and cried, and at the end, she felt better after letting it all out.

She didn't go back to the common room that night. She stayed in the room, curled up on the armchair, clutching the album like her life depended on it.