Maledictus

Ch.7 - The Howler

She could hear Draco running after her, but she didn't care, she didn't want to see him.
And she knew he didn't want to see her.

Once she reached the portrait hole, she was denied access because she didn't know the password.

Grunting in frustration, she slid down the wall, and stared at the ground, waiting for someone to come in or out.
But no one did, because it was still so early.
She could hear everyone having a great time in the common room, and no one noticing she was gone.
Not even Hermione.

Finally, after an hour of waiting, everyone came out at once and she was almost squished by two tall twins with flaming red hair.

She dashed in, running up to get her books, before heading to class.

She had potions first in the dungeons with professor Snape.
She knew that this subject would contain a lot of writing and reading.
The two things Alice couldn't do.

Professor Snape was already in the cold room, lit with an eerie green light.

"Goodmorning Professor" she said quietly.

"You do realise that it is eight in the morning, a whole hour before you're supposed to be in class!?" he shouted.

She squeaked, before running out of the classroom.

She bumped into Harry on the way who looked furious.
She fell backwards, knocking her head for the second time that morning.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter!" she said quickly, grabbing onto the statue and pulling herself up.
He noticed that she looked even skinner and sicker than yesterday.

"Have you eaten anything?" he asked, holding her steady.

"I had a slice of toast" she muttered, before walking off.
Harry realised that she probably wanted to get back to the common room, but is going in the totally wrong direction.

"Alice! You're going the wrong way" he called as she looked back, bumping into someone else.
He ran over and helped her up.

"I swear, everyone is like giants to you!" he joked, laughing.

"That's a lovely compliment to get when my day is already going crap!" she said sarcastically.

"Why don't you come sit with us before class starts?" he asked, still holding her steady.
Before she even had a chance to answer, Harry was already pulling her towards the Great Hall.

"Please Mr. Potter, I don't want to be a burden" she protested, finally shaking off his grip.

"Hermione, why on earth are you still getting the Daily Phophet?" asked Harry, once he had convinced Alice to sit down and have some more toast.

"It's best to know what the enemy is saying" said Hermione darkly, and she unfurled the newspaper and disappearing behind it, and not emerging for quite some time. "There's nothing about you or Dumbledore"

Harry let out a sigh of relief.
After what had happened at the Triwizard tournament, the community had split into two. Harry's side, or The Ministry's side.

"Who's Dumbledore?" asked Alice, pushing away her toast.
Hermione and Harry exchanged glances, and looked at Alice.

"What do you mean who's Dumbledore?" asked Harry, in disbelief.
Alice didn't know what was happening, so she stayed quiet until it was time to leave for class.

After losing Harry, she thought she could walk the rest of the way in peace.
But she was wrong as usual.

A hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a broom cupboard.
It was Draco.

Her hands were shaking and her lip was trembling.

"Why on earth were you with Potter?" he asked with disgust.

"Because he helped me, unlike you" she spat, trying to find confidence.
This infuriated him and he was breathing deeply. "You said you'd find me yesterday, but you didn't! I was laughed at and even got into trouble twice for falling into the lake! And you weren't there to help!"

She could see that she had said the wrong thing and he held her wrist tighter before smacking her.

"Maybe now you'll learn never to speak to a Malfoy like that again!" he sneered, leaving her alone in the cupboard.
She curled up in a ball, forgetting that she still had classes.

She looked at her watch through her tear glistened eyes, and realised she was ten minutes late.
Snape was going to murder her.

She knocked lightly on the oak door, waiting for the answer which she was dreading.

"Ah, Ms. Malfoy, so nice of you to finally join us!" he sneered. "Five points from Gryffindor"

She walked in her head hung low, and took a seat near the front on her own.

"Now as I was saying, we are going to make a simple sleeping draught, your intructions are on the board, you have forty-five minutes. You may begin now"

Alice started to panic.
She had all the ingredients in front of her and the instructions, but she couldn't read them.

She opened the text book, trying to find pictures of the ingredients and match them with the instructions, but no such luck because she brought her transfiguration text book.

"Ms. Malfoy, why haven't you completed your potion like everyone else?" he asked, all eyes on her.

"I couldn't figure it out" she said quietly, so that no one other than Snape could hear her.
But it was a waste of time because he repeated what she said to the whole class and they all laughed, making Alice feel worthless.

"You will right out the instructions for the potion five times for me as extra homework. Class Dismissed"

As she walked to Transfiguration, all the girls from her class were sniggering, and whispering behind her back.

Could the day get any worse?
Unfortunately it could and would.