Shades of Silver and Black

Chapter 9

"No. I thought-"

"Exactly." Parkinson interrupted. "You 'thought'. You assumed. Did you pay attention to anything we told you on day one? Never assume. Always check for facts. You are such a fucking idiot."

Severus felt angry. "I am not a-"

"Yes, you are." Parkinson said, seemingly determined to not let Severus get a word in. "You are a fucking idiot. Do you know why? You killed a classmate -in school with many witnesses- because you were petty. Ever heard of the word 'discreet'?"

'I didn't mean to!' Severus wanted to shout. But he couldn't, because he did. Some part of him wanted them to be hurt.

"Which spell did you use?" Parkinson asked.

"The entail expelling curse." Severus replied quietly.

Patrick shook his head. "Couldn't be it. That's not how it's supposed to look. How many times have you done this before?"

"My first."

"Well then, this just keeps getting better and better!" Parkinson said cheerfully. "You did it wrong, you cretin. Doing a spell wrong is always more dangerous than doing the spell right. Black was unmoving. He might actually be dead." Parkinson mused, now continuing to walk. Severus obediently followed behind him. Parkinson chuckled. "Lyra's going to be on a warpath, and Bellatrix might actually kill you. Both of them have always held a little bit of a bloodlust." He cheerfully explained, not caring that Severus was turning greener by each word that escaped his mouth. "I've heard the Black family library has many... interesting curses. In fact, Lyra once told me about this spell -I'm not sure I remember the wordings properly- but it's supposed to cause every single one of your skin cells to individually die a microsecond apart from each other. While this is happening, blood loss will start to occur simultaneously as well and you would die within twenty to thirty minutes. Not to mention the fact that -much like a snake- you will be alive just enough to see your skin shed right in front of you." Patrick Parkinson explained happily, a glint in his eyes.

Severus felt like throwing up. "They wouldn't do that on me." He insisted. "It's a dark curse, and I am well within school grounds. They can't do that, they will be expelled."

Parkinson tilted his head as he analysed Severus. "Rather hypocritical of you to say that, isn't it?" He asked, his tone light and mocking. "You put a dark curse on school grounds, which means you should probably be expelled as well. Then you are free game."

"Probably?"

"There are other ways to make someone's life hell, you know..." Parkinson said knowingly. "Being expelled is the least of your worries at the moment. There are a couple of different ways the situation can escalade. No way better than the last."

"Like?" Severus prompted. He needed to know if there was a way to get out of this mess. He needed to know his best option here.

"You could be expelled from Hogwarts." Parkinson stated. "And if you choose to go to another school after that, then the school officials will obviously ask what made you get expelled. When they found out that you killed a classmate simply because he was coming over to apologise and over your stubborn ego combined with anger management problems, then I am sure that they will not accept you into their school. Somehow even if they do, then the Blacks will either bribe, blackmail, manipulate or threaten them to not do so. So in short, your magical education would be doomed." He said before adding, "But I am sure that that will happen now anyway, with or without the interference of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black. In fact, the only role that the House of Black will serve in this process is to quicken it."

Severus stayed quiet for a while. "Is that my worse option?"

Parkinson let out an un-gentlemanly snort. "That's your best option." He corrected. "Although..." He added as an after thought. "The Blacks have never been known to be merciful. So, this will probably never happen." He admitted. "At least not without something worse accompanying it."