AU

10. Violet

I knew Draco Malfoy was gay.
He's got bleach blond hair and a thin body. Of course he's gay.
However, I never thought he would admit it. Especially not to Harrison, or while I was in the room.
Perhaps he forgot.
Harrison simply stared in shock while Draco's face turned more red by the second.
"You're gay?" Harrison asked. Draco nodded.
"Then why did you run away earlier?" He asked the blond boy. Draco looked down at his hands.
"I'm sorry about that." He said quietly. "I just... um..."
Probably a good time to leave, before they start making out.
"Touching, really." I commented, gathering my books and standing. They boys jumped.
"Prince!" Draco exclaimed. So he had forgotten I was there.
"Sorry, continue with the sentiments, I just don't want to be here to see where this goes." I told them, going up to my room. I heard Harrison ask Draco what I meant and grinned to myself. What a conversation starter!
Once I'd arrived in my dorm, I put everything away and changed into pajamas, it was getting late. I took out the journal I found on Christmas. It still looked the same, if not a bit beaten up from being jostled around in my bag. I opened it up and sighed. Crimson contrasted with the pale page.
What was soon? What was I waiting for? What kept me from telling anyone about this book? I felt a tingle in my palms and noticed more red ink forming words slowly.

Patience. All in time.

Lovely. Because I just loved waiting for creepy messages in red ink in a mysterious notebook to come true.
I shut the book and slipped it into my nightstand, then fell back onto the pillow and waited for sleep to overtake me.

Days went by. McGonagall spoke with me about Hades Everest, but it was never mentioned again. Abruptly, my not-dad stopped asking me to come by to work on the potion, which he had done at least once a week. We hadn't had much success so far, but I didn't expect him to just give up so suddenly. I probably should ask him about it, but he wasn't the same person as my dad, so I didn't really feel comfortable yet.
I was beginning to fall into routine. I had a suspicion that Draco and Harrison were dating after the incident with Lila Greene, but I wouldn't ask and they wouldn't tell. Which was fine.
After three whole days of being completely ignored by Snape, even in lessons, I decided enough was enough. I was going to break in and finish this potion on my own.
It was idiotic and suicidal I knew, but this was my only way home.
Friday, I knew Snape was going to leave the grounds to restock on ingredients, it was perfect. So I waited in the shadows as Snape hurried in a flurry of robes out of the dungeons and toward his destination and I took the chance. I slipped unnoticed into Snape's classroom and then into his office. It was through his office that I would get to his rooms.
After spending a bit of time with this man, I had come to the conclusion that this version of my dad was more than a little bit obsessed with my mom, so despite not knowing the password as I was never around when Snape said it, it wasn't hard to figure out.
"Lily," I said to the wall behind Snape's desk. The stones pulled themselves from one another and created an entrance. I stepped through. The wall closed again behind me.
The room was lit by many candles and was actually quite cozy. My dad's room at Hogwarts wasn't as homey, but was better suited for children since I visited often. However, black leather armchairs were situated on either side of a large black leather couch. There were several tall bookshelves along one wall and a bookcase of potions ingredients on another.
I slipped into his potion brewing room. A large cauldron sat in the center of the room and jars of ingredients were ordered neatly on shelves that lined each wall.
I swallowed hard.
I pulled my notebook from my bag and opened it flat on the desk. The fire beneath the cauldron automatically flared to life and I began chopping, squashing, and slicing ingredients and tossing them into the cauldron.
I successfully achieved the deep purple color that was the Dreamless Sleep potion I had made. But I didn't have the numbers for the last ingredient.
Watching the simmering potion out of the corner of my eyes, I did some quick multiplication. If the ratios were the same, aha!
I scribbled down the numbers and slowly put in the final ingredient. There was a flash and the potion was a bright, blinding white. I poured some of it into a vial and prepared to drink it. It was dangerous, but risks had to be taken.
"Violet Eileen Snape, you better not drink that potion!" I heard Snape say. I turned. He stood in the doorway, hands on his hips and looking more like my dad than he ever had.
"Sorry," I told him, only slightly curious as to how he knew my full name. "I really have to." In one swift motion, I tossed my head back and downed the potion in one go.

For what felt like ages, my eyes seemed to be glued shut. Images of home flashed before my eyes, but never close enough that I could touch. Sometimes I heard Snape's voice, or Clara's, or Harrison's. A few times I even heard Draco. Mostly I heard an unrecognisable voice whisper "soon" over and over again until it drove me insane.
I couldn't peel my eyes open. I couldn't make it stop. I couldn't tell everyone that I was fine. But was I fine? Was this just the road to death? Had I actually killed myself instead of sending myself home?
No, I wasn't going to be brushed off as an unintentional suicide. If I was going to die, it wasn't going to be because of some faulty potion. I forced my eyes open.
Everything was bright. There was white all around and a blurry face
"Miss Prince!" Was that Pomfrey?
I groaned and rubbed my eyes. My arms felt stiff and my neck was sore. Honestly, I could go for a massage. I noticed several things right off the bat. Pomfrey was frantically muttering spells, waving her wand over me. Clara was on my left blubbering as tears spilled over her cheeks and she cried unintelligible things. Harrison stood at the foot of my bed beside Snape and the Headmaster. Harrison watched impassively, Snape looked annoyed, and Dumbledore looked incredibly concerned.
Sitting up slowly, my back cracked so loudly Harrison and Clara both flinched. "Hey," I grinned sheepishly.
"How could you?" Clara cried. "I heard all about the potion! I get that you're good with potions, but you can't just drink one!"
"You broke into a professor's private quarters," Harrison said, his quiet tone almost comical compared to Clara's loud crying. "You brewed an unregistered potion with unchecked numbers. Then you drank said potion even after being instructed not to."
"I'm aware." I told him.
"Why?" Harrison asked me. That got the attention of others around me.
"I need to get home." I said with a shrug. "I think a little risk is worth it if I'm successful."
"Thats a stupid phislosophy." Harrison told me.
"Yeah!" Clara chimed in.
"You sound like a bit of a Gryffindor, Miss Prince." Dumbledore chuckled. I sent him a sharp glare and he cleared his throat. "However good your intentions may have been, they were still misplaced. You deliberately disobeyed a professor, broke a number of school rules, and put yourself in danger. For this, I will be taking fifty points from your house and you will serve detention with Professor Snape." He said. Harrison scoffed.
"Fifty points?" He asked. "For that?"
"I think it's reasonable." I told him. "I mean, I can list all the rules I broke, and it didn't work anyway, so there wasn't any point to doing it in the first place." Both Harrison and Clara looked at me like I had grown another head, but I wasn't bothered. I allowed Pomfrey to check me for anything and everything she could think of, before I was allowed to leave.

1410 words
5/2/20

I'm really sorry this is late and that it's so short and badly written. I've been dealing with really bad mental health, failing classes, and doing school. I'm having a lot of issues mentally because of quarantine, but I'm doing much better because of my friend. I'll get on the next chapter soon.