I didn't tell Hermione about the kiss or my hand paining. She didn't need to know that. She was already worried about the incident of the Chambers. I couldn't sleep the whole night, for the love of Merlin. I hardly got 20 minutes of deep sleep, I would wake up at every tiny sound that came out of the window, be it the rustling of trees' leaves or the cold wind blowing, or insects or birds in the morning.
The next day, I woke up tired because of hardly getting any sleep. The first class we had was with Professor McGonagall, transfiguration. I hated it. Over the summer that I stayed at Hogwarts, transfiguration was the hardest part, I had mastered every spell, or hex or jinx there was in transfiguration. But, for the love of me, I couldn't transform myself into anything.
We were all in the class, I was sitting next to Mione on a bench and Ron and Harry on the other. Malfoy was sitting behind them with Goyle.
"Could I have your attention, please?" asked Professor McGonagall. I wasn't paying any attention, as I dreaded the subject, I was almost asleep.
"Now, today, we're going to transform animals into water goblets!" she completed standing up from her desk and standing next to an animal. "Miss Middleton, would you like to show us?" she asked looking at me.
I didn't hear her, as I was on the verge of falling asleep. Mione gently squeezed my thigh with her hand, in hopes of making me pay attention. "Yes, Professor?" I said, completely unaware of the question she asked me.
"I asked, would you like us to show how to transform an animal into a water goblet?" she repeated.
"Yes" I stood up from my bench with my owl and went next to Professor McGonagall. All the eyes were on me, everyone might be thinking how I knew it and why did the professor ask me to do it and all that. But I couldn't tell them, who or what I was, it was still a mystery to me and the others that stayed behind with me. But I quickly shrugged all the nervousness that I had and took control of the classroom, showing no hint of nervousness in me.
"Yes, now, the spell is 'Vera Verto' you need to point your wand to the animal, tap it three times, like so, one, two, three, and say, 'Vera Verto'" My owl, Nyra, beautifully transformed herself into a transparent, shiny water goblet. I sighed with relief that I had done it correctly. Hermione was rather more suspicious to as why I knew the more practical approach to any class that we had from the start of the year.
"Well done, Olivia" said McGonagall patting my back, proud of me. She knew how irritated I was over the summer when she was teaching transfiguration. I sat down at my place with the water goblet with a proud smirk on my face. The minute I sat down beside Mione; she raised her hand in the air. "Yes, Miss Granger?" McGonagall said.
"Professor, I was wondering if you could tell us about The Chamber of Secrets?"
My whole body tensed up, thinking about last nights events, we saw it written in blood, we saw Mrs. Norris hanging, like she was dead. My head quickly snapped to look at Draco. He was tensed up too, but he had a nice control on his emotions and face, he noticed me look at him but he ignored me and kept looking at the professor, who was now looking at the curious and confused faces of second years.
She then told on how Salazar Slytherin, wanted to keep magical learning within the magical family, in other words pure-bloods. She then continued and told that how he had created a chamber and sealed it, until his own heir, true heir, returned to Hogwarts, and how the heir alone would be able to open the chamber. As she kept on explaining the horrors of the chambers, my mind couldn't help but wonder, Malfoy.
How his mentality, was exactly like Salazar Slytherin, how he hated muggle-borns and half-bloods as well, to his thinking and his family's, only pure-bloods should be allowed to learn magic, or even live. How he quickly had snatched me from the terror that we saw last night, how he got sorted into Slytherin, without that hat even touching his head, how he could be the heir of Slytherin.
We all were heading towards our next class; Ron asked a question. "Do you think its true? The Chamber of Secrets?"
"Couldn't you tell? McGonagall's worried, all the teachers are worried" Hermione replied.
I couldn't keep my attention on their conversation, my mind was running with questions. The worst, I feared was, when my sorting was happening, I was going to be a Slytherin, the hat said it, I mean, aren't all the students in Slytherin, pure-blood? How could I be more of a Slytherin when I was a muggle-born?
I was thrown quickly out of my thoughts, when Malfoy bumped into me, hitting my shoulder and making all my books fall from my hand, that I had been holding to my chest. Ron quickly helped me pick my books up and was about to jinx him, but I stopped him. Not wanting to make a scene and most importantly, not wanting to cause a scene with him, him, who could possibly be the heir of Salazar Slytherin.
"Are you okay, Liv?" Harry asked picking up the last book from the ground and handing it to me. "Yes, perfectly fine" I said, which I wasn't.
"So, what do think of our idea?" Ron asked me, "Brilliant!" I blurted out, not actually knowing what their idea was.
I had decided to spend the rest of my day in my dorm, curled up with a novel, not a care in the world. I had seemed to lost any appetite that I had, I had skipped breakfast and lunch and I decided to skip dinner too. It was dinner time, so naturally everyone was at The Great Hall. I was reading, when suddenly Nyra tapped on my window with a letter on her leg.
I opened the window and let her in, "Hi, girl. What have you got for me today? Whose letter, do you come bearing, my sweet Nyra?" I quickly took it and started reading it.
Olivia,
You have a little sibling now, a brother if you may. Actually, you may not, we don't know how to tell you this, but we don't care as much, we're not your real parents, we never were. You were left on our doorstep by that old hag of a headmaster of yours, Dumbledore.
I didn't want to let you in, but Rose insisted to not let a poor little child freeze out like that, which I really thought to do. She took you in. Who knew that you will be the start of our problems, our fights, our crises. I'm glad that when Rose wasn't home, I could beat the shit out of you. That was the only way my anger, rage and disgust towards you could go away.
I always wanted a boy, which now I have, so you might not as well come home, we'll be sending all your remaining items that we have in possession.
Austin Ainsworth.
My heart shattered, into thousand little pieces, that even if you picked each one carefully and joined it, it would take you eternity to complete my heart and still it would be broken. I stared at the letter; they weren't my parents. He used to beat the shit out of me, whenever my moth- Rose wasn't home, I cried and I cried, but no one was there to save me, to save me from him. I had buried those scars deep inside my body, always smiling, like everything was perfectly alright. I had never even dared of thinking to tell anyone, thinking that if I did, he would strike out, beat me, over and over again and kill me.
I felt numb, I could not think anything. I cried and I cried, loudly, as the whole of the Gryffindor was at dinner. Sobs leaving my quivering mouth, my whole body shivering, my forearm paining, I was sitting down at the edge of my bed, with my knees close to my chest and my head down. I looked up, only the moon's light shining in my dorm, I went over to the letter that was now sitting on my bedside table, I read that letter again and I saw the name, Dumbledore. The numbness I had changed to heartbreak and that heartbreak changed to rage.
I looked at the clock, dinner was over. Everyone might be heading back towards their dorm. I couldn't let Harry see me like this, I couldn't let Hermione see me like this. She was my whole world after my so-called parents. I couldn't see her hurt and neither could she see me. If they saw me like this, they would ask a million questions and I wasn't ready to answer them, not until I, myself, had answers. And only one person could give me that. Dumbledore.
I sprinted through the common room, towards the empty hallways. I was running, stomping my feet over to Dumbledore's office. I was enraged.
Draco's POV
I was sitting in The Great Hall, looking at the Gryffindor's table. Olivia wasn't there, her friends didn't look very worried, so I thought that she might've skipped dinner. But I was a teensy bit worried as she had skipped meals altogether today.
Dinner was over soon, I didn't feel like going up my bedroom, so I was roaming around the empty halls near Dumbledore's office. I heard someone coming, I naturally didn't want to get caught so I hid behind a wall and saw who it was. Olivia.
I came out from behind the wall, smirking and telling, "Look, who's here, break-" I couldn't complete my sentence when she put a hand in front of me, not touching me, and pushed me into a wall. "Not. Now. Malfoy" she said gritting her teeth and her fists clenched.
How did she do it? I clearly saw no wand in her hand. she didn't even touch me, she just waved into the direction she threw me. She was doing wandless magic? Her eyes were red and puffy, like she was crying. Why was she crying? I got up and saw her heading towards Dumbledore's office. Why was she going there? At this time? I decided to follow her, silently, without letting her know that I was following. But I guess she did know that I was behind her, because as soon as she reached his office, she put blurted out two spells, 'Colloportus and Muffliato'. Why would she need these two spells?
Everything went silent. I thought to wait outside for her to ask if everything was okay, but then I thought why would I do it? I mean, I couldn't care less.
I went back to my bedroom.
Olivia's POV
"You knew!" I shouted as soon as put a locking spell and a muting spell around the room. "You knew about me, you never told me and you left me with those people, who couldn't care less about me" All the professors were in the room, having a meeting. I didn't care.
Professor McGonagall came to my side. I didn't realize that she had taken the letter out of my hand. My eyes were fixated on Dumbledore. And then I saw Snape. He looked disappointed, like he knew what had happened. "You knew too! Didn't you? You said the first day we met, that you were my mother's friend. How could you?"
I fell to the ground crying. Staring at nothing. "She knows, Albus" McGonagall said handing the letter to Snape. His expression changed; he too was enraged.
He kneeled down towards me, putting his hand on my shoulder and said, "My child, I am sorry-" "Don't" I said, standing up and snatched the letter from his hand and headed towards the door. Dumbledore still hadn't said anything. "I would like to be excused from classes for the time being, please" I said, not requesting, not turning around to say and I ran out of the office.