Once Alya and her friends had finished their lunch, they made their way to their next lesson, which was Herbology with professor Sprout. They walked out of the castle and towards the greenhouse. They shared this class with the sixth year ravenclaws. As they walked into the greenhouse, Alya in front and the boys behind, she felt eyes staring at her once again.
"Who...is that" said one of the Ravenclaw boys.
"That's Alya Granger. She's like Slytherin royalty, even though she's only been here for 3 days" replied one of the girls. "Everyone's completely obsessed with her, but I don't understand what's so special about her! I mean, she's not even pretty and I guarantee I can show those Slytherin boys a better time than she ever could,"
"Pans..." said Mattheo, angrily.
"I'm on it." said Pansy, walking over to the girl. "You want to repeat that, Thompson?"
"I just said I don't know what's so special about the new girl," said Thompson. "She isn't even pretty," Pansy punched her hard in the nose.
"Her name is Alya," said Pansy. "And don't ever let me catch you talking shit about her again, or I'll let the boys handle you next time. And trust me, they won't hesitate when it comes to Alya. Got it?"
"Come, Pans, just leave her," Alya said laughing. "It doesn't bother me."
"I could write you a book on what's special about Alya Granger, Thompson." said Tom. "Starting with how insanely gorgeous she is,"
"Agreed. If you even have the mental capacity to read a book, that is" said Theo.
"Could you imagine looking like Thompson and having the audacity to comment on someone else's appearance? Let alone the sexiest girl I've ever seen in my life!" laughed Blaise, looking around the greenhouse. Everyone started laughing at this, and Thompson started to tear up.
"You got that right" said Draco, winking at Alya.
"You're lucky you're a girl, or i would've put your head through the greenhouse" Mattheo said to Thompson, walking over to her.
"Mattheo, chill." Alya said, calmly. She walked over to where they were stood. Mattheo and Pansy were still glaring at Thompson.
"Jealousy is an ugly trait, sweetheart," she said, smiling at Thompson, sarcastically. "I know I'm gorgeous, I get told at least 5 times a day by each of my boys, as well as Pans."
"Damn right, you are," smirked Mattheo.
"Come, let's leave her be. I don't want you wasting your breath on that" smiled Alya, as she, Pansy and Mattheo walked back over to the others and found a table to sit at.
"Don't listen to her, love. You're stunning." said Theo, loudly, whilst glaring at Thompson.
"Now why would I listen to comments about my looks, from someone who looks like they're the secret love child of a woman and a gorilla?" said Alya. "She genuinely looks like something you'd see in a freak show at the circus!"
The whole class erupted with laughter and the Thompson girl went running out, bumping into professor Sprout and falling on her face as she tried to leave. This made the class laugh even harder, people were screaming with laughter and slamming down on the tables.
"What the hell are you doing, you stupid girl?" yelled professor Sprout, looking down at Thompson.
"I - I'm sorry professor," she cried. "Everyone's bullying me!"
"No one's bullying you, you absolute freak!" shouted a random Slytherin.
"Yeah, you started it. Talking smack about the most beautiful girl I've ever laid eyes on,'' said a ravenclaw boy from across the room, smirking at Alya.
"Shut your mouth," bellowed Mattheo, standing up from his seat.
"Mattheo, sit down," warned Alya.
"He's being disrespectful towards you!" protested Mattheo.
"No he isn't," said Alya, calmly. "He's only complimenting me. Sit,"
Mattheo sighed and did as he was told, causing everyone in the room to gasp and fall silent.
"Blimey..." said professor Sprout, looking at Alya. "Get out of my greenhouse, Miss Thompson. Clearly, everyone can agree that you started the bullying and I will not tolerate that in my greenhouse. I shall be sending an owl home to your parents tonight." Thompson ran out of class, crying heavily.
"Now then, who might you be?" professor Sprout asked Alya, as she walked over to the front of the class. "You seem to be the only one that can get our Slytherin boys to do as they're told!"
"The most beautiful girl in school, apparently," laughed Alya. "Alya Granger, professor,"
"Merlin's beard!" exclaimed professor Sprout, as she got a proper look at Alya's face. "You look exactly like your mother now that I've had a proper look at you,"
"You... you know my mother?" said Alya, shocked.
"There isn't a witch or wizard at this school who doesn't Miss...Granger" replied Sprout, slowly. "Why are you going by Granger, anyway? I would've thought you'd go by your fathers last name... or at least, your mothers?"
"Oh I um... I was adopted," started Alya. "Didn't you know?"
"Oh...yes of course, I'm terribly sorry," said Sprout. "I never asked Severus where he took you after... well, you know... "
"After what, exactly?" asked Alya, nervously.
"Well, I - um... you know...?" said Sprout, with a confused look on her face. She then realised that Alya in fact, didn't know what she was talking about and tried to change the subject.
"Um... Mandrakes. Yes, today's lesson is about Mandrakes." said sprout, hurrying off to the front of the greenhouse.
"Hang on, is Snape your dad?" shouted a Ravenclaw boy from across the room. Everyone gasped and whispered to each other.
"That's none of your business!" shouted Tom. "Keep your nose out, if you value it with all the bones intact."
"Thanks, Tom," smiled Alya. "I'm really not in the mood for all of these questions at the moment." She kept her head down for the rest of the lesson, wondering about what Professor Sprout had meant by that. *after what?* she thought to herself. *and what does she mean everyone knows my mum? How can everyone know my mum except for me?*
As the lesson was finished, Alya and her friends packed their books into their bags and Alya quickly walked out of the greenhouse, in case professor sprout tried to talk to her again.
"Hey, Alya, slow down," said Pansy, rushing after her.
"Sorry, I just don't want Sprout to ask me to stay behind." explained Alya. "She obviously knows something about my mother, but I'd rather hear it from Snape. I'm going to ask him when I see him in an hour."
"Are you sure you don't want us to come?" asked Mattheo. "I'll wait outside for you if you want, but I don't think you should go on your own,"
"Thank you, but i'm not going to make you stand outside a classroom for however long just because i'm in there," said Alya. "You guys can just meet me in the common room, or in the great hall for dinner depending on what time we finish talking,"
"Don't be ridiculous, darling. I'm coming." said Mattheo.
"Me too" said Draco and Tom.
"I'm coming too." said Theo
"Well, why don't we all go?" said Pansy. "We can keep each other company while we're waiting."
"Sure, I'm up for that" agreed Blaise.
"Guys..." said Alya.
"I don't want to hear it. We're going, end of discussion." said Draco.
"Yes, sir - I mean... fine" Alya giggled. Draco glared at her, grinning cheekily and shook his head at her. "Seriously though, thank you guys so much. You don't understand how much this means to me,"
"Well you mean a lot to us, love," smiled Theo. They walked to the slytherin common room, as they still had an hour before they needed to be at Snape's classroom. They sat down for a while and spoke to each other, until around 3:45pm.
"We better start walking up there now, Alya." said Theo. "We don't want to be late, and you know how slow Blaise walks,"
"Oh yeah, like it's just me!" Blaise laughed. "You're right though, let's go."
Pansy linked arms with Alya as they walked through the castle, which Alya thought was extremely sweet, and it helped calm her nerves a lot. She knew she would be nervous, but after what Professor Sprout said about Alya's mother, Alya felt worse. She had a bad feeling that something bad had happened to her mother. She just wished that she had been told about this sooner! She was still so angry at Nicholas & Jean that she hadn't even written them yet. She hadn't said a word since leaving the common room, but her friends seemed to understand and didn't pressure her to talk, which she really appreciated. Before they knew it, they were outside Snape's classroom. It was 4:01pm. Alya stopped and stared at the door for a few seconds, before Draco grabbed her hand.
"Stop stressing," he said, looking into her eyes. "You're going to be fine. We're all out here when you need us, okay?" Alya smiled at him and said "Thank you so much, all of you" she looked around at her friends before taking a deep breath and knocking on the door.
"Enter," she heard Snape shout from the other side of the door.