Madeline froze.
Standing across from her, Jolie's brown eyes were narrowed into a scowl.
If looks could indeed kill, Madeline would be eviscerated upon first sight.
Beneath the scorching glare of her roommate's brown eyes, shadows rested above her cheeks, a tell from her lack of sleep.
Jolie's pinstriped blue and white pyjamas that she'd changed into for the evening stood out starkly against the dark corridor.
How long had she been waiting here?
How much had she heard?
Madeline didn't know why the questions even arose. The expression on her friend's face told her enough.
Stilled, vengeful, and downright calculating.
Furious.
Madeline had only seen an expression like this in her nightmares. When, in one of her dreams, her friends and father watched on whilst she thrashed against the binds of the Durmstrang ship.
As if she were there, the sensation of being pulled under the inky waters of the Black Lake once again crept in.
As if this moment itself was a living nightmare.
She tried to find the words to begin an explanation, a plea for forgiveness before plunging to the ground. Her words tried and failed.
So Jolie spoke first.
"Are you mad?"
Madeline couldn't help but flinch, the sound of Jolie's voice ringing loudly in her ears in the silent corridor.
She tried again to speak. "Please—it's not—"
"He is a professor, Madeline—"
"Shh! I know that!" Madeline hissed, clinging to the hope that her father was not able to hear them on the other side of his door. "Keep your voice down, will you? I'm—"
"No!" Jolie continued anyway. "You slink away in the middle of the night and come here? What the hell are you—?"
"I had a nightmare! Okay?" A pitiful excuse. She should not have come. "I get them sometimes. So I came here to—"
"For Snape to comfort you?" Jolie spat. "Do you even hear yourself? He is a professor—!"
"You already said that! I am well aware!" Madeline whispered sharply. "Anyway, what does that even have to do with—?"
"Our Head of House!"
"I know!"
"So you really are just mad, then," Jolie huffed. She stepped forwards, grabbing at Madeline's wrist. "Come on. He's fucked with your head somehow. Just follow me—"
"What? Where?" she breathed, trying to wrench herself from Jolie's grasp. "Don't drag me—I'm not following until you tell me—"
"To Dumbledore's office!"
"Why?"
Why the hell would she want the headmaster to know about this?
Her closest friend had discovered that their Head of House was secretly Madeline's father and immediately wished to call for her expulsion, perhaps?
Merlin, she was going to be sick.
"Because he needs to know about this! This shouldn't be happening! It is illegal. Snape should lose his bloody job—"
"For what?" Madeline gasped, frowning in confusion as she finally succeeded in escaping Jolie's hold. "It is not illegal! Keeping it a secret just keeps me safe—"
Jolie sputtered out an unamused laugh. "Is that what he told you? Gods, Madeline... Come on, let's just go to Dumbledore. He'll know how to—"
"No! He already knows!"
With the confession, another secret was set free. Jolie must have thought her identity was solely concealed by her and her father alone.
Jolie paused, her scowl morphing into disgust. "He—what?"
"Dumbledore already knows," Madeline breathed.
Another pause. Then, Jolie threw her hands up in disbelief.
"He knows? And he's just fucking alright with it?" she gasped loudly.
Madeline waved her hands in a vehement plea. "Shut up! Please—"
"What the fuck is going on?" Jolie practically shouted. "You've been lying to me—to all of us—for months! You lied about spending all that time with Pucey, then Justin—"
Madeline felt her eyes widen.
Jolie had known about the fucking duelling club all this time. She should've known the lie couldn't protect her for that long, but she'd at least thought—
"—all for Snape? What the hell is wrong with you?" Jolie spat, cutting off Madeline's rampage of horrid realisations.
This couldn't be happening. This couldn't happen. Jolie wouldn't do this to her—throwing her under the bus. Madeline had to make it right.
"I'm—sorry. I'm so sorry, alright?" she pleaded. "But if you'll just let me explain—"
"What, so you can tell me another lie?"
Shame washed over her, a guilt like no other.
She was untrustworthy, proven time and time again to be a liar. Madeline tried to muster the courage to dispel that fact, to argue the accusation away.
"No. No, I'll tell you everything, I promise. Let's just go back to the dorm, and—"
"No! If Dumbledore already knows, then I'll tell... McGonagall," Jolie mumbled, almost to herself. "I'll write to the bloody minister if I must! This is wrong, Madi—"
Madeline tried not to feel offended. She was finding it difficult, however.
"It's not that bad," she argued. And glancing both ways down the corridor, checking if anyone else was present, her voice lowered to a whisper. "It's been kept a secret for a reason—"
"Yeah, to save his perverted arse," Jolie seethed. "You should hear yourself, spouting off his lies—"
His—what?
If Madeline's eyes could widen any further, they would have.
"Perverted?" she repeated, her confusion evident in her voice. "What the hell are you on about?" Jolie's anger only mounted, looking disgusted with her.
"What? You can't tell me you think what he's doing is morally correct, can you?"
"No, I can't. I hate having to lie about it," Madeline admitted, shaking her head. "But he's made it clear that it's in my best interest, and it isn't illegal—"
"Even if you were of age, it would still be illegal!" Jolie countered. "He is a professor! Your professor—!"
"My marks are graded exactly the same as everyone else's!" Madeline huffed. She'd be damned if Jolie thought she was only getting good marks because Snape was her father. "I get no special treatment—"
"Not in Potions, maybe. But it appears you definitely receive 'special treatment'—"
"Only in instances like this," Madeline confessed. "But it isn't illegal—"
"A student and a professor having an affair is always illegal!"
Madeline froze.
The cold air of the corridor ceased to fill her lungs.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Jolie's look turned sympathetic. "Madi, it's criminal. Even if you wanted it, sleeping with Snape is—"
So Jolie thought that she'd been...
Madeline's vision went blurry, and all attempts to keep quiet seeped away; she let out a loud and horrified gag.
She slammed an instinctive hand to cover her mouth, praying it was enough to withhold a bout of sickness that threatened to escape.
"You thought I was—" Madeline gagged again, harder this time.
She was actually going to be sick.
"That's... Is that—not what's going on?" Jolie asked carefully.
Madeline shook her head the best she could, her hand still clamping tightly over her mouth. Pricking tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, solely caused by the restraint she held not to vomit.
Thankfully, Jolie did not say anything more.
It wasn't as though Madeline could hear or understand even if she had spoken again. She could only choke back the sick and utter horror that her friend's accusation had caused.
Instead, she focussed intently on the stone below her, staring, blinking, and breathing evenly until the vicious nausea and disgust began to fade.
After a moment or so, when the amount of her feet she'd been counting returned to two instead of four, Madeline righted herself to stand up straight again.
She took a deep breath, resting a hand over her churning stomach.
"I am not," Madeline began shakily, "doing... that. With... him. Or any professor."
She almost gagged again.
Jolie nodded. "Okay... Okay, I believe you."
Madeline breathed in sharply through her nose a few times, attempting to soothe the knot in her chest.
"So, what is going on, then?" Jolie asked. "Why the lies?"
Madeline glanced around at the corridor again.
This wasn't the place.
"It's too open here," she breathed. "Let's go back to the dorm and I'll tell you."
"Everything?"
Madeline nodded. "Everything. I swear. Just—never say that again."
"About you and Sna—?"
Her stomach roiled again before Jolie could finish that sentence.
"Please," Madeline groaned.
"Right, sorry," Jolie said, reaching forward and hooking her elbow in Madeline's before leading them towards the common room.
Madeline found herself poised to retch again, and the noise blended with Jolie's continued apologies.
"Sorry, sorry."
As they trekked through the short walk from the corridor to their dorm, Madeline's steps felt weak. Her wobbling footsteps were eventually stopped once they reached their shared room.
In the silence of the trip, Madeline could only think of one thing.
It was time to tell Jolie the truth.
All of it.
The girls settled on the edge of their respective beds and faced one another, exactly as they had done earlier in the night.
Jolie didn't say a word, sitting patiently as Madeline eyed the white fuzzy slippers her roommate had discarded after their walk.
She just had to come out with it. Rip off the plaster.
Madeline expelled a steady breath, and finally mustered up the courage to look at her.
"Lilith isn't my last name."
Jolie's brow furrowed in confusion. "Sorry?"
"Lilith," Madeline said again, "is not my last name. It's my middle name."
"Why would you lie about your surname?"
She let out another breath. Jolie deserved to know everything, she told herself.
No more secrets.
"For my own protection," she explained. "It's not exactly a popular name here. We didn't want any biases against me just because of my name."
"We?"
Madeline nodded. "My father and I."
"Your... father?"
Again, Madeline nodded.
No going back now.
"So," Jolie drew out, "what is your name?"
Madeline exhaled slowly again, her shoulders loosening. A long, tired sigh of exhaustion, of peace.
"Snape."
Jolie's eyes went wide.
"My name," she continued, "is Madeline Lilith Snape."
A minute or two passed before either of them spoke next.
Madeline couldn't gauge the thoughts that had likely overtaken Jolie's mind. But, based on her open jaw and quiet gasps for air, she knew the information was a shock to say the least.
Which, if she were honest, Madeline was grateful for.
To know that her closest secret hadn't been so easily detected, that no one would have suspected her true identity—even her closest friend, was a relief.
But to think that all this time Jolie had assumed... had been certain that Madeline had been... with—
She cut off her own stream of consciousness in the hopes not to gag again.
Rather than dwell on the thought, Madeline watched in painstaking silence as Jolie patted her hand against her lap, as if the subtle rhythm was propelling whatever it was she was thinking.
Her friend's gaze fell to the floor, her mouth shutting and swallowing down a harsh gulp of air.
"Please say something," Madeline said.
Even if Jolie was disgusted with the truth, angry, or upset in any way, she needed to know. Needed to hear it instead of this harrowing silence.
Her roommate's mouth opened and closed a few times. Then, she cleared her throat.
"I... I just—" Jolie began softly, "I don't know what to say."
"I'm sorry that I lied. I know that's the last thing you want to hear from me, but you need to know that I am truly sorry."
She waited for Jolie to respond, but nothing came.
"I understand if you hate me—or want me to leave," Madeline could feel her chest tighten, her voice coming out with an ache. "And I—I can do that—"
Jolie's once thumping hand reached forward, gently resting on Madeline's knee, forcing her to look up again.
Their eyes met, and the scowl or anger in her friend's face that she'd initially expected, was instead a look of sympathy, an almost sorrowful kindness.
"I would never," Jolie said, her gaze and voice sincere. "It's just... a shock, is all."
Madeline nodded, accepting the response.
"I wish I could have told you sooner, but..." she trailed off.
"You couldn't," Jolie muttered, then leaned back on her seat, pressing both hands behind her and into her mattress as her stare drifted to comb through the ceiling. "It just—it explains so much now. It explains everything, actually."
Madeline looked at her, puzzled. Before she could ask what it was she meant, Jolie lifted a hand to brush across her forehead and hair, and laughed.
"The List makes a hell of a lot more sense now. How else could your father have had such an adamant hatred for the Gryffindors on it if he'd never met them? How could I have missed that?"
Madeline shrugged her shoulders, and after another brief pause, the friends burst into a small bout of laughter together.
The pain in her chest eased, along with the croaking lump in her throat. She swiped at the tears of laughter from her eyes.
If anyone had seen them like this, at this hour, especially after the night they had shared, they would be deemed deranged and sleep deprived.
"I know I shouldn't say this," Jolie began after their brief giggling subsided. "But Fred would absolutely lose his mind if he knew."
"I know," Madeline snorted. "It's a good thing he'll never find out."
The thought suddenly dawned on her; the realisation that Jolie, close as anyone could ever be to George, his own brother, knew everything now.
Madeline sat up straighter. The idea of anyone besides her friend knowing would be detrimental. It wasn't her sole secret to keep anymore.
"You won't...tell George, right?"
Jolie barked another laugh.
"Gods, no! He'd never shut up about it."
"Or anyone else?" Madeline asked, nearly pleading. "I know it might make things easier, and I know you hate lying, but—"
"Madi, it's not my secret to tell," Jolie assured. "It's safe with me."
"Promise?"
Jolie raised a brow, her chin lowering.
"Do you want to make a blood oath or something?"
Madeline pursed her lips, contemplating the offer.
"That was a joke!" Jolie screeched.
Another fit of laughs and snorts sounded before the friends began shushing the other loudly in remembering the warning they'd received earlier in the night from Catherine Brunt.
When the laughter and whispers subsided again, Madeline let a yawn escape, then another, before Jolie did the same.
They each climbed into the covers of their own beds, a serene quiet falling over the pair as distant sounds of the lake behind them flowed from behind the glass.
Madeline forced her eyes to shut, knowing with the morning so close that exhaustion was inevitable.
It was an understatement to say she was grateful for their supply of the makeshift Pepper-Up Potions that she'd kept in good stock. In only a few short hours, her concoction of the potion infused with the syrupy sweetness of pineapple, mint, and ginger would be a godsend.
"Would you have ever told me?"
The question caused Madeline's eyes to open. In turning her head, she discovered Jolie in the same position as her, lying on her back and staring up above her four poster.
"Eventually," she sighed. "Maybe when we were out of school."
With the sound of shifting linen, Madeline watched as Jolie propped up on her side, glaring at her through the darkness.
"You would have waited that long?" she huffed.
Madeline shrugged to her side, mirroring her.
"Well, we'll never know now, will we?"
"Diabolical," Jolie grumbled, then rolled over to her other side to face the wall.
Madeline felt herself give into a grin, and was pleasantly surprised to hear Jolie snickering to herself, then masking it with a cough to keep up the act.
~
A few short hours later, the entirety of Hogwarts students, the visiting schools, and professors were directed towards and through the great double doors of the main entrance to the castle.
When the headmaster had given the initial instruction to follow the trail from the grass and to the edge of the Forbidden Forest in an hour's time, Madeline had thought it to be a joke.
Rather than laugh, though, the inhabitants of the Great Hall practically clamoured over each other in order to prepare, her own friends and table included.
The Slytherin girls had elbowed their way through the hordes of students until making it back to her and Jolie's dorm.
Along with Pansy and Daphne, they each aided in selecting the perfect ensemble for Jolie to meet George's parents in. To Pansy's credit, she'd made an excellent outfit for her to wear, indeed.
Jolie looked her absolute best in her pale blue cardigan, the cuffs of the sleeves lined in delicate ivory fur, her skirt an ideal plaid in shades of coordinating blue.
The friends marvelled at Pansy's eye for fashion, even incorporating Jolie's material lineage with their signature shade.
With still needing to dress themselves, Madeline and Jolie were left to themselves.
Once Madeline had dressed herself warmly in a grey and black striped jumper, black pleather trousers with matching boots and knee length coat, they were ready to set off.
Even as they followed the steady line of students towards the entrance of the school, everyone seemed to be in great spirits, especially the Hufflepuffs.
It wasn't much of a surprise, as all throughout the breakfast feast, in between scarfing down their food, the table had erupted in a variety of celebratory outbursts.
"CHEERS TO DIGGORY! HOGWARTS' TRUE CHAMPION!"
"BADGER, BADGER, HUFFLEPUFF!"
"POTTER FOR LAST PLACE!"
The last chant, and arguably the most popular, had emerged from the Slytherin table. Specifically, from Draco.
It seemed the contempt for Harry Potter's suspicious addition to the tournament had yet to dwindle.
Now, as the herd of students filed out through the doors and began tracking the foothills of the grounds, the chanting became louder than ever.
Madeline, along with her friends, cheered in support of Cedric.
And when prompted with one of the celebratory badges Draco had made, reading "Support Cedric Diggory—The Real Hogwarts Champion", she agreed to wear one.
If anything to appease the group, she displayed the badge on the chest of her jumper. Though initially, she did opt out from pressing the badge, which changed its glowing red letters to a shade of green, with "POTTER STINKS" in large bold lettering.
Even if she didn't know Potter personally, the phrase itself seemed cruel.
Madeline did, however, notice that when her father passed a group of students wearing them, he made no effort to confiscate the pins. If anything, she could have sworn she saw him crack a sly smirk before turning his attention away.
And for that reason, she didn't see it as befitting to remove the badge entirely.
If there were anything she could do to make her father more agreeable, even if it were at the sake of Potter with some harmless and immature button, Madeline would wear it.
After all, there was a rather large debt she needed to repay.
One day, sometime soon, she would need to tell her father of what she'd done.
Jolie knew the truth, and Madeline had foolishly thought it meant it would set her free. If anything, all the truth did was dig her deeper into her own grave when it came to her father's trust in her.
She'd broken two of his rules in the short few months she'd been here. The first, fraternising with those on The List, and now, she'd gone and disclosed her identity.
Albeit, to her most trusted and closest friend, though it didn't make the betrayal to her father much easier to digest.
As if on command with her own inner spiralling, Jolie turned to look at her, meeting Madeline's blank stare over the slew of parent and student reunions just on the forest's perimeter.
"You'll find me afterwards?" Jolie asked.
However calm and collected her friend seemed to be, Madeline knew just how nervous she was to be meeting George's family.
Madeline nodded. "Promise."
The plan they had outlined early in the morning was now set into motion.
Jolie would find her way to her own family, or the Weasley's (whoever would arrive first), and afterward, Madeline would be introduced to the rest of the Carrows once the others had left, possibly after the task had concluded entirely.
In the meantime, she would make herself scarce throughout the initial introductions, just in the hopes that there was no chance her father could spot her exchanging pleasantries with three fourths of The List.
Without another word, Jolie disappeared amongst the crowd, Daphne and Theo following close behind to give their greeting to the family they'd grown up with.
All around, parents met their children with embraces, for a few of them, tears of joy.
At watching the reunions, Madeline couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy.
The view was inescapable, and one she couldn't look away from, especially when it came to spotting a teary eyed mother and daughter embrace.
She wondered what that could have felt like for her.
Not that she'd ever known her mother. But perhaps in another life—another world even, she could be among the majority of her peers. If her father wasn't who he was, if their lives were just the slightest bit different, it could have been her running into the arms of her parents openly in the field of grass.
But that was not the hand she was dealt, and that was alright.
In a means to distract herself from the thought or the empty frigid air that filled her lungs and chilled her nose, she sought to watch those of whom she did know.
Just ahead, Pansy followed closely behind Draco, the two stopping before a tall, slim couple. The husband and wife, with matching flowing locks of the white blonde she'd recognised in Draco's silvery hair must be his parents.
Mr and Mrs Malfoy each took their turns in greeting Pansy as if she were one of their own. For Draco's dad, strong and confident handshakes for the both, whilst his mother clung to the pair as if her life depended on it.
Madeline found herself grinning as the Malfoy matriarch held her son for an obscenely long time, enough to make Pansy giggle and Draco's face to turn a darker shade of crimson than the onslaught of cold air did.
And then, as Madeline continued forward, another familiar pair caught her attention. Quite frankly, it was difficult not to spot them.
The Weasley twins were stopping anyone who came close enough to them. Fred's familiar shouting voice was urging people closer, wailing something about their shared briefcase that hung from straps over his shoulders.
Behind them, Jolie paced in the small patch of grass, the ground beneath looking to be entirely flattened with her quick and anxious steps.
Daphne and Theo lounged closeby on the small hill, overseeing their friend and the twins.
As much as Madeline wanted to join them, she couldn't.
So, instead, she eyed the trickle of students stepping foot into the Forbidden Forest, a location in which, under usual circumstances, was strictly discouraged.
She would have to find her way alone for now. Or, at least until Daphne and Theo eventually returned.
With her plan in mind, she took a single step forward, and accidentally collided shoulders with a tall husk of a man. The sheer stature of the man caused her to misstep, clamping her foot firmly over his starkly pristine leather shoe.
"Shi—I'm terribly sorry," she said with a grimace, meeting the man's stern and twisted snarl which revealed stained, yellow teeth.
Yellow Teeth only cleared his throat and straightened the lapels of his rich emerald cloak, scowling at her from above.
Even in the bright morning light, the sun directly overhead, he stared with the bitter coldness darker than any night in the dead of winter.
"Madeline," a voice said from Yellow Teeth's other side.
To her horror, it was Adrian.
And to make it all the worse—
"I'd like you to meet my father," Adrian went on, reaching out to pull her up to his side, bringing her to stand right in front of Yellow Teeth. Or, apparently, Mr Pucey.
"And, Father, this is Madeline," he offered, resting his hand on the small of Madeline's back.
Adrian looked down at her as he spoke, smiling fondly.
"One of my dearest friends."
Madeline, to her own credit, managed to smile up at Yello—er, Mr Pucey.
But as the man continued to scowl down at her, she only wished to disintegrate into the grass.