Suspicious Purebloods
Chapter 21
Estella sat in the defence against the dark arts class two weeks after the incident with the young first year who she found out was called Alessia. The girl was distraught with her findings, and Estella set out to talk to her, though Theo didn't think it was a good idea, Estella felt she needed to talk to her, to see how she was doing.
Estella was the one that put her in the hospital wing with shock, and she felt so terribly guilty about it, so she set out to Hogsmeade one Saturday morning, and Theo thought it was wise if he tagged along, considering he was a muggleborn like Alessia, it would seem a lot less innocent for the two to visit her.
Estella used the money she had saved to buy the girl as many sweets as she could, and when she entered the hospital wing, she was surprised that she had barely any sweets near her bed, in fact, she didn't have a lot of anything, apparently there was a lot of people very frightened to visit her because of what she had found, Alessia told them that when they sat down to talk to her.
"I know you don't know me," Estella whispered, but Alessia shook her head.
"I do know you, actually," she mumbled quietly, "I'm sorry for your loss."
"My loss?" Estella asked.
"I know you were close with one of the people dead," the girl spoke with a pained voice, "before she turned...mean."
"Oh yes," Estella nodded, sending a sympathetic look the girls way, "I suppose that means you had a run in with her when she had turned mean then, by the look on your face?"
"It's kind of funny that her arm was the one that I tripped over, it seemed that even when she was dead, she still liked to trip me up. She used to do it with her Slytherin friends when she would shout mudblood at me down the hall." Alessia seemed bitter, and there was no deny that she didn't like Teresa in the slightest.
"Can I confess something to you two?" she asked after a few moments of silently munching on chocoballs, "I really hope you don't tell anyone this."
"You can tell us anything," Estella whispered, a soft smile on her lips whilst Alessia nodded.
"I think," she took a deep breath, "I think I'm happy about the fact that they're dead, and when I figured that out myself, I was terrified. I don't want anyone to die because that's mean and it's kind of hypocritical if you think of it, because those purebloods are dead and I'm happy because I'm a muggleborn, and the reason I'm happy is because purebloods wanted muggleborn's dead, it's like it has come full circle!"
"Oh merlin," Estella whispered after a few minutes that the three sat in silence. Estella reached for Alessia's hand, a small smile resting on her lips as she looked at the first year, "if anyone is giving you a hard time, anyone at all, then just look for one of us - or both of us, and we will deal with it. You're too young to go through this type of pain, you shouldn't be a victim in a place that you love."
"A lot of people told me that purebloods all grew up with bad parents and that's why most of them are so mean, and have these beliefs, but you don't, why are you so different?" asked Alessia, her head titled whilst Estella sighed, squeezing her hand comfortingly.
"I grew up in a muggle village, with a mother who wasn't close minded, who taught us that everyone is equal, and the people who don't believe that are below us, below the kind, good people in this world, if they want to think that muggleborn's don't belong here, then they aren't worth our time, and we will fight for what is right. I've been called a blood traitor countlessly, but I think I just have common sense if I'm being completely honest," Estella sighed, "you shouldn't have seen what you did, and as a pureblood, I'm sorry you had to see those bodies, I'm sorry you had to go through that shock and pain."
Alessia smiled softly, "y'know you two are the only ones who have really bothered to comfort me," she mumbled, "everyone thinks the killer is going to come after me...and trust me, I don't think it was you."
"I think you're the only one," Estella sighed, running a hand through her hair, "get some rest."
Her time with Alessia was short-lived when the fear of the rumours came running back to her mind, her prediction was correct, everyone was thinking that it was her that had hurt the purebloods, and even keeping to herself wasn't going to stop their harsh words thrown her way.
The amount of people who had called her a blood traitor had amplified, and Peter had even confessed that there was a strain on some of his friendships that weren't to do with the boys, which hurt Estella more when she found out, knowing that her brother was getting the same type of treatment that she was getting, she was getting angrier and angrier.
She was having a hard time controlling herself around the people who was shouting at her, knowing that showing them the same fate as the others was far too risky but that didn't stop the thoughts from countlessly entering her mind.
Even in classes, like now, she could hear the whispers around her. No one really seemed to blame Theo, which Estella was thankful for because even though no one thought him to be part of it, she knew that he was still having a hard time, and that would have greatly amplified if the purebloods behind the hurt even remotely thought he had anything to do with the murders.
"There's no doubt," one girl behind her whispered to her friend who was giggling under her breath, "I bet she killed them all. Wonder what her mudblood boyfriend is thinking about all of this."
"Look at her, she's far too weak to have done it," the girl beside her scoffed, earning a few laughs from the boys beside them, "and if she did do it then she probably was to stupid to even realise that they were dead."
"Probably why they were all found," the other giggled.
"You guys better not talk about it, she might kill you," one of the boys snorted, covering his hand with his mouth whilst the four bursts into laughter.
Estella merely ignored them, rolling her eyes as she continued to write on her parchment, but then one whispered, "bet her fat brother had something to do with it, bloody hell, he probably ate them!"
Estella wasn't one to think of fat as an insult, mainly because the word used to float through her own ears before she entered Hogwarts, but the way the girl said it was filled with so much disgust that the only sound heard around the room was Estella's chair scraping against the ground and the gasps of student who watched Estella's fist curl around the front of the girl's uniform.
"Oi, let her go!" the boy exclaimed, but Estella was one step ahead of him, she slammed the girls head into the desk, ignored the professors sudden protest and stormed out of the room after she had quickly packed up her things.
She was fuming with rage, and she just couldn't help herself as she stormed through the castle. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she walked, knowing that McGonagall or Sprout would be looking for her soon. She wondered why McGonagall was much more interested in her than sprout, she wasn't the head of her house, or Theo's and yet she was the one to usher the most detentions, and make sure that Estella was staying out of trouble.
And as much as she hated the thought of getting into trouble for some annoying purebloods, she could never be mad at McGonagall, the woman was one of her favourite teachers with Sprout, so talking back to her was simply out of the question.
She wondered if that was why McGonagall was the one getting involved.
She felt trapped in the castle, felt as though she had nowhere to go, that whenever she turned another corner there would be more people to hate her, to accuse her of doing what she knew she did. But no matter how many people pointed blame, no matter how many people looked at her in hatred and disgust, she just couldn't bring herself to feel guilty about it.
She was guilty for James, and she knew that murder was a terrible thing to do, but she couldn't help but feel like she did the right thing, and if she had the chance to turn back the time, well, she knew that she wouldn't do that.
-
"Heard you hurt another pureblood," Peter spoke quietly as he sat beside Estella, he was leaning on her side whilst she leaned on James who was evidently upset with the news that his sister had been murdered. He knew that she wasn't the girl he had known himself, that before her death, she had changed, but he wished there was something he could do to have stopped it, to maybe have brought her back to the Teresa he knew.
"Yeah," she nodded, reaching for James' hand to comfortingly squeeze whilst he leaned his head on hers that rested on his shoulder, "deserved it, though."
"It's not helping you, though," Sirius piped in, "the rumours, I mean."
"I don't care for silly, stupid rumours," she shook her head, "they mean nothing to me, and you shouldn't waste your time with them because I'm certainly not."
She knew herself that wasn't true, and Sirius knew it too with the look on her features, it was a pained look, a look of hurt. She was hurt that she was getting accused but instead of being evidently phased by it, she was pretending that it was the opposite, that she didn't care when she very, definitely did.
"How are you feeling about Teresa?" she felt James tense at Remus' words, the sad smile was on Remus' lips which he had forced. He hated that he was relieved too, because had Teresa not died, then he would have been outed, and having that constant hatred over him was something he knew he wouldn't have been able to cope with.
Of course, knowing that the girl she could have been was gone was something that unsettled him, he felt terrible for James, and for Estella too, the girls were best friends, but Teresa had changed, she wasn't the same girl that they all knew, she was a different girl, she felt powerful, but she was nothing of the sort.
"It'll always be such a sad thing," Estella whispered as she squeezed James' hand tighter, "she was my best friend for so long and then suddenly she wasn't anymore. I hurt her because she was so mean about muggleborn's, about Theo and everything but I'd never go that far, I feel terrible for what happened, she could have changed."
She hated that she was lying through her teeth, especially to the boys that she loved with all of her heart, but she couldn't do anything to seem suspicious.
"So, the rumours aren't true then?" asked Remus, sending her an apologetic smile when Sirius' head wiped around.
"Of course, it wasn't here!" Sirius exclaimed, "she hurt a few purebloods and now everyone is going crazy, we'd all do the world some good as to fight with her instead of accusing her of something so stupid!"
"I know, I know," Remus sighed, nodding furiously, "I was just making sure, I promise."
"I know, Remus, it's alright," Estella smiled softly, "but it really wasn't me, suppose I'll have to go see McGonagall though."
"Cause of what you did in class?" asked Peter, reaching for Estella's free hand when she nodded with a frown, "you'll be fine, Estella, you wouldn't do such a thing."
"Yeah," she forced another smile for her brother, "I know."