Not Alone After All

Chapter LV

"Is this a joke?" Laura let out louder than she meant to. Half of the Great Hall turned to her but she honestly could not care right now. Her brother had just been illegally chosen to compete in a deadly tournament against three smart Wizards of age, who knew many more spells than he did.

"I wish it was Miss Potter," Dumbleore answered. "Harry Potter!" He called again, his tone angry.

Laura watched as Hermione pulled Harry up, unfreezing him from his state of shock. She pushed him towards the front and he entered the room with the other champions.

"Cheater!" "He's not even of age!" "That's not fair!"

"Silence!" Dumbledore yelled and the hall went silent. "Everyone follow your heads of houses into your dormitories."

Needless to say, the feast was cut short.

"Of course your brother is the exception to the new rules, Potter," Draco practically spat a at her as they walked to the dungeons. She had lost sight of Al and Scorpius a long time ago, and she had a feeling she wouldn't be seeing them for some time.

"Shove off, Malfoy. You must be completely stupid to think he actually put his name in," she sneered.

She didn't stay long enough to hear his reply, making a turn towards her detention and separating from the rest of her house. When she opened the door to his office, Fred Weasley was already sitting on a chair in front of the professor's desk.

"Miss Potter," Snape acknowledged her. "Just when I was thinking you would have invented another excuse to skip my detention," he commented. Laura frowned.

"I had a broken nose," she justified. What did he mean, invented an excuse? "I literally spent the night at the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey was scared I appeared to be losing too much blood."

"And just how does one suffer blood loss from a broken nose?" Snape questioned, unbothered.

"Pansy hexed me," she shrugged. "What is it were supposed to be doing again?"

"You are simply to clean my floors."

Laura's eyebrows shot up in surprise. She thought they would be doing some hard work, probably spending the whole night scrubbing grime from classrooms and corridors.

"Oh?" said Fred, also wondering why the talks was so light.

"Consider it a birthday present," Snape said. His tone did not match his words at all, however. He said it coldly and with no emotion, almost if it pained him to give her a birthday present, or to think of it in general. Maybe he didn't like to celebrate birthdays either, just like Laura. Either way, she didn't even have time to say anything before the man was gone, the door slamming close behind him.

Fred got up form his seat and grabbed one of the buckets, along with the mop. He left her a bucket and the brush that was to be used for the corners and all the places where the floor and walls collided.

They worked in silence. Neither sure what to say, both too stubborn to admit they actually wanted to say something.

The task was not long. They were done within the hour.

"You were wrong," Laura told him, as he was finishing up the last corner of the mop. She was done with her own part, and was ready to leave. Fred looked up at her in surprise, not expecting her to say anything. "Hanging out with you doesn't make me miserable. I spent the day with Hermione, who didn't acknowledge me in the slightest. My brother didn't speak to me, you did not speak to me and neither did George. The two people that have wished me a happy birthday were a random Slytherin boy and Professor Snape. Snape! So, yeah, you were wrong. Turn out it's the it's the other way round."

With that, she stood up and left the room, slamming the door behind her back, unable to stop the tears from stinging her eyes.