Snivellus

47

'Open up!' He commanded to the fat lady portrait.

'Not without the password' she sang.

'Open the damn door!' He yelled. 'I want to see Potter!'

'Oh I'm afraid he's not in actually.' She raised her eyebrows at him.

'Then where is he?' Draco spat.

She shrugged her shoulders and Draco kicked her portrait to which she replied to with, 'vandalism!' 'Intruder!'

'Malfoy!' Ron shouted, grabbing his wand. He was with Hermione.

Draco turned around. 'I was looking for Potter but you'll do just nicely.' He snarled and aimed his wand at Ron and Hermione. 'Who first... the Mudblood or the blood-traitor?'

'If you do this, Malfoy, Darah won't be very pleased.' Hermione tried to reason with him.

'Doesn't matter. We're not even friends anymore, apparently, because of you three.' He spat.

'We haven't done anything to your precious girlfriend, Malfoy.' Ron mocked.

'Then tell me why she acts as if we've never even met?!' His wand was now pointed at the both of them. Ron and Hermione both had theirs out too.

'Why don't you ask Snivellus Snape? He was the last person to see her!' Ron shouted, angrily.

Draco paused, dropped down his wand and ran through the middle between Ron and Hermione.

***

He knocked on Snape's office door and shouted his name angrily. The door didn't open so he preformed the alohamora spell to open it up.

Snape was sat contently at his desk.

'What have you done to Darah?' He walked up to him angrily.

'No idea what you're talking about, Draco.' He said with a frown.

'This is something to do with my father isn't it? He's asked you to do his dirty work for him.' Draco breathed.

'I have not spoken to your father in months.' Snape said, narrowing his eyes.

'Tell me what you did to my girlfriend.' He pointed his wand at him. 'I can end you, you know? You're not nearly half as powerful as a pure blood.' He snarled, breathing every word clearly, into his face.

'Enough, Draco. You might be able to get me sent to Azkaban but I can get you expelled. Do you think your daddy would like that?' Snape said coolly.

Draco removed his wand out of Snape's eye-line. 'Just answer the bloody question!'

'There's a lot you don't know about Darah, Draco. And I intend to keep it that way.'

'What is there that I possibly don't know?' He scoffed.

'Many things. Now leave.'

***

A couple weeks had gone by and Darah focused solely on her schooling. She was top of her class in potions, not just because her dad was her teacher but because she was truly talented.

She kept up with defence against the dark arts too, although she wasn't nearly as interested in divination or charms, resulting in her falling behind.

'Um Darah, could I just have a word?' Lupin said to her at the end of class last week.

She sat down at his desk in his office and waited for him to speak.

'Have you had a think about what might have happened on the train?'

'Oh um, not really.' She said a little unsure.

He nodded. 'I've started private lessons with Harry Potter, you're friends with him I believe?'

Darah shook her head. 'Definitely not.'

'Oh, my bad, I just thought I saw you both together.' He shook the thought away. 'Anyway. Would you like to join us for private lessons? It seems the dementors effect you two the most and I think it would be beneficial for you to learn to defend yourself.' He explained gently.

'Sure.' She shrugged simply.

'Ok.' Lupin said, expecting more of a conversation. 'Now I wasn't going to bring up Draco Malfoy but he's been skipping classes lately and-'

'Why does everyone keep asking me about Draco as if we're friends?' Darah interjected.

Lupin raised his eyebrows. 'I was under the expression you two were... a thing? That was what I was told anyway?' He quickly added as Darah's eyes widened.

'No way.' She shook her hands out in front of her. 'And I don't keep tabs on people I barely know.'

Lupin made a puzzled expression and began to scratch his head.

'Sir... you look like this is all new information.'

'Yes, well.' He struggled for words, almost certain everything Darah denied was true. 'I guess I should remind you that I won't be discussing 'family topics' over these meetings either.' He covered with a cough. 'For either you or Harry.'

'Um ok. I mean I'm not too interested in Harry's family life, I mean everyone already knows the story.' She shrugged, a little uncomfortable.

'Is something the matter?' Lupin said at last. He expected another interrogation or something at least.

'I'm fine? I think something might be wrong with you though, do you need to see Madam Pomfrey?' Darah said, looking concerned.

'Have you talked to Professor Snape recently, Darah?'

'Well yeah, he is my teacher, I had potions before this-'

'I meant in private.'

'Oh... no I don't think so.' She shook her head, digging deep into her memory. She really wasn't sure why Lupin was questioning her so much about random things and she also really didn't understand why he was talking about her father in a strange way. Perhaps he somehow knew?

'Oh goodness.' Lupin stood up abruptly and started pacing around the room.

'Sir?'

'Do you remember much about the past few weeks of this term?' He said quickly.

She sat for a minute. 'No.' She breathed. 'It's like a... blur.'

Lupin looked at her directly in the eyes.

'Oh no.' Darah's eyes grew wide as she came to realisation. 'You're not telling me my memory has been wiped has it?'

Lupin nodded slowly. 'I fear that may be the case.'