CURSED: FROM THE BEGINNING [D.M]

-(5) would you like to dance, emerson?

ZILLIAH sleeps better that night. 'It's the alcohol', she tells herself but she slept in his blazer and she knows it's the real reason even though she won't admit it- not even to herself- especially to herself.

But it felt really good to win over her nemesis for once. Ha Ha, suck it up Sleep!

She wakes up, gets ready, and heads to the Great hall in a hurry. She isn't late. Actually, she is quite early- Pansy and Millicent haven't even woken up. But there is something she needs to set in order and her head won't give it a rest until she does.

She spots Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the Gryffindor table and makes a beeline towards them.

"Hi", she spits out coldly, stopping a few steps back and folding her arms across her chest.

The three of them slowly turn to face her.

"Hi..", Hermione mumbles back in a low voice- almost like she didn't want to.

Zilliah clears her throat and gets straight to the point, asking them in a stern voice, "Are we still friends or what?!"

"Of course", Ron says. A lie. She could decipher it from his tone all too well. And they knew that she understood.

"Look, Zilliah." It's Harry who starts with a look that conveyed he wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible. "First and foremost, you're in Slytherin and to make things worse you hang around with that craphead gang of Malfoy, Parkinson, Nott, and Zabini. Like they literally are the worst people in this whole school and you are willingly hanging out with them."

Pure disgust and rage rises within her. "Well, those craphead gang has proven to be more loyal of a friends in two days than you guys who I've known for almost a month now", she shoots back, her look seething.

"You're in Slytherin", Ron says like it's an excuse for their behavior.

"So?"

"We just don't know if we can trust you like before", Harry puts it out bluntly, quickly averting his gaze back onto his breakfast.

Her temper flares within but she tries her best not to lash out. She scoffs in disdain before speaking, the sting she felt kept well hidden, "I may be in Slytherin but I am- oh well, was your friend and if you thought I was going to snitch everything to my housemates, then you didn't understand me at all in all the time we bonded back at Padfoot's house."

A few heads here and there turn to them.

"But Zilliah-", Ron starts, his cheeks growing red and his eyes reflecting utter shame.

She has had enough of this shit.

"It's Emerson to you. Just Emerson", she says, cutting across him before turning back to walk away.

However, Hermione's voice makes her stop in her track. "I do trust you", she says. And despite everything, Zilliah can sense some honesty in her words but her anger is roaring louder inside her, leaving no room for reason so she just flips them off and stomps off in held back fury.

She felt the rise in her body heat and the rapid flow of her blood- she hates that she can. She is angry- hurt- she needs to calm down or this is going to end up really bad. So she walks to the astronomy tower, humming 'You're my sunshine' under her breath to distract herself. Her grandmother always used to sing it to her when she was a baby- she remembers fondly- but then those dark memories turn over in the grave of her mind. She quickly shakes it off before they can resurface. She has to clear her mind but it's proving to be impossible at the moment.

"Fuck", she mutters.

"Fuck who?" Draco. She recognizes his voice instantly. And something about it calms her down just that little.