𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐂𝐀𝐑 [g. weasley]

chapter seven

CHAPTER SEVEN

"IT'S ASTONISHING, REALLY, JUST HOW MUCH HE HATES ME," I said, my voice a whisper amongst the chatterings of the students in the Great Hall.

     I expected to hear Cassius, to hear his cheerful comebacks that landed in the worst of times. But it did not come.

     "Well," Crystal was buttering her bread, but not her expression. "You give him the satisfaction."

     My head shot at her reply, but I couldn't help to think she was right. I had turned Cassius against me. I was the one who angered him. It was I alone who ruined it. Who ruined us.

     I looked down at my plate, the buttered toast now cold.

     "Oh, come now," Crystal began, "Stop sulking and eat your food. You've got to have something in your stomach if you wish to survive Snape's detention." 

     Her words were like a slap to my face. Snape's detention, I had forgotten about it. I remembered his sullen tone as he described my detention to clean the trophy room, and the humiliation of it. I knew not why he found pleasure in positioning me, the last of the Black dynasty, to chore shame to my reputation. He knew well that students would snicker from behind. He knew more than well I would not object to him further, that I would nod and stay silent.

     I took a bite from the cold toast.

     "Don't take Snape's punishment to your heart, Daphne. I mean, he has made countless others clean without magic. It's anything but hatred. Scolding, maybe. But not hatred." 

     I snorted. If Grandmother were to be here, I would not have heard the end of her berating. A lady in my class would not act as I did for the past week. A lady would not speak while eating, talk out of her turn, but I did not care, even though I should.

     She is not at the table, nor is she at the castle, I thought. She would never know.

     "I gave up trying to win over Snape's love long ago. I am done trying to charm him, to get him to hate me less that I have come to the point which I have stopped caring," I said as Crystal's brow shot upwards.

     "But you were complaining about his hatred just moments ago, were you not?"

     It was my turn to stare blankly at her, take in her baffled state. Then it hit me that Crystal might have mistaken my misery for Cassius' regard for that of Professor Snape's.

     "No," I said with a shake of my head. "No, no. I was talking about Cassius, of him absolutely hating me. Though, when you think of it, it really is astonishing just how much Snape hates me."

     Crystal's brows softened with her expression, and I saw a glimpse of care in the reflection of her eyes. "This little feud of yours has gone too far."