Aymee Parker B2 - The Cursed Mark

Chapter 36 : Rotten months

Aymee didn't have a very good month of April and by the end of May, she was exhausted.

The students had returned from their vacation, classes had resumed, and her training with McMahon was as intense as ever. Aymee had done her best to convince Hepzibah to come with her to the training sessions, without success. She had barely managed to get her to come to the first lesson after returning from vacation. McMahon was speechless when he heard the news: another half-blood at Hogwarts! Hepzibah's surprise at learning the truth about the teacher had been more... subdued.

"Oh. Alright, that explains some stuff."

Aymee would have asked her which ones, but the Giantess had more or less fled after the introductions, claiming that training was for the weak and that she wasn't one. Anyway, Aymee had spent the next few weeks trying to explain to her the dangers of a half-blood life, but it was absolutely useless so far since Hepzibah paid absolutely no attention to her warnings.

Another surprised source of gloom for Aymee: Kingsley. He, who barely managed to write to her once a week because of his work, had suddenly got into the habit of writing to her once a day. His efforts were in vain: Aymee simply burned his letters without even opening them. It had caught all the Ravenclaws off guard. Aymee's big smiles at the sight of a letter had turned into a grunt. Aymee knew very well that it was childish, but the impulse was stronger than her. She just couldn't swallow that Kingsley had so little confidence in her that he had assigned a spy on her. When she tried so hard not to disappoint him! At least he respected her silence by not forcing her with an Iris message.

The worst part was probably that she couldn't even talk about all these things anymore or even just take her mind off things with Kosta since her face turned flushed red whenever she only thought of him, so when she could actually see him! It was impossible.

At least she had been able to change her mind a little by talking with Hagrid or even Chloë, who turned out to be very shy for a dryad. Unfortunately for Aymee, these few sunny moments were only temporary.

Icing on the cake of these rotten months: Annelise Chevalier. That pesky Slytherin weasel seemed to have quadrupled her ardor after the loss of her precious mystery scroll. Aymee had groaned when she noticed that she no longer had the Mark on the back of her hand, but by the end of March, Aymee was cringing just thinking about her existence.

Breathe. You will manage.

Aymee tucked her fingernails into her palms, taking a deep breath. She rounded the corner of the hallway, aware that she had the Slytherin prefect hot on her heels.

"Hey, Aymee."

The half-blood raised her eyebrows in surprise. For once, it was Hepzibah Smith who came to meet her and not the other way around.

"Hey!" she greeted her back.

Aymee glanced behind her. As she had hoped, the Slytherin prefect had turned on her heels as soon as Hepzibah showed up.

Must say she is impressive, conceded Aymee, shaking her head. Maybe I should glue her more... Unless it casts doubts on her too?

"I wanted to know if I was going to have superpowers," Hepzibah suddenly asked.

"What?" Aymee blinked.

Hepzibah shifted her weight from one leg to the other.

"Powers. You know, in myths and stuff they're super strong or invulnerable or whatever. Am I going to be like that too?"

Aymee frowned, knowing that was a question to be taken with a grain of salt. She had seen too many indeterminate young demigods breaking their necks trying the impossible to uncover hidden abilities.