AUTOPHOBIA - G. WEASLEY

Third Year: The Shrieking Shack

✯ CHAPTER FORTY-ONE ✯

Early June, 1994.

It was official. Estella hated being at Hogwarts.

She had gone from being a highly worshipped Quidditch champion to talk of the school, and a heavily judged murderer's daughter, pretty much overnight.

Despite Professor McGonagall instructing that no one repeated what was said by Monet, just as Estella had expected, everybody knew by the next day that Sirius was her father.

And if her life hadn't already been bad enough, it was unbearable now.

It was lucky Remus was currently living at Hogwarts and Estella had nowhere else to go, otherwise she probably would've dropped out by now -- or at least tried to.

Everyone hated her -- well, perhaps not everyone, but at least ninety percent of the school. She couldn't go to classes anymore without having people whisper about her, sometimes they would even say things to her face. At dinner, she was always being stared at. She couldn't even find enjoyment in being in her common room anymore, because even so many of the Gryffindors were being weird around her.

She had Hermione, and of course Harry and Ron. Lavender and Parvati were being fine with her too (which was lucky considering she shared a dorm with them), and also the quidditch team. Basically anyone who knew Estella well enough to know that she was nothing like her Father.

Which of course included Ginny. But God, Estella hated Ginny. She would never, ever forgive her for what she'd done.

Estella had thought long and hard about how this Monet girl could possibly have known about Sirius being her father, and it hadn't taken her long to work out that Ginny must've told her. She was one of the very few people who knew -- and considering they'd been close and shared a dorm prior to Ginny coming out, it made sense that it came from her.

She doubted Harry, Ron or Hermione even knew who Monet once. And it had to have come from someone.

There was also Malfoy. But he hated everyone in Gryffindor. So that ruled him out.

Ginny made the most sense and all it did was teach Estella to never be so trusting of someone she barely knew anything about again.

She spent most of her days avoiding people, spending her time in Remus' quarters, focusing only on her exams. She'd sleep there most nights too; while she was fine with the  girls in her dorm, it was hard enough simply just having to walk through the common room.

Remus' reaction to the situation had honestly shocked her.

It'd been very obvious to McGonagall that Estella was drunk on the night of the incident, and for that reason she'd made the decision to call Remus to her office and inform him of everything happening. Estella was sure that she'd be in more trouble than ever before -- he'd probably take her broom away, ground her for the summer.

But he did neither of those things. He had a conversation with her the day after; informing her of the dangers of underage drinking and making her promise to never do it again, but there was never any anger in his tone, nor disappointment. She didn't even face any consequences.

She knew why, of course. He was going easy on her because he knew she was going through a hard time -- and she really couldn't stand that. She hated being pitied. In a weird way she kind of wished he'd just punish her instead.