I thought I knew my ending - Year 1 and 2

Chapter 24 - The Unforgivable

I couldn't help it, it was the worst possible reaction I could give to this unstable professor, but I started laughing uncontrollably. Me, the heir of Slytherin? Professor Peterson clearly needed some history lessons from Professor Binns.

Seeing his look, I quickly bit my lip.

'I'm sorry, um... professor, but I'm afraid I don't understand. How can I be descended from Salazar Slytherin? My parents are both Muggles...'

'I know, I know. I told him that too, but it could be that your parents are squibs?' I shook my head.

'My grandparents aren't wizards either.'

'And who proclaims that?' He said with trembling voice.

'I am a hundred percent sure there is no magic blood in my family. My parents were almost paralyzed when I got my letter from Hogwarts.'

There was another thing I thought of that didn't fit with his reasoning. Tom Riddle, the man I apparently seemed to know, the owner of the book, wasn't that the heir...

'Damn it, Evans, it's you. There's no other way.' I felt a frown forming on my forehead. There was no reasoning with Peterson. I looked from him to the door, my way out. I looked at my backpack that contained my wand and felt defeated. He held his wand loosely in his hand and when he saw me looking at it, he clenched it tighter. He turned around, opened Riddle's diary and started writing something down.

'She leaves me no choice,' he muttered. 'There is no other way. I just have to take her to the entrance of the Chamber and then she can prove it to me there. She can open the entrance with parselto...' I had stopped listening. Peterson wasn't looking. I had to act now. I ran towards my backpack, but just before I reached my target, I heard him scream, 'Aresto momentum!' My body lingered in the middle of my movement. I stopped breathing. Was time standing still or was I?

When he lifted the spell, he stood in front of me. His breathing irregular. Loose hair hung in front of his eyes. He pointed his wand at me.

'She will pay for this,' he muttered as if he were talking to someone else in the room, his wand pointed at my chest. One horrible second before it happened, before he uttered the words, I realised what he was about to do. I squeezed my eyes shut.

'CRUCIO!'

It was as if all my bones were splintering and piercing through my skin, my blood started to boil and my brain wanted to burst out of my skull. I wanted to scream, to run away, to pull the skin off my body, but was no longer able to do anything.

The pain stopped as quickly as it had started. Breathing heavily, I tried to get up. I only noticed I had fallen on the floor when Peterson towered over me and pointed his wand at me. With a soft but trembling voice he said: 'You leave me no choice, Evans. IMPE...'

'Expelliarmus!' I watched as Professor Peterson's wand flew out of his hand. It seemed to take ages before it landed. We looked at his wand that bounced a couple of times on the floor before it lay still and then we both stared at the door. 

Lucius Malfoy walked towards Peterson, his face almost as white as his hair.

'You used the cruciatus curse on a second-year, on HER,' he said slowly, as if he couldn't believe it. 'You've completely gone mad!' He stood in front of Peterson and said so softly I could barely hear it, 'I'm not doing this anymore...' and pointed his wand at our professor's throat.

Severus and Evelyne who had been standing behind Malfoy in the corridor ran towards me. Severus knelt down beside me and helped support me to get up. I felt incredibly weak, as if I had been in bed for weeks and had lost all my muscles.