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"Why is it when something happens, it is always you four?"
McGonagall gave a tired sigh, staring at her beloved Gryffindors as the group looked amongst themselves. Max's chest ached, aside from finding Katie Bell passed out in the snow among his friends, the haunting of what would come end of term made him feel as though he was walking through a graveyard.
"Believe me professor," Ron began. "I've been asking myself the same question for six years."
"Oh, Severus!" The woman called out to the professor, Max swallowing hard as Snape wandered toward them, inspecting the necklace that had cursed Katie.
The Prince could feel Snape's eyes bored into him, not having spoken for quite a while. He could even feel Hermione's questioning looks, knowing how close her cousin was with the professor. However, all he could focus on was in Snape's presences the mark under his clothes burned like fire, swallowing bile as he shifted his weight from foot to foot.
"What do you think?" McGonagall asked.
"I think Miss. Bell," Snape drawled slowly, "is lucky to be alive."
"She was cursed, wasn't she?" Harry asked confidently. "I know Katie. Off the quidditch pitch, she wouldn't hurt a fly. If she was delivering that to Professor Dumbledore she wasn't doing it knowingly."
"Yes," Mcgnagall muttered. "She was cursed."
"It was Malfoy."
Max's eyes, filled with something between rage and guilt, snapped to Harry.
"That is a very serious accusation, Potter."
"Indeed," Snape let his eyes fall to the young Prince, receiving nothing in return. "Do you have anything to comment on about this, Mr. Prince?" The professor all but hissed his name, the timid boy slowly looking up to meet his mentor's eyes.
Max felt his palms begin to sweat, his friends and both professors staring him down. It was like waiting for a pen to drop as the boy swallowed harshly, finding whatever bravery he had left in him to look up at Snape.
"He—" Max cleared his throat to stop his voice from shaking. "Draco was with me in Hogsmeade. Didn't—" He shook his head clearing his doubt, "didn't go near Katie I don't reckon."
The room fell silent, Harry's face contorting in utter confusion at the state of his friend. This was not the Max he knew, no, it was something he had never seen in the Prince boy before. Something almost like cowardice, if he didn't know Maxwell better.
"I suggest you go back to your dormitories."
"Not you, Mr. Prince."
Max felt his heart drop at Snape's voice, begging in his own head for the professor to let him spend the short amount of time he had left with his friends.
