The Mudblood

Chapter 94 : Year 5

The fanart for this chapter was made by https://www.quotev.com/Chiiko. The words in Lainey's hair are the prophecy about her turning to the darkness and it's so cool! (:

"Lainey!" a voice called as soon as I stepped into the Great Hall the next morning. I'd been slumping over to the Slytherin table with my face stuffed in a book of words that my brain couldn't seem to focus on when my own name resounded through the Hall. Curious eyes fell upon me as I halted and slowly turned my gaze toward the Gryffindor table to find that Ginny Weasley was beckoning for me with a waving hand. Her boyfriend, Dean Thomas, who sat on her right, was also looking at me expectantly, and Ron, seated across from his sister, was staring at me peculiarly. Every part of me wanted to walk over there and join them, to return to normalcy and eat meals with my real friends that I enjoyed and loved, but the Dark Mark on my forearm was burning hot, reminding me of what I was and what I couldn't be.

Forcing myself to swallow, I averted my eyes back to the book in my arms and trudged on, ignoring all of the gawking eyes surrounding me. Ginny's aura of disappointment was one that I could not brush aside, though; it weighed heavy on me as I approached the Slytherin Six. When I plopped down on the bench next to Melody, who was also reading, I found that Ginny had looked away from me, but Ron had not. He was turned completely in his seat, glowering at me with dark blue eyes of enmity. I tried to subdue my nausea by eating a red apple and staring down at the fuzzy words of my book.

"Look at you two," Harper mused pleasantly from where he sat on the other side of Melody. 

"Reading together... Who would have thought Mel and Lay would become best friends, am Iright?"

"Do you want me to show you what it feels like to bleed to death?" Melody asked with a bite of rancor in her tone. I could see the tip of her Target Knife glittering under the back cover of her book and struggled to convince myself that she'd never actually use it on Harper.

"Oh, you two need to relax," Ashley drawled, rolling her eyes at Melody and, apparently, me. She sat directly across the table from me, between Astoria, who was staring sullenly at her food, and Crabbe, who was stuffing his face. "You're always both so unhappy. Honestly, I'd be thrilled if my brother died."

I nearly choked on the chunk of apple I'd been chewing, but I tried to keep my reaction to her statement as neutral as I could. Even though I'd grown darker and more apathetic, I would never use the word "thrilled" when referring to my brother's death.

"And your boyfriend?" Melody prompted with spite in her green eyes. "Would you be thrilled if he died?"

Crabbe was oblivious to the fact that he had been mentioned as he crammed two donuts into his mouth.

"Crabbey will never die!" Ashley shrilled as she grabbed protectively to his chunky arm. The only reason this fazed him was because he had one less hand to grab food with now.

"Everyone dies, Pucey," Melody droned as her gaze fell back to her book in an indolent manner. "Hopefully you'll be next."

"Don't say stuff like that! I'm trying to enjoy life here—"

"Stop whining so loud, Pucey," Draco Malfoy sneered as he slid onto the bench next to me. Well, not really next to me. There was enough space between the two of us for at least one Goyle-sized person to fit, though Goyle was already on the other side of the table next to Crabbe. Pansy was the one to sit down next to Malfoy, but even she didn't want to occupy the void between us. She chose to sit on the other side of her "boyfriend" and glare at me past his blond head. He, on the contrary, paid me no mind and acted as though I wasn't within arms' length of him.