Fear of a Name

Chapter Forty-Seven: I Must Not Tell Lies

As soon as Snape was out of sight, Lupin said, "Ivory, can I talk to you for a minute?"
I nodded slightly, then followed him to a nearby corridor, which was empty.
"Ivory, I need you to tell me the truth," he said firmly. "Do you have an illegally enchanted purse?"
I fiddled nervously with the edge of my sleeves.
"No, sir."

"Ivory, I know you're not telling the truth," he said, sighing. "In fact, now that I think about it, I've seen the purse, haven't I?"
I frowned a little, confused.
"In Dumbledore's office," he said. "After the first time you..." His voice trailed off, and I instantly knew what he was talking about.
"Went back home," I finished.
Lupin nodded, and I sighed quietly.
"Ok, I do have an illegally enchanted purse," I mumbled. "But — but I had to do something... it was the only thing that kept me relatively sane while I was at home..."
Lupin's expression softened a little at this, but he didn't say anything.

I glanced at the clock on the wall.
"I should go," I said quietly. "I don't want to be late for my detention with Snape."
Lupin frowned slightly.
"There wasn't even any reason for him to give you that detention."
"No, there wasn't," I agreed, shaking my head. "But he's in a bad mood after the incident with the map earlier, and he needed someone to take it out on."

"But that's not fair at all!" Lupin said, frowning a little more.
"When's anything in life ever been fair?"
Without even waiting for a reply, I turned and left, aware that I only had a few minutes to get down to Snape's office.
Well I'm definitely going to be late, so now he's going to be in an even worse mood. Brilliant.

When I eventually got to Snape's office, I knocked three times on the door, my hand shaking slightly. Whatever was about to happen, I was sure it wouldn't be good.
"Enter."
I took a deep breath, then opened the door and walked in.

"Miss Riddle," Snape said without even looking up. He indicated to a desk, which had only parchment on it. "Sit."
I sat down at the desk quickly, silently cursing as I hit my elbow on it in my hurry.
Snape finished what he was writing, then he unlocked one of the draws in his desk, opened it, and took out a quill.

The quill.

A small shiver of fear went down my back as Snape said, "You will write 'I must not tell lies' until I tell you to stop."
"Yes sir," I said quietly, picking up the quill and starting to write, bracing myself for the pain I knew was going to come.

Sure enough, a few seconds later there was a familiar painful stinging in my left hand. I didn't even look this time, I already knew what was happening to it. I just kept writing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey Ivory!"
I smiled exhaustedly at Harry and Ron as I collapsed into an armchair by the fire in the common room, my left hand aching and my right hand still stinging. "Hi guys. Where's Hermione?"
"We made her go up to bed," Harry said. "It's gone one am after all, and she hasn't slept properly for ages."
"Yeah, she's bitten off more than she can chew with all that homework, if you ask me," Ron said. "How was the detention?"

"Tiring, and very boring," I yawned.
"What did you have to do?"
"Just some lines," I said, shrugging my shoulders slightly. "But now my hand hurts like hell."
"Why?" Harry asked, frowning slightly.
"Have you ever written the same sentence over and over again nonstop for hours?" I said, rolling my eyes.
It was quite true, this was why my left hand hurt so much. My right hand, however... that was still hurting from being repeatedly sliced open for hours.

"Did you talk to Hagrid?" I asked, yawning again.
"No, he wasn't at dinner," Harry said. "But you should get some sleep, Ivory. You look exhausted."
"I'm fine," I said, shaking my head a little and suppressing another yawn.
"You're clearly not," Ron said. "Go up to your dorm and get some sleep."
"But I don't want tooo," I whined, elongating the 'to'.
Harry and Ron both rolled their eyes at me.
"Ivory, you're acting like a little kid," Harry said, grinning.

I just gave a small smile, but those words seemed to echo in my mind. I wasn't sure why or how, but they somehow felt like they had some sort of... significance, I suppose would be the best way to describe it. I tried to think of why this might be, but all I managed to think of was the nightmare I'd had earlier. I shuddered a little as the screams replaced the words echoing through my mind, quickly followed by the last two words I'd heard before I'd woken up...

"Ivory?" Ron's voice pulled me back into the present.
"Yeah?" I asked, trying not to let my voice shake at all.
"Are you ok?"
I nodded, not even trying to stop my yawns now. It was the perfect excuse to get away and try to deal with my thoughts.
"You should get some sleep," Harry said gently.
I sighed, then said, "Ok, you win. I'll sleep. If you need my purse before I'm awake, it'll be under my bed. Hermione can get it for you."

Without even waiting for any reaction or reply from either of them, I turned and climbed the stairs to the girls' dorms, my mind in overdrive. Who was the girl in the nightmare? Did I know her? Had that nightmare happened before, but in real life? Or had I just created the whole scene in my mind? Why did the words "you're acting like a little kid" feel almost special to me?

I yawned, looking at the cuts on the back of my right hand that said 'I must not tell lies' and rubbing the crescent moon necklace with my other hand as I did so. The questions running around my head were going to keep me up for hours, and I knew it.

(A/n: well that was a terrible ending... also Snape's getting so predictable but I can't help it 😂)