Bruises ~ In editing

~10~

Mature Content in this chapter, please read at your own choice:

I sit up with a jolt, my body drenched in a cold sweat. I can see from the windows that the water surrounding the unfamiliar common room has light casting on it, meaning it's about mid morning.

Despite it being Friday, and knowing very well I have classes, I decide to skip today, spending my time on the couch, staring at the fire, not able to convince myself to get up from my spot.

Students come and go, having free periods and spending them in their dorms. I don't move a muscle the entire time, laying as dead as a stone on the leather seat, a blanket over top of me.

The other Slytherins know by now that this is my area, and because they don't want me in the dorm, they're not getting this back. It aggravates them, I can tell, but I pay it no mind, blocking out their hateful words as I lay lifelessly on the couch.

As the sun begins to fall, more people file into the common room, and I hear the terrible names they call me, making jokes and saying things they'll never even understand about me.

The voices fade as they leave and I still lay, staring at the fire.

Tears fall onto the soft skin of my cheeks, running over the large scar across my lips.

I don't make an attempt to wipe them away, I simply let them fall to the black leather beneath me.

I hear the common room door open as the quidditch team comes in loudly from practice, in their practice robes, broomsticks in hand.

I stay staring at the fire, blocking them out as Blaise begins to speak.

"Well look here, this bloody vegetable is still laying here since this morning," he says, the smirk evident in his tone, "Big bad Black can't seem to stand the house change huh?"

Flint's unmistakable snicker comes from what sounds to be beside him, "Yeah. Worthless thing doesn't deserve to be a Slytherin."

I still lay, staring at the fire, tears falling quicker down my cheeks.

I hear Zabini's footsteps smack the tile floor behind me until he's standing in front, blocking the glow and warmth of the fire with his cold demeanor.

"What's this now? Cassiopeia Black, crying?! That's priceless! After being a rock for 6 bloody years, suddenly she's crying! That's too good!"

"Fuck off Zabini," I mutter, my eyes glancing up at his grinning face, "You don't know anything about what I've been through."

Zabini laughs, "Oh woe-is-you. You're such a whiny little bitch, you know that?"

My fist clenches, the muscles in my jaw tightening as he continues.

"You think because your parents are dead, you've had it so rough, and that being in foster care is so horrible, but you're fostered by the richest people in the wizarding world. You have nothing to complain about. You're just a prude, stuck up, whore."

I feel my teeth grit against each other, but I stay in place on the couch, staring now at Zabini's knees.

"You try to make everyone feel sorry for you all because your little boyfriend Cedric got killed, well guess what princess, he probably fucking deserved it."