Maledictus

Ch.13 - Detention with Snape

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"ENOUGH!"

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When the students entered the classroom, Unbridge was already seated at the teachers desk, still wearing the fluffy pink cardigan of the night before and a black velvet bow on top of her plump head.

She reminded Alice of a toad and the black bow, was a fly, waiting to be caught.

The class was quiet as they took their seats; Professor Umbridge was still unknown to them and nobody new how strict they were.

"Well good afternoone!" she finally said.
A few people mumbled a good morning in reply.

"Now, that won't do, will it?" she said, a fake smile plastered on her toad like face. "I should like you to reply, good morning, Professor Umbridge. Good afternoone class"

"Good morning professor Umbridge" the class chorus.

"Quills out please"

Everyone began rooting through their bags, but Alice stayed quite still.
She had already been doing so well, and now she had to write.
Wasn't she lucky.

"Do you not have a quill dear?" Umbridge asked Alice, in her all too familiar sing-song voice.
All eyes turned to Alice, and whispers broke out.

"I do" she replied, getting out her own "I have it here"

Umbridge smiled, a fake smile that looked believing but Alice saw right through it.
She didn't like Umbridge already.

"Now, copy what's on the board, and open your books and read chapter one" she ordered, taking her seat once again, leaving Alice a nervous wreck.

She managed to take down what was on the board, however, it mostly consisted of scribbles.
She then proceeded to open her book, but she just stared at the page, like most people.

Judging by the looks on everyone's faces, it didn't seem very interesting.

Soon enough the bell rang, and they were asked to hand in their parchments so that they wouldn't lose the notes.
Alice was the last to hand hers up.

"What is your name dear?" she asked sweetly.

"Alice, Alice Malfoy" she replied, knowing she would say something about her writing.

"Do you really call this writing?" she shouted rudly and Alice nodded sadly. "Ten points from Gryffindor for sheer laziness. You may leave"

"Thank you professor"

She walked out by all the fifth years waiting to enter the dreaded classroom.
Harry smiled at her, but she didn't react, she only kept walking.

He didn't understand why, but he had more important things on his mind, like telling himself to keep his mouth closed.

                              ~*~

At dinner that night, Alice sat as far away from the trio as possible.
Well, it didn't stop Ron, piling her plate with unwanted food.

She didn't open her mouth, and she could feel Draco glancing back at her every few minutes.

When five o'clock was coming closer, she headed to the dungeons, where Snape was unfortunately waiting.

Knock, knock

"Yes come in, Ms. Malfoy" he greeted without looking up. "For the next few hours, you will now write out the potion ten times"

Alice's face went white.
She knew this couldn't end well.

He provided her parchment and a quill and she began writing the instructions that were still on the board from earlier.

An hour went by and she had five, unreadable sentences.
She was getting frustrated with herself again.
Draco said wait a day or two, the keyword is or.
She was leaving tomorrow.

A stray tear hit the parchment and the ink began to run.
Crap.
Now she would have to start again.

She let out a cry of frustration and scrunched up the parchment, totally forgetting she was in a classroom, with a teacher observing her every move.

"What in the world do you think you're doing?!" shouted Snape angrily, banging his fist on the table.
Alice jumped up, for once actually ignoring the floor and looking at the person in front of her.

"I d-d-din't mean.....I mean I did....but I didn't want-"

"ENOUGH!" he shouted louder than before, his voice bouncing off the walls and ringing in Alice's ears.

"I didn't-"

"Do you not know what enough means?!"

Alice fell silent and picked back up her quill with a shaky hand.

"I can't have you working while your in a state like this!" he said rudly, shuffling some papers on his desk. "You can go, and improve that handwriting, it's terrible! A Hippogriff could write better than you!"

Alice scampered out without another word, drying her eyes on a wet sleeve.

She bumped into Draco on the way, and apologised repeatedly before running towards the common room.

"Alice! Come- Alice?" called Harry, as she ignored him completely. "Alice?"

She headed over to her corner and pretended to read.
She really needed to go to the library.

If Lucius knew about her, and knew exactly where she was so that he could bring her to Malfoy Manor.

And then Draco says if you want the plan to work, you need to stay out of everyone way, including mine.
She was never informed about a plan.
She never knew why she was at Malfoy Manor in the first place, but it definitely have something to do with her brother, because neither Draco or Lucius had mentioned her curse.

This went much deeper than she originally thought.

"Alice, why don't you come out?" asked Hermione kindly, kneeling down and holding out her hand.

"I like it here Ms. Granger"

"Hermione" she corrected "Have you eaten anything?"

"Yes"

"What?"

"None of your beeswax" replied Alice rudly, taking Hermione by surprise.
She headed back over Ron, since Harry was once again in detention.

"What's wrong with her?" asked Ron, looking up from his potions homework.

"I don't know, but I think whatever Draco said to her it only made things worse"