The Era of Aria Snape

04

Chapter Four

ARIA SLAMMED HER newspaper onto the table as she took the seat opposite Draco Malfoy. She forced a smile onto her face, receiving a very confused look from the blonde boy.

"Aria Snape. Third-year." She stuck out her hand.

He looked at Aria's hand for a moment before shaking it lightly. "Draco Malfoy." He introduced himself.

Aria wasn't exactly sure what to say next. She felt as if telling him she had to watch over him because he was an embarrassment to his family name was cruel. "My father wants us to be friends." She grumbled.

"Your father?"

"Professor Snape. You should have gotten that when I introduced myself." She rolled her eyes. Boy was he slow.

"Right, right..." he nodded slowly, trailing off and glancing away.

Aria followed his eyes to see what had caught the young boy's attention. She scoffed. "You're staring at the Potter boy."

"No!" He quickly denied it. "I-"

Aria held up her hand, cutting him off. "Whatever. Do you want, just don't do anything stupid because..." She stopped herself from saying anything too harsh. After all, she didn't want to break his spirit, not yet anyway. "Then it would reflect poorly on both of us because we're friends now." She said, internally cringing. She hoped that he believed her, she knew damn well that she would not have believed herself.

"Why are we friends anyway?" He turned his nose up.

The level of arrogance was unbelievable. Aria wanted to hex it out of him. "Because I said so!" She snapped and stood up, marching over to where Annabelle was sitting.

She glanced towards her father who had an impressed smile on his face. She returned it, a feeling of glee overcoming her. Maybe she would finally make him proud.

"Well, that was disgusting," Aria grumbled and squeezed in next to her friend.

She laughed. "Is he as obnoxious as he looks?"

"Completely! I mean, we weren't that conceited in our first year were we?" Her eyes trailed over to Anna's side. "Could I borrow that? I left mine with Malfoy." She gestured to the newspaper and Anna handed it to her.

Believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown, Gringotts goblins were acknowledging the breach insist nothing was taken. The vault in question number 713 had been emptied earlier that very same day.

Aria read the article to herself. It dawned on her that the events occurred the same day her father had had some "'business to take care of". It was all very suspicious, but she decided not to linger on it.

Muggle Studies was Aria's first subject of the day. It was confusing (and slightly annoying) to everyone who knew her as to why she had chosen to take the subject. After all, what could she, a Slytherin that hardly associated with anyone that didn't have a Pureblood status, learn from that ridiculous subject?

Professor Burbage taught the subject and despite Aria's lack of knowledge regarding anything in the muggle world, she had a soft spot for the girl.

There was a heading scrawled onto the blackboard that read Electricity. The Professor cleared her throat to get the attention of the class and proceeded to pull out a funny machine-looking object. "This, students, is a blender."

ϟ

Aria's next class was Divination. Unlike Professor Burbage, this professor did not have a soft spot for Aria. Needless to say, Aria disliked Professor Trelawney too.

Anna sat next to her, complaining. She too disliked this class, however, it wasn't so much the teacher she hated, rather the curriculum.

Practicals weren't assessed so early in the year and so for their first task, they were reading their set work, Unfogging the Future by Cassandra Vablatsky.

Palmistry was the first chapter. Anna was not happy, she wanted to do real Divination, which to her meant reading people's minds in a single glance.

"Palmistry." Trelawney began. "Is the art of predicting events in the future through the study of the palm. It involves the studying and interpretation of one's palm lines." She scanned the students closest to her and made a direct line towards Aria. "Give me your hand, child." She held out her own expectantly.

Aria glanced towards Anna for any form of help, but all she could do was smile, the smile said that she was only glad it wasn't her in that situation.

Aria grumbled and stuck out her hand, allowing the professor to examine her palm closely and run her fingers across the indents. "Interesting." She mumbled over and over again, turning Aria's hand multiple times to analyze it from different angles. "Oh, dear." She looked away from the palm and straight into Aria's eyes.

"What? What is it?" Aria panicked, unable to read Trelawney's expression. She wondered how soon she would have to make an appointment with Madam Pomfrey.

Trelawney puckered her lips. "Someone close to you has betrayed you, lies to you to this day. Someone of the same blood, yes."

"Who?"

She shrugged a moment later, the energy of panic that she had created with her visions immediately dissipating and leaving Aria annoyed.

"What do you mean you don't know?" She pulled her hand away and glared at her teacher.

Trelawney mumbled something before moving on to the next student.

"What in Merlin's name?" Aria mumbled and turned to Anna. "The women's mad."

Anna agreed. "Yep. I wouldn't pay much attention to it, though. Whoever heard of reading from a line in your hand anyway? Utterly ridiculous if you ask me." She snorted.

Aria nodded along to what her friend was saying, but Trelawney's words stayed in her head.

The only person of the same blood who she knew was her father. He wouldn't lie to her, would he? She would have to confront him.