Spiteful Beginnings // Severus Snape x OC

36 - The Curse

Kalina was sat down at her desk in her chambers, her right hand holding onto a quill as she marks the classes homework, fairly impressed with how everyone has come from two years ago. Her room smelt of something sweet and appetising which put her in an excellent mood but little did she know that that was about to be ruined.

Looking up when she heard a knock on the door, her eyes landed on Neville holding a book clutched to his chest. "Hello! You alright?"

Neville and Kalina rarely spoke inside Hogwarts, she feared that she may embarrass him but trusts enough that he was hardly in trouble with any of the teachers aside from maybe forgetting the homework that was meant to be due in.

Neville's face resembled one of the Ghosts that roamed the castle, his face completely pale and sickly looking. She beckoned him in and he obliged, closing the door behind him and sitting across the desk from her. "I'm fine."

His voice was slightly wavered and Kalina almost laughed at how Neville could think her so stupid. Clearly something had troubled him.

"You don't look fine..." She commented on his appearance, raising her hand to the back of his head to feel his temperature but he did seem fine in that regard, "what's that you got?" Kalina had looked down to the book now in his lap, his fingers tapping along it nervously.

"Oh, this? Magical Mediterranean Water-Plants and Their Properties. M-Moody gave it to me." He looked down.

Kalina leaned back from him, sitting back down on her chair and looked at him oddly. "That was nice of him." Kalina then said, still wondering why he seemed ill-stricken. "Listen, Neville, are you sure you're alright? You can speak to me, you know this." Kalina prodded for an answer. She even felt sick herself. Was he about to tell her that he hated her and wanted to live at an Orphanage? She knew she didn't have much in Wiltshire but she proved food, a roof over his head and endless movie options.

Neville looked up and nodded hesitantly before sitting forward, placing the book on her desk and then leaned back. "It was the DADA lesson I had today."

"First one wasn't it?" She knew the Fourth Year Students didn't have any Defence Against the Dark Arts until a few weeks later into their first term so she would have thought it would have been exciting.

"Yes but... we learned about the Unforgivable Curses." He blurted out quickly, swallowing the saliva in his throat that had formed, flexing the nerves out of his fingers at the thought of a few hours ago.

Kalina bit her lip and rubbed the back of her neck. There was no mistaking that Neville knew about his parents and the Cruciatus Curse that was cast upon them so she gathered it would have been a difficult thing to read and listen about for the following hour. "Oh, I'm sorry Neville. Is that's what's wrong? Do you want a cup of tea?"

He shook his head quickly, his eyes tightening shut. "W-we didn't just read about it Kalina."

Kalina, who was going over to make herself a cup of tea anyway stopped her movement and back-breakingly twisted her body around to look back at Neville. "What do you mean by that? Don't tell me he..."

The dreaded look in his eyes answered the question for her. As the kettle boiled, so did her blood. "He performed them?!" Kalina screeched with clenched teeth, trying to keep her volume down. "W-what? Is that why he gave you that book?" Kalina stood beside Neville, making him look up at her and giving her a nod.

"Hermione had begged him to stop... she saw that it was bothering me and clearly he felt guilty and then asked me to sty behind for a cup of tea and gave me this... He had heard that I'm pretty advanced in Herbology... which is nice." Neville trailed off, clearly trying to find the good in the outcome.