The next day, Alexandra headed to breakfast. She felt a little better, but still quite tired so she just slumped into her chair, and put a couple pieces of toast on her plate.
"Hi." Charlie smiled. Sweet Charlie, who was always so kind to her.
"Hi." She replied.
"Look at Malfoy. D'you think he's trying to join the circus?" She heard someone say. She didn't dare look. She knew exactly what they were talking about.
"Ha! Good one. He wouldn't need the clown nose."
Alexandra spent more time on her own that day, hiding in the vanishing room. She just practiced her transfiguration, still feeling especially tired. It could have been the hex she'd put on Malfoy that was draining her, but she wouldn't take it back for anything. It was after lunch that she finally felt a little better, so she headed to Snape.
By the time she got to the dungeons, Malfoy was there.
"I think your protégée messed something up in those pepperup potions, Professor. Look at me!" He said. She giggled at the door. He looked up. "You!"
"Interesting look, Bozo." This was the first time she'd actually seen him. He must have been rubbing his nose to stop it from itching because it was a very bright red.
"Miss Weasley, please do not make fun. And Mr Malfoy, the stock of pepperup in the hospital wing right now were all brewed by myself, and myself alone, before this school term began. Come here, and let me take a look." Malfoy let Snape grip his chin and forehead to take a closer look at his nose. "The pepperup potion would not have worked, because you are not ill, Mr Malfoy."
"What else could it be?"
"A hex." Snape looked up at Alexandra. "Would you happen to know anything about that?"
"Who, me?" She shrugged innocently. He looked at her pointedly. "Of course it was me."
"What?" Malfoy looked at her.
"You insulted my best friend, Malfoy. What did you think was going to happen? I'd let you off? You called her a filthy word and you deserve all you get." She glared at him so intensely his feet burst into flames. Snape immediately waved towards Malfoy and the fire extinguished.
"Miss Weasley." He scolded. He turned to Malfoy. "Termino incantatio." Immediately Malloy let out a sigh of relief. "Miss Weasley, apologise to Mr Malfoy."
"Never." She crossed her arms.
"I understand your anger, but violence and hexes are unacceptable."
"I'm not apologising. Maybe now he'll think twice before using the M-word." Malfoy didn't look like he cared that Snape knew.
"Did you call Miss Granger a..." Remembering he was in the presence of young children, he stopped himself. "The M-word?"
"I called her a mudblood. So what? It's what she is." Alexandra raised her wand to hex him again.
"Accio wand." Snape confiscated her wand. "Detention for the both of you." He said, and Malfoy's smug smirk dropped.
"The both of us?"
"Yes. Mr Malfoy, such language is intelorable at Hogwarts. And Miss Weasley, violence will not solve anything. So detention, every day for a week. I want you both here at three thirty pm starting Monday." Malfoy spluttered before storming out, leaving Alexandra alone with her uncle.
"I don't regret a thing. He deserved what he got." She said.
"Take a seat." He gestured, walking over to the door and closing it. "Muffliato." He tapped the door with his wand and walked over to Alexandra and gave her back her wand.
"Hermione's easily the brightest witch in school. And she's so kind and she loves it here. I'm not going to let people like Malfoy bully her and insult her and make her feel unsafe here."
"You should have come to me."
"I couldn't. Because no matter what you do, he wouldn't learn his lesson. At least now he knows that I won't ever stand for his insulting my friend. I think he may have learnt his lesson."
"And when you leave?"
"By the time I leave, Hermione will stand up for herself and hex him for any slight against her."
"That's quite the goal." He sat next to her. "I know she's your friend, but the anger you displayed... what else were you thinking?" Alexandra averted her eyes immediately, picking at her nails. "Alex, you can tell me."
"Last year, when the stuff with Voldemort happened," she said. "He kept saying, if I didn't help him he'd go after Hermione. After my mud-" She broke off, unable to finish the word. "He kept calling her that. The M-word."
"So when Draco said it..."
"I was helpless against Voldemort. I couldn't stop him. I'm not going to stand by when Malfoy does the same." He put his hand on her shoulder.
"Have you told anyone about what you went through? With Voldemort?"
"I told Hermione."
"Do you think you could bring yourself to tell me?"
"You already know what happened from Harry."
"I only know his account. We both know he didn't understand why you were there."
"Wrong place, wrong time. I was with Snuffles that night. Sometimes I went to go sit with him, because it got lonely up there. I didn't think he should be alone. Then he came, and he had a magic harp. Snuffles fell asleep instantly. He said if I didn't go with him, he'd kill Hermione. That it'd be a shame if she got hurt. Anytime I hesitated, he just brought her up."
"It must have been terrifying."
"I wasn't scared." She said fiercely.
"Perhaps not for yourself. But maybe for Miss Granger?"
"She's the only one who knows me and likes me anyway."
"Your friends know who you are in your heart, and they like you. And so do your parents. For what it's worth, so do I."
"Family doesn't count, and my housemates don't really know me. They only see what they want."
"And Mr Diggory?" A small blush appeared on Alexandra's cheeks.
"He doesn't know me, really. Just that I'm related to you and Voldemort."
"Your relations aren't what define you. I dare say he knows you in all the ways it truly counts."
