TORMENT

masquerade.

"I never loved you," he smirked and brushed his lips against my cheek before shoving me away again. "Keep that in mind."

I got irritable, just the way looked at me with pure arrogance cause my temper to bubble up and I slapped him on the cheek.

"Who said I stopped playing," I snapped, my body ached with a strange feeling I couldn't fully understand, "Pathetic of you to think I ever loved you back."

He chuckled evilly, brushing his hand over the mark on his cheek that was gradually turning crimson. Voldemort watched when I slapped him, his mouth agape as if he couldn't quite understand what had happened. The way Mattheo was finding it all amusing concerned me and I stepped back, startled.

"Guess this will be easier then," he strode away and sat on a chair next to his father. He didn't look at me as Voldemort signaled for me to come over.

"There are people everywhere, so don't think that you'll be able to hide anything," Voldemort leaned towards me and I bit the inside of my cheek, "Take her, Severus."

Snape stood up from his seat at the far end of the table and stood beside me, walking me out of the room. I could sense everyone's eyes on me and my anxiety was through the roof. I couldn't even comprehend what had just happened.

I'm never going to see Mattheo again...

I had a feeling he was lying so that I won't hurt my brothers; I hope he was lying.

Everything that happened between us can't have been a lie.

"Don't be foolish, Clover."

Snape left me on the steps of Malfoy Manor before turning around and entering once again. I sat down on the bottom step, dropping my face into my hands.

The strange feeling that had come over me before was becoming more vigorous. My chest ached and my hands trembled. I put my hand against the aching area and realised how frigid my skin felt, how emptied of emotion my body was feeling.

I didn't feel distraught or angered. Every emotional feature of my body has disappeared. I could barely even make out what was in front of me.

I couldn't feel.

Something was missing. Someone was missing.

"Clove!"

I squinted my eyes to find where the voice was coming from. Xav was with Zia, waiting outside the bars of the entrance.

"Could you let us in? We're kind of stuck?" Zia put her head through the bars and I stared at her grinning face. She had a special glow to her. Maybe I was just imagining it.

"You shouldn't be here," I walked towards the gate until I was just opposite them.

"Are you okay? You look really pale," Xav put his hands on either side of my face once I opened the gate, his hands were remarkably warm against my freezing skin, "Merlin, you're so cold, what happened? My twin senses, sense it was something bad-"

"I was threatened... "

"Threatened?! Let me go in there," Zia barged past me, but I held her back.

"Zia, don't. We need to go back," Xav withdrew his hands from my face and his expression changed to terror. "I'll tell you what happened when we get back."

•

SEPTEMBER 13th 1996

Ann,

School has been horrible.

Painful.

A fucking nightmare.