Decree No.29 (O.C) Fred Weasley/ Draco Malfoy

Sticks, stones, and the words that hurt me.

"Draco was at your aunt's house?"

"Yes."

"With his father?"

"Yes and Voldemort, and someone named Dolohov."

"And they replaced your aunt with a toy that Albus mistook for her real body?"

"Yeah, the greatest sorcerer in the world couldn't tell the difference between a witch and a taxidermy-version of her. Go figure."

Jessica wasn't dealing with Snapes's intensive questioning so well. She had been sitting for hours in the corner of his dingy office, knowing that an explosive volcano of emotions could erupt at any moment.

She didn't quite know how to explain to him how it felt to find out that every single person around you had lied to you at some point, to either deceive or protect you. It was just like when she had woken up that morning at St Mungo's, not believing in anything that was being shown or said to her.

"What's taxidermy?" asked Snape, stopping his pacing to stare down his pointy nose at her.

"Stuffing animals when they die," Jessica replied dully, her eyes staring into the floor, "muggles do it."

Snape scoffed in disgust, "Muggles stuff their pets?"

Jessica defended the idea, suddenly wanting to stick up for everything about the non-magical world, no matter if she agreed with it or not. "Oh yeah, that's so weird, unlike wizards who grind up their body parts to brew into potions."

Snape shrewdly changed the subject as he walked back behind his desk, annoyed that she had attacked his livelihood. "I just don't understand, he's usually so particular, how did he not recognise that it wasn't a real body?"

Jessica placed her chin in her palms, her knees supporting the arms that were too tired to hold up her head alone. "Well he missed my Hogwarts letter when I was eleven so maybe old man Dumbledore is getting a bit-"

"You were meant to receive a letter?" Snape interrupted. His crow-like eyes squinted at her underneath his mop of black hair.

"Yeah, I read it in my aunt's file when Bill and Tonks took me to Gringotts," Jessica said innocently, "it was in her will, she said she wanted to give me joint access on my 11th birthday so I could get stuff for here. I guess Dumbledore just forgot to send it over."

"Dumbledore doesn't forget," said Snape, opening up his top desk drawer to pull out some parchment and ink, "if your record was destroyed it was for a reason. I was under the impression you had only just gained magical abilities."

"Lucius Malfoy probably did it on his lunch break," Jessica retorted as Snape dipped his quill into the ink and put it to parchment, "it makes sense now. They wanted the necklace so they destroyed the documentation of the vault, meaning I never got access, and then when Voldemort came back and tried to break in they found it empty and came looking for me instead. After that all failed they sent Draco to befriend me in the hopes I would come quietly. What are you doing?"

"Writing to Dumbledore," Snape replied, scribbling away.

"Wait you know where Dumbledore is?" asked Jessica, the surprise of Snape knowing this not even being a shock to her, "where is he?"

The scratching of the quill crescendoed into an uncomfortable rhythm. "You better go back to the common room," ordered Snape dismissively, "any longer and they'll suspect somethings up."

"Go back?" Jessica argued, sitting up from her slump against the wall. "I can't go back now, I don't know if Draco's going to try and sell me to Voldemort in my sleep!"