｡+.*𝗚𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗜𝗥*+｡ [𝘿. 𝙈𝘼𝙇𝙁𝙊𝙔]¹

XVI. HARRY & JEWEL [PART TWO]

Ever since our argument after the Lions V. Badgers match, I've been very short with Harry Ron and Hermione and I can tell they've noticed.

The first thing they did the next morning was corner me at breakfast to apologise for what happened(after having spent all night wallowing in guilt), but I was still upset and I wasn't exactly being subtle about it.

I'm sick of them throwing my house in my face, and acting like being a Slytherin is a bad thing when it isn't--and all that stuff about Professor Snape...

So what if I like him? So what if I trust him? Why does that have to mean I'm immediately against them because I think Professor Snape is innocent and they're being unfair?

And that bullshit about assessing my loyalty...Harry is my brother, of course I have his back--but why does that mean I have to follow him around blindly without any sort of opinion of my own? Why does that have to mean I have to agree with everything the three of them say?

Not believing Professor Snape is pure evil doesn't mean I'm not on their side.

But do you know what was the worst part?

They didn't believe me.

And that--that was worse than anything they could've said about me, or Professor Snape, or Slytherin house. The second I looked at them, and heard the things they were thinking, and realised they didn't believe me...it was like having the ground wrenched out from under me.

They didn't believe me.

I know they don't know, that they wouldn't understand why that's such a thing with me, but that fact didn't do anything to stop how I felt.

They didn't believe me.

Contrariwise...Professor Snape did.

He looked at me, in a way no one had ever done, and he believed me(with no reason, evidence, support, anything to prove that Quirrell isn't on the up and up; just took me at my word, like it was the easiest thing in the world)--and that had the opposite, but just as profound, effect as Harry Ron and Hermione pretty much laughing in my face despite seeing how upset I was.

They didn't believe me...but Professor Snape did.

I took a leap, and I didn't land on my ass.

--that's a first.

If Professor Snape wasn't my favourite teacher before, he is now.

And inwardly I promised myself that, with him protecting me from Quirrell, I'd do what I could to protect him(before I left his office, Professor Snape told me to stay away from the s-s-stuttering professor and act normally and he'd do what he could to put a stop to whatever he's up to; highlighting how seriously he was taking everything, he even said that, if I ever don't feel safe during a Defence Against the Dark Arts class--though he doubted Quirrell would do anything in front of so many witnesses, I can just walk out whenever I want and come straight to him and he'd cover for me--saves me going to all the trouble of getting myself thrown out).