Dark Magic

Armageddon

"Gather around, students." I glanced up from the book I had been reading, my eyes finding those of Professor Snape's as he stepped into the common room with a scroll in hand. He looked worried. Frightened.

The room was silent, the light from the fireplace dimming slightly with his presence, as the students crowded around him. "I have an important announcement to make to you all." He unrolled the parchment.

"As you are well aware, there is currently a curfew in place. We will be enforcing the following additional rules. Professors will now be required to escort students to and from their classes. Students will retire to their common rooms earlier than the original 7.30 curfew. This has now been amended to 6pm. There are no exceptions." He screwed the parchment into a ball and tossed it into the fire, before turning briskly to leave the room.

I followed after him, calling out down the dungeon corridor. "Professor Snape!" His cape sauntered with the wind as he turned to face me, his eyes seemingly angered. "Miss Potter, were my instructions unclear to you or are you no longer living up to my expectations?" 

I found myself a little taken back by his words, but shook the matter away, nonetheless. "Your announcement..." I trailed away, my green eyes finding his black ones in the dark corridor. "It's bad now, isn't it?" His gaze averted solemnly back to the floor, his lips pursed. "It seems that the increase in attacks on Muggleborns could lead to Hogwarts closing down."

My chest tugged at his statement, my eyes wide as I felt my emotions begin to overwhelm me.  Feeling the need to be sick in my stomach, I gulped and shook my head, my entire body trembling. "But-...it can't. We know what is attacking the students. We can stop it!" I protested, crossing his path in the direction of the girl's lavatory. Snape gripped my arm hard, preventing me from going any further.

I turned to face him, my hair lashing against my cheek painfully. His eyes filled with determination, narrowing towards me. "We most certainly will not! And there is no 'we'. Dumbledore, myself and the rest of the Professors will handle this. You will not leave this common room, is that understood? Otherwise I shall have to put a binding spell on you to prevent you from leaving after hours." He spat angrily.

I nodded, finding myself slightly afraid of my Professor that I had grown so fond of.  He released me from his grasp, allowing my hand to fall back down to my side as he turned and continued his way down the dungeons. 

"You saved me..." I called out to him, as he came to an abrupt halt, still facing the corridor ahead. "Didn't you?" I found myself questioning, if not for a moment, what my brother and his best friend had told me when I gained consciousness in the hospital.

"I did." He remained frozen in his place, still unable to turn and face me. 

"How?" I scoffed, closing the gap between us in the corridor. "Madam Pomfrey couldn't understand how I survived. It would have been impossible for anyone to have found me under the ice in time." I stated. He was hesitant to answer, as though he debated his choice of words carefully before he spoke them.

"An accio charm brought you to me." 

I furrowed my eyebrows once more, growing increasingly confused. "But- an accio spell cannot summon people...Only objects." I stated, to his obvious annoyance. 

"It never ceases to amaze me how versed you are in charms taught to fifth year students." He spoke sarcastically.

I shook my head dismissively to his statement, "Well, you said it yourself, I am an exceptional student. Now, could you please answer my question, Professor Snape?" I asked as politely and with as little sarcasm as possible. 

He scoffed lightly, now being the one to turn and face me finally. "20 points from Slytherin. For talking back." He turned his nose up at me, leaving me completely dumbfounded in the dungeons and alone. One thing I had gathered from Severus Snape in the several months I had known him for; he was an extremely hot and cold person. I could never understand where I stood with him. One minute he tolerated me...And the next, he couldn't have been more horrible, had he tried.

The Slytherin common room door opened, as Draco stepped outside, "Emerald!" He called, causing me to turn and face him. I felt I hid my hurt extremely well, as his concerned eyes met my own. "Are you alright?"

Obviously not.

I nodded, forcing a smile. "Yes, Draco. I'm fine." He returned a solemn, pitiful smile. "You sure?" He pressed as far as he knew I was willing to tolerate. I nodded, "I'm sure." And with not another word, we made our way back inside, as the new rules had commanded. 

Sunday

"Emerald." I glanced up tiredly, for the Sunday afternoon had been long and tiresome. Although, to my surprise, I had found myself growing slightly fond of a Miss Pansy Parkinson despite her usual, dismal attempts at getting Draco to notice her.

She could be rather entertaining, to say the least. She appeared to know everything about everyone in the, what she called, 'more important houses' i.e. Gryffindor and Slytherin. The other two houses were not worthy of her time nor' knowledge, according to Parkinson, herself. 

My eyes met those of my brother's, as he held a manky, old cloak under his arm. Ron stood beside him, a look of mischief evident in his eyes. "Alright, what are you boys upto?" I raised an eyebrow out of suspicion. Harry smirked, "We're going to see Hagrid. We know he isn't the one behind these attacks, but we need some answers about Tom Riddle. Coming?"

I scoffed out of disbelief, almost spitting the ice cream out that I had taken a mouthful of. My eyes darted to the Professor's table, as I caught a glimpse of Snape glaring at the three of us. Where his sudden distaste towards me had came from, I had no idea. And I intended to find out why. But the clocktower bells tolled to signify it was 6pm, and the new curfew had started.

Shaking my head, I looked disappointedly at my plate as the ice cream had disappeared. "And get caught? I don't think so." Putting my dessert spoon down, it disappeared with the empty plates to the kitchens. "But you don't want Hogwarts to close, do you?" Ron questioned in disbelief.

I sighed, averting my gaze towards the floor, "Of course not. I couldn't think of anything worse than going back to Wool's." I mentally cursed at myself for thinking so selfishly, reminding myself that there were students around the school that had been petrified by a Basilisk. There were far worse situations to be in.

Harry, however, ignore my statement as he somewhat sympathized with my predicament. "Well then, come with us. I brought our cloak - no-one will see us." He whispered, too quietly for even Miss Parkinson to hear. Ron chimed in excitedly, "Oh! And Hagrid has some cake leftover that Madam Rosmerta made him back at Hogsmeade." He taunted.

I chewed my lip, angry that their coercion had worked. "Okay fine. But if we get caught, I'm never speaking to either of you again!" I warned, listening as Professor Dumbledore dismissed us from the Great Hall for bed. We were far from going to bed, however. The friends grabbed me on our way out, before Snape could notice from the front of the line. Harry was right! His cloak did truly make us invisible! But we still had to proceed with caution, as we made our way towards Hagrid's hut by the outskirts of the forbidden forest...