Purple Rain.

Chapter Forty-Five.

"That's all kinds of illegal!" Tonks said furiously.

"If they're being sold, they can't be illegal," Lily said, sighing.

"What can you do? She works for the Ministry?" (Y/n) mumbled. She was resting her forehead on her right arm as her left hand soaked in the murtlap essence she had on hand in case she got detention again— which had been the case.

"Poison her," Tonks grumbled.

"I could pull it off," (Y/n) said, smiling down at her lap.

"No, no. No poisoning people," Lily said. "No matter how much we resent them, someone else will get the blame." (Y/n) shrugged. She paused and listened to the goings-on happening upstairs and smiled again.

"Hang on," Penny said. "That still doesn't explain the acid... or why you're getting detention in the first place..." (Y/n) raised her head, resting her chin on her arm.

"I thought those were both the obvious things," (Y/n) said, frowning. Penny shook her head. "Well, as I'm sure you all know by now, Umbridge has no plans on actually teaching us how to defend ourselves... So, naturally, I asked about it and she's all 'I can't imagine a scenario in which you would need to defend yourself,'" (Y/n) said in a voice eerily similar to Umbridge's. "This caused the whole class to try and voice their protest but she wouldn't listen— her arguments were extremely wrong by the way— and then she had the audacity to drag Remus into it and call him incompetent. If you're bad at magic, just say it, you know?"

"What'd she say about him?" James demanded.

"She called him a 'dangerous half-breed' as if she herself isn't one," (Y/n) said, rolling her eyes.

"What d'you mean by that?" Tonks asked, perking up. (Y/n) smirked.

"I've got more magical blood in me than she does," (Y/n) said.

"Which isn't saying much, right?"

"Exactly," (Y/n) smiled.

"So..." Tonks said expectantly. "What's she half of?"

"Well," (Y/n) said, "if my mum was a Muggle and my dad was a Squib, I, personally, wouldn't be going around preaching Pureblood supremacy." Several jaws dropped.

"How do you know that?" Lily gaped.

"You can hide your past from the Ministry all you want," (Y/n) said, "but whoever you have down as your parents or guardians stay on record at Hogwarts."

"It'd sure be a shame if that got out... Can't imagine the parents supporting her would be too happy," James said.

"Speaking of reputations, what'd you do to get all those nasty letters?" Penny asked. A rather blank looked came to (Y/n)'s eyes.

"Liked a boy, I guess," (Y/n) mumbled. Penny blinked.

"How's that related?" Penny asked.

"Because of those nasty articles written by that Skeeter woman?" Olivia guessed. (Y/n) nodded gloomily.

"I'm an easy catch, scarlet woman, and undateable because I committed the unspoken crime of dating a boy," (Y/n) frowned. "Why can't people mind their own business?"

"Your first mistake was dating a boy," Marlene blurted. Dorcas angrily nudged her and (Y/n) hid her smile with the back of her hand.

"Well, can you really blame them?" Anastasia chimed, getting on her coat.

"Whoa! Too far," Tonks said. "She can barely control her own feelings, what makes you think she can control someone else's?" (Y/n)'s mouth dropped open. "No offence, (Y/n)," Tonks stammered.