A Forbidden Love

Chapter 20: I Won't Say It

Snape shoots out of his chair in no time. Less than ten minutes later, only a few after the sorting ceremony ended, he is back and he whispers something in McGonagall's and Dumbledore's ear. Almost as fast as Snape had, McGonagall stood up and walked out of the room, following Snape. If Dumbledore had been affected by the news he didn't show it. He just continues his speech.

"I hope you are all prepared to learn something this year. The professors have a lot in store for you." They all nod behind him. "Speaking of professors, we have a new one to introduce. Gilderoy Lockhart, would you please stand up?"

At the far end of the table, a big gap separating him and the rest of the professors, Lockhart stands up. He makes a big gesture of it, bowing towards each house table. I can't help but to groan, knowing this will be one of our professors.

"Professor Lockhart, here," Dumbledore continues, gesturing behind him vaguely, "will be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor." He motions for everyone to stand up.

All but the Slytherins stand and clap for him. Our house, we just glare and laugh at him as he stumbles sitting back down. I can't believe Dumbledore found him qualified enough to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, or any class for that matter. Then again, Dumbledore always has a weird logic behind things.

When everyone sits again, he closes his speech. "Without further adieu, let the school year begin."

At that food appears on the table. It distracts me for a moment, but I still catch Dumbledore walk out of the Great Hall. Whatever happened out there, it must have been important.

I devour my meal, piling more food onto my plate every few minutes. As I'm finishing up, Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore come back into the Great Hall. They all sit down in their seats as if nothing happened. They don't even show anything on their face.

Surprised at how late they came, I finally began hearing the rumors. There wasn't much, but I heard something about Potter in a flying car. Sounds unlikely, but who knows? He always seems to keep the world guessing. I am filled with a sense of relief, knowing that Potter might have made it. I relax. My friends must have noticed because they smiled my way. I smiled back. Within ten seconds, my mood has improved ten fold.

After the feast, the year starts. It begins the same as last year and I easily get bored. Nothing interesting in the dorms, nothing interesting in the classes, nothing interesting in the whole school. The most action I've had so far was Lockhart making a fool of himself in class and, of course, Ron's Howler.

One exciting thing does, however happen. I make in on the Quidditch team. I'm not exactly sure how, I never tried out, but the captain comes to me and asks me to join. The captain also gives the entire team Nimbus 2001s. I'm not sure how he got those either, but he did.

Of course, when the "Golden Trio," as everyone calls Potter, Weasley, and Granger behind their backs, first sees me on the team and the team with brand new brooms, they accuse me of using my Dad's influence. I get upset, knowing that Dad hates who I am and I hate him, and I get carried away. I call Hermione a Mudblood, an unforgivable word. Ron rushes to her defense but his broken wand backfires and causes him to barf slugs. I can't help but to laugh, but it's more of a forced laugh because I feel bad about what I called Hermione. Sure I think it, but I didn't ever plan to say it out loud.

Even with that unfortunate event as part of my career, it is the best and most exciting thing that has happened all year. I'm almost kind of thankful for having Father's plan. It gives me something to think about during all the boring times.

I begin to think the plan failed. I definitely thought something would've happened by now. Just when I'm about to give up on the plan, though, it happens.

Exiting from our Halloween feast, the gang and I run into a crowd. I push to the front of the crowd, wondering what happened. I smell the blood before I see it. I look up and there written on the wall in blood is THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

I catch myself reading the last line out loud. It gets me some weird glances from the crowd. Thinking on my feet, I say the first thing that comes to mind to avoid embarrassment.

"You'll be next, Mudbloods!" I cringe as I say it. Even though I'm used to that word because of Father, and I've accidentally used it once, it still makes me uncomfortable.

Filch pushes through the crowds after me. I back up when I hear him scream, avoiding any punishment he could give me.

"My cat! My cat!" he keeps screaming frantically. The he points at Potter. "It was you!" he yells.

Crabbe and Goyle grab my arms, and I have to use every ounce of energy not to jump him and embarrass myself. Not only do I know for a fact that Potter didn't do it, I know he wouldn't do such a thing. He's too good of a child, despite the rule breaking that keeps causing me to fall deeper in love with him.

All the teachers push through after Filch, Dumbledore taking up the rear. He grabs Filch's arm and tells him to come along. He also points at the Golden Trio, requesting they come along too. As they pass, followed by McGonagall, Snape, and Lockhart, I can't tear my eyes off of Potter. I can only hope he doesn't get in any trouble. I could've prevented all of this by taking the diary off of Gunny on the train. But the way they expressed so much hate to me, that would've just made things worse. Maybe it would've made things better, though. I don't know.

As I'm stressing about my choices that day on the train, I see Ginny sulk sneakily back to her common room. That's when the guilt hits me. Father wanted that to be Potter, to maybe get him expelled, but now he's indirectly torturing an innocent girl. Even if the Weasleys have caused my family some pain in the past. It was the parents, not the kids. Ginny doesn't deserve any of this.

I turn and run, the opposite way of Ginny, back to my common room. I don't even care what people think right now. I don't care if they think I'm weak, or if they think I'm guilty. Whatever it is, standing there reveling in regret and pain could end up making things look worse than me fleeing the scene.

"Hey, wait up," Theo calls. I don't look back. I just keep running.

I hear their footsteps as I come to a halt at the door. I wait for them because all of a sudden I refuse to say the password. Who let the prefects choose anyway. I make a mental note to have Dumbledore change it.

"There you are!" Goyle exclaims. "Why didn't you go in?"

"I... er... I forgot the password." They see too much of my weak side. I am not giving them this too.

"Really? I thought it was your favorite word," Blaise says. I cringe at the thought. "Mudblood," he says in the direction of the door.