Chapter 13

I don't own any of the characters apart from Melanie Malfoy. All of the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

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"You mean you didn't know I was in love with Lily Potter?!"

I had now been stood in the same spot just staring at Snape for the past 10 minutes. He had started to get a bit self conscious under my gaze and was moving uncomfortably, but I couldn't fully process anything at this moment in time.

"Miss Malfoy?" Snape asked uncomfortably from behind his desk. His voice brought me back to reality and I slowly covered the distance between me and the desk.

"Huh?" was all I managed. I think being put into shock had made me forget how to put a sentence together. Trust me on this; it's not normal for me to be speechless.

The air surrounding us seemed to be caving me in and suffocating me. My anger had clearly gotten out of hand again. Draco had been saying that whenever I yelled at someone my hair had been turning red, but it had never stayed that colour for so long before. Snape was still very quiet, having only said my name since he blurted out his confession.

"Sir, why does my hair turn red when I'm angry?" I asked. I sounded like a four year old asking my mother what something I'd seen was, but the events of the night were still sinking in, so I had my excuse.

"It appears to me, Miss Malfoy, that you are a metamorphmagus.Sometimes it is apparent from birth, other times through an event that has happened to the person. I'm guessing that yours has only recently shown otherwise you wouldn't be as shaken up," he finished. He still looked slightly awkward and his voice stayed monotone.

"What's a metamorphagun?" I stuttered. Whatever it was it didn't seem too good to me and I'd never heard of it before.

"Metamorphmagus. It means you can change your appearance at will. At the beginning, it is usual for it to be controlled by emotions, just as yours is, but as you learn more about it, the more you learn to control it," he explained calmly. I nodded my head in understanding.

"Okay. So what's this about Lily Potter?" I questioned as calmly as I could. The atmosphere in the room suddenly tensed up again and I avoided looking anywhere near him. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair and turned to look at me again.

"I will need you to forget I ever said that."

"WHAT?!" I exploded.My hair had fallen out of the clips I had put it in for Slughorn's party and now I could see the red strands falling into my face. Snape jumped back slightly but then returned to the originally cool manner he had adopted since his last outburst.

"Calm down Miss Malfoy," he instructed me, now avoiding looking near me. I took a few deep breaths before returning to the seat I had just left and turned to face my professor again.

"Tell me, otherwise I'll tell everyone about your secret." I smirked proudly and this time he didn't just look scared, he looked petrified. My smirk grew even wider and I relaxed back into my chair, crossing my arms behind my head for effect.

"How do I know you wouldn't do that if I tell you the whole story?" he answered back just as cockily as I'd talked to him. I leant forward again thinking about how I could prove it. I slowly took my wand out the side pocket in my dress and brought it up to my heart.

Snape looked slightly amused at my actions, but also confused. I whispered the spell as quietly as I could and drew a cross over my heart. When the fiery X was finished, it floated over in front of Snape who looked quite impressed before the X burst into flame.

"And that was?" he questioned.

"Just a spell Aunt Bella taught me a couple of years ago. Basically, I just made the promise that I wouldn't tell anyone your secret. You know 'cross my heart'. If I tell someone without your permission something will happen to me, but I don't actually know what..." I trailed off at the end, he just nodded.

So that is how I found out about the true identity of Severus Snape. He told me everything. How he had met Lily before they started Hogwarts, how they'd stayed friends through their beginning years, the 'Mudblood' incident, how he'd begged the Dark Lord not to kill her when he went after Harry and how he'd gone to Dumbledore for help and swapped sides.

I just took it all in, I didn't interrupt him once. He retold the whole story with a blacnk expression on his face, up until the point where he talked about her death. I heard a crack in his voice and chanced a glance in his direction to see him still staring into space.

We sat in silence for a little while after he'd finished retelling the story. A stray tear had started to fall down my cheek but I didn't bother to wipe it away. I stood up and slowly turned to my professor. It was hard to see him as the man that was so strict and cold towards people after that.

I walked over to the door and turned back. "Goodbye, Sir," I whispered. He didn't reply, instead carrying on staring at the wall and I took this opportunity to slip out of his office.

**

"Do you think we're doing the right thing?" I asked Draco as I read through another one of the books he had handed me.

"How'd you mean?"

"Well, trying to fix the cabinet so we can bring the other Death Eaters into the school, or thinking up other was to kill Dumbledore like the necklace thing..." I tried to explain, gesturing wildly around the room in an attempt to make him understand. I had been thinking a lot about the story that Snape had told me the day before term had ended.

"I don't think you understand Mel. We didn't exactly have  choice."

This was exactly the same attitude Draco had had all the way through this. He thinks that this will be something that could define him. He didn't realise how bad it was actually affecting him.

If you were stood really close by to him, you could see just how tired he was. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin had a slight grey tinge to it now. He had lost a lot of weight and was starting to look more ill every day. His hair was getting lighter and thinner through the stress. I didn't look much better to be honest though.

"Okay. What colour?" I asked him, changing the subject and pointing to my hair. Since I told Draco I was a metamorphmagus, he had found some books so we could research it and it was helping me learn how to control it.

"Purple." he said after having a quick glance in my direction. He was standing inside the cabinet trying to figure out if there was a problem from there.

"So, definitely not green?" I asked hopefully. He shook his head and I turned my attention back in the direction of the page. I hadn't been doing very well at controlling how I wanted to change my appearance but I thought it would be better to make sure I didn't do anything stupid due to my emotions.

We sat for another hour or so in silence, just paying attention to our own tasks. Eventually, Draco stepped out of the cabinet and came ovet to stand behind me. It was Christmas Eve and we had been forced to stay behind in school by the Dark Lord. Hardly anyone had stayed behind and I was still in a bad mood about it.

I stood up, tired from constantly changing my appearance, and stretched. I gently picked up the broken book that had been sat on my knee and closed it while turning around to walk past the chair. I tripped over the carpet that had turned up and my arm hit the chair.

I dropped the book and grabbed hold of my left arm wincing in pain. Draco had also moved his hand to his left arm. Through the pain and the water that had filled in front of my eyes, I knew straight away that something bad was going to happen.

I felt a twisting feeling in my stomach, the same as I had on my first day in Hogwarts. The Dark Lord was calling us. I blinked and the next thing I knew I was sat in Malfoy Manor around our dining room table. The Dark Lord was sitting at the head of the table looking around it expectantly.

His eyes finally dropped onto me and he cleared his throat while standing up. Everyone in the room was waiting expectantly for what he was going to say. After sweeping another look around the room, he held his arms out wide.

"You're probably wondering why you're sat here now, but I didn't call you," he said with a twisted smile. I looked up at Draco who was sat opposite me and couldn't wipe the shock off my face. Everyone else seemed to have a similar reaction to me, but the Dark Lord carried on as if no one had reacted. "So, Melanie, would you like to stand up and explain why you called everyone?"

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 Hey guys! You should be happy, I've been quite a lot quicker to update this time! :) I've had this chapter ready all weekend but I thought I would leave it a bit longer to get you thinking.

So I have to say I had a pretty good comment on the last chapter about what could happen in this one, so Mirage21 thankyouu for that, you've got yourself another dedication :)

You know the drill guys, vote and comment if you like it, even drop me some ideas if you feel like it :) and maybe even follow me if you're feeling nice? ;) 'Til next time, C x