The Outcasts Of Hogwarts

Chapter 8 The Headmaster's Office

"Good, you're here. Will you please come with me." The voice sounded like it was coming from far away. Amaris couldn't focus on it, the words muffled by her overwhelmed mind. "Miss Lovec?"

She looked up to find Professor McGonagall looking down at her with a concerned expression on her face.

"Yes, Professor?" Amaris tried to keep her voice steady.

"Come with me please." The professor repeated and Amaris staggered to her feet, trying to remain focused on the current situation. But everything felt numb and distant as if it was happening to someone else. As she followed her teacher out of the hall, all she could think about was her family. And how she had left them.

She had just left. With no fuss or a fight, she hadn't even had the courage to ask what was going on. If she had then she would have known that she would be leaving forever and then she never would have left. Or maybe she would have.

Secretly, she had been longing to leave and see the outside world for as long as she could remember. She had seen an opportunity and took it, blocking out all the consequences and all that she would lose so that she wouldn't lose her nerve. Making it feel like she hadn't had a choice so her conscience would remain clean.

But now the guilt crept in. She had been excited, how could she have been excited? Those people had raised her, loved her, in the only place she had ever known, yet she had managed to block them out, barely sparing them a thought over the past few weeks. Did they mean that little to her that shopping in Diagon Alley and scenic train rides were more important? She should have been consumed by fear and loss the moment those men had taken her away. But she hadn't. And then she'd had to continue to bury them so she wouldn't have to face how selfish she had been and how much regret she felt.

Her eyes burned with tears of self-hatred and guilt, what a Gryffindor, crying on your first day of school! This only made it worse, the tears threatening to spill over.

And that wasn't even the worst part. How had she spent the very last ever day of her old life? Had she been with her family, cherishing their last moments together? No, she'd wasted it off chasing fairies!

The thought was like ice-cold water, extinguishing all the anger, leaving only sorrow.

They had made lunch for her, the last meal she would ever eat around the kitchen table surrounded by everyone she loved and she hadn't even bothered to show up.

"Here we are, Headmaster Dumbledor's office-"

Amaris hadn't been keeping track of where the Professor had been taking her, nor did she know how long she had been walking. But now she found herself at the end of a corridor, facing a statue of a griffin.

"-Now he's already waiting for you so- Are you quite alright dear?"

Amaris knew that her face must have been drained of colour and her eyes rimmed with red. She did not want to explain herself as she knew that if she tried she would probably burst into tears. Which she definitely didn't want to do in front of her Head of House, it would create a very ungryffindor first impression.  So she just nodded and managed to say "I'm fine," without her voice breaking. Her teacher looked unconvinced.

But instead of pressing the matter, she turned to the griffin statue and spoke in a firm, serious voice, "Jellybaby." The statue suddenly sprang aside, causing Amaris to step back in surprise. Behind where the statue had been was a spiral staircase leading upwards.

McGonagall gestured to the stairs, "He's waiting."

Amaris climbed up the stairs slowly, trying to suppress her emotions as she did, preparing herself to meet the tall bearded figure who had spoken to the school the night before. When she reached a wooden door at the top, she knocked and waited for an answer."Come in." She took a deep breath, then pushed open the heavy door.