Different worlds

Y/N watched from across the hall as a first year followed Tom and tried to get his attention. She, just like many others, fell for that charismatic smile everyone praised him for. Y/N watched him smile and act modest which drove the first year insane.

Despite how well he acted as this perfect student, Y/N could see through the act he was putting on. He'd smile but would have this look of disinterest, his eyes wandered every time the girl talked, he even tried to brush her aside a few times, but she wouldn't get the hint.

Tired of seeing this take place, Y/N excused herself from the group of friends she was talking with and walked over to them. She immediately walked over and gently wrapped her hands around Tom's arm, "There you are, Professor Slughorn has been looking everywhere for you." She pulled lightly at his arm as if trying to drag him somewhere.

Tom looked at her a little confused, "can this wait, I'm in the middle of a discussion." Was he interested in what the girl fawning over him was saying? No, not in the slightest. But he adored the attention and wasn't sure if he really was needed by the professor.

"C'mon Tom, please?" She fluttered her lashes at his before resting her head on his shoulder and looking back at the girl standing infront of her. "I'm sure this lovely lady wouldn't mind, right?"

Whatever sweet attitude the girl had was long gone, instead replaced with irritation and resentment "He clearly said no, L/N."

Y/N wasn't at all shocked by this behavior. She was used to dealing with people that aren't too fond of her and her family, and could tell this girl was definitely one of them. At this point people in the halls were starting to stare and whisper about the scene taking place before them. "He actually asked if I could wait, which I fortunately can't, and what exactly can you do to stop me?"

When the girl was silent Y/N took the opportunity and take hold of Tom's hand and walk away. She quickly stepped to the side when hearing the start of the 'flipendo' incantation and turned to look at the girl. "What's wrong L/N, scared to lose to a 'lesser being'?"

At this point, Lestrange and a few of Tom's Slythering friends were watching and Lestrange stepped in between the two. "Woah, put the wand down. She's not fighting a first year."

"It's okay, Lestrange." She placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at her friend. She stepped past Lestrange and walked towards the girl, "answer me this, are you upset with all purebloods or just me?"

"You're all monsters...evert last one of you." The girl stood her ground and Y/N looked back at the group of Slytherins behind her, glaring at them, telling them to stand down. "You all think you can walk all over us just because we weren't born into a family blessed with magic. But you," she pointed the wand directly at Y/N, hands trembling "You're the worst of them all. The Ministry should've gotten rid of you when you have the chance!"

The hall went completely silent, even students who might've agreed with the first year were too afraid to do anything. The group of purebloods were standing behind Y/N, tried to step forward but we're stopped by Tom and Lestrange. Y/N just stood there for a few seconds before tilting her head a little. "And what exactly would you know?" Y/N looked at the girl and put on a smile that masked her irritation "I mean, you weren't born yet, maybe not even a thought when the event your discussing took place."

"The Ministry debated how to handle a newborn like you. They almost deemed you a threat and killed you right then and there. If you ask my family, they wish the Ministry followed through." The girl took a few steps and Y/N analyzed the movement of the girl's wand. "I can tell you're just as bad as your family, if not worse. And I refuse to let you hurt anyone the way your parents hurt my family."

Y/N saw the girl's wand move and could immediately guess the spell being cast. She stepped aside and waved her hand speaking to herself "ᵖᵉᵗʳⁱᶠⁱᶜᵘˢ ᵗᵒᵗᵃˡᵘˢ". The girl's entire body froze, but not before she could finish her spell, the words 'diffindo' echoing through the hall. The people behind her had cast protection spells on themselves and the students who hadn't learned it.

Y/N felt sharp pain go through her arm as she kept moving to the side, not having enough time to properly cast a protection spell on herself. She fell to the floor and struggled trying to retired her wand from its pocket.

"Ms. - what is the meaning of this?" Y/N froze and looked forward to see the headmaster and Professor Dumbledore standing behind the first year. She quickly waved her wand at her wounded arm, "ᵛᵘˡⁿᵉʳᵃ ˢᵃⁿᵃⁿᵗᵘʳ".

The Headmaster released the binding charm on the girl who began to frantically speak. "I'm so sorry, but she attacked me first. I was simply acting in self defense and-"

"Self defense is using a knockback jinx, not trying to cut another student in half!" The Headmaster walked up to Y/N and helped her to her feet. "Ms. Y/N, I suggest you seek aid in the hospital wing right away."

"I'm okay Headmaster, truly." Y/N smiled at the Headmaster who just looked at her.

"That wasn't a request, I will have a student escort you if it comes to that."

Lestrange walked up behind Y/N, "I'll make sure she gets to the hospital wing, sorry for the disruption Headmaster." He picked her up in a bridal carry and nodded to the Headmaster before walking towards the hospital wing.

***

"Would you stop pacing, I'm not dying, idiot." Y/N sat on the edge of her hospital bed, hands on each side of her holding onto the bed. "You heard the nurse, I healed myself perfectly and there should be minimal scaring."

"She also lectured you for healing in the first place. What if you messed up the spell?" Lestrange stopped pacing for a second to look at Y/N waiting for an answer.

"But I didn't, that's what matters."

"No, what matters was that you didn't even bother to protect yourself! All you did was move to the side and nearly lose your arm!"

"I didn't have the time to conjure a protection spell. By the time I froze her, I was already about to be cut in half, my concern was to get out the way at that point!"

Lestrange ran a hand through his hair before sitting beside her on the bed, "You need to be more careful. You only have one life idiot."

Y/N smiled and watched as the nurse walked out of the wing. She looked at the time on the clock 4:05, classes for the day had ended. She assumed to be expecting someone who witnessed the scene take place to come in a speak with her about what happened.

A few minutes went by before, just as she predicted, the door to the hospital wing flung open, "L/N what the fuck happened earlier?!"

"You're gonna need to be a little more specific, Dolohov."

Dolohov stormed up to Y/N and stood over her, "did you seriously let yourself and get injured by a filthy little mudblood?!"

"I'm sorry, would you rather I strike back and also be running the risk of expulsion?!" Y/N stood up and gently pushed Dolohov away from her.

"Would've been better than embarrassing us purebloods!!"

"Attacking a student for something that's commonly said is embarrassing!!"

"Dolohov, quiet down, she did the best she could under the circumstances." Lestrange stood up and glared at him.

"Best she could- how is ending up in the hospital wing doing the best she could?!" He glared and Lestrange, who wasn't having the easiest time creating a viable argument. And clicked his tongue, "Idiots..."

"Excuse you?" Lestrange grabbed onto Dolohov's collar. "You wanna say that again?"

"You're all idiots!" Dolohov grabbed the wrist holding him and glared at Lestrange "purebloods don't gain respect, they earn it. And princess over here has a long way to go!"

At this point of arguing, Tom and walked in to see Dolohov and Lestrange at eachother's throats. He closed the door behind him and locked it, assuming the argument would turn violent, and watched everything unfold from afar.

"You can try to protect your little 'girlfriend' all you want," Dolohov finally managed to push Lestrange off of him and pointed at Y/N. "But you heard her, little princess over her won't risk expulsion, as if she could even do anything remotely close to expulsion worthy."

Y/N fought back the irritation in her voice and put on a somewhat carefree smile, "I'll give you one chance to apologize with your pride in tact." She twirled her wand in her hands and glared up at him, "or do you think this 'princess' is too afraid to get her hands dirty?"

"Aww, was that a threat?" He leaned in closer to her and stopped when he heard her spit at his feet. Furious at this, he grabbed hold of her chin and forced her to look up at him as he stood up straight, "Now you listen here, princess. I don't know what made you think I'd ever act like a begger, but there isn't a damn chance you're getting me to change my mind. You're nothing more than a cheap excuse for a pureblood, and an depressing representation of your family name."

Y/N grabbed onto his wrist and spoke through a clenched jaw, "𝔞𝔱𝔱𝔞𝔠𝔨". Her bracelet jumped and coiled around Dolohov's arm, slithering around his body in quick movements. Everywhere the snake moved left behind light burns of his skin. "Last chance."

Dolohov laughed and spit at her. Y/N used her sleeve to wipe off the spit off her cheek and glared up at the man infront of her "𝖈𝖑𝖔𝖘𝖊". The snake stopped moving and tightened around his skin. All anyone could hear was Dolohov trying to withhold his screams and smell the bracelet burning through his skin.

Y/N stood up and stepped to the side, kicking the back on his legs, making him fall to his knees, "𝖒𝖔𝖛𝖊" the snake, still coiled around him, began to ever so slightly move, causing Dolohov to let out a scream of sheer pain and torture. She tapped the bottom of his chin with the end of her wand, forcing him to look up at her, "Do you have something to say now?"

Dolohov let out a small mumble.

"Sorry, what was that? Speak up, I couldn't hear you."

"...sorry"

"You're sorry? What could you possibly be sorry for?"

When he stayed silent Y/N commanded the snake to move at a faster speed around his body. "FUCK OKay!! I'm sorry for being disrespectful!!!"

Almost immediately after he said it the snake fell to the floor, "Now was that so hard?" Y/N walked over to her bracelet while Lestrange tended to Dolohov's burns.

She cooled down and cleaned the bracelet with a charm after reversing the flagrante spell that was on it. She placed the bracelet back on her wrist and watched as the snake coiled around her arm. She helped Lestrange pick up Dolohov and place him on the hospital bed, placing a cooling charm over his burns.

"Oh my Merlin, what happened here?" The nurse walked back in to see Dolohov burned up and two students hovering over him. Y/N and Lestrange looked at eachother, trying to think of something.

"I brought him." The three looked to see Tom filling out a patient board. He walked over and handed the board to the nurse "He fell in the commonroom and knocked over something that was probably enchanted with flagrante."

The nurse looked over the paper and nodded before going over to Y/N and Lestrange, "and what are you two doing?"

"Cooling charm. We weren't sure when you'd be back and didn't want him to be in worse pain." Y/N bowed her head to the nurse and moved her wand away from Dolohov, "apologies, I know we probably shouldn't have used magic on him."

The nurse waved her hand and smiled and them "It's okay, I know you two were just trying to help. But don't do it again. Now, how are you feeling Ms. L/N?"

"Much better, thank you for the assistance."

"That's my job dear. Now if you're feeling better you are free to go, let your friends escort you to the Ravenclaw Tower so you can rest more."

Y/N nodded and her and Lestrange walked over to the entrance of the hospital ward where Tom was waiting for them. "ʰᵒʷ ˡᵒⁿᵍ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ᵇᵉᵉⁿ ʰᵉʳᵉ?"

"Not long, as I said, I arrived here with an injured friend." Tom smiled and opened the door to the hospital wing for the two.

***

Lestrange had decided to head back to the commonroom while Tom and Y/N chose to spend some time in the courtyard. Y/N was laying with her head rested on his lap, which he argued against and lost. They were in a comfortable silence before Y/N chose to speak, "I was born in Azkaban"

"What?" Tom looked down at Y/N, very confused what caused her to talk about this.

"It's what that first year was talking about. When I was born, the Ministry was unsure what to do with me. They didn't know if they wanted to send me to an orphanage, or if the risk was just too high and sacrifice me to the dementors before I had the chance to be evil." Y/N sat up and looked at Tom. "I'm sure they still question if they made the right choice keeping me alive."

Tom nodded and thought to himself, "where have you been living all this time then?"

"With the caretakers...they live in a small shack just past the prison. My parents were still allowed to see me for an hour or two each day...which is when they'd teach me magic; they would use leaves as makeshift wands ans wave them around."

"I'm sure it'd sound a lot nicer if they weren't in jail."

"They have every reason to be, the Ministry was so torn on me because every single member of my family has died in prison, either via execution or old age. In the end they gave me a chance and since then the caretakers have fought for me to have a real home."

"Which is where you'll be staying this winter" Tom looked at Y/N who nodded her head and smiled warmly at him.

"The entire house was apparently torn down and rebuilt by the Ministry when they tried to look for any traces of cursed objects. When the search came up empty, they moved the location of the house to ensure it'll be harder for people to find and finally granted me permission to live there." She finally noticed that Tom had still been staring at her. She wasn't sure if he was tuning her out and in his own thoughts, or if there was something on her that he was looking at. "Ummm, Tom?"

"Hm?" He lifted his eyes to look at hers, seeing the confused look on her face. "What?"

"You okay? You look at if you're stuck in your own thoughts." She watched Tom abruptly stand up and brush himself off. She chose to stand up as well, still really confused.

"It's almost time for dinner, I assume you'd like to change into a uniform that's not stained."

It hadn't even occurred to her that she had yet to change out of her uniform yet. She had even forgotten that her robe and uniform was stained with blood around where she was hurt on her left shoulder. She felt a little foolish and nodded her head a few times, pincing her lips together.

Tom noticed the expression of her face and a smile lightly tugged at his lips. He looked away and prevented the smile from growing further, waving to Y/N as he quickly walked away.

He hid his smile quickly, but not fast enough for her to not have noticed it, and it made her feel a bit more accomplished with herself that day. She stood frozen for a few seconds and couldn't resist the lovestruck smile slowly growing on her face as she watched him walked away.