Armilla

Chapter Nine

Some people might say that if you spent a lot of time with one person and saw no one else, you might unknowingly pick up a few of that person's traits. I still had a lot of habits that I picked up from Merle, so it just went to show you that not all your traits were inherited.

But I was irritable. So very irritable. I didn't know whether it was because the only person I had seen for the past four days was constantly irritable and so it had rubbed off, or if it was because I was sick and tired of being there. Probably both.

Snape hadn't been around too much, thank God. He only came in to give me potions to take in the morning and in the evening. He generally hadn't said much at all, except things like "take this" and "don't spill it, I'm not going to waste my time making more". Lovely chap.

I'd spent my time catching up on class work I had missed while I was away. Snape had also been bringing in the day's work with him in the evening. So with all the work I had, he hadn't really seen me without my nose in a book. Maybe that's why he had seemed even more irritable - perhaps I was reminding him of Hermione Granger. But as the days had passed by, I had gotten more and more tired and frustrated about my situation.

Being alone a lot mad you think. I couldn't stand knowing that Snape knew something about my bracelet and thought it beneath him to tell me. Damn him. I had every right to know since I had to wear the wretched thing.

More than once I had been tempted to say something to him about it when he had come in, in the evening. But I just hadn't been able to construct it in my head as to how I wanted to word it. I didn't want to sound pleading, asking if he would be so kind as to provide an explanation. No. I was well within my rights to demand an explanation. Yes, see how irritated I was? I had been rambling on in my head like this for ages, just staring in front of me.

"So sorry to interrupt you when you are obviously so hard at work," came a voice dripping in sarcasm. Professor Snape stood in the doorway, holding a couple of vials full of potions.

"I have been working all day," I retorted, glaring at him. He seemed slightly surprised at my retort, but his face quickly returned to its usual sneer.

"Indeed. All this work has seemed so very taxing on your poor mind that you decided to devote a few moments to complete concentration on the air in front of you?"

"You have no reason to suggest that there is anything wrong with my mind," I said tetchily I knew he was only baiting me, but I was irritable. So very irritable. "I have never failed in any task you have ever given me, so you have no right to say things that have no foundation." Ohhhhhh...had I just said that out loud? Yep, certainly had. He looked furious.

"No foundation, Miss Kemp?" he said darkly, his eyes narrowed. "I do, however, have the right to deduct fifty points from Ravenclaw."

He walked over to my bedside and sat in the chair next to the bed, all the while holding my gaze. He leaned over so our faces were only inches apart. "And let me assure you, Miss Kemp,' he whispered, "that everything I say always has foundation."

"Always has foundation?" I repeated. I held out my left hand to him, my bracelet clearly visible. "I have a right to know what this bracelet means."

Snape stared at it for a moment, completely indifferent. Then he looked away and proceeded to unseal the vials he had. "Move your arm away," he hissed. "I didn't come in here for a friendly chat."

"I'm not asking for a friendly chat!" I said, heatedly. "I deserve to know why I have this thing and I know you know something about it or you wouldn't try and avoid talking about it."

"Do not presume to know how my mind works, Miss Kemp," he snapped. "If I thought you needed to know something, I would tell you. End of discussion. Here, drink this." He held out the vial.

"Why should you decide whether or not I should know something?" I pressed, ignoring the vial in his outstretched hand. "I have just as much right as you do, if not more, to know. Professor Dumbledore obviously knows something. I shall ask him."

Snape looked livid. "You will do no such thing," he snapped. "Professor Dumbledore has enough to deal with without the complaints of a Ravenclaw student who feels she's been left in the dark."

"Well at least you understand me then. I have been left in the dark and I want to know the significance of the bracelet. Lots of people have touched it before but it never affected me until you touched it - and I know you felt it too. If you won't tell me anything, then I will ask the Headmaster." I was trying to keep calm, but I knew the man next to me contained information.

I was waiting for Snape to deny that he had felt anything, but he remained silent. He gazed at me with those piercing dark eyes, the vial still in his outstretched hand. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he spoke.

"Let me make it clear now, Miss Kemp that I do not bargain with students," he said, his tone letting me know that I was on dangerous ground with him. "Nor will I tolerate that tone."

I had the grace to look a little remorseful, though really I was more eager for information.

"Professor Dumbledore," he continued, "like me, would not share information with you if he did not think you needed to know. You obviously do not realise that some pieces of information are not intended for you, though you may feel you deserve to know. I do not know as much information about the bracelet as you seem to think I do. Certainties, I will tell you if I think you should know. Suspicions I have regarding the bracelet, however, I shall keep to myself. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Drink this," he said, pushing the vial into my hand. "I've been holding it out to you for some time now."

I downed the potion, and then the second one Snape handed me, trying not to make a face at the terrible taste. I handed the vials back to him and looked at him expectantly. Again, he stared at me, as if deciding what I needed to know.

"The bracelet, Miss Kemp, is an extremely old family heirloom that can only come from a pureblood family. It is handed down only through the female line, regardless of the change in surname once the witch marries. Once the witch wearing it dies, the bracelet disappears from her wrist and reappears on the wrist of the next female descendant and there it remains until she too, dies."

"So I'm stuck with it until I die," I muttered.

"I will not be interrupted," he said warningly, his black eyes flashing. "Do you wish to hear this or not?" My silence allowed him to continue.

"Many of those bracelets were made many, many years ago, but their number now continues to decline. The bracelet only remains if the wearer is definitely a pureblood. Too many pureblood witches married into half-blood or muggle families and so when these witches died, the bracelets vanished for good because they couldn't reappear on the wrist of a half-blood or muggle-born witch. It is an extremely advanced piece of magic, Miss Kemp, so you can be in no doubt as to just how pure your bloodline is. Clearly, you are not muggle-born or even half-blood. Though the identity of your parents is not known, it is certain that you come from a line of all pureblood witches and wizards. Whoever your family were, they were prestigious."

He looked at me closely as I took in these words. It seemed so many more questions had arisen from Snape's words. I opened my mouth to ask the first of many questions, but Snape held up his hand to stop me.

"That is all I am going to say, Miss Kemp. That is all I deem necessary for you to know."

He got up and headed to the door. "I will let you get back to your day dreaming," he said silkily, turning around in the doorway. "I do recommend though that you devote some time this evening to your Potions work. You wouldn't want to fail a task I gave you now, would you? I'll bring the rest of your work by later." He smirked at me as he closed the door behind him.