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She is three years old when she begins to remember what she was. In a past life she was still and silent and equanimous and swift and unmerciful. Her mind was quiet, intentions and feelings taut like wire and all perfectly aligned toward a solitary purpose that burned bright and sharp like a star, a purpose that she cannot yet recall. She tries to move like that and think like that, but her body is small and clumsy and her mind is clamorous with no room for the thoughts she is accustomed to thinking and the feelings she is accustomed to feeling, and her mother thinks it is sweet, and she hates her, and she remembers that too.
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"You don't have to stand with them," Pansy says. With a dark look at Millicent: "You know that's not a proper Bulstrode, right?"
her_equal
"That's all right," she says loftily, and examines her nails. "I'm not a proper Evans either." (And for bonus points that's a bit more of a charming young Clover Evans-Potter kind of dig.)
"Arse off?" repeats Crabbe or Goyle incredulously.
"I don't think that's the expression," Goyle or Crabbe sneers.
the-other-one
"It's a threat," says George. "If you don't leave us alone we're going to hex your arse off."
the-other-one
"Dunno where you lot learned to count but we outnumber you five to three," George says.
Millicent eeps, and sidles around Clover a bit so Clover can protect her from Snape instead of from Parkinson and her goons.
"I know who you are, thank you," Snape says shortly. His eyes track between them: Clover addressing him crisply and seriously, Fred and George flanking her, Millicent shifting anxiously behind her, Ron still looking daggers at Pansy Parkinson. "I have not met all of your, mm, young acquaintances." His eyes lock to hers, and narrow intensely. "But I'm sure all the staff will have the dubious pleasure of getting to know them quite well in the coming weeks."
"That's not true!" cries Pansy Parkinson. She can do scandalized and wounded almost as well as Clover. "I was just trying to start a conversation with Evans, and her - her lackeys called my friends a two-headed troll and threatened to hex us!"
her_equal
"Wardwizard Snape," Clover says crisply, "Parkinson didn't try to start a conversation with me, she insulted my friends, entirely unprovoked. Millicent and the entire Weasley family. Fred and George were standing up for me and Millicent."
Snape gives her another deeply searching look.
"Be that as it may," he says, "I can scarcely imagine what sort of insult warrants two third year students ganging up to hex a child not a week into her magical education."
"Stop speaking. Do not interrupt me again, Clover Evans-Potter. I am sure you are quite impressed with your own ability to gather followers about yourself, and cause them to hang on to your every word, and throw their weight around in lieu of your own in petty preadolescent squabbles. But there are people in the world who have seen all of the games you play and all of the masks you wear before, and are not much moved to be impressed by them. Since three of the five of you seem entirely content to victimize your own House I do not imagine you will be moved by deducted points, but I will be speaking to your Heads of House and you can feel confident in your decision to schedule your future meetings around your upcoming detentions. You will depart from Miss Parkinson and her friends now, and if you have any sense about you you will spend less time around Evans-Potter in the future as well."
He turns away from Clover, and addresses the students at large:
"The duel will be postponed until this afternoon while I attend to a matter of school discipline."
He swishes toward the castle and stalks off.