Trouble is not my middle name

Noon couldn't have come sooner. The only thing Alice wanted at this point was the ability to stop time or perhaps be invisible. But since she possessed none of those things, this meeting was unavoidable. She hadn't even walked into the room and her palms were already sweating and her fingers twitching. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down her nerves. Although she knew very well that there were many reasons she should be nervous about. Trying to remember all of the advise that Andrei had told her proved completely useless, as she couldn't remember a single word. Around her neck was the black crystal snake he had given her, for protection or something of that sort. Usually, she would wear the necklace her mother gave her as it was her favorite one. But then again she though that some protection at least could only be helpful.

She thought of Amelia and wondered how she was doing. The last time she saw her, she was still sleeping in the hospital wing. Her stomach turned and twisted just thinking about it. Of course she felt guilty, and for a reason as well. This whole thing was her idea. She left Amelia to face the troll on her own because she didn't know what else to do. They both needed help. The fact was, Amelia was dragged into this situation and now had to suffer the consequences. Alice only hoped Amelia could forgive her one day.

Stopping in front of the door, she rubbed her hands against each other. Complete terror was what she felt in this moment. This was definitely something she had never experienced before, and she hoped would never have to again. Her head was spinning and fainting was a possibility. But she composed herself to open the door and take the seat that was put there for her. Her gaze was mostly down on the floor as she avoided any eye contact from her parents or the professor. Although she knew that she couldn't do that forever.

Neville was trying to calm down Hannah but it was useless. He wasn’t happy either but knew he had to give Alice a chance to talk. Hannah was just going to explode like always. He tried to remember all the crazy stuff he did and how his grandmother reacted. He decided going off what his grandmother did was not the best idea; she was crazy and was only happy when he did crazy stuff.

“Hannah, take a second a breath,” sighed Neville. He found himself being yelled at in profanities. He was used to be now and took it all in ease. Over time in a marriage you learn when to keep your mouth shut.

“Are you crazy?! Going in the Forbidden Forest! It’s forbidden for a reason! You’re lucky that the troll didn’t kill anyone!” yelled Hannah going on about things.

Neville wasn’t listening just trying to read Alice. He’d only jump in if he felt Hannah was going too far. He noticed Alice wasn’t wearing the necklace. What was she wearing? He had never seen that necklace before.

“How did you ever come up with such an idea? It’s so bloody stupid! People could have died!” yelled Hannah. Neville sighed but said nothing.

Alice closed her eyes as she could hear her mother yell. It was a sound she was used to and was certainly expecting. But on her surprise, her father said nothing. This only worried her even more. She wasn't use to seeing him be this silent. Was it because he was that disappointed with her? Alice decided that was probably the reason why. From time to time, she found courage to look up at her parents, but then her gaze quickly fell back down on the floor again.

Instead of saying anything in her defense, she kept pulling down her sleeves. Her bruises and scratches were still visible, some she had got from her duel, some from the forbidden forest and some even from Andrei. But she managed to hide a fair amount of them with makeup and long sleeves. She was too nervous to say anything and for a while she just listened to her mother scream and shout. Her hand nervously played with her necklace as she tried to remember what Andrei had told her. Damn it he was right. Then why was it so hard for her to do it.

"I.... don't know. It's not Amelia's fault. She didn't do anything. It was my idea. She only followed me so I wouldn't go alone. And no one died mom" Alice said finally. She would try and give reasons for all of the stupid things she has done, but she didn't have any. "I'm not crazy..." she said softly shaking her head.

“Why would you even bring it up to Amelia when you know she’s not quite herself? You got lucky that’s all. If it had been anyone other them Amelia or if Amelia hadn’t been alert they would be been a death! This is how people get killed by doing stupid reckless things!” Hannah continued yelling.

Hannah was getting on Neville’s nerves. It was news to him that Amelia had been with Alice. It made his blood boil. He got it why Hannah hadn’t told him that part. He was losing his temper. He got up out of his chair nearly breaking it from how forcefully he threw it back down on the ground. “Kingsley I’ll get you a new chair,” he said hastily.

“Hannah shut up! You’ve said enough!” he bellowed at Hannah. “You don’t do anything when it comes to disciplining our kids!” she yelled back. “You never give me a chance! I go back on everything you told Frank when he was growing because you always go overboard and it means nothing to kids when you go overboard!” he yelled back unable to control his words. Hannah was left speechless and sat back down crossing her arms. He just rolled his eyes.

“Alice, you don’t do things because you don’t know! Everyone does things for a reason! People don’t jump off cliffs for no reason or kill someone for no reason! You don’t get it how much I’ve done to make sure you are safe! I’ve killed people, I’ve been tortured, I’ve lost friends and I’ve risked everything! You may not be crazy but this was utterly stupid!” he bellowed. If Alice thought she was old enough to go into the Forbidden Forest she was old enough to be yelled at. He was so sick of not doing anything because he didn’t want to upset her. He would scream at Frank at times and somehow most of that stuck with him the more than anything Hannah ever said to him.

Her mother's voice at high ranges was so familiar to her by now that she could try and block some of it out. They couldn't tell her anything she didn't know already. Yes she knew it was stupid and reckless. And yes she knew it could have easily gone a lot worse than it did. Getting shouted at like this didn't really help her understand these things more than she already did on her own. But then suddenly, it wasn't her mother yelling anymore. It was her father.

She flinched as he stood up from the chair and violently break it into pieces. She had never seen him this angry or violent, and it scared her. More than any of her mother's shouting could have combined. And then the yelling came in. It was painful to listen to it honestly. Her dad was a source of comfort all of her life. Now, he was causing her nothing but fear and frustration. If he only waited patiently for her to tell them the whole story. It wasn't just like that. She wasn't some crazy rebellious kid who did stupid things to annoy her parents. But somehow it seemed that her father though she was. He didn't even give her a chance to talk, to explain.

Hearing him talk about how he killed people and lost friends to keep her safe but her nothing but made. That may be so, but she never asked for that. She never asked to be protected. "Well I didn't jump of a cliff or kill anyone! I went to the forbidden forest because I wanted to. I also dueled with that Gryffindor girl because I wanted to. I did many wrong things here dad, simply because I wanted to. Imagine that! Me doing something I want... as opposed to something you want. It might have been utterly stupid but it was my stupid decision and not yours! I did it because I had my reasons, and I'm not going to apologize for that. I never asked to be protected like that dad, never. I didn't really have a choice did I? As with most other things! You may have done all of those things...but I certainly never asked you to. And for you to yell at me without even trying to listen...well that is stupid as well! Maybe that girl was right...maybe you are useless. Together with the rest of our family"

Once Alice had begun shouting, she couldn't stop. She couldn't control her anger anymore and words came out of her that she knew she would regret later. But again, that was not on her mind right now. She just had to finish her rant, there was no other way of getting rid of the anger inside of her.

“I never said you asked me to do it, you didn’t even exist when I did those things! I did it so kids like yourself wouldn’t have to live in the same danger your mother I grew up in! You don’t get it! You only see the world from one set way as a kid; you can’t see the whole thing! Why should I listen when you nearly got someone killed? I’m not even going to respond to that last bit because I know I will say something I don’t think anyone here wants to here,” Neville boomed his voice changing tones form sentence to sentence.

Hannah said nothing; she knew better than to test her husband like this. She hadn’t seen him worked up like this in years. He had never gotten like this was Frank. She believed there was something about Alice that brought out the best and worst in Neville. She didn’t understand it but she could understand how desperate he was.

“Neville, please,” Hannah whispered into his ear in an inaudible tone “think things through and breathe.” Neville looked at Hannah and breathed deeply. Ever since he had survived the first war he had relied on her to calm him when he blew. The war had changed him a lot.

After she said those things, Alice felt like she was going to faint. Her head was spinning and she had to take a few long breaths just to keep her heart rate at a normal level. She felt very strange. She still didn't realize that she just yelled at her father the way she did. It was like someone else did it and not her. Something was definitely off. She though she would fell better after getting all that anger out of her, but she didn't. Now she just felt lost and very confused, as if she didn't understand herself anymore or wasn't able to control her body. Somehow, even after yelling and shouting, she still felt anger and frustration in her build up for no reason.

She looked up her dad and sighed. The only thing she could do was cry, but she would certainly do her best not to. Especially in front of the professor here. Rising her legs up, she pressed them tightly against her body and returned her gaze to the floor. Why did she feel this way? So confused and lost. "I don't see the point in this" said Alice being as stubborn as ever. "I don't see the point in you two being here. If you came to yell, well you already did that. If you can to punish me, I'm sure the school will do that just fine without you" said Alice without raising her voice, with her gaze still on the floor.

She played with her necklace and impatiently waited for this to be over. She felt sick, physically sick. She couldn't stand this stress anymore. Even her cheeks were getting pale. A weird feeling came over her body and all she wanted to do was shout or possibly break somethings. She found herself not even being able to control her own thoughts anymore. Sleep was all she needed she though. That certainly should help, or hopefully at least.

Neville was still in shock. This was nothing like his Alice. He was confused by it all; it upset him more that he was confused. He hated doing this. It didn’t feel right. It wasn’t right. Something was wrong but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“Alice we were so worried about you. I know that you are really a little kid anymore but you aren’t an adult either. It’s just when things like this happen it really upsets us because it makes us feel like everything we fought for in the Second War was worthless,” Hannah said her voice in a much calmer tone. She didn’t like seeing her family like this, it didn’t fit their family. She also felt like something was wrong, it was just a feeling she felt from deep within, but she didn’t know the cause of it.

Alice could barely hear what her mother was saying. And even if she could, she was just too tired to respond. Her eyes wondered in many directions as concentrating on one place seemed impossible now. When she heard her mother end her speech she just nodded her head and added a simple "Alright" to it. She wasn't even sure what that mean, but for now that was all she could say.

Then she remembered Andrei and something he had said started to really make sense now. "The world is not black and white. It's in shades of grey" she said out loud, mostly to herself than to anyone else. She wasn't even communicating at this moment, as she seemed to lost the ability or the desire to do so. All she could think about where those two sentences he had said and how right he was. "I think he was right" she said finally again to herself.

Her gaze then finally returned back to her parents and she gave them a small smile. For some reason, she seemed to have a few moments of clarity before slipping back to her weird state. "I know I messed up, really badly. I...I just really don't know what happened. You have to believe me I don't. It's a blur, as most things are lately. I just don't know. I'm sorry. I love Amelia, I would never want to hurt her. Or to worry you for that matter" she said with a sigh, not really knowing if her apology would do any good.

Neville wasn’t sure what he felt anymore. His head was swirling in so many directions. He couldn’t wrap his head around why Alice was acting so different. It was like he was talking to someone other than his daughter. He knew it wasn’t Polyjuice potion; he’d pick up on that right away. Or would he? He didn’t know but he knew one thin soon as he could he was going to enlist the help of Amelia to find out what is going on. He knew Alice wasn’t going to tell him if he asked.

“I don’t know what is going on with you Alice but I’m not going to stop until I do know and trust me I will find out,” said Neville more harshly then he meant “I get it your sorry and I accept that, we just need to separate ways now and think this clearly alone.”

It was time he went to other sources to try to figure out what is going on. This wasn’t computing, things weren’t adding up properly. He could see Hannah felt the same way and it was overwhelming her. He felt a bang of guilt Hannah wasn’t as strong as he was or could she ever accept that there is an imbalance like there had been twice in their lifetime. She just couldn’t take it.

“I have to go. I’m going to make myself sick if I stay. Nev, remember Frank is supposed to be giving us a call on the muggle phone tonight so don’t stay out too late,” said Hannah half worried he’d go out drinking but knew he wouldn’t. They weren’t kids anymore.