Trouble is not my middle name

She heard her father's rough words but they barely affected her. She was back in a very strange state of mind. Usually, something like this would affect her terribly. She would be upset, crying and probably in her father's arms hugging him. But this time she did none of those things. She seemed calm and cool. Emotionless even. She didn't care anyone. All of the accusations and punishment had made her sick. But most of all the distrust annoyed her. She stared at the wall in front of her and said nothing. She had lost the ability to care.

Her mother leaving didn't surprise her either. She started to resent her for being so weak, but even more so for transferring that gene to her. It was her fault Alice was like this in the first place. She didn't know why she was so angry, but she couldn't control it. She just felt so resentful against her whole family right now. She didn't want to see then or look at them anymore.

A proper apology was the thing missing in this conversation. But Alice just didn't feel like they deserved one. She didn't want to explain herself anymore. To always apologize and to do things jut because she was told. The anger inside of her increased even more. It was strange not being able to control your own thoughts or feelings, but she stopped trying. She just let the emotions overwhelm her without inhibiting their full potential.

"Another tracking device on me? Well that wouldn't be anything new" she said with a frown. As she gazed at her dad a strong sense of hatred came to her. It was just something she couldn't control anymore. "Can't you just leave already? I don't want you here! Don't you understand that? Just go. Take all the time you want to think, as if I could care less. I just want you both out of my life" said Alice and she had meant it.

Alice’s felt like acid to Neville. This just wasn’t right. It hurt more than he could have imagined, he just didn’t understand why anyone would treat their parents like this, and he adored his kids because his parents hadn’t had much time to do that for him. This was all too much. It felt like his world was being burned to the ground. How did Susan do this with her kids? But then again the Macmillans were a different breed of people.

“I’m never going to leave you alone. I’m not sure if you are even sure you can even hear me anyone but I do love you no matter what you say or do. That will never change. Try to remember everything I do is to protect you from losing everything you have like I did. All I ever wanted was for you to have a better life, I’m sorry that you can’t understand that,” Neville said sadly meaning every single word he said. He felt like his whole world was ending, maybe it was. He couldn’t do this anymore, he was on the verge of breaking down, and therefore he turned to leave. “If you won’t listen to me maybe take a few minutes to listen to Amelia or even Susan,” he said right before he left, glad that Alice couldn’t see the tears running down his cheeks.

Alice knew her father loved her. He has devoted his entire life to making his kids happy and safe, a job he was rather good at. But what she also knew is once she had said those words, there was no going back. The expression on his face made it clear to her how much she hurt him. Just a few months ago she would have never done this. Now for some reason she was a different person, she even felt different. As her dad stoop up and started to leave, even the new part of her couldn't resist calling him back.

"Dad!" she said suddenly, making him turn around. She wanted to say something monumental, something important that would change all of this around. Something that would make things better again. However she could find no words that could do that. And even if she could, that new part of her was stopping her even trying. Nevertheless, the painful look in her dad's eyes hurt her.

"Bye" she said taking a deep breath. That was all she could manage right now. Perhaps she could try later. But at this moment, even that bye was pushing it for her.

((Are we finished here?))

[I'll post, where is Amelia btw?]

Kingsley had been quiet for the whole time. He had learnt a long time ago not to interfere in family matters. Family members often disagreed with each other, but he was sure they would sort it out quite quickly, and they didn't need a stranger doing that for them. It was going quite badly though, so he decided to have a word with Alice once her parents left. "Sit down Alice," he said, after saying goodbye to Neville.

After that whole mess, she had hoped she was able to just run away to her room and sleep. Sleep until eternity or at least until she forgot about this whole mess. She didn't wanted to be part of it anymore. Taking another few deep breaths did help with her calming down. Now that her parents were out of the room, at least she could somewhat concentrate and try and act normally. The just managed to create so much anger inside of her that she didn't know hoe to control herself anymore. It was almost impossible to manage her thoughts and feeling while there very around and especially while they were upset and mad at her.

Her head turned to Kingsley as he said her name. Great she thought, now she knew it would be a while until she could got to bed. And she didn't even receive her proper punishment yet, that was Kingsley's job after all. Well at least no matter what he gave her couldn't be worse than what she just experienced. "Yes, sir" she said taking a seat.

Sometimes Kingsley regretted having proceeded so far into the art of legilimens. Although it could at times be very useful, it was quite easy to involuntarily gather memories of people who failed to hide their emotions. A student like Alice, who's mind at once contains thousands of emotions, was particularly easy to read. So it was easy for Kingsley to know what she feared right now. He smiled at her.

"Really Alice," continuing to adress her with her first name. "If a student went through their whole seven years at Hogwarts without once entering the forbidden forest I'd wonder what was wrong with them."

"But, that does not mean you should ever go there again. As for your parents, you have to understand that your parents have first hand experience in what reckless behavior can result in... So try to see this from their point of view."

Alice raised her gaze from the floor and looked at Kingsley in a rather surprised manner. She didn't expect him to say something like that, let alone be understanding about the whole thing. Her frown turned into a soft smile and she chuckled. Hogwarts students were famous for their mischief, but either way Alice was not. She was the pure opposite until now.

She sighed deeply as the conversation turned back to her parents. Somehow she just couldn't avoid that topic anymore. "I know. I understand that, or at least I try to" she said nodding her head. She truly did try, although usually she was a lot more patient and understanding than right now. But the whole fuss about her one mistake just didn't make sense. She did one thing wrong, that is it! God forbid she made more mistakes in her life, even more serious than this silly one. People expected her to be perfect which just wasn't fair.

"Do I get detention for this?" Alice asked. Well the right question would probably how much detention, because some sort of punishment was header her way for sure. Even though she thought that having her parents here was punishment enough as is.

Kingsley raised his eyebrows at her question and answered her seriously. "Well of course," he said. "You have to learn your lesson don't you? That goes to Miss Macmillan as well. Please inform her that the two of you are expected to pot Mandrakes next saturday. No one else seems to want to do the job for some reason..." That was not true of course, a skilled wizard could do the task in a couple minutes, but Kingsley thought that it was an appropriate punishment. "I'll see you next Transfiguration class Miss Longbottom," he said, before looking down at the book on his table, giving her leave to go.