-TWO-

MALFOY MANOR 

'CANTANKERUS NOTT, SAVVY BUSINESS MAN BEHIND BARS'

Naomi found herself staring down at the issue of The Daily Prophet which had been delivered that morning. The headline staring directly back at her, accompanied by the moving picture beneath it. The headline was not one which startled her, it was not new news. It was something she knew the details of inside and out. It had been something she had been bracing herself for the rest of the country to know. It was something she had been living through for the last few weeks. 

Her father's trial had been something, she knew every intricate detail of. From the moment the Aurors had appeared upon their doorstep at the beginning of the summer holiday with his arrest warrant. To the very first day he appeared on trial at the ministry. To the moment the judge presented his sentence. Naomi had not missed a single second, she had not been allowed the pleasure. She had experienced every single event as it occurred, and had watched on as the country too watched on with eager eyes as they took in the media's perceptive of what had happened. When the reality was, nobody truly knew what happened that night, none of the accounts matched and they never would. 

Naomi knew her father was not innocent, she knew very much first hand that her father was guilty of many of the crimes of which he had been accused of. She was not living in a fantasy world, she had not been allowed the pleasure to live in a fantasy world since she was barely 14. She knew what her father was a part of, she knew what he believed in and she knew the actions he would take in order to see that what he believed in became a reality. There was no denying that her father was guilty of most if not all of what he had been tried for. There was no sugarcoating what her father had done, nor allowing him to continue to be a free man, not when he had been so easily identifiable upon that night. Not when even the people who was also on his side, blamed him for the incident upon that night. For the failure of the mission they had been sent out upon to complete. Her father had lost the support of both sides, and therefore this was where he had ended up at. 

But that did not stop the small amount of resentment Naomi felt towards her friends, the ones who parents were also in attendance upon that night. Those whose parents were still free, who had not been caught and sent away. For only a very small number of people who had been there that night were caught, arrested and sent away. Even when one of them had taken her and her brother in, offered them a home to stay in, offered them support. Because despite the Nott household being dysfunctional, being downright toxic it was still somewhere that Naomi found a twisted sense of comfort. And Malfoy Manor had nothing upon the Nott Estate. 

She held a large amount of animosity towards the students who had been in attendance that night. She knew not who all of them were but she knew the main players. And if Naomi didn't despise many of them prior to the events she did now, as they were responsible in the loss of her father. For Naomi knew it would not be likely her father would ever get out, and if he did the man she knew would be long gone. For months in a prison like Azkaban changed even the strongest of willed people. And if there was one thing her father was not, it was strong willed. 

Naomi had despised many of the main students from that night for many reasons prior to the penultimate event. She despised Hermione Granger, for her attitude when people came asking for help. Hermione Granger was an incredibly beautiful person in both beauty and in brains and it was not shocker that people would turn to her for help and support considering she often ranked top of every single class she took. But if someone was to approach her in the library not from her house or not apart of the silly little friendship group she associated herself with Hermione would not give them even a second of consideration before denying them of her support. 

Harry Potter had an unfortunate upbringing, an understatement she was aware of but it was the best way she could describe what had occurred. And sure he got the end of a bad stick when it came to attending school and having to deal with everything going on. But the thing that irritated Naomi most about Harry was nothing to do with those things, nor the arrogance it gave him that he often paraded about with. It was the way he treated the other houses. She knew that he might have had the odd issue with some of the people in her own house, it was a given considering that Slytherin's despite being cunning and a little brunt they were fiercely protective of the people they held close. The houses which did not deserve the treatment he gave them were the Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's and Harry categorised them into the stereotypes they make you think in the first 24 hours of being in the school. He missed seeing that Hufflepuff's were loyal yes but they were not stupid, they were not the house for all those who didn't fit in, because Hufflepuff's did fit in and yes they often seemed more accepting, more friendly than the other houses. But that was also because a lot of them were stoned out of their minds, Hufflepuff's could stand up to you, they could do so much more than just be friendly and give nice hugs. Though they did give exceptional hugs that was very much true. Ravenclaw did deserve the praise for being the house with the brightest students considering just how many of the most intellectually famous magi folk they had produced over the years, but they were healthy in the way they boosted one another to do their best. Ravenclaw's were less stressed out than people thought, and they liked to debate that was also true. But they were always there to help another struggling student out. 

Unlike how some people were. 

The final member of the confirmed trio to be there on that fateful night was the one who Naomi had the most personal issues with. Ronald Weasley, who did look like a Ronald, had been someone Naomi had never had a pleasant interaction with. He had been outright cruel to her from the moment they had first ever met, when she had only been a first year and had been running late to her Herbology lesson. He had purposely bumped into her, and then called her a variety of names before giving a nasty sneer and walking away. And from then onwards it was almost as if he got nastier and nastier. The biggest moment in the personal distain other than the many times he had insulted her had been the time Naomi had been partnered with his younger sister for their charms class. And yes, Naomi had to admit she had got much, much closer to Ginevra Weasley than she had ever imagined and yes she had crossed lines blurring their friendship into something more. But he had torn them apart the moment he had stumbled across them studying together in the library for their project. And he had succeeded in tearing them apart as Naomi did not hear anything from Ginny over the summer holiday. And she came to realise she probably wouldn't hear anything again, as the two now stood on very different sides of the same coin. 

Those had been the three students who had been named and confirmed to have attended by the team who had attended the department of mysteries. Confirmed by Lucius Malfoy himself, the man who would be one of the most aware of who was who out of the students. Naomi knew, that there were more present, the numbers were more but the long haired blond man knew little else to confirm the identity of the other students that night. Naomi had her suspicions but she knew that without confirmation that was all they were. Suspicions. And she knew nobody would willingly admit it aloud that they were present. Not if they wished to stay under the radar, from Naomi's side rather than their own.