A sneer twisted his lips at her response, and all the hatred he felt for Potter and Black came out towards her. When had they gotten to this point? He hated her for it, for holding the grudge, and himself even more for having been so foolish.
"You never know," he said. "After all, if you're aiming for Head Girl, you cannot be to careful."
He started to move away imperceptibly when she spoke again, and his head turned to look at her. She wasn't looking at him, instead looking down at her cauldron. He had seen the entry and had passed right by. At one point, he would have done something about it, secretly perhaps, but whoever called her that would have been punished. Certainly her intelligence, her skill, always made her different to him than other people in her situation. Lily was always different. Beyond that. And in some ways, it had been known by the others she was under his protection, as inadequate as that might have been. At least no one ever dared bother her when he'd been around, not with what he might do to them and on one occasion had. He had actually been surprised that Potter and Black hadn't been salivating like starving dogs to defend her, however it was now no longer his place to do so.
"No," he said. "I'm fairly certain we've already bandied that word about enough between the two of us."