The image slowly dissolved, and a thick fog obscured their vision as Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Snape stepped back into place, both wearing grim expressions. Their eyes held a complex mix of emotions, leaving them unsure of how to break the silence.
While children of her age were still enjoying the pampered warmth of loving homes, she had grown up in an environment reeking of malice. No one had ever told her what a gift was, what Christmas meant, or what love felt like. Imprisonment, torture, human experimentation, fighting in death pits, the cold indifference of human hearts... Even after escaping her nightmare, the people she met only continued to disappoint her time and again.
"I don't care," Cyrus said flatly. She did not feel particularly pathetic, for she had never held any expectations of this world to begin with.
Chapter 17