"I can't believe he gave us a detention!"
"I
know! Isn't it great?"
"Of course it is for you! You've
been crushing on him since we got here!"
"Shh, here he
comes."
"Ladies, I will see you after your classes are
finished this evening. You will be writing what I tell you so
bring ink, a quill and parchment. No exceptions," Professor
Snape said in his usual droll.
"Yes sir."
Arianna McNamara
and Rane Silver had been best friends since just about day one of
Hogwarts School for witchcraft and wizardry. That was five years
ago. They had done almost everything together, become
Gryffindors, skipped classes, been sick, gone to dances, homework,
classes, and now, detention with Professor Snape. Arianna
didn't mind though, she was actually happy about it.
She was practically skipping to her classes and would look up at the
clock what seemed like almost every 10 seconds to Rane, who on the
other hand was dreading detention and hated Snape and could not
understand how her friend could possibly like him.
"Revolting," She thought at the sight of him in her mind. "What do you see in him?" Rane asked quietly during their last class of the day. It was charms, and Professor Flitwick had told them to practice doing magic without speaking. They were currently working on Wingardium Leviosa and trying to get feathers to float in the air.
"Who,
Snape? You're way too upset about this detention if you've
been dwelling on Snape all this time."
"I was just wondering,
I mean he is like 30 years older than us."
"Actually, he's
only 22 years older than us, and besides, you like Professor
Lupin."
"…You know what, I don't even want to know how you
know how old he is."
"Oh, that was quite easy to figure out,
just search all the trophies in the castle."
"Yeah, that
sounds really easy." Rane looked up to see Professor Flitwick
looking at them and began to wave her wand to make it look like she
was doing something.
"You know what?" Arianna said
thoughtfully.
"What?"
"This kinda reminds me of our first
year. We struggled so hard to get those feathers into the air.
I would've given anything to have just picked the stupid thing up,
and now I would give anything to just say the spell."
Rane just
sat there amazed at how random her friend's mind was. They
were supposed to be talking about Snape. Snape! Not some
stupid floating feather.
"Class dismissed," Professor Flitwick
said suddenly drawing all of the students out of their concentration.
The feathers disappeared from the tables and Arianna and Rane made
their way to the dungeons. Arianna skipped happily down the
hallway. She said hi and waved to every person they passed by.
Some would return the greeting while others simply stared at her like
she was mad and others still such as the Slytherins would make fun of
her. Rane tagged behind her gloomily and barely noticed
anything going on around her. Thoughts of detentions with Snape
played over and over again in her mind most of them ending in her
somehow dying a horrible, horrible death or being locked in the
dungeons forever or other dreadful things. She was shaken out
of her thoughts when-
"Professor Snape we're here!" -They had arrived.
Snape
looked up at them from his desk and then looked back down to the
papers. "Find a seat," he ordered.
"Yes sir," They both
said and sat down, Arianna sat up front and close to Snape's desk
while Rane sat in the back close to the door, just in case she needed
to do a quick escape. They each took out a piece of parchment
and ink and a quill and waited expectantly for him to tell them what
to write.
"You will write 200 times I will not- and tell what
you will not do. Each sentence must be different."
Arianna
simply stared dreamily at the professor making Rane wonder if she had
even heard what he had said. She decided to shrug it off and
began writing. After about two or more hours, she was
finished. Near the end, she put small things or things she had
never done or just kinda changed words around from previous
sentences. As she walked by, she glanced down at Arianna's
paper. It looked not even half way complete. She turned
her paper in and left the room.
Arianna listened carefully until
the echoes of Rane's footsteps were completely out of hearing.
"So,
Professor, how many years have you been teaching?" she asked
casually while leaning back in her chair and stretching her arms and
hands.
"There is no talking allowed in detentions," he said
not even looking up from his papers. Arianna frowned,
disappointed, but still determined.
"I
know that, I just thought since it was just me here, we could talk a
little bit."
"Do you place yourself above other students, Miss
McNamara?" Arianna didn't answer, only deepened the frown
on her face. Man was he stubborn. Snape looked up
at her for a moment, then back down to his papers.
"…Fifteen
years."
"Wait, what?" Arianna thought. "Oh yeah,
the answer to my question. … Wait! He answered my question!"
She wanted to jump up and hug someone, but considering the only other
person in the room was Professor Snape, she decided it was a bad
idea. "Do you like teaching?" For a split second, she
thought she saw his lip twitch to a sort of smile, but then again,
maybe it was just her imagination.
"It has its benefits," he
said monotonously.
"You know, Potions is one of my favorite
subjects."
"That's odd considering the grade you are getting
in my class." The room was silent for a moment. Arianna
felt like she had just been slapped in the face. "Maybe some
tutoring would improve your grade." Arianna looked at him
curiously. Was he offering to tutor her? "Was that an
offer?" she finally asked.
"If you think it will help,"
Snape replied dryly. Again, Arianna wanted to jump up and hug
someone.
"I think it definitely would Professor!"
"…
See me tomorrow after class to set a time. For now you are
excused."
"Thank-you Professor!" She exclaimed jumping
up and gathering her things. "Bye, Professor." She
walked out the door and took a few steps before she took off running
and leaping and skipping up to the Gryffindor common rooms. She
scanned the room for Rane and found her sitting on a couch watching
as Fred and George, class mischief-makers, tested their inventions on
brave or foolish underclassmen. She was laughing a little
despite herself.
"Hey," Arianna said brightly, plopping down
next to her.
"Oh, hi. You're finished already?"
"No,
he said I could go."
"You bugged him that much, eh?"
"No!
For your information, we had a nice conversation and he said he would
give me tutoring in Potions class."
"That's awesome!"
Rane tried her best to share in her friend's enthusiasm, even
though tutoring with Snape sounded more like a punishment to her.
"I
know! Isn't it? So what have you been doing this whole
time?"
Rane nodded her head towards the Weasley twins who were
now trying to convince their younger brother, Ron to drink what
looked a little bit like bubble gum medicine. "Watching
them."
"I see. And where is the third member of their
party?"
Rane nodded to a boy sitting at a table with many
ingredients and a book in front of him. "He makes the
potions, they make people drink them."
The girls were silent for
a moment and boredly watched as Percy scolded the twins as Ron stuck
his tongue out at them from behind Percy.
"I'm
really hungry," Arianna commented.
"Too bad, we missed
dinner," Rane replied. They were both silent for a moment.
"So we're asking them for help right?"
"That's the
plan." Another moment of silence passed.
"Well can we go
now, 'cause my stomach is growling?"
"Sure, if you want to
get yelled at by Percy too."
"I'll pass." They
waited for Percy to stop scolding the twins and leave the room, then
made their way over to where Fred and George were now standing, doing
impressions of their older brother.
"Well look who it is,"
George said when he saw the girls approaching. "How'd your
detentions go trouble makers?" Fred asked.
"Great!" Arianna
chirped. Rane didn't answer.
"So, I suppose you two are
wanting supper?" George asked.
"Mm-hm," they replied
nodding.
"Well, I'm sorry, we don't associate with such
troublemakers," Fred said.
"Disrupting
class like that," George added shaking his head in a disapproving
matter.
"The nerve of you two," Fred continued.
"We're
so disappointed."
"Whatever. Can you get us something to eat
or not?" Arianna interrupted. The twins looked around the
room then motioned for the girls to come closer into a huddle.
They rolled their eyes, but went along with it anyway.
"Yes,"
Fred whispered then the boys leaned back out acting
inconspicuous.
"Hey Lee!" George yelled over catching his
friend's attention.
"We're going to escort these ladies to
dinner!" Fred cut in.
"Be back in a bit!" George finished.
Lee nodded then went back to making potions as Rane and Arianna
followed the mischief-makers out of the common room towards the
kitchen. They soon found themselves coming up to a dead end at
which was placed a picture of a basket of fruits. Fred stepped up
and began to tickle a large pear painted onto the picture. The
painting immediately swung open to reveal a rather large room with
many house elves scampering around, trying to clean the plates from
dinner and plan and prepare the meals for the next day.
"Welcome
to the kitchen!" Fred and George said in unison. Fred
held the portrait open as George did an over dramatic gentlemanly bow
to gesture for the two ladies to go in first. Arianna and Rane
entered followed by George then Fred.
"Oi!
Dobby!" Fred called and a funny looking, but rather well off house
elf came over to them. "These two ladies are hungry," Fred
continued, do you think we could help them out a bit?"
"Of
course sir," the elf replied with a low bow and ran off to fetch
some food.
"You seem rather close to the house elves," Arianna
muttered in George's ear.
"He's a friend of the Potter kid's
and as a friend of Harry's he's a friend of ours!"
Arianna didn't have time to reply, because just then, the elf came
back carrying a large tray with an even larger assortment of foods on
it all looking delicious. Arianna and Rane's eyes sparkled as
they snatched the food right out of the poor creatures hands and ate
it as if someone would take it from them if it weren't soon gone.
Once the food was gone, they thanked the elf and left with Fred and
George laughing at how hungry they had been. The hallways on
their way back seemed dark and empty without all the students busily
hurrying off to somewhere. The four fifth years grew much
quieter after they had left the first floor and didn't grow loud
again until they had finally entered into the safety of the
Gryffindor common room where they were no longer likely to get caught
for sneaking around the castle. The girls thanked Fred and
George then ran to their room to try to finish all the homework they
had to do which they had neglected because of the detention then
hunger. Sleep seemed to come all to soon as the girls worked on
their homework. They had barely completed all of it before
drifting off to sleep.
"Morning!" Arianna chirped
trying to wake Rane up.
"Go away!" She grumbled in
reply. Unlike her friend, she was not much of a morning
person. In fact, she despised them.
"C'mon Rane!
Today is a very special day, remember?"
Rane
sat up a little bit. Maybe something exciting was happening
that she had forgotten about. "Why's that?"
"Cause
I get to set tutoring times with Snape!" Arianna squealed in
reply. Rane stared at her unimpressed for a second, then
plopped back down and hugged the covers tight over her head.
Arianna
pouted. "Get up!" she demanded. Rane didn't
move. "Get uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!" she yelled again
tugging at the covers.
Rane was eventually persuaded out of bed by the reminder that she would get a detention if she were late to her first hour class again.
Rane
and Arianna quickly made their way thought the winding halls as
usual. They arrived at transfiguration and went through the
rest of their classes until lunch arrived with Arianna constantly
looking at the time and begging it forward with her eyes. Rane
quickly left the Potions room heading for the Great Hall as Arianna
occupied herself with packing up her books until all the students had
departed.
"Mrs. McNamara, you did exceptionally well in my
class today," Snape commented dryly as Arianna approached his
desk.
"Thank you sir!" Arianna replied. "I
tried my best!"
"Which means you don't usually try your
best?" Arianna's happy face faded and she froze not
knowing what to say. "Now, about tutoring. Are
Fridays and Tuesdays good for you?"
"Fridays and Tuesdays?"
She repeated to herself.
"Yes, I think that's
perfect!"
"Good, Snape said rising from his desk than I
think I will be on my way to lunch now. That's where your
headed too if I'm correct."
"Huh? Oh yeah."
"Then
I guess we will be walking together."
"Really?"
Arianna gaped as Snape walked out the door so she rushed out the door
to follow after him. She blushed as she walked down the hallway
beside him, not having anything to say. Snape seemed not to mind
the silence at all though. After a minute or two, they had
reached the Hall and Snape went to the teachers table as Arianna
found her place next to Rane who looked rather alone without her
friend eating with her.
"You
do realize that clocks won't move no matter how hard you glare at
them?" Rane asked as Arianna sat down and began to pile
food onto her plate.
"I swear something is wrong with the
clocks in this school!" Arianna complained. "They're moving
much too slow today."
"Right," Rane replied
sarcastically. "Anyways, what did Snape say?"
"Tuesdays
and Fridays!" Arianna replied in a memorized way.
"Fridays?!?
That would be tonight!"
"It is? AWESOME!"
"Yeah,
awesome," Rane said a little distantly as her
friend
rejoiced.
