"Pass me some of those eggs over there, Ron" said Hermione, pointing at a plate of fresh fried eggs sitting in the midst of other dishes on the Gryffindor table. Ron lazily passed the plate to her and saw Harry, who just came down from the Gryffindor tower, walking towards them.
"Mornin' Harry" Ron said with his mouth stuffed with two pieces of toast.
"Oh Harry, Good Morning" greeted Hermione.
"Morning" Harry called back and took a seat beside Ron. Just then prefects came striding down the hall and gave out new timetables to the students.
"You'd better eat fast Harry," said Hermione.
"First lesson of the day, Potions, two periods, with Slytherins" said Hermione, reading from her timetable she'd just got from one of the prefects. The news made Ron and some other fifth-year Gryffindors sitting nearby groaned.
Harry turned to Ron and nodded his head in agreement.
"Let's just hope that none of us get into any trouble. Snape will take points in a flash." Both Hermione and Ron nodded.
"Yeah, that rotten ol' git'll take points from every house except Slytherin" Ron spoke through a mouthful of eggs and toast.
"Those Slytherins could bring about the end of the world and he wouldn't do much more than give them a detention!"
"But hey, how much do you think my mouth can be filled at a time?" said Harry, taking a sip of pumpkin juice from a goblet that had just appeared from the table.
Both Hermione and Ron had finished eating. Hermione, as usual, wasted no time and had her new book, 'A Guide To Transfiguration: Book 5' propped open against a milk jar. As for Ron, he was busy admiring his new collection of wizard cards he'd got for his 15th birthday.
The bell soon rang.
"Just let me finish my omelette," said Harry. Ron and Hermione nodded and continued to talk about just how absurd Professor Snape was.
Ron concluded loudly, "That Snape, you can't trust him as far as you can throw him!" Hermione and Harry just laughed as they headed down the dungeons for Potions class.
Ron spoke up, " Fred told me that Slytherin's got a new house-mate. A girl just transferred here from another wizarding school. Somewhere in America..."
"A new girl? Hope she's pretty" said Harry playfully.
Hermione poked his back and teased, "What, Cho Chang's not enough for you? Besides, none from the Slytherin house I've seen is nice" The three of them laughed and Ron joked on how Harry and Cho Chang would be a perfect couple.
While they were walking down the corridor towards Potions class, Harry, Ron and Hermione distinctly heard a girl's voice.
"Shh.." said Harry, wondering if maybe she was in some sort of trouble
"Listen, you guys..." They listened and heard her shouting obscenities and every swear word under the sun.
"DAMN YOU PEEVES!" The girl shrieked and then stormed off in their direction, as the three of them laughed their heads off.
The laughter was only broken by the presence of Harry's old foe, Draco Malfoy. He had always thought Harry was a rival to him in everything. For that, he had always been in Harry's hate list after Snape. Behind Malfoy were his two best friends or also referred as bodyguards because they always followed him no matter where he went.
"Back to school for another year of adventure Potter?" said Malfoy. There was always the old sarcasm in his tone. Malfoy sneered and narrowed his eyes at Harry and Ron.
"So tell me Potter," he began, his voice dripping with disgust,
"What are you going to do this year? Save the Mudbloods again…" his eyes shot towards Hermione, "or something...else?"
An unfamiliar girl soon appeared behind Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"What are you doing, Draco?" she asked. Both Harry and Ron turned to look at her as she came closer. Harry thought this must be the new student whom Ron was talking about a moment ago. Hermione, on the other hand, just looked on the dungeons' filthy floor, thinking how worse her day would get.
The girl had mysterious, large almond eyes and her hair fell past her shoulders, ending in small curls. She had a heart-shaped pink lips and a nose centred right in the middle of her face. She was almost too pretty to be in Slytherin. Her eyes shot between the three Gryffindors. The puzzlement in her eyes turned into malice and she looked at Draco, then to Harry.
"Oh hello, Frances Adams" said the new girl to Harry, sticking her hand out for a shake. But when her eyes shot at Harry's scar, she pulled it back at once.
"Aah...so these are the Gryffin-dorks," she said it slow and clear so that no one could miss a word. She smiled at her joke and narrowed her eyes at them.
"The mudblood," she pointed at Hermione,
"The poor kid," her finger darted to Ron,
"...and the suck-up scarhead." her finger pointed right between Harry's eyes. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle snorted with laughter when they heard this. Harry looked as though a hammer just hit the top of his head. Ron was no better. His palm was clenched on his copy of 'Potions for Intermediates' and his hair had gone redder than usual. But nobody seemed to notice that tears were filling Hermione's eyes. Frances turned back at Malfoy.
"What's so funny, Draco?" She turned on her heels and walked into the classroom, throwing her books onto the desk loudly. Harry, Ron and Hermione were still standing there at the dungeons corridor, shocked of the new girl's attitude. Hermione blinked and the tears loaded in her eyes fell on to the floor. Apart from Malfoy himself, this was the second person she knew who had called her using that foul term for muggle-borns.
"It's alright Hermione, she's just jealous of you, that's all." Harry began after a long silence filled among them. Realising that they had noticed her crying, Hermione hastily wiped her tears off with the back of her hand.
"Yea Hermione, don't you eat her words," said Ron, trying to make up to her. Hermione tried to force a smile at them but she knew Ron was still burning with anger. Even though Ron always tried to hide it from Harry or Hermione, he also always hated the fact that he was poor. Not to mention all the hand-me-downs he had to live on.
"Come on, let's get inside," said Harry, trying to change the subject.
They walked into the classroom and took their normal seats, which were at the very front of the classroom. Snape had put them there so he could easily harass Harry with lots of questions.
Meanwhile Frances was looking at her robes, which were stained with ink.
"Damn that Peeves," she muttered and then pulled out some parchment. She tried wiping away at her robes, but it just wasn't quite working.
Soon, Snape entered and had started his lecture on disenchantment potion. Every now and then, like always, he took off points from Gryffindor for any mistakes they did.
While Snape was having fun bullying Neville, who had broken one of Snape's ingredient bottles for the second time now, Frances wasted every perspire she had trying to clean the stain on her robes. Her head was rattling on the inside, wondering of ways to get Peeves back for messing with her, so she hardly paid attention to Snape, who was calling her name and had been for a few minutes.
All of a sudden, Snape stood in front of her desk but Frances, whose nose almost touched the pages of her book, didn't notice he was standing there until he cleared his throat rather loudly. She looked up at him and blinked a few times, then looked back down at her book.
"Yes, Professor?" she mumbled, still locking her eyes onto the words in front of her. Snape's upper lips were set into a straight line and annoyance glared in his eyes.
"What do you think you're doing, Ms Adams?" said Snape, looking down at her through his greasy black hair.
"Huh, what?" asked Frances blankly.
"It's your turn to test your disenchantment potion. But, I don't recall seeing you brewing anything since the start of the class?" said Snape, now moving closer to her.
She looked at him, even more puzzled now then slowly closed the book, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Oh, I'm sorry...I wasn't paying attention." She spoke, a sarcastic tone ringing in her words. She smirked and opened the book again.
"Oh Severus, I think that bottle is out of fix"
He looked at her, puzzled and fuming at the same time.
"What bottle?" he spit out. She smiled and threw her feet on the top of the table, purposely knocking over a particularly large bottle.
"That one."
Snape looked at her like a raging bull. He was squeezing a bottle of flobberworm mucus tightly as though he intended to break it in his hands and his eyes were glinting with disgust. A tense silence instantly filled the room. Hermione clapped her hands over her eyes. She couldn't bear to see what was going to happen next.
"What on earth does she think she's doing?" Ron whispered to Harry. Harry couldn't believe his eyes either. No one had dared to fight Snape's words back like this before, no one he knew at least. This was almost like stepping on a sleeping lion's head.
"What's the meaning of this?" Snape spoke through his gritted teeth. Frances grinned and stared straight at the book, not daring to look at Snape.
"Hey Severus, need help? You're lagging" She looked up at him and got up to grab a washcloth. She smirked at the Gryffindors as she passed them. She was particularly mean to poor Neville and she made sure to step on his foot, then screamed at him, accusing the nervous Neville of trying to trip her. She grabbed a washcloth then headed back towards Snape.
"Here...you might need this." She threw a dirty torn rag at his feet like a house elf.
Snape looked down at it lying on his right foot. He kicked it away, looked up at Frances again and grabbed her by the collar.
"I expect a better behaviour from you missy, first you've not made the potion I instructed, second you've just lost me my invisible potion..." pointing at the broken pieces of the large bottle that had scattered on the floor "and third," he gritted his teeth harder when he saw Frances smirk "you as a student, don't - call - teachers - by - their – first - name!"
Frances was not entirely listening to his words even though she was looking at him straight in the eye. She looked as though she was more interested in counting the pimples on Snape's cheek. Realising that Snape had stopped talking, she gave an evil grin. It was obviously not the respond Snape had expected.
"Also, you'd better mind your manners when talking me or I shall send you back to that ruddy old school of y-" Snape was interrupted by something. He shifted his look his left.
It was Malfoy. He, who was sitting beside Frances, raised his hand straight up in the air. He also had the shocking look like everyone else.
"What? Mr. Malfoy" Snape frowned at Malfoy. Draco gulped and looked at Snape from his seat.
"Well, Professor Snape, you see she's had a really bad day. Frances ran into Peeves and well...you know."
"What is it, Mr. Malfoy?" said Snape, looking at him with puzzlement on his face.
"P-Peeves, he" Malfoy stuttered as he glanced at Frances and turned back to Snape.
"He harassed her," he said. Snape frowned again and gave Malfoy a look into his eyes as though searching for truth, and finally turned back to Frances again.
"Well well well, Ms. Adams it seems very lucky of you to have a friend like Mr. Malfoy here. You might want to thank him for covering up for you. But even if it's true, still, I don't tolerate such behaviour even if you're in a bad mood or not!" Snape said and went away to the rest of the Gryffindors to test their potions.
Frances did nothing but nodded in response. She was shocked at the way Malfoy stood up for her and she had no idea why. When she was sure that Snape was out of hearing bounds, she turned to him and whispered,
"Malfoy, what was that all about? "
He gave her a puzzled look and then smirked.
"You're one of a kind, you're the only one I've seen insult the Gryffindorks and then insult Professor Snape after that!"
"Anyways, thanks," said Frances, giving him a smile, which stunned Malfoy by the look of it.
She looked much prettier when she was smiling. In the next milli of a second, Frances held his hand. Ron and Harry who were sitting just across the other row of the desks noticed this. They frowned at each other at the sight of it and told Hermione, who was busy mixing the Wigentree Bark and Napallus Stem in her cauldron, about it. Both Harry and Ron pretended to vomit but Hermione, however, looked bewildered when she saw this.
"Malfoy?? with her?? no.." said Hermione, still fixing her gaze at them.
"Why? What's the problem? Besides, cows need each other, don't they?" said Ron.
"N-Nothing" Hermione said briefly and decided to return to her potion.
Before Hermione could turn back to her work, Frances somehow managed to notice her looking at them and then snickered loudly, whispering to Malfoy. She made sure to whisper loudly when mentioning what Hermione had said, giggling at Malfoy when his eyes widened.
"What?!" he gasped.
Frances raised her hand and asked to be excused, which took a bit of convincing since the bottle incident. She finally got her chance to get up then waited for Snape to turn around when she walked past the Gryffindors and pretended to drop her quill.
"Oops" she said, and then bent down to pick it up in front of Hermione. Frances slowly stood up and held her hand out to her.
"I'm sorry," she lied and held out her hand to Hermione.
Frances watched Hermione think, then when Hermione reached for it, Frances quickly pulled it back, then leaned in closer to Hermione.
She whispered, "Sorry, too late. You had your chance, you pathetic mudblood..."
She turned to Ron and Harry and rolled her eyes at them, giggling to herself as she quickly walked out the door to avoid Snape in case he turned around.
It was a few minutes before Frances returned to the classroom and when she did, the first thing she did was to look at the damage she'd done, sniggering at Hermione who's eyes were red. Frances took her seat quietly, then looked at the board and copied down the night's assignment.
The rest of the class was just copying notes and listening to Snape's boring lecture on the function and effect of the disenchantment potion. At long last, the class was over. Everyone filtered out the class quickly as though they were out of oxygen. Harry and Ron were still making up to Hermione as they walked out of the class. When Frances had packed her books and ready to go, Snape suddenly called out,
"Ms. Adams, I'd like a word," There was still a mix of annoyance and hatred within his eyes. Was Snape looking for revenge? Frances thought.
She nervously nodded and snuck a glance over to Malfoy, who seemed as stumped as she was. He shrugged and stood up to leave, mouthing the words,
"I'll wait for you." Frances knew he wouldn't, but she nodded anyway, and stood up to see what Snape's problem was.
"Yes, Severus?" she asked, finishing putting away her quills.
"What's the problem?" She quickly looked up to see his eyes, which she could have sworn were turning redder by the second.
He seemed tired or rather no point of telling Frances again not to call him by his first name. Snape waited until Malfoy and the others had cleared the classroom before he began. He sat down at his desk and looked up at Frances who was standing abreast.
"I want to talk about Mr. Malfoy." he said.
Frances was pretty puzzled at this.
She wondered what she had to do with Malfoy and why it was any of Snape's business.
"Well," she said impatiently eyeing the door, "What is the problem?"
She sighed as she saw all the other kids shuffling their way to get to class. She looked back to Snape, complete annoyance in her eyes and voice.
"I don't think I have to mention it, you know it yourself." said Snape. This annoyed Frances a little.
"Spit it, Severus," Frances blurted out. Snape frowned when she said this but he chose to ignore her and continue.
"I know you fancy each other, you and Malfoy, he has been my student for 5 long years already and I've never seen him standing up for any girl before, not one."
She blinked a few times, trying not to laugh.
"What...you mean..." She made a rolling motion with her hand, "You think we're a couple or something??"
She raised an eyebrow at Snape, "Why is it any of your business? It's my life, not yours. I'll see anyone I want! Hell, I'd go out with that Weasley boy if I knew it would bother you."
Snape ignored her again.
"The thing is, young lady, Mr. Malfoy happens to be a great student in my house ever since he came into Hogwarts. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to be a distraction to his performance in his work"
Frances looked insulted at the very idea.
"You think I'm a distraction?!" She stood up, her voice rattling a few bottles.
"Excuse me, SEVERUS, but I'd rather spend my time being distracted by HIM!! Your class is so damn BORING. I don't have anything else to focus on!!"
Snape got up from his chair and grabbed Frances by the collar. "What did you say? Did you say that my class is BORING?!" yelled Snape, now more furious than ever.
Frances gulped, but stood her ground. She squirmed her way out of Snape's grip and stood a bit back.
"Oh, did you not hear me?" She asked and grinned.
"I'll say it again for you." She cupped her hands to her mouth and hollered at the door, "SEVERUS SNAPE'S POTIONS CLASS IS BOOORRRIIINGGG!!!" She stood back and grinned, but her smile faded when she looked back at Snape who was fuming angry at her.
He had it. He had made the boiling point. Frances just gulped, stood back and watched the outcome of her words.
Suddenly,
"THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU! DETENTION AT HAGRID'S HUT! FOR A WEEK STARTING FROM TONIGHT! URGH!" Snape roared as though he was out of his mind.
The next second, he snatched out his wand from his robes and pointed it at Frances. Before she could even blink, Snape had shot her out of the room through the door. She was thrown out along with her books and banged into the dungeons wall.
"AND I WARN YOU, IF YOU GET ANY CLOSER TO MALFOY, YOU WOULD GET WORSE THAN THAT!" roared Snape, still pointing his wand at Frances, who sat leaning against the wall. Snape then muttered a spell and wrecked pieces of the door of was fixed where it was and it looked exactly like it was before.
Frances's whole body was aching with pain. However, she quickly got up and pick up her books when she noticed the presence of Harry, Ron and Hermione.
They stood there, eyes widened and jaws dropped. They were clearly shocked of what Snape had done.
"There you go, you saw everything, you happy? Go on laugh it out!" Frances said, fighting back her tears. She then stormed off the dungeons without any further words.
They just stared after her, puzzled.
"Well with that kind of manners she's got, serves her right!" shouted Ron, so Frances could hear him
"Ron, shut up for a second," said Hermione, who felt sorry for Frances.
"What? I'm just saying the truth," said Ron defensively.
"Save your breath you two, come on, we've got Defence Against the Dark Arts next," said Harry, who felt very sorry for Frances.
They nodded and set off to the third floor. Defence Against the Dark Arts happened to be one of their favourite subjects, which unfortunately was said to be jinxed because the professors who had taught them never lasted more than a year. They were, however, anxious to meet their new professor because this year it would Fleur Delacour who was going to teach them.