A/N: There's little love lost between me and Snape, but this is my head canon.

The bell reverberated through the castle, and Ginny stuffed her Dark Arts book haphazardly into her bag. Maybe Amycus had forgotten—

"Weasley, come 'ere," said Amycus, and Ginny accidentally met his pale little eyes for a moment before looking away. She moved reluctantly toward Amycus's desk at the front of the room, avoiding the sympathetic gazes that a few of her classmates dared to shoot her before they scurried to safety.

Merlin, she hoped that he didn't use crucio. She had only been subject to the Cruciatus Curse twice, but some of the others had said that it was becoming the exclusive form of punishment for the Carrows. She cursed herself for losing her temper. If he tortured her, it was likely to put her out of commission for Thursday night.

Which would mean that the teams would have to be shuffled around, and some other Gryffindor, Parvati probably, would have to take her place. And Merlin forbid something happened to Parvati, since she was the closest thing to a proper healer that the D.A. had. Damn it, this could fuck everything up.

"Robbins, Loony, out!" Amycus commanded, pointing a fat finger at Luna and Demelza, who were dithering by the door.

Demelza met Ginny's eyes, and Ginny jerked her head toward the door. It wasn't as though they had a choice, was it?

"We'll wait for you in the corridor, Ginny," said Luna calmly, though her gaze was fixed on Amycus rather than Ginny. Luna allowed Demelza to tug her out of the room, and Amycus flicked his wand at the door. It slammed shut, and Ginny was pleased to notice that Amycus had jumped slightly at the noise.

Amycus's pale eyes darted around the now empty Defense classroom before fixing themselves on Ginny again. He smirked at her. She hated it.

"You think you can be cheeky, don't you?"

"No."

"Think you can talk back to people more important than you cos you've got tits?"

An icy cold rushed through her. Oh, Merlin, no, no, no.

"No," she said. She hated how quiet and meek she sounded, but she couldn't make herself say something else. This wasn't happening. This couldn't happen. Someone would come in. Another professor.

She could scream, but Amycus was sure to have remembered the silencing charm. He always did for the Cruciatus curse.

"Oh I think you do, pretty," said Amycus, and his dinner plate-sized hands wrapped tightly around her waist. She started to pull away, but he gripped her tighter. His thumbs dug into her sides painfully. She shouted, but it was like speaking underwater. The silencing charms held strong.

Her head felt light with sick fear, and she squirmed, her arms pinned at her sides. He grinned stupidly and lifted her so that the tips of her school shoes just brushed the classroom floor. Her sides hurt from the pressure of his fingers, and she kicked out as hard as she could. He yelped, but his grip tightened. He swung her around so that her body was pressed up against the desk. Ginny tried to kick again, but he had pushed his legs against hers. She contemplated the level of force it would take to break Amycus's nose with the top of her head.

But Amycus was much bigger than she was, and when his hands were placed like that, she didn't have a single inch of leeway. Her wand sat in her pocket, utterly wasted.

"You need to learn a bit more respect," he breathed, and she felt the weight of his body against hers as he leaned toward her.

"Professor?" said a voice. Ginny's heart skittered. She couldn't see Snape properly over Amycus, but it sounded as if he was standing near the door. "I need you to patrol the sixth floor," said Snape. His tone oozed boredom, as if one of his professors wasn't pinning a student against a desk. Amycus's grip loosened as he glared at Snape and Ginny squirmed slightly so that she could see Snape over Amycus's shoulder. Snape wasn't looking at Ginny.

"I'll be down in a minute," said Amycus, tightening his grip again. "I've got to deal with this first." He shook Ginny lightly, as if she was a toy he was not yet willing to share.

"I'm afraid this is rather important, Professor Carrow," said Snape, inspecting his wand lazily. He still hadn't bothered to look at Ginny.

Carrow set his prey back on her feet and let go. He pulled a face like a petulant child as he stalked out of the room.

Ginny straightened up and pulled her robes tighter around her, watching Amycus leave the classroom. It wasn't until she heard his footsteps on the stairs that she dragged her gaze to Snape.

Snape's dark eyes moved from her uniform shoes to the Gryffindor tie around her neck. "Ten points from Gryffindor, Weasley," he said coldly, pointing to the untied tie.

Snape usually left discipline to the Carrows, but she shuddered to think what Snape would have done to her if had heard her talking back to Amycus Carrow in that afternoon's lesson. She waited for whatever he was going to say next. Detention for the rest of the year? Extra "muggle studies" classes?

He pursed his lips. "Are you going to wait here all day, Ms. Weasley?"

"No, sir. I—I thought—" She dithered on the spot, waiting for him to dole out his punishment.

"Go back to your dormitory. Now."

Ginny's sense of self-preservation returned, and she bolted down the corridor.

She stumbled through the portrait hole, and was halfway across the common room when someone grabbed her arm. She shouted instinctively, but it was only Demelza. "Merlin, Ginny," she said, looking half-annoyed, half-relieved. "What happened? You look like you just ran all the way here."

"I—I'm fine."

"You shouldn't be straining yourself. I've got dittany and some nerve soothing solution in my bag— "

"No, he didn't—I'm fine. He didn't torture me."

Demelza looked at her skeptically. "Luna and I were waiting for you down the corridor," she said, crossing her arms "But Snape caught us and told us off for loitering. Told us to go straight back to our dormitories or he would use the Imperius on us. He would too, the evil bastard. He didn't—you didn't run into Snape, did you? He didn't do anything to you?"

"No," Ginny lied quickly. "I told you, I'm fine. Carrow just went on a bit. He—he didn't curse me." She was aware that she sounded tense to the point of rudeness. She needed to get away from Demelza, go up the dormitory. There had to be a logical explanation for Snape's behavior, if she could only have a few minutes alone.

Seamus approached the two of them, and it was clear from the way he scanned her from head to toe that Demelza had already told him everything. "You're alright?" he said, sounding just as suspicious as Demelza.

"It's fine," said Ginny. "I'm fine. Let's just drop it, yeah?"

Demelza gave her another suspicious look before doing as Ginny had asked. Ginny was forced to endure a whole twenty minutes of D.A. discussion before she claimed to have Charms essay and retreated to her dormitory. She replayed the incident in her mind, Amycus's hands on her and Snape's cold expression. But she couldn't understand why Snape had dismissed her so readily.

Amycus smiled down at her. "Good morning, pretty," he said, in a voice just for her. It had been nearly a week since their last encounter, and Ginny shrunk away from him instinctively, gripping her wand. But he kept his distance. "You're lucky, you know that, pretty? The headmaster says I can't touch you no more."

"What?" said Ginny, confusion jolting her out of her fear.

Amycus's lips spread into a wide grin. "Says he wants you for himself."

Ginny had barely a moment to process this when a gaggle of Hufflepuff students came into view. She took the opportunity to sling her bag over her shoulder and walk briskly away from Amycus. Her feet carried her to the Transfiguration corridor, where she smiled faintly at Demelza and tried to put Severus Snape out of her mind.

She was on edge for nearly a month, carrying her wand with her as well as a few Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products that she thought would be particularly useful if Snape tried something in a corridor. Amycus's statement echoed in her mind, making her feel as though she might vomit.

But after a month of inactivity, she felt herself relaxing slightly. Snape had barely acknowledged her. She wondered if Amycus had misunderstood.

Then one night, as she was getting ready for bed, the realization came to her with such force that she swore out loud.

"Alright, Ginny?" said Demelza sleepily from the other bed.

"Yeah, sorry," Ginny muttered distractedly. Her mind was whirring, moving into place like the gears of the clock that looked out over the grounds. Detention with Hagrid. Taking house points as punishment. The vitriolic insults and threats of dark magic. Interrupting Amycus that afternoon.

Terry Boot's face swum to the front of her mind, and she felt a stab of guilt and pain at the memory. But that hadn't been Snape, had it? It had been the Carrows. And that night…

But no. There was George's ear. And Dumbledore. There was no explanation for what happened to Dumbledore. Snape had killed Dumbledore in cold blood.

She cursed herself for her moment of naiveté. How had she forgotten about Dumbledore? Snape was a Death Eater and Voldemort's right hand man. How could she have doubted Snape's loyalty for even a moment?

She was seeing patterns where none existed. Maybe she was going a bit mad from stress and lack of sleep. Snape was a Death Eater, and nothing more.

It was impossible.

A/N: The idea for this is based on a comment made by Harry that Snape must have thought that sending Ginny and the others into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid was a punishment. Snape would want to make sure his discipline looked sincere to Voldemort and the Carrows, and sending students into the Forbidden Forest would accomplish this because the Voldemort/Carrows were not familiar with Snape's teaching methods and punishment style pre-DH. Only students who knew what Snape was capable of pre-DH would be able to realize that he was holding back, and they would be blinded for the most part by their preexisting bias. But here, Ginny gets a tiny moment of insight before it's crushed by overwhelming evidence of Snape's guilt.