I'MA FEELING IT! It's nearly midnight, it's storming outside and I'm in a place without wifi and I'MA FEELING IT! YEAH! WHOOP! This takes place in Harry's second year, btw.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets belongs to J.K. Rowling, not me.
(Begins page 95 in the Chamber of Secrets for critics)
Harry was relieved to hear the lunch bell. His brain felt like a wrung sponge. Everyone filed out of the classroom except him and Ron, who was whacking his wand furiously on the desk.
"Stupid - useless - thing - "
"Write home for another one," Harry suggested as the wand let off a volley of bangs like a firecracker.
"Oh, yeah, and get another Howler back," said Ron, stuffing the now hissing wand into his bag. " 'It's your own fault your wand snapped - "
They went down to lunch, where Ron's mood was not improved by Hermione's showing them the handful of perfect coat buttons she had produced in Transfiguration.
"What've we got this afternoon?" said Harry, hastily changing the subject.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Hermione at once. "I'm really excited for it this year. Have you heard who our new Professor is?"
"No, why?" said Ron, eyebrows furrowing.
"You'll see. This teacher is making history with the thing's she's accomplished so far . . . ."
They finished lunch and continued on to DADA class. Harry and Ron watched Hermione scramble for the last open seat in the front row between Neville Longbottom and Dean Thomas.
"Hermione's never been so excited for a class since, well, forever. This Professor has to be really impressive, eh Harry?" said Ron, taking a seat next to Harry in the third row.
"Yeah," said Harry, nodding in agreement. In room ahead of the student desks was the Professor's desk. Unlike last year's arrangement of jars full of various remedies warding away werewolves and vampires, on the desk was a few picture frames, a wooden pitcher with a wine glass, an ink and quill, and a Muggle computer. On both sides of the desk was a steel Muggle filing cabinet just like the one Mr. Dursley had had in his home office.
"She must be a fan of Muggle things," said Harry, leaning over to whisper to Ron.
"Dad and her would get along," commented Ron, and the door to the classroom swung open.
"Hello class! My name is Professor C. Snape. The 'C' is my first initial so you do not get my name confused with Professor Snape, and he will now be professionally called Professor S. Snape. But who is called what is not part of my class, so, I am about to pass out a pre-curriculum quiz. It gets your brain started after forgetting info after the summer holidays . . . ." said the new Professor, walking to the front of the classroom. She paused and turned to the students. They are stared at her gaping, mouths unhinged and eyes wide. All except for Hermione, who was smiling so wide one would expect her face to split in two.
Our new Professor was a student. She couldn't be any older than thirteen. Her uniform consisted of khaki pants, a big sleeveless dark blue turtle neck (she obviously cut the sleeves off herself), a round ruby with gold trim necklace, and showing proudly on her chest was the green and silver Slytherin tie.
"Oh, yeah, I might want to introduce myself," said Professor C. Snape, straightening her posture and clearing her throat.
"My name is Celestia Lily Snape. I graduated Hogwarts last year because I started when I was four years old. I did actually do pretty well, I have to say. My last name's Snape because Professor S. Snape is my father . . . ." she paused when a gasp sounded from the class. People quickly started whispering one another.
"Snape has a daughter?"
"Who's the mother?"
"What person in the right mind would do it with him?"
"Alright! That's enough! You obviously have some questions, and I'll answer five of them for you," said Professor C. Snape. Hands immediately shot into the air, among them Hermione's and Ron's. The Professor counted the raised hands, and went to sit on the edge of her desk. Sitting crossed legged, she looked up at the class.
"Hmm, let's see . . . Ms. Granger?" said Professor C. Snape, waving her finger in Hermione's direction.
"What is your favorite ability that you possess?" asked Hermione, leaning forward in her seat.
"Oh, wow, that's a hard question. You apparently read that biography on me. Hmm . . . probably telepathic time travel. That's always good fun," said Professor C. Snape, taking the empty wine glass in one hand and the pitcher in the other. She slowly poured herself a glass of bubbling purple liquid.
"Neville - Er - Mr. Longbottom?" said the Professor, taking a sip from the wine glass.
"What's that your drinking, Professor?" asked Neville, tilting his head to one side slightly.
"This? Grape soda, it's a Muggle drink. Very sweet, too. Mr. Weasley?"
"Who's your mum?" said Ron, and a few people dropped their hand. Hermione peered back at him and shook her head as a warning.
"My mum? My mother died shortly after I was born. I never knew her. It's always been a sore subject with my father, so we don't really talk about her much. I don't even know her name," replied Professor C. Snape solemnly. It must have stirred unwanted memories.
"But, moving on, Dean - ah - Mr. Thomas?" said the Professor, turning towards Dean Thomas.
"I never thought Professor Snape married," said Dean.
"That's because he - Nothing! I said nothing! What did I say class?" said Professor C. Snape, hastily hiding the answer to Dean's question. The class was silent.
"What did I say?" said the Professor, repeating her question.
"Nothing," a few students murmured here and there.
"Good! 5 points to Gryffindor!" said Professor C. Snape, standing up. "One more question, um, Harry Potter?"
All heads turned towards Harry. He felt his face heat up. When had he held his hand up is the first place?
"Ah, um, what did your mum look like?" said Harry, pulling on the neck of his shirt.
"Oh, well, she had red hair . . . it was lighter than mine, though. Blue eyes, I think. Well, actually, I have a picture of her right here," said Professor C. Snape, walking behind her desk. She picked up one of the many picture frames off her desk, and showed it to the class.
"Hold on, let me make it a bit bigger," said the Professor, mumbling an enlargement spell under her breath. The frame grew about four times its original size. A few students leaned forward in their seats to get a better view.
It was a picture of a little girl, maybe nine or ten years old. Just as Professor C. Snape said, she had red, long hair and light blue eyes. She was wearing a simple green sun dress and a smile brighter than the sun. The girl started moving, waving at the camera and jumping happily. She ran into a field of flowers behind her, spinning around and laughing laughs that could not be heard.
"She was a Gryffindor you know, like you guys. Great in Transfiguration," said Professor C. Snape, nodding at the picture. "Met my father when they were kids. Before she even knew she was a witch. Crazy, right?"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione cheerily walked out of class with no homework. All throughout class they took assessment quizzes, actually listen interested to her stories of werewolves, and read parts of their textbooks.
"That was not actually half bad," said Ron, who seemed like the only thing he could talk about was that afternoon's DADA class. "I could say that was enjoyable. You couldn't say that about any old class, now could you?"
"No," muttered Harry, quite tired of hearing Ron ramble about how great DADA class is now, and how amazing Snape's daughter is.
"I agree, the way Professor C. Snape teaches is astonishing. I took notes, and did you know she managed to slip in all of what a regular lecture would introduce? It's a great tactic to keep the class looped into learning without it feeling like learning. It's remarkable," said Hermione, agreeing with Ron. They continued on to their next class, chatting furiously about just how great and remarkable and astonishing Professor Celestia Snape is.
Harry paused in the hall for a moment. Was he jealous? Was he jealous of a Snape? No, he couldn't be. Just because he didn't like hearing his friends talking about her doesn't mean he was jealous of Snape's perfect daughter that everyone loved, did not mean he was jealous.
You're jealous of her, Said a voice in Harry's head.
No, you just don't like her that much. That's not jealousy.
You're jealous.
"No I'm not," Harry muttered under his breath.
"Harry?" said Hermione. Harry's head whipped up. His friends had stopped talking and were looking back at him with concern written on their faces.
"Oh, coming," said Harry, catching up with Ron and Hermione. "Just lost in thought."
Ron and Hermione nodded to themselves, and then started back up on their conversation about Celestia Snape. Harry stayed silent walking beside them.
Harry spent a lot of time over the next few days dodging out of sight whenever he saw Celestia Snape coming down a corridor. Harder to avoid was all the talk about her throughout the school. It seemed like every student except Harry was absolutely smitten with their new Professor, giving her the nickname Professor C. Nothing seemed to
be more annoying to Harry than hearing her name every time he turned a corner.
Hearing snippets of conversation about her when he walked down the halls was a nightmare.
"Did you hear? Nearly all her students have perfect grades in her class!"
"Is it not sad about her mother? She must have been such a lovely lady,"
"She's our age, ya' know. Do ya' think she'll go for out of the Slytherin house to find a boyfriend?"
Harry was thankful the one day Ron and Hermione stopped talking about Celestia Snape and had a normal conversation, which Harry gladly joined in. They turned into another corridor when he saw First year Gryffindor, Colin Creevey, talking with a group of three older Ravenclaw boys. Harry strained his ears to hear their conversation.
"Okay, Mr. Creevey, here's your reward for your hard work," said one particularly tall boy with straight brown hair. He handed Colin a basket full of chocolate frogs.
"We pre-checked them all for the cards you requested. Now, give us what we requested," ordered a boy with a prefect badge displayed proudly on his chest. He stuck out his hand, waiting to receive whatever Colin had in store for him.
Colin stared down with wide eyes at all the candy in his hands. He nodded, still looking at his candy, pulled out an envelope from his robes and handed it to the Ravenclaw prefect.
"Open it, open it! I want to see them!" said a boy with copper skin and curly black hair, excitedly jumping in place.
"Quiet Ravi," said the tall boy, who was watching the prefect boy open the envelope. Their eyes widened and faces went red. The prefect boy shakily handed the two others a photo, so the each had their own. The boy named Ravi squealed.
"D-Did you use a Muggle camera like we asked?" said the tall boy, stammering.
"Just like you asked," said Creevey, who seemed to be busy counting his chocolate frogs.
"Ahhhh haha, hey Lucas, let's get a move on editing these, okay?" said Ravi, who had his face so close to the photo his button nose was touching it.
"Y-Yeah, sounds like a pleasing activity," said the prefect boy, Lucas, and they all snickered. They slowly started backing away from Colin.
"Hey, uh, thanks again, Creevey, pleasure doing business with y-you," said the tall boy, not looking up from the photo is his handing. Harry thought he saw some drool making its way down Ravi's chin.
"A pleasure, Albert," said Colin, creeping away. Then the Ravenclaw boys ran away, hooting and hollering about "how lucky they are" and "wait till the guys see these".
"That's just disgusting," said Hermione, bringing Harry back to attention.
"What?" said Harry, turning to face Hermione.
"The business Colin has going. He has people give him requests of a person they want a picture of, and he takes that person long enough to get the pictures. Those boys said they were going to edit that picture. If it is a Muggle photo, and if they had the right amount of training, they could do who knows what to the figure in it," said Hermione, and shivered at the thought. "It's disgusting."
"Oh," said Harry, realizing what those boys were blushing about. Harry remembered the time he had to clean Dudley's room and finding his stash of magazines.
"I know those guys," said Ron, face scrunched up in scowl. "Percy talks about them. One of them, the prefect, is editing photos to sell around the school. Percy keeps on about what a disgrace they are to the prefect name. That must have been him,"
"Who do you think they got pictures of? Some girl in their house?" said Harry, continuing to walk to class.
"No. I heard from a Hufflepuff in the library that he's been getting a lot of orders for . . . ah . . . ." said Hermione, ceasing to continue her sentence.
"Yeah?" said Ron, looking over to Hermione.
"Professor C," said Hermione, lowering her voice to a whisper. Harry flinched.
"Ughhhhh," said Harry. He had had it. Professor C. this, Professor C. that, he had had enough!
"What wrong Harry?" said Hermione, worried about his sudden outburst.
"Professor C. this, Professor C. that, I've had it! How can everyone think she's just little miss perfect, eh? She's not all that good!" said Harry, letting out all his frustration at once.
He stood there in the corridor, breathing heavily.
"Harry - " started Hermione.
"What!" said Harry and whipped his head towards her. His face was red and his eyes blind with rage. Harry saw her face. Hermione looked a little, and just a little, frightened of Harry. His eyes widened. Harry started calming down.
"I-I'm sorry, it's just . . . I've had that held up for so long," said Harry, approaching his friends. Ron stepped in front of Hermione. Harry immediately thought the worst.
"No, Ron, I'm sorry, it's just - " Said Harry, but was cut off by Ron.
"Harry, are you calm now?" said Ron, and Hermione peaked out from behind him.
"Yeah, I think so," said Harry, nodding weakly. Ron paused before speaking again.
"Okay," said Ron, stepping out of Hermione's way.
"Hermione, I'm so sorry," said Harry, going up to Hermione to embrace her figure.
"I forgive you Harry. Though, there is something I'd like to ask you," said Hermione, stepping out of the hug.
"Yes?" said Harry, wondering just what Hermione wanted to ask him.
"Are you jealous?"
Oh, oh no.
Yep! There it is! I'm trying as hard as I can to write in J.K. Rowling style so it sounds more real. Like it was actually in the book. Just saying, I did Harry a favor by getting Lockhart out of the picture. Hope you guys like it!
~Mimi011