She's his student, he's the most hated professor in the school. Then she saves his life.

Looking back now, I probably shouldn't have been wondering the halls of Hogwarts at nearly four in the morning. If I hadn't, though, there was no telling what would have happened to him, the "Bat of the Dungeons." Who else would have cared? The only reason I was up was because the day before had been full of stress, and my mind wouldn't stop shut off enough for me to sleep. Plus, the common room was full of bitches, so I couldn't hide away there. Which means it was good for him I had had a horrible day.

First, there had been that blasted letter from my father, announcing his engagement to my aunt. I mean, really? My mother had been dead and buried for less than six months, and already he was replacing her. With her sister, of all people. I had been going to owl my brother, ask him if he knew about this, but then I remembered that he was in Romania, working alongside Charlie Weasley. It would take days for the owl to reach him, and even longer to get a reply back, so I decided it wasn't worth it.

Second was the detention. My very first Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the year, and I was already in trouble. That had to be some kind of record. Wait… no. Fred and George Weasley, a pair of Gryffindors in my year, most likely had topped that. But anyway… What did the Umbitch expect? That her students were going to just sit around, reading out of a book, while a killer was on the loose? I probably shouldn't have called her Umbitch to her face, but, I mean, seriously. Either way you look at it, there was a killer out there. If you believed Harry Potter, you-know-who was back, and had killed Cedric Diggory in the last task of the Triwizard Tournament last year. Or, Sirius Black was out there, having escaped from Azkaban after murdering thirteen people with one curse. Not that I believed it. After all, I remembered how, in my fifth year, Potter was going on and on about how Black was innocent. I believed him. Yeah… that's me. The weirdo that believes an attention-seeking teenage boy.

So, getting the detention wasn't all bad. Yeah, she yelled at me a bit, took points off, assigned the detention. But that wasn't the worst part. Oh no. The worst part was when I got to the detention. I walk in, and she tells me to sit down and start writing lines, with her special quill. I knew something was up with that, but stupid me, I took the damn quill from her and wrote. And what I wrote on the parchment… Well, it's now etched into the back of my hand.

Then, I get back to the Ravenclaw common room and what do I find? My boyfriend locking lips with Cho Chang, the house whore. Needless to say, I am now single, whereas he…well. He has a… fuck buddy… as my brother would put it. In the end, it will be him that's sorry.

Any one of these things, by themselves, wouldn't have set me off and make me storm out of the common room at midnight (which was when I started wondering around, by the way). But put them all together, and you get an extremely pissed off witch. Roger and Cho are just lucky that I didn't punch one of them.

With a groan, I slid down onto the top step of the suitcase. I was tired. I was pissed (clearly). I wished I could scream, but all that would do would be to draw attention to the fact I was sitting out here, in the middle of the night, and get me another detention, and, with my luck, it would be with the Umbitch.

It was the quiet footsteps that made me realize that I wasn't alone. Though, I should have realized that before. In a school as big as Hogwarts, one is rarely alone, even when they wish to be. The footsteps were getting closer and closer, but I just didn't have the energy to stand up and try to hide. A light came into my view, and there he stood, the potions master, Severus Snape.

I knew immediately that something was wrong. He didn't look right, his face was grayish, and from where I was sitting, I could hear his breath coming out in gasps. "Professor?" I asked quietly, but he didn't seem to hear me. "Professor Snape?" I said, louder this time, and he looked at me, his eyes struggling to focus. I stood up. "Professor, do you need me to get someone?" His response was to sink to the floor. "Sir?" I could feel my heart pounding as I walked over to him, and kneeled.

This was the man that had made everyone that wasn't a Slytherin hate him since he began teaching. He was the hated teacher, a bully. Where another student would have left him there (yes, I knew some that would) I couldn't bring myself to. I wanted to. Why should I help him, when he's done nothing but ridicule me and everyone else?

What could I do? I couldn't just leave him here while I went for help. There was no telling what would happen while I was gone. I frantically looked around, and then I realized, duh. I stood, walked over to the portrait of a woman, and gently prodded her awake. I wanted to be frantic, but I didn't want to wake the entire castle, either. Once awake, the woman glared at me. "Can you get Madame Pomfrey for me?" I whispered to her. She looked curious. "Fourth floor, hospital wing. One of the teachers-" I glanced back to where Snape was lying. "One of the teachers is sick." She nodded, and raced away. I went back over to Snape.

"Madame Pomfrey's coming," I told him, using my wand to cut off a piece of my jacket, and using it to wipe away some of the sweat pouring down the potion master's face. "She'll be here soon, I promise. Then you'll be okay." There was no response, but I hadn't expected there to be. I bent down, took his wrist, and felt for his pulse. It was beating too fast, this I knew. But why, I had no idea. With a sigh, I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes. If only I knew what was wrong with him, I could heal him myself. Maybe. But I didn't want to risk anything, I didn't want to make whatever it was worse, which could happen if you don't know what you're doing

I opened my eyes again when I heard the hurried footsteps, and Madame Pomfrey came into sight. She took one look at the professor, and gasped.

"Miss Russell, help me get him to the hospital wing, now," she commanded. She went over to his side and somehow managed to get him standing up, well, with him leaning heavily on her. "Get his other side."

I obeyed. I didn't bother to ask why we couldn't just use magic, having been under training by Pomfrey, I knew that there were some types of illnesses that the use of magic would worsen, no matter what kind of magic you used.

Somehow, we managed to get him up two flights of stairs to the Hospital Wing, and get him into a bed. "Ali, if you'd like, you can take a bed in the corner," she told me. "So you don't have to walk all the way to the Ravenclaw tower this late." I didn't move. "Or, if you want, you can help me with him," she said, nodding towards Snape. I agreed.

We spent hours on him. At the end of which, all we had managed to do was get his color to normal. His breathing was still heavy, and from what Pomfrey said, his heart was beating too fast. Finally, she stopped casting spells, and sank into a chair. "Ali, I want you to go to the Great Hall. It's breakfast time, so the Headmaster should be there. Tell him what happened, and that he needs to get here as soon as he can."

"I'm sorry, Madame Pomfrey, but can you tell me what happened?" I asked quietly. "Because I'm not sure if I know or not."

"He had a heart attack." I stared at her. "What I'm about to say does not go out of this room, understand?" I nodded. "Professor Snape has had a heart condition his entire life. I've been treating him for it for most of it, but lately… it's been worse, and I fear…" she took a breath. "I fear that he would have died tonight if you hadn't been there."

"I'll… I'll go get the headmaster now…" I mumbled, leaving the hospital wing. Heart attack? Death? My bad day yesterday was nothing compared to this. Entering the hall, I felt all eyes of Ravenclaw on me. Of course, everyone had seen the scene last night when I shouted at Roger that we were over, but I no longer cared. "Professor Dumbledore," I addressed the headmaster. "Madame Pomfrey sent me to get you."

He raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"

"It's… it's Professor Snape, sir." The old man froze. "He had… um… he was sick last night, and she requested to see you." He was off at once, with me following close behind.

When I sat down and started writing, I meant to finish up another chapter for Traitor's Daughter or The Island for you guys. But... this came out instead. Things do that to me sometimes. So... Hope you enjoyed it anyway, and I'd like it if you reviewed and told me wat you think of it :)