The Affair of Severus Snape
Chapter 2: A Long Line of Detentions and Possible Intentions
Severus watched in fascination as Professor Hernshaw threw a multitude of healing spells at Black's bloodied form. The weakness in his knees only grew worse as he saw no changes in Black's condition. He knew as soon as the curse had left his wand that he had made one of the biggest mistakes of his entire Hogwarts career. He had not created a suitable counter-curse.
What would happen if Black actually died? He would undoubtedly be expelled, his wand possibly snapped, and thrown into Azkaban to rot. A small voice in the back of his head told him he should be happy, and that his was exactly what Black deserved. But that small voice was drowned out by his overlying worry of what would happen.
"Professor, you have got to save him!" James begged to the professor. Potter would never forgive him if Black died.
Professor Hernshaw whipped her face up to look at him. "What spell did you use?" she demanded, her own voice as frantic as Severus's own thoughts were.
"Sectum Sempra," he replied, his voice cracking. The reaction was not what he had expected. Rather then pushing the professor into even more panic and confusion over not knowing what the spell was, it seemed to almost make her more calm and sure of herself.
"Of course," the professor muttered to herself. He watched as the professor quickly knelt back down besides Black and with a twirl of her wand added with a spell whispered so soft he could not make it out, the skin that had been cut open seemed to be pulling itself back together.
"Thank Merlin," he sighed to himself, before he realized the words had left his mouth. Bringing a shaky hand to his forehead, he whipped away the slight sheen sweat that had formed on his brow. He was not going to be thrown into Azkaban. How the Professor had healed Black, he didn't care. All that really mattered was that he hadn't killed Black today.
His reprieve did not last long however as the angry gaze of Professor Hernshaw and James Potter fell upon him. "Thank Merlin, indeed, Mr. Snape," she snapped angrily before casting a silent levitation charm on Black. "Had I not been making my way down this hallway, Mr. Black would now be dead, and the consequences for that would be far more severe. Do you understand?"
"Of course, Professor," Severus replied meekly, unable to hold her fierce gaze.
"Good follow me. We are bringing Mr. Black to the infirmary." She walked away from both him and Potter, Black floating behind her. Severus looked over at Potter, waiting for him to move. There was no way he was going to let the other angry boy behind him.
"You are a bastard, Snape. A fucking bastard," the other boy whispered angrily as he took a quick glance towards the professor making sure she had not heard him, before he stalked off after his fellow injured marauder. Severus followed more slowly, letting Potter's words roll over him. Maybe he was, to them at least. It was not as though they did not dish out their own amount of nastiness though.
While Severus had thought that the trip up to the infirmary would be silent, he was surprised when the Professor began to speak.
"Mr. Snape, the damage you inflicted upon Mr. Black is severe. Within all rights I would have recommend that you be expelled had I not seen the curses that were first being thrown at you. Mr. Potter, that spell could have also inflicted serious and irreversible damage on Mr. Snape had it found its target." Severus took a quick glance towards Potter. The other boy didn't even show the least bit of guilt as he held his head high. Severus couldn't help but frown at the other boy.
"However, because I can only monitor so many detentions, I will be leaving Mr. Potter's and Mr. Black's punishment to Professor McGonagall. Mr. Snape, you will be serving detentions every weekday with me after dinner. I expect you to be at my office door promptly at seven, every evening until winter break."
"Very well," Severus replied softly as they made their way up the set of stairs to the infirmary. As they came to the top of the stairs, Professor Hernshaw stopped at the landing, leaving the two seventh year boys to look up at her. Her brow was crinkled in anger and her lips set into a tight line, and her hands had found their way to her hips. Severus felt his heart sink. Never before had a Professor been able to make him feel as guilty as she did.
"I am sure I don't need to lecture you on the dangers of dueling. This is evidence enough, and I know from the other professors that they have lectured you on it far too many times. I will say however, that I will not stand to see either of you fighting in the halls again. I may be a new professor here, but that does not mean I will allow such behavior to continue. I would highly recommend that both of you clean up your acts."
Severus only nodded, and it seemed that Potter was even beginning to feel a bit abashed for his actions.
"Professor McGonagall will be speaking to you directly, Mr. Potter. And Mr. Snape, I will see you this evening. Now off with both of you."
Severus did not need to be told twice. Without taking a glance back at the curly haired Professor and his hated rival, he fled to the dungeons.
Later that evening Severus was standing in front of the professor's door with sweaty palms and slightly queasy stomach. At dinner, his fellow slytherins had congratulated him on having the gall to put Black into the infirmary before the first week of term had even passed. They had been less impressed that he had detention until Christmas break. It was not very sneaky of him after all. Regardless, it had gotten Severus more attention then he was used to.
Now however, it was time to face the music and go to the first detention of a long series of detentions. He had no idea what to expect from this new professor. No one had been given detentions with her yet. Who would, it was only the first week of term! He could only hope that they would not be so tedious that he would be unable to get through to winter break.
Raising his hand he gave a quick rap of the door. The professor's tired voice drifted out through the door. "Come in, Mr. Snape." He opened up the door and walked in. The professor was sitting in the chair behind her desk, a mess of papers strewn around her and her hair pulled up to reveal the nape of her neck as she leaned over one of her scrolls. She looked up as he approached the desk and pushed herself back from the desk.
"Well, Mr. Snape, welcome to the first detention of the year." Her voice was tired, and as Severus looked unto her eyes, he could see that the spark that had originally been there earlier that morning was missing. When he didn't say anything she continued. She leaned back in her chair, her hands gripping the arms of the chair. "Do you regret cursing, Mr. Black?" The question was calm, and her faced seemed to relax as she looked up into his own.
That was all it took to put Severus's mind into overdrive. Usually professors wasted no time and would just give him a menially task, maybe a brief lecture, but they never asked him how he felt about what he had done, or done so in such a relaxed manner. He stared back at her for a moment. Did he regret cursing Black? He did not regret that Black had gotten hurt. He regretted that he had not been able to remove the curse when he felt it needed to be. He regretted getting caught. "In a way," he said carefully.
"Expand, Mr. Snape," she prompted. "What do you regret from today."
He licked his lips nervously, and suppressed the urge to fidget under her gaze. "My choice of curse." It seemed to appease her. The professor relaxed more into her chair and nodded thoughtfully to herself.
"Yes, you did seem sort of shocked in spot when I showed up. It is an impressive curse, very hard to staunch the bleeding," she said as though they were discussing a textbook curse rather than Black who had been on the ground, bleeding to death. She motioned for him to sit down in the chair in front of the desk. "Well, at least I know you are truthful, not spouting of a story about being regretful about cursing Mr. Black."
Severus, who was lowering himself down into the uncomfortable wooden chair that sat across form the Professor's desk, looked up at her in slight surprise. He expected that she would want him to feel remorseful about Black. "He is not my favorite person here at Hogwarts," he supplied, his voice slightly rough.
"Oh, I know. As I said earlier, I have heard all about it. Now, why did you regret that particular curse." She pushed on, digging deeper.
"One should never use a spell that you don't know how to undo," He replied quietly as he looked at the doorway with a slight longing, rather then at the professor.
"A truer statement was never issued," the professor agreed. Severus shifted slightly as the professor regarded him silently, her eyes intensely staring into his before she continued. "The spell was your own, wasn't it?" It was a blunt statement. It was not accusatory and the professor seemed to say it with pure curiosity as she looked over at him.
Severus returned her gaze uncomfortably. None of the other professors knew he was dabbling with spell crafting. It was the ace up his sleeve, so to say. A hidden talent. "I would ask that you don't share that with anyone else."
"For now I wont. I just hope this is a lesson in the dangers of testing uncompleted work." The professor stood up and walked over to the window that overlooked the grounds before she turned back to look at him. "You are very lucky that I knew a suitable general counter-cures. Not as effective as one that would have been designed for your specific curse. Mr. Black will most likely suffer from rather sever scarring, but better then bleeding out."
Severus found himself merely nodding to what the professor was saying.
"You are probably wondering about how these detentions will go," she prompted as she leaned up against the windowsill.
"Yes," Severus supplied as he shifted in his seat. He could just imagine doing lines every night for the next few months. It seemed to amuse his professor though, because the corners of her mouth began to quirk up at his apparent discomfort.
"I have spent most of the afternoon trying to think up an appropriate punishment, but I came up with very little. Minerva suggested that I make you go work out in the Forbidden Forest for the next few weeks. I think she was secretly hoping you would be eaten for hurting one of her Gryffindors." She paused briefly.
"I didn't think that would be appropriate though. None of the regular detentions that the professors here have given you have ever worked to change the behavior between you and that group of Gryffindor. And, while detentions are here to serve as a punishment, you are also suppose to learn from them, so I have decided that your first task will to be finishing the counter-curse for the curse you created. I want to see two detailed parchments on it, one on the curse itself, and one on the counter-curse. Is that acceptable?"
Severus was surprised to say the least. When he had walked in the door he had been expecting to do something like lines for the next few weeks. Now he was being offered a space to work on his spells, away from the other students. Of course he could agree to that. "Yes." That was all he needed to say in response to that sort of request.
The professor was smiling now, and not nearly as worn looking as she had been when he had first walked in. So far this was proving to be the strangest detention he had ever had.
"There is of course the small request that goes along with this. I want you to stop this ridiculous feud you have with Mr. Black and Mr. Potter. No more curses being thrown in between you, and try and cut back on the insults. Just ignore them if you have to. Walk away from them."
He could already feel his heart beginning to sink. Of course there were strings attached. Asking for their rivalry to end was like asking someone to capture the moon and bring it back.
He must have been showing his dislike of the request, because the professor continued on. "I don't expect it to be overnight, but a concrete effort on your part would be required. If not we can go back to doing something as dull as lines from now until Christmas." Her eyes seemed to twinkle as she said it. She knew that she had him. He would try just about anything to get out of that many lines.
"Very well. I will try and be more civil." The words were rough in his mouth, but he forced them out regardless.
"Very good!" the professor said as she clapped her hands, smiling at him. She walked over to a bookcase that stood in the corner of her office. "I have pulled together some resources you may not have come across thus far. If any of the books are of interest to you, or you think the will help you with your first two essays for me you are welcome to borrow them." She motioned him over, and Severus could not help but wonder at how long she had planned on giving him this opportunity if she already had books pulled out for him. It was as if she had been planning this all along.
There were copies of books he had already looked over such as Basic Spellcrafting, The Arithmacy behind the Wand: A complete overview, and Creative Wand Weaving: A spell guide. But there were also a number of books that he had not come across before. It was as he browsed over the titles that her sweet low voice interrupted him. "What do you think?" she asked.
"It is a very nice collection," he was forced to admit as he turned his attention back to his professor who was now sitting back behind her desk. "Are they all yours?"
"Yes. As you are aware, it is always nice to have a few spells only you know. It helps when you are in a tight spot." Severus found himself nodding it was a logical argument. "Now, I believe you have an assignment to work on for me. Let me know if you have any questions."
"Of course," Severus replied as he watched her opened her own book to read. Then, without even really thinking of saying it four simple words slipped from his tongue. "Thank you, Professor Hernshaw."
AN: maybe getting of a bit easily, oh well. I just cant see her assigning something as unproductive as writing lines.
