Scarlet Rose

Chapter I

By Midnight Moonchild


Disclaimer: None of the Harry Potter characters belong to me they all belong to J.K Rowling. I only Own Victoria Scarlet my OC this is for entertainment only I make no profit from this story.


Victoria woke to the sound of her alarm clock and rolled over to turn it off. She kicked the covers off and stretched before swinging her legs off the side of the bed to get up. She stifled a yawn and padded into the bathroom for a shower.

A few moments later she immerged from the bathroom and dried off before changing into her work robes which consisted of a knee length black skirt with simple high heeled black shoes. And a red ruffle shirt with a deep crimson robe top over the top that had black trim at the front and on the sleeves. She then charmed her hair strait and applied a little lipstick before slipping her wand into her pocket.

Once she was satisfied with her appearance she left her rooms and applied her sealing charms to the door before making her way to the great hall for breakfast.


She looked up at the doors to the great hall and took a deep breath before entering.

It was not too crowded yet but every now and then a group of students would file in, it seemed most of ravenclaw where already eating with a few Gryffindor and Slytherin but no sign of hufflepuff.

Dumbledore, Mcgonagall and Snape where at the head table as she made her way across the hall, she jerked her head up hearing a wolf whistle. Snape looked up hearing it to and couldn't help the smile tugging at his lips when Victoria whacked the culprit over the head with the daily profit on her way past rolling her eyes.

He had to admit with a raised brow that she did indeed look good in her robes but it was extremely rude and inappropriate to wolf whistle a professor of Hogwarts. He rolled his own eyes when he realised it was a boy from Slytherin, his own house.

Victoria took a seat between Snape and Dumbledore and began to fill her plate with a yawn.

"Not a morning person Victoria." Said Dumbledore with a chuckle Victoria just scowled at him and took a sip of her orange juice.

"Not everyone is a morning person like you Albus." She said with a grumble.

"My my looks like you have something in common with Snape." Dumbledore chuckled. Victoria glanced at snape who was glaring at Albus.

"So it would seem." Victoria smiled at Snape before taking a bite out of her toast. She then lent over to Snape and whispered in his ear "Is he always like this in the morning." Snape nodded and Victoria sighed before leaning back in her chair "may god save us all." She muttered looking up at the enchanted ceiling.

Once all the houses where down and eating breakfast Dumbledore stood and walked over to the podium in front of the head table and greeted the students.

"Good morning I have an announcement." The students all fell silent then looking up at Dumbledore with rapt attention.

"Professors Flitwick has retired and the position of charms professor has been taken over by Professors Victoria Scarlet." Said Dumbledore gesturing to where Victoria was seated.

Victoria stood and gave a little bow to the students and she couldn't help but smile when the Slytherin that had wolf whistled at her earlier ducked his head in embarrassment, he had apparently not realised she was a professor.

"I trust you will give her the respect she disserves." Dumbledore said looking directly at the Slytherin table before he returned to his seat.

"Your first charms lesson is later this afternoon with Gryffindor and Slytherin." Dumbledore said as he made himself comfortable in his seat, Victoria gave a little nod.

"I suppose I should spend this morning planning a lesson then shouldn't I." Victoria chuckled

"Indeed." Said Snape getting up from his seat "If you will excuse me." Snape said to Victoria before turning to leave for his classroom.

Victoria finishing her breakfast and left for her own classroom a moment later to prepare for her first lesson.


The charms classroom was a fairly large room. A high backed chair was pushed in by a desk at the back with a few papers in neat stacks on the desk. The Desk itself was deep mahogany and had a few draws for parchment and other items. Several small desks with chairs where aligned in neat rows. Behind the desk was a few bookcases staked with books and a Fireplace was to the left of her desk.

Victoria set up a small table with a china cup and plate before making her way to her desk to make sure all her notes where in order. She smiled when the first students began to file in.

"Welcome class please take your seats." She said in an authoritative but relaxed tone and watched as the students went to their seats.

"I am professor scarlet. I used to be a student in this very school 10 years ago. I am so happy to be given the chance to teach here." She said as she wrote her name on the black board Before turning to the class.

"I only have a few ground rules in my class, I expect everyone to follow them. These rules are as follows" she paused for a moment to make sure everyone was paying attention before continuing.

"One No talking while I am talking. Two No speaking out of tern, if you wish to speak you will raise your hand. Three In this class, if you answer a question right you will earn house points However if you answer a question wrong, I will deduct house points. Therefore I advise you to only raise your hand to answer a question if you are sure of the answer." She looked up noticing a student at the back was dosing off and frowned.

"I also expect my students to give me there undivided attention, any student caught dosing off will face Detention." She raised her voice near the end and smiled noticing she now had the dossing student's attention.

"If my rules are respected, I will respect my students. Do not expects this courtesy if you are going to be disruptive." She said giving everyone a look of warning.

"Now then." She said sweetly "we are going to be learning a little charm that will make a fragile object unbreakable, Can anyone tell me the incantation for this charm?" She said her eyes scanning the classroom for any raised hands and frowned where they so unsure of themselves that they couldn't answer a simple question.

"I see. Well if you're not confident I will enlighten you. The incantation is very simple. Impervius." She said moving from around her desk to lean against it facing the class.

"Now saying this incantation isn't enough, There as a little wand work involved and you must focus." She looked around the room for moment before continuing. "Would anyone like to try this charm on this china tea cup?" she asked and smiled when a young boy from Slytherin stood and walked to the front of the class looking a little smug.

"Excellent. Now remember concentrate on the cup and flick your wand gently with the incantation." She said offering the student the mug.

The student took it from her and looked back at the other Slytherin students and grinned before looking at the mug.

"Well then give it a try." She said leaning against her desk the boy looked up from the mug for a moment and looked at Victoria her robe had slid to the side exposing a high heeled shoe and part of her left calf. The boy blushed quickly looking away to tap the mug with his wand and recited the incantation rather shakily.

Victoria had seen him looking but said nothing and took the mug from him.

"Shall we see if it has worked?" she said and then proceeded to drop the mug a smile spreading on her lips when the mug shattered into tiny pieces.

"Oh dear, it seems your concentration was off." She said frowning down at the boy as he sat back down looking embarrassed. The Gryffindor students laughed at this and then fell silent when Victoria looked at them in warning.

"Settle down." she said sternly before picking up the china plate from the small table she had set up. "Allow me to demonstrate." She said and ran her wand over the plate. "Impervious." She said firmly before dropping the plate only for it to bounce and roll under her desk.

She sighed irritably before speaking again."Right lets split you into pairs and see if we can learn this charm." She said walking down the centre isle of desk and pairing up students.

"Begin." She said watching to make sure they were working before she knelt to pick up the plate from under her desk and nearly hit her head on the corner when something was flicked at her bottom.

She stood sharply and spun on her heel catching the student responsible laughing with his charms partner and walked over to his desk to glare threateningly at him. the Class fell silent and turned to watch what was transpiring near the front of the class.

"100 points from Slytherin and detention Mr Smelting." The boy looked up with a smug grin like he had accomplished some great victory.

Her lips thinned and she glared at the boy before a nasty smile spread across her lips making the boy swallowed nervously. "With filch." She said sternly. "And I will be having words with your head of house as well." "but." The boy protested. "Unless you wish for another detention with filch I would keep your mouth shut." She growled before returning to her desk as the class return to work in silence.

She sat down sharply and opened a draw to her desk pulled out some parchment and a quill and placed them on the desk then proceeded to dip her quill into the ink to write a letter.

She folded the parchment and turned to the fireplace left of her desk and threw some powder from a pot hanging to the left of the fireplace into the Hurth. There was a crackle before the fireplace burst into green flames.

She threw the letter into the fireplace. "Professor Snape." She said and watched the letter disappear with a pop the flames going out a second later.


Severus sat at his desk grading papers in his office, the room was silent with only a small candle for a light source casting eyrie shadows through the many glass jars scattered on shelves around the room filled with all sorts of liquids and potion ingredients.

Severus always did enjoy the solitude of his office to the hustle and bustle of the staff room. He found he could get through his paperwork faster in his office. His office was also a great place for meeting with rebellious students. The jars behind his desk with pickled animal remains and other strange substances seemed to put the students on edge. Giving him the advantage of intimidation to get the truth out of them.

Strange crackling sound caught Snape's attention for a moment before the fireplace burst into flame coursing drawing Snape's attention to be drawn to the Hurth. Something was flung out of the fireplace. Snape's eyes followed the object, a Letter as it settled on his desk as the flames went out. Snape looked at the letter for a moment wandering who could of sent it before reaching out to pick it up and read it.

Dear Severus

Just thought I would let you know that Mr Smelting has lost your house 100 points and will be serving Detention with Mr filch tonight at 8pm.

Victoria

Snape frowned at this and wandered what an earth one of his students could have done to lose so many points he would have to ask Victoria about later. He threw the letter in the bin and returned to his grading he would have to deal with it later he had far too many Essays to grade.


Victoria sighed behind her desk as the last of her class filed out of the room.

"How was your first lesson?" Dumbledore said entering her classroom and walking over to her desk.

"Good for the most part but I fear Slytherin will have to work hard to earn back the points they lost." She said nonchalantly.

"Was there some trouble?" He asked softly taking a seat.

"Yes it seemed Mr Smelting thought it amusing to flick things at me, Needless to say the students are now aware of the consequences of getting on my bad side." She said with a growl.

"I see." said Dumbledore. "I shall leave you to recuperate then my dear." He smiled reassuringly at her before turning to leave. Once he was out of her room he made his way down the corridor that led out of the dungeons and nearly bumped into Snape.

"Oh terribly sorry Snape I didnt see you there." Dumbledore chuckled Snape merely raised a brow at him and moved to let Dumbledore past.

"Yes well. I best be off Foux is due a burn day soon." Dumbledore said before walking off. Snape shook his head, Dumbledore could be very peculiar sometimes.

Snape turned and entered Victoria's classroom hoping to find out about the letter she had sent him earlier.

"Good afternoon Severus." Said Victoria looking up from her desk when Snape entered.

"Good afternoon." Said snape "May I enquire as to the reason why so many points have been taken from my house." Snape asked taking the seat Victoria gestured to.

"I thought you might ask about that. I took the liberty of bottling my memory of the incident, sometimes seeing believing." She smiled handing him a glass bottle with a silvery glowing substance inside it.

"My pensive is in the corner over there." She said pointing to the right hand corner of the classroom.

Snape stood and walked over to the pensive and poured the contents of the bottle into it before leaning down to watch.

Victoria watched him flinch slightly before he lifted his head and looked at her in disbelief.

"I believe I will be having words with Mr Smelting on what is appropriate behaviour in the class room. I must apologise Victoria that was completely inappropriate of him." Said snape strolling back over to her desk with a deep frown on his face.

"Yes I agree." She said in irritation. "But no matter, I have dealt with the situation." She said. Snape merely nodded in agreement.

The room was silent for a moment before the shuffling of clothing caught victorias attention. She looked up from her desk to Snape and watched him reach into his robe's pulling out envelope which he opened before pulling out a small piece of parchment.

"The ministry have sent me an order for more veritus serum." He said sliding the piece of parchment across her desk so she could read it.

"They want how much!" She gasped Snape nodded in understanding.

"I thought since you're to be my assistant, Now is as good a time as any to start don't you." Victoria nodded dumbly.

"Indeed." She said opening the desk draw to put away her papers before sliding it shut and moving from behind her desk to follow Snape to the Potion classroom.


They walked into the potions room and got to work immediately.

Snape went into his store room to fetch the ingredients while Victoria set up to cauldrons.

Snape set out the ingredients into two separate piles and handed Victoria her pile before starting to prepare some of his own ingredients with a knife.

Victoria put the heat on under the cauldrons and then went to work preparing her piled of ingredients.

For a while they worked in silence the only sound being that of their knifes slicing roots and other ingredients.

"How long have you been a Potion Master?" Victoria asked finally breaking the silence as she stirred in another ingredient into her cauldron.

"A while." Said Snape stirring his own cauldron.

"Well that's descriptive." She said looking up from her potion but Snape hadn't heard her he was to engross in what he was doing.

Victoria watched him work for a moment. He was very efficient at preparing the ingredients and putting them in the cauldron at just the right moment.

It was then that she noticed his hands. They were nice hands not rough as she had imagined they would be, he obviously took good care of them.

She quickly added the next ingredient and stirred the cauldron a few times before leaving it to boil and returned her attention to Snape and was shocked to find him looking right at her.

"Something the matter Severus?" She asked Severus blinked a few times.

"Worried I was going to put the Eye of newt in to early?" she offered.

"Indeed." Said Snape turning up the heat to his cauldron. Victoria chuckled softly returning to her potion.

"You needn't worry Snape. I do know what I'm doing believe it or not." She said adding the final ingredient.

"I can see that." He said adding the final ingredient to his potion as well.

"These will need to heat for 2 hours. Tea?" Snape offered moving over to the kettle he had set up for just such an occasion.

Victoria nodded and took a seat near the kettle while he set up some cups.

"Sugar?" He asked turning to look at her.

"No thank you, I'm Sweet enough." She smiled at his confused expression. "Not heard that one I see, it's a muggle saying." She explained taking a cup of steaming tea from Snape.

"I see." He said taking a seat to sip his own tea.

"My mother was a muggle." She said putting her cup down to cool. Snape however said nothing.

Once there tea was finished they sat back in there chairs and waited in silence, after a few minutes Victoria chuckled to herself and Snape looked up at her in confusion.

"I'm sorry." She said calming herself so she could speak. "Are you always this good at conversation?" She smiled when he cocked a brow at her.

"My apologies I'm not used to." He paused for a moment trying to find the right word. "Company." He said watching her reaction.

"Surely you have friends." She said leaning back in her chair. Snape merely shook his head.

"Not even one?" she asked "what about Dumbledore?" She asked softly, again he shook his head.

"Dumbledore is headmaster, I find him to interfering to be considered a friend." Snape said not sure why he was telling her this.

Snape wasn't the type to reveal information that seemed irrelevant but something about Victoria made him divulge it anyway.

"Well then let's make a deal." Snape cocked his other eyebrow at that statement.

"What ever do you mean?" He said more than little curios.

"From this day forward, you and I will be friends." She said with a smile offering her hand for him to shake.

Snape looked at her like she had grown a second head for a moment why on earth would she want to be his friend. What was she after?

"Don't worry I'm not after anything. It's just, well everyone disserves to have friends and. Well you worked so hard during the war. You disserve to at least have a friend." She said her hand still extended towards him.

Snape shook his head then.

"The potions are almost ready we should begin to stir them again." He said changing the subject and ignoring her hand as he got up from his seat and moved to his cauldron.

Victoria sighed and moved to her cauldron as well "Don't think changing the subject it going to put me off." She said as she began to stir her potion. Snape however ignored her.

"I wander what would make him so mistrusting of people" Victoria thought to herself as she removed her cauldron from the heat and left it to stand while she cleaned up the mess left by the ingredients she had prepared earlier.

Snape watched her out of the corner of his eye as he cleaned the desk of residue. was she really serous about being his friend? He couldn't tell. He supposed his years as a death eater and spy for the order had made him distrustful.

She seemed genuine enough though perhaps he could risk it, he had survived the war what harm could come from letting her be his friend. It would at least make things more interesting.

Once everything was tidy they began to pour the potion into clear glass bottles and then packed them into a box and sent them to the ministry via Floo.

"Well that didn't take us to long." She said trying to lighten the mood. "Yes I suppose you are right, perhaps having you as an assistant won't be so bad." He said packing away the cauldrons.

"Would it be so bad if I was your friend also?" She said this time she didn't offer her hand. Snape sighed and looked at her for a moment as if he was assessing his options.

"No I suppose not." He said and this time when she offered her hand he took it. "Friends?" She said then blushed when he kissed her hand.

"Friends" Said snape before turning to leave the room.

Victoria stood there for a moment. He had kissed her hand. "What a peculiar way to make friends." she thought to herself before making her way out of the room and down the corridor, heading for her rooms.

The dungeon corridors where beginning to get cold as night settled over the castle.

Victoria moved about her room collecting her night things before walking into the bathroom for a quick shower before bed.

After her shower she pulled the covers back from her bed and slid under them drawing them up to her waist.

She then leant over to her bedside table to pick the book she had left there. She read until her eyes grew heavy before putting in her book mark and putting the book back on the bed side table.

She then turned out the light and pulled the covers up over her to sleep.


Auther Note: Well this is chapter I so far its not going to bad. Hope you like it so far please R & R and let me know what you think.