A/N: I'm still not really sure where I want this to go, and you can kinda see that in this chapter, so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
It seemed like an age before I heard Ginny's soft, hesitant, "Hello?"
I sniffled and wiped the remaining tears from my eyes and turned to see my friend with a concerned look on her face. "Hey, Ginny. I guess you heard what happened, huh?"
She nodded. "Well, I heard the boys' version of it, but what really happened? I don't necessarily trust Ron to convey the facts very accurately."
I almost cracked a smile. "I'd imagine they got it pretty close to correct. There's not much they could screw up." I pulled out the list from the bottom of my book bag and handed it to Ginny. I had made sure to charm it as soon as I had gotten the first round of tears out so it no longer said "professor." She looked at it and I continued to explain, "Basically I was just pondering this, and since we had a full forty-five minutes to do nothing, I started the list. Then Snape snuck up on me and grabbed the list out of my hands before I could finish charming the last entry on the cons side."
Ginny glanced down to check what that was. "I'm guessing it didn't say 'big feet' when Snape saw it, huh?"
"Not quite," I replied. "Anyway, he started reading the list out loud, but when he glanced over at the cons side he put two and two together and realized who it was I liked." I let the sentence trail off in an attempt to avoid the question Ginny was inevitably going to ask. I was, however, unsuccessful.
"So, who is it then? And what should that last con actually say?"
I sighed. "It should say professor."
Her eyes widened with understanding. She opened her mouth to start to say something, closed it, and opened it again, but nothing came out for a little while longer. "I, uh, don't really know what to say," she finally spit out.
"It's alright, Ginny. It is quite of a shock. However, it can hardly be counted as a real crush. He's my professor for goodness' sake. It's a stupid thing that I'm trying to get rid of, so I made a list."
She looked skeptical at that last statement. "You're trying to get rid of it and yet you have 'tall, dark, and handsome' written on the pros side?"
I winced. "Well, that's what I was telling myself anyways. Thanks for pointing that out, Ginny," I said sarcastically.
She let a smile grace her face for a second before sheepishly mumbling an apology. "So, what are you going to do about detention tomorrow night?"
"I don't know, Ginny. I think I'm just going to go in there with my head held high and not try to deny it. I think that would be better on my part rather than trying to go in making up excuses and worming my way out of it. Either way, I'm up for a lot of humiliation."
We talked of other things for awhile before heading downstairs for dinner. We met the boys in the Entrance Hall and sat down at our usual seats. Harry was carefully avoiding all mention of the subject during the conversation, but Ron was squirming uncomfortably the whole time. He obviously wanted to ask about it. At one point he opened his mouth, but Harry gave him a hard nudge in the side to shut him up. I gave a look to Ginny and she shrugged.
I escaped to the library that night to avoid the pestering questions I knew I was going to get in the common room. I left the library at the last possible minute and headed towards Gryffindor Tower as slowly as possible. With just a few minutes to spare before curfew, I saw a tall figure coming towards me down the hall. I realized who it was almost instantly and ducked into the nearest broom closet, praying he hadn't seen me. Slowing down when he reached where I was, he took a look around as if trying to sniff out any student who was about to be caught outside of their dorms after hours. I tried to stifle my loud breathing, but it was in vain. His deep voice rang out in the silence. "Ms. Granger, I know perfectly well that you are hiding in that closet. I saw you run in there. I know you are avoiding me, but you can only do so until tomorrow evening. If you miss that detention, I will double it. As you continue to miss, I will continue doubling the number. Before you know it, you could be in detention with me for the rest of the year."
His voice dropped to a whisper. I doubted he intended for me to hear the next part, but I did. "However, I daresay that might be your intention." His voice trailed off as he started down the hall. I let out the breath I had been holding and left the safety of my broom closet. I had just taken a few steps when a voice behind me yelled out, "You're breaking curfew, Ms. Granger. Twenty points from Gryffindor. Get back to your dorm this instant!"
I ran as fast as I could.
