The next few days flew by rather quickly, much to Shayne's surprise. She could remember when she had first started university and the days seemed to drag on for eternity, just as they had when she had gone to secondary school. But working at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was a blessing in disguise. She had been helping out nearly every professor there (aside from the hawk that resided in the dungeons) and she had even helped out Madame Pince, the librarian. Much to her displeasure she had spent the entire time attempting to categorize large volumes that of course could be separated perfectly fine into multiple categories. She had then been asked to reorganize the Restricted Section, and in return had nearly gotten one of her toes bitten off by a small demon hiding in the pages of a worn leather book.
She had, however, managed to talk to the headmaster and had gotten him to agree on allowing a one night sleepover. She had asked him for more, trying to possibly get one every month, but he had told her they would wait and see how this one panned out. Now she just had to find a way to get all of the girls who wanted to attend to sign a form that would give them the permission to be out of their dorms that night and allow them to all convene in the Great Hall for a night of good times. Thank goodness some of the students had already tried getting on her good side by helping her out whenever she needed it.
"Ah, Hermione. Just the girl I wanted to see." Shayne could sense the girl's apprehension at being summoned in the middle of the hallway, but the bushy-haired brunette made her way over to the woman anyway. "You're not in trouble, love. Ease up. Actually I was wondering if you could do something for me. I'm going to be making a form for girls who want to attend the sleepover, and I figure the best way to have everyone sign it would be to post a form in each of the house's common rooms. If I gave you a copy would you post it in your common room?"
Despite the fact that she worked at the school, she was still new. And as such, it didn't seem as though she was trusted as much as some of the other professors. So they had yet to reveal the passwords to the houses to her. Not that she didn't understand that. They were in war, and only a crazy person would just go around giving out passwords willy-nilly. She had to keep telling herself that despite what everyone thought, and despite how crazy he seemed, Albus Dumbledore was not a moron.
"Of course I can put it in there. Who are you going to get to put them in the other houses?" Hermione Granger was by no means a stupid girl. She knew enough about pretty much everything she did to make herself seem like an expert on the subject. But when it came to Hogwarts, Hermione really was an expert. She had read the book Hogwarts, A History more times than she could count, and she had become friends with nearly all of the ghosts. Peeves was the only one she didn't wish to be friends with, and the Bloody Baron was about as cold as Severus Snape so it was proving to be rather fruitless. She had also been attending the school for six years. So she pretty well knew everyone in attendance. Due to this extensive knowledge, she knew who was to be trusted and who wasn't.
"Well, I was going to have you, Lisa, Daphne and Hannah go ahead and take care of it for me. Did you have a better suggestion?" Since Shayne was so new she valued Hermione's opinion when it came to who to trust with such a simple task and who to not trust. "I'll give them to you later on today and then I'll ask for them back say in a couple days, maybe a week, that way all the girls have a chance to sign it when its convenient for them, then afterwards I'll have you guys bring them back to me so that I can bring them to the headmaster. He wants the lists so that those girls who are on the list won't get in trouble if they're caught roaming the halls. I'll of course have all the girls meet up with me for a meeting a day or so before the actual sleepover so that I can set some ground rules."
She hadn't noticed that she had been walking with Hermione towards the girl's next class until they stopped outside an unfamiliar dark wood door. She let her eyes linger around the dimly lit hallway and then turned to Hermione who was just about to enter the classroom. "This is the dungeons isn't it?" She flinched when the girl nodded and then she took a deep breath. It didn't matter that she was in the dungeons. It wasn't as if a hawk-faced bat was going to swoop out of nowhere and kill her on the spot.
"Now that's where you're mistaken, Ms. Taylor," she heard someone drawl from behind her elbow. Her eyes went wide and she looked like a deer caught in the headlights when she turned around to see the very same hawk man that she had been thinking of. "By the way, Ms. Taylor, it would be in your best interest to learn occlumency. I am a very skilled leglimens. And I don't ask permission to invade people's minds. Especially minds that are so easily opened." He watched as a deep scarlet blush covered the woman before him. "Be on your way now."
She stomped her foot on the ground like a small child and pointed a finger at him, slamming it into his chest. "I won't be on my way until I decide I want to be on my way. I don't know who you think you are but you don't own this castle. You don't even own these dungeons. So just get off your high horse and stop thinking that you're better than everybody. Because to tell ya the truth, asshole, you're not. You think that just because you're tall and imposing looking that makes you better? People aren't really afraid of you. And why would you be sitting here bragging about being a leglimens? That automatically makes people think you're a dark wizard. Why would you want people to think that? So you can feel better about yourself, making kids so nervous that you can't teach them anything because they are so busy trying not to make a mistake in your presence? You're like a vulture or something just waiting for something to go wrong so you have something to pick at."
On the outside Severus Snape kept his cool demeanor, managing to look bored throughout her entire monologue. On the inside, he was fuming. Not only had the redhead dared to touch him, but she was sitting there talking to him as though her were a mere child. How was she to know whether or not he owned the dungeons? And was she stupid, or just really that out of touch? Of course he wanted people to think that he was a dark wizard. That's what happened when you were working as a spy not only for the Dark Lord but also for Voldemort. It played in his favor that students feared him. And she had just contradicted herself by saying that he made students nervous not minutes after she had told him that nobody feared him. He tried getting into her mind at that moment to see if she was one of the ones that he made nervous, but she had blocked him. She probably hadn't done it intentionally though. It was most likely the anger that was radiating off of her in waves that was causing the block in her mind.
He let his eyes leave her form when he heard cheering coming from inside his classroom. Had she really been loud enough that the students had heard her? Probably. He shot a look at them that would normally have them all quivering in their seats, but it did nothing to still the cheers and laughter of the students in his class. He was going to have to have a word with Ms. Taylor later on. For the moment, he was just going to have to go ahead and put on a front of indifference and go about teaching like normal. She hadn't even been around for a week and he could already see that this was going to be an extremely long year.
A/N: Wow that's pretty much the fastest I've managed to type out a decent update. I hope it's to everyone's liking. Thank you, Skylark Potter, for reviewing the story. You made me want to actually continue writing. Glad to see someone is humored by Shayne Taylor. She's as stubborn as our friend Severus, isn't she. So please, I know you guys are reading it, please review. Let me know what you think. If you like it, let me know what you liked. If you didn't like it, let me know what I could improve on.
xoxo.