Authors note - The drinking age is 18 in the UK, so that's totally legal (unless my research is wrong, but I hate being wrong). Let me know what you think. I'm trying to keep the chapters short so they are easy to read. Thank you for reading! If you have Wattpad, this story is posted there too (username xxShadowedSunshine) on my personal page. Wanna read some werewolf romance fiction? Check out It Has to be You on fictionpress or Wattpad under the username KiraXlittleDove.

Enjoy! :)

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Located in the basement of the science building, Professor Snape's office is highly organized. A long oak desk sits in front of a wall lined with small, glass block windows at the top with the shades pulled closed to block any sunlight. The things on the desk are ordered and perfect. A circular rug spans most of the wood floor and is free of dust and dirt. Rows of old bookshelves stuffed with ancient and modern books alike, line the two side walls and the door wall interspaced by oddities in jars, strange liquid vials and darkness-tolerant, weird-looking plants in bland terra cotta pots.

I have half a mind to break out my markers and draw things on them to brighten up the place.

"What are you doing here, Rhetta?"

I slink out of my scheming to see Harry Potter sitting in a high backed chair in front of Professor Snape's desk. I've always liked Harry. My age, 18, he's a popular boy but he seems chill, and he's not a total player like most of the other male Lion's Paw students he dorms with.

The men and women of Howard's University are separated into four colleges based on their major course of study. The freshman have to take a social and intellectual test in order to determine if their area of interest will flex with the dorm house to which they are assigned, and the other people in it. If you disagree with the test and decide you don't belong where it says you do, you can choose the dorm you go to. But most people find the test is very good at determining where you should go and no one ever really questions their result.

The Lion's Paw is one of the four, and specializes in those going into Criminal Justice or Law, the other three being the Badger's Den for Human Resources, the Raven's Claw for Science and Medicine and the Snake's Fang for Business majors-I was put in Raven's Claw because I want to be an engineer. I know Harry from the baseball team, which sometimes practices with the women's softball team. I think Harry wants to be a homicide detective, but I'm not sure.

"I was late to class." I slump down into the other high-backed chair in front of the desk and pull out my paper. Crumpled on the edges, it's kinda wet, but I don't have the time to go print off a new one so I neatly place it in the plastic in-box on Professor Snape's desk. "He said 'you have to start on time to finish on time' and sent me here. What about you?"

"The usual." Harry flashes a red demerit card. "I was 'talking in class'." He frowns, his green eyes crinkling behind his broken glasses. "But I really wasn't."

"Draco?"

"He was flirting with Hermione in the morning chem lab, and Snape blamed it on me, despite her protests." Harry sighs, sinking back in the chair and running a hand through his messy brown hair. "That asshole doesn't know when to quit."

"Which one?" I laugh, knowing Professor Snape has it out for him for some reason.

Harry laughs too, and his kind eyes settle on mine. "Draco doesn't mess with you, does he?"

I shake my head. "No. I reamed him in the nuts with a softball two weeks ago because he winked at me. He's always winking, that one." I cringe. "Always getting away with everything too. I think he sleeps with the female staff."

"I wouldn't put it past him." Harry grumbles. "He's a bit of a man whore isn't he?"

The university doesn't have much of a dress code, and there isn't any detention like there was in high school. We are adults, but the school takes sexual harassment and proper behaviour in the school's public image very seriously, so the teachers are allowed to give out demerits that can affect GPA, if accumulated. The only way to get rid of them is to do extra assignments or volunteer work around the school. It's up to the professors to determine the punishment.

An old clock ticks over the door and a comfortable silence settles down on us. Harry glances at me from time to time and I wonder what he wants. I moved here to go to this university where no one knew me, to get rid of my reckless reputation in my hometown. I have yet to pick up a boyfriend-July to now has been my longest stretch. Not that I need a boyfriend, but it's something to do to pass the time. School comes easy to me and my grades are always top notch, so I have a lot of free time. Going to the gym and softball practice keep me busy, but I do have a lot of growing, pent up energy. I've resisted the allure of Draco Malfoy because I know he's probably fooled with a good chunk of the female student population and I don't want to catch anything. And no one but Professor Snape has really made me want to rip off my lace panties and toss my inhibitions to the wind anyway.

But the way Harry looks at me is kinda cute. In a holding hands kind of way.

I smile, chucking. "What is it?"

"Nothing." He looks away, staring intently at the shades on the windows. "Just...you look nice today."

"Aww, thank you Harry." I pat his arm, grinning. I love compliments. "Thats so sweet."

His soft toned skin turns a bit red and he shifts in his seat, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose and taking a breath. "The halloween masquerade is coming up."

"It is, isn't it?" I wiggle in my seat, suppressing a giggle. "Are you going?"

"Only if you are."

I bite my lip. He might be a bit awkward sometimes, but that was damn smooth.

"Are you asking me to go with you, Mr. Potter?" I arch a brow.

"Is the answer yes?" He glances at me with a coy gleam.

Damn this guy. Where is it coming from?

"Only if the question is right." I look at the perfect coat of silver polish on my nails.

"Alright," He turns to face me, our knees touching. "Rhetta Howell, would you like to-"

His proper invitation is cut short by the door flying open and being shut with an expert click. We both jump a little and look over to see Professor Snape striding across the floor, his lab coat billowing behind him in his swiftness.

I think he looks like a superhero. A dark hero that lingers in the shadows. What I would give to have all that masculine control striding toward me in the dim candlelight of his chamber. To have him stalk onto the bed where I would lie naked, and have his weight press me into the mattress as he pins me there with his hips…

Oh yes… I clasp my knees together involuntarily.

"There will be no courting in my office, Mr. Potter." He slides around the desk and plants his palm on it, glaring Harry down. "Or did you not learn your lesson this morning?"

"Excuse me, sir." I butt in with a cough, partly to get the Professor's ire on me and partly to stick up for Harry's innocence. "But it was Mr. Malfoy doing the courting, Professor, not Harry."

"Funny." Professor Snape laughs humorlessly. "Is that you under the guise of Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy?" His eyes narrow on me, not Harry, and I swallow a bit harder than normal. "Wouldn't that be something? I suggest you keep quiet, Miss Howell."

Jesus. Did everyone take their sass pill this morning or what?

"Yes, sir." I focus on my hands folded in my lap, trying not to laugh. "That would be quite odd, wouldn't it? Someone else's face on someone else's face? Draco looking like Harry...although that wouldn't be very productive on his part, would it?" I know I'm toeing the line, but I chance a look at Professor Snape's face, finding everything opposite of amusement there. My stomach squirms, but I ignore it. "I'm fairly certain Draco would be getting Harry here a date to the halloween masquerade."

Harry, who had been suppressing his own laughter, snorts. "Hell yes."

"Language!" Professor Snape snaps at Harry, a muscle in his jaw twitching with anger.

"Excuse me, sir-"

"Silence, Miss Howell!"

I practically moan from the rage in his voice. I know I've gone too far and cast an apologetic look to Harry, who shrugs. I was just going to say that we are adults and cursing isn't expressly against the rules. I pout, a bit irked that my sass was stifled.

"Are we done, children?" Professor Snape looks from Harry and back to me, his eyes lingering on mine with a mix of disappointment and something darker before he sits in his chair and snatches my paper from the in-box. "Please wait in the hall for your turn, Mr. Potter."

What was that look? It got me all heated, I can feel my cheeks burning. Maybe he wants to pull me across his lap and spank me…?

Harry gets up and gives me a sympathetic 'good luck' thumbs up before slipping from the room and shutting the door. Professor Snape leafs through my paper for a minute, simmering, before snapping it shut, causing me to jump yet again.

"Pathetic." Professor Snape tosses my paper in the waste bin with careless disregard. "I thought you were more organized than this, Miss Howell."

My heart sinks and I rub my chest from the hurt. Something else is bothering him, it's not typical for him to be this mean. Mean, yes, but the way he just acted was cruel. He's never cruel to me, I'm one of his best students, academically speaking. "I-I'm sorry, sir. The rain-"

"Is not an excuse for such unprofessional work." He waves me off without looking up from his desk, turning to his computer. "You're dismissed."

Tears burn the corners of my eyes but I blink them back, my fists clenching in my lap. "My work is not unprofessional, the paper was typed with utmost attention to the standards, with properly cited references and had been thoroughly researched. It took me hours to get it just right." Not only for a good grade, but to impress you. I sniffle, my voice coming out in a crack. "J-just because it was a little roughed up doesn't mean it was trash."

Professor Snape says nothing as he types on the keyboard, the sound a muffled echo against the backdrop of books and the tick of the clock. I blink, swiping the back of my hand over my eyes. I stare at him for a moment, before I can't stand it anymore.

I'm mad! Maybe it is absurd to think what I think about him, maybe I was wrong about all the stolen glances in class over the past three months. He's a grown man and I'm just an 18 year old child to him. The way he watched me while I took his tests, watched me chew on the ends of my pens and crossed my legs...I swore there was something there in the depths of his keenly midnight eyes that might want me, but maybe not.

I'm getting worked up and my hands are shaking. I hate being wrong.

"I said you may go, Miss Howell."

The frigid dismissal is all the motivation I need to get my legs to the door, but I turn back with a huff. "So does that mean I get a zero for the paper too? Because of the way it looked on the outside?" A tear escapes my eye and I sob softly. "How shallow. I think you're the unprofessional one, Professor."

He looks up from the computer, but his features are blurred by my tears. I can't tell what he's thinking and he retains his icy tone, "Send in Mr. Potter, please."

I fling open the door and storm out. "You can go in now Harry."

"Rhetta, what's wrong?"

But I don't stop for Harry's worry, I hike back to the dorms in a fit.

I should give up this farce. I roll over in my bed and stare out of the tiny window at the rain washing the world. I know I'm brooding, but still, it really hurt to have my hard work thrown away by him. If it was anyone else, I'd simply agree and ask for a re-do, but Professor Snape never just skims a paper and he never offers re-do's. He is highly intelligent so I know he got the bulk of my work from his brief read.

It really was crap, wasn't it? Just like me.

I'm good at school...but a failure at everything else. I'll never get a man who can contain me. Is it wrong to want someone to control me? I'm always in control, doing whatever I want-whoever I want. I was forced to grow up faster than most girls due to my mother and her vices. I didn't have rules, I just had a mother who didn't care what I did or didn't do with myself. I pat myself on the back everyday for not getting addicted to drugs and not dropping out of school-and using condoms and staying thoroughly clean.

She never understood me. Never understood why I didn't follow in her footsteps of failure. Never understood that I wanted to get out, get away from her and that stupid town. But I was lonely there...and I'm lonely here. I'm not alone, I have lots of friends, but I'm still...lonely.

Realizing it's pointless to get wrapped up in that old, frustrating stuff, I close my eyes, take a deep breath, shove it all back down and decide to go to my other classes for the day to get my mind off of it.

I make a note to find and ask Harry if he'll take me to one of the fraternity parties tonight, I could use a drink.