A/N: This story is set 3 years before Harry's arrival at Hogwarts and will be more or less following canon articles wherever applicable, but when not its all original fiction guys.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters created by JKR soooo, don't sue, thanks.
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Everyone milled in through the door, many of them none too happy about having Potions first thing in the week, much less as the first thing at the start of the year. Even so, it was simply a part of the class routine that one merely had to get used to. Caroline and Meagan had already taken their seats early as Caroline was eager to see the unique social drama that only took place during this class which shared a strong tension between the two main rival houses: Slytherin and Gryffindor.
Before she could say anything the door slammed shut and Professor Snape entered the classroom. Instantly the chatter among the students died down as he stalked his way to the front of the class. Caroline saw everyone stifle a shiver that went down to their very cores. Wow, they honestly are afraid of him! How cute, for that matter, what a cute butt! Snape spun around and caught her with a huge grin plastered on her face.
"What are you smiling at?" He snapped.
"I'm just waiting for class to start, whenever you're ready Sev."
That did it. The entire class sat frozen with fear, Professor Snape on the other hand was filled with rage, rage at his utter confusion, and rage for being caught completely off balance by her remark. What the hell did she think she was doing? All he could do for the moment was hope the burning rage behind his cold dark eyes would be enough to shut her up. He opted to ignore her comment; maybe he had heard her wrong. But if he hadn't, that would be the first time ANYONE has had the guts to talk to him in so familiar a manner.
"Today we are going to be preparing for your OWLs at the end of the year since no one here is capable of brewing the simplest of potions." Caroline snuffed at his opinion, "You will all be given a list of ingredients and will need to make and name the potion with the ingredients given."
He flicked his wand and several pieces of parchment paper appeared before everyone. He sneered at everyone, "You will complete this assignment by the end of class. Now get to it."
Caroline looked at her potion's ingredients and instantly figured out what she was supposed to make. She looked over at Meagan who wasn't exactly sure what hers would make but was rising to get her materials.
"Hey Meagan, where do we get the things we need for this?"
"They're up in the cupboards around the classroom; here, we'll get our stuff together."
"Alright, lead the way."
They rose from their seats to retrieve their materials, when they came back Caroline realized she had forgotten to bring her cauldron.
"Oh shit! Meagan! I don't have a cauldron to boil the water! What am I going to do?"
They both looked around the room for spare cauldrons but couldn't find any. Meagan gave her a sympathetic smile, then an idea came to her, "Well, you COULD ask Snape… but judging from the brilliantly angered look on his face at your use of his shortened first name… I sincerely doubt he'll ever let you on his good side even if you are a Slytherin!"
Caroline turned to look at Snape scribbling away at his desk, occasionally looking up at their progress. Caroline too looked around the room at everyone's messes, "Wow, he really was right about this class."
She conjured up a cauldron when no one was looking and began to brew the ingredients together to form her potion. Within half and hour she had finished brewing and bottled up a sample of her potion. Before leaving her desk she put an anti-cheating charm around her area so no one could copy her potion or mess with her cauldron. Scribbling her name across the label she walked up to Snape's desk and placed the vial gently on the table. Snape had gotten up to walk around the classroom and sneer into people's cauldrons when he looked up from his snide comments to the vial on his desk to Caroline to the vial again before speaking.
"You're ready to turn in your assignment?" he couldn't help but question.
Caroline rolled her eyes, "Of course, that would be the reason the vial with my sample of my brewed potion and my name is on your desk…sir." She stressed the last word.
She looked him straight in the eye with a hint of insolence in her voice as she spoke, smirking the entire time. Snape was fit to slap her for this display of arrogance in his classroom when he got a most devilish idea. He grinned darkly at her.
"Well it appears Miss Black thinks she knows something about the art of Potion making. Tell me Miss Black, why is it so important to dry the roots of fingerwood before finely grating them to a powder?"
Caroline rolled her eyes, "Honestly Professor that is too easy a question and I thought you were a Master. The reason for drying fingerwood roots is simple; you cannot grate something that still has moisture into a powder. A powder implies that the item is dry thereby lacking any moisture which would turn the powder into a muddy consistency."
Snape's grin grew into a sneer as he approached her, "So you think you know the things I know then. Well here's something you would only have learned at my level of proficiency, what concoction can you expect from the toenail of a dragon boiled in chameleon skin and cat spit?" His sneer so wide now at the prospect of her failing, surely this brat couldn't know something as tricky as that.
Caroline thought for a moment before grinning herself, "Why Professor, I do believe you've forgotten one item for that potion's recipe, in order to make a potion for the common cold you must have those three things as well as eye of newt. Otherwise you would have created a poison rather than a cure."
Snape was absolutely fuming with pure dark hatred at this girl; she even told him what sort of mistake could have occurred due to the lack of an important ingredient. He stood directly in front of her now, scornfully looking down at her brightly defiant face. Everyone in the classroom was rooted to the ground where they stood but at the same time ready to run out the door. He was gritting his teeth, what could he do now? How does one punish insolence of this magnitude? Fortunately for everyone, sheer terror of Professor Snape caused one of the other students to faint when Caroline gave him the correct answer. Snape, seeing the collapsed student called on someone to send for Madam Pomfrey and stalked back to his desk.
He abruptly spun around and spoke to the class as a whole, "You are all dismissed. I expect you to finish your assignments by tonight. Fill up a vial with your name on it and leave it in the bin outside my office."
Students hurriedly began packing; some even ran out of the room barely holding on to their things. Snape stalked back to his desk.
"Miss Black, you stay in your seat." His voice made her shudder pleasantly.
They both stared at each other as the rest of the students packed up and left, neither one willing to be the first to break eye contact. Professor Snape slowly stood from his chair leaning over his desk leering at her. Caroline merely sat back in her seat folding her hands in her lap. The picture of innocence.
"I do not know where you think you are, but in this school, in MY classroom, you do not behave the way you have. I should like to have you given some lashings but alas we can no longer do that. Instead you will promptly return here at 8 o'clock sharp and scrub all the used cauldrons clean without magic. You will then go about properly organizing and cataloging everything within the cupboards."
Caroline stifled a yawn, "Is that all Professor?"
Silent anger flashed in his eyes, "Your insolence WILL be punished severely each time you continue to behave in that fashion."
"May I go now?"
"Silence!"
Caroline was shocked by his outburst, seeing this, Snape proceeded with his list of torments.
"Since you claim to have above average knowledge about the art of Potions Making, I will be giving you extra work to do in addition to whatever class work I assign. This extra work must be turned in whenever I demand it. If you do not have it completed you will receive zero points for the assignment. No partial completion either. It must all be there or not to receive any credit."
Caroline stared at him disbelief, she could only imagine him giving her an assignment and then immediately asking for her to turn it in. That cheater!
"Now, you may go. If any more incidents like today should occur again you can be sure the punishment will only get steeper."
Caroline growled, "Yes, sir." And left the class, already late for her Care of Magical Creatures lesson being given outside by Hagrid's Hut. She ran to meet up with the rest of her peers only to be assailed with questioning looks as soon as her arrival was trumpeted to everyone's knowledge by Hagrid himself.
"Young Miss, why're you late?"
"I… came…Potions…Snape, that bastard…" She trailed off out of breath.
"I understand, Miss, he can be a righ' pain in th' arse on you students at times. A'righ', you'll be needing teh catch up wit' me after teh lesson and find out yer assignment."
Caroline nodded and Hagrid continued with the lesson. Meagan moved towards Caroline.
"Hey, I told you he was mean, I hope he didn't give you too bad a punishment. Be thankful he didn't outright embarrass you in front of everyone, he likes doing that to the Gryffindors."
"Yea well, it's nothing I can't handle. He told me I had to clean up the cauldrons after all my classes, organize the shelves and do the extra work he's going to give me. What do we have after this?"
"History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts, but that's after lunch which is next."
"Cool, I hope that second class you mentioned is good."
"Yea, this year we have someone named Remus Lupin who's covering for our regular professor."
Caroline nodded her head and caught the last bits of Hagrid's lecture before the class ended. He told her what chapters in their book to read which would help her catch up so that next class he would call on her to recap what they had previously learned. She nodded again and was off with Meagan towards the castle for lunch. Full from lunch and well rested from their nap during their History class, Meagan and Caroline entered their last class for the day, Defense Against the Dark Arts. A rather young but tired looking Remus Lupin, dressed in shabby robes greeted the students as they entered.
"Good afternoon, class. I am Professor Lupin and I shall be your Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor this year. I will be substituting for your regular professor as he has contracted a rather nasty illness and will have to be treated and confined for an indefinite amount of time, let us hope he recovers soon. This year we will cover other Dark Creatures but will mainly focus on Dementors and Inferi for your N.E.W.Ts"
Meagan whispered to Caroline after her fit of giggles died down some, "Oh god isn't he the hottest professor here?!"
"Omigod yes! He's so adorable! I want to take him home with me and clean him up…if you know what I mean."
Caroline grinned and winked while attempting to dodge Meagan's whirling punches into her arm.
"Oh you whore he's mine! I saw him first!"
"Relax! Ahh! Hahah, man Meagan I was only joking!"
Unfortunately, Remus being a werewolf meant he had some access to much sharper senses than an ordinary human so he heard every word of their little argument. Nor did it help that Meagan purposefully sat up close to the front where she could admire him without any damn heads in the way. Remus smiled at them and gave Meagan a knowing wink before continuing on with the class. Meagan blushed furiously for the remainder of the class, forcing Caroline to take all the notes because she lost all sense of function. At the end of class Meagan stayed behind while Caroline went ahead to their dormitory to make copies of her notes. Caroline read over her notes, making small corrections in her short hand so Meagan would be able to understand her scribbling. She had a tendency to make her notes barely legible, forcing anyone who dared read them decipher her cryptic abbreviations. As she passed the Great Entrance Hall towards one of the doors leading to the Slytherin common room, she chuckled to herself at Meagan's wish to stay behind.
"Just what exactly are you laughing at, Black?"
Caroline turned around to find a group of very large 7th year Slytherin boys approaching her, blocking her way to the common room. They forced her to back up a bit she felt very uneasy and readied herself for the worst that could happen.
"What's it to you? It's none of your business."
One of the larger boys spoke as the leader of the pack, "It becomes our business when we hear the way you trash talked to our Head of House like some common Hufflepuff. You don't deserve to be sorted into Slytherin House."
This commotion attracted the attention of other students who formed a circle around them, effectively cutting off any route of escape Caroline could have taken to avoid this nasty conflict that was brewing right in front of her. Please don't make me do something to get kicked out again, not so soon! Caroline quietly wished.
"Wasn't my decision, that hat of yours that everyone goes through does the sorting, you should be arguing with it more than me."
"You petulant child, how dare you claim to know more than Professor Snape?" he hissed.
"Only because he assumed I knew nothing, I'm to thank your doing for the presumed ignorance of every student in his subject of expertise? That doesn't seem like a great way to show your reverence for your Head of House."
There were whispers behind her as other people from different houses started passing on the information that Caroline had back talked Snape and was no worse for wear. Along with that were extreme rumors of Caroline dueling with Snape and winning and other fantastical ideas. Hrm, I'm going to have to put a stop to some of those when I get through with this. Caroline thought. Before she could say anything more someone came up behind her putting an arm around her waist tugging her closer to their body. She looked over to see that it was Bill.
"What's with all the ruckus sweetheart? Are these fellas bothering you?"
Caroline gave him a questioning look before playing along with him, "Actually no, they were just leaving."
"If that's what the lady says then you all should get moving, no one touches my girlfriend." He said with a fierce intensity forcing the main attacker to back off a bit.
"So now you're consorting with a Gryffindor? You're on thin ice Black." He said before storming away along with the rest of his cronies.
As soon as they left Bill said aloud to the rest of the crowd, "Alright, its over, no fight here guys, move along."
He tugged Caroline along, still holding her with a firm grip around her waist to a less crowded hallway. He released her and gave her one of his charming grins.
"Sorry if I've imposed more of myself than you cared for back there, but I saw what was happening and as Head Boy I need to set an example through words and not through wands."
"Thanks for the help but I can take care of myself perfectly fine…" She smiled back pausing a bit before continuing, "Girlfriend?"
Bill shrugged and put an arm behind his head, "Well, that was the only thing I could think of that I could enforce with the sort of authority I have."
"Mmhm, sure." Caroline replied tersely, "Well, how exactly ARE you going to enforce this self imposed protection on me when they find out we aren't actually going out?"
He pondered for a moment before coming up with an idea, "Well this whole thing was because you stood up to Snape and took him head on and survived. I'm not doing so well in Potions and I need a passing grade, you can help me study in the library whenever you can."
Caroline grimaced, "I have a strict policy against tutoring people in subjects I'm exceptional at, I don't like to be doing all their work plus mine. Besides, because I was 'brave' to speak up to Snape I've got a detention and extra work which I'm not sure how long will last as I wasn't going to ask him when he gave it to me in case he decides I should have it for the rest of the year."
"That's okay, just come find me when you're ready. I could give you the password to my room but that might be too much of a good thing." He winked at her grinning madly.
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Bill walked her back to the Slytherin common room door and watched her go inside before walking away immensely content at having held her and claimed her as his own. He felt like celebrating. He grinned all the way back to his room, on the way he saw Caroline's friend, Meagan coming out of Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom waving goodbye to Professor Lupin, blushing madly the entire time. Meagan did a double take and blushed twice as red thinking the grin was for her. Bill didn't mind, he knew she had had a crush on him for a long time but never acted upon it. He probably would have this year had Caroline not been here. I just never really felt this way before about a girl, he justified to himself.
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