After several Chocolate Frogs and a few Bertie's Bott every flavor beans- apparently Millie was very fond of sweets and kept up a large supply in her trunk- Jas had filled Millie in on the odd events leading up to her arriving at Hogwarts.
"Wow," she said finally, when Jas had finished. "Wow. You've been through so much- no wonder you know more spells than the rest of us-"
Jas shrugged. "I dunno, I just did what I had to, you know?" She bit her lip nervously. "Though I am worried about what SF's going to do to me when he finally gets me alone with my record again."
Millie laughed. "I can't believe you have a criminal record. That's awesome. We have to be friends," she decided, smiling at Jas.
Jas raised an eyebrow. "Having a criminal record makes me desirable as a friend?" she asked dubiously.
Millie rolled her eyes. "Obviously!" the blonde girl huffed. "The other third-year girls are so boring- Lavender and Parvati are all into their looks and Hermione never takes her nose out of a book- although she does get to tag along on Harry's adventures, lucky her. I have to hang out with Fred, George, and Lee Jordan just to get any entertainment around here!"
Jas didn't have the slightest clue what she was talking about. "I never have followed rules very well," Jas said thoughtfully. "Although SF says that has to change."
Mille grinned. "And it's even better, being the professor's daughter. Higher stakes," she said, her eyes glinting devilishly.
The next morning, Millie woke her up early. "Get up, Jas!" she muttered, shaking her. "You have to get up so McGonagall can yell at you, remember? And did you still not get an alarm clock? Doesn't Snape have an extra?"
Jas sat up, rubbing her eyes tiredly. She was not a morning person. "Oh no…" Jas muttered, "I didn't get an alarm clock yet, did I?"
Millie laughed. "No wonder the Sorting hat didn't put you in Ravenclaw," she said, smirking slightly. Jas threw her pillow at the girl and climbed out of bed.
"I got the Transfiguration before Hermione Granger," Jas retorted, "I so could have been in Ravenclaw."
After they both showered and dressed- Jas was pleased to note that Millie did not take two hours to put on several layers of make up and do her hair- Mille walked her to McGonagall's office.
"Hopefully she won't take away too many points," Millie said, "Although if Snape was fair, he'd take away a bunch from Slytherin. I wonder what punishment he gave Malfoy. It had to have been bad. I mean, the git almost got his own daughter killed."
"I still don't understand the house rivalry thing," Jas commented idly.
Millie launched into an explanation involving house points, Quidditch, and a rather detailed history of Hogwarts. Jas was beginning to understand, although she still did not strictly approve of the house rivalry, by the time they reached McGonagall's office.
"Good luck," Millie said, smiling at her bracingly.
Jas knocked on the door tentatively.
"Enter," a voice called from within.
Jas took a breath and opened the door cautiously. The stern-looking, black-haired witch was sitting behind a desk with her fingers laced together in front of her. "Miss Snape," McGonagall said coolly, "Come in and sit. Please close the door behind you."
Jas obliged, noting the chilly tone in McGonagall's voice. She avoided looking at McGonagall and instead chose to study some of the portraits on McGonagall's wall. All of them appeared to be snoozing, although she could have sworn one of them was only pretending to be asleep.
"Miss Snape," McGonagall began severely, "I assume that Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape have already told you how serious your actions were, but I will tell you again. Stunning a fellow student was a very reckless thing to do, indeed. What if the snake had turned on Crabbe? He would have been completely helpless. What if you had used too much power and had knocked him down the stairs behind him? He easily could have been killed. Dueling is not allowed in the corridors in the first place and attacking another student in such a harmful manner is especially serious."
"Yes, ma'am," Jas said quietly when McGonagall paused.
"I am taking fifty points from Gryffindor for your poor decision-making skills. You will also serve a week's worth of detention with Filch. Since, as I understand it," McGonagall said, giving Jas an especially severe glare, "You somehow already have one detention with Filch, you may begin your week of detention with him tomorrow night at eight 'o'clock in the trophy room."
"Yes, Professor," Jas intoned, even though she had no idea where the trophy room was. Millie could show her. She grimaced at the idea of spending an entire week with Filch.
"You are dismissed. I don't want to see you in my office any time soon, Miss Snape," McGonagall added.
"Yes, Professor," Jas repeated, getting up quickly, glad it had been a short encounter.
She hastily left the office and Millie and Jas sped away from the Professor's door before either spoke. "How bad?" Millie asked.
"Fifty points and a week's detention," Jas replied.
"Wow," Millie said, frowning. "She must be angry. I don't know how she's going to take away those points, though- I don't think Gryffindor even had fifty points yet."
They reached the Great Hall and Millie made a beeline for four large hourglasses. Two of the hourglasses were completely empty, while the other two were filled with a smattering of blue-colored and yellow-colored rubies. "Ha!" Millie exclaimed triumphantly. "Malfoy must've gotten his arse reamed out too- Slytherin doesn't have any points either!"
During breakfast, Jas noticed some of the Gryffindors were giving her evil looks. When she pointed this out to Millie, her new friend explained, "It's because you lost us points. I told you, people take the house system very seriously. Don't worry though, it won't be too bad, since Slytherin lost a bunch too and they're our main competitors."
"Jeez," Jas muttered as another Gryffindor glared at her over their breakfast, "I guess you guys do take it seriously. I'll keep that in mind. What do we have today?"
"Double Herbology, Double Potions, History of Magic, and Astronomy tonight," Millie said, her voice growing more morose with every word.
"Ugh," Jas commented. "So I've been plotting-" Jas began.
"Already? Don't lose any more points any time soon," Millie advised.
"No, not that kind of plotting." Jas lowered her voice and looked around. "I want to er- double check whether or not SF is really my dad."
"Double check?" Millie repeated, puzzled. "Why?"
Jas explained about the Blood Binding Spell and how she couldn't be sure if it was a set up or not.
"I don't know, Jas. You two look an awfully lot alike to not be related."
Jas grimaced. "Don't say that," she muttered, "It sort've weirds me out. I'm not used to looking like anyone."
Millie grinned. "But you do. And besides, if you didn't understand the spell, why don't you just look it up in the library? It'd be easier than trying to steal one of Snape's hairs- I don't even want to think about that- and sending it off for some Muggle test."
"I didn't think of that," Jas said thoughtfully. "I'll do that."
Herbology, which they had with Hufflepuffs, turned out to be quite interesting. Some of the Gryffindors were still disgruntled with her, but the Hufflepuffs, who were thrilled to be in the lead for the House Cup for a change, were perfectly friendly. Ernie Macmillan, a cheerful brown-haired boy, was particularly friendly, to Millie's amusement and Jas' vague alarm.
"I can't believe any bloke would fancy you, being Snape's daughter. Especially a Hufflepuff! Everyone is terrified of Snape," Millie informed her as they left Herbology.
"Ernie does not fancy me," Jas growled. "And everyone's afraid of SF? Really?"
"Yeah. Well, he's nice- or nice for Snape- to the Slytherins, but that's it. He especially hates Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs."
"Hmm," Jas said contemplatively. Malfoy's comments were beginning to make more sense.
Snape's classroom in the dungeons was only slightly better than his office. There wasn't any jars of long-dead parts of animals, but the classroom was dimly lit and distinctly gloomy. Jas followed Milly and immediately noticed Malfoy talking to a snub-nosed blonde girl. Malfoy did not seem to notice Jas.
She sat at a bench with Millie in the very back, since Jas did not want to be noticed in the first class she had with her father. Millie muttered to Jas that the two people that had just taken their seats at the bench in front of them were Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. She also pointed out Hermione Granger, who was sitting at another bench with a plump boy. Apparently the three had gotten into quite a bit of trouble over the last two years. Jas looked at the back of the head of Harry Potter with interest. His hair was ridiculously untidy- did he not own a brush? Jas reminded herself that he had saved her life. She should probably thank him or something later, although hopefully SF had done that for her. In fact, shouldn't Harry have gotten points for saving her life? That seemed the sort of thing a Gryffindor would be awarded points for. They were known for their chivalry, after all.
Just as Jas was interrogating Millie on the finer details of the trio's adventures over the last two years, the door to the classroom suddenly slammed shut. The class instantly fell silent.
"Settle down," Snape ordered, striding to the front of the class, his robes billowing behind him. It was an unnecessary order; as soon as he had walked in, the class had gone mute.
"Hopefully none of you chose to slack off over summer break. We will be brewing a Shrinking Solution today. Directions are on the board. Begin." With a smirk, Snape returned to his desk and sat down.
Jas frowned. SF seemed even more curt than usual in class.
As the class progressed, Jas quickly learned why everyone found it so difficult to believe that SF had a daughter. In a word, he was simply horrible. He sneered and made snide comments about the Gryffindor's potions while he praised and gave points to the Slytherins. He especially seemed to dislike Harry and his friends, making an extra effort to make snide comments to them, even though there was nothing terribly wrong with their potions. Halfway through class, SF sneered down at a round-faced Gryffindor boy who was positively trembling at SF's presence. The potion was supposed to be a bright, acid green, but the boy's potion had turned-
"Orange, Longbottom," said SF, ladling some up and allowing it to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see. "Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"
-excerpt taken from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban because it was too entertaining not to include
"Poor Neville," Millie muttered sympathetically.
Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears.
"Please, sir," said Hermione, "please, I could help Neville put it right-"
"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," said SF coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. "Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly."
Jas watched the exchange in horror. SF was being downright cruel. Was he always like this to his students?
No wonder no one seemed to like him. Jas was worried for Neville's toad. SF wouldn't really feed the boy's sickly looking potion to Neville's pet, would he? As the lesson progressed, Jas was certain she saw Hermione giving Neville instructions out of the corner of her mouth.
At the end of the lesson, SF stode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron.
"Everyone gather 'round," SF said, looking smug. "And see what happens when you do not pay attention. If Longbottom has produced a Shrinking Solution, his toad should shrink into a tadpole. If he has, predictably, done it wrong, then his toad is likely to be poisoned."
Jas realized SF was actually going to feed the boy's toad his potion. "Er- Professor Snape," Jas said hesitantly. She had a bad feeling about this.
All eyes slowly swiveled to her. "Yes?" Snape said unpleasantly.
"You're not- you're not really going to intentionally poison the toad, are you?" Jas asked nervously.
The class, particularly the Gryffindors, stared at her incredulously. She shifted nervously. She got the feeling SF's actions were not questioned often.
"What does it look like?" SF snapped, looking annoyed.
"But- but sir, you can't. That's Neville's pet," Jas said, trying to sound reasonable.
SF glared at her. "I would take points for Gryffindor for your disrespect, but, seeing as Gryffindor doesn't have any points, I won't bother. You can see me after class, Miss- Snape," SF said, faltering almost indiscernibly at her surname.
Jas wanted to point out that Slytherin hadn't had any points, either, until SF had awarded so many to them for brewing their potions correctly- while conveniently ignoring the Gryffindors who had also brewed their potions correctly- but Millie elbowed her, shaking her head violently. SF deftly dripped some of Neville's potion on his toad. Jas held her breath, then was relieved to see the toad shrink down to a tadpole. SF, looking sour, put a few drops of solution from a jar on his desk on the tadpole, reversing the effects of the Shrinking Solution.
The Gryffindors cheered at Neville's apparent success. SF glared. "Surely one of you dunderheads has managed to earn at least five points somewhere in the castle," he sneered. "Five points from Gryffindor. I told you not to help him, Miss Granger." The Gryffindors' smiles quickly faded and the Slytherins snickered.
Jas stared at SF, feeling hollow. Why was he so cruel?
"I'll wait for you outside," Millie said. "Just don't provoke him, Jas."
"But why is he like this?" Jas asked, bewildered.
Millie shrugged. "I don't know. Just the way he is. Hey, on the bright side, you're not in Slytherin, so you won't have to see too much of him."
Jas nodded numbly, feeling terrible. It would be just her luck to finally find a permanent home, with her real father, only to discover her father was a complete arse. She felt a familiar wave of desolation overtake her; the same feeling she had anytime she thought too much about her lack of permanency in life, her lack of a caring family, or a caring anyone.
Jas blinked and scowled abruptly. She was doing it again; she was feeling sorry for herself.
She headed to the front of the room and stood, stoic, in front of SF's desk. He ignored her, clearly preferring to wait until all of the other students, some plainly curious about SF's professor/parent role, filtered out. SF flicked his wrist at the door when the last student had left and the door slammed shut. Jas jumped slightly, her stab of fear bringing her out of her despair. Was SF angry with her? Probably, Jas thought wearily.
"Jasmin, you cannot question my authority in class," SF said curtly.
"But-" Jas began.
"No. I am your professor. How I conduct my class is absolutely none of your business. If you disrupt my class again, I will throw you out." SF's tone was hard and his eyes cold.
Jas felt a surge of anger. "Sorry, sir," she snarled, turning away from him. "In that case, I won't bother coming. If you're cruel to your students, then I'm going to question your authority. Nothing gives you the right to be cruel!" She stalked away from him, her anger washing over her in waves.
"Jasmin!" SF called angrily. She ignored him and tried to wrench open the classroom door. It would not budge. She spun around, feeling malevolent.
"LET ME OUT!" she yelled, furious.
"No," SF replied coolly. "Sit down."
Jas glared at him, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "No," she said, mimicking his cold tone.
SF's eyes flashed. He strode over to Jas, towering over her. "Sit - down," he snapped.
Jas ignored his order, glaring at him. She was not afraid, for a change. She was just angry. Angry with SF for being so cruel, angry with the world for tossing her from one bad situation to the next, angry with herself for not being able to figure out how to make things better.
SF growled lightly. He closed his hand around her upper arm and hauled her over to a chair, pushing her down on it none too gently. "Get off of me!" Jas snapped, trying to jump back up, only to discover the chair tried to come with her.
"Expelliarmus," SF drawled and Jas' wand shot out of her pocket and into his hand.
SF flicked his wand at her lazily and she and the chair she was in rose up in the air and drifted to the center of the room. Jas struggled with the chair in midair, but could not detach herself from it. She was stuck to the chair!
As soon as the chair landed, Jas tried to get up again, only to discover she couldn't move at all. The chair appeared to be stuck to the ground. After several moments of trying to free herself, she turned to glare at SF, who was watching her with an inscrutable expression. "Let me go!" she howled plaintively.
"No, I don't think I will," he replied. "You are out of line and hysterical. You can stay here until you calm down."
With that, he turned and left the room, leaving Jas to shout after him furiously.
It was a full two hours later when SF returned to the classroom. Jas glared at him reproachfully as he entered the classroom, but she didn't say anything. She would like nothing more than to fling all of his pickled specimens in his face, but she knew she would not be able to do so from her current position. She'd tried everything she could think of, and she hadn't been able to escape from the chair SF had put her in.
"Jasmin," SF said pleasantly, "Have you calmed down?"
Jas glared at him, resisting the urge to scream. "I'm a bit too old for time out, don't you think?" she asked sarcastically.
SF raised his eyebrow. "If you choose to act like a spoiled four-year-old, then I will treat you like one," he replied. He took a seat near Jas.
Her face flushed, whether it was from anger or embarrassment, she didn't know. She would kill him. "I wasn't acting immature!" she snapped. "I was just trying to help-"
"Very kind of you, but I don't require your help," SF said sardonically, leaning back in his chair.
Jas bit back a growl. "Not you! Neville! You would've poisoned his toad!"
"I think you are more concerned for the toad than the boy," SF observed dryly.
"You can't go around killing people's pets!" Jas said, ignoring him.
SF rolled his eyes. "Whoever said I was going to kill it?"
Jas scowled at him. "You said it would poison it-"
"And it is not possible to counteract poisons?" SF inquired. "I hope you are not truly this hopeless at Potions."
Jas gaped at him. It hadn't occurred to her that SF would be able to prevent the toad from dying, even if he had poisoned it. "But- but- how could you have saved it?" Jas asked, her mind taking in the information. Neville had used too much rat's spleen and too much leech juice. That would make a thick, corrosive potion. "I suppose a few drops of Grunby's Salve would do," she said dubiously.
SF shook his head. "That would only work if the only mistakes Longbottom made were adding too much rat's spleen and leech juice. Never underestimate Longbottom's ability to destroy a potion."
Jas frowned. "Then you could use a general antidote with ground up bezoars in it- but wouldn't that be a bit of a waste to use on a toad? Bezoars are expensive."
SF smirked. "Correct. I thought you were the toad's rights activist? Now you're saying they're too expensive to save?"
Jas glared at him. "No, I'm saying it would be more prudent to never poison them in the first place. So," she added, narrowing her eyes at him, "You mean you wouldn't have let Neville's toad die?"
SF looked bored. "Of course not," he drawled, "I've found killing student's pets- as well as killing students, strangely enough- generally leads to unpleasant encounters with their parents."
Jas blinked. Was SF joking? She could never be sure. "Oh," she muttered.
"Ah, the twelve-year-old discovers she does not know everything," SF continued sardonically.
She scowled at him. She would have to kill him. "I don't-" she began stiffly.
"In the future, keep your concerns to yourself," SF said, his voice taking on a razor-sharp edge. "And stop entertaining the idea you know my intentions or, for that matter, that you know why I do anything."
Jas bit her lip, scowling at the floor. She had nothing to say and SF knew it. He had triumphed. She may never be able to look him in the face again. Jas began plotting how she would avoid him- Millie was right, it was lucky she was in Gryffindor, the less she saw him, the better-
"Well?" SF said. Jas glanced up quickly to see him looking at her expectantly. She resisted the urge to say What? What did he want? Realization dawned on her and she scowled blackly at the floor.
"I'm sorry," she muttered. Personally, she thought he owed her an apology for leaving her in an empty classroom for two hours.
"Don't let it happen again. Your detention with Filch will began after Astronomy, in the trophy room. You're dismissed." SF waved his wand at her vaguely and she was able to get up. He handed Jas her wand as she scurried past him, glad to escape.
Jas was still seething when she sat down in the Great Hall to eat dinner. She was angry with SF for overpowering her and she was mortified she'd been too stupid to realize SF wouldn't truly allow any harm to come to Neville's toad- he was right, he would undoubtedly get into trouble for that sort of thing. She sighed. With each passing day, it became clearer why the Sorting hat had put her in Gryffindor. It was just as SF had said about Gryffindors.
She was a bloody idiot.
"Hi," a tremulous voice came from her left. Jas turned to see Neville smiling at her. "Thanks for trying to stand up for me in Potions- you didn't have to- I hope you didn't get in too much trouble."
Jas smiled weakly back at him, aware all the Gryffindors in her year were now listening. "S'okay," she said.
"I thought Snape was going to kill you, myself," Ron Weasley said.
"Is it true you just found out Snape was your dad a few days ago?" an unfamiliar older boy asked.
"Uh…" Jas said, aware now that the entire table was listening, "Well, um, yeah," she said, figuring it would come out sooner or later anyway.
Everyone stared at her. Jas poked at her food uncomfortably. Someone let out a low whistle. "Well, I bet that was a nasty shock, eh?"
Jas glanced up to see the red-headed twins she'd noticed before, standing by the Gryffindor table with a boy Jas didn't recognize and Millie. Millie elbowed the red-headed twin who had just spoken and cast her a sympathetic look. Millie sat down next to Jas.
"How are you?" Millie asked. "I would've waited for you, but Snape nearly ripped my head off when he came out of the classroom and found me out there."
Jas sighed. That sounded like SF. "It's all right," she reassured Millie, keeping her voice low, "You wouldn't have wanted to wait. I was down there for over two hours."
"Two hours?" Millie repeated, aghast. "Were you talking the entire time?" From her expression, Jas could tell Millie could not think of anything worse than chatting with SF for two hours.
"No," Jas muttered. She didn't care to explain how SF had more or less put her in time out.
Millie cast her a puzzled look, but at that moment, the two red-headed twins and the boy they were with sat down across from Jas and Millie. "Hello!" one of the twins said brightly.
"I'm George-"
"No, I'm George-"
"And this is Fred-"
"I'm Lee Jordan," their friend offered.
"We've heard about your recent adventures, and we must say, we're impressed. First dueling with that little git Malfoy- pity you didn't finish him off, but I suppose you can't always get what you want- and then you stand up to the dungeon bat-"
Lee Jordan elbowed Fred. "Er, I mean Professor Snape. Really, you're shaping up quite nicely." The three of them beamed at her.
Jas blinked at them. "Well, it's nothing really- he's my- my- er-" She couldn't, especially after recent events, bring herself to say 'father' or 'dad.'
"Dad," Millie supplied helpfully.
Jas, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan all grimaced. "Please, we prefer not to think about that," George explained.
"Definitely not," Lee Jordan added, shuddering slightly.
"Me neither," Jas muttered, evoking laughter from her right. She looked up to see Ron Weasley laughing. She noticed Harry Potter was sitting next to him, looking at her curiously.
"Ignore our brother, Ron, he's tactless," Fred said dismissively. Ron chucked a dinner roll at Fred's head. Fred ignored him. "Some of the Gryffindors are a bit wary of you for being- er- Snape's- spawn, but we figure- you were sorted into Gryffindor, so obviously you're not like Professor Dungbat- I mean, Professor Snape."
"I don't really know him very well," Jas admitted gloomily. She feared getting to know him better. You didn't get an entire school to hate you for nothing.
"All the better. I'd advise against it, personally. So- are you planning any more exploits?" Fred asked curiously.
Jas blinked. "I think they'll chuck me out if I do anything else. I almost got expelled for the duel."
George waved his hand. "They always say they're going to throw us out, they haven't yet. They haven't expelled a student in over fifty years."
Jas smiled. "Good to hear… but even if they don't expel me, Snape might kill me."
"It's a possibility, we won't lie," Fred agreed seriously. "At any rate, we tip out hats to you."
When Jas spotted Harry Potter leaving, she got up to follow him. She was now sure SF hadn't so much as acknowledged him for helping her. She vaguely wondered why SF seemed to hate him so much. Perhaps he'd made SF angry. Apparently saving Jas' life wasn't enough to make up for SF's anger. She should've known; she was sure she was little more than an inconvenience to SF. Perhaps he would be secretly happy if she managed to get herself killed.
"Hey, Harry!" she called out, hurrying after him, Ron, and Hermione. He stopped and turned around. He smiled at her briefly.
"Sorry to bother you. I just wanted to thank you for stopping Malfoy's gigantic serpent from ripping me to shreds. I get the feeling Snape didn't bother thanking you… so I just wanted to." Jas smiled at the boy. His face flushed and he appeared vaguely uncomfortable.
Ron, standing next to him, snorted. "Snape? Thank Harry? Yeah, that definitely didn't happen."
Hermione cast Ron a severe look, which Ron ignored.
"It was nothing," Harry reassured Jas. "I'm just glad it didn't really hurt you."
"You were lucky," Hermione added, frowning at Jas disapprovingly.
"Come of it, Hermione," Ron said amiably, "Malfoy's a little git."
Harry smiled at Jas. "I'll see you around," he said nodding at her and walking off, while Ron and Hermione continued bickering.