Exam period, eep! I won't have that much time to update and I'm on writer's block, kinda, so please please send me PMs and Reviews on what you would like me to write, or how would you like the action to evolve. Thanks :)
- SerpentMinded13
A very 'snakey' encounter
Ann was nervous. She was nervous because she was in her fourth year, because school started to become more and more serious, because she was finally aware of the big danger that was out there. She had finally started to be aware of Voldemort's existence, to feel the evil aura glowing towards certain people; it was her 6th sense to feel this aura and she was both proud and sad. They say that it's a joy and a responsibility, the talent, and Ann took this thing very serious.
Her half-brother and his friends were just familiar faces in the crowd; during the summer, Harry had been invited to spend some time with Ron and the Weasleys at the Burrow, while she had spent time on her own at Hogwarts. 'But it's my home, after all. And children go home in the summer holiday.' she thought, but it still didn't feel fair.
Ann started to be aware of her own looks and personality too; she started to pay more attention to the way her robe fitted her body, how her head was flowing on her shoulders and how red her lips were without any lipstic on. She saw the twins' looks stuck on her once or twice, and it was even that boy, Cedric Diggory, the Ravenclaw, who once talked to her. He never talked to anyone because he was 'oh-so-handsome-and-cool'. And she felt happy. At least people appreciated her efforts.
It was November. The cold rain was hitting the castel's huge dark windows and the ceiling in the Great Hall was always dark grey, a few thunderbolts here and there. Dumbledore was always grumpy, or at least that's how Ann saw him, and Snape was...well, Snape. There really is no state of mind that Snape might be into except 'grumpy' or 'very grumpy'. But one day, he appeared different to Ann, and she had no idea why:
Ann was making her way to the Dungeons. Spooky place, she'd always thought of the Dungeons. It seemed like all the spooky things took place there, like all the important encounters with evil people had taken place there. Even Voldemort himself had been there a year ago or less and she'd seen him without even knowing it was him hidden in Quirrel's turban.
Snape thought the same. He started to become more and more aware of the situation, altough Dumbledore had exposed him the consequences of his actions. He treated him like a child and he had no idea why. 'Child'. This damn word. Whenever he saw the girl, that beautiful girl whose eyes resembled so much to his, her pale skin and her beautiful silky hair, along with her nerve, those were qualities Lily had given her for sure. 'She gave her everything that's beaufitul and good in this world.' he used to think when he analysed the situation he was in. But when Ann looked at him, he saw Lily and his heart was shattering into million pieces that moment like it did years ago when he had lost Lily for the first and last time. Well, maybe not the first. 'For God's sake, Severus!' he punished himself for the hundreth time in just one hour, and he kept walking, his facial expression being perfectly inexpressive. Then, he took one step to the right and saw her. Saw them. Lily's eyes watching him from a different body, the same hate in those as in Lily's and he felt miserable.
'Miss Evans, skipping classes again?' he heard his baritone voice echoing in the empty corridor. He tried to make this sentence sound both mean and sarcastic and he did it. He felt so happy with himself, a wave of satisfaction hitting him, making his thin lips curve into a smirk.
Ann didn't answer him. Since their last encounter last year, she was terrified by him more than ever. 'That man is a huge lier.' she thought.
'No professor. I have a free hour, and I'm heading to the dormitory.' she answered, looking him in the eyes. Stone hit stone and there were invisible scars produced by their continuous friction flying everywhere.
Suddenly, Snape directed his gaze to an invisible spot on the ground. 'Damn you, Evans.' he thought, not knowing to which one of them he was adressing.
'You'd better hurry, Evans. I don't think you want a week of detention because you've been caught skipping Arithmancy or Defense Against The Dark Arts again. And this time you'll spend your detention with me instead of Professor Filtwick, understood?' his voice sounded like a million tubas singing togheter.
The last time Ann got in detention, she drank tea with Professor Filtwick, and apparantely Draco Malfoy saw them and told Snape about that and he surely didn't look very happy when he told Dumbledore about how Filtwick is an 'incompetent professor and he should suffer too, along with miss Evans. Rules are rules.' She remembered Dumbledore's smirk when he told Snape that he was being way to harsh and that he would take care of her and Snape's miserable expression as he left the room; and Dumbledore really took care of her detention: he made her clean the magical objects on his desk, and God they were many! Ann had no idea what any of them did but refused to ask any question because it was a detention, after all.
'Yes, professor. Excuse me.' she answered, wiping away the memory of Dumbledore's magical things.
'Evans, look at me,' he then said, 'Dumbledore won't be there to save you again.'
'I thought you had to put either the word 'professor' or 'sir' before any adult name in this institution.' she answered him with nerve.
She was a stubborn little creature, a spontaneous and impulsive teenager girl whose attitude pissed Snape off. He gave her a mean look then turned around and left, burried deep in his thoughts.
'God, that man!' Ann mouthed, as she entered the Slytherins' common room.
She didn't knew why, but everytime she remembered of their second encounter in her school years, he always seemed nervous and concerned about something. And, after all, why was it always her the one to get caught?
