Chapter 9- "This is sooo tedious."
Annabelle Granger flounced into Snape's dungeon with a huge smile and her hair bouncing everywhere. 'Hi Professor Snape!'
Snape didn't even look up from his marking. 'Get out and knock on the door.'
Immediately, she turned around and opened the dungeon door. She knocked on the outside quickly before skipping back in. 'Hi Professor Snape!'
'Get out of my dungeon and do not enter until I have given you permission.'
Without losing the smile on her face, Granger bounced out of the dungeon letting the door slam shut behind her.
A knock echoed into the dungeon. 'Come in,' Snape called but there was no answer. Another knock hit the door. 'Come in Miss. Granger,' Snape spoke louder this time though yet again there was no answer. This time there wasn't even an answering knock. Eventually Snape got up and flung open the door. Annabelle Granger was stood there with her head cocked to one side and smile on her lips. 'Get in Granger!'
'I must have not heard you call Professor,' Annabelle explained blithly and slipped past him into the room. Snape noticed that she didn't apologise. 'So what am I doing for my detention sir?'
'Lines.' Snape answered shortly. He was saving the worst part of his punishment for the next few detentions.
She sat down with a flourish and looked at the parchment in front of her. Scrawled almost indecipherably along the top was I must not assault students, especially those from Slytherin House. Without comment, Annabelle pushed her hair away from her face and began to write. Snape sat down at his table and began to mark essays again.
'Sir?' Snape looked up only twenty minutes later. Annabelle was standing right in front of Snape's desk reading the essay he was marking upside down.
'What is it Granger?'
'Annie, sir. And I need some more parchment.'
Unable to help himself, Snape glanced at the half a metre long parchment he'd given her. Across it were what simply looked like straight lines, always with ten gaps in and the odd flick here and there. Without a word, he handed her another of the same parchment. In retaliation she slumped as if disappointed. 'Is there something you'd like to say Miss. Granger?'
'I expected something more imaginative,' she answered plainly and to the point.
Snape tried not to gape. No one spoke to him like that. Smiling dangerously, Snape pushed aside the pile of essays. 'What were you expecting Miss. Granger.'
Annie smirked. She had obviously wanted this, 'If I guessed it wouldn't be a surprise would it? Besides, you are Professor Snape, you're meant to come up with this stuff.'
"Continue writing your lines Miss. Granger. I'm sure we can find you something more imaginative next time." What is with this child? Does she not have a sense of self-preservation? Maybe I should teach her...
To her credit Annabelle only groaned once, "This is sooo tedious." She flopped on her chair and without even looking down at the parchment began scrawling across the page. It was the samepathetic excuse for handwriting as before. An idea formed in Snape's mind...
Surprise flickered across Annabelle's face as her quill suddenly snapped in her hand. As if sensing Snape's amusement she looked up at him with a slow smile. The girl was playing along. "May I burrow a quill please Sir?"
Snape couldn't help himself, a morbid smile plastered his lips as he gave her a quill that was conveniently placed on his table. "Here you go Granger, get back to work."
As Snape pretended to be bent over his marking he watched the girl out of the corner of his eye. This was going to be fun.
Annabelle Granger only glanced suspiciously at the quill before scrawling hesitantly across her sheet. Pain burst up her arm and she dropped the quill quickly. He watched as she picked the quill up and began to examine it closely. There was nothing to indicate that anything was wrong except for the obvious stinging in her fingers. He stifled a smile as the girl picked the quill up again and experimentally drew a line across the sheet. Spasms streaked across Granger's arm and she dropped the quill again. Then she smiled.
Snape forced himself to continue marking but couldn't help but watch Annabelle Granger out of the corner of his eye. Instead of taking another quill out of her bag she continued to experimentally write on the page. Easily she figured out that the quill stung her if she wrote in any way other than clean print handwriting. What surprised Snape was when she began to purposely make the quill sting to see how long she could hold onto the quill before letting go. It was interesting to note that she managed to write for three minutes twenty seconds before deciding she was bored. After that she proceeded to poke at the quill with her wand that she slipped out of a forearm wand holster. Snape let her play for about half an hour before interrupting.
"You may go to your dormitory now Granger.'
Annabelle had been so absorbed with the quill that Snape's voive had made her jump in surprise. "Really? That went quickly.' As Annabelle beamed a smile at him she placed her hand over both her wand and the quill. When she took it away they were both gone. As if Snape hadn't noticed her slip them both into the wand holster.
"I'm sure it did. Off you go now Granger, you wouldn't want to make your sister worry. Her IQ might drop a few micropoints."
Annabelle smirked as she ran her hand through her hair as if nervous. Snape laughed internally, she was trying to push the wand and quill further into the holster to stop them falling out. "I wish," she slung her bag quickly over her shoulder. "Bye Sir. See you in lesson tomorrow." Hurriedly she rushed out of the dungeons without waiting for a reply.
Images of the concentration on Annabelle's face and the trembling that was running up her arm right now made Snape shake his head in disbelief. Then he smirked. This girl's an interesting one...
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