Ch.20

Draco stared, un-amused, as Blaise shook his ass inches from his face while singing some song about cracks, corn, and some guy named Jimmy, and to tell the truth, he didn't give a shit.

"Oh. Come. On!", Blaise said, shaking his ass to punctuate each word. After getting no reaction he looked at Draco in between his legs. "Look, I know how you feel about Steph, I'm worried too, but she's going to be fine!"

"How could you possibly know how I feel?!", Draco snapped at his rear-end.(Blaise's, not his own, although that would be funny)

Blaise glared at him, which was rather hard to do since he was still looking at him through his legs, "Oh, you're right, I couldn't possibly know how you feel. I've only known her since I was a baby! And you've known her for soooo long now.", Blaise snarked back.

Draco opened his mouth and then clamped it shut when Stephanie came walking into the commons.

"Stephanie!", Draco yelled as he rushed over to her. He stopped, however, when she flinched when he reached out to touch her. "Stephanie? What's wrong?"

"I...I...", she bit her lip then shrugged, "It's nothing. But I'm sleepy. I'm going to go to bed now." Draco stared after her, at a loss for words or actions. When Stephanie had left the commons Draco asked Blaise, "I thought you said she would be okay?"

"...she might not be now, but if I know her she'll be back to herself soon. She's a tough chick."

"I hope you're right."

The next morning Draco and Blaise were waiting for Stephanie in the common room as per usual when Blaise gripped Draco's wrist so tight that it popped.

"Ouch! Bloody hell! What was that....for.", he said as he saw Stephanie coming down the stairs.

"Well hell."

Stephanie's silver eyes peeked out from behind her black hair and her lips glimmered with black gloss.

Blaise's grip got even tighter on Draco's wrist.

"OUCH! What the hell Blaise? Let go!"

"Sorry.", Blaise ground out through clenched teeth as he snapped his hand away. "I'm absolutely going to kill that bitch.", Blaise said, shaking with his built up anger towards the one who put his best friend in such a dark predicament.

Blaise stood up sharply from the armrest he had been perched on and started to dart towards the door but was stopped when Draco grabbed him roughly by the shirt to keep him from doing something stupid.

"Calm down!"

"Don't tell me to calm down!", Blaise yelled as he struggled to get lose and during the flailing hit Draco in the nose with his elbow, causing Draco to let go and grab his nose. But instead of continuing on he now vehemently apologized to Draco as Stephanie came running over.

"Are you alright?! Man, I'm sorry!"

"I'm fine, don't worry about it. I'm just gonna drown in my own blood is all."

"Here.", Stephanie said as she put some kind of white powder on his nose and the bleeding stopped. "That should make it better.". Everyone couldn't help but notice that Stephanie was much more soft spoken than usual.

"Wow. That's neat. What is that stuff?", Draco said after casting a cleaning spell on himself.

"Um...I don't know.", Stephanie said with a shrug.

It was obvious that Stephanie's new quiet nature was bothering Blaise, especially when he kicked a table, and then started hopping up and down slurring curse words together.

When Sanya finally got steadied on her feet McGonagall came prancing into the infirmary.

"What a mess!"

"Minerva, what happened?", Severus asked in disbelief.

"Stephanie's cauldron exploded and this horrible pink gook went everywhere! I tried everything I could think of but it just wouldn't go away!", she said as a big gloop of the pink gook slimed down from her hat. Sanya's eyes grew even larger as she watched in horror as the gook plopped on the floor.

Severus looked down at Sanya.

"You're being awfully quiet....and why are your eyes so big?"

"Uh...well....you see....I'm uh....I have a um....pink phobia."

"You're kidding me."

"Heh. Wish I were, Severus."

"Did you two not hear me?! The students could be stained for life! And it was Stephanie's cauldron, of all people!"

"Simple cleansing potion.", both Sanya and Severus said at the same time. Minerva looked at them in amusement, their potion expertise never ceased to amaze her. Then Sanya snapped to,

"Stephanie? My Stephanie?! Oh bullocks! Something really is wrong with her!"

The three professors then made their way to the disastrous scene.

Severus came walking briskly into the potions classroom, followed by Minerva and a rather wild looking Sanya. Sanya walked to the front of the room, opened her mouth to say something, shut it as her eyes got very large as if she were trying to keep herself from doing something, then she abruptly turned on her heels and stalked out of the room and shut the door. Then Severus's fingers curled and his eyes widened when his ears were assaulted by a very loud scream. As normal as could please, Sanya came walking back in the classroom and said in a quiet hoarse voice, "If you will all go to madam Pomfrey she has a cleansing solution that should take care of your...problem."

The students immediately stood up and left, the black haired Stephanie walked by her as she exited. Severus noted that a muscle in Sanya's jaw tensed when she did so. As soon as Minerva walked out of the classroom and closed the door, having left to supervise the class, a tense silence ensued. It was to be broken by Severus.

"I...forgot to mention that your niece has taken to...a new look.", he said calmly.

Another silence followed. Until Sanya stomped her left foot as she went into Valkyrie mode, threw her head back and let forth another blood curdling scream. When she finally ceased she cocked her head to one side to pop her neck and smoothed her hands over her dress, a habit that she had. As calmly as could be, she put her pinky finger under Severus's desk and sharply pulled her hand in an upwards crossing motion by herself, sending the large desk flipping and landing with a harsh crack on the stone floor.

"...whoops. Seems I...'forgot to mention' I have super-human strength. Oh well.", she said as she fixed a hard glare at him with her blue slitted eyes and swept out of the room, once her glamour was properly restored. A certain matching painting decided to speak up, "Smooth move Severus."

"Don't you patronize me!", he said as he glared at the portrait.

"Glaring at a portrait. By all means take your anger out on me, seeing as the source of it has already fled."

Severus started to respond but instead settled for a deep breath, and also a black piece of cloth thrown over the portrait for good measure.

"Oh, that's real nice!"

Severus smiled over the fact that at least he could ruin some ones day...even if it was just a portrait of Salazar Slytherin.