A/N: Thanks for the nice reviews. They are greatly appreciated and inspire me to write more.
TEACHER'S PET
Fern didn't get any rest that night.
She spent two hours tossing and turning, aggravating her feline companion who liked to sleep at the foot of her bed with all her movement.
Her dorm mates also snapped at her to "shut up making your bed creak," which, if Fern hadn't been so self-conscious at what she'd done earlier that night, might have made her laugh.
In the end she gave up and decided to go for a walk around the castle without her invisibility cloak. She really couldn't care less if she got expelled; in her mind she was the biggest failure of all. She had failed her parents by allowing them to die while she survived, she had failed her relatives by being forced on them so they'd had to take her in and feed her, she'd failed Professor McGonagall because as soon as she was of Hogwarts age, she'd had to take her in and Simon because he was her only living relative so he'd had no choice. Now she'd let her House down, her Head of House down, her Founder down, Her School down. Hogwarts was the balloon, she was the drawing pin.
Fern had spent ages wandering around aimlessly just thinking of how much of a disappointment she was to society, with no real thought of where she was heading.
Before she knew where she was, she stood before a familiar door in a familiar corridor. Now she wished she brought some treats with her.
Quietly as she could, she slowly lifted the latch, pushed the door open and peered inside.
"Where's my favourite boy?" she whispered, softly, careful not to startle the beast of a dog. Nothing; not a snore.
Pushing the door open further, she stepped inside. He wasn't there. She couldn't even call him by name, for she didn't know it.
Sadly, she looked around the small room that was once his home.
In the far corner sat a violin on a stand. What was this? Another enchanted room? Hogwarts was certainly full of surprises.
Still, a night of insomnia was a good night to practice one's musical skills. Sensing she was completely alone, she went to play the instrument. Not only could she both think and relax, she could also being doing something productive in the process.
She wasn't along for long however and generated company in the last person she wanted to see at that particular moment, though her reaction was severely delayed through distraction and fatigue.
At first she hadn't heard the dulcet tone of the other stringed instrument joining her soon after she started, too lost in her own thoughts.
It was only when she held the final note that she realised the other instrument continued to play others to finish the duet she hadn't realised she had been playing with this unknown musician.
She was both surprised and confused and slowly removed the violin from her shoulder to turn and look to her harmonious partner. She almost dropped the instrument but caught it in time. "Professor!" she exclaimed, startled.
"You didn't know," he smiled, mischievously. "My wooden friend," he announced.
It was very strange to Fern. Although she had hardly noticed he was there playing, she had still heard him. "You play so beautifully," she said.
"Thank you. You seem to be coming on quite well yourself," he complimented, to which Fern immediately shook her head in a dismissive manner.
"No I'm not, Sir, I'm awful. I either put too much rosin on my bow or not enough, either too much pressure on the string or not enough or I don't have my bow straight on the string so it squeaks no matter how I play," she babbled on.
"Miss Potter," he said, catching her attention. She stopped talking. "Shut up."
Then she looked guilty. "Sorry."
"It's alright," he chuckled.
Fern was one of the few people in the world who could say they'd ever seen Severus Snape smile.
"It's just practice," he said. "But don't practice too much. That's when you start to hate it. I used to find that if you left it a few days, you noticed improvement. It sounds odd, but believe me, it works."
She already knew that from personal experience, but she never said anything.
"Anyway," he said, changing the subject, "what brings you here after hours? I could easily tell Professor Dumbledore; I'm sure he'd be happy to hear of this little escapade," he threatened, though he was secretly teasing, just to see if he could get her to react. He was disappointed when his plan fell flat.
"My bed was creaking," she said, monotone that could give her current companion a run for his money.
He had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing.
"The girls kept telling me to shut up, so I came down here."
"I don't imagine to sleep," he said, recovering.
"Nah," she replied, plonking herself on the cold stone floor trying to get comfortable, which was no easy feat. "I was annoying my cat anyway. Came down to see the dog."
He could see it coming.
"This wouldn't, perchance, be the hound from hell?"
Quizzically, her eyes rose to look at him. "Yes? How did you know?"
She knew enough about what the dog had been protecting to openly talk about what he'd been doing at Hogwarts all year as he carefully placed the cello back on its own stand along with its bow and went to sit opposite Fern on the cold stone floor, again trying to get comfy.
"I know he nearly tore my leg off," Snape informed the girl adorned only in her frilly ribboned nightie which covered everything above the elbow and below the shin.
"He never touched me," Fern smiled, playfully.
So she was turning this into a game was she? Well, Severus would just see about that.
"I always had to play the cello for him or put a spell on another instrument to make him sleep," he said.
"Speak softly and give a hug," she challenged again, the silly grin still on her face.
A scowl rose onto his face. Was it his fury at the girl or the discomfort of the floor?
"The beast had three heads!" he argued.
"Plenty of treats for all," she responded in a sing-song voice.
"He scratched your back!"
"I scratched his ears."
He couldn't win this fight. He could very easily say the beast nearly mauled her to death and she wouldn't bat an eyelid. What did he have to do or was she so strange that she forgave him for everything simply because he was what Snape would call a 'dumb animal?'
"The only problem I have is that I still don't know his name," she said.
"Fluffy," he said, increasingly agitated.
"How appropriate," she smiled. "Aside from you, he's the biggest softie I know," she said.
Thank Merlin she'd only said that to him in this tiny room. If she'd announced that at breakfast in the Great Hall, he'd never live it down, though it would give everybody else a good laugh.
The more he spoke to Fern, however, the more he grew to like her, in spite of himself.
Neither of them would have been able to sleep that night so Snape gave in, conjured a couch and they both just spent the remainder of the night talking between themselves.
For the most part they spoke about music, as they both expressed a passion for it, which did end in the teacher giving the student a few small tips on bowing techniques, something Fern's own teacher never taught her and which she actually got paid for. Fern offered Snape money for the few helpful tips but he politely declined.
They spoke of loves and hates and, surprisingly, Fern discovered her teacher, although he hated children, he actually did love animals. He just wasn't very keen on three-headed dogs.
Then he wound up asking Fern if she had any idea what she might want to do when she got older. Her first answer was "Defeat Voldemort," to which he winced, before she responded a second time with "Marry the man of my dreams, have loads of children, more pets than I can shake a stick at and become an astronomer."
She may seem reserved and shy, but, beneath the surface, she was actually quite ambitious. Professor Snape thought that was probably quite a good thing.
When he asked her about potions, however, she was unsure. He seemed to think she had hidden potential in the subject, but her interests lay elsewhere, which he thought was a great waste. Still, he secretly vowed to let her shine and help her showcase her talents no matter how infuriating it could be for him if she refused to cooperate, though, considering her disposition, he doubted he'd have that trouble.
Yes, Fernanda Potter could quickly become the right little Teacher's Pet.
A/N: Sorry for not updating since last June, but in June and July I'd had music exams and the day after my exams my eye problems started and I'm been in an out of hospitals and doctors surgeries ever since. I've had lumbar punctures, brain scans, eye tests galore due to intracranial hypertension and have been diagnosed as having chronic migraine. I've been off work for five months with all these issues.
Another reason for this chapter not being updated is writer's block and, no joke, this chapter must have been re-written about 30 times. SERIOUSLY!
On the plus side, from my music exams I had in July (the day before the visual disturbance and unbearable headaches began) I passed them both with flying colours and my Diploma one I passed with Honours, making my 2nd out of 81 people in the County. I'm happy being second best.
