Chapter twelve
Detentions with Snape
/
Four minutes later, Harry stood indecisively outside the door to Snape's office. Finally, he took a deep breath, forced himself to knock, and opened the door.
Snape raised his head from the table with a smirk.
"Good…" Harry began, only to be cut off by Snape´s icy voice.
"Did I already invite you in?"
Harry gritted his teeth. He backed away and closed the door. First, he wordlessly counted to five and then knocked again.
"Come in," came the mocking voice after a while.
Harry walked in and stared at Snape.
"Good evening, sir," he greeted with a hint of irony in his voice.
"I deduct five points from Gryffindor for your five-second delay," Snape informed him mischievously. "Sit."
Harry did not understand how it was possible that Snape always managed to upset him so much. With great effort, however, he managed to remain silent and reluctantly sat down on the hard chair. Snape stared at him for a moment and Harry returned his gaze without blinking. After that, the professor leant into his chair comfortably.
"I regret to inform you that this week, even though you should have a well-deserved punishment, we will unfortunately be occupied with something else," Snape finally began, visibly unwilling.
"With what?" Harry blurted out before quickly adding, "Sir?"
"At Headmaster's request, we will start again with what did not work for you last year. That is, with Occlumency."
Harry felt his pulse quicken and pressed his lips together tightly.
"Surely, I don't need to explain to you again, why it´s necessary. Please, address any concerns directly to Headmaster," Snape added with a knowing smirk.
Harry was stubbornly silent, but inside, he was bubbling with rage. He was well aware his face had to look like he had just stepped into something horribly smelly and disgusting.
"Don't think," Snape leant closer to him, "that I'm anywhere near happy about it. Professor Dumbledore didn't change his mind despite my protests."
Snape then stood up quickly and drew his wand. "You know what to do," he sputtered contemptuously.
Harry struggled to calm down; he stood up and firmly pulled out his own wand.
/
To his own and also Snape's astonishment, his mind defences were doing much better than ever before. Harry had ended up on the floor only once and he no longer let Snape enter into his thoughts and memories so easily.
After two hours, Snape decided to release him mercifully.
"Just by the way," he stopped him before the door. "You'll be here every Friday at the same time starting in October, and if anyone happens to wonder what you're doing here so often, you know what to say."
Harry gave a small nod and muttered a greeting. He walked out and closed the door behind him a little louder than he had to. He took a deep breath and rubbed his tired eyes. He had a terrible headache. He made his way to the Gryffindor tower at a snail's pace.
Meanwhile, Snape sat motionless in his chair and stared thoughtfully at the closed door.
/
In the morning, when Harry gloomily announced to Ron and Hermione what was in store for him again that year, they truly sympathized with him. Nevertheless, as Hermione quietly commented that it was only for his own good, Ron stabbed her with an arguing look, saying that it did not have to be Snape teaching him.
Harry stopped them both. He had come to terms with it. He had no choice.
At the two-hour of Defence class, Shiernov announced the test scores, which she thought had gone extremely well, and then handed out the corrected essays.
"If only everyone behaved according to their grades," she remarked as she gave Malfoy and Harry their essays the last.
Neither of them responded. They had been completely ignoring each other all day, yet every time one of them walked past a larger group of students, they immediately began to make excited noises. However, Harry still noticed that Draco's bruises were healing just as quickly as his were. And no matter how hard he tried, Angela was suddenly avoiding his gaze. As if nothing had changed between them on Sunday night.
Potions lesson took place as usually and Charms lesson as well. Harry felt like the time was flying by as the evening approached and just before eight, he set off surrendered to the dungeons.
/
The following days continued at the same monotonous pace. Harry still had a headache, but his dreams were not as horrible as before. He also finally noticed that Hermione and Ron were acting differently towards each other, but he did not comment on it yet and just kept watching them more carefully. The excitement and gossip from his fight with Malfoy was dying down very slowly. However, he did not care about that unlike about the fact that Angela kept ignoring him. It was not until Friday at lunch that his mood improved a little.
He was just eating up on rice when he felt a slight pressure on the back of his head after a long time and heard Angela's soft voice.
Are you coming on Saturday night?
Harry choked in surprise and started to cough, but quickly recovered and looked up. Angela was sipping some juice, watching him intently. At first, he smiled, but then he remembered his detention. He looked around to see if anyone was paying him any attention and then shook his head sharply.
Angela was apparently saddened.
Why? he heard her again.
Harry glanced over at the professor's desk, pointed his fork at Snape subtly, and a moment later touched the spot under his eye, where it had been yellowish until yesterday.
Angela understood and nodded.
How long is he going to torture you?
Harry finished his meal, put down his cutlery and concentrated. In his mind, he sent Angela an image of a number seven.
Angela smiled in surprise.
That was good, she complimented him.
Harry grinned in satisfaction. Suddenly, a black robe stepped between him and Angela.
"Who are you grinning at?" Ron asked, landing hard on the bench.
"At no one," Harry muttered vaguely.
/
The last September lesson of Occlumency with Snape was unbelievably long. In addition, Harry's thoughts kept wandering to Angela, but luckily, he managed to hide that from Snape. At half past eleven, he fell tiredly into his bed and fell asleep before long despite his aching head.
Around the same time, Angela kept rolling restlessly in her bed. Although she was exhausted, she could not give in to the fatigue. Just around midnight, she gave up trying to fall sleep and even though she knew very well she should not do it, she took out the small white pills from her bedside table. She took two of them and swallowed hard. Only then, she was relieved and fell fast asleep within five minutes.
At that very moment, Malfoy was dousing his second cigarette on the sill of the large window in the corridor in front of the Slytherin common room. His hair and robe were damp on his right side from the constant rain. He quietly closed the window and glanced at his watch. At half past one in the morning, he could probably fall asleep...
/
The time to leave for Snape's punishment with Malfoy came a way too soon. At the same time as usual, Harry crawled to the underground corridors. Outside the door to Snape's office, he nearly collided with Malfoy, who had arrived at the same time. They stared at each other, neither of them in the mood to knock first.
Finally, Malfoy smirked and did it himself.
"Come in," snapped Snape from within.
They walked in, Harry closed the door behind them and both mumbled a greeting at once.
Snape eyed them up with a sneer, snapped the thick, tattered book in front of him, and stood up.
"Follow me," he growled coldly, heading to the small door on the right and unlocking it with his wand.
Malfoy walked in first, followed closely by Harry, into a large, dark stone room, the walls of which were plastered floor to ceiling with shelves that were crammed with all manner of glasses and containers, not unlike those in Snape's office. However, these looked much older. Their content was already making Harry's stomach turn.
"So," Snape, to his horror, smiled. "You'll be working on this part tonight," he pointed to one side of the room where jars were stuffed with mostly unidentifiable green slime, or a horde of corpses of various insects.
"First, you go to the caretaker for buckets and rags, the water's over there," Snape nodded to the old, chipped sink. "Empty all the glasses into this barrel and clean them up. If they do not look like new when you´re finished, you will face the consequences."
Harry and Malfoy grimaced in disgust and remained silent.
"What are you waiting for?!" snapped Snape coldly.
Sensibly, they both immediately went to Filch, who was already waiting for them.
"That's enough, brats!" he welcomed them with Mrs. Norris in his arms. "There you have it," he pointed to the rusty buckets.
Malfoy and Harry grabbed them quite annoyed.
"And you'll return them in the same condition, is that clear?" Filch hissed, closing the door into his lair.
There's not much to spoil about these, Harry thought spitefully.
Back at Snape's place, they only slowly and reluctantly decided to take the first glasses in their hands.
"Dare to break even one," Snape hissed and the door slammed behind him.
From that moment on, the room feel into suffocating silence, broken only by the crackling of torches, running water, and the clinking of glasses.
/
The next morning, Hermione noticed huge blisters on Harry's hands.
"What did you have to do yesterday?" she asked sympathetically.
"Don't even ask," Harry sighed, carefully continuing to eat.
Ron looked up at the ceiling with a frown.
"How much longer is it going to rain like this?" he noted kind of frustrated.
"You're always complaining about something, Ronald," Hermione replied, preparing the money for the owl that was flying toward her with the new Prophet.
"Anything new?" Harry asked as she spread it out in front of her.
"Hmm, not really," Hermione replied thoughtfully. "Elevated security in Azkaban, some Muggle has been spooked by a young giantess, wandered away from the mountains… Wait, there's something…"
Ron and Harry raised their heads curiously.
"Listen," Hermione began reading. "After a noisy discussion, most of the members and employees of the Ministry of Magic agreed last night that the current Minister Cornelius Fudge is no longer able to perform his duties. He is indecisive, confused and does not have an overview of the current serious situation. One of the Aurors, who does not wish to be named, even stated that he is rapidly losing authority in the wizarding world. Therefore, it is very likely that he will be removed from office and an election will be held soon for a new Minister of Magic."
"It was about time," commented Ron, returning to his breakfast.
At that moment, Harry caught the look of Angela, who was leaving the Great Hall, and smiled at her. She returned it and went out. A dark-haired Gryffindor ran right behind her, calling her name and Angela turned around.
Harry realized that it was Ginny's friend – Daria. They discussed about something for a while and then they disappeared from his sight.
/
The rest of his evening punishments took place similarly to Monday's, with the difference that the contents of the glasses were increasingly disgusting. On Thursday, Ron and Hermione were waiting for Harry in the common room with a large bowl in front of them, filled with some kind of yellow liquid.
"Why aren't you sleeping?" Harry asked with his hands in his pockets.
"Come here," Hermione said sharply. "I can't look at your hands anymore."
"But it's not really..."
Hermione cut him off: "Sit down and dip your hands in this," she instructed him flatly.
Harry obeyed and felt immediate relief from the burning. He did not even have the urge to keep scratching them anymore.
"Is Malfoy the same?" asked Ron mockingly.
"Exactly the same," Harry replied.
"Serves him right," Ron croaked in satisfaction. "I'm just surprised you haven't cursed each other yet."
"We're successfully ignoring each other," Harry murmured.
"So, keep it that way tomorrow as well," remarked Hermione. "That will be the end of it, right?"
"Yeah," Harry nodded. "I can´t wait…"
/
Friday's detention was the last, and of course, Snape saved the best for the end. He led them to Potions´ classroom and from there to the chamber at the back, where Hermione had once stolen the ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion. Snape lit several torches with a wave of his wand and Harry and Malfoy registered a huge black pile in the corner with four large containers in front of it.
As they got closer to it, they were disgusted to see large, hairy – and thankfully dead – spiders.
Ron would be out of there in the second, Harry thought abashed.
Content Snape sneered at their pale faces.
"First, you cut off their legs, they'll come here," he began smugly. "Then you mash them together with this tincture and pour it into the other container. Clear?"
Both Malfoy and Harry swallowed hard and nodded.
"Great. Go for it. You're not leaving until this pile is gone!" Snape hissed and stormed off into the classroom.
Harry and Malfoy stood in front of the pile for a long time undecided. They looked at each other for the first time in their lives with understanding, but immediately recovered, turned away, and began the hideous work.
/
After only half an hour, Harry felt like he would never get rid of nightmares about spiders. Wearily, he went to refill the tincture, accidentally kicking Malfoy's pot. It tumbled and rolled towards the door, nearly spilling everything out.
Malfoy jumped up angrily and wanted to say something, but Snape was already marching in.
"What's going on here?" he barked icily, surveying the floor.
"Potter did it on purpose, Professor," Malfoy said with a sneer.
"But it's not…" Harry started to defend himself, but Snape did not let him finish.
"Silence! Potter, I warn you – stop these sabotages," he gritted his teeth and returned the legs to the jar with his wand.
Harry pursed his lips tightly and Snape left again. Harry shot Malfoy a look of disdain, which he returned in equal measure, preferring to start squeezing again.
/
Another hour later, they were both yawning, but the pile was barely half that size. Malfoy got up and went to wash the mortar and pestle and Harry was oblivious to him. He raised his head only when he heard a similar rumble as a while ago. His keg of thick spider mush spilled across the floor.
Snape was in the door as quickly as if he had been waiting for it.
"Well," he snorted with his arms folded.
"It was Malfoy!" Harry snapped agitated, before that scumbag could take it out on him again.
"You dropped it yourself and you're throwing it at me, huh?" Malfoy sneered.
"I'm telling the truth!" snapped Harry.
"You? You're a notorious liar, Potter boy!"
"Shut up, Malfoy!" Harry could not help himself anymore.
"SILENCE!" Snape yelled furiously.
They both flinched and fell silent.
"If you both don't want to be punished for another week, you'll clean it up and make another pile over there in the other corner! And I don't want to hear anything louder than shuffling of feet from here! Is that clear?"
Both Malfoy and Harry glared at him hatefully.
"Understood?" Snape asked coldly again.
"Yes, sir," they said in unison.
"Thirty points off Gryffindor," Snape hissed as he left.
They cleaned everything in complete silence, even though little burning red blisters popped up on their hands as they did so, and they went to work at the spiders again furiously.
/
After a thorough inspection of the floor, Snape graciously dismissed them at two o´clock in the morning.
Without any greeting, tired and upset, as if somebody had just broken their brand new broom, they dragged themselves to their beds by sheer force of will and fell fast asleep.
The next day, they both arrived to the Great Hall just before lunch and they both stared at Snape in exactly the same way. For the first time in their lives, they had something in common, but neither of them was happy about it in the least.