Don't own anything recognisable from JK Rowling's Harry Potter books.
Chapter 6
The Monster.
"Okay, so do you understand what you have to do?" Harry asked. He, Ron and Hermione were crammed into one stall of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Myrtle was floating above them. "I suppose so." Her transparent face screwed up. "It. well. it isn't really dangerous though, is it?" The three people in the room who weren't dead looked at each other and shrugged. "Well." Hermione started, but Ron cut in. "Not Dangerous?!?! Getting Snape's attention off of us isn't dangerous?" He looked at Harry with a 'Come on!' look on his face. "Of course it's dangerous!" Harry chimed in. "If it wasn't we would have asked one of the other ghosts to help us!" "Yeah!" Ron added. "Nearly-headless Nick has been clamouring for ages to help us!" "Really?" Myrtle's shape became clearer for a moment, and Harry could have sworn he saw a ghostly tear go down one of Myrtle's cheeks. "And you asked me instead?" Harry looked at Ron, who shrugged, confused by Myrtle's action. "Its obvious why we asked you! You laugh in the face of danger! Remember you were the one who found the chamber of secrets! Has Nick?" Myrtle puffed out her transparent chest like a peacock and said dramatically. "I'll do it!"
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
Katrina was sat in yet another exam. Professor Black (before he left) had suggested to Albus that "mock" exams would be good for the students and the teachers. Especially in History of Magic. It meant that Katrina could determine what he hadn't taught the pupils properly (or what they didn't understand!) and then she could teach it! Unfortunately it meant lots of sitting and staring into space. 'I'd prefer to be doing something useful!' She thought grouchily. 'Like maybe teaching the students!' Sighing silently she carried on reading the old worn out book. Katrina had never liked her childhood. At the age of eleven she had run away from home. She had been found (of course) but not before she had entered the muggle library. Trying to hide from her father in a place he would hate to enter she had picked up any old book and sat in a corner of the library. She had unconsciously picked up Jane Eyre. She could still remember the moment when Mr Rochester and Jane had been reunited, when Jane had discovered that he was blind. That part still made her cry, even if it was the hundredth time she had read it. Muggle books (and occasionally wizard ones as well!) made her feel emotions. Something she thought had been drummed out of her as a baby.
Lady Chatterley's Lover was sat beside her under a pile of notes. She had decided not to read that one in front of the students. Most of them wouldn't know what it was about (it being a muggle book), but she didn't want to be caught reading it anyway. Instead she was reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. She re-read the passage she had stopped on.
" '.Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me. I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.' " She had never really understood the book, the complex thoughts and themes running through it, until she had met Severus. Now the book appealed to her in a bittersweet way. She frowned. This was the third time she had read the book this month. She read on.
" '.Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.' " In the story all the monster wanted was someone to love him, and that he could love back. Katrina's mind wandered. 'I wonder.'? Suddenly she blocked out the thought that had crossed her mind. 'I'm not trying to understand Severus.' She tried to convince herself.
Unsuccessfully.
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
"Mr Potter! Mr Weasley! I thought I told you to do this experiment in silence?" Severus narrowed his eyes and floated towards Harry and Ron. He looked in their cauldron. "Isn't this potion supposed to be yellow?" Harry and Ron looked at the bluey-green potion they had created, then kept their eyes on their feet. "Yes sir." They said in unison. He scowled at them. 'Not since James and Sirius have I seen a more unlikely pair of wizards.' He thought sourly. "Twenty points from Gryffindor." He gazed at their down turned faces that reflected their fury and felt a pang of delight. "Without starting again, I want that potion to do exactly what it is supposed to do by the end of the lesson. A week of detentions if it doesn't! Understand?" He watched their shoulders' slump in dejection. 'They'll never get it right.' He thought, and mentally patted himself on the back for setting this potion to do just days after Gryffindor won the Quidditch match. 'I'll get the house points back one way or another.'
"Neoww!!" Something whooshed past his face, and Severus just about managed to stop himself from jumping. "What the."? "Enemy target sighted! Bombs at the ready!" Moaning Myrtle had old-fashioned fighter pilot goggles (ghostly ones) around her eyes and started talking like an upper class old English gentleman. "What ho! This is jolly good fun!" She was zooming around the classroom, causing absolute havoc. "Everyone stay in their seats!" Severus roared. Myrtle flew close to Severus' desk and blew all of the sheets he was marking on the floor. Severus strode to the front of the room. "You!" He glared at Myrtle "Stop this now!" He drew his wand. "Coming into land! Bye everyone!" She flew through a wall and left the room. "Everyone take their places now!" Severus said. Immediately all of the students who had got up to mischief (especially Draco Malfoy, who had got his wand out and created several large holes in the ceiling while aiming at Myrtle) sat down. Every one of their faces showed a forced angelic and stupid face. "Anybody that was in on that trick had better own up now!" Snape warned them, his voice taking on a soft menacing growl. As expected no one said anything. He scanned the room, looking for anyone who looked guilty. All of the students seemed to take an unusual interest in stirring their concoctions. "Fine! Carry on with the potion. We will have absolute silence for the rest of the lesson." He cleaned his room magically and sat down behind his desk. "Twenty points from the next person who speaks!"
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
Katrina was trying to make her way through the throng of students to her room. She was loaded up with books and papers that she wanted to return to her room, before making her way to dinner. She heard her tummy rumble and sped up slightly. She wasn't the type who usually ate a lot of food, but when she wanted it, she really wanted it! 'Chocolate!' She told herself mentally. 'As soon as you get rid of this stuff you can have chocolate.' Her bags were full of evidence to prove that chocolate was her weakness, especially chocolate frogs. If she was in the right state of mind she could devour about five a minute. (Her record was fitting 3 in her mouth (it was a really bad day!)) Her mind was so fixated on the thought that she didn't notice. "Ooomph!" The wind was knocked out of her, while most of her papers landed on the floor. "Professor Phaon." Severus' silky voice reached her ears as she tried, in vain, to catch some of the stuff that was falling from her hands. It in fact made things worse as she dropped everything she was holding on the floor, except. "Lady Chatterley's Lover?" He inquired, looking at the only thing she had manage to keep from hitting the floor. "I now know why you weren't looking where you were going. Keep your mind out of the books and on your path from now on!" He said, swooping past her and leaving her to pick up her papers. "Unbearable, thoughtless, idiotic pig." She muttered to herself, while thinking a few more graphic expletives to call him. She picked up her papers and made her way to her room.
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
"Well? Did you get them??" Harry was out of breath by the time he reached the Gryffindor common room. Straight after Potions he had had a Quidditch practice, so he didn't have time to see Hermione. "Worked like a charm!" She said, and took them to the girls' dormitory. There she showed them what she had looted from Snape's store cupboard. "Wow!" Ron exclaimed. "How much stuff do we need?" They looked at the assortment of jars she had taken, as well as the shoebox full of ingredients she had taken from Professor Sprout's greenhouse. "We'll have to do the spell soon." Hermione said unhappily. She held up an almost dark grey root. "As soon as this goes black its useless. We need a cauldron, or something like that. Somewhere that we won't be disturbed. Something personal that belongs to Professor Phaon and some of her DNA."
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
Severus was sat at the head table in the great hall slowly eating the meal that had appeared before him. Professor Phaon was sat directly opposite him. Observing her subtly Severus realised that she was trying deliberately to avoid eye contact with him. However every couple of minutes she would look at him. 'The next time she looks at me, I'm going to look back.' Severus decided cruelly. Sure enough when, a couple of moments later she peeked in his direction, he made eye contact with her. She quickly turned away from him, a haughty look appearing on her face. He wondered what was up with her. Then inspiration struck him. She was looking for his reaction to her book. 'Lady Chatterley's Lover.' He had been paying little attention to where he was going as he made his way down from Albus' office. Usually this didn't matter, as every student at Hogwarts knew that to run into Severus (even if it wasn't their fault) was to lose house points. It was unfortunate that he couldn't remove house points from teachers. He remembered the moment he had seen the tattered book hanging out of her hand. He had been slightly surprised. Not many wizards or witches read muggle books. However her book soon left his mind when he remembered the ghost's display.
He came back to the present and looked over in her direction again. She seemed to be calm on the outside, but Severus' experience in being a Death Eater made him more observant than everyone else. She was embarrassed about her book. He quirked his eyebrow. She had been paying particular attention to him since she arrived, and now reading bawdy novels. Did she.? 'No. It can't be.' Did she like him??? He would have to do something about her infatuation. It wasn't professional to have a crush on another teacher, and this one was definitely not reciprocated. He didn't want her to be mooning over him wherever he went.
The sudden heat rising from his arm told him that he was being summoned. He would deal with Professor Phaon later. He stalked from the room. Which caused a few gapes from students outside, who were expecting at least 10 points from Gryffindor after discovering they were late for dinner, and Severus didn't even look at them. He walked into his room, and had just enough time to take a potion before..
A/N:
Hiya guys!!! I must say first off. NO I didn't pay my sister to review my story! She does this of her own free will! But thanks anyway! Also thanks to: Kelest, Alexgray, and Joebob1379. See ya later.
Krusty. xxx
Chapter 6
The Monster.
"Okay, so do you understand what you have to do?" Harry asked. He, Ron and Hermione were crammed into one stall of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Myrtle was floating above them. "I suppose so." Her transparent face screwed up. "It. well. it isn't really dangerous though, is it?" The three people in the room who weren't dead looked at each other and shrugged. "Well." Hermione started, but Ron cut in. "Not Dangerous?!?! Getting Snape's attention off of us isn't dangerous?" He looked at Harry with a 'Come on!' look on his face. "Of course it's dangerous!" Harry chimed in. "If it wasn't we would have asked one of the other ghosts to help us!" "Yeah!" Ron added. "Nearly-headless Nick has been clamouring for ages to help us!" "Really?" Myrtle's shape became clearer for a moment, and Harry could have sworn he saw a ghostly tear go down one of Myrtle's cheeks. "And you asked me instead?" Harry looked at Ron, who shrugged, confused by Myrtle's action. "Its obvious why we asked you! You laugh in the face of danger! Remember you were the one who found the chamber of secrets! Has Nick?" Myrtle puffed out her transparent chest like a peacock and said dramatically. "I'll do it!"
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
Katrina was sat in yet another exam. Professor Black (before he left) had suggested to Albus that "mock" exams would be good for the students and the teachers. Especially in History of Magic. It meant that Katrina could determine what he hadn't taught the pupils properly (or what they didn't understand!) and then she could teach it! Unfortunately it meant lots of sitting and staring into space. 'I'd prefer to be doing something useful!' She thought grouchily. 'Like maybe teaching the students!' Sighing silently she carried on reading the old worn out book. Katrina had never liked her childhood. At the age of eleven she had run away from home. She had been found (of course) but not before she had entered the muggle library. Trying to hide from her father in a place he would hate to enter she had picked up any old book and sat in a corner of the library. She had unconsciously picked up Jane Eyre. She could still remember the moment when Mr Rochester and Jane had been reunited, when Jane had discovered that he was blind. That part still made her cry, even if it was the hundredth time she had read it. Muggle books (and occasionally wizard ones as well!) made her feel emotions. Something she thought had been drummed out of her as a baby.
Lady Chatterley's Lover was sat beside her under a pile of notes. She had decided not to read that one in front of the students. Most of them wouldn't know what it was about (it being a muggle book), but she didn't want to be caught reading it anyway. Instead she was reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. She re-read the passage she had stopped on.
" '.Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me. I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.' " She had never really understood the book, the complex thoughts and themes running through it, until she had met Severus. Now the book appealed to her in a bittersweet way. She frowned. This was the third time she had read the book this month. She read on.
" '.Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.' " In the story all the monster wanted was someone to love him, and that he could love back. Katrina's mind wandered. 'I wonder.'? Suddenly she blocked out the thought that had crossed her mind. 'I'm not trying to understand Severus.' She tried to convince herself.
Unsuccessfully.
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
"Mr Potter! Mr Weasley! I thought I told you to do this experiment in silence?" Severus narrowed his eyes and floated towards Harry and Ron. He looked in their cauldron. "Isn't this potion supposed to be yellow?" Harry and Ron looked at the bluey-green potion they had created, then kept their eyes on their feet. "Yes sir." They said in unison. He scowled at them. 'Not since James and Sirius have I seen a more unlikely pair of wizards.' He thought sourly. "Twenty points from Gryffindor." He gazed at their down turned faces that reflected their fury and felt a pang of delight. "Without starting again, I want that potion to do exactly what it is supposed to do by the end of the lesson. A week of detentions if it doesn't! Understand?" He watched their shoulders' slump in dejection. 'They'll never get it right.' He thought, and mentally patted himself on the back for setting this potion to do just days after Gryffindor won the Quidditch match. 'I'll get the house points back one way or another.'
"Neoww!!" Something whooshed past his face, and Severus just about managed to stop himself from jumping. "What the."? "Enemy target sighted! Bombs at the ready!" Moaning Myrtle had old-fashioned fighter pilot goggles (ghostly ones) around her eyes and started talking like an upper class old English gentleman. "What ho! This is jolly good fun!" She was zooming around the classroom, causing absolute havoc. "Everyone stay in their seats!" Severus roared. Myrtle flew close to Severus' desk and blew all of the sheets he was marking on the floor. Severus strode to the front of the room. "You!" He glared at Myrtle "Stop this now!" He drew his wand. "Coming into land! Bye everyone!" She flew through a wall and left the room. "Everyone take their places now!" Severus said. Immediately all of the students who had got up to mischief (especially Draco Malfoy, who had got his wand out and created several large holes in the ceiling while aiming at Myrtle) sat down. Every one of their faces showed a forced angelic and stupid face. "Anybody that was in on that trick had better own up now!" Snape warned them, his voice taking on a soft menacing growl. As expected no one said anything. He scanned the room, looking for anyone who looked guilty. All of the students seemed to take an unusual interest in stirring their concoctions. "Fine! Carry on with the potion. We will have absolute silence for the rest of the lesson." He cleaned his room magically and sat down behind his desk. "Twenty points from the next person who speaks!"
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
Katrina was trying to make her way through the throng of students to her room. She was loaded up with books and papers that she wanted to return to her room, before making her way to dinner. She heard her tummy rumble and sped up slightly. She wasn't the type who usually ate a lot of food, but when she wanted it, she really wanted it! 'Chocolate!' She told herself mentally. 'As soon as you get rid of this stuff you can have chocolate.' Her bags were full of evidence to prove that chocolate was her weakness, especially chocolate frogs. If she was in the right state of mind she could devour about five a minute. (Her record was fitting 3 in her mouth (it was a really bad day!)) Her mind was so fixated on the thought that she didn't notice. "Ooomph!" The wind was knocked out of her, while most of her papers landed on the floor. "Professor Phaon." Severus' silky voice reached her ears as she tried, in vain, to catch some of the stuff that was falling from her hands. It in fact made things worse as she dropped everything she was holding on the floor, except. "Lady Chatterley's Lover?" He inquired, looking at the only thing she had manage to keep from hitting the floor. "I now know why you weren't looking where you were going. Keep your mind out of the books and on your path from now on!" He said, swooping past her and leaving her to pick up her papers. "Unbearable, thoughtless, idiotic pig." She muttered to herself, while thinking a few more graphic expletives to call him. She picked up her papers and made her way to her room.
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
"Well? Did you get them??" Harry was out of breath by the time he reached the Gryffindor common room. Straight after Potions he had had a Quidditch practice, so he didn't have time to see Hermione. "Worked like a charm!" She said, and took them to the girls' dormitory. There she showed them what she had looted from Snape's store cupboard. "Wow!" Ron exclaimed. "How much stuff do we need?" They looked at the assortment of jars she had taken, as well as the shoebox full of ingredients she had taken from Professor Sprout's greenhouse. "We'll have to do the spell soon." Hermione said unhappily. She held up an almost dark grey root. "As soon as this goes black its useless. We need a cauldron, or something like that. Somewhere that we won't be disturbed. Something personal that belongs to Professor Phaon and some of her DNA."
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
Severus was sat at the head table in the great hall slowly eating the meal that had appeared before him. Professor Phaon was sat directly opposite him. Observing her subtly Severus realised that she was trying deliberately to avoid eye contact with him. However every couple of minutes she would look at him. 'The next time she looks at me, I'm going to look back.' Severus decided cruelly. Sure enough when, a couple of moments later she peeked in his direction, he made eye contact with her. She quickly turned away from him, a haughty look appearing on her face. He wondered what was up with her. Then inspiration struck him. She was looking for his reaction to her book. 'Lady Chatterley's Lover.' He had been paying little attention to where he was going as he made his way down from Albus' office. Usually this didn't matter, as every student at Hogwarts knew that to run into Severus (even if it wasn't their fault) was to lose house points. It was unfortunate that he couldn't remove house points from teachers. He remembered the moment he had seen the tattered book hanging out of her hand. He had been slightly surprised. Not many wizards or witches read muggle books. However her book soon left his mind when he remembered the ghost's display.
He came back to the present and looked over in her direction again. She seemed to be calm on the outside, but Severus' experience in being a Death Eater made him more observant than everyone else. She was embarrassed about her book. He quirked his eyebrow. She had been paying particular attention to him since she arrived, and now reading bawdy novels. Did she.? 'No. It can't be.' Did she like him??? He would have to do something about her infatuation. It wasn't professional to have a crush on another teacher, and this one was definitely not reciprocated. He didn't want her to be mooning over him wherever he went.
The sudden heat rising from his arm told him that he was being summoned. He would deal with Professor Phaon later. He stalked from the room. Which caused a few gapes from students outside, who were expecting at least 10 points from Gryffindor after discovering they were late for dinner, and Severus didn't even look at them. He walked into his room, and had just enough time to take a potion before..
A/N:
Hiya guys!!! I must say first off. NO I didn't pay my sister to review my story! She does this of her own free will! But thanks anyway! Also thanks to: Kelest, Alexgray, and Joebob1379. See ya later.
Krusty. xxx