Please excuse my spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors that may be in here. I decided updating was more important than waiting for my betas.
Disclaimer: Still not JK Rowling and I still don't own Harry Potter.
Falling Chapter Ten: Potions Gone Wrong
Two weeks had passed since school started and Kali was still unsure of where she was standing on almost every situation except for how her father treated his students. Her crush on Ron was only intensifying, something that Snape greatly disliked, and it was becoming harder and harder for her to sneak away and see him without someone becoming suspicious. She knew Ron liked her but part of her old fashioned ideals made her want him to ask her out. Kali pulled her hair up into a ponytail and let it hang loose as she slipped out of the dorm before Parvati and Lavender woke up to tell her about how she should do something new with her hair.
Hurrying down the halls of Hogwarts so that she could make it to breakfast in time, Kali entered the dungeons just as she did once a day, every day. The Slytherins were some of the most probable candidates to figuring her out as they often saw her slipping down the corridors early in the morning or late in the evening every day. Her original judgment of Pansy Parkinson was only proving itself even more with time. The girl was evil, at least to Kali, and she really must be destroyed.
The same fourth year she had been passing for the last three days walked by her with narrowed eyes. He obviously found it strange that a Gryffindor spent so much time in the dungeons without an excuse. Between visiting her father and spending time with Blaise, who had somehow become a rather good friend over her two weeks at Hogwarts, things were starting to look strange. A Gryffindor shouldn't be spending this much time this far away from their common room. This fourth year boy seemed to think the same thing as well.
"Morning, Kali," said Blaise and she spun around to see him coming out of a stone wall. The entrance to the Slytherin common room if she remembered correctly from the first day they met. "What are you doing all the way down here in the dungeons at this hour?"
What was she doing?
"I need to discuss some matters with Professor Snape about our Potions class today since we're starting to make the Blessure Fatale potion today."
"Oh. I see," he said sounding a little forlorn. Scratch that. He sounded downright disappointed.
"What is it, Blaise? I can spare a few moments."
"I guess I'm just scared . . . for Draco, you know?"
She knew. All of Blaise's emotions centered around Draco. She couldn't place a time where she had ever heard Blaise discuss his emotions for himself. In fact, she didn't know if Blaise even did think about himself. From the way Blaise talked about Draco, he seemed to be the most wonderful guy in the entire world. From the way Ron talked about Draco, he seemed to be the slimiest git in the entire world. It was hard being in the middle.
"Still no sign of anything we can use as proof?"
"Nope," said Blaise, resigned. "I'm just about ready to give up. I don't know how to prove it but I know that he's hurting himself. Last night I got really desperate when I saw him asleep. His pajamas were sort of rolled up and there are these cuts all over his stomach. I wanted to throw up. This morning he left early, he usually does these days, to go to the library. I searched through his stuff but besides some small traces of blood, which could really be from even a paper cut, I've got nothing. Nothing good enough, anyway."
"I'm sorry, Blaise," Kali said with the sympathy she knew was required at a time like this. "I wish I could help but I don't know what to do until we have some sort of proof. He's not just going to show anyone his wounds."
"I know." He sighed. "Thanks for listening, Kali."
"No problem. Go to breakfast now. Eat. Maybe it will make you feel better."
"Maybe."
Blaise wandered off down the hall leaving Kali to rush the rest of the way to Snape's private rooms.
"Daddy," she called once she walked inside and dropped on a chair by the fire. Snape emerged from the bedroom with a stack of parchment in his arms and took the other chair by the fire. A red inkwell and a quill were sitting on the table by the parchments. That could only mean he was grading essays. "So who are we grading this morning?"
"We aren't grading anything. I am grading my seventh year Slytherin and Gryffindor essays."
"That's my class."
"I know that, Kailah. You're very observant."
"You could have just said that."
"I'd prefer not to."
"Are we getting them back today?" Snape nodded. "Did you grade mine yet?" He gave her a smirk as he continued marking up an essay. Leaning forward, Kali caught the name Neville Longbottom at the top. "Daddy! Be nice to Neville! He tries. He really does. You really shouldn't torment him as much as you do."
"Once you've taught Mister Longbottom for six, now seven, years, you can tell me how to treat him."
Kali grumbled. "So? Did you grade mine yet?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did."
"Did I disappoint you?"
"Your essay was marvelous, Kailah. At least you can do book work. It's the actual making of the potion that I'm worrying about with you. I honestly don't understand how a daughter of mine can have so much distaste for Potions. Isn't there anything about the subject you like?"
"I like to blow things up. Explosions are cool," she said with a giggle. Snape gave her a rather severe and unamused look. Neville Longbottom's 'C' paper was put in the pile of graded papers on top of Dean's 'B-'. "What did I get on my essay?"
"You'll find that out in class today, Miss Strauser."
"Daddy -"
"You know, Kailah, I was thinking. Maybe once you get comfortable with telling people I'm your father, we can legally change your name to mine."
"Kailah suits me much better than Severus."
"Kailah."
"I'm sorry. Daddy, that would have been sweet if you'd have actually looked at me when you said it instead of grading essays. Nevertheless, I would love that. Despite how I act around you, I really do love you."
Snape made an over exaggerated gesture of putting down his quill and looked Kali directly in the eye. "And despite how I claim you should be a Hufflepuff, I love you as well." Kali grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug before he could object. He wrapped his arms around her to return her hug and then she proceeded to plop herself directly down in his lap. After failing to push her off, he continued grading the essay in front of him as Kali began reading. A large red 'C' was placed on top of the parchment and Kali almost leaped out of his lap.
"A 'C'?" she almost screamed. "That was a good essay. Whose essay was that?" She glanced to the top and saw in a rather untidy scrawl, Ron Weasley. "Daddy! That's Ron's essay! It's good, too! You can't give him a 'C' just because I want to kiss him."
"It's a 'C' paper. He isn't receiving a 'C' just because you want to -" Snape grimaced. "How could you want to kiss a Weasley?"
"Daddy! It is not a 'C' paper. Give him the grade he deserves. I will not have you punishing him just because I've fallen for him."
"Punish him? Allowing you to date him would be punishment for him enough."
"Hey, now," she warned.
"Kali, the paper isn't that spectacular. Besides, I've been marking his papers down since his first year. I'm not about to change now."
"You're marking it too low, Daddy. It is not a 'C' paper."
"Will you relent if I give him a 'B'?" She seemed to think this over.
"What are my chances of getting Ron the 'A' he deserves?"
"Slim to nill."
"Okay. I yield. Put a 'B' on that paper and I'll shut up about your unjust grading procedures."
Snape rolled his eyes and proceeded to change the 'C' to a 'B'. Kali climbed off his lap and climbed onto the couch instead.
"So how are things progressing with Mister Weasley now that the subject has been brought up anyway?"
"Too slow," she replied, picking at her nails.
"Slow is good."
"Not when he won't even ask me out!" she exclaimed, exasperated. "I can't ask him out. I'm a girl. That's his job."
"If you're waiting for Ronald Weasley to get up the courage to ask you out, you'll be waiting a very long time. You could practically flash a green light in front of his eyes and he wouldn't get it. You could spell it out for him that you would say yes and the boy would still turn scarlet up to his ears and stutter until he gave up on even trying asking you out."
"But I'm a girl, Daddy. He's supposed to ask me."
"Since when does he have to do the asking? Your mother asked me."
"Really?"
"Yes. Really. Your mother was gorgeous and best friends with Potter's girlfriend. I didn't think she'd actually go for me."
"So she asked you out?"
"Yes. Well, actually, she shoved me up against the wall after a Potions class and kissed me and told me I was going to be her boyfriend but, you know, it's all the same."
"Wow," she said, giggling. "Momma actually did that?"
"Yes. She actually did that."
"Is that why you like Potions so much?"
Snape scowled. "No, it is not. Don't you have a breakfast to go to?"
"Yes, and so do you."
"I'll be there."
"You need to eat. You need to sleep, too. Harry says you never sleep and you're like this big bat that looms around the school trying to get him into trouble. I see where he gets that idea."
"Do you?"
She nodded.
"Go to breakfast, Kailah. I want you alert when making Blessure Fatale today."
"Yeah, yeah. Love you," she said, giving him a hug and a kiss on the forehead.
"Love you, too."
Kali rushed out of Snape's rooms and headed for the Great Hall.
"Watch yourself, Snape," drawled Draco as she ran into him.
"Eh - excuse me?" she stuttered.
"I said, 'Watch yourself, Strauser.' What? Have you gone deaf?"
"Er - no. I just thought you said -"
"Yes?"
"Nevermind."
Draco smirked as Kali scampered off down the hall.
~*~
Kali drummed her fingers on her desk as Snape handed back the History of Fatal Wound Potions essays. Every now and again, Snape would pass by her to give someone his essay and shoot her a dirty look. The sound was clearly grating on his nerves and he sent a pointed glare directly at her as he shoved Neville's 'C' paper at him. In reply, she shot him the biggest grin she could muster and drummed a little harder on the desktop as she waited for her own paper.
"Miss Strauser," drawled Snape as he dropped her essay before her. "And stop that incessant racket before I'm forced to take points away from Gryffindor house."
"Sorry, Professor. I didn't realize I was doing it," she answered. From across the room, she could have sworn Draco Malfoy sniggered. After thinking he called her Snape this morning, she had to be getting paranoid.
At the top of her essay was an 'A'. An 'A' she knew she deserved. Kali may not like the hands on part of Potions but she never failed to produce outstanding essays.
"I don't believe it!" cried Ron from beside her.
"What is it, Ron?" asked Hermione shoving her 'A-' away from her with disdain. At the end of his comments, Kali could catch the words 'know-it-all'.
"What'd you get?" asked Harry, also shoving his essay away from him. 'B-'. Kali arched her eyebrow and tried to hide her own essay.
With shaky hands, Ron dropped his essay to the table to reveal he had, indeed, gotten the 'A' that Kali had been striving for that morning. She grinned and snuck a look to Snape who was patiently, for now at least, listening to Pansy Parkinson inquire about why she had received a 'D'. From the corner of his eye, he caught Kali staring and gave her a slight smirk.
"Ron, that's wonderful," said Hermione, sniffing, and then balling up her own essay before shoving it in her bag.
"That's the only 'A' I've ever gotten on one of Snape's essays," he mused. "All I got last year were 'B's. I probably almost didn't make Head Boy because of my Potions grades."
"Today," said Snape, his voice cutting through the conversations around the classroom, "we will be making the Blessure Fatale potion. If you'll turn to page 289 in your Potions book, you'll find the procedure for Blessure Fatale. Ingredients are available at the front. Perhaps if we have time at the end of the lesson we will be testing one of your Potions." His gaze faltered on Ron and she could hear him swallow loudly.
Kali clumsily dropped four of her unicorn hairs into her potion and began to stir slowly. For a good part of the class they had been working on the Blessure Fatale and she was beginning to grow bored now that everyone was close to being finished. It couldn't come fast enough. She checked back to page 289, or was it 290 now? Shit, she thought. I can't believe I actually lost my place. Nevertheless, she had lost her place, indeed, and now Kali was scouring over the procedure while trying to figure out where she was. Honestly, had she always been this inept?
"Miss Strauser," said Snape, "may I ask what you are doing?"
"Er-" she stammered and noticed Draco Malfoy eyeing them. "Trying to find my place in the procedure."
"If I may, I suggest that you pray. You will not find what you're looking for in there."
"Excuse me, Professor?"
"Miss Strauser, what color would you say your potion is?"
Kali looked down at the simmering cauldron. The particular shade of blue was actually quite nice.
"Royal blue," she finally answered.
"Indeed. And what about Miss Granger's?"
Kali gulped as she looked over at Hermione's cauldron. She sighed. "Lime green."
"What about Mister Malfoy's?"
"Lime green."
"Mister Goyle's?"
"Lime green."
He sniffed. "Mister Weasley?"
The part of her that celebrated when looking at Ron's cauldron didn't stop her answer, "Lime green," from coming out sheepish. In fact, more than sheepish, she almost sounded amused. Snape sighed.
"And what color did you say yours was again, Miss Strauser?"
"Royal blue."
"And why do you think this particular problem may have aroused?"
She shrugged, still amused and slightly embarrassed. "I may have added too much mandrake root."
"May have added or did add too much mandrake root?"
"May have. Honestly, sir, I don't know what it was that made my potion turn royal blue."
"Indeed. Miss Strauser, could it have been that you improperly prepared the mandrake root and thus added too much mandrake root?"
Kali considered this. "Now that you mention it, that's probably exactly what it was. I've always been rather lazy when it comes to my ingredient preparation. If it's any consolation, Neville's potion is the exact same color as mine." She knew that Draco Malfoy just snorted at that.
"That is not saying much for your potion making abilities, Miss Strauser, as Mister Longbottom has yet to prove himself even average in this class." Kali shrugged. "Miss Strauser, five points from Gryffindor for this," he gestured to her cauldron, "and another five points for your cheek. Do get rid of this mess and I suggest you come back this evening."
"You're giving me detention?"
"No but there isn't enough time left in class for you to complete the potion. You will be back here tonight at seven p.m. to make the Blessure Fatale potion."
"Yes, sir." Kali began to clean up.
"And Longbottom," added Snape, "twenty points from Gryffindor. Please stay after class so we can arrange your detention. Can you do nothing right?"
Kali left Potions with Ron by her side and her essay still grasped in her hand.
"I can't believe you didn't get detention for that," said Blaise. "Snape went so easy on you."
"And you only lost ten points," said Harry. "If that would have been me, Snape would have taken fifty and marched me up to Dumbledore to try and expel me."
"Honestly, Professor Snape isn't that bad," said Kali.
"You would think that," said a cool voice. Kali turned to see Pansy Parkinson with her gang of Slytherin girls hanging in the hallway. With them were two rather large boys that Kali had learned to know as Crabbe and Goyle. Even Draco Malfoy was with them if only hanging a little back. He raised his arm to brush back a piece of loose hair and as he did so, the sleeve of his robes slightly slipped down. She would have never noticed if it wouldn't have been how Blaise tensed beside her but she saw it. Practically every inch of the small amount of skin exposed was covered in dried blood.
"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Ron while Kali was busying eyeing Draco's arm. As he caught her in the act, he pulled his sleeve down to cover even his hand.
"What did you get on your essay?" asked Pansy, snatching it from her hand and not caring whether it was her essay or not.
"Give it back to her, Pansy," commanded Blaise. "Kali didn't do anything to you."
"Kali, is it?" she asked as she unfolded the parchment. "Well, Kali, this is a very good grade. Probably better than you deserve. I guess that I would get good grades, too, if I were the teacher's bitch."
"Excuse me?" said Kali. "What exactly are you insinuating?"
"I think," drawled Draco, "she is insinuating that you and Professor Snape are lovers, which is ironic, because I thought that you were Weasel's bitch."
"I thought she was Zabini's bitch," said Goyle. Draco's eyes dropped to the floor.
"My, my, you get around, don't you?" sneered Pansy. "Gryffindor's little slut."
Ron made a gesture as if he was going to grab his wand but Kali stopped him. "You think I'm having sex with Professor Snape?" she asked. Pansy only arched her eyebrows. Kali burst into a fit of laughter. "Yeah. Okay. That has got to be the grossest thing I've ever heard." Her entire body shuddered. "Snape. Ew."
"And she's not my bitch, either," said Blaise.
"She's nobody's bitch," added Ron.
"To quell rumors before they start," said Blaise, "she couldn't be my bitch so stop whispering about how she's always in the dungeons. We're just friends."
"Okay," said Pansy, rolling her eyes.
"We are. Kali's great but I would never date her." Pansy nodded. "Fine. Even my own house doesn't believe me. Well, for your information, I couldn't be dating Kali, much less shagging her, because I'm gay and women fail to turn me on." Draco's jaw dropped.
"You are?" asked Ron. Blaise nodded.
"Yeah. I. . .I've been thinking about coming out and. . .I didn't want it to be like this, but yeah. I am."
"You can join my ranks," offered Harry. "I'm bisexual but, you know."
Blaise smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."
Draco grimaced. Oh no. Not his Potter and Blaise. His Potter? What the fuck? Draco made a sharp, abrupt turn and headed away from the crowd congesting the dungeon hallway. He was only vaguely aware of feet coming after him as he turned into another hallway. Draco wasn't sure where he was going but he knew he needed to get away.
"Draco!"
He turned around only it wasn't Blaise standing there. It wasn't even Potter.
"What do you want, Strauser?"
"What's wrong?" Draco didn't answer and then she said, softly, "I don't think Harry and Blaise meant it that way. They just meant to be friends."
"That's not what's fucking wrong so sod off," he snapped.
"What is wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong."
"Then why do you cut yourself?"
The question hung in the air between them.
"What makes you think I cut myself?"
"Let me see your arms."
Draco hid them behind his back.
"There's nothing to see."
"If there's nothing to see then you wouldn't mind showing me your arms."
"Fuck off, Strauser, or should I say, Snape."
"I'm not doing Professor Snape."
"Oh I know you aren't, cousin." She gaped. "What? You thought that no one in this school was smart enough to figure out that Snape's your father?"
"And you encouraged that evil Pansy demon?"
Draco shrugged. "What do I care what people say about you? Unless you wanted me to tell everyone the truth . . ."
"Well. . .no. . ."
"Look, I don't know who twisted your mind into believing you care, but you don't. No one cares about me. I'm not the kind of guy people care about. Just because we're genetically related doesn't mean that you have permission to care, either. I'm going to go my way and you're going to go yours. You aren't going to say anything to anyone about your suspicions, save for Zabini who won't keep his nose out of anything. You aren't going to say anything to anyone about what you know about Zabini and myself. I, in turn, am going to keep my little discovery about your bloodline to myself."
"Why do you think I would care if people knew who my father was?"
"You haven't told anyone yet. How would Weasley feel if he found out from someone else? Say, a Malfoy?"
She hung her head. "Point taken."
"Look, Kailah, I know what it's like to have people treat you differently because of who your father is. Maybe that's part of us being from the same family. I don't know. If you don't tell anyone about me, I won't tell anyone about you."
"You called me Kailah."
"I think it's a family thing. Every time I heard about you from my father, you were Kailah."
She nodded. "How do I know I can trust you?"
Draco shrugged. "We're family. What more do you need?"
Flames keep me warm when my space heater isn't on.
