Chapter Seven

Crime and Punishment

At dinner that night in the Great Hall, McGonagall marched up to the table and stopped behind Hermione. Lily, who was sitting opposite, put down her fork and glanced at Harry. He found out, her eyes said.

"Miss Flanagan, would you please come with me," McGonagall said in a voice that was straining to be polite. Harry looked at Lily, his appetite suddenly gone, and thought of wishing her good luck. He said nothing. Lily got up from her seat and followed McGonagall down the long table and out of sight. Harry turned back to his plate but found he couldn't eat anymore.

Lily followed McGonagall upstairs and towards her office. McGonagall walked briskly, and Lily had to jog to keep up. McGonagall didn't slow down even when Lily tripped and stumbled on a stair, and then had to run after her to catch up. Eventually they came to Professor McGonagall's office and she stood by the door and pointed Lily inside. Her lips were drawn so thinly together they had gone white. Lily's heart fell at the disappointment on her face- it was this, more than anything, that made her deeply regret what she had done. She stepped into the room and noticed immediately that Snape was there too, standing by McGonagall's desk with his hands behind his back, looking furious and pale. One strand of hair had come loose from the rest and hung down over one eye, but he had made no attempt to remove it.

Lily felt goose-bumps break out over her body, as if Snape was emitting an icy coldness into the air around him.

She heard the door close and McGongall stepped around her on the desk's other side and stood behind it. She stared at Lily over her glasses.

"I presume you know why you are here?" she said thinly.

Lily glanced at Snape's shoes and nodded. She couldn't bring herself to look at his face. He was standing as still as a statue and hadn't moved since she came in.

"Yes Professor McGongall."

There was an accusing silence. Lily continued to stare at Snape's shoes.

"Do you know how serious a crime this is?" McGonagall said. Her voice was stretched and breathy, as if she wanted to shout.

"Yes, miss." She didn't though, not really.

There was another heavy pause. "I have every right to have you expelled, Miss Flanagan. Use of spells against teachers is illegal at Hogwarts, not to mention dangerous to the lives of the teachers involved!" Her voice had risen as she spoke, and now she was breathing heavily. She gathered her robes about her and sat down, as if to collect herself.

"I'm so sorry, Professor Snape," Lily said quietly, and she meant it, but not for his feelings. She couldn't stand the disappointment she heard in McGongall's voice. "I never meant you any harm, I swear." Snape still hadn't moved or said a word. "It was... a really stupid thing to do."

"It was stupid, reckless, and completely and utterly unacceptable," McGonagall said. "Needless to say, Professor Finchley will be furious. I don't know what sort of rules you had at your old school but we do not suffer that sort of behaviour here, am I completely understood?"

"Yes miss."

McGongall had leaned forward slightly and she now sat straight-backed in her chair.

"Very well. As you are new here and are not accquainted with our rules, and have suffered considerable trauma upending your lives and moving here to Hogwarts-" McGongall paused, collected herself, and continued, "-I see no reason why we should expel you. You have been an exceptional student in all other regards. We will not hang your future on this one mistake. But let me warn you... anything else like this and the consequences will be very dire."

"Yes, miss. Thank you."

"Very well. I shall leave it to Professor Snape to decide your punishment."

Silence stretched out again, and then Snape leaned down close to Lily. Again, she could smell that unpleasant blend of hair grease and dead spiders. Snape was smiling now, too- but this time it was a snarl.

"I propose a month of detention, after school and during lunchtimes, with me in the dungeons."

Lily shivered, partly because of the icy air seeming to ooze from Snape's pores, but mostly at the thought of detention with him down there in the dark dungeon classroom.

McGongall's lips twitched. "A month, Severus? Do you really think that's practical? It will interfere with her studies..."

Snape straightened up, mercifully giving Lily back the use of her lungs. "It is fitting for crime so severe as this. Weren't you just considering the possibility of having her expelled? Surely that-" he smiled nastily down at Lily, "- would 'interfere with her studies' rather a lot more."

McGonagall paused, and then nodded, again looking down her nose through her glasses at Lily. "As you wish, then. I suggest you make use of your free time very carefully, Miss Flanagan, in case you fall behind."

Lily looked back from McGonagall to Snape.

"You may go," Snape said silkily. "Detention starts tomorrow. Do not be late."

Lily's detention did indeed start the next day, and it was as horrible as she had expected it to be. She was ordered to clean up the classroom, which was a mess after a first-year Potions class had just finished. The desks were splattered with frog brains, chopped pieces of Abyssinian shrivelfig, the discarded heads of small black slugs, and the occasional stewed fly body, which were stuck to the tables in their own sticky glue and had to be scraped off. Once this was done Lily was ordered to clear out the entire storage cupboard and re-label all the jars. Eventually she was freed only to go to Divinations and Arithmancy, and then back to Snape's classroom to repeat the process.

At the end of her second shift of detention, Lily was given more work - six lengths of parchment discussing the properties of belladonna essence and its uses.

"On my desk tommorrow," Snape added, his black eyes glinting. Lily was too tired to protest at this unfairness, knowing it was impossible for her to write six rolls of parchment by tomorrow, but muttering her acknowledgement and leaving the classroom smelling of stewed flies.

Hermione, Harry and Ron entered the common room that night to notice Lily sitting by herself at a table in the corner, her face buried in a pile of books. They wandered over apprehensively, and Hermione said, "Is that all for Snape?" Her hand gestured at the half-finished rolls of parchment strewn haphazardly across the desk.

Lily nodded, and went back to her reading.

"Um..." Ron said, and glanced at Hermione. "Is there anything... we can do? You know, to help?"

Hermione slid into a chair beside Lily, looking at her eagerly. Lily glanced at them uncertainly.

"You don't have to, I'm sure you have better things to do," she said quietly.

"No we don't," said Hermione. "Do we?"

Ron and Harry took her cue and shook their heads. Ron picked up the book nearest to him. He read a bit of it and grimaced. "Er...no, sure we don't."

"You... really want to help?"

"Of course we do!" Hermione said scoldingly. "What's the assignment?" She gave Harry and Ron a warning look.

"Essence of belladonna and its uses. Six scrolls of parchment."

"Six!" Hermione gasped. "Snape can't expect you to do that!"

"He doesn't expect her to," Harry said sourly.

"He hates me," Lily said.

"Yeah, well... you embarrassed him," Harry murmured, flicking through Poisonous Plants of Europe and Asia. "Snape has a thing about... losing face in front of people." He concentrated on the book, hoping the others weren't staring at him. He had never told Ron and Hermione what he saw in the Pensieve that day in Snape's classroom- how his father had humiliated Snape in front of the other students. He realized it was the same spell Finchley had used on him last week.

They buried themselves in Lily's homework. Between the four of them they actually made quick work of it- Harry and Ron scribbled down any useful notes they could find and Hermione dictated it to Lily, who copied it onto the parchment.

At one point Harry looked up asked, "what did Professor Finchley say when he found out?"

"He was really angry with me," she replied softly, and they said no more on the subject.

It was about two o'clock in the morning by the time they had finished. Lily sat back, rubbing her hand; Ron yawned widely and massaged his back; Hermione flopped back in her seat and Harry dropped the quill he had been writing with for the last three or four hours.

"Thanks guys," Lily said croakily, and Harry didn't know whether she was just tired or trying not cry. "If you hadn't helped me... I would have got no marks."

"Yeah well, at least you've got something to hand in to Snape tomorrow," Harry said, smiling tiredly.

Lily's face fell. "Oh yeah... but do you think he'll believe I wrote it all myself?"

"You did," Hermione said. "It's all in your own writing. Snape can't prove we helped you."

"Well... thanks again..." Lily said, and favoured them all with a warm smile.

"Forget it," Harry said, grinning.

"Yeah- it wuf nuffing," Ron said through another yawn.