Drabble (552 words): Trickery

Characters: Willow, Snape

Disclaimer: Willow is owned by Joss Whedon and Snape belongs to JK Rowling. I own nothing.

Note: Another W/S drabble for Echo

He was glaring at her. She could feel his cold gaze drilling a hole in her back, and she merely smirked as she ate calmly. She knew exactly what she did to get his knickers in a twist, and was counting down the moments in her head before he would do something about it. 5...4...3...2...

"May I speak with you?" he asked, tightly. She smirked again as she felt him breath angrily down her neck. '1,' she filled in, silently. Really, the man was predictable, and winding him up was ludicrously easy, but oh so much fun. She turned around slowly and smiled brightly at the glowering man.

"A problem, Professor Snape?" she asked brightly. She saw him wince at the "altogether bloody cheery tone" she'd used, just to get under that thick skin of his. She succeeded most of the time and this was no exception.

He jerked his head in acquiescence, then grabbed her arm and dragged her bodily away. She felt the shocked gaze of everyone present at the sight of their scowl-y, willowy black robed, sexy as hell (to her) potions master pull her towards the door and giggled as she thought of the British teenager equivalent meaning to the word and wished that it would apply to her and the man. Now... she smiled at him (infuriatingly, he would say) as she caught him scowling at her and he quickly snapped his head away. She grinned again as she caught sight of where they were going, and the smile widened as she was proven true as he dragged her into his potions classroom. He whirled around at her, his eyes narrowed down to little slits as he almost literally breathed fire.

"What," he said in an obviously controlled voice, visibly seething in anger. "Is my classroom doing being...pink?" His tone had been completely and utterly disgusted and she didn't fight the urge to giggle, which only made his scowl deepen.

"Why," she said, innocently, patting his cheek before he managed to wrench his head away from her touch. "I thought it would match your sunny disposition." With that being said, she whirled around and flounced out of the classroom. She paused at the door, seeing him gape at her back and shot him a little smile. "Cheer up, cranky pants. And if you're unlucky, that expression might freeze on your face." With that, she closed the door behind her, leaving the now spluttering man. Snape shook his head as he picked up his wand.

"That," he snarled as he began to cast a spell to change the walls black once again. "Little. Aggravating. Maddening. Infuriating. Exasperating..." he cursed as he charmed the whole place a bright hot pink instead and realised that she'd charmed the colour to glow brighter if a person should try to force a different colour spell on it and began cursing fluently in Latin. Willow closed the door quietly behind her, a little smile playing at her lips and again noted how sexy Latin was, especially being uttered by him. She giggled as she heard an extremely... creative curse being uttered about torture, hurting, and annoying little red-headed American pixies. He must have tried to open his supply closet. She giggled again as she pictured him dripping and covered with bright yellow paint.