"Melanie, I'd like to see you after class," Snape said as the students were hastily leaving their first potions class.

'Uh oh,' Melanie thought, 'Maybe Ron and Harry were right about him being an old git.'

When everyone had left the classroom, Melanie slowly walked to his desk. "You wanted to see me, sir?" she asked, sounding meek for her first time at Hogwarts.

"First of all," Snape began, still speaking in his usual low voice, but with a slight twinkle in his eye, "Please go back to being your usual peppy self. It's so much more refreshing."

"Sure thing professor!" she replied, back to grinning.

"Secondly...I never thought I'd be saying this to a Gryffindor, much less a female one...I'm going to give you five points for your house. Now—don't interrupt me. You have no idea how easily I may change my mind. But it was so nice in class today, having someone to look to for the correct answer, without her flaunting it."

"Thank you professor," Melanie said, again meekly.

"No, thank you...tell you what. You meet me at my office at suppertime tonight. I think we can have a nice meal together. The password is Minus Points."

"So you're telling me that you think Melanie and Snape were somewhere together last night?" Hermione asked, looking from Ron to Harry.

"Yes," they replied in unison, then Ron laughed and said they had a Fred and George moment.

"Well," she said slowly, "If they're not at dinner again tonight, then we will know something is going on. Harry, bring the invisibility cloak and Marauder's Map with you to dinner. Now you two have got me curious!"

They did not have to wait long to see if their theory was right. That night, Melanie and Snape were both missing from dinner, and sure enough, the Marauder's Map showed them both in Snape's private quarters.

Ron wanted to find a way into Snape's office, but Hermione quickly stopped him, saying that getting caught by Snape would be too easy, and being punished by him would be terrible. They decided to wait until the next day, Saturday, and spend the day investigating.