The day passed quickly. Snape couldn't believe that it was already time for the students to be out of his hair.
Snape was walking around doing some cleaning when he felt a tug at his robes. He turned but didn't see anything, so he continued on his way. A few seconds later he felt another tug, and once again when he turned there was nothing there. This continued for several minutes until Snape cracked.
"Who's there?" he bellowed. Then he heard it, laughter. It was coming from under one of the desks, but which one. He carefully made his way past the desks slowly, until he felt the tug again. This time he was faster. He grabbed a small wrist and pulled gently enough not break anything, but hard enough to get them out of their hiding place.
He was holding a small boy in his hands. The boy had bright red hair and freckles. His eyes were shining blue. The first thing Snape thought of was Weasley, but he knew that this wasn't one of theirs. This kid actually had manageable hair, unlike the members of the Weasley family.
"Who are you?" Snape asked placing the young boy, who was around seven or eight, back on the ground. The boy said nothing, just looked up at the professor and smiled. It was strange seeing such an eager and happy face directed at him. He had never really been smiled at before and it was a little unnerving.
"Who are you?" he said again in his best classroom voice. Still the boy said nothing, but kept smiling, although now he was looking around the empty classroom with mild interest.
"I won't say it again, who are you?"
"He won't answer you, he's deaf." Snape looked up at the new intruder to his classroom and locked eyes with Roxanna. He glared at her and then sneered at her.
"That is impossible. There hasn't been a witch or wizard that was deaf for centuries. Blind…yes, deaf…no."
Roxanna walked into the room and looked at the boy. She tapped him on the shoulder and waited for him to turn. When he did, Roxanna began moving her hands rapidly. Snape didn't have the foggiest idea what the girl was doing. Occasionally he would notice her point to him, but then go right back into whatever she was doing.
The boy seemed to understand and nodded at certain points. Finally Roxanna's hands fell to her sides and then the boy's hands began moving. It was an amazing sight watching his fingers and hands move with such grace, and yet so fast.
Then Roxanna laughed. It was strange hearing a noise in the quiet room, but no one cared. Snape was in shock. Her laughter was like the ocean, calming in a way.
"Professor?" Roxanna's voice knocked Snape out of his thoughts. He looked at the young girl with his best "what the hell do you want?" look. She was unfazed.
"I must apologize, but you see Eric here has a fascination with potions and when he discovered that such a great and well respected Potion Master worked here, he had to find you. I am afraid that he didn't think before he acted and brought me along for the ride."
Snape looked at Roxanna with narrowed eyes. How the hell could she figure that out?
The little boy started moving his hands at Roxanna again. He was pointing at Snape too, and then they both started laughing. It was obviously a joke on his point.
"What is so funny?" Snape asked with a bit of edge to his voice. Roxanna turned to Snape and stopped laughing at his face. He was mad.
"I'm sorry. I forget that you don't know sign language. I learned so Eric would have someone to talk to. I'm sorry," Roxanna said. Snape nodded once and then raised his eyebrows.
"Oh, we weren't laughing at you professor. We were laughing at how confused you looked when we were signing. You looked like someone had given you candy and then told you that you couldn't eat it. It was so funny," Roxanna said before bursting into giggles again.
Snape stood there seething. He was getting mad. It was one thing to be laughed at behind his back, but quite another to be talked and laughed at in front of you and not have any idea what is going on.
Snape grabbed Roxanna's waist and shoved her, gently, against a nearby desk before blocking her in with his arms.
"What are you two talking about?" Snape growled. Roxanna sighed and then moved her hands again. Eric looked at her and then at Snape before leaving the room. Roxanna grabbed Snape's shoulders and tried to push him away from her, but he wasn't budging.
"Please move," she said politely. Snape wasn't listening. "What were you two talking about?"
"That is none of your damn business, Severus," Roxanna said in anger. Snape grabbed her throat but didn't apply any pressure. He just wanted to scare her. Roxanna sighed and pushed harder on his shoulders.
"I asked you nicely to move," she said in a calm voice. Snape added some pressure onto her neck, but it didn't faze her, or stop from breathing.
"Please move. I don't want to hurt you," she said again, still in a calm voice. Snape didn't move this time, just added a little more pressure. Any normal person would have been gasping for air, but not Roxanna. She remained calm and kept adding more pressure against Snape's arms.
"You asked for it," she said. A bright light began to form under her hands on Snape's shoulders. He noticed and released her neck. The light faded slightly, but was still there.
Suddenly Snape was feeling very warm. Almost like his cloak was on fire. He looked down and noticed that smoke was billowing up from where her hands were on his shoulders.
Snape jumped away from her and looked at his shoulders. There were burn marks on his cloak and the robes underneath it. She had been burning through his clothes. He looked back to where Roxanna was and saw her hands were now resting at her sides. They looked burned as well.
Snape took her right hand in his and looked at the burns. They were pretty severe.
"What the hell did you do?" Snape said looking over the marks. Roxanna said nothing, but continued to stand there. Snape pulled out his wand and pointed it at her hand. Roxanna pulled her hand out of his grasp and fell to the ground holding it close to her chest.
"No," she screamed as she hit the ground. Snape knelt down by her and saw the tears running down her face. When she looked up into his eyes, he saw the fear hiding behind them.
"What did that bitch do to you?"