I'm still getting used to the new setup of hence the lack of my usual indenations and different pagebreaks. I also will not be giving up on this fic, no matter what it may look like. I'm still writing and still updating, albeit slowly, due to some real life difficulties. I'm sorry that it takes so long and I'm sorry that I have to say I'm sorry every chapter. I'll try to do better, I promise!
(Oh, and to answer a review I recieved: Yes, this takes place during the fifth book. However, I started writing it before the fifth book came out so there are a few error in the earlier chapters. Namely Hagrid being at Hogwarts, but I liked that scene too much to take it out.)
Oh, and if anyone cares, I've received my very first flame! It even rhymes! I'm so proud! (Check my reviews for the anonymous flamer. Hehe.)

"Any cat who misses a mouse pretends it was aiming for the dead leaf."--Charlotte Gray

Kerri,

Gosh, it feels strange to be writing this. I haven't really written to anyone since I was in school. Oh, I suppose you can count birthday and Christmas cards and such as writing, but they aren't really chatty letters, you know what I mean?

Now I've gone and totally lost the topic. Sorry about that. I just wanted to say that it was awfully nice to meet you, and I hope that you'll be coming back to Hogsmeade next weekend. I can give you a better tour of the village. Do you know how to skate? There's an awfully pretty pond out a ways from the main street.

Well, hope to see you then. My address is on the envelope.

-Dillon

Kerri read the letter again as she packed up her satchel. It was odd, she thought. She should be happier to have someone writing to her. The whole thing still made her feel guilty, though. Well, she'd send him a note back and ask him if she could invite her friends along. It wouldn't seem so…so… She shook her head. So much like a date.

Fizz hopped down from her spot on the wardrobe and sniffed at the letter. Kerri quickly yanked it out of her reach. The little cat liked paper. She especially liked it ripped up in little pieces all over the floor. Kerri had had to hunt down Hermione to fix the essays she had left on her desk the morning before, claiming her wand was on the fritz. She folded the letter and stuck in in her satchel to keep it in one piece before scooping up the cat.

"So what do you think, little girl cat?" she asked, scratching Fizz behind the ears. Fizz purred and sank her claws into Kerri's arm. The girl winced, still trying to get used to the ways her new cat showed affection. "Do you think I ought to lead him on until I make up my mind?"

"Mrrpt." said the cat, cocking her head to the side.

"He's a nice boy, I suppose." Kerri continued. "Brown hair, green eyes, taller then me, but not quite so tall as Professor Snape." She paused and considered. "Perhaps not. I'm not sure. Maybe Professor Snape just seems taller. Anyway, it doesn't matter. His height is the least of my worries. I've only ever talked to him once, though, and to hear Hermione go on about it, you'd think I was considering marriage!"

A meow from the other side of the room caught her attention. She glanced over as Willow meowed again, then nudged the clock with his nose. She smiled slightly. "You know, Willow, you're right. I ought to drop in on the class before it's over." She gave Fizz a boost back onto the wardrobe and slung the satchel over her shoulder.

Stopping at the door on her way out, she looked back and called, "Now you behave yourselves, I'll be back late tonight."

"Meh."

"Well, thanks. I love you all too." She shut the door behind her.

Snape was in a foul mood. Again. As usual. His week-long break from classes had done nothing to improve his outlook on life and in particular, his outlook on his classes. When Kerri stuck her head into the room, he was in the middle of a rather spectacular tirade that called into question the apparently dubious intelligence of the entire fourth-year class. He'd already managed to reduce half of them to tears.

"-Apparently, none of you have even seen the inside of a cauldron, much less a well-made and successful potion-"

Quietly, Kerri slid into the classroom and closed the door behind her. She made her way over to the corner she had reserved for herself and began to unpack her potion-making tools. As she carefully laid them out she listened, with some amusement, to Snape. She wondered vaguely when he would realize that she was there and what would happen when he did.

"-Could any of you tell me the ingredients of a Pepper-up potion? No, I thought not.-"

Lilith slid out from behind a shelf and jumped up on the desk that Kerri was using. The girl petted her gently in greeting and whispered, "So how long has he been at it?"

-Oh, well into ten minutes now. The vacation must have done him good.-

"-Do any of you even bother to look at a book outside of class? For that matter, do any of you bother to look at the board inside of class?-"

"He is in rare form, isn't he?" Kerri murmured. She rested her chin on her hand as she examined the dark-haired man in front of her. He waved his hands to punctuate his sentences, dark eyes flashing, robes swirling around him. As she watched, she realized something. "It frustrates him that they don't live up to his expectations, doesn't it? I mean, I only taught his classes for a week, and I was this close to throttling half of them. He's been doing this every day for-" Pausing, she did some mental calculations and blinked at the result she got. "-for as long as I've been alive. I don't think I could manage it, even if my students loved me. They hate him, even the Slytherins fear him, for Merlin's sake. But he teaches them anyway because he hopes that at least one of them will see the beauty of potions. And it infuriates him that they don't. It's so obvious to him, and they never see it. He's a brilliant man." She thought over this statement. "An utter bastard, but brilliant."

Lilith yawned, showing all of her fangs, before looking at the girl oddly. -Caught on at last, did you? Must be from hanging around your cats. Some of their intuition must have rubbed off on you.-

"-Dunderheads! Bloody dense dunderheads! The instructions are right in front of you, but no-"

"He normally doesn't bother to raise his voice though. What set him off so badly?"

-It was probably the third question about step number five. I think you went and spoiled them.- Lilith gave a feline shrug, a process that seemed to involve her entire spine. -He expects them to remember everything that he's ever taught them about potion brewing. He just doesn't seem to realize that you, he, and Hermione are probably the only ones who could do that.-

"Me? Hardly. The only reason I can remember what I can is because I don't have to remember five hundred other incantations along with the potion-brewing instructions. I forget other stuff all the time."

-No, I've watched you shelving things. I bet that you could find anything in the storeroom straight away, even if you closed your eyes. You only forget the other things because you don't find them as important.-

"Nonsense." Even as she said it, though, she realized that she could easily picture the entire potions classroom and stores in her mind. She remembered the lessons of the Aurors from years ago word for word. She scowled down at the desk…and then at her satchel…then back at the desk. And dammed if she could remember where she put her quill.

"-Merlin's bones! Could any of you be more unwilling to listen?" Snape paused, finally noticing the new presence behind him. He slowly turned around and glared furiously at Kerri and Lilith. Some inner demon possessed her and, in a brief moment of near-suicidal giddiness, the girl grinned cheekily and waved. She could literally hear the students' jaws drop and Snape's teeth grind together.

"Miss Harper…" The man's voice held the promise of instant death next time he got her alone. "What are you doing here? Have you finally completely taken leave of your senses?"

"I didn't want to be late for my detention, Professor." she answered promptly.

"And so, you decided to show up three hours early." The threatened instant death had now evolved into an extremely long, slow, painful one.

I'm going to regret this, I really am, but I can't help it… "I didn't want to miss the entertainment, sir."

That did it. Snape's brows snapped together and he thundered, "Get in the back and organize your ingredients before I chop you up and feed you to the threstrals!"

She jumped up, grabbed Lilith, and with one hand over her mouth to stifle the laughter that was threatening to erupt, dove into the safety of the storerooms.

Snape took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes, but the momentum had gone. "Hell with it." he muttered, before raising his head and barking, "Five points from everyone! Now get back to your potions!" He watched, gratified, as they almost fell over themselves in the hurry to get to their cauldrons. He glared in their direction for a while to be certain that they were doing their jobs before stalking toward the storerooms.

Inside he found Kerri with her arms full of jars, laughing merrily with Lilith. He suddenly realized that this was the first time he had ever seen the girl smile, let alone laugh. It was almost astonishing to see how much her pale, pinched face changed. The tension around her eyes lessened, she didn't hold herself quite so tightly, the near-constant look of fear in her eyes vanished. She almost looks like a normal girl, he thought, leaning against the doorjamb, silently watching girl and cat talk.

"I know that I'm going to pay for that, Lilith, but I just couldn't help it! The look on those children's faces…" she dissolved into giggles again.

-Forget the look on their faces,- mewed Lilith, -The look on his was just priceless! He's not going to be happy with you though.-

"Oh, when is he ever?" Kerri laid out the bottles on the desk and took down a scale off of the shelf next to her. She carefully began to measure out the ingredients that she and Snape would need for the first stage of the potion, placing each one on a slip of paper or in a small, glass dish. These she placed on a tray that was spelled to keep them from sliding around. She then weighed the bottles and jars that she had taken the ingredients from and made a precise note on each label. One always had to be certain of the amount of ingredient they had left, especially in places like Hogwarts, where potions were brewed for the Hospital wing. You didn't want to me in desperate need for healing salve and discover you were short of willow bark. "At least I'll have gotten some amusement out of his displeasure this way."

As she was returning the jars to their proper places, Lilith suddenly interrupted her. -Want to try something interesting?- she inquired, tail swishing.

"Interesting?" Kerri was instantly wary. Lilith was, after all, a cat.

-Yes. I would like to see if you know this place as well as I think you do.- She folded her paws underneath herself and looked pleased. -If you can return all of the bottles to the correct places, with your eyes closed, you win.-

"Win what?"

A feline shrug. -Oh, something I'm sure. I'll think on that.-

It only took a moment's thought to decide. She knew that the prize would probably be something like being allowed to brush Lilith for a week, but she was intrigued and wanted to know the limits of her memories as well. "All right, you're on." Closing her eyes, Kerri reached for the first bottle.

No longer furious, Snape couldn't decide if he was amused or horrified. The image of Kerri making a fool of herself and the image of her shattering months of hard work with a careless trip warred in his mind. He was just about to stride up to her and snatch the bottle from her hand when she placed it directly in the empty spot it had once occupied. She returned to the table and did the same with the next. And the next.

He shook his head disbelievingly as the girl who forgot quills, books, times, and proper behavior quickly returned every bottle to its original home, eyes squeezed tightly shut the whole time. Finished, she turned triumphantly to Lilith, beaming proudly, like a small child who had just been praised about her clean room.

-Hmmm…well done. One last thing though. I want you to close your eyes again.- Kerri sighed but obeyed. -Now, I'm going to name a few things. I want you to go touch them as I do.-

Kerri sighed again. "Is this really necessary? I mean, I've already won the bet, or challenge, or whatever you call it. I'll admit that you were right."

The cat ignored her and commanded, -Poisons' shelf.-

Kerri took a step to the right and rested her fingers on it.

-Good. Lacewings.- Her hand floated backward a few inches and caressed the jar.

-Now, spare cauldrons.- Three steps to the left and one forward.

The cat turned to look at Snape and wriggled her whiskers mischievously. -Door.­-

Snape's eyebrows shot up. That's what the cat was up to! He stepped forward and opened his mouth to reprimand Lilith, just as Kerri, eyes still shut, took a step to the side. Straight into him. She lost her balance and staggered, and he was forced to grab her to keep her from sending both of them headlong into one of the shelves. Her eyes flew open in her surprise at finding something new in the storerooms and then widened in shock when she realized what it was.

She looked up and whispered, "Oh, hell. You're going to kill me."

"Possibly, Miss Harper. Quite possibly. The threstrals are still hungry, I believe. Your chances would be far greater if you had dropped any of those jars, however. I suggest you not tempt fate again. And Lilith," he rounded on the cat, "dare I even ask why you risked my potion stores for your own personal amusement?"

The cat sniffed at him before turning to furiously wash her tail, a sure sign she wanted to change the subject.

"Liliiiith…" he rumbled ominously.

"Um…Professor?" came a weak voice. "Do you think you could let go of me?"

He glared down at her. "Do you think you can refrain from playing games with the ingredients?"

She nodded and he let go of her. She stumbled backwards, cheeks burning. Her mouth worked for a few moments as she thought desperately for an excuse and finally settled on pointing at the cat. "It was all her idea, sir."

The corner of his mouth twitched and he said, "Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?"

"No offense, sir, but you've obviously never gotten away with something by blaming it on the cat."

"I've never been so unfortunate as to have quite so many to blame as you, Miss Harper." he gestured at the cat hair on her skirts.

"I suppose that depends on your point of view." she retorted, but with no venom in her voice.

It wasn't quite civil, but it wasn't quite an argument, either, Snape reflected. With some luck they'd both be alive and she wouldn't be sobbing her eyes out at the end of their first true brewing session. It would indeed be profitable to keep her in this defensive, but slightly cheery mood. "I suppose." he conceded.

"You're actually letting me win an argument?" Kerri sounded surprised.

Smirking, the man pointed at Lilith, who was still washing, "I think it could possibly be hazardous to my heath if I argued with you about cats at the moment."

Kerri glanced over her shoulder and smiled slightly. "I think you may be right, sir." She looked past him and then at her watch. "Professor, shouldn't class be over soon?"

He sighed. "I had better go see if any of them blew themselves up whilst they were unsupervised. I haven't heard any screams or earth-shaking explosions, so they may surprisingly be still in one piece." He turned to leave, then called back, "The trick with the ingredient jars was amusing, if not impressive. But if you ever try that ever again without permission, I will feed you to one of Hagrid's pets. Now set up the cauldron and try not to drop it on your foot."

As the storeroom door shut behind him, Kerri turned to Lilith and asked, "One of Hagrid's pets? He has more than just Fang?"

-Oh yes,- the cat looked amused. -Did I ever tell you about the giant, three-headed dog?-

Kerri shuddered.

Amazing. Snape stared at the girl out of the corner of his eye as he stripped the vane of a jobberknoll feather from its shaft. Not only has she kept the same personality for one whole hour, it's a pleasant one as well. She's actually smiling and- He paused and listened for a moment, -humming? Good lord, call a priest. The girl's been possessed.

Oblivious to Snape's thoughts, Kerri was carefully stirring the cauldron in front of her. …Five, six, seven… She felt herself lulled by the gentle swishing of the potion. …Nine, ten, eleven… Two more strokes and a shadow fell over her shoulder. She watched in poorly-concealed admiration as sliced lotus root flew from Snape's hand into the gleaming liquid, barely disturbing the surface. Why can't I do that? The only thing I've ever really done, and compared to him, I may as well be a first-year. Why can't I…? "Professor Snape?" she heard herself ask suddenly, "H-how long, I mean, how many years did it take you to become a Potions Master?"

The piercing look he sent her way made her duck her head and blush, sorry that she had asked the question. Then, to her surprise, he put down the knife he was using and looked thoughtful. "I was officially named a Potions Master when I joined the Hogwarts faculty." He smirked. "I was, however, at Potions master level by the time I hit sixth year."

And you're modest too, but not so much that it shows. Kerri thought to herself, amused. No false modesty from this man. He didn't need it.

He picked up the knife again and returned his attention to the feathers. After a few moments, he felt her eyes on him and he turned around once more. "Yes?"

"Do I…could I…is there a chance that I would ever…?" She gave him what was possibly the most pathetic look he had ever seen from anyone, and, being the owner of a cat, that was saying a lot. "I want to become a Potions Mistress more than anything else in the world, but watching you…" She trailed off and waved her hands hopelessly at his perfectly sliced piles of ingredients. "Am I anywhere near? Do I even stand a chance at becoming one?"

"Of course you stand a chance at becoming one, girl. Even Longbottom could become one if he'd simply worked hard enough."

"That's not exactly the type of answer I was looking for." she said crossly.

"You're closer than Longbottom is. Keep stirring."

Kerri rolled her eyes and obeyed, deciding that that was all the praise she was getting out of him without the aid of forceps. After a few more strokes, she sensed that Snape was still looking at her. "Yes, Professor?"

"Perhaps, Miss Harper, we could put our differences aside for a while?" Snape watched Kerri's face carefully, looking for any sign that she was going to blow up at him. He tried to make his voice, well, if not kind, then at least less harsh. "I see that you enjoy brewing potions as much as I do, not just because they work without the brewer having extreme magical ability, but for the sheer joy of creating them. Today's events have shown me that we can at least be in the same room without going for each other's throats." Sweet Merlin, the girl was actually listening. "I'm not promising that our time together will be pleasant, but at the very least, we can refrain from being overly hostile." He set down his knife and proffered a hand. "Truce?"

Kerri stared at his hand for a moment, then stepped forward and took it, feeling the dry skin of his palm against hers. She looked up at him and smiled slightly. "Truce."

"How did the detention with Miss Harper go yesterday, Severus?" Dumbledore smiled at Snape's scowl. "I understand you convinced Dolores to let you discipline her?"

"I thought it best, considering her reaction to blood." The younger man answered dryly, as he stirred his tea. Placing his spoon back on the table of the teacher's lounge, he added, "We've managed to reach a truce of sorts."

"Very good! I'm proud of you, boy." The headmaster beamed and patted Snape on the shoulder. "I won't have to keep Poppy on alert anymore."

"For me or for her?"

"Either. The faculty had a pool going to see which of you put the other in the hospital first, actually. After the second time she managed to put herself in it though, we decided to call it off."

"Oh really. Were you betting on me or her, Albus?" Snape glared at the older man's grin.

"Would you like some milk or sugar with your tea, Severus?" Dumbledore waved a sugar cube in his direction. When Snape shook his head, he shrugged and popped it into his mouth. "So, a truce, eh?" he asked, happily crunching away. "Always a good thing, I think."

"Perhaps not in this case," an annoyingly girlish voice intruded suddenly on their conversation. "Are you sure it's wise to let those two form any kind of alliance, Headmaster?"

Snape gritted his teeth. "What do you mean by that, Dolores?"

Umbridge ignored him completely and added, "Perhaps it would be best if separated them completely, Dumbledore. You don't want to be accused of letting people like that plot behind your back. The Ministry-"

"I'm afraid I haven't the faintest idea of what you are talking about, Dolores." Dumbledore interrupted. "Sugar cube?"

The toadish woman glared at him and waddled off in a fury. Confused and angry, Snape turned to Dumbledore. "What was she going on about there, Albus?"

"Are you sure you don't want some sugar, my boy? Might sweeten your disposition a bit. All that black tea can't agree with your constitution. No? Oh, very well. Perhaps I can talk Minerva into some."

Snape couldn't help but notice that the headmaster looked slightly worried as he wandered off.