Chapter Two: In Which Our Heroine is Threatened Repeatedly
Celaene knocked three times on the door to the dungeon. There was no reply. She tried again, and, again, Snape didn't answer. Finally, the Astronomy professor hammered on the door until it started shaking and she heard the familiar, deep voice call out, "Enter, damn it!"
She walked in to find him sitting at his desk, grading papers. They were covered in angry, stinging comments written in Severus's tidy but cramped handwriting. He glanced up at her and his scowl deepened. "Go away, right now, Sinistra. I am in no mood to be seduced."
"Are you ever?" she asked lightly, perching on the edge of his desk and reading over his shoulder. "'A four-year-old Muggle could have explained this as well'," she read. "Nice, Snape. And on a Ravenclaw paper, as well! You must be angry. What happened?"
Snape glared at her but didn't answer.
Celaene sighed. "Well, as you so clearly want to be alone, I'll leave… See you at lunch, Severus…" She slid off of the desk, kissed the top of his head, and walked to the door.
Snape, startled, touched his head where she'd kissed him, then, sneering, he drew his wand and hexed her.
Sinistra lay on the floor, paralyzed and staring up at him, all laughter gone from her pale face. "Never do it again, Sinistra," he hissed. "Do you remember the spell that was, quite recently, I think, banned by the Ministry of Magic because it had been used to kill so many people? 'Sectumsempra'?" The Astronomy witch couldn't reply but the alarm in her eyes was quite enough. "Yes," he drawled. "Yes, I invented that one, you know, in my fifth year… I'm quite good at it by now. Please keep that in mind." With another casual flick of his wand, he let her up. Sinistra sprang to her feet and, with one mildly frightened glance back into his sneering face, she left the room, slamming the door behind her.
Severus sat down again and looked back down at the papers. They were an insult to the subject. He scrawled a large, black "T" at the top of a Hufflepuff paper and threw down his quill. It was time for his next class, anyway, and Potter was in it. A good chance to relieve some stress…
"So, Sinistra, how's Snape?" asked Minerva pointedly. They had all congregated in the staffroom again, late in the day. Severus had refrained from speaking to or looking at Celaene all day and it had amused all of them except her.
"As well as Flitwick, McGonagall," Celaene snapped. Then she sighed and sank down in a chair near the stern-looking Transfiguration teacher. "He says, 'I'm in no mood to be seduced,' and I believe him. He hexed me and threatened me with 'Sectumsempra'."
"Oh, the violent ones are always more fun," said Professor Sprout with a wicked smile. "We expect a full report when you've managed to have him… What did you do to provoke such an attack?"
Celaene rolled her eyes. "Kissed the top of his head. And I hate to say it, but I somehow don't think it's going to happen."
"It's got to," said Eleanor, looking up from a book about Muggle telephones. "If it doesn't, Minerva gets to tell Dumbledore about a incident in Hogsmeade…"
Sinistra turned bright pink. "No," she gasped, wheeling around to face McGonagall. "You wouldn't!"
"Well," replied the older woman crisply, "it is banned at Hogwarts."
"Okay! Alright! I'll do it! If it will make you all shut up, I'll fuck the poor bastard," exploded Sinistra. "And if he's standing in the doorway right now…"
"Dear, dear," wheezed an aged voice passing the doorway. The professors whirled around to see Professor Binns floating by the staffroom door looking alarmed. "Young people these days… Such language…" he mumbled.
That relieved the tension in the room a bit as several of the professors laughed. After several more seconds, McGonagall said, with an air of finality, "Well, get it done, Cella. You've got a month, and after that, Dumbledore finds out about that night." Minerva strode out of the room, leaving Celaene grimacing both at the threat and the hated nickname.
(Licuma Lome points hopefully at the "Submit Review" button.)