Today was the day.
Thus far, Rook had not attended a single Potions class, and she had not been looking forward to it. Rationally, she concluded that if Professor Snape did know that she had left the love letter, she would have certainly been punished for it already. Still, Rook's paranoia was not to be underestimated. It had occurred to her too late that there may even be a potion for revealing an anonymous sender. Why wouldn't there be? There was a potion for virtually everything else!
Rook confided in Fred and George, who were unable to comfort her.
"There's no sugarcoating it, Rook…"
"His hair is already so oil-coated, the sugar wouldn't stick if you tried."
"He is superlatively loathsome."
"Or perhaps it's more exact to call him exceptionally ghastly?"
"The only point of contention here is how to accurately express just how terrible he is."
"But you're going to be in a class with Ron, Harry and Hermione, so you won't be alone, at least."
"Though I hear Snape particularly dislikes Harry, so maybe you're better off alone, in this case."
"Enough!" Rook exclaimed. "Forget I said anything!"
When it came time, Rook filed into the dungeon behind Ron, Harry and Hermione, and sat at a table between Hermione and the round-faced boy who had first identified Professor Snape for her at the start of term feast, Neville Longbottom.
Professor Snape rose gracefully from his desk as the class began unpacking their potions supplies, and Rook stared, unable to tear her eyes away from the man with smoldering black eyes, no less glorious than when she first saw him at the staff table that fateful night. As he positioned himself to address the class, his silky hair seemed to flutter about his painfully perfect visage as if blown by a warm, salty breeze off the Mediterranean (the sexiest sea) with its own life goal of accentuating the seductiveness that seemed defined by this man. With great effort, Rook managed to focus on the actual words leaving his hot mouth and began brewing her Shrinking Solution.
Halfway through the Potions lesson, Rook seemed to conclude that her fears were mostly unfounded. True, Professor Snape wasn't exactly pleasant, but he didn't pay her any special attention. He largely ignored her as he gave instructions for the potion he had them brewing. Neville Longbottom was far worse-off than Rook. She felt bad for the boy, but his main problem seemed to be that he would get clumsy whenever Professor Snape walked by their table. Rook managed to stop him from adding an extra cat spleen to his concoction in a fit of nervousness, but she was unable to intervene when he dumped a great amount of leech juice into his cauldron, causing the potion to turn-
"Yellow, Longbottom," said Snape, ladling some up and allowing it to splash back into the cauldron so that everyone could see.
"Yellow. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"
"Please, sir," said Hermione, "please, I could help Neville put it right—"
"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," said Snape coldly.
Rook now understood Neville's fear. Snape made such a show of tormenting Neville, and Rook felt a surge of intense dislike at the childish display. Rook wished this sort of thing was an aberration, but she was all too familiar with abusive teachers. When she herself was perhaps six years old, Rook remembered her own elementary school teacher chewing her out for coloring her elephant drawing the wrong color. Apparently, it was supposed to be blue, not gray, and the teacher did not only yell at Rook in front of her entire first grade class. She then dragged young Rook over to the other first grade class down the hall and yelled at her in front of those students and their teacher as well. Rook had been particularly fragile back then, and she must have seemed like an easy target. Snape clearly saw an easy target when he looked at poor, trembling Neville.
Snape gave Neville until the end of the lesson to correct the potion, and Hermione mercifully assisted him in secret. Rook was glad she was nearly finished with her own Shrinking Solution, because she didn't know if she could concentrate on her potion with Neville at his wit's end beside her. She was also relieved Hermione seemed to know what she was doing, because Rook wouldn't have known the first thing about correcting an improperly-brewed Shrinking Solution. Rook's own potion seemed to be the right shade of green, and she was confident she had followed Snape's instructions to a T. He soon had them clearing their things while their potions simmered, threatening an imminent test of Neville's potion on Neville's own pet toad, Trevor. Rook discreetly assisted Hermione in clearing her area so she could focus on helping Neville. Ron and Harry seemed to be having their own intense conversation at the stone basin where they washed their hands, but Rook was too preoccupied with Neville's plight to catch any of it. She hurried back to their table and waited anxiously.
Before long, Snape was looming over their table. Neville looked terrified.
"Everyone gather 'round," Snape directed, "and watch what happens to Longbottom's toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned."
"Are you joking?"
Silence fell and the entire class turned to look at Rook. She had gotten to her feet and spoken out of turn without fully meaning to, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. "Y-you can't just kill a kid's pet! What kind of school is this?"
"Miss Rook, isn't it?" Snape spoke softly, his eyes narrowed. Rook didn't move. She was petrified. "It was Longbottom's responsibility to pay attention and brew the solution correctly. If his toad is poisoned, that is the result of his error, and it will encourage him to do better in the future." Snape reached for the toad, but Rook lunged forward and grabbed it first.
"NO!" she exclaimed as she pulled the toad away from Snape. "I don't care if he made one little mistake! That's not enough reason to kill his pet!"
Snape looked furious. His hands were clenched and he glared at Rook, who had backed away against the wall. The rest of the class were looking from Snape to Rook. The Slytherins seemed gleeful and excited, the Gryffindors tense and nervous.
"You are new here, so you are likely unaware that such disruptive conduct can easily result in expulsion."
"If you want to expel me, I'll tell Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore that you were testing potentially poisonous potions on a student's pet! If they think that's okay for teachers to do, I'm not sure I want to go to school here!"
Snape was now trembling with rage. "Give Longbottom the toad, Rook," Snape seemed to concede at last. Rook acquiesced hesitantly, somewhat suspecting a ruse to wrest the toad from a weaker target. "I'll be deducting fifty points from Gryffindor for Rook's disorderly conduct," Snape informed the class without taking his eyes off of Rook, "and the rest of you are excused. Leave."
Neville Longbottom was out the door the fastest, casting a concerned and apologetic look back at Rook as he went. Rook didn't mind. She would have run too. Ron and Harry lingered somewhat, but there was really nothing they could do without getting Rook or Gryffindor house in worse trouble.
"Never before have I witnessed such a display of insubordination," Snape murmured well after the rest of the class had cleared out. "Never before has a student been so presumptuous as to try to tell me how to conduct my lessons."
There were many things Rook wanted to say to this, but she held her tongue and only stared back at Snape with all the defiance she could muster, trying hard not to tremble as Neville had. Snape stared back, his lip curling in an expression of growing dislike.
"You underestimate me, Rook," Snape continued. "I am the Potions Master at this school. Do you have any idea what that means?"
Rook only shook her head slightly, wondering where this was going.
"I have more than familiarized myself with every poison antidote known to the wizarding world."
Rook pondered this for only a moment before she realized what Snape was telling her. She felt her face flush with embarrassment, but she was not prepared to admit fault. She remained certain that Snape wanted Neville to think his toad's life was at stake, and that was still a horrible thing to do to a child.
"There are other things I know, as well…" Snape went on in an ominous voice. "For instance, I happen to know the binomial names of over one thousand species of plant and animal."
This simple statement took a lot longer for Rook to process. She was unfamiliar with the term "binomial", but her limited knowledge of Latin, as well as context clues, eventually lead Rook to a horrific conclusion; Snape knew she had written the love letter.
Rook willed herself not to react to this. He didn't really know that it was her, just because he knew the scientific name for a rook. The evidence was circumstantial at best. Snape seemed to bore holes into her with his intense, black eyes and she felt the need to respond. "I'm not really sure what that means, Professor," she lied, hoping she sounded innocent.
"It means…" Snape started, "you ought to tread carefully in this classroom, Miss Rook. You will report to my office at nine o'clock Saturday morning to serve your detention. If you wish to bring this to Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore in protest, you are free to, but I'll have you know that should you choose to do so, I will be providing them with a certain piece of evidence germane to this conversation. If you want to know what evidence I have against you, I'll happily show you."
Despite what he said, Snape didn't seem happy at all. Rook had never witness this sort of terrifying, quiet fury before. Snape had backed her into a corner. She could either continue playing dumb and escalate the situation, or she could accept her detention while essentially admitting she knew exactly what he was talking about because she was as guilty as he suspected. Either way, Rook's first Potions lesson had not gone well.