Hahahahahahahahey. c: A year and three months, huh? Cool.
The next evening Envy said goodbye to his friends and dragged his feet down from dinner to Snape's office in the dungeons. He was welcomed inside by a sullen, "Enter."
Snape sat in the chair behind his desk, hands folded, with nothing to do in front of him—as if he'd left dinner and sat down to wait for his arrival. Kinda creepy… and boring. "Take a seat, Mr. Novus." He gestured to the left side of the room, where a smaller desk covered in various containers had been squeezed in. "Today you will be sorting potion ingredients—"
Envy groaned. "Again? Seriously? How many times have I done this now?"
Snape's eyes narrowed. "Well, if that's how you feel about it, I'm sure you won't mind diving to the bottom of the Black Lake for a clump of ageless algae."
"Er… no, never mind. I'm good." He dropped himself into the chair behind the desk and looked down at the ingredients in front of him; jobberknoll feathers, erumpent tail, sage, infusion of wormwood, cockroach, and aconite, among other things. He hadn't been expecting anything less than this for detention, as it happened, so he'd had the good sense to bring his gloves. Handling that frog liver with his bare skin was about the last thing he wanted to do tonight.
The first few minutes of detention passed in silence. Envy was pouring a bottle of salamander blood into several smaller vials when Snape spoke again.
"You… are a strange Slytherin, Mr. Novus."
Envy put down the bottle and started corking the vials. "You're one to talk, greasy vampire bat."
Snape scowled. "I'm speaking strictly in terms of Slytherin house. And how you're making friends with Gryffindors, of all people."
"Yeah, well, absolutely no offense intended at all whatsoever, but most of the people in Slytherin are blood supremacists, as if all humans aren't the same, and it's kind of late to be making good impressions." He moved on to the jobberknoll feathers.
Snape raised his eyebrows. "You had your opportunity at the beginning of last year. I wonder why you didn't take it?"
Oh, that. "It just didn't happen." He tossed a feather that was a little too gray into the bin. "...Why are you asking me these questions?"
Snape summoned a pile of ungraded paperwork. "The status of the students in my house is my business, Novus, and it's clear to me that you don't get along with your housemates." He scratched something into the corner of an essay. "I find it concerning how few of your peers you choose to interact with… perhaps you ought to start forging connections while you're still in school."
Envy rolled his eyes. Another feather went into the bin. "Please, I'm making plenty of connections in other houses. I'm not preparing for a life of power, or whatever. Maybe I'll just go live in the Muggle world when I'm done with school." And become a serial killer. Well actually, that was starting to lose its appeal.
Snape began scribbling a note on the same essay. "I advise that you forge the bonds in houses other than just Gryffindor."
"Well," Envy dumped the good feathers back into their box, "I advise that you stay out of my business."
"Perhaps I shall… if you don't get any more detentions."
Envy scowled. "Fine."
'-'
By the time Envy's detention ended it was almost curfew. The torches lining the walls were dim, casting just enough light for him to see where he was going.
He was taking his time, following a number of unnecessary detours to avoid the common room. The halls down in the dungeons were almost unnaturally quiet, not even a rat breaking the silence. All the spiders that usually filled the corners of the ceiling were missing, their webs left to float empty on the walls. Then there was a slithering noise.
Envy stopped where he was. His head turned from side to side, and there it was again—a soft pshhh coming from the adjacent corridor ahead. He picked up his pace, steps echoing from wall to wall, and slowed to a stop when he was close enough to see what it was.
What it was was the middle of a gigantic snake.
He stepped back, mouth open in shock, and took a moment to stare—what was it doing in Hogwarts? Like, it was pretty awesome but wasn't this supposed to be a children's school? Last year coupled with this, it almost looked like they were being trained as dark creature hunters or… something.
But every second he took to be surprised was another second the snake spent slithering away, so he took the last few steps and peered around the corner where he assumed the head would be.
It was a big snake, all right. It just stretched on and on and on… or maybe it just seemed that way because he couldn't see far in the dim lighting.
He took a step into the small space of the corridor that wasn't taken up by the snake's girth and started edging along the wall next to it. He wanted to find its head. Dangerous, yes, but he hadn't had a real adventure in a while and was itching for some action. A small grin slipped onto his face, and adrenaline rushed through his veins.
He knew he was getting close, his heart sped up, so close… Soon enough he came across a window showing the bottom of the lake, one of many scattered throughout the dungeons. He glanced out, and everything froze when he saw a reflected pair of yellow eyes.
He woke up in the hospital wing months later.
Surprised I updated? Yeah, same. I had a random idea for this earlier today when I was talking to my sister, who was working on one of her older original stories. And I've been getting back into writing fanfiction lately. Sooo yeah. Short, I know, but I don't have a lot planned at the moment.
There is a small possibility that I might maybe get a plan for this story and write a few chapters. Maybe. Don't get your hopes up.
(But I mean if you like Hetalia I wrote an APH/HP crossover with four chapters and published it a week ago so like if you wanna go check that out—)
On a side note I mentioned in my last author's note that I had an idea for the next chapter but I honestly have no clue what that idea was because I didn't write it down.
Hope you enjoyed!
-Quiet Leaf