The next couple of weeks were a blur of detentions, classes, and homework. I was barely allowed sleep during the week and was only able to sleep in a little during the weekends because all of the professors were really piling on the assignments.

I finished my third cup of coffee at dinner. Caffeine was starting to have little to no effect on me and I wanted to do nothing but sleep. It was only Wednesday and I wouldn't be able to sleep until late Friday and even then I wouldn't get all the sleep I needed.

"I don't understand how you have any time outside of the bathroom with how much coffee you've been drinking lately." Susan joked.

"I don't understand how I can still function." I groaned rubbing my eyes. "The only thing that gets me through any of this is thinking about how much easier it will be once I'm done with these ridiculous detentions."

"Why don't you just tell Flitwick what Snape is doing?" Susan suggested again. "You and I both know that you don't deserve those detentions."

"I can't tell Flitwick." I protested. "It's what Snape would want. He'll know he's gotten to me. I won't let him win."

Susan raised her eyebrows at me.

"Don't judge me." I ordered. "You don't know him like I do. He'd want me to tattle…it shows weakness. I'm not weak."

I stood up and turned on my heel and stomped defiantly out of the Great Hall.

I entered the potions classroom. Snape was sitting at the desk in the front with a pile of parchments and a box.

I strolled in front of his desk and waited for him to instruct me on what I would be doing.

"In the box I have Cruorlappa berries." He informed me. "Their juice is used in potion making and my supply is almost out."

He raised his wand and the box floated onto the table in the middle front row. The lid flipped open revealing black orbs about the size of cherries. He reached into a drawer of the desk and pulled out a glass beaker.

"Squeeze the juice into this." He said pushing the beaker at me.

I picked up the beaker and walked with it over to the table with the open box of berries.

"So I just juice the berries?" I asked a bit skeptical at the simplicity of the project. "This number of berries will probably only take me a few minutes."

"Then do it." He demanded.

I looked down at the box and picked up a berry. Immediately my fingers began stinging intensely. I let out a surprised yelp and I attempted to drop the berry but it had ejected needle sized spikes from all sides. I shook my hand wildly trying to free the offensive fruit from my fingertips. Finally it disconnected from my fingers and skidded across the floor. I flipped my hand to examine the wound. A dozen pinpricks welled with blood. I balled my hand in a fist and bit my lip against the burning pain.

"I should probably have mentioned," Snape chimed in. "That you should wear these gloves."

He placed a pair of thick rubber coated gloves on his desk. He stood up calmly and sauntered in the direction of the door connecting to his office. I opened my right hand and took in the smeared blood on my fingers and palm; fresh dots were beading on my skin.

All of the anger and frustration I had held in came bubbling to the surface. This incident sent me over the edge and I was ready to explode like a volcano. I raced after Snape and seized him by the back of his robes. He spun around quickly with a mix of surprise and disgust on his face. His mouth opened but no words came out so I said the first word that popped into my head.

"Why?" I demanded.

"Did you just get blood on my robes?" He asked.

I wasn't going to be caught off guard by his question. "Why are you so mean to me?" I asserted.

He grabbed at his robe studying it to find the stain. "Fifty points from Ravenclaw."

"Answer me!" I yelled, my fingers were throbbing with my heartbeat. "Why are you so mean to me? What did I ever do? I wasn't sure if you noticed the mistake on the board or not and I didn't know if my classmates would notice or even have the knowledge of the potion to be able to say there was a mistake at all. I don't deserve these detentions and I don't deserve to be treated like this!"

"It's that kind of arrogance…" Snape began.

"Arrogance?" I interrupted. "If anyone is arrogant it's you!"

"Another fifty points from Ravenclaw."

"Leave my house out of this. Why have you been singling me out at every conceivable moment? Do you know how humiliating it is to be walking through the halls and to see someone from this class with some friends and they all start giggling when I pass?"

"Don't talk to me about humiliation." He spat. "You don't know the first thing about it. How sad for you that a few people laugh at you sometimes. Have you ever been laughed at by every student in this school for two years without fail? Don't act like you've never found humor in another person's humiliation, I know you have."

"What are you talking about?"

"You were here when it happened." He accused. "Everyone thought Potter was so hilarious."

He continued talking but the mention of James Potter made me think.

I took in a breath of air which made Snape stop talking. "I remember you." I whispered.

Snape's eyes widened but he didn't say anything.

"You were the boy James hung upside down and…" I trailed off and looked away from the professor at the memory of what happened to his trousers.

"So you do remember." He snapped. "Are you having trouble containing your laughter?"

"No." I said quietly. "I never laughed at that."

"Do not lie to me." Snape said through gritted teeth.

"I'm not lying." I defended. "I was only in my second year and everything I had seen of magic was used for good or protection. I had heard of dark magic but I had never seen anything like that. It was the first time I had ever been afraid of magic. The spell James used wasn't even intended to be bad but he used it that way. The only thing I could think of was if someone who supposedly knew how to protect himself couldn't stop that spell then what chance would my parents or my brothers have to defend themselves if someone decided to harm them?"

Snape looked at me with a defensive curiosity.

"The worst part is that even if I was there when someone threatened my family I wouldn't…" My head began spinning. I lifted my left hand to my forehead to steady myself. My fingers felt like ice. "I wouldn't…I…I don't feel very well."

My knees buckled and I felt myself fall. I weakly prepared to hit the hard floor but instead felt arms wrap around my torso. I was placed softly on the floor.

"Just stay there." Snape's voice said. He sounded panicked. "You'll be fine…just don't move."

My fingers were stinging worse than ever and throbbing was accompanied by an odd warm wet sensation. I blinked my eyes open and saw my hand covered in red. I blinked and tried to focus on my hand. Streams of dark red where gushing from the pinpricks; a rather large puddle of blood lay near where I was standing before.

I closed my eyes and I heard rushed footsteps approaching. My hand felt as though it had been submerged in ice water. My eyelids fluttered and I saw the blurry outline of Snape rubbing something vibrant green on my hand before my world went black.

I woke up in the dimly lit hospital wing. The windows were dark and the only sound was the rustling of my sheets and I pushed myself into a sitting position. My head spun madly and I forfeited my attempt to sit and laid my head back on the pillow.

"Oh good, you're awake." Madame Pomfrey chimed as she hurried into the room. "You are one lucky girl. You lost a lot of blood. Cruorlappa berries can be deadly the way they thin blood can cause you to bleed out from the tiny pricks they leave. Can you tell me what happened?"

This was it. This was my chance to get Snape thrown out of Hogwarts. There is no way Dumbledore would let him stay after this and yet I answered. "I…I had read somewhere of a way to handle them without being pricked. I was too embarrassed to say anything when I was hurt so I hid it with the gloves he told me to put on right away. The glove started filling up with blood but I thought I could handle it. I started getting dizzy and then I don't remember anything after that."

"Heavens." Madame Pomfrey breathed. "It didn't occur to you that perhaps Professor Snape knew what he was talking about?"

"Well, I just…" I started.

"You are lucky he was quick to fetch his Folenimentum or who knows what could have happened to you." She stated. "You will need to stay here over night. You should be fine to go to classes in the morning."

"Stay here?" I blurted. "I can't I need to finish my homework."

"You need rest. Now lay down and go to sleep or I will give you a sleeping draft."

I begrudgingly laid my head against the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. I heard the creak of a chair and lifted my head quickly which sent me into spin. I closed my eyes and opened them and saw professor Snape walking from the room. He looked over to my bed and when he saw I was sitting he stopped.

"Still not following instructions I see." He sneered. "Madame Pomfrey told you to sleep."

He held my eyes for a moment before striding from the room.

I tried to convince myself that I wasn't tired. I forced other thoughts into my head but the one that kept popping to the surface was how I hadn't told on Professor Snape. I'm sure that's why he was sitting there so that he could do damage control if Madame Pomfrey asked me what happened and I told the truth. He would be able to instantly tell her that I was delusional from the loss of blood. That had to have been the reason because I am sure it wasn't because he was generally concerned.

Then I thought about the panic in his eyes when I started swaying. He had caught me too. A strange bubbly feeling filled my stomach when I thought about his arms wrapped around me. I buried my face in the pillow and shook my head from side to side as if that would launch those thoughts from my head. Maybe it would be best if I fell asleep. Maybe the loss of blood was messing with my head and that's why I felt anything but dislike for Snape, why I felt I would protect him by lying about what happened during detention, or why I was thinking about the way his lips looked when he was unaware that I was staring at him. I groaned and shoved my face even deeper into the pillow and shut my eyes. I tried my best to clear my mind and focus on my breathing until eventually I fell asleep.