"You're back early." Susan remarked when I walked into the common room. She gestured for me to sit with her at the table.

I sat down and rifled through my bag for my Transfiguration book and opened to the page I tried to read during detention. I rested my right hand on the page as I read the left page. My eyes shifted to begin reading the next page. I lifted my hand and left behind was a streak of red. I looked at my hand and noticed a scrape on the side of my palm. As soon as I acknowledged its existence it started stinging.

"What is that?" Susan asked when she noticed my injury.

"I must have cut myself." I stated the obvious. I thought of flying backwards and landing on the table. That had to have been when I scraped my hand. "I don't remember that happening and it didn't hurt."

"You're always hurt." She observed.

I shrugged and pulled my wand from my robes. "Curem Sectis." I muttered and the scrape disappeared under a new layer of skin. I stared at the spot on my hand for a moment I thought about how strange Snape had been acting. How could someone go from being completely unreasonable to not even being cross when knocked backwards through the classroom? I was still distrusting of him.

"What did you do in detention tonight?" Susan asked pulling out of my skeptical thoughts.

"Er, I'm not really sure." I wasn't really lying.

"What does that mean?" She questioned.

"I think he felt bad about yesterday but that doesn't really make sense." I mused. "Then he would have to be capable of empathy."

Susan smiled. "Dumbledore is probably suspicious. What did you do? Maybe Snape is just making sure you do something completely non-dangerous until your detentions are over."

"I…studied." I didn't know why I was so afraid to tell Susan that Snape helped me with defensive spells but something about it seemed too intimate to tell her about. A tingle ran down my spine at the thought of anything between Snape and I being considered intimate.

I finished my studying at a reasonable hour for the first time in weeks and headed upstairs to bed and spent the rest of the night dreaming about spells, a stony dungeon room, and potion bottles.

I woke up the next morning and rolled over. Pain on my right hip and shoulder made me wince. I gingerly lifted myself out of bed and pulled up the side of my bed shirt and looked down at my black and blue side.

"What is that?" Susan demanded as she entered from the bathroom. She rushed over to me.

"It's a bruise." I said.

"I can see it's a bruise." She snapped. "But where did you get it? Did Snape do this to you?"

"I don't know where I got it."

"Just like the cut on your hand last night? Ruby, are you covering for him? What is going on? I know you're clumsy but you always know where you got your injuries and now you don't know? Seriously, Ruby, that looks bad."

"I've been so busy lately I can't keep track of every time I hip check a table or scrape my hand in the hall. If it had anything to do with Snape I would tell you." I lied. I felt horrible not telling the truth but I didn't even understand what was going on with Snape so I didn't think Susan would either and she was always jumping to crazy conclusions.

"Fine, but if I think you're in trouble I will have no problem going to Professor Flitwick."

I nodded my head once and went along with my normal morning routine.

Susan walked me with a silent anger down to breakfast. I avoided looking at the staff table and hung my head so my hair blocked my face and I watched my feet move across the floor.

"So, how are things with you and Mark doing?" I asked pouring myself a cup of Earl Grey.

Susan seemed to spring to life and forget that she was upset with me. "He comes to the library with me every night when you have detention and we study. Well, every night apart from Wednesdays when he has Quidditch practice. We haven't made anything official yet but I really like him and there has been loads more kissing."

I made a dramatic disgusted face and she nudged me with her shoulder. I realized then how much I've missed with Susan since starting detentions with Snape. Even on the weekends I separated myself from her. She asked me last Saturday to go to the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin and ignored her to study.

"We should do something fun together this weekend." I suggested.

"Mark and I are going to Hogsmeade together but you can come with us." Susan said. "You and Mark need to get to know each other better."

"Really?" I asked. "You're going to sneak to Hogsmeade again even after what happened last time."

Susan looked at me slightly confused. "Tomorrow is the Hogsmeade trip. They've imprisoned a large amount of Death Eaters since You-Know-Who disappeared and Dumbledore and the other professors agreed it would be safe enough weeks ago."

"Oh." I murmured. I really had been out of it for the past month.

"So you'll go with Mark and I?" She inquired.

"Of course I'll go with. It will probably be more fun when we don't have to sneak around."

Susan smiled and we finished our breakfasts. We hurried to Transfiguration where the classwork was getting ridiculously hard and didn't permit much time for discussion like Charms did. Changing a candle into a snake was particularly hard. I couldn't get the snake's tongue right and it stuck out a wick every now and then. Susan's snake had a normal tongue but its skin still looked like wax.

When the end of the period came I was instantly nervous for Potions. I was unsure of what to expect from Snape and speculated if he might be bi-polar and wondered if wizards diagnosed that sort of thing.

I stepped into the potions classroom and Snape was already standing in the front. I ducked in quickly and sat in my seat. Once again Snape didn't pay be the smallest bit of attention. It was how I preferred things but it made the detention last night much more confusing. He seemed to almost care about my well-being enough to teach me how to defend myself and today, hours later, it was as if he could live his life without knowing I existed and nothing would be different for him. He was very confusing. I shook my head. Why did I care about anything Snape thought or was able to do? I refused to think any more of him or myself especially of him and myself together. I put my full concentration into making my potion and shut the professor out of my thoughts.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was more theoretical information we would need for the N.E. but we didn't get to use any defensive spells which for the first time made me sad. I wanted to know if last night actually helped anything.

I rushed to the library to begin studying so I could spend Saturday with Susan and Mark without worrying too much about my assignments. I sped through the easy assignments and saved parts of the more difficult ones for detention (assuming that was what Snape would have me do) or Sunday. I exhaled anxiety when I contemplated how much I had actually completed.

I was late to dinner again and forced my supper down with limited conversation with Susan. I gave her an apologetic hug before I rushed down to the dungeons and prayed that Snape would allow me to study.

Upon entering the classroom I knew that studying was not in my immediate future. The tables and their chairs had been pushed close to the walls leaving a large open space at the front of the classroom.

"I expect you're ready for another round of dueling." Snape said. "I expect improvement."

I placed my bag on one of the tables and I walked calmly to the front and withdrew my wand from my robes. I stood with my back facing the wall and my front towards Snape. We bowed at each other and took our stances.

"Rictusempra!" Snape bellowed.

"Finite Incantatem!" I shouted automatically. "Fununculus!"

Snape swung his wand in front of himself and blocked my pimple jinx. "Depulso!"

My feet slid backwards on the floor until my back touched the wall. I took several running steps away from the wall as I yelled, "Expeliarmus."

Again Snape blocked the spell. "Alarte Ascendare!"

My feet left the floor and I rose into the air. I lifted my hand above my head to stop it from hitting the ceiling. My fingertips brushed the stone when I stopped rising and began falling rapidly. My feel slipped on the landing and I fell to my back. I lifted myself up partially and saw a book sitting on his desk. I lifted my wand.

"Locomotor Book!" I ordered and swung my wand in Snape's direction.

Instead of the book being thrown through the air in front of his face like I had tried to do the entire desk flung itself at Snape and crushed him to the floor.

"Oh no!" I exclaimed. "Locomotor Desk!"

I didn't care if the desk was placed neatly back in its spot and simply moved it to the wall in a quick sideways movement with my wand. I quickly crawled on my hands and knees to where the professor still lay unmoving.

"Professor?" I whispered over him. His eyes were closed. "Professor, are you alright?" I said louder.

His eyes fluttered open and focused on me. My heart stopped and he remained quiet.

"Professor, are you hurt?" I asked. "Does anything hurt?"

He attempted to lift himself up but his right arm went funny and he fell back down and cursed. He tried again to lift himself but before he could put more pressure on it I had snapped into the mode of what I was born to do.

"Stop that." I placed a hand on his chest to steady him on the floor. "I need to take a look at your arm."

I grabbed gently for his right arm but he winced and pulled it away before I could even touch it. "Don't be a baby. Give me your arm."

He grudgingly gave in. I touched gently with my thumb on the side of him arm. He inhaled sharply and I could feel the bone move inward even under my slight pressure. "Well, your arm is broken but I can fix it."

"I am not going to be one of your experiments." Snape snarled.

"Of course not." I assured. "That was my youngest brother."

"What?" Snape asked visibly confused.

"My brother Sean broke his arm this summer doing exactly what my mum had just told him not to do." I explained. "Boys. He was afraid to even go inside. Our mum has a way of gloating when she is right about something. So I, being a good sister, mended his bones for him."

"And?" Snape questioned.

"And his arm is fine." I answered. "He's got an extra elbow now…bends the wrong way…I'm joking! His arm is as straight as an arrow, course that's because he doesn't have an elbow, not really sure where I went wrong but I am at least 68% sure that I will get it right this time."

Professor Snape's face went white and he looked up at me with a nervous expression.

"I'm joking again." I laughed. "Honestly, this will be much less painful if you laugh with me. Well, not really. Your arm is still going to hurt."

I reached for his arm and he pulled it away.

"I'm sorry." I apologized. "I'm nervous excited and when that happens I guess I make elbow jokes. I'll be more professional.

I straightened my face into a serious expression. "Now may I please have your arm?"

I held out my hand to receive his arm but he only gave me a suspicious look.

"I can just grab your arm." I informed him. "It will be more painful to you but I assure you that I will feel nothing. So you can either give me your arm or I can take it."

He gave a sigh of defeat and moved his arm closer to me and I picked it up gently. He closed his eyes like he was wishing he was anywhere but here. I started unbuttoning the cuffs of his sleeve and his eyes sprang open.

"What do you think you are doing?" He demanded.

"I'm undressing you." I said with a sarcastic roll of my eyes. "I need your sleeves out of the way, calm down."

I finished unbuttoning his sleeve and I rolled it up as gently as I could manage.

"Okay, now I'm going to try…" His eyes flew open and looked at me at the sound of the word try. "Sorry, I am going to mend your arm. Not try."

I placed the tip of my wand lightly on his arm. "Brackium Emendo." I said as I pulled my wand down the length of his forearm. "How does this feel?" I asked as I pressed my thumb lightly into the side of his arm.

Snape's eyes opened and he studied his arm in my hand as if he expected it to go through a drastic change.

"How about this?" I questioned as I slowly moved his wrist from side to side.

"It…It doesn't hurt." He said with surprise.

"Good." I said audibly with pride. "Ferula."

A splint and bandages wrapped around his arm.

"It's just a precaution but your arm should be all better by tomorrow morning." I explained.

I began pulling his sleeve over the wrappings. I could feel him looking at me as I started fastening the buttons around his wrist. I looked over and we locked eyes for a moment. I pulled my eyes away and I could feel my cheeks turning red.

"Where did you learn to do that?" He asked.

"I read it in a book." I answered forcing my attention on the buttons.

"You amaze me." He said making me choke on air. "You can do a delicate spell like mending bones after only reading it in a book and yet when you want to move a book you launch an entire desk at me."

I dropped his arm and glared at him but I couldn't help but smile. "It is a bit odd isn't it?"

He laughed a little and lifted himself to sitting. "I have a feeling there are many odd things about you."

"Did you just laugh?"

"No."

"I think you did!" I smiled at him. "You laughed and we are friends now."

"I did not and we are not." He denied.

"Oh, we are friends." I insisted. "I fixed you and we are friends now."

"You were the one who broke me in the first place." He argued.

"No, I believe it was the desk that broke you. I was just an innocent bystander trying to move a book. Honestly I think the desk had it out for you, saw an opportunity, and took it."

"You're so strange." He laughed.

"That was definitely a laugh and we are friends."

"We are not friends. You should head back to your common room. Finish some studying. I expect you'll be going to Hogsmeade with your friend in the morning." He lifted himself off the floor and walked to his office door. "Goodnight, Miss Winston."

"Ruby." I corrected.

He shook his head in a defeated manner. "Alright. Goodnight, Ruby."