What was wrong with me? I laid my face in my palms and took a deep breath as I cursed myself. Susan and Mark were fast friends in third year when they finally first spoke. Susan had had a crush on him since the first time she saw him at sorting but had always been too nervous to speak to him.

Finally, in third year when we were studying Boggarts and we had to use Riddikulus, Susan stood a bit too closely behind Mark when it was his turn. The result was a spider-clown hybrid. The boggart had pulled Susan's fear of spiders and Mark's fear of clowns and put them together. It was far more terrifying than either fear alone. It had the body of a spider with eight spindly hair covered legs but the head was that of a clown with grotesque smeared make-up with lips covered with what looked like blood and many eyes. Both of them froze and you could tell that this monstrosity was the new fear of several people.

I was suddenly doused with freezing cold water and clunked on the head with a disk of ice. I inhaled jaggedly from the shock of the cold. Sputtering I looked around to see Peeves hovering above me with a bucket in his hands.

"Ruby, Ruby, tries to entice the new professor with her spice." He sing-songed. "Though she tries to get a slice, her advances never will suffice. Unaware she will once day pay the price, here she sits drenched in ice."

"P-P-Peeves!" I attempted to shout through chattering teeth. "W-w-what is w-wrong with y-you?"

"Miss Winston has a crush on the man called Severus." Peeves sang on. "May God have mercy on the rest of us."

"PEEVES!" I shouted and picked up the disk of ice on the floor and launched it through his head causing it to smash to bits against the stone behind him.

He gave a gleeful scream and disappeared through the wall spouting manic laughter.

I re-entered the common room shivering so severely I could barely walk. The same person was still sitting in the same seat and watched me walk to the stairs to the dorm. My muscles were tense and beginning to ache from shaking and I began to wish I had more of the potion from Severus. The thought of him made my stomach queasy. Would Peeves say anything to anyone else or was he just being mean to me? What if he said something to one of the other professors or Dumbledore? I felt like I was going to be sick. Why does it matter, Ruby? Would anyone even believe Peeves? And even if they did you have done nothing wrong. Calm down.

I took a deep breath and entered the bathroom. I shakily undressed and turned on hot water. The water burned my skin but felt good at the same time. It was not as pleasant of a sensation as the Aestus Venae but slowly my muscles loosened and I stopped shivering. I turned the water off, dried off, and put my pajamas on.

I braided my wet hair and crawled into bed. Susan was already asleep and her curtains were closed all around her bed. She usually left the side facing my bed open but tonight she was certainly angry with me. I wondered how profusely I would have to apologize tomorrow for her to forgive me. I really needed to work on thinking about what I said to her.

The next morning when I opened my eyes Susan's bed was already empty. I dressed myself while hoping that Susan was only showering and would enter the room at any moment. But she wasn't and she didn't. I looked around the common room but she wasn't there either. I went out of my way to check the library but she wasn't there either.

Finally I decided it was probable that she went to breakfast without me. I entered the Great Hall to see the back of Susan's blonde head at our normal spot at the table. I rushed over to the table and sat next to her. She looked over at me and promptly deserted her half eaten breakfast.

I sighed. I hoped it would have been easier to apologize to her. I was the one that held grudges, not Susan. I rushed after her.

"You can't avoid me forever!" I shouted. "We have class together in twenty minutes!"

Susan did a wonderful job of pretending she didn't hear me and walked even quicker to get away.

I stopped and slumped my shoulders. I turned to look back at the doors to the Great Hall and my stomach growled. I glanced back to where I last saw Susan but decided to follow my stomach to get some breakfast instead.

With my tummy full of egg and toast I walked into Transfiguration. Carol Cartwright was sitting in my usual seat next to Susan.

I walked over and placed my bag on the table top next to Carol's things.

"Hi, Carol." I said with a smile. "I normally sit here so if you could please make your way to your regular seat I would appreciate it."

"Susan says she doesn't want to sit by you anymore." She said making to push my things from the table.

Normal Ruby would have nodded her head and accepted what Carol had to say. But I wasn't feeling like normal Ruby. I snatched up her wand that was sitting on top of her things. "What a lovely wand." I mused. "What is this? Mahogany? It would be a shame if someone were to…snap it."

She grabbed her wand from my fingers along with the rest of her things and scurried to her seat. I sat next to Susan who tried to move to a different table.

"Susan, sit." I begged. "I'm sorry for what I said. I really am. I know you've liked Mark for a long time and I know that Mark really likes you and I should be super happy for you but there's a part of me that is super selfish and is aware that the closer you get with him the farther you'll get from me and I don't want that…even though it's what you deserve."

"What makes you think that you aren't going to be my best friend anymore?" Susan asked. "Why do you think that if I have Mark that I can't have you? You fulfill different things than Mark. Don't give me that look, you're gross. I mean that eventually I know that he is going to do things that make me angry and I need my best friend to complain about those things to. I'm sorry if I haven't been spending much time with you but that's partially your fault for getting detention. Next month will be better when you're done with that. Friends?"

I smiled at her in acceptance as professor McGonagall stood at the front of the class and a hush fell over the chattering students.

Transfiguration turned out to be rather boring as we were made to read a chapter of the book and the homework given was to write a summary of what we read and to explain the importance of this information. It reminded me of the time I spent in muggle school.

Susan and I hugged before parting ways to solidify our apologies to one another. I then made my way to the dungeons for potions.

Potions was once again one of my favorite classes I realized. Now that the fear of being humiliated, mocked, and yelled at was gone. Severus paid me no attention and let me do my work and he gave me decent marks now. It was strange how quickly things changed after the night with the Cruorlappa berries. I wasn't completely sure if it was because he was afraid of what Dumbledore would do if I were injured again or if my confession of not having laughed at him was what changed his attitude towards me.

Last night was definitely a sign that it probably had more to do with not laughing at him. I thought for the first time how horrible his life had to have been that all he needed was for someone to tell him that his pain wasn't funny. It made me feel bad for him. I watched him as he explained the potion we would be making but I drowned out his words with my own thoughts. Finally, I realized I had been staring at him sitting behind his desk for some time and everyone else had collected their ingredients and were already beginning their potions.

I jolted out of my seat so quickly that it caused it to fall backwards and crash to the floor. Everyone in the room startled and stared at me and quickly turned their heads to see how Snape would deal with my distraction. I looked at him too. He was writing something on parchment and looked up slowly. He saw that everyone was staring at him and his eyes flicked to me as I slowly bent to pick up my chair with a face redder than marshmallow fondue.

"Get back to work." Severus snapped. "All of you."

Everyone sped into action to continue their potions. Severus went back to writing and I quickly gathered ingredients to start working on my Star Grass Salve.

Despite my late start I somehow managed to complete a minty green Star Grass Salve by the end of class. I poured a small amount into a vial and placed it gently on Severus's desk where it awaited grading. He was still completely absorbed in his writings.

I was actually excited for the first time to go to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I hoped we would need to cast a defensive spell so I could see if I could do it on the first or second time since Severus had been helping me.

When I entered the classroom my heart jumped excitedly at the sight of the desks and chairs pushed against the walls and a number of small figurines set up at the front. We would undoubtedly be learning a new spell.

As everyone filed into the classroom and waited for class to begin Professor Edgewoode brought in a few more figurines then waited for the rest of the class to arrive.

"Good afternoon, everyone." He greeted enthusiastically. "Today we will be learning the Reductor Curse. With this powerful curse once can easily reduce objects to pieces. Obviously great caution must be exercised when attempting and learning this curse as it can be very easy to curse the wrong object."

He stepped in front of us and aimed his wand at one of the figurines. "Reducto!" He yelled and flicked his wand in the shape of a forty-five degree angle. A blue light flashed and the figurine was reduced to ash on the floor.

Everyone lined up to take their turn at trying the spell. At last it was my turn and I stepped forward more confident than I had been before. I focused on how frustrated Severus made me the night before when he yelled at me. I could feel my anger rising towards him. I concentrated on the figurine before me and took a deep breath.

"Reducto!" I yelled and made the motion with my wand. The figurine turned to dust and I lowered my wand feeling a complete sense of accomplishment.

Professor Edgewoode looked at me surprised. "Well done, Miss Winston. Five points to Ravenclaw. I can tell you have been working on your technique outside of class."

I smiled and walked to the back of the line and watched the rest of the class attempt the spell.

After class I rushed to the library for some quick study time before meeting Susan in the Great Hall for supper.

"I did a defensive spell on the first try today!" I blurted out as soon as I sat next to her.

She looked taken aback at the sudden rush of words being flung at her. As soon as she was able to understand what I had said to her she smiled. "I guess helping you on Sunday did pay off. I didn't think we'd gotten much done when the stone kept rolling away but anything helps I suppose." She tucked into her Shepard's pie.

I was too excited to tell Severus that his lessons were helping to eat much of anything. I took a few bites of chicken and looked up every few seconds to see whether or not he had left the staff table yet. Susan tried to hold a conversation with me but it was too difficult for me to concentrate on her. I would have felt bad if I wasn't so worried about Severus.

Finally I looked up at the table and he was gone. I didn't even swallow the food in my mouth before I flung myself from my seat and was gone. I think Susan was in the middle of a sentence but I wasn't completely sure.

I ran through the doors into the deserted hallway but noticed a flip of black fabric around one of the corners. I raced after it and caught up with Severus in the hall. I scanned the area for anyone else but there was no one around. I took this opportunity to seize Severus by the hand. He spun around surprised and saw me. His eyes quickly looked around the area before coming to a rest on me.

"I did it!" I squealed. "I did a defensive spell on the first try!"

In my excitement I jumped up and wrapped my arms around his neck in a hug. I realized immediately what I was doing, pushed away, and smoothed out my robes. I could feel my cheeks turn red as Severus stood stiffly before me with his eyes wide in disbelief.