At dinner that evening,

I felt a pair of black eyes watching me from the High Table.

I looked up and saw Severus staring down at me.

It felt creepy at first but then it made me feel shy.

I finished my dinner and left the Great Hall for the potions classroom.

When I entered the room, Severus was not there yet.

I sat at a table and waited.

Severus arrived soon after, his robes flowing behind him gracefully.

Obsidian orbs pierced mine. "I am very disappointed in you, Miss Carter. As such, you will be marking parchment and cleaning cauldrons for the rest of the evening."

I nodded.

I heard a deep sigh exit his lungs as Severus strode over to his desk. He divided the parchment into two stacks. "Come here, Miss Carter."

I carefully walked across the room to the front of his desk where he placed the parchment for me to grade.

"I should have you mark all of these..." Severus said, an intense gaze on me.

I looked at him in awe.

"However, I do not have time for that. You have other studies besides my class and I have other things to tend to before I retire for the evening. So I shall mark one stack and you the other."

"But 150 points, sir?" I asked boldly. "From your own house? It's not fair!"

"Shall I make it 250, Miss Carter?!" He shouted at me.

I shook my head.

Severus sighed. "Miss Carter, I expected much more from you. You are a model student and for you to disappoint me and your house mates as you have done today...is a disgrace and I will not have it."

I was silent under his black glare.

"Now, get to work. Finish your detention and we shall see where you rank amongst the other students this week. That will depend on your apprenticeship with me." Severus told me.

I took a chair across the desk from him. We worked in silence until the parchment vanished and they were all marked. Severus checked the parchment I marked. Nervously I watched him scrutinize the notes I wrote along the sides where the students made mistakes.

"Very well, Miss Carter. Now you can start on those filthy cauldrons." Severus gave his approval although it wasn't completely praiseworthy. I bet he was just relieved he didn't have to mark them all himself.

I walked over to the cauldrons. A few looked like they had been exploded by first years. I scrubbed them until they were spotless and the clock read midnight.

"Sir, I'm finished." I said timidly.

Severus looked up from his desk and gave me an abrupt nod. "You may go, Miss Carter."

I started for the door until his silky voice broke the air.

"And Miss Carter..."

I looked back.

"It is not a death sentence...spending time with me." Severus added, his eyes boring into me.

I nodded and opened the door, leaving him.

Severus breathed a sigh, returning to his work.