Chapter 2: Skipping Hogsmeade
After potions, Zaria and Sarah walked into the Great Hall for lunch, and when they were finished, went out to the birch tree by the lake.
"This is where we all usually congregate…" Zaria explained, while Amanda, Lily, and Bridget walked towards them.
"Hey guys," Amanda said.
"Sarah has some exciting news to tell you all," Zaria giggled.
"What is it?" Bridget asked.
Sarah scowled at Zaria. "It's not really exciting…I have to sit by Snape in potions. We're partners."
"Ugh…talk about embarrassing!"
"Don't talk to him Sarah…He's such a jerk," Lily said quietly.
"I know…Zaria filled me in last night after the feast. But I am kind of forced to talk to him…"
Lily shot Zaria a look with her bright green eyes. Sarah would really hate to be Zaria right around then. "Gee, thanks for telling everyone about the whole encounter last year."
Sarah defended her new Slytherin friend. "She only told me because I asked her to, Lily. Don't get mad at her."
"Sure…then how did you know there was even a story to tell?" Lily raised her eyebrows and they all laughed.
"Zaria introduced me to everyone, and he didn't even look at me, so I wondered what his problem was, so she told me." Sarah didn't want to give away the fact that Zaria had been talking to Martin and Jake.
"Oh…so then you already know he's a jerk," Amanda laughed.
"Yep," Sarah said, trying to sound cheerful about it. She checked her Chanel watch. "We better get going…Zaria and I have Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"With the Ravenclaws," Bridget pointed out. "So we can walk together!" They packed up their stuff, and Bridget, Sarah, and Zaria headed to the castle, while Lily and Amanda headed to Herbology for their combined class.
They walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and sat down in a nearby set of three desks. A middle-aged witch walked in, and told the class to take their seats a few minutes later.
She cleared her throat and said, "Hello class, I'm Professor Weaver, and I'll be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Now today we're going to start off with a pop quiz-" everyone moaned, "-to see what you remember from your previous Defense classes."
"Oh, great…" Sarah said under her breath. Defense Against the Dark Arts was her worst subject.
The professor walked around the class, handing out the tests, and Sarah thought about pretending to be sick or something. Then she could have Zaria or Bridget tell her what was on the test so she could study. Too late: the teacher dropped a large test packet down in front of her.
Sarah watched the clock tick as Weaver told everyone to get started. Forty-five minutes left to go. She hoped she could make it. The first ten questions ended up being easy, but apparently the test got harder as she went farther. She got stuck on number twelve. Her mind went blank, and she couldn't remember anything she'd read over the summer. She filled in the rest of the blanks by guessing. Great…Well maybe she got 11 out of 50 questions correct. Unfortunately, Professor Weaver told them to drop their quills, and she began picking up tests.
She felt miserable and stupid. Sarah always got good marks in all her classes, especially Divination, due to the fact she was a seer on her mother's side. This class was the only exception.
When they walked out of class, Bridget gushed, "Wow, wasn't that quiz easy?"
"Er, no! Defense Against the Dark Arts is my worst subject!" Sarah replied darkly. "The only reason I'm taking it for a course this year is to get a decent job at the Ministry."
"Oh…Well maybe you just learned different things at Beauxbatons," Bridget was embarrassed, Sarah could tell. But she'd definitely gotten the whole 'learning different things' concept right. They hadn't even begun studying Red Caps at her old academy, but on the quiz it said in bold lettering: 'Review from Third Year'.
- September 4, 1976 -
Two days later, Sarah was dreading the return of the quiz grades more than ever. It was time for Defense Against the Dark Arts again, and the class settled into their seats. Professor Weaver made an announcement that she'd give back the tests at the end of the class period. Sarah glanced at the clock every few moments through class and could've sworn it had stopped moving. Nevertheless, class finally ended.
The professor handed out all the tests and said that the students could go once they got theirs.
"See you later," Zaria said, not telling Sarah her grade even though she'd seen a large 'O' scrawled across the paper, standing for 'Outstanding'. Of course, Sarah's was at the bottom of the stack. While everyone was getting their quiz and leaving, she heard Weaver telling Snape to stay after class for something. Sarah wondered what it was, but didn't look at him. She could play his game for a while too.
Finally, everyone had left the class besides her, Snape, and Professor Weaver. Sarah got out of her desk to collect her test. As she had expected, a 'D' for 'Dreadful' was written in red ink. As Professor Weaver opened her mouth, Sarah braced herself for a long-winded pep talk.
"Now, Miss Malfoy…I've seen your O.W.L. grades in Defense Against the Dark Arts from Beauxbatons, and you got an 'E'. What happened here?"
"Well…We hadn't studied any of this yet, to be honest," Sarah sighed, taking the test that was being handed to her.
"That's what I expected. So I took the personal liberty to have someone mentor you until you get caught up-" Sarah thought about this…It wouldn't be too bad. It was probably Zaria who would mentor her, and then she might get away with not studying after all.
"-which is why Severus here has volunteered to mentor you…From what I've heard, he's the best Defense Against the Dark Arts student in the school-"
'Snape mentoring me? Whoa…Rewind. Snape volunteered to help me? Maybe he hasn't been ignoring me after all,' Sarah thought. But this thought was quickly banished when he finally spoke.
"I don't remember volunteering for anything," he said in a cold voice. She looked at him and for the first time saw his face. He, of course, wasn't looking at her, but she did notice his eyes again, which seemed to hold the world's sadness. 'Again…Calm down Sarah,' her mind told her. Why the hell was she thinking about his eyes?
The teacher looked taken aback. "Well I figured you would've just agreed if I'd ask you anyway. No matter! But I want you to meet at least once a week. I don't care where. Okay, well you can go to lunch now."
Sarah was about to argue with the teacher about having a different mentor. Severus looked like he'd rather die than hang out with her. She wondered, in the pit of her stomach, why she was almost happy about this whole thing.
Sarah walked out of the classroom, and into the Great Hall. Zaria was there waiting for her at the Slytherin table.
"Bloody hell, where have you been? And why are you so pale? You look like the Bloody Baron," she laughed.
Sarah laughed too, but it was forced. "I failed that stupid quiz so I have to be mentored by someone. You'll never guess who." She glanced down at the end of the table where Snape was sitting, just to make sure he wasn't listening in, not like he would anyway.
"Who is this oh-so-mysterious mentor?" Zaria asked in fake sarcasm.
"None other than our infamous friend, Severus Snape," Sarah tried to show how pissed she was about the teachers decision-not much-and Zaria's eyebrows raised to the ceiling.
"You're serious?"
"Unfortunately," Sarah groaned. "I have to meet with him once a week."
"You haven't scheduled anything, right?"
"No, and I plan to keep it that way. Maybe then I'll convince Professor Weaver that I need a new mentor."
Her plan didn't necessarily work out though. She was in potions, and her and her lab partner had been working together silently the whole time. He finally said, without glancing at her, "So where are we going to meet?"
Sarah was taken aback. She hadn't really expected him to say anything about it to her. "Um…I guess the common room would work."
"Too noisy," he replied, as he added some beetle eyes to the potion.
"Okay, so why did you even ask for my input if you're just going to shoot down my ideas?"
He ignored her, and said, "I'm sure Weaver would let us use her classroom."
Sarah tried to find a reason why this idea wouldn't work, but couldn't. "Fine. What day?"
"I'm free Saturday."
"What about during the week? Do you have some prior commitment?" she asked sarcastically.
"It's your grade, not mine,"
Sarah sighed. He had a point. "What time?"
"8:00 a.m. sharp." He turned back to the potion.
Sarah, Zaria, Bridget, Amanda, and Lily sat under the birch tree while Sarah told about her conversation with Snape in potions.
"Boy, do I feel bad for you!" Amanda said.
Lily said, "It's beyond me why I was ever friends with him in the first place."
"Yeah, Lily, I've always wanted to know why you were ever friends with that git," Bridget wondered out loud, while doing her Astronomy homework. Sarah found herself wondering if he was really as bad as everyone thought he was. It seemed like they were all overreacting about something that could have just slipped. But perhaps Sarah's view was skewed from reality; hearing the word "mudblood" in the Malfoy home wasn't exactly rare.
Lily sighed while they laughed. "I was like nine, okay? That is a very vulnerable age."
Saturday had come quickly, and it had also happened to be the first trip to Hogsmeade. Zaria and Sarah ate breakfast at the Slytherin table, and Sarah was feeling regretful about not arguing with Snape about when she should study.
"I wish you could come," Zaria sighed.
"I wish I could, too." Of all days, why did he have to choose the one of the first Hogsmeade trip? She'd never been there before, and was excited about hanging out with her new friends in the village. "Well I better get going," Sarah glanced at her watch and it said 7:55.
"See you later…Maybe you'll get done early and be able to meet us all in Hogsmeade."
Sarah got up from the table and walked to the classroom where Severus told her to go. He was there, slouching in a desk, and waiting for her to get there.
"About time," he narrowed his eyes at her, but she could have sworn she saw him smirk.
"Sorry…" She waited for him to say something but couldn't take the silence any longer. "Okay…so what do I have to do?"
"I don't know…Why don't you start by reading chapter one in the book?" he suggested sarcastically. "You had the book list all summer, why wouldn't you start catching up?"
She didn't reach for the book. "Well I didn't know I was so behind…Besides, I was busy all summer. Not that it's any of your business." Sarah quoted his previous words from Potions, and flipped her shimmering blonde hair over her shoulder.
Snape narrowed his eyes at her. "Lucius told me your whole family went on vacation to Aruba last summer. Sounds like you had a real difficulty trying to find free time."
Sarah rolled her eyes in response. "Okay, you're right. I should have caught up over the summer. But I do care about school…and I really want to learn. Plus, the sooner you help me catch up, the sooner these tutoring sessions can be over."
"Fair enough," he shrugged. "Alright, let's start with an easy spell then."
For the next hour and a half, Sarah practiced her disarming spell on Snape. Why did he have to be so damn good at blocking everything her wand shot at him? Sarah casted the spell again and again, and got so worked up that she accidentally flung out of her hand.
Instead of hitting Snape, who ducked at just the right moment, the wand hit a vase in the corner. Time seemed to slow down as it wobbled back and forth, and Sarah breathed a sigh of relief when it balanced itself out once again. She glanced at Snape, who was smirking back at her.
"I think we'll need to work on that spell a little more."
"Probably," Sarah laughed. He grabbed her wand off the floor and handed it to her. Their hands brushed briefly and she felt a wobbly feeling in the stomach which was similar to the motion of the vase just a few seconds earlier. "Thanks," she said, although she could barely breathe. She wondered if he sensed her growing infatuation.
"That's enough for today, I think. I'll see you in Potions."
Sarah nodded, her heart still pounding. He nodded to her as he walked out the door and left her alone in the classroom.