Beta: FlyingLovegood123


"…and then Snape took ten points from our House. On the first lesson too. Unbelievable!"

Ron was currently recounting his and Harry's story from their classes animatedly, all the while stuffing himself with bacon. Harry was sitting to his left, adding remarks here and there. To his other side sat Edward who was listening with a look of keen interest on his face, occasionally jumping in to give his own version of experience with the discussed teacher or subject. They were just hitting the "Snape is a git" topic. So far they'd all agreed that in terms of appearance, the man closely resembled an overgrown greasy-haired bat that haunted the dungeons. It sure didn't take much stretch of imagination to picture that image. However, Edward clearly hadn't witnessed said man's nasty side when it came to personality.

"I don't know why but it felt like he's out to get me or something" Harry lamented.

"Don't worry Harry." Ron patted his friend on the back "He's out to get every student who isn't from Slytherin."

Harry turned his attention back to his own breakfast, not looking particularly comforted by Ron's words.

"Is he really that bad?" Edward asked "I mean, he does look pretty creepy, but still…"

Ron shrugged.

"You've only had him for one class, so you probably haven't seen everything. He frightened Neville so bad. Let's see…" he scanned his timetable "Oh look! We are having Potions with your House later." Ron pointed at a line on the paper.

"What?" Harry choked on his toast. He looked at his own timetable "That can't be right. I swear it said Potions with Ravenclaw last night."

"Last minute change, I guess." Ron grinned and grabbed his two friends by their shoulders "Well, at least we'll get to suffer together."

Edward also smiled, if only because he had no idea that he would be the sole victim in that class out of the three of them.


They were divided into pairs to work on a simple potion for migraine. Harry and Ron sat together at one table and Edward settled down at the one in front of them, next to a bushy-haired girl named Hermione. He was just beginning to take out his textbook when a cold voice floated over the dead silence that usually took place in Snape's classes.

"Mr. Thompson."

For about five seconds, Edward didn't register for whom the call was supposed to be. He didn't have that name until just a few months ago and even then most people would usually just use Edward to speak to him. He was still getting used to the teacher calling him Thompson. Thus, when he finally stood up (thanks largely to Ron's tap on his back), he was ten seconds too late to avoid Snape's sniping remark.

"Feeling too important to answer the teacher's call, Mr. Thompson?" Snape's eyes narrowed.

"N…no, sir." Edward spluttered, feeling heat rising up his cheeks.

"Go sit next to Mr. Longbottom. Quickly if you please. Or perhaps you require an escort?" Snape added the last sentence with a sneer, his icy gaze trained on the boy.

Edward hastily gathered up all his stuffs and made his way over to Neville, feeling Snape's eyes follow him all the way. Was Snape purposefully picking on him? Edward didn't remember his last experience with the man being quite so miserable.

"The instructions are on the board." Snape pointed his wand to said object where words started to appear "Brew the potion according to them and give me a sample of your work at the end of the class. Begin."

The instructions was, in Edward's opinion, easy to follow. He was sure that he would be able to get their potion right, even when he had to stop every five minutes or so to stop Neville from accidentally adding the wrong ingredients. That was, if Snape would just turn his attention to something else other than their table or, to be more specific, him. The effect of the man gaze influenced Neville as well, though. Edward could see his hands shaking. Worse, he could see that the content of their cauldron, which was supposed to be green by now, was steadily turning into a shade of deep purple. The worst moment came next. Neville, in a desperate attempt to salvage the potion, scrambled forwards to throw in some powder and in the process, knocked the whole cauldron over. The liquid hit the floor with a loud splash, followed by grave silence. Everyone waited with bated breaths as Snape strode down, took one look at the mess and turned immediately to Edward without even sparing Neville a glance.

"Ten point from Hufflepuff. And meet me in my office eight o'clock tonight for detention. The rest of you hand in your samples. Class dismissed."


"That was TOTALLY unfair" Ron exclaimed as soon as they got out of the dungeon "Neville spilled the potion, but Snape pinned the blame on you. And detention? How is that even reasonable?"

Edward was depressed. Neville had apologized to him profusely over and over and he held nothing against the boy, it wasn't his fault. But why was he being treated like this? He didn't remember doing anything to tick Snape off.

"Ron, do you know what Snape make people do in detentions?" he asked dejectedly.

"Fred and George have gotten detentions from every teachers in the school, except Binn, and they say it's mostly lines or cleaning. I'm not too sure though." Ron admitted.

"Don't worry, it can't be that bad. It was just some spilled potion." Harry reassured.

The fact that "just some spilled potion" earned him a detention was already bad enough, thought Edward, though he didn't point that out. He waved his friends goodbye and headed back to Hufflepuff common room, adding his first ever detention in Hogwarts to his schedule of the day in the process. He'd never know, though, that the Potion master had altered the timetable to get him in Potion earlier than he was originally supposed to, or that the purpose of the whole class had been to study him, or that the detention had been placed on him long before he set a foot in the dungeon today, after a certain meeting between a certain headmaster and a certain teacher to be exact.


Pretty unreasonable cause for detention. Then again, Snape wasn't aiming to be reasonable.