Still don't own Harry Potter! But this part I had to add because... well, it's just epic once I wrote it! I couldn't bring myself to take it out!
Valentine's Day, 1993
"So, what now?" Daisy beamed to the Golden Trio. "I know Lockhart's got something insane planned for tonight with Professor Snape again. I can't wait to see the dunderhead get humiliated again!"
"Dare!" they heard, and faced an irate Lockhart. "What is the meaning of this?!"
"Sir?" she asked confused, and he held a note aloft right in front of her face.
"This!" he yelled angrily, "What on earth is wrong with you?!"
"I believe that is a question to be pointed at yourself, Gilderoy," Snape said rounding the corner with his nose close to a piece of parchment. "If you don't have a- Oh, what now?!"
"Miss Dare, has so rudely threatened me!" Lockhart yelled, and Snape grabbed the piece of paper with a sneer.
"Hm…" he pondered while reading it, "I see no threat. Where is the threat, Gilderoy? Or have you finally gone as mad as the headmaster? I believe it is time to get your eyes checked. Perhaps that smile of yours that you love to show off has caused you to begin to go blind alongside everyone else in the bloody world who fawns over your sickening image."
"Oh, nice one!" Daisy murmured into Harry's ear. "You've got to hand it to him, he really knows his insults!"
"He's a git, what did you expect?" Ron whispered, and Daisy smacked his arm harshly. "Ow!"
"Gilderoy, I see no threat," Snape repeated, "Point out the threat to me, or leave Miss Dare alone. She already gets enough trouble at home as it is, don't make her school life hell or I'll make your life hell."
"Honestly!" Lockhart yelled indignantly, "Why would you defend one of the lions you hate so much?!"
"Because, she reminds me of myself when I was her age," Snape said calmly. "Only she's a Gryffindor chit instead of a Slytherin wizard."
"I look forward to defeating your precious summer pupil tonight!" Lockhart glared angrily, "And I will make sure that I win our little bet!"
"Don't count your snakes before they're hatched, Gilderoy," Snape snarled, "Surely you're not afraid of a student? Because that's most definitely how you're acting and looking right now!"
"I hope you die, Severus!" Lockhart snapped, and was flown backwards by a powerful bout of accidental magic from Daisy. "OW! You arrogant piece of-!"
"LANGUAGE, GILDEROY!" Snape bellowed, "AND I PITY THE FOOL WHO HAS TO LOOK AT YOU EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE! LONGBOTTOM OVER A CAULDRON IS MORE COMPETENT THAN YOU ARE ON YOUR SMARTEST DAYS!"
"Oh, this is totally wicked," Ron beamed. "I never thought Snape could actually be cool, but I'm seriously considering it right now."
"Miss Dare," Snape fumed almost inaudibly as he whirled around. "I want you to destroy Gilderoy tonight."
"Aye aye, Captain!" she saluted after Lockhart had left, "I won't let you down!"
"You'd better not," he snarled as he passed them angrily and put his nose back to the parchment he had been reading before. "Oh, and Miss Dare – care to enlighten me on the idiot who gave Lockhart his idea for today?"
"I haven't been to the Great Hall yet," Daisy admitted sheepishly. "I was just on my way down there with this lot, sir. Is something wrong?"
"Everything," he snarled and stormed off.
Her day was uneventful, but he was still looking at the parchment as if trying to decide whether to burn it or what to do with it. As it turned out, he was trying to figure out who sent it.
Professor Snape,
You probably don't want to hear me saying this, but your performance at the Dueling Club was superb, and I wish that I were as strong as you are! I'm having a hard time trying to put what I'm feeling into words, but please, sir, with all due respect I will do my best. You see, I feel like a moth drawn to a flame, and I think that flame is, well – you.
Please don't misunderstand, I'm not saying that you're destructive – although I won't deny that you can be when you want to – but I think that you are just like a fire. Destructive when you want to be, but you also hold a hidden beauty for those who are willing to look for it. Insects like myself both fear and are awed by the flames, and, to be honest, I feel things around you that I don't feel when you're not around, and I don't mean just fear, sir.
You see, it's – it's this part that is the hardest for me to put into words, sir. There are these weird, but seemingly good, feelings that I get when you're around. It's kind of like a portkey pulling behind my navel, but softer and it pulls at my chest as well. I sometimes feel like I'm being squeezed ever so slightly like in preparation for apparition, and that I feel like it belongs that way.
Valentine or not, you may count this how you will, sir, but I felt it prudent to get these feelings off of my chest and onto paper.
Anonymous
"What are you looking at, Severus?" Lockhart asked, and Snape jerked the parchment away from him protectively. "Well, no need to be rude! Honestly, everyone in the student body except your Slytherin students hates you, and it's no wonder as to why! This is why, you daft man! Lighten up, why don't you wear that gift I got you?"
"Because, it is colored for Gryffindor, and Gryffindors are not in my House," Snape spat, "And besides that, I wear black because it is easiest to get the stains out of should something get on it."
After all the classes were over, which involved Snape finally figuring out who sent him the Valentine, the students all filed into the Great Hall once more. Daisy hid her secret of the borrowed sixth year Potions Book that she received from Snape from her fellow students, and hid it under her bed. She sent in to order one of her own, so she could open her own and begin writing in the margins everything that was in his textbook. Once back in the Great Hall, she stared in confusion as a large stage was set up in the place where the Staff Table normally was, and the Staff was seated in chairs along the side walls.
"I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine's treat!" Lockhart boomed, "Now, there is one final one that a few of my colleagues and I have been betting on since October!"
There was a ripple of confusion as Snape went up behind Daisy and murmured in her ear. She nodded and followed him up to the stage, and Harry's brow, as well as everyone in Slytherin's, furrowed.
"Now, Miss Dare here was in a four month coma last year, I'm told," Lockhart boomed, "However with a lot of help over the summer, I am also told that she is able to duel as well as any other in her year with Professor Snape's help. Although I'm curious, how does this work out in rival houses?"
"We live on the same street," the two said in unison.
"I had nothing better to do during the summer," Snape said coldly, "Well, aside from brewing Potions, but I can have her helping with that as well. Get to the point."
"Yes, well, Ladies and Gentlemen, Professor Snape and I, as well as most of the staff, have made a bet that they think they will win. You see, they think that Miss Dare can defeat me in a duel, and those who bet that I will lose will receive a thousand – yes, you heard me right – galleons each. Also, I will reward Miss Dare with one hundred galleons for every hex that she performs on me," Lockhart boomed, and there was a mass of angry screaming from the witches in the crowd.
"SHUT UP!" Daisy yelled angrily at them, snarling her best Snape snarl. They quieted, and the Gryffindors raised an eyebrow at her attitude. "Thank you, and we aren't done with our little announcement."
"If I win," Lockhart continued, "All those who would have received a thousand galleons if I had lost will give me a thousand galleons. Now, I'm informed that your Potions Professor is not a gambling man, so for him to trust Miss Dare this much is saying a lot about how well he thinks he can teach Defense!"
"Can I kill him?" Daisy asked, and Snape sneered evilly.
"No, I've been informed he falls upon his own sword," Snape whispered in her ear, "No Unforgivable Curses, and whatever you do, don't use the Sectumsempra unless you want to become a murderer."
"Got it," she nodded, "Anything else you want to add, Lockhart?"
"Ah, yes, as another part of the bet, I will only be using first year spells, and I will rely on my second year students and the staff to keep me honest about this!" Lockhart boomed happily before turning to Daisy and bowing.
Daisy simply jerked her head (reminding everyone else of Snape again) and then brandished her wand like a sword. She glared, and Lockhart smiled happily as he brandished his own wand at her. she snarled before dodging to the right, having received a play-by-play from her older self who had come a week back in time to warn her the night before.
"Get ready to meet Hades," Daisy yelled happily before casting a stinging hex at his privates.
He squirmed and was sent recoiling backwards as it hit him, and she sent another one to cause his underwear to shrink so that it was extremely tight on him. She flicked her wand again at him to perform a cutting curse, and it hit his left arm. She turned his hair green, then his skin a sickly orange, covered him in boils, and sent him dangling by his ankles. She then turned his teeth black, vanished his clothes layer by layer except for his boxer shorts, which she loosened up for the sake of the idiot perverts out there.
"Ah! I let this happen!" Lockhart yelled angrily.
"How many?" Daisy yelled, and Professor McGonagall yelled out a reply that sent Daisy smiling. "Oh, thirteen spells, huh? Well, that's fourteen hundred galleons on top of the thousand I get for winning this little shindig. But, I digress, I want to have a little more fun with this."
"Dare," Snape warned, and she turned and sent him a look that said she would be fine and knew what she was doing. "Ah, I see."
"Yes, you will," she grinned, and began casting spell after spell at him.
By the time Lockhart was thoroughly defeated, she had racked up enough money to halfway pay for Jade the Phoenix. Granted, she had nearly exhausted her magic in the process, but it had been very much worth it.
Okay, I know she's getting a little Mary-Sue, but that should be changing, I'm trying to stop that.
Anyways, review please!