Chapter 12

Draco's Distraction

March 9, 1997

Severus Snape scowled across the great hall as he smeared marmalade on his toast. It was just an average Saturday morning; he would finish his breakfast and then go down to his office where he had a stack of outstanding ungraded essays just waiting for him.

He ate his breakfast in silence, for he was not in the mood to make meaningless small talk with his colleagues. He scanned the hall, his eyes falling on various students. His gaze caught Alex Snape sitting between Granger and Longbottom. She was chewing her breakfast happily and making cheerful conversation with her peers.

Severus watched her, thinking that this girl had an annoyingly wide range of mood swings, even more so than other teenage girls. He felt that with her it was either one extreme or the other. Sometimes she would be happy for no reason at all and other times she would be crying. Severus wished that the girl would just pick one emotion and stick with it.

Although, he had to admit that lately she had become increasingly less irritating. Actually, having to teach her had become far more tolerable. This was probably because Alex had decided to stop infuriating him on purpose.

She had stopped raising her hand in his class because she knew he disliked it, but instead just sat there quietly and let Hermione answer all the questions. She had also stopped seeking him between class and she never again approached him at the staff dining table. She did still, however, greet him every time they passed in the halls and before every class began. When she did this Severus would actually present her with a fleeting nod of recognition, which he felt was only a small price to pay to keep the girl from bursting into tears every time he ignored her.

Severus loathed it when the girl cried. He hated tears in general because they were a sign of weakness, but it was worse somehow when Alex cried, although he did not know why.

Luckily for Severus, it had been a very long time since he had to witness the girl's dreadful crying. He had suspicions that it had to do with the item he had conferred to her on Christmas. He had feared that this offering would have caused more trouble than good, but he was pleased in seeing that he had successfully gotten the girl off his back, for the most part.

He watched as Alex suddenly got up from her seat and headed up the Great Hall. Severus grimaced as the girl came towards him. Perhaps he was wrong in thinking that she had finally started to leave him alone. She continued to get closer; she was walking fast and her black hair billowed behind her. Severus tried to become more interested in his toast so that maybe the girl would go away, but she continued to come. She was almost to him when at the last possible moment she changed directions and sat confidently at the end of the Slytherin table next to Draco Malfoy.

Draco had been sitting alone aimlessly moving his scrambled eggs around with is fork as if not sure of what to do next. He looked up as Alex sat beside him. His initial face upon her unexpected appearance was of shock and confusion, but it quickly fell into its usual scowl. Despite this Alex just smiled brightly at him, completely unscathed.

Severus watched the two curiously and he was not the only one; practically the whole hall had turned their attention towards them. Severus wondered when the last time was that a Gryffindor came and sat at the Slytherin table and then his stomach lurched as he remembered.

"Hi," Severus heard the girl say in a voice that was considerably higher than usual.

"Hello," Draco said suspiciously, his face still contorted into a grimace. He looked around and noticed that they had an audience and his frown deepened. Draco leaned back on the bench and crossed his arms as if to intimidate. "Fall over anything lately?" Draco asked Alex cruelly. Severus knew that Draco was referring to fact that in the short time the girl had been here she had probably taken more spills than everyone at Hogwarts put together.

Severus observed that Alex was not fazed by this insult to her general lack of balance. On the contrary she seemed to find it rather amusing and laughed. Then she crossed her arms too and asked, "Seen any monkeys lately?"

Draco turned a little red in the face and it was clear that he knew that he could not bully Alex so easily. "What do you want?" Draco asked.

Alex smiled at him sweetly. "I was just wondering if you would like some help on your transfiguration homework," she said.

"What? No, I don't need help. What gave you that impression?" Draco demanded.

"Well, I just thought, seeing that you have not been doing your homework, that you didn't understand it." Alex said smugly. "I also thought that you would be getting rather sick of spending your weekends in detention because of it.

Draco did not say anything.

"I could help you get your homework done quickly and you wouldn't have any detentions, so you would have more time for other things."

Then she gave him a look that suggested that she had an idea of what the other things ought to be. Though Draco didn't seem to notice because he had his own ideas about how he would spend his free time.

"If you really want to help me that badly, Fine," Draco told her.

"Great," said Alex happily, "Met me in the library in one hour." She did not wait for him to confirm the time, but got up and walked away. As she did Draco's eyes were glued to her backside.

Severus got up from his place, not being able to take it any longer. Why was it that teenagers could not keep their hormones under control for five minutes?

Oh my god, I thought as sat in front of a mirror. I can't believe I actually did that.

I examined myself seeing only pale, hallow cheeks and flat, boring black hair; my blue eyes were my only redeeming feature. An hour was not enough to fix me. I started applying blush, although, I didn't think it made much of a difference. I thought of my mother and her red lipstick; I was not nearly bold enough to attempt it, so I put on clear lip gloss.

After I had poked myself in the eyes about fifty times I had actually managed to put on mascara. It was weird to see myself in make-up, but after the initial shook wore off I thought that the effect was quite nice. I didn't even bother doing anything with my hair because I knew it would just go back to being limp within five minutes no matter what I did to it.

I stood to check out my body. At the age of 12 my sister Sidney had already inherited our mom's beautiful hourglass-figure; as for me on the other hand, well I was not so lucky. It was not until just recently that I had actually grown some boobs. But even now, with a need for a bra, my body was still pretty shapeless.

I unbuttoned the first four buttons of my blouse, but then felt a little uncomfortable so I decided to just leave three buttons undone. I hoped that the result would come across as being sexy and not as though I was too lazy to button my shirt properly.

Draco needs to focus on the task at hand, Severus thought as he took quick strides through the halls. He must not be distracted. And that girl, what does she think she is trying to do? She is putting herself in danger, that's what she is doing. If Draco knew what was best for both of them he would stay away from her.

Severus felt extremely angry at the fact that Alex was meeting Draco in the library. He figured it was because he was frustrated with Draco's stupidity in letting himself lose focus, but then again he had a nagging suspicion that there was more.

"Hi Professor Snape," said a voice behind him. Severus glanced over his shoulder to see that the girl was following him. She cause up to him. As soon as he got a better look at her, he knew exactly why he was so mad.

The girl began to blabber on about class and homework, but Severus was not listening. He was imagining himself taking every last point away from Gryffindor. He was imagining himself throwing a cloak over Alex and telling her to go up stair and wash her face. Then he wanted to find Draco Malfoy and tell him to stay away from her and start focusing on what needed to be done.

"Professor," Alex said with confusion.

"What?" He snapped.

"Nothing, but I am going into the library now, bye," she said unsurely.

"Are you going to check out a book?" Severus asked casually.

Alex looked surprised that Severus was taking an interest in what she was doing. "Yes," she said. "I need to check out a book."

Severus's snarled. Why is she lying?

Alex walked into the library and two minutes later Draco followed.

Draco entered the library and I smiled at him in welcome. He stared at my face for a long time before his eyes fleetingly caught sight of my cleavage. Though he did not say anything about the differences in my appearance, when he sat down next to me and began taking out things from his bag he was smirking to himself.

I pulled a piece of parchment and a quill towards me and wrote the prompt of McGonagall's most recent essay on the top of the page in capital letters: HOW DOES HUMAN TRANSFIGURATION DIFFER FROM ANIMAL TRANSFIGURING?

"So, Draco," I said, "How does human transfiguration differ from animal transfiguring?"

He looked at me blankly.

"Let's brainstorm," I suggested. I dipped my quill in ink ready to scribble down his ideas.

"I don't know," he said bitterly.

"Haven't you been listening to Professor McGonagall?" I asked.

"No," he said sharply. "I have had a lot on my mind."

I figured he was talking about his father being in prison. I felt that that was a fair cause for not paying attention in class.

I put down my quill. "I understand, you know."

Draco looked me directly in the eyes. "I really don't think that you do," he said. He didn't sound angry, so I felt safe to continue talking about it.

"I just meant that I think about my family constantly and the only reason I can concentrate in class is because it is a good distraction and it takes away the pain for a little while," I said quietly.

Draco didn't say anything.

"I bet you must miss your father horribly," I said.

Draco's face darkened. "Yeah, I do," he said in a nearly inaudible whisper.

I started to jot down my ideas on why human transfiguration was different from animal transfiguring for Draco. Then he said, "I am surprised that you are even talking to me."

I stopped writing and looked up at him. "Why wouldn't I talk to you; what have you done?" I asked with bewilderment.

He looked away and was quiet for a long moment before he glanced back at me again and said, "What I meant was, that you family was murdered by Deatheater and my father is one." He watched my face carefully to see what my reaction was to his comment.

It took me a long time to think of something to say, because I didn't want to be insensitive to Draco's situation and insult his father, even though I wanted to.

"You're not your father," I said seriously. "You're not a Deatheater, so there is no reason for me to dislike you." At my words Draco looked away from me. His hand was resting on the table and I touched it tenderly. He gazed at my hand on top of his, but he didn't move it away. "Hey," I said softly, "we are not responsible for the actions of our relatives." I removed my hand, afraid that I was making him uncomfortable. He followed my hand with his eyes as I pulled it away from him. "In turn," I said smiling, "I hope that you won't hold me accountable for Professor Snape."

His lips twisted into a slight smirk, "Don't worry I won't."

I laughed. "Well I think I should have been the one to be surprised that you are talking to me."

"Why," he asked dryly. Images of the monkey seemed to have entered his mind.

"Well," I said, "you are a Slytherin and I am Gryffindor. Aren't you supposed to hate me?"

"Oh right," he said his voice thick with irony. "But since you are doing my homework for me I suppose I will have to forgive you for being a Gryffindor. I mean I guess it is not really your fault that you got put in a stupid house."

"Thanks for understanding," I said sarcastically. "And who said that I was going to do your homework for you?"

"You did," he told me slyly, "when you started doing it." He gestured to the parchment in front of me, where I had made an outline of ideas for his paper.

"Yeah, you wish," I said. "I told you I would help, not write your paper for you. And besides, how will you learn if you don't do the work yourself?"

He rolled his eyes, but pulled a clean sheet of parchment towards him and began scribbling down an introduction. Within an hour I had helped him write a pretty decent essay and when he turned it in to Professor McGonagall he received and 'O' for outstanding.

Dear Readers,

I am a bit worried about the characterization in this chapter. Do you like Snape's character or did I over do it? Also in this chapter we see a very different side of Draco Malfoy, so different in fact that J.K. Rowling never wrote about it, therefore I thought it was open for interpretation. Please tell me what you think of the story so far. I want to hear your ideas and opinions. Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings, I love constructive criticism. Please review.

**Thora Jane**

P.S.

Thank you so much for reading this far.