This chapter is my first being fully revolved around dialogue. I hope it isn't too confusing. Thank you for reading this far :)
After the twins had finished performing their counter-curses on each other, Snape arrived back into his room, looking grim as ever. He strode over to the cauldrons, peered into them, and looked disgusted when he saw them absolutely spotless. "Why, might I ask, are the scrubbing brushes absolutely clean?"
"We cleaned them." George piped up, he looked uneasy, considering he hadn't thought of the argument.
"And why did you clean them, Mr Weasley?"
"You specifically said, not to have anything 'out of place, damaged, dirtied, emplaced, jinxed, or charmed', we considered a brush covered in potion guck to be dirtied. Wouldn't you agree?" Fred added, then looked at George, and winked. Snape looked overly annoyed that the boys' seemed to actually use their initiative. Or was it Hannah? Of course it was Hannah.
"In that case, Mr Weasley, you should be very thankful that you had a Slytherin's company to convince you thick skulls to use your initiative. You may go." Snape held out his hand with their wands in it, the twins grabbed their wands and scattered out of the door as quick as possible. "Hannah, stay behind."
Snape looked dangerously over Hannah, before holding Hannah's wand horizontally out in front of himself. "I am no expert, Miss Byron, but this wood is unmistakeable. This wand appears to contain the wood, Silver Lime, am I correct?" Hannah nodded in response. "Do you have any idea of the characteristics of a Silver Lime wand, Miss Byron?"
"No." She answered. She didn't know, nor did she necessarily care. Her wand had very little importance to her.
"Have you ever heard of the skills, Legilimency?" Snape asked, with a bored expression and tone.
"No." Hannah began to get frustrated with Snape's performance of 21 questions. It'd be a lot easier on the both of them if he had just explained everything in one paragraph.
"Legilimency is the act of penetrating one's mind, navigating through the many layers of it, resulting in either seeing their memories, or hearing their thoughts, dependent on the layer of the mind you navigate." Snape lectured, in an equally bored tone. He glared at Hannah, to see she had no intention of responding, so he decided to cut to the point, "Silver Lime, Miss Byron, only chooses witches or wizards which excel in the skill of Legilimency." Snape stopped, to rethink his intentions of this conversation. He was curious, how this girl knew Legilimency to such an extent. To use Legilimency in general was a hard skill to learn, but to use Legilimency, non-verbally, and wandlessly, was next to impossible. Snape himself, personally couldn't perform the spell, Legilimens, without using his wand, although he was capable of performing it non-verbally. Snape needed to know every inch of detail about why Hannah was such a skilled Legilimens, but didn't know how to approach it. It wasn't often that his curiosity would override his preference to be introverted. If he could help it, he would only talk if he were teaching or scolding someone. But then again, who was Hannah going to relay the information about him being overly curious and talkative to? She was just as introverted as he was. He hadn't heard her ever say more than 10 words in a conversation. Why was she so introverted? Was she just genuinely shy? Why hadn't she even come to school until 7th year? His head reeled with questions, as Hannah just stood there, modestly avoiding penetrating his mind. He asked me not to, so I won't, she thought.
"It has come to my attention, Miss Byron, that you are a highly skilled Legilimens. Why you are, is above me." Snape Drawled. He couldn't let his curiosity dilute his usual, cold aura. Hannah thought over the way he was talking to her. She would've looked out of the window to see if the sky had fallen, if the classroom even had windows. He wasn't scolding her, nor was he necessarily teaching her. He was merely curious. Hannah hated when people had curiosity about her, she hated people being interested in her at all. If she had it her way, she would live out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but animals. She watched Snape's face as he mulled over his thoughts. He was curious about why Hannah was good at Legilimency. If Hannah was honest with herself, she didn't actually know she was casting a spell when she read peoples' minds. She had just grown accustomed to it over the years. She had never liked talking, and always tried focusing on peoples' expressions instead, until she realized that eventually, she could actually divulge into their thoughts, and could even make her own voice heard in them if she wanted. This, perhaps, is why she hated people so much. She knew exactly what they were thinking, and, although they never vocalized their thoughts half of the time, it told her who those people really were. She had never really come across a genuine person, who never really had thoughts against her. She had never come across someone who wasn't overanalysing her, to the extent of false interpretation. Everyone seemed to be under the impression that Hannah was an attention seeking, sinister, troublesome 13 year old. Just because she avoided talking, didn't mean she actually wanted people to wedge the words out of her mouth. She just wanted to be left alone, she didn't want to have to vocalize things which were absolutely unnecessary to vocalize in the first place. Just because she didn't talk, didn't mean she was secretly planning the world's downfall inside her head.
"I am merely interested in how you have come to be such a skilled Legilimens. I have seen no significant spell casting, no interest in learning, and no magical talent, whatsoever. The fact that you should enter this school, with the ability to divulge into other peoples' minds, is nothing more or less than suspicious. It is a danger to the people in our school, and requires further investigation. We cannot allow a random, new 7th year, with no evident background, come marching into the school with the ability to control the minds of our vulnerable students." Snape scolded her, he had overthought this lecture, he couldn't let this girl believe he was curious. He couldn't portray himself as anything but a nasty introvert. He didn't want to be seen as anything else. It'd ruin him, to have anyone, especially someone with the ability to penetrate his mind, see him as someone who has another layer below his cold, nasty, unemotional exterior. He hoped though, that she would explain herself, after this threat which could potentially result in her fearing the possibility of being expelled. He didn't really have any concerns for the students of the school, but it was a very plausible argument to be brought up by anyone who didn't have intelligence near to his.
Hannah stood there, unemotional still. She knew he couldn't care less about the students of the school, and she couldn't care less if she was expelled from the school. In fact she relished the possibility. Although she thought he an idiot, if he expected her to just reveal her entire past to him then and there. She loathed his curiosity. He is nothing short of a Dumbledore. Pure nosy. She never intended on revealing what had happened in her past to anyone. If someone as supposedly intellectual as Snape, can't distinguish any possible reasons why she had the ability to read minds, then nobody would. Out of all of the professors, he was definitely the most relatable to her, he was the only other teacher who had the ability to completely conceal his emotions. She knew he'd be able to relate to having a past hidden deep within himself, she knew that there was something that drove him to be introverted and cold. But she didn't care what. It was irrelevant from her. At least she had the ability to control her curiosity.
Hannah walked up to Snape and held out her hand, implying that she wanted her wand handed back to her. "Miss Byron, denying your teachers' information can and will result in detention or expulsion." Snape averred. He knew he wouldn't even go as far as putting her on detention for not revealing to him some possibly sensitive information, he knew if he were in her position, and was being juice for information on his past, he would stop at no length to assure that they would pay for their inquisitiveness.
Hannah turned on her heels and walked out of the room, without saying another word. He had the opportunity to fill in his mistakes of being over-curious, and he ruined it trying to boast his authority. She didn't need her wand anyway. She hadn't even used it since she acquired it.
Snape stood there, shocked. She had looked him straight in the eye, and defied him. She willingly challenged him, challenged his authority, challenged him, knowing that he wouldn't go through with his threats. Or did she know? Did she want to be expelled? Or perhaps the information he was trying to divulge in, was so sensitive, that she was willing to risk expulsion to avoid relaying it. Snape stood there, bewildered. He spent the rest of the night mulling over theories through his head, trying to figure out how such a gutless looking girl, turned out to be a somewhat talented, fearless one.
Thank you for reading this chapter! :) Please please please leave a review, let me know how my writing technique is, point out any mistakes, let me know whether it is too confusing. I'll answer all questions I promise :)