After her talk with Professor McGonagall, Ari was resolved to pay more attention during class and keep her focus on the present moment. And she found success in some classes, like Herbology, where they got all up close and personal with the plants. In the greenhouses, you were forced to pay attention to what you were doing or else one of the plants would slap you or throw up goo all over your clothes. And in Astronomy, Ari's whole attention was consumed by the different stars and planets in her telescope, and she was more or less able to mark down most of the constellation names and planetary rotations.
It was only the confusing and boring classes that gave her trouble, like History of Magic, where they had to sit and listen to a ghost drone on for hours and hours, so she retreated back into the exciting adventures of her mind. She couldn't help it, really. Nobody could, when they had a teacher like Binns.
Thankfully, her next class of the day was Charms with Professor Flitwick, which was infinitely times more funner than that dumb ghost class. And today was a special lesson. When the bell rang, the tiny Professor Flitwick climbed onto his stack of books and squeaked to everyone that today, they were going to learn a cool charm to make objects fly.
Ari practically jumped out of her skin with excitement at that news, because she had always wanted to learn to fly! She recalled the countless hours she had gazed outside her bedroom window at home, longing to turn into a bird and soar into the mountains and treetops beyond. Of course, she had already flown loads of times in their Flying Class already, but it wasn't really real flying, since they were using a broomstick. She'd always wanted to fly naturally, to be able to just jump up and take off in the great blue sky beyond.
So of course, Ari got quite the disappointment when Professor Flitwick announced that they were going to use the charm to make a feather fly, and not people. Regardless, it was still fun to make something fly in the first place, even if that thing wasn't a person.
And so she diligently listened to the teacher's instructions and practiced the spell for the rest of class. Professor Flitwick told them they were supposed to do a swish and flick with their wands, quite different to the rigid and controlled wand movement Ari had to do in Transfiguration. Before long Ari got the basic flick and swish movement down, and soon she was able to make her feather fly quite easily. When Professor Flitwick stopped by her desk to check her progress, she showed off her flying feather by making it do all sorts of cute little loops in the air, and even made it soar past Flitwick's head and back to her. The whole time he gasped and grinned and followed the path of the feather with utter enchantment in his eyes.
"Well done, Miss Rossi!" Professor Flitwick cheered once she had finished the loop and let the feather land elegantly on her desk. He gave her a hearty round of applause. "How fantastic, I just love the loop motion you added there! Take five points to Gryffindor for the sheer creativity!"
Ari gasped, never having heard such magical sounding words before. "Oh my bananas! Thank you, Professor!"
"You're very welcome!" he beamed. "Keep up the good work!"
As he left to check on the other students' progress, Ari was left sitting there in a state of disoriented shock. Had Professor Flitwick really complimented her spellwork and given her five points to Gryffindor? ... Yes, yes he had! This was a moment for the history books, no doubt! In all of her time here at Hogwarts, Ari had never managed to earn a single point for her house — only lose them. Thanks to Snape's generosity, Gryffindor's hourglass was looking emptier and emptier by the day.
But no matter! Ari figured if she could impress Professor Flitwick with her Wingardium Leviosa charm, she might be able to impress Snape with it, too. She just needed to find the opportunity to show it off to him, and then maybe he'd even be so impressed he'd cave in and give her some points, too.
Ari was in a good mood for the rest of the day thanks to her successful spellwork. Her good spirits only heightened when she went down to dinner that night and noticed that the Great Hall had undergone a glamorous makeover. The thousands of floating candles had been replaced by glowing jack-o-lanterns, while millions of black bats also soared around the enchanted night ceiling. Ari had no idea why so many pumpkins and bats had suddenly appeared, but the kids next to her told her that today was Halloween, and each year for Halloween the school set up a whole bunch of decorations to celebrate. Well, that sure made a whole lot of sense! Ari remembered her own family liked to celebrate Halloween at home by carving pumpkins and making homemade cookies. Fun, but nothing too extravagant.
Still, the decorations at Hogwarts were beautiful. Especially the bats. Ari couldn't stop watching them. Maybe because they reminded her of Snape. Maybe the bats were Snape's long-lost cousins and had come by to say hi to him. The thought made her giggle, and she looked up at Snape's spot at the staff table to see what he thought about the arrival of his bat family. To her non-surprise, he was looking as bored and depressed as ever as he sat there like a statue, not even looking at the Halloween decorations. Maybe he'd seen them so many times he'd gotten bored of them by now.
Ari was so busy laughing at Snape's miserable expression that it took her a moment to realize that the Hall had suddenly gone silent. She looked up expectantly at the staff table, thinking the Headmaster had stood up to make another one of his weird speeches — but to her surprise, the Headmaster was still sitting. She did notice another person standing in front of the staff table though, a person with a big purple turban covering his head. It was Professor Quirrell! What was he doing there?
And then, without warning, Quirrell suddenly toppled forward and landed on the ground with a splat. A shriek split the air, and pure chaos seemed to unfold. There was the collective scraping of chairs as people got up to see what was going on, and some people started shouting and crying. The noise level only died down when the Headmaster swept up regally from his chair and banged his wand a few times. "Prefects!" he rumbled, his eyes flashing commandingly. "Lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately!"
At once, Percy the prefect sprang up from his chair and began ordering all the Gryffindors to follow him. Ari looked around in bewilderment. "What's going on?" Amidst the hubbub, Ari shouted to a boy who had also gotten up beside her. "Why're we going back to our dormitories?"
"I dunno," he replied, looking uneasily. "I guess because Quirrell fainted?"
Ari frowned. So they were all panicking and going through all this just because Quirrell had fainted? Why couldn't they just carry his body to the hospital wing, and continue on with the feast? Did they really have to stop the entire feast just because of one squeamish teacher?
Ari looked back up at the staff table. She noticed the teachers had all gotten up from their chairs and were standing in a circle beside the Headmaster, who was looking very serious and not at all his usual smiley self as he talked to them. Snape stood beside him and looked even more serious still as he listened to the Headmaster. What was going on? Why did they all look so serious? Had Quirrell died or something?
Even more confused now, she turned back around and hurried to follow her housemates out of the Hall and up the stairs, which was terribly congested and filled with people going this way and that. She followed her housemates as best as she could, while still thinking about what could have happened to Quirrell and what they were going to do for the rest of the night.
Before long her housemates stopped, and the prefects announced that they'd reached their common room and they should all head in single-file. Ari looked up, her thoughts broken, and felt majorly confused when she realized that they had stopped in front of a bunch of dusty-looking barrels in an equally dusty-looking room.
"What's going on?" Ari asked a girl beside her. "Why are there barrels here? Where's our common room?"
"Huh?" the girl said, looking at her like she was crazy. "This is the entrance to our common room."
"What?" Ari said, her mind spinning. "Wasn't the Fat Lady our common room entrance? Did she get replaced?"
And then the girl laughed. "The Fat Lady? Oh, it makes sense now! You're a Gryffindor!" The girl pointed to the Gryffindor crest on the front of Ari's robes, and then she pointed to his own crest on her robes — a yellow one. "I'm a Hufflepuff! You're with the wrong house."
Ari gasped, and sure enough, when she looked around she noticed that everyone had a yellow crest on her robes. Oh, no! She had followed the wrong group of people! Talk about mortifying!
"It's okay," the girl said, still smiling. "Do you want me to walk you back to your common room?"
"No, it's okay," Ari replied hurriedly. "I can find it myself."
And then Ari raced off and went back up the stairs, determined to get back to her common room as soon as possible… only to realize that she had no idea where she was. She went around the unfamiliar surroundings, hoping she'd be able to run into her housemates and follow them back, but all the corridors she went down were empty.
Distraught, she walked around the halls some more, turned some corners and went up some more stairs, desperate to find a familiar staircase or landmark, but there was still nothing. Now she was starting to regret turning down that Hufflepuff girl's offer to walk her back. This castle was just too big and confusing for its own good!
Quick footsteps suddenly sounded behind Ari, and she jumped. She whirled around and her insides lurched when she noticed Snape gliding down the hall like a giant Halloween bat. Snape?! What was he doing here?
Not giving herself time to think, she dove underneath a nearby tapestry on the wall and covered herself from view. Crap, had he seen her? Her heart hammered as she listened to the rapid taps of his footsteps as he ran by her hiding spot. She expected him to look behind her tapestry and totally bust her, but nothing happened. Before long, his footsteps grew softer and softer, and then they faded away altogether.
When all was still again, Ari poked her head back out of the tapestry, and looked around. No sign of Snape. The coast was clear. She clutched her pounding heart and let out a sigh. Whew. That'd been a close one.
And then she realized something and felt annoyed with herself. Why had she just hidden from Snape? She could have just asked him to show her back to her common room and solve this confusion once and for all.
Well, in any case, she supposed she could just re-find him and talk to him that way. She hurried off into the direction she'd seen him gone, only to realize she was in the hallway to her Charms class. What was more, Snape was standing at the end of the corridor, his back to her — she was about to call out to him when he opened up a door and disappeared inside.
Ari raced to the end of the corridor and tried to open the door she'd see Snape go through — but to her dismay, it was locked.
She sighed. She was just considering going back and finding her own way back to the common room again — when she suddenly remembered a spell they had learned in Charms that could be used to unlock doors. Ah! Maybe that would do the trick.
Excitedly, Ari took out her wand and pointed it at the door. "Alohomora!" she said.
The lock gave a click. When she tested the door again, to her pleasant surprise, it actually opened! Wow! The charm actually worked! Looked like she was turning into a real magical witch!
She patted herself on the back for her good work and walked through the door — but all of her triumph and accomplishment faded away in the blink of an eye when she realized there was a giant, growling dog in front of her. It was the hugest dog she'd ever seen — no, the hugest creature, the hugest, nastiest, and weirdest creature Ari had ever seen in her whole entire life. The dog had three heads — three entire heads, connected to one giant, muscular body and four thick, powerful legs. Each head had a gaping mouth filled with sets of long, yellow fangs that dripped with buckets of drool, twitching noses that oozed with snot, and two evil black eyes that leered at Ari like she was going to be their next meal.
Which, maybe she was! The dog was so huge that just one of their claws was about the length of Ari's entire body, and thicker than her torso. That one claw could have probably impaled her as easily as a kebab. Now she knew how those bunnies in her yard must've felt before they lost their lives to a hungry wolf!
Suddenly, a snarl burst from the dogs' throats and the creature pounced at her, so fast Ari barely had time to react. She screamed as she tumbled backwards and her entire life went racing past her eyes — only, as she straightened back up, she noticed her body was still intact. The dog had never gotten her.
Shakily, she climbed back to her feet. Upon closer inspection of the creature, she noticed that there were chains wrapped around each of their necks, which had been restraining them — but just barely. The chains were so thin and rickety, they kept creaking and rattling as the dog struggled to break free.
The thought of the dog coming loose and killing her was just the thought Ari needed to unstick her feet and race out of that room, screaming her head off. She slammed the door as fast as she could, her heart racing so hard she thought it was going to burst from her chest. She was so shaken she didn't know what to do next. Go back to her common room? Hide? But what should she do about the dog? What if it was still determined to kill her, determined to burst out of the door and hunt her down to finish her off once and for all?
And then she suddenly remembered something, and her heart stopped. Snape! He had gone into the room, too! But she hadn't seen him inside… What had happened to him? Had he gotten eaten by the dog? She couldn't remember seeing him when she had been in that room, no traces of blood or guts or anything… So then where could he have gone?
Awful scenarios played out in her mind, each more terrifying and graphic than the last. Soon she didn't even know what to think anymore, but she knew that with each second she was here, pacing and panicking, another second Snape must have been to certain death, if he wasn't dead already. She was more terrified than she had ever been in her life, but she knew she needed to go back and face the dogs again if she wanted any chance of finding Snape alive!
Her whole body was shaking from her head to foot as she opened the door again. The dog was still standing and growling in the middle of the room, and the moment she came in again, all three sets of eyes flitted to her and the brute began to writhe in its chains again. She could almost hear what it was thinking. Back so soon? Perfect! Time to eat!
Ari looked away, determined not to be scared by them this time. "Snape?" she called out, her voice shaking so badly she could barely speak. There was no response, aside from the dogs' growls. She craned her neck and looked around wildly, trying to find any trace of the moody Potions professor. "Pr-Professor Snape? Are you here?"
Suddenly the dogs let out another series of deep, deranged barks that nearly burst her eardrums. The creature raised a paw and made a fierce swiping motion right at her, and she screamed and threw herself backwards. The dogs' mammoth-tusk claws had just been inches from ripping her face off, and she saw her life flashing past her eyes a second time that day. Oh crap! She was so done for!
As the dog glared at her and jerked around in its chains some more, a wooden panel in the floor suddenly burst open. Ari screamed again as a black, lanky figure popped out of the hole where the panel had once been, and — she could hardly believe her eyes — it was Snape!
"Professor!" Ari screamed as Snape heaved the rest of his body out of the hole. He swung his head towards her and he froze. "You're here!"
His eyes suddenly bugged out as madly as those dogs' "You!" he barked. "What the hell are you doing here?! Get out!"
"But—"
"OUT!" he screamed. He reached her side and shoved her toward the door.
She tumbled back with a scream. As she scrambled to get back up, she suddenly noticed that Snape was lugging another person in his other arm — she took in the person's purple turban and white, unconscious face, and gasped — it was Quirrell! What in the world? What was he doing here?
Behind Snape, the dog let out a low, ferocious growl that made the whole ground vibrate like thunder. One of the dog's heads tried to nab Snape with its teeth, but he quickly dodged. Another head lunged at him again, but he blasted out a jet of light with his wand. The light hit the dog right in the muzzle, and the head recoiled with a yelp.
"RUN!" Snape shouted. He flung Quirrell towards the door before making a run for it himself — when another head swooped in and grabbed Snape's leg right between its sharp teeth. There was a terrible ripping sound, and Ari shrieked again, thinking it was all over now.
Snape let out a stream of curses as he raised his wand and blasted the head holding onto his leg. There was a huge bang and pieces of fur exploded everywhere. At once, the dog released its grip and howled in pain and fury.
"GO GO GO!" Snape screeched as the third uninjured head swooped to grab and eat them both in retaliation. As Snape raced forward and scooped Quirrell back up, Ari finally unstuck from the spot and dashed out the door, Snape at her heels.
"Professor!" Ari gasped once they were back outside. Snape banged the door shut with his wand and she reached her arms out to help support Quirrell, whose feet were now dragging along the ground. Snape batted her hands away and unceremoniously threw the Defense professor to the ground. He laid there like a dead man, limp and unmoving, and Ari's heart sank. "Quirrell — is he— is he okay?"
"He's fine," Snape replied curtly. "Just fainted."
"But—" Ari panted, so worked up by what had happened she could barely speak. "What were — you guys even doing in there?"
Snape's eyes flashed. Then he quickly narrowed them. "The fool wandered down there by accident," he said. "I had to go in to retrieve him."
"Oh." Ari started to say something else, when she looked down and suddenly noticed that the bottom half of Snape's robes were totally torn up, revealing his bare, bloody leg. The dog had totally mangled it, and she could see all the teeth marks and muscles and everything. She screamed. "AHHHHH! Professor! Your leg!"
"It's fine!" Snape snarled, waving his wand and quickly mending his ripped robes. "You on the other hand — not so much!" He swung his wand to Ari and she flinched, thinking for sure that he was going to blast her to pieces like he'd done with that dog. His eyes were blazing with fury and the vein in his forehead was beating out an epic rhythm. For a moment he seemed too furious to speak. "What the hell do you think you're doing, sneaking around in the forbidden corridor like that? And why did you not run when I told you to? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"No, I wasn't!" she burst out. "I didn't even know there was that dog behind that door, actually! The whole reason I went in is 'cause I was just following you!"
"You what?!" If anything, Snape just looked even angrier. "You were following me?"
"Well, yeah!" she said defensively. "I got lost when I was heading back to my common room, and I was just walking around, trying to find my way back — when I bumped into you. And I saw you go through that door, so uh — I got curious and followed you inside."
He lowered his wand and glared into her eyes so ferociously she could feel her brain melting. "But the first time I went in, I got scared by that dog thing, so I left right away," she explained hastily, "b-but then I realized that you never came back out, and I never saw you inside the room, either. So I went back inside to find you. To make sure the dog hadn't eaten you, or you hadn't died or something. So, yeah. I wasn't trying to kill myself or do anything bad. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, that's all."
She looked hopefully at Snape, hoping her heroic explanation would make herself look a teeny bit better, but he just continued to glower at her, looking as peeved as ever. "Are you an idiot?" he snapped. "Do you think that I can't look after myself? That I'm so useless that I have to rely on a blundering eleven-year-old to swoop in and save me?" Before she could respond, he continued, "well, just for your information, imbecile, I don't need help, much less from someone like you. With your skills, even if I had been severely incapacitated, there's no chance you could have gotten past the Cerberus without being shredded into pieces."
"But—" she began.
"Do not interrupt me," he growled, glaring daggers at her. "Stop being dense and use your brain. Think about what happened just then. When you suddenly showed up, you took my attention from the dog, which gave it the opportunity to attack me and wound my leg. Think about the irony of the situation, won't you? You wanted to 'help' me, but in the end you only caused more trouble and left me with an injury that will likely cripple me for the next few days."
Guilt washed over her. "But I didn't—"
"Do not interrupt me!" he snarled again, and she really clamped her mouth shut. "Now imagine if the roles had been reversed, and the dog had attacked you instead. If it had left you mortally wounded, and I'd have to carry that responsibility for the rest of my days. Can you imagine it? To have your life ended in such a premature and grisly way, all because you couldn't follow the rules and mind your own business for once in your life?"
Ari shook her head, her throat tight. "No, sir."
"That's what I thought," he spat, his eyes bugging out in a rather deranged way. "So think about that next time when you want to play the role of the 'hero.' When you want to so nobly and idiotically run straight into the face of danger and nearly get yourself killed. You'll destroy not only your life, but other people's as well — and for what? Some fifteen minutes of fame?"
"But I wasn't trying to do anything bad," she blurted, her insides burning. "And I wasn't trying to risk my life or play the hero or anything. I was just trying to help you."
"But you didn't help me," he said in a slow, contemptuous voice. "You did the opposite of helping me. Get it through your thick skull already. By trying to 'help' me, you're only being a burden. You have no skills, no awareness, no sense of self-preservation; the only strategy you have is to stand there and scream like a sitting duck — and if it weren't for me dragging you out that door at the last moment, you would have been undoubtedly turned into dog food by now. You'd be dead, six feet under, and you wouldn't even be able to regret what you did."
Snape's voice was harsh, unforgiving; lashing down on her over and over like a giant whip. The hurt and stress piled up on her, while dim, frantic thoughts buzzed through her mind. She didn't understand. Why was he so mad? Why was he yelling at her? This wasn't supposed to happen… Snape was supposed to congratulate her, or ask if she was okay, or hug her and thank her for rescuing him…
Ari's eyes suddenly grew hot and heavy, and horror dawned on her as she realized what was happening. Her insides burned as she quickly brushed away her tears with her sleeve. She couldn't speak, couldn't look at Snape, not after he'd yelled at her and now she was crying. She didn't want to be here anymore. She just wanted to go back home to her family, or to be swallowed up by the ground and never come back up.
Suddenly there was a small, piteous groan from the floor beside her. Ari turned her head and saw Quirrell was starting to wake up, whining and flailing his limbs weakly. A moment later, he opened his bleary eyes, but they instantly became wide and alert when he noticed Ari, and then his eyes practically popped out of his head when he spotted Snape.
Quirrell scrambled to his feet and hastily fixed his turban, which had gone askew on his head. "S-S-Severus!" Quirrell stammered, his eyes haunted and his face ghostly white. "Y-y-you—"
His words were cut off by a huge, thunderous rumble. Quirrell let out a yelp and clutched onto his turban as the entire floor shook beneath them like an earthquake.
"The troll," Snape suddenly growled, and Quirrell's eyes widened in pure horror. Ari snuck a glance at Snape. He was glaring at Quirrell with total murder in his eyes, the same look he'd given her just a few seconds ago. Her stomach churned.
Without warning, Snape suddenly grabbed Ari's wrist, then Quirrell's, and dragged them all the way down the Charms corridor and back down the stairs. Quirrell kept moaning and whimpering the whole time, and Ari was feeling pretty bleak herself. She had no idea where Snape was dragging them to, or why he had randomly mentioned a troll, but she was too tired and miserable to question him.
As they were going down a hall, they suddenly bumped into Professor McGonagall, who had been running in the opposite direction. "Severus!" she breathed, her frantic eyes going to Snape. Her face looked white and tense, and then she noticed Ari, and her eyes widened even more. "Miss Rossi! You're here too! What are you…? Are you all right?"
Ari ducked her head, realizing just how red and puffy her eyes must've looked. "She was wandering out of bounds," Snape explained shortly. He said nothing about how he'd yelled at her, or insulted her and gave her death threats. Her insides burned with furious mortification.
Before Ari could bring this up though, there was a loud thud and the foundation shook with another strong quake that nearly sent her tumbling off her feet. Snape grabbed her arm. "The troll," he said again, looking at McGonagall.
The Transfiguration professor drew her wand. "Let's go," she said, her face set. With that, they ran down the hall and towards the girls' bathroom, where the rumbling was coming from.