Goddess

The first day of the term started out the same as it had since the school began. The nervous first years were sorted, and the air was filled with happy chatter as everyone proceeded to stuff themselves at the start of year feast. Most of the students seemed to be glad that Professor Lupin was back, despite the knowledge of what he was. He wisely avoided Professor Snape as best he could, who occasionally sent him a look of pure loathing, an action that was quickly copied by the members of Slytherin house. Being the night of a full moon, Snape was forced to give Lupin his Potion, which was gratefully accepted. Amid the chaos of the first day, Snape forgot all about the cursed mirror he had been given, and it was left on his desk in his dungeon office.

The next day, everyone began to settle back into their old routines. Dumbledore took over Lupin's Defence Against Dark Arts classes while he was recovering from the transformation. Potions proceeded as always, with Snape venting out his bad moods on Gryffindors while favouring his own Slytherins. The fifth years were his last class for the day, and also the one he most despised to teach.

He patrolled around the desks as the students prepared the ingredients for a memory potion that they had to mix that day. He nodded approval at Draco Malfoy's concoction, sneered at Harry's (though it was perfectly fine; no sense in letting him get too confident), then noticed that Neville Longbottom had not started to dice his ginseng root, or any of the other ingredients for that matter, and was anxiously glancing at his open book, then nervously looking around the classroom for help. In his distraction, the boy accidentally knocked his wand to the ground and crawled after it. The wand rolled across the floor and came to a stop as it hit a black boot. Which was attached to a black robe covered body, which was attached to... an irritated looking Professor Snape. Neville grabbed his wand and stood up slowly, not meeting his teacher's eyes.

"Interesting," Snape said, a sadistic smile on his lips. "You haven't even started to make your memory potion, and yet you still find time to crawl around the floor of the classroom."

Neville attempted to speak, but seemed to have lost his voice in his fear, and only managed to make a strange gurgling noise as if he was being strangled, his cheeks turning pink and eyes bulging.

The rest of the class watched with interest, waiting to see what would happen. Snape walked to the table that Neville was working at, and looked at the open book.

"Turning a fan into a dove is a simple process..." he read outloud. Closing the book, he read out the title loudly for the whole class to hear: "Transfiguration in Context. Strange, I thought the Potions text book that I assigned was entitled 'Potions for the Modern Age'." His upper lip curled menacingly at the terrified boy "Am I mistaken, Mr Longbottom?"

Still barely able to speak, Neville stuttered, "Professor I- I just..."

"You just thought you could do you Transfiguration homework in my class?" Snape said, his voice gaining a dangerous edge, his eyes narrowing. "You thought that my lesson was not important enough to bother with?"

Neville panicked, "N-no Professor! I just forgot..."

"You forgot! Well then you need this memory potion more than anyone. Ten points from Gryffindor. I'll just take this," Snape said, lifting up the offending book, "you may come and collect it from my office after your last class."

Through that one class, Snape managed to take a total of twenty-five points from Gryffindor. Quite satisfying really, he thought as he went through some paperwork in his office that night. The glint of silver caught his eye once again. Remembering the mysterious mirror he had yet to figure out, he pulled it out from under the papers on his desk.

On closer inspection, he saw that the design on the back was a snake and a lion, but not feuding as many pictures depicted them. He turned it over to see if there was anything strange about his reflection, but was disappointed. Tapping it lightly with his wand, he said, "Show me your secrets."

The mirror did not move, but silvery laughter seemed to come from it. Frowning and tapping it again, he said, "Please show yourself and your secrets, mirror, now!"

The same laughter filled the room, and was followed by an amused female voice.

"Aw, you're trying to impress me with your little mortal magic? That's real cute. Okay, I'll 'show myself', but only because you said please."

And with that, a young woman materialised in his lap with her arms around his neck.

"Hi."

Caught by surprise, all Snape could do was stare at her and gulp in dismay. The beautiful girl laughed again.

"I like you. What's your name?"

"What? Um Severus Snape."

"I'm Jade, nice to meet you," she said, her hazel-green eyes still twinkling with amusement.

Regaining his wits, Snape said, "What- who are you? How did you get here?"

"I'm the genie of the mirror, of course."

*

Meanwhile, in the Gryffindor common room...

"Neville, what is wrong with you?" asked Hermione.

All night, Neville had been fidgeting nervously, getting up as if to go out of the common room, then turning back, only to repeat the whole process again. It was now late, and most of the Gryffindor's had already gone up to bed.

"I haven't done my Tranfiguration homework."

"Well then why don't you just do it?" asked Ron.

"Professor Snape has my book. I don't want to go down there and get it. "

Harry closed his book and joined the conversation. "Well, you either face Snape now, or McGonagall in the morning."

Ron grimaced. "What a choice!"

Hermione glared at Ron, then said to Neville, "Look. You're going to have to face your fear of Professor Snape eventually, so it might as well be now. Harry, you go with him."

"Me? What for?"

"For moral support."

Harry sighed. "Fine. Come on Neville, let's go now before it gets too late."

They walked together down to the dungeon, Harry having to hold Neville's arm to prevent him from escaping back to the safety of their dorm. Finally, they reached the door of Snape's office.

"Okay, now all you have to do is knock on the door, get your book and get out. It's easy, you'll be fine."

Neville nodded resolutely, though he was terrified. He knocked on the door and opened it, his mouth open, ready to face his fears and ask Snape for his book.... only to see Professor Snape sitting at his desk, looking rather dazed, with a beautiful woman sitting on his lap. Both turned their heads to stare back at Neville. Harry peered over his shoulder to see what the problem was, and gaped in shock at the sight before him.

"Um, I guess this is a bad time. I-I'll just come back later..." Neville muttered, making to close the door.

"Oh, don't mind me," the woman said with a smile, jumping up from Snape's lap and moving to stand beside him.

Snape's mind whirled. This is not good. I wish I had some way to explain this...

Done, said a voice in his head.

"I'm Jade Honey," the woman said, walking towards the two boys, her hand held out in greeting. "I'm Professor Snape's fiance."

"Fiance?" the two startled boys repeated, staring at her in amazement.

"Fiance?!" repeated Snape, also staring at her in amazement.

"Well yes," Jade replied, looking over her shoulder back at Snape. "Really, if we are going to be getting married you have to stop being embarrassed of me."

Harry and Neville introduced themselves and shook her hand, both wondering how anyone could be embarrassed of anyone that beautiful.

"Umm, I just came here for my book..." Neville asked, too astounded to be scared anymore.

Snape handed it to him, and he and Harry practically ran out of the office, eager to tell all the newest piece of gossip.

Jade watched them leave. "They seem nice. A little quiet though. And they kept staring at me like there was something wrong with me."

Snape closed the door behind them. "So you can read my thoughts?"

"No, only your wishes," Jade replied.

"Did you have to tell them you were my fiance?!"

Jade shrugged and said, "Try be more specific next time."

Now that she wasn't in such an awkward position, Snape was able to get a good look at the genie. Her features were oriental, but her hair was a light brown, her eyes hazel-green and her skin tanned. He guessed her age to be in her twenties. The clothes that she wore were a strange combination of witch and Muggle fashions, and clung to her petite body. She was possibly the most strikingly beautiful person he had ever seen. Snape pressed his fingers to his head and tried to rationalise what was happening. "So... you're a genie..." Jade nodded, "and I'm your master, and I get three wishes?"

"Not exactly," Jade said as she sat on his desk and crossed her legs, seemingly unaware that she was revealing an amount of tanned flesh in the process. "Here's the deal. You get as many wishes as you like, as long as you possess the mirror. The catch is, I get bored very easily, and when I get bored, I go back into the mirror, which will disappear and take me somewhere else. Your job is to keep me amused until you're done making wishes." Smiling, she said, "Master is only really a title. You get to make wishes, but I call the shots. Do you understand?"

Snape nodded.

"Great. I can tell we're going to get along just fine."

She then looked inquisitively around his office.

"Like what you've done with this place," she said, looking over his collection of anonymous disgusting things. She picked up what appeared to be a jar of some kind of slime and inspected it closely. "This is a really nice, um, thingy you got here."

Snape ran towards her. "Be careful with that! Put it down!"

Jade gave him an evil grin and threw it over her shoulder. Snape barely managed to catch it before it smashed on the floor. Without bothering to see what happened, Jade moved on to the other shelves.

"Ooh, a crossbow!" she exclaimed, picking it up and holding the trigger and aiming it around the room. "What can I shoot?"

"Nothing! Put that back!" Snape yelled, lunging at her and knocking her over. The bolt flew out and hit a photograph of Snape between the eyes, which began to shake its fists angrily at them. Jade got up, dusted herself and walked over to the angry picture.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to shoot you. I'm actually quite good with a crossbow, but somebody knocked me," she said, glaring sideways at the real Snape.

"This wouldn't have happened if you didn't touch my things! Can't you just beha... you're not listening to me are you?" Snape sighed as something appeared to have captivated her interest behind his desk. He walked around it to see an emerald green snake inquisitively running his tongue over Jade's outstretched hand.

"Be careful! That snake is extremely dangerous and vicious..." He was interrupted by her giggling, as the snake had coiled its way up her arm and was tickling her ear with its tongue.

"He seems sweet enough to me."

"You can't just come here and throw around my things and corrupt my snake like this!"

Jade let the snake down on the ground and stood up, hands on her hips. "Look, if you don't like me, you should just say so."

"I DON'T LIKE YOU!"

Jade appeared hurt. "But why? You're an uptight, sadistic sociopath, but I still like you."

Snape gave up. "I'll figure this out in the morning. I'm going to bed." He walked towards the door.

"What about me? Where am I going to sleep?"

Snape turned around and stared down at her. "Can't you just sleep in your mirror or something?"

"No. As soon as I get back into the mirror, it goes to a new master."

"Well, you can just stay here then."

Jade stared at him, then looked around the office with distaste. "Here? By myself? In the dungeon? Are you kidding me?"

"I kid you not."

She threw her hands up in the air. "You know what? I don't have to put up with this. If you aren't going to treat me right, you can just kiss my bootylicious ass goodbye. I'm outta here." She walked back to the mirror which lay on the desk.

"No. Wait." Snape sighed in defeat. "We can go ask Dumbledore if he can give you a room or something." How the hell did I get myself into this mess?

"Great. Let's go."

Looking in the corridor first to make sure no one was watching, Snape led Jade through the school to Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore looked up as they knocked on his door. "Ah, Severus, I was expecting you. And you must be his lovely fiance," he said, smiling at Jade. "Word travels fast."

Snape introduced them. "She came to visit, and she needs a room for... I'm not sure how long she will be staying for."

"Stay as long as you please, my dear," Dumbledore said kindly to Jade. He then frowned. "But I'm afraid we don't have any rooms free right now for you to stay in... But I know what young lovers are like," he said, eyes twinkling. "I'm sure you won't mind staying in Severus' rooms until we can find a place for you."

Snape opened his mouth to disagree, but Dumbledore put up his hand to silence him. "No need to thank me, Severus. I hope you enjoy your stay here, Miss Honey."

And with that, they were ushered out of his office and walking to Snape's rooms.

"Oh stop pouting."

"I'm not pouting! I don't pout!"

"Well, whatever you're doing, it looks a hell of a lot like pouting to me." They walked the rest of the way in silence, Snape trying his best not to appear to pout.

***

"I want to take a bath," announced Jade as they reached Snape's rooms.

"Fine. The bathroom is there."

"Do you have any bubblebath?"

Snape stared at her. "Bubblebath?"

"Yeah, you know, you put it in the bath and it smells nice and makes bubbles..."

"I know what bubblebath is!" Snape said as she stared at him expectantly. He sighed. "Fine. Wait here. And don't touch anything." He threw some dust onto the fire and stepped into it, and returned a few minutes later with several small bottles, each with different coloured liquids inside. He thrust them into her hands. She looked down at the bottles, then back at him, looking slightly confused.

"Bubblebath. You wanted bubblebath, so I made you bubblebath," he said, annoyed that his attempt at being nice to her didn't seem to be working.

Jade opened one of the bottles and sniffed. "Mmm, vanilla. You made these? For me? And why so many?" she said, looking at him differently.

"It's not hard. I am a Potions master. And I wasn't sure what scent you wanted... but this doesn't mean that I like you," he said hurriedly as her face broke into a smile and she looked as if she was about to kiss him.

"Well thankyou." She put them onto a nearby table. "But I'm actually kind of tired now. I think I'll take a bath in the morning." She walked over to his large four poster bed, her clothes magically changing to pyjamas. She sank down into the soft covers.

"Hey, this bed's nice and soft," she said, standing up and bouncing on it, causing it to creak loudly.

"Stop that!" cried Snape, horrified. "Professor McGonagall's room is right above mine. Do you know what she will think if she hears all this noise?"

Jade stopped bouncing and tilted her head to one side thoughtfully. "Oh yeah..." She then gave him another evil grin, jumped high into the air, did a perfect somersault in the air, and landed on the bed with an especially loud creak. Evidently deciding she had made enough noise for the moment, she pulled open the covers and lied down.

"Oh no. That's my bed. That's where I sleep," said Snape through gritted teeth.

"Well we have two options. We either share this bed..."

"What's the other option?"

"This," said Jade, waving her hand and causing an exact duplicate of Snape's bed next to the original. "Goodnight." And with that, she snuggled down beneath the covers and was soon fast asleep.