Armilla

Chapter Five

All through the weekend I could not get my detention with Snape out of my mind. The same scene kept replaying over and over in my head and I felt as if I was going completely mad.

Terry and Lisa kept asking me if I was alright. I had told them about Snape healing my finger and why he had done it, but I had left out the part where he had touched my locket. I wasn't comfortable with what had happened and I didn't want to tell Terry and Lisa about the brief connection I had held with Severus Snape - it was just too weird.

The weekend slipped away and before I knew it we were making our way once more down to the dungeons for a nice dose of Snape in double Potions. Thank God we never had Potions with the Slytherins.

The door was open so we all went in and took our places (as far back as we could get). Shortly afterwards Snape swept in, his black robes billowing behind him as always. He turned around dramatically (well that was the only word for it really) and stared around the room menacingly.

"I was utterly appalled by the standard of last week's essays," he said. "By fifth year I would have expected that most of you would have mastered the English language and basic rules of grammar. Evidently not."

He sneered at a group of Hufflepuffs who cowered in their seats. "Pushing simple language skills aside however," he went on, "your abilities at naming the properties of ingredients relevant to the essay were dismal. I don't want to have to teach such a lot of dunderheads again next year, so I am determined that every last one of you will pass your OWLs. Next lesson I will give you a quiz, where you will pass and pass well, or you will suffer the consequences by coming to a series of tutorials until your marks pick up. Do I make myself clear?" A mutter of general consent could be heard around the room. A few of the Hufflepuffs were literally shaking.

Snape proceeded to hand out the essays and I was glad to see that I had passed, though not as well as I would have liked. He caught my eye as he put my essay on my desk, but diverted his gaze again so quickly that I was left pondering whether he had looked at me at all.

By the end of the lesson I was sure he had looked at me. In fact it seemed to me that he had watched me the entire lesson. Every time I had looked up, he had quickly looked away and pretended to mark homework or else began to belittle a helpless Hufflepuff.

Determined as I was not to let this unwanted attention bother me, I couldn't help the fact that my hands had shook a little whenever he had been close, watching me. At one point I had added more rabbit brains than I had meant to (not because I was being careless, but because he had snuck up right behind me) and he had pounced right away.

"Miss Kemp, it clearly states in your book and on the board that only a quarter of a cup of rabbit brains are needed. Do you require additional lessons in fractions?" he sneered.

"No, sir," I muttered angrily.

"Then show me you are capable of brewing a potion correctly and I won't have to make an example of you by putting you down as the first member in my remedial potions group. Wouldn't that look bad for a Ravenclaw?" he said with a twisted smile.

What the hell did he have against Ravenclaws? Why all of a sudden must I be his target? I moved my left arm on the desk so my bracelet was clearly visible to him. He glanced at it and immediately moved away without another word. Ha! A new weapon! Well at least I had found one useful function for it.

* * *

"Snape certainly seems to have it in for you lately, Mill," said Terry as we were climbing the stairs after Potions. "You seem to have become the Ravenclaw Neville Longbottom - er, but you're smarter of course," he added hastily after catching my glare.

"Professor Snape did seem to be watching you quite a bit today," said Lisa thoughtfully. She looked at me waiting for a response. I said nothing.

Terry shrugged. "I wonder why he watches you so closely, and then waits for you to stuff up so he can tell you off." Both of them were looking at me now. I tried to remain indifferent to their pointed gazes.

"I wonder if it will rain tonight," I said stupidly, looking at the sky. I mentally berated myself for saying something so ridiculous.

"Armilla," said Terry. "What's going on? Don't think we didn't notice how quiet you were all weekend. And we certainly did notice the way Snape was watching you today. What happened in your detention?"

Alright, so there was no way I was getting out of this after all. Damn it. I took a deep breath and told them exactly what had happened after Snape had touched my locket, how we had shared that weird warm feeling and Snape's reaction to the whole thing.

Terry was staring at me like a fish; his mouth kept opening and closing. Lisa was staring at me wide-eyed, clearly at a loss for words. Finally Terry spoke.

"Well clearly Snape isn't trying to forget about it. He may be refusing to acknowledge it to you, but that must be what he was thinking about today. There's not much you can do about it though."

"She should see Professor Dumbledore," said Lisa immediately. "He wouldn't betray your confidence any more than he would betray Snape's. He might give you advice."

"I could..." I said slowly. "But I don't want him to think that I'm telling some sort of weird tale, especially if Snape hasn't mentioned it to him."

"Well, wait and see,' Lisa replied. "It's Snape's problem if he hasn't mentioned it. You never know, Snape might say something to you about it one day."

"I somehow doubt that."

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters or storyline created by the wonderful J.K. Rowling. Armilla Kemp is my own original character.