Teachers Pet

chapter 8: Detention

Before I knew it was 7:50 and I needed to hurry to Snape's classroom, I excused myself from the table before everyone else began to head to their dormitories. I practically sprinted down the hallways to the dungeons so I could make it on time. I got to his door at 7:57 and took a deep breath. I waited til my breath caught up to itself and gently knocked twice on the door. After about 30 seconds of silence I went to knock again but heard Snape mutter a "Come in" and slowly opened the door and stepped in closing it behind me. I noticed I was all alone and that made me even more afraid. "Hi professor im here for my detention.'' I said fiddling with my fingers as I stood awkwardly in the room. "Obviously" he said as he kept looking down at the papers he was grading.

After about a minute or two of standing there I grew tired of his silence "Are you gonna make me do something?" I said with more attitude in my voice than I intended. "Watch it Ms. L/n" he said looking up and making eye contact with me. His dark cold eyes not moving from mine. "Sorry" I whispered. "Organize the vials in my storage closet in alphabetical order and then clean those cauldrons from your class that are in the sink." he muttered and then returned back to his papers. Ughhh you gotta be kidding me this could take forever, unless I use magic, I thought smirking to myself and heading to the storage closet. "And no magic Ms. L/n." he added. Did he read my mind? What the heck? I rolled my eyes and began organizing his thousands of vials. Once I had finished I looked at my watch. 8:45, not bad, now onto the nasty cauldrons.

I walked out of the closet and over to the sink, I stopped at my table and took off my robes, I had my normal uniform on, and rolled up the sleeves of my white button up. I Turned on the water and began scrubbing away. This seemed to take forever. And when I finally got done at least three of my nails were broken,my back was incredibly sore and I had a stain on my shirt, I doubt I'll get that out. I walked over to his desk "I'm done" I muttered as I examined him grading the papers. You know he wasn't bad to look at. Kids here describe him way worse than he is, he isn't greasy. He does kinda look like a bat though, but that's just all the black he wears, which really suits him. Wait what was I saying? I blinked away the thoughts as I awaited his response. I remembered how I was gonna ask him for help and never got the chance too. I also kept in mind what Dumbledore had told me. Now would be as good a chance as ever. "Professor can I ask you something?" I asked quietly. He just looked up at me with exhausted eyes. "I'm sure you have noticed im not doing to well in your class," he scoffed at that and I gave him a straight face "and I have studied so much and have even been getting help from Hermione Granger, but I was wondering if you could give me some extra help this year...'' I said looking down at my feet and playing with the hem of my skirt. I could feel him look up at me but remained my focus on the floor. "Fine," he said. "Really?!" I said looking up at him with more excitement in my face. "Yes but in exchange you will help me grade papers and you will do whatever chores around the room that are needed." he added, still looking at me.

I thought it over and realized it was definitely a need to get this extra help. "Ok deal!" I said extending my hand as a confirmation of the agreement. To which he looked at, then back at me, still a smile on my face, he barely shook my hand and got back to grading papers. "So.. what works best for you?" I asked him. "Tuesdays and Thursdays either during lunch, your free period, or in the evening after dinner." he offered. "See I'm really really bad and as much as I hate being here," he gave me a look as I said that, "Hows lunch and after dinner?" I asked my hands together in a praying motion hoping he would agree. "Fine. Now get out." he spat rolling his eyes and going back to his papers. I grabbed my robes off my table and headed out the door, stopping to look back at him "Thank you so much Professor, you won't regret this!" I exclaimed. "I have a feeling I will," he responded, to which I giggled and walked out down the hall.

I got back to my dormitory and got ready for bed, and tried to get the stain from my shirt, I eventually just got my wand out and murmured a little charm to get it out. As I sat on my bed brushing my hair, my owl, that Hagrid had gotten for me, Hera a beautiful almost golden barn owl flew in through my window and gave me a letter and flew into her cage. I opened it quickly realizing it was from Dumbledore.

Y/n,

I hope your detention with Professor Snape went well this evening.

I wanted to ask a favor of you. Every December we have a Yule ball. Now you may have not been aware, that I am aware your mother put you in singing lessons, and when you were little you would often put on performances with your sister. I helped pay for those classes because I saw something special in you, and I know this isn't something you typically share or like to talk about, but I was wondering if you would sing at this year's ball. Now I know you may want to turn this down immediately, but please think it over. If not that is completely fine. Just let me know.

Dumbledore

Holy crap. That was a big proposal. I haven't sung in front of anyone since my 4th year. My mother has played the flute since she was a girl, and "encouraged", as she would like to put it, my sister and I to have some form of music in our lives, she enrolled me in voice lessons, and my sister in piano lessons. Now I don't want to sound arrogant but I certainly had a set of pipes no doubt, but often my stage fright was too much. I hated telling people because it was always such a shock to them. This was a very good opportunity though, and I know it would upset Dumbledore if I said no, if I do do this it would be for him. I decided to sleep on it and put the letter in my bag and crawled up into my covers. It was well past 10 almost 11 o'clock now and I was fighting to stay awake . As soon as my eyes closed I drifted off into the darkness.