I Was Younger Then

The Ministry Official

Penny landed hard, face first in the dirt. The more she apparated with Snape the more she felt she loathed the mode of transportation. There was nothing natural about it and she found she had zero sense of direction during it, so when they arrived at a destination she was completely thrown off balance.

Apparently, Snape was not feeling kind and did not bother to try to steady her fall, instead he opted to sneer down at her as she rolled over and inspected her knee.

"Really, Potter, you're a fifth year, I would have thought you could manage using your feet by now," he said, kneeling down to attend to her wound.

Irritated, Penny sprang to her feet and ignored his help, marching towards Hogwarts, not caring that blood was trickling down her leg.

"Pigheadedness is such a boorishly Gryffindor trait that accomplishes nothing, Potter. I've been forced to attend to the consequences of your incompetence for five years now, so tell me what you think your ego retains by refusing it this time?" he said, his long strides allowing him to catch her with ease.

Half jogging now, Penny continued to ignore him, but he stepped in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. His features were alight with malevolent pleasure, indicating to Penny he was not yet done tormenting her. Puffing herself up, she merely glared at him.

"The silent treatment? Are we three now? Come Pott--"

"Stop calling me that," she demanded.

"Sir," he corrected her, softly. "Unfortunately for you, it is your name. But you have my sympathies and rest assured I'll do all I can to help you rid yourself of it if you choose to do so."

"My name is Penny. And don't think I haven't noticed you only call me Potter when you're irritated or looking to torment me," she said, her brow arching defiantly.

"Is that so?" said Snape in a bored tone.

"It is. You see, you are a very obvious man, Professor , and uncreative if I may add," Penny said, beginning to circle the man as though he were some delicious prey and she the predator, a smirk playing at her lips as she looked him up when and down. "When I was in my first year, saying my last name was almost completely intolerable to you for some unknown reason ," she said, making sure he saw her exaggerated eye roll, because they both knew exactly what it was about her name he loathed. "So you called me 'girl' or 'you,' it was ever so juvenile and I think you realized that as well. So you opted for 'Ms' Potter which I found peculiar at first, until I realized. . ." she said, pausing for dramatic effect and to soak in the sight of his shaking firsts, as she stood behind him. He refused to look at her, to give her that victory, but in doing so he had to make himself vulnerable. Penny knew how nerve wracking having someone behind you was, that every fiber of Snape's being liked to analyze, to anticipate, something he could not do now. "You see my theory is you're actually trying to say 'Miss' but inevitably stress the 'z' as a way to distract yourself from the 'Potter' you loathe that follows it," Penny pressed, returning to where she began, her nose in the air and eyes heavy with disdain.

Snape's features darkened, all traces of his upper-hand and being replaced with the throbbing in his temple, satisfying Penny immensely.

"But then you seemed to decide some of my better attributes remind you of my father and call me 'Potter' to lump me with him and Harry so you can feel like you're putting distance between us. And yet, there are times where you slip up, usually when you've been a complete dunderhead, and you say 'Penny' as though it's the most natural thing in the world. It's like music to my ears," she finished in a sarcastic simper.

"I suppose you think you're clever, but honestly, Penny , you are an entirely average student and like every other tedious teenager I have had the misfortune of teaching, your cries for attention are poorly disguised," he said, coldly, finding his composure, contempt oozing from him as he stared down his hooked nose at her. "You should know by now I have zero interest in satisfying your desperate quest for male attention because your fool-of-a father got himself killed, so take it somewhere else, I'm bored."