Come Together

7. tainted love - soft cell

June 1987

"Bloody hell," you said, reaching across the desk for the open bottle of ink, and began aggressively crossing out phrases.

"What now, drama queen?" Snape asked, not looking up from the papers he was grading. You were in his class to study, as you usually did for about an hour after your last class of the day. You managed to not really get detention anymore, but you still hung out with Snape.

"Can you please tell me the incantation that makes flowers grow from the wand? It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't remember," you asked.

"Orchideous," he stated, finally looking up at you, not openly laughing, but he was clearly amused.

"Jeez, sorry to not be at the intelligent level of the famous Severus Snape," you joked back. "I'm going to fail all of my OWLs except yours, so I hope you won't mind that I have to bail."

You begin to pack up, but Snape is already at your desk."You do know that detentions aren't optional, right? You can't just leave when you want to," he affirmed, bemused.

Well, that's awkward. "Uh, Snape? I'm not in here for detention tonight. I was just coming in to study," you replied, and he looked surprised.

"Oh. Right. I guess you haven't really been acting so atrocious anymore," he responded. He still looks slightly surprised, but also somewhat... disappointed? You did not have the patience or the urge to try and identify all of Snape's moods, especially now.

"I've been a model student this year. I guess being an OWL learner really matured me," you said with mock pride, in doing so, you accidentally drop your wand, and it sent sparks to your homework. "Shit."

Snape laughs, and walks over to your desk. He picked up a loose parchment and read over it. "What is this? Were you trying to invent a potion?" he questioned. You cursed under your breath, causing him to roll his eyes. "You know you can experiment whenever you want, as long as you replenish whatever you use the last of."

"No, no, I know, sir. Ugh, okay. It was supposed to be an end of the year present, that's all," you admitted, sinking back down into your chair.

You wanted to give Snape a thoughtful gift for the end of the year, because he helped you so much throughout your time at Hogwarts. So, you decided to try and create a new potion that could cause the drinker to remember certain pieces of specific information, like a Memory Potion and Remembrall put together.

He still looked confused, so you elaborated, "For you, dummy."

"Oh," he muttered, passing you the scrap of paper.

"Yeah, but it would probably not work anyway, and I've barely tinkered with it. I know how important it is to you that you have a sharp mind, but I also know that you can be forgetful since you always have a lot going on, but-"

"I really appreciate it. I'm sorry for ruining the surprise," he said, taking a seat across from you, twirling his wand between his fast fingers.

You burst out laughing. "You're apologizing for finding out I was trying to make you a gift? Godric's beard, Snape."

"Alright, whatever. I'll see you after your Charms exam. Come to my class after and we can discuss it, if you want," he said, slowly walking back to his desk and taking a seat.

"Of course! But, are you alright? I can stay if you want?" you questioned, putting your bag down.

"No, no, it's fine. Do whatever you want," he said as he stared at the next essay, but his eyes were stationary.

For a few seconds, you stared at the Professor and you felt like you were letting him down, in a way. After thinking it over, you decided to stay.

You frowned. "This is gonna sound bizarre," you state as you tapped your nails against the desk, "but can I please take a nap here? My whole house is partying because it's the last night before OWLs, and I am utterly exhausted. You know how Hufflepuffs are."