SHE WOULD BE OKAY. Callista could feel the tears of joy building up at the sight of whatever dreadful-smelling concoction Snape was tending to. The entire school was preoccupied with the Valentine's Day celebrations after their lessons, which left the two fourth years alone in the boys' dormitories that Friday evening.
"I'm surprised you don't have practice," Snape commented, stretching out his arm for Callista to pass him the bitterroot.
She placed the flower in his hand. "We do. At nine. I think Emma has a date this afternoon."
"A date?" he repeated with furrowed brows. "She could've just done it earlier. Is that fair to the rest of the team?."
"Probably not," Callista snorted. "That's just how it is."
She picked up one of the books laying around Snape's trunk. "Dark magic, huh?"
"Scared?" he sneered, his hooked nose appearing even uglier than usual.
"No," she said with a scoff. "I'm not scared. I just don't understand what good could possibly come out of knowing the Dark Arts."
"Because Defence is a joke," he stated matter-of-factly. "Sure you can protect yourself against boggarts and dementors, but you can't do a thing against an actual dark wizard."
"I doubt you're looking into the Dark Arts because you want to protect yourself," she said disbelievingly.
He shrugged. "You asked for the good part."
Her mind flashed back to an image of her older brother firing a curse at her. "Protecting yourself, you say?"
"You interested?"
Callista sighed, tracing a finger along the spine of one of his books. "I might be."
"I can lend you some," he offered, eyeing her.
"For free?" she asked in surprise.
He dropped a pair of doxy wings into the cauldron. "Of course not. Just add another twenty galleons to my payment."
"Done," Callista said. "I can take them with me?"
Snape nodded without glancing up. "Meet me in the common room by eight thirty. I should be finished by then."
"Thank you, Severus."
"No need to thank me, Nott," Snape mumbled. "It's business."
•*•*•
The Slytherin-Ravenclaw match was a complete disaster. While Callista's arm was as good as new — a little too new actually, as she still wasn't used to having two working arms so soon — it seemed as though Emma was too enamored with Prickett to focus on the match. Ravenclaw had won 230-60.
"Emma, what the bloody hell was that?" Charlus shouted in outrage after the game.
"You were aiming the bludgers at your own team, for Salazaar's sake!" Callista complained, both severely bruised and irritated. "You'd think I'd be able to go one match without my own bloody beaters trying to knock me off my broom!"
"Insane," Lucinda muttered under her breath. "She must be batshit crazy if she thinks I'm letting this go after she had us training to death in the sodding rain."
Yoo-Jin narrowed his eyes at the captain as she approached them. "Look at her. She doesn't even look sorry."
Though most of the team were complaining, Edmund and Aiden seemed to be discussing something amongst themselves. Callista felt a slap on her back and was dragged into a corner with the Slytherin team, with the exception of their captain.
YOU ARE READING
DEXTERITY | S. BLACK
Fanfiction[DISCONTINUED] Born and raised as a member of one of the Sacred Twenty Eight families, Callista Nott was taught certain values - some that she didn't necessarily agree with. She, however, was never one to rebel or cause a scene and had just learned...
