The Herbology Assistant

Chapter Five

"My my, we haven't met yet, have we?" The man said and flashed her a smile that could've blinded someone. She wanted to ask how his teeth were so white, but decided that would be weird.

"Professor Bates, pleasure to meet you. Are you a teacher here?" She asked the man and the staff table went quiet.

"Are you saying you don't know who I am?" He questioned her.

"I'm afraid not. Have we met before? I apologize if we have, I'm not great with names." She tried smiling back at the man, but she was not a bit uncomfortable.

"Gilderoy Lockhart. Perhaps you might know me from my books. Year with the Yeti? Magical Me?" He kept questioning her and listed every single book he had written. She knew who he was now, but the git seemed so full of himself she just decided to play clueless.

"No sorry, never heard of them." She said back and took a bite of pasta.

"Really? None of them? That's quite a shame. You're missing out. You should really read them. They're very informative." He kept nagging her.

"I have this habit of only reading books by well known authors. Maybe you'll make my list next year." She said and took another bite. That seemed to shut him up... for now. The chatter around the table returned and she was able to finish her meal. She went to stand up, but Gilderoy grabbed her wrist which she quickly pulled back.

"Please don't touch me." She said sternly which again, caught the eyes of the other professors.

"I am sorry, but I just can't seem to take my eyes off of you. You are very pretty Ms. Bates. I shouldn't say this, but we would make a very good looking couple." He said and she cringed and possibly threw up in her mouth a little bit. "So what do you say to a little date with me tonight?"

"No thank you, Professor Lockfart," She said and began walking out of the hall. As she was leaving, she couldn't help but quickly see what was going on in there now. The whole staff table and multiple students were staring at her with smirks and some of them were staring at Lockhart who quickly sat back down and ate his dinner. She decided to go see Severus since she noticed he wasn't at dinner. He must be hungry if he hasn't been at any of the meals. She stopped by the kitchen and grabbed a plate for him.

She walked down to his classroom and knocked before entering. The door opened by itself and she stepped in.

"Evening Severus." She said cheerily while walking up to his desk. He was furiously scribbling in red ink on some unfortunate students work. He quickly looked up when he realized Clarice was standing in front of him.

"Clarice," He greeted, finished what he was writing and put his quill down.

"I brought you some dinner, I noticed you weren't at any of our meals and figured you might be hungry." She placed the plate down in front of him and he stared at it. No one had ever done this for him before. All these years of skipping meals, this was the first time anyone has brought him something and suddenly he was hungry.

"Thank you," He said quietly and took the fork in one hand to take a bite of Shepherds Pie.

"I also brought those Moly flowers you asked for." She said and pulled them out of her bag. "Where would you like me to put them?"

"The supply closet through that door," He pointed it out and she went into it. She placed the jar on a shelf and took a mental note of some herbs he was low on so she could help him restock. She came back out and he was back to scribbling on the papers.

"It's nice and quiet in here, I tried hanging out in the lounge before, but it was honestly very distracting which is ironic... I thought that room was for us to grade in peace?" She said coming back to his desk. He looked back up at her. Should he invite her to stay? Certainly she wouldn't want to spend her evening down here with him.

"You are welcome to stay as long as you aren't the one distracting me." He said in his usual monotone voice. She wondered if that's what he actually sounded like or if it was all an act.

"That's very kind of you. I promise you won't even know I'm here." She said and sat at one of the desks in front of his. She pulled out the pile of papers and stared at them. Severus sighed and with a wave of his wand, there was a bottle of red ink and quill in front of her. "Thanks."

They carried on with their grading and occasionally Severus would grunt which followed by some intensive scribbling. She wished she could see what he was writing. Some of the students did a wonderful job on their assignment while others got every single question wrong.

"What the?" She let the words come out of her mouth without her meaning to. She just couldn't help it. She even let out a chuckle at this students answer.

"I'm sorry." She quickly said when Severus looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

"I'll only forgive you if you tell me what you're chuckling over there about." He said with an amused face. She smiled and read aloud.

"The question was... How do you properly collect from a bubotuber and what do you do after? The student said... You squeeze out the pus and drink it to make your farts smells like flowers." She could barely hold it in as she bursted out laughing. Even Severus chuckled at this and Clarice thought it was nice to hear him laugh.

"You must tell me who wrote that." He said.

"Marcus Flint," She said. 

"What a dunderhead. He's a Slytherin. He'll probably have to repeat a year." Severus said and went back to his work. Clarice finished grading her papers, but Severus was still working on his. She put the papers back in her bag.

"I finished. Thank you for letting me work here. Do you need any help with yours?" She asked him and again, he looked at her like she had another head. Did she really just offer to help him grade his papers after doing her own?

"I couldn't ask that of you." He said.

"You wouldn't know it, but I like to mess around with potions too. It would be fun for me." She smiled and pulled a chair up to his desk. He slid her a paper and she looked at it with a frown.

"What do you do if you can't understand their handwriting?" She asked him and he smirked at her.

"I give them a zero." He said while continuing on his sentence.

"Hmm... isn't there some kind of spell that makes it legible?" She questioned.

"Just tap your wand on it and say Convertam Cinere," He said.

"Convertam Cinere," She said and suddenly the paper caught on fire and turned to ash.

"Severus! What the hell!" She exclaimed and he chuckled again satisfied he was able to successfully prank her.

"Sorry Clarice, too easy. Here's a different one," He said and handed her another. This one was at least legible. It was only second year work which wasn't difficult at all for her. She finished it up and put it into the done pile. Severus grabbed it back and looked it over.

"Must you be so nice? You can be a little mean to them." He said while putting it back into the pile.

"You could be a little nicer, ya know?" She said back to him, but still smiled. "Besides, I can be mean..."

"That's right, I heard you called Gilderoy, Professor Lockfart. That was a good one." He chuckled.

"Well yeah, I could've called him something more vulgar, but there were children in the room. He grabbed me and asked me out on a date in front of the whole school. It was humiliating." She said.

"Well maybe I need to start coming to more meals." He said while making eye contact with her. His face was serious. He didn't want Gilderoy to harass her anymore. Maybe if he came to dinner every once in a while and converse with Clarice, he might back off.

"Maybe you should." She smirked at him and they finished grading papers together.