Mischief Attained [The Mischief Attained series - part 1]

Chapter 11

After breakfast, which Jayla had spent trying to dodge Juana's questions, Jayla made her way down to the dungeon for her detention with Snape. She hesitantly knocked on the dark wooden door leading into the Potions classroom.

"Come in," an all too familiar voice answered on the other side.

"Mrs. Rosier, what an honour," Professor Snape said sarcastically as Jayla was pushing herself through the door.

"Good morning, Professor Snape," she mumbled. Unlike other students, Jayla had never had any issues with Snape. She was a Slytherin after all and quite good in Potions. Sometimes, he had even interfered when she had been bullied by some of her classmates. Not directly, but he always made sure they'd be focusing on their cauldrons instead if it happened in class. But the look he gave her now was of pure distain, which made her feel even more uneasy.

Without saying another word, he led her to one of the storage rooms connected to the classroom.

"As you apparently have a lot of spare time at hand despite your exams coming up, I assume giving this a thorough clean fits in your schedule just fine," Snape said.

He turned around, his cloak billowing behind him and sat down on his desk again, where he could have an eye on Jayla. The girl took a wet towel and started dedusting the shelves, careful not to break any of the glass containers with potions ingredients inside.

"I honestly expected more from you than getting tricked into being the new toy of those Gryffindor pranksters," Snape exclaimed casually.

Unable to contain her anger at this simple sentence, Jayla slammed to towel on the floor.

"They're my friends!" she screamed.

Within seconds Snape had stormed over to her, towering threateningly above her.

"You would do well to heed my warning to not trust any Gryffindor. Ever. There's no one more traitorous than them," he said through gritted teeth.

Jayla was taken aback by this. She knew he hated Gryffindor house, but what she saw in his face right now was pure spite and loathing. The girl was opening and closing her mouth like a fish gasping for air, trying to find words to object. But the way Snape had said it had made it sound like a final, unassailable fact he had found in one of his Potions books.

"Now go back to your chores unless you want to sit here all weekend," he added before turning his back to her once more.

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The rest of the detention passed in silence, Snape's words replaying in Jayla's head in a loop. What if he was right? Fred and George always seemed to be looking for new challenges, so what if trying to get a Slytherin on their side was just their newest one? Maybe Harry Potter even set them up in order to get information on his enemies?

As much as Jayla hated herself for even thinking like that, she just couldn't ban those thoughts from her head. She constantly had to fight against her tears, the occasional one running down her face every once in a while. Thinking back to her time with the boys made it seem impossible that it had been just a game for them. Especially yesterday.

As soon as Jayla was done cleaning and got Snape's okay to leave, she rushed up the stairs and out the main door. She definitely needed some fresh air to clear her mind.

Tears were again obstructing her view and Jayla tried to keep her head down so no one would see her like that...and promptly ran into a tall figure standing at the bottom of the stairs leading outside.

"Woah, careful." Strong hands gently grabbed her shoulders, pushing her slightly back, so she would regain her balance. Jayla knew it was George before even looking up. She slowly raised her head and saw that Fred and Juana were standing next to him. The three of them had apparently waited for her to come out of detention.