Soul of Ice

34. Birthday Treats

One of the advantages of being a teacher's daughter was that Abbie had access to more of the castle than most people did. She often found herself studying in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom because she liked the quiet, and although Madam Pince kept the library quiet, there were still people around. So she frequently set up her homework either in her father's office or his classroom, wherever he happened to be at the time - something she knew only she could get away with, and with the end-of-year exams looking a lot closer this side of Christmas, Abbie knew she had to buckle down and really focus.

Today, though, she found it hard to concentrate. She was trying to read her Potions textbook, but her mind kept wandering.

"What's wrong?" Snape sighed from a desk away.

"Nothing," Abbie mumbled in reply. "M'fine."

"No, you're not. Your anger is radiating from you so intensely I fear you may turn radioactive."

Abbie hated her father's legilimency sometimes.

"It's stupid," she said.

"Anything that can anger you this much cannot be stupid. Do I need to give someone detention?"

"It's just... Harry's been doing so well in Potions this year, and I'm happy for him, I really am. But today he just took the piss. Slughorn set us this challenge to invent our own antidotes, and I was really excited, 'cus I got to use all the theory stuff you taught me. He was really impressed with it and I thought I was gonna get top marks, but then Harry... he did nothing. All lesson. Just sat on his arse. And when Slughorn came up to him, he had the bloody balls to hand him a bezoar! He wouldn't have dared do that with you, but he's Slughorn's golden child, so obviously Slughorn thought it was genius. It's just not fair, I put all this work in, and Harry still comes out on top 'cus he's the bloody Chosen One."

"I wasn't aware you cared about 'coming out on top.' An attitude I'd expect from Miss Granger, perhaps, but not you."

"I've had to work so hard just to keep up with him. It's not fair." Abbie knew she sounded like a petulant child, and when Snape moved around his desk to sit next to her, she expected him to scold her.

Instead, he grasped his hands together on the table in front of him, and said to her, "You are completely correct."

"...What?"

"It is unfair. Potter has been disrespectful since the day you both arrived here. He spends more time on the Quidditch pitch than studying, and his homework - even for Defence, his apparent favourite subject - is haphazard and sloppy. He coasts through life, being coddled and forgiven, all because, as you say, he's the bloody Chosen One. You, meanwhile, are smarter, you work harder, and yet Potter is favoured over you. It is entirely unjust."

"Isn't there anything you can do about it?"

"I am. I do all I can. Potter believes I treat him cruelly, but I'm simply the only teacher not to coddle him. I sometimes fear I'm the only one who sees through him. Everyone seems to see a hero, but I see only a spoilt brat." Snape glanced down at her half-finished Potions homework. "I am frequently tempted to give you an advantage," he admitted. "But if I did, your achievements would be empty. What's the point in an O if you know you only achieved it because of me? The day you get your NEWT results, they will be because of you. They will be your achievements, and yours alone."

"But you do give me an advantage," Abbie said. "Did you give anyone else additional lessons in potion theory? Are you teaching anyone else Alchemy? If I asked you for help with this essay right now, would you say no?"