Saints and Sinners ||Severus Snape

12 : it's a wonderful privilege

12 : it's a wonderful privilege

Severus flicked his wand to the door as soon as he'd heard a knock. It was the third day of Alicia's detention and each time she came in, he couldn't hide his surprise from his eyes. He kept expecting her to fall back into her old habits and skip her detention or come in late because she forgot. But three days and it's yet to happen. He started to actually think that she'd changed.

Alicia came in ready with her books, inks, and pens. Her skirt had been the perfect length instead of the shortened version she insisted on wearing from first till fifth year. Her robes, pin straight, and her hair still as glossy and voluminous as they'd always been.

She wore lipgloss that day over her usual pink lip liner and Snape had never been a little bit drawn to a student's lips. But he'd easily whisked those feelings to the side.

"How many hours tonight?" asked Alicia.

Severus couldn't help but start a banter. "Can't wait to leave?"

"No, no," paused Alicia. "Just wondering."

Severus pursed his lips. "Three hours today. It'll continue like that for 16 more days. Until you skip again that is."

Alicia quickly shook her head, allowing the lit candles to glisten her silky hair. "Never again," she smiled. Truthfully, Alicia enjoyed the banters her and Snape had been having in detention. It was a relief from the silence and judgement she received from outside the walls of his office.

Severus gave a smile that unintentionally looked more like a taunting smirk. "We'll see about that."

"So I brought my Potions book with me to get started on the assignment you gave us," said Alicia as she waved her book up in the air. Severus had never received an assignment from Alicia, ever. He couldn't imagine her at Beauxbatons with all the posh and serious girls doing her homework nightly and setting an alarm up to attend class on time in the morning. It just wasn't an Alicia thing to do.

Severus had contemplated saying something harsh like, Do you expect me to give you a cookie is that why you're bringing it up? But he'd decided against it. He'd never been the kind of teacher to hold back on humbling his students, but Alicia was a different case. He wanted her to keep going on this path and she could use all the support she could get. He'd never prayed for his students success but he hadn't prayed on their downfall either. He simply did his job and did whatever he could to make his life easier. And lessening Alicia's detention hours this year would lighten up his workload by a bunch.

"How do you spell, Draught?" asked Alicia. Upon seeing Severus' scrunched up face, she protested, "Like which kind of draught are we talking about, you know, the word can mean many things."

All the sarcastic insults begged to slip from the tip of Severus' tongue. Had Harry Potter asked him this question, his mouth wouldn't be able to stop itself. But this was Alicia Malfoy - whatever that meant to him.

"D-R-A-U-G-H-T," said Severus. His jaw was so clenched he could barely say the letter A.

Alicia nodded and burried her head deep into her essay. She couldn't wait to get started and prove to, not only professor Snape, but to herself that she is capable. She needed to prove that she could go from a failing student at the brink of expulsion to an A student to be modelled and glorified. If it hadn't been for her family's money, the Ministry of Magic wouldn't have thought twice on ridding Hogwarts of her and she had always been fully aware of that. But she hadn't cared until very recently when she decided she needed to get her life together. It wasn't cute anymore.

The next day, she had a meeting with Dumbledore and Snape to discuss the privileges that were to be given to her with her past grievances in consideration. She hadn't been able to enjoy the weekend out in Hogsmeade. Usually, her and Pansy couldn't wait until the weekends as they wouldn't have to sneak out and go shopping, it had become too much work no matter how fun it was. She was ready to be given all these borders and limits within Hogwarts grounds that she wouldn't be able to go in within certain hours and curfews.

Dumbledore sat on his desk that Sunday morning with Severus standing stoically on his right side. He'd twinkled his eyes at her. Dumbledore had always been on her side. He has never once punished her for any of her wrongdoings. It had always been Snape, being the head of Slytherin house, but it did scream the question, Why wasn't Snape on her side? So Alicia wasn't nervous of Dumbledore. It was Snape she was worried about. She wouldn't be surprised if he'd demanded she quarantined in her own room of seclusion with the exception of classes.

"Alicia Malfoy," called Dumbledore. "The headmaster's office seems to be your favourite room at Hogwarts," he laughed.

Alicia offered her charming smile at the old man. "All because of you, headmaster."

Severus just had to roll his eyes at her antics. For the greatest wizard to ever have existed, Dumbledore swooned too easily over the charms of the Malfoy girl.

"Severus," ushered the white-haired man. "You may begin."

Severus glowered at Alicia as he swept his feet forward and whisked a scroll from underneath the cloth of his cloak.

"Had it been completely up to me I would have quarantined you to seclusion. But the Ministry saw to it that you weren't treated unfairly, which under the circumstances, is ironic."

Alicia had to double back at his words. She had just thought of that - the idea of her being quarantined and secluded if it were up to Snape. And coincidentally, he'd just mentioned the same point. Snape began to read off the scroll.

"Alicia Malfoy, your privileges consist of weekends at Hogsmeade after breakfast and before 8:00 PM under the supervision of the head of your house. The detentions you have gathered up from your fourth year and half of your fifth year are equivalent to 315 hours of classes missed. The Ministry has excused you from serving all these hours, but in return, you will write your O.W.L.S (which you have missed from your sixth year spent at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic) and N.E.W.T.S consecutively and alone, under the supervision of the head of your house. Additionally, you are to write a 12,000-word essay on the changes you're set to make and what brought about this surge of inspiration. No leaving Hogwarts at all on the weekdays and you must maintain a 75% average of all your classes. Failure to follow through with these demands will result in a parental meeting and fifty hours of community service."

Alicia furrowed her brows at the end with her mouth agape into somewhat of a smile. "That's the punishment?"

Severus clicked his tongue and teeth. "It never fails to surprise me the privileges you get for simply being a Malfoy."

Alicia sighed. "I promise I won't take advantage of the- lightness of my punishment. I will abide by the rules set for me and I will get my act together this year. I swear."

Severus raised a distrustful brow at her empty promises. He wasn't fully convinced. Though it seemed that Dumbledore was. Once Alicia had left, Severus turned to Dumbledore to gain further insight on the situation.

"Does the ministry really expect me to act as a bodyguard to that insufferable girl while she goes about shopping and doing Merlin-knows-what at Hogsmeade?"

"Likely," said Dumbledore.

"Don't tell me that you believe that girl's innocent act."

"Likely."

Severus wasn't impressed. "She will revert back to her old ways. Her true self will seep through that phoney character she's putting on."

"Like-ly," said Dumbledore, before shaking his head at Severus.