Teacher's Pet | Severus Snape

Chapter 24 - Nothing

The next morning, after Madame Pomfrey had forced me to eat an obnoxiously big plate of breakfast, she let me head back to classes. I immediately went looking for Valeryia and as I had finally found her doing her make up in the girls' bathroom next to the Charms classroom, I went straight in.

"What did you talk about with S...him?"
She chuckled, putting lip stick on.
"Nothing much. Just little, innocent chat about you between him and me."
"I need all the details, Val!"
She could clearly see I was highly stressed.
"Gwen, relax. I am not stupid. I did not tell him I knew about your situation. I just told him, I was concerned, because you seemed in a lot of distress and that I assumed, a boy could be involved in it, because you had mentioned feeling terrible because you had mistreated someone and you had lost your tone towards them earlier this morning and how bad you felt about it now and that we had made plans for you to go and apologies to this someone after the Quidditch match. And I told him, I hadn't seen you eating all day. Which was facts, Gwen."

She gave me a scolding look. Eating was sacred to her. I, on the other hand, kept forgetting about it on a regular basis and she often had to remind me.
She glanced around, making sure, we were alone.
"In the end, he's our house teacher, and as such, I told him about my worries towards one of the students, he is in charge of. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing suspicious, just nice and easy. You see, I simply threw hints after hints onto him, without spilling to much of my precious tea. I figured, as smart as he is, he will make the necessary links, and the look on his face as I told him how bad you felt for your behaviour towards someone was just too cute to be real."

She giggled as she started applying mascara.
"He did", I laughed, "Came to check on me in the Hospital Wing and I could apologies personally. Everything's fine again. Thank you, Gwen, you're a true friend."
"Facts", she said and shrugged her shoulders, giving me a big grin. I gave her a hug and we went to class.

After dinner, I headed straight to the Defense Against the Dark Arts practice room. We had had some duelling classes in earlier years, but they were always sparse, and I couldn't wait to get into action.

On my way, I remembered having Snape seen duelling during our second year, where we got introduced to it. Back then, that dumbtwatt Gilderoy Lockhart had somehow managed to become our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher – a mistake Dumbledore had already set straight at the end of the year, after Lockhart had been held responsible for multiple occasions, where students had been falsely treated with healing charms, causing them to lose all bones in their limbs and also letting us read his mortifying auto-biography instead of the actual course books.
Dull as he was, Lockhart had asked Snape to help him teaching us the basic rules of duelling. Snape had merely moved his wand and Lockhart had already gone flying. How stupid do you have to be to take on a former Death Eater in a duel? Well, I would soon find out myself, for I was now standing in front of the door to the practice room. But I would not go down easily – at least not as easily as Lockhart did. With great anticipation I knocked on the door, for I was looking forward to everything that was behind that door.

"Come in", I heard his stern voice, and I opened the door.

The room had been cleared from most obstacles that could possibly get in the way if two wizards would start darting spells at each other. There was a long rug on the floor, marking the duelling area. In the middle of it, there stood Snape, stunning as always, waiting for me with his arms crossed over his chest, wand already in hand, with a slight whisp of belligerence on his face and next to him stood... Lupin. I could not control my facial derailment.

     What the hell? Why the hell? No!

I looked back at Snape and realized, it wasn't belligerence I had seen on his face, it was annoyance and irritation.
"Good evening, Professor...s", I said, getting my face under control again.
Snape simply nodded.
"Good evening, Miss Yaeger", Lupin greeted me friendly. "You are probably a bit confused, seeing me here. I figured, after Professor Snape had told me his detention plans with you, I would join as well, for I happen to be the official Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher here at Hogwarts and would therefore gladly help you to improve your duelling skills."
He had stressed out the words 'I' and 'official' and Snape had shot wild glares at him. It was obvious. Lupin was still fixed on his idea of Snape bullying me and he clearly thought, I needed protection. It was hair-tearing, but what should I do?