Teacher's Pet | Severus Snape

Chapter 31 - A White Ring

I woke up to the smell of coffee. I slowly opened my eyes, adjusting to the broad daylight that was already flooding the room – however it did that, as we were in the Dungeons, but Snape's room had a huge magical window. I sucked in a heavy gasp, as my eyes met those of a house elf who was just about to put a cup of black coffee onto the nightstand on my side of the bed.

I shrieked, the house elf threw himself onto the ground, covering his head protectively and I jumped backwards, right onto the still sleeping Snape, yanking my elbow into his ribcage by accident. Snape's eye flew open, and he was wildly cursing. All three of us seemed to be close to having a heart attack.

"The house elf! He has seen me lying in your bed! What are we going to do now?", I shrieked.

"Masly is sorry, Professor Snape! Masly has not been careful enough! Masly did not as the Professor had told him! Masly should have done as he was told!", the house elf was frantically sobbing and bowing on the ground.

"Fucking hell, you almost broke my rib, Yaeger! Masly stop whining!", Snape roared at both of us.

With shocked eyes I stared at Snape, who was still holding his side and panting. The house elf had stopped his loud sobs and was now silently whimpering, his forehead still glued onto the floor.

"That's Masly, Yaeger, he is my personal house elf at Hogwarts. I told him to bring us breakfast in the morning, but he was supposed to do it without causing a big fuzz!", Snape threw him a scolding look, and Masly wailed into the floor. "He is devastatingly loyal and close-mouthed, he won't tell a soul about anything that goes on in here, will you, Masly?"

Masly jumped to his feet and heavily shook his head. His large ears flapping around his head.

"Not a word, Mast... Professor Snape! Masly would rather rip out his own tongue. Masly can do so if M... Professor Snape wants him to prove!" And Masly stuck out his tongue and grabbed it, ready to tug at Snape's command; huge tears were running down his tiny face.

"Leave it, Masly! How many times have I told you to not offer self-punishment in front of me? Just go back to the kitchen and go help your friends", Snape sighed annoyed, massaging the bridge of his nose.

"And thank you for your effort", he added softly, and I saw Masly beam and melt before he vanished before my eyes.

"I am sorry, he's a bit... over-ambitious. He's still rather young. Dumbledore assigned him to me two years ago, despite my heavy objections. 'Every teacher at Hogwarts gets one and you have been an exception for far too long now'", Snape mimicked Dumbledore's voice and rolled his eyes. "It took me one year to stop him from calling me Master – he still struggles sometimes. He was very eager, when I gave him this little job to bring us breakfast and I guess, it devasted him that you spoiled it by waking up too early", he chuckled.

I felt bad for poor Masly and made a mental note to keep my eyes shot tightly next Sunday until I was sure he was gone. My family never had house elves. We thought it was nothing else than slavery and a small household of three people should clearly be able to manage without them. My mother always told me you could tell a person's true self by how they were treating those poor creatures.

"I am sorry for punching you. I was completely taken off guard. You could have just warned me, would have spared me a heart attack and you a cracked rib...", I said and softly touched his sore side.

"I wanted to, but then you decided to dress up like a sex goddess in front of me and I am just a man you know – I simply forgot!"

I laughed out loud and threw a pillow into his face. He threw himself onto me playfully and locked my hands above my head. He kissed me intensely and I arched my back, so our chests touched.