Adoration

At Hogwarts

She was taken out of the story of the book by the screeching sound of the train brakes. She slammed the book shut and to her surprise, she was already alone in the compartment. "Thank goodness, I always feel uncomfortable around this dungeon bat."

She said to herself and walked out of the train where her friends were already waiting for her. "So? Where have you been?  Where did he take you?" Blake asked. "You won't believe this, I was in the only available seat, with him in the compartment, I thought I was going to jump out of that little window."  Sam smiled.

"I hope you don't want to jump out of tonight's detention, although now I'm thinking probably not, it's too low." It echoed directly above Sam. "I-" "8pm, my class."  With that, Professor Snape walked away, his cloak dramatically left billowing behind him. "This old man must enjoy giving people detention for nothing!" Mary barked."It'll be fine, nothing that can't be survived, and besides, I was never in detention with him, so no one can tell me anything."

"That's right." Blake said. "By the way, has anyone seen Josh?" I thought he'd be with you." Sam asked. "He went ahead, he said he had to run some errands. He'll be at the castle." Mary explained and they all headed off to dinner. 

As they approached the castle, Sam had no idea how her first day would turn upside down. Josh was already standing in the courtyard, her heart leapt with joy at seeing him again, but her joy didn't last long, Josh wasn't standing there alone and if only that, the girl standing with him was Josh's ex-girlfriend and they had just stuck their tongues in each other's mouths.

Sam was furious. She told her friends, who tried to drag her away, saying that Josh wasn't worth it, that she needed to talk to Josh now and that they would meet for dinner. When she broke off in his direction, he walked over to Josh and Trisha- that was his ex-girlfriend's name- Professor Snape and seemed to scold them, but when he saw Sam making her way over to them, he mouthed something between his teeth to the effect that justice would not be long in coming and left.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! This is supposed to be your love?!" screamed Sam as tears welled up in her eyes. "Wait babe, I will explain-" "There's nothing more to explain, we're so done." Before Josh could reply, Sam was on her way to the castle for dinner.

When they sat down at their table, Sam found to her misfortune that, as she did every year, she sat next to Draco Malfoy for most of the class, as if there wasn't enough of that today. During Albus Dumbledore's long speech about how while Hogwarts was a safe place, at the same time students could die if they went anywhere without supervision or permission from their professors, Mary and Blake tried to reassure her the whole time, throwing dirt on Josh. "I'm fine guys," she wasn't, "I just need time." Sam said, blinking back tears. Mary suddenly smiled. "Let's change the topic of conversation." "Good idea." Sam affirmed gratefully. "Hey, why are you actually in detention with Snape after dinner?" "Why do you ask so suddenly?" Sam asked in surprise. "He's been staring at you since you came into the dining room." Mary and Blake said in unison.

Sam looked towards the professor's table and indeed Snape was staring at her, mesmerized by his onyx eyes, dark as they could be. As she gazed into them she noticed that for a moment there was something more than his usual disinterested look, understanding perhaps? Or even caring? Before she could think about it Snape had averted his gaze and was already engaged in conversation with Professor Sprout.

Sam decided not to think about it anymore, so he started eating and talking to his friends about their holiday. After dinner, she said goodbye to everyone and together with Mary went to their chamber to unpack.