An Evening with Professor Snape

A Wand| Chapter 5

After breakfast in the Great Hall, Pippa headed off to her first class with the more alert Professor Lewit. His tiny strides meant that Pippa had to find a unique blend of non insulting slow paced walking to accompany him to the changing stair case.

How did I miss this!? she gasped as she tilted her head back to the seeming endless moving flights of stairs.

"Don't be frightened my dear" The professor chirped "Our classroom is on the first floor, it has to be you see, health and safety regulations, last year we were on the fourth floor and well..." He also felt the need to add " I got trampled you see"

Pippa nodded in agreement and followed behind Professor Lewit up the first flight of stairs. On this seeming long journey she realized that she had no wand to use. Her face froze and her hands went clammy. She forgot to send a note out to have one delivered this morning. On my first day, what will they think of me!? maybe I can make some excuse... but before she could open her mouth, the professor opened the classroom door and invited her inside.

"The students will arrive at 9:03, I am factoring in their difficulty to operate the map, you see. You give students a new classroom and suddenly their ability to read a map deteriorates, you see," The Professor said with slight playfulness.

Pippa wasn't paying attention too well, still stuck on the wand.

"Professor" She asked "Will I be requiring a wand this session?"

"Deary me yes, of course, every wizard and witch should have a wand no matter what class, you see, it demands authority. Why? Have you misplaced yours Ms Drake?

But before she could answer with an unprepared lie, the professor exclaimed,

"No matter no matter,you see there are some spare in the teacher's store cupboard."

Pippa gave a slightly puzzled look.

 "Fifth floor Ms Drake, and please hurry. It's 8:58 you see."

She rushed out of the classroom, wishing the professor had been a little more specific, and headed straight towards the ascending stair case, not diligently remembering that it constantly moves and that at the precise moment she needed it, it was not there. Still rushing, she came to the edge a little too quickly and was dangerously close to falling. Until a strong hand grabbed her upper arm and pulled her back to the center of the platform.

"Are you alright?" A familiar gruff yet velvety smooth voice reached her ears.

Pippa turned around to her savior and was greeted by the tall, dark and majestic Professor Snape.

"Yes" She said brushing herself off "Yes thank you professor, I was... just heading to the store cupboard and I must have lost my senses for a moment there"

"Store cupboard, Ms Drake?" His dark obsidian eyes flared with curiosity.

"Yes the one on the fifth floor"

Snape stood puzzled for a moment then the corners of his mouth curled into a slight smile

"If Professor Lewit has sent you there, I'd advise you try the store cupboard on the ground floor, as it is the only one that actually exists"

Pippa sighed, defeated " I just wish someone in this damn school would actually show me where things are instead of giving vague directions, I'm tired, embarrassed and pissed off at myself beyond comprehension and right now, all I want is to curl up in my room and forget that last night and this morning ever happened, yet, I'm on a one man mission to find something I had stupidly not organized in a non existent store cupboard and I've got less than 5 minuets before my class starts!"

Her words sliced Professor Snape, and caught him off guard, and expression of why has she opened up to me? blushed into his face.

"Ms Drake, I see you are distressed, would you like me to escort you to said store cupboard?"

Pippa looked up into this man's face, it wasn't a face full of smirks and patronizing glances, this was a face of sympathy.

"Thank you Professor"

                                                                                       ...........

"Any wand in particular? What was the core of your previous wand?" Snape asked shifting through small long stacked up boxes.

"Ummmmmmmm, unicorn hair" She lied.

Snape tapped on a few boxes with his long slender fingers, searching for the right match. Pippa absorbed her surroundings, this was the second biggest store cupboard she had ever seen, the biggest was a department store she worked at when she was seventeen, it never ended one of her co workers had said. Pippa obviously thought she was joking, but even after working there for nearly two years, she had never managed to catalog the entire stock.

" Unicorn hair, elm and 10 1/2 inches" Snape handed her a brown box, their fingertips touched lightly causing Pippa to get butterflies. She opened it with caution. It was lighter than she expected.

"Flexible" Snape said with some knowledgeable authority "Lightweight and....forgiving" he noticed Pippa's unusual way of holding and examining the wand. She quickly put it back in the box.

"Very nice" She choked.

"I'm sure it will do, for your current situation" Snape remarked.

Why was he being so nice to me after last night? Did he sleep on it, and realized in the morning that he was being a gigantic dick? Bi- Polar maybe, oooooh that might be interesting to cover in classes, mental illnesses of the muggle world...

"Thank you again Professor... I guess I'll head back to class now"

Snape nodded in a welcomed fashion and swept away into the distance.

Pippa stood in awe of this man's stride How does he even... never mind I have to get to class Pippa was sure not to rush as much this time as she went up to the second floor Muggle studies classroom. Gasping for air and clutching her small brown box in the doorway, the students turned to face her, some with curiosity, some with snickering.

"Hello your Lateness" Two red haired, twin boys from the back row quoted in a bowing fashion.

Great, I already have a nickname.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Thanks for reading xxx

B