Another Kind Of Magic - A Severus Snape Fanfiction

What Essay?

"Lena, wake up!" A loud voice ripped through her dreamless sleep. "Lena! Come on, or do you want to be late?"

Annoyed, she opened her eyes and looked right into her friend's face. Jessica was grinning down at her.

"Finally!" the blonde girl exclaimed with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "I was already about to get some cold water. Now get out of bed! The others are already in the Great Hall for breakfast."

Lena stretched, trying to shake off her sleepiness. "What time is it?" she mumbled.

"It's time you took a shower and got ready." Jessica threw a neatly folded white towel at her and laughed when it hit Lena in the face. "Hurry, breakfast will be over in 30 minutes."

"Okay, okay," Lena sighed and left the cozy warmth of her bed. "You can be so irritating, Jess."

The blonde Slytherin put her hands on her hips and pouted in a playful manner. "I know. But you still love me."

Lena smiled as she grabbed her uniform she had thrown carelessly over the back of a chair last night. "I'll be ready in a few minutes."

With that, she disappeared into the bathroom.

"You haven't even packed your bag yet!" Jessica called impatiently through the closed door. "Your essay is still on the desk. Want me to put it in your bag?"

Even though the water drizzling down on Lena's body had a comfortable temperature, a sudden cold chill ran through the girl, covering her skin with goose bumps. Essay on the desk? What was Jessica talking about?

"What essay?" she yelled back, trying to drown out the noisy rushing of water.

"That ridiculous paper Snape made you write yesterday," Jessica responded. "Don't want to leave it here, unless you want Snape to snap." She giggled, amused about her own silly joke.

An immediate gush of adrenaline made Lena's stomach clench. Hastily she turned off the water and wrapped the fluffy towel around her trembling figure.

"What are you talking about?" Her voice was squeaky as she padded back to her friend, her wet feet leaving small puddles on the floor. "I already turned it in last night."

Jessica gave her a confused look. "No, sweetie, it's still on the desk."

Holding her towel up, Lena ran over to her workspace and stared down in disbelief at the parchment that was patiently waiting for someone to pick it up.

"Oh Gods," she whispered, not caring about the mix of shampoo and water that was slowly making its way down her face.

"What's wrong?" Concerned, Jessica followed her and looked over Lena's shoulder, examining the essay in an attempt to determine what it was about the homework that upset her friend so much.

Lena spun around, helplessly looking for reassurance in Jess' deep green eyes. "But ..." she stammered. "But I turned it in yesterday." Her voice was nothing more than a mere breath, and in her panic she felt like repeating that statement would somehow help and make it a true fact.

Furrowing her brows, Jessica shook her blonde curls. "I'm not sure what you turned in, but it definitely wasn't your essay."

"Oh Gods," Lena cried out in despair. "I can't believe it! Oh Gods, he is going to rip my head off!"

Jessica blinked several times, not understanding what was going on. "You can still do it before class." Since her words didn't have the encouraging effect she had intended, Jessica gently touched her distraught friend's shoulder. "What is the matter, Lena?"

"I ...," she stuttered, her heart pounding furiously in her chest. "I can't tell you."

"Well." Frowning, Jessica crossed her arms over her chest. "We've been best friends since our first year here, and you don't want to tell me what's wrong? Don't you trust me?"

Lena let out a sigh of resignation. She hadn't meant to offend her. "Of course I trust you!" she quickly insisted. "It's just ... it's just ... I mean ... I don't know how to explain ... I ..."

"I see." Jessica gave her a crooked smile. "Is it about him?"

Lena's eyes grew wide. "Hm?"

"Oh please!" She rolled her eyes, smirking knowingly. "We both know who I'm talking about. You have such a bad crush on Snape it can only be about him. So tell me, what happened?"

"What?" Lena suddenly felt the need to sit down, so she slumped down onto the desk chair, staring up at Jessica with fiery red cheeks.

The blonde girl giggled. "Don't act so surprised. It's rather obvious, you know."

"It's obvious?" she repeated as if she was in a state of trance.

"Well, let's see." Jessica plopped down onto the bed next to her and pretended to think very hard. "You blush every time someone even just mentions his name, like now." She winked, obviously amused about Lena's embarrassment. "You stare at him with such huge puppy dog eyes, and they have that certain dreamy sparkle when you look at him. Also, you can't even form one coherent sentence when he is around, and you become so awfully clumsy it's not even funny. So yes, I would say it's more than obvious."

Lena swallowed hard. Her mouth was all of a sudden incredibly dry. "Do you ..." Again she tried unsuccessfully to force down the lump that was restricting her throat. "Do you think ... he knows?"

Jessica shrugged her shoulders. "Not sure. But he certainly isn't stupid, so I would assume he at least suspects something."

Covering her face with her hands, Lena let out a muffled cry. "I did something very idiotic last night," she began to confess through her fingers.

"Oh?" Jessica sat up straight, pricking up her ears.

"Yes," Lena whimpered. "Before working on that essay, I felt like writing down my feelings. How he never acknowledges my efforts, and how much it hurts that he always treats me so badly."

Jessica gasped. "Oh no! That's what you turned in?"

Now Lena dared to remove her hands from her face, giving her best friend a pleading look.

"I'm sorry," Jess said with true empathy after a few seconds of silence. "I guess now he does know."