Hearts are Blind (Severus Snape X OC)

The X & Samael

"Man, he looks like shit."

Lucinda turned to look at her friend. They were sitting in Potions class, working silently on the day's lesson. Aurora kept glancing up at their Professor, who'd been strangely quiet throughout the entire period. He hadn't even taken a lap through the room to criticize everyone's work, as he was known to do every single time they were in there.

"And I can't believe he didn't wait up for you..." she whispered, mostly to herself. "He looks like he was up all night, anyway."

"Why would he?" Lucinda whispered back. She didn't know why she lied to Aurora about what happened. Again, it was just one of those things that needn't be told. She still had detention with him. Filch never saw her. What would be the point in telling her friend all of that? Instead, to explain why she was so late coming back if Snape wasn't even there, she had told her that she was almost caught. She had to "hide out" for a while until the coast was clear. Aurora accepted this without a word of interrogation. No doubt, she'd had her own fill of late night wanderings; possibly even caught on more than one occasion.

Aurora shrugged in response to Lucinda's inquest. "Well, if he hates you, I guess he wouldn't wait."

Lucinda sighed and looked up. Snape had apparently been staring at her, because he suddenly flicked his eyes from her to Aurora.

"Borealis!" he snapped. "Stop mumbling over there!"

"Ah!" Aurora exclaimed, nearly knocking her cauldron off of its burner. She grabbed it just before it went teetering off. "What the f—!"

"Ten points from Gryffindor for the use of profanity," he sneered.

"I didn't even say it!"

The room had been so quiet that everyone jumped at Snape's sudden outburst. One of the students even spilled something acidic all over the table, because you could hear the sizzling of it eating away at the wood.

The Potions Master rolled his eyes, "And ten more points from Miss Aberdeen for ruining another table."

The whole class groaned.

"Same old Snape..." Gabe whispered from the other side of Aurora. Luckily, their Professor didn't hear that retort.

The rest of the class period went by in silence. Lucinda thought Professor Snape would ask her to stay after to speak with her about what happened, but he did not. Even when she went back that night to serve her detention, he hardly said anything to her.

"Your job is the Aberdeen table in the second row over there," he said, barely giving her his full attention. He sat at his desk, writing up the next day's lesson.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked, walking to the ruined table top.

"It needs to be refinished," he replied, flipping over the piece of parchment in his hand, studying what he'd written. "Without magic," he added, glancing up at her.

"Without—! How am I supposed to—?!"

"Well, what if there was no magic?" Snape retorted, placing his quill to the parchment again. "What would you do then?"

Lucinda stared at the table. Her face drew down into a painful frown. "If you've got magic, use it..." she mumbled.

Snape smirked, but the girl didn't see it.

x-x-x

Two hours passed and Lucinda was only halfway done with the table. She'd used wood filler that apparently Snape kept in the supply cupboard at the back of the room, just for occasions like this. Occasions that called for punishment... she thought bitterly.