A Ghoul's Warning

Hear the Fear

The crackling of the fire echoed through the gloomy dark stone room deep in the dungeons of Hogwarts. The fire's light made the glass bottles, flasks and vials sparkle no matter their contents, especially the glass with ice and an amber liquid in the hand of one Severus Snape. The pale skin glowed in the light, but neither the fire's playful light or comforting warmth did nothing to brighten up the scowl that was firmly set on the professor's lips.

The glass was tipped slightly disturbing the ice inside and pouring the last of the Amber liquid passed the professor's lips. With only the ice left in the glass it was set on the side table next to a half empty bottle of more amber liquid, which was labeled Fire Whiskey. Long pale fingers wrapped around the bottle's neck and poured its contents into the glass. As the bottle was set back into its place Severus's dark eyes spotted the desk covered in papers. The sight simply made his scowl deepen and his focus shifted back to the fire as the long fingers recaptured the now full glass.

As the amber liquid in the glass reached its end again and those long fingers reached for the bottle again something made Severus stop. It was faint, but there was definitely a sound coming from the other side of his door. Not close to his quarters by any means, but still it was easy to tell something metallic fell down the stone steps leading to his door. Thoroughly annoyed by this noise he released the bottle and with a dramatic flourish of his robes he left to investigate.

Severus showed no sign of having consumed over half a bottle of whisky. In fact, he seemed a little more relaxed as he opened the door of his living quarters to peer into the dark hall. The sound of creaking metal prompted him to pull out his wand and drench the hall in light.

The professor's dark eyes instantly zeroed in on what was making the irritating sound. His long legs quickly carried him over to the small metal object and the pale fingers wrapped around the feather jutting out of the top of the culprit. The wiggling object was raised up for closer inspection and without a doubt it was the helmet of one of the charmed suits of armor from the upper floors. Really there was only one reason for the helmet to have traveled all the way down here and the poor student who knocked the suit over had better run for Severus was briskly climbing the stairs to find them.

Of course, irritation was high both for the professor and the charmed helmet which seemed quite upset to be away from its body. Each step seemed to increase the tension making the danger for the student dumb enough to be out after curfew much worse. With the last step traversed Severus let the light from his wand light up the area. The black eyes narrowed as he saw motion behind a bench.

"Come out." Severus said harshly and he made sure the foolish student knew they were caught. With one graceful flick of and the entire bench floated upwards exposing the foolish student. "Mr. Potter. Why am I not surprised?" He said harshly. Despite the fact that Harry's back was facing him he knew who it was. After all, the messy hair and glasses perched on the head were a dead give away.

"I can't see, Professor Snape." Harry murmured.

An annoyed scowl made its way to Severus' lips, "Perhaps putting your glasses on might help." His irritation increased sharply when the boy just seemed to tilt his head as if looking at the floor in some half assed attempt to search for the glasses. "They're on your head." The potion master growled, his patience was wearing thin fast and it was only made infinitely worse by it being the last night at school before summer. There was no time left to properly discipline the arrogant boy.

Harry, who still hasn't faced the potion master, slowly touched his head and moved the glasses down to where they'd be the most useful, "I still can't see, professor."

A furious Severus stepped over to the boy and grabbed his shoulder, "I've had enough of your arroga-" The words died in his throat when he forced Harry to turn and face him.