Shadows || A Severus Snape Fanfiction

Chapter 4 - Detention

A/N: Woah, the classic 'detention with Snape' chapter already! lel

Just wanted to say I hope there's someone out there who kinda enjoys this c: It's fun to write - I've never tried to write anything before - I thought I would write a chapter and get bored but look how far I've got!

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The castle was strangely quiet. It was the last Hogsmeade weekend in the lead up to Christmas, meaning almost every student in the third year and above had rushed off to purchase armfuls of presents in the form a Zonko's joke products and Honeydukes sweets. Everyone... except Asha.

The dungeons were icy-cold this time of year and Asha was regretting not wearing anything warmer than her usual black hoodie and her deep blue scarf, gifted to her by Maive during her first year at Hogwarts.

Even though several days had passed since Asha had decided she was going to check the restricted section of the library, she had refrained from taking action. She'd figured her best chance of not getting caught, and hence being able to find what she was looking for, was to wait until the Christmas holidays. During this merry time of year, the majority of staff and students would leave the castle to spend time with their families, meaning the enforcing of school rules would be more relaxed and the corridors would be far less patrolled after hours. Thus, Asha was forcing herself to endure her burning curiosity for a couple more weeks.

She pushed open the heavy wooden door to the potions classroom and slipped inside, returning her hand to her comparatively warm pocket as quickly as possible. Snape was sitting at his desk marking homework and didn't look up. A violent shiver ran down Asha's spine. How was it possible that it was several degrees colder in here than it was out in the drafty corridors?

"It's freezing in here," Asha said into the silence, "don't you ever light a fire?" before remembering where she was and why she was here and quickly adding  "-sir".

"I'm glad you noticed," said Snape with a malicious gleam to his tone, still not bothering to look up, "I thought a slight chill might help the message sink in."

"Slight? This is practically arctic," Asha muttered.

Snape finally looked up from his parchment-covered desk.

"Careful" he warned, his voice dangerous, "you're not here to make complaints."

"No, sir," said Asha. She walked further into the classroom.

"Now, what is there for you to do?" Snape mused. "Shall I get you mending cauldrons? Or perhaps scrubbing the floors is more appropriate." His eyes seemed to shine a little brighter in the candlelight.

"This is my first ever detention, you know?" said Asha, "so perhaps you could go easy on me." She flashed a well-practised small, endearing smile.

"Yes, I remember generously deciding not to give you detention last year, after catching you in the library in the middle of the night. Evidently that was a mistake or you wouldn't be standing here now, disturbing my peaceful Saturday. Wouldn't you agree?"

That wiped that smile off Asha's face. After an uncomfortable silence, Snape indicated a large stack of boxes in the corner and told her she would be unpacking their contents - mostly ingredients and brewing equipment - into the store cupboard, without the use of magic of course. She suspected he had purposefully placed the boxes at the furthest possible distance from the storeroom.

After forty-five minutes of monotonous walking back and forth, carrying as much as she dared (Snape had assured her that if she broke anything he would extend her detention by at least an hour), the stack in the corner did not seem to have shrunk at all. Asha had been keeping her eye on Snape for the past fifteen minutes and swore he had not looked up from his work once. Feeling daring, she slid her wand from her pocket and non-verbally levitated an entire box worth of ingredients so they were hovering just above her outstretched arms. That way, if he glanced at her briefly it would still look as though she were carrying the ingredients manually.