Dianthus Stories
Chapter Ten - Back to School
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Anything you
recognize belongs to someone else, namely, JK Rowling.
the HP universe, characters from same.
Sadly, I have no hope of publishing this story outside the fan fiction
characters I’ve created. Feel free to
give me critical feedback, including flames and harsh criticism.
personal embarrassment, but I do promise to read it and incorporate it if I
feel it improves the story.
*****
This is Chapter
Ten. Smut begins in Chapter Twenty Six,
so if you’re only looking for that, feel free to skip ahead.
of the stuff in those later chapters if you don’t stick it out.
*****
Chapter Ten – Back
to Scho:p>o:p>
“I wonder where
Professor Incompertus is,” Dianthus said, craning her neck to look at the staff
table. The Potions instructor’s usual
seat was empty, and she couldn’t find the ancient professor anywhere near the
staff table. She hadn’t seen him
throughout the opening feast, and it was almost over.
to introduce the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, a meek-looking
young man named Professor Quirrell, and now they were
all busy tucking into dessert.
“Maybe he’s still
toddling up from his office,” yawned
sleepy.” She shook her head, and her
glossy black hair fanned out over her shoulders.
roommate kept her hair short. Since
their third year, however,
grow, and now it hung straight and shiny, almost down to the middle of her
back.
“Did you ever have
any luck with your experiment?” asked Melanie, who was blonde, and still as
terribly pretty as she had been the first time Dianthus met her.
she didn’t belong in Ravenclaw. Now,
while not the top student in their year, Melanie had blossomed into a bright,
easy-going girl. Being Muggle-born, she
had taken a lot of teasing until the untimely demise of
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the previous fall, but she said it didn’t bother her,
and Dianthus believed her.
Martine, the final
of Dianthus’ roommates, was busy cuddling with her boyfriend Grant Bellows, and
was not participating in the conversation.
Martine, who was definitely the most boy crazy of them all, had started
going out with Grant just before the end of their sixth year, and the other
girls were quite tired already of hearing her sing his praises.
Martine seemed to tire of her boyfriends very quickly, although she seemed
genuinely fond of them while she was with them.
Dianthus didn’t see how she could transfer her affections so easily like
that, but it seemed to work for Martine.
“Yeah, Di, tell
us,” urged
“Still turning to shit?”
“Yes, and that’s a
lovely way to put it, thank you,” said Dianthus irritably.
Incompertus, you ninnies. Grandpa thinks
maybe he can help me. We weren’t able to
make much headway over the summer. But
Incompertus seemed to think I was on to something last year.
“I
head Dianthus. “Seems like a pipedream
to me. A potion that you can drink that
will heal an open wound? I’ve never
heard of it.”
“Obviously you
haven’t heard of it,” Dianthus snorted.
“I haven’t invented it yet.” The
three girls giggled together.
“I think you’re
mad to still be taking Potions,” said Melanie, airily, as she took another bite
of the enormous bowl of iceam eam they were all sharing.
after we took our O.W.L.s as I was that one.”
“Yeah, well, you
two never really liked it, anyway, did you?
here she raised her voice, “since the gorgeous Grant came into our lives.”
“Oh, no, her mum
won’t let her drop,”
keep it up, even if the radiant Ravenclaw isn’t in it with her.”
“I’m hearing you,
but I’m not listening to what you’re saying,” sang Martine, even as she moved
to nuzzle even closer into Grant’s neck.
Then she gasped, staring behind her boyfriend’s back toward the doors to
the great hall. “Oh, shit!”
his chagrin, and twisted in her seat to face the roommates.
Dianthus! Isn’t that – isn’t that–”
But Dianthus had
turned her head at Martine’s exclamation, and she too was staring toward the
end of the great hall. The doors had
just closed behind a tall, thin man with black hair and very pale skin, and he
strode quickly toward the staff table, his robes billowing behind him.
with the Headmaster, he made his way down the table to a seat – Incompertus’
seat, as it happened to be the only one available – and threw himself into it,
looking as if he’d rather be in the embrace of mountain troll than be in the
great hall.
He sat very
straight in his chair and folded his arms over his chest.
hair wasn’t quivering. He threw a
vicious look at Quirrell (of all people), who kept
his own gaze fixed determinedly on his plate.
Then he scowled over the four house tables, turning his head slightly to
take in each one, although he didn’t seem to recognize Dianthus.
over her as easily as it slid over the rest of the students.
She felt like the
entire thing had happened in slow motion, although it only took a few
seconds. His skin finally cleared up, she thought, randomly.
eyes and open mouths. Indeed, Melanie
looked close to hyperventilation.
“Maybe it’s not
him,” said
“He didn’t have a
twin,” said Melanie in a harsh whisper.
At that moment,
fell upon the great hall. Even
would never dare whisper while their beloved Headmaster stood before them.
Dianthus hoping with all her might that he wouldn’t say what she knew he was
going to say.
“I would like to
introduce,” he said, in a carrying voice that rang through the hall, “our
second new staff member. I am sorry to
announce that Professor Incompertus decided to retire at the end of last term.
filled his position quite admirably, as our new instructor has proven himself
to be very adept in the field. Please
welcome Professor Snape.”
Dumbledore motioned
to the dark-haired man. Snape rose to
stand, stiff and unsmiling, in front of the students.
the roommates joined in, and he bowed slightly at the waist and sat quickly
back down. “Let us all get to bed now,
so that we may begin our new year refreshed.”
Dumbledore beamed at all of them, and settled back into his chair.
Without looking
right or left, Snape pulled several plates of food toward him, and began to
pile chicken and potatoes onto his plate.
Dianthus sat transfixed, unable to move or take her eyes from him.
three months. She had never understood
how he stayed so skinny.
recovered first, as she usually did. She
whispered, “Oh, fuck, it is him. Let’s
go.” The four roommates gathered up
their bags and joined the mass of students now leaving the hall.
lead the way, and that they walked close behind her, as if to shield her from
view of the staff table.
Once out of the
great hall, they broke into a run together and dashed all the way to Ravenclaw
tower. Experience led them through
several shortcuts, and they made excellent time.
and up the stairs before anyone else made it back to the tower.
“I don’t know why
you’re all so freaked out about this,” panted Dianthus, once they were safely
in their dormitory. “So Severus is teaching
here. Good for him.”
She had done some
quick thinking on their swift, silent trip to the Ravenclaw living quarters,
and had decided casual was definitely the way to go.
other topics, and quickly, in five minutes they’d all be laughing off their
shock.
immediately growled, “Cut the bullshit, Di.”
She gestured toward Melanie and Martine, who were sitting on the edge of
Dianthus’ four-poster bed. “The three of
us remember, only too well, how you waited all second year for even one owl
from that fucker. How many owls did you
send him?”
“Yes,” replied
Dianthus, in her most reasonable tone of voice, “but when it became apparent
that he wasn’t going to write me, did
I sit around and cry? No.
write me.”
She hadn’t
real the they had noticed her bruised feelings over the fact that he was as
good as his word. They were all very
careful not to mention his name after the end of their first year.
days that she might be writing him, they would ask if she was writing “that
kid”. She herself had rarely thought of
him after their second year. She had
made many other friends – although none as intriguing as he had been.
it was, without looking at a watch. None
who liked to insult her and compliment her, all in the same breath.
“It’s not like he
was my boyfriend,” she reminded them. “I
was a little kid, and he was an adult.
He probably didn’t even know what to write me about.
“You thought he
was your friend, though,” said Melanie, in a small voice.
“Bastard,” added
a fiercely protective look on her face.
Dianthus threw
herself down on her bed behind Melanie and Martine.
doesn’t even remember me. Anyway, now
he’s our teacher, so that’s that.”
“Not my teacher,”
said Erin and Melanie together.
Dianthus
smirked. “How nice for
you.” She cocked an ear toward
the door, and beyond it she could hear the faint rumble of many students
talking and laughing downstairs. “Come
everybody coming back from the great hall.”
They trouped down the
stairs together, and Dianthus chatted gaily with everyone she knew, and some
people she didn’t, until the prefects declared lights out and everyone headed
back to their dorms. Melanie, Erin, and
Martine kept throwing her dark looks, but she pointedly ignored them.
“Di,” began
Melanie, when they were back in their room.
“Don’t,” said
Dianthus shortly. “We’ll just have to
see how it goes.”
Exhausted, she
threw on her pajamas and crawled into bed.
Once under the blankets, though, she could not fall asleep.
how she felt. The best she could come up
with was that it felt weird seeing Snape
after so many years. She had been ten,
just a baby re, wh, when she’d met him, and eleven, still a baby, when he’d
graduated. She had thought he was
teasing her when he’d said he probably wouldn’t write her.
Turned out, he
wasn’t teasing her about that. Her
feelings had been hurt, true, but she didn’t hate him, like
seemed to. She had missed him for a
while, and she had missed the time they had spent playing chess, which was what
introduced them in the first place. She
thought of the chess set he’d given her on her eleventh birthday – it was at
home, in a drawer in her desk. She
hadn’t played much since her first year.
None of her friends like to play chess, and she hadn’t really enjoyed
playing alone anymore.
Truth be told, she
hadn’t wanted to play chess with anyone else, somehow, after spending all those
nights being harassed by him. Her
grandpa was far too nice, he talked constantly while they played, and Dianthus
beat him consistently the summer after her first year, thanks to Snape.
on her studies, too. He could be a nasty
fuck, but he had taught her a number of important lessons.
Lessons.
she groaned quietly. “I’m going to have
to call him Professor!”
snort. With this irritating thought
still circling in her head, Dianthus finally dropped off to sleep.