The Name in Red **COMPLETE**

Hello! Here is chapter 10. Thank you SO much for all the great reviews! They make me so happy.


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The Name in Red.

Chapter 10: Powerful Forces.
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Sarah spent much of the following day attempting to avoid her friends. She was concerned that she would not be able to act normally in their presence after what happened with Snape last night. She would probably look even more shocked and dazed than she had after returning from her ride on Buckbeak. This might arouse their suspicion, and they might start asking questions. Then she might end up having to admit to them that she had kissed one of their teachers. Thinking it safest to steer clear of that potentially awkward situation, she remained in her room for most of the day.

Not having much to do while she was shutting herself in, she first spent some time practicing with the spells that she had learned so far. She had gotten reasonably proficient with them. Satisfied with her spellwork for the moment, she again began perusing the selection of books that her room had created for her. Picking out a medium-sized book which claimed to be full of detailed information about a wide array of spells, she sat upon her bed and began reading.

She leafed through the book casually, not focusing on anything in particular in too much detail. When she came across a section of the book entitled Mind-Affecting Spells, she became more interested and began to read it carefully. The Imperius Curse sounded very frightening, but it was another spell that attracted her attention. She could vaguely recall something that Snape had said in front of her, on her very first night in the hospital wing...

"I have no idea how she came to be here, but we need to Obliviate her immediately and return her to wherever she came from."

Obliviate. Sarah still did not know what this meant, and being so completely overwhelmed by everything, she had neglected to ask. Snape had wanted to have her Obliviated when she first arrived at Hogwarts, when he still thought she was a Muggle. What could this mean? It sounds painful, she thought to herself. Having found the same word in the section about Mind-Affecting Spells, she read the passage carefully.

Obliviate: Memory-Modifying Charm.

The Obliviate charm is a Memory-Modifying charm that can be used to modify or blank a person's memory of a particular incident. The use of this spell is highly regulated, as it is difficult to perform with no adverse consequences on the receiver. Poorly performed Obliviations can result in permanent, irreversible damage to the mind. For this reason, it is ideally only performed by professional Obliviators with the Obliviator Headquarters, centered in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes at the Ministry of Magic.

The most common use of this spell is to blank or modify the memories of Muggles who have inadvertently witnessed or been affected by magical events. This is taken care of by professional Obliviators with the Ministry. The spell has, however, been used illegally by witches or wizards in order to cover up crimes.

"Ahh, I see," she said to herself as she read the passage. She understood now. Had she been a Muggle, Snape wanted to have her memory blanked. This would insure that she wouldn't run around blabbing about what she had seen. That made sense, she thought to herself. It must be a tough job to keep the entire magical world a complete secret from Muggles.

Thinking a bit harder about what she had read, something about the passage struck her. Narrowing her eyes at the page, she re-read the short passage describing the Obliviation charm's chief use.

"The most common use of this spell is to blank or modify the memories of Muggles who have inadvertently witnessed or been affected by magical events. This is taken care of by professional Obliviators with the Ministry," she quietly read aloud to herself.

So there were professional people whose job it was to go around blanking and modifying the memories of Muggles who saw magic. Afterward, they would no longer have a memory of the incident, or have a completely modified version that would fit a logical Muggle explanation. This sounded awfully familiar to her. Running her fingers over the words on the page, she furrowed her brows.

When she had been a child and performed unintentional magic on the tree in the field at her school, the aftermath of the event had been just as mysterious for her as the event itself. She recalled how no one at the school had any memory of it, even the children who had been attacked. These children had also been completely healed, just as she had been by Madam Pomfrey. To top it all off, everyone at the school seemed to be under the impression that there had never been a tree there in the first place.

When she had described the incident to Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, she knew nothing of magic. Honestly, she did not know all that much more about it now. There was so much to know. She simply assumed that the magic she had inadvertently performed somehow produced the effect. No one could remember anything about it. Either that, or they were pretending not to. She had tried to forget about it herself, but it was all too real. She knew it had been real, even if she did not want to admit it.

The spell she had just read about added a whole new line to the equation. A big line. And none of it had ever added up to begin with.

She was sitting up in bed, the book spread open in her lap. She was staring quite blankly at the wall across from her as she thought.

That's not possible, she thought to herself. Could it be that all of those people at her school had their memories modified? It seemed so unlikely. She had never known anything about the magical world, and she had never been approached; the idea of an elite task force of memory-modifiers showing up at her school, immediately after the incident, seemed ridiculous. At the same time, it would certainly easily explain the phenomenon of no one having any memory of it.

Save for her.

No one had ever attempted to modify her memory of the incident. Only everyone else’s. And they had done a completely thorough job, if this was indeed the case. Maybe they had missed her? She had fled from the scene right after it happened...

No, she thought to herself. The book said these people are professionals. If they ever missed anyone, Muggles everywhere would find out about magic.

Then why had her memory never been modified? She could recall the entire thing flawlessly, and it was undeniable that she had performed magic.

Her train of thought continued to barrel onward.

If they had shown up so quickly, they must have known exactly what happened. Was there some way witches and wizards could tell who had performed magic, and where? She had no idea. Did this spell really explain what happened?

Her thoughts were sharply interrupted by a knock on her door. Looking toward it, she quickly shot up and closed the book. She tossed the book onto her bed where it landed very askew, and she ran to the door. Opening it, she saw Harry.

"Oh, hey Harry," she said, stepping back from the door and allowing him to enter. Harry walked a little ways into the room, but left the door open behind him. This gave the impression that he was just popping in.

"Hello Sarah," he said, looking her over. "We haven't seen you all day," he explained, "Hermione sent me up to check that you're alright. She's still a bit worried about you having fallen off of Buckbeak. She disapproves of my idea to have you take lessons with Hagrid."

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she said quickly. "Just fine. I just felt like staying in today, that's all," she stammered, looking a little flustered. Harry tilted his head at her. He could tell something about her was slightly off.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked. He then scanned the room to see if he could locate the source of her apparent distress. Nothing was amiss or out of place, except for a book lying in an awkward position on her bed, as if it had been hastily tossed aside.

"Yeah, I'm sure, Harry. Just fine," Sarah tried to assure him. "I'll come down to dinner later, okay?"

"If you say so," he said, giving her a small nod. He did not believe her, and his eyes were still full of concern. "I'll see you later, then." He turned to leave the room, but Sarah stopped him just before he could step out the door.

Maybe Harry would know, she thought to herself.

"Harry, wait a second," Sarah said anxiously.

Harry stopped in his tracks and faced her again.

"Hm?"

"I was just wondering," she began, trying to sound as smooth as possible, "Is there any way that someone can tell if you've done magic? Or where? Or even when?"

"Sort of," Harry replied. "The Ministry puts something called a Trace on underage witches and wizards. They're not supposed to do magic outside of school. That way, the Ministry can figure out of they've performed underage magic. It can't tell exactly who performs the magic, it just lets them know where it happened. It goes away once they turn seventeen. You don't need to worry about that, though, you're already old enough to do magic anywhere you like. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I was just wondering. That's all," she quickly replied. "I'll see you at dinner."

"Alright," Harry said, still regarding her with concern. Why had she wanted to know that so suddenly? Before turning to leave again, he eyed the book which was splayed awkwardly on her bed.

As soon as Harry shut the door, Sarah darted back to her bed and picked up the book. Riffling through the pages, she opened to the section where she had read about Obliviation. Looking it over again, she thought about what Harry had told her.

She hadn't been born in this country, where the Ministry was. It was impossible that she could have had a Trace applied to her, wasn't it? It had to be impossible. Yet somehow, what she had accidently done with the tree was neatly covered up, and quickly. Perhaps there was some sort of Wizarding authority in America, and they had applied the Trace to her?

If all those Muggles had been Obliviated, Sarah could think of only two explanations of how it had happened, and happened so very fast: Either a witch or wizard had been watching her and was immediately able to alert the proper authority to the goings-on, or she had some kind of Trace on her.

Either option was equally disconcerting.

If she was being watched, then someone must have known that she was a witch. Someone must have seen her perform that magic. Why, then, did no one from the magical community ever approach her to inform her of this?

If she had some kind of Trace on her, then someone must have already known that she was a witch from the very beginning.

She still did not understand a whole lot about the magical world. Harry had told her a little bit about the Ministry of Magic, but she did not fully understand how it worked, or everything it did. She did not know what this Ministry was capable of. Had it been professional Obliviators who payed a visit to her school?

She already knew her circumstances were strange. Unfortunately, they just got a whole lot stranger.


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Harry was slowly on his way back to the Gryffindor common room after his short visit with Sarah. As he walked along, he was thinking to himself. Sarah had seemed distressed about something, but about what, Harry did not know. Nothing about her outward appearance gave him any clues. She did appear to be just fine, and wholly uninjured after falling off the hippogriff. This would put Hermione's fears to rest.

Harry, on the other hand, only grew more worried. She didn't seem to be acting normal; it appeared as if she had been avoiding them all day, staying shut up in her room. She seemed out of sorts about something. From the looks of the book tossed onto her bed, she had been reading before Harry came knocking. He had noticed the book, but hadn't gotten a good enough look at it to be able to read its title or see what it was about. He wondered what she could have been reading about. Maybe something she had read about magic distressed her in some way.

Strangest of all, she had suddenly asked Harry about wether or not witches or wizards could somehow tell if someone else did magic. He had then told her briefly about the Trace, but he could not see why she would have suddenly become concerned with wether or not anyone knew she was doing magic. She was, after all, in the middle of a highly renowned school of it. There was no safer place in the world to do magic than Hogwarts. Why would she have started wondering about this, and asked him? Something obviously had her worried.

Harry was unable to come up with an answer. If she were worried that badly about something, he was confident that she would tell him about it. Maybe she would say something about it at dinner. At any rate, he would have to tell Hermione about it. She had been the one that sent him up there in the first place. She was completely uninjured, but Hermione would want to hear that she had been distressed, especially if there was a book involved in it.


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At dinner, Sarah was no less distressed than Harry had seen her earlier in the afternoon. In fact, she seemed even more nervous now. He had told Hermione about it, but they did not press the issue. If she wanted to ask or tell them something, she would.

Sarah had barely touched her food. Instead, she kept glancing around nervously. Every so often, she would ask Harry what time it was.

"What time is it, Harry?" she asked again.

Chewing a mouthful of dinner, Harry glanced down at his starry watch. Before he could swallow and answer her, Ron spoke up.

"About five minutes from the last time you asked," he said, laughing. "What's got you so worried?"

Sarah picked up her fork again, and looked down at her plate. Her face colored a little, and she poked at her food.

"Just don't want to be late, is all," she said quietly, trying to sound casual. She ate a few bites of food.

Ron recalled Harry telling him that Sarah was taking lessons with Snape every weekday evening.

"For what, your lesson with that greasy git?" he said. "Yeah, that's probably best. I bet he might try taking points away from Gryffindor if you were, or try to give you detention."

Sarah swallowed down her food, not having completely chewed it. After it went down, she started coughing. Taking a sip of water, she looked at Ron.

"He's not a greasy git," she choked out, a little defensively. Ron's eyes widened.

"What do you reckon he is, then?" he said, laughing a little. He had never heard anyone defend Snape like this before. Any other students at the Gryffindor table, and any other table aside from Slytherin, would have gladly joined in poking jibes at him.

"He's...," Sarah stalled, not being able to think of anything. Harry, who was sitting next to her, leaned forward and tilted his head to look at her face. Her blush grew. "I don't know! But I don't know why you guys seem to hate him so much," she huffed.

"It's not so much that we hate him. Well," Harry almost rethought what he said; before he had learned of Snape's true allegiance and the reasons behind it, he had hated him. Quite fervently, in fact. "He just hasn't exactly been very nice to us over the years. Or much of anyone for that matter, except for maybe a few Slytherins."

Sarah continued blushing and poking at her food. This was exactly the situation she had been hoping to keep herself out of all day. She was slightly relieved when Ginny arrived at the table, sitting down on Harry's other side and giving him a peck on the cheek. This drew some attention away from her defense of Snape. Harry colored a little, much like Sarah.

Quite eager to turn the conversation to something other than Snape, Sarah cleared her throat softly.

"There was actually something I wanted to ask you guys about," she said, hoping her friends would take this for the reason that she was so nervous. She didn't want them putting two and two together and finding out that she was actually nervous about going to see Snape. Ginny had turned away to chat with Neville, but Harry, Hermione, and Ron all looked up at Sarah intently.

"I was reading today, in my room," she began, "And I read about Obliviation."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other; they probably knew where this was going.

"It got me thinking," Sarah said, "What if... what if all those people, when I was a kid and accidentally did that thing with the tree... what if all of those people were Obliviated?"

"Actually, that's what we were thinking, too," Hermione admitted. "But we didn't want to tell you about it because we were afraid you wouldn't understand."

"I think I understand well enough now," said Sarah. "I read about the spell, and about how the Ministry of Magic has a division of people who do it professionally. They use it on Muggles who accidentally see something they weren't supposed to."

"That's right," said Hermione. "And they keep track of things like that all over the world."

"Someone knew what I did," Sarah said. She then turned to Harry. "That's why I asked you if there was some way to track magic. And you told me about the Trace."

Harry nodded. Ron's eyes were very wide. Sarah took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts about what she had concluded earlier. Before she could speak, Hermione jumped to the same conclusions.

"Either someone was watching you," said Hermione, looking quite thoughtful, "Or you had the Trace."

Sarah nodded vigorously at her.

"That's what I was thinking too," she said. "But then I can't understand why I lived as a Muggle my entire life. No one ever approached me. From the way things look, either way, someone had to have known I was a witch."

"I don't see any other explanation for the incident, other than all those Muggles having been Obliviated. It's the only thing that could have happened," said Hermione. Both Ron and Harry nodded in agreement.

"But what does it mean?" Sarah asked. Her expression was grave and confused. "It doesn't make any sense."

"You're right, it doesn't," said Hermione. "But there may be a way to find out for sure if someone knew you were a witch or not."

"How?" Sarah asked, her voice a whisper. During the course of their conversation, all three had lowered their voices significantly. It wouldn't do for anyone to overhear any of this.

"The Obliviator Headquarters has to keep records of things like that," Hermione explained. "If there is a record of it, it would specify whether or not they knew the source of the magical disturbance, and why it happened. That might tell us."

"There's a record of it?" Sarah asked, surprised. Unfortunately for her, she didn't have the foggiest idea of how powerful or far-reaching the Ministry was.

"It sounds like a good number of people were Obliviated," said Hermione, "I don't see how there couldn't be."

Sarah looked excited. Somewhere, there could be a record that would answer so many questions.

"That's the problem, though," Harry said as he turned to Sarah, sounding grim. "You don't exactly just walk into the Ministry and start asking for their records."

Sarah's expression shifted to disappointment.

"It's all just so suspicious," Hermione sighed.

"You can say that again," said Ron.

"Maybe we should ask Professor McGonagall about it?" asked Sarah, looking around at her friends. Their expressions still looked grim. "Maybe she would know some way to get a look at it."

"I don't think she would fancy the idea of soliciting the Ministry for records about an eighteen-year-old girl who showed up on Hogwarts' doorstep, not knowing she was a witch," Harry said gravely. His eyes then widened a little, thinking a bit more carefully about what he had just said. "In fact, I don't think it's a good idea for us to be asking around about it at all, to anyone."

Sarah looked confused. She knew her circumstances were strange, but she couldn't see the harm in trying to find out more.

"Look at it this way," Harry explained, "If the Ministry did happen to have something to do with that Obliviation, and knew you were a witch...," Harry seemed to be fitting the strange facts together in his head as he spoke. It was like trying to jam together mismatching pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in order to form a coherent picture. It just wasn't possible.

"But no one ever approached me," Sarah said.

"Exactly," said Hermione. "If that's the case, then we don't know why. It doesn't make any sense. Things having to do with the Ministry that don't make any sense aren't usually the types of things they want you to go poking around about. Those records aren't restricted for nothing."

Sarah sighed deeply.

"If there is a record of it," Hermione continued, "It will be in London, at the Ministry. Unfortunately, that places it farther out of our reach than just distance would alone."

Sarah felt terrible. She had already known her circumstances were strange, but before, she didn't have anywhere to look in order to find some answers. Now it looked as if those answers were there somewhere, but sitting just beyond her reach. This was even worse than being completely clueless.

Harry cleared his throat softly.

"We might be able...," he began, but Hermione cut him off.

"No, Harry. We're not sneaking into the Ministry again," she said firmly.

"I'm with you there," Ron heartily agreed, recalling the two terrifying experiences he'd had while infiltrating the Ministry with Harry and Hermione. "Still don't think those brain-scars have ever completely gone away. I've got another scar from splinching my shoulder, and I don't think I'd like to get any more."

"How else are we going to find out about all this?" Harry argued. "Come on, Hermione. Kingsley is Minister now, not a de facto Voldemort. If something went wrong, I'm sure he wouldn't let anything happen to us."

Hermione sighed a little. Kingsley was their friend, but she doubted that he would be willing to bypass Ministry security and break rules for them.

"I don't think it's a good idea, Harry," she said.

"I'm not saying I think it's a good idea, either," Harry pressed. "But I think that Sarah has the right to know if there are answers for her sitting there in some drawer down in London."

Sarah nodded eagerly. Hermione sighed. It would be difficult to argue with that.

Harry glanced down at his watch. It was five minutes until seven.

"We'll talk about it some more later," he said, and then turned to Sarah. Completely engrossed in their discussion about the mysteries surrounding her, she had forgotten to keep pestering Harry about the time. He raised his watch so she could see it.

When she saw the watch, her eyes widened. Harry noticed as another small blush spread across the bridge of her nose and tops of her cheeks. She gasped.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, leaping up from the table. "I'll see you guys tomorrow!" she yelled, as she sped out of the Great Hall. They all laughed as they watched Sarah hurry away in a state of panic.

Harry turned back to the table, and then turned to Ginny. He draped his arm around her shoulder and smiled at her affectionately. When she looked over at him to return his smile, he leaned into her and placed a soft kiss on her lips. She deepened the kiss a little, but Harry withdrew before it could go too far. He was at least modest enough to not be caught snogging in the middle of the Great Hall during dinner.

When he straightened up, his arm still around Ginny's shoulder, he looked thoughtfully into her face. The blush she was now wearing was oddly similar to the one he had seen on Sarah's face several times over the course of their meal. She had blushed that way when Ron asked her what she was so worried about, and she had told him that she didn't want to be late for her lesson. She had blushed even deeper when Ron had called Snape a greasy git, and she had gotten quite flustered in an attempt to defend him. When Harry had shown her what time it was, she had grown nervous and blushed slightly again. Ginny was now blushing the exact same way Sarah had.

Harry's eyes widened so much that they looked about ready to pop out.

"Oh no," he said quietly, turning back to the table and resting his head in his hands. Oooh no...

"What is it?" asked Ginny.

"Nothing... I hope," he sighed.


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Sarah sprinted down to the dungeons. Not having a watch of her own, she had no clue what time it was. When she reached the door to Snape's office, she was too concerned with being late to remember and knock. Instead, she simply burst through the door quite loudly.

When she flung herself inside the room, she saw Snape standing in the middle of the office. There was an open book in his hands, but he was looking straight at her, one eyebrow raised extremely high. She continued standing in the doorway for several seconds, panting, and staring at him. In her haste, she had not taken the time to mentally prepare herself for being in his presence again. She was paralyzed.

"I believe it is customary to knock prior to entering someone else’s chambers, Miss Garrend," he drawled at her. He then turned and walked toward his desk, placing the book down there. Facing her again, he leaned up against the desk and folded his arms over his chest. The girl still hadn't moved.

"I have already told you once before about standing in doorways not being very conducive to learning magic," he said.

Snapping back to reality, Sarah shook herself and shut the door. Still trying to catch her breath, she slowly approached where he stood, but kept a little distance. He was gazing at her with a sly sort of smugness.

Oh no, she thought to herself, I hope he isn't going to lord it over me all night because he kissed me. Oh god, he kissed me. It was almost as if she had forgotten up until this very moment. She blushed deeply and bit down on her bottom lip hard.

"Good evening, Miss Garrend," said Snape, thoroughly amused with the girl's reactions to being in his presence.

"Good evening, Professor," she replied, her voice very soft. Her eyes were extremely focused on his boots.

She had barely noticed that tonight he was not wearing his normal teaching robes; instead, he was dressed in a rather suave-looking button down collared jacket, with trousers and high black boots. The entire ensemble was all black, but there was a bit of white peeking out from his cuffs and collar. Despite being completely clad in black on the outside, his undershirt was white.

"This evening," he said, still looking down at her, "I thought we might do something a little more... physically engaging," he purred.

Sarah looked up at him, wide-eyed, but then immediately looked away. His tone and choice of words had been very intentional. Watching the girl squirm with her silly attraction was entertaining him to no ends. He barely kept himself from snorting aloud with amusement.

"What do you mean, Professor?" she asked softly, extremely nervous about the answer he might give her.

"What I mean, Miss Garrend," he said, reaching toward her and using his left hand to tilt her chin up as he so enjoyed to do, "Is that tonight I will be attempting to teach you a couple spells that you might learn if you were to participate in a dueling club. And I would also appreciate it if you looked at me while I am speaking to you," he removed his hand from her. Once again, the girl had trembled at his touch.

"Sorry," she said meekly, now gazing up at him, and looking petrified. She swallowed hard. "Dueling club?" she asked. She already didn't like the idea of dueling someone else.

"I believe that is what I said," he replied. "And as this particular lesson will require a more appropriate space, we shall be going elsewhere."

He straightened up and strode past her, toward the door.

"If you would please follow me," he said, opening the door and motioning out of it.

Leaving the room with him, Sarah followed Snape has he guided her through the castle. The route they were taking seemed to be familiar to her. When they reached the same seventh floor corridor that contained her room, she became confused. She stared at the blank stretch of wall, and then looked up at Snape.

"My room?" she asked quietly. The idea of having some kind of lesson with Snape in her own room was frightening and exciting at the same time.

"Not your room, Miss Garrend," replied Snape, stepping forward to the wall. "The Room of Requirement. It can become any room you need it to be." Having overheard Potter explaining the room's magic to McGonagall just after Voldemort's defeat, he knew how it worked. He had not, however, known exactly where it was until Sarah had given him a landmark by telling him about the tapestry resting on the wall across from it.

"As no one is currently inside, we will be able to change it into something else," he explained.

Sarah looked frightened.

"What about my room?" she asked. "Will it still be there afterward?"

"Yes, it will still be there," he replied. "Just the way you left it. Once we exit the room once again, you will be able to resummon the door that leads into your room the same way you always do, Miss Garrend."

Sarah watched as Snape paced back and forth in front of the wall.

I need the place where Potter used to practice with his pathetic little club. He repeated this over in his mind several times, concentrating hard. Soon, a set of double doors appeared. They were larger than the ornately-carved wooden door that would appear for Sarah's room, but not overly huge. Sarah's eyes widened as she saw the unfamiliar door materialize. She was awed by the amazing magic of this incredible room.

Stepping forward, Snape took a hold of one of the door handles and opened it, stepping aside for Sarah.

"After you, Miss Garrend," he said.

Thanking him softly, Sarah stepped inside. The room was high-ceilinged and huge. There were a few fireplaces lining the walls, as well as many sconces, and they were all lit, filling the room with warmth and light. Along the far wall, there were several bookcases stuffed with books, and several practice dummies resting on stands. The floors seemed to be covered with cushioned mats. Stepping in after her, Snape closed the door.

"This will provide us with a space to use when doing more physical work," he said, smirking as she colored again, and moving to the middle of the large room. "Tonight I will be attempting to teach you to disarm, and then stun an opponent."

"Opponent?" she asked, moving a little closer to where he stood. She sincerely hoped she was not going to run into any 'opponents' with whom she would have to exchange magical blows.

"Yes," he replied. "Should you ever need to defend yourself for any reason, these spells will prove highly useful." Snape moved to the far wall, picking up one of the practice dummies the room had created for him, and placing it closer to them on the floor. It was in the shape of a person wearing a mask and a hood. He smirked to himself. He had wanted the room to create practice dummies for him, but he had not specified that the room should create them in the image of a Death Eater.

"The first spell," he said, stepping aside and motioning to the dummy. In one of its hands, it was holding a fake wand. "Is the disarming spell. Properly and accurately performed, it will allow you to disarm a wand from your opponent's hand, placing it temporarily out of their reach. It can even knock them back if the spell is powerful enough." Snape smirked amusedly as he remembered knocking Lockhart on his backside in front of the students.

Sarah watched as Snape took about fifteen paces away from the dummy, and then turned to it again.

"Observe," he said.

He made a very precise-looking movement with his wand, which involved a quick turn of his wrist.

"Expelliarmus!"

The fake wand was neatly thrown from the dummy's hand. It flew through the air, landing on the floor a sizeable distance away. That would certainly keep someone from being able to reach their wand again quickly, Sarah thought. Sarah looked from the disarmed wand back to Snape.

"That is a properly performed disarming spell," he explained. "The wand is temporarily out of my opponent's reach. They would be able to regain their wand in a matter of seconds, but this has given me the advantage to try and prevent them doing so. Now would be an excellent time to stun."

His arm forcefully shot forward at the dummy.

"Stupefy!"

A jet of red light issued from his wand, and struck the dummy square in the chest. The effect was instantaneous; the dummy was thrown back several feet, falling to the matted floor.

"Ideally, if my spell was performed accurately and powerfully enough, my opponent would now be in a temporary state of unconsciousness," he said, walking toward the dummy and picking it up. He righted it again, and dragged it back to where it had been in the middle of the room. "This would have won me the duel, or allowed me the time in order to flee from an enemy."

"Performed weakly or inaccurately," he continued, "Or both, should the spell hit your oponent, it should at least daze them, but not render them completely unconscious. This is still better than having completely missed them, but with enough time and practice, you should be able to aim the spell proficiently. Aiming for the chest or head is key. Accio," he had pointed his wand at the fake one lying across the floor, summoning it to him, and then placing it back in the dummy's hand. He then stepped away from it.

"Now you try," he said.

"Try disarming it?" Sarah asked, reaching inside her robes and pulling out her wand. She raised it toward the target; she felt a little silly about practicing spells on a dummy.

"Yes," Snape replied, making sure he was far enough away from the dummy that the girl could not accidently hit him with anything unless she actually intended to. "If you become adequately proficient with this skill, we can move on to stunning. Please begin. The spoken incantation for this spell is 'Expelliarmus'."

"Alright," she said, a little unsure of herself. She eyed the wand in the dummy's hand. Taking a deep breath, she slashed her own wand through the air toward the dummy.

"Expelliarmus!"

She had managed to produce an effect, but not the desired one. The dummy was struck with an invisible force and fell over backward, but the wand did not leave its hand. Oh well, Sarah thought to herself, at least I managed to do something to it on my first try. Once again, Snape had made it look so very simple when he demonstrated for her.

Raising his wand, Snape caused the dummy to stand upright again.

"That, Miss Garrend," he said, "Was not so much a spell as a mad flailing of your wand. You merely applied an unfocused magical force to your target. This spell requires precision, moreso perhaps than any of the other spells you have learned thus far. Try again."

Nodding, Sarah raised her wand again. This time, she tried making a shorter movement with it.

"Expelliarmus!"

The force she applied was stronger this time. The dummy was knocked back slightly, and then fell over. Its wand was still in its hand. Snape raised his wand at it again, forcing it back upright and moving it to its original position. Sarah, whose eyes were on the dummy, did not notice when he began to approach her.

Standing behind the girl, he leaned down toward her and took a hold of her right hand which was gripping her wand. His head was just over her shoulder, his body close to hers. She stiffened. Moving the girl's arm for her, he raised her wand at the target. He was trying to instruct her on how to successfully perform the spell, but it had given him yet another excuse to bring himself close to her and test the girl's reactions. So very close to her neck, he breathed deeply. She had a very sweet scent, almost like vanilla.

"You are only trying to apply a force to a very specific location. Your spell needs to be very precise. Focus very hard on your opponent's wand hand, and nothing else," he said. Sarah shivered as she could feel his hot breath on her neck. It was going to be very difficult to focus on much of anything with Snape bearing down on her like this.

Squeezing her hand a little, he turned it to demonstrate a wand motion that would apply a more precise force.

"Try it like that," he said, stepping away from her and folding his arms across his chest as he observed. "No more of this inaccurate wand-waving of yours."

Sarah steadied herself. Experimentally, she attempted to repeat the same movement that Snape had shown her, without speaking. Thinking that she had done it correctly, she focused as hard as she could on the dummy's hand, and tried the spell again.

"Expelliarmus!"

This time, she had done it. The dummy was rattled a little from the force of the spell, and its wand flew from its hand and landed a short distance away. She hadn't placed the wand quite as far out of reach as Snape had, but she did manage to disarm it. Pleased with herself, she grinned and looked back at Snape. He nodded, moving forward and pointing his own wand at the fake wand in order to retrieve it. Placing it back in the dummy's hand, he stepped aside again.

"Try it a few more times," he instructed her.

Sarah managed to disarm the dummy several more times in succession. She still could not manage to do it as well as Snape had, but she could do it consistently. Her last attempt, she had even been able to knock the dummy back as well as disarming it. Resetting the dummy, Snape spoke again. This time, he had not bothered to place the dummy's wand back in its hand.

"Good work. Now you will try your hand at stunning," he said, placing himself quite a bit further away from where Sarah would be aiming. "I have already demonstrated this for you. It requires similar precision, but also control and steadiness on your part. The spoken incantation is 'Stupefy'. Easy enough. Now you try it."

He folded his arms across his chest, watching. Sarah nodded and looked back to the dummy. Raising her wand, her arm shot forward toward it.

"Stupefy!" she yelled.

She had managed to output a tremendous amount of force. Unfortunately, it was not entirely focused. As soon as the jet of red light left her wand, some of the spell's force had bounced back at her. The dummy was struck with the spell, and hurtled back a respectable distance. At the same time, Sarah was knocked off her feet, falling back to the matted floor. It cushioned her fall, but she was still a bit shaken.

As quickly as she could, she sat straight up in order to see what she had done to the dummy. She was pleased to see that she had struck it, and thrown it back quite a distance to boot. Snape smirked. Raising his wand, he corrected the dummy again.

"Recall, if you would, what I mentioned about control and steadiness, and try again," he instructed, looking down at the disheveled girl sitting on the floor.

Sarah stood up, straightening her robes. She even tilted her head far to one side, giving it a loud crack. Snape winced a little at this.

She took a deep breath, staring down the dummy. This time, she took a different stance. She turned, pointing her right shoulder toward where the dummy stood. This placed her left foot behind her, in order to help steady her should she be subjected to more force from her own spell. She raised her arm quickly.

"Stupefy!"

This time, she was not knocked off her feet. The dummy was once again sent flying back as the red light struck it. Some of the spell's force had pushed back on her, but she dug in as hard as she could. She had been forced back a few inches, but managed to stay on her feet.

"Better," Snape said, correcting the dummy again. Truth be told, he was quite impressed with the force the girl was managing to exert. Even so, the force would not be of much use to her if it was not completely controlled. A powerful and poorly-performed stun could be just as likely to injure her as the person she was aiming it toward. "But you need to be able to control it to the point where none of the spell's power backfires on you. You should not be thrown back with every stun you cast."

Sarah began practicing. Completely controlling the spell's force seemed to be difficult for her. Even on her best attempts, she was still pushed back slightly. She had even lost patience a few times and managed to get herself completely thrown back again. Cursing, she would right herself and try again. Snape smirked as he watched. The more and more frustrated the girl got, the more force she put forth with her spell, but even more of it would push back on her. She hit the mats several more times. When Snape began to become concerned that the girl may injure herself, he spoke up.

"Miss Garrend," he spoke sternly, "You need to calm down."

"Calm down?" she repeated, looking at him, and breathing a little heavily from her efforts.

"I am sure you have noticed how your progress has steadily gone downhill as your temper climbs ever higher," he said, giving her a little glare. He wasn't sure if her response was intended to impugn him at all, but he would none the less make it clear that he was not to be trifled with. After he had glared at her, Sarah straightened up and took a deep, calming breath.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she admitted.

"Learning these things requires patience," said Snape. "You have picked up on everything so far rather quickly, but do not become frustrated if a particular spell presents you with more difficulty. Every witch and wizard has their own strengths and weaknesses, but are quite capable of overcoming them."

"Alright," said Sarah, taking another deep breath. Having mostly calmed down, she began trying again.

About an hour later, she was finally able to cast the spell, still with a tremendous amount of force, without being affected by it. Snape reset the dummy again, this time replacing the wand in its hand.

"Now try them both in succession," he said. "If this were a real duel, or some kind of threatening situation, the faster you are able to perform the spells, the better."

Sarah nodded and raised her wand toward the dummy.

"Expelliarmus!"

The dummy was shaken slightly as the wand flew out of its hand. Sarah quickly rounded on it again.

"Stupefy!"

The dummy was blasted back by the jet of red light that issued from Sarah's wand. She looked to Snape, who gave a nod.

"Well done," he said, regarding her. "Since we still have some time, I believe we should next learn how to counter that particular spell. It is also a way to counter many numbers of different spells that can be directed at you, so it will be a very useful skill for you to learn."

He pointed his wand at the dummy, placing it back along the wall where it had originally been when they first entered the room. He then walked to the middle of the room, looking at Sarah. She looked a little confused.

"As dummies, unfortunately, cannot cast spells," he explained, "I will need to demonstrate the next spell using myself, and I will need your help to do so. Please direct a stun at me as if I were the dummy you were just practicing on."

"At you?" Sarah asked, sounding frightened. She had seen the force with which her spell struck the dummy. It probably would have a significant impact on a real person. She didn't like the idea of aiming one at Snape.

"Just trust me, Miss Garrend, and do as you are told," Snape sighed.

"If you say so...," she said quietly, looking concerned.

"And I will warn you," said Snape, "Be ready to move immediately after doing so."

"Stupefy!"

Just before the red light reached him, Snape made a downward sweeping movement with his wand.

"Protego!"

Sarah watched as her spell seemed to hit some sort of protective bubble around him, which shimmered and then disappeared. A split second later, her eyes widened in horror as she saw her own spell streaking back at her. She dove out of the way just in time, landing on her stomach on the floor, her arms over her head. She heard a loud thud as the spell struck the wall some distance behind her, and took a small chunk out of it.

She remained on the floor for several moments before rolling over, sitting up, and looking at Snape. She looked furious. Snape smirked a little.

"Jeeze!" she shouted at him, rising to her feet and straighening her robes. "That could have hit me!"

"I believe I did give you fair warning to move after casting your spell, Miss Garrend," he drawled, trying to hide his amusement at the girl's anger. "Unfortunately, it is difficult to demonstrate a shield charm without something to shield yourself from. I thought this was a much better alternative to simply giving you a brief explanation of the spell before I started firing hexes at you in order for you to learn it."

Sarah gave a little scoff. She could not argue with that, but she hadn't exactly been expecting to have her own spell rebound on her. She had heard Snape's warning to move, but couldn't imagine why she would need to. Now she knew.

"As you can see, the shield charm, performed properly, will protect you from many minor spells and curses, causing them to rebound upon the caster," Snape explained. "Many spells can be physically avoided with skillful or lucky dodging, but in order to protect yourself from well-aimed, fast-moving spells, you will need to learn this."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Sarah huffed, still a little angry with him. "Are you going to chase me around shooting at me with stuff until I can do it right?"

Snape smirked again.

"There are other, relatively harmless spells that we can practice with," he said. "I will cast one at you, and you will attempt to produce a shield charm to repel it. This charm will not serve to completely repel very powerful spells and curses, but it can still provide some partial protection against them. The spoken incantation is pronounced 'Protego'. Prepare yourself." He raised his wand toward her.

"Wait a second!" she yelled, glaring at him. "What the hell are you going to do to me?" She did trust the man, but the idea of having random spells cast at her while she tried to defend herself wasn't exactly appealing.

"Just trust me, Miss Garrend," Snape replied, rolling his eyes a little. "I would not intentionally harm you."

"Fine," Sarah huffed. She shifted to an alert stance, her wand at the ready. "Go for it."

Snape flicked his wand in her direction.

"Aguamenti."

A jet of water shot forth from the tip of his wand toward Sarah. She panicked and pointed her wand forward, not really concentrating on what she wanted to do.

"Protego!"

Unfortunately for her, nothing happened. She was doused with water. Sighing, she tried to wring out some of the water from her long hair and robes.

"Try again," Snape said, watching her. He tried to suppress the thought that she looked awfully good while soaked with water. "Prepare yourself."

When he saw her take a readied stance, he flicked his wand at her again.

"Aguamenti."

This time, Sarah shouted.

"Protego!"

She managed to deflect a small amount of the water, but she was doused again. Almost completely soaked, she lowered her wand and glared harshly at Snape. She couldn't help but feel that he was enjoying this. She was right.

Snape raised his eyebrows at her glare. Raising his wand at her again, she flinched and even jumped out of the way, but he did not utter a spell. He made a complicated movement with his wand, and Sarah instantly dried off, her clothes feeling very warm. She looked up at him again, still glaring.

"You should tell me what you're doing before you point that thing at me," she spat at him. He rolled his eyes a little.

"I will be sure to give you advanced warning next time before I dry you off," he said sarcastically. "Now try it again."

Half an hour, and dozens of drying charms later, Sarah had finally managed to produce a decent shield charm which repelled the water.

"Good," said Snape, raising his wand and clearing up the water which had rebounded to the floor. "Now you will try all three spells in succession. First, you will attempt to disarm me. Once I have retrieved my wand, you will cast a stun at me. I will reflect it back at you with a shield charm. You should have adequate time to produce one after casting the stun. After hitting your shield, the spell should lose its potency and fizzle out."

"Are you sure about this?" Sarah asked. She could now repel the water, but she wasn't too confident in her ability to repel a stun.

"As hard as this may be for you to believe," said Snape, sounding a little annoyed, "I have faith in your abilities, Miss Garrend. Should anything go wrong, however, I would be able to easily revive you from a stun. Now, are you prepared to try this?"

Sarah nodded.

"Then begin."

Sarah raised her wand, and flicked it his hand.

"Expelliarmus!"

She successfully disarmed him, but the wand did not travel very far. Taking only a few paces away, he was able to retrieve it again. He turned to face her and he nodded once, indicating that he was ready.

Sarah took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes a little. She was still angry at him for having doused her with water so many times, and even angrier about the little smirk he wore while doing it. She would have liked to get him back somehow. These were the thoughts that manifested themselves in her mind before she forcefully slashed her wand in his direction and shouted.

"Stupefy!"

The jet of red light burst forth from her wand. It hadn't been a perfect performance of the spell, because she had to dig into the floor to prevent being knocked off her feet. She immediately readied herself to produce a shield charm and repel the incoming stun. Unfortunately, the spell would not come back at her.

Making another downward sweeping movement with his wand, Snape had yelled,

"Protego!"

The sheer force of her spell was enough to shatter and pierce his shield. Most of the spell's power had been used up by doing this, but enough of it remained to strike him and throw him backward a small distance. He landed on his back on the matted floor, unmoving.

Terrified at what she might have done, Sarah immediately tossed away her wand and dashed over to where Snape lay. She dropped to her knees beside him and leaned over him, looking into his face. His eyes were closed. Sarah didn't know it, but he was quite conscious, and quite angry at what she had just done. He was just playing possum.

Sarah was frightened out of her mind.

Oh god, he's going to kill me, she thought to herself. Oh no... that is, if I haven't killed him. Please don't be dead, please don't be dead...

Sarah placed her hand on his neck and began feeling for a pulse. She ran her fingers over his large scar, and pressed down. Still very new to magic, she had no idea that a mostly-deflected stunning spell had about as much chance of killing somebody as a bat-bogey hex did. She sighed relief when she found a pulse, but quickly became terrified again when Snape's eyes shot open, glaring straight up at her.

Before she could react, Snape's arms shot up and grabbed her shoulders. He quickly used his momentum to roll her flat onto her back. He was now raised up above her, his hands resting on the floor on either side of her, pinning her down with his glare. He was fuming, his lank black hair hanging down.

"You wanted that to happen, didn't you?" he snarled at her. "You tried to break through my shield charm, didn't you?"

"I... I...," Sarah stammered. She couldn't find words. She was still terrified at this sudden shift in position, and now that she had an angry Snape partially lying on top of her, she was even more nervous. "I didn't mean for that to happen, I swear! I didn't even know I could do that! I didn't know!"

Snape continued glaring down at the girl, his black eyes boring into her. His expression softened, however, when he noticed her frightened eyes. It was not the fear that concerned him; the girl's glamour had faded. The eyes that were wide with fear and staring back up at him were a bright, blood red. He sighed, calming down. Sarah, who had been practically squirming with fear under him, settled a little she saw his expression soften.

Snape continued looking down at her, his expression now a little sad. He had assumed she had intended to break through his shield charm in order to hit him with her spell, giving him payback for all the dousing he had done to her. This had made him very angry. Having been brought away from his anger at the surprise of seeing her eyes returned to red, he realized now that even if she had wanted to do this, she was probably telling the truth in saying that she had no idea it was possible. It was impossible that she had actively tried to shatter his shield charm and hit him; that would be a daunting feat, even for most fully-trained witches and wizards.

The reason for his sad expression was that he felt disappointment at himself. This was the second time that his temper had frightened the girl into believing that he would hurt her. He had roughly grabbed her arm after it had been cut accidentally, which had literally caused her pain, as well as frightened her. Now, he had practically shoved her to the ground, and was holding her there as he angrily accused her of trying to hit him with her spell. Larger and much stronger than her physically, this hadn't been hard to do. He didn't want the girl to be frightened of him.

Sarah continued silently lying under him. She was looking up at him in confusion as she had watched his expression of anger melt away, and then change into one of sadness or hurt.

"I am sorry," Snape said sincerely, still looking down at the girl as he was raised above her. "I did not mean to frighten you like that. I should learn to control my temper," he said quietly.

Sarah's eyes widened. She was still looking up into his deep black eyes, which were now inexplicably filled with concern, and almost begging for her to accept his apology. He almost looked to her as if he were a frightened child who had just been caught doing something wrong, and was asking his parent's forgiveness. Somehow, it seemed that frightening her had caused the other, different Snape to emerge from him again. This, she realized, was the same Snape who had tenderly carried her inside the castle, and who had so carefully cared for her wounds last night. This was the same Snape who had kissed her. She let out a sigh of relief as the last of her fear faded.

"It's alright," she said softly, trying to reassure him.

He continued staring down at her for several more silent moments. Only now had the fact that he was practically pinning this attractive young witch to the floor become very real to him. He had kissed her last night, and she had let him. As he looked down into her face, he could see that same blush she had worn creeping back. The fact that she wasn't trying to squirm out from under him should have been assurance enough that she wasn't frightened or angry with him any more, but he wanted to be completely sure.

Shifting his weight so his left hand would support him, he slowly brought his right hand to her face, using it to gently brush back some of her hair. He felt as she shuddered under him, and her blush deepened. He knew how highly inappropriate this position was, but he didn't care. He then watched as her eyes made the telltale dip down to his lips and back up again. She wanted him to kiss her, he thought. Hoping to the gods that he was right, he leaned down and softly captured her lips.

He began experimentally soft at first, still unsure. All doubt was removed from his mind when she began kissing him back more forcefully than he had started. He leaned down even closer to her, now supporting himself with his elbows instead of his hands. He was rewarded with a small whimper. Encouraged by this, he carefully brought his tongue to her lips, gently seeking entrance to her mouth. He was thrilled when she accepted this. Together, they began kissing more deeply, tongues sensually exploring one another. All the while, he kept gently caressing the side of her face with his hand.

A few minutes later, Snape drew up for air, again supporting himself on his hands. Even with the roaring fireplaces, it seemed as if the room had suddenly become very hot. Somewhere deep in his chest, he felt pride. He had frightened the girl, but she had accepted his apology and even allowed him to kiss her deeply. If this wasn't proof that she was attracted to him, he didn't know what was. Why she was attracted to him, however, still remained a mystery.

Sarah, still blushing deeply, looked up at him. She was breathing a little heavily. He couldn't possibly be angry with her any more, she thought. Not after that. As he looked back down at her, she noticed that there was a touch of color on his normally pale face. Had she been the cause of that? The thought excited her.

Satisfied that the girl was still more than accepting of him, his lip twitched into an almost imperceptible smile. Giving her face one more gentle caress, he rolled off of her and stood. He extended his hand to her, looking down at her as she continued to lie there. Her red eyes were staring back up at him, with what he could only imagine was a combination of surprise and heat. After a few more moments, she sat up and took his hand. He carefully helped her to her feet.

Giving her a once-over to make sure she was alright, he nodded once.

"I think that will be enough for one evening," he said. Instead of pointedly looking away from him, as he had assumed she would, she was looking straight at him. Maybe his earlier request had gotten through to her. This did not stop her from continuing to blush deeply, and look very nervous.

"You did very well," he said, turning away from her and striding back across the room to where she had dropped her wand. Sarah slowly followed after him. Stooping down, he picked up her wand. Turning back to face her, he held it out to her by the tip. "I doubt that most of my students would be able to master so much in just a single evening. Well done."

Sarah took her wand from him.

"Thank you," she said softly. She wished that she could always interact with this Snape, instead of the 'normal' one. Although, the latter was not without his own charms.

Snape then strolled over to the door, holding it open for her.

"Allow me to escort you back to your room," he said, motioning outside into the corridor. "Fortunately, it shall be a much shorter trip this evening."

Giving him a small smile, she walked past him into the corridor. Shutting the door behind him, Snape stepped aside to allow the girl space to re-summon the door to her room. She paced back and forth in front of the door they had just exited several times. It very quickly disappeared and rematerialized into the familiar ornately-carved door, but she made no move to open it. She knew that Snape would step forward and open it for her, and he did just that. She stood before him and thanked him softly, looking up into his eyes.

"Before you retire, Miss Garrend," said Snape, "I am afraid that I must reapply the glamour to your eyes. It seems to have faded at some point over the course of the evening."

"Oh, okay," Sarah replied. She hadn't even felt it or realized that it had happened. She would have to be mindful of this in public. Having her eyes suddenly turn red could be disastrous. She took a deep breath, knowing what was coming.

Snape stepped forward and raised his wand to her eyes, and placed his left hand underneath her chin to tilt her head up. He almost smiled a little, because it looked as if the girl had been expecting him to do that. He gave his wand a small flick, concentrating on applying the glamour with particular potency. He did not want it to be fading again at an inopportune time.

Sarah winced as her eyes stung a little. When Snape released her chin, she rubbed at her eyes.

"I am sorry," he said. "I applied it more strongly this time, to ensure that it will not fade again when you do not expect it."

"Yeah, that would be pretty bad," Sarah said, taking her hands away from her eyes and looking up at him again. They were now restored to their original shade of deep, dark brown. Snape was still standing quite close to her, and did not back away. Starting to blush again, she looked up at him expectantly, her eyes darting once again to his lips.

Snape's eyes widened a little as he observed the girl's actions. His heart sped up. She wants me to kiss her again, he thought to himself. This is insane, he thought, as he leaned closer to her. He didn't care if it was insane. She did not back away. Giving in to her apparent desire, he captured her lips again. Their kiss quickly deepened as it had before. Pretty soon, Snape found that he had placed one hand in her hair, the other on one of her hips, and had backed her up against the wall beside the open door. He opened his eyes as he realized this, and gently withdrew from the kiss, taking a small step back. He didn't exactly want to be caught in a passionate embrace with the young girl in the middle of a corridor like some hormonal teenager.

Sarah looked up at him, breathing a little heavily. She swallowed hard as she too realized what had just happened. Turning her head from side to side, she glanced up and down the hall. The corridor was dark, but she was certain that there wasn't anyone else present. Snape surreptitiously repeated this action, wanting to be absolutely sure that they were alone. Both of them let out small, simultaneous sighs of relief.

Looking back to the girl, Snape took a hold of her right hand and bent down, bringing it to his lips. He placed a soft kiss upon it. Somehow he knew, after having kissed her like that, he could not just simply say goodnight to her and walk away as if nothing had happened.

"Until tomorrow evening, Miss Garrend," he told her softly. Giving her a small bow, he turned and walked off down the corridor, leaving Sarah leaning up against the wall.

Entering her room, Sarah slumped back against the door and slid down it again. Somehow, this had become quite a routine position for her after returning to her room for the evening. She knew she had pretty much just made out with her Professor. At the same time, she knew that she hadn't been the one who initiated it. She would have been stupid to think that her attraction to him wasn't at least a little bit obvious, but she hadn't been the one to start kissing him. Could it be possible that he was also attracted to her? It seemed impossible. He was so much older than her, and she could not see what a seasoned wizard would want with a young witch who barely knew anything about magic or the world he lived in. Still, he had been the one who had kissed her. There could be no denying that fact.

Still dumbstruck at the entire situation, Sarah readied herself for bed. As strange as the situation was, she could not deny that she had greatly enjoyed it, and even desired it.

On his way back down to the dungeons, Snape was busy wondering what such an attractive young witch would want with a much older wizard. He was also sincerely hoping that the corridor had indeed been empty. He would make a mental note, not to make the mistake of snogging her in an open corridor again.

Unfortunately, the corridor had not been as empty as it appeared.


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Back up in the seventh floor corridor, Harry was sitting against a wall, underneath his invisibility cloak. He had not moved for several minutes. He was completely agape at what he had just seen.

Sarah's apparent strange reaction at anything having to do with Snape had been bothering him for the rest of the evening. He had seen the same blush Sarah had worn on Ginny's face after he had kissed her. He had assumed he was jumping to conclusions, as he tended to do, but he wanted to find out for sure. He was concerned that perhaps maybe Snape had done something to Sarah, and that was the reason why she was so concerned with being late. Maybe she was frightened of him.

Unable to settle down for bed, Harry had snuck out under his cloak and headed up to the Room of Requirement. He thought Sarah should be back from her lesson by that time. If she wasn't, he would simply wait for her to return.

When Harry entered the corridor, the sight he was met with shocked him so much that he had jumped around the corner again, as if they would be able to see him under his cloak. Sarah was indeed back from her lesson; and there she was, up against the wall next to the open door of her room, being kissed quite passionately by Snape. Snape.

Harry had never even seen Snape so much as smile, let alone kiss anyone. Harry had sunk down to the floor, eyes wide, and his mouth hanging open in surprise. Luckily, the kiss only lasted a couple more seconds. Harry watched as Snape kissed Sarah's hand, and left the corridor. Sarah had then entered her room and shut the door. The wall became blank again as Harry watched the door disappear.

Even after all he had been through in his life, Harry doubted that he had ever seen a stranger sight. How had this happened? He continued staring at the empty stretch of wall for several more minutes, trying to process it. The idea of Snape kissing anyone was just... unheard of. Unthought of. This had been one of the few times when Harry hoped that the conclusions he'd quickly jumped to were incorrect.

They weren't.

He wasn't about to tell a soul what he had just witnessed, but he would have to approach Sarah about it.


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A/N: There you have chapter 10! I do hope you enjoyed it. It was very fun to write. More to come soon! Please leave a review if you would be so kind :) Thank you for reading !!