The Tenth Rule

No matter how hard she tried, Alice could not answer the questions in front of her. How could she? She hadn’t even read eighteen and nineteen to answer them! She felt an overriding panic. Had she really spent that long in erotic suspension? Snape had ceased his endless erotic manipulation of her body, but the aftermath of it continued to linger inside her. Having been tormented for the best part of the entire lesson, Alice felt as though her whole body was dissolving. She had never experienced anything like it before. Her head swam, her eyes failed to focus, her thigh muscles twitched almost invisibly beneath her skirt. She ached with need and unfulfilled lust. She felt unbearably wet and swollen and to add to her utter chagrin, the slick wetness now lined the insides of her upper thighs and she desperately hoped that when she stood there wouldn't be any evidence on the seat or her skirt. Alice felt helpless and dismayed at the predicament she found herself in. Her eyebrows creased into a frown as she observed the last few grains of sand trickle through the timer.



"Stop writing."



Alice's breath came quickly in her throat, and she pressed the back of her hand against her mouth to muffle it. So many emotions flooded through her at his announcement, she couldn't quite grasp what to do – other than sit in dumfounded disbelief that she hadn’t done any work at all. She felt the whimsical urges to laugh, to cry, to make any sort of sound that would provide an outlet for her frustration and her fear.



The rustling of shuffling papers, quiet mutterings and the closing of textbooks and the opening of schoolbags filled the air. Alice glanced desperately at her blank page, at the quill poised between her fingers - it seemed to be more decorative than anything else at that moment in time.



Without moving from his position behind the desk or even looking up, Snape continued to make notes on the essays in front of him whilst addressing the class.



"As you leave-” He suddenly looked up when he heard the collective clatter of scraping chairs as over eager pupils rose from their desks to leave the room. They froze in their tracks at his chilly stare.



“- as you leave in an orderly fashion; place your essays on my desk. As usual they will be marked and returned for your next lesson… If only your work could be as reliable."



Professor Snape returned the lid onto the marble box and placed it in his top drawer as, one by one, the pupils reluctantly walked slowly to the front of the class, holding their essays as if they were a peace offering and depositing them neatly on the corner of Professor Snape’s large desk as he eyed them coldly, to then depart the room quickly before he had a chance to sting them with a caustic comment.



Alice made no attempt to move, she had been ordered to stay behind if she hadn't completed her work and continued to stare blankly at the paper before her. She had to resign herself to the fact that she was going to be punished. Fright burned through the mists of her arousal. As much as she had enjoyed her past punishments, she knew that Snape would push her further. He had complete control, and had demonstrated that quite eloquently - with great personal risk, he had aroused a pupil to distraction in front of an entire class. He was confident and assured enough to do that. Having gone this far, Alice could not bring herself to imagine what he would do to her privately now.



Her desk being nudged broke her from her thoughts. Alice's head snapped up, and her eyes met Bethany's. Alice had never seen them like that before - Bethany's eyes were dark anyway, but now they seemed to be brimming with what Alice did not want to recognise. Curiosity, resentment, jealousy. Her one ally was slowly, darkly, turning against her.



Alice's palms splayed across her blank paper, looking up apologetically at Bethany. Why she felt the need to apologise to her she didn't know, or didn't want to know. Suddenly realising that her legs were still wide apart, Alice's eyes widened as her feet slid together. She licked her lips and looked shamefully down at the desk. Her eyes travelled sideways to glance at Bethany, and she could not help but notice her friend's work. Page after page, filled with Bethany's neat writing.



Was Bethany genuinely beginning to atone? In their initial detentions, she had been a model student, but the mask eventually began to slip. No doubt it was something to do with her attraction to Snape, but Alice couldn't help thinking that this complete reversal seemed odd to say the least. Alice wondered if she was trying to win Snape's approval. Her stomach tightened at the thought.



"Miss Beddows? What is the matter?"



Snape's voice, almost a murmur but clear enough for the remaining class to hear, dispelled the moment between the two girls. Bethany glanced up and cleared her throat, cheeks flushing slightly.



"Nothing Sir, I..nothing."



Her shoes loud on the stone floor, Bethany took a step forward and placed her essay proudly on the desk. Emboldened and perhaps even spurred on by her envy at Alice's situation, she allowed herself a moment to linger before Snape. It was a matter of seconds, but it was enough for him to feel her eyes rest upon him. Her heart was thunderous in her chest, and it felt like it would burst from her ribcage when his gaze locked with hers.



"What is it, Miss Beddows? Is there something distracting you; some...problem that you feel requires my attention?"



Bethany felt her throat tighten. His confidence at even insinuating at what had occurred between them excited and embarrassed her in equal measures.



"I…"

He
He looked at her once again, but his eyes were now cold and distant. He was silently urging her to leave. She felt young and flustered, naïve and inexperienced. For all her attempts at seduction, she fell flat when she was faced with a true sensualist.



With one final look at her essay as she left it on his desk, Bethany turned on her heel and brushed past Alice's table, knocking it slightly again. Alice craned her neck to peer over her shoulder as she watched her friend leave. Was she still her friend? Bethany's unique bravado had taken the place of her shame, and her posture was once again proud. Her hips were loose, and with a toss of her hair she was gone.



The classroom eventually became quiet. Alice never knew what to do with herself when she was alone with Snape, all the more so after what he had done to her the previous night and what he had just put her through. His presence was all consuming, magnetic, and dangerous. She never felt quite so belittled and childlike with him, but at the same time she never felt so sexually liberated. All things sexual, to Alice, were intriguing and reserved solely for adulthood. Snape brought out a side in her that she did not recognise, that she could not control - but something that he could. That frightened Alice to the core.



Sounds eventually began to disturb the still, heavy air. The movement of paper, the occasional scratch of a quill. Snape tidied the pile of essays and frowned as he flicked quickly through them, pausing thoughtfully upon a few. He sighed and raised an eyebrow before finally interlacing his fingers before him and arresting Alice with his stare. She swallowed nervously.



"Miss Pearson…it appears to me that your behaviour and academic achievements are rapidly declining. Would you care to explain the reason to me?"



Alice gawked at him, blue eyes flashing with the rhetorical nature of his question. She sat almost primly now, her knees together and her palms still spread on the desk in front of her. All confidence from her earlier suggestion had drained completely from her.



"Sir…I…you cannot expect me to work under such conditions!"



"What conditions?"



Snape was deliciously aware, but he wanted to hear the words come from Alice's mouth. He saw how her fingers clenched and unclenched over the paper. Her shame from having to admit how she felt fed her boldness.



"Professor Snape…I believe you already know the answer."



Alice immediately knew that her answer was the wrong one. Snape fixed a sharp, smoky stare onto her. She felt her stomach plunge, and her cheeks grew hot with mortification.



"As your Professor and educator Miss Pearson, it is I who will ask you the questions to answer. Your attempt at diversion is not acceptable."



Seconds ticked by and Alice could not hold Snapes stare, it was too much, it scared her, and she had to look down at her desk.



" It appears you now lack the audacity of earlier in the lesson."



The silence that hung in the air was not for effect. Alice stumbled to her answer that she felt was expected of her.



"Yes, Sir."



Inside, Alice screamed. Who was he to lecture her on audacity? It was he, after all, who had manatedated and aroused her so boldly in front of an entire class. But no, her quiet logic reasoned with her. She had asked for this, from the moment she had permitted him to touch her. She had quite clearly indicated he was free to do what he wanted. Alice felt heat ebb and swell in her stomach.



"And as for suggestions regarding attending to you personally for whatever reasons - medical or otherwise - do not ever attempt to do that again. Precocious behaviour in a girl of your calibre really is quite transparent."



Professor Snape had the inimitable knack of making Alice feel about two inches tall. In direct contrast to her earlier emotions, in which she felt womanly and oddly empowered, she now felt like a scolded child.



"I'm sorry."



"You have much to be sorry for. Your previous academic prowess was nothing to celebrate, but as the paper in front of you demonstrates…your mind is clearly elsewhere."



In his head, Snape remembered asking her friend what excited her.



"You…"



He felt a jolt of pleasure at the memory. No, Miss Beddows was another matter. Back onto the quivering form before him. As much as he loved shaming her, he also wanted to curb the confidence that was coming to the surface. He did not think that Alice would ever in a lifetime become sexually forward, but he did not want her to make any tentative steps towards that either.



"Your punishment Miss Pearson, is that between now and tomorrow morning I want a five hundred word essay from you on classroom etiquette. I also expect you to complete today’s lesson. You had best write down the seven questions now before I erase them. ”



He contained a smirk as Alice failed to hide her obvious disappointment.



Snape drank in the sight of her. He saw the dying embers of arousal in her eyes, soon replaced with the coldness of humiliation and disappointment as she cast them down towards the blank paper on her desk and grasping her quill, began to copy the questions he had written.



When he saw that she had finished, he had one last cruel sneering taunt twoulwould make the colour drain entirely from her face.



"You are dismissed, Miss Pearson. And perhaps that cramp you speak of will disappear of its own accord."



Clearing her throat, Alice rose rather clumsily onto shaky feet, grabbing her bag and gathering her quill and papers to her chest. As far as she was concerned, this was the real punishment he was inflicting on her, sending her away. He was punishing her for her forwardness, for daring to hint at him that she wanted him.



He watched her every move as she began to leave the classroom, only interrupting her when she was a mere few steps for the door.



"And Miss Pearson?"



Alice looked over her shoulder with such vulnerability, such feeling, that he almost felt sorry for her. But not quite.



"Seek out your friend Miss Beddows for me. I need to speak to her about her essay. Tell her to be in my office at six o'clock sharp. Lateness will not be tolerated."



That made her punishment complete.