The Tenth Rule

Chapter 16.



Bethany sat upon the ledge in the Lookout and couldn't help but feel a pang of regret. Straight after dinner, she had left Alice and raced to the Lookout to think. Normally she was squashed into the side of the window ledge by Alice sitting beside her, but not this afternoon. Nevertheless, Bethany hugged her knees to her chest and gazed outside. She wished Alice were beside her. She wished this rift had never happened, she wished they were still the close friends they had been for years, she wished they could talk about what was happening between them and work something out. But Bethany knew she was just as guilty as Alice for creating this rift, and though she was filled with regret, for the life of her, her obsession with Snape was taking over and she was beginning to realise its destructive force.



Could it be she was doing an injustice to Alice by thinking there was something going on between her and Snape and there really wasn’t? She so much wanted to believe that but Alice behaved so suspiciously and so cagily whenever she asked her about what happened when staying behind with Snape, she couldn’t help being suspicious and of course, jealous. It was not that inconceivable to think Alice might have been subjected to some sort of sexual situation he had instigated, just as she had; but she could not accept that…Alice? No, Alice was far too prim and proper to accept anything like that; she would have gone straight to Professor Dumbledore…as she should have done, thought Bethany with irony.



Could it be Alice desired Professor Snape also? It seemed unbelievable but then, were anyone to tell her she would be aching for Professor Snape before the term was over she would have laughed in their face. Bethany thought it quite strange really. As far as all the students were concerned, and she was no different in her typical naïve adolescent small-mindedness, considered all the professors and the headmaster as being totally asexual, seeing all of them leading a monastic life within the walls of Hogwarts, too busy spending their free time honing their powers, developing more, and exercising those they had. In fact it was a big joke amongst the students including Bethany and Alice who were just as guilty for casting silly childish speculation trying to imagine the staff having any form of sex-life. Usually the conversation was quickly cried down with howls of protest and revulsion at the thoughts that were aired, particularly whenever Professor Snape’s name came up. Everyone had decided that Snape was definitely not sexually active which accounted for why he was so sour and unpleasant all of the time, the two main reasons being he was such a horrible ugly, old, bitter, mean bastard of a man that no woman would ever want him, and secondly, he was too busy concentrating on his ambition to become the professor of the Defence Against the Dark Arts anyway that it must have drained whatever sex drive he might have once had. Now she wasn’t quite so sure their assumptions had been correct.



For the millionth time Bethany questioned Snape's reasons for making her do what she did before him. Was it as she had originally thought… to shame and humiliate her? Or was it purely for some kinky sexual kick to titillate his jaded and faded sexual appetite? Or was it for some dark, sinister reason? Everyone knew he wanted the Defence Against The Dark Arts post and was always denied it. Everyone also knew that in the past he was a Death Eater. Though his part in Voldemort's downfall was crucial it was rather sketchily documented, much of it untold for reasons not known nor given, and what little there was, was shadowed in the golden glory of Harry Potter and his two stalwart friends Hermione Grainger and Ronald Weasley. This added mystery to Professor Snape’s already enigmatic character and past, did nothing to earn him even the slightest of deserved recognition; instead only furthered the already shadowy and sinister impression that had always existed about him.



Though Voldemort had been destroyed, evil and the power of darkness would forever remain, and often it was nervously whispered amongst the students that this was one of the reasons Professor Dumbledore denied Professor Snape the post of Defence Against The Dark Arts. He had once been a Death Eater…. and no one knew what he did when alone in his office at the weekends and holidays. Was he practising sinister spells and ancient incantations? Creating and experimenting potions of an evil brew? No one knew.



Though the older pupils had long given up asking, the subject was predictably raised each year through the sheer audacity of one of the most cheekiest of the first year students to ask about sex and magic, and it was usually Professor McGonagall that seemed to get asked, which probably explained why, when all the embarrassed gasps and giggling had died down, the questions were always quickly dispensed with, with what seemed a well-worn answer, frostily delivered. Spells or incantations that required the use of sex or its by-products, was not part of the curriculum at Hogwarts, though they all knew there was plenty of books on Sex and Magic in the Restricted Section that none of the students were allowed access too. Sex was often a very powerful force that was used in a number of potent spells and incantations; could it be that Professor Snape was in some way using Bethany and possibly Alice to channel that energy? Bethany shook her head, now she really was going off the rails in her imagination. As to the incident where he had made her abuse herself to humiliate her was extreme, it had been that one and only incident.



Whilst totally unconventional and obviously not recognised or even acceptable as a form of punishment, it had been Professor Snape's form of punishment, and Bethany knew that for the moment at least, she would have to continuing thinking of it as such. There was no evidence to suggest that anything was going on between Professor Snape and Alice either, other than what her jealous and suspicious mind was making up.



Bethany sighed wearily…she didn’t know what to think. It was all a mess and seemed to be getting worse. If Alice had feelings for Professor Snape…? How often had she witnessed friends falling out over a boy? She had always thought her friendship with Alice was so rock solid it would weather any change in circumstances between them. How wrong she was. And this was no falling out over a boy. It was over a man, a cold, austere, bitter man and the situation was not a simple teenage relationship. This was dark, twisted and complex. He was their teacher, he had the power to expel them and yet held such sexual mastery over Bethany she had willingly debased herself before him at his orders and yearned for more attention from him despite his apparent aloofness towards her. She couldn’t understand any of it, and mourned the damage it was doing to her friendship with Alice, yet could not seem to change it, nor wanted to. Was she really that shallow that desidesire for sex, and that was all it ever could be, could threaten to destroy a friendship of many years standing? The excitement that had swept through her when Alice had stated Snape wanted to see her in his office almost shot her into orbit. No matter what damage it was doing to her, or her friendship with Alice, Bethany could not resist the relentless pull these dark waters of desire she had for him. She would go with the flow, and either sink or swim.



As much as she enjoyed Snape's sexual torment, Bethany still shuddered at the prospect of either sinking or swimming. What did either option entail? Say she were to sink, helpless, losing her precious friendship with Alice and Snape emotionlessly discarding of her. Then she would have nothing. No ally to pull her out, no tormentor to drown her, make her demise quicker. Bethany could now no longer imagine a world without Alice or Snape. Even her fertile imagination could not project that far, that extremely, ahead.



And say she swam against the current, managed to summon the strength to carry on. It would drain her, both physically and mentally. If there was something between Snape and Alice, then Bethany's determination may end this, consequently losing Alice. Would Bethany be able to live with herself, albeit in a world of dark sexual pleasure, if quiet, shy Alice was left by the wayside? And who was to say that Snape would choose her, brazen Bethany, over the intriguing and potential-laden Alice? Bethany felt that pang of jealousy within her. It was a feeling that was becoming all too familiar.



The sky was heavy and full of rain, and the clouds lumbered slowly over the building, threatening to snag on the pointed spires. There was a purple, bruised quality to the light, and Bethany sighed as the already weak sun slowly died with a final knife-edge shimmer on the horizon. The clouds feasted upon its death like vultures. Bethany's face was highlighted with the last echoes of light, bringing out the ridge of her cheekbones, the cushion of her lips.



It finally began to rain. It fell audibly onto the waxy leaves surrounding the window, tentative at first before growing in vigour, and soon Bethany's view of the world outside became warped and distorted.



***************



It was ten minutes to six. Bethany stared at herself for a moment in the mirror. The reflection that gazed confidently back was the perfect student - clean, pressed uniform, neat ponytail, polished shoes, and fresh robe. Bethany felt obliged to wear full uniform in Snape's presence. Even before any of this had happened, she had always felt a reluctant respect for him. He was unbeaten in his craft; she could not deny him that.



Upon closer inspection, her perfect student façade had a slight flaw. Despite herself, Bethany had felt the need to enhance her features, to make herself sexual in the most obvious and conventional way. She had slicked some kind of gloss onto her mouth, had accentuated the curl and length of her eyelashes with mascara she rarely used, had spritzed herself with a perfume that she had forgotten was in her possession. In her naïve adolescence, it didn’t occur to her that this attention to herself just to see Professor Snape might cause suspicion.



It felt different to all the times she had paraded down the corridors for all the boys. They responded positively to obvious sexuality - the padded bras to make the most of lacklustre cleavages, the school skirts rolled at the waist to show more thigh, the loosely tousled hair that looked like it came straight from bed but actually took the owner hours to perfect.



But now she was trying to impress a man who had sexual experience, a man who was an absolute perfectionist - did this apply to his choice of partner, too? Bethany felt like she und under scrutiny. Still, she felt that she looked as appealing as she could make herself. With one final glance and a sigh, she made her way to Professor Snape's office.