Dianthus Stories
Chapter Nineteen - A Very Horrid Birthday
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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
Nineteen. 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 Nineteen –
A Very Horrid Birthday
wouldn’t let her tell them anything in the dormitory, insisting that their trip
to the
would be their “first girls’ night out ever, and we have to have something to
talk about.” So wai waited until just
before
separately out of the common room before meeting up at the foot of the
tower. Although they were most concerned
with the events of that afternoon, Dianthus told them the whole story – well,
most of it, she still left out the bit where she met up with Snape in
told them about her conversation with Aster over Christmas.
had a crush on the Potions teacher.
“We wondered when
you’d come round to that,” said Melanie kindly, passing the bottle to
Dianthus. It was close to
roof of the tower, bundled up against the biting wind.
puffy, and she’d had the hiccups off and on since her roommates had finally
calmed her down. She took a long pull
off the pint of fire whiskey, and swallowed against another spasm in her
throat.
“
burned down her throat and into her stomach.
She handed the bottle to Martine, who took a sip and gasped, smoke
furling out of her mouth to join the small cloud hovering over their
heaspanspan style='mso-spacerun:yes'> The pint was half-gone.
“You’ve haven’t looked at the
bloody staff table so much in all our years here combined.”
“Yes,” nodded
Martine. “And then you asked me about
boys that time just after Christmas, and I’ve never even seen you look at a
guy.”
“
you, which is totally weird if you ask me,” finished Melanie.
“Why didn’t you
say anything?”
“Well, Melanie
wouldn’t let us,” admitted
Dianthus turned to
stare at Melanie, too. “Well,” Melanie
protested gently, “you wouldn’t have admitted it anyway, and I didn’t want them
to tease you about it. He’d already–
Dianthus knew she was about to say, “already broken your heart once.”
Dianthus took the
pint from Martine’s outstretched hand and took another large swig.
her throat was already so raw from her crying jag and the earlier sips she’d
taken from the bottle, that the additional liquor didn’t even burn that
much. “I feel stupid,” she muttered
angrily.
“Well, that’s
natural, mate,” sniggered
whiskey. “I mean to say, maybe
not bad looking, but Snape?”
it back to Dianthus.
“Oh, fuck
tossing back another quick shot. “There
is no mystery to that man. Books, that’s
all he knows.”
Melanie
sighed. “Well, we’ll be graduated soon
enough.”
“Yeah,” said Eventually Melanie and Martine “Well, come on and “Thanks, you “Knock that For a few moments she simply She drained the She hiccupped A small grunting Dianthus tried to Cursing softly, He didn’t break Breathless and Her mellow, happy Snape stormed back “Professor,” she “I would advise Finally he “Much better, sir, “You may still “Sir, I’m so “Shut it,” he Her eyes “Yes,” Snape said, Dianthus swallowed “I didn’t,” roared “Pro – professor “It would seem He let the silence Dianthus bit her “However,” Snape She eyed him He smiled At this, her “Dianthus, don’t,” Finally he said, “Oh, I see,” she “Your “To what,” she He stood angrily
Martine, slurring slightly. “And there
are prob’ly much better teachers at university.”
shirts’, and they all collapsed into tipsy gigglep>
p>
belched loudly and said, “I think we’d better get back.
got unsteadily to her feet.
struggled up as well, but Dianthus said, “I think I’m going to sit here
They looked dubiously at her and she sighed.
tower.” She giggled again at the
idea. When
reached for the bottle, Dianthus said, “Leave it.
two.”
give us a birthday hug, then,” said
Dianthus to her feet.
guys,” Dianthus whispered, as they shared a group embrace.
girls. “I love you, you know.”
laughingly. “My granddad gets all mushy
whenever he gets drunk on holidays.”
stared over the castle grounds. They were
bathed in sil moo moonlight, and the forbidden forest was an inky blot at the
edge of her peripheral vision. Her
thoughts were blessedly hazy and unfocussed.
pint of whiskey and set it on the parapet.
Pulling out her wand, she pointed it shakily at the empty bottle and
very deliberately said, “Evanesco!” so as not to slur
the spell and end up with a house elf in her arms.
proudly stuck her wand back into her pocket.
once, and sighed. As horrifying as the
morning would be, tonight she felt okay.
It was quiet and beautiful up here, and she couldn’t feel the cold
anymore. Her friends loved her.
dark, alone, and then toddle off to bed.
She thought she would sleep well.
scoff behind her pierced her foggy brain.
Thinking it was Melanie come to check on her, she turned around with a
flourish – only to meet cold fury in the black eyes of the very last person she
wanted to see. Professor Snape was
advancing on her like a cheetah on a wounded gazelle.
her almost off her feet, until her face was inches from his.
jerk away, but his grip was like a steel trap around her arm.
from the whiskey and the sudden movement.
“Let go of me!” she grunted, but he was already pulling her away from the
edge of the tower, toward the stairs.
She struggled vainly as he dragged her down the winding staircase.
the bottom of the tower, her stomach gave a horrible lurch and she retched
whiskey and shepherd’s pie all over the stone floor.
Snape shoved her unceremoniously against the wall and yanked his wand from his
pocket. She leaned gratefully into the
cool stone, sweating and shaking. Using
the same spell she had used on the whiskey bottle, he cleaned up the mess, then
took hold of her arm again and hauled her through the lower level of the
castle. He led her through several
passages she didn’t know existed, and finally down a set of narrow stairs
hidden behind a tapestry in the entrance hall.
stride until he reached his office in the dungeon.
the spell to unlock the door. It flew
open with such force that Dianthus thought it might come off its hinges.
into the chair in front of his desk, and then turned on his heel and stalked
away from her. “If you have any desire
to live until sunrise, you will not move an inch from that seat,” he said
without looking back at her, his voice low and menacing.
dazed, Dianthus wasn’t certain she could have stood had she wanted to.
in her hands, feeling the beginnings of a headache twitching behind her bleary
eyes. Her head was spinning, and it was
only with some difficulty that she forced her brain to consider the enormity of
the trouble she was in.
feelings of just a few moments earlier now seemed distant and foreign, and were
replaced with panic and depression as she assessed her situation.
morning. Ravenclaw house points would
probably be in negative territory. This
was almost certainly the end of her Hogwarts career.
disappointed. Oh, shit, she thought, her mood plummeting even lower.
over her. Willing herself not to throw
up again, she breathed deeply through her nose until it passed, and then sat up
to rest her head on the back of the chair.
into the office and slammed the door behind him.
of brownish red liquid. Meekly, she took
it from him and downed it. It tasted
like mint, but wasn’t overly sweet, and her stomach stopped roiling
immediately. Snape sat in the chair
behind his desk and glared at her in silence.
began weakly.
you not to speak, Miss Brandywine,” he said softly, and she closed her mouth,
enduring his silent scrutiny in increasing discomfort.
gaze for very long, and she lowered her head to stare at her hands as they
twisted and untwisted themselves in her lap.
sneered, “Feeling better?”
thank you,” she said, mortified that she had thrown up in front of him.
have a nasty hangover in the morning,” he said viciously, “but at least I can
be sure you won’t vomit all over my office.”
sorry–”
snapped. “I have no interest in hearing
your groveling apology. You are
extremely fortu tha that it was I who found you, and not Professor McGonagall.”
widened. “Professor McGonagall?” she
repeated, faintly.
leaning forward over his desk. “Your
little friends were loudly and stupidly insisting to her that you weren’t with
them when they passed me.”
hard. “How – how did you know where to
find me?” she squeaked.
Snape, and his sudden shouting made her jump.
He took a deep breath and continued in a slightly calmer voice, “There
are only a few places one may safely hold a drinking party on the grounds, and
the
has always been a favorite of mindless and unimaginative students.”
McGonagall knows we were drinking?” Dianthus breathed.
they had quite a bit less than you did,” he said contemptuously.
bounds in the middle of the night, rather than for swaying in place and reeking
of fire whiskey from ten feet away. I
made an assumption as to your activities.”
spiral horribly again before saying blandly, “Your grandfather would be quite
disappointed to hear of your antics, I think.”
lower lip to keep it from trembling. She
could think of nothing to say that wouldn’t sound like a groveling apology.
said slowly, as if considering the matter.
“You are of age now. You are
legally allowed to drink as of today.”
He cocked his head and corrected himself.
discreetly, rather than involving the Headmaster or your grandfather.”
warily. “Why would you be willing to do
that?” she asked, unable to keep the suspicion from showing.
wondered suddenly what he’d given her.
coldly. “It would be most unfortunate if
you were expelled, Miss Brandywine. You
would be unable to complete your potion, for instance, and the outcome of your
research interests me slightly.”
temper flared directly to the surface.
“Then why have you been ignoring me for almost a month?” she
sneered. “You look through me, or you
don’t look at me at all, you don’t talk to me. You assign me stupid essays
instead of discussing what’s happening with my research.
done wrong, you completely blow me off.”
Frustrated tears threatened the corners of her eyes.
stared at the wall behind him, willing them to subside.
he said, quietly. “I – oh, bloody
hell.” He ran a hand through his
hair. “You haven’t – you haven’t done
anything wrong.” He rose and began to
pace behind his desk. He paused, flexed
his hands, and gazed down at them for a long moment.
long finger.
“Despite my best intentions, our relationship continues to evolve.
you, and I certainly shouldn’t have given you assistance with your
research! But I was bored, and thought
that – it doesn’t matter what I thought.
It was a mistake, one that I needed to rectify by distancing myself from
you. We are not friends!”
said, incensed. “So I have no say in the
matter. You decided that you
needed to distance yourself from me, without bothering to let me in on it.
considered!” he spat. Dianthus paled,
wondering if somehow he had deduced that she had developed a crush on him.
relieved when he said, “You don’t know me – you don’t know what kind of man I
am. You know nothing about me.”
your teacher to–”
scoffed. “Protect me from myself?
and held out his left arm to her, rolling up the sleeve of his robe so that she
could see his forearm. She recoiled at
what she saw: a tattooed replica of the Dark
Mark, the ugly serpentine image used by Death-eaters to mark the houses of
their victims, faintly visible against his pale skin.