The Hogwarts Ho

Chapter 3: Sign of Love

His dungeon is always so cold as if you just stepped into an igloo, and for that matter I do hate him dearly. Well, for tonight, the dungeon was really icy, with fear of what would be assigned to us for the detention. Knowing him, it would be unpleasant of course, and since none of us Elles had detentions before, the fear reached its peak as we entered his office. He was never been scary like this; he rounded on us as if we were his prey, ready to be torn apart by his tough hands and be eaten unceremoniously.
He whispered,

“You boys go into my storage room, wash and dry all of the fifty cauldrons in there, elbow grease only. The cauldrons were sent to me from Hagrid to be properly cleaned, since they are filled with blood and organs of the creatures in the forest and the lake. I do need them to make potions and to teach you dolts, so remove them from the cauldrons and sort each of them out into these buckets”

he drew several tin buckets from the tip of his wand. The boys looked mortified, but they had no choice anyway. The five of them hunched their shoulders and slowly made their way to Snape’s private storage room in the back of the dark dungeon.

“As for you Elles, I want you to dissect these dead doxies and take their hearts out and put them into these glass jars. A doxy’s heart is a powerful ingredient for many healing potions, such as rheumatic arthritis. And you, Miss Rocher, come into my office with me. I have another assignment for you.”


I was about to run away, but his face is so damn scary and the rest of us Elles looked as if they’d be whipped on their backs rather than taking out doxy heart with a scalpel. I closed my eyes for two seconds and then went to his office, with a very trembling heart and shaky hands. What kind of work he stored in for me, I dared to think but my mind went blank as I saw his office; it was possibly scarier than the classroom. No windows, no pictures on the black stone wall, an old style single bed with a large white pillow and a thin, dark gray blanket on it. One side of the room was hidden with a large bookshelf, carrying thousands of books and unpleasant-looking magical devices. A small oak closet and a small tea table with two chairs showed that this room is not Azkaban.

“Have a seat, Miss Rocher”

he said tersely, and I parked my ass carefully on one of the chairs in front of the tea table. He then went out again, and brought two large files of scrolls in his arms.
He tossed them onto the table, and said

“file these scrolls by the alphabetical order, last name first, and then grade them followed by this grade chart. These are the first years’ homework and I believe you can grade them without flipping a book. Am I right”

I gulped and managed to whisper yes.

“I will prepare tomorrow’s lecture materials while you are doing that”

and he sat on the other chair, facing me directly. I could not help but blushing a little; I felt that I was completely naked in front of his cold, fathomless black eyes.
Halfway through grading the homework of the first years (most of the kids did rather good and I realized that his set of standard grades is way too harsh. I wanted to give them all A and but then, he would give me detention till I graduate Hogwarts), I realized that he really was staring at me like he’s reading my mind. I was getting slightly annoyed but couldn’t dare to ask why.
Then he said,

“So...I believe that this is the first time you and the Elles broke the school rule. Would you care to explain why?”

I bit my lips hard; I just cannot say to his face that we were late for the dinner because we were having an orgy at the Shrieking Shack all the afternoon. I licked my dried lips and lied that we were having so much fun at the Hog’s Head that we forgot the time. It sounded totally a cock-and-bull story even to my ears, but he just kept staring at my face and said nothing about it.

“Speaking of breaking school rules, I believe that you’ve broken other wizarding rules as well”

he took out a white envelop from inside of his all-time favorite black robe, and put it on the homework file I finished grading.

“I received this letter from your stepfather this morning. The letter says that he misses you dearly since you ran away from home right after your birthday this summer. Is this true Miss Rocher that you ran away from home?”

his voice was demanding an answer, so I blurted out without thinking twice.

“I did not run away from my home, professor. My mom kicked me out of her house on my birthday morning”

tears were running down to my cheeks again and I wished I know the spell to stop it.

“And would you tell me why she did such thing?”

I sensed that there was a suppression of anger in his usual voice.

“No, professor” I said, with teary voice, and I bit my lips again.
He went on.

“He says that he still loves you, and he’s willing to let you live with him in his private summer house in Ireland if you come back home. Your mother doesn’t have to know about this since she’s disowned you…”

I still didn’t say a word; a rage was brewing in my already broken heart. Loves me? Letting me live with him in his private house for more fucking me till I cannot walk for days again? Doing cooking and laundry for him all day while he shoves his cock in my ass?

“You’ve broken a wizarding rule. No underage witches and wizards cannot run away from their houses and live on their own. It’s so odd that the Ministry has never acquired this information yet. Once you were seen wandering in the streets for more than a week, you are automatically reported to the Ministry and they would put you into a foster care facility until you finish the school and get a job. You’d better tell me what is going on with you right now or I will take you to the headmaster now.”

His face is stony that I couldn’t tell whether he is angry or not. But there’s no way I am gonna march up to Dumbledore’s office and tell everyone that my mom disowned me because my stepfather’s been raping me for years. No, I’d rather die in this dungeon office now. I still sat there, looking down at my laps and placing my hands on to it.

“Did you do any harm to them?”

“NO!”

I yelled at him, standing up from the uncomfortable chair.

“Then explain it to me now or I will not send you back to the house. The night is long and I am a patient man.”

His voice was now dangerous and snake-like, just as he threatens us when he teaches something nasty.

I broke out in front of this potions master; I could hear myself telling him the whole truth, how I had been tortured for years and all, my mother kicking me from her house instead of blaming her husband, how I got end up in the Leaky Cauldron, working as a house elf and how Tom hid this matter from the Ministry…

Perhaps I was so busy crying like an unruly child and screaming that I will never go back home ever again, I didn’t know that I was rubbing my wet face to his black robed chest. I was in his lean, strong arms, and his callous fingers were wiping my tears gently on my wet face. His chest was very hard and lean on my face, and he didn’t look cruel or mean as usual now.

“Please don’t take me to the headmaster, professor. I know he’ll send me back to my mom or Azkaban. Please, professor, please!”

My voice was hoarse with begging and sobbing. But he didn’t say anything. I looked up to see if he is mad; but his face was nothing of sort. In fact it was nothing I have ever seen before, full of pity and agony.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this in the first place? You knew that you should’ve told me or any other faculty”

his voice was calm.

“But I was too ashamed of myself, and they would’ve thought that I’m a liar, doing it for attention and all…and then he threatened to kill me for sure if I tell anyone about this…he lied to mom that I was the one who allured him so far”

I was still sobbing madly, and I felt that his grip on my body grew tighter. His robe was getting soaked with my tears and mucus but he didn’t seem to notice. I was standing like that for ever, and I wanted to do so.

Where am I? I opened my swollen red eyes again, wondering where the hell I am now and what I was doing…then I saw Snape was sitting on the chair right next to me, reading a thick ancient book. I was lying on his horrible bed, wrapped in the ugly gray blanket. I felt so comfortable, and realized that my shoes were taken off from my feet. I jumped and he was startled and frowning a little as he dropped the heavy book on his feet.

“So…how are you feeling now, better?”

he didn’t sound sarcastic or angry. His face was showing a genuine concern.

“Err…I think so. But I should go back to the house now, I’m so sorry professor Snape. I didn’t know that I fell asleep.”

And I swore that he bared his teeth to me for a tiny smile.

“You didn’t fall asleep, Miss Rocher. You just passed out while you were crying so hard like a maniac. I should’ve sent you up to madam Pomfrey, but since you did not finish grading the homework. I kept you here till you wake up”

his voice was indifferent and stern as before. I got out of the bed and looked for my shoes, but he knew what I was doing. He picked up my plain black shoes from the floor and then oh so surprisingly, he put the shoes on my feet by kneeling down at my feet. My face was like a carrot now; okay why is he doing something like this to me? But I managed to whisper

“thank you professor”.

I got up to my feet, and touched my hair as I always do when I wake up. To my horror, it felt like I’m touching Hagrid’s beard. I turned to him to ask where the mirror is, but he ordered me to sit down on the bed. And he drew a brush from the tip of his wand, and came to me. Quite unexpectedly, he started to brush my bushy hair gently!

“You don’t have to do that professor. I can brush my hair on my own”

yet my voice was so damn shaky, but then I could not suppress a smile. And he really smiled this time

“yes, but I wanted to see you smile like that. Tears don’t quite suit your face.”

“Now, finish the grading and you may go back to the dormitory. It’s 3 in the morning and if you work fast, you might get some more sleep before breakfast.”

I sat down, and started working again as if nothing was happened. He left the room and came back with a mug on his hand.

“Here, you might want to drink this tea. It will help you to calm down.”

He placed the cup on the table and watched me to see if I listen to him or not.
I beamed at him

“Thank you. Professor.”

And I sipped the sweet smelling tea; it smelled like a sweet mixture of orange and lemon. The scent was pleasantly tickling my nose and tongue, soothing my nerves and wrapping my heart with warmness. I couldn’t help but to smack my lips and he showed his teeth again.
I finished the grading fairly quickly, to get out of this gloomy room as soon as possible. Seeing unexpected things from the head of Slytherin House is still a shock to me, but then, strangely I didn’t want to talk about this with none of the Elles; I felt that I should keep this all to myself. After all, they wouldn’t understand of this and Mary Jane will file an official complaint against him. Well, that would be doing a huge favor to all the students in Hogwarts…