The Tenth Rule

In all the years they had attended Hogwarts, they had never had reason to be summoned to Professor Snape\'s office. On appearance it was a black, dark and dismal place. Even the few lanterns attached to the stonewalls offered little comfort or illumination. The huge stone hearth was empty, devoid of flame or heat. Strangely enough, despite the smell of wet stone and moist earth filling the air and its dark and almost subterranean atmosphere, the room was not damp. In fact, the subtle aroma of various spices and herbs initiated an olfactory warming sensation to the senses.



Though much of his office was shrouded in deep shadow, there was a cavernous feel to it. His big heavy wood desk was cluttered with papers, books, rolls of parchment and a large stone mortar and pestle. Upon the walls, the meagre glow from the lamps cast a faint golden light upon various star charts, and mysterious ancient diagrams with numeric and strange hieroglyphic symbols, pentacles, and erinering. The eerie light hinted at unimaginable, and grotesque objects preserved in jars and bottles whilst numerous coloured potions and large bottles lined shelves alongside ancient, well-used tomes, and yet despite all this paraphernalia the office was not cramped as shadows hid the true size and entire contents of the room, even the vaulted ceiling lost in the shadows had almost cathedral like proportions. But much of this went unnoticed by Alice and Bethany, both having followed Snape down past the Slytherin common room, his dungeon classroom, and on to his office, both minds working furiously to try and think of what to say, how to get out of this situation. They desperately wished they could have a moment to speak with each other, but that was impossible. Apart from fervent worried glances at each other, they were silent. Snape\'s appearance had managed to sober them both as effectively as if they had been thrown into ice water, but it hadn’t served to give them any ideas as to how they could explain themselves.



Snape stood behind his desk and without the use of his wand or even a quietly murmured incantation, but just a simple wave of his arm, the heavy oak door slammed behind them, and as the sound echoed in the room, they felt as though they were trapped inside a tomb. Though they could have performed just the same act themselves with the aid of their wands and a spell of course, this was just a display of Snape\'s knowledge and superiority, as if they needed reminding of just how powerful a wizard he was. Unlike them, he did not need wand or spells to perform certain basic tasks.



\"Place those bottles on the desk, and then explain yourselves.\" he ordered. The two girls with trembling hands placed the damning evidence on the tabletop. He watched as Alice\'s pale hand jerked suddenly away, as if burnt. He smiled inwardly. The girl\'s conscience was sickeningly endearing, alas, her silence was not.



\" Who is going to speak first?\" He asked icily, looking at each girl in turn. They both stood before him, speechless, and without a doubt, terrified.



Placing his large hands upon the desk he leant forwards a little, his black, fathomless eyes glinting within the low lamplight.



\"I have precious little time to spare for this nonsense, one of you speak.\" The warning inflection in his dark murmur was intimidating.



Alice tried to speak but found her throat so tight and dry with fear nothing more than an incomprehensible whisper came out. Bethany, aware of her friend\'s efforts, had a voice, but was struggling to keep the contents of her stomach down, the alcohol and the shock of being discovered clashing badly.



\"Professor Snape...we - we didn\'t realise we were out after curfew. When we did...that\'s when we made a move to return to our dorms - that’s when you found us.\"



Snape glared back at the girl and was in no doubt that what she was saying was true. It had been a genuine error on their part, and what he was doing was wrong and totally unprofessional. Was this some idiotic revenge trip because the girls had bested him this afternoon? Or had his life at Hogwarts degenerated so much into tedium that he had resorted to this? Terrifying young girls with his authority simply because he was a man that was bored and sought diversions from a stale monotonous life, yearning to taste the forbidden once more that he had supped from so often and greedily in his Death Eater days? He had tried to reform himself in many ways, had done all in his power to do what was right pro protect all, and by doing so, risked much of himself, and on the whole succeeded. Though his conscience was heavily stained from his past foul deeds and would never be completely erased, even his part in the downfall of Voldemort had helped half way to redeeming himself, to at least allow him to sleep some nights undisturbed by terrible dreams of the vicious and dark evil acts he had once willingly performed and with relish. But his nature was innately dark; it was inherent as were his instincts, which had initially compelled him towards the evil of Voldemort. Some instincts could be squashed, but only that; squashed, contained, confined though if certain instances or situations presented themselves, it was sometimes difficult to ignore or suppress. He had always managed, in some rare instances forced to exert extreme control, resulting on occasion in frustration and even pain admittedly, but he had succeeded and would continue to do so. He had decades of experience, he had control, he was a professor agwargwarts, placed in a position of trust...oh but the temptation to give himself a little reward, a little treat for having towed the line for so long, a chance to...enjoy himself for once?



\"Well?\" He snarled suddenly at Alice who took an instinctive step backwards such was the venom in his voice. Snape was angrier with himself and his internal debate than the actual girl. He watched as she struggled with every fibre of her being to maintain that crystal control.



Alice\'s mouth worked once again and she shrugged helplessly.



\" It...it\'s true...\" she breathed in a hoarse whisper as if she didn\'t have enough air to speak, \"we didn\'t realise the time.\" She tried to swallow but her throat was parched.



\"So having established that feeble excuse, then explain the alcohol? You know it is strictly forbidden amongst students; the dangers I do not need to list, even you two are not that stupid not to realise the lethal consequences of intoxication.\"



Despite the fact she knew they had done wrong by the strict rules of Hogwarts School, Bethany felt this interrogation was unnecessarily cruel, prolonging the inevitable. If what they had done was worthy of being expelled...why were they being put through this added torture? She felt stirrings of anger. If they were going to be expelled, then why put up with this?



\"Professor Snape,\" stated Bethany once more bringing his full attention to her. She felt ice chill her blood as those black eyes fixed upon her, yet bizarrely considering the circumstances, for the first time, she noticed Professor Snape as a man, other than a genderless Professor and felt curious sensations that disturbed her. It could only be the anxiety of the moment, the fear, the residue of the alcohol, the danger she told herself, and the heady sensation that she was going to challenge him. In for a penny in for a pound, better to be hung eep eep than a lamb, if she were going to be expelled, then she would go out fighting!



\"You know this isn\'t fair. So we were out a few minutes after curfew, aes, es, we drank some alcohol, and whilst we know it is forbidden, we only had two bottles each...\"



\" Only!\" He interrupted. \"You are more foolish than I had originally taken you for, Miss Beddows, if you think you can trivialise the situation with numbers! I want to know whom you purchased it from. It is obviously home brewed, someone in Hogwarts is producing illicit liquor.\"



Even though his voice had oozed spite before, now it was laced with genuine contempt. Snape could not abide this girl, and her aggressive nature was irritating him beyond belief. She was fully aware of his authority and yet stupidly, she flaunted this hateful confidence before him.



\"Your smart mouth may grant you milliseconds of attention and vacuous approval from the hormone-addled boys in your house, but said inadequacies will not win me over, do you understand?\"



It was then that Alice finally broke down. She couldn\'t believe Bethany had suddenly taken on a confrontational stance with him. What did she think she was doing? If there had been any chance of trying to salvage the situation, Bethany had ruined it!



\"Professor Snape, please!\" She implored, \"I know we have broken some of the rules, but...we can\'t be expelled, our parents would be devastated, so much would be lost! All these years of studies, training...if it were to finish now in disgrace there will be nothing!\"



Snape raised an eyebrow at her, upper lip curling in disdain. He preferred Alice when she remained silent.



\" You should have thought of that in the first place, shouldn\'t you?\" Snapped the professor, struggling internally, trying desperately to do what was right, by the book.



As much as he tried to tell himself to deal with this situation in the prescribed, professional manner, teacher and student, their behaviour was enflaming his desire to toy with them in a totally unprofessional way. It was more Alice that did this to him - her delicate, fragile appearance piqued his curiosity, placing no doubt in his mind that she was completely devoid of any licentiousness. He didn\'t want to admit to himself he was manipulating this situation into a direction he knew he should not go, but he could not seem to stop himself. He was taking an enormous gamble; but he would be very subtle, herding them into a corner they were willing to go to, until they realised it was too late and couldn\'t escape. But they both knew it was too late already. The gamble was, would they play his game to save themselves and the mystery distiller, though he was almost certain he knew who the culprit was anyway; or just accept defeat and suffer the consequences? Either way, he wouldn\'t lose out personally, other than some pleasantly distracting pastimes he could have enjoyed with them until they graduated and left.



He would give them the choice, without their realising it. This warped reasoning proved to be the tourniquet to his guilt deciding that the girls would direct what would happen to them, that they would actually steer the way this situation was going to be resolved.



Bethany glanced at Alice and realised the stupid mistake she had made. What was the point of inciting Professor Snape further? Maybe Alice had thought there was a chance to remedy the situation.



\"Professor Snape, please don\'t report us to Professor Dumbledore! We don\'t want to be expelled. We know we have done wrong, but all the years we have been here, we\'ve never done anything wrong before-\"



\"You mean you have never been caught before,\" he said coldly. \"There is a difference between the two. Unfortunately you do not seem to realise this, neither do you realise how obviously regular this ritual appears.\"



The two girls guilty silence proved his assumption correct. He straightened himself up to his full height and looked down at them.



\"Professor Dumbledore needs to be notified, and Miss Beddows, your house master, Profes.....\"



\"Oh Professor no, please!\" Implored Bethany interrupting him.



Her house master had not by any means favoured her above all other students but they had always had an instant and friendly rapport from the day she had first started at Hogwarts. Also, he had always looked upon her as a model student. The little kindly wizened professor had a trust and faith in her that was absolute and to have that destroyed would devastate her, not to mention the shame she would experience before Professor Dumbledore, and finally the disgrace brought to her parents.



Snape ignored her plea as if she hadn\'t spoken, but inside he registered them. How insignificant they seemed, and how different they might sound in another far more intimate situation. Bethany Beddows, the confident, self-assured one, begging for…



\"Now, give me the names of whoever provided you with the alcohol. They will have to be brought before Professor Dumbledore also, not to mention those who have helped to supply the ingredients to make and distribute it.\"



The two girls looked to each other aghast. Professor Snape\'s mouth twitched, suppressing the urge to smile. He had hit home hard.



\"Yes, thanks to you two, you have inadvertently exposed quite an illicit little trade in the production and distribution of alcohol in the school. It is without doubt there will be more than just you two disgraced and expelled from Hogwarts. What an awful burden to have to carry for the rest of your lives. So now, Miss Pearson,\" he turned his glacial stare to her, \"you will no longer blend inconspicuously into the background as you have always strived to do. You - along with your self-important friend here - will be known, not for any outstanding scholastic achievements, but as those that ruined the potential of many other students. Rather selfish, don\'t you think?\"



This was getting from bad to worse. Neither girl knew what to do. It was bad enough they were going to be expelled, without getting others expelled as well!



\"Professor …I know we\'re not brilliant students, but we\'re not bad either,\" spluttered Bethany, the panic in her voice greater than befor"des"despite what you may think, this is the first time we have done anything wrong, and now you are expecting us to give names so others can be expelled!\"



\"Yes, they are a bad influence on the students, and protecting them is not helping you at all. What they are doing is very dangerous indeed. They must be stopped, and if you will not willingly give me their names...then there are ways to force you.\"



He turned slightly and waved his arm towards the general direction of the shelves of potions.



\"Professor Snape...please.\" Alice found that sheer desperation had given her the strength to speak albeit with a trembling voice. \"We have made a mistake, a mistake we are truly sorry for, and we know th...that there has to be some form of consequences; but please Professor Snape do not take this before Professor Dumbledore, don\'t disgrace and shame us before him, our parents, our friends, can\'t you...you just deal with our punishment, or give us detention from now until we graduate; but please Sir, please don\'t let us lose everything just because of one silly mistake!\"



Professor Snape stared at Alice with a mixture of angered shock and incredulity. With his usual effortless grace he walked around the desk to stand before them, his robes over his clothes rustling heavily like canvas sails on the wind. Both girls had to look up to him, so vast the differences in height between master and pupil.



\" I think you seem to misunderstand Miss Pearson. Are you asking me to bend the rules to protect you and your friend?\"



\"Oh no Sir! Not at all! We\'re not saying we shouldn\'t get detention or to help Filch, or whatever you want us to do, anything! But please, don\'t let us get expelled!\" Corrected Alice hastily.



Professor Snape\'s close and towering proximity was overwhelming. His large black swathed presence was always daunting, those fathomless eyes terrified her, she felt she could barely breathe.



Snape stared down at the two girls with feigned severity, yet Alice\'s statement was ely wly what he wanted to hear, and by the looks of her friend who was nodding in agreement, he had them both successfully pinned into a corner from which there was definitely no escape. They had both indicated to him they would rather have him administer whatever punishment he chose for however long in return for the incident not being reported to Dumbledore. His manipulation of them had been so easy.



\"You are both to return to your dormitories, and you will report here on Monday night at eight o\'clock sharp. I will then inform you of my decision and what action I propose to take. Lateness will not be tolerated. Bear in mind that you are in quite enough trouble as it is. It would be in your best interests to follow the rules by the book.\"



Despite the fact the situation hadn\'t been resolved, both girls felt a tiny flickering of hope that just maybe they might be spared the worst. It seemed impossible bearing in mind it was the hateful and spiteful Professor Snape they were trying to reason with, he did not possess one forgiving, charitable bone in his body as far as they were concerned, but it seemed at least hopeful he was obviously considering the situation. Had it been Alice\'s words, or because she was a Slytherin? That was hardly likely, what was most likely was the fact he was just prolonging thevitavitable; making the torture last, ruining the weekend for them, making them worry and fret, clinging on to false hope to then be reported to Professor Dumbledore Monday evening after all. It was impossible to know what was going through Professor Snape\'s mind; he was a closed book, completely unreadable, unpredictable.



\"Now go. You have wasted enough of my time with your foolishness,\" he stated with abhorrence.



Bethany and Alice did not need to be told twice. Though surprised at the abrupt dismissal, they were glad to get out of there, and heaving the heavy oak door open they scurried from his office into the darkened stone corridors, trembling and stumbling in their frightened haste to get as far away from him as possible. They were too depressed and upset to speak much as they hurried from Snapes office, but before they separated to go to their respective dormitories they agreed to abort their former original weekend plans and meet at the lookout the following morning as soon after breakfast as possible to discuss their situation.



During the entire reprimand Professor Snape had made a conscious effort to look at their faces only. When they turned from him to leave however, his eyes raked their entire length. Because it was the eve of the weekend, the students divested themselves of thenifoniforms and relaxed in their leisure clothes. Willowy Alice, she of the lush, golden hair, wore tight muggle jeans that looked as though she had been poured into them, hugging broadening hips, exaggerating their youthful curve to narrow waist. She wore a dark burgundy coloured long sleeve t-shirt that followed every contour, as though it was a second skin, and her hair, her hair of spun silk that he longed to delve his hands into and feel its texture, was it really that soft and luxuriant as it appeared? She was innocent, pure, unsullied; a virgin, and he wanted that, and he would take it from her. What made her so undeniably alluring to him was her unawareness of her subtle beauty, the way that when she looked up her lupine eyes seemed larger than ever, and she didn\'t know.



Then there was Bethany, the girl that whenever the opportunity presented itself would dress provocatively, believing herself to be desirable yet it was nothing other than bravado. To his experienced eye, her innocence and inexperience was blatantly obvious and intoxicatingly exciting. She wore jeans similar to her friends, starting from the hip, drawing the eye to the line of flesh her short, low-cut black t-shirt exposed, giving teasing glimpses of the vulnerable skin of her lower back, skin delicate, taut, warm. Skin that he wished to tongue as his fingers unfastened those obscenely tight jeans and to trace the very line the material had nestled into.



He turned away from them even before the door closed behind them. The tightening in his lower belly sending sensations gathering further below, hardening his length, not enough to become burdened with a full erection but uncomfortably tumescent. What on earth was he doing? What was this foolishness? It was as well he had sent them away. He had to think, try and rid himself of this ridiculous idea before it was too late. If Dumbledore discovered what he was planning to do with these two girls, the consequences would be devastating, not to mention the pain of betraying the faith of the only person he believed in. He had never taken a student before in all the years he had been at Hogwarts, mainly because he had never regarded any of them as attainable, they were strictly off limits. He had looked, but rarely emplemplating touching…until now. But it was the very temptation, the actual act of the forbidden, the taking of innocence, and the corruption of purity that was suddenly irresistible.



A cold, ruthless detachment removed Snape\'s indecision, much as it had done in times past. He would do as he wished. Dumbledore would not know. He would see to that. He was tired of his fortnightly trips to Knockturn Alley to seek relief; he achieved no pleasure or satisfaction at all.



It was time he took something from Hogwarts for all he had given and sacrificed. Professor Snape had made up his mind. There was no going back.