Cupboard Space

CHAPTER 5

“Eww, I’d rather gouge out my eyes than witness that ever again.” Ron groaned in complaint as the trio left the classroom. Harry had to admit, he too felt slightly ill having spent the last hour listening to Professor McGonagall lecture them on sex. Hermione looked pale. Harry had never been in a class where Hermione had never asked a question before, not that it was surprising considering the topic. The trio made their way back to the common room. The mood among the sixth and seventh years in the common room was of disgusted, quite reflection on the class just gone.

Harry left Hermione and Ron in the common room as soon as they arrived. His detention with Snape was in fifteen minutes and he needed to get his things together before joining the wizard in his classroom. He’d avoided the austere professor all day. Despite Harry’s fumbled apology the boy still felt extremely awkward in the man’s presence, knowing what Snape knew about him. Gathering his things Harry shoved the necessary items into his satchel before striding out of the common room and down towards the dungeons. Snape’s detentions always lasted till curfew and usually involved the most unpleasant of tasks the professor could think of.

Knocking tentatively on the closed door of Snape’s classroom, Harry waited for permission to enter.

“Come.” The professor’s voice was it’s usual unimpressed sharpness, and Harry quickly entered the classroom and came to stand still in front of the elder wizards desk. Snape had his head down, red inked quill in one hand as he marked a variety of parchment stacked on his desk. Harry silently wondered if the man ever slept, between marking, teaching and stalking the halls at night, there would have been hardly time to eat let alone get a good nights sleep. The idea of Snape in bed however made Harry shudder with abhorrence and he quickly concentrated on the situation at hand. “The school potion store is atrocious, I want you to catalogue it according to my instructions.” Harry took the long length of parchment that Snape thrust in his direction, the man barely glancing up from his work to see whom he was addressing. The catalogued list of potion’s ingredients was scribed beautifully in Snape’s elegant handwriting all in perfect order of the importance of their uses. Harry waited momentarily for Snape to give him some more instructions but when none were forthcoming Harry sighed heavily, and made his way over to the school potion’s store cupboard on the far side of the room. The pantry like room was dark and Harry lit a torch hanging on a hook by the side of the door to illuminate the gloom. What greeted Harry was utter chaos. Potion’s and ingredients were everywhere, lying in no particular order on the roof high shelves of the room. A small ladder was propped up against the shelves at the far end of the long room to help reach the higher shelves. Harry sighed again as he dropped his bag by the door and headed into the unforgiving space of potion’s store.

Outside Snape watched the boy cautiously from over the edge of his desk, carefully observing the boy’s plan of attack in the store cupboard. Snape had been meaning to organize the store himself for some time, but Harry’s detention had conveniently come at the right moment. Snape watched as the boy moved about the cupboard organizing himself into a system of retrieving, re-labeling and re-shelving each individual item in the store. Satisfied that Harry was doing as he was told Snape went back to concentrating on his marking, leaving the boy to his own devices.

It was late when Snape finally finished his evenings marking and he yawned and stretched as he leant back for his desk and glanced towards the potion’s store where Harry was still beavering away in the mess. Silence hung in the classroom as it had all evening, only the occasional chink of glass against glass or the scrape of the ladder on the stone floor as Potter shifted the bottles in the store. The boy had been rather submissive since the incident in the bathroom; he’d been quieter in class, more obedient and less confident. Snape had noticed the change dramatically, perhaps because he knew the reason behind it. The boy hadn’t been himself, and Snape was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Rising from his chair behind his desk, Snape adjusted his robes and strode quietly over to the open doorway of the store cupboard. Harry was knelt on the bottom step of the ladder carefully arranging a set of flasks on a lower shelf. The boy had done well, having achieved at least a ¼ of the required work.

“You do know how to follow instructions after all Potter.” Harry practically jumped out of his skin, having not heard the potion masters approach. The bottle currently in his grasp threatened to slip but on fear of losing a limb Harry clutched at it tightly as he spun around to face the elder wizard. Harry nodded in silence as he replaced the bottle in its proper place before standing up to admire the small amount of progress he’d made. Harry knew Snape wouldn’t have anything good to say about it, but he was rather pleased with himself. “Curfew passed an hour ago, I will escort you back to your common room.” Snape stepped away from the door as Harry scurried out of the store and picked up his bag lying in a heap on the floor.

“Don’t you want me to finish it?” Harry whispered as he glanced back at the cupboard and then up at Snape.

“Tomorrow night.” Snape replied, already at the door to the classroom waiting for Harry to catch up. Harry hurried and fell into step, two steps behind Snape to avoid treading on the man’s billowing black robes. The castle was quiet, the corridors containing only shadows that made no noise as the pair of them passed by. Round a corner onto the moving staircases, they found Peeves was sliding down the banister. Snape flicked his wand at the ghost, and with a puff of wind much like an irritated tornado the ghost was whipped away with a howling yell of ‘bastard’ in Snape’s direction. Snape didn’t seem that fussed by the insulting ghost and Harry found it rather amusing to find Snape not only frightened students but the ghosts as well. Reaching the top of the staircase and the portrait of the fat lady, Snape paused on the top step and allowed Harry to pass him. The boy whispered the password beneath his breath and at length the lazy fat portrait relented and opened up.

“Mr. Potter.” Harry paused on the threshold of the common room to glance back at Snape. “Tomorrow’s detention is for having forced me to discuss sexual education with my Slytherin students, due to your lack of discretion regarding your love life.” Harry flushed a bright red colour, his gaze dropping to the floor as Snape folded his arms angrily across his chest, clearly annoyed that he’d been forced to teach such a class. The very idea of Snape even saying the word ‘sex’ was laughable and Harry forced himself not to imagine what the Slytherin’s class had been like compared to McGonagall’s lecture.

“Sorry.” Harry whispered still feeling flushed by the embarrassment of what had transpired earlier in the week. With a nod Harry turned and entered the common room leaving Snape behind as the portrait closed. With a heavy sigh Harry made his way over to the couch in front of the fire and collapsed into it, his arm covering his face in humiliation. Snape was never going to let him live this down, the man was using the information against him, it was horrible. Harry closed his eyes behind his arm and wished himself a million miles away, not only were his peers giving him shit, but so too was his professor.

TBC>>>>