Double Dare

The next day I was sat outside with Celeste and Draco. Celeste and I were informing Draco about the previous day’s events. He obviously found them as funny as we did.

“I still can’t believe you kissed him!”

I laughed; “technically I didn’t, the potion did”

“Whatever! Your lips locked with his, you kissed him!”

“You should have seen it! It was amazing! He was going to kiss back until he remembered he couldn’t!” Celeste said grinning.

“What?! No way! I can’t believe you may actually win this!”

I smirked; “I have detention tonight with him too!”

“Aww! No way! This is so unfair!”

“What?! Tempest loves you! All you have to do is go for her!”

“I don’t want to! She’s a freak!”

“That’s horrible! She’s lovely!”

“Hey Lenore, remember to grill Snapey on why he lied to you!”

I laughed; “Snapey?”

Celeste grinned and winked. I shook my head and looked at Draco.

“Anyway, when’s our study date with a certain Herbology master?”

Celeste grinned; “this evening”

“I still can’t believe you fancy that oaf!” Draco said. She shrugged.

“Whatever Malfoy, he’s sweet!”

“Sweet?! He’s a walking disaster! Everything he touches breaks, everything he attempts he fails, he can’t do anything right!”

“He’s a sweet, caring individual! He’d do anything he could to help those he loves and wouldn’t hurt a fly! Which is much more than can be said for you Malfoy! I hope Tempest gets out before it’s too late!”

She jumped up and went to storm off when she saw Neville cowering behind a tree. I grinned as both of them turned a deep shade of red.

“Ce-Celeste, I was just, just wondering if you uh, if you still wanted that uh, help with your Her-Herbology”

Celeste looked at me, I nodded. She led Neville away. I smiled to myself and looked back at Draco. He had the same usual scowl of his plastered on his face. I sighed.

“For God’s sake Draco; you’re just never happy are you?!”

He rolled his eyes and didn’t reply.

That evening after dinner I went down to the dungeons for detention. Snape was sat at his desk marking papers. He looked up.

“Good evening; nice of you to remember”

I nodded and went over to his desk.

“So what are you going to have me do today?”

He smirked and placed a large pile of papers into an empty space next to him.

“You will be helping me grade first years’ papers”

I nodded and sat down. He handed me a quill and we marked in complete silence, aside from his occasional grumblings when someone got something completely wrong. After a while I plucked up the courage to ask him about our previous encounter.

“Uh, Professor?”

“Yes?”

“Uh, well last night, just to check I hadn’t done anything, I used that memory charm on myself...” he looked up at me; “...Why did you lie to me about it?”

He sighed; “if you didn’t know you had you wouldn’t be embarrassed by it”

“Why would I be embarrassed by it? I was under love potion and didn’t know what I was doing! ...Unless you’d be embarrassed by it...”

“Why would I be?”

“Because...You nearly kissed me back?”

“I didn’t nearly do anything! Now continue your detention, in silence!”

I nodded and smirked to myself, knowing I’d struck a nerve.

After my detention I ran back to the common room to tell Celeste about what had happened. She grinned.

“He quite definitely fancies you! It’s a shame we can’t use Veritaserum...”

I laughed; “oh well; I’ll get him my own way...Anyway, how did things go with Neville?”

Her grin got even bigger.

“Well obviously he overheard me shouting at Malfoy...So I kinda admitted I fancied him...And he ran off...But then a while later Seamus and Dean found me and told me Neville fancied me too...So we met him in the library...And now...We’re going out!”

“Oh my God that’s fantastic! Go you! See, Draco’s good for some things!”

She laughed; “I guess...But he’s still a prick”

“Oh definitely”

We lay on our beds laughing about our eventful day.

The next day I went to go meet Draco. On the way Celeste was going to meet Neville. He was waiting outside the Great Hall. I smiled as they both awkwardly smiled at each other and held hands. Behind, some of Neville’s friends were grinning, laughing and pointing. I went off to go meet Draco. He was sat with Tempest by the fountain.

“Hey guys!”

“Hey Lenore! How are you?”

“I’m very well thank you Tempest”

I sat down with them. Draco glared at me.

“So, what are we doing today?”

They both shrugged.

“Not much we can do really” Draco replied. I nodded.

“True”

We all sighed and looked around.

“Well, this is fun” I sighed, they nodded.

“Why don’t we go on a walk?” Tempest suggested.

“Fair enough, better than nothing I guess” Draco replied. We got up and began wandering around the school grounds.

“Oh hey Draco, thanks to you, Celeste is going out with Neville”

He groaned; “people just get worse and worse”

I rolled my eyes; “it’s actually very sweet”

“Whatever!”

He wandered off ahead. Tempest and I looked at each other and shrugged.

“I think Celeste and Neville will make a wonderful couple” Tempest said. I nodded.

“Me too”

“Draco tells me you like Professor Snape and want to have a relationship with him”

I looked ahead at Draco, my eyes narrowing; “did he now?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell. I think; if you want him to fall for you, you need to show him you’re serious and genuine about a relationship and not just messing him about like a typical teenager”

I thought for a moment, the hippy’s got a point!

“Thanks for the advice Tempest”

She smiled; “no problem”

We followed after Draco for a while. We all sat by the lake; Tempest and Draco were snuggled up; Draco was determined not to lose the bet. I sighed; feeling rather alone. I looked up to the castle, wondering what Snape was up to, thinking of ways to get to him.

At dinner I noticed he wasn’t at the staff table; I finished my dinner quickly and decided to get some alone time with my book. I went and sat below Snapes office window – which, even though up a large flight of stairs in the dungeon, was actually on the ground floor in comparison to the rest of the castle. I occasionally looked up to see if he was in his office. I gave up after a while and just read my book.

“Is there any reason you choose to sit beneath MY window?”

I looked up and smirked to myself.

“It’s quiet here Professor, no idiotic students running round”

“But why MY window?”

I shrugged; “I was having Romeo and Juliet moment?”

He rolled his eyes and went back inside. I grinned to myself. I looked up; he’d left the window open. I stood up and leant on the windowsill, he was at his desk marking.”

“Do you do anything but mark?”

He looked up; “not really”

“So what’s your problem with me reading under your window?”

“I never expressed a dislike in your choice f location; I merely enquired as to why you chose it”

I loved it when he used long words. I shrugged; “it’s quiet”

He looked back down at his work before looking up.

“How busy are you?”

“...I’m not?”

“Would you like to assist me with my marking?”

“For you sir, anything! Just a sec” I grinned, before running off. I ran down to the dungeons to his office. As I got within arm’s reach of the door it swung open. I smirked and took a seat next to him. He passed me some papers and a quill.

“Like spending time with me huh?” I asked as I picked up the first paper. He sighed.

“If I knew I’d be getting another questionnaire from you I’d never have asked you here”

“...Shall I take that as a yes?”

“Will you please just mark?”

“C’mon sir! Treat me to a conversation! You’re the only intelligent person I know!”

“Somehow I can believe that to be true”

I smirked; “it is! Everyone I know has the IQ of a Hinkypuff”

He smirked too; “is that so?”

“Yes”

We managed to get a proper conversation going and hung out in his office until dinner-time. I sat with Celeste, Jade and Ruby. None of which were decent conversation. All I got out of them were; “Neville”, “Fred” and “George” What is it about Gryffindor boys? The Slytherin ones are so much better looking! The three of them were sat daydreaming. Huge grins plastered on their faces, staring over at the Gryffindor table. I sighed and finished eating quickly. I looked round to see Snape. He was sat poking at his food looking bored. I smiled and got up. I noticed him look up at me as I rose from the table. I decided to adopt a kind of sexy swagger as I left the Hall. I took the scenic route back to the common room. As usual, I bumped into Snape. I grinned.

“We need to stop meeting like this”

He smirked; “we should. What are you doing down here?”

“I decided to go back to the common room, the long way”

“The long way? Or the wrong way?”

“...They’re pretty much the same right? They kill time”

He rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you do, don’t look like you’re looking for trouble”

“...I don’t look like I want trouble do?”

“You always look like that”

He pretended to be offended.

“I do not! I’m all innocent and...Stuff”

H smirked; “you’re fooling no one”

“Damnit”

“Go on, back to your common room”

“Yes Professor!”

I curtsied and skipped off to the common. I smirked to myself, knowing he was watching me until I went out of sight. I went up to my room and collapsed on my bed in a love-sick daze. Around me, Celeste, Jade and Ruby were in the exact same state.