I don't know where my brain has been. I've been so busy with the end of school (and the simple fact that my students have been driving me up a spike wall for two weeks) that I haven't been able to really get down and write. Well, I found time tonight so here it is. I'm nearly at the end of this year and soon it will be on to a real meaty year in the life of Raven. I'm excited b/c there isn't a lot to edit so my chapters will pop up quicker. Thank you to everyone who is reading this. My appreciation to you has no bounds. Here it is........
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Chapter 10
“SIT!" Lupin yelled once they reached his office. "You are going to sit there and not say a word. You will not talk to me like you do your uncle."
Raven rolled her eyes and nodded. She wondered to herself if he even knew the situation with Draco. Because if he knew, he wouldn't be yelling at her now, he would be yelling at Draco.
"I don't know what happened up there," he said. "But I will say this, attempting to kill a student or pretending like you are going to is not acceptable. I will have to give you detention and take points from Gryffindor. Now what do you have to say for yourself?"
"Oh, I'm allowed to speak now?" she said.
"Don’t get smart with me," Lupin said. "Now explain what happened up there."
"What does it matter? You're going to punish me anyway," she said sitting up in her chair. "And what am I going to do? Not tell you? You might attack me on the next full moon."
"Excuse me?" asked Lupin who was a startled by the change in subject.
"See I know my uncle's secrets, so giving him a hard time for it only heightens the effect of our horrible relationship," she said with no resentment at all. "But you want to punish me for wanting to kill Draco, when you quite possibly have blood on your hands, Professor."
"Your Legilimens is strong. How long have you known?" he asked finally cooling his tone down a bit.
"Since Dumbledore announced you at the beginning of term feast. But enough chit chat. You are going to punish me for something that was initially not my fault?" she said deviously. “No one ever wants to punish Draco in fear that his father will come down on them. I guess I feel it is a civic responsibility to take care of the trash that no one else will bother with.”
"No, it’s not your responsibility to punish anyone. And for that, I will be taking points away from Gryffindor for your actions," he said. “No matter how much you hate Draco, and for what ever the reason may be, you must learn to control your anger."
"I hate him more than you will ever know," she said feeling quite agitated. “This only makes it worse.
"I know you hate him, but killing him will only make it worse for you," he said sitting next to her. "You don't want to end up like your uncle Sirius."
"How did you know?" looking back at him because he turned the tables on her.
"That he was your uncle?" he asked. "We were friends at school. I know all about your family. He told James and I about your mother’s fake adoption and when your mother married Severus’s brother."
"So it seems we’ve ousted each other," she said with a bit of a laugh, feeling bad for what she said to Lupin. She always had respect for him and hoped he wouldn't hold her bad attitude against her. “Look, Professor, I’m sorry. I said some harsh things to you. My anger brings out the worst of my character.”
"Apology accepted. As far as outing each other, yes we did. But I won't tell if you don't," he said putting his hand on her shoulder.
"I have no reason to tell," she said. "But do I have to serve detention? It's not my fault. I was trying to walk away."
"No detention because once word is out about what happened, you‘ll likely be expelled. I know that Draco can make life difficult for people. After all, he is Lucius Malfoy’s son. But I do have to take away those points," he said getting up and going back over to his desk. “That is all. I’m not going to save you again. Next time you answer to Dumbledore.”
Professor Lupin looked at her and gave her a calm smile. As she walked out the door, she realized how lucky she was not to be expelled. The next time she has a confrontation with Draco, she may not get off that lucky. She had to stop letting Draco get to her. However, looking back at the whole situation she realized something. Although a relationship between Draco and Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin third year, was clear, Draco seemed to be looking in another direction. She couldn't see it before and then it hit her square in the face: Draco liked Raven.
After the next few days, Raven couldn’t look in Draco’s direction, not that she really wanted to anyway. One day he spoke to her. Actually, it was a rude comment and Raven wanted to break his face in ten different pieces. In the end, she was proud of herself. She didn’t acknowledge his existence and kept walking.
It didn’t take long after the incident with Draco for him to tell Snape what had happened. Snape was able to persuade Draco not to inform his father. However, Snape wasn’t about to let Raven go unpunished.
He called her into his office and didn’t make the conversation as nice and sweet as it was with Lupin.
“Why do you insist on letting Draco Malfoy get to you?” he asked.
Raven thought about that for a second. She wondered if a sarcastic remark would be appropriate. It just seems so easy to smart off to him. He left himself open. For the time being, though, she was going to be nice. “He’s not a nice person. Someone had to put him in his place. You aren’t. His father certainly isn’t.”
“If I had known that Draco was doing anything wrong-”
“That’s just it, you did know! I tried to tell you a while ago but I guess you chose not to listen. When are you going to get it through your thick, greasy skull that Draco is up to absolutely no good?”
“I don’t care about him! I care about you!”
“I have a horrible time believing that. You are getting ready to punish me for something that could have been avoided if Draco had not pressed on!”
“When I hear what happened, I can’t help but put the punishment in the proper place.”
“Proper place? Are you kidding? You don’t even know what happened! People are so quick to judge based on what they saw or what they were told! And Draco told you. You believe him? You think he was just minding his own business and I just attacked him for no reason? Do you think I’m that ruthless?”
“I don’t think you’re ruthless. I think you don’t think.”
“Then what do you want me to say, Uncle? I’m not going to apologize for what I did to Draco. He got what he deserved. I wasn’t going to kill him. I was hoping to scare him.”
“I don’t think you did. I think you only fueled his fire even more.”
Raven thought about the comment Draco said to her that day. She realized she hadn’t scared him and that her uncle was right.
“So what am I supposed to do since you aren’t going to do anything?”
“I wrote his father and carefully explained the situation. I will have another talk with Draco once I have received a reply from Mr. Malfoy. Other than that, there isn’t much I can do. You are the one who attacked a student. Draco really did nothing wrong.”
“Oh really? You think so?” Raven’s sarcasm was about to pop. She had to let a little comment out.
Snape didn’t like it, of course. He pursed his lips together and gave her a stern look. “In the meantime, I can’t let what you did pass by unnoticed. Lupin is much kinder than I am. The rest of this week you’ll be spending detention with me.”
“What?” Raven was furious. “So Draco is going unpunished…again.”
Snape was oblivious to her objections. “You are going to learn to control your anger. And who better to teach you than me.”
“I hope you are not going to teach me how to take a beating because you’re good at that.”
“Tonight, after dinner, you will join me in my classroom for detention. That is all.”
Raven jumped up and slammed her hands on Snape’s desk. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I can. You need to be punished for what you did. Now, that is all!”
“You know I hate you, right?”
“You have made that abundantly clear how much you hate me. Frankly, I don‘t care if you hate me or not, you cannot get away from what you did.”
Raven left Snape’s office but not before slamming his door so hard that she heard some bottles shatter on the other side. She got halfway to the Gryffindor common room when she spotted George, Fred and Lee.
She kept her punishment from Snape a secret for the time being. However, George could tell something was going on, as Raven was very quiet. Everyone decided to go back up to the common room and wait around for dinner.
On the way to dinner, Raven whispered to George the situation. They were both in agreement that it was fairly reasonable for Raven to have detention, however it was completely unfair for Draco to walk away as if he did nothing wrong.
“What kind of hold does Draco have on this school anyway?” Raven asked.
“He is the son of Lucius Malfoy. If he were anyone else, that wouldn’t be enough. However, for him…well, Lucius can make things happen or not happen. Look at what he’s doing with Buckbeak. We all know that it was Draco’s fault that he was hurt. But because he was hurt by Buckbeak, Buckbeak has to die.”
“I would love for someone to take him down or at least take him down a notch. If no one else wants to do it, I guess it’s up to me.”
“I can’t stop you but, I can say that people don’t come out smelling like roses when they mess with Lucius Malfoy. Just be careful.”
“Always.” Raven smiled and the two walked hand-in-hand to the Great Hall for dinner.
After dinner, Raven moseyed to the dungeons where Snape was waiting patiently for her to arrive. She threw herself into a chair and threw her feet up on the desk.
“I’m here for my undeserved detention. So what is it? Lines? Cauldron cleaning? Bowing faithfully to the potion master?”
“First you will clean my personal pantry. Once that is finished, you will alphabetize and reorganize said pantry. If you have finished those duties by the end of the week, the student pantry will need to be cleaned and organized.”
Raven rolled her eyes on hearing her list of chores. “And what is that supposed to accomplish?”
“With each task I will make you so angry that if you haven’t learned how to control that temper of yours, it will be another week and another week of meaningless tasks. Now, I believe you have some work to do. Here is my key. I will be along shortly.”
Once again, Raven rolled her eyes. She got up quietly and walked toward Snape to get the key. She reached out her hand and just as she was about to grab it, Snape pulled it away.
“By the way, the bottles that you broke earlier need to be cleaned and the ingredients inside to be replaced. Of course, that will mean preparing and bottling. That and half the pantry needs to be finished by the end of the night. Oh, and I’d like to get to bed at a decent hour. So make it quick.”
Raven snatched the key and walked toward the area with the broken bottles. Her anger was so hot right now; it wouldn’t take much to cause some chaos.
“I am very particular about bottling my ingredients. If they are done wrong, I will demand that you redo it.”
“Well, nothing but the best for you, right? I mean, you’re working your dream job and all.”
“That is strike one, Miss Snape. Two more and you have another week. There is no time for talk. Get to work!”
Without saying a word, no matter how much she wanted to, Raven walked over to the ingredient shelf to see what ingredients she needed to prepare. The so-called detention was unjust in her mind, or at least too harsh. If her uncle wanted her to be on her best behavior, he will get nothing but kindness from her. Her manners will be so disgustingly good that he’ll think either she’s a transformed into a human being and it will ride high on his ego or he’ll be so irritated that he’ll end the detention early. Raven hoped for the latter.
Chapter 11