Chapter Two
Severus Snape sat quietly in the library, studying a page on Hypno-Charms and sucking on the end of his quill. He wasn’t very good at charms, for some reason or another he found them more difficult than curses. He was very good at curses. Other students didn’t like that about him. In fact, there was very little anyone liked about him. He’d never been very popular, but over the years at Hogwarts it had gotten worse. His ability and interest in the dark arts made most of the students afraid of him. Then there were the other type, the ones who teased him. James Potter and Sirius Black never missed an opportunity to embarrass him, in front of as many students as possible. He hated them. A lot. He hated them with the obsessive intensity only school children were capable of. He vowed to himself, one day he would make them pay.
He saw her the moment she entered the library and he watched as she walked, purposefully, toward a shelf containing books on potions. She caught a glimpse of him as she turned, with a book in her hand, and he thought he saw her cheeks redden. She had caught him watching her many times, but it never seemed to bother her. Juniper Berry. Severus thought about the day he had met her, five years before. She had been only a first year then, just a child. She was leaving the library now, tucking the book she had just gotten into her satchel. She smiled, shyly, at him as she passed. Severus breathed deep.
******
Juniper Berry sat in her History of Magic class with her chin on her palm, looking dreamily out the window. Most of the class had dozed off, thanks to Professor Binn’s droning monotone. Juniper herself didn’t bother taking notes, having already memoried all her school books. Still, she couldn’t sleep in class…Prefects were supposed to set an example, after all…
Instead, she thought about something else. She had seen him in the library again. Severus Snape had been watching her again. In a girlish sort of way, she enjoyed his attentions. Whenever she caught him looking at her, her face would burn and she would have to turn away to hide her embarrassment. She didn’t know why she was so shy toward him. She wasn’t shy toward anyone else. It must have been because of James Potter. That must be it, she concluded. James and his friends had been telling her for years that Snape was no good.
“He’s into all those Dark Arts,” they’d say. “He’s a greasy git. He’ll curse you just as soon as look at you. And just look at that nose! You can’t trust a person like that.” Juniper told herself that she didn’t believe that rubbish, but she knew a part of her had been conditioned by James’ words.
But, she thought, he doesn’t seem so bad…She thought, for a moment, about his dark, black eyes looking at her. A jolt of electricity caused her to jump and she knocked her history book off her desk. It hit the floor with a loud thud. The entire class woke with a start. Professor Binns glared at her.
“Are you quite finished disrupting the class, Miss Berry?” he asked.
“I am, Professor. I’m sorry.” She ignored the angry stares from her classmates. Professor Binns went back to the lesson and the class lay down on their desks again. Juniper looked out the window once again. Oh, I must stop thinking about him, she told herself. Think of something else.
The castle grounds outside the window were inviting. The early September sun shone, warm and bright, over the sparkling waters of the lake. Juniper smiled; class was almost over and she couldn’t wait to spend her lunch break on the lawn.
******
Having finished their lunch, Juniper and her best friend, R.J. Who, made their way across the castle lawn, toward the lake. R.J. was also a Ravenclaw prefect, in the same year as Juniper, but the two of them had been friends since long before that. As they walked, Juniper silently listened while R.J. talked about the History of Magic lesson they had just finished with. He was the only person she knew who was immune to Professor Binn’s droning voice, being a huge fan of history. As he talked, he twirled the large top hat, which he’d wear in place of the pointed caps other students wore, in one hand excitedly.
“What a grand lesson that was, don’t you agree? Professor Binns is an excellent teacher; very detailed, wouldn’t you say?” he said, concluding this hours recap of the history lesson. Juniper knew it was only a matter of time before he started in on it again.
“Enthralling…” she answered. She liked history fine, but Professor Binns’ lessons were not exactly what she’d find exciting.
“But what was with you, pushing your book off your desk like that?” R.J. chided her.
“It was an accident,” she cried defensively. R.J. scoffed. “I had something on my mind.”
“Oh? Like what? A boy?” he teased. He was ready to poke some fun at her after such a wonderful morning. But Juniper did not answer. She had stopped and was looking up ahead of them. R.J. halted also following her gaze.
On the edge of the lake, James Potter and his friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Petigrew, were gathered around Severus Snape again. R.J. noticed a group of giggling girls a little ways removed from the boys. Showing off again, he thought, shaking his head. Potter and his friend Black were shoving Snape around while he tried to get his wand from Petigrew’s hand.
“Not very sporting of them.” R.J. looked to Juniper, who was pulling her wand out of the inside pocket in her robes. “What are you going to do?” he asked.
“I have no idea.”
R.J. thought for a moment. The lake! “Catapult them into the lake,” he suggested with a devious grin. Juniper looked at him quizzically. “Use a Catapult Charm, they were used extensively during the Goblin Rebellion of 1682.” She smirked at his idea.
Snape was getting angry. If only he could get his wand from that little rat’s hands, then he could curse the lot of them. It wasn’t fair, the way they had all snuck up on him and stolen his wand. Oh, how he hated them.
Suddenly, Peter Petigrew sailed into the air squealing, dropping Snape‘s wand. Potter, Black, and Lupin stood gawking at his flailing form heading into the lake. Then Lupin was lifted off the ground and flung into the water... Black and Potter drew their wands and looked madly about for their attacker, but seconds later James Potter was alone with Severus on the bank.
Snape picked up his wand and pointed it at James. “Well, Potter..... the odds seem a bit more fair, now…”
James caught sight of Juniper and R.J off in the distance. Juniper was pointing her wand at him. And with that, Potter voluntarily leapt in the icy waters of the lake, unwilling to have been humiliated. He yelled merrily to the crowd gathered on the lawn “Hey come on in! The Water's.....f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-ine.…”
RJ shook his head disappointedly. “Shame about not getting off that last shot quick enough, Juniper dear.…”
“Oh, I shan’t be so slow next time.” She put her wand back in her pocket.
“Dear me.....doesn’t look like Master Petigrew can swim...... good thing Black and Lupin know how to dog-paddle.…”
Juniper and R.J. laughed and headed off in a different direction. Severus gathered his things and quickly left the lakeside before Potter and his friends could get out of the water. As he was leaving, he saw Juniper Berry and her friend walking away. The side of his mouth curled up into a half-smile.
On to Chapter Three...
...back to Chapter One.