A/N: This is my first attempt at a Snape-centric story. There will be an O/C, though I'm not sure what I'll be doing with them. This is also totally AU, so if I get off in some areas, you have been warned. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed, as are reviews! Thanks for reading. It's set in the trio's 6th year, by the way.
Severus Snape wandered the room, peering over the shoulder of the sixth and seventh year students as they prepared their potions. The students cast a nervous glances over their shoulder as they felt the dark-clad professor roam about, afraid of making the smallest mistake. The class was nearing its end, and Snape was relieved to see that the hour had gone off without a hitch........
"Oh no!" three students screeched as a small cauldron blew up, sending bits of iron around the room, students diving under their desks and green slime sliding down the front of Snape's wooden desk that sat at the front of the room, making sickening plopping noises at it hit the ground.
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Snape turned to see which feather-brain had messed up such a simple potion!
"I'm sorry." an all too familiar voice said quietly from under the desk. "I thought I had it this time." the voice added.
"Bryant!" Snape growled as the students crawled out from under the desks, everyone making sure to stay quiet. If Snape was angry, it was best that it was directed at the person who had caused the small explosion. Why turn his anger onto themselves if they could avoid it? "What exactly did you do?"
"I just added a little of the...." Faith Bryant picked up the small vial that had contained the last ingredient she had added before the mishap. "Beetle wing?" she asked, knowing that wasn't right.
"Beetle wing?" Snape asked as some of the students chuckled quietly. "Why did you add...." he stopped and waved his hand. "Never mind. You will of course need to stay after and clean up this mess."
"I know the drill." the girl nodded as she wiped a bit of the green slime off the sleeve of her robe and sniffed at it. Green apple!
"Everyone else, quickly finish your work, store them and then you may leave." Snape said as he glanced at the accident prone girl once more before moving off. "She must have been sent to test my patience." he muttered to himself as he watched the other students hurry to finish their work so they could be gone.
Faith Bryant sat quietly, her hands folded in her lap as she waited for the class to end so she could begin her clean-up work. It wasn't the first time that she had created a mess in Professor Snape's classroom, and she was afraid it was far from the last time she would do so.
"Sorry." she whispered as Snape walked past her table to check on Neville Longbottom's work.
She made him look like a brilliant wizard, and he so enjoyed having a seat near her's. It wasn't often that Neville had that feeling. It also didn't hurt that Neville thought the girl was kind of cute. She was rather short, shorter than him so he felt tall next to her. Her long brown hair was so nice, and it always smelled to lovely...like strawberries. It had taken him a while to be able to figure out what the scent was. And she was nice to him. She didn't make fun of him, or only talk to him out of pity, she was actually, genuinely nice to him! Usually, only the students in Gryffindor were actually nice to him, others just seemed to tolerate him. She wasn't even in his house, and still she was nice. What a treat!
"Go get the mop and bucket." Snape ordered Faith as she sat glued to her chair.
"Mop and bucket?" She asked, looking up and disappointment flashing in her green eyes. "Can't I use my wand?"
"I would like this little incident to be the only explosion in this room today." he replied as he moved away.
"It's a simple cleaning spell." she argued. "I've never blown up the room before."
"Do not argue with me, Bryant!" Snape warned as he spun back around to look at her, his robes twirling about him as he did so.
"I'm just saying..." Faith began to argue again, but stopped. She knew that look. "Fine." she said with a sigh.
"I can stay to help." Hermione said as she finished pouring her potion into a bottle and sealing it.
"No, you will not." Snape said. "Miss Bryant made the mess, she will be the one to clean it up. Alone."
"Thanks, Hermione." Faith said with a thankful smile as she left to get the mop and bucket.
Doing it by hand. What was the point of being a witch and having these magical abilities if you were forced to do things manually!? She had to admit though, she didn't blame the professor for being a bit wary around her. His class seemed to bring out the worst in her. She was usually a bit klutzy, but never like she was in his classroom. She had been at the school for two of the three months of the new term, and she had set fire to his robes when trying to light the fire for her cauldron, had one potion go horribly wrong so that she could not speak for an entire week, which Professor Snape seemed to enjoy thoroughly. And blowing up her potion today was just one more thing in a long line of accidents. Anything that could go wrong in Potions, did go wrong for Faith. She found herself wishing she were back in the States. Things were much better for her there.
One thing surprised her though. She had been forced to clean up the room more times than she cared to count, and at that point had probably spent more time cleaning up her messes in that room than she had in the Ravenclaw common room chatting and hanging out with her friends. Yet, she didn't really mind. People kept saying they felt bad for her, having to spend extra time around Snape, but it wasn't so bad. For the most part, he ignored her. She kind of enjoyed the quiet. Not to mention, she got a kick out of the arguments she'd heard Snape have with other members of the faculty. She truly loved when Professor Trelawney decided to pop into the Potions room to try her luck with the snarky Snape. To see him, a man so many students feared, squirm when little Trelawney had him cornered was priceless! She had made the mistake of mentioning that once to him, without really thinking. She had received two day's detention. She didn't mind though, since as soon as she disappeared into the store room where Snape kept all the ingredients, Trelawney would appear and try once more to woo Snape.
She hurried to get the mop and bucket, hoping that Trelawney would show up again today. She could use a good laugh!