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The Great Below	By : aldallia Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female Views: 2128 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
A/N: This story is set 3 years
before Harry�s arrival at Hogwarts and will be more or less following canon
articles wherever applicable, but when not its all
original fiction guys.

Disclaimer: I don�t own the characters created by JKR soooo, don�t sue, thanks.

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The weekend soon ended and they were once again back to the
grind of daily overloads of homework and studying. It became almost routine for
Caroline, going to class, eating lunch, class again, then dinner and always in
between everything hurrying to finish up the extra potions assignment Snape would give her and turn it in before her nightly
detention in the Potions classroom where she would stay with Snape and he would mercilessly test her finished assignment
for perfection. Soon a whole month had passed in this same fashion. While
eating breakfast midweek with Meagan, Caroline was fed up with the tedious
nature of this cycle. She missed Adriana and the way she would joke with
Caroline alleviating her boredom in a healthy manner and allowed Caroling another
outlet for release that didn�t involve her expulsion from a school. Even though
Caroline still kept contact with Adriana via owl post, it just wasn�t the same
without her.

�Meagan, I�m bored to tears.� Caroline sighed into her
oatmeal.

Meagan shrugged, �Well, what do you want me to do about it.
You�re literally drowning in extra work, Snape is
hounding your every move and you never get to bed before 11. Take it easy for
once before you kill yourself from overwork!�

�Yea but that�s not the same. The homework is easy, super
easy, it bores me to tears, this place is tedious I hate it! According to all
their guidelines here I�m already an excellent conjurer, so why can�t I
graduate already? I don�t have anything else to do while I�m here so I might as
well make use of my abilities.�

Meagan was intrigued by this conversation, usually Caroline
said very little or would only input whatever opinionated amount conversation
required, but for the most part she wasn�t all that talkative. Granted they
were all busy, Caroline more than most though she didn�t seem to show it.
Meagan probed further, �I take it you�ve found something that would distract
you enough?�

Caroline grinned madly with a twinkle in her eye, �Oh have I
ever! This is to be the greatest use of magic without being caught ever!�

�What did you have in mind?�

�Remember a couple weeks back when I started to disappear
for days at a time but would always show up in class?�

Meagan anxiously replied, �Yea, I wondered what you were up
to and thought it might have been something cool but since you never mentioned
where you went I didn�t put much thought into it.�

Caroline shook her head, �Well you were right! During that
time I was spending my time here in the Great Hall, testing the spells placed
on the ceiling and ways to tweak it to what I want to show.�

Meagan was eagerly listening now, �And? I take it you found
a way��

�Yes!� Caroline was gleeful, �By dinner time on Friday
things should get very interesting around here. I�ve also staged another event
to go off sometime in the early morning which will implicate me, not to worry
it�ll look like more of an accident on account of meeting up with the
poltergeist and suffering his wrath.�

�Wow, looks like you�ve got this all planned out.�

�Well duh, I�ve only spent the last few weeks on this! This
is a huge solo undertaking!� Caroline was ecstatic.

�Alright! Alright! I get it, its
huge�any chance of letting me in on the details?�

�I don�t want you or Nadia to get involved too much, you�re
both on a need-to-know basis for now, but I�m fairly confident you�ll be able
to put two and two together. I am going to need your help, from both of you.�

�Sure no problem, what do you need?�

-----------------------------------------------------

Snape watched Caroline in the
following weeks after her first detention with him and was growing more
confident in his decision to have Caroline take the N.E.W.T for Potions at the
end of this year instead of waiting a whole other year which would be a waste
of her talent. He had a proposal he was meaning to ask of Dumbledore first
thing tomorrow requesting that he take the girl under his tutelage. Snape wanted her education to be wholly complete and to
master the same skills and spells he had. In essence, he wanted her as his
apprentice, if he could push Dumbledore to allow her to take all the important N.E.W.Ts at the end of this year, she could still remain in
the school for the minimum of tests she would like to take but would then be
able to direct her full attention to mastering the skills Snape
wished to teach her.

Snape had no need to check up on
her potions, they were always perfect ever since his first private encounter
with her. He smiled at that memory, inwardly of course. It was then that he got
his idea to ask Dumbledore for permission to transfer Caroline into his 7^th
year N.E.W.T level Potions class. Spaces were reserved for only those he chose personally
to attempt the test and those who were forced to take it for career reasons.
Unfortunately that class had an abysmally low pass rate and was as of yet to
have an exceptional student as none had ever had her knack for the subject. He
watched her this morning with renewed interest, she came in smiling, and was
soon grinning madly animatedly talking to her roommate at breakfast. She was
giving furtive glances about the room making sure no one paid her too much
attention. How foolish, he thought, why would you have any cause to worry when
you�re speaking softly in a crowded room?

She kept up the motions but then again she had been doing
that a lot lately, like she was sizing up the place, taking notice of every
minute detail no matter how insignificant. Snape
turned to look across the hall at the Gryffindor table, could it be for him she�s being so insecure about? Snape wondered. He sneered in the direction of the
Gryffindor table, how he hated their smug, false sense of superiority. Right
now he was able to spot one Gryffindor in particular, a certain member of the Weasley family, called Bill. The damned good looking boy
was the talk of the school, yesterday he overheard the retelling of how on the
first day that boy had walked right up to Caroline, placed an arm around her
and claimed her as his girlfriend. Snape snarled at
the thought, imagine that a Gryffindor
going out with a Slytherin, its preposterous! He
recently caught sight of the way they looked at each other so warmly, he
despised them both, Bill because of his house, Caroline because of her weakness
for that Bill character. He did his best to keep them apart by giving Caroline
loads of extra work to do and otherwise keeping track of her class schedule,
but he couldn�t do anything about their weekend time. As much as he hated to
admit he could only give her so many unwarranted detentions without causing
curiosity into his affairs. He glared angrily at Bill�s head,
I will not let you interfere with my
plans for her future.

-----------------------------------------------------

Jeremy Avery, the Quidditch
captain for Gryffindor caught sight of Snape leering
in their direction, he poked Bill in the sides and slyly moved his eyes up to
the High Table. Bill pretended to drop something behind him and caught sight of
the loathing hatred from Snape. He saw Snape turn around and watch Caroline as she playfully
chatted with her friend Meagan seemingly unaware of all the attention she was
getting just now.

�Hey guys, do you get the feeling that Snape
doesn�t want me anywhere near his pretty little Slytherin?�
Bill spoke in lowered tones so only his friends would hear.

Paul Kiedis, also on the Quidditch team but as a Chaser nodded, �Yea, in fact, the
other day I was walking past a group of Hufflepuffs
who were talking about you and Caroline on the first day and how you rescued
her from a brawl with a bunch of Slyhterin guys, and Snape walked by. He heard them talking and developed one of
the worst grimaces I�ve ever seen the man put on. I think he�s jealous.�

�Jealous of what?� Bill questioned,
�He�s a bloody professor! He can do whatever the fuck he wants to keep me away
from her and don�t think I haven�t noticed that he�s tried. What with his
giving her excessive amounts of work and just otherwise keeping her locked up in his dungeon all day doing Potions work.�
Bill was exasperated every time he tried to speak to her somehow Snape was influencing the turn of events. Forcing Caroline
to hurriedly go down to the dungeons for more work, or go to her room to finish
more work for the rest of her classes, and even immediately after dinner report
to Snape for her nightly detentions.

�It�s not fair that he can keep her working constantly like
that! She needs a break.� Bill determinedly said, �Here's what we're going to
do...�

-----------------------------------------------------

Caroline sat at her desk peacefully listening to Professor
McGonagall�s instructions on how to transfigure a tea cup into an animal,
wordlessly she smiled to Meagan thinking, Oh god, the last time I had to do this I got expelled, as they paired
up, Meagan and Caroline together with Caroline going first.

�Last time I waited on Adriana to see if she got her spells
right I got expelled, I kinda don�t want to inflict the
same karma on myself again if you don�t mind.�

�Not at all, besides, I�ll get to see how it�s done.�

Caroline perfectly transfigured her tea cup into an adorable
tabby kitten that they both crooned over. Meagan turned her cup into an equally
complex but not quite as adorable insect.

�Oh! How come I can�t make it turn into a kitten like
yours?� Meagan frowned.

Caroline stifled some giggles, �Well for one thing, you have
to think of the animal that you want
to turn the object into. Watch.�

Caroline turned her kitten into a spotted gecko.

�Wow, I�ll never be that good, at best I can change it into
something else but not quite what I want.�

�It all takes practice, don�t worry I can show you some
tricks before we go to bed tonight.�

�Okay, but don�t you have Potions work to do?�

Caroline smirked back at Meagan with a mischievous grin,
�Time Turner.�

Meagan slapped her forehead, �Duh! Should
have thought of that.�

Professor McGonagall swooped to their area to check up on
their assignment as usual she gave Caroline high marks.

�Well Miss Black, I see you have mastered the more advanced
topics in Transfiguration already, perhaps I am being too easy on you and you
are holding back from your true level in my class as Professor Snape suspects of your Potions work?� Professor McGonagall
raised an eyebrow.

Before Caroline could dissuade her of this line of thinking
the door swung open and framed in the door�s opening was none other than
Professor Snape. Caroline looked down at her cellphone�s clock, damn
him, on time yet again, good thing I finished my work before the sound of the
door slamming open shifted my aim. Caroline gratefully thought.

�Good afternoon Minerva, I have come to check up on
Caroline�s progress. I trust everything is above satisfactory in her
assignment?�

Professor McGonagall turned towards Caroline as she caught
her slumping shoulders at his drawling speech, she felt some sympathy for the
girl after all the torment she�s going through at having caught Professor Snape�s high regard. She shook her head in understanding
when Caroline turned around. Caroline gave her a small smile of acknowledgement
before erasing her face of any emotion.

�Good afternoon Severus, yes she is doing very well in my
class, I have neither complaints nor any suspicions about her not performing to
her fullest. She is highly skilled in Transfiguration.�

�Excellent. May I inspect her handiwork and at your
permission have Miss Black demonstrate her ability?�

This was more of a command than a request and Minerva knew
she wouldn�t be able to deter him from doing exactly as he wished. She had
heard rumors from among the other Professors who hinted at Severus�s desire to
take Caroline as his apprentice. So far nothing had been certain but at the
rate he was going about checking up on her progress those rumors seemed very
true.

�You may, today they are transfiguring inanimate objects
into living organisms of varying sizes.�

Snape nodded in acknowledgement
and proceeded to take a seat opposite his favored pupil�s desk. She saw
Caroline shrug in dismay at having to perform for him yet again.

�Well Miss Black? Turn that lizard back into its inanimate
form and then into the following three animals: A goat with black spots and a
white coat, a leopard with crisscrossing red and blue stripes and a dragonfly
with the head of a hummingbird.�

Caroline nodded and proceeded to transform her gecko back
into the tea cup then into each of the three animals Snape
had ordered. Snape was thrilled when Caroline
finished his request and watched as the mutant dragonfly-hummingbird creature
flitted about the room.

�Excellent. As always. I shall be
waiting for you outside after the bell.� Snape
goaded.

Everyone was silent as he left, as soon as the door closed
behind him Professor McGonagall spoke aloud to the class.

�Alright class, your homework for tonight if you haven�t
successfully done so in class is to practice your transfiguration spells until
you can perform them as flawlessly as you have seen them done just now. I expect
no less from my students. You are all dismissed.�

Everyone stood up to pack, Caroline�s mood went from
comfortable to discontent the moment Snape had
entered the room. She stood ready to leave when Professor McGonagall called her
back.

�Miss Black, remain in your seat a moment.�

Caroline nodded and turned to Meagan telling her she would
meet up with her as soon as she got away from Snape
for lunch. Professor McGonagall watched Meagan leave before speaking to
Caroline and locking the door with a flick of her wand.

�Caroline,� she began in a motherly tone, �I�ve noticed,
that is to say, all of the Professors have noticed the way Severus is treating
you, as one of his favorites and otherwise hounding your every step. We do not
agree with his method of seeing that you achieve high marks in your classes, I
will gladly put myself between him and you to make sure he worries less and
gives you more breathing room.�

Professor McGonagall was known as a strict and equally as
imposing a figure as Professor Snape but with more
concern for the well being of her students, naturally this balance was
appealing to Caroline to have in an instructor as it meant less probing into
her affairs.

�Professor McGonagall, while I appreciate your concern for my
well-being, you don't have to go out of your way for me. I'm perfectly capable
of handling Professor Snape on my own.� Caroline
smiled back.

Minerva held her gaze a moment longer before speaking,
�Alright, but I will continue to be vocal in your cause and hopefully be able
to convince Severus into easing up a bit.�

�Thank you Professor McGongall,
really.�

Minerva unlocked the door allowing a somewhat irritated Snape to enter, confused as to why the door was locked.
There was a brief stare down between the two Professors before either spoke.

�Minerva.�

�Severus.�

Snape nodded, �I am her Head of
House and I have final word over my student�s educational matters. I trust you
will respect any decision I make on behalf of my student.�

�I will respect your wishes but I will not idly stand by and
watch you work a gifted student to death with endless assignments and
detentions without saying something. For goodness sake!�

Snape grimaced and turned to leave
grabbing Caroline by her upper arm as she hastily gathered her things together.
Once outside Caroline shook off his vice like grip and rearranged her things,
she followed him as they walked through the halls passing one of the courtyards
before Snape stopped to face her.

�What have you been telling people? Are you trying to garner
pity out of all this? You will not get my attention that way and you will not
earn my respect if you continue.�

Caroline stood defiant, �Sir, I have not been trying to
�garner pity� from people, I am above that and am capable of taking matters
into my own hands. But I will let you know since you are seemingly unaware of
the sort of treatment you are giving me by singling me out from the rest. It�s
so much that even other Professors have started to talk about it.�

Caroline�s speech fell on deaf ears, Snape
was no longer concerned with what she had to say her flushed cheeks and the
gentle rise and fall breasts tucked under a tightly buttoned shirt distracted
him. He watched her soft full lips forming around every word she spoke and
begin to purse when she noticed he wasn't paying her the least bit of
attention. She stared back at him curiously as Snape
recovered from his reverie and raked a hand through his hair.

Snape was at odds with himself,
how stupid he felt for not having noticed the changes that were taking place
without the stealth he had desired. In his zeal to keep Caroline from everyone
he had put all the attention on himself and her. In a moment of genuine
sincerity on his part, he squatted down to face her grabbing her by her
shoulders and fighting the urge to press his lips to hers. The sudden change
from his usual stiff and gruff self surprised Caroline, her eyes widened. His
voice was a bit ragged when he spoke.

�Please understand, just because you have the greatest
potential out of all of my students, it does not mean I will expect less of you
like your other teachers who seem content with just the average.�

He stood brusquely, adding before leaving, �You do not have
to come in for extra work tonight.�

Caroline watched him go, rooted to her spot at what just
happened, did he? Did Snape
just cancel detention?

-----------------------------------------------------

As soon as he was around the nearest corner Snape let out his breath, oh god that was close. All he could think about now was how soft
her hair would feel as he cupped the back of her head while pinning her between
him and the wall deeply thrusting his tongue into her mouth and tasting her. Snap out of it! You�re losing your self
control! Snape shouted internally at himself.

He headed to Dumbledore�s office. He disliked the buffoon�s
method for dealing with others, but as the Headmaster and one of the few people
who trusted Snape completely, he was willing to deal
with it.

�Dumbledore, sir.� He knocked
carefully on the door while he opened it.

�Ah! Severus! How nice to see you, may I offer you a sweet?�

�No thank you. I have a request to ask of you, sir.�

Dumbledore motioned for Snape to
sit before him, as they took their seats Dumbledore again offered him a sweet
which he again politely declined.

�What will you have of me Severus?�

Now that his moment to ask had come he wasn�t entirely sure
he was willing to go through with it. Damn
me and this insecurity, it has been plaguing me all too often these days.
He thought darkly.

�Dumbledore, Albus, I would like
to make a request to have a student take my class�s N.E.W.T at the end of this
year.�

�You can�t mean to say Caroline Black now do you?�

Snape was a bit taken aback. He hadn�t
expected Dumbledore to know why he had wanted to speak to him, just that it
involved a student�s accelerated studies.

�In fact, I do. I believe her to be working at below her
level and not because she isn�t working to her full potential. She is, as much
as she can, but the N.E.W.T coursework is far too simple to challenge her
decently. I wish to have her take all her N.E.W.Ts at
the end of this year rather than waiting until her 7^th year. For her
7^th year I wish to take her on as my Potions apprentice, where she
will be properly stimulated�mentally and academically.�

Dumbledore merely smiled back at him, that knowing smile.
Somehow the man seemed to know his every thought, aren�t I supposed to be the
superb Occulmens? Chagrined from the stare he waited
for Dumbledore to respond.

�I�m afraid I simply cannot do that Severus, unless of
course it is Caroline�s wish. I find it will not bring her any harm if she is
allowed to stay where she is until after the Christmas holidays. By then we
will ask her and abide by her wishes, I simply cannot force a student to take
tests when they feel they are not ready for them.�

Snape nodded, this was as much as
he would be getting from the old wizard, for today at least. He would come in
every few days for as long as it took to get him to change his mind sooner.

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The Great Below