>SEVERUS' POV<
I was walking down to the Great Hall thinking about Scarlet, when I bumped into Raven. Merlin, this is not what I planned. "Severus!" she exclaimed happily, I tried to at least look joyful, unfortunately, I'd rate it a -10. "Come, we can walk to the Great Hall together! I haven't found my way around."

"Raven, you've studied here."

"Severus, it's been 20 years!"

I deeply sighed and walked with her, my hands held by my back. When we arrive at the Great Hall, I prayed that I can sit far from her, but sometimes, life isn't fair, isn't it?

There were only 2 seats next to Minerva. I sat down quietly, when I realized Scarlet was almost finished eating. I caught her eye, and winked at her, making the little witch giggle.

>THIRD PERSON<
Raven furrowed her brows as she saw Severus making eye contact with Scarlet, and tapped his shoulder. She attempted to distract him the whole morning, which was the reason why Scarlet's mood changed quickly, and you know what that mood is. "Hey, didn't McGonagall said Professsor Jones was going to teach next year? Why is the goth living here?" Xander asked, she looked at him with a I-don't-know-either expression.

They all got up for class, when Raven whispered something into McGonagall's ear. It made the Headmistress sigh and nod. Felixa, on the other hand, eyed Raven cautiously to, what was with the witch? But she had a class to teach, and hurried to her classroom. Since Scarlet's last subject was Potions, she had her mind off things. Charms was the first class, where Flitwick bursted out of the door.

"Good morning, class!" he squeaked with glee. "Good morning, Professor Flitwick." the students chanted and brought out their wands. "On behalf of your DADA, you will learn a new spell... Or rather a curse! I must warn you that is very dangerous too! It is the cutting curse! Can anyone tell me what this curse does?"

Scarlet's hand shot up to the air. "Ah, miss Carter, yes -"

But before Flitwick can finish his sentence, the doors burst open. "I can teach them."

It was none other than Professor Jones.

She stood in front of the students, making them all confused. Wasn't this supposed to be charms? "The cutting curse, also known as Sectumsepra, is a very dangerous curse, below the level of the 3 Unforgivable Curses. But must know the 3 curses, of course! The Cutting Curse cuts the victim violently and can be healed by the spell Episkey."

Everybody looked at each other with a worried look. "Raven, I think it's better if I taught them -"

"Nonsense! After all, isn't this associated with DADA? Students fall in line please!"

Everybody got up, and pushed their tables aside. Jones flicked her wand, and a model of a man appeared. He looked more of a wooden Death Eater type, and had his own wand. "In the count of three, I'd like the person in front to cast Sectumsepra. Please do this with caution, since the curse may backfire."

"Backfire?!"

"Mr. Vaddlesprout! How about you go first, darling!"

A boy with short blond hair stepped up nervously. He raised his wand, but he wouldn't stop shivering. "S-S-Sectumsepra!" A weak white light bolted out of his wand, but it hardly injured the model. "I need to talk to you later, Mr. Vaddlesprout. Ms. Roberts!"

They didn't notice Professor Flitwick furiously stomping out, and slamming the door. "One... Two... Three!"
"Sectumpsepra!" Lyanna shouted, the curse hit the model, but it only made a medium-sized cut. "Very well."

Scarlet was at the very back of the line, and when it was her turn, the butterflies flew out of her stomach. "Oh, miss Carter, I'm sorry but you can hardly -"

"Ma'am, I am the only one who hasn't performed the curse yet, do you not believe in me?" asked Scarlet, the whole class sniggered, making Professor Jones look at her with deepest loathing. "Fine. Go ahead."

Scarlet went calm and inhaled for a moment. "One... Two... Three!"

"Sectumsepra!!"

Scarlet's wand erupted white thunder, and slashed the model apart. Everybody went silent, when Professor Jones looked at Scarlet with a furious look. "Detention, Ms. Carter. With Mister Filch tomorrow." And with her last words, Jones stroded out of the classroom. When she was gone, everybody ran to Scarlet with happy faces. "You did it!"
"That was bloody awesome!"
"Why did she give you detention? You deserved points!"

Scarlet's face flushed red, and the compliments continued for the rest of the day. What they didn't notice, was that Professor Jones became angry everytime she hears Scarlet. Scarlet this, and Scarlet that. I'd prove them something.

~~•~~•~~•~~•~~•~~•
When it was time for the last period, everyone ran to the dungeons, racing to be the earliest. But Xander held his and to stop all of them and leaned his ear towards the dungeon door. "Wait... Someone's laughing..."

"Oh, move out of the way!" A Gryffindor 4th year exclaimed, and used his Extendable Ears to hear what was inside. He slipped the ear inside, and moved the microphone for everyone there to hear.

"Shhhhh."

"You shouldn't do this! Later, you're gonna get caught!" pleaded Scarlet, trying to stop the wizards and witches from listening. Laughter escaped the ear, when they all had trouble getting the ear out as they heard loud footsteps. All of them panicked, and looked at each other with frightened expressions.

"The Greasy Git is coming! I repeat, The Greasy Git is coming!"

"Hide!"

They all hid between the pillars, but the poor owner didn't leave his belonging. "Come here, you idiot!" Lyanna whisper-shouted and pulled him to the side. The dungeon door slammed open, with Snape holding the Wizard Weasley's Wheezes product.

"Show yourselves!" Snape roared, all of them held their breath, but unfortunately, one of them breathed with a muffled sound. With a wave of his wand, all of the students earlier, were dragged in front of him, including Scarlet. "Who's idea was this!?!" he bellowed at them, dropping the ear to his feet. Xander looked frightened, but when he was about to step foward, Scarlet stopped him and admitted it was her.

"Carter?!"

"I was the one who put the Extendable Ear. I should be the one to be punished." She lied convincingly, everybody looked at her in disbelief, Scarlet lying to a teacher?! "80 points from Gryffindor. And you earned 2 months of detention for eavesdropping with me, Miss Carter. Very dissapointing."

Scarlet wasn't used to getting these things, either. Her eyes were almost filled with tears, since she dragged Gryffindor down for the House Cup. They entered the classroom, with pouts on their faces as Snape taught them a lesson. It made Scarlet even disturbed more, when Professor Jones was like the Special Potions Apprentice. The usual Scarlet Liana Carter would usually raise her hand, do her potion correctly, or look happy, but she was in the complete opposite mood.

So this is what it felt like to be Uncle Sirius, being pinned on, even if you weren't the real criminal.

When Potions was done, Scarlet's head was still lowered, and held her books to her chest. Everybody kept on saying sorry to her, especially Xander. Both of them stopped in front of the door, with the wizard trying to look at the witch's face.

"Scarlet, please, I'm sorry. I really am, if only you just let me-"

"It's alright, Xander. I know how you struggle in exams, so I just saved you so you can get past your OWLS." Scarlet replied, and tried to breath properly.

They didn't notice that Snape was actually listening to them from behind. In dinner, Scarlet hardly ate a crumb. She just stared at her food as though it was the most intresting thing in the world. She didn't look at Snape, but not even the others either. The Gryffindors tried to talk to her, but she only relplies weakly, then remains silent.

The clock struck 8, meaning it was time for detention with Snape. She walked down to the dungeons, and entered the office. "Good evening, Professor." she said, sitting in the chair beside the desk, lowering her head. "Miss Carter, was it really you, that put the ear?" he asked, looking into her eyes. Scarlet blinked and avoided eye contact. "Yes, sir. It was my idea." she admitted, pretending to be whole-hearted. "Then I must've heard your conversation with Mr. Smith, earlier-"

"Sir, I told him that because he tried to save me. If he did, he would struggle in the OWLS since he can't study, so I admitted the truth."

Snape was dumbstruck, why would a perfectly-behaved witch do that?

"Scarlet, please -"

"Can we start the detention, sir? I'm sure you still need to get some things done that are less important than me."

They were half-way through the detention of Scarlet cleaning the floors, when Professor Jones came in. Her boots had sticky mud on it, and she walked through the floor. Scarlet saw her smirking towards her, and sitting down across the Potions Master. The both proffesors started a conversation, as Scarlet's tears dropped to the floor. How am I supposed to clean this up, again?!

Her arm started to feel numb, and her eyes were red. "You missed a spot. Just there, darling." Professor Jones muttered. Scarlet looked up with an angry expression and cleaned the corner. The clock was already pointing to 2am, but Jones was keeping Snape from looking at the clock. Scarlet didn't complain at all, but she stood up, biting her lip with dirt all over her face.

"Carter! Are you alright?"

"C-C-Can I g-go now p-p-please?" she stuttered, about to burst into tears. Snape's eyes widened as Scarlet had tiny scars all over the girl, as treated punishment to herself by being so stupid.

"Why did you -"

"S-S-Sir, may I-I go n-now p-p-please?" she asked, Snape finally turned to the clock and face-palmed himself as he didn't notice the time. Professor Jones grinned to herself with triumph. "I shall escort you to your dorms -"

"I can g-go by myself, s-s-sir."

She turned around and ran out, blood dripping from her robes, when Peeves glided towards her. "Scarlet! What happened?" Peeves asked with concern in his voice. Peeves was Scarlet's childhood friend, when she was 11, and helped him in some pranks. She was one of the people he'll only listen to.

"Snape."