A Rift

I had a feeling Easter would become my most hated holiday from now on.

First, the potion I'd revised eight hundred times kept failing, then I encountered a strange creature in the Black Lake, and when I sneaked out at midnight to continue working on the potion, I ran right into Snape and the others.

Because I'd beaten him up last time, Mulciber blocked my path and taunted me. Any other time, I would have just walked away, but I was in a bad mood today and needed someone to take it out on. In the end, we came to blows.

We could actually all have escaped before Filch arrived, but we kept tripping one another up, and we ended up getting caught together.

Filch handed us over to Professor Slughorn, who was the closest at hand. Mulciber and the others were usually terrible in Potions Class, so the professor showed them no mercy and gave them detention. He was much more lenient with Snape and me, and since he knew I often stayed up late brewing potions, he thought I was just studying hard. He only told Snape and me to help him portion out some potions the next day.

I'd portioned out potions many times before and could do it with my eyes closed. But if I had to work with Snape, I'd rather be sent to guard the Forbidden Forest.

I was in a foul mood when I returned to the common room, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I ended up sitting on the steps outside the boys' dormitory and gave James and Sirius a terrible fright when they returned in the middle of the night.

"Why are you sitting here!?"

James, who was sneaking around under the Invisibility Cloak, nearly stepped on me in the dark. If Sirius hadn't reacted quickly, he might have let out a scream loud enough to wake every student. "You're not getting back at me for scaring you before, are you?"

"No." After successfully scaring them, I clapped my hands and gave them the satisfied smile of someone who'd pulled off a prank. "I was just in a bad mood, so I wanted to see someone else looking miserable."

"I told you she should have been in Slytherin," Sirius said.

James said, "Sometimes I think Sirius has a point..."

The two of them went back, still shaken, but I was as depressed as ever. If only Lily were still at school. She would definitely have been willing to go with me.

Better a short pain than a long one, so I hurried to Professor Slughorn's office early the next morning, hoping to get it over with and leave as soon as possible. But just as I reached out to push open the door, I saw Snape reach out at the same time.

We stood at the door, staring at each other for a moment.

"I didn't expect you two to come so early. I was going to send for you this afternoon." It was too late to run now. Professor Slughorn opened the door, looking very pleased. "But you're both very talented students. With talent and hard work, you're sure to accomplish something in the future."

After he welcomed us inside, the thing I least wanted to see happened-Professor Slughorn said he had some business to attend to and had to go out. Everything was already on the table, and we could leave on our own once we were finished.

Sigh, I knew it. He was always busier during the holidays than usual. It was like this every time.

After the professor left, the room fell completely silent. Snape and I worked like people who'd spent ten years on an assembly line, deftly portioning out the potions. But Snape was only a first-year, after all, and occasionally stopped to take a closer look.

After another clink, Snape looked up at me.

[Snape's favorability -1]

If you're bad at it, practice more! Don't take it out on other people!

I understood why Snape disliked me so much. Never mind that I was a Gryffindor now; I also wandered the school almost every night and often ran into them gathered together studying Dark Magic or saw Avery and the others bullying classmates. Snape never joined in, though, and just watched from the sidelines.

Every time, I told Lily about it, and Snape was very unhappy. But I didn't see the problem. When James and the others bullied classmates, I told Lily about that too, as faithfully as a daily or weekly report, come rain or shine. At most, James would complain that I was stricter than the professors.

I finished sorting all the potions at my station as quickly as a hospital drip being pushed in all at once, then prepared to make my escape. But I'd forgotten that bad luck never simply stopped there. The system finally seized its chance and popped up a dialogue box almost immediately.

[Snape romance event triggered. Normal options temporarily hidden]

[The potions on this side have all been portioned out...]

[1. Seeing that he hasn't finished, help him]

[2. "It seems this is the first time we've spent time alone together so quietly."]

[3. Confess your love to Snape]

Why on earth? What did Snape and I have to do with each other? Over the whole year, we'd barely exchanged a few words apart from fighting, taunting each other, and discussing homework. How could a romance event still happen?!

There was no use screaming inwardly. The system only gave me three choices, and after looking back and forth between them for a long time, I finally chose the first.

"Isn't this the Potions and charms genius who started studying Dark Magic in his first year? How come you still haven't finished sorting these?" Thanks to Sirius, taunting people came naturally to me now. "So? Want me to help?"

[Snape's favorability -10]

At my words, Snape's expression, which hadn't been friendly to begin with, grew even darker. He stopped what he was doing and looked at me with a deeply unsettling chill in his eyes, like moss growing rampant in the damp after rain.

"If you have time for that, you'd be better off sewing your mouth shut, to make sure it doesn't go around blabbing." He narrowed his eyes, a hint of malice entering his gaze. "If you can't do it, I can help with a Silencing Charm."

This wasn't the first time Snape had threatened to use a spell on me, though so far it had all been talk. I returned the favor. "Then let's wait until you've learned it."

[Snape's favorability -5]

Good, now I know he really hasn't learned it yet.

The choice was over, and seeing that the system had placed no further restrictions on me, I gathered the portioned potions together, then yawned and left the professor's office.

I admitted that I sometimes forgot just how bad my relationship with Snape was. It wasn't until the professor asked me why those potions had been smashed all over the floor that I finally remembered.

[Author's note]

★Note★

At different favorability levels, the way you interact can vary greatly;

Different characters' romance storylines are also often completely different.

★Side quest reminder★

Congratulations on achieving Snape's main storyline achievement-[Rift]