She didn't bother take her bag this time, it wasn't like she was going to need it and from the perspective of someone who had to sort out flobberworms for four and a half hours the night before, she expected it to be the same experience; Therefore, she left her wand as well.
Her stomach growled once more yearning for food as it did yesterday night. She hadn't bothered to eat dinner for she knew if she was going to, she would throw up at the sight of the disgusting, mucus-filled task she had to endure while her stay with Snape.
Sherri passed the Great Hall, watching her table eat happily while having their nose in a book, studying, whereas Sherri was the only Ravenclaw in 40 years to have several detentions sequently over three weeks. The student 40 years ago, only had three days. Sherri had to endure three weeks. She didn't know how she ended up in Ravenclaw in the first place; The thought was an on-going reverie that probably would never be solved. She was ridiculed because of it.
Finally, the stairs to her detention grew larger and before she knew it, she was already half way down them, and into Snape's classroom. The familiar dampness filled the air, but the scent of dead flobberworms did not. She walked in, seeing no sight of the tanks or the cauldrons, but instead large boxes filled with papers, piling high, close to the ceiling on Snape's desk. Sherri's heart dropped at the sight of it.
"Good evening, Miss Black," Snape said, standing at the door way of the dungeons. "I had rather hoped you would come, despite the several mishaps we've had while scheduling detentions."
Sherri smirked at the thought. She had made skipping detentions not a chore, but an adventure. Normally, she had to make her way through the corridors and hope not to get caught. She would pretend she made herself invisible as the teacher who supplied the detention would come to search for her.
Snape's lip curled. "You are probably wondering what you are doing tonight as we have used the flobberworms for this morning's lesson," he said, as he moved closer to his desk. "By the way, your detention starts during lunch tomorrow afternoon for not showing up an hour early as I asked. You sneaking in is not what I had in mind."
"Sir, I didn't sneak in. I was only three minutes late," Sherri defended.
"Silence! Three minutes late is equivelent to being sixty-three minutes late, as I have instructed you to show up an hour before. Detention, Black," Snape spat.
Sherri swallowed. These detentions, as it turned out, were becoming exhausting. She hadn't done her Transfiguration essay yet, and because of the detention last night, she had to put it off. When she decided to do it during lunch, she realized it wasn't a possibility. She nodded, vaguely.
"Tonight, you are to sort these files as I know you're disability with the simplest potions. I am sure you have brought your wand?" Snape said, not even gazing at the piled high to the ceiling boxes.
"Wand? Er, no. I thought we were still sorting flobberworms tonight, sir," Sherri admitted, taking an interest in her shoe lace as she gazed down.
"Pity. Then you are to do it by hand. This time, you are not to leave until you are finished. No mishaps, got it?"
Sherri could tell that Snape was having fun with this. His cold eyes seemed to flicker with enjoyment as he found creative ways to torture her. She stood motionless.
"You will begin . . . now."
Sherri moved toward the boxes, and even had to stand upon a chair to reach the top box. The boxes were filled with heavy folders, that carried every student's name in it. She pulled out one, and realized that it was the student's permanent record.
She moved one after the other, trying to find the beginning file and worked her way slowly as the night grew. She came across Tiki's file, which seemed to be nearly empty as her record was always clean, meaning no detentions. However, she did come across one file of hers that seemed to say she had a weeks worth of detentions that should have occured this week. Was there something she was keeping from her? What could she have done to deserve a week? Sherri pressed on to see Casey's file.
Casey's file was filled with several notes of weakness, especially in classes. She also noticed the many detentions that Sherri had also accompanied. Finally, Sherri saw her own.
The file was hard to miss. It was nearly falling apart at the hundreds of papers it carried. Most of them consisted of the detentions she skipped or even went to, but something in the back caught her eye. Why was her father's file also with it? Hadn't Sirius graduated at least twenty years before? She looked closely at it.
Several footnotes were written messily upon it, even sticky-notes that compared Sherri to Sirius. Apparently, she was Sirius's daughter after all. Many of the pranks she had come up with were also done by her very own father. However, there was one footnote at the bottom that was barely legible. Sherri had to squint just to read it. It read:
Torment against another student never executed? Sirius harrassed Snape? As terrible as that was, Sherri could help but to hold in a laugh. Snape hated Sherri because of something that happened over 20 years ago?
"What are you smirking at?" Snape asked, from the opposite side of the room as he made plans for tomorrow's lesson. Sherri shrugged and hurriedly put the file back into it's folder.
Sherri put that particular file seperate of the others, as to redeem its contents later. Perhaps she could just take it for the night, then show Casey and Tiki later. They would be fairly interested. Maybe she could find their own files and give it to them. She could try. That thought was disgarded when she realized she had forgotten her bag back in the common room.
Several hours passed by, and to Sherri, as the hours went on, the minutes seemed to slow down toward the end. She was nearly finished when Snape came around to check on her progress. He had followed around, just enough to take a glimpse at the one folder seperated from the group.
"I see you've found your own file," Snape sneered as he picked it up and sorted through it. "What use were you going to make of it?"
Sherri's mischievious eyes flickered. She stopped and turned to him. "I was just hoping to use it to show the entire school how much of a wimp you were." Her mouth was moving faster than her brain; did she just say what she think she said?
Snape moved around toward her, slamming the file down so hard relieving it of its contents, so that they were standing face to face. "It wasn't so much as I was afraid than that your father and his friends were insuferable know-it-alls."
Sherri's smile faded. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You've been in Hogwarts for five years, I was hoping you'd get some kind of education to good use. Sirius was a fool. That James was more of a dog to him than he was as an animagus. He deserved what he got!" Snape said, his voice rising a little.
Her jaw dropped. "He doesn't deserve Azkaban. He's innocent. If you weren't so blind to know--"
"Innocence." He smiled menacingly. "Guilty until proven innocent is how the Wizengamot looked at it. You should know, Miss Black, that your father was convicted without trial! I was actually rather surprised how long it would take him to get himself thrown in to Azkaban. In fact, I think he sought to it!"
"What? He --" She was interrupted by Snape, coming face to face. She was rather surprised that their nose weren't touching.
"He was just as insolent as the little girl he raised! Or shall I say, failed to raise?"
Sherri felt the heat rise up in her face by anger again. "The only reason he wasn't there was because . . ."
". . . He was stuck in wizard prison? I'm still wondering how long its going to take him before he gets the Dementor's Kiss. I'm actually surprised the Dementors haven't come after his own daughter!" Snape confronted.
Sherri stood motionless. For the first time, she was speechless. Snape moved back from her and back by the file, throwing it into a box without picking up the rest.
"Your detention is at an end . . . You are to report back to me tomorrow afternoon during lunch, am I understood? And I am expecting to see you two hours before class starts."
"Two hours!?" Sherri repeated. "I can't make it in two hours!"
"If you are not there in two hours prior to my class, I will find a way to suspend you for lack of attendance of your detention for the next three weeks. I expect to see you there, Miss Black. You may go."
Before Sherri had the chance to argue, she turned on her heel and left immediately. She couldn't believe what had just happened down in the dungeon. Was it legal for a teacher to wish something worse than death upon her father and her, even? Something was right, there.
Sherri hurried out, and ran to the Room of Requirement where she knew she'd find Casey and Tiki . . . She knew that this was something they should know about.
