Amortentia (a Scorose Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine

Rose could never fathom why Professor Dobbs hated her as much as she appeared to. As hard as she did try, Rose was yet to conjure up a memory in her mind that suggested she'd wronged the Potions teacher in all the years she'd been attending Hogwarts. And, yet, Professor Dobbs continually picked on her and handed her detentions whenever she could.

Rose could simply breathe in a way that bothered the professor and she'd find herself back in the Potions classroom after school hours. It was a vicious cycle — one that she found herself in, yet again.

The door to the Potions classroom was ajar when Rose reached it after her last class of the Monday, Transfiguration. She was dreading detention even more after that class, as her professor had issued two essays to be written, one for the following lesson the next day and the other for Thursday. She was losing a potentially useful hour of writing to do a mind-numbing task for detention.

With a sick feeling in her stomach, Rose knocked on the heavy wooden door twice before entering. It was a drill she was very much used to.

Professor Dobbs was behind her desk at the front of the classroom, marking essays. She didn't even bother to look up at Rose's arrival. "Miss Weasley," she said, her nasally voice already grating on Rose's nerves. "You're copying up scrolls today. When the hour is up you may leave, but those you don't get finished you will do tomorrow."

Rose eyed the rather large pile of aged and weathered parchments on the desk in front of Professor Dobbs' own desk. She had to forcefully hold in her sigh. There was no way she was getting them all done today — it would be a miracle if she was able to finish them tomorrow!

Instead of voicing her opinion, Rose trudged to the front of the room and settled herself at the desk on the right of the scrolls. The desk in front of her was equipped with a small pot of ink, two quills and a fresh roll of parchment.

She reached over and plucked a scroll off the top of the pile, unravelled the new parchments, and began to rewrite the aged and torn scroll onto it.

She had never been more bored in her life. Usually, Rose adored reading, and getting to read the old scrolls that Hogwarts had housed for years was something of a dream to her — when, that is, she thought the scrolls contained more than the same exact potion recipes as her Advanced Potions Making textbook.

On top of being bored, she was disappointed. Although, she supposed it could be worse. Professor Dobbs could have had her counting and cleaning cauldrons again.

The time was ticking slowly by and, as Rose finished her first scroll, she realised only twenty minutes had passed since she began. The scrolls were fairly short but she knew that she would definitely not have finished them by tomorrow.

She let out an involuntary sigh as she started on the next scroll.

"Is there a problem, Miss Weasley?" Professor Dobbs asked, a thin eyebrow raised over her rectangular frames.

Rose wanted to tell her that, yes, there was a problem. That she was the problem. But she refrained, and instead shook her head. "No, Professor."

Professor Dobbs scowled like she knew what Rose was thinking. After a few seconds of scrutinising her further, the old bat returned to her marking. Rose let her eyes narrow at her Professor. She didn't have the words in her to describe her hatred.

By the time the hour was up, Rose had made it through three more scrolls. One glance at the pile to her left made her heart sink to the pits of her stomach. There were at least ten left.