That evening, Tirza sat on the floor in the middle of the room, her long hair pulled into a messy ponytail. "Okay, come on, this is gonna work," she said out loud. She held out her arms, then put her left hand on her right should and her right hand on her left shoulder. She concentrated hard, then blinked. Nothing happened. "Aw man, what the hell!" she yelled. Tirza shook her head. "Okay, try the other one again." She used to right index finger to twitch her nose, expecting the movie from her top shelf to come to her. "Damn! Why isn't this working?" Snape looked up from his desk. He decided he had better investigate why Tirza was yelling and sighed. "For the love of god!" he heard her yell.
Snape walked quickly to her room and stood in her doorway. She sat on the floor with her arms folded, blinking. Then she tried to twitch her nose. Snape started chuckling, causing her to notice him. "Why isn't it working?" she demanded. "What exactly are you trying to do?" "Well you are a wizard and my mom was too, so I must be, but my powers aren't working! Jeannie could fold her arms and blink and stuff happened and Samantha twitched her nose and I can't do either!" He came and sat beside her. "Who are Jeannie and Samantha?" Tirza rolled her eyes. "You are so silly! Don't you know who they are?" He shook his head no. "Jeannie is a genie. Tony found her on the beach in a pretty bottle. And Samantha was a witch who married a human and a girl named Tabitha and a boy, whatever his name is. And they could do magic!"
Snape was growing more by the minute. "Who is Tony?" Tirza slapped her forehead with her hand. "Weren't you listening? Tony is the astronaut that found Jeannie in the bottle on the beach!" He shook his head like he understood even though he didn't. "Why can't I do magic?" Tirza asked. Snape smiled. "I could teach you if you would like." Tirza started jumping in excitement. "Really? Promise?" He nodded. "Yea!" She jumped into his arms almost knocking him over. "Tomorrow I will teach you. Right now, it is late and you must go to bed." Tirza stuck out her lower lip. "I'm not tired. I wanna watch a movie." Snape shook his head. "It's nearly 9 and you take a while to get ready." "Nope," she replied, continuing to sit on the floor and watched him expectantly. Snape sighed. "Child, you try my patience." "Cool. Ya wanna watch a movie with me?" "No, you must get ready for bed."
Tirza stood up and put her hands on her hips, frowning at him." "Not unless you can catch me!" Suddenly she smiled, winked and took off running. Snape, whose temper had been rising, realized it was a game. 'If I chase her for a while, she'll be tired and go to bed easier,' he thought as he gave chase. He wondered what the student and staff of Hogwarts would think if they could see him laughing and chasing after the tiny girl. Tirza whirled around. "Nah nah, na boo boo, you can't catch me!" She stuck her tongue out at him. She certainly was fast, rounding corners, ducking into spaces between furniture, even crawling under the couch! "Just you wait 'till I do catch you, you'll be one sorry little miss!" She laughed as he almost grabbed her before she could crawl under the coffee table and out the other side.
"You won't get me! I'm too fast!" She giggled, then tripped over the desk chair. She quickly crawled inside the chair space. Snape peeked in at her and smiled, then gave her a mock stern look. "I've got you now!" She giggled. "No! Help me!" she wailed in mock distress. "Now my naughty little child, you shall get your just punishment!" Snape could barely keep the smile off his face and she pulled her out, then held her around her waist with one arm and landed a soft swat to her bottom. "Help! I'm being murdered!" she yelled between giggles. He swatted her bottom gently several more times as she laughed and squirmed. Snape scooped her up in his arms and carried her to her room and set her gently on her bed. "Now little Tirza, will you get ready for bed?" Tirza looked thoughtful for a moment. "Whatcha gonna do if I don't?" He leaned his face close to hers and looked into her eyes. "You don't want to know." He winked and she started to giggle again. "Okay, okay if I have to." She looked at him expectantly and sighed. "Ya gotta leave so I can put on my jammies silly!"
Tirza bounced out into the sitting room in a long blue satin-like nightgown with Cinderella, the coach and the Fairy Godmother on the front. She bounced onto the couch and smiled. "Tirza Jade, how many times must I tell you not to jump on the furniture?" She giggled. "Okay, okay." "Are you ready for bed?" She nodded. "I washed my face, brushed my hair, brushed my teeth and got my stuffies ready. There's just one thing left. I need you to read me a bedtime story!" Snape groaned. "I'm not good at bedtime stories. Why don't you read one to yourself?" Tirza gave him her best puppy dog eyes. "Mommy always read to me," she told him quickly. Snape sighed, feeling he really shouldn't refuse. "Alright." Tirza bounced back to her bedroom and Snape reluctantly followed. 'Bedtime stories. I'm going soft!'