“And I am absolutely thrilled to be patrolling the halls with the living barometer of the Dark Lord’s emotions.”
“I was attempting to make friendly conversation you know.”
“And Voldemort is an excellent subject for that.”
Harry sighed and made a futile attempt at flattening his hair, “at least I was trying.”
“In case you haven’t noticed already Potter,” Snape hissed as he used his wand to light up a dark corridor, “this is not a social hour.”
“It’s also rather boring.”
“I would much rather it be boring than we encounter a hallway full of Death Eaters. Or a couple of students out of bed,” he shone the light from his wand into an alcove behind the statue of Boethius, “30 points from Ravenclaw. Back to your dorms now.” The two students scurried away from the potions master and up the stairs towards their Common Room.
“It’s still better than the hallway full of Death Eaters,” Harry said as he watched the students go.
“I would dearly love to hear you say that when it is one of your own children that you catch out of bed at night snogging in a dark corner.”
“They are far too young…” Harry trailed off, as he suddenly remembered what he had been like at that age, “I’m putting a chastity spell on Ophelia as soon as I get the chance.”
“Just don’t tell Ginny, women tend to be funny about things like that.”
“You know from experience?”
“Morgan found my lack of trust in our children less than amusing. I still think I was in the right.”
“I want to thank you.”
“Whatever for?”
“For all the advice, no matter how hard you tried to hide it, that you gave me last year.”
“I take it you are enjoying a bit more marital bliss now.”
“Yep. And living at home as much as possible this year should help out a lot too.”
“As long as you don’t expect perfection you shall do fine. Although you really have done nothing to deserve your wife.”
“Thank you for that vote of confidence,” Harry said dryly, “I’m glad you think so highly of me.”
Severus shrugged, “and I see that you are still letting your undeserved fame go to your head. We shall have to change your epitaph from the-boy-who-lived to the-boy-who-has-failed-to-defeat-the-Dark-Lord-twice-and-just-won’t-bloody-well-have-it-over-with-and-die-already.”
Harry laughed, “dear Merlin, the formidable Professor Snape just made a joke. Wait until I tell your students!”
“They will never believe you.”
“True… and if they did it would only convince them that the end of the world is coming.”
“You possess nearly as much tact as your god-father.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult.”
“It is most assuredly the latter.”
“You know, when I was a student…”
“You were an insufferable brat who loved to cross lines.”
“…I would have never thought that I’d enjoy spending an evening with the greasy git of the dungeons.”
“At least one of us finds this accursed patrol amusing,” Snape said dryly as Mrs. Norris darted across the hall in front of them.
“I was rather put out with Minerva when I saw that half of my patrols were scheduled with you.”
“Put outdoes not even begin to cover my sentiments on the subject.” Snape hissed in pain and clutched his left forearm, “bloody hell! That insufferable…”
“Is he calling the Death Eaters?” Harry asked, looking rather pale in the weak light.
“Yes.”
“Does it hurt?”
“What do you think Potter?!” He rubbed his arm as the flash of pain faded, “he is growing stronger.”
Harry trailed along slightly behind Snape in silence for awhile, “I think we’re off now,” he finally said as he glanced at his watch.
Severus didn’t reply, but changed directions so that they were headed towards the Break Hall. He gave a brief nod to Flitwick and Aagensen, who were taking their place, and headed down towards his living quarters.
“You’re a bit late,” Morgan said the moment he entered.
“And you were worrying again.”
“I can’t help it Severus, worrying about the ones I love comes naturally.”
“You need to stop waiting up for me, you’ll wear yourself out.”
“You wait up for me when I’m patrolling,” Morgan pointed out.
“That is different.”
Morgan frowned slightly, but said nothing. Arguing with Severus was like arguing with a rock. It was pointless and you got nowhere.
“And the reason for this is...?” Severus gestured to Olivia who was curled up on the couch, fast asleep.
Morgan smiled gently, “she wanted to wait up for you too.”
Severus smirked, “it seems the other half of my welcoming committee gave out on you.”
Morgan laughed, “she tried so hard to stay awake, it just didn’t work.”
“And now I suppose I must carry her to bed.”
Morgan grinned up at him, “I’m sure she’s a positively monstrous load to carry too.”
Severus snorted, “she may stay even smaller than you, and that is an impressive feat.”
“Are you coming to bed or are you going to be up for awhile?” Morgan asked as her husband returned from putting Olivia in bed.
“I have some grading to do…” Severus answered vaguely.
Morgan worried her lower lip between her teeth, “if all you’re looking for is a distraction…”
Severus bent down to kiss her, “go to bed Morgan. I won’t do that to you tonight.”
He set himself up for the less than pleasant task of grading substandard papers. He was very tempted to join Morgan in bed, but resisted. If he used her to get the images of the Dark Lord out of his head… he would not do that to her… he would not risk the potentially disastrous results.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Yours looks better than mine,” Kay said as she leaned over Sophia’s cauldron.
Sophia looked over at her roommate’s concoction, “yours is still green.” True, the acid green of Kay’s wasn’t the dusky moss green that Sophia’s was. But she figured that green was green.
Kay sighed, “I should get a passing grade, but I’m sure I’ll still get lots of less than complimentary comments with it.
“Maybe it’s not that bad,” Sophia offered optimistically.
“Yes it is.”
“Miss Parkinson…”
“I know sir,” Kay looked up at Snape with an expression of resignation, “not quite up to standards, is it?”
“I should say not.”
“Hmpf… if it was one of us who messed up so badly we would have lost points and gotten a zero,” she heard a Gryffindor whisper a bit loudly behind her.
“Silence!”
Obviously Snape had heard it too, “bottle what you have Miss Parkinson, perhaps the written assignment will make up for the abysmal state of your practical work.” He turned to resume his trek among the desks, but stopped and turned back, “Miss Lupin, remain after class.”
Sophia stared, slightly shocked, at the back of their Head of House as he walked up the aisle, “I didn’t do anything…” she whispered. “Did I do anything?” she turned to Kay.
“Don’t worry about it,” Kay said as she bottled the now slightly orange tinted contents of her cauldron, even as she heard the Gryffindors snickering behind them. “If you were in trouble he would not have singled you out in front of the class like that, he would have pulled you out of the Common Room with much less ceremony tonight. I’m sure its nothing.”
Sophia wasn’t quite convinced, but she did feel somewhat better about it as she bottled her own potion, which looked exactly as the instructions said it would. The bell sounded as she set her bottled potion on Snape’s desk and she returned to here seat as the rest of the students filed out, waiting for Snape to address her.
“You wanted to see me?” the Bloody Baron floated through the blackboard and hovered by Snape’s desk.
Sophia suddenly wondered if she had violated some rule without knowing it and the Baron was here to act as witness against her.
“Wait in my office, Miss Lupin,” Snape said before turning to talk to the Baron in a low voice.
Sophia grabbed her bag and went into Snape’s office. Not sure whether she should sit or not she settled for placing her bag in the chair in front of his desk and standing beside it. She didn’t have long to wait.
“Sit down,” Snape commanded as he entered.
Sophia moved her bag to the floor and nervously, although not quite sure why she was nervous, perched on the edge of her seat.
Severus grabbed a stack of papers off of a shelf and came around the front of his desk to lean against it facing Sophia, “I have in front of me reports from all of your instructors.”
“Sir?” she figured it couldn’t hurt to be respectful in case she was in trouble.
“It is your first term here and I thought it would be wise to track your grades to see how you fare starting out here as it is a change from what you are used to. I am now very glad I did.”
Sophia didn’t say anything, but she had a pretty good idea of what exactly Snape was looking at.
“Your practical grades in my class, as well as Herbology and Transfiguration are satisfactory,” satisfactory coming from Snape was high praise. “However, your written work in those classes, along with your work in History of Magic and Defense against the Dark Arts is somewhat lacking.”
“I am trying...” she noticed Snape frowning, “sir,” she quickly added on the end.
“If I did not think you were trying this conversation would be much less pleasant.”
“I don’t know what else to do…”
“You can start by giving me all of the written assignments you have gotten back from those classes and we shall try to locate the problem, in the meantime…”
“The Baron said you wanted to see me sir,” Mark stuck his head in the door.
“Someday,” Snape addressed the Head Boy sternly, “you will learn how to knock on that door before you come barging through it.”
“Sorry sir, but if you haven’t got me doing it yet it may be a lost cause.”
“Just get in here and shut the door,” Severus snapped at him.
Mark complied and dropped into the chair next to Sophia, flashing her a smile in the process.
“Mr. McKean, despite your responsibilities as Head Boy you seem to have an abundance of free time on your hands and I am deeply disturbed at the ways in which it is being used. I would think that you would spend more time discouraging the Misters Bulstrode in their exploits instead of encouraging them.”
“I shall strive to keep that in mind, sir.”
“I think that perhaps you are in need of some more structured activities to keep you out of trouble.”
“Whatever you think is best, sir,” Mark managed to sound not at all sincere while looking completely angelic.
“You will spend at least an hour every night tutoring Miss Lupin, preferably two.”
Mark looked ready to protest at such an invasion into his personal time, but one look from Snape was enough to make him keep his opinions to himself, “yes sir.”
“Is that agreeable to you Miss Lupin?” Snape asked in a tone that clearly indicated an affirmative answer was expected.
“Yes sir.”
“Good, now get out of my office, both of you. And the Baron will inform me if you do not follow through with our arrangement.”
Sophia grabbed her bag and followed Mark out of the office, the door promptly closing behind them.
“What have you been doing in class to bring that upon yourself?” Mark demanded.
“I’m trying as hard as I can!” Sophia told him sharply.
Mark sighed, “well, I guess my plans for the evening are shot…”
“I didn’t ask for this,” Sophia pointed out.
“You didn’t have to,” Mark told her as they headed back to their Common Room, “Snape requires above average grades from all of us. And somehow he always seems to know exactly what we have in all of our classes. But as long as you’re putting in the effort he won’t get on your case too much.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
