“Their next five will probably all be boys as well, just to spite me,” Severus said dryly.
Morgan elbowed him in the stomach, “you love all of your girls and you know it. You’d be lost without us.”
“I’m sure I would be able to find some way to enjoy the peace and quiet and the sudden abundance of time for my research.”
“Watch it Professor,” Morgan growled at him, “if you’re not careful I know one activity you won’t be doing for awhile. That will free up some time for your research.”
“Pick up your socks. I hate it when you leave them laying all over the place,” Severus eyed the offending garments with distaste.
“Honestly Severus! Sometimes,” she bent over to pick up the nearest pair, “you can be so infuriating.”
“If I am so detestable I have to wonder why you’ve stayed with me for so many years.”
Morgan rolled her eyes, “you have a few useful qualities.” She sighed dramatically, “they outweigh most of your bad habits…”
“Insufferable wench.”
“You’re lucky that I recognize that for the term of endearment you mean it to be.”
“Are you sure that’s what it is? I could merely be stating a fact.”
“Miserable git… I love you,” Morgan rose up on her toes, fingertips barely skimming her husband’s chest as she titled her face up for a kiss.
“And I you… audacious little temptress. Don’t say anything you’ll regret,” he warned as Morgan opened her mouth ready with another retort.
“That I’ll regret or you’ll regret? And will I enjoy regretting it?” she tried to clarify.
“Later,” he promised her as Olivia ran in, Tristan in tow.
“I’m ready,” Olivia declared, swinging the rabbit by the ears.
“What are you ready for sweetie?” Morgan asked as she finished collecting the socks that she didn’t remember leaving under the sofa. She had a feeling that it was the work of Sekhmet who had taken to following Serena everywhere except class and had developed a growing fondness for dragging things about.
“For my lessons. I’m going with Mr. Malfoy today.” Olivia chirped, completely oblivious to how much that simple statement affected her mother.
“We were supposed to discuss this,” Morgan hissed at her husband.
“You wanted to discuss it. I, however, am standing by my decision, no matter what you think.”
Morgan threw the handful of socks she was holding at Severus, hitting him square in his chest.
“Olivia,” Severus’ eyes never left his wife, “run to my office and fetch my grade book for me. It’s in the top left-hand drawer, don’t poke around anywhere else.” He waited until Olivia had skipped away to do his bidding to continue, hoping it would take her awhile and that his admonition to stay out of his desk would keep her looking through it until he was ready for her to come back. “You are out of line.”
“I am not! You know how I feel about Draco, and you go behind my back…”
“I did not go behind your back, I told you that he will be Olivia’s tutor and that decision stands. I told you of my decision, in no way did I try to hide it from you,” Severus said coldly.
“But you know how I feel about it!”
“Is that supposed to make me change my decision?”
“I am your wife!”
“A fact of which I am painfully aware madam.”
“Fine, seeing as you feel that way…” her words were cut off by a tentative knock on the door.
Severus flicked his wand in the direction of the door, opening it, “your charge is in my office Mr. Malfoy.”
“Severus… don’t,” Morgan warned.
Severus raised a lazy eyebrow in response.
Morgan bristled, if he wasn’t going to listen to her she was going to take care of this herself. “Malfoy, contrary to what my husband may have told you, you will not be tutoring our daughter.” She noticed how his eyes flickered to her husband, “that decision is final.”
“Morgan...” Severus’ voice carried the slightest hint of a warning tone.
“I’m sorry that my presence here disturbs you Morgan, but I…”
“You can leave now.”
“I have nowhere else to go. The professor was kind enough to…”
“He offered you the position without consulting me first. Although I’m sure that doesn’t bother you, lying ferret that you are.”
Draco’s eyes narrowed, “I risked my life to come back here just to…”
“You’ve taken innocent lives to get where you are! Despicable Slytherin…” Morgan jabbed a finger in his chest.
“I would have thought that at this point in our lives House loyalties would be a thing of the past. I wonder if you only hate me because I was a Slytherin,” Draco’s voice grew dark. He was tired of being defined by his family and his House. A Malfoy in Slytherin did not always a Death Eater make!
“Enough!” Severus broke in, “this has gone far enough. Malfoy, go find Olivia. Be warned, she is very capable of creating distractions and she will test you. Make sure she learns something. GO!” He turned his eyes to his wife as Draco exited, “that was low. Even for a Gryffindor,” he said coolly, wanting to see how Morgan appreciated being defined by her House as she seemed to have no problems using it as an insult.
“I’m sorry, but I just…”
“Are you sorry because you made me angry or because you behaved abhorrently and attacked a man who nearly died trying to make his way back to the side that he has always supported, but due to his father’s poor choices was forced to hide his true feelings?”
“Do you want me to say that I was wrong so that you feel justified?” Morgan snapped.
“Right now I have a class to teach.”
“So you’re just going to walk away from me without discussing it?”
“Your desire to discuss this is what has gotten us here. I believe you have a class to get to as well.” He left Morgan with a pile of discarded socks for company.
“Severus!”
Snape sighed, “what is it Mr. Potter?”
“There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” Harry said as he caught up with the potions master. He had rehearsed this speech in his mind several times, but all of a sudden it seemed to disappear. “You see, some of my students have been asking about dark magic and the Death Eaters…”
“I am not here to fulfill the morbid curiosity of a bunch of teenagers Mr. Potter, I suggest you drop the subject.”
“But I think it would…”
“No.”
“Severus, please…”
“NO!”
Harry decided to try a different tactic, “I’m afraid to tell them anything, because I’m afraid I’ll be misinforming them. I’m afraid that when I can’t answer their questions they’ll start going to the other sources that are available. The only books on the subject that aren’t in the Restricted Section were written by members of the Ministry. We both know how much the Ministry can distort the truth. I would think that you of all people would like to set the record straight.”
Severus thought of the argument he had just come from and the roots of it. The strife between his Gryffindor wife and Slytherin student… the animosity between the Houses… the quickness with which all Dark wizards were assumed to have come from Slytherin… “I shall not answer any questions that I deem inappropriate or just don’t feel like answering. And you will make sure that your students are very clear on the fact that once the class is over I shall not entertain any more questions. And Seventh Years only!”
Harry’s mouth dropped open.
“I shall retract the offer if you don’t stop gapping like a fish!”
Harry snapped his mouth shut while he gathered his thoughts, “sorry, I just wasn’t expecting you to agree.”
“Then why in Merlin’s name did you ask?”
“Because I had to.”
Severus pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger, “leave me be, Potter. I will be there to lead your class tomorrow.” He wondered just how much he was going to regret this decision. He figured if it was too painful he could always kill Potter out of vengeance and make it look like he fell victim to one of the dragons. He had to hide his self-satisfied smirk before he swept into his classroom, he had an image to maintain.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“Which one do you want to start with?”
“I get to choose?”
“As long as we get through all of it I see no reason not to let you pick what we work on,” Draco let Olivia look through the teaching materials he had been left with.
“This one!” Olivia brandished one of the books.
“Math,” Draco flipped the book over in his hands, “is this your favorite subject?”
“No, but if we do it first then I won’t have to think about it for the rest of the day.”
Draco was both impressed and amused by her logic. He spent the day getting a feel for what his student already knew and trying to figure out the best way to go about teaching her. This was new ground for him. He could see why math wasn’t her favorite subject, he had a feeling it would be best to start out every morning working on it. Plus it worked out well with her logic. He was very impressed with her handwriting, and couldn’t help but laugh when his student confessed to having to write lines. Every Slytherin to have gone through Hogwarts under Professor Snape had impeccable handwriting.
“I like animals. Eva used to take me outside so I could see the birds, will you do that to?” Olivia asked as she pulled out the science book and flipped to a glossy moving picture of a raven ruffling its feathers. It was her favorite picture in the book, the corners were now well-creased and smudged.
“I think that can be arranged.”
“Can we learn about sea animals too?”
“Yes.”
“Both the regular ones and the magical ones?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like rabbits?”
“Do you like asking questions to avoid doing what I’ve asked you to do?”
“Yes.”
Draco shook his head, at least things would be interesting with this one. Although at this point he saw noting wrong with living a boring life. He’d had more than enough excitement for ten lifetimes. The only adventure he was looking forward to was death. He stared out at the slate grey December sky, so dull and dismal, still and silent. To be free from pain…
“Did I do this right?”
Draco was snapped out of his revere by the waving of paper in his face. Perhaps a little bit of excitement was alright. It served as a distraction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
