A/N: A semi-short story that needs a lot of work- that I haven't the effort to put in. This goes far too quickly- but by the time I realised that it had taken place over three days I was already quite a way in. I apologise for the distressing pace at which this rushes along.

Oh, and Unmentionables are quite separate from Unspeakables, who have a much different role. Ah, let me have my creative licence.

Of Potions and Professors Day One

Severus stalked into the classroom, thoroughly wishing he were somewhere else. Or someone else, he thought morbidly. It had been eleven years, and nothing had changed. Glaring around the dungeon classroom, Severus realised that the only difference between these students and the ones he had been teaching eleven years previously was that his house no longer contained any death eaters. That pathetic Potter prat had been useful for something, after all.

Barking instructions at his seventh-years, they all scurried around him, grabbing ingredients. One girl looked at him sultrily from under her dangerously long darkened lashes. He scowled at her. There was just something about the girl that didn't sit right with him. He turned his eyes to another student, but still felt her eyes prickling the back of his neck.

Stupid brat- her name was Alicia Bennet: pretty, blonde, Ravenclaw. She managed to get every single teacher wrapped around her little finger, even the stern Minerva McGonnagal. She was every teacher's dream; hard working, successful and didn't interrupt. But there was still something about her…

Severus snapped at a few students before the pressure on the back of his neck grew too much. Turning to stand directly behind the girl, he watched as she expertly siphoned off the very top of the potion- all that was used. She knew he was there, but she didn't falter. She held up her clear glass bottle to the light.

"There's precipitate. Ten points from Ravenclaw." The girl turned slowly to look at him.

"There's no precipitate." Her words were cold and clearly spoken- Severus glared at the girl.

"I have been Potion's Master for twice as long as you've been alive. If I say there's precipitate, there is. Twenty points from Ravenclaw for insubordination to the teacher." He swirled around, stalking back to the front of the room.

Halfway there, however, he was stopped by her clear voice. "You're wrong."

Pivoting quickly, he stalked back to stand threateningly in front of the girl. She merely looked up into his face.

Hissing into the girl's face (damn her good looks), "I am the Teacher here, Miss Bennett," somehow, he managed to make her name sound like an insult, "and I do not like being told I'm wrong. You will have detention for a month, and one hundred house points will be deducted from your house.

"Class is dismissed." The seventh-years rushed out of the classroom as quickly as Gryffindor first-years from their first lesson. Severus sighed as he watched the class file out, wondering what he had ever done to deserve this fate.

~*~

Alicia smirked as she sat down at dinner that night. It was only a momentary lapse, and she very carefully composed her face afterwards. She barely tasted her food, glancing up at the teacher's table throughout the meal.

She noted with quiet delight that Snape sat in the seat that she expected him to. She saw his slight inquisitive expression at the strange taste of his pumpkin juice, and saw his shrug. Her facial control slipped a little again as she grinned slightly; she wondered if he would ever have done that whilst Voldemort was alive. Probably not.

Returning her eyes to her dinner, she joined in a pathetic conversation on some worthless topic with her classmates. She must keep up some semblance of normality- she was just a school child, after all.

~*~

Severus was looking forward to the evening. It was quite a malicious wish, but he couldn't wait to see the pathetic girl on her hands and knees scrubbing huge cauldrons, or the floor, or the tables… he grinned in anticipation. There weren't many things he enjoyed nowadays, but tormenting self-righteous pupils remained. Some things take a very long time to change.

His walk to the dungeons was quick, although that may have been a perception of his mind, having travelled this path so many times before. He sat down at his desk and began to correct papers from his second year class. His quill moved quickly, dashing the hopes of Gryffindors and building up Slytherins, although not as much as before. The need for him to favour his Slytherins was gone, but he still enjoyed pampering them. Maybe it was spite.

The appealing girl appeared at the door at precisely eight o'clock, and Severus immediately realised something was wrong. She smelled like lemongrass and dragon's blood, and an assortment of other, uncountable smells. It was a potion, of that he was sure. But what? His mind ran though all combinations he could recall, but none were applicable to the setting.

He discounted it, however. He glared at the girl and told her to start scrubbing his dirty cauldrons. She smiled sweetly and walked past his desk to the stack of used cauldrons. As she passed, she brushed against him slightly, and he was astounded at the complexity of the potion.

He felt the surge of testosterone, and recognised the potion.

It was ingenious, he acknowledged that. It was a two-part potion, and he had stupidly drunk the other part of it during dinner. She must have coated the inside of his cup with it. That part was simple, two or three ingredients, a couple of minutes. By itself, it was harmless. Hence why he had drunk it.

But the second part was incredibly complex, and required a very long time of preparation and brewing. She had completed it to perfection. She was, even though he hated to admit it, a very good potions brewer.

He then questioned the reasoning for it. The answer came with sickening surety. To get him out of Hogwarts. How perfect; back out into the world where the residual Death Eaters could find him and kill him for turning sides during the war. He cringed as the girl stood behind his chair and stroked his hair. What could he do? She would obviously run to Dumbledore as soon as this was over and cry rape. That would get him kicked out, even by the gracious old man who had saved his life all those years ago. He would be so hurt that he had abused his position…

Severus' thoughts drifted into oblivion, and he was only barely aware of what was happening. If he were a weaker man, he would have had no recollection whatsoever.

Severus desperately wished that he were weaker.

~*~

Albus Dumbledore stood in the strange room that constituted his office. The girl was weeping in the chair. He could feel the waves of anguish coming from the girl.

He was shaking with anger, with betrayal. To think that after all these years, Severus would abuse his power like this…

A strange noise roused Albus from his thoughts. It was Fawkes. He was sitting above the girl with a murderous expression. To be expected- Fawkes loved Severus. But- there was something more. Dumbledore reconsidered his intentions of dismissing Severus on sight, and considered another option.

Dumbledore wondered, after he sent the girl to another room to rest, why he had been so ready to dismiss the only man in the world that he considered his son without so much as the benefit of the doubt. Flashing a look of extreme thankfulness at Fawkes, Dumbledore sat down to compose a very carefully worded letter.

It was some time later before he was happy with it, and he gave it to Fawkes to deliver. He wouldn't trust the owls with this letter.

The night sky was the only creature to see the name scrawled across the envelope.

Hermione Granger.