Severus Snape combined a sneer and a glare as he looked into the mirror at his traitorous hair before dressing and leaving his private chambers for the day.

Or so he thought.

His grumbling was barely audible as he hurried back into his room and over to his chest of drawers. Suspiciously glancing over his shoulder to ensure he was alone, he opened the top most drawer. A faint smile twitched at the corners of his mouth as he pulled out a hand held Muggle fan.

Severus paraded around his boyhood room in his brand new school robes. He was so excited to be finally going to Hogwarts that he just had to try on his robes one more time before packing them away. He spun around to face the opposite wall, throwing out his left foot out to take a step. Shock registered on his face as he felt himself falling to the floor, hitting his face rather hard on the bedpost.

Tears sprung into Severus' eyes; his face, and ego, stung horribly. He felt something running down his chin. He put a hand to his nose and pulled it away, amazed at the amount of blood on his fingers. Sadly, it occurred to him that the blood was dripping onto his new robes.

Snape rushed out of his room and down the stairs to find his mother, knowing all the while that she would not be pleased about this. How right he was. She cleaned him up, sent his robes with the house elf to be cleaned, but didn't fix her son's nose that now had an impressive bump over the bridge and a hook at the end like a hawk's beak.

Severus glared over his shoulder once more, one eyebrow raised. It wouldn't do for one of his secrets to get out; especially one that enhanced his intimidation factor so. He patted the fan fondly before slipping the base of it into the back waist band of his pants, under his robes. He had gone to great lengths since that day to never trip over his robes again, and he wasn't going to stop now.

"Fan on," he said and nodded in approval as his robes billowed around him.

"Fan off."

Severus left his chambers on his way to breakfast, not bothering to turn his fan on, as few were up at such an early hour. That familiar glare was on his face again as he stalked the halls towards the Great Hall.

"Fan on," Severus murmured as he entered the Great Hall, his robes obediently billowing behind him.

"Fan off," was said softly, so no one would overhear, as he took his seat at the head table.