Witch While You Work
by firechild (fc//Hufflepuff)
Rated K+
Characters: Hogwarts faculty
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: I wrote this for the lovely lunar47--I know it's not exactly what you wanted, but I hope it gives you a grin.
Word Count: 469
-----
Heads turned. Hearts tripped. Guts plummeted. Knees knocked. Hands trembled. Somewhere on a metaphysical plane, a fascist dictator suddenly found certain sensitive parts of himself impaled on instantly-frozen sulfuric flames.
Severus Tobias Snape was....
...laughing.
Hard.
For those who had never heard the sound (and, for that matter, those who had,) it waas startling and oddly mismatched--the big, brooding, paragothic potions master snorting and snickering and then dissolving into rousing shouts of amusement like a respectable (if somewhat lightweight and slightly demented) impression of Santa Claus. It filled the Great Hall where the teachers were cleaning up after a rather intricate Weasley holiday send-off (Professor Dumbledore had, for reasons better left unexplored, decided that it would be a good idea for his teachers to physically put the Hall to rights,) resounding off of the stone and leaving his fellow faculty (all but one) wreathed in surprised grins that were, after all, only a little paranoid around the edges.
"Y-you...*gasp*...did...*sputter*...WHA*cough*AAAT?!?" It only took a few seconds for the highly educated and qualified professors around him to understand what Professor Snape had just said, and they had to admit that they were rapidly falling prey to curiosity, as well, if for nothing more than to explain what could have evoked... this... from... him.
"Gracious, did you actually hear that?" And there stood Minerva McGonagall, his 'partner' for their section of the Hall and the only person who was neither surprised nor twitchy at Snape's sudden mirth. Her tone was pleasant, congenial even, not quite as abashed as she should have been for her admission, and barely audible over his laughter and all of the esteemed blinking going on. "I said I had pulled a prank on my potions professor in my third year, and that my prank resulted in something of an explosion. It was nothing noteworthy, really--this just reminded me of it."
He waited a beat while she bent to gather some debris, then said, "Well?"
She finished what she was doing, making him (and everyone else in the Hall) wait for a moment before she straightened and turned, giving him an innocent, blank smile. "Well, what?"
He sputtered before managing, "What do you mean, 'well, what?' You know perfectly well 'what!' What did you do, why did you do it, and what do you mean by 'something of an explosion'?!"
The rest of the faculty were no longer making even the pretense of not eavesdropping; they watched the two, her working and him looking like a shirk as he gaped openly after her. She turned and walked to the next pile of debris, smiling all the way. "Oh, come now, Severus--does this look like a confessional to you? I never promised to tell you everything; besides, a girl must have her secrets."
-----