Disclaimer: J.K.Rowling owns Harry Potter, I don't. Also, I based this chapter on one of hers and told it from a different perspective.
Severus Snape stood at the blackboard of his potions classroom, writing ingredients for the potion today's fourth year class would be brewing. He listened to the subdued mutters from all round the room, and finished writing. As he turned around, he was Ronald Weasley hissing something at Hermione Granger. He scowled, making a mental note to take points from Weasley later in the lesson.
"Scarlet Woman?" he heard, and recognised the voice instantly. It was the same voice that answered questions in a haughty tone and berated its friends for any errors in their potion-making, causing Severus not to be able to take half as many points from the immature, pre-pubescent Gryffindors as he would have liked. It was the same voice Severus loved to hear beyond any other.
Hermione Granger continued to giggle, and Severus sneered. He should be the one making her laugh, not some snot-nosed Gryffindor twerp. She deserved more than that. Severus saw her wave to Pansy Parkinson, who reminded him distinctly of a small dog, and he felt a surge of pride. Too intelligent to be affected them, that was how any relation of his should be.
As the three Gryffindors unpacked their things, glancing at the board every now and again to see the ingredients of his Wit-Sharpening Potion, Severus turned away. He couldn't dwell on might-have-beens.
Severus glided silently across the classroom until he stood behind their desk, listening to their conversation.
"There's something funny, though" he heard Hermione say as she held her pestle suspended over her bowl of scarab beetles, the same look of perplexed concentration fixed on her face as it did every time she was faced with a tough puzzle she longed to be able to solve. "How could Rita Skeeter have known?"
Severus frowned. What were they talking about Skeeter for?
"Known what?" Weasley said. "You haven't been mixing up Love Potions, have you?" Severus smirked. It would take more than even the best Love Potion to cause an infatuation like Weasley's.
"Don't be stupid." Hermione snapped. That's my girl. "No, it's just…how did she know Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?" Severus' smirk transformed instantly into a scowl as he heard the name of the quidditch-playing brat. Krum reminded him of Potter, only even uglier. Seeing Hermione's blush, he softened a little.
"What?" Severus winced as Weasley dropped his pestle with a loud clunk.
"He asked me right after he'd pulled me out of the lake." Ah yes, the lake. Severus had been meaning to have words with Dumbledore about that. Bloody dangerous. He didn't want Hermione hurt… "After he'd got rid of his shark's head. Madam Pomfrey gave us both blankets-" Severus liked Poppy. "-and then he sort of pulled me away from the judges so they wouldn't hear, and he said, if I wasn't doing anything over he summer, would I like to –"
"And what did you say?" Weasley asked. He was grinding his pestle on the desk, a good six inches from his bowl, as Severus noticed with amusement, because he was looking at Hermione.
Hermione ignored Weasley, and carried on. "And he did say he'd never felt the same way about anyone else," Hermione went red, and Severus sighed. Yes, that was what they all said to get you into bed. "but how could Rita Skeeter have heard him? She wasn't there…or was she? Maybe she has got an Invisibility Cloak, maybe she sneaked into the grounds to watch the second task…"
"And what did you say?" Weasley repeated pathetically, denting the desk. Severus had the urge to reprimand him for this, but wanted to hear more of this conversation. What had Rita Skeeter got to do with anything?
"Well, I was too busy seeing whether you and Harry were OK to –" Then Severus spotted the magazine under the table.
"Fascinating though your social life undoubtedly is, Miss Granger," he said in an icy voice, "I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor." Damn, he had succeeded in attracting the entire class's attention. Oh well, he was just going to have to take this opportunity to ridicule Potter and Weasley. "Ah…reading magazines under the table as well?" he snatched up the magazine, which he recognised as Witch Weekly. "A further ten points from Gryffindor…oh, but of course…" Severus' black eyes glittered as they fell on Rita Skeeter's article in her usual centre-page spot. "Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings…"
The dungeon rang with the Slytherins' laughter and Severus smiled unpleasantly. Here was yet another way to make Potter furious.
"Harry Potter's Secret Heartache…dear, dear, Potter, what's ailing you now? A boy like no other, perhaps…" Severus continued, making sure he stopped at the end of each sentence, both to allow the Slytherins a laugh and to get a good look at Potter's face.
"…yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence, writes Rita Skeeter. Deprived of love since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen-year-old Harry Potter thought he had found solace in his steady girl-friend at Hogwarts, Muggle-born Hermione Granger. Little did he know that he would shortly be suffering yet another emotional blow in a life already littered with personal loss." Severus frowned. Hermione and Potter? Skeeter had got her facts wrong. What emotional blow? If something involved Potter and pain, Severus was usually first on the scene.
"Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgaria Seeker and hero of the last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys' affections." Severus' lip curled. Rita Skeeter was making Hermione out to be some kind of slut! "Krum, who is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in Bulgaria over the summer holidays, and insists that he has 'never felt this way about any other girl.'" What was Skeeter doing? She normally wrote pieces to ridicule Potter, not Hermione!
"However, it might not be Miss Granger's doubtful natural charms which have captured these unfortunate boys' interest.
"'She's really ugly,' says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth-year student…" Pretty and vivacious? Parkinson? Pug-like and violent would have been more accurate. A good potion-maker, though. "…'but she'd be well up to making a Love Potion, she's quite brainy. I think that's how she's doing it.'" Obviously Parkinson was jealous of Hermione. After all, who wouldn't be? Severus thought.
"Love Potions are of course banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore will want to investigate these claims. In the meantime, Harry Potter's well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart upon a worthier candidate. How very touching." Severus sneered. As if anyone cared about Potter. And since when would Albus Dumbledore pay any attention to what a trashy reporter thought about goings-on at his school? Either way, he didn't want to put up with the three Gryffindors prattling on for the rest of the lesson.
"Well," Severus said as he rolled up the magazine and the Slytherins laughed, "I think I had better separate the three of you, so you can keep your minds on your potions rather that your tangled love lives. Weasley, you stay here. Miss Granger, over there, beside Miss Parkinson." He had thought of placing Hermione next to Longbottom to prevent teasing, but decided that at least she was safe next to Parkinson. "Potter – that table in front of my desk. Move. Now." Severus snapped out the last two words, seething inside. The Slytherins weren't laughing at Potter, as they should have been, they were laughing at Hermione. What had she done to deserve it? She wasn't even a muggle-born, but of course no one but he and Dumbledore knew that.
Severus watched in amusement as Potter threw his ingredients and his bag furiously into his cauldron, and dragged it up to the front of the dungeon to the empty table. Severus followed, sat down at his desk and watched Potter unload his cauldron and continue mashing his scarab beetles, seemingly determined not to look at his Professor. Severus decided to take out his anger and have some fun.
"All this press attention seems to have inflated your already overlarge head, Potter," he said quietly, making sure the rest of the class had settled down again. Potter didn't answer, so he continued.
"You might be labouring under the delusion that the entire wizarding world is impressed with you," he said so quietly that only Potter would be able to hear him. Severus knew Potter was getting annoyed as his scarab beetles, already reduced to a fine powder, were still being ground enthusiastically.
"but I don't care how many times your picture appears in the papers. To me, Potter, you are nothing but a nasty little boy who considers rules to be beneath him." Severus saw Potter's hands shaking in anger as he chopped his ginger roots. "So I give you warning, Potter, pint-sized celebrity or not – " Severus was talking in a softer and more dangerous voice now, goading Potter into retorting. " – if I catch you breaking into my office one more time – "
"I haven't been anywhere near you office!" Potter said angrily, forgetting his feigned deafness.
"Don't lie to me," Severus hissed, boring into Potter's green eyes with his own. "Boomslang skin. Gillyweed. Both come from my private stores, and I know who stole them." He did, too. He knew perfectly well that Hermione had stolen the Boomslang skin, and he was sure that no normal human, even Potter, would leave a bobble hat at the scene of the crime.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Potter said. He was clearly lying.
"You were out of bed the night my office was broken into!" Severus hissed. "I know it, Potter! Now, Mad-Eye Moody might have joined your fan club, but I will not tolerate your behaviour! One more night-time stroll into my office, Potter, and you will pay!"
"Right," Potter said, displaying an uncharacteristic cool. "I'll bear that in mind if I ever get the urge to go in there."
Severus' eyes flashed and he, despite the urge to pull out his wand and curse Potter to hell and back, drew out a small crystal bottle of a completely clear potion. Potter stared at it.
"Do you know what this is, Potter?" Severus asked, his eyes glittering dangerously again.
"No" Potter said, and Severus knew he was being honest this time.
"It is Veritaserum – a Truth Potion so powerful that three drops would have you spilling your innermost secrets for this entire class to hear." He said viciously. "Now, the use of this Potion is controlled by very strict Ministry guidelines. But unless you watch your step, you might just find that my hand slips – " he shook the crystal bottle slightly " – right over your evening pumpkin juice. And then, Potter…then we'll find out whether you've been in my office or not."
Potter said nothing, but Severus could tell he was scared by the shudder he gave as he began chopping his ginger roots once more.
There was a knock on the dungeon door.
"Enter" said Severus in his usual voice.
The class looked around as the door opened. Igor Karkaroff came in. Everyone watched him as he walked directly up towards Severus' desk. He was twisting his finger around his goatee again, and looking agitated.
"We need to talk," said Karkaroff abruptly, when he had reached Severus. He seemed so determined that nobody should hear what he was saying that he was barely opening his lips; it was as though he was a rather poor ventriloquist. Potter was keeping his eyes on his ginger roots, but Severus would bet a hundred galleons that he was listening as hard as he possibly could.
"I'll talk to you after my lesson, Karkaroff – " Severus muttered, but Karkaroff interrupted him.
"I want to talk now, while you can't slip off, Severus. You've been avoiding me."
"After the lesson." Severus snapped. He was growing increasingly annoyed with the Durmstrang Headmaster's idiocy. To try to discuss something so important in a classroom, of all places! Karkaroff did look very worried though. He hovered behind Severus' desk annoying him for the rest of the double period, and seemed intent on preventing Severus from slipping away at the end of class, much to his annoyance.
Potter knocked over his armadillo bile right at the end of class, so Severus had no way of dismissing him. Making sure Potter was busily mopping up, Severus hissed "What's so urgent?"
"This" said Karkaroff, and he drew back his left sleeve to reveal his Dark Mark, clear against his white, almost transparent skin. "Well? Do you see? It's never been this clear, never since – "
"Put it away!" Severus snarled, his eyes sweeping the classroom.
"But you must have noticed – " Karkaroff began in an agitated voice.
"We can talk later, Karkaroff!" Severus spat. "Potter! What are you doing?"
"Clearing up my armadillo bile, Professor" Potter said, trying to look innocent.
Karkaroff turned on his heel and strode out of the dungeon. He looked both worried and angry. Potter left at top speed, clearly not wanting to stay now Severus' conversation with Igor was over.
Severus had been asked by many people why he hated Potter so much, and many times his answer had been "Because of his father." But this was not strictly true. The reason Severus had hated James Potter was because of his mother.
I have a storyline planned out for this, but I'll only continue it if people want me to. I basically want to tell Snape's story, from why he is who he is to why he kills Dumbledore. If you think I should continue, please let me know. Anyhow, review!
Becca