It's not possible. Snape thought while in the gloomy darkness of his office. There's no way Black could break into Hogwarts. And even he did… He wouldn't waste his time giving Snape prank-wine. The man, the scumbag, probably had other things in mind. He was a criminal, on the run, most definitely worrying about escaping the Dementors and the Ministry. Hogwarts is the last place Black would go to.
Unless…Maybe Remus is helping him, his old school pal.
No. Remus must hate Black almost as much as Snape does; after the way he betrayed… Stop. It's too early for that. And speaking of the devil—err Remus, he should now focus on brewing his… potion accurately and carefully.
Ugh, Snape groaned as he worked on the werewolf's potion. To think he had to help James Potter's old friend. The one who once almost killed him.
The sun would show in the sky soon, Snape figured, checking the time; the students would soon rise, so he should hurry.
He walked with the bottled potion in his hand and knocked on Lupin's door. The man opened almost at once—he had probably been up all night waiting for it. "Thank you, Severus," Remus said with supreme gratitude.
"I don't exactly do this for you," Snape slowly said, fixing his black eyes on the other professor's face. "Dumbledore has asked me."
"Besides," Remus said with a small smirk. "You don't want to see any students getting hurt."
"I actually wouldn't mind if a few of them were… injured." Snape spat bitterly.
"Right… I wonder if you actually manage to fool yourself. I have only been here a few days and I'm already amazed by the kids. You who have known them for years can't possibly not care—"
"Goodbye, Professor." Snape cut him short, abruptly. "I will have your next potion ready." Without another word, he stalked away. Hating that he couldn't believe Remus to be helping Black, while also sure he didn't pranked him the night of the welcoming banquet.
Was Snape going mad simply by having that man in the castle, whom brought more alive than even the son, James Potter's memory?
The Potions Master decided to leave the matter alone. He walked into his classroom, the dungeons, like usual, hoping to immerse himself in the subject and the class, forgetting all about the Marauders.
He sat in front of his chair, quietly, enjoying the peaceful quiet of not a single word. He knew he couldn't just waste the class, so he decided, a slight evil grin on his pale face, to give them a surprise evaluation.
At this, almost every student complained, particularly the Gryffindors—well, except for the Granger girl, ugh, that annoying know-it-all that hangs with Potter.
"Quiet, all of you," Snape ordered and the voices ultimately hushed. As he was taking out the parchments, he heard the whispery conversation between Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter.
"It's only the first week," the Weasley boy was whining. "Can you believe him? He's absolutely mental!"
"Why are you so shocked?" Potter's whisper sounded tired and resigned. "At least we won't have his crooked nose behind us all class—"
Dozens of pieces of parchment flew around the dungeons, each one landing in front of a student.
Snape had first thought of giving them a simple formative evaluation test, have them recall things they must certainly should be acquainted with, but Weasley and Potter's conversation made him see, he was being too soft on them. So each had ten essay questions on things they would only know if they read the New Year school book, which Snape knew all but Granger would fail.
"Each one of you have different questions," Snape said above the murmurs of annoyance. "So don't even think of copying—Longbottom."
"Wha—I never—wouldn't…" Longbottom stammered.
"Quiet," Snape said, standing next to the boy, who looked as usual, paper-white at having Snape so close. "That was to all of you. Any word now means detention with me. You may start now."
About twenty seconds passed in silence, Snape was barely getting comfortable in his chair again when the most annoying sight he encountered in Hogwarts in the recent years passed his eyes: the Granger girl had raised her hand.
"I said no words." Snape threatened. The girl didn't give up. A minute passed and she had her both hands up. Repressing a sigh of intolerance, and dislike, Snape said. "What is it, Miss Granger?"
"Forgive me, sir," she said, mustering a tone of respect Snape found phony. "But you have made several spelling mistakes."
Every student, Gryffindors and Slytherins, looked up from their piece of parchment in amazement. The Weasley boy looked half-proud, half-worried. Longbottom was shaking. Draco Malfoy was smiling as if he knew Snape was about to take all the points from Gryffindor.
"What…" Snape muttered quietly, trying and failing to hide his astonishment and anger.
"I don't know if it's just in mine," the Granger girl looked slightly flustered but determinate. Snape wished she was a boy so he could smack a book on her head.
Snape called the piece of parchment from Neville Longbottom's grasp—which was still empty—, and read it. "I see no mistakes, apart from the sweat from Longbottom's shaky hands," Snape said calmly.
The Slytherins sniggered. Snape saw that Granger was about to say something—
"Mr. Malfoy," Snape then said. "Would you mind telling me whether you found any mistakes in your evaluation?"
The Malfoy boy pretended to read, then said, "None whatsoever, sir."
"Ten points for Slytherin," Snape said with a slight smile.
Weasley and Potter made disrespectful faces.
"But sir!" Granger cried.
"And fifteen points from Gryffindor," Snape coldly said. "I had instructed you lot to not say a word."
"Forgive me, sir," Granger's voice shook a little but she held her head high. "But since you said all evaluations were different, you can't be sure if you made a mis—mistake or not!" she grabbed the test next to hers. "Harry's is fine. Must be just mine…" she cowered somewhat at the cold look Snape gave her. "I'm very sorry but I can't answer correctly if not even the questions are right!"
Snape walked, almost jumping in front of her, looking like he would use a terrible curse on her. Seemingly aware, Granger said, "Sir, not even your own name is written correctly. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! But it's true, look," she handed her parchment to Snape. "You wrote Snivellus instead of…" she stopped talking, the look on Snape's face was chilling, and she most definitely looked as though she wished she hadn't said anything after all.
Snape stared at the piece of parchment, his eyes burning into the inky text. He couldn't believe it… as usual, the Granger girl was right, but he couldn't hate her any more for it, as his old hatred was devouring him at the moment. Too many years had passed since he last heard that nickname.
"Snivellus?" Harry Potter questioned. This was too much. He looked so much like his father—apart from the eyes, of course—and hearing him say that nickname, insult… Snape felt the earth was quivering, his own fury making him tremble at every step as he finally reached his chair.
"Twenty more points from Gryffindor," he said, his voice icy-cold, nothing like the fire he felt within. "For looking at Potter's test, Miss Granger." For once she knew better than to answer, no matter how unfair she thought the whole thing. "And detention with me, this Saturday, 7:00 am!" she looked, like Longbottom, skin paper-white. Snape was sure she had never gotten detention before. "Evaluation is over!" he cried and pieces of parchment flew around the gloomy classroom. He was sure no one had gotten passed at least the second question, but he couldn't care, he was fighting every bit of himself to not start crying… he had not felt so much emotion in years.
Snape needed to get out of the scene; he stalked, passing the hateful looks the Granger girl's friends gave him, and found the door. He stood there a moment, and said, "I want a paper by next class resuming the questions you didn't manage to answer."
Giving another step, triumphantly to leave behind the furious faces, he stumbled clumsily, falling, his face to the stony floor. No one dared laugh. Standing up, he captured with his foot the stupid rat that had previously given him trouble before. "Weasley!" Snape roared.
"I—I don't know how he got here, sir!"
"You'll be accompanying Miss Granger on Saturday, too!" Snape hissed.
"What?" Harry Potter muttered, very quietly, looking, rightfully so, astonished that Ron would get detention for Snape's lack of care and vision.
"You, too, Potter!" Snape cried.
The Slytherins were almost cheering, while the Gryffindors looked like they couldn't believe Potter would get into trouble for saying one simple word to himself.
What…
Author's note: Poor Severus! :( I remember him being at an all-time mean during the Prisoner of Azkaban and the Goblet of Fire… So of course these pranks sent him over the edge… Review please! If you can tell me of a prank the Marauders did on Snape while they were classmates, I'd appreciate it! Finding information about that timeline on the internet in kinda hard…
Thanks for reading!
