2. Potions Class
Laurel remembered these gloomy words when she sat in the potions classroom the next morning. She had slept astonishingly well considering that this was an old building with unknown sounds. But then - had she ever had a bedroom with a working fireplace in it? This was so much better than central heating. On the other hand she didn't care much for her roommate. Serene had taken over in a matter of minutes, had crammed the one chest with her clothes and robes and the small board next to the mirror with dozens of little bottles and jars. But for the time being they would have to get along. Laurel was afraid it would take more than a few days to convince these strange people that she was not supposed to be in this school after all. Then she would leave and Serene could have the room for herself .
She took a quick look around her and was glad to be with the Gryffindor kids again. She liked them well, especially Hermione and her two friends. Rob winked and smiled, but when the door suddenly flew open, his smile vanished.
Professor Snape appeared in front of the class while they all turned their head to the door. Laurel was sure that he had not done this by magic but was just really good in sneaking up on people. Again he was all dressed in black, save for a glimpse of white shirt-collar under his robe. His eyes were even darker than last evening. He looked straight above her head.
"As I know from years of experience you all will have emptied you brains over the summer and most of you will have forgotten even the basic rules of concoction. Therefore we will use this hour for repetition."
Laurel looked around her. All the little heads were bent over their pads. Nobody dared to giggle or whisper while Snape went through the basic rules. His voice was much more pleasant than his appearance. She didn't dare to look at him. She still felt uneasy when she remembered the compelling force of his stare. But the voice was a powerful instrument as well. When he suddenly fell silent she felt like waking from a daydream. She looked up and Snape stood right in front of her desk and pointed at her blank notepad.
"So, Miss Hunter, I assume you already know it all since you don't feel the need to take any notes?"
She blushed and felt her anger rise at the same moment. She was not a schoolgirl anymore, and this creep had no right to pick on her, had he?
He didn't even wait for an explanation or excuse but dismissed the class, not without warning that the next time they would be expected to have read chapter 1 and 2 of their potions book.
Hermione, Harry and Rob waited for Laurel as she left the classroom. Serene and Ben stayed and pestered Snape with questions. Hermione looked at her pitifully. "That was fast. Usually he doesn't get really ugly in the first week of term."
"I didn't do anything." Laurel stamped her foot and couldn't believe she did. This was like a time warp back into fifth grade!
"He has seen us together," Harry mused. "That is enough to set him against you."
"Face it, he hates us," Ron sighed. "For being Harry's friends, for being in Gryffindor …"
"And for loitering when you should be on your way to class," an icy voice finished the sentence. The four turned around self-consciously. Snape stood right behind them, Serene and Ben at his side. Serene grinned maliciously and Ben shook his head unbelievingly. Laurel pressed her lips together.
"Five points each. That will be 15 from Gryffindor and it isn't even lunchtime. Well done. As for you, Miss Hunter …"
"It's Ms. Hunter and since I don't belong to any of the houses you won't be able to take away any points."
She held her head high and looked him straight in the eye. Again she felt the power but this time she was prepared and it seemed to be him who couldn't turn away easily.
"Is that so?" he snapped. "But that fact won't save you from detention, Ms. Hunter. Tonight at seven, this classroom." He turned in a flourish of robes and went back into the room.
"Poor Laurel!" Serene's voice dripped with false pity. "It seems you made a powerful enemy and it is only the first day. Another week and you will have yourself expelled from Hogwarts. But you didn't want to come here in the first place anyway." She marched off, an unhappy looking Ben in her wake.
* * *
At seven that evening Laurel opened the door to the potions classroom and took a moment to watch Snape bent over some scrolls.
"Detention will be held in the classroom and not in the corridor, Miss Hunter." He seemed determined not to remember the Ms. "Come on in, close the door."
She went straight to his desk.
"Sit down."
She remained standing.
Exasperated he blew out his breath and rose his head. "I assume you considered not showing up at all?"
She nodded solemnly. A muscle in the corner of his mouth twitched. "What made you change your mind?"
"I wanted to have a word with you in private, Professor."
"In private? And could there be a better place than the dungeons?"
"Save your sarcasm, will you?" That silenced him for a moment.
"What you did to those children today was cruel and unnecessary. What kind of school is this? They are only kids! They need to play, to make friends."
"They need to study!" he thundered. "How are they going to get along in the muggle world if all they think about is friendships and Quidditch and other nonsense?"
Laurel rolled her eyes in disbelief. "And to imagine that you were once a child and probably a student here! Have you never felt alone? Have you never been homesick?"
As she spoke his face changed into an icy mask. His eyes shot furious bolts into hers. Without knowing it, she took one step back.
For almost a minute he remained silent. And when he found words, his voice had gone as cold as his glance. "Lonely? Every day. Homesick? Never."
"Well, you probably just don't remember. They tried to be friendly with me, to make me feel welcome."
"Ah, now we are getting there! You feel responsible for their sentence and you want me to take it back. Is that so?" His face had turned from bitter to smug in a heartbeat.
Laurel sat down on one of the desks. She wanted to get away from him, he made her positively uneasy standing so close. "Maybe you are right."
"I have a reputation to care for, Miss Hunter. Taking back a reprimand - what would my students think of me?"
"That you are only human, maybe?"
Now he laughed. Not his usual cynical sneer but a wholehearted laughter. When he finally caught his breath, he sat on the desk opposite to her. "Letting these little beasts know that I am human would be the first step on the straight road to hell."
He shook his head. "No matter what you think about me - and I don't give a toad about it, really - but I care about my students. I may not be the friendliest person …"
Now it was her turn to laugh and he took it patiently.
"They fear me - which means they study hard so they can keep me at bay. Which at last brings me to the reason of your detention, Miss Hunter."
Laurel braced her arms.
"We never had mature students at Hogwarts but it seems to me that your kind should pay special attention in class. After all you have to recover some lost ground."
She hopped off the desk and began to pace through the classroom. "I don't know about 'my kind'. I didn't ask to come here," she muttered annoyed. "They kidnapped me and sent me to this ridiculous place and I have no intention to get involved in whatever it is you think you do!"
"You don't?" His voice had gone soft but even more threatening. "Then let me tell you one thing, Miss Hunter. People like you are a danger to society. Hogwarts is there for a reason." He suddenly stood right in front of her and only then she recognised that he was almost a head taller than her which left her starring at his sensuous mouth. "I don't buy that nonsense about pure blood and mud blood. People come to Hogwarts not because their parents and grandparents were wizards but for their talent. I believe in talent. But magic is a strong power and power needs control."
He pointed at a cauldron on a hook over the fireplace. Something greenish simmered and bubbled. "This potion will heat up and finally explode if I don't turn the heat down. You are the only one that can control the power in you and you better learn how to do so before you hurt anybody."
"I don't want to be a witch!" she cried out and stepped back. "I don't want to make things explode and poison people and turn them into frogs and stuff. I want my normal life back. My future."
"Your future."
His emotionless voice made it only worse.
"My future. A career as a writer. A family. Kids. A house by the sea. A damned white picket fence!"
"I see. Though I can not imagine why anybody would want those things, you can still have them as a witch. So let me ask you: Is there anybody you love?"
She stared at him. How had they come that far? What on earth was she doing opening her heart to that … that nasty cruel bastard?
"Of course there is!" She thought about her parents, her sister and brother- in-law and their kids. Her grandparents. Samantha, her best friend and room mate back home. Of course there were people she loved.
Snape set a leather-bound volume right on the desk next to her. Dust rose in the dim air. His voice had gone threatening again. "Then, Miss Hunter, I suggest you study very very hard so you don't blow him up one day!"
* * *
The next day she skipped lunch and found an empty dungeon. She didn't need any spectators when she first tried the skills she had learned that morning together with a class of first year Hufflepuffs. Levitation. Professor Flitwick made it look so easy. Just wave that wand, mutter the right words and - voila - the feather will rise.
At least it rose when he did it.
But now the feather lay like a piece of lead in the middle of the shady room and didn't give an inch, no matter how she moved that silly wand. She bit her lip. Of course she could go and ask Hermione for help or worse, ask Serene. But she was not ready to give up yet. She tried again and felt anger rise. Stupid feather, stupid wand, stupid idea to try to be a witch!
Anger flamed and so did the wand. A fireball ricocheted through the room and Laurel flung herself to the floor and covered her head with both hands.
"Annoying little habit of yours."
Suddenly she recognised Snape leaning against the wall in the shadows. His outstretched hand held the fireball in balance. "You can't set the world on fire whenever it doesn't obey your orders." He caught the fireball, crumbled it in his fist and blew away the embers. "As seductive the idea may seem at times."
"I can't do this," she stated flatly. He didn't help her to get up and she was even thankful for that. Her self-esteem had suffered enough for today. "I simply can't. They made a mistake. I am not a witch."
"The Ministry doesn't make mistakes in that matter, believe me." He picked up her wand. "Nobody said it would be easy. There is a reason why students come here very young. It takes years of training."
She shook her head. "I did everything Professor Flitwick told us. The right movements, the right words. Still didn't work."
When she reached out for the wand, he threw it away into the back of the room.
"The power is not in the wand. It is here." He touched her forehead, only lightly but she felt a tickling sensation. He must have felt it too, since he pulled his hand back as if it had touched a red-hot cauldron. "The wand is just a piece of wood. It is supposed to help you concentrate, to focus your mind."
"And the spell?"
"The words are important to decide what exactly it is you want. Words shape the world. Try it."
Laurel stared at him, then shrugged. She turned towards the feather and said the spell again. A moment later she felt how she lost contact to the floor. Everything in the room started to slowly take off towards the high ceiling. Everything - but the dammed feather!
Snape's hand grabbed the leg of her jeans and pulled her back down.
"Is this really what you had in mind?" His face was impossible to read.
"No." She couldn't suppress a giggle. "Not really."
"Then concentrate for Merlin's sake!" He sounded grim. "Next time it could be me on the ceiling and I really don't care for that. I am scared of heights."
Laurel took a deep breath and banned everything, even Snape's disturbing presence from her mind. Nothing existed but the feather and her wish to see it rise.
And then it did.
It rose gracefully from the floor, hovered over Laurel's hand and landed softly in her open palm. She looked at it with wonderment. She had done it.
"It worked! Did you see me? I could let it fly!" she exclaimed and turned around to where Snape had stood a minute ago. But he was gone.
* * *
Dumbledore passed a bowl of cabbage across the table. "So everybody seems to have settled in," he remarked after taking a good look around the hall. The students chattered, laughed, ate and generally had a good time. After the first week it was always a relief to see things going back to normal.
"Now, tell me, Professor McGonagall, what do you think about our new students?" He nodded towards Ben, Serene and Laurel, who had been told to sit the next week with Ravenclaw.
Minerva McGonagall rubbed the tip of her nose. It itched which usually meant trouble. "I am surprised how well they get on. After all it can't be easy to start school at their age. On the other hand, Ben and Serene have always been aware that something was … different. They had time to get used to the thought. Laurel on the other hand - in the first few days I was afraid she might stay in denial. She seemed shell-shocked. Was it really necessary to abduct her like this and push her into wizardry without a warning?"
Dumbledore cast a worried look at the young woman talking to the Ravenclaw prefect. "Believe me, it was. There was not only the danger for innocents involved. After all she let a computer explode with dozens of people around."
"I thought it was a whole series of computers?" Snape raised his eyebrows.
Dumbledore nodded. "Actually all the units in the National Library blew up that day. But while everybody tried to explain the computer incident, another fire broke out. The vault where Miss Hunter was supposed to work at that time was completely destroyed. The door was locked - but there has never been a key for that door. The ministry investigated and it seems to have been locked by a spell."
"You try to say - had she been down there she would have died in the fire?" Snape asked, his voice curiously strained.
"I assume that was the whole idea."
"In her file a few other unlikely incidents are mentioned," Minerva recalled and dug her glasses and notebook out of her purse. "A sudden storm when she went skiing, an avalanche burying the chalet she was staying. Freak hail storms."
"The Ministry found that reason enough to send her to Hogwarts. Not just to educate her but to keep her save."
"I see." Minerva nodded solemnly. "However, she is gifted and lately she was willing to learn. And though I am loath to admit it, Professor Snape seems to be responsible for that."
Now it was Dumbledore's turn to raise a bushy brow. "Severus? I hear you have been giving private lessons lately?"
"You shouldn't believe every nasty rumour about me, Professor Dumbledore."
Snape's gaze was venomous enough to kill. Minerva hastily muttered a mild protective spell, you never knew with Snape after all.
"Well, well. So tell me what you think about the mature students class?"
Snape turned his head away from Minerva and looked at the students. "Olsen seems to be very intelligent, a cool rational mind. Much like a silver dagger. He gets along fine with everyone, but keeps to himself most of the time."
"He has the ability to read the unprotected mind."
"What an unpleasant gift!" Snape sneered. "Who would want to know what everyone and his familiar was thinking? But still, he is a disciplined and eager student. Miss Kennedy at the other hand, is ambitious. You feel her hunger for … power. Very shrewd also. Like a poisoned arrow. Would have made a good Slytherin had she been sent to Hogwarts in time."
"You bet!" Minerva coughed. "And what about Miss Hunter? I take it she is not as ambitious as Miss Kennedy?"
Snape remained silent. When a minute passed and he had still not said a word, Dumbledore whacked him in the ribs with his pointy elbow. "Severus? Are you spellbound? Or have you fallen asleep?"
Snape sat up straight. What was the matter with him lately? "She is … warm."
"She is what?" Dumbledore asked astonished.
"Warm."
"You mean, warm like a smouldering fire? I just love the colourful way you Slytherins describe people," Minerva couldn't resist.
Snape looked her straight in the eye and what she saw in his face - confusion, anger, pain - silenced her promptly.
"She is warmer than everybody I ever met," was all he said.
Dumbledore laid his hand in a warning gesture over Minerva's. "Enough now. Let us eat and hope that there will be many evenings a peaceful as this.
* * *
Laurel remembered these gloomy words when she sat in the potions classroom the next morning. She had slept astonishingly well considering that this was an old building with unknown sounds. But then - had she ever had a bedroom with a working fireplace in it? This was so much better than central heating. On the other hand she didn't care much for her roommate. Serene had taken over in a matter of minutes, had crammed the one chest with her clothes and robes and the small board next to the mirror with dozens of little bottles and jars. But for the time being they would have to get along. Laurel was afraid it would take more than a few days to convince these strange people that she was not supposed to be in this school after all. Then she would leave and Serene could have the room for herself .
She took a quick look around her and was glad to be with the Gryffindor kids again. She liked them well, especially Hermione and her two friends. Rob winked and smiled, but when the door suddenly flew open, his smile vanished.
Professor Snape appeared in front of the class while they all turned their head to the door. Laurel was sure that he had not done this by magic but was just really good in sneaking up on people. Again he was all dressed in black, save for a glimpse of white shirt-collar under his robe. His eyes were even darker than last evening. He looked straight above her head.
"As I know from years of experience you all will have emptied you brains over the summer and most of you will have forgotten even the basic rules of concoction. Therefore we will use this hour for repetition."
Laurel looked around her. All the little heads were bent over their pads. Nobody dared to giggle or whisper while Snape went through the basic rules. His voice was much more pleasant than his appearance. She didn't dare to look at him. She still felt uneasy when she remembered the compelling force of his stare. But the voice was a powerful instrument as well. When he suddenly fell silent she felt like waking from a daydream. She looked up and Snape stood right in front of her desk and pointed at her blank notepad.
"So, Miss Hunter, I assume you already know it all since you don't feel the need to take any notes?"
She blushed and felt her anger rise at the same moment. She was not a schoolgirl anymore, and this creep had no right to pick on her, had he?
He didn't even wait for an explanation or excuse but dismissed the class, not without warning that the next time they would be expected to have read chapter 1 and 2 of their potions book.
Hermione, Harry and Rob waited for Laurel as she left the classroom. Serene and Ben stayed and pestered Snape with questions. Hermione looked at her pitifully. "That was fast. Usually he doesn't get really ugly in the first week of term."
"I didn't do anything." Laurel stamped her foot and couldn't believe she did. This was like a time warp back into fifth grade!
"He has seen us together," Harry mused. "That is enough to set him against you."
"Face it, he hates us," Ron sighed. "For being Harry's friends, for being in Gryffindor …"
"And for loitering when you should be on your way to class," an icy voice finished the sentence. The four turned around self-consciously. Snape stood right behind them, Serene and Ben at his side. Serene grinned maliciously and Ben shook his head unbelievingly. Laurel pressed her lips together.
"Five points each. That will be 15 from Gryffindor and it isn't even lunchtime. Well done. As for you, Miss Hunter …"
"It's Ms. Hunter and since I don't belong to any of the houses you won't be able to take away any points."
She held her head high and looked him straight in the eye. Again she felt the power but this time she was prepared and it seemed to be him who couldn't turn away easily.
"Is that so?" he snapped. "But that fact won't save you from detention, Ms. Hunter. Tonight at seven, this classroom." He turned in a flourish of robes and went back into the room.
"Poor Laurel!" Serene's voice dripped with false pity. "It seems you made a powerful enemy and it is only the first day. Another week and you will have yourself expelled from Hogwarts. But you didn't want to come here in the first place anyway." She marched off, an unhappy looking Ben in her wake.
* * *
At seven that evening Laurel opened the door to the potions classroom and took a moment to watch Snape bent over some scrolls.
"Detention will be held in the classroom and not in the corridor, Miss Hunter." He seemed determined not to remember the Ms. "Come on in, close the door."
She went straight to his desk.
"Sit down."
She remained standing.
Exasperated he blew out his breath and rose his head. "I assume you considered not showing up at all?"
She nodded solemnly. A muscle in the corner of his mouth twitched. "What made you change your mind?"
"I wanted to have a word with you in private, Professor."
"In private? And could there be a better place than the dungeons?"
"Save your sarcasm, will you?" That silenced him for a moment.
"What you did to those children today was cruel and unnecessary. What kind of school is this? They are only kids! They need to play, to make friends."
"They need to study!" he thundered. "How are they going to get along in the muggle world if all they think about is friendships and Quidditch and other nonsense?"
Laurel rolled her eyes in disbelief. "And to imagine that you were once a child and probably a student here! Have you never felt alone? Have you never been homesick?"
As she spoke his face changed into an icy mask. His eyes shot furious bolts into hers. Without knowing it, she took one step back.
For almost a minute he remained silent. And when he found words, his voice had gone as cold as his glance. "Lonely? Every day. Homesick? Never."
"Well, you probably just don't remember. They tried to be friendly with me, to make me feel welcome."
"Ah, now we are getting there! You feel responsible for their sentence and you want me to take it back. Is that so?" His face had turned from bitter to smug in a heartbeat.
Laurel sat down on one of the desks. She wanted to get away from him, he made her positively uneasy standing so close. "Maybe you are right."
"I have a reputation to care for, Miss Hunter. Taking back a reprimand - what would my students think of me?"
"That you are only human, maybe?"
Now he laughed. Not his usual cynical sneer but a wholehearted laughter. When he finally caught his breath, he sat on the desk opposite to her. "Letting these little beasts know that I am human would be the first step on the straight road to hell."
He shook his head. "No matter what you think about me - and I don't give a toad about it, really - but I care about my students. I may not be the friendliest person …"
Now it was her turn to laugh and he took it patiently.
"They fear me - which means they study hard so they can keep me at bay. Which at last brings me to the reason of your detention, Miss Hunter."
Laurel braced her arms.
"We never had mature students at Hogwarts but it seems to me that your kind should pay special attention in class. After all you have to recover some lost ground."
She hopped off the desk and began to pace through the classroom. "I don't know about 'my kind'. I didn't ask to come here," she muttered annoyed. "They kidnapped me and sent me to this ridiculous place and I have no intention to get involved in whatever it is you think you do!"
"You don't?" His voice had gone soft but even more threatening. "Then let me tell you one thing, Miss Hunter. People like you are a danger to society. Hogwarts is there for a reason." He suddenly stood right in front of her and only then she recognised that he was almost a head taller than her which left her starring at his sensuous mouth. "I don't buy that nonsense about pure blood and mud blood. People come to Hogwarts not because their parents and grandparents were wizards but for their talent. I believe in talent. But magic is a strong power and power needs control."
He pointed at a cauldron on a hook over the fireplace. Something greenish simmered and bubbled. "This potion will heat up and finally explode if I don't turn the heat down. You are the only one that can control the power in you and you better learn how to do so before you hurt anybody."
"I don't want to be a witch!" she cried out and stepped back. "I don't want to make things explode and poison people and turn them into frogs and stuff. I want my normal life back. My future."
"Your future."
His emotionless voice made it only worse.
"My future. A career as a writer. A family. Kids. A house by the sea. A damned white picket fence!"
"I see. Though I can not imagine why anybody would want those things, you can still have them as a witch. So let me ask you: Is there anybody you love?"
She stared at him. How had they come that far? What on earth was she doing opening her heart to that … that nasty cruel bastard?
"Of course there is!" She thought about her parents, her sister and brother- in-law and their kids. Her grandparents. Samantha, her best friend and room mate back home. Of course there were people she loved.
Snape set a leather-bound volume right on the desk next to her. Dust rose in the dim air. His voice had gone threatening again. "Then, Miss Hunter, I suggest you study very very hard so you don't blow him up one day!"
* * *
The next day she skipped lunch and found an empty dungeon. She didn't need any spectators when she first tried the skills she had learned that morning together with a class of first year Hufflepuffs. Levitation. Professor Flitwick made it look so easy. Just wave that wand, mutter the right words and - voila - the feather will rise.
At least it rose when he did it.
But now the feather lay like a piece of lead in the middle of the shady room and didn't give an inch, no matter how she moved that silly wand. She bit her lip. Of course she could go and ask Hermione for help or worse, ask Serene. But she was not ready to give up yet. She tried again and felt anger rise. Stupid feather, stupid wand, stupid idea to try to be a witch!
Anger flamed and so did the wand. A fireball ricocheted through the room and Laurel flung herself to the floor and covered her head with both hands.
"Annoying little habit of yours."
Suddenly she recognised Snape leaning against the wall in the shadows. His outstretched hand held the fireball in balance. "You can't set the world on fire whenever it doesn't obey your orders." He caught the fireball, crumbled it in his fist and blew away the embers. "As seductive the idea may seem at times."
"I can't do this," she stated flatly. He didn't help her to get up and she was even thankful for that. Her self-esteem had suffered enough for today. "I simply can't. They made a mistake. I am not a witch."
"The Ministry doesn't make mistakes in that matter, believe me." He picked up her wand. "Nobody said it would be easy. There is a reason why students come here very young. It takes years of training."
She shook her head. "I did everything Professor Flitwick told us. The right movements, the right words. Still didn't work."
When she reached out for the wand, he threw it away into the back of the room.
"The power is not in the wand. It is here." He touched her forehead, only lightly but she felt a tickling sensation. He must have felt it too, since he pulled his hand back as if it had touched a red-hot cauldron. "The wand is just a piece of wood. It is supposed to help you concentrate, to focus your mind."
"And the spell?"
"The words are important to decide what exactly it is you want. Words shape the world. Try it."
Laurel stared at him, then shrugged. She turned towards the feather and said the spell again. A moment later she felt how she lost contact to the floor. Everything in the room started to slowly take off towards the high ceiling. Everything - but the dammed feather!
Snape's hand grabbed the leg of her jeans and pulled her back down.
"Is this really what you had in mind?" His face was impossible to read.
"No." She couldn't suppress a giggle. "Not really."
"Then concentrate for Merlin's sake!" He sounded grim. "Next time it could be me on the ceiling and I really don't care for that. I am scared of heights."
Laurel took a deep breath and banned everything, even Snape's disturbing presence from her mind. Nothing existed but the feather and her wish to see it rise.
And then it did.
It rose gracefully from the floor, hovered over Laurel's hand and landed softly in her open palm. She looked at it with wonderment. She had done it.
"It worked! Did you see me? I could let it fly!" she exclaimed and turned around to where Snape had stood a minute ago. But he was gone.
* * *
Dumbledore passed a bowl of cabbage across the table. "So everybody seems to have settled in," he remarked after taking a good look around the hall. The students chattered, laughed, ate and generally had a good time. After the first week it was always a relief to see things going back to normal.
"Now, tell me, Professor McGonagall, what do you think about our new students?" He nodded towards Ben, Serene and Laurel, who had been told to sit the next week with Ravenclaw.
Minerva McGonagall rubbed the tip of her nose. It itched which usually meant trouble. "I am surprised how well they get on. After all it can't be easy to start school at their age. On the other hand, Ben and Serene have always been aware that something was … different. They had time to get used to the thought. Laurel on the other hand - in the first few days I was afraid she might stay in denial. She seemed shell-shocked. Was it really necessary to abduct her like this and push her into wizardry without a warning?"
Dumbledore cast a worried look at the young woman talking to the Ravenclaw prefect. "Believe me, it was. There was not only the danger for innocents involved. After all she let a computer explode with dozens of people around."
"I thought it was a whole series of computers?" Snape raised his eyebrows.
Dumbledore nodded. "Actually all the units in the National Library blew up that day. But while everybody tried to explain the computer incident, another fire broke out. The vault where Miss Hunter was supposed to work at that time was completely destroyed. The door was locked - but there has never been a key for that door. The ministry investigated and it seems to have been locked by a spell."
"You try to say - had she been down there she would have died in the fire?" Snape asked, his voice curiously strained.
"I assume that was the whole idea."
"In her file a few other unlikely incidents are mentioned," Minerva recalled and dug her glasses and notebook out of her purse. "A sudden storm when she went skiing, an avalanche burying the chalet she was staying. Freak hail storms."
"The Ministry found that reason enough to send her to Hogwarts. Not just to educate her but to keep her save."
"I see." Minerva nodded solemnly. "However, she is gifted and lately she was willing to learn. And though I am loath to admit it, Professor Snape seems to be responsible for that."
Now it was Dumbledore's turn to raise a bushy brow. "Severus? I hear you have been giving private lessons lately?"
"You shouldn't believe every nasty rumour about me, Professor Dumbledore."
Snape's gaze was venomous enough to kill. Minerva hastily muttered a mild protective spell, you never knew with Snape after all.
"Well, well. So tell me what you think about the mature students class?"
Snape turned his head away from Minerva and looked at the students. "Olsen seems to be very intelligent, a cool rational mind. Much like a silver dagger. He gets along fine with everyone, but keeps to himself most of the time."
"He has the ability to read the unprotected mind."
"What an unpleasant gift!" Snape sneered. "Who would want to know what everyone and his familiar was thinking? But still, he is a disciplined and eager student. Miss Kennedy at the other hand, is ambitious. You feel her hunger for … power. Very shrewd also. Like a poisoned arrow. Would have made a good Slytherin had she been sent to Hogwarts in time."
"You bet!" Minerva coughed. "And what about Miss Hunter? I take it she is not as ambitious as Miss Kennedy?"
Snape remained silent. When a minute passed and he had still not said a word, Dumbledore whacked him in the ribs with his pointy elbow. "Severus? Are you spellbound? Or have you fallen asleep?"
Snape sat up straight. What was the matter with him lately? "She is … warm."
"She is what?" Dumbledore asked astonished.
"Warm."
"You mean, warm like a smouldering fire? I just love the colourful way you Slytherins describe people," Minerva couldn't resist.
Snape looked her straight in the eye and what she saw in his face - confusion, anger, pain - silenced her promptly.
"She is warmer than everybody I ever met," was all he said.
Dumbledore laid his hand in a warning gesture over Minerva's. "Enough now. Let us eat and hope that there will be many evenings a peaceful as this.
* * *
