The Interview

If Severus had been anyone else, he would have buried his face in his hands there and then, regardless of who was watching. But he wasn't anyone else and as such, he simply kept staring at the reason for his exasperation.

Lying in front of him was Minerva's edition of the Quibbler – why she insisted on reading this rag was beyond him, but right now he was grateful she did because, looking up at him from the front page with his very familiar and thus very unnerving emerald eyes was none other than the Boy Who Lived To Make Severus Snape's Hell, Harry Bloody Potter.

Worse than the picture, however, was the headline beneath the picture:

HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST:
THE TRUTH ABOUT HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED

AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN

Severus looked up at Minerva, who was watching his reaction with an altogether too familiar twinkle in her eyes.

"And here I thought the boy's sense of self-preservation already was at an inhuman low. What on earth could have made him do such a thing?" he asked, totally floored.

"Well," Minerva said, calmly sipping on her tea, "maybe he thought he could convince more people of You-Know-Who's return."

"With an interview in the Quibbler?" Severus voice showed very clearly what he thought of the idea. "It is unlikely many will believe what he had to say. The Quibbler is not exactly known for its reliability when it comes to reporting solid fact, is it?"

"I know it may not convince many people, but he could hardly go to the Daily Prophet and ask them to publish this. They are deep in Fudge's pocket and wouldn't dare publish anything that could undermine his authority. Mark my words, when the Ministry's finally accepted that You-Know-Who has returned they'll do anything to get Xenophilius Lovegood to sell it to them."

"But that is precisely the reason why this was so foolish!" said Severus, ignoring his colleague's last remark. "This can only be interpreted as an attack on the Ministry and, worse, on the Minister himself. What do you think Umbridge will make of this?" he hissed impatiently, looking around to make sure That Woman couldn't hear them.

"She'll be furious, of course" Minerva shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yes, and who will she take it out on?" Severus' patience had reached and end. "Potter has already spent more time in detention this year than any other student and after this, he'll be looking at another weak of them at least."

"Well, I'm sure he considered this beforehand and he obviously thinks it's worth it."

"But is it?" Severus said so quietly Minerva couldn't hear. Apart from the students concerned in the matter, hardly anyone apart from Severus knew the exact nature of Umbridge's detentions. Why did Potter draw her attention to him this way, knowing that it would certainly mean slicing his own hand open for at least five hours each night all week?

"Someone certainly seems to have read the article," Minerva's dry voice came from beside the Potions Master.

Severus looked up to see Potter surrounded by flocks of owls and more of them still arriving. If the situation had been different, Severus would have been sorely tempted to laugh at the expression of shocked disbelief on Potter's face.

He looked over at the other side of the table where Umbridge was sitting, engrossed in some letter or report and not paying attention to anything else. By this time, nearly everyone's heads had turned towards the Gryffindor table. Potter and his friends were going through some of the letters now, while the others around them were trying to either read some of the letters over their shoulders or bending over the article Potter had received a few minutes earlier.

It had become considerably more quite in the hall. Severus looked over at Umbridge. She still hadn't noticed anything unusual going on. It looked like the Dark Lord's entire Inner Circle could barge through the doors without alerting her.

About five minutes later Umbridge folded up the piece of parchment with her short stubby fingers and looked up. Her eyes narrowed as they strayed through the hall and finally landed on the mess surrounding Potter.

Severus could not help seeing this as a metaphor for the current political status in Wizarding Britain; the Ministry was always the last to notice something was going on because the Minister was too focussed on protecting his image. He was discrediting Potter any way he could think of to make sure no one believed the boy. Unfortunately, the population went with the whole thing willingly and, although Severus could understand their actions to some degree – after all, who would want to believe the Dark Lord was back? – he loathed the society that made this possible.

For now, Potter was "The Boy Who Lies". But when there was finally proof of the Dark Lord's return, he would be made out to be a tragic hero again, the poor shunned and wronged orphan.

And all the while the Dark Lord was raising and army, gathering his old followers and making new allies. Severus shuddered at the thought of what would happen, if the Ministry did not see reason soon.

He shook his head to clear it of these unpleasant thoughts. He – and everyone else - watched, as Professor Umbridge walk down the Gryffindor table towards Potter. He saw her eyes bulging even further from her head than they usually did when she caught sight of the Quibbler. Judging from the way she tried to make it look like she was perfectly in control of herself, though it was obvious to everyone that she was struggling not to either punch Potter in the face or run wailing out of the Great Hall, Severus' "prediction" had come true; Potter had received a lot of detentions for this act of recklessness and – as much as it pained him to admit it – courage.

As if her demeanour was not enough to convince him, the way Potter was rubbing the back of his hand, where Severus knew the, thankfully almost faded, words "I must not tell lies" were etched into his skin would have been proof enough

"There you are, Minerva," he said quietly. He couldn't bring himself to sneer the way he usually did when talking about his school nemesis' brat. "That's at least a week of detentions."

"But maybe it was worth it. This interview might help to convince some people and that's a start. And after all, he's only doing lines."

"Yes, Minerva, he's only doing lines." His voice showed so much contempt that Minerva looked at him, quite startled. "Excuse me," he said, before she could reply and rose from the table. He might as well make some more of the mixture of Murtlap Essence and Essence of Dittany he had given Potter last time. He was going to need it this week.

MQMQ

Several hours later, after another morning of trying to teach the subtle art of potion making to a class of nitwits and reducing a Hufflepuff girl to tears, Severus was walking through the halls in the direction of the Great Hall for lunch. His mind was once again focussed on the problems the toad's presence caused in the school.

She had managed what he and nearly everyone in the school – teachers and students alike – had thought almost impossible; she had toppled Severus from his hard-earned position as Most Hated Teacher Ever. He couldn't say he blamed the little brats, annoying as they were, for hating her and her classes. She was incompetent and cruel. And even thought most people in the castle didn't know about the latter character trait, the former was very well known and widely accepted as fact.

How could any teacher expect the students to pass their practical exams without ever having practised a single spell, curse, hex or charm? Especially in a subject like Defence Against the Dark Arts? Add to this her nerve-shattering voice and those pink clothes she insisted on wearing, clothes that made even Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown want to be Obliviated after having seen them, and you've got a mixture more poisonous than Basilisk venom.

While he was wondering whether his old teacher, Horace Slughorn, might have a small vial of said venom, which he could slip into her sickeningly sweet tea – accidentally, of course, - his attention was drawn to a swarm of students standing around the notice board and muttering amongst themselves.

At the sight of Severus advancing on them, robes billowing behind him, they parted hastily to avoid getting snarled at. Looking at the piece of parchment that had so fascinated the little brats, Severus couldn't suppress a derisive snort.

He turned on his heels and strode into the Great Hall. As soon as he had settled down, Minerva turned to him and smiled in that suspiciously Slytherin way he had seen on her often since Umbridge's arrival at the school.

"Have you seen the new Educational Decree?" she said in a way that left no doubts about her feelings in the matter.

Severus nodded. "Not very Slytherin, is it? Does that woman have no concept of subtlety?" he asked incredulously.

"Doesn't seem so, does it?" Minerva replied, looking quite pleased. "This time tomorrow at the latest, every single person in the school, teachers included, will have read the interview. It never ceases to amaze me, how little our esteemed High Inquisitor understands the way teenaged minds work. And she's supposed to be a teacher." She shook her head.

"Well, this is good news for Potter and also Professor Dumbledore, though," came the squeaky voice of Filius Flitwick from Severus' other side. "She has just multiplied the readership of this month's edition of the Quibbler by about ten."

"Yes, quite an achievement," Severus drawled.

"So Potter's idea wasn't all that bad, was it, Severus?" Minerva asked pointedly.

"If it was Potter's idea in the first place."

"Whatever do you mean?" piped Professor Flitwick.

"I mean that this has all the hall marks of Miss Granger's work. She's the only one in that bunch of dunderheads who has the organization skills to arrange a meeting with a reporter with no one else any the wiser."

He finished his meal in silence while his colleagues continued discussing the morning's events and afterwards rose and headed towards his classroom.

The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that this scheme had been conceived by the admittedly quite brilliant, if rather narrow, mind of the Golden Trio's only female member. Perhaps he would have to give her the "Outstanding" she had, if was honest with himself, long since deserved. He had already heard about the more or less subtle rewards other teachers had given to Potter. But that would simply be crossing an invisible line and he had no intention of crossing this particular line.

As to these detentions the toad was giving Potter… Well, Severus would have to think of something because, no matter what he thought of James Potter's spawn, no one deserved to have their hand sliced open with a blood quill and he certainly did not want Potter to have the words "I must not tell lies" carved into his hand for the rest of his natural existence, especially because the boy couldn't lie to save his life.

And even if he was not doing it for Potter himself, he would do it for Lily's sake. He had already failed her son in the worst possible way.

No, something would have to be done.

But for now, all Severus could do was to ensure that the scarring on Potter's hand did not become too severe. Next week, though…

Severus allowed a smirk to cross his face, which made all the students who passed him on his way to his dungeons to give him a wide berth.

A/N: I'm really sorry for not updating so long! I was ill for the first time in three years and of course it had to happen during the holidays…

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and if you've got time, drop a little review…?