A Reluctant Headmaster

31st May 1998

Severus Snape spent much of his time in his bed in the hospital wing sleeping, even after first waking up. The potions he'd been forced to take were effective in not only healing him, but in completely knocking him out. When he was actually awake he argued with Poppy about returning to his quarters in the dungeons only to be told that Slughorn was sleeping in them. Horace was still the Potions professor after all despite being told by the deputy head; McGonagall that he could leave if he wanted to. They could find another teacher but he was adamant about staying to help rebuild the castle. Snape didn't understand why.

"You are our headmaster, Severus," Minerva told him as she sat at his bedside that morning, "You do not belong in the dungeons," he'd only scoffed at that.

"I...am no...headmaster," he muttered back slowly. His voice was not returning as quickly as he liked but it was better than being unable to speak at all.

"Nonsense," she shook her head. "I've been talking to Albus about this and we both agree that Hogwarts doesn't recognise me as being headmistress."

"Then...I resign..."

"At least think about this," she sighed.

"No...n...need."

"I won't force you to stay, Severus, and Merlin knows, you've earned the right to do as you please now. But think about this carefully. Take some time. And rest, you need rest..."

"No more...rest..." he hissed back, glaring at her even though she seemed unaffected.

"You always were a terrible patient," McGonagall smiled.

The Deputy Head of Hogwarts had been apoplectic with apologies when he'd first woken up. She'd cried as she'd told him how sorry she was at calling him a coward as he'd fled. At the time, she'd never thought it strange at all that he, being more powerful than she was, had fled from a fight he could have easily won. No one had. They'd been far too busy and no doubt, he been counting on that. They'd heard later that Snape had been severely punished for fleeing the school. His orders had been to kill anyone who opposed him and instead he'd surrendered.

"I'm a...death...e...eater," he replied, "I can't be...Headmaster," he said.

"Hogwarts disagrees...doesn't it?" she asked him. "You can hear it, can't you? Albus said that the castle spoke to him. It only spoke to me when you were...not in a capacity to hear it," she said, diplomatically telling him it was only when he was dead that she was headmistress.

Snape pursed his lip. Even now, Hogwarts was telling him that the structural repairs on the roof of the great hall, which had been classed as a priority, were almost complete and that the work on the courtyard hadn't even started yet. "If I...resign...it will...stop," he said, reaching out a pale and scared hand for the goblet of water on the bedside table. "No parent," he began after drinking the water to help his throat, "Will want...a Death Eater...in charge of this school."

"Severus," Minverva began slowly, as though addressing a student. "You've been pardoned. The entire wizarding world knows what you did. You have an Order of Merlin...and rumour has it you'll have a biography soon."

"What?!" Snape exclaimed, alarmed, sitting up right and then coughing because he'd aggravated his throat.

"Potter tells me that people are very interested in you. So interested, in fact, that someone, I don't know who, is working on your biography," she smiled at him.

"Well, stop them!"

"How can I? No one knows who it is. It's just a rumour," she told him. "But that's beside the point. I came to tell you about the repairs."

"The roof is...repaired," he rolled his eyes, "The courtyard is not."

"Correct," Minerva nodded, happily. "It'll be some time before everything is finished. We'll need a new professor for Defence of course, and a Muggle Studies teacher but..."

"You...do it," Severus sighed, thinking of Charity Burbage.

"I can make suggestions, headmaster. But the decision will be yours."

"Fine," he snapped.

"There was one more thing. It's far too early to be thinking seriously about it, but...some of the seventh years have enquired about returning for another year."

"They know you...want me to be Headmaster?"

"Of course."

"And they still want to...come back?"

"Yes."

"...Why?"

"They understand why you acted as you did and I had to stop most of them from coming in here and thanking you personally. I was rather worried you'd hex them, you see," she said, sarcastically. The majority of the students at least now had a grudging respect for Snape but of course some would simply never forgive him and he understood that.

"Thanking me?" Snape scoffed in disbelief. "I...made their lives...miserable. I threatened them...repeatedly. I don't...believe you."

"Then believe Hogwarts," Albus said, suddenly appearing in one of the paintings on the walls. "It would tell you if the students were discontent. It did so for the entirety of the last year, didn't it? I remember it causing you many a sleepless night, my boy."

"I had...more important things to worry about...than the students 'feelings'," Snape rolled his eyes.

"Yes...you did. But that didn't stop you from adding one more concern, did it?" the old man said heavily.

Severus still hadn't been told, but the staff had been furious with Dumbledore once they'd learned of his plan. True, Snape had never been anyone's best friend, but as much as it pained people to admit it, he'd been steadfast for years. He had the temperament of an irritable dragon but he was one of them. He was a Hogwarts teacher. And he'd spent an entire year purposely making himself the most hated person in the school. He'd had their grudging respect before but they doubted they could have done what he had.

"Albus, you're not helping," Minerva replied and watched the former headmaster leave the painting and disappear. She turned back to Severus with a smile. "Perhaps you'll appreciate something to read," she remarked, gently placing a small stack of papers onto the bed. "Now that you're awake, these need your signature. They're reports for the Ministry about the repairs."

"...Homework, Minerva? Really?" Snape scoffed, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course, headmaster," she replied, standing up. "I'll leave you to it. I know how much you enjoy paperwork," she said, ignoring the hiss of disapproval from him.