A/N: Well, here you are, I'm back again! First of all, thank you to everyone who reviewed and I'm really glad I could put up this chapter before my schedule got tight again because of school.

And a very special thank you to JulieSnape02 for helping me to come up with nice devices of torture for our dear professor… On with the show!

Potion Punishment

The week passed without anymore scandals or significant events, except maybe Potter's remarkable discovery that he was, in fact, a wizard and was thus capable of defending himself from mental attacks through use of a shield charm, until his feeble mind got used to the idea of fending for itself. Severus had expected him to try that long before now, so it didn't really come as a surprise when his attack was repelled. What had taken him by surprise, though, was what had followed.

Instead of finding himself in Potter's memories, as he usually did, the boy had suddenly penetrated Severus' own mind, specifically the teacher's memories of his younger years. At that moment, Severus was extremely glad that he had deposited his worst memories and all the happy ones of time spent with Lily before he had made one of his three great mistakes in the headmaster's Pensieve.

One had made a great rift between them, the second one had widened it almost impossibly and the third had cost Lily her life and what had remained of Severus' peace of mind.

This was his punishment; acting as a spy for the Order and trying to make sure that James Potter's son did not kill himself with one of his mad Gryffindor schemes. Teaching him Occlumency, however, was the most exquisite torture. Watching the boy's miserable childhood, which so resembled Severus's own, play out in front of him, forced him to re-evaluate his opinion of him. And that was something Severus was absolutely not prepared to do. He was protecting Potter for his childhood friend, not because he cared for the brat himself.

Severus gave an involuntary shudder as that highly distasteful thought crossed his mind. No, that was certainly never going to happen, especially if Potter continued to ignore his teacher's instructions to clear his mind before going to sleep.

Although Potter had succeeded in entering Severus' mind, they had still spent enough time in the insufferable boy's thoughts and memories for Severus to catch a glimpse of some rather worrying dreams of Potter's.

So Dumbledore was concerned that the Dark Lord would try and use the boy, taking advantage of the connection that had somehow been forged between them the night the Dark Lord had first tried to kill Potter.

Well, if Potter's vision of Arthur Weasley's being attacked by the Dark Lord's snake – from the snake's point of view, no less – hadn't been proof enough that Severus' "Master" was already deep inside Potter's mind, then these continuing dreams of the empty corridor inside the Department of Mysteries would certainly have been enough.

The rest of the week was spent in the usual manner and Severus was very glad when the bell rang to announce the end of Friday's lessons, even if the last class had been his four remaining NEWT students from seventh year.

For Potter, he knew, the weekend was still a long way away – i.e. a detention in the pinkest and deepest part of hell.

Which swung Severus' thoughts away from the disastrous Occlumency lessons and in a much more welcome direction. His lips parted in a feral grin as he thought of the research he had been doing in his spare time.

Oh, that woman was going to pay and in such a way that she would not only have to change her ways, but which would put her in such a delicate and embarrassing situation that she would never dare to admit it to anyone else at the Ministry, including her precious Minister. His preparations were nearly finished, so he would be ready when he and everyone else – he was feeling particularly generous – would be able to glean the most pleasure out of the toad's humiliation.

But first, it was time for some more harmless amusement. With a rather simple, but amazingly effective potion and one of the school house-elves' help, Severus was planning to make breakfast an… interesting affair.

He was going to make sure that he would have the best possible vantage point possible, so as to really be able to enjoy it.

MQMQ

The first thing every student who bothered to look up at the Head Table the next morning saw, was the fact that Hogwarts' – by now – second most infamous teacher, Severus Snape, seemed to be in a very good mood. That in itself was very disturbing.

Even more disturbing, however, was that he managed to retain his almost cheerful disposition, in spite of having been the last teacher at the table – which was a novelty in its own right – and was thus forced to occupy the seat that every teacher, including him, usually avoided at all costs. Yes, indeed. Professor Umbridge was no more popular with her colleagues than she was with the students. But Snape seemed quite happy with the seating arrangements that morning.

Harry Potter was staring at the Potions Master in bewilderment.

"I don't understand," he said to his best friends, Ron and Hermione. "He seemed really angry about her detentions before. He even sent me that salve to help me get rid of the scars. What's he playing at now?"

"Well, you know Snape," Ron tried to say through a mouthful of bacon. What came out sounded more like "'Ell, 'ou 'ow Shna'", however, which caused Hermione to look at him in utmost disgust.

"Honestly, Ronald, if I didn't know your mother and your oldest brothers, I'd think you were never taught any table manners at home."

Ron swallowed his bacon and retorted in a very annoyed voice.

"Oh, leave me alone, Hermione. You're not my mother!"

"No, but I have to watch you eat! And anyway -"

Recognizing this as the beginning of one of his best friends' infamous arguments, Harry tuned them out and turned back to his food.

He couldn't help the stab of disappointment and even a sense of betrayal as he thought about Snape's behaviour. Sure, he and Snape had never been on friendly terms – far from it, in fact – but he had thought that, at least as far as Umbridge was concerned, they had come to an understanding of sorts. Now, however, it seemed as though Snape had had second thoughts about it.

Before Harry could sink any further into his depressing thoughts, a loud "CROAK "filled the hall. Necks were craned as everyone tried to figure out who was responsible and just seconds later, an eerie silence fell, as all conversations stopped at once. Even Ron and Hermione had abandoned their little argument.

The very nature of the sound had been such that everyone's eyes were immediately drawn to Umbridge. To tell the truth, most students, and some teachers, had long expected her to make such a sound.

The High Inquisitor was the only person in the hall who hadn't stopped eating. Just like the week before, she only noticed that something unusual was going on when the silence became so all-consuming that the only sound was that of everyone's beloved and highly esteemed Defence teacher's cutlery against her plate.

When she had finally noticed that something was out of the ordinary, she looked up to find every single person in the hall staring at her.

Umbridge opened her wide mouth – probably to tell them to return to their meals, though possibly not as politely – but again, the only sound that came from her moth was the "CROAK" everyone had heard before.

"Are you quite all right, Professor?" Dumbledore asked in a way that might have seemed concerned, if the omnipresent twinkle in his eyes hadn't just developed into a very blue, very bright and very small firework.

Almost every other teacher and the students were desperately trying to suppress their giggles. Those that weren't, like the Weasley twins, had long since given up the fight and were practically rolling on the floor with undisguised glee.

Umbridge slowly turned a rather interesting shade of puce, which reminded Harry vaguely of Uncle Vernon and a similar vein to his uncle's seemed to be pulsing in Umbridge's temple as she tried to make herself understood. She obviously had no idea that she wasn't talking normally, or what she usually thought of as normal.

But each attempt she made at speaking ended the same way the first had and resulted in more students falling of their benches with her looking on with confusion and fury.

Harry relished the spectacle and savoured the fact that Umbridge seemed to have no idea that she was giving everyone proof of what they had suspected since their first class with her; that she would have been much better off as a toad.

Harry was so busy laughing that he almost missed the hungry gleam in Snape's eyes as he looked at his unfortunate colleague. It was almost as though he was waiting for something else to happen-. A great wave of relief washed over Harry as he realized that Snape had not forsaken him and the other students in their fight against Umbridge.

With that invisible, but surprisingly heavy burden lifted off his shoulders, Harry devoted his entire attention to his least favourite professor's dilemma. He would have been quire content to see this continue the whole day, but he knew enough about potions and spells to realize that the effect was going to wear off sooner of later.

But he didn't expect what happened next.

By now Umbridge had worked herself up in a right state and just as everyone thought she was going to have stroke or something equally… unfortunate, she started choking, her face turning from bright red to bright green at a rather alarming speed.

Something seemed to force its way up her throat and the next moment, a real toad had made its way out of its human counterpart's mouth, in a way that reminded Harry strongly of Ron's attempt at hexing Malfoy in their second year, which had ended with him vomiting slugs.

Everyone – with the rather obvious exception of Minister Fudge's residential incompetent minion - later agreed that this had been the best morning Hogwarts had seen in a long time.

Few, however, thought to connect the happy incident to Snape, although it was obvious to any who cared to look that he was just as pleased as the students and Umbridge's personal enemy, Minerva McGonagall, who was seen wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, an event previously unheard of in the school's history.

But even those, such as Harry, Ron and Hermione, who had guessed his involvement didn't know that the Potions Master had another trick up his sleeve, one that would make the hell toad's life even more difficult. He only had to wait for the right moment…