It was late morning by the time Severus was making his way back up to the castle. He was tired and irritated. The muggle police officers were ridiculous in their questions, but they had phoned Petunia and tried to phone Lily. He hoped the Dark Lord would not delve too far into his mind about the situation. It was a petty task, taking care of the dead. Severus was surprised (but grateful) that the Dark Lord hadn't kept their bodies for inferi. Inferi of people's family members were a much harder form of inferi to deal with, especially if they didn't already know they were dead…

As he entered the castle, he hoped he wouldn't run into anyone. Most of the teachers were gone, all except for McGonagall and Dumbledore. He especially didn't want to run into Dumbledore because he hadn't decided how much of everything he wanted to share with him.

What should he tell Dumbledore? If Dumbledore thought for a second that Severus knew in advance what was going to happen with the Evans, he would completely mistrust him. It would be best if he didn't know, especially since Severus took the liberty of not allowing Dumbledore to make a decision on how to proceed. Dumbledore might have rejected Severus's plan and wasted lives in sending people to rescue the Evans. No, his not knowing was good. Dumbledore was easy enough to fool with occlumency.

His feet had carried him to his new home. Severus collapsed onto his bed. He would just need to convince Dumbledore that he had just gone out of the castle for new scenery. It had nothing to do with being a Death Eater.

His mind was racing too much for Severus to fall asleep. It was a mixture of images of the tortured, mangled bodies of the Evans in the car and ranting frustration about how stuck Severus felt. Dumbledore didn't trust him and the Dark Lord did not trust him. They both only gave him the information to pass on, he knew no more and no less and had no say in what was advantageous. He was completely powerless.

In all honesty, Severus didn't know what he would do if he could tip the scales in one direction of another. It was probably bothering him only because he wanted some form of power to get back at the Dark Lord for springing all of this on him. He wanted the power to teach them both to treat him nicely, though really only the Dark Lord has been unkind. Not saying that Dumbledore had been kind, but he was treating Severus nicer than anyone had in a long time.

What had been the nicest thing anyone had done for him? His grandfather had been mostly kind: taking him in weeks at a time, teaching him all sorts of things, permitting him to have biscuits in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep. He wondered if Nott had fabricated the memory where he claimed to have heard Severus's grandfather claim he wished Severus had never been born. Then again, his grandfather had taken a lot of the pureblood preaching to heart and a half-blood grandson had been something shameful.

Lily had been nice too: sending biscuits to Severus when she found out that he never got any sweets at home, refusing to listen to her parents when they told her to stop being his friend because she knew he wasn't a bad person, listening to all of his academic and political rants even if she didn't believe everything he was saying.

His mother had been nice too, but it came and went. It was nice that she had made him dinner every night for at least a year before her death. The Mulcibers as a family had been nice in taking him in at times as needed. The Malfoys were a bit spotty. He hadn't really talked with Lucius since he had refused the honor of torturing some specific muggle, but whenever Lucius had invited him for dinner they had been kind.

Sleep found Severus as he thought upon happier times.


It was the start of term. It came suddenly and with a vengeance. Severus wished the relaxing pace of summer would have stayed longer. Unfortunately, life was not one to slow time when a dreadful event was coming.

The first years had been the easiest group. They were intimidated with his billowing cloak and sharp voice. They didn't take any reminding on who was in charge, like the second, third, and fourth years had.

The absolute worse class was the seventh year NEWT class.

He had entered the room and magically slammed the door behind him when he entered. The friendly chatter had not stopped.

"Silence," he had told them curtly. "It is time for class to begin and if you hope to pass the potions NEWT with high marks, we need every minute of this class to prepare you."

"Like you know potions any better than us," one of the students had called out. "It's not like you have experience past your NEWT's."

"If that's the case, everyone pull out their cauldrons and make me the Elixir to Induce Euphoria due at the end of class." Severus had snapped.

"Why would we want to do that?" a familiar looking student called out. "It is much easier to perform a cheering charm."

Half the class laughed.

"Silence! I am the professor here and I will dictate what goes on in this classroom. If you think the Elixir to Induce Euphoria is a waste of time, then impress me and brew a love potion antidote."

"Is that because you are going to slip one of us a love potion?" The familiar student called back. "I daresay that'll be the only way you would get anyone to bed you. I mean, we all saw what you had to offer, Snivellus."

The entire class sniggered.

"50 points from Ravenclaw for speaking out of turn and disrespecting a professor. If you speak another word this class, you will get a detention." Snape had called through the laughter, hoping his face wasn't red with embarrassment.

"Whatever you say, Professor Snivellus," the Ravenclaw student dared mock. The class laughed even harder.

"Detention!" Snape shouted. He then proceeded to take 20 points from every student in the classroom. He wrote a note for the student Lockhart to take to Professor Flitwick.

"You are expected to complete this assignment by the end of class as well, I don't accept disrupting the class as an excuse for tardy work." Severus hissed as Lockhart left the classroom.

For all their laughing and mocking, not a single student managed to brew an acceptable elixir or antidote. Unfortunately, the title Professor Snivellus made the rounds and he had several instances of students in other classes using it under their breath.

The worst part of the entire situation was that Professor McGonagall felt the need to bring it up at a staff meeting. It was humiliating to be discussed like he couldn't handle discipline within his own classroom. Though, Severus had to admit that having every professor be on the lookout for the disrespectful title and take away house points for each instance would be the most effective way to stop it.

It was times like this that it was nice to have the distraction of being a double agent. It was an excuse to leave the castle and forget about how his past experiences as a student were affecting his teaching.