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Disclaimer; All Harry Potter content belongs to J.K ROWLING. I do not claim to own anything, Apart from my own Imagination.
Chapter Eight
The girl in the photo
Severus was moving around his work at such a fast pace that if you were to watch him you would see black flutters from his robes. His extra orders were half completed and he was brewing five different potions at once. It was nearing the end of October where Halloween would soon plague the school. His mind was far from any thought of following Potter and his little circus of friends for now, instead it was aimed at a certain young girl badly influencing another who he was beginning to care about. He knew that Miss Grace would be up to no good and drag Miss Cassidy down with her. His head was beginning to hurt so he placed his wand to his temple and drew out a thin silvery liquid placing it in a vial and storing it away. Right now he didn't need the memory of the girl rushing through his brain. He then pulled down a stack of books and set to starting another potion since he was far behind in his orders then he had ever been before.
He finally finished his orders the day of Halloween, his suspicions were that Potter was up to no good seeing as he wasn't attending the feast. Severus was listening intently to the two Slytherin girls as they spoke across from each other. He watched as Miss Grace pulled what appeared to be a photo out of her bag and hand it to Miss Cassidy. They giggled over it and started talking about how hard it was to get it from the Weasley twins. Miss Grace then pulled out an other item a Gryffindor scarf and handed it to Miss Cassidy. Enraged by this obvious admiration of Gryffindor Severus pushed a floating pumpkin out of his face hurriedly and stood up making his way towards them. He Snatched the two items from Miss Cassidy and pocketed them. "There will be none of this foolish Gryffindor rubbish in my house." His voice harsh and his eyes bore into Miss Grace. "But Sir…."The girl stupidly opened her mouth. "Yes Miss Grace?" he said giving her a look past his nose. "Would you rather spend time in detention again?" he said as the two girls looked at each other. "Excuse me Professor" Miss Cassidy said as he shot her a look to " It was really my fault I asked her for them." She finished with her eyes resting on the table. "Well this sort of nonsense will not be tolerated, make sure I never catch you two admiring any other house but your own." He turned and walked back slowly towards his seat. He heard some of the Slytherin girls whispering to each other. He looked towards Professor McGonagall who was talking to the Charms professor about different charm work when he suddenly picked up something said from Miss Black. "Well it looks like the two Mudbloods where put in their place" he shot his attention towards the table as it erupted in laughter. He then noticed Miss Grace and Miss Cassidy were leaving the great hall.
Severus along with the other teachers headed towards the Staff room, As they turned the corner they came to a complete halt as students had gathered and Argus Filch was yelling at someone for killing his cat. He along with other teachers pushed their way to the front of the group. What Severus saw nearly shocked him. The wall was covered in writing which appeared to be in blood and the words read "The chamber of secrets has been opened enemy's of the heir beware". he glanced towards the three students that filch had been yelling at. Harry and his two delinquent friends where standing there trying to look innocent. Argus Filch's cat was hanging from the torch grate on the wall, her eyes wide open lifeless. "You killed my cat! I'll… I'll kill YOU!" the crazed man said as he reached towards potter. Severus stepped in front of the boy. " Professor I didn't I didn't kill Mrs. Norris" Potter spoke more to Dumbledore then to him.
Dumbledore raised his voice. "You are all to return to your houses immediately except you three." Dumbledore pointed to the three Gryrindors. Filch moved turned towards Dumbledore and pointed a finger at Potter. "Professor Dumbledore he Killed my cat, he killed her!." He watched as Potter opened his mouth " Sir I didn't kill Mrs. Norris I didn't even touch her." Severus raised his eyebrow and spoke to Dumbledore " If I might, Headmaster. Perhaps Potter and his friends were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, the circumstances are suspicious. I, for one, don't recall seeing Potter at dinner. " Severus gave the boy a questioning look. Gilderoy Lockhart stepped closer. "I'm afraid that's my doing, Severus. You see, Harry was helping me answer my fan mail". Dumbledore moved closer to inspect the cat. "She is not dead Argus just simply been petrified. I believe professor sprout is growing some mandrakes and once they are mature we will be able to return Mrs. Norris to her usual self." Filch opened his mouth to argue, when Dumbledore raised his hand "They are Innocent until proven otherwise Argus".
Early Saturday morning Severus was growing weary having just held three detentions in a row and wanted nothing more then to relax and mark some long over due assignments. He was also having problems with his supply cupboard being broken into. He spent most his time recording the ingredients that had been stolen. Somewhere someone was brewing a polyjuice potion and he was going to get to the bottom of this. He reached into his pocket pulling out a scarf and photo which he had completely forgotten. The photo was of Potter that had been autographed, he sickened at the thought of holding potters scarf and disgustingly threw them in his top draw along with the photo of the baby girl. Sighing he raced out the door towards the staff room. He noticed Draco and the rest of Slytherin Quidditch team heading towards him with Nimbus 2001s in their hands. "Professor Snape" Marcus Flint called as they all pilled up the steps. "Yes Mr. Flint?" Severus didn't really want to hear what the boy was going to dramatically claim now. "Draco here is the new Quidditch seeker and I would like to ask for a permission form to use the field today" Severus Sighed as Draco held parchment and a quill. "Very well seeing as you have a new member. Although I don't see why you can't practice." Severus said taking the items from Draco and scribbling away. "It's because the Gryffindors are using the field" Draco said taking the quill and form from Severus. Severus couldn't help but half smirk at the faces of the Gryffindors when they see their new brooms. "very well but you better win!" Severus added. "Yes Sir" they all replied together.
The morning of the Quidditch match between Gryffindor vs Slytherin was buzzing with excitement that Severus couldn't help feel a little excited too, seeing now his whole team had new brooms. Miss Grace had visited him asking if they could go in her room, which Severus let happen even though telling her not to make a habit since it was not term break. He had left towards the great hall wondering what on earth the two of them were up too. He saw potter talking to the young Mr. Creevey. and walked up to him. He saw Creevey sink away with fear and wished potter good luck, Obviously as he was going to need it. Soon everyone was leaving towards the Quidditch pitch he didn't see the two troublesome Slytherins come in for breakfast and wondered what they were up too. He was about to turn towards the dungeons when his arm was taken by the half wit Lockhart who insisted that he needed to be at the match pronto and not a moment to waste. Severus thought hard about hexing the man before pulling his arm away and brushing his robes. He turned towards Lockhart who always wore an expression of utter madness across his face and nearly lost his temper having most of the students stopping to look at the two. Severus turned towards the Quidditch Pitch leaving the idiot standing there with a stupid Smirk still lingering on his face.
The Quidditch match had not changed much apart from the Slytherins having better brooms but their tactics were hardly anything to be proud of. Severus watched potter zooming In and out of the clouds franticly looking for the snitch. He saw how a bludger came out of nowhere nearly knocking potter off his broom and then it turned heading back towards the boy. He heard Lee Jordan commentating about a rouge bludger. All the teachers where up on their feet, the twit Lockhart pulled his wand out trying to aim at the bludger. Severus jumped forward and pulled his wand down. "Don't be a fool, you will surely hit Potter you dim wit!" Severus's voice was so cold that Lockhart looked at him his mouth open in surprise, his idiotic smile gone from his face. They watched as Potter caught glimpse of the snitch and flew towards it while Draco to saw potter and headed towards him. Clearly Mr. Malfoy can't see past his nose. I have no idea why anyone would make him seeker, He's just as irritating as his Father. Severus thought as he watched the two boys weaving in and out of the stands with the bludger following closely. They were flying so fast that no one could tell if they still had the snitch in sight or if they were just trying to escape the bludger. Suddenly Malfoy hit one of the planks from the stand and went falling towards the ground and landing with a bounce on his backside. He watched as the bludger continued on without a care towards Potter. Clearly the bludger has been hexed to attack Potter only. He watched as Potter reached out and caught the snitch in his hand, he landed on his back just a few inches on the ground. Potter soon realized the bludger was coming back and started pounding the ground around the boy as he moved to avoid it. The teachers had made their way to the pitch, Lockhart pulled his wand on the bludger shattering it into Millions of pieces. Severus couldn't care much since Potter seemed to be still alive. He ignored everyone fussing over the boy and made his way back to the castle.
Soon Severus was stacking potions away in his cupboard when Professor McGonagall stopped in to get some potion orders from him for the hospital wing, It turned out that the git Lockhart had used a vanishing spell on Potters broken arm and now he needed a bone growth potion. "Its such a shame that Mr. Potter has to go through this, honestly I don't see how Dumbledore fails to see that he is an inadequate teacher." McGonagall said taking the bottles from Snape as he handed them down to her. " I suppose he has his reason" Severus said in a bored tone. "Yes, yes your right" McGonagall said turning to leave.
He made his way back to his office it was nearing midday and he was growing restless. He opened his door to find Miss Grace standing behind his desk holding what appeared to be two photos. She looked like she was in a state of shock as tears fell down her face, oblivious to the fact that he was standing there. Miss Cassidy shot round and came towards him, her expression was very worried "Professor! I.. She.. It's… she…" the girl was stumbling over what to say. "She found her photo in your draw" Severus turned to look at the crying girl. "Yes well next time don't leave your things lying around the…" Severus moved towards the girl his face becoming angry, he glanced down at the photos she was holding. His heart skipped a beat, he wasn't expecting this. What the girl happened to be holding wasn't the photo he thought of. The ones she was holding was the half torn image of the baby girl blinking up at her and another that must belong to the girl. This image was of the same baby but in the arms of Liola Malfoy. Severus snatched the photos from the girl and closely examined them. There was no mistaking the two babies were exactly the same, there was no doubt about it he had spent days looking at the image of the baby. He stared down at the girl who refused to look at him. "Why… why do you have a baby photo of me Professor?" her voice was almost a whisper but even through her sobs he heard her.
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