Forgot this chapter existed so when I said that the plot thickens in the next chapter when I updated the other day I actually meant the one after this - sorry for the confusion.

Thanks to G D Beans for the fantastic review and to Hiro Uzumaki for keeping the faith and reviewing once again - Glad the AN helped.

A couple of people have asked who Trix's mother dearest is. I'm not going to say anything except that she's VERY important! Anyway onto the chapter...

Oh yeah, Hermione's in this chapter as a professor but as she's married to Ron she's Professor Weasley! Weird huh?


"Hey professor?" Trix called falling in step with Professor Flitwick, "You may want to keep an eye out for the Hufflepuffs in Quidditch this year don't you think? Saw some of them flying around yesterday."

Usually she took tea leaves to be a load of rubbish but she felt it necessary and only right that she spread the word about the fortune telling the other day. No one else in the school seemed to know about it and Trix was assuming that the Hufflepuffs were purposely keeping it a secret. She hadn't managed to catch up with team captain Alex Jones yet – he was generally hidden in the library behind a pile of books apparently – and assumed that Flitwick would see him before she did and pass on the cryptic clue.

"Alex keeps his eye on every team." Flitwick said. "How sure are you on this… not so cryptic clue?"

"Well… I don't normally take stock in tea leaves," she resisted the urge to blush – no one in their right mind would believe tea leaves, least of all her, "but you should have seen how excited they were. Be trying extra hard I recon."

"If you don't believe in tea leaves then why insist on taking Divinations?"

"With the reputation I had in France it was way easy to freak people out with all the mumbo jumbo so studying it had a dual purpose." She slyly grinned.

"Well I'll slip the message to Jones. Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Nah last day of captivity. Should be heading for the library but you know – Alright I'm on my way." she conceded when Flitwick gave her a pointed look.


Whilst sat in the lounge on a sofa, near to where Severus's out door coat lay on the floor (he'd left in a hurry this morning), Trix was waiting for Severus to arrive wondering whether to try the transfigurations by herself. Resisting the urge she read through the notes McGonagall had given her yesterday.

Wait for Professor Snape to help you.

Transfigure: Pin into needle

Needle into matchstick

Not much in terms of instructions but still plenty she could be getting on with if a certain somebody would turn up. She huffed and crossed to open the door. Mistake.

Severus was leaning against it and fell back into the room as the door opened. He managed to catch himself before he fell too far but Trix had stumbled backwards in her haste to not get flattened and wacked her head on the coat stand.

She straightened herself up. "You're late." She said lightly and stepped back into the room rubbing her head.

Severus walked back out and closed the door behind him.

"Sybil we'll deal with whatever it is when she has had the vision." Severus said in a bored voice. She'd been badgering him about this every time she'd happened across him and it was getting a little more than wearisome.

"It will be something terrible." Trelawney said in her mysterious voice. "Something…"

"We can deal with when the time comes. Now, as you heard, I'm late." He opened the door and heavily closed it behind him.

"Still raving on about it?" Trix shook her head. "Only just managed to get away from her parading me around the classroom yesterday."

"Umm…" Severus mused looking at the instructions Minerva had left. "Does she believe you that incompetent?" he asked with mild surprise.

"Hey!" Trix said jumping up in indignation. "They're doing NEWT level stuff. I happened to fail my OWL equivalent so I shouldn't even be in that class."

Severus's eyes slid over to his daughter. "How badly?"

"Troll." She grimaced. "Pretty sure they would have given me less if they could have."

"You can write on a black board without wand or verbal command yet you cannot put a hole in a piece of metal with both? Unbelievable." He muttered. "You can't be trying hard enough.

"Shoe lace into liquorish!"

Severus muttered something under his breath and a pin appeared on the table in the place of a quill. He looked at Trixabelle expectantly. She sighed and reluctantly lifted her wand.

"Put it down." He said. "Start with a better attitude or you'll continue to fail miserably."

She put the wand down and wondered what on earth the correct attitude to approaching transfigurations was. She thought of how she felt when she was doing Defence Against the Dark Arts. Calm, confident, perfectly at ease. Ha! Perfectly at ease when she knew she was going to fail… wait. Predicting failure. Obvious much?

She concentrated telling herself that she could do it. Shoe lace to liquorish she reminded herself.

She pointed her wand at the pin and concentrated before saying the words. Nothing actually happened but she'd expected as much. Now that she knew why she failed so often, she was determined to master it. It wasn't that this was a branch of magic she just couldn't do it was something she'd never wanted to do with enough conviction to really try at. She was trying simply so she could master her own incompetence.

After a couple of minutes of nothing happening Severus sat on the sofa next to Trixabelle with a bunch of letters he had to answer and focused on those, the regular sound of the incantation signalling the passing of time.

After about an hour and a half Trixabelle lost concentration and looked out the window. In response Severus, not looking up from the parchment he was writing on, roughly put his hand on her head and swivelled it back to the pin she still hadn't transfigured as if she were any other student.

It took until four in the afternoon for her to successfully transfigure it.

"Three more times in a row and you can move on." Severus said as he read the last long letter.

By dinner time she appeared to be getting the hang of it and could almost turn a needle into a match stick. She was beaming by the time he called a stop.

"Well done you're now not far behind the first years." Severus said.

Trix just scowled at him, picked up some work she wanted to give back to Professor Weasley, and stormed up to the Great Hall. Severus stood still for a moment wondering what he'd said to offend her.

Trix was the first to dinner as a result of stomping away from her father. Alex Jones was the first to join her and he strolled in and sat next to her.

"Thank for the tip off."

"Just don't tell the Slytherins, I'd like to see them –" she was interrupted by one of the seventh year Slytherin prefects.

"Any sign of the Dark Lord rising again? I suppose you and Snape would be the first to know." She muttered as she sidled passed.

"In case you're too thick to have comprehended this in History," Alex said. "Voldemort – is – dead." he said slowly pronouncing each syllable clearly. "Fear him if you like; we'll be sure to make fun of you whilst we eat."

Trix chuckled as the Slytherin slunk away. After that the hall filled up very quickly. Unfortunately Professor Weasley as the last to arrive which meant she had to talk to her whilst Severus was sat next to her. She'd already explained what happened to Steven and Sophia who wished her luck as she set off up the Hall.


"Miss Snape?" Hermione asked looking up from a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Err, yeah, I've done all the work you set." Trixabelle said handing over a few sheets of parchment which were covered in her tiny, messy handwriting.

"This should have taken you days!" Hermione gasped and began looking it over.

"Well it's difficult but logical." Trixabelle shrugged.

"Then why can't you do –"

"Hey!" Trixabelle snapped interrupting Severus. Hermione lowered the parchment she was looking at and gazed between the two. Minerva seemed to have had the same idea, her soup spoon poised half way to her mouth.

"Just because you have the emotion range of a – a spoon," Trixabelle continued taking inspiration from the spoon she saw Minerva holding, "doesn't mean I inherited it." and with that she stormed away down the Hall back to her seat where she fumed for the rest of lunch at Steven and Sophia who had no excuses to get away from her and so had to listen.

"Are you coming to the common room with us?" Laura asked. She'd been talking to some people further down the table and didn't know Trix was in a bad mood. Sophia and Steven looked as though they wanted to kill her.

"You owe me an hour of your time." A flat voice said and a hand clamped on Trix's shoulder.

"Alright Professor. We'll see you after."

"Yeah." Trix said shortly and obediently got up from the table.


"You're too angry to focus. Clear – "

"Oh I wonder why." Trix retorted absolutely fuming as she glared at the half needle half matchstick. She threw a look at Severus who looked like he was actually trying to figure out what she was angry about. "I thought my father was supposed to be clever. Think about it." she snapped and slammed the door behind her as she left the room. She hoped the stress on the word father would register with him and he'd figure out what he'd done to upset her.


In the morning she awoke feeling unusually refreshed. Sleeping in her proper bed was still a bit unusual after spending so long cooped up in Severus's rooms but it seemed to be doing wonders for her.

A pile of clothes and books was sat atop her trunk with a note on it.

As you progressed yesterday you may go to class as normal on Monday. Meet me in the potions classroom tomorrow half an hour after dinner. Professor. Severus.

She spent the majority of breakfast pushing the thought out of her mind. Her father was about the last person she wanted to see right now unless he was going to apologise.

"You're in a better mood than yesterday." A new voice said.

Trix looked round at the guy sat next to her. He was someone she would have assumed to be on the quidditch team – popular looking – but she knew it to be the reverse. She'd seen the brunette sitting alone in the corner of the common room doing homework mostly. She now saw that he had muddy hazel eyes and flat hair that clumsily fell into them but looked good all the same.

"Snape annoy you?"

"Professor Snape to you." Trix said and turned back to her crumpets.

"All the same. Still his amazing potions work in the past gives him merit."

"I'll give you some merit if you shut up." she said in irritation. All she wanted to do was eat her breakfast in peace.

He shrugged and walked away.

"Who was that guy?"

"Sam Letcher. Does Care of Magical Creatures and, err…" Sophia trailed off.

"Wants to be an artist." Archie supplied. "He's in our art class. Hadn't you noticed?"

"No. Not really." She mused and took another bite from her seventh crumpet. "Damn I need some more potion." She grouched flexing her fingers as they twinged.

At that moment Severus walked into the Great Hall with a couple of people following him. The people looked like they were ministry officials but no one knew exactly who they were, not even the staff at the table looked utterly sure.

Not caring for their importance Trix stood in front of Severus and watched as the expressions of people behind him turn from confusion to understanding as they realised who she was.

"I need some of the potion." She said bluntly.

Severus turned to his guests, "I'll be just a minute –"

"Don't worry, I can handle it." Trix said reaching into a coat pocket where she knew he kept it.

"Very well. Tomorrow half an hour after dinner." He said stiffly and continued down the Hall.

"Yeah." Trix irritably sighed and she sat back in her seat.

"So are we finally going to see your arm?" Laura asked without preamble.

"Yeah if you like."

A few of other people who had been in the class when Peeves launched his assault gathered around. A couple of Hufflepuffs walked by and looked away disgusted. As it was there wasn't much evidence of injury left. The skin was still pale and a few red lines ran through it still but everyone agreed it was nothing compared to what it had been. Peeves even floated over and laughed at them all.

It began to rain shortly after breakfast so everyone went to the common room taking seats by the fire which had just been lit. Already drowning in homework, books and parchment soon littered the table they'd dragged over and they worked through until after dinner so they could have the day off tomorrow.


Sunday passed quietly as expected as the rain had started again but much harder than yesterday. Cold permeated the rooms even though fires were burning all over the place and everyone was wrapped up in thick jumpers and a couple were wearing gloves.

"I might knit some hats for everyone." Laura absently mused as they sat down for dinner. Sophia just rolled her eyes, Steven smiled and shook his head where as Archie pretended not to have heard.

Trix unfortunately was dragged into a conversation with Sam Letcher.

"We got off on the wrong foot yesterday." He said.

"Really? I was under the impression we were sat down." Trix replied scooping mash onto her plate.

"I'm sorry, alright. There's no denying he's good at potions though."

"Don't remind me." she said remembering she had too actually spend some time with him in about an hour. Polyjuice Potion or not she'd rather sit in the common room laughing with everyone else.

"Well, now that we've agreed on something maybe you'll tell me why you hate Professor Spat so much."

"I don't hate him. I just think he's an idiot." She glowered at her plate wishing he would go away. Steven and Sophia were having a much more interesting conversation about jinxes and hexes and she would much rather be even more jealous that they were allowed to do Defence Against the Dark Arts than have to talk to Sam.

"He's not that bad."

"Not bad? He doesn't teach anyone anything! Art's pointless anyway."

"No it's not!" he snorted.

"Yes it is. If the paintings are useful than I guess I'll let them pass but the rubbish he has us do… Waste of time."

"You're a waste of time." He spat and walked away.

"What did you do?" Archie asked.

"I have no idea." Trix replied bewildered, still looking at the spot that Sam had been sat in. Seriously… what did she say?

After dinner Trix began to feel a clenching in her stomach that had nothing to do with her eating too much ice cream and profiteroles. She trudged back up to the common room behind everyone else, half heartedly listening to their conversation.

With five minutes to spare she started making her way towards the dungeon classroom, arriving before Severus. Her cauldron was sat on a back work surface over a fire. She levitated it all across the room to a desk near the front. Not knowing exactly what she needed to do she had brought her dragon skin gloves and her school cloak, the latter of which she put on.

Five minutes later Severus walked in looking irritated. Trix ignored him.

"Add half of this and stir clockwise for half an hour at a moderate speed." He said passing her a phial of black liquid and then sat behind the desk as if he were teaching a whole class.

"Professor Weasley is more than pleased with your work." He said looking out of the window. "And Professor McGonagall is pleased with your progress."

"Uh huh."

Severus sighed. "As am I."

"Huh, well you have a right funny way of showing it." she muttered.

Severus looked at the ceiling in exasperation for a moment. Was there no reasoning with this girl sometimes? He'd just apologised to her and now she was rebuffing him even though an apology was what she wanted! Women in general, he thought, needed to get a grip or else grow up.


Slowly he came round from behind his desk and stood the opposite side of hers. He put a hand on her shoulder but she looked down at her cauldron and continued stirring.

"I'm sorry." He said.

Trix looked up from her cauldron and stopped stirring.

"You're extremely talented so you will pick it up very quickly from here on in. You're the best in the school I expect with your magic work." That must have been the first real compliment he'd given her, she thought. Considering he'd carelessly slandered her work a couple of days ago she was surprised to say the least. She'd expected him to keep silent about it until she'd forgotten his words, but here he was praising her.

Severus looked down into the cauldron where the potion was slowly congealing. Trixabelle looked too.

"Oh damn." she muttered and tried to pull her stirring rod out only it was sucked back in by the greenish purple mass.

"Concentration is key." Severus quietly said, "I learned in my seventh year to add watered down butterbeer essence and it will return it to the state it should be in." he pulled a thin bottle from the pocket of his coat and added a couple of drops to the potion.

"It absorbed the last ingredient added?" Trix breathed in astonishment.

"Yes. Add more of the last ingredient and begin stirring again."

Trixabelle added some more of the liquid to the half made potion.

"Who are those people that were following you in the Hall?" she asked.

"The ministry," Severus began bitterly giving Trix the impression that she wouldn't like what was coming, "is under the impression that the school needs a high inquisitor over for a couple of days to inspect the school and its staff."

"This is that Skeeter woman's doing isn't it?" she said hotly knowing the exact reason for the inspection – to ascertain if Severus was a threat to the students – but remembered not to get too carried away lest she ruin the potion yet again.

"Don't worry about it. Everyone will pass their inspections."

"The only person they're here to inspect is you." She said bluntly and saw her dad flinch slightly.


Hope you liked it. Leave a review.

Plot thickens next time so keep tuned...

J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter