Chapter 13 "Do You Need to Get Checked?"

Millicent Bulstrode was freaking out. In all her years at Hogwart's she had never been sent to the headmaster. In fact she had stayed well out of that office except for one time when she had to distract Snape. But distracting Snape by pretending to be a clueless little girl with romantic troubles was one thing. Pretending to be a member of the school's administration was completely different. So it was with a heavy heart that she walked up to the headmaster's office.

The only consolation was that Draco had been left in charge of the muggle studies class so this was not something she had to deal with. Which wasn't really all that of a consolation either. She came to a halt in front of the headmaster's office and came to the realization that she didn't know what the password was. Of course Alecto Carrow KNEW…but they had in all the commotion completely forgotten to ask…

Millicent cursed inwardly and stared at the ugly gargoyle. If it was still Dumbledore's office then she might get away with throwing a few obscure candy names at it. But she could not ever even consider Severus Snape saying "Lemon Drops" or "Sugar Mice" to the gargoyle every time he had to get up there.

So what would her head of house say? Vampire? Bat? I love to brood? She shook her head. "Hogwart's? Slytherin? Headmaster's office? Broody Vampire?" Millicent could have sworn the gargoyle smirked at that last one.

"Look, there's a reason I am not in Ravenclaw. But I really need to get in there! Please?" She didn't have time for all of this.

"Forgot the password again, sis?" Amycus grinned at Millicent rather maliciously. "Jus Sanguinis,"* The gargoyle popped open and Amycus shook his head. "I hope you didn't keep the headmaster waiting. You know how he hates that!"

"Oh shut up. Not like you've never forgotten a password!" snapped Millicent and strolled up the stairs, not in a real hurry to meet Snape but not really wanting to speak with Amycus either.

And yet in a few seconds she kind of wished that she could simply melt through the floor and not be in front of the headmaster.

To say that Severus Snape was angry was an understatement. That was like calling Lord Voldemort a bit radical. The man was positively fuming over something and it seemed that he was most angry with Alecto Carrow. Which was rather inconvenient.

"What can I do for you, headmaster?" Pitch black eyes snapped onto her and she forced herself to face him.

"Would you care to explain this?"

A paper was showed into Millicent's chest. She took it wearily and read over it, feeling her heart drop. It was a report from madame Pomfrey. A very scathing report that described in great detail how one Ernie Macmillan had been admitted into the hospital wing after a detention with her. Not her. With Alecto Carrow. It was bad. It was really bad. And now she was about to have to defend professor Carrow's actions.

"I do not understand, headmaster! He was causing trouble, inciting the rest of them!"

Severus shook his head. "Are you completely stupid, woman? This is a Macmillan we are talking about. They might be blood traitors but they are a member of the sacred twenty eight. Pure-bloods. This isn't even the Weasleys we are talking about. I will not have you cripple a pure-blood!"

"But sir, nothing is working. He won't stop challenging us!" stated Amycus, rushing to his sister's defense. "I am sure whatever Alecto did was nothing unreasonable!"

"Nothing unreasonable? He questioned you in class and you sent her to the hospital wing! For once you two must think-" Snape continued his rant but something else caught her eye. She could have sworn Dumbledore's portrait was discreetly winking at her.

She frowned and the portrait smiled at her kindly. Oh no, she won't get a portrait get into her head. This was just Dumbledore. He probably smiled even as Snape raised his wand to kill him.

"Professor Carrow, am I boring you?"

Millicent blinked and looked up, only realizing now that she'd been addressed three times before she reacted. "What? No, sir. No. Yes, I will try a different method of controlling Macmillan."

Now the other Carrow was also staring at her. "What? You agree with him?" Amycus blurted, unable to contain his surprise.

"Er? Yes? Maybe I went too far…" the words died on Millicent's lips as she was not sure what she should say. Probably not that as Snape was perilously close to staring at her with his jaw dropped.

"Are you okay, professor Carrow?" he asked after a few seconds.

"What? Oh, yes. I'm fine." She nodded. "I'm fine. I understand what you are saying. Of course we should not alienate the pure-bloods too badly. I am sure I can make Macmillan see sense!"

Snape didn't look convinced but was also seemingly too busy to care about the rest. "Alright, then there was another matter I had to discuss." The anger had died down a bit in his voice as he walked back behind his desk. "Our Lord has informed me that there will be an inspection of Hogwart's in the next few days. I trust you can fix the disciplinary problems by then? I don't think any of us want to look like a fool in front of him, do we?"

That sent Millicent's mind in motion. An inspection? More death-eaters? How the hell were they going to survive that? Carrow and Snape were one thing. The first was an idiot and the second one was hopefully too busy to occlude to use legilimency on his staff. Hopefully. But more? No-no-no. She needed to get back to Tracey. They either needed to come up with a brilliant plan or get out of the castle.

"Are you quite sure you are okay?" Snape took a step towards Millicent. "Do I need to get madame Pomfrey?"

Millicent kicked herself mentally. "I'm fine. Just a bit of cold. I will deal with it. And yes, we will make sure everything is polished and ready for the inspection to show just how good we are doing!"

Snape glared at her. "Well then get yourself some cold medicine. The last thing we need is a flu epidemic! And get a damn grip!"

"Yes, headmaster!"

"Then I suggest you both get out of here. There will also be a staff meeting about this tomorrow, where I expect you both to be present and back me up. Now get out."

Tracey was just walking back from the kitchen with a pretty red apple in your hand and life was generally good. It was the afternoon and Draco had handled the muggle studies class quite well. With the exception of one angry Finnigan. Which wasn't that big of a loss. And one Blaise who now seemed too curious about muggle weaponry. The questions would make her mad, she was sure of that. But first a dark shadow appeared behind Tracey and she nearly jumped, her hand going for her wand.

Headmaster Snape looked down at the girl with an ominous look and his glare was enough for Tracey to tuck the wand back into its holster. "What did you do to professor Carrow?"

"Sir?" Got her tied up in a trunk and substituted with a polyjuiced student, why do you need to know?

"An imperius? A confundus?" the headmaster demanded.

Tracey shook her head carefully, raising her occlumency shields and then taking a confident bite of the apple both to buy time and also to look sufficiently free of any kind of worries. "I don't know what you mean, sir!"

"Well, it wasn't a Gryffindor, they were all accounted for. So it had to be one of you." Snape took a step closer and leaned down to look the girl in the eye.

"Respectfully, sir, I don't know what you are talking about. And even if I did, you once said you didn't want to know about anything we did unless it came back to bite you."

Snape stared at her for a bit longer before nodding briefly. "Whatever you did or didn't do, you'd better fix it before Friday. Bellatrix Lestrange is coming to inspect the school and Alecto Carrow had better be completely fine when that happens. Am I clear?"

Tracey's grip on the apple became so tight she thought it would pop out of her hand then and there but she nodded. "Yes, sir. If it was our doing, it will be fixed, sir." Yet in truth she was in no way sure that this was something she could or should ever promise.

*Jus Sanguinis means right of blood in Latin. It is also a principle of nationality law where citizenship is given to children based on whether either one or both of their parents were also citizens of the state. I thought it might be appropriate as the pure-bloods also think that the circumstances of their birth give them special standing.