Disclaimer: All the previous disclaimers apply.
Chapter 36
Severus got up at seven the next morning. He took a shower and got dressed in his standard black jeans, a green T-shirt, and trainers. He grabbed a light jacket out of the wardrobe and left his room. He walked down to his mum's suite and knocked on the door. Eileen opened the door and Severus was shocked to see that she was wearing a pair of khaki colored slacks, a pale green, tailored blouse, and wearing sandals on her feet. She also carried a matching jacket over her arm. "Goodness, Sev, from the look on your face, somebody would think I'd grown another head," She joked.
"It's not that, Mum. I mean you look great! I've just never seen you wearing slacks before."
"Well, Rose and I went shopping for this weekend and she talked me into buying these. I mean they're much more practical than robes, especially out on a windy Quidditch pitch. I might even go back to that store and buy a pair of blue jeans."
"Mum!" Severus exclaimed, pretending to whine. "You're going to give me heart failure here with all these sudden changes."
"A little change is good, Sev," Eileen smirked, putting her arm around her tall son.
Robert was waiting for them in the Entrance Hall. He, too, was dressed in dark blue slacks with what looked like a light blue shirt and a dark blue sports jacket. He smiled and looked appreciatively at Eileen's outfit. "You look very elegant today, Eileen."
"Thank you, Robert and you look very handsome."
"Do I look all right?" Robert asked worriedly. "I just went into a Muggle men's store and allowed the store clerk to outfit me."
"You look great, Robert. You kind of look like a college professor. You just need a pipe now," Severus teased.
"Well, I hope I look half as good as Hal does in Muggle clothes." Robert joked.
"Speaking of which, I gather the Evans haven't come down yet, Severus said.
"I haven't seen them," Robert answered.
"Why don't we go into the Hall and have breakfast. I'm sure they'll be along directly," Eileen suggested.
When they entered the Great Hall they saw a long table with all kinds of food on it plus plates, cutlery and glasses. "I guess we serve ourselves this morning," Severus said.
He looked over at the table where they'd sat last night and saw Frank and his mum; Augusta was reading the Daily Prophet. They filled their plates with food and their glasses with the juice of their choice and went over to the table and sat down. Augusta snorted and put down her copy of the Prophet.
"What's wrong, Augusta?" Robert asked.
She snorted again and said. "I cannot believe how much the Ministry has gone down hill. The quality of people they have working there now is abysmal! Take Delores Umbridge – a complete idiot and her boss, Cornelius Fudge, isn't much above his idiot undersecretary."
Severus knew that Fudge was currently head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, but it was no secret he had big plans to be the next Minister of Magic. Umbridge, he assumed, was planning to ride along on Fudge's coattails.
Just then Lily, followed by her parents and Petunia, and Alice and her parents came into the Great Hall. Alice sat down next to Frank and her parents sat next to her and across from Augusta. Lily sat down next to Severus and gave him a kiss.
"Breakfast is buffet style this morning," Severus said pointing at the long table on one side of the room. It appeared to replenish itself a regular intervals.
The Evans' and Downing's got up to fill their plates and came back to the table. There were several teapots on the table which had been charmed to stay hot and magically refill themselves. Hal poured tea for himself, Rose, and Petunia then asked, "Anything interesting in the Prophet this morning, Augusta?"
"Just the usual idiocy!" Augusta proclaimed. "Why do they keep giving the front page to Delores Umbridge? The woman's an idiot. I know her mother; she was a Ravenclaw, but it's very obvious Delores didn't inherit her intelligence. When You-Know-Who's running about freely and causing all kinds of terror, why are she and Fudge ranting about Werewolves? The majority of them are perfectly law abiding citizens and that's more than I can say about You-Know-Who."
Lily sipped the cup of tea Severus had poured for her as she ate her breakfast. She knew how much grief Umbridge was causing Remus and his parents. She was a horrible woman and how she'd gotten her job at the Ministry appeared to be a mystery to most people.
Severus nudged Lily. "I can't believe Potter hasn't been round to bother us."
"He's been hanging around with the junior Marauders all week. I've seen them whispering and laughing together all week long. Alice and I think they have something big planned."
"They're probably planning to pull some stunt at the Quidditch match, trying to prove that Frank's a lousy captain and Potter should be appointed captain next year."
"It wouldn't surprise me, Sev," Lily replied darkly.
As they were leaving for the Quidditch pitch, they heard James call, "Hey, Lily-flower, are you coming to see me win the match today?" He was dressed in his red and gold Quidditch robes and he thrust out his chest as he strutted towards her.
Severus smirked. What a pretentious idiot he was! Lily-flower indeed!
"Potter, you call me that name again and I will personally turn your face into a dartboard and throw darts at it," Lily snapped. She took Severus' arm. "Come on, Sev, let's go."
"Mr. Potter, if you don't stop bothering Lily, you're going to have to answer to me personally and I don't think you're going to like the way I handle it," Hal warned.
James looked stunned that Mr. Evans wouldn't consider him the ideal boyfriend for his daughter.
The match was exciting. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor both battled fiercely to win. Augusta, who was sitting next to Hal, jumped up each time Frank had the Quaffle and screamed, "Go, Frank!"
Severus grinned as he watched the match. Potter was all over the pitch as usual while Frank and the other chaser worked seamlessly to get the Quaffle past the Ravenclaw Keeper and through the hoops. He did feel sorry for Hal though. He was probably going to be deaf in one ear from all the yelling Augusta was doing.
Gryffindor finally won the match when their Seeker spotted the Snitch and made a daring dive to capture it, nearly falling off her broom in the attempt, but keeping hold of it. The final score was 200 to 170. Even though Gryffindor had won their final match, Slytherin still won the house cup. It would be presented at the Leaving Feast.
As they were walking back to the castle, Frank apologized to Hal for him mum's screaming during the match. "Mum loves Quidditch. I know she gets really loud sometimes. She always wanted to play when she was at Hogwarts, but girls weren't allowed in her day."
"I understand," Hal said. "Rose gets the same way when we watch the Winter Olympics." He noticed his look of confusion. "It's a sporting contest held every four years, in our society, in which athletes from all different countries participate and earn medals for their mastery of a sport."
Since it was one of those rare spring days when the sun was shining and it was warm enough to only wear a light jacket, everybody decided to walk to Hogsmeade rather than floo. Their first stop in Hogsmeade as usual was at Gladrags. Rose, Eileen, Lily and Petunia shopped while Severus, Hal, Robert, and Liam waited. By the time they left, Rose had two colorful new scarves, Petunia new amber teardrop earrings, and Lily and Eileen had bought new dress robes. Their next stop was Honeydukes chocolate. As usual, Severus handed his list from the first years to Mrs. Flume to fill. Hal bought himself two bars of Honeydukes Butterbeer bars while Robert bought himself some Peppermint Toads, Petunia bought a combination of Strawberry Mousse and clotted crème Chocoballs and shared them with Liam. Both Eileen and Rose bought bars of Honeydukes Finest Chocolate. Lily didn't buy anything, preferring to snitch from the bag of toffees Severus had bought. He cast a cooling charm on the bag containing the candy for the first years, shrank it, and put it in his pocket. After they left Honeydukes, they went to Scrivenshaft's Quill shop then to the post office. Rose and Hal were amazed at all the different sized owls they had. They peeked in the windows of Zonko's, but decided not to go in when they saw James and the junior Marauders. They appeared to be loading up on dungbombs and stink pellets. They decided to go to the Three Broomsticks. It was packed, but it looked as if they had added another room and there were plenty of empty tables in there. Severus, Liam, and Robert magically moved two tables together so they could all sit together. Severus and Lily sat where they had a clear view of the entrance and front windows.
Rosmerta came in with menus. "There might be a longer wait for your food than there normally is. My uncle hired a couple of ladies from the village to help him with the cooking this weekend, but we are still a bit overwhelmed. Can I get you anything to drink?"
Everybody with the exception of Rose and Eileen, ordered Butterbeers. They ordered a pot of tea. Rosmerta returned with their drinks. "I'll be back as soon as I can to take your orders."
"They have the best grilled cheese sandwich and homemade crips here," Severus remarked. "Also really good pies, but I wouldn't eat too heavily as I suspect the elves are going all out for the banquet tonight."
When Rosmerta came back to take their orders, Robert, Eileen and Liam decided on the basic grilled cheese sandwich. Severus ordered his with bacon and a slice of onion, Hal ordered his with bacon and tomato, and Lily, Rose, and Petunia ordered theirs with a slice of tomato."
It was about 20 minutes before Rosmerta returned with their orders. They had just started to eat when Lily nudged Severus and nodded towards the main tap room. He saw Wellsley, Sedgewick, Cavendish and Letchford. He also saw Potter looking in the front window with a big grin on his face. He nudged Lily and nodded at the front window. "They're up to something." He no more said that when there were several loud explosions followed by screams, tables being overturned, the sound of breaking glass and people all trying to get out of the door at the same time. An extremely putrid smell began to fill the inn.
"Great Caesar's ghost!" Hal exclaimed, clamping his napkin over his nose. "What is that god-awful smell?"
"Dungbombs, Dad," Lily said, helping her mother and Petunia, both whom were gagging to their feet. "Let's get out of here. Sev. Is there another entrance outside?"
"Should be through the kitchen." Severus said. The smell was beginning to turn his stomach. It was like being tossed into the middle of a huge pile of manure. He knew there were different types of dungbombs that came in varying degrees of strength and whatever the Junior Marauders had tossed must have been the strongest smelling ones Zonko's sold.
They stumbled out of the kitchen entrance and sank down in the grass beside a big garden that looked as if it was being readied for planting. Robert quickly got to his feet and pulled out his medical bag that he always carried with him, resized it, and began pulling potions out of it. "Does anybody feel nauseous?"
Rose and Petunia weakly raised their hands and he handed them an anti-nausea potion. He took out his wand and sent his Patronus, a fox to Dumbledore to tell him what had happened and to send the carriages to take the sick or injured back to the castle. With Eileen and Severus helping him, Robert tended to those he had been injured in the stampede or were feeling sick because of the dreadful odor. Lily stayed with her mum and Petunia while Hal tried to calm some of the frightened Muggle parents. The carriages arrived and the injured were taken to the hospital wing for further treatment by Madam Pomfrey with Professor Slughorn helping her.
Dumbledore hurried into the hospital. "Robert said there was an attack at the Three Broomsticks. Was it Death Eaters?"
"No," Lily answered. "It was dungbombs. Potter and his followers. Two fourth year Gryffindors, Wellsley and Sedgewick and two fifth years, Cavendish and Letchford were all involved in the attack. We saw them earlier loading up on dungbombs at Zonko's."
"I passed James going up as I was coming down and he didn't smell of dungbombs," Albus said.
"That's because he didn't come in. He let these other kids do his dirty work while he stood outside smirking and watching them through the front window," Severus said. "Both Lily and I saw him."
"I'll talk with Misters Wellsley, Sedgewick, Cavendish and Letchford and see what they have to say," Dumbledore decided. "Just give your clothing to the laundry elves. They have a special spell that removes the smell of dungbombs as they frequently need to deodorize the school robes."
Severus rolled his eyes and shook his head. Why was it so bloody hard for Dumbledore to accept that his precious Gryffindors had done anything wrong? If they'd been Slytherins, he would have jumped on them with both feet within five minutes. "I'm going to my room. I'll meet you in the Entrance Hall at five." Dinner would be served at six, but there was going to be a social hour from five to six.
"Okay," Lily said, nodding. She knew he was angry at Dumbledore's attitude and she suspected the Junior Marauders weren't going to get any punishment – Dumbledore would just put it down to a high-spirited prank as he'd done so many times when the Marauders had hexed Sev, no matter if he ended up in the hospital wing due to it.
Severus went downstairs and entered the Slytherin common room. There was nobody around thankfully. The Idiots for Riddle must be sticking to their vow of not coming out of their parents suites all weekend. He went into his room, got undressed, and took a shower. He checked his dress robes, remembering the last time he'd worn them was when he married Lily.
The door banged open and Paul came rushing in. "Sorry, Sev, but I'm running late. I was playing with Jilly and Tess and wasn't watching the time."
Did your mum and dad have a nice day?" Severus asked. "We didn't see them after the Quidditch match."
"We took a tour of Hogwarts and the grounds. My parents got to meet Hagrid. Jilly liked him, but Tess was scared of him. We went to Hogsmeade after that and we were going to stop at the Three Broomsticks and have a Butterbeer, but it was closed and it looked like it'd been wrecked."
"Yes, some fourth and fifth year Gryffindors decided to play a practical joke and drop some dungbombs in a roomful of people," Severus said frowning.
"Was it Potter and his friends, Sev?"
"Who else? Leave it to them to find a way to spoil things."
Lily left Gryffindor Tower and went around the corner and down the hall to her parents' suite and knocked on the door. She knew her parents had taken a tour of the school and grounds when they returned from Hogsmeade and she hoped they'd gotten a chance to relax before dinner. Hal answered the door. "Come in, Lily. Your mother and I are ready; we're just waiting on your sister. She apparently can't decide on her dress," Hall said with a sigh. He was dressed in a navy suite, white shirt and matching tie while Rose wore a mocha colored linen dress with a short matching jacket and a light brown clutch purse.
"I'll go help her. Maybe, she just needs a second opinion," Lily volunteered.
They came out ten minutes later and Petunia was attired in a deep blue sheath dress with matching heels and a clutch purse and Lily was dressed in the new lavender dress robe she'd bought at Gladrags. She had transfigured the color of her pumps to match her robes. They went downstairs where Severus, Eileen, and Robert were waiting. Lily smiled as she noticed Severus' sapphire dress robe was shorter than it had been at their wedding. He must have grown another inch since then. Eileen was wearing a sea green mist colored dress robe while Robert was dressed more formally in a black dress robe with his pin that indicated he was a Master Healer.
"You look lovely, Lily," Severus said, giving her a kiss.
"And you look very handsome, Sev," Lily said then added for his ears only, "I wish we could visit our room tonight."
"We can tomorrow after our parents leave."
As they entered the Great Hall, Hal was intercepted by Professor Flitwick who was interested in hearing more about Muggle universities. Rose, Eileen, Lily and Petunia went over to where Augusta was standing with the Lupin's, the LeClair's, and Mr. and Mrs. Reisdorph and their two daughters. Severus wandered over to where Frank and Remus were standing. He was happy to hear that Frank, Alice, Remus, Missy and even Sirius had signed up for the Warding classes being held at the Ministry this summer.
Charles Potter walked over to where Hal and Professor Flitwick were conversing. "Filius, may I talk to Professor Evans for a moment?"
"Certainly, Mr. Potter," Flitwick replied nodding.
Charles Potter led Hal over to where they couldn't be overheard. "Professor Evans, my son is still very much in love with your daughter. Since James is our only child and heir, Althea and I like to make sure he's able to have whatever makes him happy and your daughter makes him very happy."
Severus watched as Hal and Mr. Potter spoke. He could see Hal clenching and unclenching his fists as if he was struggling not to break Mr. Potter's nose. "Excuse me a minute," He murmured to Frank and Remus and made his way over to where they were standing.
"Of course, since she's chosen to have relations with that Snape boy I can only offer five hundred galleons for her and she will need to be seen by an obstetrical healer to verify she's not pregnant before the betrothal. I certainly don't want our line polluted by his blood."
"How dare you impugn my daughter's reputation!" Hal snapped. "Your son is the biggest bully in the school and I wouldn't allow Lily to marry him even if she wanted to." Hal felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to find Severus glaring at Mr. Potter.
"Were you were a younger man, Mr. Potter, I'd challenge you to a duel for what you said about my fiancée, but since you're not I'll allow my lawyers to handle it." Severus knew his grandfather's estate retained a fleet of lawyers for various problems and he was sure there was one who handled slander. He led Hal away from Potter.
"No wonder his son is so bloody arrogant; he takes after his father," Hal muttered. He looked at Severus. "Were you serious about the lawyers?"
Yes. My grandfather has a sleigh full of lawyers and I'm sure there's one who handles slander."
Severus and Hal walked over to where Rose and his mum were talking with Augusta. Fortunately none of them noticed Mr. Potter talking to Hal, not even Lily, thankfully; she was talking with Alice and Missy.
As they were sitting down to dinner, James and Sirius came into the Hall. James stopped behind Severus' chair, took a deep sniff and asked loudly, "Padfoot, do I detect the smell of dungbombs? Smells like somebody didn't shower."
Lily started to rise, but Severus pulled her back down. "Ignore the git, Lily. He's not worth getting into trouble over."
Sirius rolled his eyes and gave James a shove. "Get moving, Prong. Your parents are over there, sitting with the Bones', MacDonald's, and the McKinnon's"
Dinner that night was roast pork with stuffing, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, carrots, peas, Yorkshire pudding and thick brown gravy.
Before the meal ended, McGonagall tapped on her goblet and said, "May I have your attention please?"
Dumbledore stood up smiling and his blue eyes twinkling. "I have several announcements to make. The first one is that parent's weekend has been so successful that I'm going to be making it an annual event. My second announcement is in regards to the young men who in a fit of high spirits caused the ruckus at the Three Broomsticks this afternoon. They would like to apologize. Mr. Wellsley, Mr. Letchford, Mr. Cavendish, and Mr. Sedgewick, please come up to the front."
The four Gryffindors came and stood in front of the dais and apologized. Severus frowned. Anybody who had ears could hear how false their apologies were. It was obvious they regarded it as the kind of joke that would be talked about at Hogwarts for generations. He had to wonder what the punishment would have been had they been Slytherins.
"Thank you, my boys," Dumbledore said after they had gone back to their seats. "My next announcement regards graduation this year. Students will no longer be seated with their houses, but will instead be seated in alphabetical order."
A loud murmur arose from the audience at that, but Dumbledore held up his hand and said, "I proposed this to the Board of Governors and they have given me their approval. If you do not agree, you may take it up with me or with them." He looked around the room. "I am very pleased and proud to announce that one of our sixth years has gained early admittance to the College of Potions. Mr. Snape would you stand up, please?" Dumbledore requested.
Severus rose briefly at the applause and then quickly sat down again, flushing. Lily squeezed his hand. She knew how much he disliked the attention.
At the Potter table, Sirius noticed James lean over and whisper something to his father and then saw Mr. Potter shake his head. He wondered what that was about.
"Yes. Well done, Severus, well done." Dumbledore said applauding. When the applause had died down, Dumbledore continued. "Last, I would like to commend our first years for reaching out and making friends in all the houses. Their message of tolerance and diversity should be a lesson to the rest of us in these divisive times. Let's have a hand for our first year class." There was more clapping and then Dumbledore said, "For those of you taking the Hogwarts Express. It will be leaving from the Hogsmeade station at 10:00 tomorrow. The carriages will leave the school promptly at 9:30. The elves will take charge of your luggage once you've finished packing it. Please enjoy the rest of the evening."
As everybody was leaving the hall after dinner, Sirius pulled James aside. "So, what did you say to your dad when Dumbledore made the announcement about Snape?"
"I asked him if he knew anybody on the governing board there," James answered. "But unfortunately he doesn't."
Sirius understood immediately what James' intentions were. "You were planning to spread nasty rumors about Snape if you're dad had known somebody on the board, weren't you?"
James shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, they ought to know he's a slimeball and a Death Eater-in-training."
"I can't believe you, Prongs! Evans already hates your guts. Do you really think continually attacking her fiancé is going to endear you to her?"
"I don't understand why you suddenly keep defending Snivellus, Padfoot. He hasn't changed since first year. He's still a slimy snake."
"He has changed, James. He grew up unlike some other people!"
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Severus was up by eight the next morning. He knocked on his mother's door, wondering what she was going to be wearing this morning. Eileen was attired in white slacks, a pale blue sweater, and tan sandals. "Do I look okay, Sev?"
"You look fantastic, Mum. Robert's eyeballs are going to fall out," Severus joked. "Was it nice being back here then?"
"Yes. Aside from the dungbomb incident, it was really a nice weekend. It bought back a lot of good memories."
"I was wishing last night that Grandfather and Grandmother were still alive. I know I can tell their portraits about my early acceptance at the College of Potions, but it would be nice if they were still alive."
Eileen sighed and put her arm around Severus, pulling him close. "I know, Sev. In spite of what they did, I never gave up on them and I miss them, too."
They wanted in the Entrance Way for Robert then walked to the Great Hall where Augusta was once again snorting over the front page of the Daily Prophet. "I swear on Merlin's grave if they keep giving the front page over to Delores Umbridge's latest lunacy, I'm canceling my subscription! There's more important issues than what she thinks should be done with the Centaurs."
"What does she think should be done with them?" Remus asked.
"She thinks they should be rounded up, auctioned off to the highest bidder and put to work plowing fields or pulling carriages. Have you ever heard of anything so asinine?"
"Maybe, somebody ought to check her for the dark mark," Severus remarked. "She voices the same kind of crap as Riddle does. She could be his right-handed woman if Bellatrix didn't already occupy that post."
The elves had decided on a Full English Breakfast for the farewell breakfast. Lily and her family came down a few minutes later and as soon as they sat down, breakfast appeared on their plates.
By ten o'clock, Lily and Severus were seeing their parents off. "We'll see you in three weeks at King's Crossing," Lily said, giving her parents a kiss. "I'll let you know about the Floo connection once I know."
Liam gave Petunia a kiss and helped her on to the train. She promised to come to his graduation.
"Owl me after you've met with Dean Stanwood, Sev," Eileen said.
"I will, Mum," Severus promised.
They watched as the train pulled away from the station, waving until it was out of sight. Severus put his arm around Lily. "Shall we spend some quality time together, Mrs. Snape?"
"I think that sounds like an excellent idea, Mr. Snape," Lily replied, smiling up at him.