When Victoria waked up first thing in the morning, she was pleased to see that, as promised, the Slytherin sigil replaced the Hogwarts seal on her robes. It now had a dark green lining too. The black ties now green with silver pinstripes. Even on the gray jumper, there was a silver and green line on the collar.
"They say that Charms is good," Millicent muses as they descend down to the common room from their dormitories. "Mum received an O.W.L on her Transfiguration, so she wants me to do well on those classes."
"It's Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts for me," Victoria says, as she sees a portion of the first years gathering around the bulletin board.
"You're looking forward to that joke of a class?" Pansy Parkinson sneered before finishing with a derisive giggle. Laelia Carrow and Lavinia Mulciber joining her.
"Don't sound so surprised, Pansy," Lavinia drawled. "That too big of a brain of hers is what she'll ever have."
Victoria sighed as she rushed down the steps. It would take great restraint not to hex Lavinia at the end of the day.
They didn't need to get closer to see what it was on the bulletin board, for Draco loudly proclaimed, "Flying lessons with the lions next Thursday. Maybe I'll get to show Potter that I'm better at some things than he is."
Eridani groaned as they left the dungeons for breakfast.
"He wouldn't give Potter this much attention if it weren't for Potter's notoriety," Blaise said as they entered the Great Hall. "It's sickening."
"Try living with him," said Eridani, with a wave of her arm. "He's a nightmare, honestly."
Kevin rolled his eyes. "I think term would be enough. It's bad enough just sleeping in the bed next to him. He was torture, asking me why I even got in Slytherin in the first place. With me coming from a Muggle family and all."
"Well, Entwhistle is not a name in the Sacred Twenty-Eight or the other pureblood lineage books," said Theodore.
Millicent glared at Theodore before turning to Kevin. "The Sorting Hat placed you in Slytherin. Mum says it's rare for a Muggle-Born to be sorted here, but you're not the only one."
Draco's embarrassing tendencies took on another notch during breakfast. When Severus swept down the table, passing out their timetables.
"Potions on Friday." Draco tapped his parchment with enthusiasm. "You know, Professor Snape is a friend of father's. Has been since they have been in school. He'd come to the manor the previous holiday to tutor on potions."
At that, a few people gazed at Victoria as if they were expecting her to say something. To avoid their gazes, she looked at the timetable. If they expected her to boast about her connection with Severus, she wasn't. Draco should have kept his mouth shut last night.
"What do we have first thing for today?" asked Tracey Davis, a southeast Asian girl with glasses, to no in particular.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts," answered Kevin.
"And it's in a different classroom than where it is usually." The older girl from the night before looking at her timetable in agitation as she threw it down on the table. "What is so important on that third-floor corridor that the original classroom is inaccessible?"
Meanwhile, Eridani was entertaining some of the other kids in their year – including a handful from the Ravenclaw table next to them – by changing her nose. Turning it into a pig's snout at the request of Mauricius Gamp.
"How do you do that?" asked Padma Patil of Ravenclaw, one of the twins from the night before, her dark eyes wide in wonder.
Eridani shrugged. "I got it from mum's side of the family. It mostly skips every generation. Aunt Cissy would say that Grammy Druella's hair always turned a fiery red when she was angry."
"Okay, enough with the circus," said Cassiopeia with a sneer. "It's spoiling my digestion."
Yet, her lips form a rather nasty smirk when she gazes at Neville Longbottom from across the hall. The boy was oblivious to her gaze as he cheerfully talks with Andrew. Victoria hoped that Cassiopeia won't try and do something.
"Um, Peia," Alphard said uncertainly. "You're getting breakfast on your lap."
Cassiopeia wiped her skirt, and Victoria was sure that he meant that as a distraction. When the Slytherins all trooped to their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, Victoria could see some of the other students pointing and whispering as Harry walked out of the hall with Ron.
"If I were him, I'd crawl under bed and never face the day," said Blaise, shaking his head. "To have everyone trying to get a good look at you is uncomfortable."
"Why don't they just leave him alone?' Victoria said in agreement. Besides, he's only famous because Voldemort killed his parents and failed to kill him. Why would anyone want to be famous for that?
Descended from Salazar Slytherin through the Dark Lord, remember?
Victoria shook the thought from her head as they entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Where a stench of garlic immediately hit them.
"S-s-orr-ry f-f-fo-r t-the sm-m-mell," Professor Quirrell stammered as they all filed in their seats. Clasping his hands as if something bad might happen if they didn't. "H-h-had to w-w-ward of-f a-a v-vam-p-ire. C-c-could c-come bac-ck f-for me a-any d-d-day n-now."
Chuckles filled the classroom as they all sat in their seats. "This is going to be good," Draco muttered a few rows behind. Quirrell had a hard time as he read out the register. Jumping a little as he got to Victoria's name.
"She's even got the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher all nervous," Lavinia whispered to Pansy with obvious relish.
"N-now, l-l-et t-t-there b-be n-no t-t-roub-ble," Quirrell stammered, managing a feeble glare at Lavinia.
Things did not improve for Quirrell as the lesson went on. There wasn't a single sentence he couldn't say without a stammer as he lectured on the ways to identify a Hag. She supposed that Draco and a certain few were not helping with their chuckles and calling this class a joke. Yet, she did nothing, and Professor Quirrell nearly tipped his cauldron over when she first answered a question.
"He's probably not going to last long," sighed Eridani as they left for their first Herbology lesson.
"What makes you say that?" asked Kevin, raising an eyebrow.
"Alphard has been here for five years now, and they haven't been able to secure a teacher for more than a year," Eridani answered. "There's speculation that the position is jinxed. Old Abraxas Malfoy said they never had that problem when he was in school."
"Maybe someone got upset they didn't get the job and were petty enough to jinx it," theorized Millicent.
The greenhouses, where they met with the Ravenclaws, were in stark contrast to Professor Quirrell's classroom. With the scents of the various plants all around them in place of the garlic. A rather pleasant replacement, Victoria might add.
The sun bathing them as Professor Sprout taught them to manage Dittany. Victoria and Eridani had shared a table with Morag MacDougal and Padma Patil. "I used to always watch mum tend the plants when I was younger," Morag had said. "Though this couldn't count as the same thing."
Following lunch was Charms and Transfiguration back-to-back. Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. Every one of them furiously writing notes as he lectured on the basics of Charms.
With some of her peers stifling a groan as Professor McGonagall regarded the class at the front of the room at the start of Transfiguration. The dread possibly stemming from the fact that she was Head of Gryffindor House. Slytherin's greatest rivals ever since the school's early years.
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."
"She's going to be a nightmare," Denmore muttered to Draco as she changed her desk into a pig and back again. Obviously, they weren't going to turn furniture into animals any time soon. That would come later if Severus' old textbooks were of any indication. After taking a lot of complicated notes (Victoria thought that she saw Draco doodling in his notebook instead of writing notes), they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle.
"Marvelous work, Miss Victoria Mulciber," beamed Professor McGonagall when Victoria was the only one who made any progress with her match. Showing the shiny needle for all to see. "Take ten points to Slytherin."
"You see how much homework we have to do?" Vincent moaned as they left Transfiguration. "McGonagall gave us a pile of homework on top of the assignments we have to do for Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, and Charms."
"Alphard literally has his O. this year," said Eridani. "He'll say that the workload we have is nothing compared to his."
Vincent turned paler than even the Bloody Baron.
"I hate to imagine what O.W.L year is like," Vincent says. "It sounds horrible."
Even if he would have preferred for her to get a head start on her homework (and perhaps meet with Andrew, Neville, and Hermione in the library before dinner), Victoria knew that Severus would want to hear from her about her first day before dinner. Gemma Farley, one of the fifth-year prefects that led them to the common room the night before, was happy to point her to his office. As well as draw a little map for her of the dungeons to get a visual idea.
"Come in," he answers crisply as she knocks on the door to his office. Inside, he was at his desk. Appearing to be grading papers with a quill. He looks up from his task when he sees who it is. Putting the quill back in its inkwell. "Well, come in, Victoria," he beckons, motioning her forward.
Victoria comes into the darkened room and sits in the chair opposite his desk. "Now, I'd like to hear how your day went. If there are any concerns, you can bring them to me."
Victoria nods, remembering to push away specific thoughts and only think about her classes. She filled him in the lessons in itself and her interactions with some of the other students.
Afterward, Severus says with a nod, "Impressive, as you're nearly blocking me out of your thoughts. Yet, there is still something I see that you want to hide. May you tell me what it is."
Victoria swallowed. Shifting uncomfortably in her seat while she clenches her hand to the armrests of her chair. She didn't want to tell him. She really didn't, but something was urging her to. "Severus, when the Sorting Hat was placed on my head, it had said that my lineage went as far back to Salazar Slytherin. That I was descended from him through the Dark Lord. That the Dark Lord is my father. That can't be true, can it."
Her words had an immediate effect. For she could see the blood drain from his already sallow face. Horror filling his obsidian eyes as if his greatest fear had come to light.
"Thing is, Toria, the Hat does not lie," he said in clipped tones. "You must not share this with anyone. Including your friends, established or new. Understand?"
Icy fear gripped her at the urgency of his response as she nods. For it must be terrible for Severus to react this way.
Of course, it was terrible. It pertained to the Dark Lord.
"Now go and get a start on your homework before dinner," he prompts.
Victoria had hurried out of his office. Shaking violently as if from cold while she navigated back to the Slytherin common room.
Bloody sentient Sorting Hat, Severus thinks to himself as he tracks down Albus to his office after dinner. It didn't have to be cryptic like it was when it was placed on his head twenty years ago. It had to be blatant in some of the information it gathered from her head.
Severus was hoping this wouldn't happen this year. No, not this year. But it did, and Severus was dreading the fallout of this.
She's only ten, turning eleven next month, he thinks. There was a reason why even the Malfoys even never hinted it to her. As they seemed to agree that this knowledge was something of a great magnitude for a child to handle, even if they revered him.
"Pepper Imp," he spits out to the gargoyle. Marching up the stairs when it jumped aside.
"Aah, Severus," Albus warmly greets. "What brings you –"
"She knows," Severus interrupts, not helping himself. He never usually interrupted the Headmaster, though sometimes, if it was urgent enough, he couldn't wait for him to finish his sentence.
Severus could see that realization in Albus' blue eyes as he seems to take in the information.
"Knows?" he asked.
"She knows that her father was the Dark Lord," Severus had spat out. He gestures to the Sorting Hat. "Thanks to this omniscient, sentient being right here."
"Hmm, one of the few times he's been blatant to the head he sits on." Albus turns to the Hat sitting on the shelf. "Tell me, why share this information with Victoria Mulciber?"
"When I see that information has been withheld from the one that wears me, I feel obligated to tell," the Hat answered. "You might mean well in withholding that information due to the extent of it's magnitude, yet it's because of the magnitude of it all that it shouldn't be hidden from her."
Severus turns away, anxiety rising in him as he runs his hands through his black hair. He had never felt his anxiety increase like this for eleven years. The last time this happened was when he agreed to keep the Potters safe. Only to fail simply because a blind loyalty and obligation to the man he thought reached his arm out to him in a way his own father hadn't, therefore setting him on Lily's path to start with.
"Severus?" Albus asks uncertainly.
"She's nearly eleven," Severus breathed as if gasping for breath. "I didn't want it to be this way. Not now."
An aged hand is placed on his shoulder, and Albus says, "As much as it pains us, there are some things that happen beyond our control, Severus. This is one of them, it seems."
"I just fear the fallout of all this," he says. "The effect it is going to have."
"Then assure her that she's nothing like him," Albus reminds him. "That it's not our blood that dictates us. She's going to need it, for a confused and frightened child is going to feel as if the world is crashing around her. You're the only person at this point that can do that at this for her."
He was, for she wasn't that close to her mother at this point to seek comfort. Even if he had felt that he had lacked the ability. For comfort was never extended to him. He could try to the best of his ability.
"Yes," he breathes.
He just hoped that the fallout wasn't much too great.
Thing is, Toria, the Hat does not lie.
Victoria could hardly sleep that night. That conversation repeating in her head as if it were Do the Hippogriff by the Weird Sisters was playing on the radio every few hours.
No. She turns over in her bed. No, it shouldn't be possible. Shouldn't be true.
Yet, there was this hesitation that Severus had when he gave her that piece of information. The reverie that Ollivander had when they visited the wand shop and Severus acting as if there was information that was bad as a case of Dragon Pox.
If her father wasn't Voldemort, Severus wouldn't have looked at her as if his greatest fear came true. The blood wouldn't have drained from his face the way it did. He wouldn't have told her not to share it with anyone.
She thought about Harry Potter, with those brilliant green eyes of his. How could she look at the same again after this? If her actual father was the one who killed both his parents?
How was she even allow to attend Hogwarts? Even if there was an effort to keep her parentage a secret, she couldn't imagine this being under Dumbledore's nose. There was never a thing he didn't know.
He'd have to have known, whispered that voice in her ear. Why else do you think he wanted to talk with you in early July?
What was he trying to do? Feel her out? To see if she was like him when she didn't know much about him. All she knew, like everyone else, that he went to school here and that he was in Slytherin.
Everything about this, from the weight given the sheer magnitude of it all, it was as if she was caught in a tide. Pulled out to sea and could hardly keep her head up. Victoria felt as if she was drowning.
The next morning when she entered the Great Hall, she could see Severus gazing at the Slytherin table intently. Victoria knew why, especially when she sat down. His eyes gazing at her in concern.
Victoria decided that it couldn't do, as she didn't want Severus to be hovering over her later. She didn't want him to try to look through any cracks in her mind either. All she wanted him to see were her thoughts on schoolwork.
She didn't want Eridani to ask her if she was okay or anything. Anything that was off, she was sure that she and some of her friends would go to Severus.
Victoria would rather not think about it. Not thinking about it was the only way she could put her head above the water and swim to dry shore.
Her determination for such enough for her to stay awake to History of Magic while Eridani was nodding off beside her. Furiously taking notes while Professor Binns droned on ("How could you be awake during that?" she said when they left for Transfiguration. "I was practically nodding myself to sleep.")
Before dinner, Kevin had made the suggestion of going to the library, which neither Victoria and Eridani argued against. Aside from the shelves of books, the first thing that Victoria saw was Hermione and Neville sitting at a table together.
The former smiling and waving them forward. On their way to the table, she could see Andrew, Harry, and Ron a few feet away. Ron scratching his red hair in frustration as Harry poured over his notes while Andrew looked up at Victoria and waved. She might have to make the point to talk to him before dinner.
"How were your lessons?" Hermione asked in a whisper when they sat down. "I've been asking around from those from other Houses."
"We had Defense Against the Dark Arts first thing yesterday," Eridani answered. "Lesson was good, but the teacher can't even say a sentence without stuttering." She sighs. "Poor bloke is not going to last long."
"Severus said that he went on a trip to Albania and that he was not the same after that," Victoria put in. "Had any of you had Transfiguration yet?"
"Yes, and it's so fascinating!" Hermione answered. Eyes gleaming as if Christmas had come. "I know we have to start with the small, simple stuff, but if this is our class, I'm eager to see what we learn in a few years."
"Simple?" Neville moaned. "I could hardly turn my match into a needle. You were the only one who managed to turn your match into a needle." He turns to Victoria, Eridani, Millicent, and Kevin. "How did you think about Herbology."
"Not that it was bad," Millicent answered with a shrug. "I mean, nothing like Charms and Transfiguration. It's just learning about plants."
"Learning about plants?" Neville asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "There's a lot you can do with those plants."
The six of them had poured over and even shared their notes ("At least your writing is easy to read," said Neville to Victoria when she shared her Transfiguration notes with him) and discussed classes.
At the chime of the dinner bell, Victoria had managed to catch up with Andrew. With Harry and Ron up ahead.
"How's your day been?" she had asked. "I could have asked yesterday, but I was preoccupied."
Andrew shrugged. "It could have been worse. Some Gryffindor second year made a comment to me about my dad yesterday, and Percy had to stop Ron from lunging at him."
"Merlin," she whispered. "Did you have anyone asking why you were doing in Gryffindor common room instead of the Slytherin one?"
"Not yet, but I'm sure that's coming up," said Andrew, throwing a hand in the air.
In the days leading up to Friday, the day-to-day routine was starting to fall into place with the first years. Even if it meant getting lost to find their first classes. The Bloody Baron was happy to point new Slytherins in the right direction. "If Peeves claims to offer you help, accept at your risk," he would say. "Heed one word, and you'll find yourself in a sticky situation."
As much as Victoria loathed that it was Draco that had said something, the knowledge of Snape had her guardian had its effect. She did hear a few giggles and mutters from a few people as she passed by, mainly from Lavinia and her group, which now included Rosalie Runcorn. Otherwise, everything was not as bad as she thought so far.
As Theodore Nott said, there was such a respect for her guardian as their Head of House that they wouldn't dare to offend him. Which might have included not offending her.
The Gryffindors, it had seemed, became the favorite targets of Vincent and Gregory. Though Victoria was glad that they left her alone here at school at least, she wished that they wouldn't give anyone a hard time at all.
On Thursday morning, right at midnight, they all went to the Astronomy tower to study and gaze at the stars. Leading to conversations punctuated by yawns at the Slytherin table come breakfast.
"Why does it have to be at night?" complained Gregory. "Why can't it be during the day?"
"What would be the point of Astronomy class if it's in the day, you dunce," Blaise demanded, as he slammed down his textbook in annoyance.
Thursday afternoon, she'd met up with Hermione in the library again. Lending her that very book she mentioned("Look how thick it is!" Hermione gasped. "I knew it was bad from what I read in the Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, but they seem to scratch the surface.").
While Hermione took to the history section of the library, Victoria searched for and found the part of the library that held the newspaper archives and the books of Hogwarts Alumni. Severus and Remus both graduated the same year, and Remus said that mother graduated two years before then.
She plops the one labeled 1976 on the table. On the first page, listed under Head Girl, was the name Edythe Lupin. Slowly flipping through the pages as to not miss anything. She finds mother on the page of Ravenclaw graduates.
She finds her in a section titled Memories at the Slug Club. Where she and others were gathered at the table around a jovial-looking man identified as Professor Slughorn ("He wasn't a bad teacher," Severus said one time. "Though I should say he had a low bar of expectations for his students"). Victoria finds mother once more on the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team 1976 lineup. Where she was listed as the Captain and Seeker for the team.
Friday was rather an important day for Victoria. Well, all the classes were important though this one had more significance as this was the day she'd sit in on Potions taught by Severus. She remembered what he had said to her before term started. "In class, you are to address me as you would any teacher. And I'll treat you as I would any other of those from your house. As people will be looking to see me giving you special favors, should it spread that I'm your guardian."
As Victoria penned a letter to her mother (no mention of what the Sorting Hat had said. She didn't want to worry her), her classmates were talking about their upcoming Potions lessons.
"It will be with the Gryffindors," said Theodore. "This should be interesting."
"We have Double Transfiguration with them too," Daphne pointed out, raising her eyebrow incredulously.
"Yes, but I'd like to see how they fare without their Head of House," pitched in Denmore, rubbing his hands together.
Even if the Potions lesson wasn't the worst thing that had happened to her, it was far from ideal for one obvious reason. Victoria knew how much Severus hated Harry's and Andrew's dads for the trouble they gave him at school.
She didn't realize that he would extend it to them.
Severus started the class by taking the register, and he got to Harry's name, he paused. His lips curling rather unpleasantly.
"Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity."
Victoria, along with the Gryffindors and a handful of her house mates had shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Meanwhile, Draco, Vincent, and Gregory sniggered behind their hands. Up ahead of her, Andrew muttered something under his breath.
Severus immediately pauses taking the register, and gazes at Andrew. "That is one point from Gryffindor House for your insolence, Black, and the lesson hasn't even started."
Victoria shook her head. Few more of her house mates hid their giggles behind their hands. Behind her, she could see both Millicent and Kevin exchanging apprehensive looks. "This is not going to be pretty," said Daphne Greengrass.
He finished taking attendance and looked up at the class. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
Ahead of her, she could see Harry and Ron exchanged gazes. She couldn't see Hermione's expression, but Victoria was certain that she wanted to prove that she wasn't a dunderhead.
"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
The Draught of the Living Death, she thinks as she raises her hand. Hermione also shoots her hand up in the air as Harry looked at Ron. Both of whom looking stumped.
"I don't know, sir," said Harry.
"Tut, tut –Clearly, fame isn't everything," drawled Severus, ignoring her and Hermione. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
The stomach of a goat, and it will save you from most poisons, she thinks, growing more anxious. Hermione literally stretched her hand up higher. From the corner of her eye, she could see Lavinia and Pansy giggling as they smirked at her. Draco, Vincent, and Greg were shaking with silent laughter.
"I don't know, sir."
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" asked Severus, curling his lips nastily. Still ignoring her and Hermione's hands.
"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
The same thing, they both are the names of aconite, she thinks as both she and Hermione stood up. Their hands reaching the dungeon ceiling.
"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione knows, though." Harry looks behind him and looks at her before turning back to Severus. "And Victoria, too. Why don't you try either of them?"
A few people laughed, with Andrew and Gryffindor's Seamus Finnegan winking at Harry when he caught their eye. Severus appeared as if he might have swallowed a cupful of Pepperup.
"Miss Granger, Miss Victoria Mulciber, will the two of you sit down?" he asked. She and Hermione did as bid as he turned his attention back to Harry. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat, and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"
Victoria scrambled for her parchment and quill, and over the noise of others doing the same, Severus could be heard saying: "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."
She glared at Severus and if he saw it, he ignored it. As if he didn't think it was the time to address it. Severus had put them in pairs and set them to mix that boil cure potion that she had done three times now.
Severus swept behind them as they worked. He stopped behind her and Eridani's cauldron. Giving them a slight nod of approval before moving onto Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan's station. He sneered, "It appears the contents of the cauldron could blow at any second, Mister Finnegan. Evanesco!"
"Now," he continued as he stopped by where Draco was working with Denmore Pike. "Mister Malfoy has the contents of his cauldron at the right temperature."
Just as he's speaking, Victoria looks up just in time to see Neville adding the porcupine quills. The cauldron still on the fire. Oh, no!
"Neville!" she shouts. "You're supposed to add the porcupine quills after you take the cauldron from the fire, not before!"
But it was too late. Severus was interrupted by green smoke and loud hissing filling the dungeon. Andrew's cauldron was melting in a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.
"Idiot boy!" snarled Severus, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"
Severus wasn't bluffing when he said, "The difference between these sessions and my potions classes is that I'll be more patient with you in the former than the latter."
Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.
"Take him to the hospital wing, unless that's above you," he spat at Andrew. Who scowls at Severus as he takes Neville with him. Victoria thought she caught the words, "Stinking Snivellus." Severus proceeds to round at Harry and Ron, who were working next to Neville and Andrew.
"You – Potter – why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."
Victoria frowned. Shouldn't Severus be reprimanding her for not speaking up in time? Out of all the class, he would think that she'd know better out of all of them. For they covered all of the potions she was going to study for the year. But he had to round on Harry because of a grudge he had with his father.
It seemed Harry was going to say something, for she saw Ron kicking Harry under the desk and heard him whisper, "Don't push it. I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."
At the end of the lesson, they all turned in the phials of their potion. Where they were assigned a foot-long essay on the potion and what they did right or wrong.
Victoria contemplated staying behind and telling Severus off, but due to Neville's blunder with the potion to cure boils put him in such a foul mood, she decided against it. She'd wait until tomorrow morning when this class wasn't fresh in his mind.
"I'm sorry, but your guardian is horrible," Hermione said with a shake of her head as they left the dungeons. "Taking out what Neville did on Harry. He hasn't done anything, and he signals him out the first lesson."
"It all goes back to when both Severus and Harry's dad were in school," Victoria answered. "James Potter and his friends weren't very nice to him."
"That's still not a reason for humiliating him," pointed out Hermione. "Harry's not his dad."
It took them some time to find the hospital wing, and when they found Neville, he had fewer boils than he did when Andrew took him out.
"I'm sorry," whimpered Neville. "If I hadn't messed up on that potion and gotten Professor Snape upset…."
"No, Neville," Victoria said, raising her hand up so he would stop before he could apologize even more. "I should have spoken up sooner. If I had, you wouldn't had this accident."
"It's not your fault, Neville," Hermione insisted, shaking her head. "It was only our first class, and Professor Snape shouldn't have said those things to you. They weren't wrong when it was said that he favored the Slytherins."
"Doesn't mean that he needs to treat us like the dung under his shoe," Andrew said nastily as he glared outside the window.