Planning for a Better Future
Chapter Thirteen
Discussing the Future and the Past
Hogwarts
They had roughly two weeks until the students returned to Hogwarts. The search for possible leads on the Horcrux was put on hold to prepare for the students. Severus had settled back into the castle and looked over his class lists.
He hadn't heard from the Amestrians since he had taken them home a couple of weeks ago, not that he had expected to hear from them often. It didn't occur to him until this morning that he had no idea if they would be able to contact him easily. Neither of them owned an owl of course, and he wasn't sure if they had any at the Xerxes Academy aside from Lupin's.
He spent the morning cleaning out his classroom and restocking his supplies while trying to think of a solution to this issue. He was surprised when Minerva stopped by his class just before lunch. The older witch didn't generally seek him out in his class or office, instead waiting to see him at meals or if he was out in the halls.
"Are you settling back into the castle well?" she asked after he invited her to come sit in his office.
"I believe so yes. Is everything alright?" Severus said as he set the kettle to heat for tea.
"Yes. I wanted to speak with you privately." Minerva said. "As the only two in the castle who know both the location and status of the child, and the… difficulties Dumbledore was enduring the last few years, we have a different perspective of the situation than the others."
"It wasn't difficulties Minerva. He's an alcoholic, and he spent years drunk and making poor choices. Call a spade a spade." Severus said. He refused to dance around it. His own father had been a drunk, and a mean one at that. He had no tolerance for it. He would truly trust that Dumbledore was no longer a risk when he had spent as long sober as he had drunk and not until then.
"He was depressed. Surely you can have sympathy for him in that." Minerva replied.
"Yes. However, it is unforgivable that he allowed himself to get that bad when people were depending on him. It was unforgivable that he tried to hide it and allowed it to affect the way he ran this school. These are children. They deserve better."
"As I told you, he's sobered now. He's back to himself. I assume from the few things I have overheard you were even aware of what triggered his depression, yet you still seem to hate him for it."
"I do not hate him for being depressed." Severus said with a sigh as he served the tea. "For ignoring his duties, yes. For drinking himself stupid, yes. For his broken promise, yes. For trying to drag a baby into this mess, absolutely."
"We can not keep Harry out of this forever, and it would be kinder to let him know that he has a place in this world, that it is his world."
"No, he will find that out soon enough when the offers come in, for now we leave him alone as was agreed." Severus said. "He has years yet before we need to find a way to offer him a place here…and if he doesn't come here, I feel certain that he would be fine in a different location."
"He's going to need to learn to control his magic."
"He will. Hogwarts is not the only magic school in the world. Should he attend, we will of course be overjoyed, however I would not worry if he attended a different location." Severus said before setting down his cup. "I would hope the boy joined us here, however I would not worry if it doesn't happen. He will be training either way, and he will still be able to help in the fight when the time comes."
"How do we know that he would come? They didn't seem especially happy to visit when they came to fight that woman and her group."
"I know. They came, didn't they?" Severus said simply. "It is who they are, who he will be."
"You have certainly come a long way. When we first spoke on the matter you seemed to feel the child would be a selfish hateful boy." Minerva said with a small smile.
"Once, he would have been his father's son…" Severus said. "Now, well, he will be his father's son. But his father now gives me hope."
"James Potter- "
"James Potter was a bully and a brat. It was overlooked by every adult here because of his ability on the Quidditch field." Severus said, he held up a hand before she could say anything. "I have grown, admittedly, when I came to teach, I was rather bitter over my own experiences as a student, and rivalry with Potter. Then I spent time abroad which has helped me a great deal with perspective. That said, I will not give any of my students, no matter their house, leeway simply because they can catch a ball."
"I never- "
"You did. You do. I won't" Severus said. "If they find me harsher than their other teachers, so be it. I am at any rate given the subject I teach."
Minerva left shortly after that, agreeing that they were not going to see each other's perspective. She did consider what he had said, trying to remember if she had ever overlooked bad behavior herself. True there had been some things, ignoring or downplaying students out of bounds. Accepting assignments turned in late. Perhaps once or twice she missed a student teasing another. It was somewhat encouraged by the school itself for the houses to behave as such toward each other… Severus, she was certain, was exaggerating. He had been far from innocent himself, if she remembered correctly, several times receiving detention for things he had said or done to Potter and his friends.
No matter, she would watch the students this year herself. If these things were going on and she missed them, she would just have to be more diligent in the future. For now, though, she needed to finish getting her own classroom ready, they were nearly out of time before the students would arrive.
She hoped that he was right, and even if somehow the boy attended a different school, when it came time to fight You Know Who again the boy would help them. She hoped that the boy would attend Hogwarts. The brief time she saw him he did remind her of his parents. He looked even then remarkably like James.
Minerva warned Poppy that Severus seemed busy and preoccupied when she saw the other woman headed in the direction of his classroom. No reason to have anyone else withstand his sour mood and accusations of ill treatment of students. Poppy nodded but headed toward his room anyway as she said. "He often is when I first arrive. I don't think he's quite used to having people care for him. He generally warms up after a few minutes."
Minerva shrugged, if Poppy wanted to deal with his crabbiness that was up to her. She just hoped he didn't hurt anyone's feelings along the way. He had been rather cranky since his return overall. Not that he had been overly friendly to begin with, but something deeper seemed to be bothering him. She hoped it worked itself out before too much longer or he might take it out on the students as well.