Chapter 8 – Of the Head of Slytherin
"I am free of prejudice. I hate everyone equally." W.C. Fields.
The last weekend of September had arrived and most of the students were in bed. With the exception of Harry, Neville, Ginny and the Creevey brothers (who had overheard Ginny complaining about doing the extra running in the morning) who had settled into a routine of getting up in the morning, including weekends, for jogging around the pitch. At first there was complaining, mostly on Ginny's part, they had had eventually agreed that it was worth it.
And it was. Compared to the rest of the students, Harry and his friends were considerably less red in the face and less sweaty after Killian's class. Killian of course noticed Harry and Neville's efforts and made them work even harder. For this reason alone, she punished the class by making them all run harder and for longer. Dean and Seamus were one of the few who could keep up, Dean as he admitted to playing football whenever he could, and Seamus who often joined him in the summer. So keeping up wasn't exactly hard for them.
Ron had declared Killian a sadist, which had only made her laugh and then told him run another lap, he kept his mouth shut after that. Killian made them do all different kinds of races, 100m, 200m, 500m and 1500m, then she added relay races in which they had splint into groups of four each, and had to run with a baton to the next person.
She had even set up a long jump and a high jump course. The long jump pit consisted of a long rectangle drawn on the grass (they were still meeting at the Quidditch pitch) 16ft long by 2ft wide, followed by a sand pit 7ft long. No one was spared the treat of having sand all down their clothes and inside their shoes, and Filch was often found muttering about students and teachers alike.
The long jump bar was also met with very little enthusiasm. Everyone had to line up five feet away from the jump bar, and Killian had mockingly started them all at one foot insisting they all take turns, slowly raising the bar half a foot each time. That was easy, even for Parvati and Lavender, until they reached 3ft, and everyone, even the tallest of them couldn't jump without the bar falling on top of them. Killian had insisted they all try again until they could, but after nearly 3 turns each, only 3 students could move. Sadly, Harry wasn't one of them.
Disappointed at their lack of effort, Killian punished them by making them run 2 laps around the pitch before the end of lesson. Ron's heartfelt groan was echoed by most, even Hermione.
Despite the bruises Harry had received trying to make the high jump, he quite enjoyed the challenges of the lesson. As did Dean who enjoyed the workout, and was quite vocal about his approval about the physical activities finally included in the Hogwarts curriculum.
Harry's other lesson were going well also. They were still given lots of homework, essays of up to 2ft long for each lesson. (Honestly," Ron could be heard complaining, "I'll be dead before Christmas at this rate). In Charms they had started learning healing charms. Flitwick had demonstrated using a fake skeleton, explaining of they got the charm wrong on a real arm, then they might have remove the bones and re-grow. Harry remembered the sensation of Skele-Gro vividly.
In Transfiguration they had started conjuring, of which only Hermione succeeded on the first try. Ron's efforts were exceedingly funny, as his attempts of conjuring up a plain white handkerchief looked more like a used crumpled tissue. Harry thought he might have actually seen a bogie on it as well.
The Slytherins were slowly coming out of their shells. There were no snide comments, yet, but they were sniggering and smirking. Harry wished the peace had lasted longer.
But of course, what he was more than happy with was Quidditch practice. Harry's initial idea that he had come up with at tryouts was working well, and the others enjoyed experimenting. Harry's idea was that they all try to plat different positions, even if they weren't good, they were at least adequate. He thought that this technique would be good to confuse the other teams, and Harry scheduled the practices as often as he could. By working together with Katie, he had come up with some workable plays, which were easy to perform with all the extra practice they were doing. Their Slytherin match against Slytherin would be very interesting.
At first he had been worried, because they still had plenty of homework, especially Ginny who had OWLs this year, therefore more work than any of them. But it had worked out well because Hermione had let Ginny borrow all her notes from last year.
However, they all helped each other out when it came to homework. Hermione helped them with Potions and Charms, Harry helped with DA, and Neville helped most with Herbology.
Many students who were in the DA also came ahead in Defence lessons, usually in the top quarter of the lessons, which pleased their many Defence teachers. Moody had taken to randomly shooting stunning spell at the class, and shout "CONSTANT VIGILANCE" to anyone who didn't block fast enough, after he woke them up of course.
True to her word, Killian had found them an unused classroom near the Defence office. She had stacked the chairs and tables against the walls, and told them she'd had it magically expanded just in case. Harry thought it quite big, the whole first floor of the Dursley's house could fit the whole room.
So far she had left them to it. She didn't turn up at the meetings so far, but she did leave some books she thought they might find helpful.
It was Sunday evening, and Harry was currently in yet another lesson with the DA.
"All right everyone, stop a minute. I have a few things to say," Harry said in a loud voice, and he blew his whistle to catch their attention.
"It's too early to end the meeting now," complained a fifth year at the back.
"I'm not ending the meeting. I just need to say a few things," he said as everyone gave him their full attention.
"Right, as you remember, I told you that I wanted to recruit a few Slytherins as well. I have a few candidates in mind, provided by Professor Killian. I've been watching them for while now, and even though I haven't told them about the DA yet, they are talking to Professor Killian at the moment, and she'll be explaining about the club. If they agree to join, she will bring them here. What I want you all to do is to keep an open mind. Remember what I told you, not all Slytherins are Death Eater wannabees."
There was a knock on the door and Killian walked in with a group of Slytherins. The Slytherins looked around warily at the faces that glared at them. She introduced them to the group and left them to it.
The older Slytherin Seventh Year, Aaron Donovan, spoke up, glaring in return.
"Killian told us about your club," he said gruffly, getting straight to the point.
"Yep, you made your decision?" said Harry, replying in kind.
Donovan looked at the Slytherins behind him. The group consisted of four 4th Years, two 5th Years, and two 7th Years. There were a few nods, and many shrugs.
"Yeah, we'll join. But some of us have brothers and sisters. Will they be allowed to join?" Aaron demanded,
"That depends. We need to know what year they are in. Send them to Killian. But more importantly we need to know whether they can be trusted."
"Yes," came the vehement answer.
"Like I said, send them to Killian and she'll tell us," Harry said.
"They're already waiting with Killian," Liam Mortimer, a fourth year said defiantly.
Harry smirked, "Call them in then."
Mortimer walked out, came back barely two minutes later. He was followed two 2nd Year boys, and 1st Year girl.
"I wasn't going to introduce younger members, not until after Christmas at least. And I'm sorry but they can't become members yet. You can teach what you want yourselves, but it would be unfair asking them learn what we learn. After Halloween, if they come back they join. I'll be asking you all to have a list of students from 3rd Year down, I have a different task in mind for them. I want you all, including the first and second years to put your name on the parchment that Hermione gives you. The parchment is a list of the names of the students in the group. And it is also a magical contact that forbids you tell anyone outside the group about us. I'm sure you've already heard of the consequences what happens to traitors?" he said blandly.
Everyone looked towards Marietta who was trying to hide her face in her robes and ducked quickly behind Cho. Hermione had already reversed the hex at Harry's prompting.
"There are no house rivalries here, during the meeting, or outside them. Agreed?" he directed this to everyone.
Everyone nodded.
"I told at the first meeting our aims. We need unite more with all the houses. You heard the Sorting Hat. We didn't listen last year, but we need to listen this year. What we learn in these meetings, we learn to defend ourselves, each other, and to defend Hogwarts. Voldemort wants Hogwarts for his own dark purposes. If he succeeds with Hogwarts, then the wizarding world has lost all hope. Hogwarts is where all magical children of Britain come to learn, and what we learn is what we use. If Voldemort succeeds to make Hogwarts his own, then he'll teach whatever tripe he thinks is important, and that is purity of blood. We don't care about that here. Voldemort is a hypocrite, and so are his Death Eaters. Voldemort is half blood, parading as a pure blood, and he's got his own band of purebloods that are too blind to see the truth. Hogwarts is our home, it is where we grow up away from our family, and make friends who care for us. But our problem is that we rarely make friends from somewhere other than our own houses. We need to see past house unity, and think unifying Hogwarts, that is the first battle, and if we win that, then we've succeeded in defying Voldemort in one aspect."
Everyone clapped around him, and he looked around embarrassed. He hadn't meant to make a speech, just tell them what he thought was important. He was going to take the Sorting Hat's words seriously. He was going to protect his home from Voldemort.
"Now, I have a few important tasks that I want you to complete. And for this you'll be working in groups. The castle has many nooks and crannies, many secret passages and such. For this task you will be working with your house to start with. Working within your houses, I want to all to work together to draw a map as accurately as possible. The only routes we really bother with are those that lead us to classes and such. But I want more than that. I want to know every passage of Hogwarts secret or not. I want us all to know the castle better than anyone, better than our enemies. I know we all have plenty to do already, between OWLs and NEWTs and Quidditch and homework, we all plenty to do, but if you can do this task during your spare moments then you'll know how helpful it'll really be in the end."
He told Hermione to give the coins to the Slytherins.
"Bring your maps to this room and we'll piece together the parts Hogwarts. Professor Killian provided this room for us; she is the only teacher who knows about us," he explained to the Slytherins. "If there are any problems, apart from me or Hermione, she's the one you can go to, no other teachers know about the DA. Theses coins will tell you the time and date of the next meeting. Keep it with you at all times, and when it warms up, that's when you check it."
There was a knock on the door and Killian walked in.
"Where you up to Harry?"
"I was just explaining about the coins Professor," he said. He carried on and felt very nervous in her presence. "The coins also have tracking charms on them as well. Professor Killian has been fiddling with the original coin, which she was able to use to affect all the others. If anyone is in trouble and needs help, in the castle or in Hogsmeade or anywhere, just activate your coin and the rest of will be there as soon as possible. The same goes for anyone wanting to hold an emergency meeting. Just activate the charm and come to this room. Any questions?"
No one had any.
"Are you done for today?" Killian asked.
Harry nodded.
"All right before you all go, I want to say a few more things. It's good to see that Harry has already asked you to form groups. That's good, safety in numbers is important. Try not to venture anywhere alone, even if it is to go the bathroom. Hogwarts may be safe, but recent years disprove that. All places can be infiltrated; the Azkaban breakout last year proves that. But if everyone works together we can sort out the defences of Hogwarts and improve them. Hogwarts is warded against magical attacks. No one apparate or disapparate, not unless the wards are dismantled, and only the Headmaster can do that. But there's nothing against disguise.
"I have staff meeting soon so I'm going to explain this very quick. The coins that you have all been given are your keys. I put up an enchantment just before I entered, and it wards off anyone without a coin. You can only enter this room if you have your coin, which means you should keep your coin with when you come for your meetings.
"Also, the minute you walk out of this room, your coin will be engraved with your initials. Another safeguard, which means if anyone else gets a hold of your coin, accidentally or otherwise the room will refuse them entry because it doesn't recognise the person holding the coin, even if they are disguised in some way. That's all I wanted to say. Thanks everyone. Work hard."
With that she said goodbye to everyone and walked out gracefully, with her robes trailing behind her.
Harry didn't mean for the introduction of the Slytherins go on for so long, so after only ten minutes more practice he ended the meeting.
Remus looked around at all the teachers gathered in the Headmasters office. The room had been magically expanded to fit them all in. Snape was standing against the wall near the window, silently observing the occupants of the room.
Dumbledore sat behind his desk, his hands steepled in front of him, appearing as id in deep thought.
Kevin Gallagher sat on one side of him, whilst Tonks sat on the other. The other teachers say away in a separate corner, not that a circular room would have a corner, but they were sitting away from everyone else.
Moody and Kingsley were sitting on the other side of Gallagher. Moody had grimace on his scarred face as he said his leg was giving him more trouble than usual. And Kingsley was sitting down, observing everyone with his usual serene expression.
They were still waiting for the Flamels and Killian. The door opened at that moment and Remus corrected himself, now they were only waiting for Killian. The Flamels made for the seats near Gallagher and Kingsley. The group often sat together; ever since the train incident they had become quite close. And sharing an office with them had also strengthened the bond. The Flamels and Gallagher shared the History office, although he knew Gallagher often spent most of his time out of it. The reason: Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel.
"Are you two joined at the hip? We never see one without the other." Tonks said to the Flamels as they sat down.
Perenelle laughed and Nicolas looked at her fondly.
"It's very rare to find the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. When you do find that someone, you'll find that you won't ever want to let them out of your sight, even after six hundred odd years," said Nicolas as he reached for Penny's hand and squeezed it.
Remus wished he could have someone to spend the rest of his life with, but he couldn't. Not with his curse. Nicolas and Perenelle despite their six hundred plus years still possessed their beauty. Nicolas obviously kept in shape, and his voluminous robes hid powerful shoulders. Remus thought back to all the girls he had heard describe how handsome he still was, and how they lucky and glad to be rid of Binns and have instead two extremely attractive History professors. Many of the boys also felt the same way about Perenelle.
"You never think of settling down Gallagher?" Tonks asked.
"Me never. At least not yet. I'm too young to settle down. I hope you're not thinking of marriage yet Tonks, why not enjoy life a little? With me?" He smirked at her suggestively.
Tonks laughed back and started flirting back with him. Remus watched as they bantered back and forth. He felt an odd restriction in his chest, and he found that his laughter was more and more forced.
"If we can start the meeting, now that the last member of staff has arrived," Dumbledore's voice cut in.
Remus looked around to see Killian standing near them. Everyone quieted down.
"Thank you all for coming today," Dumbledore started. Most of the teachers had taken seats, and the only two standing were Killian and Snape. "We are here to discuss the curious house point situation that has arisen."
Remus had to smile at the "situation".
"As I am sure you have all noticed that there is something peculiar happening to the house point counter. It seems that taking points from one house affects the points from the house," Dumbledore explained. "I am not certain when exactly it first started, bit I noticed the – irregularities – during the last week or so. It is now going on for the 3rd of October, yet the problem is not solved. Therefore I must conclude that there is a fault with the pointing system."
"If it hadn't been going on for so long I'd have said it was a prank. A very good one at that," injected Gallagher.
"We don't necessarily have to rule out a prank," Flitwick put in.
"Why not?"
"Misters Fred and George Weasley. It could be their doing."
"But the twins left school last year. Earlier than they were meant to, might I add," Sprout said.
"Some of their work still remains. If you recall their portable swamp. That was some powerful spell work they had going. They have a joke shop now, don't they? Their products could have been smuggled in by any number of the students."
Remus saw many smiles and grins at the mention of the twins' products. He wished he could have been there for their vendetta against Umbridge.
"I do not think that this is a prank," Dumbledore added. "There are only 3 house point counters in Hogwarts. One in the Staff room, one in the Great Hall, and one here, in my office."
At his words everyone's head turned towards the object in question. The house point counter stood against the wall.
"As you can see that they are all at 150 points, have been for the past few weeks. If we try to deduct points from one house, the same amount is deducted from all the others."
"10 points from Gryffindor," came Snape's voice.
Ten points were deducted from all the houses; Remus saw that McGonagall was outraged, as she glared at Snape. Of course, Snape would use Gryffindor to demonstrate, he couldn't possibly take points from his own house.
"Albus, it does seem that the house point metre is defective," she said.
"It does seem so," he responded.
There was a brief silence after that.
"Treat them all the same/ Treat them all as one," Killian quoted. "This wouldn't be your doing, would it, Tatters?"
There was another silence this time, but this was more of a stunned silence. They all wondered who she was talking to. They all followed her gaze towards… the Sorting Hat.
"Figured that out, did you, my lady?" said the Sorting Hat.
Remus heard many gasps, and he was sure he looked pretty gobsmacked himself. The only time the Sorting Hat spoke aloud was to announce a student's house, or else to sing the Sorting Song. The rest of the time it communicated inside the person's mind, never out loud.
"You mean to say that- you – messed with the house point," came Snape's disbelieving voice.
"Yes, I did," said the Hat, smugly Remus thought.
"But why?" Snape demanded.
"I should think that was obvious," said the Hat scathingly.
"There was nothing wrong with the point system," Snape hissed.
"Indeed there was not," the Hat conceded.
"Then why interfere?!" he demanded.
"Isn't it obvious Snape? There's nothing wrong with the point system itself. But it's the bias behind the point taking, isn't it?" said Gallagher
"What," Snape hissed, "are you implying?"
"I should think that was obvious," Gallagher mimicked the Hat.
"Indeed it is true," the Sorting hat intervened before the Snape could retort. "I warned you last year, and I warned you again this year. But it seems that my warnings have gone unheeded. The houses are slow to get together, the teachers doing nothing to help. My intervention is simply speeding things along."
"And how, pray tell, does interfering with the House points allow the houses to come together?" Snape said venomously.
"The house points are just the beginning. I can do more than you can ever imagine," the Hat said ominously.
Remus thought he heard the warning in the Hat's tone. Snape either didn't hear it, or chose to ignore it.
"You have no right to interfere," Snape hissed.
"Someone has to interfere," Gallagher interrupted. "You don't think that the students don't talk, Snape. Ten points from Gryffindor for breathing too loud; ten points from Gryffindor for being a know it all, ten point points from Gryffindor for –"
"Kevin!" Killian stopped him. She gave him a pointed look and he broke away from her penetrating gaze.
"Indeed, Professor… Gallagher… is right," said the Hat.
"There is a certain amount of bias between certain houses," the Hat said pointedly. "It is disappointing and wrong to let outside political influences sway the minds of such young students. All this purity of blood nonsense, as far as I can determine nothing is being done about it."
Remus thought the Hat was extremely angry.
"We live in troubled times at the moment," Dumbledore intervened calmly. "We need to be careful about how we handle the students."
"I know the state of the wizarding world," the Hat erupted. "What I don't see is anything being done about it. You have in your hands the lives of several young ones; you have the authority, the power to would their minds. To influence them to think independently. Yet, all I've seen you do, Headmaster, is barricade yourself in your office, distancing yourself from the daily lives of your students. You waltz into the Hall at meal times, force upon them you peculiar sense of humour and then waltz back to your office, doing nothing to intervene."
Remus heard Tonks snort.
"This is no laughing matter," the Hat rumbled. Tonks sat up straight.
"Did you know Headmaster, that the wards have been weakening for the past few decades?"
There were many gasps of alarm.
"Especially in the previous few years?"
"Impossible!" said Dumbledore resolutely. He looked alarmed at the thought. The implication of the weakening of the wards was too much. "Surely I would have noticed."
"Not if you were too blind, too involved in other matters," said the Hat calmly.
"Nonsense, Hogwarts has always been and will always be my sole concern," Dumbledore thundered.
It was obvious that Dumbledore was very agitated. He had always put the welfare of the school and its students first. To suggest otherwise was- well the idea was ludicrous.
"The students know that my doors are always open."
"But do they know where they are located? Students seldom know where to find your office. Apart from the prefects and Head students, no one else knows where to find it, unless it is their extreme behaviour that compels you to discipline them yourself. You are lucky that select students from three of the four houses are working together, and they are concerning themselves with trying to include the fourth. As it was, even the students of Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were on their way to hostile behaviour. This house prejudice exists not only between Gryffindor and Slytherin, but also between the others as well. The students have more common sense at least to know that as One they are powerful, and than they are apart. Simply preaching them to stand together will not to do, Headmaster, but you must set them examples as well. How are the students to learn to get along, if their betters do not show them how."
Remus was stunned at the turn of events. He couldn't believe that the simple meeting he had in mind was going to turn to be such a disaster. He saw Killian narrow her eyes as she looked towards the Hat, as if trying to figure something out. She looked at it suspiciously and then suddenly she smoothed her face into a vaguely curious expression.
"How do you propose we do this?" asked Snape sarcastically.
The Hat didn't answer immediately. There was a silence as they waited for it to talk. They looked at each, puzzled, as the silence lengthened.
Finally Snape snorted when it became obvious that no answer was forthcoming.
"What would a dirty old Hat know about such matters?" he said, as if trying to provoke the Hat into retaliating. The Hat didn't rise to the bait. "Probably fallen asleep," Snape muttered.
Somehow, Remus didn't think so. His instincts were telling him something big was about to happen. He wasn't sure however, whether it was going to be good or bad.
"Headmaster," started Snape, "how is it possible for my Slytherins to get along with the other houses if they are already branded as evil?"
"That's unfair, isn't it?" Gallagher intervened. "You can't say Slytherins are treated unfairly because of House prejudice. Your Slytherins treat everyone as they expected to. True, if a student did come across a "nice Slytherin" they would wonder what the bloody hell is going on. They are only reinforcing what others think of them," he finished.
"Maybe Slytherin students only act that way because no one will give them a chance to prove otherwise. The Slytherin students are judged because of their house because they believe they have no other choice. The Slytherin students have to learn to fend for themselves at a young age. Any muggleborn students quickly learn to keep their mouth shut, because the purists will use them as target practice if they say anything otherwise. They not only have to be on guard against other students, but also against their own house mates," said Killian.
Many of the professors looked shame faced at this. Despite their efforts not to, they too had judged the Slytherins because of House prejudice.
"Ridiculous," Snape hissed. "My Slytherins don't have anything to fear from each other. They know how to look after each other. Outside their own house they have no one to look after them."
"Portraits talk, Snape. Ghosts talk," Killian burst. "How long has it been since you've last taken an active role in their lives. How long has it been since you last stepped into the common room? When they have problems, do they come to you?"
"My Slytherins know they can come to me when they have problems. They are not spoiled brats who need guidance every step of the way. They are self-sufficient, they know how to solve their own problems."
"Are you saying that you don't take an active role in trying to solve their problems?" the hat asked quietly.
"They don't need to be moll-coddled, unlike some," he sneered.
The implication was obvious. What happened next was a repetition of an old argument. Harry Potter and Snape's hatred of the "special treatment" he received. Remus admitted that sometimes Harry may get away from punishments, but he also knew that Harry was severely punished for some things more than necessary.
Many teachers leapt to Harry's defence, saying Harry only seemed to misbehave in his Potions class. But in theirs he was quite well behaved. Snape was deaf to all their arguments, in his mind Harry was James, nothing could dissuade him from thinking otherwise, not even the Headmaster, despite his many attempts to try.
"It seems," the Hat spoke up again, "that Professor Snape is the one who stand in the way. He is letting down the schools need to re-unite the houses. The Slytherin students need guidance, need to learn by good example to get along with the other houses."
Remus felt a sharp prickle of something. Fear? Anxiety? Anticipation? He didn't know, but he did know something of a defining moment was upon them.
"Professor Severus Snape, you have neglected your duties towards your house and students. You have abused you power as a teacher and Head of Slytherin with blatant favoritism and obvious dislike for other houses..."
Snape looked more and more stunned at each accusation levelled at him.
"Therefore, it is my sad duty to perform the one action that has never occurred in the History of Hogwarts. By the powers gifted to me by the first Headmistress of Hogwarts from the Founders times, I strip you of your title as the Head of Slytherin."
The Hat went quiet as it let them absorb its words to recover from the shock. Snape looked like the Hat had told him he could no longer play with his cauldron. He stood silent and still, disbelief warring with anger on his face.
"Also, I have decided that that due to your obvious bias, you have been stripped of your professorly rights to deduct points from students. So far you are lucky to even keep your position as Potions Master. You will not be able to assign detention or mark the homework you set. You set homework will be marked by someone who will mark them fairly, regardless of who had handed them to you. Until such time that you have not learned put your personal feelings aside, it will remain so."
No one moved. No one dared. No one even blinked. They were all stunned. Snape looked green and angry.
"You can't do that. You haven't the power!" he yelled.
"Of course, I have the power. There is nothing you can do. It is already done."
Snape looked towards the Headmaster.
"There is nothing I can do. It seems we are in need of a new Head of Slytherin," he said defeated.
"There is no need to look. I have already a candidate in mind."
"Who?" came several voices.
"Alanna Killian."