Here is the next chapter. I hope you like it. Please read and review thanks love Hermione xxx
Ron was stunned when Hermione told him what Dumbledore had done to her. She herself was stunned when he then told her that he knew what that potion was meant to do. Severus himself was stunned to hear it but when Ron told him that his older brother and curse breaker Bill had told him all about various potions he was impressed. A stunned Ron earned ten points from Severus who said to him that he should stop looking so stupid because he'd earned them and the stupid expression on his face was unnecessary. Hermione herself was stunned as most people who were pureblood turned against Dumbledore pretty quickly once they'd learned what he'd done to her and even why.
Things for Harry and Draco were not going as well as he had hoped. I mean they got on and never fought but the Minister for Magic was being a pain in the arse. Instead of congratulating he was looking into ways to stop their marriage from being legit as it didn't sit well with a good amount of the female population who were mad Harry was no longer free and threatening the minister that they wouldn't vote for him if he didn't do something now. Essentially he was being threatened and reacting accordingly. Surprisingly Lord Voldemort had not attacked Lucius when he'd learned of the news from a death eater working in the ministry. He'd simply laughed at Lucius shocking him greatly.
"I mean seriously Lucius? Can you not screw up any more? You're not even there and he manages to cause more of a stir then you ever could in five minutes. Believe it or not I like this and if you were in any way sensible so would you, you fool! He has married the enemy and we will use this to our advantage in a way I've not yet thought of!" he sneered as Lucius seemed to forget who he was actually talking to momentarily and snapped back in outrage.
"This is an outrage! A gay Malfoy is a disgrace and is not something I will ever stand for. I look a complete fool now in front of everyone because my bastard son couldn't toe the line. If you don't kill him I will!" he snapped as Voldemort snapped back.
"YOU WILL NOT FORGET WHO YOU ARE TALKING TO EVER AGAIN CRUCIO!" he snapped as Lucius screamed and writhed on the floor in agony. Voldemort reminded him of who he was and that no one was to ever die unless he said so first. Every death ever performed went through him first and if he did not feel the person warranted death he'd just tell his death eaters to torture and torture only. They were all loving this new in control dark lord. He would first need to find out what Draco's new last name was. Then he would proceed. This would be fantastic. He would use Draco against his new husband. He would do something Draco couldn't say no to. He would threaten that if he didn't become a death eater he'd kill his father. I mean all pureblood children he'd ever met adored their fathers and he wrongly assumed Draco was one of them. He just assumed Draco had wanted his own identity as confused teenagers often did.
Dumbledore had asked to see Harry asking him what his plans were for the yule holiday stunned to hear that Harry was going abroad. He was furious and needed to find a way to stop him but as he didn't know where he lived he couldn't do that.
"Where abroad do you intend to go for Yule? I must write it on the record here so we have a record detailing where everyone goes over Yule. For example Seamus Finnegan is going to be spending his own Yule in Spain" he said as Harry looked surprised to hear that.
"Well I'm delighted for him. As for me I'm going to France for a little while and will be back when the time comes for that. Sir I need your permission to use a portkey to leave and then enter the school grounds when the time to return comes. Can I please do that?" he asked as Dumbledore smiled at him.
"Of course you can Harry!" he said enthusiastically. He would simply trace the portkey to see where it went. When Draco and Harry had written to Minister Delacour saying they wished to tour the ministry at Yule time during their holidays he'd agreed to personally show them everything as long as they consented to spend Yule break with his family which they had agreed to at once. In all honesty they were all excited to be going there. Minister Delacour had other plans for them though which he had not told them yet. He himself was very excited to see what they would make of his plans. Minister Fudge was an idiot and would realise only too late what a fool he'd been and what he was missing out on.
Severus had gotten much better at teaching his lessons when he'd be freed from those vows. He did everything sensibly now and his snakes more than anything had noticed it. He was very eagle eyed and made sure they all knew he was watching their every move. In actuality he'd intended to have a house meeting with his house later today about their behaviour because he was not one bit happy with it. They were being foolish and he'd soon teach them why it was not wise to act in a foolish way. If that talk went well he might even talk to the rest of the staff about it. They were all delighted with him now that he had informed them he was free of all his vows and could be himself at last. He had remembered why he even loved teaching in the first place. It was thrilling to say the least.
That evening he entered Slytherin house and called everyone to the common room for his talk.
"Welcome everyone now have a seat. If you can't find one summon one please like I'll be doing. A while back the whole of Gryffindor met and while I don't know what it was totally about I did learn that it changed the way behave as a whole and have decided to have a similar talk myself with my own house. Now as you may have noticed I am better. There is no other way of saying it. I am free from vows our headmaster had me under from the previous war which did prevent me from teaching properly!" he said allowing it to sink in.
He glanced around shocked to see how many of his Slytherins were literally stunned into silence by his admission. Surely they hadn't all thought he was that vile on purpose? Had they really? The more he thought about it the more he realised they probably assumed he was meant to be like that because of the traits of Slytherin house itself. He sighed deeply because although it made slight sense it wasn't at all right and he needed them to see that.
"Things were very different when I went to school here. Dumbledore was still the headmaster and he still favoured Gryffindor but the other heads of house knew how to lead their houses properly. Because I've been under silly vows I've been a shit head of house. That changes now. In my youth Professor Slughorn was the potions teacher and head of Slytherin house. He dressed terribly and all of his clothes always clashed. He however used this to his advantage because everyone assumed as he wanted them to that because he dressed so badly he was a fool. He never was a fool at all. He used to carefully collect people of importance from all of the houses myself included. He was a genius and I too will start to take after him. He is after all an idol of mine!" he said with great passion.
He let everyone think carefully about all he had said. It was true actually that Horace had always looked bad but it was something he'd done on purpose. He sometimes acted silly as well to further cement people's opinion of him being a foolish sometimes mental person. He told all of his Slytherin members that they were all actors playing themselves and that the wizarding world was their stage. He said they should behave the way they would want someone acting as them in a film to behave and then explained what a film was to those who didn't know it. Everyone was stunned. Severus explained the same thing to his snakes too.
"In the next few weeks I will be watching you all and will select those few students who are great at what they do to join me for dinner parties once a week in my newly formed Ophidian Order. There will be a few students from other houses who are exceptionally talented at what it is they do who will join me. Those who show they are too desperate and try far too hard to get a position in the Order will never succeed or be chosen by me. You should want to do well and simply be yourselves!" he said as whispers broke out all around him.
Many people speculated on what this order would be about and what it would mean for the status of each member of their house. He'd been planning it for a while and had many ideas on what it would do. Horace had only had meals and the odd party in his Slugclub but Severus intended to do much more than that in his Ophidian Order. His order would contain meals and parties but so much more than that. They would receive special training from him in all things potions and even business advice where needed.
"Those people who are part of the Ophidian Order will receive special badges they must wear on their uniforms to state that they are members and each Ophidian Order meeting will be separated out into groups of different classifications. You will have the first order containing the most promising students, the secondary order containing the next best students and the final order containing the students which have the most potential to eventually be in the first order. My meetings will sometimes be a dinner party, formal party or informal business meeting. I will give those members exclusive potions lessons and information. Most of you will not make it as there are limited spaces. Just be yourself and all will work out. Unlike Slughorn I am not biased and so bloodline or name will not come into it for me!" he said with finality as they all gasped at him.
He had already designed the pin of his Ophidian Order. It was coiled snake covered in black gems which formed the infinity symbol with a sword going through the middle which formed into a cauldron rod at the end. He had decided he would select anyone that had potential despite their blood status or who they knew which Slughorn always considered first. Neville, Ronald, Harry, Draco and Susan Bones were shoe ins who would be in the first order for sure. Dean Thomas, Ginny, Adrian Pucey, Terry Boot and Michael Corner were shoe ins for the secondary order. Colin Creevy, Hannah Abbott, Padma Patil and Lina Dubois would make great final order members. He'd choose others as he went but for now that was the list he had drafted.
"Lastly we all need to seriously think about how we want to look when we're not in uniform which as we know happens here each time we're not in class such as evenings and weekends. Please look at how you look in those moments. Are you happy with it? Are you dressing for yourself or someone else? If you answer for someone else then start dressing for yourself. No one who is not here will even know about it and I will not have fakery in this house. Think about everything you wear and what you do and do everything with care. You never do know who is listening or the connections they have. Don't underestimate someone because they look like crap. Goodnight!" he said leaving again to allow everything to sink in. He was very happy his message seemed to be sinking in. What a day.