Severus Snape arrived for dinner precisely as the doors opened, with a few stray Hufflepuffs and a lone Ravenclaw (still reading, of course) drifting in behind him. He didn't see them, but he knew that the Hufflepuffs were giving each other quick, unsettled glances. It was Not Usual for him to be eating first, after all. In fact, Gavin there might have decided to eat early because it was not normal. Snape's malevolent gaze was known to be bad for the digestion.

"How many points do you think you'd give two of your precious Gryffindors - for saving the school? repeatedly?"

Minerva McGonagall turned, steel in her spine, to regard Snape quizzically, "I think precedent would suggest about 100 points apiece, would it not?"

And then, Minerva McGonagall did a doubletake, "Two-?! Severus, what have you done?"

Severus Snape was cool as a cucumber, responding dryly, "Nothing, as of yet. But when you do have the total, I would be most obliged if you'd share it with me."

"Share it with you-? Severus Tiberius Snape, just what is going on." Snape suppressed a smirk, knowing that pulling the now-cross Gryffindor's tail was one of his few joys in life.

"It would appear that I am to take a leave of absence. Family reasons, you understand." To which, Minerva McGonagall frankly gaped at him. She had known him thorough over ten years of teaching - and more than that if you counted as a child. And he had never, to her knowledge, mentioned a family of any sort. With Slytherins, that rarely meant things were summer sunshine and dandelion wine.

"You-" Snape nearly smirked again, as Minerva cut off, belatedly putting a few pieces together that she really ought to have had on the table earlier, "Did Dumbledore approve this?"

"Why, he very nearly suggested it." There. One objective accomplished. Let her think it is Old Order Business.

"Oh. Well." Minerva straightened her robes, more in line with something Professor Sprout would do, but as she wasn't currently in animagus form, she was unable to lick her paw with the requisite nonchalance. She straightened suddenly, and said, "Professor Lupin!"

"Yes, quite." Severus Snape responded, his voice dripping with unfeigned venom. "It would appear out of hundreds of students, only two of your lions have even the marginal ability to be of help here."

"They will be justly rewarded, then!" Minerva said, her toothy smile dropping fifty years from her face.

Snape raised an eyebrow, before saying, "And just as justly punished. For all deeds, good and bad, ought to come with their own rewards." Snape smirked, only to lose it as he caught sight of Minerva's expression.

Minerva McGonagall was giving him a look that he'd never seen on her face before. It was wideeyed, and calculating, and a trifle stunned. "Severus, you didn't! You won't! You shan't!" She said, staccatto protests delivered sotto-voce (undoubtedly to avoid his Slytherins from eavesdropping. Few of them learned to read lips like he had. It was a bit of a Muggle pastime, after all - if a decidedly handy one.)

"Who's there to stop me from keeping a promise? Honor and Duty themselves ask me to keep my word, and I did notice a few improvements I might suggest." Not that I've told them yet of my plans. But there isn't a chance in Hades that they'd walk away from an opportunity like this.

[Minerva remembers what a beast Snape's pranks were - let alone the trouble she went to, in trying to actually pin one on him.

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