Chapter Five
His alarm went off at 6am and he tensed finding himself in a strange place. That quickly eased as he realised he was in his room in Ravenclaw tower. He got himself stretched and up then went to practice his magical core exercises, he always felt better after doing so.
At 6.30 he gathered his things and went to bathroom to go through his morning routine. He wanted to make a good impression on his teachers as he knew this would make his life much easier in the long run. He also wasn't much up for early morning conversation and knew from experience to avoid any possible bathroom rush.
Washed, brushed and groomed he dressed in his uniform robes choosing to wear the lighter grey trousers and blazer with the white shirt he carefully checked was free of wrinkles underneath. His habitual boots would do as he wasn't sure what classes he would have today.
He was careful to pack his satchel with everything he thought he might need for the day, especially as they did not yet have their schedule. Hopefully they wouldn't have potions as he was taking a gamble and not packing those things as he would prefer not to carry them about all morning if unnecessary. It was no wonder that Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tended to be the more athletically successful houses, they must have thighs of steel after a year or two of running up all those sets of stairs every time they forgot anything for class.
By the time he emerged from his study he was all set and he met Hector who was starting to get fidgety on the landing.
"Shall we head on down?" Severus asked, jerking his head in the direction of the stairwell.
In the common room they were gathered round one of the blue sofas and only waiting for Meadows out of the first years. While Vaisey went up to the girls dorms to check on her Severus checked the noticeboard and saw that his interview with Professor Flitwick was scheduled for that afternoon at 4.00 as he appeared to be going in reverse alphabetical with Vaisey before him at 3.30.
The tables in the hall were still fairly sparse when they arrived and he was deeply thankful for copious amounts of tea. Unfortunately coffee wasn't served at student tables as it was liable to stunt your growth and this rather desperate reality would make Severus even less of a morning person than he usually was.
Fortunately his housemates seemed to accept that about him and after a couple of attempts ceased trying to prod him into pre caffeine conversation. He wouldn't want to set a precedence for early morning joviality he would then be expected to uphold and set about his poached eggs and toast in silent approval.
Professor Flitwick on the other hand was a clear morning person, greeting them with bright eyed cheer as he handed out their schedules. He thanked the man and glanced over the timetable then. groaned. Potions wasn't until Friday but they were sharing class time with the Gryffindors that wouldn't do he'd speak to Flitwick. They had Transfiguration first thing with the Hufflepuffs and Herbology after lunch with the Gryffindors.
They were given directions from the great hall and sent on their way. Part of Hogwarts initiation was letting the first years orienteer themselves until they got good at it. Sink or Swim.
The five of them stayed together and Severus pretended to be as clueless as the rest of them. They were at the classroom with plenty of time anyway which he was thankful for and had to conceal a grin when he saw the tabby cat swishing its tail on the desk. He bit his lip when Meadows went up and started stroking her between the ears.
He didn't want to spoil the surprise so when she picked the cat up and started nuzzling it, he had to turn away. Unfortunately he caught Mayweather's eyes which were just brimming with mirth then her lip quivered and both of them started to laugh. It was a properly infectious belly laugh, the uncontrollable kind which left you gasping for breath. The kind of laugh that cleansed your soul. God he couldn't even remember the last time he had laughed like this.
"You two are so weird." Meadows, Vaisey and Smethwyck were all looking at them vaguely concerned. She was still stroking the cat.
He just grinned lopsidedly, an action which felt foreign on his face.
"Come sit here with me Snape." Maywaether waved him over to a desk to the left of the classroom by the windows.
"Severus, Mayweather." He held out his hand, his lips still twitching upwards.
"Pandora then." She said with a bright smile.
Meadows took the seat to his right and the others the desk behind them and they busied themselves getting out their supplies ready to take notes.
Her face was priceless when Minerva jumped off the table and transformed, the rapid progression from open mouthed awe and amazement through realisation and encroaching horror was a work of art. Perfection.
The next minute she had her head on the desk with her arms over it. He patted her on the shoulder in sympathy and she stilled before sitting bolt upright and yelling at him.
"YOU KNEW!" And thumped him on the arm.
He just smirked.
"Well done Mr Snape, Miss Mayweather. One point each to Ravenclaw for excellent deductive skills."
Meadows scowled at first then rolled her eyes good-naturedly at her housemates antics.
By the time Minerva returned to the front of the classroom, the class was on tenterhooks. Severus could appreciate the importance of theatre and had modelled much of his teaching style on hers. Not that you could have pressed him to reveal that information. The room was still with anticipation when she began to speak.
*"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."
That was true, there were some very nasty ramifications when human transfiguration went wrong. Minerva then gave a brief history of the art and an entertaining story of Circe changing sailors into swine. She transfigured her desk into a large boar to illustrate and began to elucidate the basic principles on which transfiguration is based.
What she didn't introduce as an idea is that all of this is limited by a wixes thaumaturgical potential and unfortunately, regardless of effort, somewhere around 30% of any given graduating class would not be capable of pursuing the subject past O.W.L level.
Sadly it was a purely theoretical lesson introducing the importance of careful visualisation to the outcome of transformations, specifically inanimate to inanimate. This was the most common way to focus a students intent and coax those whose magic was still entirely untrained towards producing results orienteered to will rather than in response to emotional stimuli.
He wrinkled his nose but kept his expression polite and carefully annotated her lecture. In his previous life he had often challenged her, he would not this time. He knew he wasn't particularly likeable but he would try not to deliberately antagonise professors. He had learnt how to keep his mouth shut through painful instruction.
Part of him could not believe he was signing himself up for seven years of this. It wasn't even lunchtime on day one and he was bored. He made diligent notes anyway, it had been a long time since he'd used a lot of this knowledge and he's genuinely thankful that if he has to find himself living the worst recorded case of deja vu in history at least he's not back in the middle of OWL week frantically trying not to fail half of them. It never hurts to review the basics. Perhaps he will find new insight looking at them from a different perspective.
He respected the necessity of herbology. It was important for students to recognise the properties of plants and be able to harvest them for themselves. However he knew from experience that it was unlikely that most of their cohort would make use of those skills. It was part of the responsibility for those who held the secrets of wixenkind to take care of these plants should they encounter them in the wild but most would simply report them to the appropriate ministry department, lacking the skills to deal with the issue themselves.
Really this class was about teaching you how not to off yourself if you ran into a dangerous plant in the wild. Muggles were fucked obviously which was why several of these plants were so strictly controlled. But he thought it was terribly incompetent if you were to perish by plant. He sincerely hoped if he was to be assassinated by something again it would be capable of higher thought.
But Severus enjoys working in the earth with his hands, he's done more foraging than gardening of his own as he had spent most of adult life without a patch of earth that's truly his own. He answers Professor Beery's questions correctly and gains points for his house. He smiles graciously and rarely volunteers information answering only when called upon trying to avoid calling attention upon himself.
It doesn't work.
"Think you're sooo smart don't you Snape!" Black drawls as they attempt to corner him as they leave the greenhouses. Isolated this far out on Hogwarts grounds without the watchful eyes of the portraits and inconvenient staff members he should have known they'd make a move.
It just all seems so juvenile and silly now that they're no real threat to his safety the way they had been the first time around.
He'd been waiting for this in a way. Knew that the marauders would be unable to let his public slighting of them rest.
But this time he's not alone.
Previously his only ally had been Lily who while she would defend him fiercely with her words had been unwilling to back it up with action in active conflict with her housemates. The Marauders knew it and took that as a sign that she wasn't really serious in her complaints. Rather as an opportunity to interact with their misthoughten damsel.
It had also taken time for his Slytherin housemates to evaluate him as a potentially beneficial ally. Certainly the Black and Potter names held a lot of political sway and his housemates at the time had initially been unwilling to be seen to be in public conflict with the Heirs to two noble houses in defence of a Northern street rat yet to prove his worth, particularly given his obstinate insistence on loyalty to his Muggleborn friend which alienated him from playing up his Prince heritage.
This time his housemates instinctually form a shield around him. Of course he's perfectly capable of wiping the floor with the entire lot, but they don't know that and it makes his chest ache a little. Particularly as Ravenclaws are not known for either irrational loyalty and swiftly formed bonds as Hufflepuffs are nor for spoiling for the allure of a battle promised or a cause to take up as the Gryffindors are want to do.
"Black." He says resignedly.
Pandora and Smethwyck are have already palmed their wands despite the fact that Severus and surely Potter and Black know that this is mostly bravado and they have almost as little idea what to do with the weapons all wixen are provided with at the age of eleven as Potter junior had when he resorted to shoving the implement up the nose of that troll. Vaisey and Meadows bring up the flanks glaring at the little miscreants.
The latter seem to be thinking better of the interaction seeing the reaction of Severus' housemates although they still sneer at them.
"Know-it-alls" Potter scoffs.
Lupin interestingly seems to be evacuating himself from the conflict, holding back. But his actions have a different tenor, as if he truly disagrees with their actions rather than the tacit approval but unwillingness to be in a position to be proven culpable of wrongdoing given his own rather tenuous situation Severus had recognised in him before.
"Hiding behind your little girlfriends are you?" Black sneers.
Part of Severus bristles in accustomed indignance at the insinuation he is too weak to defend himself but he has learnt from that disastrous final confrontation with Lily and will not devalue his new housemates actions.
"No more than you." He retorts. And enjoys the flush that creeps up his antagonists necks.
It is at that point that Pofessor Beery emerges from the greenhouse and swiftly takes in the combative stance of his first years. He disperses them quickly recruiting the Gryffindor boys to aid in some task that will delay them not having seen anything truly incriminatory while currying the Ravenclaws back to the castle.
He arrived at Flitwick's office having divulged himself of his classmates with his thighs burning having had to leg it to get there on time after all that nonsense. Nevertheless he slowed his pace to a relatively dignified walk and straightened his clothes with a quick charm before knocking.
"Enter!"
"Good afternoon Professor Flitwick." He took the offered seat at the desk and the tea and biscuit provided by the elves.
"I trust you have had a good first day. Now this is just a little introductory meeting, I want my students to feel they can approach me with any concerns as I will be responsible for you in loco parentis during the school year. Do you understand what that means?"
"Yes Sir."
"Good good. I heard from Professor McGonagall there was a situation with some of her new lions on the express. Have they given you any further trouble Mr Snape?"
"They were just being dunderheads sir. At least they know not to take my things now. It only activates if the intention is theft or damage sir."
"Very well, I will be keeping an eye on the situation." He reassured him.
"I hope you enjoyed your classes today. Is there anything you would like to discuss with me in particular at this juncture?"
"Well actually yes sir, I was hoping to discuss my schedule. I would like to withdraw from potions class."
"Unfortunately that is a mandatary class for students of your age as it is one of the core classes we teach at Hogwarts. We do allow certain exceptions on religious or medical grounds for which I would need a letter from your parent or guardian." Flitwick said looking questioning with his hands clasped on top of his desk.
"I already have my ABL from the guild." He interrupted pulling out his certification. He'd seen on the schedule that potions was with the Gryffindors and there was absolutely no circumstance in which he would be sitting through that again not even if his withdrawal attracted attention. "As such I do not believe it would be a beneficial use of my time. I was hoping to perhaps with your permission join one of the elective classes, ideally arithmancy which I already have some background in as you need it for NEWT level potions or perhaps ancient runes schedule permitting."
Professor Flitwicks eyebrows had gotten progressively higher as he spoke. He looked excited as he leaned forward on his desk carefully checking over Severus' licence.
"I am to understand you are already brewing at a professional level?"
"Yes sir. That was the other thing I wished to ask. Would access to a lab space be feasible?" He would have plenty of free time, a first year's course load wasn't particularly heavy and he had zero intention of sitting through Binn's soporific lectures a second time he would simply self study.
"Although I would prefer this not become common knowledge I run the brewing company Loristan Brewers, primarily supplying Mulpeppers Apothecary and several private clients. In exchange for a private lab area I would be willing to assist Professor Slughorn with the demands of the hospital wing."
It was a bit presumptuous of him but he thought Horace would leap at the opportunity. He couldn't legally fob most of it off on the seventh years although Merlin knew he tried. It had in no way surprised him when Albus had come to him with an amusing little anecdote he couldn't help but share of persuading the man to come out of hiding in order to return to Hogwarts.
Of course Slughorn's soul animal would be an armchair.
Time to pull out the pity guns. "My mother taught me to brew very young I've been doing this for a while sir. I think she worried if she waited too long she wouldn't be able to pass on her knowledge. She is currently in St Mungos in long term care and my father would be unable to support both the mortgage and hospital bills on his wage alone."
Flitwick's face had taken on a serious cast.
"I see." He made a quick note on some parchment. "You intend then to keep brewing through the school year."
"If possible." Meaning yes absolutely, obviously.
"I will speak to Professor Slughorn on your behalf, I suspect he will want to confirm your licensing with the guild for procedures sake. Let me just make a copy of this to show him." He said with a flourish of his wand over the licence.
"My main concern would then be for you. This is not a slight on your capabilities. If this is to go ahead I would want to see you more regularly, say bi-weekly at first, then monthly if this is successful to confirm that you are coping with the additional workload now that you are in full time education. I would also require that you maintain at least an A grade in all your subjects. I will have to inform the Headmaster" Severus grimaced internally " and you would be subject to supervision either by myself as your Head of House or Professor Slughorn as the Head of Department to be certain that no substances prohibited for student use make their way into circulation."
"Yes sir." That was reasonable he would have asked the same or more if a student had come to him with that request. There were labs available for upper year student use which would suit although there were likely to be some ruffled feathers. Flitwick would be a powerful ally to have and by virtue of having gone through official channels he was less likely to be accused of running some sort of illegal racket supplying performance enhancers (of all kinds) to upper years.
"Do you intend to pursue your mastery in the subject? You must be quite skilled to have advanced so far already."
"I do. I intend to break the record sir." That might make him sound arrogant but oh well. It was true the last time and would be true again, it wasn't like he would be taking the title off of someone else by using his knowledge.
The smile returned to Filius' eyes he looked proud. It felt good to Severus, the man had been a valued colleague with a sharp mind and a dry sense of humour. That last year had been painful for everyone.
"Well then that's something to look forward to. I will get the ball rolling on this and we can reconvene in a couple of days. Why don't you run along now, dinner will be served soon and proper nourishment is important for growing young minds."
He stood and bowed briefly to his Professor "Thank you Sir."
…..
Back in his dorm Severus allowed his mind to wander while he sat in his armchair. Now that he was at Hogwarts he needed to start his research on the Dark Lord. He had kept watch on the socio-political situation in Wizarding Britain as best he could through the media since his return to this time but that didn't tell him much as he hadn't been familiar with the situation the first time through.
If there was information to be found the records here would surely contain it and his search would be less conspicuous than attempting to access ministry files. Something had clearly gone drastically wrong before the late 70's, at the moment there was nothing more than political whispers of a powerful backer of the Ars Magicae party. The Death Eaters in their organised terrorism manifestation hadn't even begun to take form for at least another three or four years. Even by the time Severus himself had been recruited in '77 there had been little sign that the man would promptly take a nosedive off the cliff of insanity, infanticide and infamy. He had been a dedicated mentor to Severus for a while much to the chagrin of several of the more volatile Death Eaters.
A descent of that magnitude and velocity smacked of ritual magicks gone wrong. Which one and how to prevent it or repair the damage, or kill him off before he goes on a murdering rampage was the question. The key must lie in soul magic as that had been the reason given for the necessity of the boys sacrifice, a soul shard lodged in his scar. But Severus had never delved into disciplines of that kind, he barely even knew where to begin looking for magic that would cause that kind of metaphysical fracturing and he was considered an expert in the Dark Arts.
Albus Dumbledore might never have tortured others into compliance but he hadn't had to. He was a master of stripping others of their power, of their agency Severus thought resentfully. "There will come a time when he fears for the life of his snake" It was completely unnecessary to be so bloody cryptic all the bloody time. He held all the chess pieces at this point in time. His vicious control of the flow of information shackled the ability of even, or perhaps most especially his allies to only his preferred course of action.
He wishes he'd forced a straight answer from the Potter boy, the more weak minded of the two as to what he and Albus had been conferencing about in '97, just cornered the boy, stripped the information from his mind and obliviated the encounter. Then perhaps he would have known exactly what they were looking for that year and right now he thoroughly regretted that impulse of moral whimsy that had prevented him from doing so.
The disaster trio's actions that year had from the outside seemed so erratic as to entirely defy logic. He couldn't discern a pattern in their actions at all. He had gathered that Albus had set them some sort of quest, a notion that would have entertained the man's sensibilities. He knew of the ring that had been the harbinger of Albus' demise and the locket he had seen around the boys neck when he had delivered the sword and the idiot boy had attempted to fish a venom infused goblin silver blade out of a frozen lake with his bare feet. He didn't however know the precise nature of these artefacts and their relation to the Dark Lord except that presumably Albus had decreed they needed to be found and destroyed. Were there others he was unaware of and if so how many others?
Knowing Albus' wheels within wheels approach he suspected there were some answers to be found in Slughorn as he had been so insistent the man return to the castle when the Dark Lord returned that year. So he would need to cultivate a positive relationship with the man, the first steps of which were already underway. Horace loved to collect those he saw as the brightest stars of their generation and Flitwick would make him see that Severus Snape was exceptional in his own right where before he had been seen as too much of a wildcard.
Albus had often referred to the Dark Lord as Tom, although he had been careful never to speak the surname in front of Severus. That didn't given him much of a launching point as it was quite a common name and he would need to look through potentially three decades of student records. It was something however as the man also had to be of Slytherin descent to be a parselmouth and Tom was a distinctively muggle name, presumably why Albus had found such delight in needling the man with it. Severus had long gathered that the Dark Lord had been a half blood, a fact that many were wilfully blind to, so he would try to find a connection first in the matrilineal line. He couldn't have had a Wizarding surname or he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to obscure it.
He carefully jotted down his observations in a notebook wanting to see his thought process clearly. He wrote in brewing shorthand as was his habit even though the journal was warded to his blood and would obscure the knowledge within for anyone else. It was extremely unlikely he would get called out for the possession of such and at the age he was he could plead ignorance of its questionable legality as he was underage.
….
At the Wednesday evening staff meeting Filius finally got hold of Horace.
"Horace if I might have a word please?"
The man snuffled through his moustache, folding his periodical away into the crease of his armchair. "Why yes of course Filius old boy, how can I be of assistance?"
"One of my first years, Severus Snape will be withdrawing from your class so you shouldn't expect him for the double on Friday morning."
"Medical exemption is it? What is it this time?"
"Now Horace you know those records are confidential. In any case it's not." He sighed.
"Then he will just have to attend won't he no skiving off."
"If you would hold a moment Horace I will explain." He was getting mildly exasperated now but this was the first time he had been able to catch hold of Horace who was slippery like an eel. They were gathering some attention now, largely in the form of rather shifty eavesdropping, good the child deserved recognition for his work ethic.
"The boy in question already has his ABL as such…" Filius's jaw clicked shut as he was interrupted yet again.
"Surely not, you must be mistaken" Horace blustered, his expression undecided between affronted and avaricious glee at a potential acquisition.
"I assure you I am not. I have verified his certification with the guild myself. He's a fully licensed professional potioneer at the age of eleven and as such I agree that attending beginners classes with his peers in the subject is not an appropriate use of his time."
He could see he had him hooked now so he continued. "He will be pursuing a Mastery in the subject I am certain. I'm sure he would be very grateful for your support."
"Yes, yes quite." He looked thoughtful. "Perhaps we could offer him use of one of the smaller laboratories?"
'BINGO!' Thought Filius. It was always better if you could get Horace to think he'd come up with an idea himself.
"I will admit I am very pleased to hear you say that. He is the founder of a brewing company the name of which he has requested I keep confidential, as he is, probably correctly, concerned that his age would unfairly prejudice potential clients against him regardless of his ability. He has asked that I enquire after a space that he might continue tending his commitments."
"Now I am not sure that would be appropriate." Dumbledore weighed in with a sternly disappointed tone.
'Oh for goodness sake. Albus could be so very obstructive for no good reason. He'd clearly taken against the poor lad already for that harmless blue skin incident.'
"This is not a frivolous request Albus. He's clearly a hard worker and highly responsible to have progressed so far in his chosen career at such a young age. The mother is in St Mungo's. It's not unusual for a child to play a role in supporting their family it's sadly only unusual for us to see one in such a position attend Hogwarts and we should be supporting him to the best of our ability."
"Yes, yes. Albus surely you will see reason on this. Such talent should be nurtured. How unfortunate for such tragedy to befall a youngster." Horace was warming to the subject though clearly put out at first that he hadn't been informed of the young talent about to fall into his sphere of influence. Filius could quite imagine that the guild members hadn't been too keen to expose their protege to someone they considered all flash and little substance.
Now what was that look for? Horace seemed to wither a bit under those blue eyes. He would have to bolster him. "I quite agree with you Horace." Filius patted him on the shoulder from where he stood by the armchair and side-eyed Minerva who had clearly abandoned her crossword at this point. She could usually be called upon to sway Albus when he was getting unreasonable. He didn't think she seemed overly fond of the Snape boy either but that wasn't really his fault, he was a polite child.
She lifted an eyebrow at him then turned and addressed the Headmaster. "At the very least he is being responsible and following proper conduct. I'll eat my hat if we don't catch at least one of my Gryffindors brewing something illicit in a bathroom this year."
Thank you Minerva!
"Perhaps he could be prevailed upon to assist you with the Hospital wing stocks Albus? After we've evaluated his work of course. I am sure he would agree to a discounted price in exchange for a space in which to brew. We would pay him of course, it would only be fair." She said the final part firmly and Healer Harper gave him a subtle nod.
Thank you Irene! It was better if the suggestion didn't some from him but he knew they often ran low as Horace preferred other pursuits and they clearly knew the value of dangling a carrot in front of Albus' prodigiously crooked nose.
"Well then I can see I am quite outnumbered in my reservations. We will proceed and you will keep an eye on the situation Filius."
Filius refrained from rolling his eyes like a civilised adult. Albus looked quite put upon that they hadn't bowed to his superior wisdom but seemed to have decided not to pursue the matter at this juncture.
'I wonder what that's all about?' He exchanged a glance with Professor McGonagall, she shook her head looking a little bemused. Very well he would chalk it up to eccentricity for now.
"Do we know who the mother is?" Horace asked.
"No, do you know I don't believe he ever said."
….
