Part Twelve
A/n: First of all, I'd like to apologise for not getting this up sooner. I HAVE been kinda busy recently, plus I'm lazy all round. But I'm off school at the moment cos I'm not v. well, so I thought I should probably get writing. Although if it weren't for the fact my parents are decorating and our computer is hidden behind the table, dishwasher and washing machine, I would probably be on the net instead, which shows just how lazy I am. But I'm not lazy through and through, today I taught my eight week old bunny a trick. When you bang your hands on your knees and shout 'Coco!' he sniffs the TV remote. Not what I was aiming for but.........damn, I'm rambling! Why do I always get so sucked in to authors notes?!?!
Minerva bowed her head and handed the letter back to Dumbledore wordlessly. He skimmed through it quickly, and turned to them looking grave.
"Well, I suppose we have our orders." She took a deep breath and reached for Severus's hand. He squeezed it with a reassurance she wished she felt.
"Now?" she heard him ask.
"Would you prefer it if we were to leave it until this evening?" Dumbledore asked. She looked up and met Severus's eyes.
"No," she whispered. "Let's get it over with." He nodded. Slowly, Dumbledore got to his feet. He cleared his throat and motioned for silence. When the hall was quiet and all eyes were upon him, he began to speak.
"At some point in our lives, we will all make mistakes. Some may well be more serious than others. Some people may make alot of mistakes, some may make only a few. Some mistakes may affect the rest of our lives, others may affect the rest of the day." 'But the point is, every single one of you sitting here now, will, at some point in the course of your life, make a mistake." He paused. "But it takes a big person to be able to admit that they made a mistake and move on. And very often, to do that, they will need the help and support of the people around them. Which brings me to what I want to talk to you about now." He took a breath. "Last night, the life of a pupil, who I shan't mention by name, was put at risk by two members of staff here at Hogwarts who are just starting out in a relationship." A few excited whispers started to make their way around the room, but Dumbledore held up his hands and once more motioned for silence. "It wasn't purposeful, but it still happened. And I would like you all to offer your support and understanding to Proffesors Snape and McGonagall as you would to any new couple at the start of a relationship." This time the room exploded with loud and very disturbed chatter and shouts.
Minerva kept her eyes cast firmly down at the table top and refused to look up. But she didn't have to look up to know that nearly every face in the room was turned towards the two seats in which she and Severus were sitting. She felt her face heat up a little and felt an urge to crawl underneath the table and hide, but she decided that that probably wouldn't have been the best way to conclude the situation.
But that didn't stop her from being glad when someone decided that it was time for lessons to start and people started to file out. As stood, and, recieving one last reassuring squeeze of her hand, swept silently towards her classroom, attempting to ignore all the strange looks she was recieving.
"One question. Why?" Turning slightly, Minerva saw that Remus Lupin was now by her side, with a very put on (she hoped) disgusted look on his face." 'She swatted at him in rather the same way you would swat at a fly and shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm afraid I'm as lost as you are on that one." she replied. " Do you have a problem?"
"No," he shrugged. "I guess we just don't have the same taste."
"Well I'd be rather worried if we did," she laughed. "Infact I'd be incredibly worried."
"Yeah, well, I want to hear just what went on last night, so be prepared to answer alot of questions later on. Actually, I think you'd better be prepared to answer alot of questions all day," he said, as they passed a large group of sixth year girls who started laughing as they passed.
"I don't think I'm going to get alot of teaching done today am I?" she sighed.
"Well you don't have to tell them anything," he said. "But I think that would probably just spark their interest even more."
"You're right." she stopped as she came to the door of her classroom. "I suppose I'll see you later then."
"Yep," he grinned. "And remember, I want all the details." He walked off, and she swung the door open. Inwardly, she groaned, as her rather giggly first year Hufflepuff class fell into hysterics the minute she entered the room.
The lesson went downhill from there onwards. No one paid the slightest bit of attention when she demonstrated the correct way to turn an eraser into a sharpener, and she decided against getting authorative in the hopes that, once they'd got it out of their systems there would be no need for nonesense in the future.
When she asked if there were any questions, every hand was in the air. But when she asked if there were any questions that were actually about the transfiguration, there were, well, none. Infact, by the time first period was over, she was starting to feel like screaming.
However, there had been no change what so ever in Snape's first Potions class that day, as the seventh year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaws were smart enough to know not to pass comment. And when his fifth year Gryffindor and Slytherin class filed in, no outsider would have even guessed that a major revalation had taken place just over an hour earlier.
He noted that Granger, Wealsey and Potter looked rather relaxed, and reminded himself to find reason to take some points from Gryffindor later on. But he was not to know that, as he barked instructions as to how to concoct the potion he would be testing on at the end of the lesson, three of his students were laying out plans behind a notebook.
Or rather, one of his students was laying out plans behind a notebook and two were nodding vigorously in agreement. Those three students were Draco Malfoy and his henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle.
Since breakfast that morning, Draco had been fuming. He couldn't bring himself to believe that his own head of house was liasing with the head of Gryfinndor. And Gryfinndor of all houses! In his mind, and proabably the minds of many others, he felt that something was wrong.
Furiously, he scribbled down: 'This can't be happening! Something's definatly not right here.' Crabbe and Goyle nodded in agreement." ''I know something's going on. I mean, this is Snape we're talking about!' They nodded again. 'And come on, we've all seen McGonagall, she's not exactly.....well, let's just say I'd rather date my house elf than her.' Crabbe and Goyle snorted with laughter, but covered it up by bursting into fake coughs. Snape didn't so much as glare at them, he was too busy finding fault in Neville. Draco sucked the end of his quill and wrote, thoughtfully: 'I reckon she's done something to him. Like a love potion or something like that. This can't be natural.' Crabbe and Goyle looked, and their version of a thoughtfull face was demonstrated. Malfoy smirked. Morons. They probably didn't even know what a love potion was. 'We've got to do something.....he probably doesn't know she's done anything, I've heard love potions are hard to detect. But just what we can do, I'm not quite sure.......' And he mentally decided to visit the library and do some proper scheming later.
2ndA/n: Yay, I finished another part! And I'd been putting off writing this for ages.....I guess it just took being sick to give me a little push in the right direction. Although I did actually start to write this two days ago and I'm now back at school (although that doesn't mean I don't have to keep taking painkillers at one in the morning!) Since today was an exceptionally good day (I was captain in PE, I scored my teams only goal, I had a go at my German teacher, basically everything I never thought I'd be able to do) I think I enjoyed writing this more than I normally would do, so if there isn't another part up for a week or so, then you know it's because I'm waiting to have another good day!