This chapter continues the story arc of chapter 47 as Snape faces actual discipline and consequences for bullying students.
Severus Snape was sitting alone in his office on a Saturday night preparing to call it a day when there was a sudden knock on his door.
"Come in," said Snape smoothly.
To Snape's surprise, in walked the leader of the Hogwarts Board of Governors, Patrick Patil.
"Let's get down to business, " said Patrick in a no nonsense kind of voice, "Severus Snape, you are hereby relieved of the positions of Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House. You are also ineligible for life from ever working at Hogwarts again."
"Dumbledore happens to trust me," said Snape silkily.
"It doesn't matter what the headmaster thinks, " said Patrick matter of factly, "The Hogwarts Board of Governors has the authority to remove a teacher from his or her post if his or her behavior is unbefitting of the teaching profession."
"It's not my fault if my students are bunch of numbskulls," piped up Snape testily.
"That's exactly the kind of thing that is getting you fired," Patrick told Snape in a businesslike voice, "Insulting students and bullying them is why you are losing your jobs at Hogwarts."
Next nanosecond, Patrick dug his right hand into his right hand pocket and pulled out his wand.
"Accio complaint forms!" cried Patrick.
A nanosecond later, an avalanche of papers flurried into Patrick's hands.
"These are all complaint forms against you, " said Patrick bluntly, "I summoned the students in question to a meeting of the Board of Governors today. They showed me their memories of the incidents in question via a pensieve. All proved to be true."
"But " gasped a shocked sounding Snape, "I vanished that box! I always vanish that box late on Friday!"
A stunned expression came upon Snape's face as he realized he'd given himself away in the shock of the moment.
"Ah," smirked Patrick, a satisfied expression etching itself upon his face faster than the speed of light, "My daughter Parvati told me that students would be filling out complaint forms against you this week. When she did so, she suggested that I place protective charms upon that box to protect it against Vanishing Spells of any kind. In fact, I placed charms on that box that made its contents immobile for anybody except me so that this time the forms could not be vanished or stolen. "
"Students have been out to get me before," snarled Snape.
"You're admitting you regularly vanish that box?" realized Patrick.
"My students have never been fond of me and some downright hate me. I guess that comes with the territory of being a teacher," said Snape ruefully.
"That's true to an extent, but this is your own fault. None of these students filed complaints against you for being slightly rude or assigning too much homework, " replied Patrick, "The complaint forms I read all dealt with your insulting and bullying of students. It is clear that Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom were favorite targets of yours. Calling students dunderheads, blaming students for other students' mistakes, showing no sympathy towards injured students, wanting to poison Neville's toad, asking Harry questions he couldn't possibly be expected to know the answers to, embarrassing Harry with that "our new celebrity" garbage, insulting Hermione by calling her an "insufferable know it all", and breathing down students during exams making it hard for them to do well. As a matter of interest, I reviewed the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. scores in Potions for all Hogwarts students since you took on the Potions job."
"Then you'll know I'm an elite teacher," boasted Snape, "The average N.E.W.T. score in Potions during my tenure is O."
"That's fool's gold," retorted Patrick, "The average O.W.L. score in Potions has dropped from E to P since you joined this school. I suspect the reason it hasn't dropped to D or even T is because you aren't present when students take their O.W.L.s. The high N.E.W.T. scores are a result of you only accepting O O.W.L. students into your N.E.W.T. class at a time when Os in O.W.L.s have become rarer than ever. When Slughorn was teaching Potions, with him accepting both O and E O.W.L. students into his N.E.W.T. class, an average of twelve 6th and 7th year students took Potions. Under your regime, the average number of students per year who take N.E.W.T. level Potions classes has dropped from twelve to two per year. There have been a few years where zero students took N.E.W.T. level Potions. The highest number of students to have taken N.E.W.T. level Potions during your tenure is three."
"Slughorn was blessed with better students than I have been," protested Snape.
"He made them better students," said Patrick angrily, "You realize we have a shortage of young Aurors and Healers right now because of a lack of candidates who meet the minimum Potion requirements? Mind you, these jobs only require an A in N.E.W.T. Potions. People applying for them only need to be competent in upper level Potions. They can be trained in specific Potions should their individual jobs require said Potions. Under Slughorn, an average of ten out twelve students passed their Potions N.E.W.T with at least an A. Yes, almost all students to have taken N.E.W.T. level Potions under you have achieved Os. But your combination of poor teaching and non-teaching has led to poor student performance. Your bullying and insulting of non-Slytherin students has disincentivized students from taking N.E.W.T. level Potions. And, on top of all of that, you've limited access to N.E.W.T. level Potions to the elite of the elite. Not accepting E students in O.W.L. into your N.E.W.T. classes has set the Wizarding World back decades by diluting the pool of able Potion Makers and leaving shortages at some critical occupations. Facts without context mean nothing. "
Snape shook his head apparently having no idea how to respond.
"Severus Snape," said Patrick clearly, "You have until lunchtime tomorrow to gather up your personal belongings and get out of the castle. If you fail to do this voluntarily, I will take drastic steps to eject you. "
...
One year later:
Severus Snape's clothes were shabby. He was living on meager portions of food. He had become poor.
After losing his jobs at Hogwarts, Snape had been confident that he'd be able to find work elsewhere.
He'd applied for a position as a Potions Maker for St. Mungo's and had even sent in a sample of a Calming Draught he'd made himself along with his application. The Calming Draught was perfect, but St. Mungo's said in their rejection letter that after the way he'd lost his jobs at Hogwarts and why that he couldn't not in any way be trusted to work at an institution whose job it was to look after people's health and well being, including having patients who were children.
He'd sent similar applications with some type of sample potion off to both The Ultimate University of Wizarding Healing and The Wizarding Academy for Dramatic Arts. Both schools refused to even consider him, taking the position that he should never be around children.
He had fleeting thoughts of running for political office but was at least smart enough to realize he had no chance at winning any election of any kind.
On and on it went and Snape couldn't get a job.
Eventually, Snape had to sell his manor and downsize and sell some of his possessions just to pay his bills and get meager meals while shabbily clothing himself.
"Why does no one and nowhere want to take advantage of my Potion Making skills?" Snape would frequently think to himself bitterly, "Why does nobody appreciate my talent?"
To Snape, this question was bitterly dumbfounding.
However, the answer was simple and consistent. After what had happened at Hogwarts, no one trusted Snape, and no one wanted to have a person of his character and personality poison their work environment.
Snape had paid the price for his bullying behavior.
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