Chapter Thirteen

Ron and Snape

"They're quite all right," Hermione told her friends the next afternoon on their way to Potions. "They had to cancel all of their appointments for a few weeks until they can get a new office set up."

"Well, I'm just glad they're safe," Harry yawned. Even with morning classes canceled, they had had trouble sleeping in that morning, worried about all of the parents. "I didn't think that Muggles were allowed on the Knight Bus, though."

"Well, I guess Dumbledore thought that parents of students were exceptions, sort of like how they're allowed in Diagon Alley," Hermione said. "Anyhow, it was the fastest way to get everyone out. Seamus got a letter from his Mum and Dad this morning, and they're doing okay too."

"Leave it to Dumbledore to find a way to move a lot of people in a hurry. And to think, everyone was worried about what was going to happen to us students last night," Ron said.

"Harry!"

The three of them turned to see Ginny running up the hall, out of breath.

"What is it, Ginny?" Harry asked worriedly.

Ever since Ginny had made the Quidditch team, the two of them had been close, spending extra time on the practice fields, or sometimes helping with Ginny's homework, who was a year behind him. He had found his mind was spending more and more time thinking about her, especially after the close call she had with the snakes last year.

"It's Snape. I ran into Eliza in the halls, and she said he was in a frightfully bad mood. I mean, a lot worse than normal. You'd better be careful," she said, panting.

"Oh, great, that's just what we need," Ron said shaking his head. "Thanks for the heads up, Ginny."

"Thanks, Ginny, you'd better hurry to Sprout's class before you get into trouble for being late again," Harry told her. She nodded and grinned, heading back down the hall.

"You both did do your Potions assignment, right?" Hermione said as she picked up the pace down the hall towards the back stairs.

"Yes, Hermione," Harry reassured her, jogging slightly to keep up.

They hurried downstairs and into the first dungeon classroom, quickly getting into their seats, looking around at the other classmates. Hermione, who shared a desk with Neville, leaned over and whispered something and his eyes grew wide, then he in turn whispered to Seamus. That was when the class door slammed open and Severus Snape entered from his office, looking quite irritable and slightly tired. He stormed over to his desk and turned quickly around, slamming his hands down on the desk.

"What are you whispering about, Seamus? Anything you would care to share with the class?" Snape asked, drumming his fingers.

"No sir," Seamus said.

"Then I'll give you a choice. You can either lose ten points for whispering if you tell the class, or twenty points if you keep it to yourself. Well, don't just sit there, make a decision!"

"Very well, I was whispering to be careful because you're in a bad mood." Seamus said, loud enough so that everyone could hear. Snape stared at him.

"That's ten points from Gryffindor for whispering, and another fifteen for your insolence," he snapped. Seamus' jaw dropped. "Homework on the desks immediately! Any partial work or unfinished work will be counted as zero. Put your kits away. You're going to have a surprise test today, and you won't need them until the last part of the test. Another five points from Gryffindor for groaning, Weasley, we don't need to hear from you. If you didn't study because of your party last night, it's no one's fault but your own." Snape picked up the homework and put down the tests, glaring at anyone who tried to touch it. Finally he finished handing them out, glancing over each one to make sure no one had touched theirs. None of them had moved.

"Very well, turn it over, and I had better not hear so much as a sigh or see one wandering eye until it's finished!"

Hermione finished the written part first, and then quickly got out the ingredients for the speed potion and adding them in order. By the time she had hers boiling, several others had started on theirs. Ron was still struggling with the written when Harry stood up, starting on his. Snape sat at his desk, watching them, drumming his fingers impatiently.

"Eyes forward. I won't warn you again," he snarled when the students still working on the paper part of their tests looked up when Hermione turned in her bottle and paper. Harry soon followed, stepping up to the first floor where Hermione was pacing.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"It's Professor Craw. There's something really wrong with her, I know it. She's been acting strange since she returned to the Great Hall last night. That's probably why Snape is in such a bad mood." Hermione told him.

"Of course she's acting strange. She didn't get any sleep all night, so she's probably knackered. And Snape was gone most the night, so that's probably his problem too."

"No, I really think she's in some kind of trouble," she said, shaking her head. "Look, there's something that I haven't told you and Ron yet, and I think it's part of what's been going on."

"Tell us what?" Ron asked, as he walked out of the stairwell.

"Come on, let's find somewhere quiet," Hermione said, walking down the corridor. Glancing around, she entered a secret passage they had found a couple years before, shutting it behind them.

"Harry, you still have that Sneakometer?" Hermione asked.

"Would you tell us what's going on already, Hermione?" Ron said.

"Well, I'm not sure exactly, but I know what it was to do with, so I thought perhaps I should tell you what it's about so you can help me figure it out," Hermione admitted.

"All right, go on, we're listening," Harry said calmly.

"Okay, the main thing you need to know is that it was Snape who woke Craw up from Cosmic Sleep last year," Hermione said with a serious expression on her face.

"What? You must be joking!" Ron exclaimed. "That's just, that's just… ugh, I can't even imagine it."

"Hermione, are you sure?" Harry asked.

"Positive. I went to Craw and got her to admit it. They've been hiding it because they're afraid of what You-Know-Who would do to Snape if he found out that Snape was the one that saved her," she explained.

"Talk about beauty and the beast," Ron grimaced.

"No, Hermione's right; it all makes sense now. He was there with the Death Eaters when she and I were fighting Voldemort, and he was masked, so no one would have noticed him casting a counter spell. And when the Unicorns came, they chased all the other Death Eaters but ignored him."

"Hang on… Snape was the first one Dumbledore had guard her room the night we came back!" Ron said.

"Finally! See, there you are. I knew it would sink in eventually," Hermione teased.

"What do you think it has to do with today?" Harry asked.

"After Craw got back last night she seemed unusually quiet, as if in some sort of shock. Then today before classes, I noticed her pacing as if she were nervous about something and Ratfly has been busy sending notes all day," Hermione explained.

"Maybe we can find something out tonight in dueling club, or we can talk to her afterwards." Harry said.

"All right, but if you guys decide to ask about Snape about all this, I'm staying out of it," Ron said.

Professor Craw had not come to dinner that night, and even though that wasn't too unusual by itself, it was very unusual when they came into the gym and she wasn't already there. They met up with Ginny, who was quietly informed of the situation, and who was hitting herself for not seeing it before. They put up their wands and met up with Neville and Seamus, who were already standing in their form positions. Malfoy and Crabbe entered, putting up their wands, sneering at them as they passed.

"We're going to pummel you guys now that your pet professor isn't going to be here," Draco said. "Tonight should be a lot of fun."

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked.

"Professor McGonagall said Craw was exhausted. Madame Hooch is going to be filling in," Draco smirked, "so there's no one to hold your hand on your way to the ring today."

Ron, who'd had about enough of Draco lately anyhow, took a step forward, quickly getting held back by Ginny and Hermione. Just then Snape walked in, followed quickly behind by Hooch.

"Save it, Weasley," Snape snapped, heading to the front. "Everyone in line if you're not already there. Madame Hooch will be watching the back tonight so don't think you'll get away with anything. We're going to just run through the forms you currently know, and then we're going to run you through ten-minute rounds instead of five for the next two months. When you return in January, we will be starting a house tournament, with a winner for each year earning twenty points, runners up will get ten. The house with the most points at the end will get an additional sixty points. You have two months to train, and I suggest those of you who don't think they can cut it get out before you become an embarrassment."

Ron looked at Harry with a grin. Two hundred points, then, if the same team won every year's competition, and Gryffindor with the second biggest team was sure to pull some of them off. Harry noticed that the Slytherins were also exchanging looks as the biggest team. Of course, it was only going to take one good duelest on any team to win a year, but the odds were definitely favored towards the larger teams.

Snape ran quickly through the forms (only stopping twice to yell at Neville for dropping his practice wand) and they were quickly lined up for pairings. They each pulled out a slip of paper from the fifth year pile, reading it to find out who they were supposed to fight.

"I've got Crabbe with Hooch," Harry told them. "Who do you have?"

"Boot from Ravenclaw with Hooch," Hermione said, "at least I didn't get Millicent this time."

"Looks like I got Malfoy," said Ron, brooding.

"I thought you wanted to take on Malfoy, Ron," Harry said.

"I do, but I got him on the Snape side."

Neville, it appeared, seemed to have the same luck as Ron, as he was paired with Millicent Bulstrode with Snape refereeing. Seamus got Finch-Fletchley, who was a Hufflepuff, but with Snape. Seamus had gotten into such a habit getting benched when on the Snape side; they left him a regular seat. He walked up to them glumly, showing them the paper.

"Any wagers on how many of us get benched today?" Seamus asked. Little did he know, that anyone betting on that one today would have been out of luck.

Snape, it appeared, was not benching students at the drop of the hat today. In fact, it didn't look like he was benching anyone at all. It was in the second match with Neville and Millicent that they began to see that this not benching thing was not in their best interests. Millicent had quickly taken to bending every single rule possible to try and trip Neville up.

"This is not good, Neville doesn't like snakes," Ron said to Seamus, who shook his head. Neville's wand had turned into a snake and he had quickly dropped it, costing him the match as Millicent hit him with petrification. Looking triumphant, Millicent dispelled her spells and marched out of the ring getting a rousing applause from the crowd.

"Thought we weren't supposed to transfigure wands," Seamus whispered back, "I know I've gotten benched for it."

"Looks like we're playing by Snape's rules today," Ron whispered back as Seamus was called up for his round.

Seamus' opponent, Justin, was also a Quidditch player, one of the best Chasers in the school. Fortunately for Seamus, he hadn't really excelled as well in dueling, sometimes pausing and blocking for a couple hits before deciding on a spell to cast. Seamus on the other hand preferred indirect maneuvers, and decided to take a chance on Snape's mood and swing into action with a grease spell that coated Justin's boots. Justin, not expecting such a ploy then cast a blind spell. Seamus ducked it easily, moving to the far side of the ring, making Justin turn on his slippery shoes to face him, nearly losing his balance.

"Fizzlepop!" Seamus called out, as a yellow stream of bubbles flew out at Justin, hitting him in the mouth. A few chuckles erupted from the bench as Justin began belching, trying to level his wand at Seamus, who was dancing about the ring trying to get him to move.

"Torti…*belch* excuse me…Torti…*belch* excuse…oh forget it, I concede," he said as the students broke out laughing. Seamus dispelled the grease for Justin and climbed out, but didn't dispell the gas until Snape barked at him a few belches later.

"He's got no sense of humor. I thought it was funny," Seamus said as he sat back down near Ron. "But at least I didn't get benched."

"He is going to bench us though if someone might get hurt, won't he?" Ginny asked. Not that she was too worried herself; she was paired with Colin Creevey, another Gryffindor.

"Well, I expect we're going to find out," Ron said, watching a match between the two third years, "because I think I'm up next."

As Draco and Ron stepped up to the ring, Snape, who had been looking rather bored up to that point, suddenly looked extremely interested, and reminded them they were only allowed to disarm or debilitate and not to do any permanent damage. Ron watched Draco closely as they bowed, and Draco gave him a smile that he had a feeling Professor Craw would have benched him for if she had seen it.

"Begin," Snape said, and Draco immediately began casting his spell.

"Timere videre!" Malfoy said, casting it in front of Ron. A wall of wriggling spiders formed and headed towards him, but Ron had been through too many fear drills to know these weren't real. He walked straight through them, pointing at Malfoy.

"Vox miscere!" he cast as Draco slid to one knee getting out of the way.

"Digitalis gelu!" Draco said back, and Ron quickly countered the freezing spell with a warming one. Ron was beginning to see this match was stalemating, and he was going to need to pull something to keep it from going on forever. Suddenly he wondered if Malfoy would fall for a feint?

"Expelliarmus!" Ron said out loud, waving his wand as if going to aim it at him. Draco dove out of the way, not realizing he had only said the word but not done anything, and Ron calmly aimed at Draco where he lay.

"Humus ligare!" he said, and instantly Draco's body and anywhere it was touching the pad was stuck to it, face, feet, and arms. Draco, to say the least, was furious. Ron heard cheers around him. Apparently, the students from the other side had stopped to watch as well.

Ron dispelled the ground bind, offering Draco a hand. But Draco, slowly turning over, suddenly raised his wand instead. To his credit, Snape was one step quicker as he snatched Draco's wand away before he could get off a spell and walked him out of the ring.

"One more move like that, Draco, and you will be kicked out of the club. You wouldn't want to lose your chance at besting him in the tournament, would you?" Snape told him as he sat him down on the bench.

Ron walked out behind them, receiving his fair share of handshakes for the move, while the Gryffindors passed glances towards the Slytherin students who were glaring back.

"If Craw had seen that, he'd have been kicked out already," Ginny said to them, glaring at Malfoy.

"I don't know, I've seen him get away with stuff in her class too," Ron said.

"Well, we haven't exactly been model students either. I can think of a time or two when we should have got in trouble and didn't," Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah, but we're the good guys," Ron grinned. "There's a difference!"

"In any case, the move was still brilliant. I think you'll do very well in the tournament," Hermione told him smiling.

"Finally, I've found something I'm good at," Ron smirked.

"What about chess?" Ginny pointed out.

"We don't have tournaments in those," Ron said, glancing at Hooch's side of the room. "Come on, let's go see how Harry is doing."