DISCLAIMER: The Hogwarts faculty, the Gryffindors and the Slytherins are not owned by me, but the great storyweaver J. K. Rowling!
I sure hope she will give me Snape as a birthday gift for my coming birthday, though...
EVALUATION ch.3
1) The professor teaches lessons relevant to the subject.
2) The professor is punctual, starts and dismisses the class on time.
3) The professor instills the school's values in his/her lessons
These have already been, thankfully, dealt with, Professor Severus Snape murmured to himself as he sipped his morning coffee in the staff room. Seeing that the first three entries had already been crossed out made him quite...relieved. But the thing is, there are four more.
As for the next...
4) The professor utilizes varying methods in his teaching (visual aids, field trips, etc.)
Oh, hell. Brows furrowing, he thought about how to go around it.
Snape sat back at stared at the ceiling; actually he had been doing that ever since last night, because he had no idea what else to use in teaching: Potion-making required little variety in it's instruction. However, because of sheer necessity at the moment, he had to think of something.
If he won't think of something, he may be bloody well rest assured that he won't be casually sipping coffee like he did now.
Snape groaned inwardly. He was losing his touch--definitely. He didn't care what the students think about him; it was only because that this maybe the only job that he could have. He knew that it was a miracle that Dumbledore placed him as a teacher in Hogwarts, not to mention vouching for his innocence in the first place...
He was drifting into his thoughts while sipping his coffee when the staffroom door opened.
"Hullo, everyone," a cheery Remus Lupin greeted. Snape almost spat out his coffee. Why does he always manage to get into my nerves? Snape thought irritably, then slammed down his mug onto his table, coffee splattering all over his desk and onto his black robes.
"Do you not even consider that there are people who want their work done quietly, Lupin?" Snape growled.
"Professor Snape, I don't see what Professor Lupin has done wrong," Professor Minerva McGonagall sniffed. Her table was situated in the far corner of the staffroom, by the window. She had been re-reading her student's essays when Lupin entered.
She gave a warm smile to Lupin. "Good morning, Remus."
Immensely glad to have someone other than the gloomy and grumpy (not to mention almost downright evil) Severus Snape to talk to, Remus Lupin walked over to McGonagall's desk. "Minerva, have you heard?" he said, dropping off his things on his own desk along the way. "Something unusual happened yesterday."
Snape tightened his grip on his mug's handle.
"Neville told me something very, very interesting," Remus grinned in Snape's direction. "You wouldn't believe, Minerva." He pulled a chair near McGonagall's table and sat on it, smiling with pure mirth.
Minerva pursed her lips. "Remus...you know that I do not include myself with such things. I do not need to know." But her eyes said a different thing.
Remus chuckled. "Minerva, this is not gossip. I'm talking of a miracle," he said, still glancing at Snape.
Minerva finally whispered, eyes twinkling, "What about him?"
"Gave Longbottom a big, fine chunk of Honeydukes bar, he did," Remus said, loud enough so that Snape could hear.
"ENOUGH!" Snape stood up and glared at Lupin. "What I do is my business, and I will not have you prattle off about it!" This is embarassing enough already, and Lupin still spouts off about it like a whistling teakettle, Snape thought darkly. Grabbing a nearby clean rug, he started wiping off the spilled and splattered coffee on his desk jerkily and impulsively.
Minerva only stifled a smile. "Oh my, Lupin, this may mean that our Potions Master still has hope!"
"Ah, sometime or another he has to give in and confess that he really did like his students," Remus commented.
Snape could only throw him a venomous look and returned to wiping off the mess on his desk.
"Hmm...yes, I think so too, Remus," Minerva cleared her throat. "However, I think that it is time for my first class...if you may excuse me..." Cradling her things in her arm, Minerva stood up and left her desk. Passing Snape, she said to him, "and good luck with your students, Severus. What you did was indeed an improvement in itself," she smiled as she closed the door behind her.
It was Snape and Remus alone in the staffroom, again.
"Damn it to hell, damn it," Snape muttered with each swipe of his arm as he cleaned his desk. "If what's happening isn't going to make me look like a bloody idiot, then I don't know what will,"
Remus shrugged. "You have to improve your people skills sometime or another, Severus. I'm even surprised that it came this late."
"I don't care if I can't deal well with people or not!" Snape snapped.
"Okay, okay," Remus conceded. "By the way, you're really planning in carrying out your quickie improvement, hm?"
"Well, I'm already in it, am I not?" Snape hissed. "Only thing is I don't know how the hell I can continue with this!" He took the list of evaluation criterias in his pocket and threw it towards Remus, who caught it.
"Hm...yes, I really do think you have dealt with the first three...not that you even needed any improvement for the first two," Remus murmured while taking a brief look. "Next in line is, hm, 'The professor utilizes varying methods in his teaching'." he finally folded the parchment and handed it back to Snape. "You having problems with that?"
The Potion Master's silence gave Remus his answer.
"Well, then," Remus frowned in thought. "Hmm...Since you deal with hands-on instruction in your subject, it is already a sort of visual aid, so...holding a field trip might be the plausible choice."
Snape uncharacteristically snorted. "And chaperone the little twits? They will kill me first with the trouble they go into. No, not that."
***
But the evening found Snape in the Forbidden Forest, tracing a relevantly safe path for the students who will travel there tomorrow.
He was carving a faintly discernable slash mark on a tree with a folding knife when Hagrid bumped into him. Snape pretended not to notice him.
"'Lo, Professor Snape," Hagrid greeted, not noticing Snape's unwelcome air. "What brings yeh here?"
"Marking off a path, Hagrid, so that the students will avoid going into their deaths," Snape drawled and went to another tree to start marking it. "For a field trip," he added.
Hagrid grunted. "But, wouldn't it be, eh, dangerous? Ter me, it would be better if yeh just keep them students where they belong."
"Let's just say an accident will happen, Hagrid, so that I will be rid of them." Snape said as he scraped off tree bark. "Lesser students, lesser headaches."
"Not ter mention losing yer job," Hagrid grumbled.
Snape stopped for a moment, then resumed scraping. "Leave me be, Hagrid. I will finish my task sooner if I am left alone."
With a huff Hagrid turned and left for Hogwarts castle.
Seeing that he was finally alone, Snape folded his knife and tucked it into his pocket. Finding a comfortable place to sit on a tree root, he sat down and propped himslef against a tree trunk, closing his eyes for a moment.
It was hard acting like this. Severus Snape had been born into a lonely life, and still breathed in it. He found it easier to make the students' lives living hell, because it brought him an odd comfort that it was the only thing he could do that was closest to revenge. And more.
He also wanted to find out if they will react any differently than he did when faced with threat. When he was still a student, all he did was keeping his emotions bottled up deep inside, and studied Dark Arts in hopes of being able to use it on them when the time comes.
It was then he joined the Death Eaters. Yes, it was enjoyable looking at his victims crumple under the influence of the Cruciatus curse, and the feeling of power that a successful Avada Kedavra curse gave.
It was sheer retribution at its finest.
But eventually all he did went into his head when he saw a young Muggle child being played around and left mangled by Macnair.
He saw himself. Snape winced at the memory.
But I was young and stupid then, he thought. Not anymore.
He hated himself after that. Felt like muck, really, and all he could do to shut off his self-loathing was making other people's lives hell. He wanted to assure himself that he was not the only person in the world who felt like shit by making them feel shit.
****
"Class, you will not be needing those cauldrons and ingredients today," Snape murmured rather off-handedly.
"What? First he gives Neville a chocolate bar, and now he's cancelling a class?" Ron Weasley whispered to Harry Potter and shuddered. "I reckon the world will end."
"Hush, Ron," Harry whispered back. "I'm having a rather bad feeling about this."
"We will going on...on...a field exposure," Snape said, satisfied for not having to say 'field trip', it sounded rather too happy. "All of you have to discern where and how to pick the ingredients essential for potion-making, for not always will you be able to find them ready made in stores. We will be going into the Forbidden Forest."
Excited murmurs rose from the students.
I can't believe I'm doing this thing. I must be damned.
What passed Severus Snape's mind was that he was already damned from the day he was born.
"Oh, I can't believe he only said it just now!" Hermione Granger whimpered. "And I brought all these books!"
"I wonder what went into his head yesterday?" Seamus Finnegan asked Harry from behind. "He is acting rather weird."
"D'you reckon?" Harry asked back, but more to Hermione and Ron, who heard the question.
"You can leave your things here, they will not be touched."
Snape looked at the students, who were still staring at him as if he had gone mad. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get off your chairs and go outside! Follow me," Snape said irritably as he headed for the door and went outside.
Slowly the students followed suit.
"This is weird," Harry muttered to himself. "Something's up, I know it."
***
Professor Snape led his Slytherin and Gryffindor students deep into the Forbidden Forest, carefully following the path he has marked for them.
Fortunately for Snape, all of them behaved. Except for some Slytherins, but they were quite tolerable. MAybe because they think I'm planning something, Snape thought blithely. It will be better that way, at least they behave.
Nearing the clearing where clumps of vervain, gloomspell and minea can be found, he paused for a bit and faced the students.
"This is where some of the most potent ingredients can be found. Vervain, as you all know, can prevent mind control induced by vampires. It also relatively weakens the effects of the Imperius curse is taken periodically." Snape explained, surprised that he was able to carry out the trip rather seamlessly. "Do not, I repeat, DO NOT pull any of the plants or its parts unless I tell you to. Some of them may do harm in mere touch alone. Is it understood?"
The students nodded in assent.
"Very well then. Follow me AND do not touch anything unnecessary." Snape walked on towards the clearing, with the students behind him.
Some peaceful moments had passed after they reached the small meadow in the middle of Forbidden Forest. Snape had ben able to commence the lesson with minor injuries; Malfoy, Crabbe and Pansy Parkinson's skins broke out with large red spots when they tried to chase a young unicorn and tripped in the process.
Snape was ready enough to bring first-aid antidotes, fortunately, and was able to give the errant three remedy.
He was showing the class how to peel a gloomspell fruit properly when he heard a faint explosion from behind the nearby bushes.
"Oh, no! SKREWTS!"
Sure enough, two six-feet tall blast-ended skrewts scuttled out of their hiding place and lunged at them. Snape cursed vehemently, but his voic was drowned out by Harry's,
"I KNEW YOU WERE UP TO SOMETHING! YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL US!" he bellowed. After those words went out of his mouth, Harry realized that what he said was a bit absurd, for Snape, as evil as he was, is still not the type to do anything of the sort. But still...there they were.
Snape's face went red with pure fury. "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME OF THAT?" he shouted back, in a rage. "If you've got brains, lead your classmates out of the forest!"
As the students ran out of the clearing in pure panic, Snape drew out his wand and dealt with the creature who was trying to impale him with it's sting...
***
Snape stalked in the corridors of Hogwarts castle, boiling over with anger. He was so careful, so very careful...why did it go wrong?
Damn, damn it all. Damn...damn... He wringed his hands in frustration. His carefully-worked plan was being torn to shreds...
There goes my job, he thought in fury mixed with anguish.
***
Later in the day though, Dumbledore accepted his explanations and let him off scot-free.
He walked down to the kitchens to get some tea for himself when he heard two students conversing:
"Hey, mine's better than your vampire-boggart," one said rather arrogantly.
"Oh yeah? What did your boggart turn into?"
"Snape in a bikini!"
"WHAT?" A girl giggled impishly. "I should have seen that! When did that happen?"
"Just yesterday."
Snape had heard enough. "Lupin. Remus Bloody Lupin," he snarled.
When he got into his office to prepare wolfsbane for Lupin to take the next day (it will be a full moon in the morrow), a good idea struck in his head.
Two birds in one stone, he thought in perverse mirth.
***
Next day, early evening. Snape's sixth-year class were waiting outside Professor Lupin's door in silence. Snape had told them to wait for him outside near Professor Lupin's office, to make up for the ruined exposure the day before, and that Professor Lupin had 'agreed' to help him out.
"I hope he better not try anything here," Harry muttered. "Yesterday was a really close shave.
Harry knew how dangerous a blast-ended skrewt can get, especially when full-grown. He had faced one in the Tri-wizard toirnament, and it had almost nearly killed him.
"Don't worry, Harry," Hermione assured him. "Lupin will be there, of course. I don't know what they will do, though."
"Hey, here comes Snape," Lavender said.
Snape strode towards the students, a steaming goblet in hand. "Good evening students," Snape drawled with a slight grin on his face. He seemed to be in a good mood. Which was rare.
"Professor Lupin knows you're here?" he asked off-handedly as he headed to the door of Lupin's office. He took out his wand his his free hand as he walked.
"No sir, no one answered the door when we knocked," Hermione answered.
"Good." Turning his back to the door, he addressed the students a few last-minute instructions. "Now, I will demonstrate the effects of this potion. Since we're about to deal with a live, dangerous specimen," Snape blew off the steam which wafted to his nose, "you will have to push yourselves flat against the nearest wall. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Professor Snape."
"Good."
Turning to face the door, he tapped his wand on the doorknob. "Alohomora."
He walked inside, and found a slightly agitated Lupin sitting by the windowsill.
"Severus!" Lupin exclaimed. "Thank goodness, you got the wolfsbane potion! The moon's almost up and--"
He noticed the students. He faced Snape with a puzzled frown and asked, "Why are they here?"
"Funny you should ask that, you bastard." Snape put down the goblet and yelled to the waiting students, "Come in here. Now!"
The students filed in, pushing against the wall, leaving an ample space in the middle of the room. Snape was satisfied with the size of the space the students allowed the both of them.
Remus could only look on with horror. He wished his guess of what Snape planned on doing was wrong, very wrong.
"You will not leave this room until I tell you so," Snape told the students. "You," he snapped to Blaise Zabini who was nearest to the door, "close the door! I will not have anyone leave or enter this room."
"Severus...what the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!" Lupin exclaimed in panic. "I'm going to change any minute now!"
Snape ignored him but with a wave of his wand pushed the curtains open. Then, dragging Lupin with him to the exact middle of Lupin's office, he lifted his wand arm, the wand pointed to the ceiling.
In a clear voice he said, "Barrier."
Not unlike the Priori Incantatem wand effect, a beam shot high above Snape's head and splintered into a thousand more beams, interconnecting into a circular roof that barred the two professors from the students, but still transparent so that the students outside could see the professors.
The full moon was going to rise any minute now.
Snape lifted the still-steaming goblet. "This, my dear students, is a wolfsbane potion," he said with a evil glee. "And I am going to demonstrate the difference between a werewolf without the influence of wolfbane and with wolfsbane." So saying, he put down the goblet to a farther place away from them.
Lupin whimpered. He was going to be exposed...
But then, all of Hogwarts knew that he was a werewolf anyway.
Snape suddenly grabbed Lupin around the waist and faced the pale professor towards the window. "Turn into a werewolf for the students, Lupin." he whispered sweetly to quivering Lupin's ear. "This is for their own welfare."
"Bastard," Lupin shot back, but weakly. "Bloody bastard."
And then the full moon's rays flowed into the widnow and hit Lupin.
He was beginning to change. Without the influence of wolfsbane, Lupin began to lose control of his mind, and he started thraahing about, screaming, but Snape held back his arms, restraining him.
It seemed that he had drunk some sort of a strengthening potion before coming to Lupin's office. He was able to restrain a werewolf, and a full-grown one at that.
"How do you think that feels, Lupin?" Snape whispered, grinning. He looked for all the world like he was conversing with a lover. "Now you know how being--exposed feels like?"
Wolf-Lupin only growled, but could do nothing in Snape's fast hold.
"This is for what you did the other day...the boggart, do you remember? What did the student clothe me with, hm?"
Then to the students, Snape said, "this is a werewolf withouyt the influence of the wolfsbane," he grunted as he wrestled with the werewolf. "Dangerous, a threat to life, a threat to society..."
Pushing away Lupin and grabbing his wand, he put a stunning spell on the werewolf as he grabbed the wolfsbane potion, and force-fed it onto the prone wolf's open muzzle. When he let go of the wolf, he dispelled the stunning spell and Wolf-Lupin just stood there, growling.
"And that," Snape panted slightly, "is a calm werewolf with wolfsbane. It will retain his human mind and I really wonder what he thinks right now, now that he has so kindly shown to us how a werewolf changes?"
The Slytherins laughed snidely, but the Gryffindors only grumbled. They had so loved Lupin, after all.
"I hope that this makes up for the botched exposure trip yesterday," Snape said. "Now, you may all--AAARGH!"
Wolf-Lupin gave his ass a big bite.
Snape howled with pain. "Damn you Lupin!"
***
Walking to his desk in the staffroom, giving his sore butt-cheek a pat before sitting down, Snape took out his list of evaluation criteria and crossed out
4) The professor utilizes varying methods in his teaching (visual aids, field trips, etc.)
Snape grumbled to himself. The first attempt in clearing his relations with the students in class was very straining; was happened last night though, made up for it.
Except for the bite Lupin gave him. Fortunately, he was able to treat it immediately so that he wouldn't be turned into a werewolf.
Wincing as he moved to stuff the small parchment into his pocket, Snape wondered how could Lupin have resorted to such petty tactics to get back at him: biting his ass in front of his class.
----
A/N Damn, I really think whether I should still classify this under 'humor'...hmm...oh well. R/R please! Thanks to the people who kindly reviewed my efforts! Till next chapter!
I sure hope she will give me Snape as a birthday gift for my coming birthday, though...
EVALUATION ch.3
1) The professor teaches lessons relevant to the subject.
2) The professor is punctual, starts and dismisses the class on time.
3) The professor instills the school's values in his/her lessons
These have already been, thankfully, dealt with, Professor Severus Snape murmured to himself as he sipped his morning coffee in the staff room. Seeing that the first three entries had already been crossed out made him quite...relieved. But the thing is, there are four more.
As for the next...
4) The professor utilizes varying methods in his teaching (visual aids, field trips, etc.)
Oh, hell. Brows furrowing, he thought about how to go around it.
Snape sat back at stared at the ceiling; actually he had been doing that ever since last night, because he had no idea what else to use in teaching: Potion-making required little variety in it's instruction. However, because of sheer necessity at the moment, he had to think of something.
If he won't think of something, he may be bloody well rest assured that he won't be casually sipping coffee like he did now.
Snape groaned inwardly. He was losing his touch--definitely. He didn't care what the students think about him; it was only because that this maybe the only job that he could have. He knew that it was a miracle that Dumbledore placed him as a teacher in Hogwarts, not to mention vouching for his innocence in the first place...
He was drifting into his thoughts while sipping his coffee when the staffroom door opened.
"Hullo, everyone," a cheery Remus Lupin greeted. Snape almost spat out his coffee. Why does he always manage to get into my nerves? Snape thought irritably, then slammed down his mug onto his table, coffee splattering all over his desk and onto his black robes.
"Do you not even consider that there are people who want their work done quietly, Lupin?" Snape growled.
"Professor Snape, I don't see what Professor Lupin has done wrong," Professor Minerva McGonagall sniffed. Her table was situated in the far corner of the staffroom, by the window. She had been re-reading her student's essays when Lupin entered.
She gave a warm smile to Lupin. "Good morning, Remus."
Immensely glad to have someone other than the gloomy and grumpy (not to mention almost downright evil) Severus Snape to talk to, Remus Lupin walked over to McGonagall's desk. "Minerva, have you heard?" he said, dropping off his things on his own desk along the way. "Something unusual happened yesterday."
Snape tightened his grip on his mug's handle.
"Neville told me something very, very interesting," Remus grinned in Snape's direction. "You wouldn't believe, Minerva." He pulled a chair near McGonagall's table and sat on it, smiling with pure mirth.
Minerva pursed her lips. "Remus...you know that I do not include myself with such things. I do not need to know." But her eyes said a different thing.
Remus chuckled. "Minerva, this is not gossip. I'm talking of a miracle," he said, still glancing at Snape.
Minerva finally whispered, eyes twinkling, "What about him?"
"Gave Longbottom a big, fine chunk of Honeydukes bar, he did," Remus said, loud enough so that Snape could hear.
"ENOUGH!" Snape stood up and glared at Lupin. "What I do is my business, and I will not have you prattle off about it!" This is embarassing enough already, and Lupin still spouts off about it like a whistling teakettle, Snape thought darkly. Grabbing a nearby clean rug, he started wiping off the spilled and splattered coffee on his desk jerkily and impulsively.
Minerva only stifled a smile. "Oh my, Lupin, this may mean that our Potions Master still has hope!"
"Ah, sometime or another he has to give in and confess that he really did like his students," Remus commented.
Snape could only throw him a venomous look and returned to wiping off the mess on his desk.
"Hmm...yes, I think so too, Remus," Minerva cleared her throat. "However, I think that it is time for my first class...if you may excuse me..." Cradling her things in her arm, Minerva stood up and left her desk. Passing Snape, she said to him, "and good luck with your students, Severus. What you did was indeed an improvement in itself," she smiled as she closed the door behind her.
It was Snape and Remus alone in the staffroom, again.
"Damn it to hell, damn it," Snape muttered with each swipe of his arm as he cleaned his desk. "If what's happening isn't going to make me look like a bloody idiot, then I don't know what will,"
Remus shrugged. "You have to improve your people skills sometime or another, Severus. I'm even surprised that it came this late."
"I don't care if I can't deal well with people or not!" Snape snapped.
"Okay, okay," Remus conceded. "By the way, you're really planning in carrying out your quickie improvement, hm?"
"Well, I'm already in it, am I not?" Snape hissed. "Only thing is I don't know how the hell I can continue with this!" He took the list of evaluation criterias in his pocket and threw it towards Remus, who caught it.
"Hm...yes, I really do think you have dealt with the first three...not that you even needed any improvement for the first two," Remus murmured while taking a brief look. "Next in line is, hm, 'The professor utilizes varying methods in his teaching'." he finally folded the parchment and handed it back to Snape. "You having problems with that?"
The Potion Master's silence gave Remus his answer.
"Well, then," Remus frowned in thought. "Hmm...Since you deal with hands-on instruction in your subject, it is already a sort of visual aid, so...holding a field trip might be the plausible choice."
Snape uncharacteristically snorted. "And chaperone the little twits? They will kill me first with the trouble they go into. No, not that."
***
But the evening found Snape in the Forbidden Forest, tracing a relevantly safe path for the students who will travel there tomorrow.
He was carving a faintly discernable slash mark on a tree with a folding knife when Hagrid bumped into him. Snape pretended not to notice him.
"'Lo, Professor Snape," Hagrid greeted, not noticing Snape's unwelcome air. "What brings yeh here?"
"Marking off a path, Hagrid, so that the students will avoid going into their deaths," Snape drawled and went to another tree to start marking it. "For a field trip," he added.
Hagrid grunted. "But, wouldn't it be, eh, dangerous? Ter me, it would be better if yeh just keep them students where they belong."
"Let's just say an accident will happen, Hagrid, so that I will be rid of them." Snape said as he scraped off tree bark. "Lesser students, lesser headaches."
"Not ter mention losing yer job," Hagrid grumbled.
Snape stopped for a moment, then resumed scraping. "Leave me be, Hagrid. I will finish my task sooner if I am left alone."
With a huff Hagrid turned and left for Hogwarts castle.
Seeing that he was finally alone, Snape folded his knife and tucked it into his pocket. Finding a comfortable place to sit on a tree root, he sat down and propped himslef against a tree trunk, closing his eyes for a moment.
It was hard acting like this. Severus Snape had been born into a lonely life, and still breathed in it. He found it easier to make the students' lives living hell, because it brought him an odd comfort that it was the only thing he could do that was closest to revenge. And more.
He also wanted to find out if they will react any differently than he did when faced with threat. When he was still a student, all he did was keeping his emotions bottled up deep inside, and studied Dark Arts in hopes of being able to use it on them when the time comes.
It was then he joined the Death Eaters. Yes, it was enjoyable looking at his victims crumple under the influence of the Cruciatus curse, and the feeling of power that a successful Avada Kedavra curse gave.
It was sheer retribution at its finest.
But eventually all he did went into his head when he saw a young Muggle child being played around and left mangled by Macnair.
He saw himself. Snape winced at the memory.
But I was young and stupid then, he thought. Not anymore.
He hated himself after that. Felt like muck, really, and all he could do to shut off his self-loathing was making other people's lives hell. He wanted to assure himself that he was not the only person in the world who felt like shit by making them feel shit.
****
"Class, you will not be needing those cauldrons and ingredients today," Snape murmured rather off-handedly.
"What? First he gives Neville a chocolate bar, and now he's cancelling a class?" Ron Weasley whispered to Harry Potter and shuddered. "I reckon the world will end."
"Hush, Ron," Harry whispered back. "I'm having a rather bad feeling about this."
"We will going on...on...a field exposure," Snape said, satisfied for not having to say 'field trip', it sounded rather too happy. "All of you have to discern where and how to pick the ingredients essential for potion-making, for not always will you be able to find them ready made in stores. We will be going into the Forbidden Forest."
Excited murmurs rose from the students.
I can't believe I'm doing this thing. I must be damned.
What passed Severus Snape's mind was that he was already damned from the day he was born.
"Oh, I can't believe he only said it just now!" Hermione Granger whimpered. "And I brought all these books!"
"I wonder what went into his head yesterday?" Seamus Finnegan asked Harry from behind. "He is acting rather weird."
"D'you reckon?" Harry asked back, but more to Hermione and Ron, who heard the question.
"You can leave your things here, they will not be touched."
Snape looked at the students, who were still staring at him as if he had gone mad. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get off your chairs and go outside! Follow me," Snape said irritably as he headed for the door and went outside.
Slowly the students followed suit.
"This is weird," Harry muttered to himself. "Something's up, I know it."
***
Professor Snape led his Slytherin and Gryffindor students deep into the Forbidden Forest, carefully following the path he has marked for them.
Fortunately for Snape, all of them behaved. Except for some Slytherins, but they were quite tolerable. MAybe because they think I'm planning something, Snape thought blithely. It will be better that way, at least they behave.
Nearing the clearing where clumps of vervain, gloomspell and minea can be found, he paused for a bit and faced the students.
"This is where some of the most potent ingredients can be found. Vervain, as you all know, can prevent mind control induced by vampires. It also relatively weakens the effects of the Imperius curse is taken periodically." Snape explained, surprised that he was able to carry out the trip rather seamlessly. "Do not, I repeat, DO NOT pull any of the plants or its parts unless I tell you to. Some of them may do harm in mere touch alone. Is it understood?"
The students nodded in assent.
"Very well then. Follow me AND do not touch anything unnecessary." Snape walked on towards the clearing, with the students behind him.
Some peaceful moments had passed after they reached the small meadow in the middle of Forbidden Forest. Snape had ben able to commence the lesson with minor injuries; Malfoy, Crabbe and Pansy Parkinson's skins broke out with large red spots when they tried to chase a young unicorn and tripped in the process.
Snape was ready enough to bring first-aid antidotes, fortunately, and was able to give the errant three remedy.
He was showing the class how to peel a gloomspell fruit properly when he heard a faint explosion from behind the nearby bushes.
"Oh, no! SKREWTS!"
Sure enough, two six-feet tall blast-ended skrewts scuttled out of their hiding place and lunged at them. Snape cursed vehemently, but his voic was drowned out by Harry's,
"I KNEW YOU WERE UP TO SOMETHING! YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL US!" he bellowed. After those words went out of his mouth, Harry realized that what he said was a bit absurd, for Snape, as evil as he was, is still not the type to do anything of the sort. But still...there they were.
Snape's face went red with pure fury. "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME OF THAT?" he shouted back, in a rage. "If you've got brains, lead your classmates out of the forest!"
As the students ran out of the clearing in pure panic, Snape drew out his wand and dealt with the creature who was trying to impale him with it's sting...
***
Snape stalked in the corridors of Hogwarts castle, boiling over with anger. He was so careful, so very careful...why did it go wrong?
Damn, damn it all. Damn...damn... He wringed his hands in frustration. His carefully-worked plan was being torn to shreds...
There goes my job, he thought in fury mixed with anguish.
***
Later in the day though, Dumbledore accepted his explanations and let him off scot-free.
He walked down to the kitchens to get some tea for himself when he heard two students conversing:
"Hey, mine's better than your vampire-boggart," one said rather arrogantly.
"Oh yeah? What did your boggart turn into?"
"Snape in a bikini!"
"WHAT?" A girl giggled impishly. "I should have seen that! When did that happen?"
"Just yesterday."
Snape had heard enough. "Lupin. Remus Bloody Lupin," he snarled.
When he got into his office to prepare wolfsbane for Lupin to take the next day (it will be a full moon in the morrow), a good idea struck in his head.
Two birds in one stone, he thought in perverse mirth.
***
Next day, early evening. Snape's sixth-year class were waiting outside Professor Lupin's door in silence. Snape had told them to wait for him outside near Professor Lupin's office, to make up for the ruined exposure the day before, and that Professor Lupin had 'agreed' to help him out.
"I hope he better not try anything here," Harry muttered. "Yesterday was a really close shave.
Harry knew how dangerous a blast-ended skrewt can get, especially when full-grown. He had faced one in the Tri-wizard toirnament, and it had almost nearly killed him.
"Don't worry, Harry," Hermione assured him. "Lupin will be there, of course. I don't know what they will do, though."
"Hey, here comes Snape," Lavender said.
Snape strode towards the students, a steaming goblet in hand. "Good evening students," Snape drawled with a slight grin on his face. He seemed to be in a good mood. Which was rare.
"Professor Lupin knows you're here?" he asked off-handedly as he headed to the door of Lupin's office. He took out his wand his his free hand as he walked.
"No sir, no one answered the door when we knocked," Hermione answered.
"Good." Turning his back to the door, he addressed the students a few last-minute instructions. "Now, I will demonstrate the effects of this potion. Since we're about to deal with a live, dangerous specimen," Snape blew off the steam which wafted to his nose, "you will have to push yourselves flat against the nearest wall. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Professor Snape."
"Good."
Turning to face the door, he tapped his wand on the doorknob. "Alohomora."
He walked inside, and found a slightly agitated Lupin sitting by the windowsill.
"Severus!" Lupin exclaimed. "Thank goodness, you got the wolfsbane potion! The moon's almost up and--"
He noticed the students. He faced Snape with a puzzled frown and asked, "Why are they here?"
"Funny you should ask that, you bastard." Snape put down the goblet and yelled to the waiting students, "Come in here. Now!"
The students filed in, pushing against the wall, leaving an ample space in the middle of the room. Snape was satisfied with the size of the space the students allowed the both of them.
Remus could only look on with horror. He wished his guess of what Snape planned on doing was wrong, very wrong.
"You will not leave this room until I tell you so," Snape told the students. "You," he snapped to Blaise Zabini who was nearest to the door, "close the door! I will not have anyone leave or enter this room."
"Severus...what the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!" Lupin exclaimed in panic. "I'm going to change any minute now!"
Snape ignored him but with a wave of his wand pushed the curtains open. Then, dragging Lupin with him to the exact middle of Lupin's office, he lifted his wand arm, the wand pointed to the ceiling.
In a clear voice he said, "Barrier."
Not unlike the Priori Incantatem wand effect, a beam shot high above Snape's head and splintered into a thousand more beams, interconnecting into a circular roof that barred the two professors from the students, but still transparent so that the students outside could see the professors.
The full moon was going to rise any minute now.
Snape lifted the still-steaming goblet. "This, my dear students, is a wolfsbane potion," he said with a evil glee. "And I am going to demonstrate the difference between a werewolf without the influence of wolfbane and with wolfsbane." So saying, he put down the goblet to a farther place away from them.
Lupin whimpered. He was going to be exposed...
But then, all of Hogwarts knew that he was a werewolf anyway.
Snape suddenly grabbed Lupin around the waist and faced the pale professor towards the window. "Turn into a werewolf for the students, Lupin." he whispered sweetly to quivering Lupin's ear. "This is for their own welfare."
"Bastard," Lupin shot back, but weakly. "Bloody bastard."
And then the full moon's rays flowed into the widnow and hit Lupin.
He was beginning to change. Without the influence of wolfsbane, Lupin began to lose control of his mind, and he started thraahing about, screaming, but Snape held back his arms, restraining him.
It seemed that he had drunk some sort of a strengthening potion before coming to Lupin's office. He was able to restrain a werewolf, and a full-grown one at that.
"How do you think that feels, Lupin?" Snape whispered, grinning. He looked for all the world like he was conversing with a lover. "Now you know how being--exposed feels like?"
Wolf-Lupin only growled, but could do nothing in Snape's fast hold.
"This is for what you did the other day...the boggart, do you remember? What did the student clothe me with, hm?"
Then to the students, Snape said, "this is a werewolf withouyt the influence of the wolfsbane," he grunted as he wrestled with the werewolf. "Dangerous, a threat to life, a threat to society..."
Pushing away Lupin and grabbing his wand, he put a stunning spell on the werewolf as he grabbed the wolfsbane potion, and force-fed it onto the prone wolf's open muzzle. When he let go of the wolf, he dispelled the stunning spell and Wolf-Lupin just stood there, growling.
"And that," Snape panted slightly, "is a calm werewolf with wolfsbane. It will retain his human mind and I really wonder what he thinks right now, now that he has so kindly shown to us how a werewolf changes?"
The Slytherins laughed snidely, but the Gryffindors only grumbled. They had so loved Lupin, after all.
"I hope that this makes up for the botched exposure trip yesterday," Snape said. "Now, you may all--AAARGH!"
Wolf-Lupin gave his ass a big bite.
Snape howled with pain. "Damn you Lupin!"
***
Walking to his desk in the staffroom, giving his sore butt-cheek a pat before sitting down, Snape took out his list of evaluation criteria and crossed out
4) The professor utilizes varying methods in his teaching (visual aids, field trips, etc.)
Snape grumbled to himself. The first attempt in clearing his relations with the students in class was very straining; was happened last night though, made up for it.
Except for the bite Lupin gave him. Fortunately, he was able to treat it immediately so that he wouldn't be turned into a werewolf.
Wincing as he moved to stuff the small parchment into his pocket, Snape wondered how could Lupin have resorted to such petty tactics to get back at him: biting his ass in front of his class.
----
A/N Damn, I really think whether I should still classify this under 'humor'...hmm...oh well. R/R please! Thanks to the people who kindly reviewed my efforts! Till next chapter!