Semper Fidelis
"Good boy. Gooooood boy. Stay. Staaaaay....."
Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin house, Potions master of Hogwarts, and the most feared professor on the Hogwarts staff, was teaching his new dog an old trick.
Fidelis was sitting, all a-tremble, on the Potions master's desk. Professor Snape had placed a small, warm, fragrant, freshly-cooked piece of bacon on Fidelis' tiny muzzle, right above his small black nose, and the former Beanie Baby was going cross-eyed as he stared longingly at it.
But the master had not yet given his permission....
At last, just as thin slivers of drool were running out the sides of Fidelis' mouth, Snape gave a silent, quick nod. Fidelis, in response, threw up his head, tossing the bacon into the air and catching it in his mouth as it fell in one quick motion, his miniscule jaws snapping it up with a sharp smack!
"Good dog! Gooood dog!" Snape rewarded his pet with another piece of bacon, watching fondly as Fidelis inhaled the tasty treat.
"Ahem," coughed a voice coming from the fireplace. "May I come in?"
"Good morning, Headmaster," Snape said, turning around to face the disembodied head, eyes twinkling merrily behind gold half-moon spectacles, in the dancing flames of his office hearth. "Come in, come in. What brings you here today?"
The head suddenly acquired a body, and Dumbledore stepped out of the fireplace, lightly brushing off ash from his shoulders.
"Hallowe'en is fast approaching, Severus, as you well know," said the headmaster as he settled into the most comfortable of the available chairs in Snape's office. He extended a long, thin, wrinkled hand to Fidelis, who happily leaned into it, letting Dumbledore gently scratch him behind the ears. "Since the events of last year, no one has had the heart, or stomach, to plan any kind of extensive, year-long programme that might remind the students unduly of the Triwizard Tournament."
Snape nodded, his shoulder-length greasy black hair gleaming as he did so. "Indeed."
"However," Dumbledore continued as Fidelis shook his right hind leg by the headmaster's hand, making an ecstatic puppy pantomime of scratching himself, "It has been decided that some sort of function should be attempted, as a way to boost the spirits of everyone, students and staff."
"I see." Snape's voice, which had been relatively warm and friendly-sounding -- for him, anyway -- suddenly acquired a slight chilliness. "What do you have in mind?"
If Dumbledore had detected the change in Snape's attitude, he certainly gave no sign of it. "A Costume Ball, of course," he said cheerily.
"And you need someone to flush the students out of the rosebushes, of course," said Snape resignedly.
"Take Fidelis with you," replied Dumbledore smoothly as he gently scratched the tiny dog under the chin. "He'll be able to sniff out the students well before even your own nose can find them."
=====
The sounds of merriment issued forth from the Great Hall, making their way outside of Hogwarts castle and onto the school grounds. But Severus Snape was not heeding those sounds.
Instead, he and his dog were out looking and listening (and, most importantly, sniffing) for other things.
Professor Snape stalked the grounds and gardens, hiding and moving silently in the shadows like a giant ill-humoured bat, tall, black-robed, menacing, with a sniffing, peering Fidelis gamely perched on his shoulder, indicating with a slight tightening of his grip when he had smelled out yet another hidden couple in the rosebushes.
It amazed Snape how these paired-off sixth- and seventh-years could delude themselves into thinking that mere shrubbery could conceal them. Even the ones who tried to use magical means of concealment never bothered with anything more than Invisibility and Inaudibility spells, while at the same time usually wearing, in the case of the females, perfume so strong it could be detected by a Muggle with a head cold at twenty paces.
You're not making this very difficult at all, he thought with grim amusement as he surprised yet another couple with a sudden blast from his wand, sending them scurrying back to the castle in a shower of leaves and rose petals. "Ten points from Ravenclaw, Mr. Donovan! And ten points from Gryffindor, Miss Mackintosh!" he called after them.
And so it went for the rest of the evening: another set of trembling rosebushes, another confirming sniff from Fidelis, another set of yelps and shrieks.
At least two couples, having been warned by the blasts, were smart enough to flee their rosebushes before he could catch them. He turned his wand towards them, preparing to cast the Full-Body-Bind spell, when suddenly Fidelis, who was looking behind Snape, dug his tiny claws into Snape's shoulder.
"What is it, boy?" Snape whispered, his body tense.
"Ree-hind you," Fidelis hissed in his high, sibilant puppy voice. He could speak, after a fashion, but human speech was difficult for him; he didn't talk unless it was absolutely necessary, and certainly not as much as he was doing now. "Smellsss Rrrrong. Not stuudenttt, not teacherrr..." A slight pause. "Human, but strangerrrr... not ffffriendly."
Severus Snape took a second to digest that bit of information. "Is it moving?"
"Nnnot yet. Isss crrouching. Innn rrrosebush -- not mmmovinggg." Then, before Snape could turn around:
"Sssstay, masterrr, ssstay!" urged Fidelis, his puppy tongue stumbling on the words. "Wwwait beforrre using wwwand. Waaaaittttt...." With all his miniscule might, Fidelis pushed his claws into Snape's shoulder.
Snape did as he was bid.
Seconds passed, seconds that seemed like hours, while the Potions master waited for his dog to give the word. But, at last, Fidelis whispered "Rrnnow!"
Snape whirled around and pointed his wand at a strangely motionless rosebush, shouting "Stupefy!" A bright flash issued from the wand, surrounding the bush -- and a rather large, unsavory-looking human pitched forward and fell face first onto the grass.
"Philip Graham," said Professor Snape to no one in particular. "I thought you were still in Azkaban. Well, you'll be back there soon enough. Mobilicorpus!"
Eyes closed, Graham's beefy body slowly rose to its feet.
"Forward, march!" commanded Snape, pointing to the entrance to the dungeons. Graham's unconscious form shuffled slowly along, with Snape alongside ready to hex him if necessary.
"Rrrooood masterrrr, Rrreeery rrrooood! Rrrrrooood masterrrr!" yelped Fidelis. He then contentedly curled up on Snape's shoulder, but not before giving him a lick on the ear.
Snape chuckled dryly, and reached up his free hand to give his little pet a friendly scratching.
They hadn't gone very far when a pair of students, male and female, and whose robes had telltale bits of rose-leaves sticking to them, ran up alongside Snape. It was Jeanette Foley and Paul Fletcher, both of them seventh-year Ravenclaws, and their eyes goggled as they saw the intruder.
"Are you all right, Professor?" said Jeanette, somewhat out of breath; they had been nearly inside the Great Hall when they heard Snape shout the Stunning Spell. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Quite all right, as you can see, Miss Foley, though a touch preoccupied," replied Snape acidly. "However, if you really wish to be useful, you can tell the headmaster that he needs to meet me in my office immediately."
"Yes, sir," said the pair together, and darted back the way they had come, trailing rosebush leaves behind them.
As Professor Snape prepared to resume escorting Graham back into the castle, he made a mental note to have the house-elves fix Fidelis a dish of their best smoked bacon.
"Good boy. Gooooood boy. Stay. Staaaaay....."
Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin house, Potions master of Hogwarts, and the most feared professor on the Hogwarts staff, was teaching his new dog an old trick.
Fidelis was sitting, all a-tremble, on the Potions master's desk. Professor Snape had placed a small, warm, fragrant, freshly-cooked piece of bacon on Fidelis' tiny muzzle, right above his small black nose, and the former Beanie Baby was going cross-eyed as he stared longingly at it.
But the master had not yet given his permission....
At last, just as thin slivers of drool were running out the sides of Fidelis' mouth, Snape gave a silent, quick nod. Fidelis, in response, threw up his head, tossing the bacon into the air and catching it in his mouth as it fell in one quick motion, his miniscule jaws snapping it up with a sharp smack!
"Good dog! Gooood dog!" Snape rewarded his pet with another piece of bacon, watching fondly as Fidelis inhaled the tasty treat.
"Ahem," coughed a voice coming from the fireplace. "May I come in?"
"Good morning, Headmaster," Snape said, turning around to face the disembodied head, eyes twinkling merrily behind gold half-moon spectacles, in the dancing flames of his office hearth. "Come in, come in. What brings you here today?"
The head suddenly acquired a body, and Dumbledore stepped out of the fireplace, lightly brushing off ash from his shoulders.
"Hallowe'en is fast approaching, Severus, as you well know," said the headmaster as he settled into the most comfortable of the available chairs in Snape's office. He extended a long, thin, wrinkled hand to Fidelis, who happily leaned into it, letting Dumbledore gently scratch him behind the ears. "Since the events of last year, no one has had the heart, or stomach, to plan any kind of extensive, year-long programme that might remind the students unduly of the Triwizard Tournament."
Snape nodded, his shoulder-length greasy black hair gleaming as he did so. "Indeed."
"However," Dumbledore continued as Fidelis shook his right hind leg by the headmaster's hand, making an ecstatic puppy pantomime of scratching himself, "It has been decided that some sort of function should be attempted, as a way to boost the spirits of everyone, students and staff."
"I see." Snape's voice, which had been relatively warm and friendly-sounding -- for him, anyway -- suddenly acquired a slight chilliness. "What do you have in mind?"
If Dumbledore had detected the change in Snape's attitude, he certainly gave no sign of it. "A Costume Ball, of course," he said cheerily.
"And you need someone to flush the students out of the rosebushes, of course," said Snape resignedly.
"Take Fidelis with you," replied Dumbledore smoothly as he gently scratched the tiny dog under the chin. "He'll be able to sniff out the students well before even your own nose can find them."
=====
The sounds of merriment issued forth from the Great Hall, making their way outside of Hogwarts castle and onto the school grounds. But Severus Snape was not heeding those sounds.
Instead, he and his dog were out looking and listening (and, most importantly, sniffing) for other things.
Professor Snape stalked the grounds and gardens, hiding and moving silently in the shadows like a giant ill-humoured bat, tall, black-robed, menacing, with a sniffing, peering Fidelis gamely perched on his shoulder, indicating with a slight tightening of his grip when he had smelled out yet another hidden couple in the rosebushes.
It amazed Snape how these paired-off sixth- and seventh-years could delude themselves into thinking that mere shrubbery could conceal them. Even the ones who tried to use magical means of concealment never bothered with anything more than Invisibility and Inaudibility spells, while at the same time usually wearing, in the case of the females, perfume so strong it could be detected by a Muggle with a head cold at twenty paces.
You're not making this very difficult at all, he thought with grim amusement as he surprised yet another couple with a sudden blast from his wand, sending them scurrying back to the castle in a shower of leaves and rose petals. "Ten points from Ravenclaw, Mr. Donovan! And ten points from Gryffindor, Miss Mackintosh!" he called after them.
And so it went for the rest of the evening: another set of trembling rosebushes, another confirming sniff from Fidelis, another set of yelps and shrieks.
At least two couples, having been warned by the blasts, were smart enough to flee their rosebushes before he could catch them. He turned his wand towards them, preparing to cast the Full-Body-Bind spell, when suddenly Fidelis, who was looking behind Snape, dug his tiny claws into Snape's shoulder.
"What is it, boy?" Snape whispered, his body tense.
"Ree-hind you," Fidelis hissed in his high, sibilant puppy voice. He could speak, after a fashion, but human speech was difficult for him; he didn't talk unless it was absolutely necessary, and certainly not as much as he was doing now. "Smellsss Rrrrong. Not stuudenttt, not teacherrr..." A slight pause. "Human, but strangerrrr... not ffffriendly."
Severus Snape took a second to digest that bit of information. "Is it moving?"
"Nnnot yet. Isss crrouching. Innn rrrosebush -- not mmmovinggg." Then, before Snape could turn around:
"Sssstay, masterrr, ssstay!" urged Fidelis, his puppy tongue stumbling on the words. "Wwwait beforrre using wwwand. Waaaaittttt...." With all his miniscule might, Fidelis pushed his claws into Snape's shoulder.
Snape did as he was bid.
Seconds passed, seconds that seemed like hours, while the Potions master waited for his dog to give the word. But, at last, Fidelis whispered "Rrnnow!"
Snape whirled around and pointed his wand at a strangely motionless rosebush, shouting "Stupefy!" A bright flash issued from the wand, surrounding the bush -- and a rather large, unsavory-looking human pitched forward and fell face first onto the grass.
"Philip Graham," said Professor Snape to no one in particular. "I thought you were still in Azkaban. Well, you'll be back there soon enough. Mobilicorpus!"
Eyes closed, Graham's beefy body slowly rose to its feet.
"Forward, march!" commanded Snape, pointing to the entrance to the dungeons. Graham's unconscious form shuffled slowly along, with Snape alongside ready to hex him if necessary.
"Rrrooood masterrrr, Rrreeery rrrooood! Rrrrrooood masterrrr!" yelped Fidelis. He then contentedly curled up on Snape's shoulder, but not before giving him a lick on the ear.
Snape chuckled dryly, and reached up his free hand to give his little pet a friendly scratching.
They hadn't gone very far when a pair of students, male and female, and whose robes had telltale bits of rose-leaves sticking to them, ran up alongside Snape. It was Jeanette Foley and Paul Fletcher, both of them seventh-year Ravenclaws, and their eyes goggled as they saw the intruder.
"Are you all right, Professor?" said Jeanette, somewhat out of breath; they had been nearly inside the Great Hall when they heard Snape shout the Stunning Spell. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Quite all right, as you can see, Miss Foley, though a touch preoccupied," replied Snape acidly. "However, if you really wish to be useful, you can tell the headmaster that he needs to meet me in my office immediately."
"Yes, sir," said the pair together, and darted back the way they had come, trailing rosebush leaves behind them.
As Professor Snape prepared to resume escorting Graham back into the castle, he made a mental note to have the house-elves fix Fidelis a dish of their best smoked bacon.