Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all these other great characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I just play with them!
7. Decisions.
Professor Snape went straight to the entrance hall after leaving the hospital wing. He sent word to the house-elves to take Potter's trunk to the dormitory, then took the cage with the boy's owl to the Owlery.
He put the cage down on a ledge and opened it. The snowy owl looked at him with distrust, squawked, and made as if to nip at him.
"Easy, Hedwig," he said quietly. He reached in with calm confidence, and the bird allowed him to take her out.
It would probably surprise Potter and his friends to learn that he was good with owls. But you couldn't take any points from an owl or give it detention, if you treated one harshly all that happened was that you ended up getting your fingers nipped. And an owl didn't care who you were or what you'd done with your life.
He gently stroked her until she stopped fidgeting, and only after she had settled down did he reach out to check her wing. It was a nasty break, but it could be healed. He took his wand out of his robes, pointing it at the large, white bird.
"Volo Iterum," he spoke the charm, watching her carefully. He'd only needed this spell once before, owls didn't often get hurt.
Hedwig shifted a bit on his wrist, then suddenly flapped her wings.
"Easy there," he said, "You need to rest a bit yet before we'll let you fly."
But he smiled, the spell had worked and her wing was mended.
Hedwig settled as he told her to, and he returned her to her cage. He replaced her food and water and put her in a quiet spot of the Owlery, away from the many flight holes.
He took one more look around the many rows of birds and was glad Raptor, his eagle owl, was not here to see him handle Potter's owl. With his additional Headmaster duties, he had to send far more owl post than any one bird could handle, but Raptor still felt rejected when he used the school owls. If there was one thing Snape didn't need right now, it was being scowled at by his own owl.
He walked back down to his office. Good, the house-elves had cleared away the mess Peeves had made. He sat down at his desk, closing the book he had left behind, and frowned.
He had considered sending Potter elsewhere, once Poppy cleared him from the hospital wing, but he found that, in the light of the developments with Voldemort, he couldn't. Albus would have his head if anything happened. Not that he himself would risk Potter falling in Voldemort's hands. He didn't wish that on anyone, not even Potter. If only the boy weren't here.
But he was, and Snape would have to come up with a way to keep him occupied. The Potions Master knew he wasn't going to let Potter roam the school unsupervised all day long. The boy would likely get in all sorts of trouble, he'd broken more than enough school rules when all the staff was around to watch him. To be honest, the boy hadn't broken quite as many rules last year, but there was still no need to tempt him, letting him run around by himself for three weeks.
The problem was, with only himself, Sybill Trelawney, and Filch, his options were limited. Snape doubted Filch would want to watch Potter any more than he did. And he couldn't make Potter spend his days with the divination teacher. Sybill would either forget all about the boy, or drive him so crazy with her predictions of doom that he was likely to break a few school rules just to get away from her.
He sighed as he reached the decision he had been dreading. Like it or not, he would have to keep an eye on Potter himself. Then he glanced at the clock. It was getting late, and it looked like Poppy would let Potter sleep all night before calling him. He considered going to the hospital wing but decided against it. Even though she'd been a Hufflepuff, Poppy could be as stubborn as a Gryffindor when it came to her patients' rest.
He took out a piece of parchment and picked up his quill. He'd have to inform Albus that Potter was here. Grimacing, he thought the Headmaster would likely find this situation extremely funny. Albus was always after him, chiding him for his obvious dislike of Potter, and would probably think it the greatest joke in the world that he'd be watching the boy for three weeks. Cursing his luck, Snape started to write.