Dear Readers,

Thank you for all the kind words, and I am so pleased that you enjoyed the first chapter so much! I hope this bit meets with your approval as well.

I'll be keeping the chapters short until I know where the tale is going, but hope to update about every two weeks. I've got several story-brews going and am trying to update at least one every week. Please let me know what you think!

If you are reading my other tales:

My AU Star Wars fic, 'Some Other Future's Past' received a major update last week.

'The Warming Potion Incident' has an update in the works - give me a week or so to work out the tics and twitches. Snape is going to have a very rough year…

'Like Cats and Dogs' should have a new bit up by tonight (Sunday) or tomorrow. The new bit earns its R rating, so please read the author's note in the header.

Thanks, all!

Sincerely,

Chaos

~

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble.

Chapter 2

~

The entire countryside seemed to be holding silence. Even the garden gnomes peeked warily out of the peony bushes, whispering amongst themselves. Inside the Burrow, Fred and George sat with milk-pale faces and the dread expressions of men about become the guests of honor at a hanging. Ginny continued to alternate bites of her breakfast with feeding Polaris, who had moved her perch to the back of the girl's chair.

Arthur and Molly were still deeply absorbed in Snape's letter, with Molly wringing the blue-covered book in her hands and shooting baleful looks at her sons.

At length, Arthur carefully folded the letter and slipped it back into the envelope. "Well. He does have a terrible temper, but he also has some very valid points. Molly, could I see the journal, please?"

If possible, the twin's pallor deepened as their mother and father opened the book. From the look of it, it was a normal students composition book – sold five for two Sickles at any Knut-and-Sickle store. On the inside, the writing and diagrams were seemingly what one might expect from any laboratory journal. Written in black ink, formulae, diagrams, lists of materiel, procedures, and notes in careful script filled the pages top to bottom.

Intermixed with the black ink and careful writing, was an angular but devastatingly legible script in blood-red ink. Note after note, angry red arrows, in some cases even entire sheets of parchment had been inserted into the journal.

"Yes. Well. I can quite see his point." Arthur murmured.

Molly glared at her boys and then at the journal, and then at the boys once more. "As can I. Merlin's beard! What he must have thought when he opened that journal and saw 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' instead of the school work you were supposed to be doing…!"

"But Mum…" Fred began, weakly.

"Not a word!" Molly's pointed finger silenced the boy as effectively as a drawn wand. "You're the luckiest children in the world that Professor Snape recognizes your talent and - instead of failing the both of you as you deserved - he and the other teachers you have so disrespected are going to give you a second chance."

"Teachers?" George choked.

"Yes, plural. Severus apparently brought this to the attention of Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Vector, Binns, Sinistra, and a few others - not to mention to Dumbledore himself." Arthur picked up the brown paper wrapping and folded the book back into it, retying the precise knots with every care. "With the headmaster's approval, Professors Snape and McGonagall have arrived at a course of study for you that they feel will get you past your NEWTs with high marks."

"Honestly, I can understand wanting to open a joke shop, boys, but if you don't show people that you can at least finish school, who would want to invest?" Molly scolded, "He's doing you a favor, but there are some points I want to clear up with him. I know he has the tendency to speak in very strong terms…"

"Better you go then, Molly dear. Young Severus and I have something of a history." Arthur raised an eyebrow. "He and that… rowdy… crowd over on Vertic Alley when he was just out of school, I told you about some of the… goings on."

Molly's face turned nearly as red as her hair. "Oh, I'd forgotten about that. No, he might not be glad to see you at all after… the Incident."

"What incident, Mum? Was Professor Snape in trouble?" Ginny's voice rose almost gleefully on the last word. "He's so buttoned up! What did he do?"

Even Fred and George found this a distraction from their troubles - the buttoned up Potions Master hanging with a bunch of rowdies and getting in hack with the Ministry?

Arthur cleared his throat, ears turning pink. "Nothing you need to know! It was a long time ago, and anyway… ah… you don't need to know."

~

The Hogsmeade local was a rather relaxing trip for Molly. For so long, everywhere she went there was babe, child, husband or some combination of same with her. Now with all of her younger ones in school and her three older boys on their own, she had all the time she had ever dreamed of as a young mother – and no idea what to do with it.

A faint blush stained her cheeks. That last statement was not strictly true – she and Arthur had plenty of ideas – but one could not do that all the time and anyway, Arthur had to work.

"Hogsmeade! All change! All change!"

Walking down the platform, memories pressed in on all sides. Herself as a wide-eyed eleven-year-old, staring about in wonder. Older, and holding hands with Arthur, then a lanky young man with a thick shock of deep red hair. Freshly graduated, worrying about wedding plans – and if the math was correct, three weeks pregnant with Bill. So much of who she was had its roots here, in Hogsmeade and at Hogwarts, that it was hard not to feel the strong pull of time.

At the carriage stand, she waited in a short queue before climbing in and simply saying, "To the School, please."

Even the ride up brought back memories – good and bad. The sick terror when they thought Ginny was dead, joy at being asked to attend the Tri-Wizard Tournament as Harry's family and the terrible pain that followed, the graduation ceremonies of Bill, Charlie, and Percy.

All too soon, she was walking up the great steps and into the ancient stone of Hogwarts, and trying to remember that she was a grown woman with grown children. The school was quiet and the hall deserted but for the dour Master Filch, the caretaker. As hard as he was on the students, the grizzled man was polite to her and escorted her to Professor Snape's office before going to fetch the man himself.

Severus had come to Hogwarts after Molly and Arthur had graduated – all she knew of him was second hand, but he was reputed to have the temper of a dragon with the pip. It seemed to be something of a trait among Potions Masters – Snape's predecessor, Professor Thirlwall, had been a thoroughgoing son of a bitch. Brilliant, but still a son of a bitch.

The office was much as it had been in Molly's time – jars of things one did not look at closely lined the walls, books and journals piled on tables, shelves and in stacks on the floor. The eroded carvings on the lintels and embrasures had been discomfiting students since Salazar Slytherin's day. There were a few personal touches about the room, a coffer here, a pair of deep wing chairs in front of the bare fireplace, professional credentials and accolades – but no family portraits or anything that might give a clue as to the occupant's personality.

Molly would just have to go on what she knew and improvise the rest. She had seen the man, but never actually met him – she had little to go on.

The door opened, admitting Snape in a swirl of black robes and Molly knew that there were going to be problems.

Molly sighed in the privacy of her own head – Here we go. Another pure-blood with his bits in a twist.

TBC