I am SO sorry for this!!! As most of you may know I have been without the internet for 6 months relying on (what turned out to be an unreliable) source to post my story and snail mail me any reviews, needless to say that didn't turn out so well!!

From now on I hope to post at least every 2 weeks (depending on far I get, and whether I can get online!! (Phone bills could go through the roof!!)) I beg you PLEASE keep reading!

Thanks.

Krusty xxx.

Don't own anything recognisable from JK Rowling's Harry Potter books.

Chapter 4

The Death Eater.

"Did you see her?" Harry, Ron and Hermione had reached their common room without seeing Snape. Harry had dragged them to a quiet corner and whispered fiercely. "We told her he was a Death Eater and she didn't move a muscle!"

"You're not on about this again are you?" Ron rolled his eyes in his head. He had only just convinced Harry and Hermione that doing a background investigation on a new teacher wouldn't be a good idea – and they were at it again!!

"Her reaction was a bit strange. You have to admit that Ron." Hermione intervened into Ron's thoughts with her usual logic.

"You were just like this last year!" Ron accused Harry. Hermione looked at him in shock and hit his hand. Wincing slightly he continued. "You wouldn't believe Pat was here to help either!"

Hermione shook her head warningly, but Ron continued his argument.

"Professor Phaon hasn't done anything to harm Harry, or any of us has she? No, she hasn't! You deserve as normal a life as possible Harry! Don't do this spell."

"But what if she is after Harry…"?

"You're supposed to be the brainy one!" Ron exclaimed to Hermione. "You know the one that sucks up to the teachers, not the suspicious type!"

"I do not suck up!" Hermione frowned. "And I don't trust all the teachers."

"Yeah right…"

"Ok! When have I been…"?

"Gilderoy Lockheart! …"

Hermione turned away from Ron's record of her mistakes, unwilling to surrender to him. Instead she looked at Harry, and immediately regretted arguing with Ron.

Harry looked upset. He hadn't heard Ron and Hermione's argument; he had been in a world of his own.

"… and you didn't believe … OUCH!" Ron rubbed at his arm were Hermione had just pinched him. "What!" He yelled.

She motioned to Harry, still involved his troubled thoughts.

"Harry? Are you okay?" Hermione asked softly. Harry didn't respond.

Ron nudged him in the arm. "What's up?"

Harry shook his head and looked at them. "I can't help but remember last term when Professor Trelawney tried to kill me. What if Voldemort has sent someone else?"

Hermione made her mind up and, avoiding Ron's gaze, said. "It'll take me a couple of weeks to get the ingredients together. We'll do the spell for her background then."

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

So she thought he was a coward then?

Snape stalked back to his potions room.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor! I see you behind that pillar! If you don't move now it will be One Hundred!" He brushed past the startled group huddled behind a post.

'I am not a coward' He thought savagely.

A group of students walking behind him fell into a heap in an effort to avoid Severus as he stopped suddenly.

'Why is she on my mind?'  "Twenty points from Hufflepuff for walking too close to me!" He glared at the students scattering from him. 'I've heard worse insults!' He thought as he continued walking. People's faces flashed through his head, people begging, people insulting, even those who tried to bribe him, they all mixed together to form one big blur. He felt remorse for them, but he couldn't change their deaths as much as he could change his situation

He approached his classroom and tried to forget the words she had said to him. He had a class to teach.

Severus had already taught the first years of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. This made them wary as they walked into his classroom. His was the only room where the pupils went from loud and rowdy to silent and anxious in a second.

Severus appeared to be standing at his desk flicking through a spell book, but if anyone had looked at him closely, they would have seen that he was studying the students as they walked in. Over the years he had perfected his judgment. With one glance he could see what each pupil was thinking.

'So, Grant Livery hasn't done his homework again!' He thought disdainfully.

This made him the first target for the afternoon.

"Mr Livery!" The silky snarl floated around the classroom. The boy stiffened and looked at his desk, unwilling to look Severus in the eye. "Have you completed that assignment?"

"Uhhhh… umm…" The Hufflepuff boy turned an alarming shade of red as he stammered.

"Well Mr Livery?"

"I… umm… I couldn't do it." The classroom was more silent than usual (if that's possible) and everyone was facing Grant. The Hufflepuffs were sympathising with the boy, while the Ravenclaws were looking down their noses at the boy who hadn't done his homework. At the same time they were all incredibly grateful that Severus wasn't targeting them.

"You couldn't do it?" Severus parodied the boy sardonically. "And might I ask why?"

"Ummm… well… I…" The boy mumbled at the floor.

Severus glowered at Grant Livery. "Ten points from Hufflepuff!" He swung round to face the board. Grant sank down in relief, but Severus wasn't finished.

"…And if you don't give me a believable excuse by the end of the day, you will be in detention for a week!"

The Hufflepuffs sat beside Grant shared compassionate looks with the boy, but no one dared to speak to him.

"Right!" Severus turned to face them suddenly, glaring and putting his hands on the spell book stand near his desk. "Who here knows how to make……."

 After his students had left he crossed his room and went to his desk. Opening the bottom drawer, he sunk into his chair and grabbed an old worn notebook.

He picked up an old quill he kept in his drawer and scratched his head. Eventually he began to write and murmured exultantly as he did.

"That was 120 points from Hufflepuff today." He wrote down a list of names and total points lost.

"90 points from Ravenclaw. 10 points from Slytherin." He frowned when he remembered Helga Rander's behaviour during Dumbledore's pre-dinner speech. He hated taking points from Slytherin, but when Dumbledore was present, and Helga had been whispering so loud.

"120 points… no 170 points from Gryffindor today! I almost forgot Neville's experiment."

A ghost of a smile – if you could call it that – crossed his face. He had made the Gryffindors make a potion to reduce boils for Madam Pomfrey. He remembered Neville's face when instead of removing the boils Severus had conjured onto his face; the potion he had made turned his skin yellow and his eyes red.

He frowned when he looked at the notebook. "Bit of a slow week for Potter and Weasley." His face twisted as he thought up many different plans to take points away from Gryffindor.

"Maybe I could set them a particularly difficult potion to do…" He mused harshly.

He shook his head angrily, that had been done before.

His usually blank expression turned into one of complete concentration, not since his student days and the feud with James Potter had he spent so much time planning a punishment.

A soft knock from his door interrupted his thoughts. He scowled; he didn't have another lesson that day.

'Whoever it is it had better not be a student.'  He thought savagely.

"Enter!" He yelled not at all welcoming. He kept writing in his notebook, and then after a while looked up.

The door had swung open, but no one had entered the room. Looking through the gap in the doorframe, he was surprised to see Katrina Phaon, the new History of Magic teacher at the door.

She was looking straight ahead at the fireplace on the far wall.

"What?!" He snarled, but not as savagely as normal. Dumbledore had asked him to be kinder to the new teacher, and as he respected Dumbledore he had said he would tone down the glacial welcome. He would be polite – but not welcoming. He looked at her, and was displeased to see her still stood in the doorway. After putting his notebook back in the drawer he moved over to her like a panther stalking his prey. He assumed an air of indifference.

"What do you want?"

She swallowed, and he could see a fight going on in her emotionless face. After a while of him looking at her she took a deep breath, stiffened her frame and went for it.

"I would like to apologise."

He looked at her incredulously, but shuttered his emotions quickly. "Yes…?"

"I would like to apologise for calling you a …" The words stuck in her throat, but she managed to say them. "Coward."

"Well, well, well." He walked over to the nearest desk and sat on it. Folding his arms he looked up at her his face the usual detached mask, but his eyes burning with triumph.

She turned to go.

"Wait!" He commanded.

She looked back at him sullenly. Her face reminded him of Draco Malfoy's when Potter had been made the Gryffindor seeker.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" He asked smoothly and deviously.

"I don't believe so." She bit back at him, but her body was tensed with adrenalin. She was in a position so if he tried to go near her she could run. He noted this with interest.

"You haven't really apologised to me, have you?"

She stiffened, her eyes flashed fire momentarily, but she regained her calm composure.

"I apologise for my inappropriate comments."

Before he could say a word she hastily left his classroom and strode down the corridor.

He glowered at her back as she left him. She was really infuriating.

'She knew I wouldn't accept her apology.' He thought acerbically, and that annoyed him.

Going back to his desk he sat on his chair glaring at the door. He was known for his foul moods and he was in one now.

His mood lifted suddenly and if he had been prone to laughing he would have. He had found a way to take points away from Harry!

He was refereeing a Quiddich match tomorrow…

Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.

A/N

Thanks again for everyone putting up with me!!

Alexgray:

Thanks for the uplifting comments.