While Severus was distracted by Prewatts antics, a corner of his mind was on Filius earlier comment. What had Minerva said about him that was wrong? Filius had praised him, and...
Oh.
She must have degraded him, then. As he knew the prewatts had spread about his potion detection and disguise, she must have thought they have lied, or exaggerated or he is fraud. Telling the other heads he is not worth their time.
He fisted his robe. This was not the first time she did so. When he was added to staff, she took no time in informing them how she believed he would fail and not long for even a year. Said even Pettigrew was a better choice and he had just an A in his potions OWL. The jealous bint!
Severus tried not to show his anger. He distracted himself by other things such as lunch(yes , food!)He also wondered how the twins were aware of that perception thing, but as their nephews in future, they must have their ways.
The food, was like always great and he thought about maybe it was time He took a bigger portion, he was awfully tiny and he needed it. His stomach now would not protest so much, he assumed.
The great hall was like always, abuzz with action and at the same time, silent. He figured it must be a ward or something because it was very very crowded and if not some charms or runes or what other spell was in work, people would be overwhelmed with sound of so many in one hall. And most of them were children, shouting, laughing, making every kind of noise you imagined.
So when a big teen dressed in Hufflepuff colors came and put his hand on his shoulder, He was startled, he draw his wand instantly and pressed it to where he know was the other heart.
The guy whistled" easy there kiddo, so the Gryff team were not bluffing about your speed, you are like a hawk!
He stoodŲthe guy looked somewhat familiar but he could not pinpoint how, so slowly he removed his wand, Frank and Charity stood behind him, with Marlene nearby, just in case.
" I would like to be informed about your...intention for this surprise..meeting"
He laughed " Gee! They said you spoke like a Lord or a professor, I..."
They all glared at him, which sobered him up.
"Name's Ted, Edward to be exact but yeah, Ted tonks at your service "
Severus found out he could not take his eyes from him, the boy was big, but kind looking. He must be a 7 year, and would marry Andromeda by 72. As the middle Black sister was to marry a Selwan? Now out of school,She was probably being tutored in all pureblood customs of wedding and such.
Severus nodedd at him( can he do something that they marry, but not in Andromeda being dis inheritedŲ which resulted in her daughter, funny, kind Nymphadora fall in love with a sodding werewolf of all men).
" I am all ears, Mr Tonks"
He seemed he wanted to laugh, but refrained.
" Your awesome maneuvering Quidich pitch has spread like wildfire, so I wanted to talk to you about becoming a seeker?"
Severus considered the offer, He did not do such a thing in his last life, and his method in this one was the exact opposite of that one, so far he had better results.
First, no Slytherin, second, make friends, third , stay away from Lily, and maybe Quidich?
He calmly said" I am a first year, so I need to ...
Ted interrupted " nooo, as Hufflepuff has no seeker now, we spoke with Sprout and she said who ever we chose, that will do, cause if puffs don't have a team, there will be no match whatsoever "
Severus was in two minds about it, He turned to his friends, unsure" Frank, Charity, what do you think"
Frank looked at Charity, then smiled" I will shout out loud for you, and Charity will hug you when you catch the snitch thingy" and Charity nodedd.
Severus beamed at Ted" I'll do it"
When they arrived at the transfiguration class, his mind was again on What Minerva had done, how she always, always took side with Albus, if there was a debate. All the times she took Potter and Black, and even Lupin and Pettigrew side over him. And last year..
Last year took the cherry.
When he became headmaster, she did not respect him, even a bit. And there was this time, on his blasted birthday, that he was so tired as he recently went and delivered the sword to that Potter boy. Then she smiled at him.it made him falter, did she knew? Was she going to be at least a colleague and not a bitch?And He was exhausted so he took the bait. And then after the day was over, he was puking his guts in a bucket, he found out that she was just making a diversion, taking him by surprise, so Slughorn could add a poison to his coffee.
As he took his antidote like a routine, a sacred thing that and sluggy incompetent brew , just made him vomit. And then he had broken down and cried.
Not to say about the time Potter had told her about the stone and she did not saw fit to share, just dismissing the boy to go and get himself mauled by a possessed professor. And the time Potter told her about Umbridge, and she did not took the time to investigate it, resulting in t disasters after disasters.
And now, time traveled here three days ago, and he already had been hurt by her darlings, Potter-Black the hell duo. And she knew and again, degraded him, made him look bad against heads, God's, that gigantic cow!
Upon arrival, he noticed that she was in her tabby form. So she wanted to test him? Not trusting her own colleagues telling her? He knew this has not happened last time, so it was for him.
Unfortunately Charity went to the cat to pet it.
"Ooh, hello kitty! Aren't you a pretty thing"
Horrors upon Horros! She picked her up and hugged her( why in hell she had to hug every damn thing she saw and thought as cute?)
So normally, severus had to intervine:
" Charity! Leave it, it might be somebody's familier!"
"No, Severus! Look! She does not have a collar on"
Right. " you don't pick up stars cats Charity!it might have disease!"
"Nope, you just wanna pet it too, admit it!"
Severus saw red" not a chance!it is a mangy ugly cat with parasites like toxoplasma that infect you and it is feral"
"Is not!"
"It is"
Is not! And then severus( again was in his child mood) got cats tail, haul it from Charity and dropped it on the floor.
Severus then wanted to turn to Frank and go sit next to him, but was affronted with a pair of angry angry eyes behind a pair of glasses staring at him.
The same pair he saw when all heads went and expelled him from the castle. Dimwhits who did not understand his actions all year, basterds.
They had tried killing him, throwing knives and armors and curses while he just protected himself. He was able to take them, but again, he did not want to. Maybe wanted to tell them all what he was hiding all these monthes.
They did not spare him a glance, and Minerva, the bitch, was the worst.
He felt he was panicking, his ears rang, his breath cought.
The world went all Grey. He wanted the pain in his chest to stop. But it didn't.
He stepped back from the monster in front of him, and he fell backwards, hitting hard against something.
Minerva McGonagall knew she could be petty, but not cruel. She was mulishly stubborn, yes, but she thought she was not unreasonable.
Until now, anyway.
When she was considering this particular class, she decided she will take her cat form, for the first time in front of students. Animagus transformation, were not supposedly hard, but they were quite dangerous. And many who went first stages but did not proceed further, because who would want becoming a worm? A vulture? An ant? Most forms were useless, or an embarrassment. Some where too much hard to shift between human and animal(elephant for example) , so it fell out of favour. It's method was considered somehow forbidden too, so mostly purebloods had acssess to that info, purebloods who did not want to tarnish their reputation by tranforming to a frog or fish or something. More so now that ministry was making people register, to what awail, she did not know.
And when she did the instructions, she felt she would be a lion, so she proceeded...only for her to find out she was a cat.
A stupid cat.
A regular, no special animal who was selfish, possessive and stubborn.
She did not like what the animal revealed about her, so she did not took it in public.
It would be the second time she took it in class, she was curious to what may happen. First was many years ago, when filch newly acquired kitten was missing, and he was so distraught she just had to go and get her from some unreachable chimney. It was 6 years ago, and the story spread like shit. More to her embrassment. Will the Snape boy recognize this too? If he did, it meant he knew some one from that year or up( as she assumed previously)and they were feeding him information. Proving the boy was an attention seeking liar brat. Purebloods may have acssess to that tome Filius had said too. It proved he was not smart, just a conning little shit.
She did not know why she felt this strong about him.maybe she was stung that Molly Prewatt went and shackled herself to that Weasley. Weasleys were just, strange and they were fascinated with muggles for whatever reason. She was desperate for a genius in her house to show that her Gryffs were more than brawny burtish guys and jealous girls who fought over a boy.(or a stupid wife to be). When Horace said those things about miss Evans, her heart soared. Maybe she had found her!and a muggleborn at that! Imagine her, with her bright eyes and her fire like curls, beauty with wits combined! And a Gryff no less! Oh how it would prove those blood purists false. But if the boy, a halfblood with a pureblood mother proved to be the best, none of those statements would hold. So she had to, really had to go along with her plan and prove that Evans was better.
At first, none of kids did anything but watch carefully. Not one of her Gryffs showed interst. Buth then the damn girl hugged her and everything went to shit.
The boy was a good actor, she gave him that.
But that boy dared to touch her tail! Her tail!
So you understand that Minerva McGonagall was angry.
So so angry.
She turned back as soon as her feet touched the ground. The boy's eyes went comically big.
(Suit you damn well, stupid brat, acting like that and touching...)
But the Gryff were horrified and Puffs were horrified( it is not everyday you see a cat turn into a person FOR FIRST TIME , a cat one of your class mate was hugging a second ago)
The boy was beyond terrified, he was having a panic attack. A very real panic attack at her expanse.
(OH Merlin, oh Morgana what the shit I did??)
She tried calling him." Mr Snape, Mr Snape!
No help.
"Severus!"
The boy if possible, was more afraid, she could see clearly he had trouble breathing. He stepped back.
1,2,3
And when she saw what was going to happen and lept forward to catch him, but was late.
Severus head hit the desk behind him, hard enough to break his head and blood spotted everywhere.
Now the kids were screaming.
She cursed herself and her stupidity. Just what was wrong with her? She summoned an elf and told it to go get a teacher.
Then she went and picked the unconscious boy( why the boy was this small and weighed this low and why did he looked so so innocent and bloodied and ..), went to her office and flooed infirmary.
Her plan was shit.
The result was if possible more shit.
Popy took one look at her tiny charge in her arms, sighed" again?"
Minerva just said"what?" In complete bewilderment.
"What is it this time? It is only what? His third day in castle and he has his nose broken, thrown to a devil snare, a half hour ago got in a bloody near fight with a ghoulish teen, then rescued a halfway who thought betting with a pureblood Slytherin is OK, and now? Panic attack and concussion as I see"
Minerva just stood there. Were everybody right and she acted as a jealous bint who did not get what she wanted? So Potter and Black really thrown the boy to that plant? While she clearly heard multiple times the boy even stated one of its uses is to assassinate?
"But, ..I...it's.. "
Popy looked at her, and the boy" He seems to be a regular, no matter what , I hope at least he has the sense not to join Quidich fucking team"
Minerva only nodedd. She would not let another harm come to this boy. Even if it was her lions. It was the least she could do after hurting the small boy so bad.
Guilt was a bitch.
And so was she.
(Pomona, when became aware slapped her hard across the face, Filius frowned and Horace, he was too busy with his wife being unwell, Albus, God damned him, when heard, laughed, and laughed, and laughed...basterd)