Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it belongs to some lady called J K Rowling
It is a common misperception that Vampires are melodramatic creatures with a tendency to go in for hamming it up at the slightest opportunity. This view, highly erroneous though it is, has persisted despite the best efforts of the Vampiric community to reclaim their image and portray themselves closer to their true characteristics of sharp dressing and classic understatement. However the shocking outrageousness of Vam Glam, an ill-thought re-branding stunt at the Vampire Community's annual fashion show, put paid to any idea of cleansing the wider public of their prejudices. Well, at least for a generation. You may wonder why I bring up this interesting yet seemingly irrelevant sociological titbit and the reason is summed up in two words, well a person really, Severus Snape. In his life, Severus Snape had been used to hearing cruel words, to a large extent he thought himself immune to them. Sometimes, when he felt that a nickname actually caught an aspect of his persona, he was even moved to humour. So it was that he was actually quite fond of his students who saw him as a Vampire or bat. Ironic that they misused the label but had actually hit upon the creature he would probably agree he shared many real characteristics with.
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As Snape exited his dungeons he felt uneasy. Something wasn't right, aside from the obvious half the class was missing not right, there was something else niggling in the back of his mind that was giving him the sensation that what had transpired over the last hour and half was not fully explained by the clumsiness of the students. Years of being a double agent had left him highly skilled in the unusual area of justified paranoia so he mentally filed the feeling for further analysis at a more convenient time. Right now he had to find out why eight Slytherins had not bothered to materialise for his lesson. Eying the walls of the passageway suspiciously as was his habit, he swept at pace towards the common room building himself into a fury.
Blaise stepped into the passageway outside the potions laboratory and peered cautiously around the corner. He exhaled noisily once he was satisfied that no-one was present.
"Malfoy, where are you?" he whispered urgently.
"Right here" came the drawl back, "oh sorry, couldn't you see me? Wonder why? Let's get back to the tower."
With that Draco moved up the corridor, sticking his arm out as he pushed past Blaise so that he could drag him along with him. He felt Zabini's arm come up to break the contact but then drop away as the other boy realised that it would be the only way of knowing where the other was. They proceeded warily, pausing at each turn to make sure that their House master had not stopped for any reason.
At the top of the tower Augusta Sinistra was receiving a worrying report from Helga Sprout. The rather disconcerting flickering image of Helga's head was in the process of launching into a fully fledged diatribe on the impertinence of the new first year Slytherins. Sighing, Augusta tried to get a word in edgewise to find the root of the obviously irritated Herbology Professor.
"… absolutely disgraceful. In all my years of teaching I have never, and this is not mere exaggeration to emphasise my point, never have I been so disrespected by a set of students. One bad egg I can understand, it's probably even healthy, but the whole lot of them? Really, I do have to wonder what…"
What Professor Sprout was wondering about was not revealed as Augusta, tiring of not understanding what the problem was, chose to interrupt before more insults were heaped on her children.
"Helga, calm down, please! What exactly occurred that has you riled so? I assure you that any impudence will be dealt with most severely. Were they not paying attention? Chattering amongst themselves? Do remember that it is only the first day of term and likely as not they're probably just a little over-excited. That's no excuse I know, but"
"Chattering? Not paying attention?" Sprout's voice jumped a couple of octaves. Augusta stepped back from the fireplace in alarm. "I would hardly bother you over that! They didn't show up Augusta! Not one of them."
Although the expression on Sinistra's face had not changed, inside she was reeling with shock. She certainly had not been expecting boycotts of lessons from the new pupils. In the background she was dimly aware of Helga continuing her rant but she tuned it out as she considered whether it was truly likely that her first years would be so bold as to organise something so audacious. Her sharp mind quickly reached the conclusion that it would be unlikely that an eleven year old would have the ability to convince let alone organise their classmates into such an action. She straightened her back, turned her attention once more to the annoyed disembodied head of Sprout in her fireplace, informed her curtly that she could expect an apology in her next lesson, then exited swiftly from her room leaving Sprout feeling distinctly unsatisfied that she had not been allowed a free discourse.
As she hurried round the final twist that led to the Slytherin common room, Augusta was met by a rather peculiar sight. Severus Snape, Potions Master of Hogwarts, and more importantly, Head of Slytherin House, was splayed flat out against the wall that contained the concealed entrance to the common room. His large calloused hands were extended to their widest span and were stroking the stone and mortar surface, eyes closed in concentration. Stranger yet was that he was speaking very seriously to Gregory Goyle, who was not, in fact present.
Augusta glanced all around her making quite certain that there was no hiding place in which Goyle could be ensconced. Having satisfied herself that this was the case she was left with the disquieting notion that Snape had snapped and had lost the plot completely. In her opinion, he had been skating on thin ice ever since Potter had joined the student body of Hogwarts. It had been since then that he had become almost fanatical in his desires to see Slytherin beat Gryffindor to the extent that he had become blinded to the misbehaviour that he encouraged in his own charges. And now he had seemingly decided that he wanted to 'become one' with the wall.
With some trepidation she approached him.
"Ah Professor Sinistra, I see you also have become aware that we have a slight situation in the tower. Goyle, be so good as to repeat your information to the Professor."
'Well,' she thought, 'he's not lost his uncanny ability to see who's walking behind him even if he has gone gaga.' As she searched for something soothing to say she was startled to hear Goyle's voice in front of her.
"Well you see Professor, I was coming out of the common room when I heard this horrible wailing sound and so…"
And so Goyle launched eagerly into the modified tale of the morning's events that he had told Snape. His boyish enthusiasm in the retelling masked his real stress at not having been able to break the enchantment and get a message through to the rest of the house about covering for Draco and Blaise. Rather wistfully he had hoped that neither of his House tutors would notice until much later in the day that there was a problem which would at least have given him a better chance of figuring out what to do. As it was, first Snape had surprised him be storming up to the common room entrance, and now Sinistra was here as well. All in all, things were not looking good, and with those two around Draco and Blaise wouldn't be able to communicate with him to tell him what to do.
Augusta considered the information that Goyle had just reeled to her. The more she considered it, the less informative it seemed, he did not know how he had become invisible and he did not know why he couldn't get back into the common room. She dismissed his story out of hand about the wailing monster in the corridor, if that had truly been the case Dumbledore would have known and it would be unlikely that Goyle would survive such an encounter. The most probable truth was that the boy was subject to some cruel prank, although this explanation wouldn't hold for the problems to do with entering the common room. She racked her brains for some insight into why anyone would want to completely block the opening. She groaned and put her hand to her head.
On hearing his deputy groan, Severus turned around.
"You have an idea of what's happened, Professor Sinistra?"
Somewhat impatiently he waited for her to answer as she nodded her head tiredly.
"Dumbledore must've known that this would be the result."
Snape narrowed his eyes as he fixed his gaze on the witch in front of him. There was little love lost between the two of them. In itself this was hardly surprising considering their natures and the House that they belonged to, they were not people who indulged in friendships easily. With his ambiguous position regarding Voldemort very few people stayed in his presence long enough to get to know him. Sinistra had worked with him as his deputy for over twelve years. He knew that she coveted the role of Head of House, much as he coveted the role of DADA instructor. Being Slytherin through and through she had said nothing of this to him openly, but had made sure early on that he knew that in her eyes he was skating on thin ice. Their relationship was further complicated by their overlapping circles of associates and acquaintances making it impossible for him to determine whether she was truly loyal to Dumbledore or the Deatheaters. In the last war she had remained neutral, only involving herself at Dumbledore's request on specific occasions, but she had refused to condemn either side and he knew that some of her contacts were dubious. The comment she had just made was loaded with innuendo, he chose to ignore it for now and spoke carefully,
"I'm afraid that I'm not fully seeing the connection between the Headmaster and our current predicament."
Augusta let out an exasperated breath, for an intelligent man Snape could certainly be very obtuse.
"Obviously our little darlings have been engaging in some experimentation for the Towers Cup. Predictably this has ended with these anomalous results."
Severus frowned as he thought this over. It made sense, although it didn't account for Goyle's invisible beast claim, though he was inclined to think that perhaps that part of Goyle's story was more flimsy than the rest. It also meant that the resolution of the situation had the potential to elude them for several hours.
The bell signalling the commencement of the next lesson rang. Snape cursed inwardly, he had a double session with the final year N.E.W.T.'s class. Only just remembering that Goyle was present he moved down the corridor, robes billowing, telling the other two that he would return shortly.
Augusta watched his retreating form as it disappeared out of view and shook herself slightly as she set her mind to the task of gaining entrance into the common room and making Goyle visible again.
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A/N:
I know I know, nothing much happens in this, but it had to be done, needed to lay foundations y'know? The background stuff is important, it'll come into play further on in the story.
As ever, please R&R, I'll post more soon.