Chapter Twelve

Tête-à-têtes

 Hermione's meeting with Albus turned out quite interesting.  Their conversation for the last 10 minutes was solely on Severus and how much he had helped several of her classmates by suggesting a few career options for each of them and also keeping track of where they were and how they were doing.  This, or course, was done in a clandestine manner.  Hermione was not particularly surprised.  For the short time that she became close with Severus, if there was one thing that she knew for a fact about him, it was his genuine concern for his students and what became of them.  What surprised Hermione was something else that Albus had said.

"Severus did quite a lot of work while he was away."

Hermione did not think much of it at the moment.  She naturally assumed that Albus meant Severus did a lot of work while away on .well, now that she thought about it, she wasn't quite sure what she had thought about that statement.  She was too busy thinking of other things to pay much attention to what Albus was saying.  Most of the time Albus rambled and Hermione would remain silent whilst her mind roved away to other important things. 

What did he mean by that? Did Severus go as far as visiting some of her classmates at where they were at or was he away somewhere else?  Hermione made sure she would bring the matter up the next time she visits Albus in his office.  She was beginning to get very suspicious and wary of those around her.  Thrice that week she had seen or heard some very peculiar things and yet no one had bothered to explain anything to her.  She figured something was going on and she was set on finding out what it was.

The bell rang as Hermione approached Remus' classroom.  The students rushed out the door and filled the corridors as they made their way to their next class.  Remus was surprised when he looked up from his desk to see Hermione standing under his doorway; he was usually the one to meet her outside her classroom.

Remus grinned as he filed his parchments into the drawers.  Hermione stood silently under the doorway as she watched Remus playfully ignore her.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" said Hermione.

"What -- seeing you loitering under my doorway?  No, of course, not!" he teased.  "What's the matter?" he asked innocently.

"You know why I'm here, Remus."  Hermione made her way to his desk and Remus detained her in his arms as if she were the love of his life.  He loved doing that to her-playing her lover and hopeless romantic.  It drove her mad. 

"Of course, I know why you're here.  You couldn't get enough of me so you came down to-"

"Remus!"

"Oh, all right.  Why are you here?  And hurry, my next class is filing in."

"Remus, you said something earlier.  You said you knew everything that was going on -- what did you mean by that?"

"What?  Oh, you're not still worrying about that are you?  Well, don't-listen, I need to talk to you tonight, if it's all right."

"Tonight's Irma's party; did you forget?"

"No, but I can talk to you, then."

"Is anything wrong?  Why is everyone acting so strange, Remus?  Is something going on that I don't know about?" 

"No, you worry too much.  Go now, before you're late for your next class."  Remus shooed Hermione out of his class, and she left feeling even more confused and in the dark. 

Hermione was now more than certain that something strange was going on and she wasn't going to rest until she figured out what it was.

****

Severus waited until all his students were gone before closing the door and warding it from any interruption.  He wanted to make sure that no one was going to disrupt Nicolas' chastisement.  He stood rigidly at his desk, slamming parchments and books into drawers and knocking things out of place. 

Nicolas knew without a doubt that Snape was enraged with his behavior in class.  He was only too curious as to how his lecture was going to play out.  Snape looked so livid that Nicolas wondered if he would explode if he spoke at all. 

Nicolas stirred in his seat and dared to speak as if he was anxious to rile Severus up.  "I have Astronomy next; if you could give me my detention, I will be out of your way--"

"DAMN IT, NICOLAS!  I asked you not to fool around in my class."  The parchments Snape clutched tightly flew out of his hands and onto the floor.  He had tried desperately to contain himself but the recollection of his last class returned with a vengeance and drove him mad out of his mind.  "How dare you disrespect me in my classroom?"a

"I admit I was a bit atrocious," Nicolas drawled impishly, "but I swear to you that my raison d'être was exemplary."  Livid and mildly chagrined, Snape contemplated if the boy was finding amusement in his anger. 

"Do not make a mockery of me!  I don't have time to put up with your paradoxical behavior, Nicolas."

"Oh, is that what you think is wrong with me?  First, I was disrespectful, and now I'm unstable.  You really should make up your mind about what you think about me.  Well, there's no need to fret, I was merely helping a friend.  You remember her- she was the only person you paid any attention to.  The poor thing; I pitied her for that," Nicolas added with assumed indifference. 

"How glorifying of you," Snape said condescendingly, "but you're not God and I'm not going to allow you to play savior to my students."

"Well, you need someone open-minded in your class."

"Who I choose to condemn in my classroom is my decision," Snape snapped.  "When you step into this room, you will abide by my rules and learn to obey me as everyone else.  In case you have forgotten, I am the professor here and I would appreciate it you left the teaching and criticizing to me." 

"You never look to the others," Nicolas admonished, his French accent more evident than before.  "You scare the wits out of your students that they're too busy fearing you to pay attention to your lessons, and for someone with a surfeit of dull-witted pupils, you seem incapable of recognizing more than one."

"I am hard on that blasted girl because no one else is; why do you think she is slow and careless and inattentive.  I don't have room for daydreamers in my class.  And I would appreciate it if you would not tell me how to do my job," Snape spat.

"You don't teach; you terrorize and discourage.  I despise you as a teacher."

"Well, congratulations, Nicolas, you are not alone in your feelings, but that doesn't excuse your reckless behavior today.  I specifically asked you to keep your opinions about me and my work to yourself when you are in my classroom, but you jumped at the first chance to criticize my teaching and cared less about what I had asked you to do."

"What are you angry about?" Nicolas snapped.  "You succeeded in humiliating me in front of my classmates and making me look like a complete idiot.  What more do you want?"

"I want you to listen to me very carefully.  Your impression of me is no secret.  Feel free to berate me with your complaints and empty death threats when no one is around, but so long as you are my student and in my classroom or reside here at Hogwarts, you are going to respect me, listen to me, and for the love of Merlin, at least pretend to fear me.  If you want to avoid another embarrassing ordeal like today's from happening again, I suggest you listen to what I tell you and keep in mind that opposing me will only further your humiliation.  I warned you that I would not be so lenient of your remarks in my classroom.  I only hope that today's incident was proof enough of that."

"The only thing that you have proven to me today is that you are as horrible a person as you are a father."  This was said with sheer impassiveness and it hit Severus hard in the heart.  He knew without a doubt that he was not the world's greatest father, but damn the boy if he was too angry and hateful to notice his attempts at trying.  It wasn't easy making someone care for him, especially when that person abhorred him above all else.

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Thank you, Sarah, for beta-reading this chapter.