Begin Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen: Two Major HeadlinesPriscilla was expecting ranting, maybe some raving. But nothing prepared her for the reaction Percy gave her. He fainted. Dammit! She levitated his limp body swiftly and hurried to her office, which was the closest room she could think of. She carefully maneuvered down the steps, wand pointed at Percy. When she arrived at her room, she opened the door and levitated him into a chair and quickly conjured up a Reviving Potion. She put the goblet to his lips and made sure it was emptied before she placed it down. Seconds later, Percy awoke with a start and his eyes darted around madly before he looked at Priscilla. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded angrily. She gave a cynical laugh. He blinked at her sudden change in demeanor.
"I tried but I guess you were busy with your Ministry business. I know how important standardized cauldron bottom thickness is to you," she spat out nastily. He puffed his chest out indignantly.
"Now, you listen here, Priscilla, I worked long and hard for," but she cut him short.
"No! Wait, I know what it was. I was a conquest to you, that's all. I get it now," she said, turning a violent shade of crimson. She began to tremble with anger. Percy began to look troubled.
"Priscilla, the baby, you need to calm down," he said trying to reach for her. She swatted at him and shrieked.
"You don't care about the baby! I sent you seven letters that were all unanswered and you want me to calm down? My uncle doesn't know about this, my students don't know about this, nobody knows about this but you're damned brother and his friends and Poppy!" Percy's face turned the pasty color of oatmeal.
"Ron knew?" he said, barely above a whisper.
"Don't try to act like you didn't know Percy!" Priscilla screamed. "You knew because I wrote you. You didn't write back because you don't want anything to do with the baby. Or me," she said tears brimming.
"Priscilla, that's not true," Percy said gently. "I never received any post from you and I just figured you were ashamed or didn't want anything to do with me," he said giving her a weak smile. "But I do know why I didn't receive the letters," he said. When she looked up, he continued. "In light of recent events, they have been screening everyone's mail but it takes a very long time for us to receive any of it. I just got my Christmas card from Mum yesterday," he stated. "But we do need to figure out what's going to be done and I want to help Priscilla." She looked at him, bleary-eyed. He cleared his throat and straightened himself. "I think the right thing to be done in this situation is get married. So, how about it?" Percy asked with a slightly hopeful look on his face. Priscilla opened her mouth but the words caught in her throat. She was finally going to answer him when a swish of a cloak by her door made her turn. To her horror, the door was left open…
***
Harry, Ava and Ron sat in Potions class, making a Sleeping Draught. They were being extra careful because Snape was in an extra sour mood today. While they were dicing rat-tails, Snape stalked around the room. All of a sudden, he began berating Crabbe and Goyle about their potion.
"Green?" he hissed menacingly. "It's supposed to be silver, like the night-time mist you buffoon," he said, turning magenta. "Ten points from Slytherin for your complete stupidity," he snarled. There was stunned silence. Not only did Snape get overly angry and show it, he never took away points from anyone in Slytherin house. Ron was beside himself. The grin on his face was quite huge till Ava jabbed him in the side. He walked back up to his desk and he began marking grades in his book, all of which looked like zeros.
"What's got his panties in a twist?" Ava whispered.
"I don't know but I love it," Ron was snickering at the look on Malfoy's face. There was a tense silence because no one else wanted to be the recipient of Snape's wrath. A few minutes later, there was a light tapping on Snape's door. Professor Dean walked in, a small jar in her hand. Snape's lip curled slightly at the sight of her, but she seemed not to notice because she was looking at the dismal faces of the class. She walked up to the desk slowly.
"Here is your powdered wormswart, Professor Snape. I really appreciate it," she said as she extended the jar to him. He leered at her, not taking it. She looked only slightly confused as she quietly placed the jar on his desk and began to walk out.
"Yes, powdered wormswart," Snape said clearly, a greasy smile on his lips. "Can any one tell me what is its main purpose?" Hermione raised her hand quickly. "Miss Granger?"
"The main use of powdered wormswart is for pregnant witches," Hermione stated clearly. Snape's smile widened.
"Yes, well, I'm sure Professor Dean would know all about that," he said venomously to the frozen figure of Professor Dean. "Wouldn't you, Professor?" The whole class gasped loudly; none louder than Harry, Ava, Hermione and Ron. Professor Dean turned around slowly, a look of utter shock on her face. She looked like she had been betrayed.
"How dare you," she hissed. " You slimy lowlife." Snape laughed derisively.
"I'm the slimy lowlife? My dear Priscilla, I beg to differ." The last syllable had barely come out of his mouth before his face was dealt a heavy slap. He gave her a murderous glare. " I raised you to be a prim and proper witch and you defiled yourself which embarrasses me to the core. You have tarnished the Snape name by becoming bed buddies with a Weasley!"
Ron got up angrily, but Harry and Hermione pulled him down quickly.
"Have you not noticed that I don't carry the name Snape or are you completely moronic?" Priscilla said nastily. "The name brings to mind every vile thing I'm not. Such as coward and traitor which is what both you and Sullivan both are!"
"Do not ever pollute the name of Sullivan Snape if you do not know what you are speaking of," Snape stated angrily. "He was your father, you should have more respect for him."
"Respect? How can I respect a Death Eater?" A stony silence filled the room. She stalked up to him, getting within an inch of his face. "You make me sick. Death Eaters always did," she said viciously before turning and walking out of the room. Snape didn't know what to do. His face was changing colors and he seemed to be going through a variety of emotions.
"Class dismissed," he said in an oddly strangled voice. Everyone bolted, dying to get out of that classroom. The Gryffindor and Slytherin classes were the first to arrive for lunch in the Great Hall, so they went to their tables and began to talk about what they had witnessed.
"Who told him?" Hermione asked quickly.
"I don't know but if I get my hands on him…"
"Ron, don't be ridiculous, this is serious," Hermione snapped.
"Who said I wasn't being serious?" he snapped back.
"Alright you guys, cut it out," Ava said quickly. "Neither of us would ever tell Snape anything so no one here is to blame."
"But then how did he find out?" Harry asked. They all pondered this when the person they last expected to see walked in.
"Percy!" Ron said, shocked. Percy spotted Ron and walked over quickly. Percy looked none to happy and Ron quieted a bit as he walked over. "Why didn't you tell me," he said getting straight to the point. Ron looked taken aback.
"Well, it's nice to see you too. I guess you found out, then," Ron said uneasily. Percy was stone faced. "I was sworn to secrecy by Professor Dean. But what are you doing here anyway?"
"Filling in for McGonagall. She's on Ministry business," he said quickly. "Ron next time there's something like that, you tell me instantly!"
"Fine, Snape and Dean had a blowout and now the whole school's going to know in about, oh, five minutes," Ron said despicably as the entire student body began filing in for lunch. "Happy now?" Percy looked absolutely staggered. He walked hastily to the Teacher's table.
"Ron, that wasn't very nice," Ava said. "He's probably still shocked over the fact that he's going to be a father, there was no need to do that to him."
"Well…he'll get over it," Ron said lamely. Everyone ate in silence for the remainder of the lunch period. When it was time to go to Defense Against the Dark Arts, everyone got up quickly, wanting to see how Professor Dean was doing. When they made it to the room, however, she was not there. Remus Lupin was. He smiled when he saw Harry, Ron and Hermione's looks of shock.
"Hello, Harry," he said getting up to shake his hand. "It's been awhile."
"Yeah," Harry said stupidly, still shocked. Professor Lupin gave his greetings to Ron and Hermione, who was especially thrilled at seeing him in the classroom. "What's happened to Professor Dean?" Harry asked.
"She was not feeling well, so I got an urgent letter from Dumbledore to substitute and I accepted," Lupin said. "I couldn't turn him down. She will be back by tomorrow, though." He turned at looked at Ava, who was unpacking her things on a table. "I haven't been introduced yet, Harry," he said with a twinkle in his eye.
"Oh, sorry. Ava, this is Professor Lupin. Professor Lupin, Ava," Lupin shook Ava's hand.
"Pleasure to meet you," Ava said smiling.
"The pleasure's all mine, Miss Richardson. Now, sit down, the rest of the class is coming in," he said quickly, ignoring the confused look on Ava's face. Indeed, the rest of Gryffindor had begun to spill into the classroom, hastily. No doubt they were late because of gossiping. There were gasps of surprise as they saw Professor Lupin sitting at the desk. He had been incredibly well liked when he taught at Hogwarts so this was a pleasant surprise for them. "Good afternoon, class. For those of you who don't know, I am Professor Lupin and I am filling in for Professor Dean for today as she is feeling ill." A murmur went around the room at this. "However," Lupin said loudly, ending the murmur, "she will be back again tomorrow. Now I have a syllabus here. I believe we are supposed to be learning about the yellow-breasted horned snorkelback. So, let's begin." The class went by rather quickly and when it was over, they said their goodbyes to Professor Lupin and went on their way to the Common Room. Ava, looking rather bemused, retired to bed early. Harry, Ron and Hermione studied for a while but their hearts were not in it. Putting her book down, Hermione sighed.
"I didn't know that Snape raised Professor Dean," she said, thinking about the argument.
"I did," Harry said quickly, thinking back to the night was in the Hospital Wing. He had overheard Professor Dean come in to find out if she was pregnant and she told Poppy that Snape raised her. He explained this to Hermione and Ron quickly and they both looked confused.
"Why was she raised by him, though," Hermione wondered aloud.
"Yeah, think about how much fun a childhood she had," Ron said incredulously. They all went to their rooms to get ready for bed.
"I wonder why she hates her father," Harry said to Ron. "She said that he was a Death Eater as well as Snape, but I never heard anything about Snape even having a brother."
"I don't know but it is dodgy."
***
The next morning, everyone got dressed and walked down to the Great Hall. Everyone noticed that Professor Dean was up at the table sitting completely upright. She seemed like she was carved out of stone. Percy (or is it Professor Weasley?) was sitting next to her, looking very uncomfortable. However, not as uncomfortable as Snape. He kept on sneaking sidelong glances at her. Priscilla didn't seem to notice this or the whispers and pointing.
Harry was eating his eggs when he noticed Hedwig flying in with the morning post. She had a rolled up Daily Prophet in her beak. As she got closer, he also noticed that there was a note attached to it. She landed in front of him and placed the paper by his plate before she nipped his finger affectionately and was off. Harry grabbed the note of off the Daily Prophet and opened it. It was from…Malfoy?
Potter-
Thought you might like this.
Harry unfurled the paper quickly to find two major headlines that split the center of the newspaper. One read "Hogwarts Teacher Caught in Pregnancy Scandal" with a picture of Professor Dean next to it. On the other side was a picture of Professor Richardson with the word "WANTED" stamped across it in big letters…
End Chapter Eighteen