AN: Sorry I've been heaps slow writing this, but I was just struck with a lightening bolt of inspiration so I'm back on track!! So here's two new chapters for all of you! Yay!! Thank-you!! Please review –for whatever reason, I don't mind if you hate it just tell me what to fix and I most likely will, also if you want to give me any ideas or wish to offer to beta for me-the offer still stands!!! Thank-you again and read on...
After staying up all-night and pouring over nearly each and every one of his Advanced Potions books, Severus Snape was not a very happy man. Clearly someone, just as conniving and cunning as the Dark Lord himself, was out to get him and he wasn't exactly overjoyed about that fact.
Damn it! It isn't fair, Severus screamed in his head as he made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he cursed, wishing that he'd been able to have more sleep.
A couple of nervous looking first years looked at him when he swore but he just glared at them and they quickly backed away.
But today he didn't care; he was tired, he was angry, he was hungry. He wanted some breakfast, gods damn it!! Anything to make him feel that teensy bit better about his crappy life at the moment.
He made his usual forceful entrance, causing the few students who were present in the Hall look up to see who it was before swiftly ducking their heads when they saw Severus' stony face. At least the students know what's good for them, he thought as he made his way to the Staff Table.
Looking up at it, he realised that all the teachers appeared to have arrived earlier than usual and the only seat left (which obviously was for him) was next to Dumbledore (naturally, after all he was the best Potions Master, Hogwarts had ever seen) and... Professor Trelawney.
Severus groaned loudly and wondered how he was going to survive through breakfast without wanting to cut Trelawney's head off with his butter knife. He remembered when she had first arrived at Hogwarts. During that first year, every opportunity she got, she tried to warn him that his death was near. Well, obviously, he didn't die as he was still alive and kicking but he knew she still picked on someone every year and 'predicted' their death in numerous gory ways, which often never happened. He sighed. Oh well, may as well get this over and done with, he thought.
He walked up to the Staff Table and sat down between Dumbledore and Trelawney. He smiled stiffly at both of them.
"Ah, good morning, Severus! I trust you had a good rest?" Dumbledore smiled openly at Severus and clapped him on the shoulder. "I hope you haven't been worrying too much about that, uh, accident, hmmm? Doesn't do well to dwell too much on misfortunes."
"Good morning, Headmaster. Yes, I am feeling quite well, thank-you," Snape bluntly lied. "I'm quite fine apart from this, as you would say, misfortune of mine."
"Good, good," Dumbledore commented idly as he began thinking about a brain teaser Hagrid had just told him.
Snape decided it was better not to be rude. He turned to Professor Trelawney.
"Good morning, Violet, you're looking well I see," Snape said somewhat rigidly.
Trelawney turned her big round green eyes toward him and gave him a somewhat surprised look. After all, it wasn't like he went out of his way to talk to her usually, most of the time they just ignored each other completely.
"Oh, hello Severus, thank-you for noticing, I had to get new glasses yesterday. These ones are thinner then my old ones," she said serenely.
He blinked sharply and peered closer at her glasses. The thick green- coloured frames looked the same thickness to him.
"Yes, they look different and better too," Severus said, trying to think of something else to say.
"Why, thank-you. I must say though you are not looking yourself; you look paler than usual and a dark cloud overshadows your aura," Violet Trelawney answered peacefully.
Severus' eye twitched and his hand gripped his knife tighter as he struggled to spread the butter smoothly on his toast. It was this kind of talk that he couldn't stand from Trelawney.
"Yes, well, I haven't been sleeping well lately. Unlike you, I do not have the Inner eye, therefore I cannot foresee whether or not my student is going to fail an exam or not. Therefore I must grade mine by hand as I cannot merely guess what their grade will be," he replied shortly.
"Ah, but Severus, because you do not have the Inner eye you are yet to discover the truly remarkable powers of the psychic. And besides, foreseeing the future is not mere guesswork- it takes skill and many years of hard work and practice to be able to See properly and even then you must possess the original skill to be able to do it correctly."
"Yeah, not mere guesswork my foot," Severus muttered into his glass of orange juice.
"What did you say, Severus?" Trelawney asked severely.
Snape coughed loudly and answered, "Nothing, nothing, please continue with your explanation."
Five seconds later, he'd wished he'd never prompted her to talk about her 'psychic' powers. The lady wouldn't shut up! She could probably talk for days on end about this topic, Snape mused. He wondered if she was stopping anytime soon so he that could point out that she had egg on her chin.
Suddenly, overhead, the usual flock of owls arriving with the morning post arrived, screeching loudly. A barn owl landed in front of Dumbledore with 'The Daily Prophet' before several other owls began bombarding him with letters from the Ministry of Magic.
Severus was halfway through his toast (Mmmmm, jam...) when suddenly a tawny owl flew down in front of him. It stuck out its foot showing a red envelope attached there. This stopped Trelawney's rambling as she leaned over.
He wondered who the letter was from. Though it was curious why it was red, why would anyone use a red envelope for a letter? Red envelopes were only used for Howlers. Wait, red envelopes were only used for Howlers. But he couldn't be getting a Howler. He hadn't had a Howler since he was at Hogwarts himself and his mother found out that he'd transformed the teacher into a vulture and was unable to turn her back. All this went through Severus' head rather quickly and he was still pondering these thoughts when Professor Trelawney poked him on the arm. He looked at her in annoyance.
"You'd better open it," she muttered quietly.
He looked back to the envelope. While he had been thinking, the corners had begun to smoke and it now looked like it was about to explode.
Severus prodded it with his finger. It jumped at his hand even though it still hadn't been open. He pulled his fingers back quickly and out of reach of the furious looking envelope.
It suddenly began twitching violently. And then it really did explode.
An extraordinarily loud, high pitched, screechy voice filled the Great Hall as the envelope opened itself.
"SEVERUS SNAPE!!!!" the voice virtually screamed.
All of the students turned and looked up at the Staff Table and to most importantly their very fast-turning red-faced Potions Master.
Who the hell is sending me a howler? Snape wondered while going bright crimson. Before he could get another conscious thought in, the Howler started up again.
"18 YEARS AND NOT ONE WORD FROM MY ONLY SON!!!!"
Hold on a second, that sounds like my mother. Severus was mortified.
"YOU COULD HAVE FLOOED, YOU COULD HAVE OWLED, YOU COULD HAVE FLOWN HERE ON A BROOMSTICK FOR GODS SAKES- HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME WORRY LIKE THAT!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW RUDE YOU'VE BEEN!!!!"
Now all of the students were listening intently to what Snape's mother was yelling about because a) they couldn't talk over the racket she was making anyway and b) listening to Snape being reprimanded in front of the whole school was too good to miss!
"WHEN YOU FINISHED HOGWARTS I DIDN'T WANT TO THINK THAT YOU'D GONE OFF AND JOINED FORCES WITH THE DARK LORD! I DEFENDED YOU IN FRONT OF ALL MY FRIENDS, MAKING YOU SOUND LIKE A SAINT! AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME! BY EMBARRESSING ME BY GETTING CAUGHT AND HAVING TO GO TO AZKABAN- I'VE NEVER BEEN SO MORTIFIED IN ALL MY LIFE WHEN YOU SHOWED UP IN THE PAPER!!!!!"
Yeah, kinda like how I'm feeling now, Severus thought as he slid lower and lower into his seat wishing he could transfigure into a mouse and disappear down a crack in the wall.
"WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?! YOU COULD HAVE BEEEN KILLED BUT DID YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR POOR MOTHER WASTING AWAY AT HOME WITH NO ONE TO LOOK AFTER HER?? NO YOU DIDN'T!! ALL YOU WANTED TO DO WAS GO GALAVANTING ACROSS THE COUNTRY KILLING PEOPLE LEFT AND RIGHT AND HERE I WAS ALL ALONE ONCE YOUR FATHER DIED!!!!!"
Severus was hoping that she'd finished and was about to sit up straighter when she carried on.
"AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR!!! IT USED TO BE SUCH A NICE SHADE OF BLONDE! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU WENT AND DYED IT THAT AWFUL BLACK COLOUR????!!!!!"
Oh shit, Severus thought, now the whole school's gonna know I'm not a natural black.
"AND I KNOW YOU DIDN'T STOP SUCKING YOUR THUMB UNTIL YOU WERE 12 BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING!! YOU STILL LEFT ME ALL ALONE! AFTER YOU FINISHED SCHOOL AND GOT THAT HORRIBLE TATTOO OF THAT RABBIT ON YOUR BUTTOCKS I COULDN'T BELIEVE THAT MY OWN SON WOULD DO SUCH A THING!!! I DIDN'T WANT TO BELIEVE IT!!!"
"IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU, SEVERUS, YOU'LL MARCH YOUR BUTT STRAIGHT HOME SO I CAN RINSE YOUR MOUTH OUT WITH SOAP FOR EVEN THINKING ABOUT LEAVING ME!!!!!!!! YOU MAY BE A GROWN MAN, SEVERUS, BUT DON'T THINK I WOULDN'T DO IT 'COZ I WILL!!!!!!!!!" and with that the yelling of Snape's mother ended and there was silence.
Snape was sitting so low in his seat that only his short blonde hair could be seen over the table. His face was so red that it looked like someone had gotten a red texta and coloured it in. How could she do something like this to me? Severus thought as all the students began laughing at him. At him! The feared great Potions Master of Hogwarts was reduced to a laughing stock in front of the most dimwitted students of the school.
What was he supposed to do now? Maybe he should just get up and walk straight out of there with his tiny bit of dignity left. Great, I have classes today, Severus said mentally in his head. That means I can't just crawl under my bed and stay there till that end of the earth. He decided he had to get out of there.
Waiting until the laughter had died down, Severus picked up his toast and stood ready to face whatever he got. The students watched him the whole way as he walked around the Staff Table then across the Hall and finally out the door. As he closed it behind him he heard the students as they all began talking at once, most of them laughing. At me I expect, he thought miserably. Ah well, nothing to do but to be as mean and horrible as ever he thought. He actually smiled a little at the thought of giving Potter and his little friends a long, formidable, detention cleaning all the boy's bathrooms.
Feeling a little better, he strode off to his office to plan many excruciating ways of torture that he could use on the students in his next class.
AN: YAY! Finished this chapter! I'm sorry if it's a bit lame, it was kinda rushed at the end because of schoolwork and exams which are coming up! Please review whether you love it, hate it or even think it's a little funny... whatever, it's all good!! Go and read the next chapter now!!
-Hope (AutumnGoddess)