Chapter 2: Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair
The first week passes surprisingly quickly. From the whispers I've been hearing around the school my Defence Against the Dark Arts class has become a favourite of many students. I head down for breakfast on Saturday trying to decide if I should tackle marking all the essays afterwards.
"Good morning Ruth," McGonagall says with a smile.
"Morning," I reply scooping a pile of bacon eggs onto my plate.
Snape walks in looking as grumpy as always.
"Good morning Severus," says McGonagall.
Snape merely grunts.
"Bad morning then?" I say pleasantly.
He glares at me then says, "Pass the eggs."
"Say please," I retaliate.
"Pass the eggs please." He snarls giving me his best glare.
I hand him the plate and he takes it from me without a word and starts dumping them onto him plate.
"You're welcome," I say not entirely succeeding in keeping the sarcasm out of my voice.
Snape grunts.
"Someone is obviously not a morning person," I mutter.
"It's only because it's a nice day out," Flitwick squeaks from the other side of McGonagall.
I laugh and Snape sneers at us, I'm starting to wonder if he has another facial expression.
Hagrid sits down in the empty seat between Snape and I. "What's so funny?" he asks.
"Oh we were just commenting on what a lovely person Severus is in the morning," I reply.
Hagrid looks at Snape who is looking murderous and lets out a booming laugh. McGonagall and Flitwick are also chuckling. Most of the students in the great hall look up at us questioningly.
Suddenly Snape slams his fork down and storms out of the great hall. I resist the urge to yell 'have a nice day' after him.
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I spend most of the day marking papers, or at least trying to. I'm finding it very hard to concentrate with the warm breeze blowing through the open window and the bright sun outside. Finally that evening I give up and head outside for a walk around the grounds.
The Gryffindor Quiditch team is having a tryout of some sort. I stand there for a while watching, from the looks of things they're looking for a new chaser or two. I watch Harry who's circling up above the others watching the tryout, I wonder if he's the team captain.
As it starts to get dark the team quits for the night. Harry zooms to the ground stopping at the last second and leaping off his broom. I'm reminded fondly of another seeker from years ago.
"Hey, it's Professor Dawson," someone says.
Harry looks over.
"Hey." I say with a smile. "So how'd tryouts go, you found a new chaser?"
Everyone's staring at me.
"How'd you know we were looking for a new chaser?" Harry asks.
"It was all passing and shooting drills," I reply. "That's chaser stuff. If it had just been shooting then it would have been a keeper tryout, but then you also would have had to have more then one keeper out there."
"You know your Quiditch," says Katie sounding impressed.
I shrug. "I used to play in school. I was a chaser then seeker and team captain at one point in time."
"Why'd you go from being chaser to seeker?" Jack asks.
"Because our previous seeker graduated," I reply. "And the only way for us to set the record number of Quiditch cup victories I had to switch over to seeker."
"You were on the team that won everything!" Ron exclaims.
I shrug. "Yeah, not the first two years though."
"Who was seeker before you?" Ginny asks.
"James Potter."
"My dad," Harry says softly.
"Yeah," I reply equally as soft.
There is a long silence then I say;
"All of you should get changed and get back to Gryffindor common room before curfew."
The team walks off, all except Harry who looks like he really wants to ask me something but isn't sure if he can.
"Yes Harry?" I say softly.
"I, err…was my dad captain?" he burst out.
"Yes. For his last two years at the school, then I got the position."
Harry nods fidgeting with the cuff of his sleeve before saying, "We have a practise tomorrow night if you want to come watch."
I smile at him, "I'll be there."
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Sunday is not nearly as nice a day as Saturday was, it drizzles on and off all day. However wrapped in my cloak I walk out to the Quiditch pitch that evening. There are seven people in Gryffindor Quiditch robes standing there, I'm surprised to see five people in Slytherin Qutich robes along with a group of other Slytherins standing there as well.
"I don't care if you have the pitch booked Potter," sneers Malfoy Jr. "We have special permission from Professor Snape to use it tonight for our tryouts."
"I don't care," Harry snaps. "We booked the pitch."
"But we have special permission," Malfoy Jr. sneers holding up a piece of parchment.
I decide to intervene. "May I see that Mr. Malfoy." I say holding out my hand, even he can tell it's not a question.
He hands it to me and I unfold it. Sure enough in Professor Snapes tiny, messy scrawl is written, 'I, Professor Snape Head of Slytherin House, give permission for the Slytherin Quiditch team to use the Quiditch pitch tonight for their tryouts'. I resist the urge to crush the note in my fist, Professor Tragally used to do this to us all the time. However now I'm a teacher, not a student.
I hand the note back to Malfoy Jr. "Gryffindor has the pitch booked, therefore Gryffindor gets to use the pitch. You can tell that to your head of house and if he has a problem with it, he can come talk to me, I'll be here. Now get out of here."
Snarling they leave.
"Go," I say to the Gryffindors. "Have your practise." They quickly mount their brooms and take off. I can feel my stomach making itself into knots, as long as Snapes not here the pitch goes to the Gryffindors. But he's a head of house witch means on the scale of teachers he outranks me, so if he shows up…I briefly consider going to McGonagall or Dumbeldore (the only two with the power to overrule Snape) but I have a feeling that wont get me anywhere.
I hear a door slam which means Snapes coming, but I don't turn and look. Instead I try to focus on the Gryffindor Quiditch players.
Snape comes up beside me. "What is the meaning of this," he growls.
I turn to look at him. "To use the Quiditch pitch you must book it ahead of time, though I realise you might not know that given you were never good enough to play the sport yourself." I take pleasure from the look of anger that crosses his face. "However Gryffindor booked the pitch meaning they get to use it and Slytherin must use it another night."
Snape takes a step towards me and growls, "however a Head of House may change that if he or she deems it necessary." He smiles nastily. "And no other teach may change that."
I glare up at him. Even as I do so I realise I must look a little ridiculous standing up to him. I'm not a small person, especially for a woman, I'm 5'9" with a fairly stocky build however he's almost a head taller then me with a larger build. I wonder when that happened, he was always fairly short – I distinctly remember Sirius holding Snapes wand over his head and getting the smaller boy to jump for it – though perhaps not as much in his last two years at Hogwarts, but even then he'd been scrawny with almost a malnourished look about him. I can also see the Slytherins grinning at one another behind him and the Gryffindors have come down to watch.
"I find it funny that only the Slytherin Head of House ever finds the need to over rule another teams right to the pitch. And when they do it's always when the Gryffindors are practising."
Snape takes a threatening step in my direction putting him in my personal space.
Before he can say anything I give him a shove backwards. "Personal bubble, Snivellus."
He looks furious. "You can't do this."
"Oh and are you going to go to Dumbledore," I snarl at him.
"You can't undermine my authority," he snaps as if I hadn't interrupted him. "You will suffer the consequences."
I see the giant squid surface in the lake out of the corner of my eye and have a flash of inspiration. "Go ahead and try. Because if you do we'll find out if your buddy the squid has missed you at all."
Before he can say or do anything McGonagall storms across the lawn.
"What in the name of Merlin is going on!"
'We're in trouble now,' I think.
"We have the pitch booked, Professor," Harry jumps in. "Snape wants us to hand it over to the Slytherins for their tryouts."
"Professor Snape, Mister Potter," says McGonagall. Then she turns to Snape, "Is the pitch booked tomorrow night?"
Snape looks at Malfoy Jr. who shakes his head.
"Then I suggest that Slytherin use it then," McGonagall concludes. Then turning towards the Gryffindors she say, "Well get on with your practise."
They don't need to be told twice.
Snape turns on his heel and marches back to the dungeons the rest of the Slytherins trailing after him.
McGonagall turns to me.
'I'm in for it now', I think.
"I heard your comment to Severus about the giant squid." She says coldly. "it wasn't funny when James and Sirius kept throwing him to it…"
'Sure it was', I think fighting back a smile.
"…and it's not funny now."
"He was abusing his position of power," I point out.
"I noticed. Which is why Gryffindor can continue with their practise."
"This isn't the first time Slytherin's tried to kick them off the pitch."
She looks at me for a moment before saying, "I'll keep an eye on it. Now back up to the castle before I decide to report this to Dumbledore."
Knowing this is the best I'm going to get I grudgingly head back up to the castle to mark papers.
A/N: ok I had to have a go at Snape, it was inevitable, for those of you who don't like it too bad there's still a couple more chapters of making the Potions Master miserable, it's a little hobby of mine. I'll leave him alone eventually…maybe. grins evilly