DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
AUTHOR NOTE: Many thanks to the wonderfully talented, Niamh for betaing this story. All of her fics should be on your reading list if you are enjoying, At Any Moment.
Severus VI
After breakfast...
Well, that was an interesting exercise in trying to decipher school politics. I think it was school politics, though if it is to do with the information Remus managed to secure...then sometimes it's best not to think too far ahead. Albus was...distracted, and placed Minerva firmly to his immediate right side with me next to her. He never does that unless something has gone horribly wrong, and whilst it suited both of us to continue our discussion, it was unsettling to see the Headmaster muttering to himself. If I didn't know better I would swear the old bugger was starting to unravel with all of the activities he has to watch out for in the castle...and elsewhere.
Minerva caught up to me in the corridor leading to the Great Hall this morning with an interesting and yet horrifying tale of finding her precious Miss Granger on her hands and knees in the Library at eleven o'clock the previous evening. It appears at first glance to have been merely coincidence that saw Minerva detouring from her regular path, and a fortuitous one at that.
It appears Miss Granger has a death wish, one I hope to dissuade her from in the near future. The stupid child managed to circumvent all of the safeguards in the West Tower and found herself alone in the Library. I have no doubt she thought herself alone, at any rate. The Baron makes an excellent sentinel but I doubt Miss Granger would share such a sentiment.
Minerva's threats are hollow and Miss Granger is no doubt well aware of that fact.
Minerva's true temper is something I've never really witnessed, but if all of Albus' accounts are at least partly true, Miss Granger is indeed lucky that her Head of House saw fit to curb some of her more 'irrational' outbursts. On second thoughts, maybe such a tirade would have worked better.
I wonder if she would take my threats any more seriously? By the heavens, she will if I have any say in the matter.
Stupid child!
Such a stupid, inconsiderate child to feel herself immune from the very terror her parents faced! She is lucky Minerva found her, for I have no doubt that grief or not, she would be scrubbing out muck from every nook and cranny I could find with one of her precious cauldron brushes. In fact I wonder if the mere threat might be enough to curb her wanderlust.
If I have to wonder then I already know the answer in this particular instance. It does not make it any easier knowing that she is recklessly endangering herself. I am one person despite my seeming ability to move through the shadows, and I can't be everywhere even if I would wish it sometimes.
Perhaps I should talk to Albus and suggest politely that my first instinct to place the students in secure rooms within the dungeon complex might just need further consideration. If Albus is agreeable I might also prompt him to lay the idea in such a way as to make Miss Granger's actions seem the likely reason for the suggested change. I would love to see her face when the other students realise that her bravado and stupidity might just see them reassigned to the supposedly cold and dank dungeons. If I can manage to keep a straight face about it all, the Baron might see his way to casting a Slytherin glamour upon the rooms, and so scare the living daylights out of Miss Granger.
Late afternoon...
I asked Miss Granger to stay back after class this morning to arrange her detention. I did it in my own particular way, of course, verbally eviscerating her lax character in leaving a potion unattended, thus allowing it to spoil. Mr Malfoy looked at her as though he would have been quite happy to physically tear her limb from limb, and barring witnesses, I could have sent him to Hades happily. I was quite the bastard in my attempts to raise her hackles, but all of it seemed in vain. She is drifting aimlessly and seems at a loss to prevent her own soul from shattering. Though she still has the appearance of vigour when she answers a question placed before her, she is merely playacting. If I can see her torment so easily, then it might be time for her to develop that stubborn Gryffindor backbone that they all seem so reluctant to shed. Potter did nothing except silently fume, but then I didn't really expect him to do much of anything. The more interesting interaction was when Mr Weasley sought to offer comfort to her. She batted him away quite viciously and then glared at him. It's the first time I've seen any sort of tension in the 'dream team' and I am curious about the catalyst. Perhaps she'll tell me this evening without the need to pry it out of her?
After dinner...Minerva doesn't trust me!
She questioned my need to have Miss Granger complete her potion after hours, alone with me in the Potions classroom. It's not like I've never disciplined a student; male or female alone before, but for some obscure reason Minerva feels that in this instance Hermione needs someone to supervise her detention. When I queried her motivation for such a req...demand, she said quite baldly that Miss Granger seemed quite at home in the dungeons with me the previous evening and that she was just concerned that the girl had taken some obscure liking to me.
Anyone would think that I regularly instruct students in some of the more esoteric texts in the Library...hands on so to speak!
I simply cannot believe the gall of the woman to question my morals, particularly as her own past is rather fraught with some less than ideal foibles. Then there is the ridiculously bald subterfuge as she and Albus take extraordinary measures to appear as lifelong friends, and not something deeper.
Who cares what they do behind closed doors? Quite frankly, I hope to never hear a blow-by-blow description of anything the pair of them gets up too!
But no...the reformed character can't be trusted, even though he's never shown any such proclivity in the past.
I like her, and yes, in the past I have thought myself quite willing to accommodate some strange fantasies about her!
There! I've said it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to lure her into my office and seduce her. I like her seeming ability to absorb even the most obscure information, her compassion to such lack wits as Longbottom, and her tenacity. The same tenacity that was so unshakeable until recently. I want to see her survive this and if it takes me treating her as I have always done, then I shall do whatever it takes to see her take her rightful place in the magical world.
I would fail her if I did any less than my best in this instance.
I would fail myself...and that's one failure too many.
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