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More Disapointment

Chapter 3

For most of the morning, Fred and George sat in their usual spot in the corner next to the window, planning ways to find out what upset Professor McGonagall so much. Every so often, they would come up with a good plan, only to be ruined by Hermione who pointed out the little flaw as she sat on a squishy poof adding an extra foot to her potions' assignment. It seemed she wanted to help her favourite professor too and suggested things to them while she worked.

"You know, I wonder if the rest of the teachers know anything of this?" suggested George as he sighed in defeat, screwing up what they thought was a good plan and threw it into the fire.

"Good shot George. Hmm, Hermione have you noticed anything odd about the teachers?" asked Fred curiously glancing over to Hermione who was sat crouched only two inches away from her parchment.

"You know, I once heard that if you keep your nose that far away from the parchment, you go cross-eyed." Hermione sat up and poked her tongue out at the cheeky Gryffindor. Touching the end of the feather quill with her nose, Hermione looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling as she thought about her morning. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, Snape was in his usual Snape-mood stalking around the dungeons making waspish comments, Jackson the Ancient Runes teacher seemed his usual bouncy self and Binns droned the class into their usual stupor. But Flitwick...

"When Professor McGonagall walked in to Charms, Flitwick hid something from her. I could tell because when she asked what it was he turned pink and changed the subject quickly by diverting her to me. I think that was the only thing out of the ordinary," She answered finally. Fred and George looked at each other then sat up from their slouched positions.

"Hey, do you think you could do a bit of digging around for us?" asked Fred with a winning smile.

"Yeah, because she's-"

"In a really bad mood-"

"And hates our guts-"

"And is proberly planning-"

"To expel us plus-"

"You're her favourite-"

"Student, Hermione-"

"Pretty please?" they said pleadingly as both got down on their knee's and batted their eyelashes at her. Hermione rolled her eyes and looked down at the twins who were now blowing kisses at her.

"But what shall I say?"

"Well we know she has a weakness for lost kittens so, I figured in my highly evolved brain of mine, that you could transfigure something into a kitten and say that you found it by the forbidden forest when you went for a walk in the snow." said Fred happily with the air of pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

"Ingenious Fred, then you can probe her and ask her about her day etc, etc. Make her feel better,"

"What do you think? Pretty good, huh?"

Hermione raised an amused eyebrow and looked skeptically at them.

"You really think she will fall for it?"

"She's upset right? The last thing she wants is some poor creature to be rejected. She might even count it as a friend if no one else is talking to her or whatever, who knows?" shrugged Fred.

"I think this should be done soon though, if the teachers are behind this then we need to act quickly before they do something," said George seriously.

Minerva decided to go and pay Severus a visit, as her husband was nowhere to be found. She had tried his usual hidey-holes, like his astronomy outlook and, the alockment over the other side of the forbidden forest but she found neither hide nor hair of him. Minerva had wondered if Severus knew anything, because if he did then he would tell her just to annoy the hell out of her. Striding down the long dungeon corridor, she saw a faint light, which meant that Severus was in his office. Minerva knocked on the door and waited to enter. While she waited she heard a strange muffle and the sound of something smashing against the ground. A second later, Severus opened the door, stepped outside and shut it quickly again.

"Hello Minerva, what can I do for you?" he said smoothly and upon seeing the look of confusion and bewilderment on her face he added "You startled me, I knocked over a vial which had a poison in. I just opened my window to let it out,"

"Oh? And what are you doing with poison in your office?" Minerva demanded sternly, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow.

"For OTHER matters I wish not to go into," he muttered quietly enough for her to hear. Minerva understood immediately what he had meant. She knew it must be hard for Severus to keep up with his Death Eater duties, as well as his research, and schoolwork.

"I came down here to ask you if you have noticed anything unusual about the staff. It seems that most people have forgotten my Birthday today and I intend on finding out why. It has vanished from the staff calendar for some reason and I know I certainly put it on there when I put it in the staffroom in January." she explained to him, hoping he would enlighten her.

"Well Happy Birthday for starters and I can't think why anyone would remove your name from the staff calendar unless it was for a dare or a prank." Severus shrugged uninterestedly and lent against the wall. Minerva sighed and threw up her arms in defeat. If Severus didn't know anything about it, then no one else would.

"Thank you Severus." Minerva replied tiredly. "Oh, you wouldn't know where Albus has run off to, would you?"

"No, I have not seen the old coot since breakfast. Perhaps he left for ministry business? You know what that fool, Fudge, is like." Severus drawled.

"Also why has Albus decided to let the student's have the rest of the afternoon off? It seems everybody knows more than I do, and I'm supposed to be his deputy, for Merlin's sake!"

"No doubt to let them go to play in the snow, you know what he's like. Not that I'm complaining, it gives me time to finish my research." Severus curled his lip in disgust and stared at her through his curtain of back hair.

"Lucky them," she muttered bitterly, trying to fight back the tears that threatened to pour down her cheeks once more. "Looks like I'll be marking my seventh years essays this afternoon as that's all the excitement I'll be looking forward too. Thanks again Severus, see you at dinner."

Severus nodded and walked back into his office. He hoped the headmaster's plan would work tonight because though he did not show it, he cared about her quite a bit for Minerva as she had always looked out for him.

"It's alright, Minerva has gone now." he called in a bored voice.

"So how long will it take then do you think?" asked Rolanda as she tried to untangled herself from his private ingredients cupboard as some sticky substance had stuck her teaching cloak to the back of it. "What the hell is this stuff?"

Turning around to see what she was talking about, Severus smirked as Rolanda tried tugging her cloak, only to find the plant sucking her back into the cupboard.

"Here, allow me. Incendiosa!" he drawled and the sticky plant curled up back in the cupboard. "The Devils Advocate, relative of Devils Snare. The plant sticks to you and once it has covered you it suffocates you to death. You have to heat it up to make it un-stick you. It's very handy for catching thieves who decide to steal from my store cupboard though, as I've bewitched it just to hold the person or people prisoner until I walk into my office."

"You could have told me it was in there!" Rolanda huffed in annoyance, straightening out her robes.

"Where's the fun in that?" Severus smirked and she swatted him playfully on the arm.

"Ooh you are horrible,"

"That's what I live for," he replied nastily and turned his back to Rolanda to add a different ingredient to simmering caldron. Severus knew that if her argued with her, the argument would go on for days, and occasionally she would win. He thought back to the time when they had literally fought with each other on the Quidditch pitch. They had both ended up rolling on the ground, trying to best each other. Apart from finding out that she was a good fighting partner, he had also found out from their rough and tumble that she had a very fit body. Since then he had harboured a secret crush on her and took every opportunity to start a fight, hoping that it would end up like before.

"Severus, you're smiling!"

"Hmm? No I wasn't," said Severus denying the accusation instinctively, mentally berated himself for letting his mask slip for a split second.

"Yes you were, I'm not blind I know what I saw!" Rolanda grinned, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"Oh so shoot me, so I was. Is it illegal?" he asked coldly, rounding on her.

"No, it's just I've never seen you smile like that. You looked almost happy for a split second. You should do it more often, it makes you look quite handsome." Rolanda said smiling slightly. Severus said nothing, not trusting himself to say what was really going through his mind at that moment.

"So when will it be done?" Rolanda asked again after a while of watching him to see if he would smile again.

"Erm, two hours I should think. Come and collect it at half two," he replied while checking the temperature of the liquid. Rolanda walked up beside him, stood on tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek. Then she grabbed a handful of Floo powder and disappeared back down to the quidditch pitch where Poppy was waiting for her. Severus, who could not quite believe what had just happened to him, froze then once she had gone and smiled a full proper smile.

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