Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own HP. J.K. Rowling does. Duh.

Sunlight leaked into the battered, wooden blinds of Snape's office as the sun rose to greet him. An unfriendly greeting to Snape anyway. A single ray fell across his face and he groaned and cursed under his breath. Snape, unlike all the other teachers, slept in his office on a cot. But this office was also the living quarters for Severus Snape. He raised his hand to his face to block the sunlight and slowly got up to re-adjust the blinds and block it. But then a thought occurred to him. There are no windows in the Dungeons!

He went to examine this elusion that looked just like a battered window in the middle of his door. He reached out to touch it, and the light immediately went out, and the window vanished. This was followed by a high-pitched cackle that sounded just like…"PEEVES!!!!" Snape bellowed his name figuring out the problem. Peeves had bewitched an illusion on Snape's door, and was shining light from someone's wand through it. Peeve's zoomed away guffawing madly.

A seething Snape slumped back to his bed and collapsed onto it. He tried going back to sleep, but he couldn't cool his boiling anger. He checked his pocket watch laying out on his dresser (looking familiar to Dumbledore's), and saw that it was 5:00 in the morning. He laid his head back down again, and tried to remember the dream he was having. No luck. Not that he cared. He got dressed and headed up for breakfast.

He ran into Dumbledore who was also on his way to breakfast, and replied to Dumbledore's hearty, "hello", with a quick, cut "How do you do?" Snape had not been very fond of Dumbledore ever since he allowed Harry to use any means possible to block his spells in Occlumency. Every time Harry entered Snape's memories, he brought back another one of them that he tried so hard for years to forget. In fact, a "dear friend" willingly obliged to Snape's pleas for a memory charm years ago. And although it did have an effect, the horrible truth behind it could not be wiped away.

Dumbledore and Snape arrived in the Great Hall and joined the few early birds at a table. Snape was especially grumpy and did not want to be disturbed, so he sat at the far end, away from everyone else. He grabbed plain grits, plain oatmeal, pancakes with nothing on them, and an assortment of other dull foods, not really intending to eat them anyway, but not wanting to look out of place.

The faint sound of small footsteps could be heard coming into the Great Hall, but Snape did not look up to see who it was until that person sat down in the seat right next to him. Snape was wearing a look of why-are-bothering-me? when he raised his head. But it quickly changed to an expression no one has ever seen on this Professor's face: shock. Snape was completely stunned. His lips parted ever so slightly, and he just stared.

Maybe he was staring because she was beautiful. Maybe he was staring because she was beautiful, and she was sitting next to him. Maybe he was staring because he had never seen this woman before. Or maybe he was staring because of the fact that this woman looked so familiar, yet he had never met her before in his life. She looked a few years younger than Snape. She smiled kindly at him and said in a soft, soothing voice, "Wouldn't you like some syrup on those pancakes?"

Snape closed his mouth and didn't speak. He was not the kind of man that could talk to a woman and make any sense. So the lady just smiled again and gently poured some syrup on his pancakes. Not only that, but she put sugar in his grits, and brown sugar in his oatmeal. During all this, Snape said not a word. He did not know what to think of this woman. Surely she didn't know how bitter he was? She wouldn't dare come over here and spice his breakfast if she knew who he was! Snape's pride came flooding back, and he opened his mouth to speak. But all that came out was a quiet, "What are you doing?"

She looked up from her breakfast which she had started on and replied, "Just putting a little spice into life!" She spotted a strawberry on a dish nearby and snatched it up. "Oh! Here you go!" And she placed it on his pancakes. Snape just stared at his plate. It looked like it belonged to someone else. Throughout the whole meal, he just stared. When the woman got up and left after waving goodbye, Snape did a peculiar thing. He looked around, saw that no one was watching, and slipped the strawberry into his pocket.

At that moment, Dumbledore was having a conversation with Professor McGonagall who had just arrived. Snape pushed his full plate away, and approached Dumbledore. He cleared his throat. Dumbledore looked up and Snape asked him, "Who was that woman?"

"Pardon?" Snape answered impatiently, "The woman! The woman who was sitting next to me just a few minutes ago!" Dumbledore smiled. "Ah. I see you have met Abigail." Snape pondered. "Abigail what?"

"Abigail Makayla. She's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." And he left it at that. Snape turned away and headed towards his office. Abigail. The words kept running through his head. Abigail Makayla. It was like a virus. He couldn't stop saying the name in his head. Before he knew it, he was in his office sitting at his desk.

He sat there, waiting for his first class, and contemplated. Then he remembered the strawberry he put in his pocket. He took it out, placed a freezing charm on it, and kept it in his bedroom for safekeeping. As he stepped out of his office, he saw Hermione Granger standing in the doorway. "Er-hello Professor Snape."

Snape was too worried if she saw his strawberry to remember to be mean. He quickly responded, "Oh. Hello Miss Granger." She then gave him the weirdest look and Snape switched into mean-mode. "Er- um- well why are you standing there? Get to your seat!" Hermione snapped to attention and scurried to her seat.

Snape was used to Hermione getting to class early. Hermione got out her potions book, quill and all her supplies and set them up on her desk all neat and orderly. Snape sat at his desk, watching. She went to the cupboard and got out a collapsible cauldron to set up next to her desk. She sat down, rearranged a couple things, made sure it was all straight, then picked up her book and began to read ahead for the next day. Snape shook his head and smirked. "It's the same thing everyday isn't it Miss Granger?" She looked over the top of her book and said as politely as she could, "Pardon?" "You heard me." he sneered.

He paused, took a breath through his nostrils, got up and glided over to Hermione, leaning down so that he was right in her face. "You fear change." His smirk came again and he stood up straight, towering over her. Hermione had a confused, sort of hurt look on her face. "I thought so." and he strode away back to his desk. Hermione sat, confused and discontented. She shook it off and continued to read, but with more difficulty. Snape took interest in other things, and finally the class started to arrive one by one.

Potions came and went with the usual problems. Neville screwed up his potion, which splashed on his robes and turned them pink. Not even Snape knew how that happened. Harry got a minimum of 20 points taken from Gryffindor altogether, for whatever reason you could think of: sneezing, breathing too loud, writing sloppy, answering a question correctly….who knows. But the madness did end believe it or not, and they all proceeded to their next class. All through the day Snape had to put up with all sorts of snotty kids.

As his last class for the day was arriving a Ravenclaw had started it off by spilling an ingredient all over the floor, causing it to bubble and emit a purple smoke which when inhaled, caused one to act like a monkey. Then the bubbles from the floor floated into the air, and spread throughout the classroom. Whomever they landed on burped endlessly.

Snape, who right as the incident happened ran into his office to get some extra supplies of the spilled ingredient, just came out to find his classroom full of burping monkeys jumping all over the desks and picking at each other's hair. He was bewildered for only a split second once he realized what had caused it. He ran about putting people right, and finally fixed up the bubbling, smoking spot on the floor. His nostrils flared and he was fuming as he walked about looking at all the students

Bravely, the Ravenclaw that spilled it stood up and admitted to the accident. Snape rounded on her. "Stupid Girl! Stupid, stupid girl! What am I going to do with you?!" She stuttered, "S-sorry. I--I didn't know what to d-do sir." Snape glared at her. "What would be the most obvious thing to do when cleaning up something you spilled? Haven't I taught you anything?!" He broke off and started mumbling frantically to himself. "Why do I still have this job? I hate kids, I hate teaching. What's the matter with me? Why am I still here? I could be enjoying a brat free life but noooo, Dumbledore says---…" he got quieter so that no one could understand what he was saying.

The students all looked around at each other, not sure of what to do. Snape had never done anything like this before. He abruptly stopped and turned his attention to the entire class. "Scourgify you dimwits! Scourgify!!" And he frantically waved his wand around addressing the whole class. He stamped into his office and slammed the door.

The class all sat where they were, once again unsure of whether to go or stay. Then, in answer to their question, Snape poked his head through his office door and shouted, "Class dismissed!" then slammed it shut again. They all quickly left, glad of the short lesson and no homework. Snape sat on his cot, his hands in his greasy hair, his elbows resting on his knees. He stared at the floor, ashamed of himself. He hadn't had a mumbling fit since…forever. He thought he was over that. He straightened himself up and was just about to take his daily potion when: knock-knock. Snape approached his "bedroom" door just as there was another knock. "Who is it?" he called, sounding irritated.

A soothing, familiar voice answered. "Severus Snape? This is Abigail Makayla. I wanted to talk to you for a minute." Oh yeah. That was the girl who messed up his breakfast this morning. Not that it mattered but…she was also the new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher. Snape replied, "Alright, hang on a minute." trying to sound agitated again. He definitely did not want her to see his office as a….well, a bedroom. It was slightly embarrassing. He opened the door a crack and slipped out.

Abigail was already making herself at home. In fact, she was sitting in his chair. At his desk. Snape stood there, and uncomfortably sat in a student's desk across from his desk. Which she was sitting at. In his chair. She spoke first. "I believe we've met before. This morning? I don't think we had a proper introduction. I'm Abigail Makayla, the new DADA teacher." She was obviously waiting for him to say something so he introduced himself as well. "Severus Snape. Potions." Like it was said. Not much of a ladies' man.

She noticed this and cut right to the chase. "Listen. A student complained to me that you lost your temper today. Is this true?" What was he supposed to say? No? "Yes." he said quietly. The little brat. What a tattle-tale. "Well, I for one don't approve of that. So I'm here to tell you that you if you need help managing the students, I'll be more than happy to. One can't handle so many kids at once you know?" Snape said nothing.

She turned a kind serious. "Now don't forget to work on that little temper of yours." She smiled kindly and let her self out. Snape sat there in a student's desk. He couldn't believe a teacher had just sat at his desk, in his chair, and told him to work on his temper. He made a mental note to do so.

A/N: please review. I thought I'd play out a typical Snape's day for you. It'll get more interesting just hang on for me!