LOST PERSPECTIVE 7

PAYBACK TIME

By Bellegeste

A/N: Re: reviews. I just want to say that it is really heartwarming when someone homes-in on certain descriptions or phrases which I have tried especially hard to convey as faithfully asI can. Thank you for noticing and appreciating.

Chapter 8: VENGEANCE IS MINE

Professor Dumbledore expressed surprise.

"Spoken to Miss Granger? Already? This morning? And she's agreed to keep quiet? Well, you must have put the fear of Merlin into her, that's all I can say! You know, I will be questioning both of them individually - if she's going to bring up any accusations of threatening behaviour - intimidation, dissuasive Hexing, that sort of thing - it would be as well if I'd heard it from you first, Severus. If I'm going to find out that you've Obliviated a student, I'd rather be prepared… I don't recall obtaining Ministry authorisation…" He wasn't entirely joking.

"I have made the position clear. She will respect my wishes," Snape stated. The falsehood slid smoothly from his lips, more a misrepresentation than an actual lie. Whatever emotion had enlisted Granger's co-operation, it was not - this time – respect for his professorial authority.

"But you haven't told her…?"

"Of course not."

"And neither she nor Harry suspects…? They didn't get a clear view of the attacker?"

"Apparently not."

"That's a blessing. We don't want this getting blown up into a scandal. We can do without the Daily Prophet getting hold of it - giving them ammunition for their latest crusade. It's delicate enough already, what with the pressure groups lobbying for more stringent containment measures…"

"… and the wizard rights activists banging on about personal liberty? See where that's got me!" Snape had been rubbing the back of his neck, massaging the stiffness, cautiously testing his range of movement with a few unobtrusive stretches and rotations.

Dumbledore regarded him quizzically.

"You are quite positive that you have done nothing recently, Severus, to provoke this attack? You didn't say anything? Have an argument? Cause offence in any way?"

"Beyond the fact of my mere existence, you mean?" Some insults stayed with you for ever. Perhaps everyone secretly felt that way about him. "Of course not. What do you think I am?" A flash of anger.

"All right, Severus, I know you're upset, but if you feel so strongly, why haven't you gone to the Ministry? Pressed charges? You'd be within your rights to do so. I'll tell you why. Because you feel, as I do, that this matter can be handled internally, without bureaucratic intervention. Am I correct?"

Azkaban - that would be tantamount to a death sentence. There was no point in pressing for an arrest. The Wizards' Council would probably dismiss the case on a technicality anyhow, or accept a plea of diminished responsibility. Why waste everybody's time?

"Pah!"

"I'll take that as a yes. However, you may have managed to persuade Miss Granger to keep her mouth shut, but there is still the question of the nursing staff at St Mungo's. They will have seen the evidence. Are you sure that we can rely on their discretion?"

"Why do you think I drank that damn Potion? I silenced that fool of a Healer." Snape straightened his shoulders, sure of himself, unapologetic. He had no qualms about mincing a worm like Dollop - he took no great pleasure in intimidation but sometimes it was necessary.

"Not permanently, I trust, Severus?" Dumbledore looked as though he would prefer not to inquire too closely into the Potion master's methods.

"It was tempting…"

"So now, confidentiality aside, we have the school to consider - the children. Do you know, Severus, I'm not convinced that hushing this up is the wisest course of action. It's not as though the background to the affair is a complete secret - it's just something that the, er, 'parties concerned' prefer not to publicise."

Snape was inwardly decrying the old man's reluctance to say the name out loud. As if, by naming the culprit, they would in some way be prejudging the case or betraying a confidence. It wasn't as though they were in Dumbledore's office with all the portraits' ears flapping for a tit-bit of scandal to spread around their likenesses in wizard homes and institutions throughout the country. This periphrasis was a ludicrous precaution, a mere nicety, coy and unnecessary - after all, the Headmaster had never been averse to naming the Dark Lord. And yet, Snape found himself following his example. Dumbledore went on, voicing some of Snape's own concerns.

"Sooner or later the truth about this latest incident will come out, and then what? Apart from anything else, what about Harry? Are they not friends? How's he going to feel when he finds out what really happened?"

"You think he might take retaliatory action? The same idea had occurred to me."

That wasn't what Dumbledore had meant at all. His anxieties for Harry had more to do with the boy's feeling slighted by his father's unwillingness to take him into his confidence. But Snape continued,

"You saw what he was like last night, Headmaster. His head is full of inflated notions of family honour - I blame James Potter! 'Avenge thy father', indeed! What other barbaric rites did he instil in him? Harry's quite likely to take some foolish reprisals in the misguided impression that he is doing me a favour. Why he thinks I require his vainglorious heroics…"

"And, naturally, the thought of a reprisal had never crossed your own mind?" The twinkle had been absent from Dumbledore's eyes so far this morning, but now it made its first teasing appearance. Snape noticed it with increasing irritation.

"My vengeance, should I choose to exact it, would be swift and… …appropriate." His customary description was 'swift and deadly', but, in this case, death would be an easy escape… Why should he make anyone's life any easier? He turned his thoughts back to his son. "But Harry - Harry's a different matter. He is undisciplined and impetuous - and defiant. Who knows what he will do next? I don't."

Snape hated the feeling of powerlessness that came over him whenever he was reduced to discussing Harry's behaviour. The boy was as explosive as a volatile potion and yet far less predictable; his responses were unquantifiable, inconsistent and uncontrollable. There was no precise recipe for a teenager's emotions, no standard set of reactions. They would never behave like measured ingredients in a calibrated cauldron. It was maddening!

Dumbledore allowed his whiskers to hide his smile at Snape's frustration. Being a father was constantly providing the gruff Potions master with new and unusual challenges, which, grudgingly, he was rising to meet. But he would insist on judging the boy so critically. Dumbledore had every confidence in Harry's generosity of spirit.

"So what do you intend to do, Severus? You can't ignore it. Pretend it never happened? That's not like you. And, naturally, there's the question of…" The blue eyes had become gimlets, piercing Snape's evasions. "Severus, I will not countenance any acts of personal revenge against any members of this establishment. Apart from anything else I do not wish there to be any disruption to the children's classes – but, if his presence in the school is going to be a constant reminder…"

"I'll speak to him," Snape muttered.

"You do that, but be careful. You're hardly renowned for your diplomacy, you know, Severus. And what if he decides to unburden himself? To Harry, for instance? The pressure of guilt is a heavy load to bear. If I were you I'd have a chat to the boy as soon as possible. The other children will inevitably get to hear of it. Though, in the long run, that may prove to be no bad thing… Children can often surprise you - they can be exceedingly accommodating at times, very accepting…" In his years as a Headmaster, Dumbledore had seen countless examples of charitable forgiveness, sometimes in the most unexpected quarters.

Snape's thoughts seemed to have sunk into a mine-shaft of memory, quarrying some deep, inner injustice. Dumbledore wasn't sure if the man had heard him.

"Severus? I say, you owe it to the boy - "

But he had heard only too well.

"Accepting? And children can also be cruel, vindictive brats. Any hint of non-conformity is targeted with ridicule and derision. He will be subjected to intolerable abuse, for the sake of something over which he has no control and which is not his fault."

The outburst issued from a seam of resentment, long buried, but still a rich source of spleen. Snape turned away, appalled at himself for speaking so freely in front of the old man, and stood, arms wrapped about his chest, his foot tapping slow time against the edge of the hearth, each tap releasing a pocket of pressurised bitterness.

Dumbledore recognised the bile without fully understanding the reason behind it. If grudges were flowers… he thought mildly, our Severus would have a prize-winning bouquet here. How he nurtures them.

"I'm surprised to hear you speaking so passionately in his defence, Severus," said Dumbledore quietly. "You should, in that case, make it clear that you do not hold him personally responsible… I have always been under the impression that there is no love lost between you… I know you've been doing a little extra-curricula brewing on his behalf - and we all appreciate your efforts there, but, well, quite frankly, dear boy, you amaze me…"

Snape had surprised himself. Tolerance and forgiveness were deep water sentiments which rarely surfaced from his emotional abyss.

"And Albus is not easily amazed!"

The two wizards swung round at the sound of the voice to see Madam Pomfrey emerging, crisply immaculate, from the Floo. Recalling his own crumpled, smut-stained arrival, Dumbledore was actually amazed for the second time in less than a minute - but he refrained from comment lest he shatter her illusions.

"Harry Potter's Owl referred to another attack?" the matron queried, addressing the headmaster but already moving briskly towards Snape. He shrank before her keen, professional scrutiny, seeing his plans for the day about to be amputated by hours of unnecessary medical fuss.

"Oh, marvellous. Raphael (1) to the rescue!" he muttered sardonically under his breath.

"I heard that! Would you rather I were an Avenging angel?" Her prim smile softened the asperity of her tone. She expected nothing less from the surly Potions master than uncooperative resistance and that's what she was getting.

"Hurry up then. I've got things to do. Can't you just cut to the chocolate and be done with it?" he protested weakly.

"Anyone would think I run a sweet shop!" She raised her eyebrows at Dumbledore. "Isn't it wonderful, Headmaster, how your teaching staff hold each other's expertise in such high esteem? Come on now…let's have a look at you."

"I don't need - " Snape objected, as Pomfrey took him gently but firmly by the arm and pressed him towards a chair. Vexed, he looked to Dumbledore for support, but the old wizard appeared to have found a particularly bothersome egg-stain on the front of his robe and was picking at it assiduously with a long, yellowing fingernail. He was humming to himself and refused to make eye contact.

"Sit down, Professor," she instructed in a no-nonsense way that brooked no dissent, "and let's see what you're hiding under that scarf of yours."

She made a couple of preliminary passes with her medi-wand and took his pulse, frowning. "And you might as well take that cloak off too - you're not going anywhere today…"

End of Chapter.

Next chapter: A LANCASHIRE LAD. Cut to another part of the castle and another thread of the story. How are Harry and Hermione occupying their time? And what exactly is under the cupboard?

1 Raphael – the Archangel Raphael, patron of the blind, happy meetings, nurses, physicians and travellers. Snape refers to him in a medical not a religious context.