Thanx for all your reviews. Love each and every one. You were supposed to meet Professor Flight in this chapter, but I thought it was getting too long, so you will have to wait until next time. Lol, Severusgirl

Chapter Four

The Professors

Rumours began to spread almost immediately.

Before breakfast the next morning, Harry heard that Snape had: been bitten by a werewolf; went missing when a Portkey he was using malfunctioned; had been sent mad by a fwooper.

Hermione reported hearing a third-year girl say she had it on good authority that Snape had run off with Delores Umbridge.

Professor Flight on the other hand had metamorphosed between a mermaid, a very intelligent grindilow and a will-o-the-wisp.

So when they heard over breakfast that Colin Creevy had been found wandering the grounds in the early hours, wearing his pyjamas and donkey's ears and that he was now in the hospital wing, they didn't know what to believe.

"Nasty," said Seamus, sucking air through his teeth. "Fancy getting frostbite on your..."

"Timetables!" announced Hermione.

Harry took his and was dumbstruck to find he had Potions on Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons.

"Well, Snape's not here to object, is he," said Ron.

"No, but what happens when he gets back?"

"Perhaps," said Ron in an undertone, "he's not coming back. Perhaps he really has been trapped between Portkeys..."

"Oh, Ron!" Hermione raised her eyes to heaven and then turned to Harry. "I think Professor McGonagall has swung it for you. She's got Dumbledore to insist you take the class. I'm really glad someone I like is doing Potions with me." She turned to looked at Ron's timetable. "What have you got instead of Potions?"

Ron's face took on a really strange look.

"Er...I dunno...I er...."

"Potions?! How can you be doing Potions?" Hermione ripped Ron's timetable out of his hands and studied it.

"I got an 'E' the same as Harry," said Ron indignantly.

"Yes, but Harry's a special case. He wants to be an Auror and Professor McGonagall said she'd help him..."

"I want to be an Auror as well!"

"No you don't, you just fancy being an Auror. There is a difference. You don't know what you want to do, that's why you put down all the same subjects as Harry."

Ron went bright red and snatched back his timetable. He and Hermione didn't speak for the rest of breakfast.

"Well that didn't last long, did it?" whispered Ginny to Harry as they left the Great Hall.

"What didn't?"

"My brother and Hermione," she giggled. "When she leaned over to look at Ron's timetable and their hands touched - I've never seen Ron look so flustered."

#

Their first Potions class arrived. It seemed that most people had taken the opportunity to drop out of Snape's lessons and the majority of the class was made up of his favoured Slytherins. They didn't look so full of themselves now that Professor Polykett was taking the lessons.

"It's pathetic to drop Potions just because they don't like Snape," said Hermione.

"You dropped Divination," Ron reminded her.

"But that wasn't just because of Trelawney. It's because I think the whole subject's a waste of time. Unlike Potions. I mean, Potions is a really valuable NEWT to have."

"Well the others haven't dropped Potions just because they don't like Snape," said Ron. "It's also because he's an evil git."

Professor Polykett looked startled as they filed in, but as the look remained for the whole lesson, Harry assumed it must be his natural expression. He had a very enthusiastic manner and kept waving his arms in the air, narrowly missing the glass jars standing on the shelves. He spoke about each ingredient as if it was a most precious jewel and his eyes shone as he went around the classroom inspecting everyone's cauldrons.

When he had finished his inspection, he returned to the front of the class.

"Now," he said, rubbing his hands together. "All your cauldrons are simmering nicely, add the Incewort Sap and..."

There was a deafening 'boom' as the contents of each cauldron exploded at once, sending jars cascading to the ground, their putrid sticky substances forming rivers across the floor.

As the purple smoke cleared, Professor Polykett surveyed the scene.

"Amazing!" he beamed.

#

A number of people had scalded the tips of their fingers. Professor Polykett summoned up a cooling charm so quickly, it seemed obvious to Harry that he'd used it often.

Hermione had singed her hair, but Ron had come off worse. His nose had a layer of skin burned away and it now shone red like a beacon. As he couldn't see where he was going due to his eyes watering so much, Harry accompanied him to the Hospital Wing.

"Hmmm. It's quite nasty," said Madam Pomfrey as she examined Ron's nose. "I can give you something to relieve the pain, but I am afraid you'll have to keep a rhinocoral over the burn for a couple of days. Wait there while I prepare it."

"What's a rhinocoral?" asked Harry when Madam Pomfrey had left the ward.

"Dunnodon'tcare," said Ron, his hand still cradling his nose. "As long as she stops the pain."

"Pretty empty up here, isn't it," said Harry, looking around. "Still, we've only been back a couple of days. Suppose people haven't had time to get ill or injured yet."

"Good thing it's empty. Don't want people to see my nose like this, and Colin's behind screens, so he can't see me anyway." Ron nodded to the far end of the ward where screens surrounded a bed. "Wonder how his ears are?" Ron grinned, but it obviously hurt his nose as his whole body jolted and his eyes filled with water again.

"I'll go and see how he is," said Harry, walking up the ward. "Hey Colin. Colin, you awake?"

Harry pulled the screen open enough to fit his head through, and froze.

Lying in the bed as if dead, his left shoulder and upper body heavily bandaged, was Snape.

#

"So he's obviously been attacked by something," said Hermione when they had their first chance to tell her, in the library that evening.

"Or someone," said Ron.

"But who? That's the question."

"Oooooh, let's think," said Ron, tapping his finger on his chin. "How about everyone he's ever met?"

"Tch, I'm being serious," said Hermione lowering her voice. "Suppose he was injured on a mission for the Order?"

"You know, I hope in a way that Snape is working for the other side. A couple of days with him and You-Know-Who'll give himself up..."

"RON!" Hermione slammed the palm of her hand on the table, making everyone in the surrounding area jump and causing Madam Pince to send a warning look in their direction.

Hermione lowered her voice again.

"Will you stop with the constant anti-Snape talk. Dumbledore trusts him and that should be good enough for us, OK?"

"Well it's not good enough for me," said Ron. "I mean, with all due respect, Dumbledore hasn't exactly been a good judge of character where the Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers are concerned, has he? So he could be wrong about Snape."

Hermione gave Ron a scathing look, but Harry thought Ron had a good point.

"You say Snape was at the meeting at the beginning of the holidays?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, there were loads of people. Then we saw no one except Dumbledore a couple of times. Then he got that urgent owl and left almost immediately."

"Ohhhh, it's so irritating there's no one to ask!" said Hermione through gritted teeth.

"Sirius would have told us," said Harry and was helpless to stop a great wave of sadness sweep over him.

Ron and Hermione exchanged glances, not knowing what to say.

"How about Bill?" Harry didn't really think Bill would help, but he wanted to break the silence he'd caused.

"No, he wouldn't tell us anything," said Ron. "How about Lupin?"

"We don't know where he is," Hermione reminded them. "We can't go sending him an owl when he may be undercover or in hiding."

"Lupin's back at headquarters," said Ron.

Harry and Hermione stared at him.

"Why didn't you tell us?" asked Harry.

"Well, I only knew this morning. Mum sent me some clippings on the Chuddley Cannons and she just added a little note saying Lupin was back, that's all."

"I don't think he'd tell us anything anyway," said Harry. "Hey! How about Fred and George?"

"They're hardly ever home," Ron reminded him.

"Yes, but they're the only ones who would tell us if they had heard anything," said Harry.

"It's worth a try," agreed Ron. "Let's send them an owl."