Chapter Nine

Snape's New Agenda

Severus had a conference before lunch so only had one class that morning. But it was not one he was looking forward to, for he had double Defense with first years; Gryffindor and Slytherin. He glared at Hermione Weasley when he had seen the schedule, but in the last couple of years she had gotten used to those first reactions from he and the rest of the staff when they received an unfavorable combination.

"It was the only way I could work it in," she shrugged unapologetically. "I already have to juggle sixth and seventh years' schedules to make sure Aurelius can make his Defense class, you know."

Letting out an irritated yet resigned sigh, he stomped out of the room to finish his paperwork. Of course, at that point he had not known that Ciardoth was going to make a move.

Neither he nor Jennifer had been able to get back to sleep that night. After talking with Albus on what happened, Severus sat down with a large pot of coffee and with Jennifer to work things out. Severus had then reluctantly retreated to his classroom to find some way to approach this with his classes. He found himself in a bit of a dilemma; for he knew the safest course of action was not one that the board was about to approve of. Drumming his fingers absently, he took out both his journal and lesson plan, making notes in each before getting up to seek out his children.

In the Great Hall, Joanie and Jamie weren't any more thrilled about the idea of a double Defense class as Snape was in giving it. They had heard a dozen too many horror stories growing up about them, despite the fact that their parents conversations often ended in laughter. Even some of their other classmates looked sympathetic and apologetic.

"Just make sure you do what he says and pay attention," Andrew advised. "It's really not as bad as what they're making it out to be, especially since last year."

"Well, it's true he was a lot better after he decided Eigil Hauk was slime," Ted admitted. "But I think it's asking too much to think he'll be that way again this year."

"He's not in charge of Slytherin any more. He has no reason to be biased against us," Halbert reasoned.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Ted said, pushing away his breakfast. "You guys had better watch your step."

"Speaking of which, there he is now," Halbert said, and Andrew looked up to see Severus coming over.

"Family meeting, my office at lunch," he murmured to Andrew, and Andrew nodded thoughtfully. As Snape turned to walk away, Andrew suddenly thought about it.

"There will be food, right?" Andrew said. Severus rolled his eyes, making his way to Alicia.

Alex had just sit down to breakfast when she saw her father making the rounds, watching him curiously as he spoke to Aurelius and then came over to her table.

"Family meeting, my office at lunch," Severus said in a low voice.

"Does this have anything to do with the board meeting tomorrow night?" Alex asked bluntly.

Mandria glared at her, but when Severus' eyes flicked over at her she became quickly interested in her breakfast, refusing to meet his gaze.

"This is a serious family matter," Severus said evenly. "I wouldn't call it over anything so trivial. Don't be late," he added before walking off.

"Trivial?" Alex repeated once he was out of range, glancing at Mandria.

"I told you not to mention it! Nobody's supposed to know about it, and now he already thinks I told you something!" Mandria hissed at her.

"Well, they can't do it, you know. They wouldn't dare," Alex said. "Especially not to me, considering I graduate this year. I wonder what it is he wants to talk about, then?"

"I'm sure I don't know," Mandria said. "But I still think you're all downplaying the board more than you ought to."

"Well, we'll find out about that more by Thursday," Alex said, hurrying to finish her breakfast. "But now I admit I'm curious as to what would prompt such a family meeting on the first day of school."

At first, Jamie wondered if she and Joanie had gotten into the wrong classroom as she spied the bespectacled figure huddled over his desk. His black hair was tied back and his black eyes were intent upon the pile of books and scrolls in front of him, looking rather like an accountant tediously searching to find a lost knut. But an inquisitive caw from the Stymphalian sitting on his stand near the mantle caused the wizard to look up, his small black eyes immediately fixing on them.

In that instant, Jamie forgot her first impression and the spectacles and recognized the strong, almost frighteningly solemn man who had often come to see her father; always on some sort of dark business relating to his work. So startling was the difference that at first she didn't move, quite wary now and having very little idea of what to expect.

"Well?" Snape finally said looking between them. "If you're waiting for an invitation, I think you've come to the wrong party," he said.

Chagrined, the two girls glanced at each other and walked for the back row as he stood, gazing at them both with such an intense gaze that other students coming in were a bit reluctant to break it by walking in front of it.

"Let's get one thing clear from the beginning, Potter, Weasley…" Snape paused and suddenly groaned. "God, I was hoping never to have to say those names in one sentence again. Be that as it may," he continued, ignoring the smug look that had crossed over their faces. "I will only say this once. I don't care who your father is. I don't care who your mother is. When you are in this class, you are merely students and you are on my time. You are not above the rules and are expected to follow them. You will be judged merely on your success at doing so, and your scholastic performance or lack thereof. No matter if your name is Potter, Snape, or Martin," Severus said, his eyes flicking over at Johnny who merely grinned back at him. "Or even Barrister," he added, glancing at the girl who eyed him steadily back.

"When that bell rings, you will be in your seats, and for the entire class…no matter how insufferably long it may seem to you…your attentions will be on me and on my instruction. Trust me, these long first year doubles are no more fun for me than they are for you. However, maybe somehow I can use that time to burrow into your heads some means to protect yourselves. For whether you know it or not, Defense against the Dark Arts is the most important class you have. None of the others will matter that much if you are dead. And there are two truths I think you need to be aware of before I begin now that everyone is present. The first is that there are many dark forces out there that are more than willing to kill no matter who you happen to be. And the second, Miss Potter, is the fact that there are also dark forces who are especially motivated to kill a person or a family member of a person they see as a direct threat. So, ignore my warning at your own expense. I will do my part to teach you. You have only yourselves to blame if you don't heed the instruction. And lastly, I want to say that anything you have heard about this class is probably true, so I trust I won't have any reason to hand out any disciplinary actions to add to whatever list of horror stories have compounded over a generation," Severus with a curt nod. Everyone, including Jamie and Joanie, merely looked back somberly at him.

"As many of you know, two of this country's best defenders against such forces, Aurors who are licensed to track down dark wizards, died at the hands of a dark creature whose origin is not of this universe who calls herself Ciardoth. I've heard many quote how this act has made these dark times. But from my experience, I can tell you that all times are dark times. It does not go away or fade, although it may lie in wait for awhile for another face to take up its name. No one is safe. Safety is an intangible idea that cannot truly be obtained by any standards. It is the expense we pay for our free will, something of which you still have, regardless of who may try and tell you otherwise. It doesn't matter how careful you are in prevention…something will always slip through, and even if not, one is never safe from oneself. That is something you cannot escape." He paused a moment in thought, but no one moved.

"In fact, there was actually an attempt by Ciardoth to harm a member of the staff while all of you were sleeping last night," he added getting an immediate reaction and murmur of surprise until he held up a hand. "However, the situation was diffused…temporarily. Ciardoth, it seems, has developed a way to invade an unsuspecting person's dreams and even cause physical harm to them by using her wild magic to substantiate the ethereal quality that lies within. So I would suggest that if you experience anything out of the ordinary in that area to report it to myself or one of your advisors. Yes, Miss Weasley, I had a feeling you would be the first to interrupt me in the middle of a lesson. What might I ask is so important?" Severus sighed, frowning at her.

"I was just wondering about what you meant by unsuspecting, sir. I mean, how can one fight something like that if they're asleep?"

"Not letting something like that in your head in the first place comes to mind…" Severus began but then caught himself. "Anything can be defended against, Miss Weasley, if one is aware they are in danger and recognizes certain warning signs, which is one of the things we're going to be looking at today," he said, turning to the blackboard. "But the first thing you need to recognize are your true enemies, which are…you will have your notebooks open by now and quills in hand before the chalk hits the slate from now on…" he frowned at them as they scrambled to get ready. Then he wrote a series of words on the board; Ignorance, Fear, Assumption, Overconfidence, Indifference, Self Doubt, Misplaced Trust, Lack of Reason, Lack of Awareness, Lack of Self Discipline, Lack of Preparation, Lack of Communication. "These twelve items I have listed can kill you just as certainly and as quickly as any one of the twelve death spells," Severus said, drawing a circle around them. "And any of them, some of them, or all of them add up to one thing; Lack of Control," he said putting that up and turning again. "I will not lie to you. You cannot necessarily control every single predicament. But in those cases, you must learn how to enable yourself to get back into a situation with options so that you can get control again. It is these conditions that we will be exploring this year; along with, combined with, and over and above what the book has to say because the truth of the matter is that the book can only go so far. Until you can conquer or at least acknowledge the existence of these problems, you have no chance at survival against anything." The class glanced at the blackboard thoughtfully, but nobody spoke a word.

Both Jennifer and Severus looked and felt quite tired by the time lunch came around. He was sitting at his desk kneading his head when she came in, and she smiled at him sympathetically.

"How'd your new agenda go?" she asked, turning over some lunch trays.

"I had no problems but I didn't expect any. Jennifer, would you hand me a headache phial out of my cloak? I'm out of powders again," he said.

"You're getting much too stressed about everything going on," Jennifer said with a knowing sigh, but went to get it. "You're out. Let me go get one."

"Out? I shouldn't be unless you borrowed it. I filled the entire cloak when we finished bottling the lab," Severus frowned. "You're looking in the wrong slot."

"Severus, honestly! You keep it between your Telepathy potion and your Wakeful Dose. I think I can tell the difference," Jennifer chided him, putting the cloak back on the hook. "Let me go get you some more potions. I'm sure we have a minute or two before all four of them can get here."

But as she left, Severus found himself gazing unsurely at the cloak. He got up and grabbed it, turning it inside out to inspect the narrow satin pockets lining the inside. Frowning, he stared at the empty pocket in alarm then reached in to inspect the reddish liquid beside it. How could this be? The sound of voices from the classroom caused him to quickly put the Telepathy potion back, tossing it on the hook as Alex and Alicia came in, gazing at his alarmed face curiously.

"Grab a sandwich and have a seat," Severus said, the two of them glancing at one another before heading over to the tray, Alicia still going on about Transfiguration.

"She does seem to know what she's doing," Alicia said to her quietly, "but I think it'd be better if she tried not walking around. It's really hard to concentrate on what she's saying when she's knocking stuff off her desk, or our desks, or things off the back shelves when she passes them."

"All the same, I'm glad I'm not taking it this year," Alex admitted, then glanced back at her father. "I hear she's only planning to stay a year as well? What does it take to get a permanent teacher around here?"

"Someone with a stomach of iron and a head to match," Severus said dryly. He heard an inquisitive squawking noise from the next room. "I wasn't referring to you!" he told Descartes, frowning out the door at him.

"Good thing you didn't say anything about a baleful glare," Alicia grinned, leaning down to pet Rasputin.

"Alicia, don't touch reptiles before eating. You know better than that!" Alex scolded her. Rasputin hissed in protest. "Well, it might make her ill, you know."

"Alex, what have I told you about upsetting my familiars? Come in, come in, Andrew, have you seen your brother?" Severus asked.

"No, I just had Herbology. Guess what? Halbert is planning to go into veterinary medicine," Andrew said, sitting down by the others.

"Really? I always thought Halbert didn't like Potions or Herbology," Alex said.

"Oh, he's always liked Potions all right. If you ask me, he only got interested in Herbology because we keep getting paired with Hufflepuff for it," Andrew chuckled to himself.

"Still hung up on Ginger Davidson? I'd have thought he'd have gotten over that by now," Alicia said. "Why doesn't she tell him she's simply not interested?"

"Because she's afraid Andrew won't be interested in her if she does," Alex said slyly.

"Oh, cut it out, Alex."

"Well, it is true, you know…"

"Please, would you all 'cut it out?' I hardly called you here to let you gossip. You can do that on your own time," Severus scolded them, gratefully taking the potion out of Jennifer's hand as she entered and got settled.

"What's the conversation about?"

"Ginger Davidson," Alex said before Severus could say a word.

"Oh yes, what a mess, that. She still has a crush on you, you know," Jennifer confided to Andrew, who grimaced.

"Jennifer, do you mind?" Severus said in annoyance, glancing at his watch. Just then Aurelius arrived, glancing around before closing the door behind him.

"Sorry. House business," he explained before taking a seat.

"What sort of house business?" Alicia asked, getting nudged by her mother for doing so.

"Now, as you will hear in brief in my class if you have not heard rumors of it already, Ciardoth once again has attempted to attack us by going through your mother's dreams, much like she orchestrated with Lucius Malfoy," Severus said, the four growing immediately alarmed. "However, this time I was able to work my way into the situation before any harm was done. It must not happen again to any one of us," he said firmly, meeting each gaze. "At the very least, it should not be allowed to take one of us completely unaware. There are steps each of us can take against such a mental attack, and therefore as a family we will be studying them, starting with tonight and every night until the beginning of clubs and Quidditch practice, and then every single weekend until further notice. I know, Aurelius, that you have some instinctual blocks, but even you could benefit from lessons in Occlumency. Have any of you had any unusual or violent nightmares lately? Even in the last year or so?" he asked and they shook their heads. Aurelius looked thoughtful.

"Not since that first night. The first time she did it last year," Aurelius said.

"The first time that we know of," Severus corrected. "We have no way of knowing if she's ever used such an attack outside of our family that went unreported."

"Wait a minute, do you mean she could be doing this to someone else?" Alex said with alarm.

"Highly likely," Severus agreed.

"Then what about everyone else? I mean, are you going to be teaching mental disciplines to the other students?" she asked.

"My agenda is hardly an appropriate subject for a family discussion," Severus frowned, but then paused. "However, since your friends are affected…well, without boring you too much with faculty regulations and all that detail, I am not technically able to teach such disciplines on a classroom basis because of concerns over safety and personal privacy issues…actually, it's a long story having to do with something that happened early on in the Voldemort years, and I'd rather not get into it. I think the main course of action at this time is to make sure everyone is aware there is a danger and to stress that they should report anything unusual to a staff member."

"I don't think that's going to be enough," Aurelius frowned. "Think about the Diamond incident and how many people were affected by that and still didn't report them because they 'didn't think it would happen to them.'"

"Aurelius, whether or not I agree with you, we are getting off the subject. Right now I want you to merely see to your own concerns."

"Which as you've pointed out involves protecting ourselves against Ciardoth," Aurelius went on. "That's something I think we won't effectively be able to do until we know exactly what she's after. As much as it drives me insane to say it, I feel as if we're being distracted away from something else. Something bigger. How can we defend against her when we don't know what her game plan is? We've got to find out exactly why she's doing what she's doing and what her main focus is because I seriously doubt that these attacks are random attempts at annoying you."

"We are not going to do anything. You…the four of you, are going to concern yourselves with your schooling and what protective measures I ask you to take," Severus said firmly, not particularly reassured by Aurelius' defiant frown. "Other than reporting anything unusual from fellow classmates, especially paying attention to those in your own houses who seem to be losing an unusual amount of sleep and so on, you will stay out of this as much as possible. Is that quite clear?" Dutifully they answered, but behind them Severus caught Jennifer's dubious look as she shook her head almost imperceptibly, worry evident in her eyes. "Good. Be certain then we'll be keeping an eye out to see that you do," he warned them. But as they gazed solemnly back at him, he knew it would hardly be a deterrent. "Very well, you're dismissed," he said resignedly. Andrew and Aurelius loaded up on another handful of sandwiches as they headed out, whispering softly to one another as they walked out. "I say, Jennifer, did they all have to inherit that Craw habit of getting into things they shouldn't?"

"And just where did you inherit it from, then?" Jennifer challenged him. "It's not a one-sided trait. Besides, you're the one who's always telling me we have to start trusting them to use their own judgment whether we like it or not now that they're almost out of school."

"I never said it would be easy," Severus grumped, and Jennifer came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck, seeking comfort for herself as well as her own as she tried to push aside the overwhelming worry flooding her mind. But Severus' thoughts were squarely on Aurelius' words, and those of Thurspire just days before.