A/N: Ok, here is another bunch of Snape-ness before the Arrival of the Schools. The second part is taken from Alex's story, but Tania has inserted her own thoughts on the matter, so read carefully. You can see how she feels about a few people. Enjoy.

Once again Tania found herself outside the Potions Classroom debating whether to enter or not. Classes had been cut short since the other schools were to arrive tonight. She should have been in Common Room or her Dorm preparing, like the rest of her House. It was useless, however, since she was always dressed to perfection. She didn't need extra time as the older girls seemed to. And she had promised Professor Snape that she would tell him how the potion worked. That decided her and she quickly entered the classroom before anyone saw her.

"Yes?" came the annoyed growl from the other side of the office door. Tania hoped that he would not be too mad when he realized it was her. Taking a deep breath she commanded her stomach to settle and her hands to stop shaking. Neither obeyed.

"Sir? It's Tania Dethart. M-may I come in?" she asked, relieved that her voice stayed steady except for that one little stutter. Maybe he hadn't even noticed it. He was a Slytherin after all, so he probably had, but it wouldn't be polite for him to mention it. There was a quiet pause, then the door was opened. Severus Snape stood on the other side. He nodded to her and motioned for her to take the same seat she had the last time.

Again, once they were both seated a silence fell over the office. Tania tried to get herself to talk. She had managed it last time. He hadn't yelled or anything, but her mind couldn't calm the fear that even though he hadn't before, didn't mean he wouldn't now. Men were unpredictable. Any little thing could set them off in fury, even things that hadn't bothered them before.

"Did you finish that potion, Ms. Dethart?" Snape asked, softly. He would coax the girl to speak. That she had come to him again convinced him that he had made some progress from the last time. It wouldn't do to scare her now.

"Yes, sir," she responded. Without further prompting on his part, she slid either the same book as before or an identical one onto the table top and opened it. The symbols shifted and she pushed it closer so he could read it. According to her notes, the balancing had been successful and the potion had worked as she had intended it to. Shyly, Tania reached into an inner pocket and slowly pulled out a potions vial. The green liquid reflected the candle light in the room as she handed it to him.

"I thought you might like some, Sir," she dared to catch his gaze for a moment as she spoke. Only for a moment, though, before her bravery gave out and she looked down. He gently took the vial and examined it in the light.

"Yes, Ms. Dethart, I thank you." He fought a smile as her face stained a light red. "This appears to be fine work," he continued, gauging her reaction carefully, "Well done." Tania could feel her cheeks burning, but she was so pleased that he liked her work. No one but Hunter said that and he was her brother, he didn't count. The Potions Master liked her work. That was worth a million galleons to her. She saw Snape glance at a timepiece on his desk and stand. She hurried to follow.

"As much as I would like to continue this discussion, I am afraid that we must join the others in greeting our new arrivals. I will put this away for safe keeping," he indicated the potion, " and we shall go. You may leave your book here, if you wish. I promise it will be safe." The older Slytherin turned away to a shelf to deposit the vial.

She thought quickly. Did she trust Snape to leave her book here? No one would dare come and take it, but would he give it back to her? If it was in her note language, it would do him little good. And he had promised...but Falon also promised things...wait, there was no way she could compare Professor Snape to Falon. The two were nothing alike.

She looked up to see Snape regarding her seriously, as if he knew the struggle she was going through. How could he? Was that possible? He appeared to be waiting patiently for her to decided, though both of them needed to leave for the Entrance Hall right away. Without time to second guess herself, Tania nodded and placed her book in the center of the table.

"As long as you don't mind, I'd like to keep it here. It could get lost in the crowds upstairs," she responded, quietly. He nodded solemnly, heading for the office door an opening in. He gracefully motioned for her to proceed him into the classroom. Startled by this surprise gesture of respect, she was forced to meet his eyes again.

"It is no trouble, Ms. Dethart. It would be such a waste of good talent to let your work be misplaced or lost." He said, "Shall we go?" Nodding, she squared her shoulders and swept from the office, as elegant as any pureblood lady. He followed her out of his office and toward the meeting place.

Tania paused with Professor Snape on the last stair from the dungeons. There was chaos in the Hall, utter chaos. The Houses were grouped loosely together and the other Heads were trying to get their students under control. Professor Snape motioned for her to join the others as he strode toward the front of the group himself.

"Is this your best?" Professor Snape asked coldly, appearing before the gathered Slytherins. Somewhere around seventy pairs of eyes flew to glare furiously into his. That instant the Slytherins were in their lines. Tania easily slid into place between two of her Year mates.

Snape smiled thinly. "Better." He paused and his gaze flicked over them. She risked as small smile as Professor Snape's critical look passed her. She couldn't tell if he noticed. "Remember, this is your castle. Trade insult for insult and courtesy for polite disdain." She could see and feel the agreement in the Housemates around her and felt a rare moment of Slytherin unity.

The entire human population of Hogwarts currently arranged to perfection on the steps leading into the school they settled back on their heels and waited. The evening was clear and cold, the sun and moon just beginning to exchange positions. Not a hint of anyone or anything arriving was evident. After several long minutes of patient silence some of the other students began talking among themselves.

Tania wished that there was someone to talk to or at least stand with. Hunter or maybe Alex, or Blaise even. As long as she stayed away from Malfoy. He was not someone she thought she could trust. Soon the talking of the other Houses grew loud enough for her to hear over the relative quiet of her House. That Weasley boy was talking about something...please Merlin, let it not be about what she thought he had said. How stupid did the boy have to be to think that...

"Can you imagine the logistics of setting up a PortKey that could bring that many people that distance at once?" Blaise's voice caught her attention. Since they were lined up by year, she realized that Alex and the others she had been wishing to be near were right behind her. Risking a glance backward, she determined that none of them noticed her and she freely listened in.

Draco scoffed in response to Blaise. "Worse still they'd be coming from under the magical protections of their school and landing underneath ours. That makes it nearly impossible."

"Not everyone knows as much as we do." Alex tempered slightly. "Just because we know that PortKeys use the same network as Apparations, and that they work almost exactly..."Did they? Tania thought, Well that explains a few things… maybe that means...

"Aha!" The exclamation interrupted her musings.

They all fell silent as the Headmaster started to speak. "Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches."

"Where!" a good portion of the student body asked in various level of volume, including a few over-excited Slytherin first years. No one else from that House showed anything more than polite interest in the proceedings. Tania followed the lead of the majority of her House. Besides, it wasn't like she really cared about the Tournament. It just meant more people to avoid.

"There!" someone else shouted, pointing out over the Forbidden Forest.

A huge shadow was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.

"It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first years. A Hufflepuff, or maybe a Ravenclaw. Yes, the entire delegation is coming a-dragon back. What fools!

"Don't be stupid," a Gryffindor boy said, "it's a flying horse!" The gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights shining from the castle windows hit it, they saw a gigantic, powder-blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring toward them, pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant.

The first three years of students, those in the very front, drew backwards as the carriage hurtled lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed. Tania was forced to move as the younger Slytherins scurried back. She wasn't afraid, there were many, many worse things reserved for that emotion. An enormous crash announced the landing of the carriage.

"Ow! Am I destined to be abused by idiots!" She heard Alex growl, "Watch yourself, Longbottom!"

The large blue doors, embossed with the school's coat of arms slid open silently, a boy in pale blue robes jumping down and unfolding a set of golden steps. He sprang back and the largest woman to ever grace the halls of Hogwarts made her appearance. The size of the horses and the carriage was immediately explained.

A few people gasped. Draco snorted. "Some people just make it easy to tell how pure their blood is," he muttered. Tania was forced to agree with him, though she was uneasy about thinking like a Malfoy in any sense.

"Any relation to Hagrid, d'you suppose?" Blaise replied.

His observation was never commented on because at that moment Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on tiptoe, the better to look at this woman.

Her face relaxed into a gracious smile and she walked forward toward Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, had barely to bend to kiss it.

"My dear Madame Maxime," he said. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," said Madame Maxime in a deep voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"In excellent form, I thank you," said Dumbledore.

"My pupils," said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her.

A dozen boys and girls, all, by the look of them, in their late teens, had emerged from the carriage and were now standing behind their Headmistress. They were shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk and none of them were wearing cloaks. They were all staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.

"As Karkaroff arrived yet?" she asked.

"He should be here any moment," said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"

"Warm up, I think," said Madame Maxime. "But ze 'orses – "

"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them," said Dumbledore, "the moment he has returned from dealing with a slight situation that has arisen with some of his other – er – charges."

"My steeds require – er – forceful 'andling," said Madame Maxime, looking as though she doubted whether any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts could be up to the job. "Zey are very strong…."

"I assure you the Hagrid will be well up to the job," said Dumbledore, smiling.

"Very well," said Madame Maxime, bowing slightly. "Will you please inform zis 'Agrid zat ze 'orses drink only single-malt whiskey?"

"It will be attended to," said Dumbledore, also bowing.

"Come," said Madame Maxime imperiously to her students, and the Hogwarts crowd parted to allow her and her students to pass up the stone steps.

"Single-malts?" She heard Draco drawl just loud enough to be heard by the departing students, a heavy note of sarcasm in his voice, "how crude. Our stable is watered with nothing less than pure…" by that point the other school had gone completely and so Draco didn't have to finish his statement. He grinned. "I do believe that I made some of them blush."

"Of course you did." Pansy said, leaning in to join the conversation. "Their French. They'll be easy-"

A loud and eerie noise was drifting toward them from out of the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed...

"The lake!" yelled Lee Jordan, the Gryffindor known for his highly biased commentary at the school's Quidditch games. "Look at the lake!"

From their position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they had a clear view of the smooth black surface of the water – except that the surface was suddenly not smooth at all. Some disturbance was taking place deep in the center; great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the muddy banks – and then, out in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake's floor...

What seemed to be a long, black pole began to rise slowly out of the heart of the whirlpool...

"It's a mast!" Harry Potter proclaimed into the silence.

"Really, Potter!" Draco sniped, "It is!"

What a brilliant observation, Tania thought dryly. Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. Finally, with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to glide toward the bank. A few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor.

People were disembarking and slowly filing up to the castle steps. As they drew nearer their uniforms became visible in the dark. They were wearing cloaks of some kind of shaggy, matted fur. But the man who was leading them up to the castle was wearing furs of a different sort: sleek and silver, like his hair.

"Dumbledore!" he called heartily as he walked up the slope. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore replied.

When he reached Dumbledore, he shook his hand with both of his own. "Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle and smiling in a way that did not hide his cold and shrewd gaze. "How good it is to be here, how good... Viktor, come along, into the warmth...you don't mind do you Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold..."

Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students. Tania was startled to recognize the boy Professor Karkaroff pulled forward. He was the famous Seeker. Tania couldn't play, but she liked to watch. Dumbledore lead the Durmstrang arrivals into the castle.

"Finally." Blaise muttered as the students were allowed to enter their own school. "I'm bloody frozen." She had to agree with him, though she didn't mind that like she had with Malfoy. It was rather cold, and she would be glad for a warm drink and the relative safety of her Housemates against these intruders.