A/N: I do not own anything to do with the Harry Potter universe. J K
Rowling owns it all. I'm just having fun with her characters. This is the
sequel to my first story Sekhmet's Book. I don't as yet know if I'll make
this into a trilogy series. I guess I'll just see how this story goes for
now. I am currently writing this story as fast as I can. which is
unfortunately about one chapter per month. So, it's not complete but it
most definitely will be. just give me time. Please leave a review as my
muse needs feeding before she gets up and leaves.
Enjoy.
Chapter Eight
The weeks been and gone with Severus struggling to maintain his own sanity while managing to catch less sleep each night as Callum was teething, and making the whole world aware of this fact as well. Severus had spoken to Chris and Hermione's parents, letting them know of what had occurred with Hermione. While he had only intended to tell them the basics he had ended up spending a whole weekend at the Granger's with Callum and Christopher; who had returned for the meeting at Severus' request. It had been a welcome break for him upon reflection.
Patty had been a rod in Severus' life of late. Severus had missed his cousin so much over the years and he had been spending a lot of time with her- when he was not too depressed and angry to communicate with her anyway. They had talked about Hermione and how he had met her. How she had hated him throughout her schooling and that she had not graduated on the best of terms with him. Severus still remembered that day as if it were yesterday. the way he remembered all of his time with her. It seemed to be all he had left. memories.
~~*~~
"Professor Snape?" Hermione had said as she pushed the dungeon classroom door open for the last time before she left Hogwarts for a holiday and then university for three years. Never to return again for. well, an undertermined amount of time.
"Miss. Granger," Snape had sneered at the sight of the most annoying Gryffindor he had ever met. "Just when I thought I had gotten rid of you once and for all, here I find you invading my private research time." He exhaled deeply and glared at her menacingly.
"I-I'm sorry, sir." Hermione had said as she shifted uncomfortably under his glare and stuttered uncharacteristically.
"Well? Spit it out or get out!" Snape snarled at her and took small pleasure when he saw he jump.
"I am just visiting all of the professors before I leave." She gulped involuntarily. "I-I just wanted to thank you, sir. F-for the knowledge you've imparted on me over the last seven years. I love Potions and it's thanks to you that-"
"It wasn't of my own choosing that I teach. I do not require thanks of any kind. Leave." Snape had said, taken aback by the not so young now Gryffindor who was standing in the middle of his classroom.
"You don't like teaching do you?" Hermione had asked him in her curious tone of voice and shook her head.
"What does it matter to you! Leave. Immediately," Snape snapped as he saw Hermione slowly losing her composure and patience with him. He had no reason to be acting this way with her; the truth was that he was going to miss her in his classroom. He had begun to see her somewhat differently by the end of her seventh year as her knowledge began to surpass most of Hogwarts teachers and was becoming on par with his own. Severus truly admired her determination despite himself, and as for the way she looked now. so grown up. well, he couldn't think like that. It would be most inappropriate of him.
"Well, if you don't want to teach then you shouldn't waste your life doing so. Make room for people who would give anything in the world to teach at this establishment. Leave your self." Hermione had told him as her eyes flashed in anger and her jaw set in pure annoyance at her almost ex-Potions Master.
"Oh? I suppose you think you are the one to take my place?" Severus asked as his temper flared and his voice dropped to a low growl. He stood up from his desk and slowly approached her.
"I have the ability and I will soon have the training necessary." Hermione began uncertainly. It had all gone so wrong, why did this man infuriate her so? She had truly only wanted to thank him not make him think she was after his job. she was taking Arithmancy at university. maybe Potions as a minor subject.
"You will never have what it takes to teach Potions here. Do not presume to think you will ever know what it means to be a Master of a subject before you have far more experience than you do." Snape had growled as he backed her into the far wall and leaned into her closely. "Where has your Gryffindor courage gone to now?" Severus asked as his voice dropped to an almost whisper. "Not so high and mighty now are you, Miss Granger?"
"Professor." she yelped and closed her eyes.
"Leave. I desire no thanks or even to see you ever again." Snape said as he turned suddenly and stalked back to his desk. Hermione slipped out of the dungeons and Severus didn't see her again until they had begun working for the Order on a daily basis planning the final battle with Voldemort. This of course had been three years later as Hermione had been at university. She had written to him a few weeks after their last encounter and had apologised for what she had said to him, reiterating that she only wanted to thank him. He hadn't been nice enough then to bother replying to her letter.
~~*~~
Severus snapped back to reality once again, his mind was very easily running away in the land of memories these days and he was becoming very easily distracted. Tiredness of course didn't help with his concentration levels and he was extremely irritable and punishing students left, right and centre.
Severus had spent much time with his cousin and this had been noticed by many of the students in the school. Severus never saw fit to enlighten them as to his relationship with their Professor Wolf and so it was all a source of open gossip unfortunately. Of course he didn't notice this and so the rumours grew uncontrollably.
It had been six weeks since he had started the time potion. two weeks left and there was no work to be done on the potion; it was simply simmering now. Severus had left his dungeons and the castle for some quiet time outside. He was sick of the constant noise of students, ghosts, professors, familiars. Peeves. his head was ringing. Hogwarts was a very noisy environment indeed. He exited the front doors and headed down the steps at the front of the castle to a grassy knoll that was relatively high up to have a fantastic view of the whole of the lake and the mountains beyond.
It was a crisp early winter's morning. Autumn had robbed most of the Forbidden Forest of its leaves but it still looked very imposing and dark from the high up grassy knoll. The sky held a few dark clouds and the weak mid-October sun hung low in the sky. Severus sat looking out over the grounds for a long time; in fact time seemed to be meaningless up here. He wasn't thinking about anything in particular, just sitting quietly.
"Severus?" Snape heard a male voice behind him and turned his head in shock; he hadn't heard anyone approaching him, which meant he was certainly beginning to lose his touch.
"Albus," Snape greeted as he saw the Headmaster step closer.
"What are you doing?" Albus asked as he took a seat on a large rock, forcing Severus to turn his body to face him. The Headmaster had donned his winter cloak of vibrant purple and had his matching pointed hat with a bent tip on his head. He must have been feeling the cold.
"Nothing," Severus replied quietly. Albus sighed slightly and looked out over the lake.
"Beautiful view is it not?" Albus asked after a moment of contemplation.
"Yes, Albus, it is most spectacular today." Dumbledore was surprised- Severus' guards were down; usually Snape would sneer and deny that anything was beautiful, preferring to ridicule and down cast anything and everything.
"How long have you been out here?" Albus asked despite knowing the answer. Snape shrugged imperceptibly and his dark gaze wandered back to the lake and the mountains beyond.
"I haven't kept track." Severus replied. Albus spoke again after another moment of silence.
"You were supposed to have third year Hufflepuff and Gryffindor Potions."
"Oh."
"Two hours ago." Albus told him, far from anger but most concerned.
"Two hours?" Severus asked; it was utterly meaningless to him but even so he had the good grace to look at Albus with a raised eyebrow.
"Right now you should be half way through double sixth year Gryffindor and Slytherin Potions." Albus informed him, watching for his reaction. Severus blew air out of his mouth quickly and ran his hands through his hair, hanging his head low.
"Three hours then."
"Three hours, yes," Albus agreed.
"Sorry, Headmaster."
"I do believe you need some time off, Severus."
"I do not, I simply lost track of time." Severus began his protestations.
"Do you remember your first class of this morning, Severus?" Snape thought hard and was a bit confused so Albus enlightened him. "You had second year Gryffindor and Slytherin Potions and they were brewing. well do you remember what they were brewing, Severus?"
"The engorging potion," Severus hazarded a guess for no, he simply could not recall.
"Severus, you had the class brewing beverages." Snape looked aghast and Albus chuckled at him. "Tea and coffee to be more precise. of which I'm told you were drinking plenty of."
"I don't recall."
"Therefore, I deduce that you need a holiday. I will be taking over your classes for now. I believe that the Tempus Fugit Aversus Potion will be ready in a couple of weeks?"
"Yes."
"Then you have two weeks off and shall not resume your teaching until you are back from your trip to the past." Albus told him. Severus started to protest, he couldn't take a holiday in the middle of term. "No arguments, Severus. Poppy has already signed you off on the sick."
"She hasn't even examined me. How could she do that?"
"She can and she has. Now, no arguments and come with me, please." Albus said as he stood up from the rock and gestured for Severus to follow.
"Where are we going?" Severus asked as he stepped up to the side of the Headmaster.
"To watch the first baseball match of the season." Albus said before heading off towards the Quidditch pitch, which had been transformed into a baseball diamond and the spectators' stands lowered. Severus followed reluctantly as he heard the increased noise of cheerfulness from the students heading towards the pitch.
~~*~~
"What are you eating?" Severus asked as Albus sat down beside him and handed him a bucket filled with yellow fluffy food type things, which smelled rather sweet.
"This," Albus said proudly. "Is a work of art produced by the House Elves. It is a known as a hot dog with onions, tomato sauce, mustard and the main ingredient of course is the hot dog. all wrapped up in a delightful bun."
"Are you actually going to eat that, Albus?" Minerva asked from the Headmaster's other side.
"Oh yes. Would you like to try it?" Albus offered his two professors a bite. They both declined with looks of pure revulsion. "You can get one from the stand down there if you change your minds." Albus pointed down to the side of the field where a House Elf was stationed working at a cart, producing hot dogs for anyone who wanted them. The elf was wearing a weird set of stripy clothes with a cap and therefore Severus assumed it was Dobby, who was the only free elf and would therefore wear clothes readily.
"What is this anyway?" Severus asked holding up his bucket of yellow stuff.
"Popcorn," Lavendar Weasley said as she sat down in the seat next to Severus. "Here you go. Callum has been as good as gold." Lavendar said as she handed over the baby and grabbed a piece of popcorn from Severus' bucket.
"Callum?" Severus asked and then looked mortified as he suddenly had his son sitting on his knee. "I'm so sorry, Lavendar. I lost track of time. Thank you for looking after him for me."
"No problem, Severus. Now, I'm moving down to the front with Emily and the twins. See you later and enjoy the game." Lavendar got up and left to be replaced by Professor Wolf.
"How you doing, Sevvie?" Cil asked as she sat down on the bench next to Severus.
"Fine, Patty," Severus sighed and shifted Callum on his knee to a more comfortable position.
"Oh, popcorn." she said as she noticed the bucket Severus was holding.
"Have it." Severus said as he handed her his bucket.
"Thank you. is that a hot dog, Headmaster?" Cil asked, spying the Headmaster as he was mid-bite.
"Yes, Cil. You get them from the stand down there." Albus pointed as he chewed vigorously. Before Severus could look back at his cousin she was half way down to the hot dog stand, bucket of popcorn left where she had been sitting.
"Round up, round up!" The commentator said as the spectators took to their seats and the game was about to begin. Patty returned and smiled at Severus as he looked at her hot dog as though it would leap up and bite him of the nose. "We begin the baseball season with Slytherin against Gryffindor!" There was a roar from the crowd and Severus was surprised; he had not known his House team was playing today. "Now, you all know what baseball is about, we've all been practising it for long enough. All players have been chosen from the recent tryouts. There are nine players per team and we have Professor Ron Weasley umpiring for us today. A coin has already been tossed and Slytherin won the right to bat first."
Severus watched as the Gryffindors ran out onto the field wearing red and gold with more of the weird hats and large gloves on one of their hands. They looked strange in their Muggle sport uniforms and Severus was not sure this would even be entertaining in the mildest sense of the word. The Slytherin team were in the team stand and only one player entered onto the pitch with a long bat in hand, standing on a white base and readying himself for the ball. The Slytherin team were wearing silver uniforms with green sleeves and socks. "The Gryffindor pitcher is fourth year Charlie McGuinness. Charlie will be pitching to Slytherin sixth year Frank McCauly." The crowd cheered again and the game began. Charlie pitched the ball fast to Frank who swung the bat and missed the ball completely. "Strike one," was shouted by Ron.
The ball was pitched once more and Frank managed to hit it towards third base, he ran only up to the first base and the next Slytherin batter came out. The ball was hit almost to the boundary fence this time and both players managed to run around the whole diamond reaching home and scoring points for Slytherin.
"Well done, Slytherin!" Albus shouted and clapped along with half of the spectators. Severus was impressed as well, they were already winning. This didn't seem like a bad game after all.
"Not bad for a Muggle sport, Sevvie is it?" Cil said from beside Snape as she swallowed the last mouthful of her hot dog.
"It is marginally entertaining, Patty." Severus conceded with a wry smile as she put some kind of pink sweet in her mouth and chewed vigorously again.
The next two batters missed the ball completely and with the three strikes and your out rule, they were gone from the game until it was time for Slytherin to field. After a few more plays Slytherin had scored two home runs and had four players home safe and three out. It was time for a change. Slytherin had three players out of batting so the teams swapped over. Gryffindor were batting and Slytherin were fielding.
"The score is currently sixteen to Slytherin and zero to Gryffindor." There was a loud cheer from the Slytherins in the stands and Severus clapped as well. Callum bounced up and down on his father's knee happily.
"He's enjoying it," Cil said nodding at Callum and blowing a pink bubble out of her mouth, which Callum giggled and pointed at.
"What is that, Patty?" Severus asked as the pink bubble burst and she sucked the gooey string thing back onto her mouth and chewed with a huge grin on her face.
"It's called gum." She pronounced with a laugh.
"It's truly disgusting, Patty." Severus told her with a grimace.
"Oh, lighten up, Sevvie." She said as she hit him playfully on the arm. "Your daddy's a stick in the mud, isn't he, Callum?" Patty asked and Callum giggled again.
"Gryffindor are up to bat, Slytherin are now fielding. Sixteen points to make up here, let's see if they can do it." The commentator said loudly and the crowd roared. The game proceeded with Gryffindor scoring seventeen points in total. The teams changed over twice more until all of the players were out before the score finally finished at twenty-six to twenty-two, Slytherin winning the first round of baseball. Severus was very proud of his Slytherins, if only Hermione had been here to witness defeat. still Potter was the next best option and he did so love to gloat to him.
~~*~~
That night Severus allowed his Slytherins to have a celebration party in the common room. It was a Friday night and so no classes were until the following Monday. House morale was at an all time high. Despite House loyalty and teamwork, Severus never really expected Slytherin to be able to win a Muggle sports game but they certainly proved him wrong and he was most proud of them. They had also won the House fifty points by winning the game. The next game would be in three weeks time, just before the Christmas holidays where Ravenclaw would take on Hufflepuff. Next weekend would be the try outs for the Quidditch teams.
Severus was now on an enforced holiday. He said he would keep up his House duties despite being forced to stop teaching. It would give him something to do, something to take his mind off what may have happened to Michael and Hermione. There was one way he was going to find out and that would not be by picking up a history book. he was going back there, in time. and the potion to enable him to do so would be ready within two weeks.
Enjoy.
Chapter Eight
The weeks been and gone with Severus struggling to maintain his own sanity while managing to catch less sleep each night as Callum was teething, and making the whole world aware of this fact as well. Severus had spoken to Chris and Hermione's parents, letting them know of what had occurred with Hermione. While he had only intended to tell them the basics he had ended up spending a whole weekend at the Granger's with Callum and Christopher; who had returned for the meeting at Severus' request. It had been a welcome break for him upon reflection.
Patty had been a rod in Severus' life of late. Severus had missed his cousin so much over the years and he had been spending a lot of time with her- when he was not too depressed and angry to communicate with her anyway. They had talked about Hermione and how he had met her. How she had hated him throughout her schooling and that she had not graduated on the best of terms with him. Severus still remembered that day as if it were yesterday. the way he remembered all of his time with her. It seemed to be all he had left. memories.
~~*~~
"Professor Snape?" Hermione had said as she pushed the dungeon classroom door open for the last time before she left Hogwarts for a holiday and then university for three years. Never to return again for. well, an undertermined amount of time.
"Miss. Granger," Snape had sneered at the sight of the most annoying Gryffindor he had ever met. "Just when I thought I had gotten rid of you once and for all, here I find you invading my private research time." He exhaled deeply and glared at her menacingly.
"I-I'm sorry, sir." Hermione had said as she shifted uncomfortably under his glare and stuttered uncharacteristically.
"Well? Spit it out or get out!" Snape snarled at her and took small pleasure when he saw he jump.
"I am just visiting all of the professors before I leave." She gulped involuntarily. "I-I just wanted to thank you, sir. F-for the knowledge you've imparted on me over the last seven years. I love Potions and it's thanks to you that-"
"It wasn't of my own choosing that I teach. I do not require thanks of any kind. Leave." Snape had said, taken aback by the not so young now Gryffindor who was standing in the middle of his classroom.
"You don't like teaching do you?" Hermione had asked him in her curious tone of voice and shook her head.
"What does it matter to you! Leave. Immediately," Snape snapped as he saw Hermione slowly losing her composure and patience with him. He had no reason to be acting this way with her; the truth was that he was going to miss her in his classroom. He had begun to see her somewhat differently by the end of her seventh year as her knowledge began to surpass most of Hogwarts teachers and was becoming on par with his own. Severus truly admired her determination despite himself, and as for the way she looked now. so grown up. well, he couldn't think like that. It would be most inappropriate of him.
"Well, if you don't want to teach then you shouldn't waste your life doing so. Make room for people who would give anything in the world to teach at this establishment. Leave your self." Hermione had told him as her eyes flashed in anger and her jaw set in pure annoyance at her almost ex-Potions Master.
"Oh? I suppose you think you are the one to take my place?" Severus asked as his temper flared and his voice dropped to a low growl. He stood up from his desk and slowly approached her.
"I have the ability and I will soon have the training necessary." Hermione began uncertainly. It had all gone so wrong, why did this man infuriate her so? She had truly only wanted to thank him not make him think she was after his job. she was taking Arithmancy at university. maybe Potions as a minor subject.
"You will never have what it takes to teach Potions here. Do not presume to think you will ever know what it means to be a Master of a subject before you have far more experience than you do." Snape had growled as he backed her into the far wall and leaned into her closely. "Where has your Gryffindor courage gone to now?" Severus asked as his voice dropped to an almost whisper. "Not so high and mighty now are you, Miss Granger?"
"Professor." she yelped and closed her eyes.
"Leave. I desire no thanks or even to see you ever again." Snape said as he turned suddenly and stalked back to his desk. Hermione slipped out of the dungeons and Severus didn't see her again until they had begun working for the Order on a daily basis planning the final battle with Voldemort. This of course had been three years later as Hermione had been at university. She had written to him a few weeks after their last encounter and had apologised for what she had said to him, reiterating that she only wanted to thank him. He hadn't been nice enough then to bother replying to her letter.
~~*~~
Severus snapped back to reality once again, his mind was very easily running away in the land of memories these days and he was becoming very easily distracted. Tiredness of course didn't help with his concentration levels and he was extremely irritable and punishing students left, right and centre.
Severus had spent much time with his cousin and this had been noticed by many of the students in the school. Severus never saw fit to enlighten them as to his relationship with their Professor Wolf and so it was all a source of open gossip unfortunately. Of course he didn't notice this and so the rumours grew uncontrollably.
It had been six weeks since he had started the time potion. two weeks left and there was no work to be done on the potion; it was simply simmering now. Severus had left his dungeons and the castle for some quiet time outside. He was sick of the constant noise of students, ghosts, professors, familiars. Peeves. his head was ringing. Hogwarts was a very noisy environment indeed. He exited the front doors and headed down the steps at the front of the castle to a grassy knoll that was relatively high up to have a fantastic view of the whole of the lake and the mountains beyond.
It was a crisp early winter's morning. Autumn had robbed most of the Forbidden Forest of its leaves but it still looked very imposing and dark from the high up grassy knoll. The sky held a few dark clouds and the weak mid-October sun hung low in the sky. Severus sat looking out over the grounds for a long time; in fact time seemed to be meaningless up here. He wasn't thinking about anything in particular, just sitting quietly.
"Severus?" Snape heard a male voice behind him and turned his head in shock; he hadn't heard anyone approaching him, which meant he was certainly beginning to lose his touch.
"Albus," Snape greeted as he saw the Headmaster step closer.
"What are you doing?" Albus asked as he took a seat on a large rock, forcing Severus to turn his body to face him. The Headmaster had donned his winter cloak of vibrant purple and had his matching pointed hat with a bent tip on his head. He must have been feeling the cold.
"Nothing," Severus replied quietly. Albus sighed slightly and looked out over the lake.
"Beautiful view is it not?" Albus asked after a moment of contemplation.
"Yes, Albus, it is most spectacular today." Dumbledore was surprised- Severus' guards were down; usually Snape would sneer and deny that anything was beautiful, preferring to ridicule and down cast anything and everything.
"How long have you been out here?" Albus asked despite knowing the answer. Snape shrugged imperceptibly and his dark gaze wandered back to the lake and the mountains beyond.
"I haven't kept track." Severus replied. Albus spoke again after another moment of silence.
"You were supposed to have third year Hufflepuff and Gryffindor Potions."
"Oh."
"Two hours ago." Albus told him, far from anger but most concerned.
"Two hours?" Severus asked; it was utterly meaningless to him but even so he had the good grace to look at Albus with a raised eyebrow.
"Right now you should be half way through double sixth year Gryffindor and Slytherin Potions." Albus informed him, watching for his reaction. Severus blew air out of his mouth quickly and ran his hands through his hair, hanging his head low.
"Three hours then."
"Three hours, yes," Albus agreed.
"Sorry, Headmaster."
"I do believe you need some time off, Severus."
"I do not, I simply lost track of time." Severus began his protestations.
"Do you remember your first class of this morning, Severus?" Snape thought hard and was a bit confused so Albus enlightened him. "You had second year Gryffindor and Slytherin Potions and they were brewing. well do you remember what they were brewing, Severus?"
"The engorging potion," Severus hazarded a guess for no, he simply could not recall.
"Severus, you had the class brewing beverages." Snape looked aghast and Albus chuckled at him. "Tea and coffee to be more precise. of which I'm told you were drinking plenty of."
"I don't recall."
"Therefore, I deduce that you need a holiday. I will be taking over your classes for now. I believe that the Tempus Fugit Aversus Potion will be ready in a couple of weeks?"
"Yes."
"Then you have two weeks off and shall not resume your teaching until you are back from your trip to the past." Albus told him. Severus started to protest, he couldn't take a holiday in the middle of term. "No arguments, Severus. Poppy has already signed you off on the sick."
"She hasn't even examined me. How could she do that?"
"She can and she has. Now, no arguments and come with me, please." Albus said as he stood up from the rock and gestured for Severus to follow.
"Where are we going?" Severus asked as he stepped up to the side of the Headmaster.
"To watch the first baseball match of the season." Albus said before heading off towards the Quidditch pitch, which had been transformed into a baseball diamond and the spectators' stands lowered. Severus followed reluctantly as he heard the increased noise of cheerfulness from the students heading towards the pitch.
~~*~~
"What are you eating?" Severus asked as Albus sat down beside him and handed him a bucket filled with yellow fluffy food type things, which smelled rather sweet.
"This," Albus said proudly. "Is a work of art produced by the House Elves. It is a known as a hot dog with onions, tomato sauce, mustard and the main ingredient of course is the hot dog. all wrapped up in a delightful bun."
"Are you actually going to eat that, Albus?" Minerva asked from the Headmaster's other side.
"Oh yes. Would you like to try it?" Albus offered his two professors a bite. They both declined with looks of pure revulsion. "You can get one from the stand down there if you change your minds." Albus pointed down to the side of the field where a House Elf was stationed working at a cart, producing hot dogs for anyone who wanted them. The elf was wearing a weird set of stripy clothes with a cap and therefore Severus assumed it was Dobby, who was the only free elf and would therefore wear clothes readily.
"What is this anyway?" Severus asked holding up his bucket of yellow stuff.
"Popcorn," Lavendar Weasley said as she sat down in the seat next to Severus. "Here you go. Callum has been as good as gold." Lavendar said as she handed over the baby and grabbed a piece of popcorn from Severus' bucket.
"Callum?" Severus asked and then looked mortified as he suddenly had his son sitting on his knee. "I'm so sorry, Lavendar. I lost track of time. Thank you for looking after him for me."
"No problem, Severus. Now, I'm moving down to the front with Emily and the twins. See you later and enjoy the game." Lavendar got up and left to be replaced by Professor Wolf.
"How you doing, Sevvie?" Cil asked as she sat down on the bench next to Severus.
"Fine, Patty," Severus sighed and shifted Callum on his knee to a more comfortable position.
"Oh, popcorn." she said as she noticed the bucket Severus was holding.
"Have it." Severus said as he handed her his bucket.
"Thank you. is that a hot dog, Headmaster?" Cil asked, spying the Headmaster as he was mid-bite.
"Yes, Cil. You get them from the stand down there." Albus pointed as he chewed vigorously. Before Severus could look back at his cousin she was half way down to the hot dog stand, bucket of popcorn left where she had been sitting.
"Round up, round up!" The commentator said as the spectators took to their seats and the game was about to begin. Patty returned and smiled at Severus as he looked at her hot dog as though it would leap up and bite him of the nose. "We begin the baseball season with Slytherin against Gryffindor!" There was a roar from the crowd and Severus was surprised; he had not known his House team was playing today. "Now, you all know what baseball is about, we've all been practising it for long enough. All players have been chosen from the recent tryouts. There are nine players per team and we have Professor Ron Weasley umpiring for us today. A coin has already been tossed and Slytherin won the right to bat first."
Severus watched as the Gryffindors ran out onto the field wearing red and gold with more of the weird hats and large gloves on one of their hands. They looked strange in their Muggle sport uniforms and Severus was not sure this would even be entertaining in the mildest sense of the word. The Slytherin team were in the team stand and only one player entered onto the pitch with a long bat in hand, standing on a white base and readying himself for the ball. The Slytherin team were wearing silver uniforms with green sleeves and socks. "The Gryffindor pitcher is fourth year Charlie McGuinness. Charlie will be pitching to Slytherin sixth year Frank McCauly." The crowd cheered again and the game began. Charlie pitched the ball fast to Frank who swung the bat and missed the ball completely. "Strike one," was shouted by Ron.
The ball was pitched once more and Frank managed to hit it towards third base, he ran only up to the first base and the next Slytherin batter came out. The ball was hit almost to the boundary fence this time and both players managed to run around the whole diamond reaching home and scoring points for Slytherin.
"Well done, Slytherin!" Albus shouted and clapped along with half of the spectators. Severus was impressed as well, they were already winning. This didn't seem like a bad game after all.
"Not bad for a Muggle sport, Sevvie is it?" Cil said from beside Snape as she swallowed the last mouthful of her hot dog.
"It is marginally entertaining, Patty." Severus conceded with a wry smile as she put some kind of pink sweet in her mouth and chewed vigorously again.
The next two batters missed the ball completely and with the three strikes and your out rule, they were gone from the game until it was time for Slytherin to field. After a few more plays Slytherin had scored two home runs and had four players home safe and three out. It was time for a change. Slytherin had three players out of batting so the teams swapped over. Gryffindor were batting and Slytherin were fielding.
"The score is currently sixteen to Slytherin and zero to Gryffindor." There was a loud cheer from the Slytherins in the stands and Severus clapped as well. Callum bounced up and down on his father's knee happily.
"He's enjoying it," Cil said nodding at Callum and blowing a pink bubble out of her mouth, which Callum giggled and pointed at.
"What is that, Patty?" Severus asked as the pink bubble burst and she sucked the gooey string thing back onto her mouth and chewed with a huge grin on her face.
"It's called gum." She pronounced with a laugh.
"It's truly disgusting, Patty." Severus told her with a grimace.
"Oh, lighten up, Sevvie." She said as she hit him playfully on the arm. "Your daddy's a stick in the mud, isn't he, Callum?" Patty asked and Callum giggled again.
"Gryffindor are up to bat, Slytherin are now fielding. Sixteen points to make up here, let's see if they can do it." The commentator said loudly and the crowd roared. The game proceeded with Gryffindor scoring seventeen points in total. The teams changed over twice more until all of the players were out before the score finally finished at twenty-six to twenty-two, Slytherin winning the first round of baseball. Severus was very proud of his Slytherins, if only Hermione had been here to witness defeat. still Potter was the next best option and he did so love to gloat to him.
~~*~~
That night Severus allowed his Slytherins to have a celebration party in the common room. It was a Friday night and so no classes were until the following Monday. House morale was at an all time high. Despite House loyalty and teamwork, Severus never really expected Slytherin to be able to win a Muggle sports game but they certainly proved him wrong and he was most proud of them. They had also won the House fifty points by winning the game. The next game would be in three weeks time, just before the Christmas holidays where Ravenclaw would take on Hufflepuff. Next weekend would be the try outs for the Quidditch teams.
Severus was now on an enforced holiday. He said he would keep up his House duties despite being forced to stop teaching. It would give him something to do, something to take his mind off what may have happened to Michael and Hermione. There was one way he was going to find out and that would not be by picking up a history book. he was going back there, in time. and the potion to enable him to do so would be ready within two weeks.