DISCLAIMER! This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy. New Movie is coming in April! Hurrah! Yeah, for Fanfiction – a great place to stretch your imagination and enjoy someone else's creativity too! The is the sequel to The Potter Cartouche.

Chapter 17: Trouble With Severus Snape

Then during supper, there was an explosive argument at the faculty table. Professor Moorhouse and Professor Harriet Carter stood behind Professor Snape and began accusing the man of being a Death Eater still.

"You're still a Death Eater and should be locked away in Azkaban! I can't believe you collected a salary for the last eleven years!" Professor Moorhouse shouted at Professor Snape.

Professor Harriet Carter joined in the argument, and the Great Hall fell silent and remained that way not to miss the fight, "The only students who have been properly taught anything in potions are the Slytherins!"

Pointing at Snape, Moorhouse continued, "You sabotaged the education of all the students not in your house!"

Headmaster Bennet had wondered how long it would take for this topic to arise, and he saw his wife collecting bets from Sprout and Flitwick. Professor Andrew Carter stood and joined the other two potion professors with his opinion, "Only with a great many remedial classes will anyone outside of Slytherin pass their NEWTS for potions. It is also my belief that Professor Snape deliberately sabotaged their education."

Severus Snape kept control of his temper only because he kept a tight rein on his occlumency shields. But then Headmaster Emeritus Dumbledore interfered, saying, "Professor Snape has my full confidence. If some students were penalised by his behaviour, it was for the greater good."

Frowning at Dumbledore and Snape, Professor Andrew Carter added, "And we three Potion Masters have made our opinion known to the Guild of Potion Masters. We sent a letter this morning."

Suddenly, Severus Snape was concerned – if three of his peers made the same accusation, a council would be convened and exam their charges, the evidence and render a binding verdict. He could lose his standing as a potions master within a month's time.

"Those conferences this summer where you revised potions that use basilisk venom were a waste of your time, Snape," Professor Moorhouse announced. "The guild will never let you touch another cauldron when they learn what you've done."

The dark-haired wizard snarled, "I am not to blame if the only students capable of following directions are in Slytherin."

"Liar!" shouted Professor Harriet Carter. "There's potential in many of the students, but they've been browbeaten and pranked by the other Slytherins until they're petrified in the brewing lab."

Forgetting himself for a moment, Dumbledore stood and declared, "We should take this to my office! It's not something that needs to be discussed in front of the students."

"Shut it, old man!" Snape yelled. "This is all your fault because you lost control of this bloody school!"

"Severus! We must be patient. Bennet will make mistakes, and when the Dark Lord returns this year, they'll put me back in power here and at the ministry."

"Return? Merlin's dirty beard, Dumbledore, how can the Dark Lord return? There's not a single Death Eater left in the whole of Britain!" Snape argued.

"You're still here, Severus," Dumbledore reminded the wizard for the second time that evening. "He'll call you when he needs help."

The students watched as Professor Snape stalked from the Great Hall and Headmaster Bennet spoke to several ghosts and portraits at the back of the room before returning to his meal. Headmaster Emeritus Dumbledore frowned and tried to talk to Headmaster Bennet behind a privacy ward, but the Deputy Headmistress kept cancelling Dumbledore's charms and joined the argument about keeping an eye on Severus Snape. Fawkes flew up into the rafters and tried to calm everyone with a song but there were too many students upset for the feeling to improve.

"He'll do something stupid soon – all the Death Eaters do – and then I can remove him," Headmaster Bennet warned the other professors.

"But I need Severus if Harry Potter is to defeat Lord Voldemort when he returns," Dumbledore insisted without anyone really paying attention.

When Harry and the Gryffindors headed back to the tower after supper, Dobby kept popping into the hallway to check around corners before he'd allow his wizard to walk forward. Ron noticed what was happening and dropped back to separate himself from Potter. The other Gryffindors noticed and fell back as well. Harry and Neville were alone by the time they drew close to the porthole into Gryffindor.

"DIE POTTER!" screamed Snape as the professor leapt from the shadows with his wand firing off an overpowered cutting curse at the two young wizards.

Dobby threw himself in front of Harry, but the young wizard simply squeezed his left-hand thinking, 'Shield.'

SCENE BREAK: Remembering the Night Before

Professor Flitwick walked slowly from his office, an unhappy half-goblin who felt he'd failed his king and kin inside Gringotts. 'I should have known that Sturrdel-gryhiglzehwe…that Phvyhgs- Sturrdel-gryhiglzehwe would do something like that. His hatred for everything Potter was all he had left…the other potion masters would not...could not allow Snape to keep his mastery after discovering how badly he violated his oaths to foster potion brewing. As his final act in the castle, he must have decided to kill the boy. Did he think to escape? Or did he understand that would be his end?'

Thinking back to the previous night, Flitwick remembered the look of shock on the face of Dean Thomas, who was close enough to be drenched in blood. Lavender Brown fainted when she was smacked in the face by the left arm after it was cut off, and Ron Weasley screamed when the head landed in his hands.

Flitwick arrived after the other wizards and prefects had time to quiet the students just outside the Gryffindor dormitory, where they took turns staring at some shimmering shield that kept them from reaching the door. While Professor Bennet hurried to a floo call the Aurors, Headmaster Bennet summoned Healer Johnson to verify the wizard in pieces was dead. Deputy Headmistress Longbottom kept calling for Neville and Harry to answer her. All the while, Albus Dumbledore stood with one hand against the stone wall and wept, "He's gone dark. Harry Potter's gone dark."

"What's that shield, Dumbledore?" asked Headmaster Bennet once he had the gathering under control, the healer dealing with the traumatised children, and Augusta still looking for the two missing boys.

"You must not tell anyone about this…take the position of DADA instructor yourself…I shall manage as Headmaster, and no one needs to know about this…while we deal with Harry Potter, the next Dark Lord," Dumbledore tried to convince Headmaster Bennet.

Glancing at Augusta, who kept calling for Neville and Harry while walking around the headless torso of Severus Snape, Bennet was relieved when Professor Flitwick moved to stand in front of the shield and firmly state, "Mr Harry Potter! Mr Potter! You're safe. Snape is dead and in pieces. Lower the shield."

The half-goblin repeated the command calmly and firmly before Charles Bennet asked, "Filius, have you seen this before?"

"Yes, this is a powerful shield Mr Potter can cast to protect himself."

"He's a dark wizard for certain!" insisted Dumbledore at Bennet's side.

"Albus, this is just magic. It's not dark magic just because you don't know it!" argued Flitwick, with both wand and knife in his hands as he turned to stand between the shield and Albus Dumbledore. A dozen Aurors ran up just as Poppy Pomphrey arrived with calming potions for the students and fussed about too much excitement this early in the school year.

Amelia Bones arrived and ordered Aurors to question the children individually about what they'd seen (with a professor present for each child). Then she examined the corpse and the wand of Severus Snape. She forced Dumbledore to verify her findings and announced that the last spell cast by Snape's wand was an overpowered cutting curse.

Then the shield dissipated, and Augusta Longbottom rushed to grab hold of her two boys and check them for cuts, jinxes, or hexes. Flitwick kept his eye on Dumbledore, who attempted to palm his wand before Headmaster Bennet slapped his hand with a powerful hex, making the old wizard drop the wand. Scooping up the wand, Bennet placed it into a pocket of his robes that instantly transported it to a box on his desk.

Director Bones stepped forward and examined Harry Potter's wand, which she took to Dumbledore and forced him to cast the spell to reveal all the spells cast by the wand. Amelia knew from the arrests and searches of Dumbledore's person on two occasions during the past summer the man kept a spare wand in his left sleeve.

Demanding an answer, she asked, "What is the final spell cast by Mr Potter?"

"A shield spell."

"And before that?"

"The Tempus charm."

"Do you see anywhere in the register for this wand where he cast a cutting spell of any type?"

"Only…only with other spells to prepare ingredients for a potion," Dumbledore admitted.

"And how many days ago were those spells cast?"

"Last Saturday," Dumbledore was forced to concede.

Leaning in close but still loud enough for everyone to hear, Amelia Bones hissed, "You're still an idiot!"

Then she looked around and asked, "Who made off with the head of Severus Snape?"

In a moment of goblin inspiration, Flitwick stood beside Dumbledore and whispered, "Dumbledore, think about it…the shield appeared to protect Potter when he was threatened by an enemy. His mother's love is protecting him still! You always hint that Lily's love protected Harry back in 1981. That love has grown with the boy who is now fourteen. The magic she left to protect him is stronger and manifests in this powerful shield."

"He's not gone dark?" asked Dumbledore. "His greatest power is love?"

Flitwick kept a serious look on his face as he replied, "Without a doubt Albus. Harry Potter is a light wizard, and he feels the power of his mother's love still."

Headmaster Bennet observed the conversation with some concern but when Flitwick winked at him, he realized the Charms Professor was handling the cantankerous old wizard.

'A dead professor the first week of classes…that's not a good beginning,' Bennet admitted to himself. 'Maybe now the governors will let me bring in curse breakers to find that curse on the defence professor's job.'

SLIGHT SCENE CHANGE: Kneazles again

That night, while he tossed and turned in his bed, Dumbledore dreamed that the heads of Alastor Moody, Lucius Malfoy, Gravis McMillian, and Severus Snape floated around his bed, singing off-key about wizards falling from the heights of the old astronomy tower. Once, he woke screaming, but there was nothing around the room, and after tossing some more, he fell asleep again. Underneath his bed, several kneazles batted about the four heads they were keeping for toys and instruments of torture for the school year.

CHANGE SCENE: Following Morning

Students arrived in the Great Hall in clumps for breakfast. The Gryffindors had remained in the infirmary overnight with Fawkes visiting and humming for several hours while they slept. (Dobby stood guard over Harry Potter with a large butcher knife in his hands). This morning, the trauma of the previous evening seemed far away, so the healer allowed the students to go to breakfast and their classes.

They passed the scene of the attack from the previous evening, where the shimmering shield kept everyone from reaching the dormitory door for almost ten minutes and Severus Snape lay dead with his blood painting the walls around the pieces of his body. This morning, the walls and floor were cleaned of blood and Snape's body. His head remained missing but if anyone had paid attention the previous evening to the blood on the floor, they would have noticed the paw prints of several kneazles and the smear of blood where the cat-like creatures dragged the head of Severus Snape into one of their secret passages.

This morning, students only travelled in clumps of ten or more older and younger students. Fawkes sat in the rafters of the Great Hall and sang her song for the whole of breakfast once again. Professors and Aurors stood in the hallways; Headmaster Bennet appeared to be everywhere at once, his wand visible for everyone to see. Deputy Headmistress Longbottom went between the different dormitories to reassure the students.

Albus Dumbledore found that his office door would not open. The floo refused to catch fire, and he could neither apparate nor apparate make a port key that worked to move him from his office and room high above Hogwarts. He was stuck in his office and sat behind his desk. There was blank parchment, quills, and ink on his desk as well as the list of topics for his lectures.

Grimacing to realise the castle was determined that he prepare properly, he reviewed Augusta's parchment of topics and picked one that caught his attention. Selecting a quill, he dipped it in the inkpot and set to work.

SCHENE CHANGE: Classes to Keep Things Normal

New of the grisly end of Severus Snape spread around Hogwarts during breakfast, and while several students swore to stay clear of Harry Potter, others went out of their way to let him know they were glad that he was not harmed. Only Ron Weasley thought it was a reason for celebration.

"Harry, you did a great job decapitalization…uh…decapping…uh cutting off Snape's head," Ron said once the Gryffindors reached the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Ron, his spell was thrown back at him by my shield. He decapitated himself," Harry told Ron again.

"Yeah, that's what I said… decapitalised himself," Ron said. "Say, Harry, do you have the potions homework done? Can I…uh…revise with a copy?"

At the staff table, several of the adults looked as if they'd not slept, and Professor Sprout mentioned that when such events occurred in previous years, Dumbledore always cancelled classes the next day.

"And left the students to their own devices?" asked Headmaster Bennet.

"Yes, because he'd keep us in staff meetings all day listening to his interpretation of events and his ideas for how to help Mr Potter with the next challenge."

"What has been going on in this school the last years?" Bennet asked out loud.

Determined not to let the previous night's events control him, Harry enjoyed the new technology that permitted the astronomy class to occur during the daytime. Professor Sinistra had a new classroom plunged into darkness by blackout curtains on the windows before she activated a new Pensieve that projected the stars, planets, and moon in the night sky. The lights moved quickly, displaying a whole night's travel in under thirty minutes. Sinistra loved the new technology so much she showed the class the whole of the Milky Way. At lunch, Harry sat with Neville, who was a bit jumpy, and Dobby provided the teenagers with a mild calming draught with their tea to make it through the afternoon.

Deputy Headmistress Longbottom struck up a conversation with the fourth-year Gryffindors and Slytherins as they approached the History Classroom. She escorted them inside and then spoke to Professor Lupin. The wizard frowned slightly, glanced at Harry, and nodded his head in understanding something. As Augusta reached the door, it flew open and knocked her back. Luckily Professor Lupin caught Lady Longbottom as Draco Malfoy stormed into the classroom and screamed, "Potter! You killed my godfather! Die!"

The shield once again stood between Harry (and the other students) and Draco's weak cutting charm that reflected back to zip past the boy, clipping off some of his hair and impacting the wall behind him where it barely made a mark on the stone.

In short order, Headmaster Bennet summoned Mrs Malfoy and Deputy Headmistress Longbottom provided her memory of the event for Narcissa to view in a Pensieve in the headmaster's office. (Dumbledore didn't have the Hogwarts Pensieve any longer). Then, Headmaster Bennet expelled Draco Malfoy, snapped the wizard's wand, and informed Mrs Malfoy that she had ten days to make arrangements that were agreeable with the Department of Educational to provide tutors for her son in at least three subjects. Otherwise, the DMLE would arrive at their home and bind Draco's magic. Resigned to another defeat, Mrs Malfoy merely nodded her head before collecting Draco and his trunk from the entrance hall where Hagrid held onto the boy's arm. There were tears on Narcissa's face as she escorted her son away from Hogwarts.

Harry, Neville, and the rest of the Gryffindors in their year hid in the dormitory for the remainder of the day. Dobby provided them with dinner and snacks in the common room, where they sat quietly. Healer Johnson arrived and spoke to them about counselling classes to deal with the trauma. Everyone, including Ron, was given a schedule to come to the infirmary and speak to a mind healer. Ron muttered about not telling his Mum about this.

"It sucks to be you, Potter," Dean Thomas said. "I mean, who else has people try to kill him twice in as many days."

"I want to learn how to cast that spell for a shield," Lavender said from a sofa across the room.

"It's in my family, Grimoire," Harry said. "Nobody else can use it."

"Marry me!" Lavender called out with a grin on her face. "Or adopt me! Adopt me, please!"

Ron frowned and asked, "So danger attracts birds? Potter, take me along next time so that I can be in danger too."

CHANGE SCENE: Hair

That evening when Harry was alone in his bed and reading, Dobby appeared with a folded sheet of parchment in his hands and even though he frowned, he handed it to Harry. Carefully opening the parchment, the young wizard found a handful of white-blonde hairs.

"What's this Dobs?"

With a small sneer on his face, Dobby explained, "When stupid Malfoys fire spell at my Mr Harry Potters, it bounce back off powerful strong shield, and take off half Malfoy hair. Hair grow back but this hair be left on floor. Dobby gathers up and hides it."

"Why did you bring it to me?"

"Hair be part of wizard. There be spells Mr Harry Potters can cast to find Malfoys, send him bad dreams, use in Polyjuice to be him, or other stuff."

"Ugh," Harry said, folding the parchment up. "I don't know Dobby."

"Dobby say Mr Harry Potters keeps in case he ever needs. Doesn't have to use but might use someday of great need."

"Okay, Dobs." Harry considered the folded parchment again. He pulled out a biro, labelled the parchment as ' Hair. 7Sept1994'. Then he asked, "Can you store this in a good spot in the vaults?"

"Yes, Mr Harry Potters. There be large collection of hairs, fingernails, and dander from lots of people in Lily Potter's collections of potion ingredients. She most definitely trying to gather stuffes to blackmail stupid wizards."

"WHAT?"

End of Chapter.