Snape and Aurelian hadn't really gotten along when he was a student either. Snape tended to be very obvious in the way he favoured the snakes, this made them even less liked than they already were. Some in the snake pit would say that they needed Snape, that they needed someone who was on their side. Aurelian knew better though. They needed to do better, instead of demanding more.

For example, you may prank the other quidditch team before the game to cause anger and to break their concentration. Those kinds of things couldn't really get tracked back to you anyway if you did them right, and it's not like anyone actually got hurt, except maybe some feelings.

What do the Slytherins do though? They take after Snape. They, full on, injure the opponents. They surround their opponents and force them into a frontal crash with a solid metal pole. Being so open and brash about it shouldn't be a Slytherin trait, but everyone sees Snape do it in his class and in the halls, so they take after him.

The fact that he shows his anti-muggleborn attitude so openly does a lot to promote it in house as well. Aurelian knew now that he truly was a death eater, but if he was also a spy then shouldn't he at least try not to act like one!? If he was going to fool Voldemort that he was actually his spy on Albus, then surely he couldn't act this way?

It was time to get to the bottom of this.

"Do you know why I wanted to talk to you, Severus?"

Snape's eyebrow twitched at him using only his first name, but wisely decided to let it go.

"No. Albus said you had some business with me."

Aurelian chuckled and poured himself a cup of tea. He gestured for Snape to take a cup as well, but the man kept his eyes focused on Aurelian's and didn't move. A pity really, since Lian had prepared some calming powder in the other cup.

"I do indeed. But this is mainly about you and whether it is worth it to keep you at this school at all."

Snape stood up in rage, even the bottle of venom on the table was forgotten in the moment.

"What are you talking about? Even a pea-sized brain like yours should be able to tell that I'm overqualified for this job. You don't get to fire me!"

He didn't mention being a spy or anything, Albus probably hadn't told him that Lian knew. Aurelian just remained seated and gestured for Snape to go back to his seat. There was a long silence in the room as Snape glared at him, but eventually he calmed himself. He swung his billowing cloak to the wind and ended up seated before it had time to calm itself.

"You are indeed overqualified, on paper. But in practice, a random Hag from Knockturn alley could do a better job than you."

It was said in a nonchalant tone, as if it was common knowledge, as if it was as obvious as '1+1=2'. Snape took deep breaths. For a man who had such high praise for the dark arts and the mind arts, he sure had a wild temper. Briefly, Aurelian wondered whether Snape had simply used a couple too many dark spells before he was ready as a kid. There was a reason most learnt Occlumency before trying the unforgivables. But it was still Snape in front of him, so Aurelian would keep calm and keep his eyes away from actually meeting Snape's.

"It is a fact known by countless students by now. Pomfrey taught me more about potions, and I was one of your 'favoured' Slytherins."

Snape clicked his tongue. Surely he wasn't actually this childish? It would explain a lot. Eventually, Aurelian was allowed to hear the slow raspy voice of Snape again.

"I only teach those worth teaching. Most of the children here are not worth my time."

Aurelian slammed a book on the desk in front of him, Snape didn't quite jump at the sound but he snapped to attention.

"You know what this is don't you? You've read it more than once even, I'd wager. Most prefects read it a couple of times a year."

He had. The book was the rules and guidelines of Hogwarts and he knew exactly what Aurelian was getting at.

'Professors were not allowed to leave a student behind because they thought them unworthy.

Professors were not allowed to use preferential treatment.

No students should receive less opportunities to learn than the rest.'

These were all points clearly inked out in the book. There was no doubt that Snape had been breaking the rules every single day of school when he was a professor.

"So Snape, give me a reason. One good reason not to fire you."

It should have been a difficult question. Snape was quite obviously not worth the trouble, except if you think he's doing an excellent job pretending to be a spy.

"Because I am the greatest potion master in all of Britain, certainly by the top of Europe. You'd never be able to find one of my calibre again. What if there's suddenly a need for a tricky potion at the school, and you hired some worthless loon?"

He looked very smug, and quite clearly looked down at Aurelian. There was no respect there, obviously, and there was no acceptance in the fact that he was now Lian's subordinate in a way.

To Snape's surprise, Lian smiled and slammed his hand on the table.

"Precisely! That is the one and only thing you're good for. Your teaching is worthless, you're a terrible role model, and you abuse every little ounce of authority you have to make the lives of some people miserable. But you sure can brew a potion, which brings us to today's issue."

Lian once again lifted the vial of basilisk venom. Snape was furious, but he knew what kind of person Aurelian was. He wouldn't just insult him without making it worth his while. A truly frustrating man to deal with as most came away from the situation feeling truly insulted but not hateful towards him. Snape wouldn't let himself be fooled. Aurelian Fudge was just as pitiful as his father, the fact that he stumbled upon a basilisk corpse didn't change that.

"What do you want from me?"

Aurelian smiled at Snape, but put the vial back on his desk.

"I expect you to behave. I know of your agreement with Dumbledore-"

Snape stood up to protest but Aurelian stopped him.

"But that doesn't matter! If you can't teach you won't be a professor for long. Perhaps we can find a more suitable role for you soon, we just have to find a replacement next summer. Too much else to do this summer."

Snape scoffed. As if the sticky boy had taken up his real responsibilities and done anything this summer, he didn't believe a word.

"But next summer I'll have you replaced and I'll find you a different position down in the dungeons, perhaps give you free reign to research. Until then I'll need you to behave, or you will never see any of the basilisk's parts."

That was it. Snape slammed his fist into the table. The fat Fudge dared to refuse him the venom!? It was with pure disdain Snape answered.

"You sticky, slimy, fat Fudge. You have no idea who you're dealing with or what it is you're doing!"

Aurelian laughed right in his face. Snape had used the taunt he had heard people shout at Aurelian a few years back. Back then it sometimes caused him to lose it, which was why the moniker stuck for a while. But he changed that, and rather drastically. Nowadays he wouldn't let something so petty concern him, especially from a person he had no respect for.

"On the contrary, 'Professor'. I know exactly who I am dealing with. And I know how highly you value that vial. As long as you behave. That means no name calling, no active bullying, no picking out your favourite students, no muggleborn hate, none of that. I'm not even going to demand that you stop any bullying or what someone else is doing, because I don't think you're capable of it anyway. The only thing I'm requiring is that you don't perpetuate the kind of hate we don't want to see at this school. I intend on changing the Slytherin house back to what it should be, and currently you are my largest obstacle."

Snape stood up and left without saying a word. Aurelian knew the look on his face though. There was hatred, disgust, disregard and contempt in it for sure, but there was also a part of him which considered the offer. He was certain that Snape would come around once he saw that Aurelian Fudge, unlike his father, was a man of his word.

Before he left the door, Aurelian added one extra thing. As if it wasn't very important.

"Oh and I need you to brew up a large storage of the Wolfsbane Potion. You'll receive this vial of venom for it. That should make it worth your while, no?"

He threw the vial at Snape who looked horrified at the prospect of failing to catch it. Not because he'd suffer massive corrosive injuries, but because of his veneration for the ingredients. Eventually he got it under control, inspected it, and nodded to Aurelian before leaving in a haste. Aurelian had already made the elves place a large storage of ingredients outside Snape's personal quarters in preparation.

Three days later, a large batch of Wolfsbane Potion was finished and they interviewed Mr Lupin. The man would have been a no-brainer if it wasn't for the fact that he was a werewolf. But considering his credentials, Aurelian was willing to look past it and agree to hide the truth from the board.

Remus Lupin was a kind man who had experienced a lot. Aurelian wanted to say he grew stronger from it, but although that might be true physically and magically, it wasn't true mentally. He seemed scarred from several events. He should be a good educator, but he really should deal with some things personally. Maybe Aurelian could recommend him to a mind healer or something?

On another note, he admitted to having a rather poor past with Snape. That was fine by Lian as long as he held his own if it came to a confrontation concerning the students' welfare. It shouldn't be a problem really, they were grown men after all. How much could some teenage squabble matter a decade or two later? Aurelian had at that moment forgotten how petty Snape was, but would remember over the following few months.

Days and weeks flew by. Lian and Minerva had agreed on making Terence Higgs and Penelope Clearwater the head boy and girl for the year. The main reason Minerva let it happen was because she was afraid he was right that her judgement had been biassed for the last several years. The other candidates would of course still be prefects. He had also now hired all of the staff he planned on. Remus Lupin, Rubeus Hagrid, Emmeline Vance, and Rupert Starkhorn. The last member was already a teacher at the school but only part time. Aurelian had decided to hire him full time, and together they had made some plans for how to make sure the students had more enjoyable pastimes. Maybe some artistic hobbies.

Instead of just having an art and a music class nobody took, he would now make it compulsory for the first years to take a combined Arts class and for the rest it wouldn't be a class per se. It would be a collection of rooms for recreation, arts and entertainment that everyone could use at any time of the day. Almost all of the unused third floor would be used for it, and the elves were hard at work making sure it was possible. This was another thing which didn't require the board of governors' approval, apart from making it a compulsory class, so he and Rupert went ahead and managed it all without much outside input.

Rupert would be stationed in the largest room so that anyone could go and ask for help most of the days, so he would still teach students who dared to ask for help. Aurelian also asked him to be ready to go through the rooms and find people who might need it but wouldn't dare ask for it. The rooms were varied. The paint room had a full see through wall with a look out on the grounds and over the lake. The several music rooms had insulation charms all over. Et cetera. The most important thing was that all kinds of equipment would be available, and if they were interested in drama or acting, then there would be all sorts of dress up possibilities.

It was meant to be a place where they could do what they wished to express any artistic expression, and he felt that they managed that rather well. So he left Rupert to his quarters, as he would now also be living in the castle.

The meeting with the board of governors was coming up tomorrow and he still had a couple of things he wanted to get through. For the first one, he had to go meet up with Flitwick who had just arrived back at the castle.

"Professor Flitwick!"

He smiled at the man who returned his greeting cheerfully.

"Mr. Fudge, how are things going at the castle? I have heard a bit from Minerva and Pomona but what about you? How are you doing? I heard you fired Binns?"

Aurelian nodded, and the two sat down for a cup of tea while he explained how things were. By the end, he got to the point of his visit today.

"But I didn't come here just to visit. I do have something I want to ask of you."

The small man nodded and waved for him to go on.

"I'd like to start a duelling club for real, unlike that shameless thing that existed last year. Perhaps get a few students into a couple of duelling competitions."

Filius' eyes lit up at the mention. He had been visibly annoyed at the fact that nobody asked him to hold the duelling club the previous year, but with Gilderoy being a sham it was probably for the best.

"I would love for you to help with it. I can not ask that you do all of the job as you have many other duties, but I can tell you that I have hired someone who can take over the choir if you so wish."

Flitwick was in fact the teacher responsible for the frog choir, a very celebrated choir at the school. But as soon as Aurelian got the words out of his mouth, Flitwick waved his hands frenetically.

"No, no, no. I can do both. Don't you worry about it! I will get some students to assist, but I wish to keep conducting the choir if that's alright with you?"

Seeing the man's passion made it obvious that it perhaps was wrong to assume he thought of it as a job at all. Flitwick probably considered conducting them to be a nice pastime, so he let it slide for now. If it became too much he'd ask Lupin to take over the duelling club.

"That's fine, as long as you're not overworked. I plan to ask our new Defence teacher to assist you with the duelling club, he seems to be rather capable. Perhaps you knew him? He's called Remus Lupin."

At first he was calm, but after hearing the new teacher's name his smile grew.

"I remember him, a fine boy. Always did his best at every turn. I look forward to working with him!"

And so they said farewell, they'd see each other when dinner came around anyway. Remus wasn't very difficult to convince, he left the two of them to fix up a short plan to present in the morning to the BoG.

Aurelian sat down in his office chair. Things were coming together, invitation letters had been sent out to most students, he had some more things to get through, but as he looked at the papers on his desk he could feel his eyelids getting heavier. His breathing slowed. His muscles relaxed. Soon his head was down on his desk and Aurelian had fallen asleep.

A few hours later, the fireplace flared to life.

"Aurelian? Mind if we have a chat?"

He was completely out of it and could hear a word. The paintings on the wall could though, and approval to step through was given. Soon a short woman with fiery red hair stepped through, clearly annoyed. That was until she saw him asleep on his desk. A little smile spread across her lips unknowingly as she walked over and shook him awake. It was barely past dinner time, hardly the time to sleep.

Lian shot up in his chair and he looked around with a slightly frightened expression until he saw the woman. He instinctively fixed his hair and wiped any possible drool from his face.

"Ah, Amelia. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

She sighed and slumped down in the chair opposite him. He now saw that she had brought a bottle of firewhiskey.

"To be honest, I was going to say that we should drink away the annoyance at your father. But you don't know what has happened yet, do you?"

Aurelian shook his head as he got handed a cup of warm tea and a plate of food for dinner. He offered her the same but she only accepted some tea and biscuits.

"No, what did he do this time? Worse than usual?"

She was clearly immensely annoyed, so Aurelian was afraid his father had done something irreparable, like firing her. Aurelian had been building a relationship with the head of law enforcement through letters, he didn't want her fired! Purely for the business relationship of course, not because of any care he had built up for the woman. None at all. Zilch. Not even slightly.

But then he looked up at her angry face and fiery hair, her eyes glowing with passion. Perhaps..

"Well then you will have missed that Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban"

He spat out his tea in surprise.

"What!?"

"And your father wants to place dementors at Hogwarts and everywhere around it."

He looked eagerly towards the bottle of firewhiskey.

"You know what? I might need a glass of that for this conversation.."

They moved over to a small tea-table by the fireplace and poured a healthy drink each. He did think it was a bit of a waste that the first time she actually showed up to his office would be a sad occasion, but he took what he could. Wait..hold up, maybe he did think of her in some sort of special way..

And so she explained it all. That Fudge Sr. wanted dementors at every opening because there was a suspicion that Sirius Black would come after Harry Potter.

They soon poured a second drink and laid back.

"You know, I won't take this."

She smiled at him, as if that was exactly why she came.

"I'll bet he's planning on telling us through Lucius at tomorrow's meeting with the BoG."

She blinked in confusion several times, before finally asking.

"The bog? Why are you having a meeting with Lucius at the bog?"

That was the first time he had said the abbreviation out loud and only now did he understand how fitting it was. He held in his laughter as he explained.

"The Board of Governors. B, o, G. BoG."

It took a second, but then they started laughing. It wasn't actually that funny, but it seemed they both wanted to laugh and a couple of glasses of firewhiskey made that easier.

Aurelian hadn't heard her laugh before. He decided it had quite a nice tone to it, although she seemed to snort every now and then. It was..cute.

"Thank you for the warning, Amelia. I must ask though, why did you come here?"

Redness spread across her cheeks, but she didn't waver.

"To have a chat of course! I figured it was time we got to know each other over a bottle. Besides, I have no one to get home to tonight."

That last reason was added on a lot quieter, but Aurelian picked up on it.

"What about your niece? Has she moved out already? A bit early don't you think?"

He winked at her and she threw a book in his direction.

"She's not old enough for that yet! She's staying at a friend's house. It got me thinking about who my friends are these days.."

She looked into the fireplace in contemplation as she took some extra large swigs. Then she started talking.

The formal reason she showed up today was that she wanted to warn him about the dementors getting placed at Hogwarts. The real reason seemed to be her having a personal crisis, the very same one he realised he had just pushed ahead of him instead of taking on.

She had no real friends anymore. Her school friends were not actually that deep, not most of them anyway, and the ones who were had moved far away. She had gotten into the ministry and focused so hard on it that she felt she had lost everything else.

"Don't get me wrong Lian. I'm proud of what I've managed to do, both in the workplace and with Susan, but when I started talking to you I figured that something was missing. Have I made the wrong choice in life?"

Aurelian decided to take hold of the bottle. She had already gulped down two glasses more than him, she didn't need to keep drinking like this.

He moved his chair right up next to hers and waved his wand to make it into a couch. He then wrapped his arm over her shoulder and leaned into her, and she leaned back into him.

"No. You did what you thought was right, and things have ended up well so far. Right? Have you made mistakes? Probably somewhere along the line, but who cares? It's what you do with the present that matters, not what you did in the past."

He conjured parchment and ink and splashed a message about the dementors for Dumbledore and sent it away with a house-elf. All without taking his arm away from her shoulders. He didn't even stop leaning in with his head. The two sat there and idly chatted for quite some time until she admitted something.

"You know, I looked into your folder. I believe I understand why you hate your father. Your mother's death, it was his fault right?"

He gulped down whatever was left in his glass and began his story.

"So I was 10 years old."