Here is the next chapter. For future reference Tom Senior is Tom Riddle and Tom Junior is Harry Potter. Please read and review thanks, love Angel x
Severus felt awkward but he'd been left with no choice but to gather memories of his lessons from first to seventh years in different houses with their permission of course. He said he wished to study them to find out more about how they did in their lessons but it was a lie. He would actually be studying himself. With a free period finally upon him he started out watching the first year lessons from each house. He would do this for every year group and each house. With all of his emotions now back and his many vows now gone he'd be able to look at things with fresh eyes. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were interesting to say the least as they made many mistakes none of which he seemed to tell them about. He saw that he just removed house points en masse for them performing badly in the lesson but scowled deeply as he never told them what if anything they had actually done wrong. This was a recipe for disaster for sure pardon the pun.
It was as he moved on and saw his Slytherin and Gryffindor lessons that he truly balked. Slytherins were actually very dangerous what with Crabbe and Goyle just firing anything into their cauldrons at speed without placing them inside carefully. That was dangerous enough but they were just lucky he'd taught everyone how to protect themselves from explosions as Crabbe and Goyle were explosions waiting to happen. He had seen how vile he was to Gryffindors and felt terrible. Damn Dumbledore for taking some of his emotions away. It had made him cold, callous and genuinely unfeeling for anyone. He had been so checked out that he'd not realised serious errors those in his own house were making.
Because Albus had meddled so much in his emotions and quite literally turned up his extreme hatred of James Potter to the point that he in turn hated all of Gryffindor he was always so awful towards them and hated that so much. He had hated James Potter because his so called pranks had actually been dangerous and caused actual harm physically something the boy admittedly did revel in. he liked being from a light family and physically hurting others without actually being a death eater something he said often. Severus was now thirty one and had gotten over his feelings towards James years ago something Albus had not been happy to learn about and had magically insisted he keep on feeling. It was terrible in all honesty.
Yes James had been vile and just because he never used dark magic didn't mean he'd not been vile. He had realised that the intensity to which you use certain spells can affect how they work. He'd realised for example that if you over power a levitation spell you can lift someone up so fast that they whack their head and become unconscious something Severus would know as he'd been the test subject for that. What had he gotten? He'd gotten a week's detention for that debacle and nothing more because Dumbledore had said it was obviously an error in judgement even though he knew it wasn't. Severus was not innocent though as he had reciprocated with an empathic draft brewed to maximum strength which caused James to spend three days in the hospital wing crying his eyes out about how badly Severus was treated by his own father at home. It had scarred James like it was meant to.
They retaliated backwards and forwards the whole time they were in school. For giving James that potion he'd received three weeks of detention because apparently according to Dumbledore James was pureblood and had been hurt more by his actions although Severus was still the one who had been physically knocked out but everyone seemed to forget that when it counted. He did remember once when no one forgot it and all the staff made Dumbledore punish James personally something he was seriously not happy about. He had no idea what he'd done but did know that his staff had not mentioned it again. He had however moved on and gotten over his problem with James Potter. When school had ended James had even said sorry to him claiming he didn't know why he'd continued but that he couldn't stop. He had told Severus he hated his friends and hated that he was dark but was sorry for his own actions. It had been enough. At that stage Severus was tired and didn't really have the time to be bothered continuing to hate him something Dumbledore obviously felt he should. At least he could say he was free from those compulsions now and if what he'd seen so far was anything to go by he'd be conducting his lessons way better. He was done with the second year memories when Poppy walked in giving him his ring back and gave him a quick kiss before leaving again.
She'd ordered him some teal, silver, blue, aquamarine, purple, grey, light green, forest green, burnt orange and scarlet coloured robes. He loved her taste. She had chosen nothing yellow like he'd told her too. She'd really listened to him and felt very loved right now. In a few hours he was done and his new cloaks had arrived. He elected to wear his new teal robes to dinner as everyone gasped when they saw him and Cedrella shot him an appreciative smile. Dumbledore was less then pleased though.
"Severus my boy what's with the sudden flamboyance at dinner? You don't usually do this are you alright?" he asked trying to sound concerned but instead sounding confused and annoyed. Before he could answer however Cedrella did.
"Oh Albus don't worry about it. I told Severus he should wear black only in his classroom when he's teaching. It's a depressing colour to be worn all the time don't you think? Besides which he needs to present himself in a better fashion to the children and now he will do so!" she said with a smile on her face but an undertone of something he couldn't work out. It freaked him out though so he didn't push her anymore on it. Tom saw Severus and smiled brightly he looked wonderful. Later that evening Tom entered the office of Severus.
"Severus I have a problem. I want to be able to contact you as and when I need to but I don't want to mark you. That is and was never a good idea so I have come up with a solution which suits me. Here is some supplies and I want you to use them to design a symbol you like the most!" he said as Severus smiled at him. He began to draw coming up with a cauldron which had Poppies and other ingredients in it. Tom senior took over for a moment and created a necklace with that as the pendant on it in silver as he knew Severus favoured silver.
"Wear this always and it will vibrate gently when I need you and that is all. If it vibrates once you are to come to your office here from wherever you are if you're not already in your office that is. In this instance you can just come to your office as soon as you get away. If you can't get away sent a house elf to tell me that and it will be fine. If it vibrates two times it means you should get there as soon as you can as it will be an emergency. I would also advise having your house elf teach you to pop around as it's really helpful" he said as Severus complied asking his elf Jinx to teach him how to pop. She was stunned but did as he ordered kindly. He could now pop anywhere in an instant and was relieved about it. He thought about where he wanted to go and popped at once to the graveyard in Godrics Hollow. He approached their graves and as soon as he saw their names Lily's in particular he burst into tears. Hut wrenching sobs leaving his body. He needed to express everything now and now he was doing it so his mental health would be good.
"Oh Lily I'm so sorry for everything. I love Tom you know. He's a wonderful and charming kid. He's a Slytherin and very smart indeed. We are good friends. You'd be so very proud of him and all he has achieved. Dumbledore messed with emotions too much so I could never tell you how much I loved you but I truly did. James you became a good man as I now am. Thank you for everything" he said laying a huge bunch of roses on their graves. As he got up and stepped backwards he fell over an oddly shaped tree root and tumbled headfirst onto a grave which shockingly enough opened as soon as he hit it. What on earth was going on?