"Severus? Are you there?"
The voice drifted through his closed door. Damn the woman, couldn't she just leave him alone?
"Severus, I thought that we were going to meet today. Are you ill? I could fetch Madam Pomfrey…"
Moving quickly, he jumped out of the armchair where he had been slouching and rushed to open the door.
"Minerva, no! I don't need that god-forsaken mediwitch!"
After a moment of panic, he registered her smirking face and growled.
"Thanks for opening the door so promptly, Severus. I was starting to think that you weren't in there."
"Minerva McGonagall, I don't need your blasted Gryffindor manipulations. I just wanted a little time alone, and didn't feel like sitting in a room trying to decide what to make."
She looked at him shrewdly, albeit with a little concern. "Severus Snape, you were moping, weren't you?"
Severus shook his head shortly. "No. I do not mope, Minerva. Cease that thought immediately."
"Come on, Severus, admit it. You look like you've got a dark cloud hanging over your head. What's wrong?"
He sighed, and opened the door further, letting her in. They sat down together, Severus leaning his elbows on his knees to prop up his head with his hands.
"Severus, by Merlin, you look like a moody teenager."
"Thanks, Minerva, for that flattering image." He sighed, and closed his eyes for a long second. "I am exceedingly tired, and Albus has been trying to get me to replace all of the stock in the infirmary for some reason, despite the fact that none of it is out of date yet. Of course, there is a slight decline in effectiveness after a while, but not enough so as to make them useless."
Minerva nodded, commiserating. Then she frowned. "It can't only be that. You have been acting like a bear with a stung paw recently, so much so that the younger years can hardly stand to be in the same room with you."
He rolled his eyes. He didn't much like being in the same room as them, either.
"Look, I don't know. It's just- well- you were right."
Minerva's eyebrows rose. "Excuse me?"
"You were right, and I can't see how!"
"What are you talking about, Severus? Although it is nice to have you recognise me for once, it is rather confusing what you are talking about.
"The boy, Minerva, the boy!"
She began to have an inkling of where this was going. "What boy, Severus?"
"That confounded Harry bloody Potter, that's who!"
Minerva tapped her fingers on the armrest. "No need to be crass, Severus. I suppose that explains your sulking, then."
"Minerva-"
"Yes, I am aware that you do not sulk, young man. But what else would you call this?"
He was silent. That woman had always known how to push his buttons.
"Severus, I know that the Potters have always been a sore spot for you. But if you can accept that you were wrong at least slightly about Harry's situation, it is a good start."
Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he had to admit to himself that, yes, he did accept that he needed to reconsider his thoughts on the boy.
"Minerva, I admit that I may have been mistaken as to his situation. His clothes do, as you said, reflect a less than satisfactory home situation. It is either that or a severe lack of taste, and the boy is not yet old enough to consider buying himself clothes to match the latest trend."
He closed his mouth for a moment, and Minerva smiled.
"However, that does not mean that I believe the boy is any less of an attention-seeking idiot. My view of his personality has not changed with my view of his home life, so do not bother blathering on about how wonderful he is in front of me, if you please."
"Whyever would I do that, Severus? Unlike Pomona, I can tell when a person is stubbornly fixated on something and has to change their mind of their own accord. Don't worry, I will merely attempt to present you with sufficient evidence to the contrary until you change your mind."
Severus felt like banging his head against a wall but refrained, instead straightening his posture in an attempt to appear more at ease with the situation. He did feel slightly better, now that he had gotten it off his chest, but he had the feeling that his friend would tease him mercilessly.
"So, does this mean that you will aid me in my idea for a Project, then? I assure you that the boy does not need to know that it is you or me giving him the clothes. It would be good for him to stop looking like a scarecrow, as well- it reflects badly on the school."
Severus rolled his eyes. "I don't know what that last comment is supposed to mean, Minerva, considering that this is a boarding school, which means that parents can ship their little brats off to us and feel glad of the fact that they do not have to see them for months. The boy isn't old enough to leave the grounds to go to Hogsmeade, and there aren't any visitors from the public."
Making a slight moue of distaste, Minerva dismissed his words. "If we make them right, it will make the job of looking after him a lot easier, as well. Considering the trouble he has already managed to get himself into, perhaps it would be for the best."
Despite himself, Severus found that he was considering it. Perhaps he could place a tracking charm on the garments, and make it so that he was alerted somehow whenever the boy went out of bounds. That would be difficult, but he could research ways of attuning an object to another. If he linked the objects, perhaps the garments and a piece of paper… He could surely adjust the charm that sailors, cartographers, and explorers used which showed the exact position of the person casting it, and ensure that it showed the location of the linked object onto the paper. The charm's use of longitude and latitude would need to be changed to describe with words rather than coordinates…
Shaking his head to come back to the present, Severus noticed that his friend was smiling knowingly at him.
"Good. I'm glad that you have decided. Now that you are no longer sulking, I am sad to leave, but it is getting late and I have some marking that I have neglected. Goodnight."
She had gotten to her feet while she was talking, and she quickly made her way over to him and gave him a brief hug, then scurried out the door.
Severus sat there dumbfounded for a moment, then stood up with a sudden moment and strode to the door. He couldn't see her, though, so he said softly to the chill night air;
"I never said that I would do it, Minerva…"
After a minute of staring blankly out into the empty corridor, he lifted a hand and rubbed his face, closing his eyes for a long moment. He then gently closed the door and sat down in his chair once more.
Perhaps instructive novels for parents of toddlers would have spells that created an alarm for whenever a child went near danger. Of course, if he used only that he would be hearing alarms every time the boy went near a knife, a hot object, or something he could fall off. Potion classes would cause it to be going off constantly, and whenever the boy flew, he could only imagine the noise.
Where there books on pet-handling that had charm-cheats for leash spells? Boundary spells? Could a piece of clothing be charmed not to go to a certain place? If he could make it so that they couldn't be forced to move anywhere near the third-floor corridor, his life would be easy. Of course, finding that his clothes wouldn't move, the boy might be likely to go starkers if he had to. Gryffindors were that sort.