AN: Sorry there was a bit of a delay in posting, just a crazy busy life right now. I find myself needing some space in my life to be able to think enough to write, so when things get this crazy it can be hard. Hopefully with the advent of summer my life will be settling down a bit. Please enjoy this next installment and let me know what you think.
The War began. Nobody who ever knew Severus Snape, either as a child or an adult, could expect nothing less. He was not the sort to give in and submit without a fight. This so called "Governess" would learn her place, and that place was not to be giving orders to the young boy if he could help it.
At least that's what Severus told himself as he stood in the corner of the small schoolroom. His backside stung with two strokes delivered magically, and his glare could bore a hole in the plaster of the wall in front of him. The merest ghost of a smile painted his lips however – because he knew that he was not some petulant child in the corner hoping for mercy. He was Severus Snape, and there was a snake waiting for The Governess.
"Vipera Evanesca," he heard her say in a bored voice.
Severus peeked around, to see the snake disappear in a puff of smoke. Grimacing in disappointment, he faced the wall again.
"Quite pedestrian really," she drawled. "I'm adding an extra stroke for a lack of creativity."
Two strokes delivered magically stung his backside, causing him to bite his lip and tears to well a bit but not fall. That witch could not make him cry, he vowed. And it was wishful thinking if she thought a snake was the whole of what he had planned for her today. He would win. She had nothing on Tobias, so he knew he could survive and conquer.
Very little of consequence was learned that day, at least academically. Severus remained outwardly compliant whilst trying to thwart his governess at every turn. He steadily worked his way down the list of everything he'd done to Broomie, and began racking his brain for what he could do when that list ran out.
"Again?" Miss Stradling asked in a bored manner as she sipped her tea and grimaced at the salt. "Really, I thought you were intelligent enough to learn at some point, Mr. Snape."
"I don't know to what you are referring," he answered, his voice the perfect miniature of the sarcasm he would develop as an adult. "Miss Stradling."
She flicked her wand again, and the hot stroke caused Severus to wince, though he'd been expecting it.
"Perhaps I should compile a list for Mr. Potter to peruse," she told him. "He might find it interesting what you get up to in the classroom."
"My former nanny informed him," Severus told her. "It did her little good."
"But she waited to inform your guardian at the end of her employment," Miss Stradling said. "Perhaps it would do you good to have a bit of parental enforcement earlier on in the process."
"If you think it would be beneficial," he told her, heavily implying that it would be a waste of time.
"We shall see," she told him.
By the end of the day even Severus was slightly impressed with the length of the list that Miss Stradling would be handing to his guardian. He also felt slightly nervous – what would his new Dad do? Would it be strict censure and punishment? Long emotional conversations? Severus wasn't sure which would be worse. He found himself waiting at the kitchen table with Miss Stradling, packed bag in hand, standing above him waiting for Harry to floo home.
"Sorry I'm late," Harry told her as he came through the floo with a puff. "You could have left Severus in care of the house elf if you needed to go."
"I wanted to give you this before I went," Miss Stradling told him crisply, handing him a folded piece of parchment.
"Schoolwork?" Harry asked hopefully.
"It is a list of his wrongdoing for today," Miss Stradling answered severely. "If the measures I am allowed to take in the classroom do not check him, I am hoping that some parental enforcement does."
"What is it that you are hoping that I do?" Harry asked, unfolding the note.
"I understand that a picnic is planned for this evening," Miss Stradling answered reasonably. "I believe such an outing is not a proper reward for such a misbehaved pupil, and that should be only one aspect of his punishment in this matter."
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention," Harry told her, hoping she would then leave.
"He is quite capable of doing better," Miss Stradling continued. "But he continues to make bad choices and not respect my authority. If you don't establish your own authority, Mr. Potter, he will run roughshod over you."
"Thank you, Miss Stradling," Harry answered, his ears reddening in embarrassment. Hearing his fears spoken by by this woman in front of Severus made him worry that she might be right – and worry that maybe he had been too lenient with the boy. Why couldn't he just behave himself in school? Harry would never have acted this way to a teacher. "Severus, please go to your room. I will be up in a bit to talk with you."
"Yes, sir," he answered warily, eyeing both Miss Stradling and his father. He felt like this was the worst time to try and be arguing.
Severus walked to his room, and Miss Stradling turned to face Harry. "Don't coddle him, Mr. Potter," she told him. "That talk should probably include some rather clear disciplinary methods."
"He did have a very rough upbringing," Harry began. "I mean, it doesn't excuse anything . . ."
"You're right, it doesn't," she answered. "Even people that come from a rough upbringing can treat their governess with respect and courtesy. To demand less from him does him no favors."
"I wish I knew why he seems to have it out for poor Broomie and now you . . ."
"I suspect it's because he thinks he can get away with it," Miss Stradling told him. "Your job is to disabuse him of that notion. He is a Slytherin, for Merlin's sake, and he will get away with what you let him get away with. You can't raise him as if he's a Hufflepuff, Mr. Potter, hoping that with enough love and cuddles that he'll make the right choices."
"But surely living a life where he faces nothing but discipline from me isn't a life either," Harry agued.
"It's a life that will teach him to make the right choices to improve his lot," she told him sharply. "He will learn."
"Or die in the attempt to stubbornly outlast me," Harry answered, stifling a grin. Harry felt the alternative he offered to be much more likely.
"Good night, Mr. Potter," she told him in a clipped tone.
"Good night," Harry replied, wishing he knew what to do.
"I will return on Monday," she told him. "I have given him assignments to make up for the time he spent in the corner today."
"I'll see that he completes them," Harry agreed. "Have a good weekend, Miss Stradling."
With that, Miss Stradling entered the floo and was gone. Rubbing the back of his head, he turned to where Ron had just come in.
"So the tyke's giving you a run for your money?" Ron asked with a grin.
"Appears so," Harry answered. "What am I supposed to do, belt him for it?"
"What would Snape do to you?" Ron asked reasonably.
"I don't even know," Harry shook his head. "I can't even imagine being this naughty. It makes me feel like maybe I'm a bad dad or something."
"Nonsense," Ron answered with a laugh. "You're just trying to parent Severus Snape is all."
"What should I do then?" Harry asked. "I have a feeling I'm going to get a note like this nearly every day, and whatever I do with him now has to be something I can do with him every day. I just don't want to put him over my knee every night, that can't be good for our relationship."
"He could always try behaving himself," Ron reasoned with a grin.
"Somehow I think that's pretty unlikely," Harry sighed.
"Well, Fred and George were this naughty all the time," Ron answered reasonably. "We could always do what Mum did to them."
"De-gnoming the garden?" Harry grinned.
"Exactly!" Ron answered with a grin. "I was more thinking of helping George and I move stock around at the store. George was just saying that if Severus was acting up with the Governess that we have plenty of boring work for him to do. Mum used to call it good incentive to do well in school – because without a good education that's all the work you can get. Anyway, maybe on Saturday he gets up early and puts in a good morning working at the store, and then in the afternoon he does his work that the governess put to him. That sounds like a reasonable consequence to me."
"Well, if he doesn't learn how to behave himself at least he stays out of trouble," Harry reasoned, agreeing.
"Mum did curb the worst of the twins' misbehavior," Ron grinned. "Not all of it, mind you."
"Miss Stradling said he should miss the picnic," Harry told him, frowning. "She said that such misbehavior shouldn't be rewarded." The idea of depriving Severus of the picnic made Harry deeply uncomfortable, but was he wrong? Did Severus indeed deserve something like that?
"That seems pretty harsh to me," Ron grimaced. "Besides, the kid needs time with his family."
"That's what I think," Harry answered, relieved that Ron felt the same way; maybe he wasn't such a pushover. "But isn't she supposed to be some sort of expert? I feel like I don't know what I'm doing."
"Well, to be honest," Ron asked him. "How much more can she know than us? I mean, I know she did the training and all to be a governess, but you know Severus far better than she does. Besides, do you really want to tell Mum that she wouldn't get to see her first grandchild and feed him the picnic she prepared because the Governess had a bit of trouble with him?"
"You're right," Harry grimaced. "I'm not telling her that. Let's go with your suggestion of punishment by boring work. I'll go up and talk to him now."
Harry entered Severus' room a few minutes later, and felt himself inwardly cringing at the amount of tension that he felt as soon as he entered. Inky, probing eyes were latched on him, trying to discern the nature of the punishment he would receive. He looked at Harry's hands, suspicious that they didn't have a ruler or strap in them. Harry saw his suspicions, and that confirmed in his mind that he wanted a more constructive consequence than Miss Stradling had suggested.
"I'm not going to give you that kind of consequence," Harry told him, trying to reassure him. They both knew what Severus had been expecting. Harry felt a pang of regret that he spanked Severus when Broomie left – but he wanted to give the boy some token of his displeasure at how he had treated his nanny. It had seemed like the best option at the time, though neither of them thought it would deter Severus in the least.
"Why not?" Severus demanded.
"I prefer more constructive punishments," Harry told him. "Of course, if you do something truly dangerous to yourself or others I don't feel as if I have much of a choice. But this time, I think that I have a bit more flexibility."
"You spanked me for what I did to Broomie."
"That list was far worse," Harry argued. "And Broomie was far sweeter. Do you really want to argue your punishment for that?"
"This constructive punishment sounds worse," Severus told him, crossing his arms and glaring. He wouldn't argue the punishment for Broomie, he was actually surprised it hadn't been worse. And right now it was about surviving the impending punishment.
"Would you rather I take a ruler to you?" Harry asked, bemused. "It would certainly be easier on me, I wouldn't have to think so hard."
"Yes," Severus answered. "I would rather that than being sent to a boarding school."
"I'm not sending you to a boarding school," Harry sighed. "How could that possible be constructive? But I also don't want to spank you every time you screw up either. I talked to Ron about some other options, and we came up with a plan."
Severus looked away this time, as if ashamed by what he was going to say. "So I will be missing the picnic then," he said in what he hoped was a neutral tone, but Harry could tell it wasn't really. Until that moment Harry didn't understand just how much Severus had been looking forward to the picnic with the Weasleys, and he wouldn't deprive the boy of that joy for anything. It warmed him to see that he cared about the picnic, perhaps Severus was becoming more attached.
"No," Harry told him. "It's important you have time with family; I don't want to take that away from you. Miss Stradling might know about education, but she doesn't know about how our family works. So, I discussed it with Ron and he suggested getting up early tomorrow and doing some boring jobs and stocking at the store tomorrow for George as your consequence for your misbehavior today. Then, in the afternoon, you can complete the schoolwork you missed. Does that seem fair?"
"Yes, sir," Severus answered, looking at Harry again with his dark eyes, suspicious of the seeming largesse from his father. How was spending a Saturday morning with George, whom Severus was starting to be able to admit to himself that he actually missed spending time with, supposed to punish him?
"I also want to tell you that this behavior needs to stop," Harry told him firmly. "Miss Stradling deserves to be treated with respect from you, and you will not be able to learn from her if you two are locked in a power struggle. Don't you want to learn what she has to teach you?"
"Of course," Severus answered, his dark eyes flashing.
"Then what is the problem?" Harry asked.
"That woman deserves nothing from me," Severus' eyes flashed. "Least of all respect."
"Why is that?" Harry asked, concerned. "Is there something I should know about her?"
"I can handle her," Severus answered.
"Is she saying mean things or is she hurting you?" Harry asked him directly, worried. "She's not allowed to abuse you."
"She's not abusing me," Severus answered. "I didn't like Broomie either, and you never asked me if she was abusing me."
"She seemed less the type," Harry admitted. "Okay, if you're sure. But please let me know if there's ever a problem with her. We can always find another Nanny."
"Governess," Severus corrected with sarcasm and a bit of a wry grin.
"Governess," Harry nodded in agreement, rolling his eyes a little. "Now let's get ready for the picnic, and we're bringing your broom too. George was very excited to fly with you."