Severus sat in his classroom, glaring at his governess. He knew that Harry and Ginny would be back that evening and that his time was running out with Draco, but somehow he just couldn't see his way out of the deadlock he found himself in with this governess. He knew he was going to have to tell Harry, but he couldn't even picture telling him. Would it be better to just wait for Draco to out him?
"You aren't paying attention," Miss Stradling snapped. "What is it that I just said?"
"I'm not sure, Miss," Severus answered, his voice with an edge to it. "Can you repeat yourself please?"
"I am not teaching up here so that I can hear myself talk," she snapped at it. "Do you need a reminder to pay attention?"
"No, miss," he shook his head. "I'll pay attention."
"Clearly we need to move along," she told him, clearly disapproving. "Bring me up your homework from last night."
Severus obeyed reluctantly, technically obeying but trying to do the absolute minimum to show her that he was not under her power. But even that petty resistance was beginning to feel pointless, he knew it would end at some point like it always did - with her winning in some way. It was beginning to be an exercise in futility.
"Your homework in substandard," she sniffed. "I thought Mrs. Weasley was going to go over it with you."
"She did," Severus told her. "But we didn't have a lot of time yesterday, so she just glanced at it really. She was kind of busy."
"Things more important than education, I see," she sniffed again.
"I don't know what it was," Severus answered honestly.
"Well, this won't do," she told him. "You will do these sums again."
"Can you at least tell me what I did wrong?" Severus asked her.
"You aren't speaking respectfully to me," she hissed at him, her eyes leveling. "I think you might need an attitude adjustment to start your day."
"You're going to do it at some point anyway," Severus snapped back at her. "It doesn't matter much what I do."
"You are absolutely right in a way," she smiled back at him, a brittle, calculating smile. "It always does seem inevitable, doesn't it? If only you could learn to behave yourself, perhaps it wouldn't be so necessary."
"I think you enjoy it," he spat at her. "You and I both know that's the necessary part."
"You are quite cheeky this morning," she told him. "So we are going 'round about this again, are we? You must be very excited about your 'parents' returning home. Ready to be coddled I see."
"You know nothing about them."
"Enough to know that you aren't wanting to be sent away," she reminded him, an evil smile on her face. "And enough to know that you would do anything to prevent it, even put up with whatever I dish out as a teacher."
"I could tell them, you know," Severus threatened, though he immediately regretted it. They both knew he was bluffing.
"Go ahead," she answered, crossing her arms. "Go do it now, I'll wait. Go tell that ridiculous, self-important old woman out there everything - and I will pack up my things and go. Off to a boarding school you will go."
Snape bit his lip in trepidation, wanting to believe what Draco had said. Didn't Draco say that these Gryffindors wouldn't ever abandon him? That they would never send him away?
"I don't think they would send me away," Severus told her in a very quiet, unsure voice.
"What did you say?" she asked him, her voice venom.
"I don't think they would send me away," he answered softly again, still unsure.
"Then go tell that broodmare downstairs," the governess ordered him. "Walk out of this room and trust that they will believe your word over mine and that they won't think you're just some criminal child that they need to protect the real children from."
Severus remained silent, clearly this had hit a nerve.
"I think this cheek deserves more than our usual two, wouldn't you say?" she asked, removing her wand. "Just because your discipline is necessary doesn't mean that I don't enjoy it."
Severus closed her eyes, and jumped a bit off his chair as the first stroke met its mark.
Instead of the next one following soon after, however, Severus was astonished instead for a burst of spellfire erupting from the corner of the room, knocking the governess across the room. The governess cried out in surprise, but was able to keep in possession of her wand, which was no mean feat. She began pointing it wildly around the room, trying to figure out where the spell had come from.
"I think I believe Severus' word over yours, Miss Stradling," Severus heard Ginny's voice tell her mildly. He watched as she emerged from under some kind of shimmery cloak that had rendered her completely invisible.
"How dare you fire at me!" she spat at Ginny.
"How dare you use whatever spell you just did on my son?" Ginny countered. "We certainly didn't give you permission. It hurt him, I could tell by his body. What did you do to him?"
"Just a simple spell his older self used on me from time to time," she snarled in response. "It causes no mark, just a bit of pain similar to a cane to rein in a recalcitrant child."
Ginny then fully began to attack, and Miss Stradling defended. Severus had never seen two wizards fighting like this before, and in the tight space of the schoolroom there were soon papers flying and furniture slammed into the wall. Severus pushed himself against the wall, and soon he realized that Ginny had Miss Stradling pinned in some way, and held Miss Stradling's wand in her hand.
"I see you are somewhat lacking in dueling," Ginny told her. "Pity."
"Let me up!" she insisted, squirming against the magical restraints that held her.
"I also know a great spell used by my caregiver," Ginny answered. "It's called the eye for an eye spell. Have you heard of it?"
"I have not," MIss Stradling admitted, though her eyes narrowed.
"My mum used to use it when she knew something had happened and she wasn't sure what had happened. Basically, it visits any harm onto the perpetrator's body that they have visited on the other's body."
"That's assault!" she objected. "You can't do that!"
"If it's assault for you then it's assault for Severus," Ginny countered.
"He was out of control!" Miss Stradling argued. "You saw what he did to me! Any sane teacher would have left."
"And yet you didn't," Ginny answered. "I wonder why? It sounds like you were here to fulfill an old vendetta against perceived slights from an old head of house, am I right?"
"He deserved it!" she spat, unable to keep back her righteous anger any longer.
"You'll have a hard time arguing this one in court. I won't be cruel, though, I'll set the spell for only the past two weeks." Ginny flicked her wand.
"You wouldn't . . . ouch!"
Severus watched in fascination as the spell Ginny performed effectively caned his teacher - counting through the seventeen strokes she had given him in the past two weeks. He had no idea it had been that many, but watching it happen he had known it was right. Miss Stradling squirmed and protested, but to no avail against the spell that held her fast and the spell that meted out justice to her by her own conviction.
"I believe your services with us are no longer needed," Ginny told her after the spell had completed itself. She undid the sticking charm that held her down, but still had her wand drawn and pointed at her. "We will be consulting with our lawyer whether you were in breach of contract, and I will have your wand sent back to you at a later date."
"You are as much of a joke as that crazy husband of yours!" she spat.
"Leave now and I will spare you a further hex," Ginny told her levelly. "One more insult and I am not responsible."
"And will you raise the brat yourself, then?" she snarled at Ginny, pulling herself up painfully and trying retain some dignity. "Give up your career to stay home and play house? Are you ready to sacrifice yourself after who he was?"
"Out now," Ginny told her, flicking her wand with confidence. "It will wear off when you're outside the bounds of our property."
Miss Stradling unconsciously tried to shield, but without a wand the movement was just a reflex and not very effective. Severus watched in fascinated admiration as he saw Miss Stradling begin to have bats fly out of her nose. She looked horrified and helpless, trying to reverse the spell frantically and having nothing work. Ginny just looked on with amusement as Miss Stradling finally seemed to remember what Ginny had said and fled the room presumably to the floo and away from the house as fast as she could.
"That should fix her," Ginny said, re-sheathing her wand. "Though I suppose we may have to send her personal things to her. Perhaps we should have the lawyer return her wand and explain her legal liabilities."
"That was brilliant," Severus breathed in smiling admiration. "Was that the bat-bogey hex?"
"It was," she confirmed. "It's sort of my trademark spell, and how I do it it's dead difficult to counter if you don't specifically know how to do it. It seems that Miss Stradling has not had much experience with it."
"Is she sacked, then?" Severus asked, his voice somewhat scared.
"Merlin's sakes, Severus, why didn't you tell us what she was doing to you?" Ginny asked him. "I was about to interrupt things by just how rude she was being to you, but then I realized she might be setting you up to discipline you, and I thought I should see how she was doing that. I never in a million years thought she was using physical discipline, I assumed you would have told us."
"I wanted to," Severus answered quietly, looking down at his desk.
"It was what she said, wasn't it?" Ginny asked, softening her voice. "You thought that we would send you away."
"Well, I was pretty bad with Broomie," he replied. "And I know there's not a lot of nannies left that are willing to work with me. You might . . . might not have much of a choice."
"There is always a choice," she answered him briskly, unconsciously sounding just like her mother. "We will find a better solution, I promise. And of course we would never send you away."
"Thank you," Severus whispered.
"I'm your mum now," Ginny assured him. "It's my job. And to know that this . . . person has been abusing you for months makes me feel like I've done a pretty lousy job at it. Seventeen of those strokes in the last two weeks? Severus . . ."
"Not your fault," Severus sniffed, unexpectedly finding his eyes moist. "I, I didn't believe enough that if I told you . . ."
"Can I hug you?" Ginny asked, her heart going out to this obviously distraught boy. Even though it had been so difficult to think of this child as her own, she had to admit she was beginning to more and more. And sitting there at this moment she didn't see the ugly, snarky, protected child she normally saw - but a vulnerable and upset one that needed comfort. And he pulled her heart like he never had before - and she wanted to draw him in and protect him.
Severus nodded briefly, and Ginny put her arm around his shoulder, drawing him closer. She realized that he felt awkward and unsure about hugging her, so she let him just rest against her, and she rubbed his back and shoulder.
"Promise me this won't happen again," she told him. "I'll promise you that I'll never send you away against your will, and you need to promise me that you will tell me if someone is abusing you in any way."
"Against my will?" he echoed.
"Well, you will probably be excited about going to Hogwarts," she told him. "That's what I mean. But we won't ever send you somewhere horrible like what Miss Stradling told you."
"I promise," he told her, breathing in Ginny's scent and feeling safe being held by her.
"I promise too," Ginny told him. She held him there, in the soft side-hug, trying to trust that it would work for her everybody. And, planning how she was going to corner that conniving brother of hers.