Chapter 7: Setting an Example

"If you are fine, then you would care to explain what happened today?" The headmaster asked, looking at Sage over the rim of his half-moon spectacles.

Sage shifted and glared at Dumbledore.

"I was attacked, sir. I defended myself, there is nothing to explain."

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes over his glasses. "Mmm, nothing?"

Sage broke the headmaster's glance to look at Severus. He parted his lips to speak, but then slammed his jaw shut on a second thought. His eyes sped back towards the headmaster, his brow furrowed.

"He said that Professor Snape would have taught me the Unforgiveables, because he's a Dark wizard."

Sage sidestepped and looked cautiously at his uncle as the man moved out from behind the desk. He simply stopped to stand at Sage's side. Sage nodded and swallowed, hard.

"You didn't tell me this," Severus stated, his lips curling with anger. He wasn't angry with Sage.

The boy shrugged, "I would have sir, but you did not give me that chance. You said we would discuss it later."

Severus eyed Dumbledore viciously. The headmaster had invited that man to come to Hogwarts, would he now allow him to make such comments.

The headmaster glared hard into Sage's face, trying to read either guilt or exaggeration.

"I was not aware, continue."

Sage gave Severus one last look before he continued. His uncle nodded slightly to encourage him to finish.

"I told him that you would not and had not, sir," he said glancing to his uncle and then back to Dumbledore. "Then, he said, he said that you would have used them on me then, because you are a Dark wizard." Sage looked at the taller man in an almost apologetic fashion.

Severus snapped, "Headmaster I will not have this lunatic saying such things about me to his classes! He may as well go around saying that I am a Death Eater. This is unacceptable, sir, I will not stand for it. I will not ask Sage to stand for it," he boomed, pointing at Sage as he spoke his last sentence. The muscles in his neck were twitching and convulsing as his nostrils flared.

"Severus, you will please let him finish."

Severus crossed his arms again.

Sage waited for him to stop moving before he continued.

"I told him you hadn't, sir, obviously. I said that practicing Dark Arts does not make one a Dark wizard, and if it were so, I could accuse him of the self-same thing."

Severus held his head up and glowered at Dumbledore. Sage was right so far as he was concerned.

"That is not all you said, is it?" The headmaster asked, again looking over the frame of his glasses.

"No sir," Sade answered with only slight discomfort. "I said that he had probably killed as many people as any Death Eater." Sage stopped and then looked even harder into the headmaster's eyes before he validated his statement. "He would use the same magic, and say that my uncle is a Dark wizard, but would never consider himself to be such. It's wrong. He was wrong. Then he tried to curse me."

Professor Snape was still wearing the same mighty look on his face. Sage, on the other hand, was wearing a look mixed of strength and uncertainty.

"Yes, and you wound up with his wand and deflected the curse. Then what happened?" The headmaster said this slowly, as if he was about to prove a very important point.

"I cast Avada Kedavra on a Rat, and told him that he should not play Auror around me….. as I could kill him just as easily." He stopped and looked up at Severus. His uncle was not wearing the haughty look anymore, instead his face had turned blank. "Then I threw his wand down and told him I wouldn't be going back to his class again."

Dumbledore took a step closer to him, glanced briefly at the other professor, and then looked down at Sage.

"And why did you do so?"

Sage cocked his head to the side and blinked non-chalantly, "Because now I will not have to worry about him trying to curse me again, and I will not have to listen to him berate me or my uncle either."

Dumbledore shook his head in disappointment, "You did it because you were angry and you knew that you could do it because you had his wand. He threatened you and then you threatened him back. You threatened a professor."

The tall, black-haired boy shrugged, "Yes sir, I suppose so."

"I cannot condone this kind of behavior."

"But you can condone it from Moody," Sage asked interrupting, his face trying to screw up in anger.

It reminded Dumbledore of someone else's face. "Professor Moody, and that, I am afraid, is not your concern."

Severus stepped forward angrily, but he was beat to the point by his nephew.

"It is not my concern that a paranoid ex-Auror tried to curse me? I value my life, sir, I believe it is my concern-."

"Enough," Severus hissed, grabbing Sage by the robes and pulling him back roughly. Sage's back hit the wall.

Sage glared angrily at both adults. He let out an angry breath and took a step forward, opening his mouth, ready to try again despite his uncle's order.

"Silence, I said," his uncle shouted at him, pointing his finger back at him.

Sage froze and took a few deep breaths. His lips were pushed together in anger as he bit down on the inside of his mouth, fuming.

Severus turned back towards the headmaster. "I will not allow another professor to send curses at my nephew for the mere fact that he is my nephew, Headmaster. Surely you understand that."

"Surely you understand, Severus, that nephew of yours or not, Magi or not. I cannot allow a student to threaten a professor with Avada Kedavra, especially if he is capable of casting it."

Severus's vein was pushing out of his forehead, "Surely, you are not suggesting that Sage would actually kill a man."

"No, I do not believe that he would, but it was not an idle threat either, Severus, as he is capable of casting the curse. That aside, I can neither stand for a student to speak to a professor that way."

"So it is better he just stand there and get cursed from here to oblivion, then, Headmaster? Because he is my nephew?"

"No, but if he had not talked back to Professor Moody, the entire confrontation would never have happened. Something must be done, though, I agree. I will talk to Professor Moody. He will not be cursing any more students." The headmaster looked passed Severus and locked eyes with Sage, who was still leaning against the wall. "Come over here," he said gesturing with his hand.

Sage moved up a few steps and stood next to his uncle. Severus put a hand on his shoulder, protectively, and also in case he started to lose control of his mouth again.

"Mr. Snape, you will apologize to Professor Moody-."

Sage's eyebrow flew up and he looked at the headmaster as if he were crazy. "I will not. Absolutely not."

"Excuse me?" The Headmaster said.

Sage crossed his arms. "I won't. That man is not my ally, he's evil. Why do you think I am sick? I won't apologize and you cannot force me. He tried to curse me." And when he said cannot, it was not truly an idle thread either; the boy truly meant nobody had the power to force him.

Severus smacked Sage on the back of the head hard and hissed, "I do not care if you talk to Moody like that, but you will not ever talk to the headmaster like that. Do you understand?"

Sage's eyes were wide as he looked up at his uncle. Smacks to the back of the head were reserved for particularly dunderheaded behavior, and he hastily said, "Yes, sir."

"Fine example you set, Severus." The headmaster said sarcastically.

Snape eyed the headmaster. He suddenly felt like a student as well. He did not like being covertly reprimanded for the way he had been talking to Dumbledore. He quickly hid the disgusted look on his face and glared down at his nephew.

His eyes turned back to the older wizard, who was looking quite smug. Severus scowled and his cheek quivered slightly. "Fine, Albus, I apologize. However, I stand by what I said. What Moody did was wrong. He is a professor and he should have more control than that. Sage was wrong as well, and he should know better, however he was placed in a situation he never should have been placed in and that mitigation cannot be ignored."

Dumbledore nodded. He had played Severus's game well.

Professor Snape looked back down at Sage. He grabbed him by the arm and pushed him forward a step, the intent inexplicably clear.

Sage looked back and then forward at the headmaster. "I'm sorry, sir. I shouldn't take my anger out on you or speak out of turn."

"That is all well, Mr. Snape, but it does not solve our problem."

Sage scowled lightly. "But, sir, I felt sick the entire time I was in that class, especially when he was close. I don't know why, maybe he isn't evil. Maybe I can just feel his dislike for me. Either way, I cannot be in that class or I will be sick for hours after. I am not going to apologize to him, Headmaster. If you wish to punish me for refusing..." He shrugged. He could be expelled for all he cared.

Dumbledore raised a white eyebrow at the elder black-robed man. "Severus?"

"It is true, Headmaster, his behavior and cheek aside, he has been ill for hours. I do not believe he is lying or exaggerating. He cannot go back to that class, but it is not as if he really needed it anyway. I will instruct him."

"Fine, Severus, he need not go back to that class, but I will not ignore what happened."

Severus looked down at mouthy nephew, "I will give you a choice. You can either apologize to Moody and serve two weeks of detention, or you can scrub the entire floor of the entire length of the dungeon and serve two weeks of detention on top of that."

Sage cringed. There was no way he was going to swallow his pride to Moody and his uncle knew that.

"And. If you ever decide to use an Unforgiveable again, when I am not instructing you, the consequences will make that seem like nothing."

Sage's lips looked pencil thin, he was pushing them together so hard. "Fine, sir, I'm not apologizing, uncle."

Severus nodded knowingly, "It is your choice."

Dumbledore held back a grin. It was strangely familiar that Severus had given Sage a choice. He distinctly remembered that he, himself, had given a similar boy a similar choice some 20 years before. Dumbledore knew that asking a Snape to swallow his pride was like asking a fish to walk on land. Neither was going to happen anytime soon.

"Now, what I am more upset about, is your mouth. So if you think I would not come back to how you spoke to the Headmaster, you are sorely mistaken."

Sage sighed.

"I do believe he meant his apology, sincerely. I am used to the occasional teenaged outburst, Severus." And if he was being honest, the Headmaster did feel some guilt for wholly assuming Sage the (only) guilty party. And if he was being wholly honest, he had thought so for the same biased reasons Moody thought the boy should know those curses.

"You and I may argue, Albus, but it is important to me he respects you in the way you deserve."

In the world of Sage, there were few things that truly irked the boy enough to fully be a punishment. He was too used to hard work for it to be much of a deterrent to any behavior. His visions had made pain relatively superficial; normal things did not hurt to Sage after so many years of them.

Severus, as a general rule, thought lines the most ridiculous punishment ever and almost never gave such a gentle punishment to students, but Sage hated useless activities like that just as much.

"You are going to write lines for the Headmaster after dinner in his office," the professor paused to see if that was acceptable before continuing. "I will not disrespect the headmaster is poetic enough in its simplicity."

Sage's face fell considerably. "How many times, sir."

"Shall we say two hours…" There was a long pregnant pause where Sage started to nod his disillusioned acceptance before his uncle added, "For the rest of the week."

And if his face had fallen the first time, it was crushed subsequently. Clearly that was worse than scrubbing the floors on the dungeons.

In a rather strange turn for something as little as lines, the crestfallen, "Yes, sir…" was incredibly weighty.

"And if you do it again, what happened over your disrespect to that dolt, Macnair, will seem generous."

At that threat, Sage paled considerably.

"Yes, sir."

"And Albus, don't give him any lemon drops whilst he's there."

Read it, Review it! Thank you so much!

A/N

MCMish - glad you liked Dumbledore's words of wisdom. Unfortunately, I don't think Snape is going to take them into consideration any time soon. You are right about the fact that the way he is doing things is wrong, but would he be Snape if he admitted it or even realized it? Nope. As Dumbledore said, it will be up to someone else to help Sage find and keep in touch with that other side of him. Who ever that is better come along soon, right?

VD - you are right that about what Snape is trying to turn Sage into. Can you blame him? That's the way he dealt with it and the way he survived. In the end he really is concerned about Sage and does think that he is doing what is right for him and them. Sage does need to be more of a calculating, staring, Slytherin type if he is going to survive. He is too obvious about himself. They do need to keep up appearances now that Voldie is on the way back.

Previews

Hermione catches Sage outside and tries to talk to him. Severus and Dumbledore see the entire thing from a window in Dumbledore's office and Dumbledore comments: "Remind you of anything, Severus?"

Just some general trends. We may notice Sage becoming a little apathetic, unmotivated, and depressed. A little irritable, maybe, but perhaps you have already noticed these things going on in the first few chappies. I'll shut up now.

Thanks to you all!