The Cure

Out of all the days of the school year, the one where he had to sort out schedules was one of the worst. The fifth, sixth, and seventh year students were somewhat of a mess, something he hated. He was sorting out Parkinson's schedule when he overheard Malfoy speaking. "...got an idea Crabbe, and I've got a million backups after…" Malfoy hadn't realized he'd come up behind him until Severus cleared his throat. He whipped around and scowled "Test results?" Severus asked, eyebrows raised. Draco handed them over, rolling his eyes as he did. "Well?" He asked impatiently after a few moments of Malfoy not speaking. "Just put me down for whatever, I've got better things to do than school so it doesn't matter what I take."

Severus looked down and him and smiled a truly cold smile. Draco looked unfazed as he said "Just… whatever? Don't you think that if you want to be...useful-" he started delicately, noting with satisfaction that Malfoy now looked furious "you might want to do something to help our cause? There's a war going on, you know." He chose his word carefully, but the point still got across. "What do you think would be the most...helpful? Sir." He sneered

"Well, you could take a career in helping invent curses and jinxes. Training in different languages might not be a bad idea either. Or you could go the more lax route and choose Healing. We all know you're a busy man, being a sixth year student with no job, bills to pay, or mouths to feed. And with the upcoming events bound to take place, it certainly would be useful to both yourself and others. Of course, this would've been easier to discuss had you shown up for your appointment with me last year."

"Fine, fine, Healing then." He looked more annoyed than angry now, and he took the schedule Severus had given him with a flourish and was off to a first period Charms class. By the time he had finished up with the scheduling it was almost time for his second period class.

As he entered his new classroom he waved his wand at the blanks frames on the walls. He had decided to change them for every class to show the kinds of material that they were learning. This class would be mostly focused on the curses, and he wanted the classroom to reflect that. He heard the students beginning to show up through the closed door, and with a final sigh, he opened it, ready for his first class.

He noticed with amusement that all the students, who had been talking amongst themselves amidly, fell silent looking at him in the doorframe.

"Inside." he said.

He noticed as they filed inside that most of them took spots near the back. It seemed Potter, Weasley, and Granger were the only ones that choose to sit near the front of their own accord. He had heard that Potter was a natural at this class, and Granger seemed to absorb knowledge like a big, bushy haired sponge, so this hardly surprised him. Once everyone was inside he slammed the door and walked up to the front of the classroom. He turned and saw a few people getting out their textbooks "I have not asked you to take out your books. I wish to speak with you, and I want your fullest attention."

His eyes swept over the classroom and he noticed that Potter looked rather more intrigued than angry at him, which was a first for either Potter, Severus counted. He smirked to himself, and continued "You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe. Naturally, these teachers will have all had their own methods and priorities Given this confusion I am surprised to many of you managed to scrape an O.W.L. in this subject. I shall be even more surprised if all of you manage to keep up with the N.E.W.T. work, which will be much more advanced."

He paused walked over to the edge of the room, looking at one of this pictures. He heard some chairs scraping in the background as the class strained to see him, but he looked at this particular picture of a woman who was in a corner, and he watched her as he spoke "The Dark Arts are a many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each timea neck is severed, sprouts a head even fericer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indiestructible." The eyes of the woman in the painting met his, so black and shallow, just as his own, but she began to scream again, and he turned away from the sight of her. He turned back around and and began to walk towards the beginning of the classroom "Your defences must therefore be as flexable and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. These pictures give a fair representation of what happens to those who suffer, for instance, the Cruciatus Curse, the Dementors Kiss, or provoke the aggression of the Inferius." He waved at all of these pictures as he passed them, noting the shock in some of the faces in the room. Potter wasn't looking at him, but his face was set. Maybe he'd be able to teach Lily's son something after all. He didn't really have any time to register this thought before Patil called out "Has an Inferius been seen, then? Is it definite, is he using them?"

Normally Severus wouldn't have allowed a student to speak without him calling on them, but he figured this was a good enough question that it warneted answering "The Dark Lord had used Inferi in the past which means you would be well-advised to assume he might use them again. Now-" he began to walk towards his desk. This should be fun. "-you are, I believe, complete novices in the use of nonverbal spells. What is the advantage of a nonverbal spell?"

One of the peeves that had grown over the last six years was that he (despite hating students) liked to give them all a chance to answer questions. It made them actually think about the material incase he called on one of them randomly. In this class, however, everyone always seemed to look at Granger when a question was asked. Sure enough, nobody raised their hand except her. He had a right mind just to call on someone else, but it really wouldn't be worth the effort, especially since he had been teaching her, he didn't think she had ever gotten a classroom question wrong. He gave one last glance around the room and said "Very well- Miss Granger?"

"Your adversary has no warning about what kind of magic you're about to perform, which gives you a split second advantage."

"An answer copied almost word-for-word from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six-" (he saw Malfoy move in the corner slightly but he paid him no attention, still rather annoyed about breakfast) "but correct in essentials. Yes, those who progress to using magic without shouting incatntations gain an element of surprise in their spell-casting. Not all wizards can do this, of course; it is a question of concentration and mind power which some-" he looked over at Potter, who did not look away "-lack."

He still hadn't looked away. Severus pushed away all the memories of his own lack of mind power recently and looked away himself, continuing "You will now divide into pairs. One partner will attempt to jinx the other wihtout speaking. The other will attempt to repel the jinx in equal slience. Carry on."

As soon as they started to move, Severus waved his wand and the desks stacked neatly on the side of the room, giving the students more room to practise. He watched in complete amusement as half of the students muttered their jinxes and the other half went either red or slightly blue in the face trying to cast their jinxes nonverbally. He noticed with absolutly no surprise whatsoever that Granger actually succeeded about twenty minutes into their lesson. He figured she got enough points from other teachers though, so he ignored her. He stopped and actually cocked his head to the side a little when he stopped at Weasley and Potter.

Really, Potter should've been the one attempting to cast a jinx, he suspected he would've actually succeeded in the task. Instead, he almost laughed out loud as Weasley, tried to jinx him. Figuring he may as well as challenge Potter a little, he whipped out his wand and said "Pathetic Weasley. Here, let me show you-"

He whipped out his wand but before he could think half of an incantation, Potter shouted "Protego!" His Shield Charm was so strong Snape was knocked off balance and hit a desk. The whole class looked around now and watched as Snape righted himself, scowling.

"Do you remember me telling you that we are practising nonverbal spells, Potter?"

"Yes," said Potter stiffly.

"Yes, sir."

"There's no need to call me 'sir', Professor."

Knocking him over and then being a smartass for repeating instructions? That wouldn't do, no, that wouldn't do at all.

"Detention, Saturday night, my office. I do not take cheek from anyone Potter… not even 'The Chosen One'."

He turned around and said coldly "I don't believe I told anyone to stop practising." People resumed at once, probably afraid they would be put in detention next if they didn't. No one really seemed to be trying anymore though. He caught a few people giving Potter admiring glances and shook his head angrily. He's just like his father he kept saying to himself.

He walked on the Slytherin end of the class now. They seemed to be doing all right, but he was only concerned about one student. But it looked like Malfoy was putting little effort into hexing Goyle, he seemed much more concerned with whispering to Crabbe, who was on his left. He decided to probe a little and tried to discreetly move his wand out of his pocket. Before he could do so though, Malfoy looked right at him and glared. Figuring it would be better to not hex the sixteen year old out of frustration, he walked away, scheming about how he would get Malfoys plan out of him.

Finally the bell rang, but before the student's filed out, he called "I want a foot long essay on Nonverbal spells from Chapter One of your books. To be handed in next lesson." A collective groan filled the air and for the first time all lesson, he was satisfied.

His lessons throughout the week went better then the first thankfully. Teaching the first years was something of a battle though. With the older students, they were used to the feeling of holding a wand. Muggleborns had, until recently, never held wands in their lives. And the ones who were born into wizarding families had never been able to use their parents wand, and the sense that they were doing something wrong was still there, something that as a teacher he needed to break through.

So first, he taught them to hold wands properly, something he didn't think the other teachers bothered to do. Taking notes wouldn't help them with that, and they wouldn't be able to master even the basics if they didn't learn it. Next, he taught them simple, practical spells. Disarming was first, but he dabbled into charms a little to teach them how to Shield themselves if a spell ever got sent their way. Then he taught them various spells and jinxes that would serve them well in battle.

He taught the second years to Disarm as well. They picked this up more quickly, so he was able to move a lot more faster with them. The third years were even quicker, and after much debating, he taught his fourth years Levicourpus to get them used to nonverbal spells. His fifth and sixth years he started on nonverbal spells immediately. The seventh year curriculum was divided into two parts; learning new curses and jinxes and going over seven years worth of material. He figured he'd do this early that way they didn't have to cram it all in in twelve weeks time, something that he struggled with in his seventh year. This choice was affirmed correct when he learned that most of his seventh years couldn't remember spells that his first and second years were practising.

All and all, he thought his first week as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher went rather smoothly. He poured some brandy for himself on Friday night, feeling rather accomplished. He was slightly worried though as well; he hadn't been summoned for awhile now, something that didn't usually happen unless someone in the ranks had given Him bad information. Severus had only fallen into this category four times since he joined at 18, something he was rather proud of, despite what that meant. He knew he really shouldn't worry: The Dark Lord seldomly called him during the school year, knowing that it would look suspicious to Dumbledore should he disappear for for that long in the dead of the night.

He sighed heavily into his drink, remembering his new mission; Draco Malfoy. Somehow he wasn't as worried about this as everyone else was. He knew Draco wasn't capable of killing, and in time, he'd learn that himself. No, what he was worried about was "Protecting him from harm." It was nearly impossible to do in this school; it's prone to magical accidents. If you went in the Hospital Wing at any given moment you were pretty much guaranteed to see at least one person in there, mostly students, but he had seen teachers once or twice. It was why he seldom went there when he was hurt; he knew more magical remedies then he could count, and his Charms work was superb, even if it wasn't what he specialized in.

He looked into the flames, thinking back to his meeting with Dumbledore on Wednesday. He learned that Potter had also been summoned to Dumbledore on Saturday. He agreed to doing the detention the following week at once, grateful he could enjoy he first Saturday back alone. He looked at his door, looking thoughtful. Finally, he put a second ward and a silencing charm on it, lest Minerva come looking for him.

Tonight's choice of poison was red wine. It was easy to get drunk quickly, but you needed a healthy bit of it at once to get you going. He had not had a black out since he woke up in the clearing the night term started. Now that he thought about it (he took a healthy swig of wine) he had a few memories in that clearing, not all of them unpleasant. It had been the last place he saw Lily. He'd never forget that night.

He was out looking for unicorn hair in his seventh year. He had to do this at night, sneaking out was something he hated, but he had to be done. He had overheard a sixth year coming back from her Care of Magical Creatures exam while he was on his way to his Herbology one. She was talking about the unicorns, and the properties of the horn. He knew the clearing she spoke of, and now, he was on his way there, his bag empty, ready to get as many as he could by dawn.

Severus jolted, but

He heard voices as he approached. He moved closer, hoping they weren't in the clearing, but a giggle and a gasp followed by a moan killed the idea swiftly. He peaked over a tree-

He looked at the ceiling, his breath hitching. His potion stores, if he could make it there-

Her flaming red hair was unmistakable, even in the darkness. He knew she was dating Potter of course, the fucking hypocrite, but he hadn't expected to see both of them naked on the Forest floor.

He made it to the door. "Accio!" he called into the darkness. A Calming Draught flew into his hand, and he downed the thing in one gulp. His eyes widened as the memory went away immediately. He looked down at it amazed. All thoughts of alcohol forgotten, he immediately went into his potions room to brew a vat of it, thankful he had finally found a cure.