"There has to be something, Minerva."

"I have tried, Severus. The school governors will not permit-"

"Hang the school governors, every last one of them!"

"Severus!"

Severus did not care that he was being loud. He did not care if he was being disrespectful, and he did not care that Minerva was glaring at him over her square spectacles with such a disapproving look in her eyes. He was boiling with a rage he'd rarely felt in his life, and for the second time in his life, he was finding it difficult to maintain control. He hadn't been this close to losing himself since the night he'd had to kill Albus, when Potter…Harry…had taunted him, just like his father, calling him a coward and lashing out without first understanding why Severus had done what he had.

"You know this is not fair, Minerva," he said, his voice shaking with rage. "and yet you still-"

"What would you have me do?" she asked, taking her seat behind her desk. She looked uncomfortable, as though even she did not like the answer she'd given, but there was still a stony edge to her voice that said she would not yield, whatever she might wish.

"You are the headmistress!"

"And I am bound by the word of the governors!" she snapped. "I have certain freedoms, but if the governors tell me that they will not allow Hagrid to be readmitted to Hogwarts than I cannot go against them!"

Severus folded his arms behind his back. "You didn't used to be so weak, Minerva," he sneered.

Minerva McGonagall was not a woman used to being called weak, or being sneered at. At Severus' words she was on her feet again, her want just barely emerging from beneath her robes.

"Watch your tongue, Severus," she warned. "I do not care for their decision either, but the rule is not mine to break, nor is it mine to change. If you have nothing left for me but insults, I would suggest you leave."

"But it was your place to change rules before, when it suited you, wasn't it?"

Severus hadn't meant to let that slip out. He was dancing closer and closer to his line of control, and he needed to pull himself together. Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Screw it.

"You could bend the rules so that Potter could get on the Quidditch team instead of getting a detention for breaking the rules. You let him and his friend Weasley off with detention when they crashed a Whomping Willow into a tree…"

"Why should you resent any punishments or lack of from Harry and his friends?" she asked.

"Because it was just more of the same patterns from before!" He could feel his face flushing, twisting in anger. He turned, looking out the window to avoid McGonagall's eyes.

There was a long silence. "Severus," she at last said quietly. "I couldn't stop what happened to you anymore than I can change what was decided about Hagrid."

The grounds were lovely. It was a warm autumn day, and the leaves on the trees were beginning to fall. A few students were taking advantage of their afternoon off to go swimming in the lake, being chased good-naturedly by the giant squid, who would lift them up out of the water, curl its tentacles, and let them slide down the tentacle and splash back into the water as though they were in a Muggle theme park. Hagrid was striding through the grounds, completing his usual jungle of chores. Students that he passed stared at him as he walked, some with an unashamed sort of interest, as though Hagrid was a zoo attraction. Some curled away, as though they expected the monster to pounce any minute. The students all saw him the way the school governors did; too big and too dangerous to be allowed.

"You knew," he said, "you knew I'd done nothing to deserve what they did. You knew that they only treated me that way because I was a Slytherin, because I was poor, because I was friends with a girl he wanted." He turned to face her, his own mood back under control, his face glossed over with its usual cold indifference. "You could have told Dumbledore at any time, but you chose not to. You punished them with detentions and loss of house points for choking me with soap and dragging me through the grounds by my ankles, and…" he stopped. He still wasn't ready to talk about the worst of what James Potter had put him through. "You taught them that they were more important than I was. When they nearly killed me with that werewolf prank, Lupin got an apology and I got a warning to keep my mouth shut. How was that fair to anyone?" He glanced back to the grounds. "Hagrid did not open the Chamber. Dumbledore knew that when he was first accused, and Headmaster Dippett never bothered to get to know his half-giant students well enough to know that he'd never hurt anyone. He looked at the handsome face of his favorite smart student and stopped listening to anyone else. Dumbledore was headmaster here for decades, and yet he never tried to help Hagrid finish his education. He was content to let Hagrid live in shame and feel guilty for something he didn't do. He taught Hagrid to be content with the injustice, to feel lucky that at least he was allowed to be the groundskeeper and occasionally teach a Care of Magical Creatures class. How was that fair to him?"

Minerva listened to everything Severus said, and he could tell that she was listening, because her eyes were bright and there were thin trails of silver on her cheek.

"Severus…" she began.

"Do what you must, Headmistress," Severus said, his icy tone returned. "If your decision is to stand with the school board than go ahead. I, however, will do as I have done since I first began to teach here. I will do what I know to be the right thing, even if it does not necessarily fit with the neat and tidy rules of those who have never known injustice or had the system designed against them."

And without another word, He turned on his heel and swept from the room, shutting the door behind him with a decisive snap.