Dumbledore's curiosity

The following days weren't very spectacular left aside that Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione seemed to be a bit distressed. Lillian picked up that they seemed to have had their first encounter with Fluffy. When they weren't doing homework in the common room she sometimes picked up parts of their conversations but she restrained herself from getting involved. She had other things to occupy herself with - for example the next potion lesson. Since that evening where he had abruptly left she hadn't heard from him not counting what she heard from other students about him being in a bad mood.

When she was getting up from the dinner table on Thursday evening Ron and Harry pitied her for having to bear Snape instead of joining them in the Gryffindor common room. She waved it off with a smile even though she couldn't deny the slight worry that was boiling somewhere within her stomach. When she went down to his office she found him sitting at his desk already waiting forcing himself to look somewhat neutral. She handed him her essay and he gave her instruction what to do while he was starting to read.

During today's lesson Lillian noticed that he seemed to force himself to treat her like everyone else just without bullying her around. He really tried to find something he could complain about, made a face like he had no facial muscles or restrained himself in making compliments about her diligence. Unfortunately the closer to the end of the lesson they came the darker the expression on his face got. An outsider would have really thought he was very unsatisfied with Lillian or with what she was doing but Lillian could tell that his expression wasn't dark because what she did was bad on the contrary. She knew that he really fought with himself and was additionally grumpy about that he wasn't able to find anything to complain about.

When the potion was finally finished she stepped back from her cauldron to give him time and space to examine and control it. When he eventually finished and looked up his face was distorted in agony. He pressed his lips together so as if he was urgently trying not to say something. Lillian got worried but before she had decided to say something he turned around and marched into his office closing the door. She looked after him and took a deep breath, before filling some of the potion into vials, just in case. Afterwards the tidied her workspace and emptied her cauldron with the Evanesco-charm. When all work was done she finally knocked on the office door. Instead of a 'come in' or a long silence the door swung open. He sat at the desk her essay in one and his wand in the other hand. She came in, placed the vials on his desk and then stepped away again. His face was like stone when he finally looked up, threw a glance at the vials and then finally told her what she was supposed to do as homework. She hadn't even vanished around the corner when she heard a loud thud followed by a swearword. He had either dropped something or he was really desperate again. Lillian guessed the last but she didn't turn around and went directly up to her room.

The next afternoon, when she was on her way back to her room from class to drop her bag and her robes, she met Dumbledore who had just stepped out from behind the stone gargoyle.

"Good afternoon Professor" she said politely and was just about to pass him by when he placed his hand on her shoulder to make her stop.

"Hello Ms. Block. I was just on my way to see if you were already available in your room. Would you please follow me to my office for a word?"

"Of course." She followed him back behind the gargoyle, up the stairs and into his office.

"Did you settle in well?" he asked standing at the window gazing out and then giving her a faint smile.

"Ah yes, thank you. I had a lot to catch up with in the first week but it was really interesting."

He smiled again and walked over to his desk to sit down into the big throne-like chair behind it and to then offer her the chair opposite of him. She sat down looking at him full of curious expectation. Just for asking if she had settled in they didn't join his office. There had to be something else he wanted to talk about. His blue eyes behind the crescent spectacles were resting on her for a while before he eventually started speaking again.

"Let's get right down to brass tacks! How did you like your first two potion lessons?"

So that was what it was all about. "They were really interesting. You need to be very elaborate in order to brew a potion correctly. Of course you can also work less elaborate but in my opinion being elaborate when preparing your ingredients and following the instructions is essential."

His eyes were still resting upon her and he was listening closely. Like sometimes with Snape she couldn't really decrypt the expression on his face. "Talking like this you remind me of two people counting myself out." He smiled faintly.

She cleared her throat. "Indeed?"

He nodded slightly. "Professor Snape and Lily Evans."

She smiled nervously. "What are the odds!"

He smiled faintly. "Indeed." He fell silent for another moment without taking his eyes off her.

Slowly she felt a bit uncomfortable so she decided to ask carefully: "Is – Is that all?"

"Of course not" he replied and immediately went on with another question. "Guessing from what you said by now you are enjoying the lessons?"

"Yes, very much."

"Would you also enjoy them with another teacher?"

"Most likely." She shrugged trying to figure out why he was asking all that stuff and then added "Depends on the teacher I guess."

"I see."

She felt a wave of impatience rumbling within her. "Professor?"

"Yes?"

"Is there a problem with Professor Snape or why do you ask all of this?"

"I was actually hoping you could tell me if there was something wrong with him."

She tried to look as surprised as possible. He was apparently trying to hear her out. "He is my teacher. I'm not supposed to know how he feels though due to the things I know I have the impression, that he is quite bitter."

"Do you have an idea why I didn't assign you to the potion class?"

"Well I guess because I bear a striking resemblance to Lily Evans."

"Indeed. So how come that he suddenly wants to teach you?"

"He saw me in the library reading in the potion book that I borrowed from Harry. He asked me why I was reading it when I didn't have potion class and I told him I found it interesting and my humble opinion about brewing potions. And then he asked me if I wanted private lessons."

"Interesting."

"Well I heard from some students that the dungeon is already pretty crammed when they have lessons in there."

"Indeed."

"So I said yes because I actually really like that subject and he said he was going to talk to you about it. Apparently he did that or I wouldn't have had those two lessons."

"Yes he was here and asked me." He made a pause and finally took his x-raying eyes off her and leaned back to gaze out of the window again. "Does he favour you?" he suddenly asked into the silence.

"Yes and no." She really didn't know how to reply to that without indicating unnecessary details. "He -" She chose her words well. "He behaves a little odd at times."

He turned his head towards her and raised an eyebrow. "Odd?"

She shrugged. "I of course know that he is the most unpopular teacher because of his methods of teaching but I haven't had any of these issues yet, so I dare calling that odd."

He looked out of the window again his hands neatly folded on his desk. There was a long silence again before he once again turned his head to look straight into her eyes.

"When you arrived here you said you know almost everything about all of us."

She nodded. "Everything that was ever mentioned within the books you are characters of."

"Then you can surely interpret why Professor Snape is acting so odd towards you."

"Well I have the vague idea that he is confronted with the death of Lily and his role within this tragedy every time he is with me."

"That is why I didn't want you to study potions – to not confuse him during his lessons."

"I know."

"Would you keep an eye on him?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not his nanny" she said calmly. "Beside that he is a decent Legilimens, excellent in using unspoken spells and I am a more than horrible Occlumens. If you want information about how he is dealing with the fact that I bear this resemblance to Lily Evans then I suggest you ask him."

"I don't think you are a horrible Occlumens."

He caught her dumbfounded. "How would you know?" Then she suddenly hit her forehead with the palm of her hand. "You are a more than decent Legilimens."

"Indeed I am. And from the beginning of our talk I have been trying to look into your mind."

"You didn't point your wand at me."

He smiled. "Sometimes it's useful to be me. However, when I asked you about getting settled I caught pictures of your lessons and of you on a broomstick and of you working hard on catching up but once when the topic changed towards Professor Snape I didn't see anything but you brewing a potion and writing an essay."

She dropped her jaw. "You – you saw all that?"

"Indeed. But I was actually hoping to find more than that. Either you are a natural in Occlumency or there is really nothing to be found."

For a moment she was lost for words. How could she have used Occlumency when she not even noticed he was using Legilimency? From what she remembered about Legilimency you were actually noticing that someone invaded your mind but then again she only remembered the experiences Harry would have in his fifth year. Possibly Snape was just doing it in a very offensive way. She moved the thoughts around in her head quickly before she finally cleared her throat for an answer.

"In my opinion it's neither the one nor the other." She shrugged. Actually that was somewhat a lie but she was hoping that he wasn't using Legilimency anymore now that he revealed himself.

"I see. Well then. We should both go down into the Great Hall. There will be roast beef on the table tonight." Dumbledore sounded cheerful and relaxed.

She followed him out of the office into the corridor but instead accompanying him she went to finally drop her bag and her robes before joining the others at the dinner table.