1982
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Chapter 2
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Ethan Coen
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by Saeshmea
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The next day, at breakfast time, Severus sat in the same spot he'd occupied the previous night, and as the rest of the staff came to the Great Hall, the chair next to him remained empty.
He didn't gave to that fact much importance until Professor Flitwick sat down next to him, grabbed a toast, spread some butter and before giving it a bite, said:
"Rumours travel fast in this school, boy."
"Excuse me?" Severus asked, turning around to look at the professor, not sure if he was actually talking to him.
"They all know about the mark on your arm," he said, "yesterday you only were the new professor, today you're a Death Eater living in the school," it sounded as an advice, rather than a warning or a thread; but Severus wasn't sure of what to reply.
"I see," was all he could say, that horrible feeling of insecurity disturbing his stomach again. He decided to leave his breakfast and left the table before turning sick.
He had told Dumbledore this would happened, he knew it wouldn't be long before people learned what he'd been… He could only imagine the humiliations again, the laughs, the stairs, the whispers… His teenage years repeated again during his adulthood.
He entered his classroom, that old potions lab where he'd spent so many hours during his student years, the only place where he'd felt good, and emptied his breakfast in the paper bin. The sickness disappeared.
Thinking of the consequences of running away and abandoning Dumbledore, Severus waited for his first students to come in. He was expecting fingers pointing at him, cruel giggles and whispered insults; but as the students began to take their seats, he was surprised to only meet fear and insecurity on their eyes. He frightened them, and he didn't even stop to wonder if it was because they knew what he'd been or if they feared his persona as a professor, he only stop to savour the moment.
To those little children he wasn't the poor 'Snape-boy' in the muggle world, or the ridiculized Snivellus in his Hogwarts years, neither was he the rookie Death Eater unable to kill… He was Professor Snape; respected and tamed Professor Snape. He liked the sound of that, the feeling of it… for the rest of the day, he didn't feel sick again.
Which had seemed to begin as a terrible day ended up to be excellent. Severus had found in teaching what he hadn't found anywhere before: confidence. He had never been a rich boy, a cool boy, a valiant boy… but he had certainly been intelligent and clever and that was something he could easily show up in a classroom.
This good feeling, though, disappeared as soon as he remembered he had to attend a meeting with Minerva in only a few minutes; he realized she probably knew by now that he was a Death Eater.
There was no way she would still want to receive him and he thought of sending an owl to cancel, or maybe just not going. But then, it was a request from the Headmaster, he couldn't just not go, it would be impolite and unprofessional.
At ten past seven exactly, he found himself knocking at his former professor's door.
"Severus," she greeted after opening the door, no fear on her eyes, "I appreciate your punctuality, please, come in," maybe she didn't know, maybe she hadn't heard the rumours.
Her office was exactly as he remembered from the very few times that he'd been in there, but she didn't sit on her desk, instead, she made him follow her behind another door and they entered into her private studio, just like his, maybe a little bigger.
"Please, have a sit," she said, "would you like some tea?"
"Black, please" he asked.
"Of course," she moved to the kitchen area and began to open and close some drawers as Severus watched from the other side of the room, still standing, "Albus must have a great appreciation for you if he has asked you to be Head of House," she said as she poured some water in a pot and magically make it boil, "it took me a few years to gain that position," she added and as she poured the hot water on one cup, it became black tea, and white while pouring it on another cup.
She prepared a wooden tray with the tea, two spoons, a sugar pot and a plate with some biscuits, grabbed it and turned around.
"Why are you still standing?" she asked as a matter of factly and Severus didn't know how to reply, "please, sit down," she repeated, and she walked to the sitting area and left the tray on the tea table as she sat on the sofa and Severus on the armchair.
"Tell me, how's been your first day so far?" she asked, pouring two drops of sugar in her tea and taking a biscuit with a very delicate move of her hand.
"Fine," he muttered, "excellent, actually," he added, taking his cup of tea with both hands.
"Good, I'm glad to hear that," she said, "I was afraid those rumors that have been around the school all day would have taken you down," she knew.
"I…" Severus muttered.
"You don't need to explain yourself to me, Severus," she said, "I won't judge you for what you've done but for what you do," she stopped to sip some tea and then continued, "we have all taken a wrong direction at some point in our lives," she said, "be willing to admit and redirect our lives is a very brave thing to do."
"Thank you, professor," he said.
"Please, don't call me that, you're not my student anymore," she said, and Severus realized that for a moment he had felt as if he was. "Now, let's go into the matter of this meeting," she crossed her legs and rested her back on the sofa in a very relax way, "what troubles you about being Head of House?"
…
They talked until all the biscuits were gone and Severus felt as if it had been hours. She told him that all he had to do was listen to those children who would come to him and tell them what he would have expected to be told and nothing more. She warned him that he would make mistakes, that he would oversee things, but that he shouldn't bother about that too much because they could only make their best and hope it was enough, even knowing it would never be.
Every word that came out of her mouth was filled with wisdom and he tried to keep every single thing she said in his memory. He could have stayed there forever, just listening to her, looking at her lips moving and breathing her sentences but, suddenly they were interrupted by the door opening.
...
"I'm sorry," said the voice of an intruder, "I forgot about your meeting."
Severus turned around to see a tall man with long brown hair tied up on a low tail and very dark eyes.
"It's alright, we were done anyway," Minerva said, correcting her sitting position, "Ethan, this is Severus Snape."
"Right, the new potions guy," the man said, "nice to meet you," and he approached the armchair to shake hands with Severus.
"He was one of my most brilliant students, you know?" Minerva added.
"Really?" the Ethan guy said, "I'd like to listen what he has to say about you…" he grinned.
"Severus, this is Ethan Coen," she finished the presentations, "he replaced Professor Nodd on Care of Magical Creatures after his retirement."
"A pleasure," Severus said, and Professor Coen broke their handshake to sit next to Minerva on the sofa. He passed an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.
"I also happen to be her husband," he said, using his free hand to cup her chin and make her turn around to steal a kiss from her lips.
"Husband?" Severus repeated, not only feeling that sickness again but also finding it hard to breathe.
"That's right," Minerva answered with a kind laugh on her voice, "I know when you're a student you believe your teachers have no social life, but we do, Severus.."
"Why don't you stay for dinner?" Ethan suddenly suggested to Severus, who was distracted, thinking of a way to get out of there.
"I don't…" he muttered.
"Come on," Ethan insisted, "we don't get to have many guests during the school year," he said.
"He must be tired, Ethan, let the boy go," Minerva said.
"Nonsense," the man, her husband, replied, "tell me, Severus, do you like chess?"
"I do," Severus answered. He was having a strange feeling, his body was sitting on that armchair but his mind certainly wasn't… Minerva was married, Professor McGonagall was married… Had he been stupid to believe that in the four years he'd been out of Hogwarts time would have stopped in the Castle? He had certainly gone on with his life during that time, in the wrong way, but he had… So why was it so difficult to believe that his professor had done the same?
"Good," Ethan said, standing up and walking away, "it will be nice to have a proper opponent," he grabbed a chess board from a drawer and a box that would contain the pieces, "playing against Nerva is not much of a challenge, you know," he returned to them, and before he placed the board on the tea table, Minerva stood up and grabbed the tray with the tea set and walked to the kitchen without saying a word. Was she upset because he had stayed?
While getting ready for bed, Severus realized how stupid he'd been during the past couple days. Seeing Minerva in the train had been nice, she had remembered him of the good memories in the school and that was probably what had made him think of all those other things about her. But he didn't believe he really felt that way for his former professor, and even if he did, those were feelings that he had to erase now that he knew she was married, happily married as long as he'd seen.
Ethan was a good guy, a funny guy too, but not a real good chess player; Severus had won the two games they'd played before dinner was ready.
They had chicken with gravy cooked by the house elves and a delicious apple cake for dessert, which Minerva had made. They mainly talked about his school years, Ethan seemed very interested to know what Minerva was like then and what the students thought of her… They had made her blush in many occasions during the evening, specially every time Ethan turned to her to steal a kiss from her lips, it seemed to amuse him doing that.
They had invited him back next Friday night, and Ethan had promised to open his best firewhiskey bottle to celebrate Severus' first week in the school. He accepted the invitation and he found himself counting the days down.
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TO BE CONTINUED…