Tallis sat down in his traditional seat next to his Father at the head table. Because Bill had already left for work, he was left sitting at the end of the table, with his Father to his left.
As much as it still amazed the other professors, it seemed that Severus had managed to raise a son even more antisocial than himself.
The seating arrangements had been created on that first day, and the only person who ever sat on Tallis' other side was Bill.
Until today.
Tallis had no sooner sat down than he felt a brush of wool against his arm. Looking up in shock he saw Minerva McGonicall sit down in a freshly conjured chair.
He turned resolutely back to his food, although it had turned to ash in his mouth.
He refused to be the first one to speak.
She finally sighed. "This will be a difficult semester, Apprentice Snape."
He nodded briskly.
Her lips thinned a bit more. "The Headm…the prisoner has been transferred to St. Bentham's and the students will be in an uproar."
He didn't even bother to nod this time. Honestly, why did people always feel the need to begin conversations with inane chatter?
"We will all have our hands full explaining this situation to the students and the parents alike. Our students' world has been severely tested by these events."
"Do you deny that justice has been done?" he asked softly, his disdain for Dumbledore clear. After giving the sentence a tiny bit of thought he had come to the conclusion that no punishment was too severe for the man who had hurt his Father so severely. His initial shock wore off and he found himself vindictively pleased with the sentence.
"No, no, of course not," she said hurriedly, tripping over her words. "What was done was no less than what he deserved. He betrayed us all by what he did. But you must understand, Tallis…" her words faded away as she saw his cold glare. "—Apprentice Snape. You must understand. We will all be pushed to the limit this semester. We will all be setting aside our own desires in order to keep this school together. You must reconsider."
"No," he said softly but firmly.
Severus smirked openly.
"We need you Apprentice—"
"No you do not. You need to accept the situation. You need to suck it up and acknowledge to the world that that man is gone and has left the school in a mess. You need to put a bloody advert in the papers for the new positions. You need to stop trying to make this all look better than it is."
"I am not trying to make this look better—"
"Yes, you are," he said, quietly contradicting her. "By refusing to publicly seek a replacement for the positions that have been vacated you are in effect refusing to publicly acknowledge what has happened. The world will be allowed to continue as it has done, believing that those who work at Hogwarts can continue to fix everything and everyone without outside assistance. You continue to strengthen the illusion that that man" he spat out disdainfully, "dedicated his life to building—the illusion that those within the hallowed halls of the Headmaster's office are all knowing and all powerful.
"We are not capable of fixing this on our own. We cannot do everything and fix everyone and be everywhere at once. We need help. We cannot stretch ourselves that thin. It is a disservice to ourselves and it is a disservice to the students."
Minerva's shoulders hunched in as she seemed to almost crumble in on herself before she recalled where she was and straightened back up. "I understand, Apprentice. Perhaps I was too hasty in trying to cover the positions by those already employed here. You must understand though—we are at war. I cannot in good conscience hire a virtual unknown to enter this school and teach our students."
"Then I suggest that you screen the applicants with more care to their references than your predecessor did, madam. Check their bloody arms for Merlin's sake! You are right—we are at war. It's about damn time someone realized that."
Minerva started to speak again but she was interrupted by the elder Snape.
"I suggest you stop irritating my son. He has agreed to assist by teaching one of your classes—he has agreed in spite of his rather obvious objections to the entire situation. I recommend that you graciously accept his rather generous offer, put some deep consideration into his recommendations, and leave him the bloody hell alone."
Remus, who had taken up post on the other side of Severus, snorted into his tea.
Minerva looked warily between Severus and his son. "Forgive me for disturbing your breakfast, Apprentice. Until I am able to provide the students with a full time Transfiguration professor to attend to their lessons, would you please teach the seventh years?"
Tallis nodded curtly and turned back to his forgotten breakfast. He thought better of his sullen response after a brief moment and sought to temper it slightly, although he did not look back up. "Of course, Headmistress. Thank you for trusting me with the students."
She gave him a shaky smile, recognizing his words for an apology for his harshness in dealing with her although not for the words themselves. They both knew that they needed to be said.
"Well done Tallis," Remus said under his breath.
Tallis nodded back, a hint of a smile teasing his lips. "You know you wanted to say it too."
"I'm not a Snape though. I don't have the excuse of being a surly, antisocial bastard to defend myself with."
Severus nearly laughed but hid it before the students could be too alarmed.
"I'm not surly!" Tallis protested.
Remus wanted to laugh in his face but decided to take the more politic route. "Perhaps not as such, but to those who do not know you, you certainly do appear to be incredibly adverse to any social interaction beside with family and close friends and you tend to snap and leave quickly if someone approaches you without your previous consent. I'm sorry cub, but that adds up to surly."
Tallis grumbled incoherently as he stirred another cube of sugar into his tea to mollify himself. "The students like me well enough."
"You are quite different around the students than you are with your colleagues, Tallis," Severus explained. "Not to mention you have still established very clear barriers that none dare cross. They all recall quite clearly what happens to students whose attentions irritate you."
Tallis flushed lightly as he remembered sending such a strong pulse of what amounted to electric shock through the seventh year. If he hadn't been so startled he probably wouldn't have reacted quite so severely. He couldn't bring himself to care though. "Served the brat right," he muttered. "Honestly, accosting a member of the faculty."
"Note that neither of us is disagreeing with you cub," Remus said, amber eyes sparkling. "Just pointing out the obvious for you."
Tallis bit back his retort as he noticed that the morning post had come in. The students seemed to grow even louder than usual in volume as they huddled around copies of the Daily Prophet.
Severus calmly held his arm out for his owl and accepted their copy of the paper, spreading it out in front of them so they could all see.
Muggle Woman and Boy Sentenced!
Dursley still awaiting justice!
In a move that startled many in it's leniency, the Wizengamot announced at 6.23 a.m. that the youngest Dursley would simply be obliviated of his entire past and sent into protective custody in an undisclosed location.
Members of the Wizengamot assured Prophet reporters that this would in no way be an easy relocation for the muggle, as they were making no effort to fill in the void of the obliviate with anything else—at all. The boy will be left as a completely blank slate, with no practical memory of anything.
One member explains: "The boy will have next to nothing. Little money, no skills with which to obtain a job of any sort, no education to aid him in a future. If he wants a proper future then he will have to build it from the base. We will provide him with a place to live for two years. After that, he's on his own."
Another expounded: "There was nothing but hate and cruelty in the boy. It was only a matter of time before he performed some heinous crimes of his own—"
A third cut it: "What he had done was more than heinous!"
Our second informant explained that the boy was certainly far from innocent but that he was a child during the time questioned. "When we removed all of the prejudice and hatred that the parents poured into the child we were left with nothing. It is now up to Mr. Dursley to do something with his life. We have given him a chance. Perhaps he will make something of it."
In a move of far less leniency, although still far kinder than most had anticipated, the Wizengamot voted unanimously to place the woman in a moderate-security cell in Azkaban for forty years.
She was left with no chance for parle and no chance for a lessening of security for a minimum of twenty years. If she has proven herself to be suitably reformed after twenty years, she may be moved to a lower security ward in Azkaban.
Both muggles have already been moved to their new situations. The remaining muggle remains to be sentenced.
We at the Prophet can only guess as to what crimes the man is guilty of that the Wizengamot is taking such an uncharacteristically long time to determine his fate. We can only pray that he is handed a just sentence for whatever hell he put our Savior through during his short lifetime.
Tallis snorted inelegantly before folding the paper up.
Severus looked at him closely but knew that now was not the time to have any sort of in depth discussion about the sentencing. "Are you prepared for your first years?" he said with an unusual solicitousness.
"Yes," Tallis said, knowing the question his Father had really wanted to ask him. Truthfully, he was all right with the sentences. They were harsh but rather fair sentences. He found himself almost glad that Dudley would have a chance to make something of himself. Granted, the situation would be incredibly difficult, but if there was anything good in his cousin, now was the chance for it to surface.
He was glad that he had a class to teach right now though, to stop him from over analyzing the sentences. He knew that he felt fine about them now, but that could soon change. Just look at how his emotions had fluctuated over Dumbledore's sentence!
"Shall we?" Severus asked, motioning toward the door. It was nearly time for classes to begin.
Tallis nodded and stood silently, falling into step alongside his Father.
"Do you want me to sit in on your class today?" Severus asked, worried that the first years would be too excited over the morning's article to concentrate.
"No, I will be fine. You have a bit more grading to do for the pre-holiday essays. We don't want to be backlogged before we are loaded down with the holiday ones. Honestly, did you have to assign such bloody long essays to all of the years?"
Severus smirked. "Must keep them on their toes." He nodded confidently to his son once more before proceeding to their office to finish the aforementioned essays.
SDSDSDSDSDSDSDSDSD
Draco hovered outside of the potions classroom, eager to speak with his friend but uncertain if Tallis was ready to speak about the sentencing of his aunt and cousin.
"Are you planning on coming in?" an amused, silky voice said, suddenly shaking Draco out of his thoughts.
"I'm just giving you time to collect your thoughts," Draco said haughtily, ignoring the fact that he had been the one to seek Tallis out for this conversation.
"Of course," Tallis responded dryly. "Shall we go to the office?"
Draco nodded quickly and made his way to the connecting door in the back of the classroom. He breathed a quick sigh of relief when he realized that Severus was no longer in there. He knew that his godfather did not want him to speak to Tallis about the trial without Tallis being the one to bring it up.
He, however, was of the opinion that if Tallis was left to his own designs they might never speak of it again. And, moving on or not, Tallis needed to speak of it, if only to firmly shut that door from his past.
"Well?" Tallis said impatiently, startling Draco once more. "Merlin you're jumpy today. What's going on?"
"Nothing really. Interesting article in the Prophet today."
Tallis rolled his eyes.
"Went a bit light on the sentences," Draco finally said when it was clear that Tallis was not intending to respond.
"Light?" Tallis sad incredulously. "Light? Perhaps they cut Dudley a bit of slack but it is so slight as to be unnoticeable. Can you even imagine finding yourself in a foreign country with no memories of…of anything?" He sighed heavily. "I guess in some ways I'm pleased with his sentence though. He'll have a chance to fix himself. It will be hard—it'll be damn near hell every step of the way but I'm sure he can do it."
Draco snorted loudly. He was just as certain that the fat muggle would find his way back into drinking and drugs within a week.
"And Petunia's sentence was downright cruel."
"Forty years is hardly cruel, Tallis."
"Forty years to a middle aged muggle is. Draco, she'll never survive to see the outside of that cell. Even without those conditions, not all muggles can live until they are over 90."
"What? That's insane!"
"Muggles don't live as long as us, Draco. That's what was so cruel about the sentence—they made it look kind on the outside to most of the wizarding world but in reality, her sentence is probably no worse than Vernon's will be."
"You think the muggle will get a life sentence?"
"Yes. From what I understand it would be very out of the norm for the Wizengamot to sentence a muggle to the Kiss."
Draco sat in silence for a moment. "So they essentially gave her the same sentence as they did him?"
Tallis nodded wearily.
"Good. She was a two faced, manipulative, slimy bitch who all but sold Harry to her own husband."
"Did she have a choice?" Tallis asked quietly.
"A choice? She had a choice every goddamned day in that house. Every day she woke up and thought 'no, I'll not stand up and be a women and mother. I'll throw my nephew to the wolves so I don't have to actually grow a backbone myself.'"
"You make it sound so easy. People who haven't ever lived with someone like Vernon always do."
"And you make it sound damn near impossible!" Draco snapped. His anger fled him almost instantly. "Look…you're right. It isn't as easy as I made it sound. I still think she deserved it. She all but tied Harry down for him to use. As a grown woman and self sufficient adult, she had a moral responsibility to stand up for what was right."
Tallis sighed heavily.
"I know you don't agree with me right now, but someday you'll see the rightness in what I am saying."
Tallis nodded minutely. "Someday I might," he finally acknowledged.
Draco nodded briskly in satisfaction. "What would you have sentenced her to?"
After a long pause, Tallis finally responded. "I don't know. A lot of counseling. A lot of medication. Perhaps a bit of time in a detainment center."
Draco raised a golden eyebrow.
"Ok, a lot of time in a detainment center. I guess I just find it cruel that she has to be in a wizard prison. There's no way for her to fight it, you know? No way to escape the effects of the dementors, no hope of any peace."
Draco huffed quietly. "Would you rather she be in a muggle prison where she would always be in danger of vengeful witches and wizards trying to track her down and hurt her? The wizarding world will not forget this Tallis. If she is in Azkaban at least she has some sort of protection against them. You know how difficult it is to get into that prison. They'll keep the public far away from her."
Tallis' shoulders drooped. "You're right. She wouldn't last a week in a muggle prison. Anyone could get to her at damn near any time."
"Good," Draco said with a grin. "So you're done feeling sorry about this?"
Tallis glared at him but it had no effect on the boy who had grown up with his Uncle Severus' even more potent glares. He finally relented. "I guess you're right."
"Finally. You should know I'm always right. I am a Malfoy after all."
Tallis laughed at the ridiculous bravado his friend was putting on. He knew that as much as it was an act there was also a very real tinge to it. Draco's occasional arrogance was delightful.
"Let's go to lunch. I'm starved. You'll be eating with me at the Slytherin table, won't you?"
"Of course, Draco," Tallis said, smiling still.
"Good. I can't handle another meal with those idiots. I can't wait 'til I graduate."
"Soon, Draco. Soon."