Disclaimer: Professor Snape and everyone at Hogwarts were created by JKR. Barbara Merrill and her lab are my invention, set within JKR's Ministry of Magic.

Breakfast the next morning came with a letter on Ministry stationery. No, one page was official Ministry business while the other looked personal. He started with the Ministry letter.

Professor Snape:

This is to inform you that your healing potion with dittany and phoenix tears has been received by the Quality Testing dungeon and will be assessed for purity, effectiveness, and consumer safety. After this testing is complete, your potion will be registered and your registry number filed.

If there are any questions, you may forward them to this office, to my attention.

Sincerely,

Barbara Merrill
Head Specialist
Quality Testing

It was the standard letter he had seen dozens of times. He turned to the other page.

Dear Professor Snape,

As you can see, I'm back in the Quality Testing dungeon. Having seen the effects of your potion in person, I decided to find it in our back log and move it to the head of the queue. Rather, I found your application and recipe for it; the sample you sent appears to have been destroyed during some altercation that happened here the night Rufus Scrimgeour was killed. Would it be possible to send me another small sample? The protocol demands that I make a batch and match it to the sample before testing the uses.

I hope life at Hogwarts is progressing as well as possible under the circumstances. The Ministry is undergoing restorations, too. I actually got to help. That ghastly sculpture in the atrium was built and fixed in place with horrible spells, but I remembered a cleaning potion sent years ago and we tried it. It didn't work by itself, but when combined with a certain charm, a surprisingly small amount of potion converted the sculpture into a gravel which could be taken away. That material is too heavily infused with dark magic to use any time soon, I'm afraid, but at least the Ministry can erect a new sculpture more in keeping with what we know is right and good.

This may lead to a new avenue of research. Surely you know this potion to be your own. Would you be interested in testing your cleaning potion with other charms to see how it works? I think we could co-author quite a paper on this. Journal of the Potions Society is alreay clamoring for submissions.

Otherwise the Ministry is behaving as one could expect. There is, of course, a large contingent of people pushing to have Kingsley Shacklebolt as the new Minister, but there's also a large contingent of Pius Thickness friends and supporters who are trying to keep power. Kingsley is having quite a time of it, with trying to reconstruct the auror department, too.

The auror department is quite understaffed and the department of Magical Law Enforcement is working overtime. Apparently some folk think they deserve a time of lawlessness. I find such an attitude distressing, myself. After seeing the Great Hall after the battle of Hogwarts and the Ministry the night Rufus was killed, lawlessness seems such a horrible waste of our efforts.

Then again, Ministry is not quite what one would expect. It's not uncommon, now, to find groups of people weeping together in hallways, or to discover upon walking into someone's office that the person I wanted to speak with is gone forever.

I want to apologize for being so utterly forward under the willow tree. I usually try to keep my thoughts to myself, since other people's business is not mine. I hope that you will chalk it up to the emotions of the day.

I've now read several versions of your story in the Daily Prophet, and, I confess, the Quibbler. It seems the papers cannot decide if you were a tragic dark hero who was misunderstood or if you're still pulling the wool over our eyes. I suspect that even if I hadn't met you under the willow tree I would have thought the stories were all foolish. Having met you, I can say that I do see your actions as heroic, but how well understood they will be lies to some extent with you. Oh, dear, I am probably being as forward now as I was on that day. I hope you will forgive me.

I look forward to continuing our collaborations.

Sincerely,
Barbara Merrill

xxxxx

Dear Miss Merrill,

I was delighted to receive your letter, if only because it gives me something to do while keeping a stern eye on the vacuous looks of students taking preliminary OWLs and NEWTs. Truly, I found the whole charming and look forward to truly enjoying a correspondence which heretofore has been merely gratifying to my professional pride.

First things first. Enclosed you will find a sample of my healing potion. If you need a larger sample, please let me know. In the enclosed notes, you will find that I would like to explore another use for this potion and I would appreciate having a trained eye look those notes over. I also would benefit from the use of certain resources at your dungeon. If it does what I hope, we can co-author that paper as well.

Which brings me to the second point. I would be delighted in exploring the uses of charms applied with potions. I'm no seer, but I will predict a long and useful collaboration and several co-authored papers. I have enclosed some notes about avenues I think we could pursue.

Coming to our conversation under the willow tree: No, you were not overly forward. I am not used to such personal conversation, but as you say, it was and continues to be a special event. What I don't understand is how you can be so genuinely open with me. Around here, It's a different world, and yet the same. Colleagues and students alike behave half the time as if they were scared to death of me and the other half as though they despise me. No, that is not true. Sometimes, they seem to be trying ways to be kind to me and then I do not know how to respond. Not half an hour after you and I parted, a colleague apologized to me! I am finding that there is comfort in some of the old routines yet I am in a world that is new to me. The old patterns of thought will not work.

The routines as Hogwarts are so deeply entrenched that we have a framework upon which to make great progress. The students who missed so much of the last term are here to regain some lost time. I was surprised that Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger decided to stay. I would have expected them to be excused from this, but they insisted on taking NEWTs like everyone else. I never saw such modesty in young Potter. I will be teaching advanced seminars in potions, of course, and also Defense Against the Dark Arts. The Board of Governors now thinks I have skills in that line that were under taught in the past. One would hope those skills are not needed for a long time, but as Mad-eye Moody would say, "Constant vigilance".

The building and grounds are starting to regain their normal shape due to much hard work, but the inside restorations have not yet begun. Not that we shall let the students on the grounds without careful supervision. Hagrid has only started to collect certain creatures back into their pens and cages. And while the grounds look more their proper selves, there are trees and other plants that were completely destroyed during the battle and places here that will never look the same during my lifetime.

May I congratulate you on what would appear to be a promotion? Best wishes to you also, as you no doubt are entering a task of cleaning up the lab, there. I suspect that some of your fellow employees are no brighter than when they were in my fifth year class, here.

I see that the first groups of students are ready for their practicals, so I will close for now.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Severus Snape

Professor Snape looked up from the signature he put on the letter and rolled it up, sliding it inside his robe and casting a suspicious glare around the room. The students who thought they had seen a kind look in his eyes decided they were mistaken. He fixed his usual stare onto his first victim.

"Well, Hughes, shall we see if you can remember how to transform this handkerchief into a butterfly without setting the thing on fire?"

xxxxx

Two weeks later, Severus received another letter:

Professor Snape:

Enclosed you will find the registry number for your healing potion. After testing we find that it is prepared and behaves just as described in your registry application.

We appreciate the opportunity to work with our researching wizards and look forward to future accomplishments from your dungeon.

Sincerely,

Barbara Merrill
Head Specialist
Quality Testing

Again she had sent a more personal note:

Dear Professor Snape,

I think the other use of that potion described in your notes is a wonderful idea. I'm sure it will be well received. Unfortunately, neither of the formulations you have sent work, yet, but you can refer to my notes and perhaps see where to take it next. Our other work has its ups and downs, as you can see from my notes. I think we might have the first paper ready by the time the regular school term will start, if that is agreeable to you. I have enclosed a first draft, if you wouldn't mind looking through it for me. Please be kind; I haven't written a paper in ages, due to, well you know.

You are quite observant. Yes, when I came back, they actually promoted me. Now I have all the headaches of working with some very bright potions makers as well as some who hear your name in conversation and get a look of startled rabbits in their faces. Were you aware that you have that effect upon some people?

Meanwhile, I'm up to the collar of my dungeon robe in budgets and employee actions and what not. I'm starting to suspect that I am not cut out to be a bureaucrat. I'm not sure that I'm sad, but it does make the career outlook a bit bleak. I'm going to do my best, though. Perhaps my present destiny is to convert this place of uninspired potions mixers and dingy work spaces into a first rate dungeon.

As you will have read in TheProphet, Kingsley Shacklebolt was finally made our new minister. What TheProphet didn't say was that the Thicknesse promoters finally subsided, helped no doubt by Arthur and Percy Weasley opening certain investigations into the recent spate of lawlessness.

How go things at the school? Are the students horribly behind? I think we need to give ourselves and those around us time to adjust to new ways. It's very hard to turn on a dime, you know. I still get nasty looks for my muggle upbringing, especially from those who think my promotion was a bit extreme.

Best wishes as your summer term continues and on your research.

Sincerely,
Barbara Merrill

A/N: I had to split this chapter in two and there's not much action, but we do see the development of some things. I'm sorry if bits of these two chapters are maudlin. I've tried to keep it light, but I couldn't get away from imagining what the world must be like in the weeks after the Battle of Hogwarts. Thank you to my reviewers! I enjoy hearing other thoughts!