What our Parents Believed

Sorry, been stressed out about school and potential work. Life gets in the way of the creative process. Fear not, gentle readers! Though updates may be rare (hopefully more frequent in the future), the story is ALMOST done. I've got the end finished, I just need to work on a little part in the middle.

This chappie may be a bit boring… mainly just the logistics of how Sara may fit in. And… yes. I have no more pre-chappie rants. None at all. Nope. Oh… except for this:

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter in any way, shape or form, and am not making any profit off of this story. If I did own Harry Potter… I would steal Snape and make him cookies. He'd kill me, but it would be worth it. SOOOOOOOOOO worth it. grin

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Snape watched as the older woman ushered the family out of the room. The child remained huddled by her parents; she was staring at the floor refusing to look at the new stranger. The potions master asked himself if the bizarre wonders the castle had to offer would be enough to bring the girl out of her shell... or would it only serve to frighten her further?

Severus remembered his first day at Hogwart's as well as the weeks that followed. Everything had been amazing and frightening, intriguing and intimidating. And he had been somewhat used to these things, being from a very pure wizarding family. (Anyone who even thought of contaminating the bloodline was promptly disowned.) But these things were utterly new and unbelievable for the Michaels family. As pure Muggles, they were taught that even some of the most banal things at Hogwarts (such as the ghosts, the house elves or the moving staircases) could only exist in stories. Or, Severus thought with a shudder, in the frighteningly irrational depths of insanity.

Dumbledore must have caught some trace of the potions master's thoughts; perhaps Snape had that vacant look or gave some outward physical sigh of his ricocheting thoughts. The headmaster looked his way.

"What are your thoughts on this, Severus?" he asked mildly, fixing the professor with this icy cold gaze. Snape did his best to resume his usual sarcastic, sneering, uncaring demeanour.

"With all due respect, headmaster, why does my opinion matter in this case? Especially since you have recently taken to the habit of ignoring my opinion where others are concerned," Snape drawled. He usually treated the older man with more respect than this, but he was in an exceptionally foul mood that day.

If Dumbledore was at all insulted by Snape's poorly veiled insult, he didn't let it show. "I value the opinion of every member of this staff; they are all very enlightening. However, as most people tend to have vastly different opinions in regards to certain subjects or individuals, it is naturally quite impossible for me to follow everyone's suggestions at all times." The older man rested his hands on the desk and paused, weighing his words. "And though I always wish to hear your opinion, Severus, you cannot always expect me to agree with it." At this remark, Dumbledore looked significantly at the younger man.

The potions master was a bit taken aback by this remark. Oh, he was well aware or what students said about him and his tendency to favour the Slytherins. In fact, two young Hufflepuffs were scheduled to serve detention with him after he'd overheard a very colourful description of him and them members of his house. Snape even knew that his fellow teachers greatly disapproved of his highly biased treatment of his pupils, though everyone tended to favour their house at least a little bit. But Snape knew that Dumbledore usually defended him and never spoke badly of him behind his back. It was the reason the former Death eater had grown to trust and respect Voldemort's greatest adversary. It was very rare that the headmaster called Snape on his treatment of the students.

Severus was mildly shocked, but not insulted and certainly not remorseful. He had his reasons for everything and he wasn't about to justify himself to anyone, not even to Dumbledore. "So, what is your opinion on this?" The older man smiled calmly, looking for all the world as though he was unaware of the potions master's doubts. Snape knew him better than that.

He lowered his head, letting his hair curtain his face. It was an old habit of his, partially hiding his face while he thought. God knew why he did it. Despite his lack of social grace and hatred of people in general, Snape knew the situation with this girl required a great deal of delicacy and tact. Those were things he needed to work on.

"I believe that the girl doesn't belong here, and it has nothing to do with the fact that she's Muggle-born," he added hastily, and perhaps a bit defensively.

"I never said you thought that," the headmaster interjected demurely. "Please, continue."

"For years, the girl's parents and doctors have been telling her she's insane. Miss Michaels believed this to be true and, until less than three hours ago, had no idea she should believe otherwise. It's obvious that she still thinks she's insane and that it's gotten worse, that she's become delusional. I don't believe it will be easy to undo the damage that's been done. In fact, I think being brought here will only serve to confuse and frighten her further."

Dumbledore sat back, evaluating this information. For once, he and Severus were very much of the same mind. It was surprising, actually, how closely the man's words echoed Albus' previous thoughts. Encouraged that Snape was setting aside his usual sarcasm to give the situation serious consideration, the older wizard decided to press him furthers. "Since the Ministry for Magic has decided to attempt to integrate Miss Michaels into the wizarding world, how do you suggest we proceed?"

Snape snorted. "The words 'too little too late' come to mind," he sneered. Dumbledore remained silent. "They create this enormous problem by ignoring the child, then they dump everything into your lap. Typical. However, bringing her here is a drastic change, and the worst thing we could do is to just toss her into our world. She needs time to adjust, time to get comfortable with who and what she is. Most importantly, someone has to be able to convince her that she is not insane. How can we reason with someone who's been taught that everything about her life is totally irrational? Everything that we try to explain to her or show her, she can easily disregard as being part of her supposed psychological problems." He paused, shrugging his shoulders and raising his hands in defeat. "What can we do?"

"What indeed?" Both wizards sat in silence, mulling over their current dilemma. Dumbledore finally broke the silence after a long while. "Thank you very much for sharing your ideas, Severus. I trust you won't take it personally if I ask the rest of the staff for their opinions as well?" Snape shook his head. "Well, perhaps I should join the Michaels' for the remainder of their tour. Would you care to join us, Severus?"

It was a real trial for him to keep from rolling his eyes. "No, but..." he hesitated, searching for the right words. Albus turned towards him. "Why me?" he asked finally.

"Hmm?"

"I mean," Snape finally stood. "You just stated that you haven't gotten else's opinion yet, just mine. I went to get Miss Michaels at your insistence, though there are undoubtedly other wizards who can drive and who could have retrieved her. Arthur Weasley, for example, could have gone to pick her up, and he would have frightened her much less than I did. Why am I so deeply implicated in this process?"

"No one can deny that, among all teachers, you would benefit the most from developing some sympathy for some of your students. Any situation Miss Michaels finds frightening or intimidating will make things worse for her." Snape understood the implications of this remark but refused to comment. "Of course, those are not my only reasons. But perhaps I'll save the others for another time. Besides, it could be that my reasoning is completely off. Either way, there's no harm done to anyone by involving you so much. Only good can come of this.

"'Only good'," Snape muttered as Dumbledore ushered him out of the door. "The girl is traumatised. I prefer to do my traumatising on the first day of classes. I can reach more people with less effort that way." Dumbledore was the only person in the world Snape could talk like that around without getting glared at. Everyone else assumed he had no sense of humour.

"I am so terribly sorry about that," McGonagall apologized again. Mr. Michaels still looked somewhat insulted and his wife had jumped when the suit of armour seemed to blow a raspberry at them. "Peeves," she explained while guiding the family down another corridor, "though a nuisance, is mostly harmless. He's our resident poltergeist. The other ghosts, for the most part, are much more agreeable than him."

"'Mostly harmless'?" Mrs. Michaels echoed. "Why just 'mostly harmless'?" She looked nervous.

The older lady sighed. How to break the news of Peeves to nervous parents? Especially to nervous, Muggle parents. "Aside from sometimes throwing water balloons and the occasional attempts to topple vases onto unsuspecting students, Peeves is more annoying than anything," she explained. Mr. Michaels huffed in annoyance.

"Imagine, having a poltergeist in a school. And tolerating it, even. Why doesn't the Headmaster just get rid of it? Surely, if Dumbledore's such a powerful wizard, he can manage something as simple as an exorcism."

Professor McGonagall shot him what could only be described as a cold look. "Or perhaps Peeves is still here simply because Professor Dumbledore is a more gracious, forgiving person than most, and believes that everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves." Her tone of voice was the same she used to chide misbehaving students and to instil a sense of guilt in them. It had the exact same effect on this young man.

"You flatter me, Professor McGonagall," a demure voice said. "I daresay I may even be blushing underneath my beard." Dumbledore walked up to join the group. "I'm sorry, with so many other things on my mind, I neglected to warn you about Peeves. He takes some getting used to, but once you've been here for a bit, you can't begin to imagine Hogwarts without him." He then looked down and saw Sara giggling. She stopped suddenly, a chagrined look on her face, when she saw the Headmaster watching her. The older man bent over until his mouth was level with Sara's ear.

"I also think he brings some much needed comic relief to studies," he whispered confidentially. The young girl broke out in a peal of unrestrained, joyous laughter while Dumbledore chuckled beside her. "And now," he said, "I think you will find the Hogwarts grounds particularly lovely this time of year. You can also go and meet Hagrid and, if your teeth are hardy enough, try some of his unique baking." Dumbledore offered a chivalrous arm to Minerva. Though she rolled her eyes, she put her arm through his and allowed him to lead the way to the courtyard below.