He woke drenched in sweat unsure of where he was at first. Looking around the pitch black room he realized he was in his chamber bed. He sighed as he sat up and swung his legs down the cold stone floor and shivered. Reaching to his bedside table he picked up his wand muttering "lumos." A small white ball of light erupted from the tip of wand and the man looked at his pocket watch it 5:45 am. "I might as well start the day then." With that the man, got up dropping the pocket watch back on the bedside table he grabbed the clothes he had left folded at the end of the bed and towel headed to the bathroom for a shower.
Twenty minutes later Severus found himself sitting at staff table drinking coffee that match the color of his eyes. Conveniently, he had found the "The Daily Prophet" waiting for him so that he could avoid unnecessary conversation with his colleges. The silence was broken however, when Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, entered the Great Hall a few minutes later.
His eyes twinkling and cheeks rosy from how much he was smiling reminded him of the Cheshire cat from the Lewis Carrol novel "Alice in Wonderland." Wondering what the old coot had up his hat he let the newspaper fall enough to watch the Headmaster but still make it look as if he were reading the paper.
Clearing his throat Dumbledore began to speak, "Welcome Staff to another magical year at Hogwarts! We will be having a staff meeting this afternoon to introduce the two new Defense against the Dark Arts Teachers I expect each and every one of you will be in the staff room at 3 pm exactly and with your first months lesson plans ready to turn in!" with that he gave not a single teacher a chance to speak before leaving the Great Hall.
Severus rolled his eyes and then stared as his coffee mug wishing he had time for another cup. Instead he got up folded the paper and stuck it under his arm and began his decent back into the dungeons. Not far through the Great Hall door Severus hit something and heard a small squeak that seemed familiar to him. Looking down at the floor to see who had been dumb enough to run into him this early in the morning his eyes went wide.