As the days passed by since that strange event in the Great Hall, the students of Hogwarts all seemed to pick up on Snape's strange behaviour. He seemed more jumpy than usual, his eyes always twitching from side to side, almost as if he expected something to jump out of the shadows.

His attitude towards Professor Kirkland had also seemed to change...although not in a good way. While previously, he had taken every and any opportunity to mock the man and throw jabs at him, now he seemed to go out of his way to avoid him. If he spotted the other man in the corridor, he would quickly turn and go the other way...and there was something wrong with the way he looked at him.

It was almost as if he was afraid of him...but that was ridiculous. Right?

Harry watched this occur, yet again, and shook his head. He never thought he'd see the day that Professor Snape would be afraid of something, let alone another human being (other than Voldemort that was...but the Dark Lord didn't really count as a 'human being'). He wasn't being paranoid either; almost everyone had noticed it, many whispering about it behind Snape and Kirkland's back.

"Remember how Snape was in the hall, that day?" Ron said, as he, Harry and Hermione headed to History of Magic. "He was just screaming. I wish I could'a heard exactly what he'd been yelling about - everyone was talking so loud though, it was hard to hear."

"I thought I heard something about someone being dead" Hermione murmured. "But that's just ridiculous."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, looking disturbed.

"Somebody, dead?" Harry frowned.

"I'm sure it's nothing" Hermione shook her head.

Ron snorted. "Tell that to Snape."

Hermione sighed. "I don't even know if I heard it" she said. "I'm probably just assuming...it's probably nothing."

The trio exchanged glances and then headed to their class.

...

Snape sat in his chair, trembling.

He wasn't an idiot. He knew that the students and teachers had noticed his odd behaviour and he knew that they talked about him behind his back.

He also knew that Kirkland had probably noticed it.

The thought made Snape feel incredibly uncomfortable. He didn't want that man knowing anything about him. He didn't even want to be a passing thought in his head. The man wasn't normal; there was something seriously wrong with him, and Snape wasn't sure if he wanted to know what it was.

Snape glanced at the penseive resting on the table next to him, allowing his eyes to roam over it. That small object was home to years and years worth of his most important memories; the ones he cherished and the ones he dreaded.

Kirkland's death now rested amongst them.

Snape hadn't been able to get it off his mind...and whenever he had an annoying little memory like that he'd dump it off in his penseive. It helped him clear his mind...or at least it had in the past. It didn't seem to be helping much this time around.

How could a man just die and come back to life, just like that? It wasn't possible. There was no rational explanation for it. Snape had seen, with his very own eyes, the green light of the killing curse slamming into the mans chest. He'd seen Kirkland topple to the ground dead; for Merlin's sake, he'd carried the mans dead body and dumped it off on a cold, muddy patch of earth a few kilometers away from the Dark Lord's lair.

So how could the man still be alive?

It made no sense. No sense at all.

Shooting another uncomfortable glance at the penseive, he stood up and left his office, shutting his door behind him. He paused for a moment and then made sure to bolt the door shut.

...

Class had been uneventful. Professor Kirkland had warned them about an upcoming test and then it had been mostly revision for that.

That had been the trio's last class for the day and Harry, Hermione and Ron now sat in the Common Room, Harry and Ron discussing Quiddich, and Hermione reading a thick book.

"Oh my" she suddenly exclaimed, interrupting the boy's conversation.

"What?" Ron asked, shooting her an odd glance.

"Hmm?" Hermione glanced up. "Oh, nothing - it's just, this book is so interesting. Professor Kirkland lent it to me a while back...I really must return it soon but it's just so interesting! I just had to re-read it -"

"Re-read it?" Ron repeated, his mouth hanging open. "Are you out of your mind?! Look at the size of that thing!"

"I like it" Hermione replied, firmly. "It's a very interesting book, filled with history. You should take a flick through it when I'm done."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure" he said, sarcastically.

Harry glanced at the book, curiously. "Is it actually any good?" he asked.

"Oh come on Harry!" Ron exclaimed. "Don't tell me you actually want to read it?!"

"Oh Harry, you really should!" Hermione beamed. "It's quite interesting - look I'll read you a passage -"

She flicked through the book quickly, while Ron let out a loud moan. Suddenly her forehead creased with a frown and she glanced at the book with a disbelieving stare.

"What?" Harry asked, glancing at her with curiosity.

"Hmm?" Hermione glanced up, shaking her head. "Nothing...it's just this message...apparently written by the author. I just never realized how strange it really was..."

"What's it about?" Ron asked, curious despite himself.

"Well, it's not content of the note that's odd" Hermione replied. "But it's been addressed to Professor Kirkland..."

"So?" Harry raised one eyebrow. "The Professor knew the author. What's so strange about that?"

"Well" Hermione shut the book, shaking her head in confusion. "The fact that this book is a little over a century old makes that well...impossible."

Harry and Ron exchanged wide eyed looks.

"So your saying that Kirkland has a note written to him from a dead guy?!" Ron exclaimed, sounding stunned.

"No, of course not!" Hermione laughed. "Don't be silly...it must be a joke or something. What other explanation could there be for it?"

Harry leaned forward. "Can I take a look at it?"

Hermione passed him the book and Harry allowed his eyes to flicker over he message.

Dear Arthur,

Brilliant knowing you. Hope you like the book, this is my original copy. It's the least I can do to repay you for helping me out of my...situation last week.

It was a perfectly normal message; not at all something you would find odd. But like Hermione said, the only way this message could possibly be genuine was if it had been written by a dead man.

Harry passed the book back to Hermione.

"It's probably a joke" he said, agreeing with her previous statement. There was a part of him (the part that had noticed something wrong with the Professor from the very first day) that was screaming out that there was more to the note than just that; that there was more to the Professor than they thought.

Harry had promised Ron though, that he was going to stop his admittedly obsessive behaviour, and he wasn't going to turn back on that promise...not just for his friends sake, but also his own.

"Weird joke" Ron noted, before changing the topic back to the previous one of Quiddich.

And so, for once in their lives at Hogwarts, the Golden Trio ignored a potential mystery...and the strange professor was able to keep his secret for the time being.

Only for the time being, of course...because at Hogwarts no secret was safe.

...

AN:

I just want to thank you all for your reviews.

You don't know how amazing it is to read your comments and your opinions and to know what you think of my story. I just want you guys to know how much I truly appreciate it when you do.

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Love you guys heaps!