One Day at a Time
Colburn Trouble
"Um, Professor Colburn?" I looked up from my hastily scribbled lesson plan for my next class and saw Hermione cautiously peeking her head into my office. "I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about the project you assigned us," she continued, taking a few steps towards my desk.
"Of course, Hermione," I said, gesturing towards one of the chairs opposite my desk before standing up and taking the other one. She seemed mildly surprised that I would make such a gesture of equality, butI considered it merely a show of politeness. After a brief conversation about her essay and project, there was a pause in the conversation before I made the decision to leap to less school-related topics and ask her how things were going for her.
That conversation developed briefly before another pause and then Hermione asked me, "So what did you do before you got this position?"
"I was a tutor," I replied, glad that my previous career arguably qualified me for my current position.
"Oh, I'd never heard about tutors, before. It makes sense that they'd exist, I guess," she shrugged her shoulders slightly.
"Are you Muggle-born?" Noting her mildly taken-aback expression, I mildly wondered if Harry had told her I was in Slytherin, and I hastily clarified myself. "I just mean that Muggle parents generally haven't heard of magic tutors before."
"Oh. Yes, I'm Muggle-born. Are you Muggle-born too?" her eyes brightened.
"No, I'm not," I struggled to maintain a neutral tone. "I'm pure-blood."
She nodded silently, and then stood up. "Well, I should probably go grab lunch before Ron and Harry wonder where I've disappeared to. It was nice talking with you, Professor Colburn."
Shortly afterwards I heard a mild commotion in the corridor. "Filthy Mudblood! Are you blind, too?" Draco's voice.
"Excuse me, but you're the one, you and your goons, who ran into me!" I heard Hermione's voice exclaim.
"Who gave you the right to talk to me like that! You watch your step, Granger, you're finally going to get your just deserts now that the Dark Lord has ri—"
"Is there a problem?" I curtly interrupted, entering the large stone hallway.
"Professor, I was just minding my own business when this Mudblood assaulted m—" Draco angrily started.
"I did not 'assault' you!" Hermione hotly exclaimed. "It's you who shouldered me into the wall."
"Does there seem to be a problem?" Snape's voice icily came as he appeared from seemingly nowhere.
"I can handle the situation fine myself, thank you" I cooly replied and I felt his black eyes boring into my blue ones. I held his gaze for a second before I turned my attention back to the two students in front of me. I was acutely aware of his presence as I started talking. "Look, I don't care who ran into who, or who thinks what about who. All I know is that this type of commotion is childish and uncalled for and I would expect more of 6th years who are practically at the end of their Hogwarts education." Draco and Hermione both looked away and I saw a pink tinge rise in Hermione's cheeks. "When you're in a public place, the least you can do is show each other a minimum level of respect."
"But professor she's a M—" sputtered Draco.
"I don't care. You're an excellent wizard and she's an excellent witch, and in a place like Hogwarts the least you can do is pass each other in the corridor without breaking out into a childish squall." I glanced away from their faces for a split second and saw that Snape's eyes were continuously on me. "I'm not going to deduct any house points this time, but you can be sure that the next time there will be a much harsher punishment. Now get on your way to lunch."
The small crowd that had gathered quickly dispersed and the two teenagers left in opposite directions. I quietly breathed a sigh of relief that my first resolution of a conflict had gone smoothly. Snape approached and I mentally cringed. If he was about to criticize me—
"Well handled," his voice drawled with such a combination of coldness, acridness and sarcasm that I had no clue what he actually meant. He held my gaze for a second and I felt oddly vulnerable before he sharply turned and started walking away.
By the next week, the third week of school, things were finally beginning to quiet down. I was starting to become friends with Sprout, Flitwick and Hagrid, and I had already run into the Potter trio several times when visiting Hagrid; knowing that they were friendly towards me made teaching my 6th year class considerably more relaxing. This week was also when, as true to their word, Fred and George Weasley arrived in Hogwarts for their visit. At first it wasn't actually them I saw, but I instead a sudden increase in the number of invisible stink bombs, smoke bombs which filled a corridor with white fog so thick you could barely walk through it, and fireworks that would latch onto the ceiling and rain down sparks for hours on end, always moving just out of Filch's reach.
One of these afternoons I walked to Hagrid's hut and just as I was about to knock on his door I heard voices inside. I could've sworn that I heard the word "Colburn" so I paused and instead listened thoughtfully, wondering what it would look like if they found me outside, standing silently at Hagrid's door.
"So who's Professor Colburn?" a voice I didn't recognize inquire.
"She's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. She's pretty good, much better than Umbridge." Ron.
"Not that that's saying much," Harry bitterly replied.
"Colburn, in a Defense Against the Dark Arts position?" a similar voice I didn't recognize doubtfully asked, and I felt my pulse quicken.
"Yeah, why? Have you…heard something about her?" Harry again.
"I thought there were a couple Colburns—"
"In Azkaban." The two unknown voices seemed to be finishing each other's sentences.
"What for?" I heard Ron's shocked voice, and my pulse quickened until it felt like my veins were about to split open from the pressure.
I heard Hagrid leap to my defense. "Oh, now, don't judge her just because her family—"
"Death Eaters." The unknown voice stated, seemingly ignoring Hagrid's comment. My heart, formerly feeling as though it was about to explode from over-exertion, froze in my chest and my blood felt replaced with ice. A split second later though, it was beating again, and this time it was pumping lava through my veins instead of blood. How dare they, how dare they—
"Not that they're in Azkaban anymore."
"What with You-Know-Who's rise," the two voices continued finishing each other's thoughts.
"But you don't think that she's, that she's—" Ron's mildly shocked voice came.
"Don't be silly, just because there's a couple rotten eggs in her family doesn't mean they all turned out bad," Hagrid's reassuring voice stated. "I've talked with her a bunch of times. She's a very pleasant person."
"She was in Slytherin…" Harry's voice cautiously entered the conversation before trailing off, and I felt further annoyance start surging through my veins. Just because I was in Slytherin…
"Not all Slytherin's are bad," Hagrid gruffly replied.
"And—and, besides, she told Malfoy to stop calling me a Mu—to, to stop insulting me. If she was a Death Eater she would've immediately sided with Malfoy," Hermione's voice quietly hovered in the room, and I felt my blood start to cool off.
"Yeah, like Snape," Harry interjected.
"Yeah, and she doesn't seem to be very fond of Snape, either," Ron cheerfully added.
"That makes me like her more already!" one of the two unknown voices replied, laughing.
"Although Snape is on our side," the other unknown voice added.
"But Death Eaters don't know that," the other half of the pair replied. "So of course Death Eaters are going to be all-friendly-go-lucky with Snape."
Somebody burst into hysterical laughter. "I'm sorry," I heard Ron say between raucous laughs. "It's just the image of a happy-go-lucky Snape," he continued laughing, "It's almost as ridiculous as that boggart Snape wearing the vulture hat back in our third year." The rest of the cabin burst into laughter and the small wooden hut seemed to positively shake with the exuberant joy.
After a bit it quieted down and then I heard one of the unknown voices "Well, we ought to get going."
"More products to sell, you know," the other voice continued.
There was the sound of moving chairs and more good-byes. I took that as my cue to leave and, unsure where I could go, quickly ran behind the back of the hut. The door opened and I saw the expected trio along with two other red-haired boys--the two unknown voices were evidently Fred and George Weasley.
Once they had disappeared from my line of vision, I started walking back to the cabin, immersed in my thoughts. So Snape's a Death Eater. That agrees with my snotty pure-blood git theory. Well, I'm not going to treat him differently, I thought bitterly. It's not like he knows that I know that he's a Death Eater.
…
Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: A big thank you to ~Number1PeepFan~ for reviewing! I'm trying pretty hard to keep Snape in character, so I hope I'm succeeding!