Disclaimer: Er... Fine! I-d-o-n-o-t-o-w-n-H-a-r-r-y-P-o-t-t-e-r-! J-o-R-o-w-l-i-n-g-d-o-e-s-! Now, once again; Sod off! Into the story with you!
Chapter Four
Sorting Out The Potions
Severus paced his precious dungeons.
Isabel? Who, in the world, is Isabel?
Twisting and turning his mind, he didn't have a face to go with the name. No wonder, really, since she'd obviously be attending Hogwarts this year.
She's obviously eleven, you dumb whop! You heard the woman!
And who was the father? Beautiful, but scary was the words she'd used. And she, Hermione, had sent Madame Rosmerta pictures of this child. Why?
And suddenly, it hit him like a curse:
It's Hermione's child!
The thought made him cold and he lost his breath for what seemed like several minutes. How could he have been so dumb witted and slow minded? Her hair had changed! That was the best readable sign! When a witch becomes a mother for the first time, her hair changes! And he had been too caught up in his own pain that he didn't see further than his own nose! And how come Minerva hadn't told him? He frowned at the thought and before he knew what he was doing, he'd made a rather large crack in one of the walls.
Oh, for the love of… he thought as the pain shot through his hand.
Holding the hurting hand with the other, he bent forwards and clenched his teeth, determined not to scream. After a few minutes he couldn't help the moan escaping between the teeth.
Bloody Hell! That hurt! Now, why did I have to go and do that?
He felt rather stupid and realized he just had to face the facts: He was a mere schoolboy in Hermione's presence. Hell, he didn't even have to be in her presence, all she had to do was actually just being in the same building.Wondering, though, were everything had gone so terribly wrong. He couldn't even remember why he'd avoided her back then. What had she done, that made him do that?
Absolutely nothing! He concluded, getting, if possibly, even more angry and frustrated.
Oh, yes! It was so easy to blame her for everything back then. Even after she'd been tortured, raped and hit with the Crutio, she'd been all warm-hearted and loving towards him. He knew he hadn't deserved it. He knew he should be counting himself lucky, but still… He'd blamed her. Even thinking back, remembering the words that triggered her, he'd blamed her! Blimey! She hadn't deserved it! And he should've remembered the words Lucius always used when he had his way with a woman.
I could kill myself for being a bastard! Hell, I should kill myself!
By this point, Severus was beyond reason and he looked at Minerva as she entered the room.
"What have I done to her, Minerva? What in Merlin's name have I done?" he looked at her in utter desperation. "I have to make it right by her!"
Minerva looked at him with her mouth partly open. She was befuddled. "What on earth are you talking about, Severus?" she asked, knowing the answer very well already, but he merely shook his head and mumbled something. "Severus! Pull yourself together, boy!" Minerva said to snap him out of whatever self-destructing world he was in. "This is not like you!" At this she folded her arms across her chest. "Do you really think she will ever come back to you when you are acting like this? Like a psychiatric patient!"
Now, that was the keywords. He looked at her and she saw the transformation as it happened. The despair fainted and was replaced by his signature expression; stone cold. "You're right, Minerva. I don't know what came over me." He turned his back on her and looked at the crack he'd made in the wall. "Bloody stupid." Was all he said as he raised his wand and quickly mended it.
Minerva sighed and decided to let the issue go for now. "Severus. We need you in the Great Hall." She paused and he turned to face her again. "Why?" His looked totally baffled as he said it and Minerva sighed again. "The students, Severus?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "It's that day. They're coming back."
"Brilliant! Just what I need now." He said, frowning. "I'll be there in a few minutes. Thank you." With that he turned his back on her and disappeared into his Private Quarters, closing the door very quietly behind him.
Minerva could only shake her head and wonder whether it was such a good idea to have the two of them working under the same roof.
But, she thought as she left for the Great Hall, it is a rather large school.
She smiled to herself. I hope I do you justice, Albus, my dear…
In the meantime, Hermione was trying to shake of the event she'd experienced a few days earlier. She kept saying, to herself, that it was nothing, that she was only imagining things. He would never follow her with a hood on. He was much too sophisticated for that! Wasn't he? Much too proud?
"Oh, come on, Hermione! It wasn't him! He died in the war! He's gone!
Maybe if she said it enough times, it would be true, but she had to admit that she'd feel much more safe if his body was actually found when the war was over. Hell, she'd be feeling safer if lots of bodies were found after the war! Too many of their enemies seemed to have just vanished in thin air, while their friends and allies were lying around their feet. Dead and gone.
She shook her head to push the thoughts away and put on her happy face and brand new teaching robes. The students' arrival excited her and she was looking forward to the sorting ceremony.
I wonder, she thought as she walked out the door, smiling, which House the hat will sort Isabel into…
Too wrapped up in their own thoughts, Hermione and Severus ran into each other just outside the teachers' entrance of the Great Hall.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't…" Hermione pressed her lips together when she saw who it was she ran into. "Professor." She merely nodded and he looked at her. Completely befuddled.
"Hermione. I…" He stopped himself as she turned her back on him and opened the door to enter. "We're late." She said, not ready to be confronted with the past just yet.
Severus sighed and followed her inside, noticing the only two empty chairs next to each other at the Head Table.
Just brilliant. He thought as he sat down next to Hermione, just in the nick of time before the doors opened.
Hermione waited in anticipation for the sorting ceremony. The old Sorting Hat was placed on its regular chair and the children were standing where she herself stood eighteen years ago.
Minerva introduced herself and explained the ceremony, the hat sang an altogether totally different song than it had in any of Hermione's seven years, and then it was time for the new students to be sorted. Hermione wondered how it came up with it all, but also noticed the warning in the song. It was the same as always: Stand together, be strong from within. She shuddered.
Hermione listened only with half an ear, through the A's and the B's, when suddenly she jumped.
"Arthur Lucius Malfoy."
She couldn't believe her own ears and looked at the boy stepping up to the podium. He definitely reminded her of someone. His father's spit image. No doubt, he was Draco's son.
"SLYTHERIN!" the hat yelled, and the Slytherins applauded.
This is going to be interesting! Hermione thought before Minerva made her jump again.
"Morgaine Narcissa Malfoy."
She put her head in her hands for a few seconds. "Oh, my goodness! There's two of them!" she whispered and momentarily knew that Severus was looking at her. Slowly she looked up, watching the girl. She was slender, beautiful and most definitely Draco's daughter. But she also looked very much like another girl she knew.
"SLYTHERIN!" the hat yelled and once again the Green Table was applauding and cheering the girl on. Hermione whimpered softly into her hands. This really didn't look good, at all!
Severus looked at Hermione, wondering why she reacted so badly when she heard the twins' names and House. He'd give anything to get inside her head and find out what was going on in her mind. He was so caught up in his own line of thoughts that he didn't see the two girls left on the floor before Minerva called the first one's name.
"Isabel Granger Weasley."
He felt like he'd been hit with one of the Unforgiveables, or all of them, all at the same time. That Isabel was Hermione's child he'd already figured out, but Weasley's? He stared at the slender young girl walking up to Minerva and he gasped, getting the shock of his life.
With the long, straight and soft looking hair, silver blonde in colour, she was the spit image of a Malfoy!
The rest of the night had been a blur, but one thing he would never forget: Hermione's face when Isabel was called forward and sorted into Gryffindor. She had been so proud. And for a short time he had seen the light in her eyes, the light that was taken so brutally from her by Lucius. That's when he knew; Isabel was the one keeping her going. Without her daughter, Hermione was nothing! She had given up on herself and all she lived for was her beloved Isabel. In that moment, he decided that he was not, in a million years, going to treat Isabel the way ha had treated Hermione when she was his student. Besides, he didn't want to answer to the child's mother either. Severus gave a small chuckle when the thought appeared.
You are a bloody coward, Severus!
He shook his head and took his position as his first years came bursting in the door. He hated the setup, Slytherins and Gryffindors together in class was really the worst combination imaginable. But it spiced up his day, so maybe it wasn't so bad after all? Thank Merlin he was only the substitute teacher in Potions until the professor, who was supposed to be there, came around. Severus couldn't make out the reason why it took him so bloody long and it aggravated him severely.
"If you could all find your seats so we can get started, you will make my day a lot less bad than you are right now. And keep it down!"
The students jumped at the sound of his silky, dangerously calm voice and found their seats as by the flick of a wand.
Hmmm… Impressive! Severus smiled in his mind, but kept the cold, sour look, that was his signature, well plastered on his face.
He decided to start with the same sentence he always gave the first years.
"I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses..." he paused. "I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death," he let his eyes swipe the room. "if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
He usually stopped the introduction right there, but the past eleven years he had added the habit of adding a little something for the students, that he wanted to work as a goal for them.
"But, I have also had the pleasure of teaching one, single, brilliant witch. She truly was the brightest witch of her age, and helped defeat Voldemort." He couldn't help but to add a dramatic pause before revealing who it was. "She is now your Transfiguration teacher and Head of Gryffindor House; Hermione Granger."
At the sound of her name, a tiny, red haired girl cleared her throat and whispered something to the girl sitting next to her. Severus turned to her and rolled his eyes.
"Yes? I suppose you would like to share, whatever it is that is so important you have to talk about it in my class, with the rest of us, miss..?"
The girl blushed and looked down at her desk.
"Well… Er… I-it's j-just t-that…" she stuttered, intimidated by her professor's presence.
"Just, what? And you can start by telling me your name." he was already about to lose his temper, he hoped the girl was careful from hereon out.
Severus Snape, the ever impatient, easily ticked off Potions Master of Hogwarts.
He had to suppress a laugh by the thought. His head started to sound just like Hermione. Now, that was a scary thought!
"Sir, my name is Isabel Weasley, and I can assure you that the teacher you are referring to as Hermione Granger is, infact, called Hermione Weasley as of the last eleven years."
Severus glared at the blonde haired girl standing by her desk, next to the redhead, placed nowhere else, but in the front row. Just like her mother. And because of that he just couldn't help himself, regardless of the good intentions he had about her.
"Her mother's daughter, I see?" he smirked. "But I don't remember asking you, Miss Weasley, and nor did I actually give you permission to open your mouth,."
As he was talking he walked slowly towards her and placed his hands on top of her desk, leaning in as close as he could without touching her.
"So I suggest you sit down, pay attention and close your mouth before I start taking House Point from you." He said as he straightened himself up. "Understood, Miss Granger?"
He regretted the words the moment he spoke them, especially the Granger-bit, but in his world there was no taking it back. Besides, she was as far from a Weasley as anyone could possibly be! He merely looked at the girl until she gave him the reply that sent him right over the edge.
"The name is Weasley, Sir!" she stuck her chin out and upwards as she said it and looked him straight in the eye. He noticed she had the same warm, brown eyes as her mother and the chin had definitely the same shape as Hermione's.
"Twenty points from Gryffindor, for being fresh! You are no more Weasley than your mother, Miss Granger, and I suggest you keep your aggravating mouth shut for the rest of my class." His voice was calm, but inside he was boiling with fury. Isabel saw it in his eyes and looked down on her hands.
"Yes, Sir, I apologize." Anything to keep the peace with her mother and the brilliant professor she'd spoken so highly of.
"Very well. Now, shall we get started?" He didn't wait for a reply. "I assume you all have your own copy of Magical Drafts and Potions, and everything else that you may need in my class?" Looking at the silent crowd in front of him, Severus was not at all impressed anymore. "Very well," he stated again. "can anyone tell me what Porcupine Quills can be used for?"
Not surprisingly, Isabel's hand shot in the air, although she didn't wave it frantically like Hermione would have done. He decided to give her a chance.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" Completely refusing to call her Weasley, he thought for a second that he was edging her to fight, but this time she didn't protest.
"Sir, it is often used as an ingredient in a simple Boil Cure Potion."
"And can you tell me the other ingredients of this potion?" he looked directly at her and gave her yet an opportunity to answer.
"Yes, Sir. Dried nettles, crushed snake fangs and stewed horned slugs." It came out sounding like she had done nothing but brew potions her whole life and Severus nodded in approval.
"Very good, Miss Granger. While you are at it, can you please tell the rest of the class the most important thing in brewing this potion?"
"Sir, the porcupine quills must be added after the cauldron is taken off the fire, or else the mixture produces clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing, melts the cauldron, and burns holes in people's shoes." She stated matter-of-factly.
Severus just nodded. "Her mother's daughter, indeed." Was all he could say. "Very good, Miss Granger." He turned his back on the class. "The instructions are on the blackboard. Now get to work!"
As the Potions Class advanced into their second school hour, a sudden hiss came from one of the cauldrons and thick, acid green smoke erupted from its sides like lava from a volcano. The first thing Snape saw when he looked up from his book was Isabel sitting on her desk.
"For the love of ev…" his jaw dropped when he saw what had happened. "Who in the name of Merlin's beard, did this utterly stupid thing?" His eyes shot fire bolts of pure anger as he looked around the room, his eyes landing on the little redhead. "You!"
The girl started crying. "I-I'm s-sorry, p-professor, b-b-but…" she managed to press out between the sobs.
"Oh, spare me the excuses!" Snape snapped. "Start with telling me your name, so I know who to keep an eye on next time!" The girl mumbled something and he had to tell her to speak up. Finally he could make out that her first name was Molly. "Brilliant! Don't tell me! You're one of the Weasley's daughter? That name has most definitely been passed down for generations!" he barely saw the nod she gave him, but he saw it. It was there! "What have I done wrong to get another one of you? Was not the seven other Weasleys causing enough pain and commotion on my watch? Was it actually necessary to send me number eight?" he said, actually not meaning to say it at all. He closed his eyes. "Your last name, I take it, is of course Weasley." He didn't ask, he just suggested it, as he did.
The girl just wouldn't stop crying so Isabel answered for her. "Sir, her name is Molly Longbottom. She's my cousin."
Severus gritted his teeth and made a roaring sound.
"Brilliant! She's not only a Weasley, but she is also a Longbottom. Can this possibly get any better?"
He shook his head and shrugged as he walked as close as he could to the green potion on the floor and waved his wand, no words uttered, and the mess vanished. He noticed his students' amazed looks and he knew he'd sat an example. Nonetheless, he wanted them out of his sacred space.
"Class dismissed. Get out of my sight!"
Hiya, lads and lassies! 'chuckles' Was it worth the wait?
This is actually two chapters in one, so I tried to do something special with the headline. Tell me if it's really bad... And also if it's not so bad... 'chuckles'
And since my other story was written before I actually read HBP, I found too many mistakes in it after reading the book. This is made a little more HBP Compliant, but it's still my story! And I've actually made som studies of the books so I hope it's recognizeable enough!
The Button Is Still Your Friend! (said in the funky voice of Professor Trelawney).