52

Lessons Learned

Lily gave the pot of onion and bacon soup another stir before she turned to remove the fresh bread from the oven. She had been off today, she worked three days a week at The Three Broomsticks assisting Madam Rosmerta in making her Mysteriously Wicked Ale as well as making Hangover Remedies and Sober Up Charms which patrons could purchase so they wouldn't be in danger of Apparating into walls or flying into trees when they tried to go home after a night at the tavern. She worked in her alter ego of Zoey Snape, and found that the patrons naturally treated her with a sort of deference, since she was petite and elegant looking in her Glamoured form. She learned a lot of gossip working at the tavern, as the students and professors both patronized the establishment.

She glanced up at the clock on the wall, which had just chimed six o'clock. Severus should be home any minute, his last class was at five and he was probably tidying up the classroom or maybe grading a few homework assignments before coming home. She knew he would probably be required to eat two nights a week at school with the staff, but otherwise would spend the nights at home with her, unless he had detentions to supervise or potions brewing that required his constant attendance. She hoped this first day had gone well for him, he had been very nervous and barely eaten some toast and tea before going up to the castle.

She turned to slice the bread, inhaling the delectable aroma in eager gulps. Mmm! There was nothing quite like the smell of fresh bread right from the oven. As if on cue, she heard the Floo flare up and then the quick footsteps of her husband coming into the kitchen. "That smells absolutely wonderful, Lily."

Lily turned about and smiled at him. "Hi, Sev! How was your day?"

He rubbed at his eyes and muttered, "Don't ask."

She eyed him keenly, noting how his hair had come undone from its tail, and he looked exhausted and his robes were splattered with some kind of potion. "That bad, huh? Want to talk about it?"

"Later. I need to take a hot bath."

"Go ahead, dear. I'll have supper waiting when you come down," she murmured, smothering a giggle at how much like an old married couple they sounded now. She kissed him gently, holding him for a brief moment before he drew away and headed upstairs.

After they had enjoyed a delicious supper of fresh bread and soup, Severus ate two bowls and a quarter of the loaf of bread smeared with butter and honey, he reluctantly told his wife about the disastrous first class he had had. "I really mucked it up, Lil. Even though Dumbledore was understanding, I know if something like this happens again, he'll probably put me on notice or something."

"Oh, Sev, I don't think so. Everyone makes mistakes their first day at a new job, or even the first week. And teaching potions is a difficult subject, you know how many things can go wrong even when the students aren't misbehaving, don't you? Why, I can remember Francis Heartwood exploding a cauldron every other class when we were in school. And Slughorn was never sacked. Dumbledore knows it take a bit for a new professor to settle in and find their balance."

"I know, but I feel totally inadequate. Even my seventh year class acted out, only they just ignored my instructions on what to study for NEWTS and talked or fooled around for half the period. I took points but it didn't seem to have an effect. Even my Slytherins brushed me off. I guess they think I'm too young to be a professor, most of the seventh years are only a few years younger than I am."

"That shouldn't make a difference, Sev. You're their teacher, they should respect that."

"Ha! Tell them that! I think I'm going to have to talk to Dad about it. Maybe he can suggest something," Severus admitted. He dreaded having to walk back in the classroom the next morning.

"That's a good idea, Sev. I'm sure Dickon's had his share of irritating and unmanageable students, after all he taught the Marauders." Lily said.

"Right."

"Why don't you come over to the couch and lie down for a bit? I can give you a massage?" she offered. "You don't have to be back up at the castle till nine, right?"

He nodded. Nine was when he had to be in his office, available to students in case they had questions or problems with his class or another professor's. Then he would perform bed checks on his Slytherins from ten to eleven, when all of them should be in bed asleep. After that he could retire himself.

He allowed Lily to lead him over to the couch, and then he started to remove his robes and shirt, looking forward to the massage she had offered. He had just tossed his stained robes over the back of the couch—the rental cottage had come fully furnished with furniture that had clearly seen better days but was so comfortable it hardly mattered to either Snape what it looked like—and was unbuttoning his white dress shirt when the Floo flared to life again.

"Sev, were you expecting anyone?" Lily queried, still holding the sandalwood massage oil in her hand.

"No." He started to turn around, his shirt halfway undone, showing his well-muscled chest. He was slender, but his shoulders and chest were lean with muscles developed from long hours lifting and stirring cauldrons of potions. Dammit all, but I was really looking forward to Lily giving me that massage after the day from hell I've had. Who the hell could be visiting at this hour? We hardly know any neighbors and everyone at Hogwarts should be bloody well eating their own dinner.

To his utter shock, a little girl with dark hair tumbled through the green flames and landed right on her bottom on the hearth. Undaunted, she stood up, brushed herself off and cried, "Hi, Sevvy! I missed you!"

Severus' mouth worked but no sound came out. His baby sister had just Flooed over his house.

"Jess!" Lily exclaimed. "What are you doing here all by yourself, baby girl? Is Mummy coming over too?"

Normally Eileen would send notice that she was Flooing over to their house with Jess. She had never sent Jess through on her own before.

"Uh . . ." was all Jess said, then she ran over to her big brother and threw her arms about his leg, hugging him.

Severus knelt and picked up his precocious little sister, then he sat down on the couch and said seriously, "Jessamyn, does Mum know you Flooed here?"

"Umm . . .well . . ." she squirmed and looked at his boots. "I kinda told her I wanted to visit . . ." She looked up at him imploringly with her huge brown eyes. "I missed you lots an' lots, Sevvy! All the way t'the moon n'back again."

Severus sighed. It would seem he now had a runaway baby to deal with. Eileen was going to be frantic once she realized her baby was missing. "I missed you too, little bug, but you know you're not allowed to go anywhere without Mummy. Especially through the fire!" he scolded.

Jess' lower lip puckered. "Sevvy, you no want me here?" Her eyes filled with tears.

Great, now I've made her cry. Everything today is going wrong, the young Potions professor thought glumly. "Jess, it's not that I don't want to see you, but . . ."

Just then the Floo flared again and Eileen stuck her head through, looking frantic and scared. "Severus, I can't find Jess. Have you seen her?"

"Calm down, Mum. She's right here with me. Came through a few minutes ago," Severus told his mother.

"Oh, thank God!" Eileen cried in relief. "I was about to call the Aurors to try and put a trace on the Network." She then glared at her wayward offspring. "Jessamyn Aline Marsh, you are in very big trouble!"

Jess gulped and immediately wriggled free of Severus' lap and crawled behind the sofa to hide from her mother's well deserved wrath. From behind the couch, she called, "Sorry, Mummy."

"You're going to be sorry all right. Just wait until I get my hands on you," Eileen promised.

A moment later, the tall witch had stepped through the Floo and stood on the hearth, her arms crossed, her face a mixture of vast relief and anger. "Come here, young lady, this instant."

Jess started to cry. She knew that tone meant she was in awful trouble.

Severus winced. The last time he had heard that tone directed at him, he had been six and Eileen had caught him playing about with her potions kit, cutting up a flower bulb with her very sharp knife. He had almost sliced the tip of his finger off. Eileen had been furious, since Severus knew he wasn't supposed to ever touch her potions kit, or play with sharp objects. That had been one of the few times she had spanked him.

"Jessamyn! I'm waiting." Eileen snapped, her eyes glittering. One pointed shoe began to tap ominously against the stone hearth.

There came a sniffle from behind the couch.

"One." Eileen began to count.

"No! No count!" wailed the child.

"Two. You had better come out, young lady."

Sniveling quietly, Jess emerged from behind the sofa. She had learned the hard way to obey her mother when she started counting. Feet dragging, she walked over to Eileen. "Sorry, Mummy! I . . .I wanned to see Sevvy!"

"Jessamyn, you scared me half to death!" Eileen cried, scooping up her daughter and hugging her. "Never ever do that again, do you hear me? You could have been lost in the Floo! Forever!"

"Forever?" whimpered the little imp.

"Yes, forever! And you would have never seen Mummy or Daddy or Sevvy again!" Eileen said sternly. "Didn't I tell you I would take you to visit Sevvy tomorrow?"

"Uh huh. But it's too long!"

"Jess, you were very naughty to run away like that. I am very disappointed in you." Eileen declared. "Very disappointed." Then she gave the intrepid toddler three spanks.

Jess wailed loudly, promising she would be good.

Eileen hugged her. "I certainly hope so. Sev, Lily, forgive me for interrupting your evening. I'm just glad that she was found." She rubbed the sobbing child's back. "I'll have to lock up the Floo Powder, Merlin help me!"

"How did she get it, Mum?" asked Severus, for he knew the Floo Powder was always kept up on the mantle at Spinner's End.

"She dragged a chair over and climbed up and took it down." Eileen sighed. "Say goodbye to Sevvy, Jess. We're going home and you're going to bed early."

"No-o-o! Mummy, I wanna stay with Sevvy!" Jess cried.

"Sorry, but bad little girls who run away through the Floo don't get to visit their big brothers." Her mother told her firmly. She tucked the squirming bawling toddler beneath her arm and bid her son and daughter-in-law goodbye before Flooing away.

"Poor Jess," Lily said, shaking her head.

"She was very lucky, children have been lost in limbo using the Floo like that," Severus said. "Little imp! My mother sure has her hands full. I can't believe she did that. She's only three!"

"She's got the Snape brains all right," Lily said.

"And the Prince brass and the Marsh ingenuity," Severus said ruefully. "Heaven help Mum and Dad."

"They'll manage. They're good parents, Sev. Now, shall we get back to what we were originally doing?"

"Absolutely," Severus agreed, then he finished unbuttoning his shirt.

Twenty minutes later, he was semi-dozing as Lily's strong yet gentle fingers massaged all the sore places in his back and neck away. When she halted, he muttered, "Don't stop. Feels good."

Lily smiled and continued massaging for another few minutes. "How's that, love?"

"Mmm . . .I feel very relaxed."

"Why don't you take a nap then?"

"I might. If you'll sleep with me?"

"Is that an invitation?" she teased.

He pulled her down on top of him. "Take it however you want," he murmured huskily. Then he kissed her.

She curled up on top of him, kissing him back.

He would have liked to do more but unfortunately he was too tired and fell asleep.

He slept for the better part of two hours before Lily had to wake him up, as it was time to go back to the school. He wished he didn't have to leave, he would have preferred to sleep next to his wife rather than Sorrel in his cold bed at Hogwarts. After casting a quick Cleaning Charm over his robes, he reluctantly put them back on and made ready to leave. "I would stay if I could," he began regretfully.

"I know. But your little snakes need you too, Sev." She reminded him.

He rolled his eyes. "I never thought when I accepted this post that I'd be playing nursemaid to a bunch of little teenage brats."

"It'll be good practice for when we have one of our own," Lily said.

"I suppose," was all he said. Then he bent and kissed her goodbye. "I love you, little oracle."

"Love you too, my sweet Prince. Don't worry. Tomorrow will be better. You'll see."

"I bloody well hope so. Sweet dreams, Lily."

She chuckled. "My dreams are always sweet. Because you're always in them." She returned the kiss, then gave him a gentle smack on the backside. "Get moving, Professor Snape! Before I forget the manners my mother taught me and drag you my bed and seduce you."

"I'd like that."

"Me too, but how would you explain to Dumbledore why you lost track of time?"

"I could tell him we were having a private moment," answered her husband wickedly. "I'll see you tomorrow night." Then he tossed down some Floo Powder and stepped into the green flames. Now he understood better why most of the staff remained unmarried, because the separation played havoc with one's personal life.

After he had answered a few questions about his homework assignment during his office hours and given Dreamless Sleep laced milk to a few of his firsties who were homesick and couldn't seem to fall asleep, he finally retired to his own room, where he got undressed and curled up in bed with a book and Sorrel, who sprawled by his feet.

"Maybe I should get Lily a cat. Then she wouldn't be so lonely over there and you'd have a companion for the summer," Severus said to his familiar. "What do you think of that?"

Sorrel lifted her orange head and mewed softly before nipping his toes playfully.

"Ow! Little bugger! Is that a yes or no?"

Sorrel purred.

"Cats! They're just like women. Never give you a straight answer."

He poked the cat in the side then returned to reading his book.

He sincerely hoped that tomorrow's classes went better than the previous ones.

The next morning, Severus went to visit Dickon before breakfast, hoping he could offer him some advice about handling troublesome students and heading off disasters in the classroom. He never wanted to suffer through another day like the last one. Dressing in his teaching robes, he walked up five flights of stairs and tapped upon the door to Dickon's quarters, which were near the Astronomy Tower. Luckily, Dickon hadn't had class last night, and so would be awake this early in the morning.

"Come in," called the astronomer.

Severus entered. Dickon was sitting on his small sofa, drinking a cup of tea and nibbling on a piece of toast with Little Scarlet strawberry jam. The older wizard was still in his shirtsleeves and had not yet put on his robes or his shoes. He looked at Severus and smiled. "Good morning, Sev. So how goes your second day of teaching? Do you want to run screaming from the castle yet?"

"Actually, Dad . . .I do," he admitted softly.

Dickon nodded in understanding and patted the sofa. "Sit down. We can share horror stories. Care for a cuppa?"

"I . . .all right." Severus came and sat next to his father. A house elf appeared and brought him a steaming cup of tea, which he fixed with two lumps of sugar and a generous amount of cream. He used to drink it without cream, but today he felt he needed the cream. "Thank you," he told the elf.

"You is very welcome, Master Professor Snape!" said the elf, bowing before he vanished.

Severus sipped his tea before he looked at Dickon and said, "Dad, my first day was a disaster. I think I was wrong to accept the position."

"Ah, Sev, don't get discouraged. Every new teacher has days like that. Look at what happened during your first class with me. Do you remember that little pervert Pettigrew and how he used my telescope to look up girls' skirts?"

"How could I forget? Lily was one of them," Severus said. "I wanted to throw him off the tower."

"So did I, actually," Dickon admitted. "I never could stand that kid. He was always a sneaky little arse-kisser."

"Tell me about it. He still is, probably." Severus sneered. Then he returned to his original topic, telling his father about how his class had gotten out of control and exploded a cauldron and Dumbledore had come in and observed it all. "I wanted to vanish into a hole. I don't know why he didn't sack me on the spot."

Dickon chuckled. "Lad, don't be so hard on yourself. D'you think you're the first teacher to have a class run amok? Not by a long shot! And you have a tough class to teach, since potions is such a . . .volatile subject, with plenty of opportunity for foolish kids to have accidents even when they're doing as they ought to."

"What can I do to prevent it from happening again?"

"First, you need to set clear rules and consequences for your classroom and make sure the students understand that when they break a rule, they suffer the consequences, no matter what House they're in. I know you're probably tempted to favor your little snakes, but don't. Rules should be rules for all." Dickon told him firmly.

"That makes sense. Besides, I barely know my Slytherins. I don't think they like me very much." Severus said gloomily.

"Nonsense, lad! They just need to get used to you. And you need to get used to them. Look at them as . . .a bunch of younger siblings. Then treat them accordingly. Most of the firsties are probably homesick and need someone to talk to. You should encourage them to write letters home and encourage their parents to write back often. Also see if you can't get a sort of mentor student program going. See if the older ones won't agree to taking a first or second year under their wing and showing them the ropes. That way you'll cut down on pranks and bullying."

"That's a good idea. I've already discussed the fact that I won't tolerate bullying of any kind in my House or out of it." Severus said, recalling all too well his torment at the wands of the Marauders.

"Make sure the Slytherins know that if they have problems, they can come and discuss it with you and you will try your best to resolve it. They need to know they can rely on you." Dickon continued. "You might not be as old as Slughorn, but you're older and more experienced than them, that should count for something."

"And what about students who misbehave repeatedly? How should I handle them?"

"A consummate troublemaker is always a teacher's worst nightmare. As I know perfectly well considering I had three in my class at one time. Do you remember what I did to Black, Potter, and Pettigrew after the telescope incident?"

"Yes. You gave them some detention where they had to do astronomical equations for hours. They bitched and moaned for days after it."

"Right. And then they behaved for a time. You need to come up with a detention that makes trouble makers think twice about misbehaving. Like cutting up foul potions ingredients or scrubbing the floor without magic. You may even want to impress upon them the folly of fooling about with their potions by showing them the victims of potions accidents. I'm sure St. Mungos is full of people who were permanently injured due to potions exploding. Sometimes all it takes is one or two pointed examples to scare a kid straight. Of course, you'd have to clear it with Dumbledore first. That might make a good impression on those kids who might consider acting up in class. Or even those who have misbehaved before.

"The other thing I would do is have cascading consequences for repeat misbehavior."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that if the same student keeps misbehaving, the detentions keep getting worse, until after the third or fourth time you go to the Headmaster and tell him what had happened and suggest strongly that he inform their parents about the child's behavior and if it continues, you will refuse to have the troublemaker in your class. They can fail for the year."

"Have you ever done that?"

"No. Not yet. Even the Marauders knew not to push me that far. I told Dumbledore a long time ago that I won't put up with chronic troublemakers in my class and he should support me on it. He agreed . . .reluctantly."

"I can do that," Severus said.

"One other thing. Keep your class so busy that they don't have time for pranks. And make sure you separate the troublemakers and the friends who talk with each other, that way they have to work on the lesson and not babble all period."

"I'll also assign them plenty of homework." Severus resolved.

"That's good, Sev, but don't overdo it." Dickon cautioned. "Remember, you're going to have to grade the lot of it and you don't want to run yourself into the ground."

Severus hadn't thought about that. He was glad Dickon was so knowledgeable and wise. "Where did you learn all this, Dad?"

"I talked to Minerva and a few other teachers and I also thought about the way my parents used to discipline us as children. Then I used my own judgment. It wasn't easy, believe me. But eventually you'll get the hang of it, son. Don't get discouraged, Severus. You'll be fine." He patted the younger man on the shoulder.

Severus gave him a tentative smile. "Maybe. I'll see. Did Mum tell you about Jessa's little adventure last night?"

"Aye, she did. Made me come home just so I could scold the little mischief-maker," Dickon sighed ruefully. "I remember when my second youngest brother, Edward, who also is a wizard, did something similar when we were kids. I never saw my mum get so mad. Ned ended up walloped good and forbidden to go anywhere without holding onto Mum's hand for weeks. He was five and to this day he hates using the Floo."

"Jess is really something." Severus shook his head.

"Aye, she is. She has a lot of your mum in her. Bold as brass and bright as a new Galleon."

"She has a lot of you in her too. She's curious and she loves meeting new people and learning new things." His son pointed out.

Dickon's eyes twinkled. "Heaven help us all! Ah well, I never did want to be bored."

"You'll never be that, not with Jess around." His son said, smirking.

Dickon cocked an eyebrow at him. "Don't be so smug, boy. Just wait till you have one of your own."

"Lily's been hinting at it. But right now I have too much to deal with to even think about starting a family," Severus demurred. Especially when he was spying for Dumbledore and pretending to spy for Voldemort.

"You're young yet. You've got time. No need to rush." The older professor said. "Well, you'd best be getting on to the Hall, Sev. You need to have breakfast with the staff, it's when Dumbledore usually makes the important announcements about policy changes and curriculum requirements and so forth. It's also a good way for you to get to know the other professors as equals now. I'm going to stay here this morning, catch up on some sleep." As a senior professor, Dickon had that option.

Severus rose, thanked his father for all the helpful advice, and left. He wished he had Dickon's confidence, he felt certain the other professors still thought of him as a student and not a colleague and were probably laughing at him silently for making such blunders. Then he lifted his chin. He wouldn't let that stop him. He had been laughed at many times before and he had never let it get to him.

There were no important announcements at breakfast, which enabled Severus to concentrate upon eating and planning out his new classroom rules in his head. He was quiet throughout the meal, though he did manage to observe what the rest of the staff was eating and talking about, which was the terrible influence Voldemort and his followers were having upon several of the children, mostly the Death Eater families, though also the Muggleborns suffered from persecution, and so did some half-bloods as well.

The rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor had grown so bad that none of the students were allowed to carry wands inbetween classes, they had to hand them to the teacher after each lesson now and the teacher would give them to the next professor the student had class with, it was a pain in the arse, but it cut down upon minor duels and hexing in the corridors. After dinner, students were allowed their wands to practice homework, but if they were caught dueling, would lose one hundred House points and have detention for two weeks and have their wands confiscated.

Severus made a mental note to speak with the Slytherins about not getting involved in arguments with the lions. It might not do much good, but at least he would make an effort to discourage random acts of violence. He wished he could also discourage the Death Eater children from following in their parents' footsteps, but that would totally blow his cover if the child ever reported back home.

When breakfast was ended, Severus spoke briefly with Dumbledore about a "field trip" to St. Mungos, explaining why he thought it would be good to take the students there, especially the first years. The Headmaster said he would think about it and get back to the Potions Master later.

Severus retreated to the dungeons, where he spent the rest of his prep period writing the new class rules on the board and setting up for his first class of the morning—second year Ravenclaws and Gryffindors. Most of these students were not looking for trouble, and Severus took roll calmly, then went into explaining the class rules and penalties. He also decided to give points if a student performed well, thus encouraging good behavior and study skills.

The first half of the lesson went well, he explained the basic properties of the draft they would be brewing and asked several questions about the different plants and magical herbs in it. Most of the students knew the correct answer to the questions, those that didn't, he assigned a reading to.

Finally they were ready to brew. Taking Dickon's advice, he chose the pairs for the lab, making them boy-girl, same House but not those who normally sat together. Then he walked around, checking on the measurements of each pair and correcting those who were not chopping, dicing, or crushing the ingredients correctly.

"What does it matter if the lavender is minced instead of diced?" complained one tall Gryffindor girl.

"A great deal," Severus replied, frowning down at her. He fumbled for an analogy, finally settling on cooking, since he also did a lot of it. "What if you were trying to make mashed potatoes and you tried to mash a whole potato, what would happen?"

"It would take longer."

"Exactly. That's why you dice potatoes before you mash them. To make it easier. It's also why you mince certain herbs, to release the essence and make it stronger. A Sleeping Draught is only as good as the ingredients and the smaller you chop the more oil is released from the lavender plant. Generally, if a recipe calls for an ingredient to be prepared a certain way, rest assured there is always a reason for it. Some types of magical plants can only be used when you chop or prepare them a certain way. That is why you should always pay close attention to your instructions."

"Oh. Okay, professor. I get it now," she said.

"Chop that finer," he instructed.

Then he moved on to another work station.

He showed another pair how to regulate their fire by asking them pointedly what was wrong with their cauldron. Once they figured it out, then he lowered the flame. "Always watch your fire, Mr. Hopewell. Go from a simmer to a boil and you'll have ruined all your work with a moment of carelessness."

He took points from those who were gossiping or fooling around, though not very many.

He had almost made it around the room when disaster struck. He had gone to examine the cauldron of two Ravenclaws at the far right of the dungeon, which was simmering adequately. However he noticed that the boy was doing all the work of preparing the ingredients while his partner simply sat there with her arms wrapped about her middle. Frowning severely, for he hated slackers, he said, "Miss Fielding, is there a reason why you aren't helping Mr. Williams with the ingredients? Do you think you are above getting your hands dirty?"

"She's not feeling well, sir," said her partner.

Severus turned to look at the girl. "What's the matter?"

"Professor Snape, I think I'm going to—" she began, then she threw up all over his boots.

"Eeew!"

"Gross!"

"Nice one, Misty!" mocked a Gryffindor a few rows down.

The sick and humiliated witch started to cry. "I'm so sorry, sir!"

Grimacing, he quickly vanished the mess and said quietly, "Go to the Hospital Wing and see Madam Pomfrey, Fielding. Do you need assistance?"

More snickers and hooting followed this statement.

"Yeah, she needs help, all right, sir."

"Her head's always in the clouds."

Fielding shook her head and practically ran from the room.

"Mr. Williams, as you were. The rest of you lot, tend to your cauldrons and quit sniggering like a bunch of ninnies. I would wager all of you have done that at least once, did you find it funny at the time?"

Several negative replies came back and some students looked rather ashamed. Of course, the distraction also meant some solutions were ruined or brewed incorrectly, which irritated Severus, who hated to waste ingredients like that. He returned to his desk, waiting while the students brought their finished drafts up to him to be graded. He also summoned a house elf to check upon poor Fielding and see if she had managed to make it to the Hospital Wing.

The elf returned and said she had, Poppy had given her a potion to settle her stomach and she was now resting.

"Homework is written on the board, copy it down before you leave," he told the class. "Any late or unfinished assignments will be graded accordingly."

There were groans at that, predictably.

Severus waited until the class had filed out before grabbing a Headache Remedy and downing it. He then went about using a Cleaning Charm on the cauldrons, keeping a few filthy for detention and scouring the rest. He then sent a note informing Fielding that she could make up the missed potion on Wednesday, when he had a free period.

His next challenge was grading homework. Until he was on the other end of parchment, Severus had never realized why teachers insisted upon proper penmanship. He was at home, sitting at the kitchen table, with Lily watching and drinking a cup of cocoa, when he suddenly tossed down the piece of parchment he'd been struggling to read for the past fifteen minutes in disgust. "I cannot believe someone would hand this in! Jess could probably write better. Look at this!" He shoved the parchment over to Lily. It was full of cross outs, blots and the writing was nearly unreadable. "How the hell can I grade this?"

Lily frowned down at it. "This is bad, Sev. Then again, he's only a firstie. Hufflepuff too." She handed it back to him.

"So? What does that matter?"

"Why don't you tell him to do it over and give half-credit?"

"All right. And then I'm telling him to see Sprout and get some remedial penmanship classes, because this is bloody ridiculous." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. Dickon had warned him about how sloppy some students were, but his imagination paled against reality.

Then there were those who didn't even bother to read the assignment and just wrote anything. He had known people like that back in school, but they had never seemed as numerous as they did now, when he had to grade homework written by a dozen of them. "Dunderheads, the lot of them!" he muttered, setting to work with his red ink. "Maybe I ought to award points for sheer imagination!" he sneered. "How stupid can you get?"

Lily chuckled. "Sev, my mother used to say stupid is as stupid does and kids trying to avoid doing homework are as stupid as they come."

Severus nodded. He agreed with Lily's mother one hundred percent.

He had just finished grading one class when a large Great Horned owl came tapping at the window with a letter for Professor Snape from Dumbledore. In it the Headmaster gave his permission for Severus to take his first and second years on the St. Mungos "field trip".

"That's a brilliant idea, Sev." Lily exclaimed. "I think if Slughorn had done that with the Marauders there would have been a whole lot less pranks in potions."

"Maybe." The new professor said. "Hopefully this will give them a sharp lesson about behaving around volatile and dangerous substances. But if not, I can always make them chop and skin things and extract firecrab guts till their fingers fall off."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "Your detentions will be legend in the school if you make them harvest firecrab parts."

"Good. If they fear getting detention with me, I'll have a lot less problems in class." The Potions Master said, smirking. Then he made a mental note to keep an eye upon Miss Fielding, for some uncanny instinct told him she might be a target of bullying, or already was, and if so, he was going to put a stop to it now, because no student should ever have to endure what he had at school. And children could be cruel and heartless, no one knew that better than he did. Fielding was quiet, sensitive, and apparently even those in her own House did not think much of her, since not one of them had spoken up in her defense that day when the Gryffindors mocked her. Not a good sign. So he would watch, and if necessary interfere as well, the way someone should have done years ago with the Marauders. Because the atmosphere among the students was now so tense that bullies would probably tend to use hexes that harmed more than humiliated, and the last thing Hogwarts needed was a student tormented to death by her classmates.

Finally he set aside his quill and took Lily in his arms. Homework be damned, this was the weekend and he finally had leisure to spend with his wife, whom he had been dreaming of all week long. "I missed you." He murmured.

"How much?" she teased, her eyes alight with passion.

"Let's go upstairs and I'll show you." He said, then he picked her up and climbed up the stairs. Like his students, he thanked Merlin when the weekend arrived.

Well, I'm finally back to this story! Yay! But For A Dog has been completed and now I can concentrate on this one and a few others. Thanks for being so patient and please review and let me know how you liked Severus and the family here.

I should now be updating weekly. :) I have almost 1,000 reviews on this story so far! Maybe I'll reach 1K with this chapter. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, I really appreciate it, especially because sometimes I take long to update.

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