It was the first day of classes and already I wanted to murder some of the brats. The first lesson was a double with Hufflepuff and Slytherin 2nd years. The 3rd and 4th lesson were easy ones as it was the 7th and 6th years. They are easy because they are only doing written work for now and because it was an O.W.L. option, all 4 houses were in 1 class due to the small amount of people from 1 house there (Hufflepuff only had 2 people, thankfully). My last 2 lessons were another double period but this time with first year Slytherin and Gryffindor. Thankfully the only difficult lesson was the last one of the day. The first one was slightly difficult but I only had to watch the Slytherins for putting extra ingredients into the Hufflepuff's cauldrons and for the Hufflepuffs mixing up their ingredients or missing a step. I had been informed this morning in the staff meeting, that Professor Sprout had used the last 2 days of weekend to get all of her first year Hufflepuffs through Poppy's medical exams. Apart from a boy who was slightly malnourished there was only 1 person who was bad. On the second day, Poppy had found a child with bruises covering her body and many were in the shape of hands. 3 ribs had been broken along with her jaw and wrist. Tearing to her nether regions proved that physical abuse wasn't the only abuse she was subjected to. Immediately, Poppy had contacted Saint Mungo's and the Aurors and had had her taken to hospital for specialist treatment and her family had been contacted. Both of her parents had been killed in the First Wizarding War and she was an only child. Her uncle had sole custody over her and the hands fit; so to speak. It was tragic to think that such a young child was made to be like that. Hopefully now, they could begin mending her. The ministry had informed Dumbledore that she wouldn't be coming to Hogwarts at all and they would help rehabilitate her and give her a private education.
Eventually the bell rang and classes began. For some strange reason, the Slytherins never even tried to place an extra ingredient into a Hufflepuff's cauldron or distract them from their work. The most famous boy for causing trouble in 2nd year was George Brimth and even he was surprisingly quiet. Thankfully no accidents occurred this lesson and just as they were all rushing to leave my presence I called out;
"Mr. Brimth, a moment". He stopped dead in his tracks and I saw the sympathetic looks his house mates gave him. As soon as the door was closed he looked at me and smiled. I gave him a small smile back before motioning him into my office to have a talk.
"I would like to know what is wrong with you and the rest of Slytherin. You are all far too quiet for even my tastes". He gave me a small smile.
"Mr. Potter" was all he said.
"Care to elaborate?"
"Not like I have much of a choice. He is a mystery to us all. Half of the house is afraid to talk to him because of their parents and the other half are afraid of him". I pondered this for a moment before carrying on.
"While I understand why they would be scared of their parents, why does he scare everyone and what does this have to do with why Slytherin is so quiet?"
"For one, he is so small and skinny. My 6 year old brother is taller than him. We are afraid to break him. Also, the way he constantly watches everything and barely ever seems to blink causes people to be wary. If someone moves around him too fast he will flinch and curl into himself. The worst thing that is making all of us quiet is the screaming" he finished.
"Screaming? I haven't been told about any screaming" I told him with a confused expression.
"Well, you know how the prefects have alarms in their rooms to alert them if anyone is in trouble or moving about in their rooms?" he asked me to which I gave a nod so he could carry on "Well from inside our rooms we can tell if there is commotion outside and so when the prefects come running past everyone's door at 3am every morning we all wake up and then look to see what is going on"
"And let me guess. It's Mr. Potter who keeps screaming so badly that people are waking up"
"Yes sir but not only that, because his door is always left open we can all hear his screams and they are always followed by him saying 'I'm sorry uncle' repeatedly". I then quickly pulled out my wand and created a pass for him so that he wouldn't be in trouble for missing the first 10 minutes of his lesson.
Walking into my classroom I was glad that the dunderheads had been filtered out because the 7th years had already settled down and was getting on with their work which left me to my thoughts; which were again on that blasted Potter. Why did it always come back to Potter? The bell finally rang to signal the end of class. The loud noise made me come back to awareness for a moment and I managed to spell a potion recipe onto the board before going back to my thoughts. The 6th years were the same as the 7th years in the fact that they came in silently and only had to look at the board to know what to do. I never even noticed the time passing and I was so caught up in my thoughts that Minerva's patronus actually startled me. The words that were emitted from the small cat – which was now sat on my desk – caused me to stand up and begin walking to the Great Hall.
"Severus, lunch started 10 minutes ago and you're not here. If you're still not here in another 10 minutes I promise that I will personally come down there and drag you up here". I wanted to ignore the message but I knew Minerva would keep her promise and she had also instructed her patronus to follow me to the hall (so I found as it followed me out of the room). When I arrived there, Minerva was sat next to me and a plate of food was already waiting for me.
"Before you start ranting about me missing meals again, I never planned on it today. My head was so wrapped up thinking about Potter that I just about managed to spell a potions recipe onto the board for the 6th years" I told her. She gave me a strange look before sighing.
"You're not the only one. I had him this morning with the Hufflepuff's and he never said one word. Filius had him next and he told me something that I noticed as well. He never answered any questions and he never wrote any notes down. He just stared into space"
I began eating my lunch and when I was almost done I began talking again.
"I have Potter and the rest of my Slytherin first years next for a double lesson and I am keeping them after as I was informed that the infirmary was free now so I am doing my checks tonight. I will save him until last or almost last". I then stood up and began making my way to my afternoon classes.