The Elephant in the Room
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SEPTEMBER
Neasa awoke too early on the first day of term and arrived equally early for breakfast in the Great Hall. The only other Professors there were Snape and Umbridge; the former was talking to some Slytherin Prefects by the house table, and the latter was spooning too much sugar into her tea. Neasa chose the chair furthest from the other woman and cast her weary eyes over a nearby Daily Prophet.
Her mind lay on the start-of-term feast and the enlightening speech Professor Umbridge gave to the school – not to mention the foreboding song performed by the Sorting Hat. What did it all mean when a nine-hundred-year-old hat warned of war and battle? Was its warning to be heeded?
"You're sitting in my chair."
Neasa looked up in surprise; Professor Snape was standing to her left, tapping his fingers on the table impatiently.
"It's the furthest from Professor Umbridge," she replied.
"Why do you think I chose it?" Snape asked, taking the chair next to Neasa. "Also, that's my newspaper."
Neasa gingerly gave Snape the paper and asked, "How are you this morning?"
Snape sighed, "You know how it is – new faces to get used to, new names to remember, detentions to hand out, points to give and take. Usually take."
Neasa hid her smirk behind her coffee cup. She let her eyes linger for a moment longer on Snape, noticing that his clothes were freshly bought for the new term and his hair was washed. These small changes put him in a different ligtht; he looked more relaxed, more human... More attractive.
There had always been something attractive about him – Neasa couldn't deny that in the past month Snape seemed to be the only person she saw when she walked into a room. She looked forward to talking to him the most; if she cracked a joke she always searched for his reaction first; when he smiled at her, she felt like she was walking a little taller than everyone else.
Snape was mysterious and guarded; the only time Neasa had seen him without his black jacket had been late one night when she couldn't sleep, and she'd gone to his dormitory in the hope that he was still awake and could give her another vial of Sleeping Draught.
Snape had answered the door in his white shirt with the collar undone; he held The Hounds of the Baskervilles in one hand. It wasn't casual – he still wore black shoes and trousers – but he looked so different like this. He looked like another man.
The owls began to arrive in that moment, pulling Neasa from her thoughts as they dropped letters and parcels onto the students' breakfasts – small gifts and items they'd forgotten at home. Neasa expected nothing, but to her surprise a post owl fluttered down in front of her and Snape and held out its foot.
"Who are you for?" Snape asked the owl as he took the letter. He glanced at the address and then passed it to Neasa. "It's yours."
She unsealed it and flattened it against the table.
Just a note wishing you luck on your first day – however, the Irish are lucky enough so I doubt you need it!
All my best.
"An admirer?" Snape asked, peering over her shoulder. Neasa's cheeks flushed and she folded away the note.
"Jealous?" she replied. Snape didn't answer.
For Neasa, the first day of term was little different from any other: she went through the Hogwarts post in the morning, replied to Dumbledore's owls just after midday, and was sent off to pass a message to Professor Flitwick before lunch. (She spent twenty minutes delivering an entire conversation between the Professors, before Dumbledore noticed how worn out Neasa was and said he would Floo directly.)
After lunch she was sent away again – this time with a message to Professor Snape's classroom. It was one of the few Neasa had remembered first time, because it was so cold in the dungeons – and she knocked twice on the door.
Her knock went unanswered, for from the other side of the wood she could hear Snape's shouting:
"Never in my fourteen years teaching in this school has anyone ever been as foolish as to throw chilli into a potion!" he was yelling. "Chilli, for the love of Merlin! Congratulations, Ms Royal, because when I write my memoirs you will undoubtedly have an entire chapter dedicated to you all about this incident – it is days like this that will be the reason my life will be ten years shorter than it would otherwise!"
Neasa pondered knocking again, but how much did she really value her life?
She went for it, and the shouting stopped. Then the door was opened by a timid Slytherin boy.
"Is Professor Snape available?" Neasa asked him.
"Er – now's not a good time–"
From over the boy's shoulder there seemed to shoot a breath of fire, and then Snape was calling, "Get back! Stupefy!"
Neasa stepped around the student and saw, to her utter shock and horror, a dragon tied up in ropes on a table in the Potions classroom. There were several upturned cauldrons on the floor and scorch marks on the wood. Potions were still brewing away on abandoned workbenches, purple steam emitting from each one.
The seventh year Slytherin and Gryffindor students were huddled in a group behind Snape's desk and surrounding the chalkboard, well back from the animal, with Snape standing in front of them, his wand trained on its head.
Stunning the beast had had little effect; instead it drew itself up ready to retaliate, and Snape seemed at a complete loss for what to do – Neasa instantly stepped forward and cried, "Protego!"
The dragon roared and its flames hit the charm, saving the Professor, who quickly retreated. He glanced over at Neasa for a moment and his eyes said everything: thank you.
Then, pulling himself back together, he looked over his shoulder at the terrified students and barked, "Well what are you all doing? Get out! – someone get Professor Grubbly-Plank!"
The students began filing out the room and a Slytherin Prefect ran down the corridor to fetch the Care of Magical Creatures Professor.
Neasa moved to stand next to Snape, keeping her wand tightly in hand; the Professor slowly lowered his own from the dragon. He was breathing fast in shock but he didn't look at her.
The dragon looked distinctly miserable, perched on a workbench it had claimed as its own with its wings tied up in ropes. It let out another breath of fire, blackening the table even further.
"Have I taught those insolent Gryffindors nothing in their seven years of magical education?" Snape spat. "There is a reason I don't stock chilli in my stores – because this is the result!"
He flicked his wrist in the direction of the dragon, almost as if it wasn't obvious what he was referring to. Silver sparks flew out from the end of his wand.
"What do you know about dragons?" he asked Neasa.
"Not much – but we'll need at least one other wizard to properly stun it. I don't know if dragons born from an egg or summoned from a potion react the same way; there are arguments both ways and it depends on the chilli–"
The dragon roared again, breathing fire onto the stone ceiling of the classroom. Then it turned on a nearby table and set it alight.
Neasa wordlessly removed the invisible barrier and vanished the burning table – this seemed to annoy the dragon as if Neasa had just destroyed its artwork, and it hissed at her, smoke blowing out from its nostrils. She replaced the shield.
"Where did you learn to cast such a good Shield Charm?" Snape asked offhandedly. In that moment footsteps could be heard from down the corridor, mercifully distracting him from the tint in Neasa's cheeks.
When she turned she saw Professor Grubbly-Plank and Dumbledore hurrying through the open door.
"Albus – Wilhelmina – thank Merlin," Snape said. "I trust you've been informed of the situation?"
"It seems obvious what the problem is, Severus," Dumbledore replied, stepping calmly into the room with his wand in hand. Professor Grubbly-Plank had moved into position on Neasa's other side, her wand pointing at the dragon, who was clawing at the table.
"Are the students all safe?" Dumbledore asked. "Including the one who conjured this dragon?"
"They won't be safe if I have anything to do with it!"
"The student must be distressed," Dumbledore said calmly.
"Can we deal with the elephant in the room?" Snape hissed, pronouncing each syllable with emphasis. Said dragon was looking expectantly at him as if awaiting a lecture about Potions.
"I think the only way to deal with this is that all four of us Stun it at the same time," Professor Grubbly-Plank said. "It won't harm the dragon, but it will incapacitate it for now – then we can cage it safely and someone can come and collect it."
"Who do you suggest?" Snape asked, as Neasa removed the Shield Cham.
"Charlie Weasley would be the first name to come to mind," Dumbledore said. "Neasa – perhaps you would pen him a letter once we are done here."
"Right – on my count," Grubbly-Plank said. The four of them levelled their wands at the dragon. "One – two – three… Stupefy!"
The dragon cried out and was thrown backwards – it hit another desk and upturned two more cauldrons, which clattered onto the floor, their contents spilling.
There was silence. The group took a few tentative steps towards the creature, which was lying perfectly still but still breathing. Grubbly-Plank bound it in more ropes and then Dumbledore transfigured a table into a cage and levitated the stunned dragon into it.
Snape turned away and surveyed his ruined classroom with a deep scowl on his face.
"Now," Dumbledore began, "I suggest we leave the situation as is, as the dragon can do no harm while in that cage. I shall ask Minerva to fetch the student guilty of this – Ms Royal, was it? – and we shall deal with the situation in my office."
He swept out of the room, followed by Professor Grubbly-Plank – Snape and Neasa stayed behind to put out the fires burning under the other abandoned cauldrons. All the time Snape was muttering loudly about "Gryffindors would away with murder if you let them" and "this has been the worst first day of term of my career".
0o0o
When Neasa finished penning the letter to Charlie Weasley she took it to the Owlery and sent it off with a school owl, before returning to the office; Dumbledore was sitting at his desk and Snape was pacing the room, his arms crossed. He had apparently run out of insults to mutter under his breath – or just didn't want to say them aloud in front of his boss.
Just when Neasa had sat down behind her desk the door opened and Professor McGonagall entered, closely followed by a petrified-looking Gryffindor student. Snape turned abruptly, and Dumbledore looked up.
"Ms Kate Royal," he said – it was not necessarily friendly but far from strict. Professor McGonagall's lips were pursed thin and Snape was now scowling again.
"Professor Dumbledore," Kate replied timidly.
"Would you like to explain why we are all here?" Snape asked with an edge, and Kate looked down sharply.
"Well…" she gulped, "I threw a chilli into a volatile potion and accidentally summoned a dragon."
"Perhaps you should start from the beginning," Dumbledore said.
Kate nodded. "I– last night, at the feast, there were arrangements of chillies on the table – obviously you weren't meant to eat them – they were for show – but I found one this morning, discarded on the floor, and…"
"Sometime today, Ms Royal," Snape sighed.
"I didn't want a first year getting hurt by a chilli," Kate hastily added, her voice shaky, "by eating it by accident or stepping on it – so I put it in my pocket, planning to throw it away when I had the chance. Then I had to go to Potions, and… Professor Snape…"
"I gave a clear warning to the class," Snape said, rocking impatiently on his heels, "didn't I?"
Kate nodded.
"I said – after having explained how volatile the potion was – I said: 'Chillies – especially red ones – must never, under any circumstances, be allowed into this room because the effects would be disastrous.'"
"I thought I would get in trouble if the Professor found that I had brought a chilli into the class – so I…"
"You disposed of the chilli somewhere it wouldn't be found," Dumbledore said. Kate nodded.
"I meant no harm!" she implored, as if that would make Snape believe her. "Please don't expel me – I was only trying to protect others."
"The power to expel you does not lie with me," Snape replied coolly. "It lies with Professor McGonagall and the Headmaster."
Kate looked pleadingly at the other Professors. Dumbledore remained stoical; Professor McGonagall's stern face didn't change.
"It is clear there was no ill intent," Dumbledore said slowly. "The important thing is that no one was injured. I think – but you may weigh in on this, Minerva – that a long period of detention and a letter informing Ms Royal's parents will be sufficient. Perhaps also a bill for damages."
While Professor McGonagall looked ready to accept this, and Kate looked relieved that the Headmaster was being so lenient, Snape looked incandescent.
He swiftly crossed the room to Dumbledore's desk and said in an undertone, "Albus – my classroom is wrecked. That dragon could have killed someone – the appropriate punishment is suspension, at the least."
Dumbledore looked at Professor McGonagall, who said to Snape, "It was only an accident, Severus. Surely you can see that."
Professor Snape looked at Professor McGonagall like he didn't recognise her.
"It can't be worth staining a student's good record just for a mistake," Dumbledore said.
Snape looked back at him incredulously, but when Dumbledore didn't lower his gaze, his face crumbled slightly and he sighed, giving a tiny nod of assent.
Kate looked overjoyed; she stayed still while Dumbledore gave her a lecture about not listening to her Professors, but Neasa was sure the teenager wanted to punch the air.
When Kate was given leave to go, she bowed her head to the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall, and then turned to Snape and said humbly, "I'm very sorry for what happened and for the damage caused to your classroom."
Snape looked surprised – almost taken aback – at receiving an honest apology. He only nodded stiffly at the student.
Professor McGonagall watched Kate leave, her lips still pursed with worry, and said to herself, "That's two detentions in one day."
"Who else has detention?" asked Dumbledore.
"Harry – with Dolores," Professor McGonagall replied. "He shouted at her –said that it was true that He Who Must Not Be Named is back."
Dumbledore's expression turned grave; Snape had no reaction at all; he seemed to be in a world of his own. Professor McGonagall made to leave and when the door clicked shut, Dumbledore looked with raised eyebrows at Snape, who huffed, "What?"
"How much coffee have you had today, Severus?"
Snape looked away, breaking eye contact with the Headmaster; Neasa quickly began staring at a random piece of parchment on her desk, not wanting either man to think she was listening.
"If you insist on ruining your health behind my back I shall give an order to the Hogwarts elves to stop bringing coffee to your office," Dumbledore said.
"Albus, stop it."
Now Neasa realised why Snape wasn't meeting Dumbledore's eyes: he was avoiding Legilimency.
Several moments of tense silence elapsed, and then Dumbledore said, "Neasa, perhaps you would assist Severus in the clean-up operation."
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I have no idea what the outcome of throwing chilli into a potion would be, I've never seen chilli as a listen Potions ingredient anywhere.