Visiting the Creeveys
The next morning the two teachers met up at the gates of Hogwarts and Severus helped Minerva to transfigure her clothes into (slightly old-fashioned) Muggle wear.
She then Apparated them to a close by Apparition point and soon they were ringing the bell of a narrow three-storey terraced house.
The door opened and a smaller copy of Colin Creevey looked at them and beamed.
"Hi!" The boy chirped and then yelled over his shoulder, "Colin! Your professor who turns into a cat, and the other one who turned into a model, are at the door! But the man looks different now again!
"Dennis!" A harried-looking young woman with blond hair and an apron came rushing out of the kitchen in the back. "What did I tell you about opening the door?" she scolded.
"But Muuum! I'm nearly eleven now!"
"Just don't, okay? Oh, hello there, Professor McGonagall and company! Please come in. Sorry for the welcome!"
They entered the house and were led into the living room on the left side of the small hallway.
"Please take a seat. Dennis, please go fetch your brother. He must be in the attic in his darkroom developing our Christmas photos. But knock. Don't just open the door!"
"I knooow!" the boy whined and trudged up the stairs.
The three adults exchanged exasperated but amused looks and Mrs Creevey asked, "Good morning, Mrs McGonagall, I understand you're both professors at Colin's school?"
Minerva answered, "Yes. This is Mr Creevey's Potions Professor Mr Snape, who went through some impressive transformations during the last few weeks."
"Yes, we saw the pictures. You look much better now if you don't mind me saying, sir."
"Thank you, Mrs Creevey. It's a great relief not to look like a dashing hero out of a romance novel anymore, that's for sure."
The woman, who probably had meant Snape's first looks, blinked, and nodded.
They had to stop talking because it sounded as if a herd of elephants were running down the narrow stairs.
"Ah, there they are, my darling light-footed sons."
"Muuum! You sound like Professor Sna– eeeeks!"
"Good morning Mr Creevey," Severus said silkily.
Colin stared at his Professor red-faced and open-mouthed. After a moment, his mouth started moving, but no voice could be heard.
Everyone watched in fascination while trying very hard not to laugh (well, except for Dennis).
Soon Colin forgot about his embarrassment because "Your looks changed again!"
"They did indeed. That's why we are here, actually. You see, the magical branch of MI-5 found the reason for the change in the appearance of Professor Lockhart and myself and it seems that the spell he used on me has very dangerous side effects. Fortunately, they know the counter-curse and want to teach the public all about it."
Minerva listened full of amazement. She had never heard Severus speaking so patiently to a student. Especially an excitable first-year Gryffindor.
Colin listened closely and asked, "They want the pictures, right?"
"Exactly. They want to publish your before-and-after pictures of both Professor Lockhart and I in the Daily Prophet. And maybe one photograph of my current appearances as well."
Colin nodded excitedly, "Makes sense! A picture worth a thousand words and all that, right?"
"Indeed."
Colin's mother injected, "Would that mean his photographs would be published in the magical newspapers?"
Severus nodded, "It would."
"I see. What about copyrights and payment?"
McGonagall huffed and said, "Balderdash! It's an honour if his pictures will be published in the magical world. Copyrights, my heart."
Severus frowned at her and said, "Mrs Creevey, you raise a valid question. We should indeed ensure he owns the copyrights to his work."
"What? That's preposterous, Severus. He's –"
"He is what? Muggle-born? Minerva, your prejudice is showing."
The Transfiguration Professor snapped her mouth shut and sat ramrod straight on her chair, pursing her lips, glaring at Severus but was keeping quiet (for now).
Mrs Creevey watched the interaction with great interest.
Severus turned back to Colin and said, "Mr Creevey (Dennis giggled), a spell exists which you can cast on your negatives. It will make all the pictures on the film roll your property and they can only be printed with your explicit permission. There's much more to it. So, as soon as you're back at school, I'll teach it to you, if you want."
Colin nodded happily.
"It's also possible to enchant singular pictures with your copyright. I propose we could do that with the pictures in question for this article that will appear within the next few days. Neither the Prophet nor other publications would be able to seize the photographs as their own then. And they would in a minute, if you just hand them over."
Minerva's neck turned red. She hadn't thought of that.
Colin bounced on his toes and nodded along excitedly, "Yes! That sounds good, right Mum?"
Mrs Creevey nodded but said, "And what about payment?"
Severus nodded as well and said, "If you trust me, I'll insist on the standard payment the Prophet pays for pictures, according to which page they are printed on and what article they belong to. It would be a good idea to open a vault and let the goblins of Gringotts take care of collecting payments for your pictures and pay the necessary taxes that will arise as surely as the sun does each morning. It would be in your parents' names until your seventeenth birthday."
Mrs Creevey nodded again, this sounded better than feeling honoured after the papers stole Colin's pictures, "Would you help us set it up, Mr Snape?"
Minerva sniffed.
"Certainly, Mrs Creevey. When would be agreeable? We would need to go to Diagon Alley," Severus said. He wondered about Minerva's attitude. What was her problem? It was her Gryffindor, for whom she should be looking out.
"Well, it's Sunday so no bank… Why are you shaking your head? The bank is open now? Oh. Well, I would like my husband with us, would this afternoon be alright?"
"It would. Mr Creevey (giggles), would you agree to take a picture of me now? I don't know how long it would take you to develop it, but the sooner the better, would be my guess."
"Yes! The film in my camera is nearly full. Now's a perfect time! Wait here, I'll get my camera."
A single elephant ran up and down the stairs in a minute and soon they were discussing where to take the picture.
After finding a nondescript wall to stand in front of, Colin took the last three pictures of the film and promised to have the pictures ready this afternoon and gushed about magical film development where he lost all of his listeners.
After agreeing on a meeting time, Minerva was in a hurry to leave, but Mrs Creevey had one more question, "Mrs McGonagall, Colin told us about the alarm that was sounded a few days before Christmas break."
"So?"
"He told us that no one knew what it meant and what to do."
"How's that my problem? An alarm speaks for itself, doesn't it?"
"Maybe with adult people, but not with children, so no, it doesn't. Furthermore, I ask you, how should Colin and other children raised in the normal world know how to react to an alarm in a world foreign to them?"
"Hogwarts is the safest place in our world. And even then, there are emergency procedures."
Colin frowned, "But what are they? Hermione said there are no emergency plans on the board or anywhere in Hogwarts. And the prefects didn't know either!"
"They do know them. This is preposterous. We are leaving now!" Minerva turned and walked toward the door with quick, hard steps.
Mrs Creevey called out, "But what about the petrification of a student Colin told us about?"
But Minerva had already left, and the door banged shut behind her.
Severus was stunned. He had never seen or heard Minerva behaving like this. He turned to Mrs Creevey and said, "I don't know what got into her, I'm sorry."
"Well, if this were the normal world where she came from, I would call her an entitled snob. I know all about them, being married to a milkman," she scowled in the direction of their front door.
Severus nodded, "My father worked at the local mill. I know what you mean. I didn't always talk like I do now."
"Are you Muggle-born too, Professor Snape?" Colin asked in wonderment.
"My father was a Muggle. Mother was a pure-blood witch, but I grew up in what your mother calls the normal world."
"Wow!"
"Indeed. Now as to your questions, I'll address the emergency procedures not being known in Gryffindor house –"
"Do the Slytherins know them, Professor?"
"They do indeed, Mr Creevey (Dennis giggled)."
"And the petrification of Dean Thomas?" Mrs Creevey asked.
"Well, that's a more complicated topic, as the Headmaster doesn't want it to be known. The good thing is, we have a way to reverse the petrification fully. The problem with it is that it'll take time. At least until spring."
"Were Dean's parents even informed?"
"I certainly thought so, but now I'm not sure. I'll investigate it."
"I don't know what to do. Colin loves the school and magic so very much, but it sounds so unsafe!"
Colin frowned. He didn't like where this was going.
"I understand. The problem is, his magic needs training. You could take him out of school and pay a tutor, but that's rather expensive, I'm afraid."
"Yes, I know. Mrs McGonagall told us how unsafe it is to leave his magic untrained. And he's receiving a scholarship or Hogwarts would be too expensive for us. Mrs McGonagall set it all up. She was so helpful last year… And now it's just so hard to know he goes somewhere unsafe at such a young age."
"I understand. You're between a rock and a hard place right now. And I cannot promise you anything other than that I'll be keeping my eyes open and looking after Mr Creevey (giggles). – And you, younger Mr Creevey, will need to get used to hearing your brother and you being called by your last name if you're magical as well."
"But Mr Creevey is my dad! And yes, I'm magical too!"
"He sure is," Mrs Creevey looked harried again.
"Anything you need de-spelled while I'm here?" Severus guessed the problem.
Half an hour later, which meant a plastic toy Spiderman crawling at the ceiling, a dancing candy dish, and a happily farting toilet later, to be exact, Severus took his leave after promising to come back at 3pm.
Back at Hogwarts, Severus found that Minerva had disappeared, so he let all the open topics rest until further notice and returned to the Creevey household at the agreed-upon time.
Mr Creevey Senior was delighted to meet him and rather thankful for his help with dispelling the accidental magics that had been active in the house.
Colin showed Severus the photographs he had selected and received praise for the first time from his prickly Professor. It was well earned, the pictures showed the two men clearly, but no other person was identifiable. And Colin had developed the film from this morning as well.
They soon went to Diagon Alley, and, with the help of Severus, got everything sorted quickly.
As the Creeveys lived on the outskirts of London, they had taken the train and tube to get to the Alley and so, after Severus bid them farewell, he went to the owl post office and sent a letter to No. 15 that he would be at the Atrium of the Ministry with the pictures and the contract for the Prophet to sign to be able to publish them at five o'clock.
The handover happened without a hitch and the two Unspeakables didn't protest the copyright spells and paperwork at all. They seemed to have been expecting them.
Back at Hogwarts again, Severus learned that Minerva had decided to spend the rest of the break at home away from the castle.