So, I've finally got something to done for the third winning idea. The third winning idea was Snape facing actual discipline/consequences for bullying students. This will be a 2 part piece. This part is the setup and part 2 when it comes will be the payoff.
Many Hogwarts students were fed up with one particular teacher.
That teacher was Severus Snape, who was well known to bully non Slytherin students, especially those he personally disliked.
Three prominent targets of Snape's bullying were Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom.
In the very first class he'd ever attended with Snape in first year, Harry had been humiliated by Snape asking him a series of questions he couldn't possibly be expected to know the answers to.
Later on in that same class, he'd both blamed Harry for Neville's mistakes and unfairly taken points off of Gryffindor and had also shown zero sympathy for Neville getting painful red boils all over his face.
A few weeks ago, he'd tested Neville's Shrinking Solution on Neville's toad, Trevor with the expectation that the toad would be poisoned, had unfairly taken points off of Gryffindor when the potion was ultimately successful, and had humiliated Neville in front of Professor Lupin by telling Lupin not to entrust him with anything difficult.
To his credit, Lupin had stood up for Neville and told Snape that Neville would be helping with the first thing in class and that he was sure that Neville would perform it admirably. It turned out that Neville's Boggart had taken the form of Professor Snape, an alarming commentary for any teacher that a student's worst fear was him.
And on this very day, he'd insulted Hermione by calling her an "insufferable know it all."
It was just after ten at night and Harry, Hermione, and Neville were sitting in armchairs by the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room.
"You know," said Harry clearly, "Snape really is a bully. We need to do something about him."
"We can't go to McGonagall," said Neville matter of factly, "She doesn't listen to her students concerns and lets us swing in the breeze, especially when it comes to being bullied by Slytherins like Malfoy and Snape."
"And going to Dumbledore would backfire spectacularly, " added Harry seriously, "Dumbledore is so loyal to Snape that he might as well carry a picture of Snape in his pocket. He's always going on about how much he trusts Snape."
"Our only hope," interjected Hermione, "is the Hogwarts Board of Governors, "While it is the responsibility of the Headmaster to hire teachers, all teachers can be subjected to discipline up to and including termination as administered by the Hogwarts Board of Governors if the Board of Governors determines that a teacher has acted in a manner that is unbefitting of the teaching profession. The Board of Governors does not need the Headmaster's permission to act."
"What would we need to do to bring the issue of Snape's behavior to their attention?" asked Harry urgently.
"We can file official complaints with the Board of Governors," explained Hermione patiently, "One of my roommates has both of her parents on the Board of Governors and she always has some complaint forms on hand. I'll go fetch her."
Hermione left Harry and Neville and disappeared up the girls' staircase. She returned a minute and a nanosecond later with Parvati Patil.
Parvati was carrying four complaint forms in her hands. She passed out one each to Harry, Neville, and Hermione.
The forms had three sections. These sections consisted of two lines at the top of the page with a line to fill out and a third line with a large section below it.
The top line read: Complaint against:
The second line read: General reason for complaint:
The third line read: Details and examples:
Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Parvati each retrieved quills from a nearby table and filled out the forms.
They all wrote the name of Severus Snape on the top line and the general reason of bullying students on the second line.
In the details and examples section, Parvati wrote about how Snape had implied during their first lesson with him in first year that they were all dunderheads and also explained how Snape made his students nervous during exams by breathing down their necks, Neville told the story of how Snape had tested his Shrinking Solution on his toad and had followed that up by deliberately embarrassing him in front of Professor Lupin, Hermione recounted how Snape had called mean names including "insufferable know it all, and Harry gave every detail of how Snape had treated him in their very first lesson as well as a general discussion of things like Snape unfairly deducting house points from Gryffindors and giving Slytherins easier homework.
After the four of them had filled out the forms, Parvati piped up, "I will give a stack of these forms to my sister Padma and she will distribute them to Ravenclaw students, Hermione, I will give you a stack of these forms to pass out to more Gryffindor students, and Harry, I will give you a stack of these forms as well. I want you to talk to Ernie and Hannah and ask them to pass out the forms to Hufflepuff students. "
"What do people do with the forms once they've finished filling them out?" asked Harry wisely.
"Drop them off in the complaint box in classroom 10, the Board of Governors will find them there," answered Parvati simply.
"What's the endgame?" asked Neville nervously.
"The Board of Governors collects the complaint forms at the end of each school week, which is defined by the Board of Governors as 10 P.M. every Friday evening, " said Parvati in a businesslike voice, "The complaint forms will be reviewed on Saturday morning. Bear in mind that anyone who files a complaint to the Board of Governors is subject to be summoned to a board meeting. In this case, if any of us are in fact summoned to a board meeting, what will happen is that the board will ask us to see our memories of the incidents in question via a Pensieve. "
"What is a Pensieve?" asked Harry curiously.
"It's an object that allows memories to be reviewed, either by the person whose memories they are, or by others with the person's permission," explained Parvati.
"Why not Veritaserum? wondered Neville.
"A picture is worth a thousand words, " interjected Harry.
"Exactly," agreed Hermione, "Actually getting to see what happened gives a better and more complete perspective than merely hearing about what happened."
"Ah, that makes sense," nodded Neville in understanding.
"We don't have anything more to discuss tonight," said Parvati matter of factly, "We'll turn the forms in and see what happens."
That very Saturday, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Parvati were amongst a large group of students summoned to the latest meeting of the Hogwarts Board of Governors.
When the meeting commenced, Patrick Patil, who was basically the chairman of the board as it were, said seriously, "It has been brought to the attention of this board that Severus Snape has regularly bullied students via his position as Potions Master. We have read through all the complaint forms this morning that we collected last night, and it was like an avalanche of accusations against Snape."
"To that end, " said Patricia Patil, Patrick's wife, pointing to a Pensieve, "We are going to be asking to see some of your memories of the incidents in question."
"So," requested Patrick, "Would Harry Potter please come forward and show us his memory of his first ever lesson with Snape."
"Yes, Mr. Patil," said Harry politely, "I will come forward now."
When Harry stepped into the Pensieve and showed them his memory of his first ever class with Snape, all board members were pissed."
"My grandson was hurt, and Snape didn't show him any compassion at all, " said board member Augusta Longbottom angrily, "He just called Neville an idiot. And it's not as though Snape had been very helpful in instructing the class in the first place."
"Parvati always told us that Snape wasn't nice, but we were imagining a Snape who was a bit rude and snarly, " admitted Patricia.
"To be honest, " acknowledged Parvati, "I was never one of Snape's big targets, so I always tolerated his general unpleasantness without complaint. Maybe I should have been more proactive earlier in bringing this issue to the attention of the board, or at least of mom and dad."
"To be fair," said Patrick honestly, "Your mom and I did tell you to mind your own business at Hogwarts, "Maybe that wasn't best piece of parenting on our part. "
"And I was trying to obey mom and dad, " said Parvati, "But when Hermione came to me and asked for the complaint forms, I knew I had to get involved and get them to as many students as possible. Mom and dad told me they gave me the complaint forms "just in case" and the time to use them had clearly come."
"You've done the right thing, sweetie," Patrick assured his daughter.
"And Snape TOTALLY and intentionally humiliated Harry in that first class, " piped up Angie Johnson, mother of Hogwarts student Angelina Johnson, "Our new celebrity? Seriously. And purposely asking him questions he couldn't reasonably be expected to know the answers to?"
"And let's not forget about the dunderhead comment, " added in Augusta, "Neville, let's bring you up next."
Neville was more nervous than Harry had been, but nevertheless stepped into the Pensieve without delay.
"So," screeched Augusta after Neville had shown them his memory, "Snape's test on Neville's toad is cruelty to animals, plain and simple. Even if he knew the potion was good and intended to restore Trevor to proper size, it would still have been cruelty to animals to shrink Trevor in the first place. That he was actually HOPING Trevor would be poisoned is repulsive. Embarrassing Neville in Lupin on top of all that?"
"Our evidence is piling up, " said Patrick seriously, "Hermione, you are next."
Hermione quickly made her way to the Pensieve and showed the memory of Snape calling her an "insufferable know it all."
"You do not call students names and made snide comments about them as a teacher!" responded Angie angrily.
This process continued for a while, and it became clear that the allegations against Snape were all true.
"As the highest ranking board member, " said Patrick bluntly, "It is my job to suggest a proper punishment for Snape. I firmly believe that with what we have seen that Snape should NOT be a teacher and especially not a Head of House. It is my opinion that Snape should never work with children again. However, our only authority is over Hogwarts matters so the most we can do is get Snape out of Hogwarts. What we need to vote on is this: Should Snape be fired from his current positions at Hogwarts and banned from the school going forward? Please raise your hand if you agree to this punishment."
Every single board member raised his or her hand.
"Severus Snape is now officially a former teacher and a former Head of House. We'll need to choose a replacement, but Snape will no longer be allowed at Hogwarts," said Patrick firmly.
A/N: At some point in the future, there will be a follow up to this chapter revealing who the replacement will be as well as showing Snape's reaction and the price he ultimately will have to pay for losing these positions.
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