The rest of the birthday

When Severus heard the title of the book, he felt like slapping his forehead. He didn't, of course. Instead, he let out a resigned snort.

"I might as well have guessed that."

Harry interrupted the book stroking and looked at his teacher.

"What do you mean?"

"Actually, I wasn't going to tell you, but you would have found out anyway. Since Hagrid was cleared of all charges, he's got a new job."

"WHAT!? Are you saying he's not at Hogwarts anymore?"

"Potter, please let me finish. He is at Hogwarts. I should probably have said that he has an extra job. The one of teaching Care of Magical Creatures."

Harry's face was beaming.

"That's great! That was his dream job when he was at school and it's also the reason why I'm interested in it."

"Good for you." came from Snape.

"Um, but what exactly does that have to do with the bite book?"

Severus couldn't believe it. 'Now the guy's giving it a name and then some.

"If you have to give it a name, please give it a decent one and as for your question, Hagrid chose this book for his students. As you said, absolutely typical."

Harry could only agree with that. He looked at the book in his hand, which seemed to be dozing. He opened it and leafed through it a little.

"Maybe I'll just call it a chest."

Severus, who was just getting out of bed, almost tripped over his own feet.

"You read novels?"

That earned him an angry glare from his student.

"Yes, I do, and not just novels. I like to read."

"I've never heard of that."

"Of course not, you would hardly approve of me pulling out a book in your classroom."

"I'd be happy if you read the potions book."

"I do, but it's not always helpful."

Severus already had a biting comment in store, but held back, only because it was the boy's birthday.

"Get out of bed already so I can clean it."

Harry immediately did as instructed.

While Severus took care of the bed and the nibbled furniture, Harry sat down at the desk. He took out his writing materials and began to write a letter to Hagrid. Blacky had sat down on the floor next to him and was looking over his shoulder.

Severus, seeing this, didn't know whether it was funny or sad. 'Why is the boy so small? That's not normal.

"Potter, what are you doing?"

"I'm writing to Hagrid, after all, I need a place for Blacky."

The teacher looked at the dog again. He had his doubts that the mutt would simply let himself be billeted with the half-giant. Well, he couldn't care less as long as he didn't live with him.

Harry quickly finished the letter and tied it to his owl's leg.

"Hedwig, would you be so kind as to take this to Hagrid? Or would you rather rest for a while?"

The owl shook its head, then beaked at its familiar again and went on its way.

"A really intelligent animal you have there."

Severus almost flinched when the boy beamed at him.

"Isn't she? Hedwig was my first present ever. I got her from Hagrid when he came to Diagon Alley with me."

It took a moment for the message to sink in, but then the dungeon master had to sit down. His first present. What was that supposed to mean? What about the boy's relatives?

Severus was not the only one who seemed irritated by the statement. Blacky also let out a soft whimper. Then he laid his massive head on the boy's lap.

He seemed to have just realized what he had said.

"Um, I mean..."

When the dog and teacher looked at him, he lowered his head.

"Not that important. In any case, Hedwig is the smartest owl in all of Hogwarts."

As if to agree with the boy, another owl came through the window at that moment and crashed head-on into the tabletop, it skittered on and knocked over the ink as well.

"Quod erat demonstrandum."(Latin phrase;Which was to be demonstrated)

Harry grinned at his teacher.

"Right, that's Errol, the Weasleys' owl. He's getting a bit long in the tooth."

"A bit? The creature was old when Arthur Weasley was at school. It's a wonder he can still fly at all."

"I know, but they don't have the money for a new owl. Or rather, they gave one to Percy. Besides, owls live to be 70 to 80 years old."

"The ones in the wizarding world are even older. But still, this one should have been retired a long time ago."

Harry ignored the grumbling and took care of Errol first. He relieved him of his burden, fetched a cloth and cleaned the ink off of him.

"Let me do that. You'll only smudge it."

With a spell, everything was clean again.

"Oh, a present from Ron and Mrs. Weasley. Would you like one too?"

With that, the boy held out a box of cookies.

Severus was surprised that the boy offered him something.

"Thank you."

These things tasted really good. No wonder the Weasley boys were always fighting over their mother's packages.

There was silence for a while. Harry read his friend's letter, unwrapped the present, some sweets and then wrote him a letter too.

"I'll give it to you later Errol. For now, you get some rest."

He gave the animal some water and some owl cookies. Then he fed Blacky.

"Potter, it's time for dinner."

"What, already?"

"Yes." They had spent the day washing the dog and running away from a book.

"Okay, um, Blacky, do you want to come down?"

The dog immediately jumped up enthusiastically.

Severus refrained from making any comments. Although he could think of a few.

Downstairs, they sat down again at a table in the corner. Harry looked at his teacher quizzically.

"What, I told you I'd keep an eye on you."

"Can I go to the bathroom alone?"

Severus sent him a death glare.

"Don't be like that. Besides, I live here now too, so I suppose you'll just have to put up with me at your table."

Harry shrugged his shoulders. He ordered the cheapest dish, Severus noticed.

"Potter, I told you that the Ministry pays for everything. You can order something else."

"I like potatoes. Besides, it would be impertinent to take advantage of this generosity. After all, the Minister didn't kick me out of school."

Severus couldn't help but be taken aback by the answer. He would have thought that the brat would be taking extra liberties.

When the food arrived, Severus noticed something else. The boy seemed to be struggling to eat slowly. Again and again he seemed to have to stop himself from gorging. Apparently the brat had manners after all. He was just about to say something when they were interrupted.

"Excuse me. Are you Mr. Potter?"

Harry almost dropped his fork in shock. He slowly turned to the man next to him. He swallowed.

"Um, yes."

"Oh, great. It's a pleasure to meet the savior of the world."

"What, the world? That's not true at all, Mr."

"Tang, Hannibal Tang. And of course you saved our world. Three times over."

"Three times?"

The boy looked uncertainly at his teacher. Then on to Blacky.

From the looks of it, it wouldn't take much and he would seek shelter behind the dog.

Severus decided to intervene.

"Mr. Tang. My name is Professor Snape, I am one of Mr. Potter's teachers, as you can see the boy is eating. So what do you want?"

"You are the hero's teacher? It must be an inspiration to teach this young man."

Harry almost choked on his pumpkin juice. He stared wide-eyed at his teacher. At first, he also seemed to have been struck by lightning but he caught himself much more quickly than his pupil.

"I can assure you that I make no distinctions between my pupils. So let me ask you again: what do you want from Mr. Potter?"

"Yes, well, I would very much like to work as a Defense teacher at Hogwarts."

"VOLUNTARY?" Came from both of them at the same time. Blacky had also straightened up and looked at the man in disbelief.

"Absolutely, but the job for this year is already taken. I know of the curse on the subject, the teacher won't be there any more by the end of the year."

Tang looked meaningfully at Harry. The boy turned as white as a sheet.

"But I didn't mean to, I was just defending myself and Lockhart erased his own memory."

"I know that. I certainly didn't mean to insinuate anything. Both incidents were reported in detail by the Prophet. I just wanted to ask you to remove the curse from the subject at the end of this year. As I said, I would really like to teach there and for it to be longer than just a year."

The man said, grinning at the boy.

Harry looked at his teacher again, looking for help, by now Snape was afraid that the boy would fall off of his chair.

"And what makes you think that Mr. Potter could break this curse?"

"Please Professor, we're talking about the boy-who-lived. That shouldn't be a problem for him. After all, he has already won three times against the darkest of wizards. Besides, look, he's even tamed a Grimm."

"Blacky is not a Grimm," came Harry's softly growled reply. He didn't even comment on the rest.

Severus would have liked to jump down the guy's throat. What did he actually think he was doing? Apart from the fact that Potter looked more like a frightened kitten than a brave lion at the moment.

The dog was already his fur on end too, he had also moved closer to his little protégé.

Quietly, Severus began to speak in his deadliest teacher's tone.

"Mr. Tang, I would advise you to take your outrageous demands to someone else. There's no way Mr. Potter is going to break any curses, that's what the curse breakers are for, ask them. Now get out of here and I advise you not to bother my student any further."

As in class, the wizard in front of him grew paler and paler. He slowly walked backwards. He glanced at Harry once more and then hurriedly disappeared from the inn.

"Thank you."

Severus only nodded.

Harry quickly wolfed down the rest of his food and then left the canteen as well. He was more than uncomfortable with the looks from the other guests. Again, it wasn't long before his professor came after him.

"How did the man know about my battles against Voldemort?"

Severus winced but didn't let anything else show. In contrast to Blacky, who was really whimpering. Harry stroked him.

"From the newspaper, like he said."

"But how did they know?"

"What do you mean, how? I thought they read the paper."

"Whenever I read my name, I skip it."

Severus looked at his student in disbelief. The boy didn't even read the articles about himself? He always thought Potter was basking in his fame. Another point he would have to think about later.

"The Ministry naturally asked the principal about the fate of the teachers. And that's just the way it went."

"Great, so the ministry told the newspaper people about my 'heroic deeds'."

He spat out.

"No, not the Ministry, that was the director. He said he wanted to make sure they didn't write anything incorrectly."

Harry whirled around to face his teacher.

"Dumbledore did this?"

"Professor Dumbledore. And yes."

"But, he promised me that none of this would get out."

Now the teacher was really irritated. The boy seemed to see that too.

"I had asked Professor Dumbleodre not to say anything about all this, I didn't want any more attention. The amount at school is bad enough. Please tell me that at least no one knows I can speak Parseltongue." the boy cried out.

"No, he didn't reveal that."

"That's at least something."

Harry was in more than just a foul mood. Why did the old man promise something if he wasn't going to keep it? One thing was for sure, he wouldn't believe a word the guy said. Ever again.

When he reached his room, he turned back to his teacher.

"Thanks again for the help down there.

Good night."

"You don't need to thank me, that git was getting on my nerves ae well. Good night Potter. I'll be waking you up early tomorrow."

With that, everyone went to their rooms.