Severus rose, as usual, at the crack of dawn and while he was relieved that there had been no werewolf related incidents overnight, he thought it far too early to have to deal with Dumbledores gloating about it so he left the castle on foot, walking into Hogsmeade to apparate home instead of using the Headmasters fireplace as originally planned.
It was a lovely morning, crisp and bright and he found the walk invigorating.
He was sitting in the dining room reading the Daily Prophet when Harry walked in.
The boy did a double take, he obviously hadn't been expecting him back this early.
Putting the paper aside he greeted him, "Good Morning Harry, survived okay without me I see."
"Just about" the boy replied acerbically.
"Did you have a good time?" He asked.
"Not particularly, you?"
Severus eyed him carefully, his tone was polite and jovial but the response itself was not. "Why, what happened?" he asked, but before Harry could answer Lily and Evan walked in with Aurelia.
They smiled warmly at Harry but they didn't even look at him.
"Good morning children" He said loudly, defying them to ignore him.
"Morning" they mumbled as they took their seats around the table.
Severus moved to help Aurelia but Harry got there first. He was truly impressed by how well he had taken to the whole big brother thing and he was glad to note that Aurelia seemed to be enjoying the visit at least even if none of the rest of them were.
"So did I miss anything exciting? What did you get up to for the evening" he tried again, directing his question at the Twins this time but they just looked at him with disgust.
"We had a lot of homework." Harry informed him before asking him what had happened at the school.
"Nothing?" He replied, wondering what the boy meant. He had been so relieved that Lupins transformation had gone uneventfully that he had completely forgotten about the pretext given for his returning to the school.
"Weren't you called away for some emergency? Harry pointed out, delighted to have caught him out in a lie.
"Just a couple of Slytherins messing about, no different to any other night really, but you know Professor Dumbledore."
"Why didn't you come back?" Lily asked.
"It was late, you would have been in bed." He explained.
The children looked at him with obvious disbelief and he decided he was exceedingly lucky he no longer had to be a spy, as he wouldn't last a day at this rate. He was thankfully spared from having to provide further explanation though by the timely arrival of Morgana and Brendan.
He rose to greet them, as did Harry, but Evan remained seated. He cleared his throat, successfully catching the boys attention but he just looked at him and shuffled closer to the table.
With everyone now assembled, Loxie appeared and with a click of her fingers so did breakfast.
"I've missed your porridge Loxie" Harry told her, making the poor elf blush profusely. "The Hogwarts Breakfast is good too, don't get me wrong, but this is the absolute best."
"Thank you Master Harry" She squeaked before disappearing again with a pop.
As they ate Severus continued trying to make conversation with the children but it was like trying to get blood from a stone. He had known they wouldn't be particularly happy about being left here but he didn't think they would be this put out by it. He glanced down the table at Morgana, feeling a little guilty, if this is what she had had to deal with since he left then unfortunately he was most definitely indebted to her.
Severus' first class on a Friday morning was with Lily and Evan and the rest of the Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff First Years and if he hadn't already gotten the hint that they were angry with him, they made it more than obvious during that lesson.
They had filed in with the rest of the class, looking notably tired and sullen and sat there glowering at him the whole way through his introduction to the days lesson.
They would be brewing an antibiotic infused healing potion today. It was a relatively simple, beginner level draught and this class had proven themselves to be more competent than most in following direction so he was hoping to be able to get some marking done while they worked.
Once he was satisfied that they knew what they needed to do he sat down and pulled the mountain of parchment towards him, grimacing as he took in the smudged chicken scratch that awaited him and sighed, it was torture enough to have to read through the rubbish some students turned in, was it really to much to expect that the work they submitted be legible at least?
The students were working in pairs today so he was expecting a certain level of background chatter as they discussed which of them would do what etcetera, but after a while he came to realise that most of the noise seemed to be coming from the twins.
He looked up at them warningly and brought a finger to his lips but Lily rolled her eyes at him, making Evan laugh and the two of them pointedly continued with their conversation.
He stared at them disbelievingly, any other students would have probably earned themselves a week worth of detention for such insolence but preferring not to have to deal with the gossip that was sure to ensure should he publicly punish his own children he chose to ignore it, for now, and returned to his marking.
About half way through the class he rose from his chair and did a slow lap of the room to check the students progress, carefully inspecting the content of each cauldron as he passed.
For the most part he was happy with what he saw. Almost all of their potions looked exactly as they were supposed to at this point in the brewing process and those that weren't were easily fixed but when he got to the twins he looked down at them in disappointment. They had been doing so much talking that they were now three or four steps behind the rest of the class and if they did not hurry up, would be in danger of failing to get theirs finished before the bell rang. "Lets start moving things along please, you have less than twenty minutes left." he said harshly.
They shot him a look of scathing derision but did seem to step it up a gear.
He sat down again, keeping his eyes fixed on them, they were being sloppy now, attempting to cut corners and generally just displaying very poor lab technique when he knew they knew better.
He watched in horror as Evan measured out a volume of Draconic acid, sensing what was about to happen next, that he had either completely forgotten or was deliberately ignoring protocol and was about to pour water in on top of it, he rushed over and snatched it from him just in time to avert disaster.
"Acid to water if you do what you ought to." he snapped, before demonstrating the correct method for mixing them. "You need to get a move on but please don't injure anyone in your haste, Concentrate! He told him sternly as he handed it back to him and addressing the class asked who could tell him what would happen if the water was added to the acid?
Hands shot up into the air.
Miss Grant?
"It could cause the solution to become superheated and start to violently over-boil sir, resulting in acid splashing around the room.
"5 points to Ravenclaw" He said nodding seriously before directing their attention back to their cauldrons, then leaning down over the twins he whispered furiously in a voice he hoped was low enough that the other students wouldn't hear. "What the devil has gotten into you two today? Stop chatting and start concentrating. You must produce a satisfactory potions before the end of class or I will be forced to assign you detention.
The twins looked at each other in that infuriating way they had of silently communicating that he had always felt was a deliberate means of excluding him and grinned before seemingly settling down to work.
He continued to keep a watchful eye on them as they looked from the blackboard on which he had written the instructions and then back down at their cauldron and the ingredients that were strewn across the bench in front of them.
Lily expertly chopped the willowbark and after weighing out the necessary amount tossed it into the cauldron and gave it a stir while Evan checked something at the back of the text book.
He pointed something out to her and she looked at him quizzically. She looked a little worried in fact and they began debating something or other about the ingredients.
Severus couldn't follow their discussion, less than a quarter of it was verbal, but he assumed that they had just realised they had made a mistake and were trying to work out the impact of it and whether there was any way to correct it.
Part of him wanted to swoop in and help them, he couldn't bear to see his little Lily looking worried but it was a good learning opportunity for them to be left to work it out for themselves plus the potion had looked right to him so he didn't think they actually had made a mistake.
After a few minutes they seemed to come to some agreement.
Evan picked up the silver flakes and with a resigned nod from Lily, grinned and looking his father directly in the eye proceeded to tip the entire bottle into the cauldron.
"Evan No!" He shouted, forgetting all formality as he rushed forward to stop him, he was only supposed to have added two ounces, but it was too late. There was a smell of sulphur as the potion turned a deep purple colour and started to crackle, sending ominous sparks up into the air.
With a furious wave of his wand Severus vanished the contents of the cauldron before it could explode and then just stared at them in shock.
Evan looked triumphant, he just couldn't believe it. How dare he, did he not know how dangerous that was, he was so unbelievably mad at him right now.
He started yelling at them, as though he were merely embarrassed by their ineptitude but he knew it wasn't just a clumsy accident. His son had made it quite clear that he had known precisely what would happen if he added too much silver and had purposefully sabotaged his own work at the risk of injuring himself and his classmates.
"You will return here at seven o'clock to start over" He said darkly after finally managing to regain some control over his emotions. "We will speak about this more at the end of class, for now you will write lines – I must take due care in my actions and concentrate in class."
"How many times?" Lily asked quietly.
"Until I tell you to stop" he replied sharply before sweeping off to check on the rest of the students, snapping impatiently at them to get back to work.
Once the other students successfully completed their brews, he tested their efficacy, graded them on their efforts and when they had finished bottling them up and tidying up after themselves, he surprised them by dismissing them early.
Given the way they had been acting all morning, he had been expecting the twins to get up and try to leave along with the rest of the class but they remained seated, heads bent, smiling innocently to themselves as they continued writing out the lines he had set.
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, bracing himself to speak to them. He still couldn't believe any student would have dared pulled such a foolish stunt, least of all his own son.
Towering furiously over them, he held out his hand expectantly.
The twins looked at each other and smirked before slowly finishing the line they were working on and handing them up to him.
He hadn't specified a number so they had had no need to rush them and he was pleased to note that their penmanship was still good even if their behaviour wasn't. He was most decidedly displeased with what they had actually written though – 'Father must take due care in his actions and concentrate in class.'
"Haha" he said sarcastically before angrily throwing the pages back in their faces and demanding to know what on earth they were playing at. "Do you think that was funny? You could have actually killed someone today, a potions lab is no place to be messing around in!"
The Twins just sat there looking at him in stony silence, he was sorely tempted to lean over and try to physically shake some sense into them when he noticed the desperate way they clung to each others hand beneath the bench.
Evidently they were listening to him after all.
He signed and took a step back, he had sworn never to be the type of parent that would raise a hand to his children and it was pointless trying to have a conversation with them when all of their emotions were running so high. "We will discuss this again later" he told them, then with a wave of his hand he dismissed them, "Just go on to your next class, I cannot even look at you right now."
Evans bottom lip began to quiver but Lily seemed hardened by his harshness and pulling her brother up out of his seat, she grabbed their things and stormed out with her head held high.
"You are to be back here at seven pm, do not make me have to come looking for you." He warned, just as the door slammed shut behind them and then he sank down onto a stool feeling completely exhausted.
Usually he had a free period next, a rare opportunity in an otherwise hectic timetable to catch up on some of his non-teaching tasks but today of all days he had to cover Lupins DADA class which coincidentally was with Harrys 3rd year Slytherin/Gryffindor group.