While Severus was distracted by Prewt's antics, a corner of his mind was on Filius's earlier comment. What had Minerva said about him that was wrong? Filius had praised him, and...

Oh.

She must have degraded him, then. He knew the Prewatts had spread about his potion detection and disguise, she must have thought they had lied or exaggerated or he was a fraud. Telling the other heads he is not worth their time.

He fisted his robe. This was not the first time she did so. When he was added to the staff, she took no time in informing them how she believed he would fail and not long for even a year. Said even Pettigrew was a better choice and he just had an A in his potion's OWL. The jealous bint!

Severus tried not to show his anger. He distracted himself with other things such as lunch(yes, food!)He also wondered how the twins were aware of that perception thing, but as their nephews in the future, they must have their ways.

The food, was always great and he thought that maybe it was time He took a bigger portion, he was awfully tiny and he needed it. His stomach now would not protest so much, he assumed.

The great hall was like always, abuzz with action and at the same time, silent. He figured it must be a word or something because it was very very crowded and if not some charms or runes or what other spell was in work, people would be overwhelmed with the sound of so many in one hall. And most of them were children, shouting, laughing, making every kind of noise you imagined.

So when a big teen dressed in Hufflepuff colors came and put his hand on his shoulder, he was startled, he drew his wand instantly and pressed it to where he knew it was the other's heart.

The guy whistled" easy there kiddo, so the Gryff team were not bluffing about your speed, you are like a hawk!

He stoodŲŒthe guy looked somewhat familiar but he could not pinpoint how so slowly he removed his wand, Frank and Charity stood behind him, with Marlene nearby, just in case.

" I would like to be informed about your...intention for this surprise..meeting"

He laughed " Gee! They said you spoke like a Lord or a professor, I..."

They all glared at him, which sobered him up.

"Name's Ted, Edward to be exact, but yeah, Ted Tonks at your service "

Severus found out he could not take his eyes off him, the boy was big but kind-looking. He must be a 7 year and would marry Andromeda by 72. Like the middle Black sister was to marry a Sylwan? Now out of school, she was probably being tutored in all pureblood customs of weddings and such.

Severus nodded at him (can he do something that they marry, but not in Andromeda being dis inheritedŲŸ which resulted in her daughter, funny, kind Nymphadora falling in love with a sodding werewolf of all men).

" I am all ears, Mr. Tonks"

He seemed he wanted to laugh, but refrained.

" Your awesome maneuvering Quidich pitch has spread like wildfire, so I wanted to talk to you about becoming a seeker?"

Severus considered the offer, He did not do such a thing in his last life, and his method in this one was the exact opposite of that one, so far he had better results.

First, no Slytherin, second, make friends, third, stay away from Lily, and maybe Quidich?

He calmly said" I am a first year, so I need to ...

Ted interrupted " nooo, as Hufflepuff has no seeker now, we spoke with Sprout and she said whoever we chose, that will do, because if puffs don't have a team, there will be no match whatsoever "

Severus was in two minds about it, He turned to his friends, unsure" Frank, Charity, what do you think"

Frank looked at Charity, then smiled." I will shout out loud for you, and Charity will hug you when you catch the snitch thingy" and Charity nodded.

Severus beamed at Ted" I'll do it"

When they arrived at the transfiguration class, his mind was again on what Minerva had done, how she always, always took sides with Albus, if there was a debate. All those times she took Potter and Black, and even Lupin and Pettigrew sided over him. And last year..

Last year took the cherry.

When he became headmaster, she did not respect him, not even a bit. And there was this time, on his blasted birthday, that he was so tired as he recently went and delivered the sword to that Potter boy. Then she smiled at him. it made him falter, did she know? Was she going to be at least a colleague and not a bitch? And he was exhausted so he took the bait. And then after the day was over, he was puking his guts in a bucket, he found out that she was just making a diversion, taking him by surprise, so Slughorn could add poison to his coffee.

As he took his antidote like a routine, like a sacred thing, that sluggy incompetent brew, just made him vomit. And then he broke down and cried.

Not to say about the time Potter had told her about the stone and she did not see fit to share, just dismissing the boy to go and get himself mauled by a possessed professor. And the time Potter told her about Umbridge, she did not take the time to investigate it, resulting in disaster after disaster.

And now, time traveled here three days ago, and he had already been hurt by her darlings, Potter-Black the hell duo. And she knew and again, degraded him, made him look bad against heads, God's, that gigantic cow!

Upon arrival, he noticed that she was in her tabby form. So she wanted to test him? Not trusting what her colleagues were telling her? He knew this had not happened the last time, so it was for him.

Unfortunately Charity went to the cat to pet it.

"Ooh, hello kitty! Aren't you a pretty thing"

Horrors upon Horrors! She picked her up and hugged her( why in hell she had to hug every damn thing she saw and thought was cute?)

So normally, Severus had to intervene:

" Charity! Leave it, it might be somebody familiar!"

"No, Severus! Look! She does not have a collar on"

Right. " you don't pick up stray cats, Charity! It might have a disease!"

"Nope, you just wanna pet it too, admit it!"

Severus saw red" not a chance! It is a mangy ugly cat with parasites like toxoplasma that infects you and it is feral"

"Is not!"

"It is"

Is not! And then Severus( again in his child mood) got cats tail, haul it from Charity, and dropped it on the floor.

Severus then wanted to turn to Frank and go sit next to him, but was affronted with a pair of angry angry eyes behind a pair of glasses staring at him.

The same pair he saw when all heads went and expelled him from the castle. Dimwhits who did not understand his actions all year, basterds.

They had tried killing him, throwing knives and armor and curses while he just protected himself. He was able to take them, but again, he did not want to. Maybe wanted to tell them all that he was hiding all these months.

They did not spare him a glance, and Minerva, the bitch, was the worst.

He felt he was panicking, his ears rang, and his breath caught.

The world went all Grey. He wanted the pain in his chest to stop. But it didn't.

He stepped back from the monster in front of him, and he fell backward, hitting hard against something.

Minerva McGonagall knew she could be petty, but not cruel. She was mulishly stubborn, yes, but she thought she was not unreasonable.

Until now, anyway.

When she was considering this particular class, she decided she will take her cat form for the first time in front of students. Animagus transformations were not supposedly hard, but they were quite dangerous. And many went first stages but did not proceed further, because who would want to become a worm? A vulture? An ant? Most forms were useless, or an embarrassment. Some were too hard to shift between human and animal(elephant for example), so it fell out of favor. Its method was considered somehow forbidden too, so mostly purebloods had access to that info, purebloods who did not want to tarnish their reputation by transforming to a frog or fish or something. More so, now that the ministry was making people register, to what avail, she did not know.

And when she did the instructions, she felt she would be a lion, so she proceeded...only for her to find out she was a cat.

A stupid cat.

A regular, no special animal who was selfish, possessive, and stubborn.

She did not like what the animal revealed about her, so she did not take it in public.

It would be the second time she took it in class, and she was curious as to what may happen. The first was many years ago when Filch's newly acquired kitten went missing, and he was so distraught she just had to go and get her from some unreachable chimney. It was 6 years ago, and the story spread like shit. More to her embarrassment. Will the Snape boy recognize this too? If he did, it meant he knew someone from that year or up (as she assumed previously) and they were feeding him information. Proving the boy was an attention-seeking liar brat. Purebloods may also have access to that tome Filius had said too. It proved he was not smart, just a conning little shit.

She did not know why she felt this strongly about him. Maybe she was stung that Molly Prewatt went and shackled herself to that Weasley. Weasleys were just, strange and they were fascinated with muggles for whatever reason. She was desperate for a genius in her house to show that her Gryffs were more than brawny brutish guys and jealous girls who fought over a boy. (or a stupid wife-to-be). When Horace said those things about miss Evans, her heart soared. Maybe she had found her! and a muggle-born at that! Imagine her, with her bright eyes and her fire-like curls, beauty with wits combined! And a Gryff no less! Oh, how it would prove those blood purists false. But if the boy, a half-blood with a pure-blood mother proved to be the best, none of those statements would hold. So she had to, really had to go along with her plan and prove that Evans was better.

At first, none of the kids did anything but watch carefully. Not one of her Gryffs showed interest. But then the damn girl hugged her and everything went to shit.

The boy was a good actor, she gave him that.

But that boy dared to touch her tail! Her tail!

So you understand that Minerva McGonagall was angry.

So so angry.

She turned back as soon as her feet touched the ground. The boy's eyes went comically big.

(Suit you damn well, stupid brat, acting like that and touching...)

But the Gryffs were horrified and Puffs were horrified( it is not every day you see a cat turn into a person FOR FIRST TIME, a cat one of your classmates was hugging a second ago)

The boy was beyond terrified, he was having a panic attack. A very real panic attack at her expanse.

(OH Merlin, oh Morgana what the shit I did??)

She tried calling him." Mr. Snape, Mr. Snape!

No help.

"Severus!"

The boy if possible, was more afraid, she could see clearly that he had trouble breathing. He stepped back.

1,2,3

And when she saw what was going to happen and lept forward to catch him, but was late.

Severus's head hit the desk behind him, hard enough to break his head, and blood was everywhere.

Now the kids were screaming.

She cursed herself and her stupidity. Just what was wrong with her? She summoned an elf and told it to go get a teacher.

Then she went and picked the unconscious boy( why the boy was this small and weighed this low and why did he look so so innocent and bloodied and ..), went to her office and flooed infirmary.

Her plan was shit.

The result was if possible more shit.

Poppy took one look at her tiny charge in her arms, sighed" again?"

Minerva just said, "what?" In complete bewilderment.

"What is it this time? It is only what? On his third day in the castle and he had his nose broken, thrown to a devil snare, a half hour ago got in a bloody near fight with a ghoulish teen, then rescued a halfwit who thought betting with a pureblood Slytherin is OK, and now? Panic attack and concussion as I see"

Minerva just stood there. Was everybody right and she acted as a jealous bint who did not get what she wanted? So Potter and Black really threw the boy to that plant? While she clearly heard multiple times the boy even stated that one of its uses is to assassinate.

"But, ..I...it's.. "

Poppy looked at her, and the boy" He seems to be a regular, no matter what, I hope at least he has the sense not to join Quidich's fucking team"

Minerva only nodded. She would not let another harm come to this boy. Even if it was her lions. It was the least she could do after hurting the small boy so badly.

Guilt was a bitch.

And so was she.

(Pomona, when became aware slapped her hard across the face, Filius frowned, and Horace, he was too busy with his wife being unwell, Albus, God damned him, when heard, laughed, and laughed, and laughed...bastard)

Chapter End Notes

If you want to know why Dumbledore laughed, imagine when Severus took Minerva's tail in cat form, what body part of her he would have touched if she was in human form?

Frank: her waist?

Charity: Marlene, can I replace Frank with Barty? I know he is a death eater to be, but...

Marlene took a look at Frank contemplating where was what, still: I think about it.