Chapter 10

It was a relief to be back at Hogwarts after the nightmarish summer he had had. Of course the nightmare was far from over, it was actually just beginning, but at least here he could entertain an illusion of normalcy and control. Here he couldn't be so easily approached by his fellow Death Eaters, nor he had to fear an unexpected visit from a reincarnated Dark Lord.

He had never been so pleased to see his colleagues, and even the dunderheads. After the fright he had had last week over the World Cup incident, even Potter was a welcomed sight. He had tried to convince the Headmaster of expelling the boy and sending him away, not trusting him in the same school or even country than the Goblet of Fire, but he had to admit that he actually felt less anxious having him under Dumbledore's powerful watch (even though he didn't entirely trust Dumbledore with the boy's protection). Besides, if Potter had gone away, Severus would have had to go with him —Dark Mark be damned—, and that would have been worse than a nightmare.

Being at Hogwarts felt normal. Right. This was Severus' true home. His quarters, his office, his classroom, his House. Here, he could pass the time doing harmless things like teaching potions and supervising detentions instead of levitating and humiliating innocent Muggles.

He was by no means under the illusion that Hogwarts was a safe place, of course. Especially not after everything that had happened in the last three years. But it was still reassuring to be there, with Dumbledore sitting in the Headmaster's chair. For a moment Severus felt even fortunate. He had been recently reminded that he could have easily ended up in Azkaban, and instead he was not only free, but a respected Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House. If only he didn't have a future as a spy and or a very slow and painful death to look forward to, he would probably consider himself almost content even though he was never going to cease being utterly miserable.

There was nothing like the prospect of something much worst to put everything into perspective. Even all the drama with Black and Lupin didn't seem relevant at the present time. Sure, Severus still hated them, but they were both gone now and there were more important problems to worry about.

"You're in a cheerful mood," observed Minerva from his right.

He raised an eyebrow at her. 'Cheerful' was an adjective no one had ever applied to him. But then, compared to Minerva's current mood, probably even the Bloody Baron would come across as cheerful.

"Peeves?" he guessed.

She just nodded, her lips pursed.

"You're too soft. Peeves would never dare defying me."

"You can deal with him the next time, then," she spat.

"No, thank you."

He had a sort of understanding with Peeves, just as he had with Filch. He wasn't about to risk it by siding with Minerva.

"Severus..." she said in a tone that somehow sounded both imploring and threatening.

He sighed.

"Fine. I will send the Bloody Baron. I dare say he will make sure Peeves doesn't go into the kitchens ever again."

Minerva's look of smug satisfaction was irritating, but Severus welcomed even that. This was normal. The Great Hall full of dunderheads laughing and eating, Potter sitting over there looking as infuriatingly Potter as always, Minerva sharing her Peeves-related frustrations.

Even his Slytherins looked like innocent children enjoying the feast, completely oblivious to the fact that many of them might soon be branded too. Some probably knew that something was going on, Draco no doubt had at least a clue, but they were still being children about it. They had no idea what war really meant.

"I take it back," said Minerva. "You're in a mournful mood. Thank Merlin, I was getting worried."

Severus repressed a snort. It would not do to be seen showing anything but indifference or disdain to the Head of Gryffindor. He had a cover to maintain, after all. But he was actually glad to be back and sitting here next to Minerva. This felt normal.

His mood, cheerful, mournful or whatever, quickly deteriorated when Moody showed up in the middle of Dumbledore's speech, and from then on it got only worse with every passing minute. It was perhaps fortunate and wise that Dumbledore had made sure of sitting Moody several places away from Severus and with the Headmaster himself in between (he often placed the suspicious DADA teachers right next to him on purpose), but Severus felt it wasn't nearly distance enough. Not when the Auror could see in all directions and through everything, including the bodies of Dumbledore and Minerva. It was really unnerving.

Knowing himself watched, Severus kept his face carefully blank and his posture still, and he tried to distract himself by paying close attention to the rest of Dumbledore's explanation about the Triwizard Tournament. It was truly remarkable that the old man was capable of feigning so much excitement about something that he was so against. His apparent mood as he announced the event could definitely be described as 'cheerful', going so far as to tell a joke in mid-speech. His eyes were even twinkling, when in private they would be flashing with indignation. Severus assumed that Dumbledore had received pressure from the Ministry or from the Goblet of Fire itself to present the Triwizard Tournament as something exciting and renowned, probably to ensure that there would be candidates. He did emphasize the danger and the death toll, but it was obvious that very few students were paying attention to that particular bit of information. At every House table, Severus could see idiots gazing rapturously at Dumbledore or whispering fervently to their neighbours. He glared at Potter for a moment when he saw the boy also looked interested, until he remembered that Moody must be watching him so he turned his eyes to the Slytherin table instead.

His only comfort, he reflected as he made his way out of the Great Hall using a side door, was that he wouldn't have to worry about the damned Goblet until Halloween. He had two months of normal routine until whatever was going to happen came to happen. And if he could just avoid Moody as much as possible, those two months might even be peaceful.

Slightly encouraged by these thoughts, he made his way to the Slytherin Common Room to give the welcoming talk to his House. In addition to the usual ground rules, he decided he would give a particularly stern lecture about what would happen if any underage Slytherin tried to enter their names for the Tournament. And it might be good to re-emphasize the death toll. He had no issue with anyone —asides from Potter— pointlessly risking their lives if they wanted to, as long as they knew what they were getting themselves into and were prepared to deal with the consequences. At the very least he would make sure nobody would whine about it if they become Champions and came to regret it.

Severus' attempt of avoiding Moody as much as possible was thwarted the first day of classes before dinner, when Moody himself came to his office roughly dragging Draco by an arm.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Severus angrily. "Unhand my student, Moody!"

"Nice to see you too, Snape," growled the old Auror, releasing the boy and pushing him forward into the office.

Severus considered to blast the man away, but he refrained and allowed the bloody Auror limp in uninvited. Moody was a teacher too, he reminded himself, so they were bound to have to discuss subjects as colleagues on occasion.

"This piece of scum is my student too, you know," said Moody taking a seat and rubbing his leg. "But McGonagall told me that I should come to talk to you, since you are his Head of House."

"What happened?" asked Severus coldly, going to sit behind his desk. The Auror opened his mouth to explain, but he cut him off. "I will hear it from Draco, if you don't mind, Moody."

The Auror laughed.

"Serve yourself. Go on, boy, tell your Head of House what you did."

Draco looked slightly pink and dishevelled, noticed Severus, and he had the unmistakable expression of someone who had been humiliated.

"Potter was insulting my mother, Professor," say the boy. "So I... I tried to hex him. And then Moody turned me into an animal and made me bounce around!"

Moody laughed again, clearly enjoying the memory and completely unperturbed by Severus' murderous glare.

"You used human Transfiguration to punish a student?" he roared. Dumbledore was so going to hear about this!

"You sound like McGonagall, Snape," mocked him Moody. "Who would have thought such a tame job as teaching would soften you up? Once upon a time you would have loved turning people into animals for fun."

Severus called on his Occlumency to keep his face inexpressive, but he could feel his hands sweating.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said calmly. "Transfiguration as punishment is forbidden at Hogwarts, no doubt Dumbledore told you that. There is no rule against turning colleagues into cockroaches, though, so that's what will happen to you if you lay a hand on another of my students again."

The old Auror regarded him with an amused glint in his normal eye.

"That's the Snape I remember," he said. "Little Malfoy here must have learned it from you, attacking when his opponent's back's turned. Or from his coward of a father, perhaps."

"My father is not a coward!" yelled Draco furiously, his face red.

"Isn't he? Then why did he run away when his master's Mark appeared in the sky this summer, mmm? I would have thought a Death Eater like him would have been pleased to see it."

Draco opened his mouth to answer who knew what.

"Don't say another word, Draco!" warned him Severus with a hard look.

Moody laughed again.

"Covering your ass, are you, Snape? Don't want anyone to know that you were there too?"

Severus glared at the damned Auror. This was going too far.

"Dumbledore will hear of this," he just said, standing up and waving the door open. "Now I would appreciate if you left, I will take care of disciplining Mr. Malfoy."

"Sure, Snape," said Moody with a mocking smile. "This was fun. I'm looking forward to seeing more of you this year."

After the man left Severus sat down again and remained for a long minute with his eyes closed and two fingers on the bridge of his nose, trying to calm down. Having Alastor Moody at Hogwarts would clearly be much worse than he had envisioned. He would probably turn him in to the Ministry in a blink if he managed to find some evidence of Severus' involvement in the World Cup riot. The Auror was loyal to Dumbledore, he knew, but he also believed that Dumbledore was too soft and that therefore someone else had to make the hard calls on occasion.

He would have to talk to Dumbledore, urgently, to make sure the bloody Auror didn't go saying such compromising things where anyone could hear. Draco was a safe enough witness, but he was still a kid, and kids talked. Sure, this scene with Moody would help with Severus' cover if Draco told Lucius about it, but he was certain that it had not been Moody's intention to help him out. The Auror hated Severus, and apparently he hated anything Malfoy too.

"Is it true, Professor?" asked Draco after a while. Severus opened his eyes and looked at the boy, who was staring at him with wide eyes. "Were you there too?"

He sighed.

"If Lucius hasn't told you any details, I won't either, Draco," he said finally. "This is not a game, and we can't afford rumours to spread. I, especially, can't afford it, not with an Auror at Hogwarts."

The boy nodded.

"I understand, sir. My father taught me to keep secrets."

"Apparently he didn't teach you to rein your temper in," Severus observed coldly. "Moody was baiting you, just now, to get you to spill everything in anger. And you nearly did."

Draco flushed, embarrassed.

"I... I'm not a coward," he mumbled after a moment.

Severus thought he could point out several cases of cowardice that Draco had displayed over the years. Malfoys in general were cowards, but of course they would bristle at the word, proud as they were.

"You are simply a Slytherin," he said. "Attacking someone when his back is turned is a cunning thing to do."

Potter and his gang had always called Severus a coward for doing that, but they had been bloody Gryffindors so their opinion had never mattered. Waiting to have your opponent alert and ready to defend himself was just stupid. Besides, they had done it too.

"Getting caught, however, is not very smart," he continued.

"Moody's freaky eye..."

"It's a problem," agreed Severus. "And you should assume from now on that he might be always watching you through the walls. So don't do anything stupid. Messing with Harry Potter when the brat is so well protected and pampered is hardly clever."

"He insulted my mother!"

"I'm sure he did," said Severus. And no doubt Draco had insulted Potter first, if he knew anything about how their enmity worked. "But you should have just ignored him. I expect better of you, Draco. Allowing your temper to get the best of you is worthy of a Gryffindor, not a Slytherin."

The boy turned red again.

"Your punishment for using magic in the corridors will be three hundred lines to be delivered tomorrow," said Severus finally. "Write 'I must ignore Potter even if he's being a jerk.'"

The corners of Draco's mouth twitched. Severus offered him a pain reliever for the soreness (being turned into an animal and bounced around must have hurt) and then sent him back to dinner.

For his part, he skipped dinner that night, not trusting himself anywhere near Moody right now. He remained for a while sitting in his dark office, reflecting on how useful it would have been when he was a student to have had a Head of House who advised him to ignore James Potter and his stupid friends. Of course, he probably would have ignored such advise, especially since Potter and Black had often made impossible to ignore them, but it might have helped him to get some perspective early on.

Slughorn had cared more about his club of favourites than about Slytherin House, however. And even though Severus' talent in potions had been well known, he had never received an invitation (probably because his fascination with the Dark Arts had also been well known). Potter and Black had been invited to the Slughorn club, and that had been the end of Severus' respect towards his Head of House.

Severus had intended to go yell at Dumbledore that evening, but a look at Minerva when he walked into the staff room told him that she had called dibs and that she had already handled the Transfiguration issue quite well on her own. The Auror would not dare doing that again, if Severus was any judge.

So he decided to postpone his rants for the moment, and to continue carefully avoiding Moody whenever possible.

His mood only continued deteriorating, though, and it didn't help to have the fourth year' Gryffindors in class the next day. Potter was as arrogant as usual, carelessly laughing with the Weasley idiot, who kept mocking Draco for the ferret incident. Severus wanted to give the brat detention for having misplaced his wand in the Quidditch World Cup, and also for being so stupid as to turn his back on an opponent the day before. It was as if the boy invited death, which made Severus' job of protection really damned hard. It also infuriated him to know that no doubt Potter was dreaming with participating of the Triwizard Tournament, just like most dunderheads in the school. The promise of danger and fame would be impossible to resist for the brat, as if he didn't have enough as it was. He was also still angry for what had happened at the end of last term with Lupin and Black. No matter how much Dumbledore denied it, he was convinced that Potter had had something to do with Black's escape.

Sometimes he felt really tempted to break into the boy's mind and uncover all his dirty little secrets. Performing active Legilimency on a student was a heavily punished violation, however, not to mention that Dumbledore would never finish lecturing him if he ever found out. And this really didn't seem like the right time to risk provoking anyone, especially not with Moody lurking around.

Discovering the truth would only frustrate him, anyway, since Dumbledore likely already knew everything and was covering it up.

Severus walked by Granger's station and held back a grunt of irritation at the perfect potion she was brewing. There was a smug expression on the Know-It-All's face, as usual, although of course she was trying to pretend to be modest. Did she think he was going to reward her points? His lip curled at the thought, and he could see the disappointment in her eyes. Everyone else might think she was perfect and deserved to be rewarded, but not Severus. What she needed was to be taken down a few pegs.

Had he thought just yesterday that it was good to be back at Hogwarts? In moments like these, he felt certain that it would be less annoying to deal with inept Death Eaters than with inept students.

"Detention!" he thundered once he had managed to contain the destruction caused by yet another melted cauldron. His sixth melted cauldron, he realized in complete disbelief. How did the boy do it? He was a fourth year student, for Merlin's sake! "How hard can it be to follow simple instructions, Longbottom? I don't expect you to ever be a potion's genius, but at this point you should at least be able to brew an acceptable potion without melting anything!"

"I-I'm sorry, Professor!" whined the boy, his eyes wide and filled with tears. "I-I don't know what happened!"

Ordinarily Severus would tell him, in perhaps a scathing way, exactly what he had done wrong, but Severus honestly had no idea. He had never seen anyone melting a cauldron brewing this potion, and by rights it shouldn't be possible. Al he could think of was that the boy had added some unknown ingredient that wasn't even in the list.

Longbottom looked like a cornered deer, so completely innocent and frightened that it was simply impossible to resent him. And that really irritated Severus. He hadn't managed to hate him even after the Boggart incident, but he was definitely a constant source of professional frustration.

Well, threatening him to poison his toad seemed to have some effect last year... Longbottom had not melted any cauldron after that, and he had managed to pass his exams. Perhaps he needed another dose of fear. Yes, disembowelling horned toads sounded perfect for his detention...