Chapter 14

"Are you trying to get as useless as Longbottom, Potter?" drawled Severus coldly over Potter's lame potion. The boy might not melt cauldrons on a regular basis, but he sure was a disaster.

"No, sir," answered Potter with barely contained fury. His hand shook as he poorly sliced the next ingredient, which of course was the wrong ingredient.

"I beg to differ. Your potion should be bright yellow by now, and you're about to put the wrong thing inside your cauldron."

Potter frowned and checked the instructions. As expected, his face turned slightly red.

"I was just preparing this for later," said the boy, putting aside the roots and beginning to smash the Scarab Beetles.

"That's a blatant lie, Potter. You're just like your father, too arrogant to ever admit you might be wrong."

"I'm not lying!" exclaimed the brat, smashing a beetle to dust.

"You are. Now keep your mouth shut and pay attention to your beetles. Oh, and five points from Gryffindor."

Potter's lips pursed in anger, but he didn't say anything else as he resumed his work. Severus continued his walk around the classroom, but kept an eye on the boy. It looked as if Potter had completely lost focus and was now preparing the wrong ingredient again. Useless. Just like his father, or worse. It was pointless to try to teach him anything, the boy simply wasn't interested in learning. The best Severus could aspire to was to avoid Potter dying on a potion's explosion.

He passed Draco's potion, which was decent enough, and Gregory's, which somehow had acquired a reddish glow. What the hell? This moron was even worse than Longbottom. It couldn't be expected much better from a Goyle, of course, stupidity ran in the family. He would have to give him detention later, though, in private.

Longbottom's potion was also a disaster, but Severus made a conscious effort to ignore that. He had known that the boy's potions would deteriorate even more if he began to completely ignore the timelines, but since his potions had always been terrible he figured it shouldn't make much of a difference. At least he was confident that the cauldrons would not melt if Longbottom put all the right ingredients in the right order. And it seemed that the boy was managing to do that. He was fifteen minutes behind everyone else, and his potion was blue instead of yellow, but so far there were no sliced fingers and no steps skipped. He could almost hear Longbottom's thoughts counting inside his head while he checked the instructions over and over again.

Well, at least the boy tried. Severus was certain that if he gave the same instructions to Potter —and it definitely would not hurt if the moron checked the instructions and ingredient three times— his pride would get in the way. Longbottom had no pride at all, and that made him easy to mould.

Granger kept stealing glances at Longbottom's potion, clearly desperate to help, but Severus was watching her closely so she didn't dare. Damned Know-It-All! Always thinking she knew more than even teachers. Severus intended to give her detention if she interfered again with Longbottom. He knew that it would take far more than his negative recommendation to avoid her becoming a Prefect, but maybe he could at least give her a hard time scrubbing cauldrons or something. He had wanted to give her detention since forever, but being the girl protected by everyone in the staff he couldn't do that without a good justification.

"You're too far behind, Longbottom," he said after a few minutes, stopping in front of the now orange potion. "If you keep adding ingredients to this, it will blow up. Start over."

He vanished the mess with a flick of his wand and a sneer (he had to keep up pretences). The boy looked up in confusion.

"Start over?" he squeaked. "But..."

"Don't argue! Just start your potion over."

There was only half an hour left of class, so no one could start and finish this potion before the bell rang, but Severus didn't care. He had given up on Longbottom ever delivering a decent potion's sample. His only goal now when it came to the boy was to train his brain into some resemblance of functionality.

Severus felt tempted to use Legilimency on the boy. If his mind was somehow broken, no doubt Legilimency would allow him to confirm that and even to understand exactly how that broken brain worked. But breaking into a broken mind was dangerous, and it could also bring repressed memories to the surface, so that wasn't an option (not to mention that Dumbledore and Minerva would skin him alive if they found out). He didn't really need to use Legilimency to convince himself of Longbottom's problem, though. There was no way that Bellatrix had spared him. The only question was whether the boy's problems could be somehow overcome or compensated, or if he was just hopeless.

Pomona's proposal was for everyone to be nice to Longbottom from now on, but of course that wasn't something Severus could or would do. For starters, he just didn't do nice. But more importantly, being nice to a Gryffindor, and to Longbottom at that, would completely destroy his reputation and his cover. So no, that wasn't going to happen. Even though he could admit that perhaps frightening the boy to death wasn't the best possible approach to someone who might have been tortured as a toddler in addition to watching his parents tortured to insanity.

Niceness might not be an option, but he had at least agreed to try a new strategy. Dumbledore had given them all cart blanche to handle the matter however they thought best without deferring themselves to rules or Ministry expectations, which simplified things since they no longer had to try to herd Longbottom at the same rhythm than his peers. It would be discussed at the end of the school year whether the boy was promoted to fifth year or not, for now they would just assess and address his deficiencies.

Of course not all the members of the staff had been equally briefed. Only the four Heads of House and the Headmaster knew about Longbottom's possible brain damage due to Cruciatus exposure. The other teachers had only been told that the boy was 'special', as Pomona said, and that he required extra patience and sensitivity. No one had wanted Moody to know, but they were pretty sure that Dumbledore had told him, and also that Moody didn't feel remorseful at all.

So far, Severus had to admit that Longbottom wasn't actually as useless as he had always thought. Under the light of their new epiphany, it seemed evident that the boy simply had... issues. He wasn't dumb, and definitely not lazy, just slow. He clearly could follow instructions well enough if someone told him step by step what he had to do without hurry, or if he checked several times what he was doing. He also could avoid injuries if he paid close attention to his hands, and Severus was ready to bet that he might be able to stop tripping with his own feet or dropping things if he just paid more attention to his body. He almost definitely had brain and nerve damage, but it wasn't too severe and apparently it wasn't unmanageable. Pomona said that Longbottom was good with plants, and thought it was because plants calmed the boy, but Severus considered more likely that it was because Herbology relied on muscle memory and instinct more than on brain memory or attention. Frank and Alice Longbottom had both had extremely good instincts, so maybe their genes had not completely skipped their offspring.

He saw with satisfaction that Longbottom began again his potion without arguing any further, and that he seemed to still be mentally counting. Good. Maybe in time the boy would gain enough mental discipline and muscle dexterity as to be able to perform the same careful steps a little faster so as to shorten the delay and produce an acceptable potion.

Severus walked by Potter's workstation and sneered. His potion was also orange now, but unlike Longbottom Potter didn't have the excuse of possible brain damage. Severus knew very well that the boy could follow instructions perfectly if he wanted. He just didn't care. Lily would be terribly disappointed that her love and gift for Potions had completely skipped her only son. But she had chosen a moron as father to said son, so she should have seen this coming, thought Severus bitterly. James Potter had been decent at potions, but certainly not a genius. He probably had only had good grades because Slughorn doted on him almost as much as on Lily. Everyone had loved James bloody Potter, and that insufferable Black as well.

"Pathetic, Potter!" he growled, vanishing the offending potion with cold pleasure. "Extra homework for you: ten inches on what you did wrong in this potion. Don't forget to mention your laziness and arrogance."

Severus had hoped for a period of relative calm after that first infuriating week, but of course that would have supposed for his existence not to be cursed. He was peacefully grading essays in the Staff Room when Minerva stormed in, her eyes sparkling with fury.

"This is too much!" she exclaimed waving around her wand and making everything in the room reorganize itself, like she sometimes did when she was too stressed out. "I can't believe it!"

"Would you stop that?" said Severus with annoyance when his cup of coffee flew out of his hand to go wash itself even though it was still half full. "What on Merlin's name are you ranting about?"

"Moody!" she yelled. "Didn't you hear? He's using the Imperius Curse on students!"

His sudden fury made Minerva's pale in comparison. She immediately calmed down and looked at him warily.

"A Prefect just came to tell me," she said cautiously. "Apparently he put all the fourth years under the Imperius during class, to show them how it feels. Everyone is talking about it."

That damned Auror! This was crossing a line! He had expected the man to have unorthodox teaching methods and to ignore school rules in general, but this was something else. The Unforgivables were illegal, how could he expect to get away with it? And with so many witnesses, as if he wasn't afraid of the consequences at all...

"I think I will accompany you to the Headmaster's office," he announced softly as he climbed to his feet. In his attempt to avoid Moody, he had left the yelling to Minerva so far, but he had certainly been collecting items for his ranting and he didn't think he could keep it all in any longer.

Of course, Dumbledore was expecting at least Minerva to go yelling at him. He didn't seem surprized to see Severus too, probably because Moody was there and must have seen them coming. All the portraits seemed to hold in their breaths when Severus walked in, but he didn't immediately began yelling. He was too wary around Moody, and in any case it was more fun to watch Minerva give a piece of her mind to both wizards.

It had to be said that the Auror had nerve enough as to stand up against Minerva McGonagall in a rage without flinching. Not many people could claim such a feat.

"They have to know!" kept barking Moody

"They are children!"

"They are old enough to understand! And they have to learn how it feels!"

"It's illegal! What will be next, the Cruciatus? Of course, students have to know how that feels!"

"They do!" exclaimed Moody. "Everyone should know their own level of pain tolerance. And if they know how it feels, they will take the threat seriously."

Minerva and Severus both stared at the man in disbelief.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" roared Minerva. "WILL YOU ALSO KILL SOMEONE IN FRONT OF THEM SO THEY CAN ALL SEE THESTRALS?"

"Minerva!" yelled Dumbledore, using his powerful wizard's voice. "Please calm down. Alastor is not going to torture nor kill anyone."

Moody grunted in disagreement.

"I said no, Alastor," said Dumbledore firmly. "I gave you permission to try the Imperius, but you will NOT try the Cruciatus on any student."

"He shouldn't try the Imperius either, Dumbledore!" yelled Minerva, although she looked relieved that the Headmaster at least sounded inflexible about the Cruciatus.

"He should go straight to Azkaban," chimed in Severus. "The law is clear, after all."

The Auror snorted.

"If I didn't go to Azkaban fifteen years ago, I won't go now, Snape. I had permission from the Ministry to use Unforgivables during the war, I'd say Dumbledore's permission has even more weight. You, on the other hand... you shouldn't have walked free. And I say that mistake ought to be corrected right now, before you can betray us all."

"I have already said that Severus has my full trust," said Dumbledore firmly.

"You're fooling yourself, Dumbledore," growled Moody. "What's the point of training Potter in Defence if you keep a Death Eater in your school with access to him?"

"I have never cursed the brat," said Severus coldly.

"This is not about Severus," interjected Minerva, glowering first at the Auror and then at the Headmaster. "This is inacceptable, Dumbledore! I will not have any student subjected to any Unforgivable Curse! Even if they weren't illegal, there are plenty students with ugly histories related to the Unforgivables in their families. Imagine what it would do to Longbottom to be subjected to the Cruciatus Curse!"

"No one will be subjected to the Cruciatus," repeated Dumbledore with a hard edge on his tone. "But I will allow Alastor to continue working with the Imperius."

"You can't be serious!"

"I am. I'm sure I will be receiving a lot of Howlers in the next few days, and I will have to deal with the Ministry, but I think Alastor is right and that his unorthodox methods will benefit the students in the long run."

Minerva opened and closed her mouth several times without any sound coming out. Finally she glared at everyone in the room, including Severus for some reason (probably because he wasn't backing her up much) and left the office in a whirl of angry tartan.

Severus and Moody stared at each other across the office for a long moment after Minerva's departure. The bloody Auror had a smug smirk on his disfigured face.

"This man is crazy, Dumbledore," Severus said finally. He could see it in his normal eye, the glint of madness that reminded him of Bellatrix Lestrange. Perhaps that's why Moody made his skin crawl.

Dumbledore sighed.

"He's not." He hesitated. "I think you two actually have a lot in common."

"That's because I think like a Dark Wizard, Dumbledore," said Moody with a nasty smile.

"I am nothing like this lunatic," spat Severus. "I would never use Unforgivables on students!"

"Only because you couldn't get away with it, Snape!"

"Enough, Alastor. I'm not saying that you would, Severus. But I'm sure you agree in that they need to know. Especially with a war brewing. And especially Harry. And by the way, I wanted to tell you that Harry has shown aptitude resisting the Imperius Curse."

Severus stared at Dumbledore, shocked. Very few people could resist the Imperius, and pretty much no one managed to show any sort of resistance without long exposure to the curse or Occlumency training. It was simply ludicrous the idea that Potter, of all people, could be an exception. The boy had no mental discipline whatsoever!

"That's not information the enemy should have, Dumbledore," growled Moody. "The less Snape knows, the better."

"Severus is not the enemy," said Dumbledore tiredly. "He's on our side, Alastor, I have already told you countless times." He turned to Severus again. "Apparently Harry managed to defy the curse at the first try. Alastor thinks that with a little practice he could shake it off completely. We wouldn't know this if he had not tried the curse on him. And you can't say that it's not a good thing that Harry may develop immunity to the Imperius Curse."

Severus cursed internally. No, he couldn't deny that this was good news. Assuming Moody was telling the truth and not exaggerating, it would be the first indication of any sort of genuine talent from Potter, and not something to be dismissed. It was unbearable to imagine the boy bragging about it, though.

"Of course he's not pleased to hear it, Dumbledore," said Moody. "I bet he wants the boy to be as rubbish at magic as possible, that must be why he teaches him nothing in his class. I've heard rumours, Snape. It is said you like to insult Potter rather than educate him..."

Severus was about to lose his temper, he could feel it. Fortunately, Dumbledore saw this and chose to intervene.

"Alastor, I'm growing weary of this. I don't expect you to trust Severus, but I do expect you to trust me. And I say Severus is on our side."

He pierced the Auror with a severe look, but Moody just snorted again without taking either of his eyes from Severus.

"You trust too much, Dumbledore. I tell you, this filthy Death Eater will be the death of you. He's perfectly positioned..."

"That's enough, Alastor. I think you should leave now." There was firm dismissal in Dumbledore's tone.

"If you say so..." growled Moody standing up and limping to the door. "I will be watching you, Snape!"

"You have to put a leash on Moody, Dumbledore," said Severus as soon as he heard the sound of the wooden leg far enough. "He has already crossed too many limits. He turned Draco into a ferret, for Merlin's sake! And he sent Longbottom into shock showing him the Cruciatus. Potter wasn't much better off. Not that I care about any of them, but I thought you did."

"I do care. I'm really sorry about Neville, I didn't imagine the demonstration would have such an effect on him. As to the ferret incident, Alastor is a very old Auror, things were done differently when he was at school, so he has some adjustment to do. I have explained to him the current Hogwarts' rules, and he has agreed to abide by them."

"Perhaps you should explain to him the wizarding law as well," sneered Severus. "And you might do well remembering it yourself too."

He knew his words were highly hypocrite coming from a former Death Eater who only two weeks ago had engaged in illegal entertainment involving Muggles, but he didn't care. It wasn't the same. At least Severus had been wearing a mask, Dumbledore was condoning this publicly.

"I appreciate the concern, Severus," said the old man, "but I can handle myself and the Ministry. As to Alastor, trying to put a leash on him would be as pointless as trying it on you. He won't do anything that I would not allow, however, he knows not to push my limits."

"He meant it when he said students ought to know their level of pain tolerance," argued Severus.

"Yes, and I think you would agree with him. However, neither of you would cast the Cruciatus on a student, if only, perhaps, because you know I would not accept it. As I said, you two have a lot in common. Both of you, for example, no doubt see that if Alastor's unorthodox methods lead to at least one student developing a resistance to the Imperius, it will have been worth it. It's already worth it, with what we found out about Harry."

Severus didn't like this one bit, but Dumbledore's words were making sense to him, and he was running out of arguments. The truth was that if he were teaching DADA and he could get away with it, he would probably be doing exactly the same that Moody was doing. Maybe what irritated him so much was knowing that a former Death Eater would never get away with it.

He decided to drop the subject of Moody's teaching.

"I want him off my back, Dumbledore. Last week he pretty much said out loud in front of a student that I was one of the Death Eaters in the World Cup. It's just lucky that the student was Draco. He shouldn't even know about my involvement in that!"

"He doesn't. I haven't told him, Severus, but he can easily guess. It doesn't matter if he knows, anyway, since he is aware that you were a spy and that you will resume that role if it's required."

"It does matter, because he doesn't believe I'm not a real Death Eater!" yelled Severus. "He could expose me to the Ministry, Dumbledore!"

"He won't do that without my consent. Alastor doesn't trust you, but he won't go against me. I will talk to him to make sure he's more discreet."

"Don't tell him anything about me, Dumbledore! Nothing about my cover. He will get me thrown into Azkaban at the first chance."

"Don't worry, Severus," said the old man with a sigh. "I didn't intend to tell him any details. It's actually good that he mistrusts you so much. Karkaroff will see that, and he might tell others."

Severus didn't answer. He really didn't want to see Igor again, but perhaps it would be good to have him here. That would divide Moody's paranoia. Igor Karkaroff definitely granted even more mistrust than Severus.

Had the term started only ten days ago? The Goblet of Fire wasn't even at Hogwarts yet, and Severus was already on his nerves.