Snape was seething, his eyes blazing as he stared down every student he passed on his way back to the feast, silently daring them not to avert their eyes. Despite his impossibly low expectations of Harry, he still couldn't believe the lack of responsibility and complete disregard for school rules he and Ron had shown. He felt Dumbledore had been right to bring him along, especially after seeing how forgiving he and Minerva had been. Someone needed to reprimand these boys, chastise them, to impress upon them the seriousness of their actions.
The part that angered him most was that, despite effectively risking the safety of the entire wizarding world, they'd been let off easy, Snape thought. Dumbledore and Minerva were always far too lenient with young Gryffindors. Especially when it came to Harry, who, it seemed, managed to evade all consequences time and time again, much like his father.
Snape returned to his unfinished dinner, the seat to his right now empty. He wasn't particularly concerned with the whereabouts of the new Miss Desmond, as he welcomed the lack of interruption. Polite small talk, was, in his eyes, both pointless and insincere, and completely unnecessary at the dinner table.
"Tell me, Minerva," Dumbledore said, grabbing a custard tart for himself. "How do you find our new Miss Desmond? I haven't had the opportunity to speak to her yet, I'm afraid."
"Oh, she seems charming, Albus. I got a good feeling about her straight away, although I must admit that we didn't exchange many words. I believe Severus spoke to her a bit more than I."
This took Dumbledore by surprise, causing him to raise an eyebrow as he glanced down the table toward Snape.
"And what do you make of her, Severus?" He asked. Snape rolled his eyes as his peaceful dinner was interrupted once again with more unwelcome idle chit-chat.
"She seems...pleasant enough." He paused. "A bit overeager, perhaps."
"That's good to hear!" said Dumbledore, ignoring Snape's second observation. "I think she'll fit in well enough. Ah, Gilderoy! Come join us."
Lockhart had yet to start dinner, as he had spent the length of the feast signing autographs for many of the female students and staff members. As he made his way towards the staff table, Snape took that as his cue to leave, even though he still hadn't finished his food. Still, going hungry for a night was better than enduring any more pleasantries, especially from that pompous fool, Gilderoy.
Severus made his way down to the dungeons. The night was still young, much too early for him to retire to his chambers, so he resolved to get everything ready for his first day of classes. He wasn't particularly eager to get back to work, but he knew his classroom was one of the only places in the castle where he could have true privacy. His classroom was cold, dimly lit, and tucked away in a relatively quiet part of the dungeons, near his own bedroom.
Upstairs, the other staff were catching up with the students, asking them all about their summer vacations and drinking merrily. Severus did not delude himself into thinking even a single one of the students would be interested in catching up with him, nor he with them. Silence - that was all he wanted. For in the silence, he was never truly alone. In the quietness of his mind, he could once again commune with Lily.
"I swear, your son will be the death of me." He whispered in his mind. "He's just like his father. Always thinking up new ways to cause mischief, never thinking about the consequences of his actions. It's as if he thinks he runs the place. And what do you expect when you consider the way they all treat him as if he were Godrick Bloody Gryffindor? Believe me, he's not. This is precisely what Dumbledore hoped to avoid by leaving him with your ghastly muggle sister. Perhaps even he's forgotten that he once believed it would be detrimental for the boy to be the object of constant worship. Oh, Lily...I wish there was more of your goodness in him."
Severus entered his storeroom to take inventory of which potion ingredients were running low. Most of the bottles and boxes were fully stocked, although he noticed that several items were in short supply, and his jar of dittany had curiously gone missing. He pulled out a leather-bound notebook where he kept track of his supply levels and began making notes for himself.
"They've been here for one hour, and these brats already possess the boldness to steal from me. A new record, surely." He muttered to himself before sighing and mentally retreating inward once more.
"I know I made a vow to you, Lily... But if the events of this night are any indication of the trouble in store, I don't know how well I'm going to be able to keep it."
Just then, the storeroom door creaked open, jolting him out of his daydream.
"Oh, Professor Snape! I'm so sorry, I didn't think you'd be in here. Did I startle you?"
"Not at all, Miss Desmond." He lied.
"Oh, good. I apologize for the intrusion. I went to my classroom to start getting things ready after dinner and I ran into Dumbledore on my way back to my chambers. He asked me if I could return this jar of dittany back to the storeroom for him. He said he had a bit of a headache after dinner and knew you wouldn't mind him helping himself to your supplies."
Severus did mind, but he made no mention of it. He had worked with Dumbledore long enough now to know that his sense of entitlement was only one of the frustrating traits he possessed. He grabbed the jar from Theda's hand and placed it back on the shelf, scratching out what he had previously written in his notepad.
"Turning in so early?" He asked in a dry tone. "Didn't you want to enjoy the festivities with the others?"
"Actually, no." She said. "I wasn't feeling very well so I decided to turn in early."
"Would you like to help yourself to anything from the storeroom? You mentioned you were quite the potions fanatic. You're welcome to take from my supplies at any time."
"Oh, no thank you, Professor Snape, that won't be necessary. It's not that I feel ill, necessarily... I guess I'm just not much for parties. I'll always make an appearance, of course, but I find them too draining to ever stay for long. Something about having to interact with that many people at once always leaves me feeling completely depleted. I'll be fine after a good night's sleep."
Severus nodded. He of all people could understand how she was feeling.
"Please, Miss Desmond, feel free to call me Severus. The rest of the staff all do... Whether I granted them permission to or not..."
Theda smiled. "Severus? That's a very unique name. It's nice. You can call me Theda if you wish. Or Miss Desmond, whatever you prefer."
"Thank you, Miss Desmond."
"Well, I don't need anything right now, but I think I will take you up on your offer in the future if it still stands. I do make a lot of potions at home so it would be nice to have access to everything I need to continue making them here."
"You may take what you need, at any time. All I ask is that you make a note of what it is you take." He tore a blank page out of his notebook and attached it to a clipboard hanging on the wall. "I try to keep a strict log of our supply levels, but between Dumbledore and the students helping themselves without a care, it's a nearly impossible task. Please don't contribute to the problem."
"Thank you, Severus, that's very generous of you. I'll make sure to take accurate measurements of anything I take."
Severus said nothing. No one had ever called him "generous" before.
"Well, good night then, Severus."
"Good night, Miss Desmond. Good luck with your classes tomorrow."
"Oh, I actually don't have any classes until the day after tomorrow. Not very many students signed up for History of Magic this term, so I only have a total of 4 classes to teach, and I guess they're all quite small."
Now Severus was the one envying her. What he wouldn't give to have Tuesdays off, to have a day every week where he could be unburdened and unbothered.
"Well, in that case, enjoy your day off, Miss Desmond."
She smiled and nodded her head before quietly slipping out of the storeroom. Severus returned to his notebook, still taking inventory of the last few shelves.
"Oh, Lily." He thought. "I wish you were here."
