The rest of September and October passed in a blur for Severus. Argus was right in his observations - it's the first year as head of house that's hell. In comparison to last year's trials, this year feels... not necessarily easy, but practiced. Only one of his first years is timid and traumatized rather than all of them. He has a rapport with his prefects, both the ones he inherited from Petrus and the two he'd picked. He's not desperately trying to catch up on knowing his own students and the house politics. There are a handful of sixth and seventh years with attitude problems still, but not to dangerous extremes.

These students have only ever known him as Professor Snape, not as a fellow student. They may try to look down their entitled, pureblooded noses at his lacking heritage, but deep down, they're all as afraid of him as they were at age eleven. Them, impressionable first years raised on whispers of the war, him a known, blooded Death Eater with too much frothing, bitter grief to bother hiding it. It helps tremendously of course that Gwenog Jones rules the house - Slytherin's first Head Girl in the ten years since the war broke out in earnest - and that gentle, studious Felix Rosier has replaced Augusta Selwyn as the ranking representative of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. The fight has gone out of the malcontents, and so the day-to-day administrative work is so much easier.

Anastasia offered to help supervise the Duelling Club, "After all, I am Defense Professor. Should with my job, no?" She argued while perusing the stacks in the Restricted section next to him. Severus was looking for texts that might give some clue to Harry's mysterious parseltongue ability - histories of Salazar Slytherin and other famous speakers, texts on curse residue, texts on magical transference. Also some potions texts and other subjects to throw his companion off the scent. For herself, Anastasia didn't seem to be researching anything in particular, merely taking stock of Hogwarts' collection of Dark Arts tomes, probably to better know what she could reasonably assign as homework. Severus declined her assistance in the club, under the same excuse he'd used last year to deny Slinkhard. He even meant it this time - Anastasia was competent, and he liked her. It really would be a shame if the curse on the Defense position manifested with some unlikely spell combination to severely maim or even end her. It had happened to several Defense professors in their classes, and the duelling ring with all class years running around was a less controlled environment.

Severus again launched the first meeting of this year's club with an exhibition match between himself and his prefects. It was a much harder fight this time, but he still won it handily. This despite Gwenog's and Peredur Burke's clearly well-rehearsed and coordinated attacks. He pulled Gwenog aside to ask about it while the other students divided into different skill levels to practice dodging and aim. She informed him that after he had declined Professor Porskoff's offer of assistance, she had taken to coaching her seventh year classes in duelling spells and team tactics for the last ten minutes of each class. She had been quite up front with her admonition to "show Professor Snape you have real Defense teacher this year."

He almost wished there was more Slytherin House drama to distract him from his new greatest enemy: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-III). In her infinite wisdom, Minerva had sought out supplementary material for what was ballooning out from a simple Sexuality and Relationships course to a holistic, in-Severus'-opinion-too-comprehensive Health and Wellness curriculum for both students and staff. Or possibly this was Poppy's work, funneled through Minerva so it was harder to ignore without repercussions. Either way, Albus did nothing to quash the effort. Anyway, the DSM spared only a short (horrifying) chapter on sexuality and sexual disorders. The rest of it consisted of dry, uncomfortably detailed descriptions of mood disorders, psychoses, personality disorders, and other mental illnesses, along with speculations as to what (usually early and traumatic) life events might cause them...

He couldn't help but diagnose himself and/or his students and/or previous aquaintances in the Death Eaters with all kinds of problems. He had long ago, with Petunia's help, admitted he struggled with depression. Did he also have obsessive-compulsive disorder? Merlin, he was pretty sure he wasn't gay despite Petunia's teasing insinuations, but maybe he was asexual, which was a thing apparently. Could that be why he had had never engaged in a serious relationship, rarely even been tempted into a first date? Though that could have been the depression. Or maybe he had schizoid personality disorder that made social relationships seem like such work. Bellatrix Lestrange definitely had a borderline personality, and the Dark Lord was textbook antisocial personality disorder... The manual was maddening even as it was riveting. As with watching a cauldron about to explode in the middle of an OWL exam, Severus found it difficult to put the wretched book down once a particular heading caught his eye.

And look at that, he could probably assign himself hypochondriacism too since he kept coming up with new diagnoses for himself! Labels for everything.

He regretted ever missing student drama when Chiara Lobosca burst into his office hours, a wild and fearful look in her eyes and cheeks wet with tears. He barely managed to shove the DSM underneath a pile of essays before she was on him, clutching his elbow and sniffling into his robes.

"Ms. Lobosca, what is the meaning of this?!"

"They know!" She wailed. "They know I'm a werewolf!"

He froze, momentarily at a loss. The first unhelpful thought in his head was why me? He shoved it aside. She was a student, one who looked up to him as a mentor. One of his favorites, if he was honest. He waved a hand towards the door to close and lock it. He gently disentangled himself from her and conjured a handkerchief for her to use instead of his sleeve. "Who knows?"

"Everyone! He posted it on the bulletin board in our common room! It was there when I got back from class. I'm going to be expelled, aren't I?"

"Of course not," he said automatically, but not with certainty. There was a reason Albus had sworn him to secrecy with regards to Remus Lupin's affliction as a student, after all. It wasn't just pro-Gryffindor favoritism.

"It's stupid Steven Umbridge's fault. He's one of the new Hufflepuff prefects. And he's a jerk! He came up to me after the prefects' meeting with Professor Sprout, where she was going over the full moon protocol and everything. He said I was a Dark creature and shouldn't be permitted in Hogwarts at all, let alone in a dorm with other kids, and he was going to write his aunt to complain and get me expelled."

"His aunt?"

"Works in the Ministry. He made it sound like she's high up. Maybe it's true, I don't know. I told him he couldn't, that I was cleared with the Headmaster and the Board..."

Well, with the Headmaster, certainly. Severus would be surprised if Albus had deigned inform the Board of Governors. He seemed to operate on the principle of "what they don't know won't hurt them" for anything to do with running Hogwarts that did not require appropriation of additional funds. Given the self-important personalities comprising the Board, it was a sentiment Severus generally agreed with. If Mr. Umbridge did manage to get the Ministry involved, that was bad news indeed. The Ministry always bowed to the whims of popular opinion, and the popular opinion of werewolves was that they were Dark creatures best kept out of polite society. An opinion Severus had shared until meeting Chiara, he thought guiltily.

Chiara's lip trembled, and her voice lowered. "He said it didn't matter. He said if people knew, they'd hate me for sure, and if enough people knew, either there'd be enough complaints I'd have to leave, or I'd want to leave, because..."

Because it was miserable to attend a Hogwarts where one was universally hated. Severus knew that first-hand. He'd only stuck it out because home had been worse.

"Did you come straight here?" Severus asked softly.

She stuck out her chin. "No, me and Tonks went to find Melody so she could find the prat and help us rat him out to Professor Sprout first. She's probably still chewing him out. And then we raided the greenhouses to find something super itchy to put in his bed. We were going to sneak into his dorm ourselves, but Jane Court said she would do it..."

He snorted. Gathering allies and appealing to authority in search of quick vengeance was a rather Slytherin move. Of course for Hufflepuffs, treachery was the very worst sin imaginable. He reached out to pat her head. "Good girl. You won't be expelled. I'll speak to the staff and write some letters of my own to make sure of it." Lucius was on the Board of Governors, and he could be convinced to pull strings if Severus insisted Chiara's interest and talent for potions was the only thing keeping him sane in an otherwise thankless job. Unlike some purebloods, Lucius wasn't actually afraid of werewolves, didn't care much about them one way or another so long as savage brutes like Fenrir Greyback stayed well away from his person and property, out of sight, out of mind. Don't ask, don't tell. He frowned again. "But you're going to have a rough few weeks, Ms. Lobosca, until the school finds something else to think about. Stay with your friends at all times."

She looked down again, biting her lip.

"What is it?"

"Er, what about Penny, sir?"

"Penny... Haywood?" It took him a moment to remember all the Hufflepuff second years.

"Yes. Greyback killed her younger cousin. I never told her about me. Well, I mean, I never told anyone. Tonks figured it out 'cause she's smart and good at mysteries, but other than her, the prefects were the only ones that knew."

"Have you seen Ms. Haywood since the...announcement?"

She shook her head.

He sighed. "Come. It is a sensitive matter. We should confer with Professor Sprout. No doubt she's already in your common room doing damage control." He sent a Patronus message to Minerva, alerting her to the situation if she was not already aware. She could take it up with Albus and the Board before they heard about it from an irate Ministry witch.

Author's note: Sev is only a bit of a hypochondriac when it comes to mental health, not physical health, because mental health is what he's always struggled with and been insecure about anyway, ever since he was a kid. He is currently suffering from First-Year-Medical-Student-With-A-Textbook syndrome... Disclaimer, the DSM-III was published in 1980, is quite outdated, with lots of problems from a modern psychiatric scientific perspective. I was definitely shaking my head in disbelief at some of the snippets I was reading while researching for this chapter. Don't take anything Sev reads about as accurate science - we are now up to DSM-V. Fear not, though, I'm not planning to delve much if any further into the weeds than I already have in the actual story text. Sev's a teacher, not a psychiatrist. I also have no intent to feature on-screen Dolores Umbridge this early in the story, though that is of course the nasty aunt in question.