Strength in What Remains Behind

Severus

The students were more insufferable than usual the next day. Everywhere I went, girls would poorly attempt to stifle giggles. The bumbling idiots were more bumbling than usual in my class, and no one took me seriously until I began deducting points for insolence, and even then they seemed to border on recalcitrant. I was ready to tear my hair out by the time my last class was shuffling out of the door to the lab.

Just when I thought the day couldn't possibly get any worse, the old man swept into the lab and insisted that we talk. He seemed serious about it, too, so I couldn't find a way to get out of it this time. I made no effort to hide my irritation at his intrusion, though. Why make the victory any easier than it had to be?

To my surprise, instead of questioning me about my erratic behavior, he wanted to talk about the girl. I slipped up and allowed myself to visibly relax for a brief moment, and I knew he had picked up on it when his eyes narrowed. I cursed myself for a fool, but there was nothing I could do at that point other than redouble my efforts to be as annoying as possible during the interrogation.

He was apparently concerned about rumors that were being spread about myself and the girl, which postulated that a romantic relationship existed between us. I couldn't stop myself from laughing aloud when he told me the students were saying that I clearly favored her in class because she was having sexual relations with me. While it was technically true that I desired her in a sexual manner, it was a recently discovered desire and had not been acted upon. The old man didn't need to know this, so I didn't tell him, though I did mention that so many students having the idea that I favored Granger in any way illustrated my point about their ability to pay attention in class.

I went on to explain that the girl was crying in the middle of class, and I suspected that she had confessed her feelings for one of the other members of the previously inseparable trio and had been rebuffed and I was trying to help. He then had to probe at old wounds, asking me if I associated her situation with the one that had existed between myself and Lily. At this point, I grew stubbornly silent. I was actually hurt that he would dredge it up so casually.

Seeing that he was getting nowhere with that line of questioning, he tried to change the subject to what I had feared he had come to wring out of me, but he had already effectively shut down the lines of communication. I was not about to talk to him about anything else that day. He eventually gave up, warning me that we would have to finish the conversation sometime in the future. I refused to even look at him. I just wanted him to go so I could wallow in misery alone before having to make my mandatory appearance at dinner.

He got up to leave, but he stopped when he got to where I was sitting and put a hand on my shoulder. I still could not look at him, but his grip was comforting to me. He stayed there for a little while, then removed his hand and told me that Granger was not jilted. In fact, she was the one who had jilted Harry, which was why the boys were not speaking to her. I was so stunned that I did not notice him leave. She was the one who had rejected the boy! And she had the audacity to cry about it in my class? I was furious, not only because I felt that I had been duped, but also because she had created yet another point of comparison between myself and the boy whose father I hated.

I got up to stalk the halls. I needed to move, to find a way to burn off this anger. The students tried that rebellion act on me again when I first showed myself in the hallway but they quickly learned that I was not in the mood to be trifled with. The fear I inspired in the hallway was delicious after a day filled with rebellion. I expected no more disrespect in my classroom from now on.

I had hoped to avoid Granger but I was denied. I had the misfortune of clearly seeing Theodore Nott throw a hex of some kind at her before anyone knew I had rounded the corner into that particular hall. It was all I could do not to scream in utter frustration. If I had been a few seconds later, I could have dismissed her as a liar if she chose to tell about the hex, and gladly too. I had actually seen the hex cast, though, and I was required by duty to act.

I immediately took 5 points from Slytherin, astonishing Mr. Nott, who apparently thought I would let him get away with it. I then ordered him to move on to dinner, and rounded on Granger. "50 points from Gryffindor for the hex you undoubtedly cast at him to provoke him, Granger." She stared at me for a moment in disbelief, then cried, "But, Professor!" I cut her off with a snarl and leaned closer, speaking quietly and with much venom so that she would know that I meant every word. "If you ever put me in a situation where I am forced to take points from my own house again, I swear to you that you will regret it. I abhor the very sight of you with every fiber of my being. I would give you detention if I didn't have to preside over it. I suggest that you get out of my sight immediately before I completely lose my temper and make you regret that you ever came to this school." She blanched and her eyes welled with tears, but I was unmoved by the sight, now that I knew the sort of loathsome creature she was. She turned and ran from me.

Once she was gone, I noticed that the other students in the hall were staring at me in horror, and I rounded on them, my temper not yet spent. They scattered at the sight of my wrath. With no one left to lash out at, I stalked back to my chamber in the dungeons instead of continuing my jaunt around the halls. The encounter with Granger had left me frustratingly hard, despite my anger, and something needed to be done about it, dinner be damned.