Behind the Looking Glass

Muggle Contraptions


Snape still sat in the chair, but he no longer brooded as he had finished this latest brood long ago. In fact, he had just awakened. It was six o’clock in the morning, and he woke with the same punctuality and alertness that he always had. The only exception this time, was that he had become quite stiff from sleeping in the chair, and he cautiously moved his limbs slowly this way and that in an attempt to seek some relief. The dark-haired wizard reached over for his wand and quickly brought the fire roaring back to life. He leaned his head back against the chair, and with relish, felt the warmth wash over him as it began to soothe his stiff and aching joints. He loved being warm, which was contrary to what many believed, as they had come to the opposite conclusion since he had spent so many years down in the cold, damp dungeons. He could have asked for a source of heat to be provided there, and several times it had been freely offered, but he never had found it necessary and adamantly refused it. He wanted it to be as unsettling as possible to his students, which was the proper atmosphere for a dungeon anyway.

Slowly rising from his chair, he began to prepare for the day, and what an interesting day he had planned. He knew what he was going to do once classes were over, and he eagerly anticipated it. The most important thing would be to volunteer to categorize and update the student and staff records. Recently no one else ever offered any help when the subject came up in meetings as they considered the task beneath them; thus he would have solitary access to information that was regarded as private and confidential. He would then be easily able to obtain background information for one August Hollingsworth. Hopefully something would be there that would be intriguing enough to be quite useful in the very near future.

He had a long-range plan that required it to be followed step by step if he were to be successful in finding the oft clichéd skeleton in the closet. He knew everyone had one, even he himself, and he knew exactly how to find those sometimes cleverly hidden bones. It was just a matter of time and looking hard enough in obscure places; it was always the obscure places that usually held the best-kept secrets.

Striding along the corridor on his way to the Great Hall for breakfast, he was going to put into motion another part of his plan; he would start the process of be-friendment and pumping Hollingsworth for information. He then could check and see if the story given matched the personnel records – if it didn’t, he would just have to dig deeper. As luck would have it, when he arrived in the Great Hall, an empty chair sat next to the new DADA instructor, and he immediately claimed it as his own. He wore a mask of indifference as he sat, and nodded in greeting to those that welcomed him.

Heart beating rapidly, and beginning to quake inside; Hollingsworth’s lips immediately became dry from nervousness once Snape sat down. No matter how hard the attempt to control the intense physical reactions to being near Severus Snape in the past, it always ended in near disaster, forcing a made up excuse to quickly exit the situation. Being this close to him now bordered on the unbearable, and Holly quickly reached for a drink of coffee.

“Good – morning – Professor Hollings - worth,” Snape used his silkiest voice fully to his benefit, and instantly recieved most satisfactory results.

Holly sputtered through the coffee and coughed vigorously as the hot liquid did not find its way smoothly down. Face colouring brightly as each progressive cough grew in intensity, the startling blue eyes began to redden and profusely stream tears.

Snape quickly and intentionally proffered his handkerchief instead of one of the usual linens that sat upon the table. He heartily and painfully pounded the slight professor between the shoulders, which almost caused the latter’s eyes to pop out entirely. Snape frowned almost imperceptibly as he realized just how small Hollingsworth was.

“My apologies, Professor. I did not mean to startle you,” Good, Snape thought as he spoke, the little maggot was easily intimidated and that would work to his advantage as he continued to pound the small back.

Still sputtering, Holly nodded and raised a hand to indicate there was no need for Snape to continue pounding, what felt like, the living daylights out of the professor’s meagre physique.

“Oh my, has Professor Hollingsworth become ill?” Curious, Filius Flitwick scuttled over to see what the commotion was about.

“The good professor will be just fine Flitwick – I do believe you are neglecting your conversation with Madam Sprout,” Severus said flatly as he arched his brow.

Taking the hint that he was not welcome, Flitwick stammered, “Y-yes, right. I’ll j-just…yes, I do believe you’re right Severus,” clearly embarrassed, the diminutive man quickly returned to his seat.

Seeing that his nemesis had recovered somewhat, Snape began to forge ahead to begin his manipulations, “Well Hollingsworth, I must say to be quite truthful, that I’m a bit put out that you acquired a position, which I myself have tried several times to obtain and keep, so easily. You must be exceptionally gifted in the Dark Arts to waltz in, and practically have it handed to you. Obviously, that in itself is talent enough.”

Seeing the new teacher blanch considerably under his keen scrutiny, Snape continued, though he softened his approach a bit; it certainly wouldn’t do to have the little twerp fleeing in abject terror to the Headmistress. “You must forgive me of sounding so presumptuous – it is not often I engage in conversation. Perhaps I need to practice a bit, to be more…civil,” he smiled tightly, and turned his attention to his plate of steaming food that had only seconds before, appeared before him.

Stabbing his fork into the sausage, he casually asked, and hoped he sounded such, “Tell me Hollingsworth, where do you hail from?”

Head down, aching between the shoulders from Snape’s ministrations, and trying very hard not to look like a frightened rabbit, Holly mumbled, “London – West London to be exact.”

“Really? I have an acquaintance that resides there. Perhaps you know of him – Ernest Thacker? He’s a dealer in extremely rare and unusual ingredients used for potions,” Snape shoved a forkful of food into his mouth.

“I’m not familiar with the name." Mumbling once more, and aimlessly pushing the once looked forward to food about the plate, Hollingsworth refused to meet the Potions Master's eyes.

“Mmm,” Snape chewed, and then swallowed. “Your family, your parents; any brothers, sisters, a wife, children?”

This had long been a dream of having Snape’s attentions, but this was not the sort of behaviour or the sort of circumstances that had been often imagined, and reluctantly answered, “My parents are dead, they were killed in the first battles with Voldemort, as was my twin sister, and I’ve no wife nor children. I’m the last of my family.”

Carefully and shrewdly assimilating this information, Snape abruptly stood and said, “Well, I must be off. I’ve a class to prepare for; later Hollingsworth,” he nodded curtly, and swiftly left behind another aromatic cloud of sandalwood.

Inhaling the scent, and for the first time ever, Snape made it completely impossible to enjoy as Hollingsworth watched sadly as the owner of the swirling black robes left the Great Hall. Realizing this endeavour was not going to go as smoothly and effectively as previously thought for it was possible Snape would discover things that were best left undiscovered, August Hollingsworth’s trembling hand tightly crumpled the white silk kerchief monogrammed with two intertwining S’s into a ball.

Snape smirked to himself in self-satisfaction on the way to potions. He discovered he could with very little effort, thoroughly intimidate the little professor who wanted to play in the big leagues, as well as easily coax badly needed answers to his questions. He low-pitched laugh sounded quite ominous as he found the situation almost beggaring description. It was going to prove to be much easier than he thought it would be after all.

Later that day, he looked very perplexed. He slowly turned and tried to take in what he saw, but he couldn’t. After classes, for his own purposes, he surrendered himself to tackle a task no one obviously wanted, he now understood why. He snarled, but what was the point? It didn’t do any good to snarl at – at – computers... Who in the name of Merlin had the bright idea to install – computers in the records room? He had fully expected to find boxes upon boxes of crinkled and tattered parchments, with new additions hastily stuffed here and there among mismatched pieces of furniture and tables. He noticed the lighting was not the same either, and he looked up at the brilliantly harsh fixtures that now graced the ceiling.

“Damn,” he muttered. “How in the hell am I going to find anything?” No one answered, as there was no one to provide an answer.

Since he had been back he had not bothered to enter this room, and therefore knew nothing of the changes that had been influenced by Arthur Weasley’s fondness for muggle contraptions. Those changes had occurred when he had the unfortunate experience of spending more time than he wanted in Azkaban. He approached the nearest computer and peered over and under it only to find no source of power. He realized they were operating under a spell, as were the lights.

Hitching the legs of his trousers up slightly, he sat down and gingerly pushed a button labelled ‘Enter.’ The screen came to life revealing the option for a database records search of Hogwarts. Carefully following the instructions, he typed his request and pushed ‘Enter’ once more.He waited a few seconds, and was surprised when the screen filled with more information than he had hoped for. Resting his chin in his hand, Snape started to read.

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Author's comment: Computers in Hogwarts? Hey, it could happen...