The Professor

Chapter 5


Chloe decided to ask Frenny the best way to deliver her letter.

“Frenny!” The little elf popped her head into the sitting room and smiled. “Frenny, I need your help. Your advice rather. I need to send this letter to Professor Snape. What’s the best way?” Chloe saw when she said Professor Snape, Frenny’s face fell.

“What does Ms. Chloe want to send that letter to Professor Snape for?” She asked, in an unusually serious tone.

“It’s a thank you letter Frenny. Remember that I told you he helped me yesterday? I am thanking him properly and I am also inviting him to tea today.” Chloe frowned as Frenny squeaked and covered her mouth.

“What?” Chloe asked.

“Ms. Chloe…Professor Snape is…is…not being a good wizard. Not always. He was…he was…” She looked around as if someone could hear her. Chloe rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips.

“He was a what?” She asked.

“He was being a bad wizard once Ms. Chloe. A Death Eater. He killed the headmaster. Not really though…headmaster did powerful magic and didn’t really be dying. But Professor Snape did it . We was all very sad. Professor Snape worked for You-Know-Who.”

“No, I don’t know who. What are you talking about.”

“The evil wizard Ms. Chloe. You remember Headmaster telling you about the war! Professor Snape did some terrible things then. But the Headmaster always trust him, he does. Don’t know why…all Hogwarts’ house elves are terribly afraid of him. He is not being nice at all. Please don’t bring him here Ms. Chloe!” Frenny was pulling on her ears as she spoke and her large eyes were full of fear. Chloe decided to pocket the letter and wait until she had further information. She really needed to find out a bit more about him obviously. A bad wizard? What the hell was a Death Eater?

“Alright Frenny. I’ll see to this myself later. I’m going to class.” Frenny nodded her large head and was still holding her ears as Chloe left the room.


*******


Chloe still had the letter addressed to Professor Snape in her pocket. She had seen him at lunch, but quickly talked herself out of giving him the letter directly. No, she needed to find out a bit more about him first.

She walked along the school grounds and came across Hagrid. She knew she could get plenty of information from him. He was pulling weeds from one of the vegetable gardens. Chloe walked up behind him.

“Afternon Hagrid.” She said brightly. He jumped at the sound of her voice.

“Merlins beard yer gave me a right fright!” She laughed and apologized.

“Sorry Hagrid. I actually came to ask you something. Something rather…erm…sensitive.” He stopped digging in the dirt and turned his hairy head to face her. She bit on her lower lip and hoped he would be as easy to extract information from as she hoped.

“What you going on ‘bout?” He asked narrowing her eyes. She smiled again and squat down next to him.

“Hagrid, I would like you to tell me about Professor Snape. See…Frenny, my house elf, said something about him that I don’t necessarily know to be true. I know that you have been around for a long time and that you know pretty much everything there is to know about Hogwarts and everyone in it. So I came to you.” She said, the entire time smiling at him.

Hagrid puffed up his chest and nodded. “Yeah, I don’ know a lot about learnin’ and books, but I know ‘bout Hogwarts. I certainly know ‘bout ol’ Snape. See, he used to be a Death Eater-”

“What’s that?” She interrupted.

“Blimey. Didn’t Dumbledore tell you anything?” He said as she shook her head. “Well, It’s a long story mind, so I’ll skip the parts that don’t matter-”

“No. Please, I have to know everything I can. Please?” She produced her lower lip and a smile and Hagrid exhaled loudly.

“Ruddy women. Can’t say no to ‘em. Blimey, alright. Come over to my hut in about an hour and we can have some tea.” Chloe reached over and kissed his furry cheek.

“Thanks Hagrid. I knew you could help me.” She walked away and giggled at the slight blush that had rose in his cheeks when she kissed him. She went back to her rooms and redrafted the letter to Professor Snape.

*********

Chloe was inside of Hagrid’s hut exactly an hour later. They were drinking tea and Chloe was having a hard time with a very hard cookie he made.

“So. You wanna know ‘bout Snape, huh? Yeah…that’s a strange man Severus Snape. Mind you…he’s a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Of course, you don’ even know what that is, do ya?” She shook her head.

“Bloody hell.” He quickly put his hand over his mouth. “Sorry ‘bout that. Fergot I was sittin’ with a lady. Alright, first off, do you know who we mean when we say You-Know-Who?”

“Sort of. The wizard who went bad and started the war in the first place, right?” She had effectively put two and two together.

“Yeah. The first war ended when…You-Know-Who was defeated by our own Harry Potter. By the way, me an’ Harry are good friends.” He puffed out his chest again. “Anyway, his parents were killed by...well…HIM. Harry grew up and fought another war with HIM and won. That’s all in them books you can read. What many don’ know is that Ol’ Snape was a double agent. A spy in other words. He used to be a Death Eater, one o’HIS followers, changed sides and spied for us. Bloomin’ mess that was for him too.”

“But what would Frenny mean when she said that professor Snape was a murderer, that he killed the Headmaster? Certainly she wasn’t talking about Dumbledore?”

“Oh..yeah…that. Well, strictly speakin’ he did kill Dumbledore. At least, we all thought he did. But Old Dumbledore, great man Dumbledore, always has a trick up his sleeve. He didn’t really die, only partially. He knew Snape was gonna have to kill him in the end. So I guess they made arrangements for it. Well, by the end, Harry beat…HIM and Dumbledore came back after it was all over. Explained what happened and that was that. But Snape’s still goin’ out there looking fer other Death Eaters who got away. I reckon he still tryin’ to make up for going wrong back then. Whatever the reason, Snape is always been snarky, so to speak. He ain’ close to no one. No one really minds him s’long as he don’t go off to the dark side again. But Dumbledore, bless him, he practically loves ol’ Snape. Always sayin’, ‘I’ll see what Severus thinks’. They’re close. I supposse killing someone, or half killin’ someone, will either tear you apart, or bring ya together. Now, Dumbledore is the only person Snape really talks to. Sad now that I think about it. He deserves some credit for risking his life. But he nearly got his neck snapped by me. Would have too, iffin’ it hadn’t been for Hermione. That’s one of Harry’s friends. Great witch Hermione. Muggleborn with loads of power. She works at the Ministry of Magic now.”


“What about Harry? Where is he?”

“Oh Harry…he uh…left after the war was over. He comes around every now and again. That boy got the short end of the stick if I were to say so myself. Lost his parents, godfather and thought he lost Dumbledore too. He’s married now. Ginny Weasley. You met some of the Weasley’s at yer party. You know ‘em all by their red hair.”

“Oh. Yes, I remember.”

“Why you wanna know all this ‘bout Snape anyways?” he asked eyeing her over his large mug of tea.

“Oh well…the other day, I was in Hogsmeade and was sort of attacked by two wizards.”

“What! Did you tell Dumbledore? What happened?” He was on his feet. Chloe pulled him down back to the table and smiled.

“It’s alright. See, Professor Snape came to my aid. He stepped in between myself and the other wizards and they practically ran from him. I was quite impressed actually.’ That was an understatement, she thought to herself.

“Bloody hell. Not surprising, knowing Snape. He’ll never admit it, but he don’t want nobody to get hurt anymore. I think he witnessed too much of that already. So yer jus’ curious is all?” He asked.

“Well…yes. I was going to…well…I was going to ask him to tea, you know, to properly thank him and that’s when Frenny went a little strange on me. Going on about him being a dark wizard and being afraid of him.” This was met with a howl of laughter. He laughed so hard, tears were poring from his eyes. After a few minutes, Chloe was getting a little annoyed and Hagrid was wiping his eyes on a large handkerchief.

“Oh…oh…that’s bloody rich. Snape, comin’ to tea! I’ll clean all the windows at Hogwarts with my knickers if that ever happened. Mind you, nothing’ against you, rather, it’s him. He would rather be set fire than be a lady‘s guest fer tea. But that’s my opinion.”

Chloe didn’t like the sound of that at all. For some reason, she felt slightly offended at Hagrid laughing at Professor Snape.

****

They continued talking and Chloe realized how late it was getting. She and Hagrid said their goodbyes and Chloe walked back to the castle.

So…he was some sort of hero who didn’t want to be a hero, huh? Well, that little talk with Hagrid did nothing but stoke the fire that was lit inside of her. He needed a friend. Someone who wasn’t a part of the war. Someone who wouldn’t judge him.

It took all the convincing in the world to get Frenny to deliver her letter. In the end she did, after speaking her mind, loudly of course. Chloe laughed. If he accepted, he would be coming for a drink after dinner.

All she could do was wait.