By Fair Means or Foul

Chapter 7

It was very busy for Hogwarts that next day. Nearly half of the students had visitors come to call. Most of those students knew who their visitors were. Some of them were actually not at all aware of the names of their guests, but they were quite happy with the galleons they got for pretending to be nieces and nephews.

Snape, however, was not happy.

He was not happy for two very important reasons. One, all the visitors were, strangely enough, men and second, they were all trying to “talk” with him. He had been accosted from the very moment he exited his private rooms. Again, gifts and flowers were shoved at him. Most of them were now piles of ash and a few had to be magically removed from their givers. He had not been able to make it to the Great Hall and instead had used his wand to carve out a path to his classroom and slammed the door in his pursuers faces. Luckily the Headmaster would not permit visitors in classrooms without a specific request from the teacher and Snape would not be handing out invitations any time soon.

As the students came in, Snape could hear the desperate halfwits calling to him through the open door. After a few concisely worded threats were barked out, the students quickened their paces and the door was quickly shut. Again, an extremely hostile glare at the seated students helped to make Snape feel better before he began his lecture. He anticipated a spectacular foul up from Longbottom or another clumsy Gryffindor for him to vent the remainder of his spleen on.

Unfortunately, an hour into Double Potions and nothing untoward had yet happened. Snape, though, had finally relaxed with the familiar smell of potions ingredients and the soothing sound of cauldrons bubbling. Just as he was about to make another pass through the class the door burst open and a man fell through. The entire class turned as one to stare at the intruder. He was a small built man with no chin to speak of. There was strawberry blond hair that was falling into his eyes as he scanned the room for his target. When his eyes alighted on the professor he started to unroll a parchment and cleared his throat. Snape, realizing that he was about to have another awful declaration of love recited to him in front of his class, quickly reached the cretin before the phlegm could be cleared from the man’s throat. Grabbing the smaller man by his threadbare collar and his patched elbow, he hauled him out the door before one sugary word could pass his lips. Several more men were waiting out side and one actually tried to grab Snape’s hand. Nearly losing it to a bite had him pulling it back quickly. Snape quickly slammed the door closed and leaned against it. Hair that was falling into his face moved with each panted breath. Once he had caught his breath, Snape smoothly stood and shook the hair out of his face, brushing it back into place with his fingers. He then made his way over to the Slytherin side of the class.

“Mr. Malfoy, I will be borrowing your two lab assistants to stand guard at the door. Seeing as how they only pass this class through your class work and my good graces, they will not miss anything of import. Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle, go outside and make very sure that no one else enters this room.” Once the two bulky students had gone out, again with shouts of endearments and invitations being heard through the open door, Snape made his way back to the front of the classroom. As he passed a certain bushy haired know-it-all he received a look of outrage and her mouth began to open.

“One word, Ms. Granger, about unfairness and I will insist you do your fair share to maintain order and join your classmates outside,” he said in a snide voice. At that moment a tussle and a loud thud could be heard out in the hall. Granger quickly shut her mouth and began stirring her potion. The rest of the students also believed it wise to keep their noses in their cauldrons and Snape only caught two glances passed between two Slytherin girls, but because they seemed to be of outright fear, he let them go with only a loss of ten points.

Deciding on ending this class early, which he had never before done in all his years of teaching, he pulled out his notes before the students were finished brewing and was about to start lecturing about the importance of Potheus Pods when the shutters over the windows in the back of the class room slammed open. Two girls screamed but Snape could not identify which ones.

“Blimey, when did the dungeon get windows?”

“If you had but once paid attention, Mr. Weasley, you would know that this side of the dungeons are built into the cliff overlooking the lake. But as you consistently prove, you are not at all attentive or intelligent,” Snape said as he stalked towards the offending squares of light. Just as he got to the two windows a broom and rider came into view.

“Oy, you know who that is? That’s Hans Schmelzel, that is! The new seeker for the Heidelberg Harriers!” the excited red head exclaimed. He and other students stood up on their benches to get a better look. Snape really wished they would fall and break their necks.

The broom rider was in his Quidditch robes and was carrying another banal bunch of flowers and hanging from his broom was a banner that read, “Severus is the Best Catch! Marry Me?” The man was sandy haired and grinning like a mental defective. Snape grinned evilly back.

“Catch yourself,” he said as he pulled his wand and cast Expelliarmus at the man’s broom. The entire class gasped as the broom flew out from underneath the Quidditch player and he began falling. Within seconds they heard a large splash. A laugh that sounded suspiciously like Draco was quickly cut off.

“That’ll hurt the team,” Ron was heard muttering to himself. Snape locked the shutters back in place and made his way back through the blinking students who were trying to readjust their eyes to the gloom.

“I don’t think I need repeat myself,” he began once he got back to his podium, “when I say that if one word of anything that has happened here leaves this room, the person or persons responsible for it will forget what daylight looks like after their months of detentions with me. Am I understood?” After receiving a whispered chorus of ‘yes sir’ Professor Snape picked up his notes and began his lecture. This time with his usual smirk strongly affixed to his face.