Lendoren

I earn nothing but pleasure by translating this story from Kelokelo, everything you recognise belongs to Jo Rowling.

Chapter beta’d by Tanit, thanks so much for your work and your advice!

Ch7. First lessons

Severus didn’t take the risk to disturb Hermione on her fist day of class, all the more because she would probably curse since Gryffindors had potions with him for their first lesson. So he just linked himself to her for a bit of time before her clock struck wake up time. She was beginning to feel him as something else than her subconscious, she would need to make quickly the connection between their nocturnal conversations and what she would learn from Arlin. Well, he had to admit she usually understood things much more quickly than the average students average student, and he found it improbable she would fail to understand what was happening to her for long, wouldn’t she?

Hermione was striding towards the Great Hall to join Harry, Ron and Ginny. As soon as she arrived, Professor McGonagall gave her the timetables for the younger students while she herself distributed the more complicated schedules of the Sixth and Seventh Year. She didn’t have time to take a look at her own timetable when she took her place next to Ron for breakfast, in front of Harry and Ginny, but she was at once informed by Harry who was groaning:

“But why? Why do we systematically have potions every first day of school? Besides, this year it’s our first lesson! Two hours in the dungeons! With Slytherin to boot!”

Hermione sighed and brooded in her head. Severus once more had to check back a grimace all the more because Hermione’s inner monologue began to reach high peaks :

“The pest, the pest, the pest! That bulldog will spoil my first day!”

He sighed in his head. He was compared with a bulldog now! Besides, what was a bulldog? A Muggle insult she learned when she was a child? That sounded like a promise of long days to come as long as she would feel like that!

« So boys, » Hermione asked aloud, « You’re going to be cautious this time, I don’t want to have to catch up fifty points already on the first day. »

“But Hermione, if he’d decided to dock fifty points from Gryffindor today, you very well know that, whatever we do to keep in line, he’ll dock them for a bad writing on our parchment or anything else!”, Harry answered, exasperated. If only he didn’t need potions to become an Auror.

“I agree”, Ron added.

“Anyway, it’s time to go,” Hermione said. “Best being in advance with him.”

They headed to the dungeons, wondering why, where and how their teacher had come to change so much his appearance. Harry and Ron were vying for the most comical idea about the question: permanent transfiguration (“But boys, you know there’s no such thing as permanent transfiguration”), he had been replaced by his twin and maybe he would be a bit more agreeable in class (“that wouldn’t be too difficult to be more agreeable than him in class, being more disagreeable, THAT would be more difficult,” Harry had answered). They had reached quite a state of hilarity when they arrived in the dungeons until they met Malfoy, Zabini and Parkinson.

« Saint Potter, the Weasel and the Mudblood. You always do everything by three,” he drawled.

He was however interrupted when his Head of House arrived, sporting his usual amiable face.

The students came into the classroom silently, being in seventh year, they had had time to know chattering ended with points docking, at least for the Gryffindor. Malfoy pushed Hermione to come in before her. “I hate him,” she yelled inwardly. That mental yelling wasn’t lost for everyone, Severus nearly grimaced in front of his students because of it. He really needed to teach her to control herself lest his life turned into hell as quickly as her powers were growing. Well, for the moment, he had to let it dwell and to lay some rules for the coming year.

“This year is the last we’ll be together, on my part trying to instil some rudiments of potions under your skull , on your part remembering barely the quarter of it. I need to warn you that those who won’t do more efforts than the previous years won’t have a chance of success with their NEWTs. Mr Malfoy,” he said while Malfoy was resuming his hateable habit of bombarding Harry, Ron and Hermione with paper planes, sure that Snape wouldn’t tell anything, “the petty entertainments I’ve tolerated of your part must now remain in the past. Do I make myself clear?” he added with a velvety voice while he came in front of Malfoy. The Slytherin couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

A smile began to appear on Malfoy’s face but when he saw his teacher’s eyes, he bent his head.

“Yes… sir, » he stammered with difficulty while Severus was watching him unblinkingly.

« Perfect, » Severus added, « Now that everything’s clear, you’ve got twenty minutes to answer those questions so I can see how much knowledge you’ve lost during the holidays. If you’ve lost more than what I consider as acceptable, you’ll have more homework as a consequence.”

Twenty minutes later, most students were wearing defeated faces, except for Hermione who just looked annoyed. She had answered all the questions but one and she felt guilty about it. Harry and Ron were anxious but managed to answer three quarters of the questions nonetheless.

Severus told them what potion they were to make that day and they went to work in a nearly religious silence. As usual, thought Severus as he perused his students’s answers, they seemed to have forgotten some essential notions during the holiday. The Slytherin were beneath (why change?), Hermione was above every one and that made him happy for the first time. He still had a prickly problem to solve and he hadn’t come to a decision yet. Either he would go on with his usual notation standards, the Slytherin would be advantaged and the Gryffindor didn’t stand a chance, or he would note “normally”, which the Slytherin would find hard to stomach but would be more equitable for the Gryffindor.

While he was spying on Voldemort during the previous year, there was no need to wonder about it, he had to rub the Death Eaters spawns up the right way. Indeed, the Death Eaters were proud of their progeny and to act like this helped him to keep his reputation of being a spy on Dumbledore. Only Merlin knew how Voldemort had found out his being a Lendoren and thus his inability to perform Dark Magic and his treason. He escaped with his life thanks to his powerful Lendoren magic which allowed him to deviate several Avade Kedavra that had welcome him at his last appointment with Voldemort. But despite his powers, his shield wasn’t nearly enough against Voldemort’s own curse. Thanks gods he managed to apparate. His frustration of being found out had been compensated by joy when his magic gave him, at last, a companion. Said joy was dampened when he knew the name of the “lucky” girl. He had hoped for a rather malleable girl whom he could rally to his opinions and he got THE miss know-it-all with clear-cut ideas on everything!

While Severus was conscious he was letting his thoughts derive somewhat, he managed to keep a dire watch upon his students who were brewing the potion of the day. It was so easy to him he could have done it with closed eyes, so no problem from this side. So what to do about the notation? He was still pondering the question when he caught Malfoy trying to sabotage Weasley’s potion, as usual. Until now, Severus had never told anything for his mother, Narcissa, and his aunt Bellatrix Lestrange, were amongst Voldemort’s most loyal followers. But now he hadn’t a reason to handle him with care anymore, it was then time to adopt a fairer attitude.

« Malfoy, », he told codly, « May I know what you’re doing ? »

« hem… »

« I’m waiting, Malfoy ! »

The class was rooted to the spot. It was the first time Snape took the Slytherin boy to task.

« I… »

But Malfoy didn’t finish. He was literally shrinking on the spot under his Head’s eyes, eyes which hadn’t changed during the exchange.

« I see you don’t have a rational explanation for your gesture, Malfoy. I advise you to find a good one that you shall explain to me on a parchment due tonight at eight. If not, you shall have a two hour detention with me.”

The Gryffindor had to bite back smiles for fear of meeting Malfoy’s fate. But then, to see Malfoy threatened with a detention by Snape for the first time! Their enthusiasm didn’t last when they saw the mountain of homework they had to do for the next week. Severus inwardly smiled, that would set the record straight.


Thanks so much to you, readers and/or reviewers, especially to lisa, firewall and mesawka. Translating is a lot of work, but the more you do it, the easier it gets