A half an hour had passed since the House meeting had concluded and Severus spent that time in his office grading a Seventh Year term project report. Luckily, the Ravenclaw was one of his few students who actually followed instructions and wrote neatly, unlike the majority of the students in the school but the tediousness of reading and marking comments and corrections made the task irksome. Though he normally didn’t drink when he had students due for detention, he had poured himself a small tumbler of Firewhiskey halfway through the pages. Given the events of the day and knowing that he would be facing yet another meeting with the Headmaster as well as dealing with a probably soon-to-be-upset Harry Potter in a short while he needed the rejuvenating-yet-relaxing properties of the fiery liquor to keep him on an even keel. He absently reminded himself to use a breath freshening potion before the boy arrived for his scheduled detention as his latest sip burned its way down his throat. He didn’t need the trouble that arriving in the Headmaster’s office with alcohol on his breath would be in addition to everything else.

He made a final notation to the report before leaning back in his chair, his hands cradling the almost empty glass. There was still about a half an hour before the boy would arrive at the Potions classroom, more than enough time to decide how he was going to present the news that the erstwhile Gryffindor was going to be Re-Sorted.

He frowned at the number of possible reactions—most of them negative, and decided with his usual Slytherin cunning to let Dumbledore tell the boy. Potter would be upset and the Headmaster may as well be the focus of the yelling and tantrums.

He smiled thinly as he slowly finished off the whiskey, and opened the desk drawer to get the breath freshening potion. The tumbler and bottle were secured, the mouthful of the mint-flavoured potion almost but not quite soothing the stinging in the back of his throat, and the last of the grading stupor vanished.

Just as the clock on the office wall struck seven, he heard the sound of knocking on the classroom door. Though the door connecting his office and the classroom was closed, the sound carried from the other room courtesy of a charm he’d created when he was a Sixth Year. He coughed softly into the back of his hand and donned his best scowl as he went to answer the classroom door.

He unlocked the door and pulled it open with a dramatic flare of his robes. He made sure to hide his amusement as the boy automatically cringed. A moment later, the boy dropped the hand that was apparently rubbing at his scar and met Severus’ scowl with one of his own.

“On time for once, I see, Mr. Potter.” Severus drawled as he produced a vial of headache reliever. Harry’s surprise was evident and the Potions Master smirked.

“Take this. We are going to the Headmaster office.” He frowned as the boy hesitated before accepting the vial but nodded with approval as Harry read the label and sniffed the contents before swallowing it in two quick gulps.

“Thank you, sir.”

Severus noted that the boy’s voice was quiet for once, as he handed the empty vial back. “Why are we going to the Headmasters office—um, sir?”

“You shall find out when we get there. Now, come.” Severus turned Harry about and urged him down the corridor towards the stairs, and when he hesitated rested his handed on the boy’s shoulder, guiding him up to the Headmasters office.

“Dollop Danish.“ The password sourly slid off his tongue like acid rain. Severus would never understand the Headmaster’s need to use the names of sweets for his passwords. It was undignified, anyone who had ever met the Headmaster could probably figure out the password in a few minutes and it certainly ruined the mood and destroyed a carefully orchestrated sense of fear and tension when a misbehaving student was sent up to the Headmaster’s office for disciplining.

He heard the soon-to-be-Re-Sorted boy try to stifle a snicker as the gargoyle leapt away, providing access to the stairs. Glancing down he saw that Harry was attempting to muffle his laughter behind his hand. Was his hatred of the password really that obvious or was it just that the child found the password itself hilarious?

He pulled his attention back to the reason they were standing there in the first place and sent an admonishing frown towards Harry. “Come now, Potter.”

“Yes, sir.”

As he followed the boy up the stair Severus made certain that his Occlumency shields were in place. He had a feeling that he would need them if he was going to get through the next hour with his sanity intact.