They stumbled across the grounds, almost asleep on their feet, envying Charity who, having no lessons the next morning, had volunteered to stop with Dudley Dursley at the Order’s Manchester safe-house. They were probably already tucked up in their respective beds, lucky sods.

In the entrance hall, Severus and Poppy parted company and the Potions Master was too tired- honestly too tired- to even remonstrate when Poppy kissed him smack on the nose as she bid him goodnight. Insane old bint. Even though it was a bloody fine nose.

Okay, now, along the corridor, almost half-way now. Good old legs! Nice and long, just like legs ought to be. Down the stairs, just one more flight of the buggers now. Whoever thought stairs were a good idea should be shot. Just one more corridor. Nearly there. Oh, he could almost those soft, silk sheets sliding over his weary body. Ah, now, just around the corner…

Were a dozen or so first years, looking up at him with wide, trusting eyes and happy little smiles.

Bloody. Buggering. Hell.

OoOoO

“I like your haircut, Sir.”

“Whazzat?”

“Your hair, it looks nice.”

“Thank you, Draco. Now, if you don’t bug… I mean if you don’t leave me in peace to find my so…, my sugaring Invigoration Draught, I’ll skin you alive and use your hide for a bl… blacking sleeping bag.” Severus muttered, rooting around in his potions cupboard.

“Is he always like this?” whispered Hermione, who was standing towards the back of the gaggle of first years.

“No” hissed Harry “I think he’s just really tired or something.”

Severus finally grabbed a vial and downed it, shivering at the obnoxious taste. Somnolent neurons fired into life and Severus felt rational thought flooding back into his poor, battered brain. He spun around, bright eyed.

“And what, may I ask, are you all doing in my office when curfew began over two hours ago?”

“Please, Professor,” said Daphne “We’ve been waiting for you for hours! Since nine!”

“And what, pray was so important that you decided to spend all evening camped outside my office door?”

“It’s Hermione Granger” replied Blaise.

“A Gryffindor? Surely, then, Professor McGonagall could have dealt with this?”

“Well, we considered that” continued Blaise “but Harry, he insisted that we wait for you.”

“Did he indeed” said Severus, quirking an eyebrow in the direction of bespectacled green eyes. “Come here then, Mr. Potter, and you too Ms Granger” he added, noticing the head of bushy brown hair.

Severus conjured a number of squishy, green leather pouffes. “I imagine that this cannot wait until a civilised hour?”

“No sir” said Draco, looking his godfather square in the eye.

“Sit. Talk.”

And so he heard the sorry tale. The burnt books, the name calling, the threats, the tears, Ms Greengrass finding Hermione sobbing behind a pile of books in the library, the conversation in the Serpents Nest …

“And so, Sir,” finished Draco “We all thought, if Hermione could possibly be re-sorted…”

Severus, his chin resting upon his hand, smiled, his dark eyes glittering in amusement. “And into which House do you, by which I mean Ms Granger naturally, where do you think she should be sorted.”

“Well, that’s up to the Hat, obviously” said Blaise, with a butter-would-not-melt expression.

“Ms Granger may very well be inducted into Slytherin” Severus added, looking around for signs of dissent. Every expression- even Ms Parkinson’s- conveyed, at worst, indifference and, at best, positive delight. Malfoy’s countenance, interestingly enough, veered towards the latter. Quite a one for adopting waifs and strays, that lad.

“Very well. I suppose I shall have to floo the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall.” said Severus, straightening up. “Mr Potter, Ms Granger, if you could remain. Mr Malfoy, would you be so good as to escort your year-mates to the Serpents’ Nest?”

“Yes Sir” beamed Draco. Severus returned the boy’s artless smile; Malfoys were easy enough to manipulate, one simply had to ensure that they felt sufficiently important!

OoOoO

As Hermione explained her predicament to Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall in the Headmaster’s Study, Severus and Harry ate a midnight snack by the Potion Master’s office fire. Severus had fire-called the kitchens and ordered a large platter of spinach, gruyere and egg mayonnaise sandwiches, a flagon of butterbeer and a couple of apple turnovers.

When Harry was, somewhat self-consciously, munching on a sandwich, Severus said “I find myself wondering, Mr. Potter, why you insisted upon waiting over three hours to speak to me when you could have taken Ms Granger’s predicament to Professor McGonagall.”

Harry, looking worried, attempted to swallow his mouthful too quickly. Lest the boy choke, Severus briskly continued “I am not displeased, I hasten to add, merely curious.”

“Well, Sir,” Harry said “You… I mean, no one else has ever… They always believed Aunt Petunia, Professor, but then you made Aunt Petunia tell the truth and now I am a Ward of Hogwarts!”

“As erudite as ever, Mr. Potter.” Although Professor Snape’s mouth sneered, Harry had already learnt to look at his eyes, which were warm as coals.

“I thought, I mean, I knew that you would know that Hermione was telling the truth.” said Harry shyly “The Gryff girls, they would have all lied to help each other.”

“I expect that they would and, indeed, will, Mr. Potter, when Professor McGonagall addresses them tomorrow morning.” said Severus, pouring Harry another glass of butterbeer.

“But you can give them truth potion, can’t you Sir?” replied Harry brightly.

“Alas, Veritiserum is a regulated potion, which means that I cannot give it to children. However, Professor McGonagall is a very experienced Head of House and, as sophisticated as the Gryffindor first years may think they are, she will easily be able to tell who is lying and who is in earnest.”

“Oh. Um, Sir?”

“Yes Mr. Potter” said Severus, offering him an apple turnover.

“Er… I was wondering; how did you know that Aunt Petunia was…”

“neglecting and abusing you?” the Potions Master added, having waited in vain for Harry to finish his sentence. “Quite easily, Harry. Madam Pomfrey’s spirit familiar- a Snake of Asclepius- recorded every injury that your body has ever received and, on the basis of these results, the Headmaster, Madam Pomfrey and I decided that we needed to investigate further.”

“What will happen to Aunt Petunia?” asked Harry in a small voice.

Severus raised an eyebrow “Considerably less than she deserves. She has lost custody of her son, Dudley, and her precious reputation is in tatters.”

“But Dudley loves Aunt Petunia.” Gasped Harry, looking horrified. “He’ll be dead upset.”

“Dudley, in fact, asked to be removed from your Aunt’s care.” Severus replied “He realised that the way in which your Aunt treated you was very wicked.”

“But, Dudley always backed Aunt Petunia up. And he hated me too; he called me a freak and he and his friends used to gang up on me and hit me and call me names.”

Sins of the fathers should not be visited onto the sons.

“I think” said Professor Snape carefully “that, after walking a mile in your shoes, young Mr. Dursley came to understand that his mother was turning him into someone he did not like.”

Harry looked at him, his green eyes wide.

“No harm has come to the great brute, Mr. Potter. I do not hex children” sighed Severus “I merely cast an epiphany spell, one which allowed your cousin to dream- just for one night- that he lived your life at 4 Privet Drive. It was a nightmare and a highly unpleasant one but the long term benefits are incalculable. To grow up with such a distorted view of right and wrong, would you wish it on your worst enemy?”

“No Sir.”

At that moment, Hermione skipped out of the floo, followed by the sedate Dumbledore, whose blue robes were hemmed, Severus noted, by the end of his purple plaid nightgown.

“Harry! The hat sorted me into Slytherin!” Hermione cried ecstatically “And Professor McGonagall, she gave me her own copies of the first year text books! To keep! They have notes and everything!”

Severus raised an eyebrow at the headmaster, who returned his smirk.

“And now, children, it is high time you were in bed.” said Professor Dumbledore, looking at the happy, excited pair. “Chop, chop. We want those heads on pillows sometime before dawn if you please.”

“Given the lateness of the hour, you can floo.” said Severus to Harry and Hermione, taking a small, mother of pearl box from his mantelpiece.

“How do we, uh, ‘flew’, Sir? Only we don’t have brooms.” said Harry nervously

“Floo is spelt with a double ‘O’, Mr. Potter. You take a pinch of this powder” Severus opened the box “throw it into the fire, wait for the flames to turn green and step in, saying the name of your destination. In this case, Slytherin Common Room.”

“Oh! Cool, Sir.”

“And I shall expect to see you all for breakfast in the Great Hall at eight o’clock. Tonight, due to the particular circumstances, I have been indulgent but, from now on, late night escapades are strictly forbidden. If I catch any of you out of bed after nine pm, that is to say twenty-one hours on the twenty-four hour clock, you shall be very sorry children indeed.”

“Yes Sir,” said Hermione primly.

“Thank you, Sir” beamed Harry.

“Off with you. And tell your Dorm mates that, if they are not in bed in five minutes I shall have you all preparing the most slimy, stinking ingredients I can lay my hands on.”

“Yes Sir, Goodnight Sir. Goodnight Professor Dumbledore.”

“Goodnight children” replied the Headmaster cheerfully.

Severus let them each take a pinch of floo powder and, after seeing them safely through the fire, sat down in the chair opposite the Headmaster.

“Well, my boy, Slytherin is obviously the House to watch this year.”

Severus summoned a pot of Earl Grey and, after pouring a cup for himself and Albus (the latter’s being liberally dosed with honey), said, smiling “I really think they’re taking the rule of House Unity to heart; usually it merely prevents outward forces dividing them to their detriment. This Year, however, seem to have forged themselves into a seamless political machine. Quite disturbing really, given their young age.”

“Don’t be too worried, Severus” said Albus, pouring more honey into his already fairly viscous tea “There are two natural leaders- Harry and Draco- whose family allegiances are, moreover, very different. And the Zabini’s are known for following their own stars.”

Deep in thought, Severus reached up to twine his fingers in his hair. Damn, he’d forgotten to re-grow it.

“Oh, and Severus, do I want to know why your hair is unprecedentedly short?” asked Albus, looking at his Potions Professor over half-moon spectacles.

“Probably not Headmaster.”

OoOoO

In the First Year Slytherin boys’ Dorm, Harry, tucked up in his bed, watched the beautiful, white spirit-deer as it picked its way around the room, checking on each of the boys.

Hogwarts was great.