The Syndicate

Chapter 6 - Teaching

As the students began to make their way to the warmth of their beds, Vicious Bromista made his way over to Albus Dumbledore.

"I need to talk to you Albus." Vicious said as he completely ignored the fact that he was having a hurried conversation with Severus Snape.

"What do you need Vicious?"

"This involves Severus as well, so there is no need for him to leave." Harry spoke as he saw the potions master preparing to go back down to his dungeons. "This concerns his ability to be the head of Slytherin House."

Severus Snape, the resident evil bastard of Hogwarts, could barely suppress his outrage and anger at his position being questioned. "How dare you suggest that I am not equipped to be their head of house?"

"Now, now, Sev. Let the man speak." Dumbledore interjected.

"Thank you headmaster. No doubt you were wondering about why Slytherin house started out in the negative numbers this year and that was what your heated discussion was about?" At seeing the others nod he continued "that was my doing. Young Mr. Malfoy decided that it would be ... entertaining and ... fun to attack me on the train ride up to this school. As you know, attacking a teacher is a serious offense, and I could have tried to have the /poor/ boy expelled for such an act. I am a /very/ reasonable person though, so I deducted one hundred points from his house. I also thank that if you can't handle your PRIZED student any better, that there ought to be a new head of Slytherin House, a BETTER Head of Slytherin House, or that you should at least be put on probation until you learn to better discipline your house."

As he talked, the color drained from Severus face, making him look even gaunter. He realized that what the new professor said was more than likely true, and he had made it clear that Draco Malfoy was his prized student.

"I do believe that you have yourself a very good point. Over the years there have been very many inquiries into his unfair treatment of the Slytherins, which I have overlooked, but as this was a direct attempt to physically harm a teacher I am afraid that I will have to put him on probation. If he can't manage to get a better grip on his own students, then I will be forced to find another Slytherin Head of House. You would be a good candidate." Dumbledore said as he looked at the potion master's face disapprovingly. Vicious bid them a good night before he made his way to his chambers. 'Severus Snape, my evil and biased professor, is now on parole.' Vicious couldn't help but smile as he thought of this. Things just seemed to be getting better and better.

The next day dawned bright and early and the inhabitants of Hogwarts (the human inhabitants which does not include the ghosts and other various creatures there) were to be found in the Great Hall, enjoying a pleasant breakfast. Several students, as well as the professors, couldn't help but notice the empty seat at the Gryffindor table and prayed for the umpteenth time that the - boy - who - lived was safe and sound somewhere instead of lying dead in a gutter. But, the minds of most of the student population of Hogwarts were beginning to sway and believe the lies that the paper spoke instead of trusting someone they had known for years. It was beginning to become common place to hear the students in the hall whispering about the crazy Harry Potter and how he had ran away when he knew that he was going to be arrested for murder. They had yet to realize that the man that they seemed so interested in gossiping about and bad mouthing just happened to be one of their teachers. The power that Vicious had over shadows left him a bit short tempered and he didn't like what they were saying but had the common sense not to say or do anything that showed how much this got on his nerves.

The sixth year Gryffindors made their way out of the great hall and traveled toward the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Of course, they shared this class with the Slytherins because Dumbledore had the stubborn idea that one day they would get along. That day had yet to rear its ugly head and both of the houses claimed that there would be a snowstorm in hell when that would happen.

Vicious walked into the classroom with a stalk in his step. The Gryffindors were quiet and sitting forward in their seats while the Slytherins seemed to think that they were above this class and the teacher. One particular remark from Draco Malfoy severely pissed off the teacher, whose smile turned into an expression of hatred. "This class is going to be easy. After all, the teacher is a snot nosed brat who can't even do anything. I could defeat him in a dual easily."

"Is that so Mr. Malfoy?" The class quieted down immediately when they heard the venom in his voice. He seemed to be harmless at first but upon hearing his voice the students quickly changed their perceptions about the difficulty of this class. "As I seem to recall you and Misters Crabbe and Goyle saw fit to attempt an attack on me on the train ride here. What happened in that fight? Oh, now I remember; your friends ended up on the floor and you ended up on the wall. You seem to think that you have gotten away from that event scot-free. You are the one that is responsible for Slytherin starting in the negative numbers," Here the Slytherins turned towards Malfoy with looks of hatred while the Gryffindors looked smug, "and I would be careful when you go into your potions class. I doubt that Professor Snape likes you very much at this moment."

Draco began to quiver in fear. The truth was that he had thought that this teacher was all talk and would not act. He was far from the truth however. Now he had his house against him and Snape would probably try to poison him. Today was going to be his worst nightmare for many days to come, of this he was sure. He couldn't help but wonder and pray that Snape was still their head of house. "Is Professor Snape still our head of house?"

"Yes, he is. Although," Vicious was now back to smiling as though nothing had happened which frightened the students even more as they began to doubt his sanity, "I would say that he may not be for long if the Slytherin house does not shape up. You see, like I said yesterday I have had I nice chat with the headmaster and he has seen fit to put Severus Snape on probation. Enough of this conversation; I grow tired of it and I have used up too much time already." Vicious sat down behind his desk and propped his dragon- hide boots on top of it while ignoring the expressions his class bore while learning that thanks to Malfoy the Slytherin Head of House was on probation. One step out of line by any of his students would more than likely result in him losing the position and someone else taking over. This just could not happen!

"Today will just be a day of introductions. That means that you will not be learning any new spells today. I have no need to learn what you have been taught in the last five years because of the O.W.L.S so there will also be no pop quiz today. I," the class had began cheering and he waited a minute before continuing, "I will instead give you some sort of an idea about what we will be learning. Most of it is not in the textbook and therefore there can be no way to teach you through that. Instead, this year I will require you to do physical exercises to stay in shape. Every morning you will run ten laps around the quidditch pitch," here the class began to protest, "and you will run twenty-five in the afternoons. Physical fitness can help you a lot in dueling as well as increase the longevity of your lives. In a dual, it would do you no good if your opponent were to be physically faster than you are because you would never be able to hit them. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I guess that I should. One of the reasons why the N.E.W.T.S are so tough is the practical aspect of it. Instead of just waving your arms around and performing kiddy curses, you will find yourselves in real life situations where these are needed. It will help you in the long run if you prepare yourselves now." Although there were still a couple of grumbling students in the class they all realized that if what he said was true then they could use as much help as they could get.

"Now, on to the important stuff that Professor Dumbledore wants me to teach you. This is something that he has been trying to get through your puny skulls for as long as you have been here, but has yet to succeed. I will attempt to teach you in this lesson that there is no reason for an inter-house rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor to even exist. I'm sure," Vicious raised his voice over the loudest of the outraged students, "you have noticed that nearly every class that you have had has been together with each other. This rivalry is a pity because if you looked over that then you would notice that you are all not so different. I'm going to tell you now the real truth that would take you years to piece together out of very many old books. Some of this is speculation, though, and is a less than common theory because of what it entails. Slytherin and Gryffindor really didn't have that much of a problem with each other. In fact, they were the best of friends and would do almost anything that the other man would ask without a moment's hesitation. As you have all heard by now, they built this school in a dangerous time when muggles were trying to kill witches and wizards for being who they were. At first after the school was founded everything was all right. There was a massacre of a village of witches and wizards though that made things change. Muggles had somehow found a village of them and had attacked them at night while they were asleep in their beds. Back then there was no apparition or portkeys so they had no chance to escape. To make matters worse this wasn't just any night this was Christmas." Vicious paused for a moment before continuing.

"They bathed the snow with their blood and burned their houses to the ground. You could hear several babies screaming, as they were burnt alive and smell the burning flesh for miles around. What made this truly heinous was the fact that they did this all believing that they were righteous and they had no remorse. They even cheered and celebrated what they had done. This was a Christmas that none at the time would ever forget and word spread quickly through muggles and magic kind alike. Salazar Slytherin became furious, as this was his hometown. His mom, his sister, his childhood friends and his family had been slaughtered. His two-month-old sister was one of the ones that were burned alive. He could not stand for this and he wanted revenge. Godric Gryffindor didn't share this belief though and he had never lost someone in the massacre. He refused Salazar when he requested that they use the wizards and witches that they had here to attack muggles and he refused to not allow muggle born entrance just because they may turn on them and one day have them all killed. The rift between them grew wider with each passing day and the students could feel the tension. Finally, one day, Salazar decided to put his plan in motion. Luring the students to the Great Hall one day, he performed a mass curse over the students so that he could use them to do his own will and led them away from Hogwarts toward several prominent muggle towns in London. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff just happened to be in one of these towns and were chatting with some muggle friends when the attack began. Salazar Slytherin was ruthless, and was killing every muggle that he saw by burning them alive to avenge his baby sister. Finally after almost all of the townspeople had been killed the other founders managed to subdue Slytherin and carted him and the others back to Hogwarts. Several days later after having finally arrived back at the school they proceeded to throw him out of the school, and Godric told him that should they ever meet again he would kill his friend. Salazar was a little hurt by this, but his rage was consuming so he left and said they WOULD meet again one day. Nothing was ever heard from Salazar Slytherin again."

Most of the students had a hard time believing what they had just heard. Any one of them would have wanted revenge if they had had their families killed like that. This was especially true for those that had siblings when they imagined a defenseless baby being burned to death. It was hard to swallow, but for the first time in all of their years at Hogwarts that they could actually relate to each other. The bell rang, signaling the end of class and the beginning of lunch but after hearing such a tale they couldn't bring themselves to eat that much. Dumbledore couldn't help but smile as he watched the sixth year Gryffindor and Slytherin classes attempts to eat. He had told Vicious that he had attempted to end the rivalry between them for as long as he had been headmaster here and that he had never succeeded. At least now there was no open hostility, but he had a feeling that the rivalry was not going to end. Oh well, it was just another failed attempt.

Weeks passed by and the sixth years were beginning to get into shape. The other two classes had joined him and now they made their laps together while Professor Bromista was there to oversee them to make sure that they had done them all. Vicious knew that Snape had made his potions classes hell on earth for anyone who had stepped through the door, and the Slytherin house had received many detentions from their head of house for things that they did. This new attitude had actually nudged the bond that had slowly been formed between the Slytherins and Gryffindors closer together, as they now seemed to have common enemies. Namely, Severus Snape and he himself were the two /evil/ teachers. He was just about as hard as the greasy potions master on his students was if not more so. His new nickname was the Teacher from Hell and Dumbledore had even joked to him after he found out and had given him a name plate with that on it. Needless to say, he had placed it on his desk in the classroom.

Vicious didn't WANT to be the teacher from hell, but he had to. The students complained about the exercises that they had to do and the amount of Homework that they had. Let alone the tests that they had at least once a week that made any of the other teachers look pitiful. They had yet to realize what had happened, or the fact that they were actually at N.E.W.T. level now if not beyond. Plus, they were now sporting some muscle that could be used in a dual and they were always on their toes now that he had told them that he would test them outside of class to see what they had learned by attacking them when they least expected it. Dumbledore received complaints from the sixth year classes parents left and right and they both received very many howlers that they immediately destroyed. It had become quite boring to listen to the same things over and over again from different people.

The weird thing that came out of all of this and caused mostly the whole school to turn against him was the lack of hostility between the potions master and the defense against the dark arts professor. In fact, their relationship was borderline on friendship. Vicious as well as all of the professors knew about Snape's role as a spy in the Death Eater ranks, so it was no surprise when Severus limped in one day looking as though he had just been through hell. He had lost a lot of blood and most of it was caked on his own clothes. What really upset the potions master the most wasn't the amount of time that he would have to spend in the hospital wing, it was the fact that he had lost one of his arms.

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