The Syndicate

Chapter 7 - Learning

The students had been enjoying a fine meal until they saw one of their most hated teachers stumble into the hall looking as though he had just escaped from the devil himself. Some students gasped in horror while some of the more emotional ones began to weep uncontrollably. Don't get them wrong, they had not liked the man but no one deserved to go through something of this magnitude. Madam Pomfrey immediately rushed from her seat at the head table over to the injured man before forcing him out of the great hall toward the hospital wing so that he could be treated. Dumbledore stood up almost immediately and the students put an immediate end to the murmuring that was beginning knowing full well that when the headmaster stood up like that he was going to make an announcement.

"Students, do not fret over the condition of Professor Snape. All will be fine in several days and until then I am afraid that there will not be any potions classes," the wise old wizard paused here because normally any news of there not being potions merited for some cheers from the crowd. Now, however, everyone seemed to realize how bad the situation was and even though they would have cheered they knew that this was neither the time nor the place, "prefects, please lead your houses back to their common rooms. Anyone who is found roaming the halls will be given two weeks of detention in the forbidden forest with Professor Bromista, which I'm sure that you will regret. Professors," here Dumbledore turned and looked at his group of colleagues, "we will be going to the hospital wing immediately and afterward those that are the heads of houses will talk to some of their students so that they know what is going on. Hagrid, would you please talk to the Slytherin house after we leave the hospital wing for the night?"

Hagrid nodded and watched the students heading to their common rooms as fast as they could. Actually, the students began to flee when they heard that if they didn't remain there in the common rooms that they would have to go into the Forbidden Forest and if that wasn't scary enough they would have to go with a teacher that would be likely to either leave them in there or would attack them himself. Needless to say they never waited for the old man to finish his speech and when he turned around to address the students again he showed no surprise that only one or two of the most dedicated remained while the others had fled as if their bottoms were on fire, "You are dismissed," he declared and watched the students that had remained run out of the hall, some of them tripping on their robes and falling to the ground. He couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped and spoke to Vicious without turning around to see him.

"I see that you have become VERY popular among the students."

"Like a plague," Vicious muttered under his breath before they began the trek to see how Severus Snape was.

Meanwhile, Severus Snape was making his way to the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey. He had never really liked her when they had attended school together. She had been a lowly Hufflepuff while he had been in Slytherin, which was one of the two prominent houses. Don't misunderstand him or think that he actually cared for them. He had and always will think of Gryffindors as being annoying brats who would follow blindly. There were those that had leadership qualities amongst them (heaven forbid he mention that the main one used to be Potter) but they were too naive and too trusting to be any good leader. A leader knows and understands that anyone could stab them in the back. This includes both friends and family as they can be used against a person. Slytherins seemed to understand this better than the other houses and didn't really have close friends or family knowing that one-day it could and would mean the difference between life and death. Potter never realized that and he had been a fool. At first Snape had believed that the Potter boy (the bloody - boy - who - lived) was a rich and spoiled brat like his father had been. Everyone looked over this aspect about James and said that he was a good kid, which infuriated the dark man even more. But he had learned from the headmaster a little before last year that Potter had never been spoiled or known that he was rich and that the two things that the boy - who - lived hated the most were pity and fame. Early on the boy had no breaks in his life. Whether it was living in a cupboard under the stairs or being treated like a house elf and hated by his relatives; his life had never been as good as most but then again it wasn't as bad as some. At least to their knowledge the boy had never been beaten.

His musings ended as the matron almost pushed him toward the bed but since she didn't know the extent of his injuries or if any of them were internal she settled for yelling, "Severus Snape you get into that bed right now!"

Mumbling several obscenities and death threats under his breath he made his way over to the bed that she had pointed out. He may be a bit stubborn at times (well ... most of the time) but he didn't want to mess with Poppy Pomfrey when she was in over protective mother mode. Several seconds later, she came bustling over with her wand after she retrieved it from the desk in her office and began casting spells to identify what injuries he had and gathering potions while casting charms to heal her patient. Just then the doors to the outside of the hall opened and in stepped headmaster Dumbledore closely followed by all of the professors.

"How is Severus Poppy?"

"He should be alright Albus. He lost a good deal of blood and unfortunately I can't reattach his arm," the Healing Witch answered only to be interrupted by an outraged Potions Master.

"Why not! Voldemort reattached someone's hand before. I have seen the hand itself and it is in perfect working condition."

"I'm sorry. There really is nothing that I can do. A hand is smaller then a whole arm and requires less work. If you were to have a hand like that one, then you would end up worse than before. What is given with magic can and will be taken away. Strength spells wear off. Speed spells wear off as well. One day soon that hand will have to be re-conjured and reattached if the body does not reject the foreign object."

Severus Snape would not cry. Instead he hid his expressions behind the blank and indifferent mask that he wore around his students. He could not show weakness at any moment for when he did they were sure to strike. A long, long, long time ago he had shown his true feelings once to the person that he loved and it ended in heartache for him. Never again was his vigil and oath that he would not let his heart become shattered once more as he was just trying to piece it back together. What Madame Pomphrey said to his colleagues next made him ALMOST show his emotions, as it was what he feared...

"Unfortunately he will not be able to make all of the potions that he did before. Most require precise timing and that means that he would have to use both of his arms. The only way that he might be able to get around it was if he had someone else there to help him but there aren't very many people that I have heard of that are on his level and most of them are too pig headed to help someone missing an arm."

Dumbledore nodded in silent woe while Vicious looked on with some sort of detached interest and sorrow. On one hand he was a little happy that the man that had treated him like a piece of dirt for the last four years was injured and more than likely would not be able to brew complex potions again. On the other hand he felt bad for what happened to the man. He was hard to get along with and really didn't like kids that much but he wasn't really an evil git, just largely misunderstood. Vicious himself was hated by the students as well and he realized that if you really forced a kid to work so they would be ready for real life after they left the safety of Hogwarts that they would hate you and wouldn't realize that one day the information could and probably would save their lives. The side that sympathized with the potions master won over the one that disliked him due to his own reputation as being the 'Teacher from Hell.'

"Could the rest of you please excuse us? I would like to talk the headmaster alone," Severus Snape spoke without the usual malice in his voice but he still didn't sound anything but indifferent to what had happened to him. The other teachers left the room wondering if the dark man would be okay, and if he was going to give up his position as teacher out of shame.

As the others walked out of the infirmary they split to go their separate ways and Vicious hid himself in a nook that happened to conveniently be nearby. When the other professors had already passed he began to manipulate his power over shadows. The one thing that he had learned to do with the shadows other than kill by using them was to wrap them around his body and essentially become a shadow himself. In this way, he could slide under the doors of the hospital wing and creep onto a dark section of the wall so that he could hear their conversation. Since he was not invisible or underneath an invisibility cloak Dumbledore would be none the wiser that they were being watched. Unfortunately, he had only been practicing this for a while now and he had never tried it out before in such a serious situation. The longest he could stay that way was close to forty-five minutes after which he had to immediately change back and rest for nearly six hours. The ability to blend with the shadows was very taxing to energy. While he had magical power to spare since he wore those bands his body he did not have that much energy and the human body can only take so much strain before it has to recuperate.

Sliding under the door he quickly made his way to the darkest part of the walls so that he could observe their conversation undiscovered. Both of them did not notice the shadow that moved across the floor and onto the wall, which was lucky since nine chances out of ten they would have tried to kill him.

"Severus," spoke Dumbledore in a caring voice, "just because you lost your arm doesn't mean that I am going to fire you."

"What good is a potions master that can't make potions Albus? Why won't you just accept my resignation and find a replacement?"

"A potions master is STILL a potions master whether he can make difficult and complex potions or not. Plus I refuse to accept your resignation. I have the professor that I want right here and I do not want any other one to fill the position. You have earned my respect over the years and I will not give up on you when you want to give up on yourself."

Silence rained in the hospital wing after that statement. Severus Snape would not hurt the old man any more, Vicious Bromista agreed with the headmaster, and Albus Dumbledore had an epiphany the likes of which would be talked about for many years to come. Of course the old coot was one of the smartest and sneakiest headmasters that Hogwarts had ever seen. No wonder when he first placed on that sorting had so many years ago that it wanted to put him in Slytherin instead of Gryffindor.

Vicious realized with a start when he looked at the clock on the wall above the infirmary doors that he only had three minutes and he had to get out of there. The strain that his body was feeling was already beginning to become more prominent and noticeable to him. He had to change back and lay down to rest, and soon. Thinking back to the last time that he stayed too long in this form he remembered that the next day he practically had to drag himself through his classes while he tried not to kill the snot nosed brats that thought he was being mean to them for a reason. Of course it was like them not to notice that he wasn't nearly as bad to them that day than he had been the day before. He had skipped the meals in the great hall after asking one of the house elves instead to bring up the meals to his room. Dumbledore stopped by later asking if everything was okay and he replied that he didn't get much rest the night before for a reason that escaped his grasp. Luckily the old man bought it and the next day after a good night of sleep he was as right as rain.

Moving as swiftly as he could when he was a shadow he sped toward the door of the infirmary. When the hell did this place get to be so damn long? He thought that luck was on his side and he was home free. Oh how wrong he was.

Severus Snape was staring at the floor unable to look into the eyes of the man that had been his mentor ever since he decided to turn against his family and friends to become a spy for the light side. He was afraid to disappoint the old man even though he felt as though he was useless since he lost his arm. While he was looking down he happened to notice something that just wasn't right. A dark mass, a shadow, was sliding across the floor as fast as it could go trying to get to the door. Growing up in a magical household he knew when to be careful and he had never seen anything like this before in his life. Jumping out of bed despite his injuries he began to hurry as fast as he could to the doors of the infirmary ignoring Albus as he asked what was going on.

Vicious was finally out of the infirmary. He realized that he could not stay like this any more than he had to. Checking to make sure that not a soul was looking he began to change back not realizing that Snape was peeking out of the door of the infirmary at him.

The potions master watched in fascination at what was happening in front of his eyes. The shadow on the floor of the hall began to stretch up and took the outline of a man. He witnessed them begin to dissipate leaving Vicious Bromista who began to walk down the hall toward his chambers not sparing a glance back to realize that he had an audience.

"What are you looking at Severus?"

When the potions master turned around he bore a strange expression on his face.