Loving a Snake?

Chapter Two - The Truth Unfolds

After breakfast Tori dropped Joshua off with Dumbledore, making sure, once again, that it wasn't a problem. She began walking towards her classroom, where she would teach her first class.

As she walked down the corridors, absentmindedly turning when necessary, she wondered what her class would be like. Would they like the way she taught the class? Would she bore them? She was thinking about her class agenda for the day when she heard loud voices coming from the end of the corridor - her classroom.

Tori began walking more hastily, almost at a jog, until she finally reached the group of sixth years, whom shwas meant to teach that morning. She stopped, unnoticed, before her students and looked around at them. On one side were students wearing green badges; and on the other side, they were red.

'Slytherin and Gryffindor,' Tori thought. 'It never fails... even when I was in school.'

She sighed as she tried to locate the cause for the students' shouting. This didn't take long, however - in the center of the two groups was a blonde Slytherin and a rather lanky, dark haired Gryffindor and another Gryffindor girl with bushy hair and a blue face behind him.

Tori rolled her eyes as she advanced to the center of the group and stepped between the two boys.

"Excuse me," Tori said strictly but politely. "May I ask exactly what this," she pointed to the bushy haired girl, "is about?"

The dark haired boy looked up at Tori and then at the blonde boy and said, "Malfoy jinxed Hermione's face so that it would turn blue."

Tori frowned and sighed.

"And I guess you're Malfoy?" The blonde boy nodded. Tori then turned back to the dark haired boy once more. "And you are?"

"Harry Potter," the boy replied, plainly.

Tori nodded and the said "Well Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Potter - fortunately for you, I don't give out detentions on the first day, but if it happens again, you will be punished." The two boys nodded, shot each other a glare, and then looked away from each other.

then opened the classroom door and stretched her arm out, signaling for the students to go inside. The girl Hermione, being the last one inside, looked at Tori with a concerned _expression.

"Professor," she said. "What about my face?"

Tori smiled lightly. "Don't worry, I didn't forget." She turned to her students. "Class! I'm taking Miss..." She looked at Hermione.

"Granger," Hermione answered.

"Miss Granger to the hospital wing. Please behave." She then turned to one of the female Gryffindors. "Miss...?"

"Brown," the girl replied.

"Miss Brown, I want you to keep a close eye on the class." Tori looked around the room at the faces. "Come and get me if something goes wrong." The girl nodded and Tori turned and left, Hermione following close behind.

~*~*~

After the first class, the rest of the day went pretty smoothly for Tori. Her students seemed pretty interested in what she had to say and by the third class, she wasn't so nervous.

That night at the dinner, though, she was very tense - her seat being next to Snape's and she found that she was always, and possibly would always, be nervous around Snape after what had happened.

She smiled though, as she watched Joshua play with Dumbledore's beard. She had panicked slightly a few minutes earlier, however, when Josh had gotten his arm tangled after twisting Dumbledore's beard, but thad gotten his hand out fairly easily and Dumbledore had reassured her that Josh would be alright.

Tori sighed and ate as much as she could while exchanging piercing glares with Snape. Obviously, he hadn't gotten over what had happened either. Tori sighed as she finished what was on her plate, anticipating when dinner would be over.

~*~*~

That night, Tori was grading papers that had been done earlier in her classes when she heard a light tapping on her door. She sighed as she got up, put Josh in his crib (couldn't leave him alone with quills and ink), and answered the door.

When she opened it, she saw a very piffed looking Snape standing in the corridor. He handed her a roll of parchment the instant her saw Tori.

"Dumbledore ase to bring this to you," Snape snarled. "It's the schedule for this year... has the dates of all the staff meetings and such."

Tori took the parchment hesitantly and nodded. "Thank you," she said coldly. She noticed that Snape was about to say something else more, but the sound of Joshua's hungry cries filled quickly filled the room behind Tori, cutting him off.

Tori sighed as and looked somewhat relieved as she said "If you'll excuse me, I think it's time for his dinner." She was just about to turn and leave, but Snape stopped her.

"Whom does he belong to?" he asked.

Tori stopped in mid-step and looked back at Snape. "Excuse me?"

"Whose is he?" Snape ted.

Tori frowned and answered, "Why, I believe he belongs to me."

Snape scowled. "You know what I mean! Who's the father?" he nearly shouted.

Tori almost didn't answer, but decided that Snape had the right to know. She exhaled and reverted her eyes so that she was no longer looking at Snape. "You," she whispered.