An American Professor

February passed uneventfully. Sirius did not return and Erin felt funny about not really missing him. She wasn’t sad any longer about the way they’d left things because the longer he was away without sending any word the more pissed off she became. In fact, just thinking about the way he'd run off on the night she'd found Harry was enough to get whatever she had in her hands flung across the room (Violet being just about the only exception).

March began as a dismal month. Erin had wanted to be finished with her year three course work midway through the month. Unfortunately, as March 15th came and went she was still trudging through the material. She realized that the delay stemmed from her pre-occupied mind.

Concentrating on studying became harder and harder for her. Most evenings after her run and shower or bath, instead of studying incessantly as she used to she would go spend time in the Gryffindor common room or, more frequently, seek out Snape for one of their long talks.

One of their most favorite topics was postulating why he hadn’t been ‘called’ after Harry’s escape. Neither one was satisfied with the other’s theory, and they’d spend hours in debate.

Erin was positive that Voldemort knew Snape was a traitor. She felt that he was just waiting for the worst possible time and place to kill Severus. Erin believed that it wouldn’t be enough for Voldemort to kill Snape, he would want to ruin Snape’s name as well as Hogwarts prior to finishing him off.

Snape felt she was dead wrong. He argued that if Voldemort had wanted him dead he’d have summoned him by now and just killed him. Citing numerous other instances in which Voldemort was unsatisfied with a Death Eater’s performance he contended that in each instance Voldemort would unceremoniously summon and kill the offending party. Snape also reasoned that Voldemort was devising a new plan to try and take over the world (he never understood why she would giggle after he would say such a serious thing, and could not grasp the Muggle cartoon reference she attempted to attribute her giggles to,) and that Voldemort would be the only one to know every element of said plan. Then he would hand out small assignments to his Death Eaters without revealing the intended outcome.

Erin and Snape spent most nights spouting reasons and in Snape’s case evidence for their individual theory and against the other’s. After a particularly late night of good-natured arguing Erin awoke late for breakfast. She raced around her room readying herself for the day in under five minutes.

Running to the Great Hall for a quick breakfast, she had just reached the doors when she let out an involuntary ear-piercing shriek. There was an enormous snake curled up in front of the doors. Erin shrieked again, but was frozen in terror. She looked around desperate for something to jump onto. The snake began to uncoil itself and come towards her hissing.

“Oh my God! Help!!” she shrieked and finally was able to step back a few paces. Erin realized that it had only been a few seconds from her initial scream, but to her it felt like hours since she’d found the snake. She felt momentarily relieved when the doors to the Great Hall opened and she saw Hagrid and Snape in the front of a group of professors looking quite bewildered.

“Erin, what’s wrong?” Severus asked before seeing the thing that was petrifying Erin. She tried to move towards Severus, but the snake blocked her progress.

“Do something!” she shrieked as the snake continued to advance on her. From the crowd of students that was quickly forming behind the professors Harry pushed his way through and began hissing at the snake. The snake hissed back before continuing it’s path towards Erin. “Shit!” she cried and backed further away when she heard Harry hiss again. “What are you saying?” she demanded.

The snake hissed back, but didn’t move towards Erin. “She thinks you stole her eggs.” Harry explained.

“What? I hate snakes! I wouldn’t dare go near one, even near one’s eggs.” Harry hissed at the snake again and the snake hissed back. “Now what?” Erin demanded.

“Well, I didn’t exactly tell her you hated snakes, but I explained that you respect snakes too much to steal from them.”

Erin was too afraid to disagree about respecting snakes, fearing them was more like it, but she didn’t want to disagree or take her eyes from the snake. “And?” she asked.

“And now she says she’s sad because she misses her eggs.”

Erin was breathing in short gasps by now and found it hard to speak, but pressed Harry for details. “Why is she still staring at me like that? Why won’t she go away?”

Harry hissed at the snake, and the snake hissed back again. “What did she say?”

“She wants to bite you anyway.”

“Ugh! This isn’t helping, someone do something!” Erin shrieked and backed away finding herself against a wall. The snake began to move towards her and Erin screamed again. Snape stepped forward and stunned the snake and McGonagoll conjured a box, which Hagrid put the snake in, and then carried outside.

Shaking violently, Erin became aware that the students and professors were staring at her. Harry broke the silence asking, “Erin, you couldn’t understand the snake?”

“Don’t be ridiculous! All that I heard was a bunch of hissing. I hate snakes!” she answered emphatically.

“That’s obvious,” Severus noted dryly before turning to the students. “Go back inside the Hall and finish your breakfasts.” Most did as he said, including the professors, but there were still a few gawkers. Erin was still trembling violently when Snape stepped forward to hug her. He whispered soothing words in her ear to calm her. Erin let him hold her for a few moments before pulling back. She turned from him and hurried to her classroom, but as she was leaving she noticed four sets of eyes present in the entryway.

Harry and Ron were glaring at her, while Hermione just looked confused. The fourth set had a triumphant gleam to them. Erin realized with a sick feeling that this set of eyes belonged to none other than Draco Malfoy.

When Erin realized that Draco had seen them she was already in her classroom. She thought about his triumphant gaze for a long while. What did it mean? Her concerns distracted her all day, and she resolved to discuss it with Severus as soon as possible.

The last class of the day for Erin was potions. Unfortunately, her third year class took potions with the Slytherins. Erin did not want it to appear as though she were staying after class so, as she was cleaning up, she deliberately knocked over a beaker of armadillo bile. She shooed away some students trying to help her clean up, and insisted on cleaning up the mess herself. The classroom emptied and Erin had finished cleaning up the armadillo bile.

She looked up at Snape’s desk and he smiled at her half-heartedly, “So, you want to talk to me?”

Sighing she asked, “Was I that obvious?”

“To me, but probably not to them.” Erin walked to the front of the room, checking each work station as she went. “Paranoid?” he asked.

“Yes,” she admitted.

“Do you want me to bolt the door and sound proof the room?” he asked sarcastically as she reached his side.

“This is serious, Severus,” she snapped, and he dropped his arrogant air.

With a flick of his wand the door was bolted. “What’s wrong?”

“Well, a couple of things. First, young Malfoy saw you comfort me this morning.”

“And?”

“And, he seemed overjoyed about it. Almost like Christmas had come early. I think that they must have told him to spy on us to see if you were getting close to me again or something.”

Snape looked thoughtful for a moment. “You know, I didn’t even notice him. I need to be more careful.”

Erin put her hand on his arm, “Well, I was hysterical and made it hard for you to concentrate no doubt.” Erin stepped back and continued the conversation. “Ok, the other thing. What was the deal with that damn snake?”

“I did report that to Dumbledore. It was rather odd, a snake here and especially when it’s still rather cold out.”

Erin nodded and continued, “Well, I’m no expert, but it seemed odd that she’d have eggs at this time of year. It’s cold out, and snakes are cold-blooded as it is. Don’t eggs need warmth to hatch, or is that just birds?”

“I can’t say that I know all of that, but nevertheless it was an odd appearance.”

Continuing she added, “I didn’t know Harry was a parselmouth.”

“You’ve heard of it?”

“Actually, yes. After my abduction I did a lot of research on Voldemort, which caused me to look a lot of other things up subsequently. Parselmouths were something I found rather interesting, but nowhere did I find mention that Harry was one.”

“He didn’t know until his second year at Hogwarts, although as I recall he mentioned that he had spoken to a snake before but didn’t realize he was speaking the snake’s language. Dumbledore believes that when Voldemort tried to kill Harry some of his gifts went into they boy. Those two are the only known parselmouths alive.”

As Erin thought about what Severus had said reality sunk in on her like a ton of bricks. “Severus, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That we should run away together and live on a tropical island in a grass hut, making love all day and night?”

At first Erin looked at him in surprise, not completely sure of what he had said, until she saw the corners of his mouth twisting up. “Oh, very funny Severus. This isn’t a good time for jokes. I think someone put that snake there to see if I was a parselmouth.”

“Who would do that?” He asked diffidently, though Erin knew he already had the answer and was just waiting for her own reaction.

Fury glinted in Erin’s eyes as she stalked back to her work station and pulled her bag onto her shoulder roughly. Slamming back the bolt on the door, she rushed out of the dungeon and took the stairs two at a time. Had she been paying closer attention she would have heard Snape thanking God under his breath at not being the target of her current bout of rage.

If someone had asked her later Erin would not have been able to remember the trip she took from the dungeon to the library. In a flash Erin had scoured the entire library, and not finding who she was looking for she turned on Hermione. Not bothering to disguise her anger, through clenched teeth she asked, “Hermione, where are they?”

“Who?”

“The dynamic duo.”

“Uh, well, um-”

“Quit trying to come up with a lie, you’re no good at it. Besides, I’ll find them sooner or later with or without your help. The longer it takes me to find them, the more angry I’ll get.”

“They’re practicing with the rest of the team on the Quidditch Pitch,” Hermione answered with wide eyes.

Erin nodded curtly and stalked out of the library. She hadn’t told Hermione that it wasn’t both of the boys she wanted, just one. Fuming during her entire trip to the Pitch, Erin marched onto the field and standing in the middle she screamed, “Harry James Potter, get your ass down here right now!”

The other players stopped in mid-flight and stared at Erin. “Oi, Erin, can’t it wait, we’re in the middle of practice.”

“Ron, I know you had something to do with this as well. I’m willing to ignore your small part in it, if you don’t push me, so back off. This cannot wait, I need to speak to Harry right now!” she bellowed.

“Geez, Harry, glad I’m not you,” one of the twins quipped and was laughing until Erin shot him a glare that made him cringe.

Harry landed a few feet from Erin with an unreadable expression on his face. “We need to talk little man.”

“Erin-”he began.

But Erin interrupted emphatically, “Now!” She turned and walked outside the stadium in order for them to have some more privacy. Harry’s face was a mixture of concern and anger. Erin skipped the small talk and delved right into the issue. “What the hell were you thinking putting that snake there this morning?”

“How did you- I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t try to act innocent, Harry. I know damn good and well that you put that snake there!”

“Why would I do that?” He was cowering slightly from her menacing glare.

“I don’t know, Harry. I can’t even begin to imagine why you would do something so inane.” She answered sarcastically.

“Ok, fine, I did it.”

“Why did you- why would you- what the hell were you thinking!?” she demanded.

“I wanted to see if you were a parselmouth.”

“And now are you satisfied that I am not?”

He looked at the ground glumly. “Yeah. I mean the snake didn’t think you took her eggs, she doesn't even have any. I told her that you wanted to pet her, but you were shy. That’s why she kept coming towards you. She’s harmless. I figured if you were a parselmouth you’d know what I was saying and get pissed off then. When you were so scared I realized you weren’t.”

Erin took a deep breath, resisting the urge to throttle him, and asked, “Harry how could you do something so stupid? We could have killed that poor snake. I could have had a panic attack. Honestly, Harry, you have to be more careful.” Her voice was much more calm as she continued, “Next time you question an ability you think I may have, please ask. It would have saved a lot of trouble, Harry. I don’t know if I can handle another test like that. For future reference, I’m absolutely terrified of any and all snakes, ok?” He nodded and Erin added, “Sorry if I embarrassed you in front of your friends. My temper got the better of me.”

“It’s ok. Erin, do you know that I’m a parselmouth because Voldemort tried to kill me, and I got some of his abilities?”

“I heard that rumor.”

“Erin, don’t you see? That must mean that you can’t be his daughter and not be a parselmouth.”

“Harry, I thought about that before,” she admitted. “I did a lot of research about Voldemort after the abduction to see what some of his attributes are. I found parselmouth listed as one of his greatest talents and I read up on it. Apparently, it’s one of those genetic things, but it doesn’t necessarily make itself known in every generation. It’s like a dormant trait. His mother wasn’t a parselmouth, but tracing the bloodline back, some of his other relatives were.” Harry looked very disappointed, but Erin continued. “Of course, with my natural aversion to snakes I hadn’t actually sought one out to test myself, so thanks for saving me the trouble Harry.”

Erin had been trying to make him smile, but he refused and instead looked at her with anger in his eyes. As she hadn’t been expecting that, Erin felt quite taken aback and waited for him to speak. “What’s going on between you and Snape?”

“That’s Professor Snape, Harry. And first of all, that’s really none of your business, but as there’s nothing going on I’ll tell you, we’re just friends. Why are you so concerned?”

Harry looked unconvinced, “He was hugging you as if he were more than a friend. What about Snuffles?”

“Oh, honestly! What about him?” Erin snapped, she was more than a little pissed off about defending her love life, or in her case, lack there of, to a fifteen year old.

“I thought you two-”

“We’re also just friends. Want to know about Charlie Weasley? Yep, just friends. You see Harry, at fifteen, you’ve got more of a freaking love life than I do.” Harry blushed but remained quiet. Erin composed herself before adding, “Anything else bothering you before I go?”

“No, except I’m sorry about this morning,” he mumbled.

“Fine. Now, get back to your practice. Even Gryffindor’s star seeker needs to practice.” Giving her a weak smile he flew back onto the pitch and Erin turned and strolled back to the castle.