Vector's Challenge

Chapter 33: The Next Day, Monday

And on that Monday -

Snape frowned as he saw Draco Malfoy in the Slytherin common room that Monday morning. "Malfoy, what are you doing here instead of at Arithmancy class?" he asked.

Draco sneered back, "Didn't your fiancée tell you that she threw me out of Arithmancy class for calling her what she is to her face?"

Snape's nostrils flared. "The Headmaster and Professor Flitwick informed me that you had exhibited a shocking lack of respect to Professor Vector, and that Miss Chang would be privately tutoring you in Arithmancy until and unless you apologize to Professor Vector. I had thought that you would have apologized to her by now."

Draco spat back, "She doesn't deserve an apology. She's a slut of a Ravenclaw."

"Malfoy, may I remind you that I intend to marry the woman you are speaking of so disrespectfully?"

Draco sneered. "You don't really intend to marry her. Father says that she's nothing better than a filthy half-Irish whore of a half-Mudblood. "

Snape pulled out his wand and said, "If you follow pure-blood tradition, then I should kill you for what you just said. Ask your father about it, or better yet, ask your mother. An insult to my fiancée is an insult to me. Considering my position and my status, I should not let you walk around unscathed. I'm sure I could make it look like an accident."

Draco said, "The bitch already washed my mouth out with soap! What more do you want?"

Snape murmured, "What to do, what to do?" He went on more loudly, "Draco, my fiancée is a gentle Catholic lady and makes mistakes at times in discipline; soap's not really appropriate for anybody over eleven. But if you weren't in school, I would extract your tongue and leave you to bleed to death...messy, but appropriate." Snape paralyzed and swelled Malfoy's tongue with a flick of his wand and a word. "With your tongue swollen, you can't swallow and you may choke to death. And I'm not sure that I want to do anything about it."

Malfoy's mouth filled with spit, and he tried to say, with a paralyzed, swollen tongue, "You're not serious! Wait until I tell my father..."

Snape said, "Oh, you plan to tell your father. That's anothr reason I shouldn't let you live. If I were you, I'd run to Headmaster Dumbledore as quickly as possible, because he might be inclined to help you. I am not. And if you happen to survive and ever attempt to speak of Professor Vector in those terms again, I can assure you that you won't succeed."

Draco's eyes were wide by now, and he ran from the common room. Snape pulled some Floo powder out, threw it in the fire, and said, "Headmaster's office."

Dumbledore replied, "Professor Snape."

Snape said, "Headmaster, you will need to disenchant Draco Malfoy. He was using extremely disrespectful language about Professor Vector to me, and I put a hex on him to paralyze and swell his tongue. He should be on his way to you right now."

"Thank you, Severus," Dumbledore said.

As Draco ran through the dungeons, he met Cho Chang, who was on her way to collect him for his Arithmancy tutoring. She tried to lift the spell, but failed in her attempt. Draco tried to tell her, "Dumbledore! Go get Dumbledore!" Cho finally figured out what he was trying to say, and they ran to the Headmaster's office together. When they got to the gargoyle, it slid open for them without a password, and they hurried up the steps to the office.

Dumbledore lifted the hex on Draco, and advised him, "Mr. Malfoy, you should keep quiet about this, because some of your classmates would think this is funny."

Draco said, "Chang, did you think it was funny?"

"No, but you deserved it!" she spat.

Draco said, "All you Ravenclaw wenches are all the same. You're all against the Malfoys!"

Cho said, "In your dreams!"

Dumbledore cleared his throat.

Draco glared at Cho, and then shifted his eyes back to Dumbledore.

Cho drew herself up to her full height. She said, "Headmaster, I do not wish to work with Mr. Malfoy."

Draco asked Dumbledore, "Can she do that?"

Dumbledore said, "Draco, do you want to pass your Arithmancy O.W.L.?"

Draco sulked and said nothing.

Dumbledore said, "Do you want to prove to Professor Vector that you can do it?"

Draco said, "Yes."

"Apologize to Miss Chang," Dumbledore said.

Draco mumbled, "I'm sorry I said that about the Ravenclaws."

Cho nodded. "Very well. I will consent to tutor you." Cho nodded to Dumbledore. "Sir." She turned and started to leave. Draco did not follow her. Cho turned around and said, "Mobilicorpus!"

Draco started to float out after her. He nearly yelled out a protest, but swallowed it when he realized Dumbledore wasn't looking; perhaps he could keep this embarrassment quiet. Cho floated him all the way down the stairs, and dropped the spell only when they got to a deserted classroom.

Cho glared at Draco as she began the tutoring session. "I will help you pass your O.W.L.s because I think it would be quite an achievement to get you through them."

Draco said, "What do you mean by that?"

Cho went on, "If at any time you object to my tutoring style or my methods of discipline, you can discontinue the tutoring sessions; that is entirely up to you. But if you want to pass your O.W.L.s, you will do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it."

"You can't talk to me like that!" Draco said.

Cho flicked her wand, spoke a word, and hexed him into silence. Draco tried to lift the spell and failed. Cho started, "We will begin by reviewing the Gematria..." Draco buckled down and started taking notes. He thought, It has been one of the worst days of my life so far, and I don't want to get anyone else angry with me. Even Professor Snape has turned against me, all for that tricksy Ravenclaw bint he plans on marrying. And Dumbledore won't help any of the Slytherins.

Meanwhile, Emmy Vector had been quite startled by the sudden appearance of Narcissa Malfoy at her office. Emmy's hands were shaking as she held her papers, but she kept her voice steady as she said, "Good morning, Mrs. Malfoy. Is there something I can do for you?"

Narcissa Malfoy looked her over. She replied, "Yes. I know my husband and son are acting like fools, and I want to see why."

"I see. What can I do for you?"

Narcissa replied, "It's more a matter of what you've already done."

Emmy said, "What exactly are you referring to?"

Narcissa said, "You seem to have reduced my husband and son to idiocy."

Emmy's jaw tightened, as she fought to swallow down the retort that it hadn't been that difficult to do. She drew in a breath and said instead, "I do rather regret the situation. What do you suggest I do about it?"

Narcissa said, "Well, that depends. Are you serious about marrying Snape?"

Emmy replied emphatically, "Yes!"

Narcissa raised her eyebrows and said, "Well, that does limit our options."

Emmy said in a very clipped manner, "I am a Roman Catholic and there are certain things I will not do under any circumstances."

Narcissa said, "Oh, some of my family were Catholic. I wanted to meet you because I was curious about you."

"Really. I see," Emmy replied.

Narcissa asked, "Are you familiar with Pope Alexander the Sixth? He was a direct ancestor of mine. "

Emmy nodded her head, and said, "Rodrigo Borgia."

"You know your history very well," Narcissa told her.

"Yes, I do. I'm afraid I don't consider that particular ancestor of yours a role model," Emmy said.

"I'm relieved to hear it," Narcissa replied. "Lucius is a bit of a twit, but I'd hate to see him poisoned. I had planned to warn you off my husband and son, but clearly that won't be necessary."

Emmy nodded. "You are correct, Mrs. Malfoy. The only Slytherin I want is Severus Snape."

Narcissa said, "I can't fault your loyalty, but I'm at a loss to understand your taste."

Emmy replied dryly, "That's odd. I was just thinking the same thing about you."

Narcissa chuckled and said, "You may do for Severus. I've known him for a long time too. I wanted you to know I appreciate what you're doing for my son. He needs to learn manners. They are important for everyone, but for Malfoys, they can be matters of life and death."

Emmy replied, "I'm here to teach, Mrs. Malfoy, and I'm concerned for the well-being of all my students."

Narcissa handed her a small black round device that looked like a powder case, and said, "You may need to get in touch with me on short notice, Professor Vector. Just open this up, and it will call me."

Emmy took the device, and opened it up to look at what was inside. She saw only two mirrors. She closed it and asked Mrs. Malfoy, "Do you need a duplicate?"

Narcissa shook her head and said, "No, my dear, I'll know how to find you. And now, I do have an urgent appointment elsewhere. I'll see myself out. Thank you very much, Professor Vector."

"You're welcome, Mrs. Malfoy," Emmy said softly, as the door closed behind Narcissa Malfoy. Emmy shook her head and examined the device again. "I suppose I should have Severus or my brother look at this and see if there's any sort of booby-trap in it." She opened up a desk drawer and set it inside, and then proceeded to head off to lunch.

At lunch, Emmy turned up her nose at the roast beef. It seemed strangely unappealing that day. She wanted colcannon, lots of it, and a nice hot fudge sundae for dessert. Or maybe two hot fudge sundaes...Professors McGonagall, Figg, Hootch, and Sprout watched Emmy with some concern as she ate her way through a heaping plate of colcannon, a hot fudge sundae, and a banana split. The male staff members did not seem to notice anything amiss. Hootch and Sprout shook their heads at the inattention of the men. McGonagall pursed her lips, and kept looking between Vector and Snape, as if she were at a Muggle tennis match. After lunch, McGonagall cornered Vector alone in the women's faculty washroom and said, "It's November, and you were eating an ice cream sundae and a banana split? You're too young for hot flashes, Emmy."

Emmy replied as she washed her hands, "I was hungry for ice cream today. Is that so wrong, Minerva?"

McGonagall raised an eyebrow and said, "It's a little strange, Emmy. Are you sure everything is all right?"

Emmy said as she dried her hands, "I'm positive."

McGonagall cleared her throat. "Let's work on that word positive, or as I understand the younger people call it, 'having a nine-month headache.' Is there something you need to be telling Severus?"

At first, Emmy's expression was blank, but then the penny dropped and she started blushing. She replied, "Er, no. I don't really think so, Minerva, but thank you for asking. From what I gather from my mother the nurse, it takes a few weeks to develop food cravings, not a few days."

McGonagall frowned. "That's right, your mother is a Squib and she probably doesn't know certain things."

Emmy raised her eyebrows. "Oh?"

Minerva gave her a tight smile. "Emmy, for one, there can be such a thing as prophetic symptoms. For another, if you're a witch, you know when you're pregnant, because your body starts dropping hints right away. Some witches have known they were pregnant before the man had his pants back on."

Emmy turned a deeper red, thinking about Halloween night and All Saints morning. She said, "Really. I see. Thank you for the information, Minerva."

Minerva nodded. "You're welcome. And do go to Poppy soon, my dear." She patted Emmy on the shoulder, and then left.

Emmy walked out of the washroom very slowly as she thought, I could be pregnant. With Snape's baby. Severus Snape and I could be having a child together. The thought of a little girl or boy with Severus's brains and dark eyes, and hopefully her nose, came to her. A brilliant smile came to her face, and the students she passed in the halls took note of it. She shook her head. Not bloody likely. I didn't get pregnant in all the years I was married to Brendon, and my courses are so ruddy irregular they make a broken clock look reliable. At least you can get the right time from that twice a day. She pushed down the little voice in her head insisting that she and Brendon hadn't had sex often enough to make that a reliable test of her fertility or lack thereof, and that her courses weren't really all that irregular most of the time. If I couldn't conceive a child when I was in my late teens and early twenties, what chance do I have now that I'm turned thirty? Not only do I have Muggle blood, but I'm probably infertile to boot. And when Severus figures this out, he'll want to break it off with me. So it's best I break it off with him first.

By now, her face had a fine frown on it, and she was clenching her jaw so tightly that her face was beginning to hurt. The students waiting in her classroom flinched at her expression. She's learning from Snape, they thought.

End of Chapter 33