Point of View

Chapter Seven: Snape

Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, sat at the desk in his dungeon office, marking fifth-grade essays (Present information on the historical discovery of mugwort. How has the usage of this plant benefited the quality of living?).

It was Sunday, and Snape really wasn't in any mood for conversation with anyone, especially since, the day before, he went to talk to Professor Dumbledore about the messiness of the Slytherin Common Room, and was instead sent to board up mouse-holes on the ground floor. He was the only one of the staff who knew anything about pests besides Filch, who was a Squib and would have made the process long and painful, and Hagrid, who was too large to manage such a delicate job anyway.

He frowned at Neville Longbottom's essay, which was filled with inkblots and stains of all different colours, which he had spilt on his parchment on the Friday during class, and much of the handwriting was illegible. In addition to the bad quality of the work, it was also seven inches shorter than what Snape had asked for. He scanned it, correcting around seven inkblots, an incorrect piece of information and gave it a mark, putting it on the 'MARKED' pile. Then he picked another essay from this Slytherin pile to mark.

Snape looked at the name on the top of the roll of parchment? 'Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Fifth-year'. Snape smiled. This would be nice to do.

Snape always put his marks as a fraction, and he always wrote the denominator first. He wrote the '10' slowly, as if savouring it, and then moved to write the other '10' on top of it, but then he saw something that nearly caused him to faint.

Because halfway down the page was a mistake! Mugwort was NOT used to make Muggles oblivious to magic, that was dragon liver! Needless to say, Snape was quite horrified. His favourite student, getting the facts wrong in Potions? It couldn't be!

But it was true. Snape started to see other blunders on the essay as well. An inkblot here, a spelling mistake there. The handwriting was messier than usual, the work hardly up to standard. He turned the parchment over, and to his horror, found that Draco had doodled on the back.

'I love Cho', the graffiti said repeatedly. The name 'Cho' was written everywhere, some even enclosed in hearts! Snape was feeling a little sick. He remembered the conversation he had had with Draco the day before ?how Draco had told Snape all about his miseries and pain, and how Snape and helped Draco find a way to sort it out.

But really, Snape was somewhat annoyed at Draco. He felt that as Draco had been so brainless, he was ruining the Slytherin pride. Weren't Slytherins all supposed to be cool, calm and collected? Weren't Slytherins the sly ones, the ones who never let their true emotions show?

So why was Draco acting like someone who didn't know better, like a little kid who had his lollipop taken away by a friend? It seemed to Snape that Draco was changing, for the worse. He made a quick mental note to talk to Draco's father about it, at their next meeting of Death Eaters, to see what he thought.

There was a quick knock on the door. Snape quickly stuck Draco's essay under some other papers. He didn't want whoever it was to see it.

"Who is it?" asked Snape.

"It's me, Professor," replied Argus Filch's voice. Snape frowned. Why would want to see him now?

"Come in," said Snape and the door opened to admit Argus Filch, caretaker of Hogwarts. Snape thought that he was looking a tad shifty.

"Uh, well, I was wondering, Professor..." Filch trailed off.

"Yes?" prompted Snape.

"Well, about the manacles in my office," said Filch, "Could you possibly, I mean, if it's not too much of a problem, could you...?

"Could I what?" Snape interrupted.

"About using them as a form of detention? Uh, maybe you could...?"

Snape sighed. "We've been through this before, haven't we, Argus?"

Filch nodded, looking at his feet guiltily. "Yes, Professor, but I thought -?"

"Argus, this would not work."

"B-but if you try it, Professor Snape, it really might...?"

"I've told you before, Argus, Professor Dumbledore would not allow students to be hung by their wrists -"

"It's their ankles."

"- as detention! Argus, it's not going to happen!"

Filch looked a little intimidated but did not give up. "But if YOU presented the case to them, Professor, if YOU-"

"Tell you the truth, Argus," Snape replied, "I really don't want to be involved in this."

The two of them stared at each other for a while, Filch trying to regain his defiance and Snape with both eyebrows raised. Then, finally, Filch sniffed.

"I guess I'd better go then," he said huffily, and without another word he turned around and walked out of the door.

Snape picked up his wand and waved it, shutting the door. Then he pulled out Draco's essay again and decided that he needed a talk with the boy. He wanted to talk to him about the paper. Also, he was a little curious on what Draco had done after the talk they had the day before. Due to experience, Snape though that Draco wouldn't do much at all, maybe sit and brood for a while, order his imbecile 'friends' around and return the next school year, recovered, since Cho wouldn't be at Hogwarts anymore anyway.

He doubted that Draco would do anything drastic, maybe pick a fight with Potter, which would be interesting to watch. Sure, he was a teacher, but they were allowed to have favourites, weren't they? He HAD pretty much told Draco that what he needed was evenge on Potter, but the worst that could happen would be that they both get a detention, right?

***

Snape found Draco standing outside the library, peering inside and scowling at whatever he was seeing.

"Uh, Mr. Malfoy," Snape said.

Draco spun around, startled. "Oh, Professor Snape!" he exclaimed, seemingly delighted. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to speak with you, Draco. And what are YOU doing here?"

"I, um, I was, er..." Draco stammered.

Snape was suspicious. "What, Mr. Malfoy, what?"

"I was... just about to go in, Sir!" Draco said, but a little TOO convincingly.

"Draco," Snape said calmly, "I had been standing around here for no less than three minutes and I did not see you make any, even a half-hearted, attempt to get into the library."

Snape saw with satisfaction that Draco was caught. The boy looked around guiltily, as if looking for some sort of excuse. He shifted from foot to foot, looked down at his feet with a sheepish expression.

Snape sighed. "You know I'm going to find out anyway," and he walked past Draco, pulling him with him and looked around the library.

He spotted Colin and Dennis Creevey at some book shelves, Hannah Abbott standing in front of someone else sitting at a table, and... Cho Chang sitting at another table, chatting animatedly with a group of friends!

Snape knew now why Draco was hanging guiltily outside the library. He turned around, pulled out again and rounded on him.

"Mr. Malfoy," he said, "I thought that I specifically advised you not to go 'spying' on Miss Chang!"

"Well, you did, Professor, I -"

"Then, how," replied Snape, "do you explain this?"

Draco shook his head furiously. "No, Professor, I wasn't, I mean, I was -"

"See this, Draco?" Snape thrust the boy's essay at him and saw his grey eyes widen. "This essay of yours. You call it work? I'd call it rubbish." He turned the parchment over and showed Draco the graffiti.

"Professor," Draco protested, "you don't understand. I wasn't -"

"This must be somewhat of a disappointment to you as well, Draco," Snape sighed and shook his head. He peered into the library and saw Cho still sitting there, cheerful and oblivious.

Snape turned his eyes back to Draco. "I think I need to talk to that girl."