My Name's Severus!

Epilogue

Knock, knock, knock!

"Professor Potter! Professor Potter!"

Knock, knock, knock!

Sabrina Potter sighed and stopped, brushing her bushy brown hair. Wild hair was a typical family trait of the Potters. It seemed that no Potter could ever get their hair into any semblance of order. Maybe it was an old curse on the family.

Knock, knock, knockknockknock ...

And never getting any time for oneself seemed to be an old curse on the position of head of house of Gryffindor. Sabrina sighed again and walked over to the door. It was the 8th September 2345 and she'd only held that position for about a week. Right now she wished she had never accepted when headmaster Lee had offered it to her. She'd really had enough work to do already when she'd only thought charms.

"Professor Potter! Professor Potter!"

Sabrina opened the door and groaned inwardly. Whoever had made Lisa Lockhart a prefect must have been either very drunk or entirely out of their mind. The blonde girl was the worst airhead Sabrina had ever met and it was nearly impossible to shut her up. She didn't even stop chatting happily when asked a question during an exam. Not that what she said ever had more than the faintest connection with the subject.

"Miss Lockhart, it is nearly midnight. Could you please explain to me what you're doing out of bed at this hour?" she demanded angrily.

"Oh, Professor Potter, Professor Potter!"

"Yes, that's my name. Now please tell me why you're not sound asleep. You're supposed to set a good example for the younger students."

"Oh, it's horrible, so horrible! I don't know what to do!"

"How about either telling me what the problem is or going back to bed?" suggested Sabrina fighting down the urge to slap the girl.

"I can't find them! They're gone! Oh, Professor Potter, you have to help me."

"What can't you find this time? Your makeup? Your favourite robes? Your shoes? No wait! It's your homework and schoolbooks again, right?"

"I went into their dorm to check if they're all asleep and they were all gone!"

"Checking up on bedtime is not your job, Miss Lockhart. Its mine and I assure you that everybody was asleep half an hour ago."

"But now they're gone!" wailed Lisa.

"Who? Who is gone?" shouted Sabrina.

That seemed to have gotten through to Lisa.

"The first years! Oh, I've lost the first years!"

"Which ones?" Sabrina asked alarmed. "All of them?"

"No, no just three of the girls. Oh, it's so horrible, horrible. What am I going to do?"

"Which three? Tell me their names!" ordered Sabrina.

"I don't know. They've only been here for a week. I didn't bother to learn their names yet. Oh, what to do? What to do?"

"Can you tell me what they look like?" Sabrina tried.

"Nooooo! Their dorm mates say they've gone to the forbidden forest. Oh, no, no, nononono!"

Was it legally permitted to grab a student by the shoulders and shake her? Probably not and Sabrina also doubted that it would have any effect on Lisa. Lisa wasn't hysteric. She was just being herself. Shaking her couldn't bring out any logic if there was none there in the first place. Then her words suddenly sank in.

"The forbidden forest! We have to alert the headmaster at once! Come on!"

"No!" shrieked Lisa. "I can't! I'm not wearing any lipstick! I've got to go do my makeup first."

"That's alright. I'll go to Professor Lee alone. Go back to bed and ... and see that we don't lose any more pupils."

Sabrina dashed off towards the headmaster's office hoping that Lisa for once had understood what she was supposed to do. 'Three more years, only three more years until she graduates and she's the last Lockhart for a while.' she reminded herself.

Half an hour later the whole staff had been alerted and they were searching the forest in teams of two. Sabrina to her dismay had been paired with the DADA teacher and head of Slytherin.

Sometimes she wished she could just throttle Lazarus Longbottom. She hated those sarcastic Slytherins. Unluckily Professor Longbottom was also the deputy headmaster, which meant physically assaulting him was not an option.

'I bet it's those Slytherin kids we're looking for anyway.' she thought.

The fact that a Malfoy had been sorted into Gryffindor this year actually wasn't all that unusual. It happened every once in a while. Legend had it that there was a Weasley ancestor somewhere in the Malfoy family tree. Sabrina supposed that might be correct. It would at least explain why both the Weasleys and the Malfoys were notorious pranksters and there was the occasional redhead among the traditionally silver blond Malfoys.

What had indeed surprised everybody was that a Snape had also been sorted into Gryffindor. Snapes were Slytherins even though the family was known to produce an occasional Ravenclaw every once in a while. As far as Sabrina Potter knew there had never been a single Snape in Gryffindor. They just didn't fit in there.

Of course, the Snapes were closely related to the Malfoys. They were even worse pranksters than the Weasleys and much harder to keep in check due to their famous intelligence. Not that the Malfoys weren't clever as well, but they did have to work for their grades. The Snapes always passed their exams with ease. Sabrina hated both families. They were Slytherins after all.

And now a Malfoy and a Snape had been sorted into her house and promptly gone missing. It had to be them. Who else would risk such a stupid stunt only one week into school? She was only wondering who the third girl might be. There was a Weasley among the second years. Maybe it was her? But according to Lisa it was three first years that had gone missing and she'd also said that she didn't know their names. Lisa might be an airhead, but she did know Jessie Weasley.

Lazarus was complaining every step of the way. Why couldn't he just shut up?

"Can't you keep a better eye on your brats? Where do they get these ideas?" he growled.

"My guess is it was YOUR Malfoy twins that set them up to it." hissed Sabrina.

"The Malfoy twins? Why would they?"

"Because they thought it a good prank? Their record for causing trouble is well known by everybody in this school."

"And what would they have to do with a bunch of Gryffindor first years? After only one week of school?"

"Their sister's one of these first years. Of course they'd know how to manipulate her."

"Hah! You're just trying to make excuses for your own incompetence. Admit it. The Position of head of house is a little too much for you. You're too young."

Sabrina reached for her wand.

"Too young?! I'll show ..."

"WE FOUND THEM!"

Both teachers immediately forgot about their fight and hurried to where they'd heard the voice coming from.

"THEY'RE HERE!"

Now that they got closer Sabrina recognised the voice of Professor Morpheus Lupin the herbology teacher. Another Slytherin! He had been partnered with Michael McGonnagal the head boy, she remembered.

Great! Sabrina rolled her eyes. Now she owed a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff for finding her students.

Following Morpheus' calls they arrived at a small clearing not far from the forest's edge. At least the children had been cautious enough not to walk too deep into the woods.

"Hello, Professor!" Arria Snape greeted her with a wide grin. "Its quite an honour to meet you here. Especially as I hear that all of you came just for us."

Sabrina stared at the girl dumbfounded. That was exactly why she hated the Snapes. They had no respect for anyone. As she had no idea what to say to that she turned her attention to the next delinquent.

"I got one!" announced Haley Malfoy proudly presenting a small spiky ball she'd been holding in her hands.

"You've got what?" Sabrina asked completely confused.

"A green hedgehog. What else did you think we'd go into the forest for?"

Sabrina ground her teeth. She hated that annoying tradition of the Slytherins to keep these odd, useless creatures they referred to as greenies for pets. Nobody even knew how it had all started.

There were rumours though that claimed that a former head of house of Slytherin had originally created the green hedgehogs for the very purpose of keeping them as pets. Some even claimed that it had been Severus Snape himself. That was ridiculous of course as everybody knew that Severus Snape's pet had been a raven that he'd used to smuggle messages to Albus Dumbledore during the war against Voldemort. He had not owned something as laughable as a green hedgehog!

That of course didn't keep the Slytherins from keeping the rare creatures that were found only around Hogwarts as their traditional pets and claiming them to be the second house animal.

And now they were transferring that to her Gryffindors!

"A green hedgehog? What would you want a green hedgehog for? Only Slytherins have green hedgehogs. You are Gryffindors."

"No I'm not!" protested Arria at once. "The sorting hat made a mistake. I should have been a Slytherin and so should Haley."

Sabrina secretly agreed with her on that. A Snape did not belong in Gryffindor.

"Well, you're Gryffindors now and will have to live with it. And Gryffindors don't keep green hedgehogs."

"It's not forbidden." protested Haley. "You can't take him away from me!"

"Right, if we can't be Slytherins, we can at least have Slytherin pets." confirmed Arria.

"Maybe so, but I can owl your parents about your impossible behaviour."

"Good luck." said the third girl sounding a little depressed. "My family lives on the moon. I don't think owls can reach them there, can they?"

'Oh great, a homesick muggle born from the moon colony. Just what I needed to go with my two rebellious Slytherins.' Sabrina tried hard to remember the girl's name. Harker or some thing like that. No, no it was Harper. Althea Harper.

"Well Miss Harper, rest assured that I'll find some way of contacting your parents and I dare say that they won't be pleased."

"Yes, Professor. I'm sorry." mumbled Althea. "Do you think there's a way I could reach them too?"

"I do not think you're in any position to ask for favours, Miss Harper." Sabrina said sternly.

She had to keep her authority intact after loosing her little battles with Arria and Haley.

"And if you want green hedgehogs you will have to wait until one of the older Slytherins has babies to give away. There will be no more excursions into the forest to capture wild animals. Do you understand?"

The three girls nodded. Arria and Haley with their fingers crossed behind their backs.

"Don't cry, Thea." Arria whispered into her new friends ear on the way back to the castle. "We'll find you your hedgehog next time."

She put her arm comfortingly around the other girl's shoulders.

"My Dad can reach your parents for you." whispered Haley, who was still happily cuddling her hedgehog, into her other ear. "He owns most of the moon shuttles anyway."

"Wow, your family must be rich!"

"Of course were rich. We're Malfoys."

"Sniff!" said Haley's little green hedgehog.