My Name's Severus!

OK, I changed this to the Austrian grading system as I've given up ever learning the English one. There are five grades: 1 ('very good'), 2 ('good'), 3 ('satisfactory'), 4 ('sufficient') and 5 ('not sufficient' = failing).

Chapter 8: Searching Trunks

Draco returned to his dorm after breakfast on Monday morning to find Vincent and Gregory kneeling on the floor hastily flinging stuff out of Vincent's trunk. Clothes, books and all sorts of other things were already strewn all over the room.

Severus quickly ducked to avoid being hit by a single sock that Gregory had just thrown over his shoulder and walked out grinning happily.

Draco stopped for a moment to look after him That was that very same grin he usually wore after successfully setting up one of his pranks. What was going on? Was another firecracker about to go off? Or was he about to walk into another mousetrap? If so why had Severus left the room? He usually stayed around to watch the results of his little traps.

Draco decided that the dorm was most likely safe and returned his attention to Vincent and Gregory who were still flinging various items of clothing around.

"What are you looking for?" he asked as he slipped past them to his bed, where he had left his book bag.

"My transfiguration essay." sighed Vincent. "McGonagall had me rewrite most of it and now I can't find it. I'm sure I put it right on top in my trunk and now it's gone."

Draco cast a look over the chaos in the room.

"Are you sure you didn't throw it out with all the rest of the stuff?" he asked doubtfully.

"Well ... maybe." admitted Vincent sheepishly after following Draco's look.

Draco lifted Vincent's dress robe and another single sock (Or did it belong with the first one?) off of his bag and threw them back into the trunk where they landed on Gregory's head.

Bump!

"Ow!"

Gregory must have hit his head on the wall of the trunk. He pulled his robe covered head out of the trunk and felt around with his hands like a blind man.

'Wonder what he's searching for.' thought Draco.

"I suggest that you put all your stuff back in more slowly and if you still don't find it start looking under the beds." he advised Vincent.

Vincent pulled his dress robe off of Gregory and started folding it up.

"Thanks!" muttered Gregory as the light returned to him as quickly as it had vanished. He gingerly felt the lump developing on his head where it had met with Vincent's trunk.

Draco felt slightly guilty for a moment, but then decided that there wasn't much damage that could be done to Gregory's head.

'Nothing in there anyway.' he thought.

"You might want to continue your search after history of magic, Vince." he smirked already at the door. "Or else you'll be late."

Both Draco and Severus spent history of magic drawing, of course. By now Draco knew better than to continue drawing during charms.

Severus however didn't seem to have learned anything from the last week's disaster and Professor Flitwick ended up confiscating his portrait of Greenie sitting on his charms book and taking another ten points off Slytherin.

Draco didn't think about the morning's incident again until their transfigurations lesson when Vincent had to explain why he had no homework to Professor McGonagall. McGonagall took five points off Slytherin and threatened Vincent with detention if he didn't turn it in by Wednesday.

At that moment Severus walked in and calmly handed her a piece of parchment.

Suddenly Draco remembered Severus throwing another piece of parchment into the fire and saying that it wasn't his. And Vincent couldn't find his homework? But it had been in his trunk. Another memory flashed up: Severus handing Susan a firecracker and saying that he stole it from Blaise's trunk. 'What, you went through our trunks!' shrieked Crabbe outraged. 'No, only Blaise's! Didn't have enough time to search the rest of you ... yet!' And Severus saying that he was 'working on it' when they left to play quiddich and when they returned he had been nearly done with his homework ...

"Well, I see you finally decided to do your homework." McGonagall told Severus sarcastically. "But next time could you probably try to arrive on time?"

"I had to take Greenie away." protested Severus. "Let me bring Greenie to class and I'll have no problem being here on time."

McGonagall expected him to pout and steeled herself to resist him, but he did not.

"Turn it into an ashtray and it is very welcome in my class." she said firmly. "Otherwise it has no busyness being here. Ten points off Slytherin for being late!"

Then she handed each of her pupils two stones and told them to turn them into a pair of slippers.

Draco didn't do too well that lesson. He couldn't concentrate on his stones. His mind kept wandering to Severus, homework, trunks and firecrackers. In the end his slippers were still gray and rather hard and uncomfortable.

Severus meanwhile had an unusually successful transfiguration lesson.

With an apologetic grin he handed his products in to McGonagall at the end of the lesson.

"Green boots, Severus?" Minerva asked incredulously. "One very large and one small? And they aren't a pair either. They're both left ones."

"But they are footwear and I did change the material." argued Severus. "You have to admit that I'm improving."

"Normally I'd still give you an F, but since I know that you tried and you did do your homework ..." she wrote a big 4 into her notebook.

Severus grinned proudly and walked down to the great hall feeling almost perfectly happy. His triumph didn't last long however.

His classmates glared at him angrily as he sat down for lunch.

"What's wrong?" he asked playing innocent.

"Did you really burn my homework?" asked Vincent barely able to contain his anger.

"Yes." stated Severus matter-of-factly.

"You broke into my trunk and stole my homework! And then you just threw it into the fire." shrieked Vincent.

"No, I copied it first." stated Severus. Then he suddenly switched to his cold persona. "Wanna make something off it?"

Vincent threw his glass of pumpkin juice into his face. Severus retaliated with a bowl of still very hot soup. Vincent screamed and Gregory reached for his plate ... and another food fight was raging at the Slytherin table.

Professor McGonagall hadn't yet arrived in the great hall. So the task of breaking up the fight fell to Dumbledore.

The headmaster was in a very bad mood. He had woken up with an even worse cold than last time and Madam Pomfrey hadn't been able to cure it completely. His nose was no longer running after the treatment, but he was still coughing and had a splitting headache and of course his ears were smoking from the potion. ... And he still didn't know how to handle the Slytherins.

He tried shouting at them, but it didn't do his sore throat any good and he soon was coughing more than screaming and the noise of the fighting Slytherins drowned his shouting almost completely.

The pupils from the other houses started sniggering or even laughing right out at the sight of their headmaster red faced with anger, shouting at the top of his lungs (when he wasn't coughing) with smoke rising from his ears.

The other teachers had to step in to help him and when McGonagall finally arrived, she and Hagrid managed to drag the Slytherins apart.

"What ... cough, cough ... is going on here?" croaked Dumbledore when Hagrid had finally managed to get an arm around both Gregory and Vincent and McGonagall had gotten a hold of Severus.

"That little thief broke into my trunk!" screeched Vincent still beside himself with rage.

Dumbledore didn't need to ask who the 'little thief' was. He sighed deeply. 'Not again!'

"Fifty ... cough ... points off Slytherin for ... cough ... fighting and wasting ... cough, cough ... food!" he announced. "Severus, ... cough ... please accompany ... cough, cough ... me to my ... cough ... office."

Severus followed him without protest. He knew Dumbledore was really angry this time. He had every right to be too.

Albus gestured for Severus to sit down in front of his desk and went to sit behind it. He conjured a cup of hot herbal tea to calm down his cough and they sat in silence until he had drunk it. Severus was staring down at his hands repeatedly clenching and unclenching them in his lap, refusing to look at the headmaster.

"So you broke into Mr. Crabbe's trunk." stated Dumbledore as soon as he trusted himself to speak again.

"Draco's too." admitted Severus so softly that Albus could barely hear him.

"Didn't you promise me not to steal anymore?"

"Only if you let me go to Hogsmede and it wasn't really stealing. It was just a prank." Severus was still talking to his hands.

"Stealing is not a prank, Severus." said Dumbledore as gently as he could manage with his sore throat. "And you really shouldn't pull such bad pranks on your friends."

"I have no friends!" hissed Severus.

That hurt. Searching for a way to get Severus to relax and to get more control over his voice the headmaster conjured two more cups of tea, but Severus ignored his and continued staring at his hands.

"Severus, you're going too far with your pranks. I can accept and have even come to expect the occasional firecracker or biting teacup, but you can't just leave people tied up over night and you can't disturb people's private property."

"They did let you go, didn't they?" asked Severus. "I mean I expected them to. I wouldn't have left you all alone, you know, but they were all there. They wouldn't leave you."

"And what about stealing? I told you to come to me, if you needed anything."

"It was a prank." Severus repeated. "I didn't need anything."

Dumbledore sighed. He continued to try and talk some sense into Severus all through lunch break, but Severus just kept staring down and hardly said anything. Albus just couldn't tell what he was thinking.

Finally he let him go, because the next lessons were about to start. Severus didn't remind him that his next class would have been flying, which he didn't have to take.

"I didn't get any lunch." he mumbled instead.

"Well, you shouldn't have thrown it at your friends." stated Dumbledore. "Consider it your punishment."

"They're not my friends!" protested Severus.

Severus wanted to run back to his common room and cry on his bed, but he found Draco there and he definitely would not cry in front of him. So he just grabbed his bag and decided to go through with his original plan for the afternoon.

He walked into the library and straight towards the librarians desk. As he had hoped Dobby was alone.

"Dobby I need some books from the forbidden section." he announced as if he had every right to get them.

"Dobby can not give Sir books from the forbidden section, Sir." he said shaking his head sadly.

"Oh come on Dobby, I am a teacher. I don't need a pass. I could write one myself."

"Dobby can not give Sir books from the forbidden section, Sir." the house elf repeated. "Dobby can not give anyone books from the forbidden section. Not with pass. Not even teacher. Dobby is not allowed. If Sir needs books from the forbidden section, Sir has to come back later and ask Madam Pince. Dobby is not allowed, Sir. Dobby really wants to, but can't do it. No."

Severus left the library grumbling and returned to the common room where he found Draco sitting by the fire writing. (He was actually writing another song for his dragon bard, but Severus couldn't know that. Draco would never have let him see it.)

Severus sat down at the opposite end of the room and took out his pencils and parchment to draw. He spent most of the time left before DADA staring angrily at nothing however.

Draco looked up surprised. What was wrong with Severus? He had never looked this unapproachable when they were alone together before.

Defence against the dark arts was the same as it had been last week. Remus Lupin ignored both Severus and the Hufflepuffs while he was explaining the differences between werewolves and the catar who were often mistakenly called 'werecats'.

Severus got angrier and angrier. Professor Lupin might be the undoubted expert on werewolves, but Severus could have added lots to what he said about catar. They were one of his favourite topics.

He waved his hand in the air almost constantly, but Remus pretended not to see him.

Even Greenie the hedgehog looked a little sulky when the Slytherins walked out after the lesson.

Severus decided to teach Lupin a lesson. Let Dumbledore say whatever he liked. The werewolf deserved to be reminded of Severus' existence by extreme measures.

Draco decided to eat some of his every flavour beans before going to bed. He opened his trunk and ... Where were his sweets?

Draco was used to finding his sweets box empty. Gregory and Vincent often couldn't resist temptation and stole some of the sweets, but he couldn't remember them ever taking so many at once or taking the box itself as well. And they had never touched his pocket money before.

"Alright! Vincent! Gregory! Which one of you went over my trunk?" he demanded. They could have the sweets, but they had to give back his money.

"What? Your trunk?" asked Vincent confused. "Why would I?"

"To sneak out some of my sweets like you always do?" asked Draco back sarcastically. "Well, did you?"

"Oh yes, sometimes I do." Vincent admitted. "But not this time, honest."

Draco turned towards Gregory.

"So it was you."

"I only took two chocolate frogs." said Gregory. "I'm really sorry. I didn't think you'd miss them."

"You only took two chocolate frogs? And Vincent, you didn't take anything at all?" asked Draco confused.

They both nodded agreement.

"Then why is the whole box gone and where is my pocket money?"

Gregory and Vincent exchanged a look.

"We didn't take it." Vincent answered for them both.

"But if you didn't then who?"

They both shrugged.

"Well," said Blaise grinning maliciously. "let's be logical about it. Who in this dorm is a known thief?"

Four pairs of eyes turned accusing stares to where Severus was curled up on his bed reading. Severus sat up.

"What?" he demanded.

"Did you search my trunk, you little rat?" screamed Draco.

"Of course I did. Didn't you expect me to?" Severus said calmly. "I believe I even told you I'd do it sometime."

"Alright, where are my sweets?" Draco asked through clenched teeth.

Severus licked his lips demonstratively.

"Eaten."

"I want them back!" shouted Draco.

Severus threw him an empty chocolate frog wrapper.

"Oh come on, you'll get another boxful next weekend. What's the big deal? You wouldn't share with me so I took them all. Now we're even."

"And what about my money? There were fifty galleons in my trunk."

"Too late, I already spent it."

"Spent it? On what? Mousetraps?"

"Maybe." grinned Severus.

"You spent fifty galleons on mousetraps?" Draco sneered. "I don't believe you. You've still got that money and I want it back!"

"You can't have it." announced Severus coldly.

Five minutes later Vincent, Gregory and Blaise were once again on their way to the hospital wing. Draco had retreated into the bathroom hoping that cold water would be enough to stop his nose bleeding.

Serverus limped in after a while and went to the back of the room where he'd put Greenie's cage. Draco watched as he opened the cage, took out the hedgehog and left without a word.

Once his nose finally stopped bleeding Draco returned to the dorm. Severus was in bed cuddling Greenie as best he could without hurting himself.

Draco climbed into bed and lay there for a while waiting. Nothing happened. The silence in the room seemed oppressing.

"Where are the others?" he finally asked into the room. He was definitely not going to look at Severus.

"Staying in the hospital wing overnight, I bet. The way they limped out Poppy won't let them come back until tomorrow morning." stated Severus matter-of-factly.

"You were limping too." mumbled Draco.

"But I didn't go and show the nurse."

Draco wondered if Severus was grinning. He wasn't going to look though.

Slowly careful not to hurt any of the many sore spots on his body he got up and opened his trunk. He dug down to it's very bottom. Severus had most likely seen everything that was in there anyway. Draco pulled out his old teddy and returned to bed snuggling the little bear close to his body. That felt better.

"Oh Greenie, if only you were a little less spiky." he heard Severus mumble just before he fell asleep.

Still to come: The last mousetrap (in chapter 9, I promise), some more adventures at night, Severus promises to make a friend, but ends up fighting again, Neville makes another mistake in potions class and Blaise and Vincent try to get revenge on Severus