My Name's Severus!

The mousetrap idea came from crystal drake. Thank you again. As you can see it fit in perfectly. I loved all the other ideas you guys sent me as well, but sadly I could use only one.

Chapter 9: Severus makes a promise

Albus Dumbledore had decided not to risk the kind of chaos he had experienced the last week again. He had prepared everything he might need during double potions with the fifth year Slytherins and Gryffindors on Monday evening and he had also planned how to pair the pupils this time.

He went down into the dungeons right after breakfast and left the classroom door wide open so that he could hear if any trouble were brewing outside.

When pupils arrived he assigned them to their desks immediately and told them to read up on the healing potion once again.

They had not managed to finish that potion last week due to the many disturbances on Tuesday and Dumbledore had thought only the theory during the rest of the week. The class was now two weeks behind the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs and Albus had set his mind on closing the gap.

He still wasn't sure which Slytherins got along with each other and which didn't, but he had decided to take Minerva's warning that Severus didn't get along with any of them and assigned him to work with Hermione Granger. Those two had seemed to get along just fine during ancient runes last week.

Harry Potter was to work with his best friend Ron Weasley and he had placed Neville Longbottom and Dean Thomas between the two pairs. That ought to keep Hany and Severus from fighting again.

Neither Dean nor any of the Slytherins seemed happy about their pairings however. Draco who had been assigned to work with Gregory Goyle even complained loudly that he wanted a more intelligent partner.

Albus sighed, took ten points off Slytherin and told Draco to shut up. What had he done wrong this time? Wasn't Goyle one of Draco's best friends? 'I'll never understand those Slytherins!'

Draco glowered but complied. He was still in a bad mood after the fight last night. Who did Severus think he was? Their head of house?

'Well, actually he is.' a small voice in his head reminded him. Angrily he decided to ignore that voice and slammed his book down with such force that the whole table shook, nearly missing Gregory's fingers in the process.

Gregory quickly withdrew to the opposite end of the table eying Draco cautiously. He might be a lot stronger then his small friend, but he knew he didn't stand a chance against Draco when he was in that kind of mood. Draco had a mean temper and a devious mind that none of the other Slytherins could match. Except for Severus, that was. Severus was always as bad as Draco was on his worst days.

On the other end of the room Severus gently sat his hedgehog onto his table and began to set up potion ingredients.

Greenie sniffed happily around amongst the ingredients tasting a beetle here, taking a large bite out of a caterpillar there ...

"Severus, that hedgehog is eating our supplies!" complained Hermione. "Please get him away from there!"

Severus ignored her. He was in just as bad a mood as Draco and wasn't going to talk to some annoying Gryffindor know it all.

Hermione decided to take matters into her own hands and grabbed Greenie intending to put him back into his cage. But the moment she touched the hedgehog Severus screamed with anger and grabbed her wrist painfully hard.

"Let Greenie go at once!" he hissed waving his wand at her. "Or else I'll turn you into a slug and feed you to him!"

Frightened Hermione tried to step back and away from Severus, but his tight hold on her wrist wouldn't permit it.

"Let go of me first!" she shouted. "I'm not going to harm him, but he can't stay on the table with all the potion ingredients. You have to put him back in his cage!"

"No!" screamed Severus back at her. "That's my hedgehog and he can do whatever he wants! I won't let you harm him!"

"You can't let him eat up all the ingredients! Put him in his cage!"

"No!"

"Yes!

"NO!"

"YES!"

Their shouting got louder and louder until the whole class was staring at them in stunned silence. Nobody could believe that quiet, friendly Hermione of all people would take on Severus.

Albus Dumbledore sighed once again and walked over to Severus and Hermione.

"Whatever is going on here?" he demanded.

"She scared Greenie!" - "He's letting that stupid hedgehog eat our ingredients!" they shouted at the same time.

"Calm down!" ordered Dumbledore. "I can't understand a thing if you both talk at the same time."

They fell silent glaring daggers at each other and breathing heavily.

"Now Hermione, tell me what this is all about."

"HE..." Hermione began shouting.

"But don't shout!" added Dumbledore quickly.

Hermione took a deep breath and started again more calmly.

"That hedgehog is eating our ingredients, but Severus won't put him in his cage." she explained. "I tried to ask him nicely, but he ignored me so I decided to put him away myself."

"She scared Greenie!" Severus shouted again.

Dumbledore took the small tightly rolled up little ball out of Hermione's hands. The hedgehog did look a little frightened, he had to admit. He handed him back to Severus and to his surprise the boy actually tried to cuddle the spiky little creature.

He looked at the ingredients lined up on the table. It was quite obvious that someone had indeed nibbled at them.

"Well Hermione, I think you'd better not touch that hedgehog again." Dumbledore advised "And you Severus, put him back in the cage. We really do need those ingredients."

"No!" insisted Severus. "He needs to be able to walk around, get some exercise."

"Not in my class." declared Dumbledore. "Not if he eats up all the supplies."

"But Albus ..."

"Don't call me Albus!"

"Alright, Sir! Those aren't particularly rare or expensive ingredients, Sir. It doesn't really matter if Greenie eats some of them, Sir. And if that makes him happy I don't care about..."

"You might not care, but I do!" Dumbledore nearly shouted. "Now: PUT. THAT. HEDGEHOG. IN. HIS. CAGE. before I decide to ban him from MY class just like Minerva did. That's an order, Severus! Do you understand that?"

"Yes, Sir!" said Severus saluting like a soldier.

"Severus!"

"But I refuse to participate any further in YOUR lesson under those circumstances."

"SEVERUS!"

Severus gently put Greenie, who was still curled up in fear, into his cage. Then sat down in his chair with the cage in his lap and folded his arms in front of his chest.

Once again his classmates were forced to work around him.

Dumbledore gave up on Severus after a while and decided to concentrate on teaching the rest of the class instead. At least Severus wasn't going to pull any pranks while he was sulking.

Still Albus ran into some unexpected problems. Hermione had to work alone and despite her superior knowledge could not keep pace with the rest of the class. Dumbledore tried to help her out now and then, but he was needed elsewhere.

Draco insisted on working almost alone as well. He let Gregory cut ingredients for him, but wouldn't let him get anywhere near the potion. He claimed that Gregory would only mess it up 'just like Neville'. Dumbledore tried to convince him, but had to give up when Draco showed signs of following Severus' example.

Neville proved to be a problem as well. He accidentally pushed his cauldron over twice and he and Dean had to start over. Dean tried to watch him constantly and prevented some of the worst mistakes, but Dumbledore had to keep an eye on him nevertheless for Dean had to get some work done sometime.

To Dumbledore's surprise Harry and Ron proved to be another problem. They were happily chatting away and forgetting to stir their potion, or to add the next ingredient at the right time or they were just not listening to what he was saying.

'I had no idea that one shouldn't pair kids that get on too well with each other either.' he thought after their cauldron had boiled over for the third time that day. 'I'll have to take that into account next time.'

At least this time no fight had broken out between the Slytherins and the Gryffindors yet, though Milicent Bulstrode and Pansy Parkinson had exchanged a few blows and Lavender Brown and Parvati Pattil had had a shouting match and were not talking to each other. In both cases Dumbledore had managed to step in before the situation could escalate and he now kept a sharp eye on those two pairs as well. He had no idea how Lavender and Parvati managed to work together without talking. 'Well, most likely their product will show if it's possible.'

Albus was still helping Harry and Ron to clean up after their latest accident when Dean came up to him with a question and left Neville unsupervised for a few seconds.

That was enough.

Suddenly Albus heard Hermione's shout behind him.

"Neville! No!"

"No, Neville! Don't!" Severus screamed at almost the same moment jumping up.

It was too late however. When Albus turned to see what was going on a strange blue mist was rising from Neville's cauldron.

"What ... " Dumbledore started to ask, but was interrupted by Severus.

"Everybody out!" the boy ordered. "Leave the room!"

None of the pupils asked any questions. They grabbed their bags and ran.

"Wait a minute! Stop!" Dumbledore shouted into the chaos, but was ignored.

He grabbed Severus' shoulder as he ran past him hedgehog cage under his arm.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded angrily.

"That gas is poisonous, Albus! Get out!"

"Poisonous?"

Severus nodded pulling at Dumbledore's sleeve trying to drag him out.

"Alright. Everybody out!" ordered Dumbledore even though everybody else had already left. "I'll just open ..."

"Albus! The dungeon doesn't have any windows." Severus reminded him.

Dumbledore finally followed him out of the room and Severus slammed the door shut behind them.

"So, how do we get the gas out?" asked Dumbledore.

"It'll have to go through the air vents." explained Severus patently. "That takes some time of course. I don't think it would be wise to use this room until next week."

"Next week? How can I teach potions without a classroom for a whole week? None of the other rooms are large enough and properly equipped!" exclaimed Dumbledore.

"Teach theory, Albus! You can use any old classroom large enough for that." advised Severus calmly.

Dumbledore sighed heavily and dismissed the class. There was no way around it: They were now three weeks behind the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. As he locked the classroom he wondered how Snape would deal with this in his place.

'He most likely wouldn't have gotten himself into this situation in the first place.' he realised. 'He wouldn't have let his pupils get so out of hand last week and he'd have kept an eye on Neville and prevented him from creating poison.'

Severus gathered up his books and hedgehog and dashed off while the others were still standing around gaping at the closed door.

"Hey, where are you running off to?" Blaise called after him much to the surprise of his dorm mates.

"The library!" Severus called back over his shoulder. "I've got some studying to do!"

"Perfect." whispered Blaise to Vincent. "Time to execute our plan."

They had been partnered during the lesson and Draco had heard them whisper about something the whole time. What were they up to? And what was Severus intending to study? Somehow Daco doubted that it had anything to do with homework.

He didn't have to wait long for the answer to the first question. Blaise and Vincent almost dragged him and Gregory back to their dorm.

"We need to teach Severus a lesson." Blaise explained as soon as they were alone. "He's been digging through our trunks and stealing our stuff ever since he got here. It's time we gave him a taste of his own medicine."

"You mean you're going to break into his trunk?" asked Draco' incredulously.

"We are!" confirmed Blaise. "Don't tell me you don't want to get back on him as well. He even stole money from you after all!"

Draco nodded slowly. That was right. Severus seemed to think that there was nothing wrong with digging through other people's trunks. He had practically said so. And they wouldn't do anything really bad. Just hide some of his stuff, maybe get back some things he had stolen.

"Alright, let's do it." he agreed. "Gregory you're lookout! Go back down into the common room and wait for Severus. If he comes before we're done here insult him, start a fight and create a big racket. Make sure that we hear it."

Gregory gulped. Start a fight with Severus?

"Do I have to fight him all alone?" he asked hesitantly.

"No, you don't." lied Draco. "Just start the fight and we'll come down and help you.

Gregory looked doubtful.

"Come on, Greg." Vincent encouraged him. "He isn't even likely to come at all. He'll be staying in the library and going directly to the next lesson afterwards."

Gregory sighed and finally walked out.

"He must be really scared of Severus." commented Blaise grinning.

"Yes," said Draco thoughtfully. I've never seen him like this before.

Blaise just shrugged and knelt down by Severus' trunk pulling out his wand.

"Alohomora!"

Nothing happened. The lock remained closed.

The three boys looked at each other surprised. With what spells had Severus enchanted his trunk?

They tried every opening spell they knew and after almost half an hour when they were getting desperate because their time was running out Draco even cast 'Finite Incantatem'.

Still nothing happened.

Vincent went over to his own trunk to get something to manually brake the lock with.

"Are you sure we ought to do this?" Draco asked doubtfully. "I mean, Severus is actually a teacher and ... "

"Severus?" laughed Blaise. "A teacher? When has Severus ever behaved like a teacher. He's just a little rat and he deserves it."

Draco saw the gleam in the eyes of the other two boys and decided to better go along but keep to the background as much as he could without being to obvious and just watch them.

Vincent finally produced an iron bar to break the lock with. Draco watched him surprised. Did he always carry an iron bar in his trunk? Sometimes he did worry about Vincent a little. He sure knew how to use it. The lock was open in less than a minute.

With a shout of triumph Blaise threw open Severus' trunk and grabbed the first object inside.

SNAP!

"Ahhh!"

Tears of pain were streaming over Blaise's face as he withdrew his hand letting the trunk slam shut once again.

Vincent stood staring at Blaise's hand and the mousetrap dangling from his fingers in complete shock.

'I don't believe this.' thought Draco. 'Severus really must have invested my pocket money in more mousetraps. Is his whole trunk filled with them? But why would they be set? And when did he have time to buy them?'

Slowly Vincent began to recover from the shock and set to carefully peeling the mousetrap off of Blaise's hand. Blaise whimpered softly through clenched teeth at every touch.

Draco set down on his bed and watched them. Severus couldn't have had time to buy any more mousetraps or even to get somebody else to buy them for him. But that meant that this had to be one of those Susan had brought him last week and Severus had said that he didn't have any of them left. He would have used it on Draco if he'd had one, wouldn't he?

Right after lunch Severus headed for the library once again. He wasn't really intending to study. He was going to observe. He needed to know exactly where Madam Pince kept her stuff and when she and Dobby left the library.

Right now he had a lot of time for his observation, because the first lesson in the afternoon would have been care for magical creatures and Hagrid was still 'sick'.

He turned a corner into another corridor and was met by a large group of glowering Slytherins.

Severus stopped. The whole fifth year was there with the exception of Blaise. He grinned slightly at that realisation. He had returned to his dorm before lunch to drop off his books and discovered that somebody had broken the lock on his trunk and that the mousetrap he had set up there for just such an eventuality was gone. He had been wondering who the victim had been.

His triumph however was short lived. The Slytherins advanced on him from the front as well as both sides. Soon they'd be behind him as well. Severus prepared for a fight.

To his surprise this time it wasn't Draco who spoke first. It was Pansy Parkinson. We've had enough of you, Severus." she stated calmly.

Severus met this announcement with his customary cold stare. Pansy was the usual spokesperson for the girls, but in his opinion she wasn't nearly as dangerous as Draco. If this attack was her idea and Draco was merely watching Severus stood a good chance of scaring them off.

Pansy got visibly nervous and took an involuntary step back towards the support of her girls. She obviously had planned to say more, but didn't dare to now that she was faced with Severus' cold glare.

"We've decided to teach you a lesson." she said no longer sounding all that sure of herself.

'Yes, I've got her!' thought Severus. If he kept glaring at her only a few moments longer she'd turn away and run and the others would follow. Unless Draco stepped in.

What was Draco doing? Severus wished that he could look over to him, but that would mean breaking eye contact with Pansy and he couldn't afford that at the moment. She'd jump at him the moment he did.

Pansy took another step backwards and collided with Millicent Bulstrode.

Millicent stumbled back and Pansy turned to run ...

That was the moment Vincent and Gregory attacked Severus from both sides. He hadn't even seen them comming.

Greenie's cage dropped noisily to the floor.

"No! Greenie!" Severus shouted scrambling to check on his hedgehog.

But Vincent and Gregory never let him reach Greenie. They grabbed him roughly from both sides. He was trapped and helpless.

'Draco must have signalled them to sneak up and attack me.' realised Severus. Only Draco could have understood what he was trying to do and only Draco would have known how to stop him.

Now that he was down he had no more hold over Pansy. She stopped at once and led the rest of the Slytherins in their attack.

Dumbledore had retreated into his office after lunch. He had told Filch to clean up one of the old classrooms near the office. That would be much more comfortable for him than Snape's dungeon classroom, but the room wouldn't be ready before tomorrow morning. Therefore there wouldn't be any potions lessons today.

That gave Albus some time to check his mail and work on a possible solution for Severus' problem.

He only wished that the boy wasn't so angry with him. Dumbledore hated to admit it, but he had lost touch with Severus. Well, the best way to set that right was obviously to find that antidote.

The letters from Durmstrang and Beauxbattons weren't encouraging. Still all test animals died a painful death as soon as they were exposed to the potion.

The French potion master seemed horrified. She kept mentioning her worries about keeping a substance so dangerous at a school full of children and advised strongly to keep any samples as well as the recipe under lock and key at all times and not to let any pupils near them.

Her counterpart from Durmstrang was obviously fascinated with the potion. He had written nearly ten pages of detailed descriptions of the test animals suffering and added comments from some of his pupils who seemed just as intrigued as their teacher.

Albus forced himself to read the whole letter even though the horrid descriptions turned his stomach. There might be some important fact hidden in there somewhere. He wondered if he should pass on the warnings he had received from Beauxbattons to Durmstrang, but realised that they would only be ignored.

He shouldn't have let Durmstrang get involved in the whole mess in the first place, he realised. Most of their pupils' parents were known supporters of Voldemort and if they passed on the recipe... Albus could only hope that Voldemort was busy with something else and would ignore Neville Longbottom's 'youth potion'. Voldemort was immortal anyway. He had no use for youth potions.

'Yes, if we keep calling it a youth potion it just might escape Voldemort's attention.' decided Dumbledore.

Albus wished he had never given Severus the recipe for that potion.

'I must not give him a chance to do any research of his own. Who knows what might happen to him!'

Demanding the parchment back wouldn't help any at all. He knew Severus well enough to know that he had already memorised the recipe.

He closed his eyes for a moment concentrating on calming down his stomach and then picked up the next letter. It was from the ministry. They too were part of the search for an antidote for Neville's potion though Albus hardly ever took them into account when estimating their chances at results. They seemed a terribly incompetent lot.

He opened the letter and was surprised that it contained only one page. The ministry officials usually had a way of stretching the simplest fact for over two pages at least with their 'correct official language'. If they wrote a short letter something must be wrong.

He didn't get a chance to find out what however. His office door opened abruptly and Minerva McGonagall burst in holding a very battered looking hedgehog cage in her hands.

"Albus, I sent your fifth years to the hospital wing." she reported setting the cage down on his desk. "Here, you take the little monster and give it back to Severus. I don't have any idea what else to do with it and it'll give you a perfect opportunity to talk to him."

"You sent my fifth years to the hospital wing?" repeated Dumbledore baffled.

"The Slytherins, Albus." McGonagall explained still breathing heavily. "You are currently head of Slytherin, remember?"

Dumbledore assumed that she must have run all the way up to his office to be so out of breath. Either that or it was nerves, but that couldn't be. Not Minerva McGonagall.

"Sit down, Minerva." he said calmly and she sank into one of the chairs gratefully. "Now which Slytherin fifth years did you send to the hospital wing and why?"

"All of them." she stated curtly.

"All of them?" repeated Dumbledore. "Whatever happened?"

"They beat up Severus again and he fought back." explained Professor McGonagall. "Did he have hand to hand combat training at some time?"

"Well, you might call it on the job training." grinned Dumbledore but immediately got serious once again. "Are they badly hurt?"

"No, I think Severus is hurt worst, but that's not surprising considering it was nine on one against him." sighed Minerva. "Poppy said she'd have all of them fixed within an hour."

"Well, then there isn't really a problem." Albus decided and turned his attention to Greenie who was only now beginning to unroll himself.

The hedgehog stuck his nose out first and when nothing dangerous happened followed it with his entire face. He looked up to see Dumbledore looking down at him.

"Sniff!" Greenie complained. That was supposed to mean something like. 'Hey funny guy, the world keeps tilting upside down and turning around. I don't like it and hope that it has stopped now.'

Albus took it to mean 'They've been throwing me around and dropping heavy things on my cage. I don't like that. Please make them stop.' which wasn't too far from the truth.

He smiled. "It's all right, Greenie. You're save now."

The hedgehog felt reassured and unrolled completely.

Dumbledore set to bending the cage back into shape.

Minerva McGonagall sighed heavily.

"Albus, there is a problem." she said firmly. "I needed the help of Mr. Filch and several magic spells to peal those kids off of Severus. Nobody was seriously hurt, but there's no telling what might have happened if I hadn't come by in time. The situation between Severus and his classmates is getting dangerous. We have to get the kids to accept him and he needs some friends who will stick up for him when he gets in trouble."

"Alright, alright." said Dumbledore. "I'll talk to him."

He went over to the fireplace, called Madam Pomfrey and asked her to send Severus straight to his office when she was done with him.

"Tell him I have his hedgehog if he doesn't want to come." he added as an afterthought.

He turned back to McGonagall.

"Satisfied?" he asked her.

"Only if your talk has some results." sighed Minerva McGonagall and turned to leave. "Good luck, Albus."

Dumbledore sighed too and returned to the letter from the ministry. That made him sigh once again. The ministry was informing him that they had come to the conclusion that there was no antidote for that particular potion and they were therefore concluding their research.

'Well, they never were any help anyway.' thought Dumbledore.

Still he was feeling a little betrayed and left alone with his problem. 'Severus' problem, that is.'

"You wanted to see me, Sir." said Severus in his coldest voice.

Dumbledore flinched. That wasn't starting too well.

"You can still call me Albus when we're not in class, you know." he reminded the boy smiling.

"I'd rather not, Sir." answered Severus not changing his tone in the slightest.

Dumbledore had to fight hard with himself to keep his smile in place. How could he get close to the boy again? Severus was almost like a son to him. 'I should have shown him that sooner.'

"Relax, I didn't call you here to punish you for any pranks, this time." he said gesturing for Severus to sit down.

Severus sat down reluctantly obviously feeling uncomfortable in the headmaster's office.

"I just wanted to return your hedgehog to you."

Severus jumped up again.

"Is Greenie all right? Where is he?"

"Right there." Albus answered smiling for real this time. "He looked a little frightened when Minerva brought him here, but I think he's fine now."

Severus dashed over to the cage picked out the hedgehog and gently checked him for any damage. Greenie seemed unharmed. Severus returned to his chair with the hedgehog in his arm. He looked a little more relaxed now.

Albus shook his head slightly. He would never have thought that such a spicky creature could have such a calming effect on one of his pupils. Well, Severus wasn't really a pupil.

"Listen Severus, you can't go on antagonising your classmates all the time." Dumbledore said as seriously as he could. "Please try to be a little nicer to them."

"They aren't nice to me." complained Severus. "They've hated me from day one. I'm just trying to defend myself."

"By provoking them and sending them to the hospital wing?"

"If they're scared of me they won't attack. It's a precautionary measure."

"Severus, if they're scared of you they'll attack in larger groups, like they did today." Dumbledore corrected.

"I almost scared them off." argued Severus. "I already had Pansy. They would have run if Draco's friends hadn't come at me from behind at exactly the wrong moment."

"Draco's friends? You know friends are a good way to protect oneself. why don't you try to make some friends instead of enemies." suggested Dumbledore.

"Friends? Who? They all hate me."

"Hm ... Let's see now. One of your dorm mates would be best." mused Dumbledore. "How about Mr. Zabini. He doesn't seem so close to the others. He might be lonely, too."

"Blaise?" shouted Severus. "Blaise hates me most of all. He's the meanest of the lot, you know. He's never as conspicuous as Draco, but there is a good reason why the others keep a certain distance from him, you know. I hate Blaise."

"Alright, how about Mr. Goyle then?" Dumbledore tried. "He doesn't seem to be as aggressive towards you as the others. Maybe he likes you."

"Gregory's afraid of me." explained Severus with a mean grin. "He was the first one who attacked me and therefore the first one I singled out. We've established the pecking order between us. I don't want him for a friend anyway. Hhe's a bigger idiot than Neville. Sorry, Neville ain't an idiot. He's just clumsy. Gregory's an idiot and I don't like him much either."

"Okay, let's try this the other way round then." decided Dumbledore. "Who do you like. Who's your favourite pupil in this school?"

"Draco." said Severus without a moment's thought. "I like Draco."

Dumbledore stared for a moment thinking that he hadn't heard him correctly. That had to be a mistake.

"Draco?" he asked.

Severus nodded.

"Draco Malfoy?"

Severus nodded again.

"The son of Lucius Malfoy?"

"Yes, that's the one. Do we have any other Draco in this school?" Severus asked confused.

"After all that his father did to you?"

"Draco isn't like his father."

"Mean, spiteful, teasing Draco Malfoy?" asked Dumbledore. "Draco Malfoy who is always found wherever there is any trouble? That Draco Malfoy?"

"Yes, that Draco Malfoy." confirmed Severus. "You don't know that boy like I do. He's a nice kid deep down."

'Must be very deep down.' Dumbledore thought to himself. Out loud he said: "Well, he certainly wouldn't be my choice, but you have to choose your own friends. I want you to try to be nice to him. Promise me that you'll make friends with Draco Malfoy."

"Alright," said Severus "I promise to try."

Still to come: some more adventures at night, Severus tries to make friends, more fighting, Why is Severus observing the library staff?, We have to go to Dumbledore's office again., What are Severus' plans for DADA? and my attempt at a big cliffhanger (wonder if I can pull this of)