My Name's Severus!

Chapter 14: The Most Beautiful Girl I've Ever Met

After lunch Draco and Severus went to the library to practice transfigurations. (They occasionally needed books to help them.)

To Severus' horror Draco showed him a box that held another ordinary little hedgehog.

"Susan had a free period before lunch and caught him for us." he explained.

Severus stared at the wild hedgehog. The hedgehog blinked up at him looking a little scared.

"He looks just as cute as Greenie. Look he even twinkles the same way."

"Sniff!" commented the wild little hedgehog.

"Oh, come on Severus! Pull out your wand and turn him into an ashtray!"

Severus continued to stare at the hedgehog.

"I'm gonna turn him green too!"

"So what. Just turn him into a green ashtray. McGonagall will be satisfied with that."

"I can't." whispered Severus. "He's so cute. And he could almost be Greenie."

"Look here, I'll show you." Draco turned the hedgehog into an ashtray and presented it to Severus.

"No! Please turn him back." begged Severus almost crying.

Draco sighed and turned the hedgehog back. This would be more difficult than he had thought. Severus obviously considered turning a hedgehog into an ashtray murder. He'd have to get him over that somehow.

"Look! He's entirely unharmed. He probably never noticed that anything happened to him at all!"

"He was dead." insisted Severus.

At that moment the door opened and somebody walked in.

"Draco! It's Ginny." whispered Severus excitedly. "And she's headed for the potions section. I bet she's here because of that homework assignment Mary Sue gave them. This is our chance."

"The fourth year already had potions?" Draco asked surprised.

"Yes, third lesson on Tuesday. Right after ours. And I had several come to me for help already. It seems they didn't understand a thing she taught them."

"You mean she's a bad teacher too?"

"Looks like it. Pretend to do something. I'll go get Ginny to come here. Just don't jump at her the moment she sits down. Pretend to be busy. I'll get you involved into our conversation somehow. Take it slow, okay."

"What am I to do with the hedgehog?"

"Put him into Greenie's cage. They can keep each other company for a while."

Greenie looked up expectantly when the door to his cage was opened, but no big hand appeared to pick him out and the door was shut again. They had obviously put something in instead of taking him out. That something was most likely food. Probably potatoes.

Greenie started sniffing around curiously. Where had they put the potatoes?

He smelled something nice. Something very nice. But it definitely wasn't a potato.

Greenie followed his nose and found something round and spiky. Yes, that was the nice smelling thing.

He sniffed at it more closely. What exactly was that? He really loved the way it smelled, but it didn't seem to be edible at all.

The round spiky thing moved. One end opened up and a tiny black nose peeked out.

"Sniff?" said Greenie curious.

"Sniff?" said the tiny black nose.

GIRL! That's what it was!

"Sniff!" said Greenie. 'You smell very beautiful.'

"Sniff." answered the girl. 'You're so charming.'

"Sniff, sniff!" 'I think I know where there's still a potato lying around. Want to join me for a little snack?'

Yes, she wanted to. And how she wanted to! And after that she had some suggestions of her own ...

Severus meanwhile had walked over to the potions section and was hiding behind a shelf watching Ginny.

She was leafing through an advanced potions book that had to be quite a bit over the head of a normal fourth year and looking slightly desperate. With a moan she threw it shut and bent her head down to rest her forehead against the cover.

Severus smiled and walked onto the stage.

"Hello Weasley. Got a problem with that?" he asked casually as he walked past her.

"I don't understand a word that's in there." Ginny sighed.

Severus turned and walked over to her desk. He gently took the book away from her and pretended to check for it's title.

"No wonder you can't. I wouldn't give this to anyone under sixth year. It's not written to be understood by someone on your level."

"But I can't find anything to help me with my potions homework. Mary Sue said to come to her if I needed any help, but ... I really can't stand her." Ginny complained.

Severus smiled. He was actually beginning to like that girl.

"Ah yes, that potions homework. I already had to explain it to all your Slytherin classmates. Why don't you come over to our table and I'll show you the right books. I can even tell you what pages to look on and explain anything you might not understand."

Ginny's eyes lit up with hope.

"You'd really do that? Even though I'm a Gryffindor?"

"I wouldn't wish a visit in Mary Sue's office on my worst enemy." Severus explained. "And you'd probably come back to me anyway if her teaching skills are as bad as they appear to be."

Ginny accepted that explanation and agreed to come with him.

Severus quickly grabbed a few books from the shelf and led her back to where Draco was sitting, pretending to work on his charms homework.

Ginny sat down beside Severus away from Draco and they began looking through some simple potions books. Ginny had to admit that she never would have found any of this if it hadn't been for Severus' help. She soon started her essay occasionally asking Severus for further information.

On one of those occasions Severus suggested to get another book that had a really good explanation. He'd be right back.

So Ginny put aside her quill and waited, but Severus seemed to have been held up. Ginny got bored. She looked around a bit, but the library was silent as always and nearly empty. The only other person in sight was Draco who seemed to have finished his essay and was now doing something with coloured pencils on a piece of parchment. She couldn't see what. From time to time he looked up at her shortly, but never said a word.

Ginny leaned closer curious. Draco glanced up again. Their eyes met and he smiled at her. Ginny to her surprise found herself smiling back.

"What are you doing?" she asked softly.

"Oh, nothing." he answered blushing.

Draco Malfoy blushing? Ginny decided she had to find out what could make Draco Malfoy blush.

She got up and quietly walked over to peek over his shoulder. One look at the parchment and Ginny stood gaping.

"That's beautiful." she gasped once she could speak again.

"Of course it's beautiful." stated Draco. "It's you."

Ginny stared some more at the beautiful red haired girl in the picture. Yes, on a closer look she did look a little like her, but she'd never considered herself beautiful before. How had Draco managed to make her look like that.

"This is much more beautiful than me."

"Oh no, you are much more beautiful than this."

This time it was Ginny who blushed.

"I had no idea you were such an artist." she said after she'd recovered a little from the shock.

"I'm not. I just like to draw sometimes. It's just a stupid hobby of mine."

"Stupid?! This isn't stupid at all. It's real art. You ought to do this professionally."

"A professional artist? Me?" Draco laughed. "My father would kill me."

"Oh." said Ginny sobered by the thought of Lucius Malfoy looming over them. "I'm sorry. I didn't think. I guess it wouldn't be good for the family image."

"No, not good at all." agreed Draco.

"I'd have loved to have one of your pictures in my room. Guess I couldn't have afforded them anyway." she sighed.

Draco looked at her then back at the picture. It was nearly done. With a few quick movements he finished the picture and grabbed his quill.

Ginny couldn't see what he was writing. It was none of her business anyway. Quietly she returned to her seat to wait for Severus.

But when Draco had finished writing he calmly held the parchment out to her.

"Here, you can put this in your room if you really like it so much."

Ginny took the picture with trembling hands. There on the bottom Draco had written: From Draco to Ginny, the most beautiful girl I ever met.

Ginny blushed so much that she thought her face had to be redder than her hair.

"Oh Draco, this is the most beautiful gift I've ever gotten."

"Not as beautiful as you." Draco insisted. "I'm not all that good at drawing people. You ought to see my dragon pictures sometime."

"Oh I'd love to! I love dragons."

"So do I. I was named after them after all."

"You've gotta come and visit my brother Charlie with me sometime. He studies wild dragons in Romania. He has all sorts of pictures and books and even some live dragons in big cages. You've just got to see those."

"Really? Oh, I've got to see that. Do you really think I could?"

"Of course! I'll just ask him to invite both of us in the summer. Maybe we'll even get to see one of the wild dragons." ...

"So did you ask her to go to Hogsmede with you?" Severus asked Draco much later after Ginny had finished her essay.

"No." grinned Draco.

"Then what are you grinning about?" asked Severus with a sigh.

He couldn't believe how clumsy Draco was at chatting up girls.

"I didn't ask her out, but I promised to show her my pictures and she invited me to visit her older brother in Romania in the summer."

"She invited you along on her summer holiday? Wow, that girl really likes you."

"You think so? I sure hope you're right. I knew she was beautiful before today, but I had no idea how nice she is and how interesting to talk to. She's totally different than Pansy, you know. She likes dragons and horses and quiddich and all sorts of things. Pansy always just talked about dresses and makeup and other girls' boyfriends."

Severus sighed under his breath and resigned to hearing Ginny's praises sung all through care for magical creatures and herbology.

Severus had to keep Greenie in his cage during both afternoon classes. He might have been in danger from Hagrid's pets and Professor Spout was still valiantly defending her earthworms.

It wasn't until he took his pet out at dinner that he remembered the second little hedgehog. What to do about the little animal?

He put both hedgehogs onto the table to feed. He couldn't let his guest starve after all.

Draco looked at the second hedgehog in surprise.

"Oh, I totally forgot about him. We've got to try and turn him into an ashtray again after dinner."

"No." said Severus decidedly. "I can't do that to him. I'll just take him back into the wild."

"But McGonagall practically said that we'll have to transfigure hedgehogs for our OWLs."

"Well, in that case I'll fail. I can't transfigure a hedgehog. Lets just hope that she'll change her mind and make us transfigure something else."

"All right, I'll ask Susan where she found him and we can take him back tomorrow."

"Why not ask her right now? She has to be here any moment. Then we could bring him home today."

"We can't. I've got quiddich practice and you promised to watch this time." Draco grinned. "I'll get you onto a broom yet."

"No, you wont. I'm not getting on a broom unless I absolutely have to. We could let him go after quiddich practice though."

"It'll be dark by then. I'm not going near the forbidden forest after dark."

"Okay. But we take him home right after lunch tomorrow."

Draco readily agreed to that and they didn't talk about the hedgehog again until it was time to go to bed.

"Where do we put the other hedgehog for the night?" Severus asked when he opened the cage to put Greenie to bed. "I bet he's just as noisy as Greenie."

Draco looked at the two hedgehogs who were sitting on a table in the common room sniffing each other's faces as if they were kissing.

"Into Greenie's cage of course."

"But it's Greenie's!"

"So? They seem to get along perfectly fine. Greenie's probably glad he can keep his friend around for another night."

Severus regarded the two little animals closely for a while. Draco was right. They seemed to like each other and Professor McGonagall had kept all her hedgehogs in one box.

But had she kept them in there overnight?

"Are you sure they wont hurt each other?"

"Severus, hedgehogs aren't aggressive. They'll be fine."

Severus finally agreed and gently sat the two hedgehogs into Greenie's cage and carried it into the bathroom.

"Sniff?" said Greenie as soon as they were alone. 'Darling? Please unroll now.'

"Sniff?" answered the little girl hedgehog poking her nose out. 'Are you sure it's safe?'

"Sniff!" 'Of course it is.'

"Sniff, sniff." 'You are so brave."

"Sniff." 'And you are the most beautiful girl I've ever met.'

"Hey Draco, if we run and get the hedgehogs now we could let our guest go and still be in arithmancy on time." suggested Severus at the end of their transfiguration lesson.

"Sorry, we can't. I have something I want to talk to McGonagall about."

"But, can't you ask her some other time?"

"No, I'd better do this now. You just go on ahead and get the hedgehogs. We can both have one sniffing around in our books during arithmancy. Imagine Vector's face."

Severus grinned and walked up to the teacher's desk to hand in his assignment.

"A green baseball cap, Severus? Didn't I say loud and clearly: a wizard's hat? You know, like the one on your head?"

Severus shrugged.

"It decided, it wanted to be a cap."

"Severus, it was a piece of paper. It can't decide anything."

"Are you sure about that? I could have sworn it had a will of it's own."

Minerva just waved him on his way. Maybe Draco could sort this out. She wasn't in the mood to deal with such time consuming problems as teaching Severus transfiguration. Her next class would arrive in a few minutes and Severus had another class to attend at the same time.

The pupils walked out chatting happily. Minerva turned to their homeworks. Maybe she could grade one of those before the next class came in and handed in even more work.

She looked up again in surprise when she realised that somebody was standing in front of her desk.

"Mr. Malfoy?"

"Professor, I wanted to talk to you." Draco seemed a little uneasy as if he didn't know how to say what he wanted to say.

"Talk to me? What about?"

"About Severus."

"Ah, you want to give up trying to help him to learn transfigurations? I wont blame you. I sometimes feel like giving up on him myself."

"Oh no! Severus is my friend and I'm gonna help him as much as I can. I was just gonna ask you not to make him transfigure a hedgehog. You know how much he loves Greenie, don't you?"

"Yes, though I don't understand what he sees in that stinging little monster. I probably should have turned it back when he first asked me to. Leaving it with him was obviously a bad idea."

"But it happened and now Sverus has developed a special affinity towards hedgehogs. He also considers turning a living animal into a dead object killing."

McGonagall looked at him incredulously.

"Honest, he said so very clearly. Transfiguring a hedgehog is like committing murder to him. He loves those little guys. Please, don't make him transfigure a hedgehog."

Considers it murder? That explained a lot of things. There was no way one could do magic if one didn't really want to do it. So if Severus thought that transfiguring animals was immoral it was no wonder he couldn't do it.

"All right, Mr. Malfoy. I'll think about that. But there are certain things that I'm supposed to teach you, if Severus likes them or not."

"Just don't make him transfigure a hedgehog for the OWLs, please. He'd rather fail than even try it."

Minerva nodded at him curtly and sent him after his classmates.

Who'd have thought that Severus Snape of all people had such a soft heart? She tried to reconcile that new information with the dark mark that had once been on Severus' arm. How could someone as gentle as that ever have been a death eater? A ruthless killer? Even if he had been a spy for Dumbledore she couldn't really imagine it.

After lunch Draco and Severus took the cage with the two little hedgehogs and carried it outside. Susan met them at the edge of the forbidden forest to show them the exact spot where she had caught the wild hedgehog.

Neither Severus nor Draco knew if it was important where one released a hedgehog, but they wanted to be sure that the little creature wasn't harmed.

Thus the little hedgehog lady was set down right where Susan had originally found her. Then the children walked away.

The hedgehog remained curled up for a while waiting for Greenie to tell her it was okay. When she finally realised that it wouldn't happen she slowly poked out her nose and sniffed the air.

There was no smell of danger, but none of Greenie either. She unrolled and began to sniff around on the forest floor searching for Greenie.

After a while of this she had to admit to herself that Greenie obviously wasn't there. She continued to occasionally sniff the air around her hoping to find him again for about two days after that. Then she got over it.

It wasn't that she'd forgotten him. She'd think back to the time she'd spent with him with fond memories for the rest of her life, but hedgehog affairs never last long and it wasn't unnatural for her to loose her lover this soon after she'd found him. Hedgehogs are solitary animals and not made for lasting relationships.

Greenie too searched his cage several times in hopes of finding his 'darling' again, but then decided that she must have wandered off as it is hedgehog custom. He was slightly disappointed that she'd gone so soon, but he was convinced that he'd meet either her or another beautiful smelling hedgehog girl sometime. And that was the way it was supposed to be.

The second lesson on Thursday was potions once again. Spending another hour with Mary Sue! None of the boys were thrilled about that and even most of the girls didn't look too happy.

Millicent and Pansy were the exceptions among the Slytherins, Lavender and Parvati among the Gryffindors. All four had donned nearly as much make up as the teacher herself.

"Help!" Draco had squeaked when they had met Pansy at breakfast.

"I told you ugly Pansy is better than ugly Pansy in war paint." Severus had reminded him.

The Gryffindors and Slytherins met in the entrance hall on their way to potions. The Slytherins were just coming back in after Herbology, where Professor Sprout had rolled her eyes at the sight of Pansy and Millicent and asked them not to smear any of their lipstick onto her poor plants and the Gryffindors were coming down from the charms classroom, where Professor Flitwick was resting in his chair after nearly suffering a heart attack at the sight of Lavender and Parvati.

Hermione stopped dead in the middle of the stairs.

"Don't tell me I have to work with that!" she exclaimed pointing at Pansy.

"Try on a little make up yourself and you might look like something, too, little toad." Pansy shot back.

Lavender and Parvati might secretly agree with that, but they wouldn't let a Slytherin insult a fellow Gryffindor. Most of the Slytherin girls understood Hermione's reaction only too well, but they felt obliged to support their leader.

Severus and Draco walked away from the argument still hearing the girls and the Gryffindors shriek outrage behind them long after they had reached the dungeon. Filch would likely break this fight up very soon.

Vincent grabbed Gregory's shoulder and shook his head at him when he wanted to launch himself at Harry.

"None of our business Greg." he explained. "We stick up for each other just like Draco and Severus do. Let Blaise and the girls do whatever they like."

Gregory nodded his agreement, even though he didn't understand why one should avoid a fight that wasn't against Severus and followed Vincent down towards the dungeon. Vincent was his leader. Vincent knew what was best.

Another shock awaited Severus and Draco when they entered what Severus had once considered his home.

Mary Sue had obviously spent the last two days redecorating.

She had painted the potions classroom bright pink and hung white curtains with red hearts on them around the doors. The tables and chairs were now painted in light blue and the floor ad ceiling had taken on a darker shade of pink as if the room were blushing at the sight of it's new looks. At least the two blackboards were still black. Well, the permanently installed one was still protected by the glittersoap after all.

Draco was first to regain his power of speech.

"There aren't even windows in here. Why'd she hang up curtains?"

He glanced over to Severus who was trembling all over. Draco gently put a hand on his shoulder and led him to his seat.

"I don't want to see what she did to the office." stated Severus flatly.

Draco squeezed his shoulder supportively and took out Greenie. Seeing the hedgehog let a little colour return to Severus' face and he was breathing normally once again.

"I think we ought to use this chance to add a little colour to the room. You wouldn't happen to have some green or red everglow handy, would you?"

Severus grinned at that, jumped up and raced over to the student's supplies cupboard which was now light blue with pink hearts on the doors. While he was quickly mixing up something Gregory and Vincent arrived.

Gregory immediately turned around and walked out again.

"Come on Vince, wrong door."

The two walked out again only to return a few seconds later to stare at the classroom.

"What happened?"

"Mary Sue?" Draco suggested.

"Do any of you know a good assassin?" asked Vincent trying to find his seat with his hands over his eyes to block the view.

He ran into Gregory and they landed in a heap on the floor.

"Face it Vincent! You can't spend an entire potions lesson with your eyes closed." Draco informed him sneering.

Vincent and Gregory picked themselves up from the floor and went to their assigned places. This times with their eyes open though.

Severus came back and handed Draco a vial containing a clear liquid.

"Pour into any boiling substance." he instructed. "It's not everglow, but a nice colour effect nevertheless."

"And what are you going to do?"

"I'll just wait and see what she gives us to work with. I'm sure I can make it blow up somehow."

All four boys grinned evilly.

"Can we do something too?" asked Vincent excitedly.

"You could start a fight with your partner if the chance presents itself." suggested Draco.

"And you Gregory, can help by not telling Neville when he makes a mistake. That's sure to be a disaster." added Severus.

The rest of the class arrived soon after that looking slightly ruffled. Obviously Filch hadn't arrived on time after all. Maybe he'd been busy in some far off part of the castle and hadn't heard them.

Mary Sue glided in in full war paint and wearing an orange robe. Yes, an orange robe in a pink room! It hurt to look at her.

"Good morning children." she said smiling at the girls and turned to stick a long piece of parchment onto the old blackboard. "Since this blackboard for some reason seems to be ruined I have decided to use it as a sort of message board. This list of all your names will be used to keep track of the bad points I'll give you for misbehaving. Whoever reaches ten points on this list has to do an additional homework."

Several heads turned in Severus' direction. He was after all the school record holder for collecting bad points.

Severus winked back at Draco. Hermione saw it too and made her decision.

"Now," continued Mary Sue. "I believe there was only one homework due today, but if any of you want to hand one of their other assignments in early they will receive a good point, which cancels a bad point should they receive one later."

Millicent and Lavender immediately jumped at the chance and handed in their essays for the next week. They received a good point each and a lot of praise from Mary Sue.

Then she demanded the due essays. Again most of them were to messy or written on the wrong kind of paper or with the wrong kind of ink. Neville's was too short, Gregory's again had too many mistakes.

"I didn't do it." drawled Draco when she got to him.

"Why not?"

"My house elf broke his arm and I didn't get a new secretary to replace him yet."

Mary Sue stared. Then she went over to her list.

"Congratulations Malfoy, you have just earned the very first bad point I give in this school."

"Why thank you, Professor. What an honour."

"And another one for being insolent!"

She drew another point on her list and then walked back into the class and asked Severus for his homework.

Severus waited calmly until she had crossed the entire room and was standing right in front of him.

"I already told you that I don't do potions homework in the last lesson." he smiled up at her. "I don't see what it's good for."

Mary Sue had to walk back to the front to add another two bad points to her list. Then she collected the girl's essays.

"Granger where is your homework?"

"I forgot, Professor." said Hermione pretending to look scared.

"And why did you forget?"

"Well, there was this exciting quiddich game in our house, you see and over that I forgot everything else."

The class roared with laughter. Hermione Granger forgetting to do her homework over a quiddich game?

Mary Sue drew another bad point.

"This will teach all of you to always do your homework soon enough." she declared proudly. "Now, today we will be making a sleeping potion."

Vincent decided that this was a good moment to act and punched Seamus in the face so hard that his nose started bleeding.

Mary Sue raged for a while, gave Vincent his first bad point and told Seamus to sit down and put a wet cloth onto his neck. The pureblood wizards and witches watched that treatment with fascination.

"It's a muggle method to stop the bleeding." Harry whispered when he saw Severus' wide eyes.

"She could stop it with one simple spell." Severus whispered back.

"I think being used to teaching muggles that hasn't occurred to her."

While they waited for Seamus' nose to stop bleeding Mary Sue explained how to make the potion. Soon they set to work.

Draco waited only long enough to be sure that the water in his cauldron was boiling and that Mary Sue and Ron weren't looking. Then he poured his secret weapon in.

The cauldron emitted a strange hissing noise and the water started blinking in neon green. Mary Sue hurried over to them at once.

"What did you two do?" she asked nervously.

"Nothing." stated Ron honestly. "We only set the water to boil."

"Maybe there was a rest of some other potion still in there." Draco suggested innocently.

Mary Sue bent over the cauldron to peer inside. A bright green streak shot out and landed right in her face.

Mary Sue's head turned neon green. She stumbled backwards and nearly fell over Ron's bag. More and more streaks shot out and left large green stains on the pink ceiling and walls. One of them even hit one of the curtains.

That seemed to satisfy the cauldron. It stopped blinking and returned to bubbling softly over the fire.

"Whose cauldron was that?" demanded Mary Sue.

"Mine." admitted Draco.

"Clean it out as best possible. No, better take it to the kitchen after the lesson and have the house elves clean it. Right now put it away and start again using Weasley's cauldron."

"Yes, Professor."

Mary Sue rushed off into her office to wash her face and redo her makeup. She returned ten minutes later once again in full colours and with a shawl slung around her head to hide her green hair.

Severus grinned. This was an unexpected bonus. Mary Sue would soon discover that hair dye could not cover up the green potion. It would have gone off easily if her hair hadn't been dyed, but now it had bonded with the dye and the only way to get rid of it was to cut it off.

Mary Sue resumed teaching as if nothing had happened. Well, she didn't know about her hair yet.

Suddenly Pansy screamed. Mary Sue ran over to discover that her and Hermione's potion had turned into some kind of acid and was melting down the cauldron with a loud hiss. Luckily this time Mary Sue did think of using her magic and managed to get rid of the acid just in time to prevent it from eating a hole through the table as well.

She ordered Pansy and Hermione to pack up their stuff and watch the others work as it was too late to start over again.

Harry flashed Hermione a quick thumbs up while Mary Sue's back was still turned. Hermione grinned proudly. Her first real prank had been quite a success. Mary Sue was nearly screaming.

Harry turned back to Severus.

"Our time!" he announced. "Have you figured out what we're going to do yet?"

Severus nodded and continued stirring the potion with one hand while he handed Harry a single cat's hair with the other.

"Throw this in on my signal and get ready to duck under the table."

Harry noticed that Severus already had stored Greenie and his cage safely away. Whatever he was planning was going to be big.

Severus nodded at Harry. Harry threw the hair into the potion and dove under the table colliding head on with Severus who had ducked in from the other side.

BOOM!

Harry and Severus grinned at each other rubbing their heads. Mary Sue raced over and saw to her relive that they were both still alive. Half the room had been blackened by the explosion and a hole had been blown into the wall into the unused classroom next door.

"Getting started on returning this room to it's rightful colour." Severus whispered as they climbed out under the blackened table to face Mary Sue.

"What did you two do?!" Mary Sue shrieked despairing.

"I have no idea." answered Severus. "I don't know a thing about potions."

Again Mary Sue wondered what the class was laughing about. She turned her attention to Harry.

"We only did what you told us to. Don't you think this is a little to dangerous to do in school? I mean, we could have been killed." Harry did his best to look scared.

Mary Sue stared at Harry, at the cauldron, at the damaged wall and then at her watch.

"All right everybody. Clean up! You've got five minutes before the end of this lesson. Homework: An essay about this sleeping potion, six rolls of parchment."

A loud snore answered her from behind. Mary Sue spun around and found Gregory and Neville fast asleep on their table.

"Looks like their potion actually worked." commented Hermione. "They tested it on themselves."

Severus grinned at Draco and Harry.

"The'll be sleeping for hours."

As they walked out of potions class that day Draco turned to Severus with a sad smile.

"All right, so how do we go about turning you back?"

Severus smiled back encouragingly. He knew how hard it was for Draco to make this offer. Somehow it was even hard for Severus himself. He had hated being a child the first time and it had been even worse to go back to it, but now that he had a friend everything suddenly seemed so different. He had really enjoyed those last two weeks with Draco. Never before in his life had he felt this happy, but he had to go back. He had to safe his pupils from Mary Sue.

"The best place to start is the library." he explained. "We need to break into the forbidden section."

"But it is protected by strong wards!"

"That's no problem. I know how to disarm those. It requires some time and concentration, but I'll handle it. The problem is that Dobby sleeps on the librarians desk right beside the alarm paperweight. I got caught because of him once. I can't risk it again."

"So you want me to handle the house elf? I'm good at that."

"You can't just go kick him around the room like you do at home!" hissed Severus angrily. "No what we need is for Dobby to stay asleep and he's a very light sleeper."

Still to come: Draco and Severus attempt to break into the library, another potions lesson with Mary Sue, a talk about death eaters, Dumbledore has a surprise for Severus, and so do Draco and a bunch of Gryffindors