The bite of anticipation was gnawing at Harry as he gazed expectantly at Snape. Snape stood behind his desk with a smug smile. Snape had insisted on standing in the place of authority. Harry had meekly acquiesced.
“I see.”
“You do?” Harry asked, unsure of what Snape was thinking behind his supercilious expression.
“Yes, of course I do, Potter. Though I confess I am not sure it is the best of ideas. In fact I’m far closer to positive that it’s a bad idea.”
“Well you would think that,” he muttered, looking at his shoes with a sullen expression.
“Still, I think we should at least try.”
“You do?”
“Do I have to repeat everything twice? Are you used to conversing with parrots, Potter?”
“Sorry.”
“Yes I think we should try. Who knows, it might work. Now, back to what you were telling me about my invisibility cloak.”
“I don’t remember talking about…” Harry was soon cut off.
“Tell me Potter, did you go out in my Invisibility Cloak last night?” Snape deftly picked up a letter opener on the desk and twirled it around in his fingers, gazing at the blade. It impressed Harry with a small feeling of terror, watching himself play with a potential weapon so casually. He looked as deranged as the other students usually thought him. This was Snape, though, not him. Snape was trying to intimidate him and Harry wouldn’t let that happen.
“Er… uhmmm…” Harry didn’t succeed.
“Did you Harry?” Snape whispered, green eyes narrowing. “The truth now, boy.”
“If I were to say yes, what would you do?” Snape started to look satisfied, but Harry continued, “I mean, really. There isn’t a whole lot you can do, is there?”
“That’s what you…” Snape began, but this time Harry was the aggressive force.
“I mean, you’ve already cocked up my relationship with Cho, you’ve made Hermione suspicious of me, you’ve got me in detention, oh yes I heard about that. What more can you possibly destroy?”
“I could always kill you with this letter opener,” Snape suggested, opening his eyes widely for a deliberately menacing moment. Harry’s fear had dispelled and with his added height he leaned over Snape.
“You don’t have to bother, do you? Voldemort’s going to do that for you any day now.” Snape flinched.
“How many times, Potter? You call him the Dark Lord! Do not utter that other name in my presence.”
“He isn’t the “Dark Lord”, he may be dark, but he isn’t a lord. He’s nothing but murdering scum.”
“Despite the truth of it, despite that fact, you shouldn’t call him…, you could never understand.” Snape had shoved the letter opener blade first into the desk and was now intently staring at it. There was a twitch in his jaw.
“Didn’t Dumbledore ever tell you that fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself?”
“Didn’t Dumbledore ever tell you that some things, some people, are justly feared?
Harry turned, unable to argue any further. He tried not to think about it. He tried to concentrate on the present. “Yes, I went out in your invisibility cloak last night. It was a mistake that shall not be repeated. I’m sorry.”
“Good. You should be sorry. I don’t know why you wanted to attack a friend anyway.”
“I didn’t attack him. It was an accident!”
“Fine. Was there anything else you wanted, or can I leave?”
“You can go. Have a nice day.”
“Very funny… you too.” The door shut and Harry slumped back into the chair behind him. The one good thing? Snape had agreed.
***************
Afternoon classes were silent and still. Harry virtually twiddled his thumbs just waiting for them to end. A couple of the students seemed to notice his impatience. He was waiting for them to leave so that he could take a long hard look in Snape’s office.
It is one thing to concoct an idea, one thing to ask someone to participate, it is quite another to actually constructively plan for the event. Harry felt supremely ignorant, but Snape had seemed to assume it was his idea so he would work out the finer details. Plus, Harry didn’t much like putting even more of his life in the hands of Severus Snape, evil Potions Master extraordinnaire.
Frowning to himself as the students scrawled away on their parchments, Harry felt a small twitch of confusion. Evil? There were different kinds of evil, weren’t there? Sirius and James, in their days, had done things which Harry found morally reprehensible, but he didn’t think of them as evil. He hadn’t thought himself evil for teasing Neville, nor Lupin for attempting to eat him and his friends. Perhaps the extent of what you deemed corruption depended upon whether you liked a person or not. How could anyone like Lord Voldemort, though? He thought back to Tom Riddle. He had liked him, hadn’t he?
Harry was obviously expressing his consternation because the Hufflepuff closest to him let out a squeak.
“Are you okay, Professor Snape?”
“Hmm, what? Yes I am fine, thankyou… young Hufflepuff. Get on with your work.” The student appeared slightly offended but looked steadfastly down at their notes again. Left once more with his own thoughts, Harry brought his mind back to certain stored yet unexamined facts the Accluma had left him with.
The red tutu flashed immediately to mind. He didn’t know why this would necessarily be the first thought, perhaps because it would be exactly the sort of thing Snape would want kept secret.
In the first years of Severus Snape’s appointment at Hogwarts he had kept decidedly to himself. This much Harry could have guessed. Yet one thing that the Accluma imparted was that Severus also had a secret. He had travelled far and wide in the first two summer holidays and had come across a magic menagerie. In there had been many animals of interest and a tamarind monkey by the name of Captain Pookers.
For reasons unbeknownst to Severus, Captain Pookers had rather liked him and had followed Severus out of the store and consequently everywhere else as well. Being of an even more volatile temperament than he was now, Snape had tolerated the primate’s company for only a day before he found himself cursing. Standing in the middle of the street after purchasing some ingredients, Severus grew more and more annoyed by the monkey’s mischievous antics. Eventually he decided a curse was exactly the way to go and waiting for the most opportune moment, fired a dash of light at Pookers.
Of course, he had failed to remember the monkey had been in a magical managerie. Pookers wasn’t a Captain for no reason. The creature had a protective binding spell and magical power, albeit limited. Severus had been transformed into a tamarind monkey himself. Even worse, he had been transformed into a tamarind monkey wearing a red tutu, restricted from movement. It had taken five days before he had been rescued and this was at the cost of a considerable amount of dignity. Captain Pookers had agreed to help him for a kiss.
Harry started to chuckle to himself as he recalled the memory. Some of the aspects gleaned from the Accluma felt like they had happened to him, like they were a part of him, but this was so wonderfully removed from anything he had known, he could enjoy thinking about it as if it were a scene in a film.
Remembering where he was, Harry stared at the students who had dared to look up at the sound. He gave a small smile which unintentionally ended up as a grimace and decided that the last ten minutes of the lesson could be their own.
The students didn’t wait for him to repeat the order to leave. They sped off as if they too were followed by rabid tamarind monkeys. Harry packed up as quickly as he could and made his way to Snape’s office.