Sunday, 9 January 1983
“Good morning,” Madam Pomfrey said cheerfully as she sat down beside Severus Snape at the high table.
He grunted noncommittally. Breakfast was his least favourite meal, as it heralded the start of another dreadful day of living in a castle with millions of noisy children.
Why would Albus Dumbledore keep him on as a teacher when he knew he loathed teaching students who didn’t have any real passion for the shimmering cauldron?
Ninety-nine percent of the wizarding world found Potions a boring discipline because it was subtle.
As a result, he resented having to try to teach the art to students who didn’t feel it was exciting magic. It made his blood boil, as he truly loved potion brewing. Brewing was an art form. In his opinion a finely brewed potion was the epitome of magic.
He’d put a lot of thought into it and had come to the conclusion that if he were to switch subjects, he wouldn’t bear the same frustration and madness that he did in teaching Potions classes. If he taught Defense, he could keep his true passion to himself, and he’d show those miserable herd beasts a thing or two about flashy magic. What he knew would make them run in terror.
Therefore, he’d requested an audience with the headmaster. Dumbledore had denied him the Defense position when it opened last summer. Severus thought the headmaster was naive if he thought he would give up so easily. Severus Snape was not a wizard to back down from a fight. After breakfast, he made his way up to the headmaster’s study.
“No, I don’t think it would be appropriate at this time. Finding a new Potions master is much more difficult than you’d think. A Defense professor is much easier to find, but then you know that, having had seven different ones while you were a student.”
“None of them were any good!” Severus snarled. He wrapped his arms tightly across his chest while one boot tapped the floor impatiently. “I know the subject better...”
“I said no. I won’t give you that position until it becomes absolutely necessary,” the old wizard said emphatically, putting an end to the subject.
Snape sat frustrated and confused in the overstuffed chair in the headmaster’s office. Dumbledore’s reasoning didn’t sit quite right with him; there was definitely something the old wizard wasn’t willing to share.
Fine, Severus thought bitterly. He could change tactics; his life had once depended on it. He would try for something else instead.
“I want only students who achieve an ‘O’ in my NEWT level classes from now on.”
Albus Dumbledore’s blue twinkling eyes studied him for a moment. “That's much too selective; not many students achieve an ‘O’ in Potions, Severus.”
“My point exactly, Headmaster. I’m wasting my time on a lot of cretins whose only purpose in taking the class is to try to impress some Ministry lackey with the number of NEWTs they achieved,” Severus replied, argument in his tone.
“The number would be too few to justify...”
“Which is the very reason I need to change the curriculum,” he interrupted forcefully. “It does not present a proper challenge to the students and illustrates no progression in complexity. It may have suited Professor Slughorn, but it does not suit me!”
Dumbledore sat back in his chair and popped a humbug into his mouth. He rolled it around for a while as he thought.
Delaying tactic! Snape’s mind screamed out.
“Very well, I will consider the matter. Come up with a plan for me to look over...”
Severus pulled a rolled up scroll from one voluminous sleeve and flung it onto the desk.
Professor Dumbledore waved the scroll across the ornately carved desk, into his beringed hands, and unfurled the parchment. Adjusting his half-moon spectacles, he began to read. Obviously the wizard hadn’t expected Severus to have a plan ready to present to him.
Maybe the all-seeing, all-knowing wizard wasn’t quite so all-seeing after all. Severus kept his feelings, burgeoning to escape, free from his face. As he waited, Dumbledore’s hand absently reached for a sherbet lemon. Both eyebrows rose as he at first scanned and then thoroughly read the four-foot scroll.
“Don’t you think you’re a bit ambitious with this curriculum? Some of what you’re proposing to teach would be well beyond the ability of what the upper forms currently know. You are making it too difficult for them to meet your standards, Severus,” the headmaster said, shaking his head.
“I would like to initiate this program with the first and second years; the older students who began under Professor Slughorn will never meet my expectations,” Severus responded in what he hoped was a conciliatory tone.
Albus Dumbledore looked genuinely astonished at Severus’ dismissal of his old Potions master. “You did quite well with a program that has been...”
“Because I was interested in the subject and did a lot of research on my own,” Severus interrupted impassionedly.
“Lily had...”
“Why must you bring her into this?” the Potions master exploded. He paced the room like a caged animal, his robes snapping as sharply as sheets drying on a line as he moved.
“Only to say she had remarkable talent, Severus. She was very, very good with potions, yet, under your plan, Li”she would not be permitted into your class,” Dumbledore said, appeasing the agitated man.
Snape continued to pace restlessly. “I don’t think teaching Slytherins and Gryffindors together is prudent. It's far too disruptive for me to keep them from one another's throats while I try to pound a lesson into their heads at the same time."
Sighing deeply, the headmaster leaned forward in his chair. “I've told you that historically Hufflepuffs don't do well when they are put with Gryffindors in Potions lessons; Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff is the better mix."
"So I have to suffer because of it?" Severus stopped abruptly; his robes swirled about his legs.
“Severus, Severus, why are you so touchy today?"
“Because you never listen to me. You always dismiss my concerns as irrelevant," the Potions Master said as he rushed to the door and flung it open.
He was halfway down when he heard Professor Dumbledore call. “Happy birthday!”
Damnable Words by talloakslady
Chapter Notes: Breakfast wasn't his favourite meal.
Chapter Endnotes: My thanks to Cecelle, my beta.