Becoming Familiar with a Man of Misery

Chapter 55 ~ Snape on Campus

The next morning Severus told Hermione not to go to university classes, but stay home and rest up. Hermione looked at him with defeat in her eyes. She was engaged to him now, and going to get married, but the damage had been done. Now she had only a feeling of loathing for the school she had attended for the past three years and the administration that ran it.

Severus looked at his intended, and his heart swelled with rage as he saw defeat clearly in her face. It was an odd look for her. The Potions Master caught her by the chin.

“There is a solution, Hermione. Don’t lose heart,” he said to her gently, kissing her lightly on the lips. Then walked over to the fireplace and tossed some floo powder into the fire.

“University,” he said, stepping through with a billow of robes.

Hermione stared at the floo with her mouth open. Severus went to her school? Dear Merlin. What was he going to say? Worse, what was he going to do?

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With a tight jaw, Severus walked into Administration and demanded to know when Professor Floodsworth’s next class would be held. He was told ten o’clock. He would be lecturing in the amphitheater. It was now nine forty-five. Severus knew where the amphitheater was. He had been a guest lecturer on this campus for many years. Something that would definitely stop now, no matter how many galleons they offered him.

He followed the meandering stream of students into the amphitheater, and took a seat at the very top. He would be sure to be seen by the Professor, pale and dressed in all black as he was. Plus he would take roll, and notice a guest among his students.

Professor Floodsworth did indeed take roll, and noticed the Potions Master in the upper row. He gave a delighted smile and an animated lecture, no doubt driven to put on a good show in Severus’ presence. He was quite respected in the field and considered one of the top Potions Masters in the wizarding world. Floodsworth was quite honored he came to listen to one of his lectures.

Severus found Professor Floodsworth’s lecture as dry as toast, despite his animation. He was following a formula that hadn’t changed in the last six years. How did the wizard expect to inspire anyone with such an old and practiced approach? Ah well, Severus wasn’t here to judge Floodsworth’s teaching abilities, though he felt Hermione could probably do a better job as a Professor than he could.

Severus sat through the lecture and waited for the students to clear out, including the suck-ups surrounding the Professor and exclaiming over his boring lecture. Then he glided down the steps and approached the podium. Professor Floodsworth was all smiles.

“Ah, Professor Snape, I was quite honored that you attended one of my lectures. It is good to see you,” Floodsworth said, extending his hand.

The Potions Master did not take it, and the wizard let his hand fall back uncomfortably.

“Professor Floodsworth, I did not come here to listen to your lecture, but it was quite unavoidable,” Severus said stiffly.

“Oh, I see,” Floodsworth replied, the wind knocked of his sails. So the great wizard didn’t come for his lecture. What did he come for? The Professor looked at Snape curiously.

“Then, how can I help you, Professor?” Floodsworth asked.

“I came to ask your assessment of a student, a Miss Hermione Granger,” Severus said evenly, “She interned under myself and several other teachers at Hogwarts last year and did quite a good job. I found her very bright, and was considering offering her an apprenticeship when she left university.

Miss Granger being offered an apprenticeship to Severus Snape? Floodsworth himself had applied for that position years ago and was turned down flat. Professor Snape simply did not do apprentices. The wizard must feel Miss Granger to be exemplary to want to make an offer like this. Jealousy rose in the teacher’s breast. Well, let the Professor find out the truth about the witch.

“Miss Hermione Granger is not qualified to serve as your or anyone’s apprentice. The witch has gone and gotten herself pregnant, and is of unfit character to serve in any position of worth, sir,” he said rather stiffly.

“But last I heard, the witch had perfect marks and was setting new records on campus for her grades,” Severus said, scowling.

“No longer. Since becoming pregnant, her grades have dropped significantly. We are currently trying to make the witch withdraw, Professor. She clearly lacks morality, ethics and virtue…and is unsuitable for anything but the coarsest employment,” he said.

“Has the quality of her work changed since her impregnation?” Severus asked.

“No, but her situation has, and that gives us enough reason to discourage her continuance at this school,” Floodsworth said.

“You mean to tell me you are trying to get the most intelligent witch in your school to quit because she is with child? Floodsworth, the woman is brilliant. She could contribute a great deal to whatever field she is interested in,” Severus said.

“Maybe once that was true Professor, but since she has chosen to become the mother of a bastard, she has thrown away every opportunity that she had,” the Professor said coldly. “She should have kept her legs closed and her books open, sir.”

“When you say ‘thrown away every opportunity,’ don’t you mean had every opportunity taken from her?” Severus asked him. Professor Floodsworth gave him a measuring look.

“Surely you don’t approve of an unwed witch having a child out of wedlock, Professor? We have to discourage such behavior, not reward it. The witch has proven herself to be little more than a whore, Professor, and sets a negative example for other witches in attendance here,” the Professor said, then his eyes narrowed.

“I wish I had known what a common piece of fluff she was. The witch is quite pretty. I could have given her some ‘extra credit’ assignments in my rooms,” he mused.

“Do you know the situation surrounding her pregnancy, Professor Floodsworth?” Severus asked him in a controlled voice. Not only had the wizard called his intended a whore, but all but said he would have gladly fucked her for an exchange of marks.

Floodsworth scowled.

“I didn’t need to know that. She’s pregnant, and there’s no father. No ring on her finger. She’s a fallen witch, Professor, that’s all anyone needs to know,” he replied.

“So it doesn’t bother you that one of the brightest minds of our age is to be taken out of circulation because she is having a child, a child that most likely will be as intelligent as she is?” the Professor asked him.

“Not in the least. If she is so brilliant, why didn’t she abort the child and continue her education? That would have been the sensible thing to do. If her education were so important, she would have gotten rid of it. Miss Granger made the choice to keep an illegitimate child, now she must live with the shame of it. Society cannot smile on such a choice, or we would be overrun by bastards and women of low moral worth and virtue,” Floodsworth said archly.

“Yet, we are instead overrun with professionals in the field without a bit of originality between all of them. They simply continue to work with the established formulas and postulates and don’t advance their art one iota,” Severus said evenly, a clear reference to Floodsworth’s lecture. “Miss Granger is an original thinker, who already exhibits the potential to improve the art of Potions Making and any other field she decided to work in. Surely you’ve seen her potential.”

“Miss Granger is a lost cause, Professor. She will never amount to anything now, so the point is moot. You have asked me my assessment of her, and I have given it to you. It is the same assessment you will get from any teacher here,” he said with finality. “She will get no letters of recommendation from anyone at this university. Her scholarship is even now in the process of being pulled.”

“Tell me, Professor, if Miss Granger were engaged, would that make a difference in the way she was treated here at university?” Severus asked.

“Yes, with an upcoming marriage, her position of good standing could be restored and her marks re-evaluated. But she is about five months pregnant. If the man were going to come forward, he would have by now,” Floodsworth replied.

“But what about her low moral character?” Severus asked, his eyes hard.

“Some question would remain, but it would not be reflected in her marks. A husband would legitimize her. She could pursue a professional career,” he said diffidently. “She would no longer be an unwed mother. She’d be an honest whore, with a name.”

Severus could stand it no longer. He grabbed a startled Professor Floodsworth by his collar.

“The woman you have spoken so crassly about, Professor, is my intended. She carries MY child. I had to see for myself if you were as insulting and narrow-minded as I perceived when I looked into her mind last night,” Severus said, shaking the now pale wizard.

“She resides with me, and will shortly be marrying me, sir. I take great offense at the things you have said to her, and done to her as a result of bearing my child,” Severus said, throwing the wizard back and drawing his wand.

“I take it you know my history, Professor Floodsworth. My other darker history,” Severus hissed at him.

Floodsworth nodded, looking into the other wizard’s cold, black eyes. They were murderous. He was going to die. Everyone knew the story of him serving under Voldemort as a spy. He was a deatheater for all intents and purposes, although he worked on the side of good. A very dangerous wizard as well as a celebrated Master of Potions.

“I…I didn’t know. I would never have said such things had I known,” Floodsworth said in an attempt to calm the wizard’s wrath.

“You never thought to ask, did you?” Severus snarled at him. Hermione wasn’t engaged to him before last night, but the wizard didn’t know that. “Did you ever stop to think there might be a reason she wasn’t wearing a ring?”

“I assumed it was because she didn’t have one. She could have revealed you were the child’s father and had honorable intentions toward her,” the wizard gasped, shaking now.

“Miss Granger is not the type of witch to take advantage of her husband’s standing. She works hard to be acknowledged for her own abilities. She believed they would be enough to get her through university and that she didn’t need to ‘drop’ names in order to graduate. And she shouldn’t have to. She has been a feather in your cap since she arrived here, Floodsworth. Her accomplishments would have been attributed to your ‘superior’ teaching skills. Your class enrollment would have doubled or tripled. Instead, you tried to force her to leave…” Severus seethed.

The Potions Master pointed his wand at Floodsworth, muttered an incantation and cast a spell on the wizard, who shrank back as he felt magic wash around him, fully expecting the Killing curse. But he found himself in no pain. Severus put his wand away.

“What…what did you do to me?” he asked Severus, feeling himself all over.

“I suggest, Professor Floodsworth, that you adjust Hermione’s marks to full ones within the next twenty-four hours, or you will find out quite painfully, what I’ve done to you. And the pain will last for weeks, I assure you. Her marks are to be corrected and turned in to Administration immediately. And I suggest you tell all of Hermione’s teachers that we are engaged and encourage them to do the same. Do not tell them about the spell I’ve cast on you. It will be ten times worse if you do so, and triggered in less time. If I am reported, Floodsworth, I promise you…this spell will be nothing compared to what I will do to you next time. I can find you anywhere, be sure of that. You are lucky I don’t beat you within an inch of your life for the pain you’ve caused my pregnant fiancé. All changes to her transcripts had better be in order by tomorrow or you can count on receiving that beating as well,” Severus said, his voice hoarse with rage.

“Yes sir,” Floodsworth said, scared to death.

He was going to pull all of Hermione’s marks immediately. They would be on the Dean’s desk by this afternoon. Then he would inform the other teachers of her impending marriage to the Professor Snape of Potions renown. They would hurriedly adjust their marks as well. No one would want to displease such a revered Master.

“I also want you to owl my wife with a letter of apology,” Severus snarled at him. “She won’t accept it, but I want you to do it anyway. Understand?”

“Yes sir,” Floodsworth said.

Severus started to leave, then turned back toward the quaking wizard.

“And if I were you, Floodsworth I would be careful about insulting unwed witches,” he warned. “Some wizards would not show the restraint I have.”

Floodsworth nodded and watched with terror as the dark wizard strode across the amphitheater and out a side exit. Floodsworth looked down at himself, thinking of the spell.

“I’ve got to adjust those marks now!” he gasped, running from the amphitheater. His office was several blocks away, and he didn’t stop running until he got there. Many students wondered at the wizard flying across campus, his robes billowing and his eyes as wide as saucers, looking as if a tribe of trolls were on his tail.

Severus saw him too, and smirked.

“One down and one to go,” Severus said to himself, walking purposefully toward Administration.

And the Dean’s office.

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A/N: Go Severus. Floodsworth got a dose of dark magic I suppose. I don’t think he’ll tell anyone. Severus should have kicked his ass, but that would leave too much evidence. He gave him a chance first. Imagine the wizard’s horror when he realized he was talking about Severus’ fiancé. Especially that ‘extra credit’ crack. That was a ‘footprint on the arse’ remark for sure. I think the Potions Master showed incredible restraint but got his point across. Let’s see what happens in the Dean’s office. Please review.

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The Burning Pen

Becoming Familiar with a Man of Misery
by Ruth Solomon

The story content is adult in nature and can contain graphic sex and violence. Those under the age of 18 are asked to leave this site immediately. You are not welcome here. The author is not responsible for those under-aged who view these works.

CHAPTER 56

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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