Chapter Seventeen: An Ambush for Minerva

PART TWO

Chapter Seventeen: An Ambush for Minerva

Friday, 2 October 1998

Severus pulled out his watch and glanced at it discreetly beneath the table. Only eight forty-five. They hadn't even been meeting an hour. It felt much longer. He did wish that Laura Walker Manning would stop trying to press her causes with the other faculty. He greatly preferred having her come to him or to Minerva, and if either of them thought an idea worth considering, then it could be brought before the entire staff, if necessary. Sometimes it seemed as though Ms Manning came up with her notions, most of them barmy, as she was sitting in the meeting, and thought that her stream of consciousness ramblings were of interest to everyone else. Filius seemed enthusiastic about all of her ideas...at least hearing them, if not implementing them...and he would sometimes join in with the brainstorming.

Severus caught Minerva's eye, and he twitched his eyebrow slightly. She nodded once, looking down at the agenda in front of her.

"Ms Manning, those are interesting ideas. Perhaps you could compose a memo outlining them and have it prepared in advance of the next staff meeting. In the meantime, I believe we should move on to the next item on the Headmistress's agenda," Severus said. He thought his work on his diplomatic skills was bearing fruit: Laura smiled at him and agreed to do as he suggested.

"Now, on to the next issue," Minerva said. "Hogsmeade weekends. Last weekend . . . I was displeased. However, it was the first Hogsmeade weekend of the new school year. It is to be expected that there may be some . . . snags. Professor Snape advises me that he has instructed new staff again on what is permissible and what is not permissible and what actions are to be taken when a student or students are discovered participating in impermissible activities. If you even suspect that a student is about to engage in such an activity, it is incumbent upon you to step in before the student gets into trouble. Participation in Hogsmeade weekends is a privilege, not a right. Do not let the students persuade you otherwise. Most especially, do see that none of them ventures down Sow's Alley. The establishment of Madam Luvley, whether her shop or her . . . her other business, is completely off-limits to Hogwarts students. I do not care whether they are of-age or not. What they do during holidays is their business and that of their families, but whilst they are in attendance at Hogwarts and participating in Hogsmeade weekends, they shall abide by Hogwarts rules." Minerva looked around the table. "You all understand this now, I presume? Good. Now Professor Flitwick will discuss preparations for Halloween."

Severus suffered through twenty more minutes of planning for the students' fun and frivolity...he sometimes wondered if even the faculty forgot that Hogwarts was a school, a place of learning, not a place to party...and he was relieved when Minerva declared the meeting adjourned.

He left the staff room quickly and started down to the dungeons. He disliked Friday evening staff meetings as much as anyone; even if he had little social life to speak of, he still liked the weekend to begin after his last class on Friday. Of course, there were usually other duties between then and Monday morning, but it was never good to begin the weekend with a staff meeting.

He heard someone's footsteps behind him on the stairs, and he slowed and looked back. Long, deep rust robes with bronze flecks appeared above him. Albus. Severus paused and waited for the other wizard to catch up with him.

"Severus!" Albus smiled. "How are you this evening?"

"Fine. On my way to check on Slytherin."

"Ah, well, I don't want to delay you, but perhaps after you have done that, we could spend a little time together?"

Severus opened his mouth, then closed it.

"I thought . . . an hour or two. We could play chess. Or just chat."

Severus still didn't think that he would ever want to "chat" with anyone. It sounded so . . . inane. But it was an important social skill.

Severus twitched one shoulder. "Meet me at my quarters in thirty minutes."

"Excellent, my boy!"

Severus had already turned and was striding down the corridor toward Slytherin. If someone was going to invite themselves to his suite and he acquiesced, he saw no reason to issue a friendly invitation himself.

Thirty minutes later, Severus opened his door. Albus was punctual.

Albus stepped into Severus's sitting room. "I brought us a treat, my boy, something I believe you will enjoy."

Oh, lord, some disgustingly sweet and gooey dessert, no doubt, or some peculiar new Muggle game he had discovered. The last one had involved pulling sticks from a carefully constructed tower and being the last one to successfully remove one of the sticks and place it on top of the tower. Severus hadn't seen the point in playing the game, but had humoured Albus and played it with him, Minerva, and Gareth the previous weekend. Albus had said it was a cooperative game, of course, and that there were no winners or losers, but it was clear to Severus that that couldn't be true. After winning three times in a row, Severus had pleaded fatigue and excused himself. He thought the others were growing bored with being beaten, anyway.

"Please, have a seat," Severus said, somewhat stiffly, but attempting to be polite.

"Thank you, thank you." Albus sat down on the couch, removed a hip flask from his pocket and placed it on the coffee table. "I didn't bring glasses with me, though I could conjure a couple."

"I have glasses." Severus walked over to a cupboard, then he looked back over at the silver flask. "What is it? I only have short tumblers, tall glasses, and wineglasses."

"Oh, a pair of wineglasses would be fine," Albus said brightly.

Severus carried two small cut-glass wineglasses over and set them down in front of Albus, then he sat down in his favourite armchair.

Albus removed the top from the flask with a few twists. "This is something very special, my boy. I'd been saving it, and this is the last of what is left, apart from some that I saved for Minerva's birthday on Sunday." He began to pour a beautiful deep golden liquid into one of the glasses. "I thought that before it was gone, it would be nice to share with you. I believe it is something you will appreciate."

"What is it?" Severus asked again.

"Centaur-made mead," Albus replied. "Rather rare to come by. I've had this for several decades, kept in a Charmed jug, meting it out on special occasions. That spring when we implemented Minerva's plan, I realised that I had been waiting too many years for the appropriate occasion to finish it, and that it might have been too late. After we defeated Riddle, I considered opening it, but there were too many sadnesses mixed with the joy of victory. Now, though, I thought tonight might be right to share it with you, and then to finish it this Sunday with Minerva."

Severus picked up his glass and held it beneath his nose, breathing in the aroma slowly. "Wonderful," he murmured. He inhaled once more, his eyes closed, then opened them and looked over his glass at Albus. "And what is the occasion tonight?"

Albus smiled slightly. "Your health." Albus's eyes moved to Severus's watch chain. "Our friendship. New lives for us both."

Severus nodded and took a small sip of the mead, letting it roll over his tongue, the aroma passing over his palate and rising into his nose. It was slightly sweet at the start, but complex, faint floral essences giving way to spice, and finishing dry as he swallowed. He knew next to nothing about wines and other alcoholic beverages, never being much of a drinker, but his nose and palate were well refined from his work with potions. And this was exquisite. It had to be the best thing he had tasted in his life.

He let out a long breath and raised an amazed gaze to Albus's face. "This is . . . a privilege to drink." That sounded weak to him. "It is remarkable. Thank you for sharing it with me." Then remembering his manners, he raised his glass. "To your health, Albus."

"Slàinte mhor!" Albus replied with a smile. He took a sip of his mead. "I am pleased to share it with you. It is the first time since before you began school that I have found reason to open the jug."

"Thank you, Albus." He quirked a grin. "I was afraid you'd brought one of those desserts with you that you like so much."

Albus laughed. "I realise that you are not partial to sweets. I enjoy sharing things which I like, but I do also enjoy seeing others enjoy them."

They sipped in silence for a while. Severus thought the old wizard looked tired and . . . sad, though he could hardly imagine the reason for it. He shifted in his chair.

"Are you well, Albus?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, I'm fine, just fine."

"Good." Severus took another sip of his mead.

"There is a favour I'd like to ask of you, though," Albus said.

Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing too difficult, I should say," Albus continued. "But it is Minerva's birthday on Sunday as you know, and she has agreed to go out to dinner with me, but I would like to take her away for the weekend, leave tomorrow morning. I've made the arrangements. Everything's set . . . Normally, I would simply whisk her off, you know, make it a surprise, but, well, she's the Headmistress now. It's more difficult. I knew she would be displeased if I didn't tell her in advance, at least that we would be going away for the weekend. But now she says she can't leave the school for that long, not so early in the year, not after everything that happened last year. I was hoping . . . perhaps you could help me to persuade her to change her mind? Reassure her that she is leaving Hogwarts in good hands?"

Severus sat up straighter. "Does she not trust me for one weekend?" He snorted. "Unless she has some better reason for not wishing to spend the weekend with you away from Hogwarts," he said firmly, "she will be leaving with you in the morning."

"Thank you, Severus. I think she's just trying to be responsible."

"Hmmph. I will speak to her immediately, then." Severus set down his glass and began to stand.

"It can wait a little while," Albus said. "We can finish our mead first. Besides, she and Quin are reminiscing right now, and I don't want to interrupt them."

"That why you're here?" Severus asked, relaxing back into his chair. He had seen Quin at dinner that evening, seated beside Albus and charming everyone on that side of the staff table. "Avoiding the reminiscences?"

"No. I planned on sharing the mead with you, in any case, and I thought I would enlist your help with Minerva, so I thought this would be a good opportunity bring the mead down and spend some time with you," Albus replied. "Quin did try to tell her that she should go away for the weekend, but she wouldn't listen to him, either. I thought that as her Deputy, you might have the best shot at persuading her. I also admit that looking at the Muggle snapshots does become tiring after a while, though. The early days of the Golden Cup Parks and Resorts they're onto now. He brought along old photographs he'd found of the early years, mostly from the early seventies, and he and Minerva are having a grand time looking through them."

"You do not wish to see these pictures?"

"I've seen many of them before. Besides, they're their memories, most of them. Other than the earliest photos, I'm not in any of them...not that that would be a requirement for me to enjoy seeing them! But they're good friends and I know they will have a good evening, and I wanted to spend some time with you. I thought . . . I just thought it would be nice."

"Why aren't you in any of them?" Severus asked, puzzled. He thought that Albus and Minerva did almost everything together; they weren't attached at the hip or anything, but still, it seemed odd.

"After Quin was cursed, I wasn't able to see him. I tried. But after his reaction the first time, we decided it was best if I didn't. I did write him letters, though, once he was comfortable enough to be able to receive those."

"Ah, I see. If he's at all sensitive to magical signatures, even wearing Muggle clothing wouldn't hide it from him that you're a wizard."

"Yes, he is sensitive to that. He also had only known me within a magical context. He apparently couldn't dissociate me from the idea of magic. He seemed to do better with Minerva, though, so I encouraged her to try to . . . to acclimatise him to her presence. Eventually, she was able to see him with no difficulty. She helped him to get back to work, too. It took a while, but once he was able to function fairly normally in the Muggle world, she thought it best for him to stay busy in those businesses that weren't connected with wizardry. They did have to avoid booking any magic acts at the resorts, though. Even Muggle 'magic' would cause him to have a turn."

"I am sorry to hear that, but glad that he is now . . . functioning normally within the wizarding world again."

"Yes, he, too, has a new life," Albus said with a nod.

"You do not say that with your usual enthusiasm," Severus observed.

"I am very happy for him." Albus smiled. "He and Alroy are working well together on Alroy's wizarding ventures, he has found a new place in London that he's refurbishing, and he's reacquainting himself with all his old friends. He has many plans and is settling in well, I believe."

Severus picked up his glass and looked at its sparkling golden contents. "And you, how are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine. I should ask you that, Severus. You have looked well these last few weeks, seemed to be working well with the new staff. Slytherin House is also settling in nicely, I think."

"Mmm. Things have settled down. We had a few . . . issues to deal with. But we are trying to get over any internal House problems so that we can focus on the start of the Quidditch season. Now if we could find a House ghost before Halloween, I would be . . . not unhappy."

"I thought you were interviewing some of the ghosts that gravitate to the dungeons."

"I have attempted that. Some of them are incoherent. They are . . . stuck in loops. Others are more coherent, but are not sufficiently Slytherin. Utter buffoons, some of them. In fact, most of them were not members of Slytherin House when they were alive. I do not know why they like to float about the dungeons." Severus sighed. "I do not believe they are attached to the House, only to these levels of the castle."

"Perhaps you should just let one of them . . . rise to the occasion. See who naturally gravitates to the position. It may take a while, but that's how the original ghosts became attached to the Houses. And it was gradual. I don't believe that Hufflepuff and Gryffindor had House ghosts until long after Ravenclaw and Slytherin did. Decades."

"I do not wish to wait decades," Severus replied. "Besides . . . I am still concerned about . . . new ghosts. Ones I don't think anyone here would wish to see...ones I certainly do not wish to see...and I do not want one of them becoming Slytherin's House ghost."

"I know what you fear most," Albus said softly, setting down his half-empty glass, "but truly, Severus, I do not believe that there was sufficient . . . soul remaining in Tom for him to manifest as a ghost."

Severus nodded, looking away. "His presence I . . . I fear that the most, but there are others, so many others, whom I do not wish to see, and who would be terrible images of Slytherin."

"We did a cleansing of the grounds after the battle, you know. Aine, her aunt, Alroy, and I. There should be no lingering spirits from the battle, at least not here at Hogwarts."

Severus was silent for a moment, staring glazedly into his glass. "Even if that was effective . . . there were some who died in the castle. In the infirmary. Or elsewhere."

"Oh, dear boy, I wish you had confided in me earlier!" Albus said. "You are worried that Professor Sinistra will suddenly appear and ask to be the House ghost."

Severus shrugged.

"First, Aurora Sinistra may have died suddenly, but she died doing what was important to her. She was taking care of her students to the last," Albus said. "She left others to carry on after her...Snape's Slytherins, Severus. She may have had a violent and unpleasant death, but I do not believe that she would either have chosen to become a ghost or had that state thrust upon her. I believe that she passed on. If she lingered, it would have been briefly, to make certain that her children were well-taken care of. But if she were a ghost, I do not believe that she would manifest to you or to the students if she believed it would upset you. I do think, though, that if she were aware of your sense of guilt over her death and she had become a ghost, she would appear long enough to . . . to let you know that she is all right, that she had chosen her role and that you do not bear any guilt for her fate."

"Perhaps," Severus said. "I do not like or understand ghosts. I wish I were not saddled with finding a new one for the House. But some take it as a matter of . . . House pride that we should have a ghost. Even if I wanted to wait decades for a ghost to find our House, I know most Slytherins want one much sooner."

"Perhaps I could help you." At Severus's expression, Albus said, "Or Olivia Ouellette. She is a Slytherin. You could ask her. If you phrased it correctly, she might feel it was an honour for her but one which not reflect badly on you, either."

"Ouellette. I will consider that. Thank you, Albus. Speaking of Professor Sinistra, is her portrait still due to be ready at the beginning of November?"

"Yes. Renwick is making excellent progress. I thought we could all meet and discuss the dedication...if, of course, I am included in the meeting. It may just be the Heads of House and Minerva."

"You had a hand in commissioning the portrait, Albus, why would you not be included in planning its dedication?"

"Oh . . . the semester is underway, my position as the Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor hardly would make me a natural candidate to participate in the meeting."

"It's not that kind of business," Severus said with a frown. "And this is not the first time you have said something like that. Are you regretting your decision to return this year and teach? I know that I had my doubts about returning myself, but I think that in the long run, it was a good decision, at least for this year."

"No, not exactly. I can't imagine what I would be doing if I weren't teaching. I think, if I may confess it, Severus, that I would feel even more superfluous than I do now." Albus blushed. "Not a particularly proud admission."

"Superfluous? Albus Dumbledore, superfluous? I can scarcely credit that!" Severus said. "You are very important to the school, that much is self-evident, but it's also obvious that you are very important to a good many individuals, as well. You are hardly a disliked Potions master with a dubious reputation and even more suspicious history."

"Oh, well, perhaps not . . . superfluous. But . . . I had thought it would be different." Albus seemed reluctant to say more.

"Different how?" Severus prodded.

"I thought it would be more like it was last year, I suppose, but without the Polyjuice and the war."

Severus smirked. "You could remedy half of the equation, I suppose. Go back to using the Polyjuice. You could choose someone different this time, though. Or several someones different. Minerva could have you try a different wizard every day, then choose one of them for you. Of course, knowing Minerva, she would probably prefer the wizard sitting here now." Severus shook his head and took a sip of mead. "Do you know how many wizards would practically sell their souls to have what you have now, Albus?"

"I know . . . I haven't any right to feel this way." Albus sighed.

"That is just as idiotic," Severus replied. "You feel the way you feel. What's missing? Something must be missing. Something other than war and pain."

"No . . . and I'm fine. Just fine."

Severus rolled his eyes. "You are not fine. You didn't come down here just to share the mead and talk about the Slytherin House ghosts. What's wrong, Albus? Speaking as an unhappy wizard with experience, I can say that you do not want to become unhappy. Especially when you do have reason to be happy."

"It's not a pleasant thing to admit . . ."

"Given the things that I have had to admit to you, I think you can manage," Severus said drily.

"I feel as though I'm not useful." He blushed. "Unimportant, I suppose. I am used to making decisions. Of having people listen to me. Being at the centre of everything." He played with his wine glass. "I always tried not to become . . . egocentric." His blush grew. "I was very egocentric as a boy. I guess that no matter how hard you work at a trait like that, you don't escape it."

Severus sipped his mead and looked at Albus for a few moments. "You know, Albus, the reason you are in the position you are in now is that you are a very generous, compassionate person. If you like being in the thick of things, if you like making decisions, if you enjoy having people look to you for inspiration, that doesn't necessarily mean you're egocentric, at least not in the bad sense you are implying. Besides, if you were truly as egocentric as you seem to believe you are, you have enough practice being in the limelight to be able to steal it if you wanted to. And if you were that self-centred, I also think you would have ranted about your displeasure a long time ago. You wouldn't be sitting here on my couch telling me that you're having a hard time with your new role."

Albus shrugged and smiled embarrassedly. "Still . . . I should be grateful."

"Are you not grateful?" Severus asked with a lifted eyebrow. "I doubt that. You probably are grateful. I think that your difficulty is exactly what you said: you are having a hard time adjusting to your new role. The lack of excitement is probably part of it. You obviously don't want another Dark Lord to come along just so that you have some excitement, but you aren't used to a quiet life. You also aren't used to being on the sidelines, not in charge. It's new to you. You need to get used to it." That advice sounded as useful coming out of his mouth as it did when other people said the same thing to him.

"Yes, I suppose so."

"Why don't you start working with the Wizengamot again?" Severus asked.

"Ah, well . . . even if I could adjust my teaching schedule to be able to participate in some of the cases, um, I was . . . well, once we had finished revising some of the sentencing laws, I retired from the Wizengamot. It was time to let others take that on."

Albus seemed more subdued than he had. Severus felt as though he was not a good person to try to cheer someone up. He just made them more depressed.

"Well, what about something else at the Ministry?" Severus asked.

"Oh, I'll always be an unofficial adviser when they need me, of course. And to the Wizengamot, as well, but . . . one reason I retired is that it is time for me to step aside and allow others to shape the wizarding world. My influence . . . you have to admit, Severus, that these last decades have not been a shining example of how the wizarding world could be, falling far short of any ideal."

"You didn't create it alone, Dumbledore," Severus said. "You did your best. There were many competing interests. If you hadn't participated, it could have been much worse. Besides, there are different opinions about what the ideal wizarding world should look like. Tom Riddle had a very clear vision of his ideal world, and he tried to force it upon us all. You didn't try to force your vision on anyone, probably because your ideal of the wizarding world precluded the possibility of forcing it on us."

"Perhaps."

"Why didn't you become Head of Gryffindor again? That would have provided more responsibility. You would have been busier."

"I told Minerva not to consider me. I don't know whether she would have, anyway. I also don't know if I would have wanted to do it. That was a different part of my life, and even then . . . I was Deputy Headmaster, but with Dippet's health as it was, I was essentially Acting Headmaster most of the time that I was here. But I also thought, I truly believed, that I would enjoy this more than I am."

"It's only the beginning of October, Albus. Give yourself time to find a rhythm. And you must have other things that you have wanted to do. You used to complain that you didn't have any time to do the research that interested you. You could do that. There's alchemy, for example. Or Potions. You haven't done any serious work in Potions for a long time, but you made some excellent contributions when you did."

Albus shrugged.

"Or you could . . . really, Albus, I don't know! You have so many interests! Indulge them!"

"I am finding time to read books I've been waiting years to read. That's enjoyable," Albus said.

"That's good, then." Reading books did not sound to Severus as though it would satisfy Albus's yearnings, though.

"I also don't like having a teaching schedule," Albus admitted. "I feel very constrained. I have a lot of free time, but it's not when I choose to have it."

"Welcome to most people's reality, friend," Severus said with a smirk. "Really, I am trying to help, but I just don't know what to suggest."

They sat quietly for a few minutes.

"If I quit, you could become Deputy Headmaster," Severus finally ventured.

Albus laughed. "Oh, now that is one thing I cannot imagine, Severus. No, I could not be Minerva's Deputy. We would drive each other mad."

"You worked well together before."

"She was a very different Deputy than I would be able to be, and she needs someone like you, my boy. And as for her as Headmistress . . . I am very proud of her, and I support her in all that she does, but her style is not mine, and I also find some of the ideas she's considering to be . . . the opposite of anything I would have done. But she may be right."

"What sorts of ideas?""

"You should speak to her about them. She just bounces them off of me. I don't think she's ready to share them with anyone else yet."

"Do you wish that you were Headmaster again? Would that fix things?"

"Even if it were possible, no." Albus shook his head. "Aside from the fact that Minerva is now relishing her role and it would be most unfair to deprive her of it, even if that were not a consideration, I know that . . . well, I'll put it this way, Severus: Hogwarts has had a father for many, many years, and perhaps it is time for her to have a mother. Minerva is what Hogwarts needs right now."

Severus nodded. "I see that. But I still think you need to find more to do with yourself, ways to fill your time that would be meaningful for you."

"You are right, my boy. I shall begin to think about that." Albus sighed slightly and took a sip of the mead. "I always believed I would die as Headmaster. It seemed inconceivable that I would not. And Minerva is so much younger than I, that even if I wanted to go off to a cottage and plant vegetables and flowers, bake little treats, and potter about in my laboratory and such, I can't." He chuckled. "The very few visions of retirement I ever had consisted just of that. It seemed fitting, a graceful and natural way to spend my later years. But Minerva couldn't retire now. She'll likely want to be working long after I die. Our age difference has created minor difficulties over the years, but in the last decade or two, they seemed to have disappeared, other than that I knew I would predecease her by a good many years. And now here is one difficulty that I hadn't really considered: Minerva at the height of her career at a time when I'd prefer to be cultivating orchids and playing with potions out in my shed at the cottage."

"If you dislike teaching, you could still retire at the end of the year."

"Oh, I don't dislike teaching, and I feel I've made some positive changes to the Defence curriculum. I also believe that I'm able to contribute significantly to the children's education. But it's not anything like what I thought I would be doing now...if I weren't pushing up daisies, which is what I actually expected." Albus took the final sip of mead from his glass, closing his eyes and savouring it. He opened his eyes and yawned, covering his mouth. "Besides, it would be worse to be here in the castle, sharing quarters with Minerva, seeing everyone else at work, and having nothing to do myself."

"Hmmm . . . a pity, that. If she worked at the Ministry or somewhere, you two could live in that little cottage and you could have dinner ready for her when she came home. You could find all kinds of things to do during the day whilst she was at work, I'm sure. Even do some consulting, pop around the country . . ."

"No point in thinking about that, though," Albus replied. "After all that Minerva has done over the years...and I know that she has made many personal sacrifices, for me and for the school...it wouldn't be fair to ask her to quit just so that I can indulge in a little daydream, a dream that I might not even like if it were reality!"

Severus thought a moment. "Albus, you know, you are important to people. You may not be the big cheese any longer, at least not formally, but people do look up to you and rely on you. And many of us are very fond of you." Severus shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "That mead must be quite powerful. To get to the point, I believe you simply need to shift your focus. It's advice I'm not good at taking, myself, but I do try. Look around and see the ways in which you are . . . useful, important, influential, what-have-you. And try to make new opportunities. Be inventive. There must be something new that you haven't done that you have always wanted to do...other than grow daffodils and bake biscuits."

"You're right, of course, my boy," Albus said.

"And I really think that you should talk to Minerva about how you feel," Severus said.

"Perhaps. But after her birthday. I suppose that was one thing that really brought it all home to me, that she's the Headmistress now and things are different. Her unwillingness to leave the school for the weekend."

"I think that if she had any idea how important this is to you, she would not have hesitated...or she would have tried to find a compromise other than just going out to dinner with you."

"I don't want her to feel badly, though. She is doing what she is meant to be doing now, and she takes it very seriously, as well she should. I just wish she wanted to spend the weekend with me as much as I want to spend it with her."

Severus thought a moment. "If your roles were reversed, would you have left for the weekend? You don't need to answer me. Just think about it. If there had been a madman wreaking havoc on the wizarding world for years and on Hogwarts just the previous year, and you were in only your second year as Headmaster, the first one postwar, and Minerva were teaching, and she wanted to bring you out for the entire weekend so early in the year, would you have jumped at her suggestion?"

Albus opened his mouth, but Severus shook his head and held up his hand. "Just think about it," Severus said. "I think you're personalising this too much, Albus. I don't think that Minerva has one iota less desire than you do to spend the weekend together. She simply has responsibilities. Responsibilities which she can place upon me. She simply needs to be made comfortable enough to do what she wants to do, and I'm certain she would prefer to spend the weekend alone with you than here at the school." Severus pushed up on the arms of his chair. "In fact, I think it's time that I go tell her that she's relieved of duty for the weekend, for health reasons." He quirked a grin, his eyes suddenly lively. "Yes, that's an idea!" He gave a short laugh. "Albus, we are stopping in the Hospital Wing on the way up. You shall have two co-conspirators helping you get that weekend away!" Severus reached down and took Albus's arm, helping him to stand. "This will be fun, old man," he said affectionately.

"Thank you, Severus." Albus put his arms around the younger wizard and hugged him, Severus patting his back awkwardly.

Fortunately, the moment didn't last too long, and Severus led Albus out of his rooms to head up to the infirmary. As he closed his door behind him, Severus said, "Good thing that centaur mead is exceedingly rare and you're almost out of it, Albus. I wouldn't want to make a habit of this sentimentality." He turned and grinned at Albus. "We will have some fun, though!"

Albus laughed and the two headed up to the Hospital Wing.

Quin laughed, gasping, tears in his eyes. "Seems you've been ambushed, Minerva," he said, looking up at the indignant witch standing in front of him.

"So, pack your bags, Minerva," Poppy said briskly, pocketing her wand. "I do not expect to see you again until Monday morning! Severus, I presume that you are prepared to be Acting Headmaster for the weekend?"

"There is no question about it," Severus said calmly. "You are relieved of your duties, Headmistress. You may pass the care of the wards to me immediately." He suppressed a smirk. "I do not wish to have to involve the Board of Governors."

Minerva finally laughed and flopped back into her chair, hands raised in the air. "All right, all right! You've all won! I give up!" She shook her head, still laughing. "You just won't let me resist temptation, will you? I don't know as you're all the best influence on me, but I shan't complain at the moment."

"Very good thing, too," Severus said sternly. "You are not to resist any of Dumbledore's temptations this weekend, Headmistress."

Poppy laughed at that. "Severus is right, Minerva. You and Albus go have a good time. Be as hedonistic as you like." She winked at Albus. "You don't need to share all of the details with me when you return, but you will need to report back the broad outlines so that I am certain that Albus has rendered you fit for your duties!"

Severus nodded. "I will not hand the reins over unless I am assured by Madam Pomfrey that you are in proper form to resume."

"I'll leave it all up to Albus," Minerva replied. She looked up at her beloved, who was twinkling down at her. "I place myself entirely in your hands."

"I look forward to that immensely," Albus said with a bright smile.

"So do I," Minerva said with a matching smile. "So do I!"

NEXT

Chapter Eighteen: A New Man

Saturday, 17 October 1998

Severus meets with Draco Malfoy about Draco's decision. Later, he and Minerva discuss their plans for the Halloween party. Will Severus get into the spirit of the occasion?

Characters: Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy, Minerva McGonagall