Chapter Forty-Eight: A Wager with the Headmistress

Chapter Forty-Eight: A Wager with the Headmistress

Saturday, 13 March 1999

Severus woke feeling like something had taken up residence somewhere in his body and had died there. Maybe in his mouth. Or his stomach. Or his brain. Or all three.

Severus dragged himself into the bathroom and rinsed his mouth then brushed his teeth. Now just his brain and his stomach. He used the toilet and remembered the potion Poppy had given him. It took him some effort, but he went back into the bedroom, found his frockcoat, dug the potions bottle from its pocket, and swigged it. Five minutes later, Severus was feeling almost like himself, except tired. Not surprising after less than four hours sleep.

He showered and dressed, debating his teaching robes, and decided that he could wait until the Quidditch game to wear those. Looking at the clock, Severus was satisfied to see that he still had ten minutes to spare before breakfast would be served. He would be late if it weren't a Saturday.

Sitting in his favourite chair, he hoped that Poppy was feeling all right. He should have let her keep the potion. He closed his eyes. He never should have waited for her on the landing as he had. A sure sign that he had been drunk. Perhaps not the lying-in-wait, but having kissed and groped her the way he had right there in the stairwell. Anyone could have come by and caught them. And it might have been less likely that someone could have discovered them in the side corridor, but it was not completely impossible. He would have compromised them both. Poppy hadn't objected, though, and he thought that if she'd been completely sober, she would have. He tried to remember what he'd said after they'd had sex, and he decided that none of it was too embarrassing, at least not in front of her.

His relationship with Poppy had just become even more complicated, Severus thought with a sigh. Not that they had a relationship. They did, but they were only colleagues. Colleagues who sometimes got together for a fuck, though it had never occurred to him that such a thing might be a possibility between colleagues. Friends, then. They were just friends and colleagues.

It was only supposed to have been one night. There was no point in pretending anymore that it was only one night with a little bit of an extension. He would have to try to avoid temptation. He would have to talk to Poppy about that. They would both have to avoid temptation. If they did, then they might be able to occasionally get together and have sex, just for a little physical relief and a little human warmth, some intimacy, a little cosy cuddling . . . a kind of friendly sexual intercourse between colleagues now and then. Perhaps once a month or so. And then if he did leave Hogwarts, he would remove himself from temptation entirely. And if either of them wanted to end it completely because they'd found someone else, that would be fine. Severus felt a twinge, but suppressed it. He might miss the sex if Poppy found someone else, but that was all. He wouldn't be jealous. After all, it would prove that he had been intimate with a very attractive witch. He would be mature about it if she decided she wanted to date someone. He couldn't be jealous. Yes, he would talk to her about avoiding temptation. Together, they would manage it.

That determined, Severus left for the Great Hall. When he entered, he suppressed a smirk. Half of those who had been at the party when he was were not there, and those who were, looked peaked. Years of spying enabled him to cross the Great Hall and take his seat without appearing as tired as he felt, and, thanks to Poppy's potion, he loaded his plate with breakfast...omelette, sausages, and toast...and turned over the coffee cup by his place. It automatically filled itself.

Minerva looked over at his plate and closed her eyes, making a moue of distaste. Severus smirked. Albus was eating his usual breakfast, but Minerva had a slice of toast on her plate and a cup of black tea. Poor Minerva, sitting between two wizards with hearty appetites. Severus poured some cream into his coffee and drank it.

"Milk for your tea, Minerva?" he asked, Summoning the milk pitcher for her.

She shook her head.

"Good party last night," Severus said.

"Mmm."

"Flitwick certainly made some imaginative drinks," he continued.

"Don't remind me," Minerva said.

Severus looked over at her. "Not feeling well this morning?"

"No," she replied shortly.

"Not hungover?"

"I do not get hangovers."

"Because if you are, you might be able to get some potion from someone."

"I offered her some this morning, Severus," Albus chimed in from Minerva's other side, "but she insisted she was fine. Mind over matter, she said."

"I'll be fine once I eat," Minerva said. "It was the pasties last night. I think they were off."

"Shall I speak to the house-elves about that, Minerva?" Severus asked solicitously. "We can't have them serving bad food."

"No. They were probably just sitting out too long."

"The freshness charms must have failed," Severus said shaking his head. "They are getting sloppy in the kitchens."

"No, I think it happened after I put them on my plate. I didn't eat them right away," Minerva said.

Severus suppressed a smirk and took a mouthful of fluffy omelette as he glanced over at Albus, who looked amused.

"Did you try the spanikopita last night, Minerva? It was lovely. The cheese, the spinach . . . I think there was olive oil in it, too. And those purple eggs . . . mmm, tangy. I think they had some hot wasabi in the green yolks." Severus said, watching Minerva blanch. "The eggs this morning might not be purple, but they're tasty. You should try some. I think they have Muenster cheese in them."

Minerva began to push back from the table. Albus took her hand and held out a small vial, smiling at her.

"A little Hangover Potion, my dear?"

"It's not a hangover," Minerva said stiffly, but she uncorked the vial and swallowed the potion.

A minute later, she was eating her toast, and when she finished that, she helped herself to the omelette. Severus and Albus looked at each other. Albus grinned and Severus gave him a crooked smile.

Severus looked up just as the doors opened and Poppy walked in. That morning, she was wearing robes of robin's egg blue with an under-robe of deep yellow peeking out from beneath the over-robe. She wasn't wearing her matron's hat and pinny, but she often didn't wear those on weekends unless she was actually in the infirmary. Severus watched as Poppy stopped to speak with a student, one of the Hufflepuff Chasers. She smiled and nodded, then continued up to the table. Instead of going to her usual chair down at the end of Albus's side of the table, though, she came and sat beside him.

"Good morning, Minerva! You are looking well this morning, Albus." She smiled at Severus.

He nodded to her.

"I hope you don't mind if I sit here, Severus, but with so few people at breakfast, I'd be all by myself down there."

"Not at all, Madam Pomfrey," Severus replied. He looked at her and gave a swift wink, then he continued, a dead-pan expression on his face, "Perhaps the other staff are also suffering from eating bad pasties last night."

"Bad pasties?" Poppy asked, turning over her bowl, which filled with steaming porridge.

"Mmhm. It seems that our kitchen house-elves are becoming lax in the execution of their duties, as incredible as that may seem. They used inferior freshness charms on the pasties last night, and Minerva was a victim of their carelessness."

Poppy grinned. "I don't think I had one of those bad pasties, although I will admit that I had a hard time forcing myself from my bed this morning. Only the prospect of a hot shower and a pot of tea got me up. It was that last Screaming Orgasm that did it, I think," she said, lowering her voice.

Severus shot a glance at Minerva, but she was busy spreading lemon curd on her toast and didn't appear to have heard. On her other side, Albus seemed to have gone pink. Severus considered teasing him about his drink the night before, but decided against it. He'd already had enough fun teasing Minerva, and it might draw Minerva's attention too much.

"I think that in the future, I will stay with drinks whose ingredients I know and whose names are more mundane," Severus said.

The conversation turned to the Quidditch game scheduled for that afternoon, and Severus mentioned that he had noticed Poppy speaking with one of the Hufflepuff Chasers.

"Just asking him how he was feeling. He had a minor ailment earlier in the week," Poppy said.

The other three perked up, looking for news that might make a difference in the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor game.

"And no point in asking me about it, particularly as he is perfectly well today. So don't change your bets if you are betting on Hufflepuff to win!"

Minerva snorted. "Can you see me betting on Hufflepuff against Gryffindor?"

"I have made it a practice for more than forty years not to engage in wagering on the Hogwarts matches," Albus said.

"You could change that practice now, Albus," Poppy said. "You are not Headmaster any longer."

"What about you, Severus?" Albus asked. "Having a little flutter?"

"No. Unless Slytherin is playing, I see no point to it. A Slytherin victory is only made sweeter by accepting Minerva's payment," Severus said with a smirk.

"Bet on Hufflepuff, then, Severus," Poppy said. "Minerva will accept the wager, won't you Minerva?"

Minerva, her mouth full of toast, nodded, a gleam in her eye.

Severus hated to tell Poppy that, healthy Chaser or no, the Hufflepuff team was abysmal that year and could not win against Gryffindor. She always seemed such an enthusiastic supporter of her House team, regardless of how they were doing in any particular year.

"I don't know. Perhaps I should maintain neutrality," Severus said.

"Chicken, Severus?" Minerva asked with a smirk.

"No, simply attempting to be . . . dispassionate."

"I think that it's because you'd have to bet on Gryffindor if you wanted to place a wager on a winning team," Minerva said.

"The game hasn't been played yet, Minerva!" Poppy retorted.

"It doesn't even need to be played," Minerva said dismissively. "We could all just go out and award the win to Gryffindor right now and spend the afternoon doing something else."

Poppy spluttered indignantly.

"I'll bet on Hufflepuff," Severus said, "but if I lose, Poppy, I will be very unhappy."

"What are we wagering?" Minerva asked.

"I don't know . . ." It was more difficult now that Minerva was Headmistress and not Head of Gryffindor. They couldn't bet duty shifts or supervising each other's detentions.

"If you lose, Severus, you must wear a red teaching robe for a week," Minerva said.

"Oh, no, no..."

"Oh, yes, yes! I will make it a tasteful red. You needn't worry that you'll be in Gryffindor scarlet. You would look quite handsome in burgundy."

"Two days," Severus countered.

"Five," Minerva said.

"Three."

"Four...and they have to be weekdays!"

"Hmmpf. All right . . . and if you lose . . ." Severus thought a moment. What did he want? Time. No chain to Slytherin House. He looked up at her in her Headmistress's chair. "If you lose, you will stay in my rooms for a week...at night, of course...and I will take one of the guest rooms. That way, if someone comes knocking on the door in the middle of the night to say that little Suzie Sefton is puking her guts out again, you can take care of it. I'll be available, of course," he said hastily, "if there's anything that actually requires my personal attention."

"No, I can't do that..."

"Why not? Just let the staff and your office portraits all know where you can be found...making it clear, of course, that you are staying there instead of me, and not with me. If you want to bring Albus along, he's welcome!"

"Not a week, though, Severus. One night."

"Oh, no, if my loss would be four days, then yours has to be at least four nights," Severus countered.

They finally settled on two nights, a Friday and Saturday of Severus's choice, and three nights if the point difference was greater than twenty, although Severus agreed to be sensitive to any prior plans that Minerva and Albus had made.

"Be prepared to wear red, Severus!" Minerva said as she got up to leave.

Severus smirked, but as soon as she and Albus were out of earshot, he turned to Poppy and said, "We'll sit together at the game. I was going to be watching Gryffindor in anticipation of the next game with Slytherin, but now that the stakes are higher, I'll be watching them both, and I'll share my observations with you, you can tell Pomona, and she can relay them to the Hufflepuff captain during any rest periods."

"Is that quite fair?" Poppy asked.

"Why not? If you wouldn't hesitate to share your observations with Pomona to the benefit of your team, why would you hesitate to pass on mine? I know that a few years ago, Flitwick pointed out to Minerva a weakness of one of our Chasers, and she told Wood."

"You're right." She put down her teacup and stood, and Severus did, as well. "You really don't think Hufflepuff will win, do you?"

"I would have said it was hopeless, but there is an outside chance that I won't be wearing red."

"Why did you take Minerva's bet, then?"

Severus shrugged slightly. "You are always enthusiastic about your team. I didn't like the way Minerva dismissed that enthusiasm, said the game didn't even need to be played. I'm going to find Pomona and tell her what her team did wrong against Slytherin last time, and what weaknesses of the Gryffindor team they might be able to exploit. Not that I can think of many."

Gryffindor was the strongest team that year, with Ravenclaw following close on. Hufflepuff was trailing in overall points, and that they were weaker than the Slytherin team seemed impossible. Draco had not tried out for the team and he had not been asked to. There was resentment, only gradually fading, that he had appeared not only to have turned against the cause that the Malfoys had espoused for so many years...and persuaded, cajoled, or bullied others into joining...but that he had apparently escaped the consequences of that allegiance, and he had certainly escaped the dangers of the final confrontations.

"I'll go see Pomona with you," Poppy said.

Severus nodded.

It was a perfect March afternoon, a brisk wind blowing, but the sun, bright, and the sky, brilliant blue. Severus arrived in the stands set aside for staff before Poppy did, and when Cahill tried to take the seat next to him, Severus gave him a Death Eater glare. The annoying man brushed at his mustache and tried to take the next seat down. Pomona was supposed to sit next to Poppy. Severus glared again. When the pedant tried to sit in the seat anyway, Severus stood over him and glared. He moved down one place. Filius might want to sit there. Severus lifted a lip in a snarl. Cahill got up and moved down two rows. That felt good. Unprofessional, but good.

In the end, he let Poppy have the end seat and sat between her and Pomona, since both witches wanted to hear his comments, and Filius sat next to Pomona, thanking Severus for saving them seats together. Severus had pointed out to Pomona the numerous weaknesses of the Hufflepuff team earlier that morning, leading her to complain that it seemed Severus thought the team could do nothing right. Severus hadn't responded to that. She grumbled that it seemed the only way they would win would be to completely replace all the players. As that was clearly not an option, she and Severus had decided on the worst and most easily remedied problems, and she had gone and had a long talk with the team captain.

Ten minutes into the game, Severus was groaning inwardly. Maintaining his outward calm, he turned to Pomona and asked, "Did you tell the captain that your Seeker pays too much attention to everything else going on and not enough on finding the Snitch?"

"Of course I did!"

"Well, either the message wasn't passed on or he is abysmal at following directions. He's been watching the Bludgers and the Beaters. At least he's ignoring the goal area," Severus said with ill-disguised sarcasm, "that's an improvement."

Severus believed that the only way for Hufflepuff to win would be if they caught the Snitch early in the game. Twenty minutes into the game, Hufflepuff requested a pause after both one of their Chasers and one of their Beaters crashed after running into each other, and the referee, Benetti, granted it. The two appeared to be fine and were dusting themselves off. Pomona waved to Stan Raffles, the team captain, and he flew over to her.

"Bobby's still not looking for the Snitch!" Pomona cried excitedly.

"Tell Pinter that the Beaters' job is to watch the Bludgers and the other Beaters," Severus added, "and if he trusts his teammates, he'll leave that job to them." Of course, Severus could easily understand why Pinter didn't trust his incompetent teammates, but that was beside the point.

Raffles, a sixth-year, looked at Snape sceptically, but Pomona said, "He's right...now go!"

They saw Raffles fly over to Bobby Pinter, a scrawny second-year, and speak to him. Seconds later, the referee declared the game in play again, and they zoomed back as the Quaffles and Bludgers were re-released from the referee's holding spell.

Severus shook his head. It was pitiful. Gryffindor, sixty-two, Hufflepuff, ten, and they were only twenty-one minutes into the game. Dennis Creevey scored another goal. Ginny Weasley was flying above the other players, always adjusting her level to accord with that, and whenever a Hufflepuff Beater managed either to direct a Bludger in her direction or, even more rarely, fly above the others, she would simply dive below them. At one point, with a slight sneer on her face, she even flew tauntingly in the shadow of one of the Hufflepuff Beaters for about thirty seconds before returning to her patrol seeking the Snitch. The sneer was the closest thing to a smile that Severus thought he'd seen on the girl's face since before the Dark Lord's defeat, though Hermione had recently said that she was adjusting and that he was simply unlikely to have seen her in any situation in which she would smile. But he had seen her at the last Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match, and even in victory, she had shouted with the others, holding the Snitch aloft as she made a quick circuit of the stadium, but Severus hadn't seen her smile.

Severus could understand why Bobby kept his eye on the Bludgers. The Hufflepuff Beaters were laughably bad. One of them almost fell off her broom when she swung her bat and missed a Bludger, and the other one, incredibly, had managed to hit the Bludger so that it impacted the tail of his own broom, sending him into a spiral dive he barely recovered from. The Hufflepuff Beaters certainly seemed to have no strategy except to find a Bludger and hit it in a random direction. Severus imagined that Poppy would be busy treating Bludger blows on the Hufflepuff team after the game. Bobby did manage to keep from being hit; even when one Bludger looked as though it would hit him square in side, he rolled away from it, making a three-hundred sixty degree rotation, the Bludger just skimming his arm and tearing his sleeve. Severus thought the boy wasn't a bad flyer, and in another year or two and on a more competent team, he might actually be pretty good. Hufflepuff had suffered a few losses of their older students in the attack on Hogwarts, ones who would now be in their seventh year, but so had Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Severus didn't know why the team was so poor, but he didn't think it was for lack of flyers to choose from.

Severus had been concentrating on the game, but when Gryffindor scored a goal, his eye went to the Gryffindor stands. Hermione had come to the game after all. She was standing and cheering, looking pink-cheeked and bright-eyed and utterly young and lovely. A pity he had wagered against Hermione's team, but it looked as though he was going to be wearing red teaching robes, and she could have a good laugh at his expense. He could tell her himself, playing up the humorous aspects and grumbling about it. Severus could almost hear her laughter. Momentarily distracted by his thoughts of Hermione, he looked around in confusion when there was a sudden roar, Poppy and Pomona jumped up, and the Hufflepuff section of the stands went wild as the Gryffindors, including Hermione, stood in stunned silence.

Severus looked up to see Bobby Pinter doing loops and flying widdershins around the stadium, his left hand held out, the Snitch fluttering in it. Severus stood and almost gaped. Poppy grabbed his right arm and jumped up and down, then Pomona reached across him to shake his hand and then Poppy's. The announcer could scarcely be heard over the pandemonium...Ravenclaw was almost as excited as Hufflepuff since they had lost their last game to Gryffindor, as well as because the Gryffindor loss pushed Ravenclaw closer to becoming the number one team. Severus was unsure of what the point totals for each team were at the moment, but not only had Gryffindor not caught the Snitch, losing them one hundred fifty potential points, the game had lasted only a little over a half an hour, so they hadn't racked up many points from their goals, either.

Poppy and Pomona tried to drag Severus down to the pitch with them and Flitwick, but he resisted, and began down on his own after the crowd had thinned some. He was just leaving the stadium when he heard Hermione's voice behind him.

"Severus!"

He turned and looked warmly at her, pleased that she had come to look for him after the game.

"Good afternoon, Hermione."

"Not very. Gryffindor lost," she replied sharply.

"That was unexpected. I had not anticipated that outcome," Severus replied.

"Ginny's upset," Hermione said.

"She's a good Seeker. This was just a fluke."

"I suppose, but I saw you sitting with Madam Pomfrey and Professor Sprout. Were you cheering for Hufflepuff?"

Severus snorted. "I do not 'cheer' anyone. Even the Slytherin team, although I might give them an encouraging shout now and then."

"But you wanted Hufflepuff to win?" Hermione asked, sounding put out.

"Yes, although I believed it highly improbable."

"Slytherin doesn't have a chance for the Quidditch Cup this year, so why would you care if Gryffindor loses? I thought you believed that there was too much inter-House rivalry. Do you really hate Gryffindor that much?"

"That is blowing things out of proportion, Hermione. It was only a Quidditch match. I had a wager with the Headmistress. I expected to lose, but I am not displeased that I did not."

"You helped them. I saw you speaking with Stan Raffles when he flew over to talk to Professor Sprout."

"Their Seeker was paying attention to everything but looking for the Snitch. We merely pointed that out to him. The team is so incompetent, I believed it was too little too late, but the only way they could win was if they caught the Snitch early enough in the game. Their Keeper and their Chasers are abysmal. Gryffindor could have won if the game had continued only another twenty or thirty minutes even if Pinter had still caught the Snitch."

"Ginny's very upset at losing to Hufflepuff...they're the worst team the school has seen in decades."

"Look, Hermione, Miss Weasley has survived far worse than losing a game to Hufflepuff. Pinter actually has a little potential, if he were on a team that wasn't so bad. He just got lucky and had a moment when he wasn't watching the Bludgers flying toward him and saw the Snitch before she did. He's a good flyer. There is no shame in losing to a good Seeker, even if his team is abysmal."

"I don't think she'll care about that," Hermione said, "and I doubt you ever said that to Malfoy when he lost to Harry."

"Not precisely, because the Gryffindor team was never as bad as Hufflepuff is this year, but I did try to encourage him to look at it as a challenge to be better than Potter. Potter was good; if he could beat him, he'd know he was, as well. His father didn't see it that way, so I doubt that Draco heard me. And his name is 'Newman,' not 'Malfoy.'"

"You actually said that Harry was good?"

"You'd have to be blind not to see that, though I certainly never would announce it over the wizarding wireless."

"I still can't believe you bet on Hufflepuff, especially if you didn't think they would win."

"The Headmistress was engaged in some unbecoming and premature gloating this morning. I was simply provoked."

Hermione shook her head and sighed. "I'm going to go see Ginny again, then it's back to multi-symbolic magical transmutations of simple Arithmantic equations."

"Enjoy the rest of the afternoon," Severus said, thinking that he was quite glad he was well past his own apprenticeship. Grading essays was sufficiently dull for him; he couldn't imagine having to do routine, repetitive exercises.

"You, too."

It was a pity about Ginny Weasley, Severus thought as he walked back up to the castle. Ever since she'd lost both her mother and her brother Percy, who had died saving her, the girl had lost a lot of her spark. Perhaps that was why Minerva was so ready to grant Potter permission to take her out for dinner...more for her sake than his. Still, it was only a lost Quidditch game. A disappointment, but a far cry from death on a battlefield.

NEXT

Chapter Forty-Eight: Normal Life

Saturday, 13 March 1999

During dinner in the Great Hall, Severus deals with a troublesome colleague in a novel manner. After dinner, he counsels a student.

Rated T.

Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Ginny Weasley, Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey, Sarah Duffy