Chapter II

Chapter II

Lily was indeed scared of monsters. She would have to be stupid to not be. Had she been a Muggle, she might have considered that the school was a safe place, a place free of dark creatures and danger. Being her parents' daughter, though, she knew that in her world schools were as dangerous places as any.

She paled and panicked. In a recess of her mind still capable of rational thought, she tried to assess the danger this monster posed to her. Was he more dangerous than Fluffy, the Cerberus her father had faced in his first year?

Severus Snape watched her facial expressions, trying to gauge her reaction. He did not want to frighten the child too much, since it would be counter-productive.

After a few moments, she seemed to collect herself. She repeated his question, "are you afraid of monsters, Miss Potter?" in her mind.

"Yes, I am," she replied so as if his question had not been rhetorical. She was proud that her voice trembled only slightly and her hands were mostly stable.

"Good, then you will pay attention," he informed her, his tone harsh and cruel.

She shuddered but held her ground.

"You are a lazy dunderhead, a disgrace to your House. Hence I have decided that you need extra tutoring," he decreed.

Lily was flabbergasted. A red-eyed monster threatening to ... make her study! That was absurd. Her mind worked at double speed. It looked like something her nerdy cousin could have devised.

"Did Rose put you up to this?" she asked.

When he opened his mouth, one glimpse of his fangs quickly made her forget any idea that Rose could have conjured him.

"If you are as daft as you look, I doubt any amount of tutoring will help you. Why, of all your cousins loitering around this place, did you have to be the dimwitted one?" The red-eyed monster looked more frustrated than terrifying at the moment.

"I take exception at being called stupid," she announced, having gained some courage by his obvious lack of aggression.

He approached her, and she retreated one step or two until she had her back to the wall.

"I don't mind the extra tutoring," she hastened to reassure him, trying to gauge how to make him leave her alone.

He smirked.

"You will be spending two hours every afternoon here. Should you fail to appear, I will have the Bloody Baron deliver a warning or I might decide to deal with the matter myself. Red hair makes a wonderful ingredient for certain potions. I'm sure you would not mind being bald," he threatened her in a low voice without any trace of anger or sentiment.

"Will you not warn me against telling others, like for example the Headmistress?" she asked, curious for his reply.

"No! Slytherins do not tell. Do not become an even greater disappointment than the one you already are." He finished his speech and moved out so quickly that to her eyes it looked like he vanished.

Slowly, she found the way back to the dormitory and started pondering the enigma that she had encountered.

That evening Rose, her bookworm of a cousin, was not the only one surprised to see her in the library, researching books about magical creatures.

...

Reymond Hamilton had been troubled by Scorpius Malfoy's revelation more than he would ever admit. Questioning the Bloody Baron had proved to be an exercise in futility. The Headmistress had been obviously wrong when she had claimed that the House ghosts are bound to the will of the Head of the House. The problem was that Minerva was seldom if ever wrong about anything.

The truth was that he was uncomfortable in his role as Head of Slytherin House. After the war, the Head of his House had changed almost every third year. Most of the professors to have undertaken this role were either DADA professors or Potions Masters, as these two specializations were usually followed by Slytherins. The Dark Arts and the subtlety of poisons, his favorite kind of potions, had always intrigued and drawn the members of his House, like a moth to the flame.

He enjoyed his teaching duties, and he believed himself to be good in his duties towards the children under his care. Nonetheless the castle itself failed to provide him with the support so many Heads of Houses had enjoyed before him. The staircases never obliged him like they did for Minerva and Filius. The castle did not whisper to him when there was trouble for his charges. He had assumed that the position was cursed like another one had been before the war, but had hesitated to bring this information forward. After all it went against his Slytherin nature to admit to a disadvantage before his colleagues and the Headmistress.

...

Lily was frustrated. Her research in the library had given her a headache but no answers. She dreaded having to return to meet the red-eyed lunatic. She considered not going, and she thought of asking for someone's help. Then she was ashamed of her thought. Her father had faced a troll in his first term at school, and she was afraid of just a man threatening to make her study. Her brothers always teased her and called her a 'ninny'. This was her opportunity to prove them wrong.

...

Draco Malfoy contemplated the letter before him. It was from Scorpius, and it contained news from his school year. He focused on the paragraph that had troubled him during his initial reading of the letter. It was indeed very strange, the way the Bloody Baron had protected Potter's daughter. He agreed with Hamilton, though. It was improbable, if not completely impossible, that Harry Potter had contributed to this.

Draco Malfoy was experienced in matters pertaining to the House of Slytherin. The protection afforded by the Bloody Baron puzzled him, and it made him wary. Nothing was free in that House, and he wondered at what cost for the girl this protection came.

Normally he would not have cared. She was not related to him and therefore not his responsibility. Unfortunately however, he had reason to care.

He placed the letter on the coffee table and approached his fireplace to make a Floo call.

He exited through another fireplace into a small, crumbled room filled with strange objects and boiling cauldrons. Between the two rows of benches, he spotted his friend, or rather his red hair. The red-haired man straightened from where he was bent over a cauldron.

"Hey, what are you doing here in the middle of the week? Not that I don't appreciate the company, but you never veer from your habits," George Weasley greeted him with a warm smile.

"I received some news from Hogwarts that I would like to share with you," Draco informed his unlikely friend.

"Is Scorpius all right?" George looked really worried.

"He is fine," Draco replied tersely.

"Oh, very well. Move on to the kitchen, and I will follow you as soon as I remove this new concoction from the fire," George replied.

George Weasley's simple apartment consisted just of this workroom, a bedchamber, a bathroom and a kitchen. Everyone who knew him, though, knew how much he liked it.

Draco opened with familiarity a cupboard, took out two cups, found the pot with the brewed coffee and started pouring in both cups.

There were not many people who knew of his longstanding friendship with George. It had started many years ago, in the aftermath of a war. They had both lost the most important things in their lives. George had lost his twin brother, and he, shallow as he had been, his pride and everything he had believed in. In the two decades since, some things had changed but others had not.

George's entrance into the kitchen shook Draco out of his thoughts.

"What's up?" he asked in his typically casual way.

"It's about your niece and god-daughter," Draco replied.

"Yeah, she's in Slytherin, I've heard. I've always known that Lily would end up there. She has had all of us wrapped around her little finger since she was born." George smiled with pride and love for his sister's youngest child.

"The House is not the problem per se. The fact that the Bloody Baron has appointed itself her protector is what troubles me," Draco explained to George.

"Why would the ghost do that?" George looked puzzled.

"That's the question," Draco said.

"Will you ask Scorpius to look after Lily?" George asked.

"I plan to. But it will be hard to explain to him the why of my request. The Potters, James and Albus Severus, have tormented him enough these two years, so I doubt he bears any benevolence toward your niece," Draco explained.

"I'm sorry. It's Ginny's influence, you know. She was hurt as a child by your father's actions, and she has neither forgotten nor forgiven your family for it," George was apologetic. James and Albus Severus were good kids, but there were times when they could be cruel. He did not blame Harry for having given to his children everything that he had missed during his own miserable childhood, but Ginny should have kept the balance. All three of their children were spoilt.

...

Lily returned to the dungeon promptly on time. She entered the cavernous room and looked around for her tormentor. He was nowhere to be seen. She saw a blackboard that had not been there the previous time, and there were instructions on it. They were instructions for a potion; she recognized that much. She looked on the long table and saw that everything that she would require to brew the potion was there. She should have been relieved that he was not there, but she was not.

"Who would be stupid enough to allow an inept first-year student to brew a potion without supervision?" she muttered to herself, contemplating whether she should start chopping the roots required for the potion or wait for him to arrive. She wondered whether he planned to arrive at all.

"Finally, an astute observation, Miss Potter. But, just because you could not see me, does not mean that I am not here. Do not tarry anymore. You will need the entire two hours to brew the potion," Severus Snape commented and smirked in glee as he saw her jump in fright.

Lily looked at the dark man who had suddenly appeared on the other side of the table and swallowed a curse. She started chopping ingredients and preparing her potion without any comment. Sometimes silence was indeed golden, she thought and did not voice any of the retorts that came to her mind. Unfortunately, brewing the potion required her entire focus, and thus she was unable to study the dark man. By the time she finished the potion, she was exhausted.

"An adequate try, Miss Potter," he commented.

"May I leave now?" she asked, ready to flee.

"Not unless you can identify the potion that you just brewed," he replied and watched her pale.

Lily was ready to start crying. She really had no idea.

He pointed at a first-year Potions book which he had earlier laid on the table.

"You mean for me to go through it right now? You had said that I only needed to spend two hours per day here!" Lily was too tired to care that she had shouted at someone dangerous.

Severus Snape looked at the girl. She really looked exhausted. It had been too long since he had had any contact with humans, and he had forgotten how frail they were. Nonetheless, there was no way he could take his words back, not without losing face. So he just smirked evilly and pointed again at the book.

With a sigh, she sat at the table and started going through the contents of the book. Lily tried to think clearly. What would she do if she were Rose, the know-it-all? That's when she knew. She needed to think which of the ingredients she has used for the potions was the least likely to appear in many potions, and then she would search through the various potions in the book to find just the ones containing this ingredient. Seaweed, that was the one she had not encountered before in Potions class. She looked at the book's index and found three entries for seaweed: page 55, page 120 and page 132. She found the first page and went through that potion's ingredients, but they did not match. She lucked out with her second choice. She looked up at the dark man and announced merrily, "It's an anti-rust potion."

"That's correct, Miss Potter. Since you obviously lack the required theoretical knowledge and need to go through the book, instead of already knowing the answer, I will give you tomorrow to study. You will return here the day after tomorrow, and I hope that your performance will be better. Since it is late, the Bloody Baron will escort you back to your dormitory," the dark man ended his little speech.

She was so relieved for the reprieve he had decreed for the next day that she decided to be polite. "Good night," she said before she followed the ghost that had appeared out of thin air.

"Good night, child," he wished her after she was out of hearing range.

Scorpius Malfoy was the only one who noticed Lily Potter coming back to the dormitory mere moments before the curfew. He thought of saying something rude and bringing everyone's attention on her, but she looked so tired that he decided against it. Whatever it was that she had found herself in was obviously taking its toll on her.