Chapter 3 - Metaphysical State

Beyond Time and Space

Chapter 3 – Metaphysical State

A solitary male figure seated stiffly upright in a tall armchair glowered at the sight beyond the window. The sky was azure blue with nary a cloud and the birds chirped happily, marking the advent of April. What an annoyingly perfect day! It would do better to rain and drown the merriment of the outside world. If he recalled correctly, the Order had defeated Voldemort. Bah! That was an insufficient reason to celebrate! Did not the dunderheads of the world know how to commiserate with the rest of the wizarding community? He had expected an air of subtle anxiety and quiet peace, not a kaleidoscope of moods from euphoria to maddening buoyancy! Unsophisticated philistines!

As his mind wandered to those who had died valiantly to secure victory, he could not help but think on the glaring future before everyone. He paused when he thought on the future before him. What was there for him? He had always been a mordant taciturn sort, even in his youth. He was still curious about many a thing but was no longer stupid enough to die for any cause. He was his own man after all; he served no cause but himself and now that it was over, he was well and truly free. He had been lost in such pleasant reveries when the clock on the mantelpiece chimed. He tapped his foot in annoyance; the Headmaster and the rest of the staff were late for their weekly meeting.

"Mr Smythe, why aren't you in class?" asked a greyish figure drifting before him.

He scowled disagreeably, narrowing his eyes at the self-absorbed spectre. "Professor Binns, you are on time for the staff meeting, I see."

"Meeting?" queried the spectre in response. "Dumbledore cancelled it yesterday. You're getting forgetful, Sebastian Smythe."

He cocked an eyebrow in astonishment and curiosity as to the reason for its cancellation. Before he could raise another question, Professor Binns drifted out of the staff room, presumably to his classroom. He smirked at his ghostly colleague – how imperceptive can one get? Surely, one would notice the difference in composition of a corporeal body and an ethereal one. What an ephemeral existence this was! In all likelihood, Binns had no conception of real time and space on the mortal plane. He was unable to remember the names of anyone, save the current Headmaster. Bloody Binns! And Dumbledore was no better – forgetting to notify him of the changes to the staff meeting schedule!

Infuriated that he had not been informed of this recent event, he made his way to the dungeons, swearing under his breath. "Am I so inconsequential that no one apprises me of the latest developments? I should have known better than to trust Dumbledore! Redemption indeed! Ha! Not even a bloody pat on the back or thank you – absolutely nothing after I saved Potter from that monstrosity of a wizard! I deserve more respect than that!" he fumed down the corridors.

Good, he thought as students whispered in hushed apprehensive tones when he passed them. He was pleased that he could still command some degree of fearful respect from students. A gaggle of Hufflepuff girls turned as white as sheets when he passed them, resulting in one fainting fit, a shriek and a scream. As he turned to face them, one particularly vacuous third year blonde fainted.

"Am I such a sight that you have to greet me thus? I am still your professor and should be accorded with more respect than this!" he hissed lowly, inching his face towards the cowering girls.

"Sir," the tallest of the girls began shakily, "You...look..."

"Scarred? Hideous? Or were you going to inform me that I have so improved in looks that you have to shriek, whisper, scream and swoon? Have I become Gilderoy Lockhart over night?" he snapped in a smoothly modulated voice, his eyes glinting in disdain.

"But Professor Snape, you should..." uttered the most petite of the Hufflepuffs timidly as she tended to her friend who had fainted.

"Enough, girl!" he retorted with a sharp impatient wave of his hand, his hair tumbling in front of his face. "You try my patience!" He violently flicked his hair aside. "Twenty points from Hufflepuff!"

The petite Hufflepuff objected with a light shake of her head as he stormed off, feigning ignorance at the whispers and shrieks that followed his wake.

Alerted by the sharp piercing screams, Dumbledore hastened to the source at the stairwell leading to the dungeons. Panting heavily, he could make out the cloudy dark image of billowing robes approaching him. Pushing his half moon glasses up his long hooked nose, Dumbledore saw that it was indeed Severus Snape. So, he had been correct in his surmise!

"Severus," said Dumbledore anxiously, still panting, silently wishing that his old legs did not tire him so. "A word if you please. We should talk in my office; come, walk with me."

Severus glared at Dumbledore, his eyes glittering as he quietly answered, "You wish to tell me about the abrogated meeting no doubt. Later, Headmaster; your explanation can wait till after my lesson!"

"Severus Xenophon Snape!" Dumbledore called out after he had swept past. "We really must talk."

The latter smirked in amusement at the note of desperate urgency in Dumbledore's voice. "I am already late for my lesson as it is. Next time, perhaps, word could be sent to me when meetings are to be held in abeyance."

"There is something you should know, my boy..." insisted Dumbledore as he ran alongside the younger figure, struggling to keep pace with him.

"After my lesson, Headmaster," answered Severus with a slight bow before thundering past his employer.

Severus reached the potions classroom and was astounded to find it free from the grating voices of youngsters. Doubtlessly, they were planning to create some mischief, he thought. Bracing himself for the worst, he adopted his furrowed cross-me-at-your-own-peril look and entered the classroom. However much he was prepared for his students' remarks on his tardiness, he did not anticipate the sight of Miss Granger leaning casually at his old clerk's desk, fingers laced, evidently paused in mid speech. He raised an eyebrow at her presence in his classroom, at his desk. He was stunned to notice that she responded in kind to his intrusion.

The students, as if sensing the impending storm and war of words, kept perfectly immobile and silent. Staring at a pale Hermione, he politely questioned her with venom, "What are you doing in my classroom, Miss Granger?"

"What are you doing in my classroom, Professor Snape?" she snapped in a neat clipped tone, meeting his gaze unflinchingly.

"Shouldn't you and your friends be running amok at the Ministry? What are you doing in my class?" he persisted, approaching her in a slowly deliberate manner.

She remained where she was and drew her robe closer to her body. "I am here and not at the Ministry. You are interrupting my lesson, Professor Snape. Kindly remove yourself from my classroom."

All around, students either sucked in their breaths or gasped in shock.

"Continue your work, you lot!" she charged, aware of the students' silence. "Well? Get started or do I have to take house points? Mr Lennox, if you must explode yourself, kindly do it outside, otherwise, detention with Mr Filch! Well? Begin!"

The students rushed to obey her injunction when Severus waspishly instructed, "I believe I am the Potions Master! These are my students and they will not be doing anything unless I tell them to! Do nothing! We are not brewing the draught of peace today! Return to your seats!"

Hermione glared at him angrily, wrapping her rove even closer to herself. "You don't seem to realise that you are no longer capable of teaching!" she hissed before shouting at a plump Gryffindor prefect, "What are you staring at?" The boy paled considerably at the looks he received from both Severus and Hermione. "Mr Lennox, I suggest you learn to read and use your limbs! Commence your work! It should take ninety minutes if you use your motor functions! Well? Don't just stand there! Get started!"

The students scampered about wildly, not wishing to incur her wrath.

She turned to him with a withering look. "As for you..."

"Miss Granger, cease your pretence; you are clearly unsuited to the teaching of this fine art," he opined, narrowing his eyes at her as he noticed her slight shiver.

"Good," he thought, "I have managed to unsettle her. How dare she take over my lesson! Does she think she is any substitute for me? Insolent girl! Damn her and her impudent cheek!"

"Oh" she laughed with barely concealed guile, "My faculties are fully in tact, whereas yours, Professor Snape, are not. Have you tried the simple exercise of breathing recently?"

Severus's mood changed for the worst and he closed in on the gap between them until he was nearly a few centimetres from her face. "Perhaps you wish to cease breathing, Miss Granger," he hissed vehemently.

Before Hermione could respond, they both heard a loud crash. The plump Gryffindor had fainted. Hermione swept forward to check on the boy and as she did so, the females in the classroom screamed in panic and disbelief. Some of the boys tried to run; others cowered into the corners of the room.

"SILENCE! Blasted dunderheads!" Hermione and Severus snapped concurrently. They eyed each other in mild surprise as the classroom quietened.

Once calm was somewhat restored, Hermione lifted a vial of something to Mr Lennox's nose and he gradually came to. However, as soon as he regained consciousness, he caught sight of Severus. He squealed, "Ghost!" And fainted again.

"Imbecile!" Severus muttered.

Hermione strode to the desk past Severus, causing the class to scream again. "Silence!" she commanded. Then turning her attention to Severus, realising that he still did not know the truth as to his present form, she spat, "You have upset my students with your theatrics, Professor Snape. If you will be so kind as to desist till four in the afternoon, I will elucidate this matter then."

"I WANT AN EXPLANATION NOW!" he bellowed, becoming paler with anger as his voice resounded throughout the dungeons. "What are you doing in my class?" he repeated, folding his arms.

"Isn't it obvious?" she retorted, glaring at him, her knuckles whitening from her tenacious grip on the old fashioned clerk's desk. "Keeping students in order; students that were quiet until you disrupted the lesson. You are not supposed to be here!"

"And where am I supposed to be? Dead, buried and forgotten? Disappointed to find me alive?" he sneered in a dangerously low voice.

"You are dead, Professor Snape," she said quietly. At that remark, a Slytherin girl deemed it fit to faint. "Look what you've done to my students!" cried Hermione crossly with an arm on her hip. "Take yourself out of my classroom before you frighten everyone to death!"

"I thought that was the intention, Miss Granger," he responded silkily in an almost seductive manner.

"THAT'S ENOUGH – THE BOTH OF YOU!" boomed a wizen stern voice at the door.

"Professor Dumbledore!" she exclaimed at the same time as Severus greeted the voice with a smoothly muttered "Headmaster".

Dumbledore nodded at the both of them as he panted to catch his breath. "I will never run all the way down the dungeons again!" he declared rubbing his thighs through his robe. "Miss Heywood, Miss Fairfax," he turned to the Gryffindor girls on his left. "Kindly escort Mr Lennox and Miss White to the hospital wing." He then pointed his wand at the two limp figures crumpled on the floor, "Enervate!"

When the girls and the extremely shaken students departed, Dumbledore turned to the two Potions Masters and issued an order. "Professor Snape, you will accompany me to my office now; we have much to discuss. Professor Granger, I shall see you before dinner." He was so severe in his warning that the students were taken aback; they had never seen Dumbledore be anything but impartial and tolerant.

The Slytherins sucked in their breath as they saw both Hermione and Severus opening their mouths to protest. They knew instinctively that it would only yield unnecessary trouble. "NO objections – the both of you!" insisted Dumbledore, cutting them off, proving the Slytherins correct. "Severus, please accompany me to my office now." Fully aware that he was unable to extricate himself from his present position, Severus bowed his forced asset to the Headmaster and swept out of the classroom.