White Heather for Protection

Win Some, Lose Some

"Miss Weasley," Severus said sharply, "Detention, for being a nuisance in the hallways!"

He watched coolly as the girl elbowed her companions harshly, heading off the retorts they were surely about to spout. Thank Salazar, he'd hate to have to assign more punishment.

"8pm tonight, my office. I believe a personal touch is needed for such impudence," he said, allowing some malice to show on his face.

The girl had a believable-enough expression of terror mixed with defiance, jutting her chin stubbornly with her lips pinched with fear. The other students with her began to pale, likely imagining what a 'personal' detention would entail.

With one last glower, he swept off.

His little show seemed to have cowed all the students within range. Hopefully it would deter them from acting out. Even with the warnings they'd gotten from Heather and her friends, some would likely need more drastic measures before the message got through their thick skulls.

Children; none seemed to be familiar with the concept of picking battles judiciously.

He met Amycus Carrow's approving smirk with a lofty sneer. The disgusting man was probably fantasising of all the possible tortures he could rain upon the students. Little did he know that there was a house elf monitoring his movements – indeed, all the Deatheaters at Hogwarts – at all times, ready to report any untoward behaviour to Severus.

He and Heather had brainstormed measures to surreptitiously distract and head off any attempts to harm the students. Ranging from creating a ruckus to help the student escape to personally stunning the perpetrator and obliviating the encounter from their memory. And if repeated obliviations were well-known to compromise the cognitive ability of an individual? Well, it certainly wouldn't be a shame.

The rest of the day consisted of brewing and patrols. The potions the Dark Lord demanded from him were, in short, mainly torture potions and poisons. Severus made sure each and every one that he supplied had a perfect antidote, which he would later pass on to Heather. While it might place some suspicion on him if it was discovered that the Light always seemed to have remedies to the obscure potions the Deatheaters used, Heather was well-enough known to be somewhat of a prodigy in potions. It would be believable that she was the one providing antidotes. No one knew that her skills were currently being hampered by her injury.

The typical administrative duties that came with being Headmaster were, of course, absent. His placement here was a farce, plain and simple. He had no need to deal with the School Board, who were all either afraid of opposing the Dark Lord, or already on his side. Neither did he have to write up reports and updates for the various affiliations of the school. Not that Hogwarts could even be called a school at this point.

For obvious reasons, the students were not learning anything in the lessons the Deatheaters taught, and what they did learn from Minerva, Filius, Pomona and the other teachers were definitely not on the NEWTs syllabus. Only things that were practical for students to use to defend themselves were taught, though of course the Deatheaters were none the wiser.

It was likely that no student would be sitting for the exams this academic year. Not without the in-course assignments being graded, or actual syllabary content being taught.

When the stipulated time for Miss Weasley's 'detention' came by, Severus found Heather already waiting inside his office. He then let the Weasley girl in and proceeded to put the office in lock-down. All the entrances were sealed and the portraits frozen.

He retrieved the Sorting Hat from the shelf behind the desk, ignoring its protests about rough treatment. The blasted scrap of cloth had given them more than enough trouble.