Snape returned late that evening. Tori had waited up for him, to ask him about the poster-business. He looked tired, but pleased with himself.

“So, who was it this time?” she asked.

“Detention, you mean? Davis, third year, Ravenclaw. He managed to melt his cauldron before I had authorized them to start brewing. Clever enough, but he thinks that he knows better than his teacher. Come to think of it, he reminds me of someone…”

“No way!! I never thought that I knew better than you!” she interrupted, but by the look on his face, he seemed to think otherwise.

“Anyway, did you HAVE to put an ugly troll on that poster?”

Surprised by this change of subject, he let his guard down and curled his lips.

“You didn’t think that I would let them get away with it that easily, did you? I had to do it fast and I couldn’t come up with anything more suitable. Although the thought had crossed my mind to put a picture of you on the poster.”

“ME?” the horror on her face made him laugh.

“Oh, it’s alright for me to be put on display like that, but not for you?” he raised one eyebrow and she realized that he was actually teasing her.

She smiled and joined in: “I hope that Teen Witch doesn’t get too many complaints about it.”

“Why should I care?” his usual brute tone was back.

They spent a rather enjoyable evening together, until he noticed that she was dozing off.

“Tori, you look worn out. You should get some sleep.”

She was fighting to keep her eyes open and sighed. “I don’t know what it is lately, I’m soooo tired.”

He got up and walked to his potions closet. “I could give you an energy potion if you’d like.”

“No, I’ll be fine. I think it must be from the worry about the article and everything.”

Tori went to bed and fell asleep instantly. Snape joined her after a little while and took her into his arms, placing a little kiss on her forehead. She did seem tired lately; he cursed himself for not noticing early. He had been too busy blaming her for everything that went wrong. Not that he wanted to, but so many things had irritated him over the past few days and she always seemed to have something to do with them. Would they ever get any peace and quiet?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Snape stood in the front of the classroom after having just explained how to brew the day’s potion to the seventh year Gryffindors and Slytherins. They were gathering the ingredients, getting ready to start brewing. As he was facing a Slytherin cauldron, he watched Ginny Weasley from the corner of his eye. The girl was shamelessly ogling him. That one would go after anything in pants!

“Weasley, haven’t I told you to insert the ingredients BEFORE you boil the water? Five points from Gryffindor for not paying attention. Start again!”

“But sir, the class has nearly finished.”

“You will stay until your potion is ready.”

Ginny sighed, that meant skipping lunch.

Meanwhile, Snape saw that Draco Malfoy had lost interest in his cauldron. The boy was grinning at someone. Richards, no doubt.

“Richards! Five points from Gryffindor, for distracting a fellow student!”

When the class finished, he saw that Ginny Wesley was ready to leave with the others.

“Weasley, didn’t I tell you to finish your potion?”

“It is finished, sir,” she told him with a little smile.

He walked over to her cauldron and had to admit she had spoken the truth. He tried to control his breath when he felt his anger taking over.

“You will stay and clean up the classroom.”

“What for?” she asked him rebelliously.

“In your haste to get out of here, you could have made a vital mistake. I feel that you need to learn some respect for the delicate art of potion brewing.”

She looked at him with all the hate that she felt inside herself.

“Start cleaning, Miss Weasley, I’m sure that you wouldn’t want to lose any more house points.” With that he gave her a large bottle of bleach. She turned up her nose at the small brush that he gave her, but she saw no other way out of it and started working, cursing that irritating, arrogant, cold-hearted devil. If only he wasn’t so damn hot!!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tori would be teaching Charms all day. Professor Flitwick said that he wanted to travel to exotic places once he had retired and because of that he needed a new wardrobe. He went on a shopping trip and told her that he absolutely had to have some Hawaiian shirts. She doubted he would find any of them in England during the winter, but she didn’t have the heart to spoil his enthusiasm.

After lunch, she had the seventh year Gryffindors. She saw Shannon and Ginny talking to each other, both shooting glances at her. When the class had ended, they came up to her.

“Tori, umm, Professor Bloom…” Shannon corrected. “Can we ask you something?”

“You just did, but go ahead.” She thought it would be something about their lesson, but clearly she had been mistaken.

“Could you have a word with Professor Snape?” Shannon continued.

“About?”

“Well…he’s really having a go at Gryffindor, for no reason, and we were wondering…since you are living with him…maybe…”

“Maybe I can soften him up, you mean?” When she saw that hopeful look in her eyes, she sighed. “Both of you should know that I can’t do that. Besides, Professor Snape has always treated Gryffindor that way, I remember it quite well.”

“Yes, but that was because of Harry. He was never this mean to the other years. Now…well, he just deducts points at will and Ginny had to scrub the entire classroom, her hands still stink from all of that bleach and she didn’t get time to eat anything at all for lunch.”

“No, Shannon. I will not interfere with his way of teaching. If you have any complaints, go to Dumbledore, it doesn’t involve me.”

But something happened that would change her mind. When the Gryffindors were gone, she only had to wait for the second year Hufflepuffs, who had just finished their Potions class. When they came in, she noticed that they were extremely silent. A pin could have been dropped in the room, and it would have been heard. The walked in and went straight to their seats and she saw that one student was missing.

“Where is Simon Carter?” The little boy reminded her quite a bit of Neville Longbottom and she knew that he liked to sit in the front of the room. No one answered, but just when she was about to ask again, she saw him appearing at the door. He was shaking all over and his sobs prevented him from speaking.

She went over to him, told the class to start reading about warming charms and took him with her into Flitwick’s office. She tried to calm down with some chocolate. “Tell me Simon, what’s wrong?”

The boy looked up at her with fear in his eyes. He shook his head; he didn’t want her to know.

“Come on, you can tell me. Was it something that happened in Potions?” Only Snape could have this effect on a student, so she figured that he was reluctant to tell her because of her relationship with Snape. The boy looked at her again and comforted by the understanding in her soft hazel eyes, he started to talk.

“I lost 30 points in Potions today.”

That was a lot of points. “What for…” she began, but he started talking again.

“I…I’m not any good at it. I keep forgetting the dosage of the ingredients and what the ingredients are for. Professor Snape says that I should have repeated a year.”

He started crying again and Tori felt that she needed to take him into her arms to soothe him. He was trembling all over and somehow she knew that he hadn’t told her everything.

“Is there something else?” she asked him gently.

“Yes, err…I have detention tonight and Professor Snape said that he will quiz me on all of the ingredients from all of the potions we’ve learned so far. If I cannot come up with the correct answers, I will have detention with him until the end of the term.” The despair in his voice was killing her and she held him tight.

“Don’t worry about it too much. Say, if you like, I’ll be there tonight. Would you like that?” He nodded fiercely and dried his tears. “Now come with me, we have some nice charms to learn today.” Together they went into the classroom, where his eyes constantly followed her in admiration.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

During dinner, Tori whispered: “I need to talk to you before you go back to your classroom.” He nodded, but didn’t ask her what she needed to talk to him about.

When they entered his room, she decided not to beat around the bush.

“Severus, did you have to be so hard on Simon Carter?”

He turned around, and his eyes narrowed. “What do you mean with hard? He is way behind his fellow students and I’m giving him the opportunity to catch up, that’s all.”

“But did you have to insult him like that? It humiliates him in front of his classmates.”

He sighed, losing his patience. “Tori, the boy is a total disaster; do you expect me to praise him for that?”

“No, but some encouragement wouldn’t hurt, instead of putting him down.”

His eyes shot fire now and he raised his voice slightly. “I’m sacrificing my own free time in an attempt to get something into that empty brain of his. It is my experience that you don’t get anywhere with children like that by being ‘nice’ to them.”

Tori sighed deeply. She knew she should leave the topic alone now; but she couldn’t get that tearstained face out of her mind. “Severus, why don’t explain it to him like you just did to me?”

“I don’t need you to tell me how I should talk to my students. Did he come whining to you?”

“He was very upset in Charms today, and I sort of promised him that I would be there tonight.”

“What?!?” One moment she thought he would slap her in the face, but he only narrowed his lips to a fine line. “You will do no such thing. I’m the Potions Master! Not you!!”

“Severus, don’t be mad, but he’s never going to be able to concentrate on anything if you’re watching him like a hawk.” She pleaded.

He clenched his fists, the anger taking over his entire being. “I think I told you that I don’t want you to interfere with my way of teaching. It is none of your business!!” he bellowed.

“It is when it disturbs my classes!!” She yelled back.

“Stay out of it.” He hissed.

They were facing each other; hate flickering in their eyes. Simultaneously they looked away, both at some other point in the distance. Tori lowered her head when he spoke.

“It’s not working, is it?”

“Not when we keep arguing like this. It’s killing me.”

“Tori, you must understand that I cannot have you criticizing my way of teaching. Only Dumbledore can do that. By doing so, you make it seem like you are questioning me as a person. You ask too much if you want me to change my personality.”

“You ask the same of me if you want me to ignore that you are bullying the students.”

Both Tori and Snape sighed. “Listen, think about it. I will go to detention now and if you still feel the same way by the time I return…”

“I understand.”

He went out and closed the door, leaving her alone in the cold room.