Tori was on her way to the Great Hall for lunch when Simon Carter came up to her.

“Professor Bloom? I just wanted to thank you.”

“Excuse me?” Tori looked puzzled.

“For talking to Professor Snape I mean” the boy continued.

“Oh, but I…” She wanted to tell him gently her talk with Severus didn’t go very well, when he interrupted her.

“I’ve been really catching up on my Potions lately. Yesterday I got very good marks on my test and Professor Snape told me that I won’t need anymore tutoring after Christmas holidays.”

Tori didn’t know what to say. She was thrilled for the boy, but didn’t have anything to do with it. The boy left her with an even bigger shock when he said: “Now I understand…you know…why you like him.” Then his face turned red and he hurried away.

She had no idea what to think of this. So he hadn’t scared the child after all, good for him, but she needn’t make a big deal out of it. Maybe he had been civil to the boy because of their heated argument. Maybe their break-up had resulted into something good for someone after all!

Much to her surprise, she encountered Ron and Harry at the Head Table.

“Ron! Harry! What are YOU doing here?” They were the last people that she had expected to see.

Ron and Harry had been talking to Bill and Lupin when they arrived and were aware of her break-up with Snape. Not that anyone needed to tell them something was wrong with their friend. With one look at her, they knew she was in big trouble.

“Tori how are you?” Ron gave her a hug and a peck on the cheek, with Harry following his example. Tori instinctively knew to what she owed this warm greeting.

“Someone told you?”

“Err, yes, Bill did. Tori, I’m so sorry.”

“Me too, I know I didn’t like him at first, but then, well, I guess…” Ron found it hard to finish his sentence, but decided there was no need to after seeing the understanding look on her face.

“Guys, I’d rather not talk about it too much. Just tell me why you’re here!” She tried to look excited but succeeded only partly.

“We are here to let Albus know we’re going to New Orleans and we wanted to talk to Severus about what we can expect when we arrive there. What we’re up against, that is.”

“You…together?”

Ron laughed. “Yeah, the return of the gruesome twosome! No, seriously, the other two Aurors can’t find him and asked for assistance. My father has asked for help from the American Ministry and I am to act as their liaison.”

“I hope you’ll be careful.”

“Sure!” Both grinned. “You know us.”

“That’s why I’m reminding you.”

They laughed together and Tori was really glad that they had come to Hogwarts. With Ron and Harry she would always share that same old carefree feeling of mischief from her schooldays again.

She returned to her classes while Harry and Ron went down to the dungeons to look for Snape.

They talked about Tori on the way down. Both were very worried about her.

“She looked awful Harry. I’ve never seen her this pale before.”

“I know. This is obviously affecting her badly. I feel I have to give her more support, you know, be there for her, but now we’re going to New Orleans…”

“Yeah, talk about bad timing. I would like to stay here too. Poor thing, she looks like she just failed the most important test of her life.”

They looked at each other, realizing that Ron’s words were not far from the truth.

When they entered the Potions classroom, Snape wasn’t there.

“Hmm, I recall Albus saying he has a free period, maybe he’s in his private rooms.”

Harry led Ron further into the dungeon and knocked on the door to the lab. It took a while before Snape answered it and when he did, he seemed very absent; they even had to explain twice why they were there.

He invited them into his room and offered them a seat. While he talked about the wizard population in New Orleans, Harry couldn’t help inspecting the room. It looked so different than the way he had remembered it! Black robes hanging on chairs, books scattered all over the floor, a lot of empty goblets on the bedside table…it looked like the meticulous Professor Snape had become a slob overnight.

Snape didn’t know all that much about the dark scene in New Orleans, he only had been there once and had tried very hard to forget what he had seen there.

“You can compare it to Death Eater gatherings over here, but they add more ‘show elements’.” The look on his face prevented them from asking more details. He told them that most wizards got together in ‘Le Professeur’, the equivalent of The Leaky Cauldron. Harry said that the other Aurors had been there, but found no evidence Lucius had gone anywhere near the place. Snape didn’t seem convinced.

“Look for Joseph Devereaux, he’ll know if Lucius was there, but be careful not to tell him that I sent you.”

They talked some more about Lucius’ possible plans, but that could be anything and in the end they were merely speculating. Then Harry spotted Hermione’s cat, well technically it was Tori’s cat now.

“Hey Crookshanks, what are you doing here?” he patted the cat, while Snape murmured almost inaudibly:

“He wanted to stay here.”

Ron’s eyes grew bigger and Harry’s mouth dropped, but neither of them said anything. When they had left, they didn’t know if that had been such a good idea.

“Maybe we should have asked him to go and talk to her?” Ron said.

“Umm…I don’t know. He doesn’t strike me as the sensitive type and judging by the way he looked I’d say he hasn’t sorted himself out yet.”

“True, the place was a mess and he looked like he was on drugs or something. But if Crookshanks…Harry, we’ve got to do something, this can’t go on any longer.” For Ron things were very clear now, if Crookshanks thought that staying with Snape was the best option, then Tori was destined to be there too.

“I know, let’s go and see Remus, he told me he had the afternoon off and maybe he has some ideas.”

When they got to Remus’ room, he wasn’t surprised to hear what they came for.

“We all want them back together again, but sadly, neither of them are prepared to change their minds.”

“Just explain to me what happened exactly, I still don’t get it, they were so happy?” Lupin told Harry and Ron about the frequent arguments leading up to a big blow when Tori had questioned Snape’s method of teaching. Their ‘strategy-meeting’ as they called it continued until dinnertime. They decided to catch up with Tori in the Great Hall and have a good talk with her after dinner.

Meanwhile, Snape thought he might stay in his room that evening. He had seen the look on Harry’s face when he saw the state the room was in. He sighed and forced himself to clean up, finding comfort in these domestic tasks. Just imagine what Tori would say if she saw this mess when she came down to visit Crookshanks! Not that he thought she would come often. Maybe he could arrange it so that when he was out she was here visiting. He had to avoid being alone with her again, that was far too dangerous for his own good.

Harry and Ron kept shooting glances at each other during dinner. Tori didn’t seem to notice and followed them for a walk outside without getting suspicious. They walked towards their favorite spot by the lake. Harry decided to kick off their little talk.

“Tori, Ron and I would like to talk to you about Severus.”

The change in her was radical when she heard those words. No longer did she laugh and she forced her face into an indifferent mask.

“What’s there to talk about?”

“Tori, this is us, remember? We only want to understand.” Ron added.

“What’s there to understand? You of all people should know Severus is an impossible man. I really tried, but I just can’t live with him.”

“What exactly is the problem?” Harry asked.

“Do I have to spell it out? He’s bullying his students and refuses to admit he’s wrong, what’s even worse is that he accuses me of interfering and says it’s not my business.”

“Err; you say you gave up on him because you do not agree with his way of teaching?”

“Among other things, yes mainly I think. Come on Ron, you’re not going to defend him are you? Have you forgotten what he was like when we were here? How he treated us? Neville?”

Ron was quick to answer, as if he had waited for her to say that.

“Talking about Neville…I’ve seen him recently and he told me he has a lot to thank Snape for.”

Tori looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I sort of know what he meant by that. You see, out there in the real world, no one is as nice as Hagrid or as wise as Dumbledore. Perfection does not exist in a normal person. You would be surprised to see how many Snapes or worse there are out there.”

“So you say I shouldn’t wait for mister perfect and be grateful for one that comes close?”

Harry cleared his throat, he sensed they were nearly there; Tori was bright enough to see sense.

“Tori, tell me, when you first fell in love with him, did you know about his nasty temper?”

“Of course I did Harry, don’t be ridiculous.” She sounded offended, but both Harry and Ron could see that she was starting to realize something.

“Now, try to imagine what Severus would be like if he were to change his way of teaching, never scolding a student, always being nice to everyone…can you?”

“Yes”

“What do you think? Would you like that man?”

“Of course.” She answered very quickly.

“But would you feel passionate about him? Could you love him?” Harry sounded very hopeful, for he was almost certain of what her answer was going to be.

Tori closed her eyes and tried to imagine her Severus as the man that she had wanted him to be, the nice Severus. In a flash her eyes were open again.

“That would not be him. He’d be boring.”

Harry and Ron looked triumphant, but were startled when she began to cry.

“Umm, Tori, what’s wrong?”

“Ooooh, I’ve been such an idiot.” She let out between her sobs. “Thinking I needed to change him to love him. Now I see I only wanted to mold him into some artificial ‘good guy’ so everyone would understand why I could love him. I shouldn’t be concerned about what other people think. He’s just the way he is and that’s what I liked in the first place. I’ve been focusing way too much on his teaching, but I’m in love with the man, not the teacher…it’s just a part of his personality and without it he just wouldn’t be the same. Oh dear…” She was crying freely now and Harry put his arms around her, Ron not knowing to do with crying women. She managed a little smile. “Thank you for making me come to my senses. It seems that I have a lot of thinking to do.”

“You sure do, and some talking as well.” Harry hinted.

Her face fell when she thought about having to face him again.

“What if he can’t forgive me?” Panic was overtaking her.

“We saw him earlier, and I think we can say he was looking every bit as miserable as you do.”

“Thanks for the compliment. But seriously, I wasn’t the only one that did the yelling. Maybe he’s given up on me.” Tears came running down again.

“Tori, you don’t honestly think that, do you?”

Harry chuckled: “Show that Slytherin some of your famous Gryffindor courage and go get him!”

Tori smiled through her tears that were still running.

“Yes, I will get him. I must have him!”

The three of them held hands as if they were making a pact; Tori vowed that she would do anything to restore her broken relationship, Harry and Ron being rather pleased with themselves.

“Maybe we can start a career as marriage counselors.” Ron winked, while both Harry and Tori began rolling their eyes.