Harry Potter The Surprise

Since his complaint was being ignored, Harry simply returned the favour by ignoring the Headmaster. He turned and very deliberately addressed his Head of House. "Professor McGonagall, I would like to lodge an official complaint about an unprovoked physically assaulted on a student by a professor. Everyone saw we just walked in here and Snape attacked me, without warning or reason..."

Severus couldn't believe the cheek of this whelp. Since every pair of eyes in the hall were now focused on this confrontation, the potions professor knew he couldn't lose his temper here. "I did not physically assault you, I was merely escorting you to the detention I assigned."

"Escorting and being dragged so hard my robes ripped are two entirely different things. Since you're standing there with part of my robe in your hand, it's not difficult to work out which version is correct. You also didn't mention which rules I broke that allowed you to try and punish me for the rest of this term, something Professors are obliged to do."

Hermione's hand once more slipped into Harry's. Provoking Snape, even with Dumbledore and McGonagall standing there, was a dangerous game.

Snape's anger was bubbling just under the surface as he tried to answer the public charges the Potter brat was making here. "You know exactly what these detentions are for, the disrespect you showed me in the infirmary after Black escaped..."

Just to wind him up even more, Harry deliberately interrupted in the middle of his rant. "I'm sorry sir, we didn't speak to anyone after Madam Pomfrey ordered us to bed. I might be able to face down a swarm of dementors but there's no way I would cross Madam Pomfrey in her own infirmary. She's brilliant, but scary too!"

This was winding Snape up even more, as he was sure Potter was deliberately mocking him about having that scary healer's wand in his face. Minerva cut in before the potions professor had a chance to reply.

"Mister Potter, are you claiming to have driven off the dementors last night?"

Harry could see no one inside the great hall believed him either so, withdrawing his wand, he asked his Head of House for permission to cast. There was no point in giving Snape the slightest excuse to try and assign even more detentions to him. Holding Hermione's hand, memories of the best night of Harry's life easily powered his patronus. You could have heard a pin drop as Prongs pranced around the great hall. The stag eventually approached and bowed to the couple before disappearing. It was left to Harry to break the silence Prongs appearance had caused.

"Professor Lupin taught me that. Easily the best defence professor we've had..."

Ron's sorrowful voice cut across Harry's praise for their favourite professor. "Harry mate, Professor Lupin resigned this morning. Someone let slip all over Hogwarts about his condition. He's packing right now." Ron's glare at Snape's back left them in no doubt where that slip had come from.

Seeing the shock on Potter's face, Severus grasped the opportunity to rub some salt into this open emotional wound. Pleasure first, then he would sort out the detentions issue. "Quite right too. A werewolf teaching students in Hogwarts, the parents would never stand for it. The complaints will soon be flooding in."

Even with Hermione almost painfully squeezing his hand, and talking to him via their rings, there was no way for Harry to control his temper here. Like last night though, she was so proud of him for using that anger constructively.

"They don't seem to complain about a Death Eater teaching their children, or does Professor Dumbledore treat their complaints the same way he's treating mine here? 'Professor Snape has my full trust' - hundreds of witnesses, including himself - doesn't matter - case closed and forgotten about. That neatly sums up my three years at Hogwarts."

Instead of silence, this time there were whispered conversations happening all around the hall. The words 'Snape' and 'Death Eater' were clearly discernible however, probably because everyone was using them.

Snape's anger gauge was in danger of exploding. He held his head high though and looked to Albus to pass judgement in this matter. Once he had Potter down in his dungeon though, all bets were off. "Headmaster, you were there last night and witnessed Potter's extreme insolence and continued disrespect toward me. Do you think my punishment here is justified?"

Even knowing of the animosity between these two, Albus was shocked at the amount of venom in Harry's retort. He was then stunned at Severus' question, a baffled Albus couldn't help his potions professor. "Severus, I have no idea what you are talking about. I can ask Poppy if she knows anything, but that's the best I can do."

Still trying to help Harry keep a lid on his temper, Hermione then introduced their solution into the mix. "Professor McGonagall, last night Professor Snape claimed that Harry, Ron and I had all been confounded by Sirius Black. Since Professor Snape was unconscious for most of last night's events, and the enmity between these two wizards is hardly a secret, wouldn't it have been possible for Black to use the same curse on an unconscious professor? I also believe Black was a renowned prankster. Having Professor Snape think Harry was extremely rude to him seems to be, however irresponsible, like something Black would do."

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