Win The War: Consanguinity

Chapter 15: The Hearing

I would like to give a big thanks to Chantale-of-da-last-generation for beta reading this chapter!

And of course Jasmin Kain!

And, of course, anybody who is leaving me a review. It is great motivation!

As soon as the door slammed behind Snape, Harry looked at Nott, who picked up a sandwich and began to eat it.

"What is his problem this time? Where did he go?" Harry asked, slightly surprised by the man's behaviour. On the other hand, he shouldn't be surprised at all. He knew that sooner or later, Snape would start to regain hypersensitivity to Harry's presence in his immediate surroundings.

"I think he is just taking a walk," replied Nott, after he calmly swallowed down his food. Not looking like he was concerned with the Potions Master's behaviour at all.

"Taking a walk?" Harry was even more surprised. Snape didn't just take walks. Sure, the man could stalk with a quick, angry pace, for a specific purpose, such as tearing someone apart. But he certainly didn't take walks like a normal human being. "Whatever for?"

"To cool down. He... he does that sometimes to deal with anger or stress. Therefore, the worst that can happen to students wandering around Hogwarts at night is to encounter Snape taking a walk." Theo smiled a little.

"I find it hard to believe that Snape confides in you about his emotional problems," Harry said in a slightly mocking voice.

"Of course not. But he has been my Head of House for four years, and now I live with him. Besides, I'm pretty good at observing people". With that, Nott leaned over to grab another sandwich and motioned for Harry to help himself as well.

"So what going on with him this time? Something happened?"

"Honestly? I think it's about you, your father, and generally about the Ministry hearing," the Slytherin replied slowly as if wondering if he should be saying that to Harry at all.

"About me?" Harry groaned. "I didn't even do anything!" He was so angry with himself that he felt a slight twinge of sadness, realising the time for Snape to slowly start treating him like he used to had come. Harry needed to nip this feeling in the bud as quickly as possible. He wasn't going to be a fool who makes the same mistake over and over again by getting emotionally involved in somebody. Anyway, it was Snape—a nasty Potions Master—the worst candidate for someone who might care about him, Harry couldn't choose.

"No, Potter. I mean, sure, it irritated him that you came here battered again." Nott put down his plate and, sitting more comfortably in the armchair, added: "But to be clear. He prefers you to come to him with it so he can patch you up rather than you to hide it. Anyway, I guess he felt a little guilty for playing a part in you getting hit this time. I'm also sure it also annoys him a lot that you don't even want to admit it."

"He's crazy. I really did play football."

"Ankle—yes, but what about the eye? You know, such bruises don't form in an hour. He's not an idiot. And by the way, neither am I." Theo looked at him suggestively. "And Snape was the one who talked to your father, and he seems to blame himself a bit for that."

"He was talking with Tobias? How was that?"

"You will see."

Harry shrugged and said:

"It's not like he can help it. Lately, Tobias is furious all the time."

Nott hesitated for a moment.

"Snape doesn't want you to live with your father, and it irritates him that there's nothing he can do about it."

"Snape should stay out of it. We'd both be better off that way. Or at least me. Tobias doesn't like him." Harry groaned. It was just what he needed—Snape starting to interfere with his relationship with his father. Harry could barely deal with the man's mood swings without any other complications. If the Potions Master starts persecuting Tobias, Harry knew, he will be at hand, and the man's fury will focus on him.

The Gryffindor looked at Nott and saw something similar to pity in his eyes. He felt the heat to rise to his cheeks and felt a sudden urge to make excuses for the man, so he added quickly:

"Tobias is alright really. He's just been drinking a bit too much lately." Harry nodded at the vitrine full of alcohol. "Anyway, it doesn't look like Snape is abstinent either."

"He probably isn't, but he hasn't even touched it once since I've been here. And I'm starting to realise why." When Harry raised his eyebrows, Theo explained: "I think Professor Snape is afraid that if he drinks, he might lose his temper."

"Well, he often snaps while sober, so his fears are not unfounded. Besides, the most important thing is that tomorrow I will manage to get to the hearing. Anyway, what about the Ministry? Why does it make him angry?"

"Ah, right. The Ministry—another reason why, until tomorrow at least, you should try not to upset Snape."

"Why shouldn't I?" wondered Harry, but noticing that the tone of his voice might have sounded a little contradictive, he reflected and added: "I mean, I'm not doing anything on purpose just to make him angry. He gets wound up all by himself."

"Yes, of course, Potter. You are the most obedient and docile teenager Snape has met in his entire career."

"Well, am I not?" Harry grinned at him, and Nott snorted. "So, what about the Ministry?"

"All I know is that he hates Aurors. I think it has something to do when he used to be a Death Eater."

"As far as I know," added Harry, remembering his visit to the Headmaster's Pensieve, "it's only because of Dumbledore that Snape didn't land in Azkaban."

Nott raised his eyebrows.

"In that case, he might have been held there or in the Ministry's cells before his questioning. I doubt that all the Aurors, whom the Dark Lord murdered their families, treated his Death Eaters ethically."

"They wanted revenge." Harry agreed, nodding. And although, after a particularly nasty Potions class, he and Ron had repeatedly been playing games like one hundred ways to get rid of Snape, the thought that something like this could really happen made him shiver down his spine.

"Let's eat, Potter, and go to sleep," Nott said after a moment of silence. "We'd better stay out of Snape's way tonight."

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