A Little Bit of Love and Laughter

Professor Dumbledore was just leaving his office as we arrived, and he shot us a smile and said, "Hello, Miss Prince, Mr. Weasley. I'll assume that this meeting is the doing of Professor Snape?"

I nodded, and he continued, "May I ask what the circumstances were this time?"

"Well," Fred began, "I... called him a greasy slimeball. But it wasn't for no reason, really. He was picking on Em again, like he always does, and it just makes me so..." His sentence fell there.

"Mr. Weasley, I would advise you, in the future, to be a bit more cautious of how loudly you mutter insults under your breath." He then winked at Fred and grinned. It was clear that he did not find this incident to be of the utmost disciplinary importance. Obviously he had other and better things to do than to waste his time lecturing us.

"And Mr. Weasley, I should also ask you and your brother to please go a bit easier on Mr. Filch. You two are even giving Peeves a run for his money." There was another wink, then the smile that always followed it. If Dumbledore wasn't such a good-hearted man, I was nearly sure that Fred and George would have been expelled by now.

"Now, Miss Prince, may I have a word, please?"

My breath got caught in my throat, not due to the fear that I was necessarily in trouble but more that Dumbledore would side with Severus.

"I know it may not always feel like it, but Severus treats you more harshly than he does other students –"

"Because I'm not Oliver," I answered. "He liked Oliver; he always preferred Oliver."

"Your brother was one of Severus's best and favorite students. Your knack at Potions is disturbing to Severus because it reminds him of Oliver. That is something you must understand, Emily. It is not that he dislikes you but that he had grown so fond of your brother."

The explanation made sense, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that part of Severus's harshness was personal against me. Oliver had been a top student in his house – Slytherin, of course – and was Head Boy in his last year, in addition to being captain of the Quidditch team. He had, as I just now realized, been the 'Roger Davies' of his time.

I had never known my brother very well. I was only three years-old when he passed away, hardly old enough to have had a real conversation with him. Still, I never doubted that Severus had his reasons for being so fond of Oliver. My brother was brilliant, ambitious, and a Slytherin – much like my father. I, on the other hand, was essentially the Prince family outcast, and in being a Ravenclaw and associating with the Weasleys, of all people, I was merely distancing myself more from the expectations of the last Prince in Hogwarts.

"He is slowly growing fonder of you, as well. He isn't heartless; he does, in fact, care for you, and quite much, I should mention. He is just... unaccustomed to being a student's guardian. He had been out of practice for nearly five years before you were old enough to attend Hogwarts."

"But, Professor, then why is Severus equally cruel to Fred?" It was one of the questions I had been most curious about. The poor boy seemed always to be dragged into the trouble my relation to Severus had brought me, and I often wondered why.

"It's all a matter of the part that Severus is playing at the time. You see, because of you, his life has been divided into a set of roles. Professor, warden, and father-figure." The third title in this list caught me rather off-guard. "While in his classroom, Severus is a professor, and that is all. However, the roles become confused when you are in the classroom at the same time, because he then must play all three parts at once. Severus treats Mr. Weasley rather poorly because he sees the romantic potential" (This too caught me off-guard... quite off-guard.) "that you two seem to have, and he feels rather threatened by it. So in treating Mr. Weasley harshly, Severus is, in essence, trying to chase him away from you."

"But... why?"

"I have no way of knowing, and even my best guess would only be just that." Hagrid, the gamekeeper, appeared in the doorway, and Dumbledore shot him a smile before turning back to me. "Well, I must be off to greet our guests. I would advise you to be on your way back to Potions. Take Mr. Weasley with you; he's waiting just outside the door."

I nodded and caught up to Fred. As we left, I heard Dumbledore mention something about the neighboring schools, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons.