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When Severus started as a teacher, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Seeing as he had just been a Death Eater, like, a month before, he was expecting hostility. He was expecting to be an outcast and it was deserved, to him.
What he wasn’t expecting was this.
“Severus.” said McGonagall, looking at him calmly. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Severus looked up, holding his drink, an alcoholic drink. “Drinking?” he said. It had been four years since he was a student, but McGonagall still scared him a bit.
“And what do you think you’re doing with alcohol?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Drinking it?” he said. He was starting to get very confused.
“Give it here.” she said, holding out her hand. “You are much too young to be drinking.”
“Miner– No, I don’t like that, Mrs. McGonagall, I am 21 years old, I can even drink in the United States!” he complained.
“And yet here you are, whining.” She turned and left the room. Severus slumped onto the table with a groan.
He figured this was a one time thing. Maybe he didn’t know about some kind of no drinking policy? He really didn’t know.
However, the weird treatment didn’t stop.
One day, he was in the Restricted section of the library, flipping through the books for one of some banned potions. He didn’t need them, but he wanted to experiment.
“Mr. Snape!” said Madam Pince’s sharp voice behind him. “What are you doing in the Restricted Section?”
“Looking for a book?” said Severus hesitantly. Maybe he wasn’t allowed here since he was an ex-Death Eater? That made sense.
“Kids shouldn’t be in this section.” she said, waving him out of the area.
Severus squawked in offense. “I’m an adult!” he said.
She looked at him for a moment. “Hmmm. Okay then.” she said, walking back to where she was, keeping an eye on him.
And that was how Severus started to figure out what, exactly, was wrong. Despite now being an adult, everyone at this school seemed to still see him as a child.
He supposed it made sense, he had been there for seven years, and most of the staff had been there for all of those years. But it didn’t mean he liked it.
~~
“Young man, why are you here?” Madame Pomfrey asked. She was dressed casually since it was still a week until the school year officially started, but her ring was already randing on a chain around her neck.
“Because my potion exploded,” said Severus. He was very embarrassed. He was supposed to be a potions master. Yet he was experimenting and it literally blew up in his face.
“Why were you experimenting without a responsible adult with you?” she asked as she walked over holding a salve in her hand.
Severus looked at her, very offended. “I am a responsible adult! I’m 21!”
“Cleary not responsible enough.” she said with a huff. “And don’t think I don’t know you’ve been skipping out on your medication, you are staying here until you catch up on sleep.”
Severus groaned. “I am an adult, I can make these decisions on my own.”
In the end, Severus stayed in the Hospital Wing because Madame Pomfrey and Mrs. McGonagall’s glaring was terrifying, regardless of how old he was.
~~
The older kids didn’t respect him. He kind of expected that. He was a new teacher, that can be a hard adjustment. He was also an ex-Death Eater.
However, he somehow hadn’t accounted for the fact that he had gone to school with these kids.
“Sevvy!” called a familiar voice, and Severus looked up at the ceiling. Celia Berkowitz was a Slytherin and had been in third year when he graduated. Which meant she was a seventh year student. And that she knew Severus for three years before he was a teacher.
“What do you want, Miss Berkowitz?” asked Severus with a sigh.
“Oh come on Sevvy!” she said. “You can call me Celia!”
“No, Miss Berkowitz, I can’t. I am your teacher, it’s inappropriate.”
“Well, we were in class together first!” she said. “I’ve seen you getting drunk in the common room after we won a game more than once.”
Severus blushed slightly, shutting his book a bit more aggressively than normal. “Miss Berkowitz, I know I favor the Slytherins a bit, but I am not above giving you detention if you deserve it.”
Celia huffs, but she leaves the room, her book bag slung over her shoulder.
Severus groans, letting his head fall onto the table with a sigh that echoes slightly throughout the room. When he became a teacher, he figured it would be easier than this to deal with students. But no, Voldemort just had to be defeated by a literal baby four years after he graduated. He couldn’t have waited three more years? Super inconsiderate.
Deciding that it was a good idea to go outside, he left the room and started making his way to the Forbidden Forest. He didn’t particularly want to go in there, but it’s pretty quiet, and the beings in there don’t tend to fuck with the teachers.
Plus, he has a free period and he doesn’t want to get approached by any students.
“Severus!” called Hagrid, and Severus stopped, taking a deep breath. “What’re ya doin’?”
“Going for a walk.” Severus snapped. “The fuck does it look like I’m doing.”
“Language,” said Hagrid.
“I’m a grown man, Hagrid.” said Severus dryly.
“Don’t feel like it. I can still ‘member you and little Lily racin’ ‘round the border to the forest, like it was yesterday.”
Severus sobered at the memory of his best friend. His now dead best friend. Because of him.
“Ah, sorry.” said Hagrid, seeming to realize it was a mistake to bring up Lily.
“No, it’s okay.” he said with a small sigh. “It’s fine. I just need to take a walk.”
“Very well.” Hagrid was quiet as Severus continued to walk, his hands in his jeans pocket and his wand holding his hair up in the bun he had thrown it up into. Mrs. McGonagall insisted he needed it cut, but he was way too lazy to actually schedule an appointment.
The forest was quiet. Was it a forest? It felt too small to be a forest, but the magical community operated on its own rules in many ways. Maybe their definition of Forest was one of those.
He pushed aside some vines as he walked down one of the only clear paths.
He never really came down into the Forbiddeon Forest. A few times Lily had dragged him in when she had detention and he was bored. But Lily rarely got detention so it didn’t happen often.
The only other time he had been in the Forest was when James had dared him to go in during third year. He had been desperate for James’ attention and did it, not realizing it was a trick to get him hurt.
He was in the Hospital Wing for almost a month after that. It was when Lily started to really hate James. According to her, and Mrs. McGonagall’s stories, she yelled at him in the middle of the Great Hall and slapped him so hard he had a mark on his face for two days. Madame Pomfrey refused to heal the mark.
God he missed Lily. He missed sneaking her into the Slytherin Common Room, though it wasn’t really sneaking if everyone knew, and sitting in the aquarium. He missed watching the stars with her when they snuck out to the Astronomy tower.
He didn’t have a crush on her, though that was apparently a common belief among the friend groups. But she was his best friend, his first real friend, and he was a bit toxically codependent with her. He could recognize that.
As he made his way out of the forest, he was surprised to see a mildly stressed Mrs. McGonogall standing there waiting for him.
“Mrs. McGonagall?” asked Severus, tilting his head slightly.
“Why were you in the Forbidden Forest?” she asked him, raising an eyebrow.
“Uhh… taking a walk?” said Severus slowly, walking back to the school.
Mrs. McGonagall sighed. “You know the Forbidden Forest is off limits.”
“To students,” said Severus. “I’m… I’m a teacher.”
Mrs. McGonagall didn’t seem to listen to him, sighing. “Detention.”
“Wha-What?” Severus looked at her. “What!?”
~~
Severus was so tired. First of all because he was working on his lesson plan, since he was still new to teaching. And partially because his students kept falling in love, and then out of love, with each other. It was honestly kind of annoying.
“You know it was the same with you.” said Madame Pomfrey. “Minnie used to tell me all about it. You and James, always in that little game of yours. The amount of times she had to change the seating chart because of you two is almost funny.”
Severus had been sent to the Hospital Wing because he hadn’t been sleeping enough. He was pretty sure that Mrs. McGonagall was this close to grounding him. And probably would have if he hadn’t left the room midway through her rant.
“Well at least I was consistent after third year.”
“Mhm, and you were super consistent after fifth.” said Madame Pomfrey.
Severus scowled at the reminder. “Whatever. I need to get to class anyway. I have students.”
Madame Pomfrey sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know why you keep fighting with Minnie. You can’t win.”
“Mmm. Okay.” muttered Severus leaning back with a sigh. “Yeah, maybe.” Then he fell asleep.