Turning Tables

Chapter 14 - Snape

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Amazingly enough the students' arrival at Hogwarts was only delayed by 45 minutes by the occurrences on the train, and Madam Pomfrey almost seemed disappointed by the lack of serious injuries to treat. In the absence of the large number of patients she seemed to have prepared for the nurse settled for drastically over-medicating the ones she did have, forcing all of them into beds in the hospital wing and dosing them liberally with several varieties of healing potion.

'Remind me not to get sick in the next few days, there's no bloody room in here!' James whispered to Lily, obviously not as quietly as he thought since Madam Pomfrey loudly informed them that the Head Students were no longer required now she had taken over care of the injured parties. They gratefully fled the hospital wing, heading directly to the Great Hall and the start of term feast. They had almost reached the double doors when a voice came from the stairs behind them.

'Potter! Miss Evans!'

James visibly winced as he recognised the voice of Professor McGonagall. He didn't think she'd ever managed to find a reason to shout at him this early in the school year before, and he couldn't help mentally re-visiting all the things she might possibly have found out about over the summer.

'I'm glad I caught you.' The lady in question arrived at the double doors and looked at them sternly. James reminded himself that she had been looking for both of them, and it was highly unlikely that Lily had done anything wrong. 'Professor Dumbledore has requested that you meet with him in his office in half an hour. He is sorry to hurry you from the feast, but there are matters he needs to discuss with you this evening. The password is "Fizzing Whizzbee".'

'Of course Professor.' Lily answered for them both. 'I'm sure whatever Professor Dumbledore needs to speak with us about is more important than James eating his own bodyweight in chocolate fudge cake.'

James contrived to look hurt but failed miserably, and Professor McGonagall just managed to hide a smile. 'I'm glad to see that you will both be taking your appointments seriously.' She allowed the smile to spread and spoke in softer tones than either of them had ever heard her use before. 'I would like to let you both know how proud I am; do you know how rare it is for both Head Students to be from the same house? I'm not sure I've ever been more pleased to be Head of Gryffindor.'

She stepped forward, opened one of the doors and gestured them through. James and Lily walked into the noise of the feast towards their friends at the Gryffindor table, and he bent down to whisper in her ear as they walked. 'We'll see if she's still proud in a few weeks when I've managed to royally fuck this up. Is it possible for a Head Boy to be impeached?'

Lily laughed and linked her arm through his. 'Like I'd let you go that far wrong. I need you James, 'cause I really don't fancy the alternatives.'

'Does that mean you do fancy me Evans?' teased James. 'Knew you'd come round.' Lily punched him in the arm and they sat down at the table, ignoring the raised eyebrows of their friends as James teased her mercilessly about "kissing it better".

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