Your recent post abt Flitwick thinking Severus is dying got me thinkinggg
What if somehow it gets to the rest of the school and now everyone thinks severus is on the verge of death and maybe a first year slytherin bursts into tears abt how he's sacrificed his health teaching them and now the rest of the houses are also sad and severus just wants to be able to close his eyes without people thinking he's dead-
But suddenly everyone's almost nice to him so he's also having feelings which he did NOT sign up for tqvm-
Oh, hello! Found this in my inbox! Sorry it's a bit late.
But yes. I imagine that any sudden surge in attention would put poor Severus extremely on edge. Perhaps he would even try to resign his post? Imagine him throwing things into his suitcase in a panic after three people ask him about his health in the corridor, then Minerva finding him and asking whether fleeing the castle simply because somebody expressed care isn't just a tad bit drastic.
Random student: Hello, Professor Snape, are you feeling-
Snape: I AM ABSOLUTELY FINE, YOU SPOILED BOX OF PICKLES, BE ON YOUR WAY!
If one was to look at Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger sitting at a round desk in the middle of the common room on Monday evening, one would have thought that they were undoubtedly in the middle of a conspiracy. They were speaking in hushed voices, their eyes darted from one companion to the other, and sometimes, Hermione’s hand would move up and down the small piece of parchment she had placed in front of her.
However, since Ron had at least two older brothers who spent their whole lives doing just that and since they were all Gryffindors - which meant all of them had conspired in one way or another at some point in the past - eyes passed over this image without taking any notice of it.
However, the meeting was disturbed when an additional counterpart meandered up to the desk, slid out a chair, then sat down rather clumsily. Namely: Neville Longbottom.
“Hullo,” this Longbottom said.
Hermione’s hands danced over the parchment nonchalantly and concealed any words that had been previously placed before she replied.
“Hello, Neville.”
Neville looked at them for a few moments, then made a shrugging motion and sighed.
“Just thought I’d ask, since I thought it’s quite a good… and erm, noble idea of yours…” He dared meet their eyes, then blurted it out on one breath. “D’you mind if I join you?”
Harry and Ron exchanged glances. Hermione’s eyebrows shot up.
“Join us?” she repeated, then added, “As in, to sit down?”
“Well, yes,” Neville said, probably wondering whether he should back out while he still had the chance. “And no. I just thought… you know…”
“Ah,” Harry said, nodding. “You mean the secret that I told you about this morning.”
Hermione looked at him, slightly agonised, then back at Neville, who looked relieved and was nodding eagerly, then sighed.
“Yes, of course,” she said, then revealed the parchment. “I don’t see why not. But this has to be completely secret.”
Ron snorted and glanced at Harry. “We’re doing a great job of keeping it so far.”
“I reckon we are.” Harry shrugged. “Snape looked like he had no idea what was going on, this morning, didn’t he?”
“It was very fun. I don’t think he was expecting it one bit.” Neville beamed, then adjusted himself on the chair and scooted closer up to the table with it. “So, do you have a name for this?”
Hermione opened her mouth, then frowned. Ron spoke.
“A name?”
“Yes, for this.” Neville tapped Hermione’s parchment. “It’s like a group, or a society. It should have a name.”
Ron laughed, grinning, then shared a look with Harry.
“Of course we do,” he said. “It’s called the SNCC.”
Hermione turned to him. “The SNCC?”
“What's SNCC?” Harry asked.
“The Super-Nice-Conspiracy-Club,” Ron said after a short pause, making everyone correctly think that he had just made it up on the spot, then shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, why not.”
Hermione narrowed her eyes.
“I think you mean the Snape’s-Newfound-Contentment-Committee, Ron.”
Ron nodded vigorously and pointed at her. “Precisely what I meant. Write that down, Hermione. It sounds pretty cool.”
Harry and Neville nodded, watching Hermione’s quill move up and down as she started to mutter, quite pleased with herself.
“We ought to make this official,” she was saying, placing dots on the parchment, “I mean, as official as it can get. A meeting once a week… oh, stop moaning Ron, it would only take ten minutes… and I’ll be the secretary. I’ll record these meetings and after a few months, we’ll review what we have achieved.”
“You’re going to be making charts about, what, Snape’s happiness levels?” Harry said - Ron laughed - and furrowed his brows. “Seems quite vague.”
“Or his depression levels if it goes as it currently is,” added Ron.
“True. But how are you going to do that, Hermione?”
“I’ll manage,” Hermione hummed, then placed down her quill and looked at them expectantly. “Since this is our first official meeting, we have very little progress to report and I don’t think we have many ideas, and thus should think of more.”
“Yep,” Neville said. “Perhaps we should make a mindmap.”
“Good idea, except there wouldn’t be much to put on it at the moment,” Harry replied, putting his head on his folded arms.
There was silence as everyone sank into thought.
“This is hard,” Ron sighed after a short moment. “If this was Hagrid, it would be easier. He loves all sorts of tea and biscuits and us coming to visit him, but, well, we don’t really know Snape well enough to come up with anything.”
“I bet the Slytherins do,” Neville muttered, which made Hermione look up at him.
“Yes, they probably do,” she said, looking thoughtful. “But we’re not on good enough terms with any of them to ask without looking suspicious.”
“And downright bloody weird,” Ron scoffed, shaking his head. “No, better not. Let’s think.”
“Yes, Ron, do some of that for a change,” Hermione murmured, but then they all propped their heads up and frowned.
A few moments passed. A few sparks were set off by the Weasley twins as part of a prank, causing disturbance, but after joining in with the laughter as Lee Jordan tried to put Percy’s robes out of fire, Ron rapped the table, leaned in towards them and spoke.
“What about the house elves?”
“The what?” said Hermione and Harry.
“House elves,” Neville said. “They cook and clean and stuff. We’ve got one. And they’re never seen unless you summon them or seek them out. But what about them?”
“I dunno,” Ron said. “I just thought they could send stuff up or bring stuff down if we asked them.”
There were another few thoughtful nods, then Hermione put her head to the side and went a little pink.
“I think I’ve got an idea…” she began, glancing hesitantly at Ron. “... but, I don’t know…”
“What?” Harry asked.
Hermione pushed her lips out, smoothed her parchment out, then explained.
“If they cook and clean, that means they would be in the kitchens.”
“Yep.”
“And that means they can make drinks. So, I thought, what if they put his favourite drink on his desk in the morning? As in, you know, after breakfast?”
Ron opened his mouth, then thought for a moment and closed it.
“Yeah,” he said, opening it again. “That’s not too bad of an idea. And since they know what disappears on the breakfast table, they’ll know what he chooses to drink most often.”
“Brilliant.” Neville nodded. “That’s a start.”
They watched Hermione writing down the idea, then sank into thought again. This time, Hermione spoke.
“This is definitely for the future,” she said. “But once we… er, finally make friends with him-”
“I really doubt that will ever happen,” Ron interrupted.
“... we could find out what interests him and talk to him about it.”
“Well, he teaches Potions, doesn’t he?” Harry asked.
“Yes, but he must have other interests. One’s hobby doesn’t simply restrict to one’s job. In fact, that’s hardly ever the case.”
“Well, Snape is quite clever,” Neville murmured. “I bet he likes to read.”
“That’s a thought!” Hermione said, then bent down to write. “And it works out, because I like to read too!”
“But we don’t really do much of that,” Ron observed.
“Unless forced,” added Harry, “or if the book is good… D’you reckon he likes Quidditch?”
“He doesn’t look as though he does.”
“Or any other sport for that matter. No, he’s more of an intellectual man… And we’re on opposite teams,” Hermione said. “No, that can only cause conflict. At the moment, anyway.”
“Right,” Ron said. “But I think this is enough to begin with,” he said, peering at what Hermione had written down. We only made the first move today. If we do much more, he’ll get suspicious. And we shouldn’t be so obviously nice, next time.”
“Yes,” Harry nodded. “It was very fun to watch, but he’ll start to think we’re up to something.”
“Oh! I had a thought last night, but I forgot to mention it,” Hermione said. “To make it seem as though it’s simply a change in circumstance, as opposed to aimed at Snape: we should be just as proper in every other lesson too. I bet the teachers talk in the staff rooms. If Snape hears others talking about how suddenly all of us have matured and understood the importance of rules, and are taking homework seriously-”
“I am not doing double homework for Transfiguration,” Ron declared. “Or any other subject for that matter. Potion’s enough.”
“Alright, you don’t have to do much extra homework,” Hermione relented, obviously thinking that the poor boy wouldn’t be able to manage such a feat. “Just as long as you do it to the best standard.”
“Alright, alright,” Ron rolled his eyes. “You’re starting to sound like a teacher.”
“Anything else?” said Harry, smiling as they argued. “Or is that all?”
“I don’t think there’s anyone else we should be nice to.”
Hermione snorted and looked at them gleefully. “We could be nice to Draco Malfoy.”
All three boys made varying noises of indignance and laughter. Neville smirked. Harry and Ron snorted.
“Yeah,” Ron said. “What a great idea. I know, why don’t we just throw an exclusive Slytherin party while we’re at it?”
“That would definitely be sucking up,” Harry said, making gagging motions. “No, let's just keep to teachers.”
“Yeah,” said Ron. “That’s almost too much anyway.”
“But think about it this way,” Harry said as Hermione rolled up the parchment. “You’d make your mum proud if she found out how responsible you are being, Ronniekins- ow!”
Hermione and Neville got up to go to the library, leaving the squabbling duo behind and Harry massaging his head where Ron had bonked him. And it was only when they climbed through the portrait hole did Hermione lower her voice and say:
“You know, Neville… About those drinks these house-elves are supposed to bring up?”
“Yeah?”
“Why don’t we ask them to write a positive quote with each one?”
Neville wasn’t quite Harry or Ron, and in his mind the dark Potions Master could do with some more positivity, so he nodded enthusiastically as their steps matched.
“Yeah, why not?” he said. “It cannot possibly do any harm.”
Sebastian: I feel as though I am woven of void, sometimes. I drift in space, no thoughts, no emotions... just the fact that pain, the universe and I exist.
Sam: I am very sorry to hear that would you like an ananas 🍍🍍🍍
I haven’t cried over a piece of fanfiction in a very long time, but oh my good GOD I utterly WEPT upon reading Snape’s Search History - I’ve been seeking out a story surrounding his position as a professor that has a mostly feel good atmosphere about it (perhaps with a dash of bittersweetness to it as well, which you certainly did not disappoint in) for what must be YEARS at this point in time, and I immediately had to send you an ask to tell you just how much I enjoyed it. Everyone was so delightfully in character, the imagery was vibrant enough to where the words all but jumped off my screen, and the genuinely wholesome nature that underlined the plot…chef’s kiss. I love seeing Snape happy, and I can’t wait to see what you post next (even if it has nothing to do with this particular work). Godspeed, man. o7
Oh, how lovely it was to read this :)))) I am so pleased you enjoyed it so much! Personally, I absolutely love relationships between mentors and students (which is probably why my own book which I hope to publish next year focuses a lot on them) and the dynamic between tortured, sad Snape and bubbling, innocent kiddos just begged for further development. I don't know whether I'm going to be continuing this - I really want my own book published and I'm very strapped for free time!! - but even so, I'm so happy you enjoyed my work to this level. God bless you :DD
Best,
Jotemvu
P.S. I have one that's unfinished about McGonagall and Snape teaming up to bring down Umbridge, and you can find it here, if you've not read it already and you're looking for more Snape and gryffindor interactions.
Alright. I'm considering quite a few things and for this I need research, namely, your opinion!
I'm running out of time during the day to juggle book AND fanfic writing AND artwork making AND a full-time job AND a life AND a sleep schedule which isn't a metaphorical one, and thus am taking matters into my own hands.
If I were to open a Patreon - which would enable me to do open writing comissions and all sorts of opportunities for supporters ;) - could you support it in exchange for influence over what I write and extra goods? (which are still to be established!)
P.S. Just to state: The Snape's Search History fic would be finished, so would the Unravelling Umbridge one... as would any future requests (for art also) would too!
So, voila! Vote, good people, so that I can consider!
If JMW was to open a Patreon...
I'd definitely support it! I'm a great fan, JMW!
I would consider supporting it - I do like your work!
I'm unlikely to support it, but might if things change.
I am very excited to announce that you can now buy me a coffee!!
If you would like to contribute to the start of my journey, here is the link. I am eternally grateful for any of your benevolent efforts bestowed upon me.
If you liked Snape's Search History, Unravelling Umbridge, or any other works of mine, you know what to do ;)
Become a supporter of Jotemvu today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love.
I'm also on Insta! @jmw_does_things . Hope to see you with me.
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My book, the first one of my steampunk-ish, fantasy and sci-fi series, Victor Sparrow: Intrigue - Conquest - Birds is on its way to release! I will be updating all of you all the way through!!
