i am snape

Snape knew perfectly well why James was there; he'd simply heard somehow that Snape would be at this party, and that Lily would be coming too.

"This boy..." Slughorn shook his head with a sigh. "Never mind. It's getting late now. Time to head back, children, or we'll all be in trouble." The small golden clock on his desk had already ticked past ten.

The students filed out. Slughorn pulled himself out of his chair and walked downstairs with Fabian.

Back in their dormitory, it was just the two of them again. Mulciber was nowhere to be seen; he'd been coming back quite late these days. Abbott couldn't wait to give Snape a thumbs-up.

"What did I just see? A Slytherin mocking Gryffindor for blood prejudice! Tsk, tsk, your mouth is so convincing, it's terrifying."

"Don't you dare slander me! I'm absolutely the biggest supporter of Muggle-born witches and wizards in the entire wizarding world right now," Snape retorted, irritated, as he punched his pillow into a more comfortable shape.

"Potter actually wanted to come to the party this time, even though old Sluggy had invited him before," Abbott said, changing into his pyjamas and climbing into bed. "Still, this party really wasn't much fun. I'm not going with you next time."

"Suit yourself." Snape swung his legs onto his bed, settling comfortably into his pillow, watching the gentle undulations of light reflected on the glass window from the water outside. "Abbott, that poor girl who was killed over thirty years ago... who do you suppose she was?"

"How would I know?" Abbott yawned.

"Then who do you think *would* know about it?"

"After all these years, who besides a few of the old professors would remember? Maybe you could ask the Headmaster yourself."

"Wait," Abbott suddenly sat bolt upright, wide awake. "Even though the people change, the ghosts have always been at Hogwarts!" But then he flopped back down. "Forget your Little Tom; how are you going to win today's award with a story from over thirty years ago?"

"You never know, and don't you think it's rather intriguing to uncover these ancient secrets?" Snape pulled closed the hangings of his four-poster bed. "We've got Care of Magical Creatures in the morning. Goodnight."

---

The next morning, Professor Silvanus Kettleburn, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, led the few straggling students towards a crooked shed at the edge of the grounds. "Follow me, children."

He was seated on a peculiar wooden chair that functioned rather like a Muggle wheelchair, only this chair had four short legs that scuttled forward in a crisscross pattern. In their third year, Kettleburn had complained to the students that if Dumbledore hadn't personally made him this chair, he would have already retired.

By the roughly built shed, Hagrid, the Keeper of Keys and Grounds, was already waiting for them, a small mound of earth at his feet. As they drew closer, Snape realized there was a shallow pit next to Hagrid. A shovel, two sizes larger than a dustbin lid, lay beside a wooden bucket, and it was clear the mound was made of earth Hagrid had dug up.

"Thank you, Hagrid. And I'll trouble you to pour this bucket of Floo powder into the pit for me," Kettleburn said, pointing to the shallow pit with his sole remaining finger.

Hagrid easily lifted the bucket as instructed. With a whoosh, emerald green magical flames erupted, rising almost to Hagrid's height.

After the flames had quietly burned for a few minutes, Kettleburn asked, "Now, does anyone know what magical creature we're going to see today?"

Lily raised her hand.

"You tell us, Miss Evans," Kettleburn said with a smile.

"Ashwinders," Lily said. "Ashwinders are created spontaneously when a magical fire is left to burn unchecked for too long."

"Precisely correct, five points to Gryffindor," Kettleburn added. "Ashwinders are snakes with glowing red eyes that slither out of the ashes of unattended magical fires and glide into the shadows of dwellings to lay their eggs."

"I must give you an extra warning," he said gravely. "Never, under any circumstances, cast an Engorgement Charm on an Ashwinder. The consequences would be far beyond anything you could possibly imagine."

"What would happen if you did?" Snape asked.

"The Ashwinder, under the spell's influence, would swell to be thicker than your thigh. And then, suddenly, it and its enormous fiery eggs would **BANG!** explode, setting everything around them ablaze." Kettleburn made an exaggerated gesture with one hand.

By then, the Floo powder flames had extinguished. Several thin, greyish-white Ashwinders slithered out of the ashes and headed towards the shed, leaving winding trails of ash behind them.

"Ashwinders only live for a mere hour. In that hour, they will find a dark, secluded spot to lay their eggs, and then their bodies will shatter into dust."

The chair beneath Kettleburn took small steps, moving towards the shed. The students followed him into the small building. He pointed to where the ash trails disappeared. "Abbott, help me move that hay bale."

Behind the hay bale, three vividly red serpent eggs lay quietly in the fine ashes.

"If you don't discover and properly deal with these fiery eggs in time, they will set your dwelling alight in a very short order." Kettleburn pulled his wand from his robes.

"Glacius."

A stream of cold air shot from the tip of his wand, and the scorching red glow on two of the serpent eggs instantly transformed into blue-white ice crystals.

"Come on, quick, outside!" Kettleburn magically collected the frozen eggs, urging the students to leave the shed. A short while after they reached the open ground, with a jarring roar, the wooden hut burst into fierce flames before their eyes.

"Aguamenti!" Kettleburn doused the shed with water until the last spark was extinguished. "You see? If you find traces of Ashwinders in your home, you must immediately locate and freeze their eggs with a Freezing Charm, otherwise, I advise you to leave at once."

Then, he used a Hovering Charm to show the students the two frozen serpent eggs. "Of course, once frozen, these serpent eggs become extremely valuable. They can be used to make Love Potions, or they can be swallowed whole to cure fevers."

After the lesson, Snape deliberately stayed behind to help Hagrid clear up the teaching area.

"Hagrid," he began, trying to strike up a conversation after they had filled in the shallow pit. "Those Ashwinders were rather cute, weren't they?"

But Hagrid looked at Snape with a gaze that mixed shock and pity, as if he thought Snape was utterly mad and pathetic.

*Now why are you looking at me like that?* Snape thought, feeling a little annoyed.

He simply pretended nothing had happened: "My mum said you were already the Keeper of Keys when she was at school. When did you come to Hogwarts?"

"Oh, I came here in 1940," Hagrid rumbled. "I met your mother."

"That early? There's something I was wondering if I could ask you about?" Seeing that Hagrid didn't object, Snape continued, "I saw an award for 'Special Services to the School' in the Hogwarts trophy room. Do you know how Tom Riddle earned it?"

---