The Slytherin Common Room
Severus had taken to wondering through the visions portraits throughout the castle, his favourite times to do so were whenever Minerva argued with Albus over some thing or another. The term had started without him in person, thusly, he stuck to paintings where he could lurk in the distance, away from the sight of students. This evening, however, he thought he’d visit his slytherins. He whispered in the ear of a shepherd who hung in the corner, above a green sofa and he stood, observing, when he caught the glance of a first year.
“Are you Professor Snape?” She asked him quietly.
“I am, you are?”
“Valarie Boulridge, sir.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Boulridge.” He said, giving her a small nod.
The student tilted her head at him, taking in his appearance before she spoke again.
“You’re not very intimidating, I thought you’d be bigger.” She said.
“Bigger?”
“Yes, like really muscly, scary. You don’t look like you’d be very scary.” She shrugged.
“Perhaps you should have been sorted into Gryffindor for your bravery, then, Miss Boulridge.”
“No thank you!” She laughed, “I’m proud to be in Slytherin.”
“And why would that be? I assume your family were?”
“No, sir. I’m half blooded, my mum was a Ravenclaw. Vanity -“
“Shroud. I taught her.”
“Yeah, she said you were really strict but she got an O in her newts still.” Valarie explained, “I like potions but I’m proud to be a Slytherin anyway. You were still brave and you were slytherin.”
“I was also not a fan of flattery, Miss Boulridge.”
“Who are you talking to?” Demanded Pansy Parkinson who’d returned to complete her final year, “you’re… Professor Snape?”
“Miss Parkinson.”
“You’re a portrait?” She stuttered.
“Obviously.”
Pansy’s declaration of his name had attracted the gathered students around the framed man.
“We’re so glad to see you!”
“Welcome back, professor.”
“The dungeons aren’t the same without you.”
The chatter of students chorused their greetings and their joy in seeing him again until Severus held his hands up, asking for a moment of quiet.
“Hogwarts has changed, the world you live in, is changing.” He began as the students trained their eyes on him, listening as attentively as they would should he be stood before them in the flesh, “Slytherin has a reputation for supporting blood purity. If my life and indeed my death teaches you anything, it should be that those archaic, atavistic views will be your undoing. As a house, we value our cunning, our resourcefulness and our ambition. Those are the qualities I expect from you all. The war divided us, as a school and as a community, as a house, we need to help bridge the gaps in our shared values and mend those wounds with the other houses. I challenge each of you to rise to this.”
“Even the Gryffindors?” Asked a third year boy at the back.
“Even the Gryffindors, until, that is, you step foot on the quidditch pitch, then I expect you to give Headmistress McGonegall something to argue with me about.” He said with a smirk as the students chuckled, “until then, you are a student body.”
“But no one trusts us, they all think-“
“Prove them wrong. I managed to convince The Dark Lord that I believed his rhetoric thought I’d long since abandoned that way of thinking, you can convince your peers of the real goodness that you are all capable of. Now, if you don’t mind, Professor McGonegall is doing paperwork and I quite need to be back in my frame to hum some annoying tune. Thus far, I can go three minutes until she casts a silencing charm over me and I quite mean to break the record today.”
The students applauded forcing him to smile as he strode away, leaving the shepherd to angrily shake his fist, watching his sheep scatter from the rapture of applause.
Back in the office, Severus settled into the frame and he smirked and began to hum.