But she did know what he was talking about. When she was younger and had just achieved her Mastery of Transfiguration, she'd encountered a young man working towards his own Mastery. He had wined and dined her leading her to believe there was something special between them because he needed her skills. Once she'd done what he wanted, he'd dropped her and failed to give her credit for her work on his project as was her due. So yes, she did know what it was to be used for your skills. And yes it did hurt. But this wasn't the same situation. Her three lions weren't using Mr. Potter. She refused to believe they were no matter what Severus claimed. Slytherin always believed people were trying to use them. It didn't mean it was true.
"As for them being able to get rid of them by apologizing to him, don't make me laugh. As if empty apologies will ever balance the scales between the four of them. I know as well as he does, any apology they'd give right now would be worth less than the air it took them to say the words. And empty apologies will never get rid of those marks."
"But I'm aware you believe there was nothing pretend about the friendship they profess to have with him. That they've been better friends to him than he deserves. I know they feel no such thing and so does he. Friends don't do the things they have consistently done during their time here."
She sniffed and gave him a look that clearly told everyone she didn't believe he had any idea of how friends behave. While everyone knew he was supposedly friends with Lily when she had been plain Lily Evans, Minerva had always had her doubts about that as Lily had been such a sweet girl and a very good Gryffindor. She just couldn't see how she would've been friends with Severus of the acidic tongue and surly nature. She'd been happy when Lily had finally made it very clear she wasn't his friend at all and had started hanging out more with James and his friends. James had been such a popular Gryffindor. He had a lot of friends and he'd made a perfect husband for Lily. Too bad she'd given him such a disappointing son. James had deserved better.
"I could read you and verse how those three can't be counted as friends to Mr. Potter," agreed Filius deciding to weigh in on the conversation.
"Oh? How so? I haven't seen anything that would support that, Filius," said Minerva, her pride in them showing clearly as she jumped at the chance to stop speaking to Severus. Not for a second did she believe her fellow teachers saw her favored students as poorly as Severus did. Or that any of them might have a problem with her students.
Severus snorted again as he gave up any pretense of eating his morning meal. Filius responded in his squeaky voice, "How about the number of times they walked around this school spreading rumors about him. Slandering his name, thinking he was too stupid to know what they were doing? Any of my students would've torn them apart for doing that. They must have believed he was deaf not to hear the rumors they were spreading. And let's not even go into the near death traps they deliberately led him into, just to run off and leave him to face it alone, inadequately armed or prepared. How many times has he come close to dying here, Minerva? And just how many times were those two, if not all three of them, somewhere in the wings watching it all happen but not getting involved themselves? After all, how could they take the credit if they didn't know exactly what he had to do?"
Pomona nodded her agreement. "And you know they do try to take the credit for those achievements while letting him take the blame for whatever didn't go right. Even I've heard them bragging at the end of each year. Such as when people died. Mr. Weasely even blamed Mr. Potter for the death of Mr. Creevey back in what was their second year because kids were starting to look at Ms. Weasely suspiciously. After all, there were rumors going around about what Mr. Creevey had recorded in that journal of his. And those entries made it clear the person he was tracking was a redheaded Gryffindor girl in his own year. A girl who's description Ms. Weasely fit to a tee."
Severus jumped on Minerva again. "They haven't hurt him? They've done nothing but hurt him since he arrived at this school. They deserve those marks on their faces where they can't hide from who or what they are any longer. Now they will have to face the ugly truth every time they look in a mirror. They tried to destroy him. They stole from him. They tried to ruin his reputation. They tried to kill him. All he did was mark them. I'd say they got off lightly." Severus didn't care what Minerva thought as he jumped up and down on the tails of her favored students.
He rose from his seat, leaving a stunned room behind as he stalked from the Great Hall. He had been speaking softly. Quietly. But the silence in the hall was so complete, everyone heard what he had said. And Filius Flitwick, whom most of the student population believed was probably the most unbiased of their Professors, agreed with him. Everyone had heard Professor Snape's denunciation of the three marked students but only a few knew who said students were though they did know the boy who had marked them was Potter. They'd also heard the names Weasely and Granger in the discussion so they assumed it was the Gryffindor Trio Plus One the teachers had been talking about. The students who hadn't been in the Library the day before were now waiting for the Triad to come in for breakfast so they could see for themselves what all the fuss was about.
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