"May I have your attention for a moment?" The Scottish accent was thick in the headmistress' voice as she stood up to gather everyone's attention. After the clanking of cutlery being put away subsided she continued speaking. 

"As you all surely noticed Halloween is coming up. I decided that this year, Hogwarts will be hosting a Halloween masquerade ball. You can use your next Hogsmeade trip which is coming up this weekend to get your outfit. Attendance is not obligatory but all students in their fifth year or older are allowed to come. That would be all for today." She turned and sat down again.

"Why don't you ever tell us things like that beforehand?" Severus was clearly annoyed at the older woman next to him. 

"I came up with this idea just before dinner, so there was no time to tell you all." 

She shrugged and sipped on her glass of wine standing on the before her. Severus shook his head and stood up with Hermione and the children following suit from the table they were seated at.

++++++++++

"Did you know about this, Severus?" 

They were walking down the many flights of stairs to the dungeons trying to follow the two children who were running down as fast as they possibly could. 

"No, I was as clueless as you. I already asked her why she didn't tell us earlier. She just shrugged and said that she had the idea just before dinner was about to start. I tell you, she acts more and more like Albus the longer she stays in that office talking to him all day long." They both shared a laugh before walking on. Just seconds later they looked at the children and Severus luckily was quick enough to cast a levitating charm over Harry and Draco who seemed to have slipped and toppled over taking the black-haired boy down with him. "What are you doing, boys? This is dangerous!" Exclaimed a rather concerned Severus as he and Hermione quickly made their way down to the two floating children.

The both of them mumbled a quick "Sorry" after Severus let them down at the end of the stairs. Their feet had barely hit the ground when they turned and started running towards Severus' chambers door. "Will they ever learn?" Laughed the young woman to which he only responded: "I don't think that that will happen soon but let them be, they're children." She nodded at him catching his drift.

When they finally caught up with Harry and Draco, Severus flourished his wand to let them in. "Now, what should we do now?" 

"I'd say that we-" He never got to finish that sentence because someone felt the urge to floo-call at that exact same moment.

"Severus? Severus, are you already here?" Poppy Pomfrey's voice echoed throughout the living area and with a sigh Severus walked over to his fireplace kneeling down in front of it.

"What is it now, Poppy?" While some might have said that he sounded aggravated, Hermione knew that he sounded like that when he was just tired. Tired of this routine. Tired of saying the same things. Tired of being at everyone's beck and call just because he was always and people always expected him to be.

"Severus, I need you here in the hospital wing for a few minutes. It's urgent." The medi-witch didn't even wait for him to answer. Standing up he sighed heavily which made it all the clearer to Hermione that her assumption was correct.

"Could you tend to the boys while I'm gone? I don't know just what emergency she has now. I may be away for a few minutes or a few hours, I've experienced both." She nodded in agreement while he put on his shoes again and made his way up to the third floor.

"Ah Severus, I'm glad you could come. It is Madam Pince. She refuses to take any medicine until I let her speak to yo-" 

"Poppy, you know that I don't want to talk to her. Why didn't you just tell me when you floo-called? I could've spared myself the way up here for nothing. Just give her those potions. You get adolescent teens to take them, so an old witch shouldn't be a problem for you." Poppy Pomfrey found herself face to face with a man in a very foul mood who had raised his dark eyebrow at her in question.

"Severus Snape, you will go and talk to her. Don't you think I already tried? She is as stubborn as you are. If you're not going to talk to her, neither of us will get any rest any time soon." Her tone told him that she wouldn't take no for an answer and so a defeated but still rather aggravated Severus made his way into Madame Pince's cubicle.

"Poppy told me that you refuse to take your medicine until I come and speak to you?" The elder woman lying in bed could only nod before he continued speaking. "Then make quick work of it. There are other matters I need to tend to, too, and I won't have my plan overturned by the school's librarian for whatever reason." This seemed to take the librarian back a bit if her facial expression was anything to go by.

"Severus, I-" She stopped talking, looking at him unsure of how to continue. "I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am for my behaviour and the years of deceit you suffered at my hands. I never really meant to cause you harm. I -" She had to stop again but this time it was due to the man standing two metres away.

"I don't need your apologies and, to put it quite frankly, they're not necessary. I don't see the point in the school's librarian apologizing for things she knows nothing about or might even have made up. I don't know why you suddenly call yourself my mother, but for all I know she is dead and has been for quite some time. I don't want to say that she deserved to die like that, but I can say that I've been just alright the years I spent alone. Now, take your medicine and get well soon. I want my students to be able to use the library again. The quality of their assignments is at an all-time low." He turned on his heel and left the cubicle leaving a gobsmacked woman behind.

He didn't even bid Poppy a good night and instead walked to the dungeons with his cloak billowing.

+++++++

Once in his chambers he saw that Hermione had already put Harry and Draco to bed and was now sitting on the couch reading a book on diverse potions from the Middle Ages.

"What did Poppy want?" The brown-eyed witch's eyes didn't even leave the page when she spoke. Severus put away his shoes and sat down in his armchair, accioed himself a firewhiskey and started to stare into the crackling fire. "Our dear librarian refused to take her medicine until Poppy let her speak to me."

"Why would she do that, Severus?" Hermione was clearly puzzled and had already put her book away to be able to listen to what he was saying.

"I do believe that the time has come where I need to explain a few things concerning my past." His tone was even, and he didn't look at her but the fact that he was willing to actually talk to her about certain things told her that he really trusted her, just like he had told her before.