"And it was a minor infraction that every student who comes here does at least once. Most more than once. But because it was him, you threw the book at him and decided one book wasn't enough to make an appropriate impact. You threw a whole stack of books at him. Didn't you? You decided it was appropriate to risk his life and safety. You sent four eleven year old children into danger because they embarrassed you. Three of them extremely important children, two of which have enough connections to make all our lives hell if something bad occurs to their offspring. But you didn't even think about that, did you? The one most of our society wouldn't have turned a hair over, you begged Hagrid to keep a special eye on because you liked her. So he kept her glued to his side while letting the other three fend for themselves. But her being present was a large part of the reason you threw the book at him wasn't it? You didn't like him involving her in what you saw as his rule breaking and embarrassing behavior, did you? She had a pleasant detention while he got the living snot scared out of him and came very close to being killed. By the creature hunting and killing the unicorns."
"They deserved that detention, Severus," she said weakly, trying yet again to justify her reactions to that long ago event. "You know they did. Detentions are always given when the students openly break the rules like that."
Filius jumped in with his own two knuts. "So did Hagrid as it was him trying to raise an illegal dragon here. Yet you set him as the supervisor of the detention, careless of the message being sent to the children. I know I never would've sent any of my little Ravens into the Forest that late at night. I'd have set them writing me an essay about why dragons should only be handled by adults who know what they're doing. On what they should've done when they realized what Hagrid's intentions with the egg were. In the Common room. Not outside the Castle."
"But what makes your choice even worse is you didn't catch them with the dragon at all. Nor did you catch them outside the Castle proper. You caught them at the foot of the stairs to the Owlery where for all you knew they'd simply been going to visit Potter's owl so Granger could send a message to her parents. For all you knew she could've had a nightmare or been suffering from homesickness. And he could've been trying once again to help her cope with it. They wouldn't have been the first years we've caught out of bounds for that reason. But you didn't know or ask any questions. You jumped to conclusions and just assumed he was breaking the rules for no good reason," sneered Severus.
Filius nodded thoughtfully. "That's true. What must they have thought when they realized it was more serious to you that they were caught out of bed after curfew than it was that Hagrid, an adult who should know better, was raising an illegal dragon on school grounds? Because even if you didn't realize, they did. I do believe you sent the wrong message there, Minerva."
Pomona nodded murmuring, "That was the first big detention for the year. All the children heard about it. I've never had such a well-behaved tower than I did in the weeks following that detention. The children were terrified. The message my first years got from that was: Get caught out of bounds after curfew and we'll send you to the one place you were told on your first night here to stay out of because it's dangerous. Because you can get killed there. Do something dangerous to yourself and others and we don't care until someone gets hurt. And when that happens, we'll punish you for it."
Severus sneered at her not willing to let her excuse herself yet again. "The children were caught out of bed after curfew. Name one other child caught for that offence either before or since that time, who's life you've ever tried to throw away with that kind of a detention. They were eleven years old. Children. Away from home and parental supervision for the first time in their lives. Of course, they broke curfew. So did the Marauders. So did I. But you never gave any of us a Forest of Death at midnight detention. You were perfectly willing to sacrifice both Mr. Longbottom, and Mr. Malfoy as well as the Granger chit to prove whatever it was you thought you were proving to Mr. Potter with that stupidity."
"Although I did hear you begged Hagrid to keep a special eye on Granger because you liked her. Because you felt she didn't deserve the punishment the way the boys did. You still like her. Even though you now know beyond any doubt she's not the girl you think she is. She never has been. You're still wanting to find an excuse for her behavior. Something you can point to as the reason she stole from him that will make her bearing that rune not so bad. Well, I will tell you right now. I don't care what petty thing you dream up. I'll not see her as anything but what she is. A thief and a piss poor excuse for a friend. Not to mention a would-be murderer. Because I finally found out just who it was that set my robes on fire during Potter's first quiditch game. Your favorite little lion set me alight that day. Not that I expect you to care."
He threw down his napkin, deciding eating anything right now would likely not be a good idea unless he wanted to have a second helping of it later on. He turned on his heel to leave the dining hall, not noticing how thoughtful he had left the teaching table or that Albus hadn't yet arrived. Just before he reached the door, he paused and looked back at the table catching her eye again.
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