It was not until nearly the end of January that Albus returned to school.
Though he was somewhat late, he still announced in the Great Hall that the fourth floor had been designated a restricted area and warned the students not to feed Fizzing Whizbees to the Fire Crabs. Then Snape resumed teaching Potions full-time, while Ruse continued with Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Snape might have been feeling a little put out. Not only did he deduct Gryffindor points more "diligently," he assigned even more homework. Of course, the children doing it felt like they were suffering unspeakably—but as the person grading it, didn't his workload increase too?
The girls serving detention in the Potions classroom found this very strange. Did he not have a life outside class?
When one person did something strange, it took tremendous mental fortitude to persist as though no one else existed. But when a group did it, they somehow felt perfectly at ease.
The girls had originally been told to serve detention, but perhaps because Snape found them too noisy while they worked, he allowed them, after washing the lab equipment, to process Herbology ingredients in the greenhouses and deliver them to the Potions classroom.
Sylvia cost Hufflepuff five points. Others only muttered in private, but she asked Snape outright to his face.
Considering that a certain Gryffindor boy had lost fifteen points merely for picking his nose in class, this outcome was still acceptable.
There were also those who joined the Frog Choir and performed for Snape in person; those who asked Trelawney whether she really had the gift of prophecy, because that girl had only just been foretold to die; and those who interviewed him about his inner journey in training a first-year as a Potions Tournament contender.
No one else