That afternoon, in the Headmaster's Office at Hogwarts, Snape sat in a chair, his face dark and a wound still visible on his forehead.
Naturally, he wasn't there to complain about Peeves smashing his window.
No matter how angry he was, that was too trivial a matter to bring to the headmaster. Snape couldn't afford to embarrass himself like that!
The reason he was there, of course, was the Quidditch match.
Besides him, the Head of Slytherin, the only other people in the office were Minerva McGonagall, the Head of Gryffindor, and Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, who was smiling as he brought them some mead.
The afternoon's Quidditch match had just ended. Slytherin's Seeker had successfully found and caught the Golden Snitch fifty-eight minutes into the game. In the end, Slytherin had narrowly beaten Ravenclaw House, 380 to 330, and qualified for the final.
The final probably wouldn't be held until after the holidays, but Dumbledore had called in the heads of the two Houses that had qualified to discuss changing the rules.
After all, everyone had seen the matches over the past two weeks. If the rules weren't changed, the final would probably end the same way: a certain little girl Seeker would easily catch the Golden Snitch.
That would rob the match of its competitiveness and entertainment value, and no one wanted that.
So, right after the afternoon match ended, Dumbledore had summoned the two of them and outlined his initial ideas for changing the rules.
"Thank you!"
After Dumbledore set down the mead, Professor McGonagall thanked him, then looked at Snape with a triumphant air and said proudly,
"Professor Snape, I completely agree with the rules Dumbledore just suggested, like secretly releasing the Golden Snitch an hour into the match. Gryffindor has no objections!"
"In fact..."
"Even if