Severus woke up a few mornings later from a recurring nightmare in which Dumbledore had been trying to bludgeon him with the same giant chess piece that had massacred the Weasley. As usual, he woke up smelling lemon drops everywhere.

Severus wiped some sweat from his face and thought how today was the goodbye feast or whatever. Except he really hated that thing, and wished that staff members didn't have to go.

It was only in the middle of putting on the same robes he wore every day that Severus realized that today would be the day Slytherin was recognized for winning the House Cup, which was a juicy good thought.

Severus spent most of the day wandering around the halls because he had no classes to teach. Also, he gave a Hufflepuff kid a detention which made Professor Sprout blackmail him with a bunch of empty threats.

When it was time to go up to the end of year feast, Severus tripped over a fig plant someone had opportunistically left in front of his door. After examining that dratted thing for a good three minutes, he noticed that

it smelled heavily of mulch AND

The word "Trelawney" was visible under a whole mess of crossed out stuff on the attached note card.

Trying to clear his mind of that incident, Severus went up to the Great Hall, where he noticed that Dumbledore had ODed on the décor, which made him vaguely wonder whether the guy was trying to make up for something else. Not that he wasn't overly psyched and grateful for the huge ass Slytherin snake plastered on the wall next to him, but really, with that thing staring at him he might get indigestion before he even started to eat. And speaking of eating, Severus was totally game for some beef casserole.

"You can sit next to me, Severus," said a raucous voice that nearly split his left eardrum in two. Severus didn't even need to look to know who that was.

"I'm a good sport about losing," Minerva McGonagall went on, while Severus bent down to check that the chair next to her had all four legs. Finally, he screwed up his face and sat down. Nothing happened, so he went to waiting for Dumbledore to get on with this thing.

Finally, Dumbledore walked into the feast ten minutes late, which Severus thought was just dandy, because everyone was getting really hungry here, and so what was the excuse for this? Dumbledore then said a lot of run-on sentences, and began to tell them the house point totals. Gryffindor was in last place. Severus looked over at McGonagall, all sneer-like. The loon was smiling, which honestly made him more than a little creeped out.

The Slytherin table was flipping out. The Pointy-Face Brat was banging his goblet on the table so hard that the plates were jumping around. Severus personally felt that the kid needed to learn the value of time out in a dark room. Nearby, Crabbe had received one yowcher of a splinter, and was making it worse by rubbing it in with a napkin. Goyle was spacing out, and Severus wondered whether he had processed the info of Slytherin winning yet or not. But whatever. Severus allowed himself a small smile, because he was secretly rather pleased and also made a mental note to ask the sorting hat just what he had ever done to it, because year after year it just kept sticking him with the duds.

Severus was swinging his bum Fluffy leg under the table to see if it was completely better, when Dumbledore said something about recent events being taken into account. A deadly hush filled the place, and when Severus chanced a glance at McGonagall, his worst fears were confirmed. She was smiling bigger than ever.

"Ahem," Dumbledore said. Severus sucked in his breath. Fake coughs never boded very well. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes…"

Severus knew what was coming. He had been mortally betrayed. Stabbing a piece of meat with unnecessary vigor, he hoped Dumbledore could see his eyes bleeding, because he was dying of melted hopes on fire, here. But the guy just went right on giving unreasonable amounts of points to the Weasley, Potter-the-annoyingly-fortunate, the Bush Hair, and even the boy he beat he could beat up, for something stupid like standing up to his friends. Severus thought that was real weak, since billions of kids had probably done that type of thing all year long, so Dumbledore was really just looking for an excuse to bring Gryffindor into the lead.

Dumbledore said something about needing a change in the decorations, and clapped his hands. The Slytherin snake disappeared from behind Severus, and a Gryffindor lion took its place. All the kids in Severus's house had stricken looks on their faces. A random girl was crying.

Way to get people's hopes up.

Dumbledore then seated himself on McGonagall's other side and began feeding his corrupt soul with the beef casserole that had appeared at the table.

Severus picked at his food. He felt some major heartburn coming on, and wished he had some Pepto Bismol. That stuff was a lifesaver. Meanwhile, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had apparently decided they hated Slytherin's guts and were cheering way too loud. Severus wondered what the hell gives, and just why couldn't they stuff their pieholes with food already.

"Severus," McGonagall said at a ridiculously high volume. Severus scooted his chair away a bit and got up from the table. McGonagall stood up too.

"Now, now, I was a good sport at losing, so you should give me the same courtesy, don't you think? How about we shake hands?"

Dumbledore paused devouring his bread roll and stared at Severus over the top of his half moon spectacles. With his insides making sounds like an injured animal, Severus leaned forward and shook McGonagall's hand, which felt cold as death. He pasted on a smile which cramped his face ultra bad.

Dumbledore smiled and sunk his fangs back into his unsuspecting bread roll.

Severus went to the dungeons, where he found refuge with a bottle of Pepto, and thought back on the year, only that activity made him sort of want to cry, so he abandoned it real quick and did some cleaning spells on his classroom instead.

Severus then got set packing for when he would go home, which did not take long. So after that he laid on his bed and thought of spells that cut people open. Someone knocked on his door once, but he held his breath and they went away soon after.

Severus must've fallen asleep, because he was jolted awake rather rudely by what he could only assume was an end of the year staff party. Plus every house was probably having a party as well. Due to that whole chunk of partying miscellany, Severus found it real hard to count sheep and all that.

Getting up, he went over to the gargoyle sink in the corner of his room, and floated different kinds of parchment in it awhile. Someone had left reminders of not doing magic at home to give out to the students on his desk. Severus took one of those as a paper sample as well.

When the next morning came, Severus had the duty of escorting the Slytherins out to the train. He kept yelling at Professor Sprout whenever one of her kids got mixed up in his line, which he was trying to keep separate due to certain events the night before. The Pointy-Face Brat was lagging very slow behind, and his cronies were nowhere to be found. When the line dwindled down to the end, Severus reluctantly gave the moneybags kid a chocolate frog from the staff room, not even because he liked the kid or anything, but really.

As the Hogwarts Express rumbled off into the distance, Severus watched it leave. Professor McGonagall made a dry sniffing noise, and Hagrid was quite frankly bawling his eyes out over Potter-the-lost-and-found. It was time to leave this party, so to speak. Severus took one last look at Hogwarts, and apparated outside its bounds. It would be a whole summer before he needed to go there again.