Chapter 58: 2nd September 1991, Monday: Part 13

After weaving past his classmates exiting the Astronomy lesson, George reached Snape's office with twenty minutes to spare. As much as he would love to get this 'meeting' over and done, George decided to wait outside the office whilst running through every potential question Snape might ask him. The fatigue was still taking its toll so the excessive practice would make up the difference. Unfortunately, twenty minutes went by very quickly. George was forced to knock on the door once he heard the Hogwarts clock tower chime thrice. He would not dare be late for a meeting with Snape.

George heard the familiar monotone voice saying, "come in", through the door.

With the mentality of hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, George pushed the door open. The room was identical to how it was a few hours earlier except without Remus sitting in the corner. This time, it was just Snape and George alone. Speaking of which, the potion master was currently writing on a high-quality piece of parchment whilst paying absolutely no attention to his visitor. The room was silent except for the scratching of his quill. George felt it would be best not to interrupt Snape until he had finished.

Although this silent treatment was probably an intimidation tactic, George saw this rude behaviour as nothing more than another opportunity to revise his totally-legitimate excuses. He walked from the entrance of the office to just in front of Snape's desk and patiently waited with his hands behind his back. George could see the leather chair that Remus had been sitting in, but he chose to not automatically assume he was allowed to sit in it. Considering his exhausted state of mind, sitting in that comfortable-looking chair would be a bad idea. George wouldn't want to be falling asleep in the snake pit with a talented Legilimency user watching over him.

Another four minutes passed before Snape finally concluded his writing, he then slowly placed the quill in its brass stand and folded the parchment. He placed the folded parchment into an envelope and poured a little melted wax onto its back. Then Snape picked up a Hogwarts seal stamp and pressed it down onto the setting wax. Snape finished by placing the letter on one side of his desk with a pile of similar letters and looked towards George with his signature miserable expression.

"Mr Lupin has concluded his meeting with Professor Dumbledore and has left Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore has asked me as your head of house to pay extra attention to your well-being throughout your time at this school. This is a privilege shared by none other than yourself.

You are to report to me, and I alone, if your health deteriorates any further. Do I make myself clear?"

George nervously nodded in Snape's direction whilst biting his lip. He saw this as a clear case of Dumbledore using Snape as a method of keeping tabs on him. It was not exactly surprising but still very much unwelcomed. George hadn't anticipated Dumbledore being so forward in regards to his snooping, he couldn't be sure whether this was a good or bad thing yet.

Snape seemed to acknowledge George's nod as confirmation, "good. It has also been brought to my attention that you have demonstrated advanced conjuration magic in front of several students and members of staff.

Have you received any magical education before coming to Hogwarts?"

George shook his head, "no Professor. My conjuration magic is self-taught."

One of Snape's eyebrows lifted as if he was surprised by the answer, he must have had some suspicions about whether George was telling the truth. Ironically, this was one of the few things George was not lying about. Nobody had taught him how to conjure fire magic as it came naturally with his monstrous transformation.

Snape paused while staring at George, "interesting... It's extremely rare for witches and wizards to be able to cast advanced magic from such a young age, especially without tutelage.

Am I to believe that you are from a muggle household?"

Some may think that discussing their muggle family with a member of Slytherin was a terrible idea, but George wasn't worried about being honest about his muggle origins. Snape might be the head of Slytherin but he didn't share their racist ideals. At most, he would pretend a little to maintain his evil image.

George confidently nodded his head, "yes Professor. I was adopted by Mr and Mrs Linwood eleven months ago on the twenty-sixth of August nineteen-ninety."

Snape narrowed his eyes and quirked his head up slightly, "so you're adopted. Were either of your biological parents wizards or witches?"

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George frowned as he pretended to have remembered a bad memory. His eyes left Snape and looked towards the cauldron on the table as if it was a distraction.

He answered the question much quieter than before, "I never knew my parents. I was too young when I was separated from them. I don't even know what their names are let alone if they were muggles.

I'm sorry Professor, but I don't know the answer. Maybe I can find out one day."

George knew that Snape would never be the sort to feel empathetic toward a student's plight regardless of how harrowing it may appear. But George was not wasting his time trying to make Snape feel sorry for him, this act was part of the persona which needed to be consistent among all teachers. He couldn't just tailor his personality to fit every single professor's personal requirements for the perfect teachers-pet, even if it would improve his relationship with them faster. If there was ever a discussion among all the teachers about George and they all had different observations of how he behaved, then it may become obvious that he was manipulating them. They could potentially perceive him as a sociopath similar to Tom Riddle.

George also made sure to only tell Snape the truth, he had yet to tell a single lie. If there ever came a day when he was under the influence of the truth serum, he would be able to maintain a consistent story with everything he had told Snape prior. This was, of course, the last case scenario and George would go out of his way to never be under the influence of such a potion or he would have to face the possibility of having his memories deleted.

Snape ended up questioning him for nearly an hour before finally allowing him to leave. Most of the questions hovered around George's experiences before Hogwarts, they predominantly focused on anything that may allude to the origin of his talent for casting fire magic. These were definitely questions that Dumbledore had wanted Snape to ask George on his behalf to disguise his involvement. George was not ignorant of that fact and had answered the questions very carefully. This extra effort to hide the truth took a great deal of energy he was sorely lacking.

Any doubt about Dumbledore's agenda had been thoroughly washed away, that old conniving man was indeed curious about George's history. It's not like the headmaster didn't have a reason to be suspicious of someone like George. Dumbledore wasn't about to let another surprisingly talented orphaned student fall under his radar. Tom Riddle's reputation had already begun to ruin George's cover story, he would have to remember to give Quirrel a whack on the back of the head as payback. Dealing with that sort of intrusive interrogation would have been bad enough, but Snape had to go and throw a spanner into the works.

The potion master had managed to sneak in some personal questions about Remus and George's relationship; he must have wanted to know what involvement Remus had in his life. George had suspected that Snape believed that the werewolf had been influencing, and or, teaching him since he moved into the Linwood household. As long as Snape's suspicions didn't affect Remus becoming a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in the future, George did not care what Snape believed. If anything, Remus would become a great distraction to shield the truth when it came to Snape's future interrogations.

All that being said, the unexpected questions caused the headache to turn into a full-on migraine. George walked out of Snape's office feeling like he was mentally on his last legs. Every part of his body was screaming for him to go for an early night's rest, but his growing monster body demanded a constant supply of food. George was feeling insanely hungry, the dozen pies at lunch were not enough. What on Earth was he turning into, did his life nowadays just come down to eating and sleeping like a feral animal? Never did George think his own body would become the limiting factor in his mission. Regardless of his body's inconveniences, he had to keep pushing on.

George headed down to the Great Hall and found a place at the end of the table where he could rest in peace until dinner was served. There were around two dozen students in the Great Hall casually reading books and writing on parchment, but in general, the hall was empty. There weren't any professors currently seated at the teacher's table either. Dinner was served at six at Hogwarts every single day which gave George just under two hours to nap. He would have liked to use this time to finish the books he didn't have a chance to read, but the migraine had caused the centre of his vision to turn purple.

As soon as the food is served, George had no plans of hanging around in the Great Hall. He had taken some inspiration from the older students during lunch, he intended on taking a portion of the food and leaving with it. He planned to stuff his mouth on his way back to the Slytherin common room and collapse once he entered his dormitory. Besides the need to get a good night's rest, George had another reason to leave in a rush. He had reached his acting threshold and couldn't afford to be distracted by any more members of staff or the Slytherin students, especially Gemma.

In an odd way, George had ended up in a similar situation to the Sorting Hat Ceremony, except he was being overcome with exhaustion instead of emotion. This time, he wasn't going to reduce himself to a wild animal and pass out. He used every second of those two hours to lower himself into a meditative state. Within what felt like a blink of an eye, George was awoken by the sound of the professors' voices. A few minutes before the food started appearing, many of the professors had come out from the side doors next to the teacher's table. McGonagall along with Flitwick, Sprout, Quirrel, Sinistra, Hagrid and even Snape had sat down and readied themselves for the meal.

Seeing the turnout of the majority of the staff, George anticipated that you-know-who might even turn up which only amplified his eagerness to take his food and run. Just as George had feared, Dumbledore turned up a few moments before the food magically appeared. He sat down on his large golden chair right in the centre of the teacher's table and started to talk to McGonagall beside him. Like two positive ends of a magnet, the compulsion for George to get away from that scary man was incredibly strong. Even with the Calming Draught in effect, fear was worming its way into his mind.

George wasn't going to waste the time Dumbledore was distracted. He stole the massive beef wellington in the middle of the table and shove it into his enchanted sack. From an outside perspective, he must have looked like a squirrel prepping for winter. George could feel the strange looks from some of the other Slytherin students around him, but frankly, he couldn't care less about their opinions. He wasn't about to waste a second trying to act discreetly after all of his prior attempts failed. He was the school's weirdo and he was willing to accept it at this point, blending in be damned.

Whilst George was hastily standing up from the bench, he heard McGonagall calling to him from the teacher's table.

"Mr Linwood, could we borrow you for a moment?"

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