I hope that you like this chapter. I think that Dumbledore sometimes favors Gryffindors too much. In this story I go with the assumption that this was even bigger problem in his earlier years as a headmaster. This is not a Dumbledore bashing story in any way. (I actually like him a lot.) Dumbledore just has to go through some character development before he can become the best headmaster Hogwarts has ever had :)

EveryJohn

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"You are talking like Snivellius is some kind of hero! Believe in me, I bet he was only saving his own stinky skin!" Sirius´s familiar loud voice complained. A Ravenclaw girl with ink black hair and sky blue eyes turned to him sharply.

"He still saved us, Black. Could you take your head out of your butt for a moment to notice! And what was that stupid prank about? Are you retard or something, Black? Why did you and Pettigrew bring a dung bomb in this kind of lesson? WE COULD HAVE DIED!"

Only now, McGonagall recognized still lingering bitter telltale smell of sulfur that associated with the dung bombs. Students sometimes liked to prank eachother with these smelly bombs. They were banned and confiscated when discovered, but as they were generally quite harmless, smugglers had usually no other consequences besides losing the product. Bringing a dung bomb to such a dangerous lesson, was new kind of foolishness even for her Lions. McGonagall would need to have serious talk with them about this.

"I could not have known that Slytherins would react like that and that Ines would fall over! And I might have been reckless but Snape is dark. Only taking action when pure-blood Parkinson was about to get killed. Do you think that a Deatheater like him would care about muggleborn students? And are you so naive that you don´t even understand that he subdued it with dark magic!"

"I´m not an idiot, Black. You don´t have any proof!"

Professor Dumbledore interrupted the heated argument that was quickly becoming a shouting match between Mister Black and the Ravenclaw prefect Miss Rifley. "Could you tell us, what kind of a spell you used on the manticore, Severus?"

Everyone went silent and all eyes focused on the teenager, who had been sitting quietly on the grass. The long, dark hair had fallen on his face and none of them was able to see his expression.

"Could you look at me in the eye, and answer to the question, Severus", Professor Dumbledore asked sternly. The boy twitched. Then he parted his hair, and two ink black eyes stared back at the headmaster full of bitter anger.

"What does it matter to you? I saved them! I saved your bloody school. Or what do you think would have happened, if I had let it escape? If one of your golden Gryffindors had achieved, what I did, you would not be interrogating them but shoveling them with house points."

"Mr. Snape!" McGonagall exasperated, but was silenced by Professor Dumbledore´s calming hand-movement.

"I asked you, what spell you used, Mr. Snape. Why do you repeatedly decline answering this question?"

The boy paled. He was gripping his wand as if his life depended on it.

"If you don´t want to answer me, I will need to perform priori incantatem on your wand. Would you prefer me to do that?"

When Professor Dumbledore reached towards his priced possession, the boy reacted by retreating swiftly and holding the wand closer to his body. He looked at the headmaster through slit eyes. "I will perform the bloody spell myself", he hissed. True to his angry words the boy proceeded to perform the reverse spell. It was clear that he knew what he was doing. After the incantation the wand spit out sickly yellow whisk of light that floated a moment in the place where the student and the beast had stood facing eachother a moment ago. Teachers´ faces turned grim, but no-one said anything.

"Imperio... It is imperio, is it not?" one of the students whispered finally, recognizing the markings of the sinister spell. "So, it really was dark magic after all? Snape cast an unforgivable!"

After that whispers spread like wildfire.

"You are an intelligent student, Mr. Snape. I fail to understand, why you did this. You must have known that imperious is strictly banned and could result in Azcaban sentence", professor Dumbledore stated gravely.

"Yes. But only if cast on another human."

"Be as it may, but we never practice dark curses such as this in Hogwarts. Unforgivables are forbidden on the school grounds on the threat of expulsion." Headmaster announced.

Teenager´s head whipped up. "Are you going to throw me out? For this?!" he growled furiously. The boy had experienced a growth spurt and was almost as tall as the Headmaster. "So, I should have let the manticore kill Paula Parkinson? I´m sure that her parents will be delighted to know that. And what if the beast had escaped! What about the students practicing at the quidditch pitch? The unsuspecting villagers in Hogsmeade?"

"Please, don´t twist my words, Severus." Everyone could hear warning in Dumbledore´s voice, but the outraged boy refused to back off. The old wizard in front of him might be respected and powerful Headmaster, who had once defeated even the Dark Wizard Grindewald, but right now the boy didn´t pay any mind to that.

"Why did you not use some other spell, Mr. Snape?" McGonagall asked quietly, not hiding her disappointment.

The Slytherin stared at her as though she had just grown a second head. "With all respect, professor. I did not have time to start with the most innocent one and progress slowly towards the powerful ones in hopes that any of them would have effect on spell-resistant ravaging magical beast."

It was a valid point despite the sarcasm with which it was delivered.

"How were you so sure that the imperius curse would work?"

"All but sure, professor. But I thought it likely", Mr. Snape corrected. "Some of you might remember the Hungarian Horntail fiasco two years ago, near Bratislava? Even the Daily Prophet wrote an article in the international section speculating if a similar occasion could happen here in Britain."

That didn´t provoke any kind of reaction. He sighed. "No-one? Should have guessed that. Luckily, my brain is not there only to fill the empty space between ears." He closed his eyes as though such ignorance was painful to witness. "To sum it up: A dragon escaped the local reserve. It was about to wipe out a small muggle town, but was stopped in the last possible moment by a single witch." He held a dramatic pause. "She was using imperius curse. Thank Merlin, Durmstrang had not ceased from teaching the dark arts altogether, don´t you think?" Severus snorted.

McGonagall noticed that students had again started to whisper among themselves. Some of them seemed to agree with Severus´s point of view while other´s would have gladly seen expulsion taking place. Among those who were more than readily getting rid off the Slytherin were naturally at least Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew from her house. The headmaster seemed thoughtful. Finally he turned towards the students.

"Mr. Snape used questionable methods. Dark arts are vile and corruptible. Yet, many of us would say that in this case dark magic was justifiable. The problem is that it is too easy to make excuses for it. To my great sorrow I have seen older and wiser wizards than Mr. Snape succumbing to darkness. So often they started with good intentions. A bit by bit darkness came to them easier and easier. They never realized that they were losing themselves or that they could not stop anymore.

The unforgivables are banned in this school even when not used on human beings. We don´t teach any form of dark arts to our students even for defensive purposes. That is because even when used to do good, dark magic harms the witch or wizard, who performs it. In Hogwarts we want to protect all of you.

I see that I need to have a good discussion about this with Mr. Snape." Headmaster´s words caused mutinous grunts among Slytherin, but he silenced them. "Patience, Misters Mulciber, Avery and Travers. I am not finished yet." Reluctantly those, he called with a name, restrained themselves. "However, Mr. Snape did not perform the spell with maliciousness in mind. He was in hurry and probably didn´t see any other option at the moment. Sometimes there is nothing but bad options. While facing the manticore and protecting unfortunate Miss Parkinson Mr. Snape displayed great courage. For that reason I want to award 20 housepoints for Slytherin for remarkable bravery in face of danger. Because of the special circumstances this time there shall not be expulsion or any other punishment."

While Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws seemed placated by this, McGonagall saw that the Slytherins were not pleased. "20 housepoints for endangering his life? Well, Snape earns pretty much the same practically in every potions lesson if Potter and Black don´t manage to sabotage him", one groused. "I bet if Snape was one of Dumbledore´s golden Gryffindorks even 200 points would not be enough but he would also be given a Special award for services to the school", another one snorted. "What about those hoodlums, who started the fight? They didn´t even get detention. 'There shall not be expulsion or any other punishment', my ass. It should have been them to get sacked", the first one reminded nodding towards Gryffindors.

McGonagall could see that the Lions weren´t too happy with Headmaster´s decision either. From the bits of discussion she heard, some of them seemed to think that headmaster had been too lenient with 'the greasy git' and would eventually come to regret his decision.

"However... As I mentioned earlier, I need to have a talk with you, Severus. Come to the headmaster´s office straight after your lessons tomorrow. I will sent you a password", Headmaster concluded the discussion.

The boy looked still gloomy and defiant, but after hearing that he would not get kicked out, he had managed to somewhat silence his temper. He nodded grimly. "Yes, sir", he said. "I remember to not be late on my detention." He stressed the final world to ensure that everyone knew what he thought about the private discussion with the headmaster.

"It is not a punishment, Severus, just a talk with an old man. I am sorry to hear, that you think it is", Professor Dumbledore corrected with a slight smile. The boy scoffed and snatched his book bag from the ground. His black hair was again a curtain on his face as he stormed towards the castle paying attention neither to his housemates´s attempts to approach him or Black´s and Pettigrew´s loud laughter on his expense.