Quidditch Grousing

[subtle_simmer]

Date: Monday, 6 November
Time: Noon/meal-time break
Place: Staff room
Characters Involved: Severus Snape and any Staff brave enough to listen to him grouse about the Slytherin loss on Saturday.
Rating: Not more than PG, which might be a surprise to some - apparently he's in a better mood than he might be expected considering their sound trouncing

Comments

[subtle_simmer]

In truth, Severus hadn't noticed Coach Bell when he first entered the Staff room. She had done a passable job of concealing herself, and as she had not been at the staff-table in the Great Hall when he had eaten his lunch, he thought she was sulking and drowning her sorrows somewhere about the castle.

Only when she moved to summon her meal to the staff room did he notice her, and then he only glanced at her in a dilatory fashion over the edge of his paper.

"Ah, Coach Bell. There you are. I was wondering - will you be establishing a Defence among the team sometime over the course of your career here, or are we merely focusing on scoring with the quaffle?" he asked lazily, with a characteristic sarcastic sneer upon his lips. "When will Seeker try-outs begin? A Quidditch team ought to have a Seeker, I do hope you will be providing one for Slytherin at some point."

This, of course, was actually rather mild for what he might have said in regards to the abysmal performance of 'his' team on the field on Saturday, but his pleasant mood was still lingering from Sunday. He wished to 'dig' at her, yes, but he was no where near as vicious as he was capable of being.

He couldn't even spare the energy to be alarmed at this apparent early evidence of Remus' moderating influence.

[lioninthegarden]

"Bugger off, Severus." she snapped, shooting a glare at him, warning him not to take on this arguement. She would accomidate him, but the man knew nothing about how hard those kids had worked to do as well as they had done. There were still things to work on, but their next game wasn't under January.

Perhaps she was looking for an arguement, specifically calling him by his first name, but he was pushing her buttons, so she could push him back. She knew that she would have to work with the Seeker. The girl was a wonderful flyer but she needed some work on her speed drills. Katie thought she might be able to convince the girl to some one on one work.

She returned her attention from Snape to her lunch, though her appetite was quickly fading.

[subtle_simmer]

Good mood so easily evaporated - or rather, Severus was more than willing to rise to the affront - he had come here looking for 'entertainment' one way or the other, and this was as good as any.

"Language, Ms Bell," he said, dropping her 'professional' title and adding the prefix which immediately suggested she might be of a different 'profession' entirely. "If the post is too difficult for you, I am certain the Headmistress can accommodate Slytherin's Quidditch team in some other fashion."

Thank Merlin Minerva had ended up hiring two people to cover Ravenclaw - perhaps Miss Turpin or Mr Davies could be persuaded to fill in if Miss Bell abandoned her post. He didn't know where the girl had learnt her respect, or lack thereof, but it was bloody well certain that no one else of her age ever called him by his given-name without express permission to do so. It was also certain that he had stipulated in the conditions of his agreement to her employment in the post, that she never do so again.

With Miss Granger as witness, Severus now had Miss Katie Bell's future coaching career in his own admittedly malicious fist.

"I'm sure no one will think less of you for quitting - or even being sacked," he continued in oily tones which carried no small hint of a threat.

If the girl couldn't stand up to his snark without falling to disrespect, she had no business trying to coach Slytherin in Quidditch, anyway. There were some standards which Severus did not tolerate his snakelets breaching, ever, under any circumstance. Disrespect to authority figures was one of those absolute taboos, and the reason Severus had come down so hard on the team when they had been so horrid to Miss Bell early in her coaching stint. He would not tolerate 'his' children to disrespect authority, nor would he allow them to be 'taught' by anyone who could not understand and abide by that absolute.

If Katie Bell could not come to understand and accept that he was a superiour to her as Head of Slytherin House, then she was not the right coach for HIS team.

[lioninthegarden]

She had resorted to breaking her word since he seemed to see it fit that he not keep his word. When it came down to it, age or not, they were equals as staff. He wasn't her superior. Minerva was. She wasn't quitting, June had convinced her that she didn't quit. If she was fired, then she was fired, it wasn't because she wasn't commited.

He had agreed not to disrespect her in public. In front of Hermione was public and discredited her to the other staff. She didn't respond to him. She just took a bite of her sandwich and didn't look at him. She wasn't going to rise to the bait, she was going to be the bigger person. She was going to try her damndest not to let him get to her.

She had a hard enough time gaining the respect of the students without having to re-regain the respect of the other staff. He still treated her like a student and she wasn't going to stand for it. She just stabbed her an olive from her salad, imagining for a moment that it was his beady eye.

[thelastgranger]

A calm and solitary moment of study had become a viewing of an awkward argument. Hermione had lived with Draco and knew how to take a fair bit of snark, hell a lot of snark. The first thing he’d said to her had been somewhat amusing, it was afternoon and she took no offence to his attitude.

Never in all her years had she even been tempted to call him anything but Sir or Professor, let alone dare to call him Severus. To see Katie speak with such blatant disrespect shocked her and she gave up all pretence that she was still reading.

Hermione almost pitied her, knowing what was coming was going to be much worse because of her attitude. She had to fight the urge to cringe; Katie had to know what she was getting herself into.

Then to just… Ignore him? Oh… Oh my…

Looking between the two, she felt standing up and leaving probably wouldn’t be a good idea, so she stayed in her spot, fidgeting slightly in her seat. Hermione looked back down at her book, doing her best to disappear into the background.