He nods, saying darkly, "Yes--although it's a good thing that elf decided her loyalty belonged to the younger Crouch. Obnoxious and damaging as he was, his memory can be pitied, but his father's war crimes were at least as bad, and I can never forgive him for Evan. Rosier," he adds, after a moment, because Minerva probably has no real reason to remember the name, Rosier having been one of those people who gets along just fine in school, doesn't exert himself enough at academics to do brilliantly, and manages his trouble well enough not to get caught.
Severus grimaces. "So far I've been glad to see each person, individually, who has arrived after me." He gives a shamefaced little half-smile. "And, to be honest, I feel a bit like Slughorn; not getting along with Black always had a sense of... incompleteness about it, as though it wasn't right, somehow. Meeting this version of him has felt like the end of an unending failure. But," sobering, "the Headmaster isn't the first arrival to strike me with the dread of storm-clouds re-gathering."
He chuckles, cheek ticcing. The two together feel annoying. "Actually, I still think it's a good idea, but one would rather have to start from the ground up." He gives her question a good few moments, remembering back, and says finally, "No, I don't believe you did. It was very true, though--at least, before and after Slughorn, it was. He was avuncular towards the useful, and everyone else could go hang, whether they were in the House or not." Another half-smile. "I had a long conversation with Headmaster Nigellus when drawing up my plans, and re-instated a few institutions Horace had replaced with his networking club."
I know, right? Xel's all FLAIL!!! Ohhh, that should be interesting. Yeah, she told me... I mostly adopt it, especially as far as the antimacassars, but it's a slightly more peaceful history than Xel's backstory allows for. vOv Patchwork, yo.
Yeah, when I say 'we' I mean 'me and Sev's pragmatic side even if Lucius did drive him crazy with the calling him a coward thing.' n,n;;; It's a pity I've had to side with the pragmatism on that part, because I'm morbidly curious what knowing allll about Snape would look like from Gaav's POV... Even allowing for his powers, he is definitely a bit with the megalomania (which, again, is totally IC for a mazoku lord), so one can hardly blame Minerva for being skeptical. Especially when every sentence is so completely laying down the law (g).