diff --git a/lib/haml/engine.rb b/lib/haml/engine.rb
index 6cbbdfad..4b0e3a39 100644
--- a/lib/haml/engine.rb
+++ b/lib/haml/engine.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/helpers'
 require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/buffer'
-require 'profiler'
 
 module Haml
   # This is the class where all the parsing and processing of the HAML
@@ -75,7 +74,7 @@ module Haml
     # Processes the template and returns the resulting (X)HTML code as
     # a string.
     def to_html(scope = Object.new)
-      @scope = scope
+      @scope_object = scope
 
       # Compile the @precompiled buffer
       compile
diff --git a/lib/haml/template.rb b/lib/haml/template.rb
index 2d873c8f..a73245de 100644
--- a/lib/haml/template.rb
+++ b/lib/haml/template.rb
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ module Haml
         end
         # Set all the local assigns
         local_assigns.each do |key,val|
-          class << self; self; end.send(:define_method, key) &:val
+          self.class.send(:define_method, key) { val }
         end
       end