A Game With You
He cringed with irritation when he heard the knock at the door. It was a perfectly fine knock, as far as knocks go, but its timing was less than ideal. He was, after all, only twenty minutes from freedom from his damnable office hours, a time during which no students dared to knock at his door.
Apparently, this evening was the exception to the rule.
"Come in," he said tersely, shuffling some papers and placing them to the side as he slid the book he'd been reading on enhancing potion potency into a drawer with his other hand.
"Good evening, Professor Snape." The voice was respectful but firm. The accent was also distinctly flat.
"Ah, the first year student from the States," he said, folding his hands together and looking up at the short, somewhat chubby-cheeked girl wearing Slytherin robes with impassive eyes. "Miss Soleil. How are you finding the...transition?"
"I am still adjusting, Professor, but so far, I haven't had many issues," she said, approaching him without a hint of fear.
It was to be expected. He was her Head of House, after all, but still, most first year students weren't nearly as brave as this.
"I see that you took my advice on...abstaining from disclosing your parentage," he said quietly, his voice betraying no emotion.
"Yes, thank you. It was much easier for me to fudge my background since I'm from another country. It seems that people will believe anything, as long as you say it the right way." She sat down and it was then that he realized she was holding something under one arm.
"What...is that?" he asked, pointing at the square-edged object.
"Well, I've been talking to a number of the other students…" she trailed off and set the object down on the table.
He leaned forward and looked down at the object. It appeared to be made of some sort of black wood or stone with a number of small holes drilled in it. For some reason, it was familiar, though he couldn't seem to place it.
"And?" he asked, his voice growing somewhat sharp with annoyance. It was obvious that she wasn't in his office for class-related material.
"...I...wanted to know if you've ever played cribbage before. No one seems to know anything about it, and I always used to play a game or two with my father on the weekends," she finished, looking awkwardly down at the table.
He was silent for a long moment as he steepled his fingers together and looked down his nose menacingly at the first year until she began to squirm slightly. Secretly, he was rather impressed that she did not squirm harder, though, as he'd been forced to go to a number of potential Hogwarts students' houses before the school year had started to explain to parents that their children were magical, he also knew that the household she came from would not have tolerated much squirming at all.
"I am not certain what you mean," he started, raising his lip slightly in a sneer, "Do I look like a paternal figure to you, Miss Soleil?"
Her eyes went wide and she stared at him, unblinking as tears filled her eyes, and he knew that his disapproval had hurt her.
Good. Life is painful and unfair. The sooner she accepts that fact, the better.
She took a couple of deep breaths and blinked, but did not start crying. Instead, she coughed once, looked back up at him and smiled.
"I'm not used to spending time with other children on the same level," she said softly, "because my mom always asks me to take care of my younger siblings and the household. It feels weird to be friends with people who are used to having servants and their parents do everything for them. But I remember what you told me...about how you know what it's like to come from the...background that I'm from, so I had hoped that you would be willing to humor me. Besides, you might actually have fun!"
"Fun is not exactly the word I'd use to describe having to endure a childish wish," he replied, but his eyes glittered with interest as he looked at the board.
He hadn't played cribbage in quite a long time, it was true. No one seemed to have any interest in the game at Hogwarts, even those he knew had experience with the muggle world.
But there was another, more personal reason for why he paused instead of simply throwing her out of his offices with a cruel line.
It was one of the only positive memories he could remember of his father, who'd taught him the odd game one rainy evening at the ugly, damp house on Spinner's End. They hadn't been able to find a pegging board, so his father had created a makeshift tally board using a ripped newspaper page that they'd added dots using a pen to signify the points for each side. His father had finally conceded defeat when the shabby grandfather clock had struck midnight. It was one of the only times that the man had ruffled his hair and smiled at him before sending him up to get ready for bed. It was the ghost of that wickedly clever smirk that Severus knew had drawn his mother to his father. So, when his father's back was turned, Severus had grabbed the tally sheet and brought it upstairs, tucking it inside of a tattered old copy of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes that had belonged to his father as a child. It was proof that it had happened, after all, and though they'd played the game together a number of times afterwards, it was never the same, especially when his father began to drink more regularly, the bottle of liquor sitting between them on the table like an unspoken threat. Severus had lost purposefully a number of times simply to avoid a fight.
He hated losing, no matter the reason.
Severus knew it was stupidly sentimental to keep that paper tucked in with old photos and newspaper clippings in his old Hogwarts trunk back at the house at Spinner's End, but then again, there wasn't much he'd wanted to save anyway, so there had been plenty of room for it.
"I tried asking around to see if anyone in the other Houses were interested," she continued, as the silence lengthened, "but I got a lot of nasty looks, and someone tried to set my robes on fire when my back was turned."
"Why did you not report this to myself or another staff member?" Snape asked sharply.
"Because I didn't see who did it," she replied, matter-of-factly, "It wouldn't have stopped them from doing it, anyway. In fact, it would have made it worse. Besides, it's my own fault that I allowed them to do it. I won't let anyone to catch my by surprise in the future."
"Well, then, Miss Soleil," Snape said slowly, looking at her with a somewhat cold expression, "in that case, what would you say to a small wager?"
"What do you mean by that?" she replied somewhat bluntly.
"Let us say that I humor your request and play a game of Cribbage with you this one time," he began, controlling the involuntary smirk that threatened to pull up his lips on one side as her eyes widened with barely-contained excitement, "but...and here is the catch...if you lose, you will be forced to clean up my spoiled potions supplies every weekend until Christmas. You see, due to the fact that it is the beginning of the school year, I seem to have run into a...shortage...of unlucky students requiring detention. You would help with this and any other drudgerous, onerous chores that I see fit to assign to you."
"And if I win?" Her voice had changed slightly, but it was enough to be noticeable. Though it was still soft and high-pitched with youth, there was a calculating edge in her tone, one that made it obvious that the Hat had Sorted well.
"What makes you think that I will go easy on you?" His voice was accusatory, though he tried to control it.
"What makes you think that I want you to go easy on me?" came the reply, "My father never let me win on purpose, because it would only give me a false sense of accomplishment. He kicked my butt for months and months when I was first learning."
"Language, Miss Soleil," Snape growled, but his heart wasn't in it. Now he was more intrigued than ever. She obviously didn't expect for him to cut her a break.
"So, then," she continued, "what will I get if I win?"
"What is it that you would like?" he asked, and she looked somewhat surprised, as though she hadn't expected him to ask her.
Her hazel eyes narrowed slightly as she thought, twisting her long brown hair between her fingers.
"I would like to help you and learn how to be more efficient at potions as well as magic," she said, "but I would like to know the sorts of things that are not necessarily in a book. The street smarts of magic, if you know what I mean. Also, I'd want to play Cribbage with you again, because if you put up the kind of fight I'm hoping for, it'll be hard going back to playing Solitaire."
He finally allowed himself to smirk, then.
"You ask for a lot, Miss Soleil. If you do win, I shall help you with your so-called street smarts, but you will also have to help out doing some more unpleasant tasks anyway, such as separating out the rotten flobberworms from the ones that are still good for ingredients."
She nodded.
"Now, then," Snape said, holding his hand out for the deck of cards, "I shall shuffle and then we will draw a card each. Whoever has the highest card will be dealer first. Is this agreeable to you?"
"Yes, Professor," she replied folding her hands together and watching him shuffle the cards intently.
He drew a queen, but somehow she drew an ace. This meant that she was dealer first. She dealt out six cards quickly and picked up her hand with a serious expression befitting a veteran poker player.
"I suppose this will work," she said thoughtfully, pulling two cards from opposite sides of her hand and placing them face down next to the cribbage board.
Snape didn't reply as he silently pulled two cards from his own hand and placed them face down on top of hers. She pulled up the stack of cards to a random place and he pulled out the next card on the remaining stack, flipping it over on the top of the deck.
"Ten of clubs," he said, looking at it dispassionately. Inside, though, he was ecstatic. He had three fives and the ten of hearts in his hand. She was not going to know what hit her.
"I know that the player opposite the dealer usually goes first," he said, hoping to intimidate her, "but I think you should go first this time, just to show me that you know what you are doing. After this round, though, we'll play it the usual way."
She frowned but then nodded.
"Ok, then, I'll go first," she said, pulling her first card and placing it face up, "Nine!"
He frowned and placed down his first five. "Fourteen."
She smirked the second his fingers left the card and flipped over her next card. "Fifteen for two!"
He looked down from her face to see the ace jeering up at him and his face went white with anger. Internally, he was using every swear, muggle or magical, that he knew, but he held them back. After all, it wouldn't do to be brought to swearing by a mere child.
"It's ok," she said, "I know all the swear words. My dad's said them all. My mom calls it 'Dad Rap' when he whacks his head on the underside of a car and roars them out as loud as he can. Well, at least back at my old house. We don't have a car here. He doesn't like taking the train, but his work won't pay for a car, so he has to do it."
"Be that as it may, Miss Soleil," Snape replied with a sniff, "you would do well to not advise adults on what they should and should not be saying. It is rude."
She nodded and twisted her hair nervously.
Well, no matter, it was only two points.
With a flourish, he pulled the five of diamonds from his hand.
"Twenty," he said, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. There were still eleven points to go to thirty-one.
She put down a four. "Twenty-four. Your turn, Professor."
"I am aware of that, you know!" he spat, slightly more cruelly than he'd intended. One bloody number off and he could have played a three of a kind. Instead, he threw down his last five, leaving the ten in his hand.
"Twenty-nine!" he said rather loudly, "Try and beat that!"
He knew the probability was rather low that she had anything else, and yet…
"Thirty!" she said triumphantly, placing down another ace.
He muttered something and she said, "What was that?"
"Go!" he said sharply, waving his hands at the board.
She pegged her singular point with the silver placeholder and he glared at it as though it had personally offended him. They flipped over the cards and started over again.
"Ten," he said numbly, throwing the card face up onto the table. He was regretting letting her go first, now, but there was nothing for it.
"Sixteen," she replied, placing the six on the table across from his ten, "and one for last."
Severus felt pretty good with his twenty points after he'd finished counting, but Miss Soleil had gotten a good number of points with her relatively low hand due to the aces and four adding up to a round eight points. Adding on the four she'd gotten in the pegging round, it brought her score up to twelve.
"But I still have my crib!" she said eagerly, grinning.
"Shite!" he groaned the moments he saw the other two cards, which brought her well over thirty points. She handed the cards to him with an arched brow that seemed oddly familiar, and he began to shuffle the cards angrily as he grumbled under his breath.
Oh, it was on.
Ten rounds in, Severus Snape found himself drawn into the game without having noticed it happening. Miss Soleil was a shrewd player, but she was still a kid, and she made a number of mistakes in the rounds that followed which left her with only a very tiny lead.
They were both startled out of the immersion of the game when the clock struck ten at night. Severus sneered at the board. He was literally three points away from overtaking her score.
But he had to admit, it had been awhile since anyone had given him a run for his money in a card game.
"That is enough, Miss Soleil," he said, pulling out his wand and tapping it on the table, which magically shuffled the cards before catching them and slipping them back into their case, "You have proven yourself to be a worthy opponent, and as such, I shall keep up my part of the deal."
"You mean it?" Her eyes were huge in the candlelight and she clasped her hands together, as though she wanted to throw her arms around him like she would her father, but knew it was not appropriate.
"Indeed. It is not very often that I miss the evening meal or the beginning of my evening rounds for any reason, much less a distinctly enjoyable one," he said, half-chuckling at her enthusiasm. He'd see how enthusiastic she'd be after she went through the horribly cold and soggy process of collecting fresh gillyweed on a wet winter's afternoon. "Now, then, I shall accompany you back to the Slytherin common room to ensure that you do not get into any further mischief. Though this evening has been enjoyable, I still expect the foot-long essay that I assigned in class to be ready first thing tomorrow morning."
They headed to the door and Snape illuminated the tip of his wand once they reached the shadowy dungeon hallway. It wouldn't do to trip and fall, after all.
She blinked at him and nodded. "I am used to doing my homework on my own, so I already finished it before I came by your office, sir. After all, the only one who suffers by not doing it is me."
He nodded back thoughtfully. "Now, if only you could teach that mentality to the rest of the student population. I suspect that the other professors would jump for joy."
"Maybe, if they're willing to pay, that is," she said, grinning somewhat conspiratorily.
"Naturally," Snape replied, a smirk playing across his lips.
They reached the brick wall that stood between the hallway and the Slytherin Common Room.
"Good night, Professor," she said, bowing her head slightly, "I really enjoyed the game."
"Have a good night as well, Miss Soleil. I shall expect to see you bright and early tomorrow morning with that essay," he replied, tipping his head ever so slightly before turning abruptly and beginning his rounds.
When he chanced a look back down the hall as he was about to turn the corner, he could see that the short, chubby first year student was silently watching him go. She noticed that he'd caught her staring, waved, then turned and whispered something at the wall. He noted with satisfaction that the bricks had moved aside to admit her on the first try.
Though there were many things to worry about in the upcoming year, including the foul Ministry-appointed toadette that was sure to cause trouble for his other duties, Severus Snape finally had something to look forward to that had nothing to do with his duty or his job, and the pure, unfettered joy of the game gripped his heart with a warmth that had been absent for years.
No one could see the small smile that settled on his lips as he strode through the dark, quiet halls of Hogwarts castle, but that was fine with him. It was, after all, not for their benefit.