Me, The Eye of the Crow a.k.a. Crow's Eye a.k.a Aleya is proud to announce that she is the inventor of a great pairing - Severus Snape/Sadako Yamamura. Sadako Yamamura's generally speaking that scary girl from Ringu movies, but the one I'm talking about is just the one from Ringu 0: Birthday, which is the best one of all the Japanese and American Ring(u) movies (but the American Ring 1 is almost catching up) and we can see Sadako portrayed as a pretty shy girl around 18 and all the scary stuff is the doing of her sister? stray piece of personality? well, something like that.

The first and so far one and only Severus/Sadako-centred fic in this universe ensues...

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Diclaimer: I own neither Severus and Hogwarts (which is bad) nor Sadako nor any creepy Ringu stuff (which is good).

Rating: PG

Summary: Lyrical winter romance between Severus and strange Japanese girl who wears her hair in her face and is hated by everyone. It takes place in the 6th year and it's sort of AU (surprisingly so o) and maybe OOC, but this strongly depends on a point of view. A-hem, and BTW, there's a drama club and a communist party in Hogwarts. You have been warned.

…

Thousand of White Blossoms

The floating snowflakes
thousands of pure white blossoms
bring the winter chill

She put away a paper filled with writing. No, it didn't feel right; the picture wasn't complete. But as for the chill, she could feel it all too well. She pulled the black woolen shawl closer to her body, but the view through the window covered with frost flowers still made her feel cold.
Yet it was still more bearable to watch the dancing snowflakes than to stare at the thick and cold walls, which were separating her from the outside world. From the life…

There was a group of younger students now below her window, building a snowman. She laid down her quill carefully and went at the window. She let her palms rested against the window pane and watched the children play. Their colourful scarves were shinning like a reminiscence of warmer months.

It didn't take too long and the snowman gained a robust body and a pair of plump hands. A girl wearing a yellowish cap with a big pompom had thrust a broom in one of the snowman's hands and her messy-haired friend brought a cracked pot and pushed it on the figure's head with the little more force than was necessary, so the snowman lost his shape and the broom fell of his palm.

Sadako's lips twitched into a little smile, because the snowman now reminded her a sumo wrestler. But the students put him back in order in no time and then stopped to admire their creation. As soon as they grew tired of it they ran away and the snowbound site had once again become the white wasteland it had been before. The snow had soon covered all the traces of human existence.

The dusk was slowly settling in and windows in the wall on her left side were one by one lighting up, painting yellow rectangles in the snow. She nestled closely against the window and tried to tell apart the silhouettes of three people she saw in the window lit up one floor below.

There were three people sitting around the table, a man and two girls. Her breathing has become more rapid. She couldn't mistake this man for anyone else. It was professor Snape, the Head of her House. And the girls…the one sitting with her back to Sadako had bright-red hair and used a lot of hand motions during her speech. Due to these facts Sadako recognized her as Ginny Weasley.

She had to ponder about the identity of Snape's second companion, because there were at least five girls in Hogwarts who wore their black hair in ponytail, but then the black-haired girl brushed an unruly lock out of her eyes with a characteristic gesture Sadako had known from a drama club. On professor Snape's left side sat Cho Chang.

Professor Snape picked up a paper and started to read its content aloud. Then a lively discussion occurred among the three of them. Sadako thought that it seemed they disagreed on some issue, because Ginny Weasley was viciously pointing her index finger at something on the opposite wall. The conversation afterwards continued for a few more minutes, until professor Snape said something which made the two girls burst into applause.
Then Cho Chang left and came back with three tea mugs. She laid them down on a table and Ginny, who was now half-way facing her, picked one, cringed a little because of the heat and then took a little sip.

Sadako shivered with cold. She would give anything for the chance of being in that warm room, drinking hot tea with people who have deliberately chosen to spend their free time with her… There was a fireplace in her room, but it didn't work. She was afraid to go to Filch with that and she didn't want to bother professor Snape, he surely had a lot of work now, with Christmas coming.

She didn't prevent a single tear from rolling down cheek. The silent sound of the teardrop hitting the floor was the only one in the room.

…

"…so I have read some articles about the activities of our comrades in the Soviet Union and China and I've come to this conclusion – we ought to follow their example and carry out something that will undoubtedly bring great good to our organisation – a purge."
Ginny and Cho changed glances. Severus somehow misinterpreted their action and hastily added:

"Naturally we have to inform the remaining member of the central committee of our party and the remaining member of our party in general, comrade Ernie Macmillan."
"That's not what I had in mind. It's more like I'm interested in what exactly is that… purge," the red-haired spoke up.

"To call yourself a communist, not knowing such a basic term…"

"I don't know your resources, comrade, but our materials don't mention anything like that," Ginny objected and pointed at the wall behind professor Snape with an accusing finger.
There was a small notice board adorned with three big red paper letters H, C and P (Hogwarts Communist Party). In addition to that there were various newspaper scraps and a huge photograph of Mao Zedong.

Next to the notice board stood a humble bookcase containing a few publications, for example communist Manifest or a treatise Let's Make Magic, Comrades, written by the Great Mao himself, both in English and Chinese edition. Someone placed a tiny red vase with gilded mistletoe on the bookcase due to the season and the same went for the poinsettia in the corner.
Snape's eyes skimmed over the notice board and bookcase and then returned to Ginny.

"I see, comrade, but still, such a basic fact! Even a little child knows that a purge is… that a purge is…" professor Snape stopped in the middle of his sentence, "well, it means that… well…what I mean is… it's just…" With increasing despair he tried to find the answer in the faces of his companions, but failed miserably. Especially comrade Weasley had been seemingly enjoying herself.

"All right, so I don't know it either. But ignorance is strength."

"Who said that?" Cho eyed him suspiciously.

"A-hem," Severus hesitantly cleared his throat, "I have no idea, but I thought it appropriate to mention it."

"Comrade, I don't want to spoil your enthusiasm, but as a teacher you really shouldn't support ignorance that much," Ginny remarked and it certainly wasn't the first time when Severus snarled something in the lines of "why on the earth have I allowed her to enter our party, such counter-revolutionary intelligence should be got rid of in the cradle". In the end he just waved his hand impatiently and said:

"All right. Well then, let's get back to our subject matter. For our Soviet and Chinese comrades, the purges were something entirely common. In case you don't believe me I can quote you my resources."

His comrades stayed in silence, but the disbelief on their faces was so obvious that he immediately put on his square reading glasses and read:

" …during those years, extensive purges were carried out…" or here: "…no rank escaped the purges," you see, comrades, this is clearly referring to us, the central committee," said professor Snape with a triumphant smile, because the three of them indeed made up the central committee. And also exactly three quarters of the total number of members of their party.

Ginny was ready to once more point out that Severus still hadn't explained what the purge was about, but Cho chose the exact moment to speak up.
"The purge you say, comrade… I guess it's not a bad idea after all. I remember seeing a commercial for some cleanser, which said that it would ´purge all the dirt´. And that's exactly what we need… have you noticed the dreadful state of the scenes in our theatre club? Or the props? And I'd rather not talk about the costumes – they are so dirty that even the lumpenproletariat wouldn't wear them! Seriously, if we don't do something about it before the premiere, we certainly won't make a good impression on our audience."

"Who cares about what that bunch of counter-revolutionaries thinks anyway," Severus
tried to object, but Ginny firmly stated: "I do."

"And so do I," Cho joined her and Severus was outvoted. He bravely acknowledged his defeat and finally said:

"So tomorrow we shall summon an exceptional meeting of our central committee, during which we shall carry out the general purge of our scenes, props and costumes."
His comrades honoured him with applause.

…

Severus was left alone. He was slowly gathering his papers. All his enthusiasm was gone. He felt that all he was trying to build was pointless and incredibly fake. It was like blowing a huge soap bubble, a bubble that one day must inevitably burst.

He glanced at the notice board and bookcase and a small, sad smile crept over his face. It was all very nice, but… it wasn't true. He didn't say that it wasn't fun and that it didn't give him the chance to have a nice friendly chat about immaterial things from time to time, yet…

There were times when he saw the visions lurking in the darkroom of his suppressed consciousness in which the only thing red was blood, visions, in which he had deserted the only shelter in his life long time ago and now he was running, fleeting away with the hatred on his tracks.

There was a memory of strangely sharp June wind and something white falling to the ground… Those visions had come from some ugly world where no evenings were spent over a cup of warm red tea, where there was no director's stool, from which he could twice a week help to breathe life into ridiculous characters of even more ridiculous play… a play in a play, isn't that absurd?

Suddenly he noticed that while lost in his thoughts he moved to the window and was now watching the snowflakes. The floating snowflakes, thousands of pure white blossoms…
He blinked. This wasn't his thought. He fixed his eyes at the right side of the wall one floor above; there was the only one lit window in the whole wall. He scorned. Even the only one was one too many because as far as he knew, in this wing there were just unused rooms with the dust quietly piling up…

The window didn't shine as brightly as did his own, but he could still distinguish a dark silhouette looming in the dim light. And a moment later he even recognized the owner of the shadow. Severus twitched in surprise, but then realized that although he had always tried to protect Sadako from people who were hurting her, until this moment he didn't have the slightest idea about her whereabouts.

Well, he knew that she had a single bedroom somewhere out of the Dungeons, but what he didn't know was that her dorm surrounded by all those ice-cold rooms. She's probably freezing out there, he thought and decided to ask her about that.

One of his palms had unwillingly rested against the cold window pane. Sadako mimicked his movement, which created some sort of fragile bond between them.

He regretted that the distance between them didn't allow him to see the expression on her face. But then he realized that he could still call it a success because the pale oval of her face wasn't hidden under the veil of her dark hair, which she barely brushed out of her face. Usually she did that only at rehearsals of the drama club – when she was asked to by Cho or himself.

He made an inviting gesture. There's still some tea left.

She stood still for a while and than slowly shook her head.

Severus felt a growing pressure on his chest. She looked so lost, the only light in the long dark wall and that slow sad gesture. He wasn't sure whether he was the right person to do that, but he really wanted to cheer her up. But how?

Suddenly he got an idea. It was purely absurd, but then again what in his life wasn't. He made sure he couldn't be observed and then raised his hands. He used his index and middle fingers to form mock devil horns on his head.

Sadako was staring at him for while. Then she stepped back from the window and disappeared from his view.

…

That will do for now, folks. There is the second part that waits for some final touches. Let me know what you think about this one.