This is the first time I have posted something on for at least six years, so please bear with me while I get out all of my writing kinks and figure out how best to do this. Reviews are greatly appreciated and will be considered carefully, thank you for reading.
October 15th, 2020.
"What seems to be the problem, Mr. Potter?" A light as air voice traveled across the stone tower and settled in around the boy. He was in his fourth year at Hogwarts and at fourteen stood almost as tall as the grown woman that was questioning him. This was the sixth night in a row that Aurora Sinistra had heard footsteps in her area of the castle and finally she had seen fit to be roused from her sleep and find the reason for the late night intrusions. Silently, she had climbed the staircase, trying not to startle whoever it was that felt the need to gaze at her stars that evening. Judging from the look on the boys face he had not at all expected to be met by anyone, let alone one of his Professors, but instead of reprimanding him, she merely passed where he stood and leaned against the edge of what seemed to young Albus to be the top of the world. Despite his talent for Quidditch the height still left him with a slight case of vertigo. His superior, however, did not seem phased.
"Nothing, Professor, I just wanted to get some air," His voice echoed that of his father, and his grandfather before him, and Aurora smiled to herself before looking his direction. He was clinging to what looked like a rather well cared for tapestry, and she noted the look of horror on his face as she studied it, "I'll be going now," he stuttered quickly, and headed for the exit, but she cut him off.
"There is nothing wrong with needing to see the sky more clearly, Albus. Especially when you've seemed so preoccupied lately?" There was a hint of intrusion in her voice and the boy knew instantly that she had read right through him. It was true that the middle child of the infamous Potter boy had been feeling out of place. He had been sorted into Gryffindor three years before, to the surprise of no one, and had excelled in the areas of popularity, academics and sportsmanship, but while everyone else seemed pleased with him he had come to find that he wasn't quite sure where to go from where he was. He was awkward, ungainly, and reminded Aurora very much of a boy she had once known when she was young. Aurora turned and several strands of dark grey hair fell from the bun she had attempted to cage them into. Albus thought suddenly that she looked rather like a ghost. Sadness, no...loneliness, was written on her face.
Despite that, it struck him that something had always been a little more comforting about her than any of the other teachers. They seemed to have been somehow scarred by the war, but Aurora Sinistra seemed to have been softened by it. The boy momentarily considered telling her everything. He had spent night after night up reading about Albus Dumbledore, and he could understand perfectly why the man was revered. Thanks to books by Rita Skeeter and others he had had a window into his world, his family, his achievements and his downfalls. His father had brought him up to believe in the man that gave him his first name. But something he had been told when he was young still haunted him.
"Albus Severus, you were named after two headmasters. One of them was in Slytherin, and he was probably the bravest man I ever met."
No one wanted to talk about the war anymore. Harry Potter had tried to help his children understand when they had questions, but even he seemed plagued by memories. All Albus Severus knew for sure was that the world he was born into was a safe one, a good one, and he had been told all of his life that Severus Snape was one very large reason for that safety and that goodness. No one would tell him why. Yes, he knew that Severus had loved his grandmother so much that he vowed to protect her son, and yes, he knew that he was a spy during the war, but what did that mean? Hadn't he also killed Albus Dumbledore? Hadn't he watched countless people die and done nothing to end it? Noble intentions or not, it was not something that a fourteen year old mind could easily comprehend.
This woman standing before him, however, knew more than she had bothered to tell anyone, Albus was sure of it. No one paid attention to Hogwarts' longest standing Astronomy professor. She was quiet, reclusive, helpful but never personal with her students. The little information he had found on his namesake, however, seemed to point to her. If anyone knew anything about the late Potions master it was her, and she had not seen fit to tell the world.
"He was your friend, wasn't he Professor Sinistra? Snape?" It seemed to both of them as though his words were a ripple in the air, and he could almost see them strike her. The way her relaxed gate shivered slightly in the wind, and the way she reached up to brush curls from her eyes. His name affected her, though he would never understand it. It was something that simultaneously connected and separated them. Aurora Sinistra was the name he found to be the only one mentioned in the will of her colleague. She was the only one approached by anyone (and hounded by Skeeter) when it came to books about his life, but not one existed. It seemed that even though it had been more than twenty years since he had passed she was protecting him, though what from or why, Albus could not say, "He left you everything he owned," Her blue eyes flickered to him, surprised that he knew that information, "You must've been close."
"He was my best friend," Aurora admitted, nodding slightly. It was obvious there was more in her, sitting at the tip of her tongue and begging to be told, but she wouldn't say. She couldn't bring herself to talk about it. To her, it would have been like giving him away to someone else. If she could only keep his story...their story inside of her, maybe he would never be gone. Not really, "...and he was a great man," she murmured, "maybe someday you will know more of him, Mr. Potter, and you will understand, but now is not the time."
Suddenly the boy felt the deep need to apologise, but almost as soon as he opened his mouth she interrupted him, "I don't blame you for wanting to know, you deserve to, but for tonight you should rest. Your house has late Astronomy classes tomorrow."
"Yes Professor," Albus nodded convincingly and tucked his cloak under his arm, "Thank you for not being upset with me." The woman shook her head and smiled softly ,turning her back to him and her gaze to the heavens. He stood there for a few more seconds, watching her curiously, and then slipped the cloak over his shoulders and vanished into the darkness.
Aurora, for her part, had kept herself intact throughout their conversation, but once the boy was gone it seemed the night sky might have easily swallowed her whole. She drew her arms around herself and squeezed gently, inhaling the thick night air and wondering why after all that time she couldn't let him go. You see, the story of Severus Snape was just as much the story of Aurora Sinistra, but the bookish girl and private woman had been lost in the shadows of history, and now only she really knew just how much their lives had been intertwined. She closed her eyes and fought the burning tears that threatened to spill from behind them. A shaky hand touched the cool stone of the tower and somewhere in the great sky above her a star finally lost its shine.
"I miss you," she whispered, but it seemed that no one heard.