The Liber Severi
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)
Author's Notes:
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.
Cassandra Houston
Chapter One: The Third Year
"Amethyst Black!"
Amethyst stepped forward, took the Sorting Hat off of the stool and sat down, placing it on her head. It was actually dark and somehow quiet inside the hat. You would never know there were all those people out there!
"Hmmmm, this will be difficult." A voice said in her ear. "Hufflepuff? No, that will never do. You are too adventurous for that. I see cunning. I see a very cunning girl indeed! Perhaps Slytherin." The Hat paused.
Amethyst Rayne Black felt herself beginning to panic. "Away from Sirius? I couldn't bear it!" she screamed in her head.
"Yesssssssss." The Sorting Hat purred. "You would also do wonderfully in Gryffindor. But ..........." Amethyst heard the Sorting Hat sigh. "Very well. Slytherin's loss, this time." The brim of the hat opened and shouted:
"Gryffindor!"
Amethyst took the hat off and returned it to the stool. She walked to the enthusiastically applauding Gryffindor table and sat next to her brother. Smiling broadly and laughing, Sirius Black hugged his baby sister. She sat and relaxed as the next name was called. She looked across the room to the Slytherin table. Her eyes fell on a pale boy with oily hair.
Amethyst clapped as the red haired boy whose name she'd missed became a Hufflepuff. She'd been too wrapped up in the memories of her own sorting. She sat and stared across the room towards Severus Snape, who always played a part in her memories, for some unknown reason.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed, as her older brother poked her in the ribs. "What'd you do that for?" she asked, a bit sharper than she intended.
Sirius was looking at her closely. "Where were you? The Astronomy Tower?" He laughed.
"Wha? No, of course not. I was just thinking of my own Sorting is all." She stammered.
Sirius looked where her gaze had been. "Well, I don't remember you becoming a Slytherin." He said, glaring over at the Slytherin table.
"Oh, Sirius!" she said, sounding exasperated. She didn't like talking about Slytherins, especially not with her brother and his band of merry men. They hated Slytherins. They said the whole bunch of them weren't worth anything.
Fortunately, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, her brothers' best friends, began tossing peanuts at her brother, distracting him from her.
Her head was full of worries as she joined the other Gryffindors on their way up to the Tower and bed. She had almost been held back last year. Her Potions mark was so low she just barely passed the class. She worried so much she barely slept that night.
In the morning, Professor McGonagall stopped her in the Great Hall before breakfast. "Miss Black, would you please come with me."
Amethyst followed Professor McGonagall up to her office, her stomach writhing. Upon entering, she spotted Professor Dumbledore and almost fainted. She must be in serious trouble!
"Please sit down, Miss Black." Professor Dumbledore said, motioning to a large chair. Amethyst barely made it. She collapsed into the chair fearing the worse. She wondered if something might have happened to her father. No. Sirius would be here, then.
"We have been looking over your grades, Miss Black and, frankly, we are worried." Professor McGonagall said, stiffly.
Amethyst could only nod. They weren't going to set her back now were they? She had passed the class. Just barely, but she'd passed.
"We have been thinking that you may need a tutor to aid you in your studies" Professor McGonagall said, looking down her nose at Amethyst. "Professor Dumbledore has found you such a tutor." She went on. She did not sound pleased about the idea.
"Oh." Amethyst managed. The idea of someone to help her with Potions sounded wonderful to Amethyst. She hardly ever asked for help. Her brother had tried, but he didn't have much time anymore. He and his friends were always hanging out.
"You will go down to the dungeons this afternoon and begin sessions once a week." Dumbledore was saying. "Dungeon Ten. Your tutor will meet you there."
Dungeon Ten was deep under the school and Amethyst had never been there. She'd find it though, if it meant a chance of passing Potions this year with a decent grade. She nodded, and then found her voice. "Thank you Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall." She said.
Professor McGonagall's lips thinned. "Don't thank me yet, Miss Black." She said, stiffly.
Dumbledore silenced her with a look. Amethyst was a bit confused, but didn't ask what the Professor meant. She was taken down to breakfast with them and hurried over to the table where she sat beside her brother.
"What did they want with you?" He asked, looking stern.
"Leave the kid alone." James said, looking at Sirius and frowning.
Amethyst felt the colour come into her cheeks. "I'm not a kid." She said. "I'm thirteen years old. A Third Year!"
"Of course you are." Remus Lupin said to her, and not in a condescending way either. "You're probably more mature than all us Fifth Years put together." And he winked at her.
Amethyst didn't take this as an insult. She smiled back at Remus. It was sort of like having four brothers instead of just the one. They looked out for her, she knew, when they had time. She was grateful.
That afternoon, she headed down to Dungeon Ten after dinner. She was worried she would be late, and sure enough it didn't take too long before she was convinced she was lost. She paused before an unmarked door and listened. Footsteps approached her. She peered into the darkness, trying to see who it could be.
It was Severus Snape. She knew him on sight because her brother and his friends were always talking about him. How nosy he was, and jealous of James. Jealous of all of them really.
Amethyst cleared her throat. "Could you tell me how to get to Dungeon Ten,
please?"
Severus Snape was a head and shoulders taller than she was. He loomed over her and seemed to glare at her. "You're Sirius Blacks sister." It wasn't a question.
"Yes. I'm supposed to meet someone here. At seven o'clock." She said. "Could you tell me how to get to Dungeon Ten, please?"
"You are in front of Dungeon Ten." Severus said, waving to the door. "But you'll
need the key, won't you?"
Amethyst felt instead of saw the sarcastic smile on the face of this Fifth Year Slytherin. "My tutor will have it." she said, and regretted the words immediately. She hadn't planned to admit to anyone she was in need of tutoring and she had gone and told the one person who was sure to somehow use it against her brother. Sirius had told her how Severus was always trying to get in their inner circle and maybe he'd try to use the information to get there. Blackmail.
Severus smirked. He reached into the pocket of his robes and came up with a key on a chain. "And he does."
Amethyst gaped at him. Severus Snape was going to be her tutor? She had been expecting a Gryffindor. This was what Professor McGonagall had meant when she'd said not to thank her.
Severus unlocked and opened the door. He waved her through and closed it behind them. He lit the torches along the wall with a wave of his wand. "I am Severus Snape, but you already know that, don't you?" He looked down at her.
Amethyst did not answer. She didn't have to; she knew it was a rhetorical question.
Severus shook his head as he approached a caldron on a table. "Imagine me, tutoring the little sister of Sirius Black." He said. "My life is now complete." He drawled, sarcasm thick in every syllable.
Amethyst spoke to the thin back. "Listen," she said, trying to sound tougher than she felt. "Don't go around trying to use the fact that I am an idiot in Potions against my brother."
Severus turned to face her. "I wouldn't dream of it." he said. "Really." He added, sounding more sincere. "Your brother would probably pound me or something if he knew I'd been so close to his precious sister. Him and that gang of his." He looked at her closely. "No, I think this should remain as secret and silent as we can possibly make it. Dumbledore and McGonagall know what they're doing." He said. He waved to the caldron behind him. "Agreed. Shall we continue?"
Amethyst nodded; though she didn't think her brother would pound Severus Snape if he found out he was tutoring her -- would he?
By the end of a month, it was obvious to both of them that Amethyst had some sort of block about potions. She'd melted three caldrons and blown one up in their first three lessons.
"Are you all right?" Severus helped Amethyst off the floor, where they had been thrown when the caldron exploded.
Amethyst walked over to the table where the cauldron's remains were still smoking. As she held her arms to steady their shaking, she discovered that her skin was very dry. Similarly, when she ran her fingers through it, her hair was dry as a bone, even though a potion to prevent thirst had drenched them both. "I'm fine." She wailed, covering her face in her hands and crying.
Severus looked extremely uncomfortable. He went to drag his fingers through his own hair only to find it, too was dry -- not simply in the sense of an absence of wetness, but really dry, not at all oily.
He was rubbing the top of his head trying to understand what had just happened when he was brought back to earth by the huge sob hefted by Amethyst. "I'll fail!" she cried. "I'll never figure this out!"
"Amethyst." He called over her sobs. She didn't appear to hear him. He called her again and again. He walked behind her and called her. She spun around and found herself facing his chest. They both backed up quickly.
"Yes." She sobbed, whipping her face with her hand.
Severus handed her a handkerchief. "You didn't exactly fail, you know." He said, trying to smile. She made him so nervous; he was surprised he hadn't managed to blow something up. She was extremely pretty. It was hard to imagine that she was related to that arrogant Sirius.
Amethyst sniffed, taking the handkerchief and blowing her nose. "What?" She said. She looked wildly around the room. "The potion was supposed to explode?"
"Good point." Severus Snape smiled the first genuine smile Amethyst had ever seen on his face. She thought it looked rather nice.
Suddenly he seemed to realise what he was doing and quickly removed the smile from his face. "Look at me... My hair." He ran his fingers through it again. "It seems your Anti-Thirst potion has some sort of drying property. It would have to have to in order to dry out my hair."
Amethyst burst out laughing. Between guffaws, she tried to apologise. "Oh! I'm so sorry Severus. I don't mean to laugh at you! But you're right. I guess I'm not so bad at Potions after all."
Severus laughed long with her. It was the first time either had laughed in the others presence. Getting himself under control, Severus said. "What exactly did you do?"
Amethyst looked at him, gaining control of herself. "I, well, I followed your instructions." She said.
Severus was on his knees with some old rags he'd taken from a table near the door. He looked up when she said this. "No you didn't, or the potion wouldn't have exploded." He said simply. He mopped up the mess and transferred it to a glass jar. "I'm going to analyze this," he said. "Maybe I can make sense of it."
He looked around the room. His eyes landed on a shelf with many potions ingredients upon it. He slowly approached the shelf for a closer look, then went to the table with the exploded caldron and peered inside. He picked a broken jar off of the floor and read the label. He picked up another. Then another.
"I think it probably had something to do with this Sand Dollar Dust. I'll find out later." He looked at his watch. "Tell you what. We won't experiment with potions for a little while? Lets talk theory, all right?" He looked at Amethyst. "Why do you keep making stupid mistakes?"
Amethyst turned to the table and began clearing the exploded caldron off of it. She found that she actually wasn't insulted by the question. She was making stupid mistakes. It wasn't an insult, she decided, simply a statement. Once the table was cleared, she hopped on it and looked at her hands.
"I wish I knew." She said. "I'm not Prefect material, but I'm not stupid either, if you can believe that." She looked at Severus, who was two tables away nodding his head. Amethyst wondered why he kept such a great distance between himself and her. Because of her brother and his friends? She rubbed her forehead, thinking hard.
"Sirius has always been the smart one." She said slowly, an idea coming to her. "He's charming and smart and handsome and popular. I'm no bubblehead, but I'm none of the things my brother is. Maybe I'm sabotaging myself somehow." She mused. "Negative attention is better than none at all, right?"
Severus stared at her. He couldn't believe his ears. Amethyst was the most charming and beautiful creature he'd ever seen. She had plenty of the boys at school looking at her, but her brother kept them at a distance. And except for her Potions grades, McGonagall had already told him that she would have been top of her class. But he only nodded. He could relate to what she was saying. They seemed to have something in common after all.
He chuckled. "Some would say so. Yes." He locked eyes with her for a moment and his stomach flopped.
They spent their tutoring lessons just talking from then until just before Christmas. At the end of their last lesson before the Holidays Severus talked to Amethyst about her progress:
"I hear your doing better in Potions class." He said. He'd managed to move from two tables away to one. Amethyst took that to mean he was feeling more comfortable with her.
She nodded. She was suddenly afraid the tutoring lessons would end. She didn't want that, somehow. "I'm causing less explosions, that's for sure." She looked at him. "But I still need some hands-on experience."
"We'll start mixing ingredients again when classes start up again in January." He told her. "I don't think you'll blow up any more caldrons."
She smiled at him. They had learned a great deal about each other. Amethyst was willing to say that Severus was even a friend to her, although she doubted she'd ever admit this in public. Especially to Sirius, James, Remus and Peter.
"Good." She said. She went into the pocket of her robes and brought out the package she'd brought for him. "I will be going home tomorrow, and I won't see you on Christmas." She said, holding out the package. "So I wanted to give this to you now. Merry Christmas."
Severus stared at the package for so long, Amethyst was sure he was going to refuse it. Then, slowly, he walked over and took it. Amethyst noticed his hands were trembling as he opened the package and looked inside.
She had never returned the handkerchief he'd given her that day she'd blown up the caldron. She was now giving him three replacements. They were light green, hemmed with silver. The Slytherin house colours. He unfolded them. Inside was a medium sized vial. A potion. He looked at her, questioning.
"Well, I lost your handkerchief." She lied. She hadn't wanted to return it. "I'm giving you three to replace them. One for each month you've put up with my stupidity."
"You aren't stupid." He snapped, angrily. "Never let me hear you saying that again!"
"Alright, I'm sorry." Amethyst said, a bit taken aback by his anger. "The potion is the Hair Drying Potion. I noticed you were using the potion we made." And she looked away quickly.
She was right, in a way. Severus had found out what the potion had been made of and made himself a little. He only used it when he was going to see her. He didn't want her thinking of him as that slimy, oily haired Snape, like her brother and his friends did.
"You made this on your own?" He asked. He sounded impressed.
"Yes. I broke in here earlier this week and made it. I made the handkerchiefs myself too. Got the material in Hogsmeade."
Severus was speechless. He stood staring down at her. "Thank you." He whispered. "I have never received a present from another student before." He touched the top of her head, tentatively. "Never mind the Potions Mistress Amethyst Black." He said. He had thought of saying something like "The prettiest girl in the whole school" but found he didn't have the nerve.
Amethyst beamed at him. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. Severus tensed, but she did not let go for a long moment. "I couldn't have done any of it without you, Severus!" she said into his robes.
When she had let him go, she noticed his face was a deep red. He fumbled in his pocket and fished out a package of his own. He handed it to her.
She smiled as she accepted it. Inside were three very long hair ribbons in the Gryffindor colours of red and gold. Her jaw dropped.
"One for each month." Severus said, "It would appear we had similar thoughts."
His voice was shaking. "You don't -"
"I love them." She said, taking one of the ribbons and putting the other two into her pocket. She took the ribbon and tied it in her hair, which flowed past her hips. Severus thought she looked radiant.
She hugged him again and this time he managed to put his arms around her loosely. She looked up at him while still in his arms and said, "Thank you so much, Severus. I will treasure this always."
He resisted the urge to kiss her, remembering who her brother was.
As per their agreement, they did not acknowledge each other on the Hogwarts Express on the way home for the Christmas holidays, but Severus overheard several Gryffindor girls loudly admiring the ribbon he'd given her, which she'd worked into her long plait. He grinned to himself when she said she liked it so much, she would be wearing her hair like that often.
By the time the Easter holidays rolled around, Severus was comfortable enough to stand right beside Amethyst while they mixed potion after potion in Dungeon Ten. They learned a great deal about each other during these sessions, talking both about their families and potions. Besides exchanging birthdays, which ironically were the same day, although he was two years older than she was, Amethyst learned that Severus has a very bad home life. His mother was dead and his father was abusive. She suspected that his father had something to do with his mother's death, though Severus never confirmed this. Severus learned that Amethyst's mother was also dead, although she had not died the same way his had. He also learned that her mother had been a Slytherin; something that she said was a deep secret in the family. Her father had been a Gryffindor.
Final exams loomed. Amethyst seemed on the verge of some sort of nervous collapse. Severus assured her constantly that she would do wonderfully with her Potions. They met in Dungeon Ten after her exam, which she felt very good about. The results would be out in a week. Since exams were over there was no reason for them to continue their tutoring sessions, they said good-bye.
On June the eighth, the day the exam results came out, Severus received an owl over breakfast. He had been looking over his exam results and thinking about Amethyst's. He'd done wonderfully, as expected, but found no joy in it. No one would be pleased. There was no one to please. A large owl landed in the middle of his breakfast plate. The note attached read:
Meet D5 4 - A
He grinned.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Came a drawling voice from over his shoulder. Lucius Malfoy had read the note over his shoulder.
Snape frowned. Lucius Malfoy was becoming more and more of an annoyance. "Aren't you going to read your exam results, Lucius?" he asked, avoiding the question. Beside Lucius, Narcissa giggled.
"Oh shut up," Lucius snapped at her, completely distracted.
The owl had taken flight and was replaced with another. Severus took this note and read:
Happy Birthday - Father
Severus tore it up and stuffed it in the pitcher of pumpkin juice. He looked across the room at the Gryffindor table. Amethyst was leaning against her brothers' shoulder and crying! She couldn't have failed her exams. She couldn't have! But he couldn't go over there now. Her brother, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin and Lily Evans, surrounded Amethyst. He sighed and resolved to wait until four o'clock and see her in Dungeon Ten.
He spent the day with Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and a bunch of other simpering idiots he'd rather not be bothered with today. His temper flared more than usual and he took perverse pleasure with throwing Lucius Malfoy into the lake with a well-placed Cannon Charm. He watched, laughing, while Lucius swam back to shore, being grabbed more than once by the various things that lived in the lake.
He managed to throw the gang off his back before the Leaving Feast and went straight to Dungeon Ten. Amethyst was on the far side of the room.
"Are you all right?" He asked first thing. "I saw you crying over breakfast."
She turned at the sound of his voice. She was beaming. "I got one hundred and ten percent!" She shouted. "Severus, I passed!" and she ran across the room and threw herself into his arms. Not thinking, just reacting, Severus returned the embrace and when she looked up at him, he kissed her for the first time.
The kiss lingered. When they finally broke the kiss, they did not break their bodies apart. They remained in each other's arms staring at each other. "I'm sorry." Severus suddenly stammered, breaking the bond and backing away. "I shouldn't have done that. I got carried away. I'm sorry."
Amethyst grabbed his hand. "Please don't, Severus. Don't be sorry." She said, pulling him back towards her. She did not wrap her arms around him this time, but looked up into his black eyes. She blinked. "I was crying because I passed. I was so relieved. Of course everyone thought I'd gone mad, but, there you go." She smiled. "And I owe it all to you."
Severus shook his head, but Amethyst grabbed his chin and stopped the movement. "I do." She said. "You helped me get over my phobia about potions. You are a wonderful friend, Severus."
Severus gaped at her. She kissed him. When they broke apart, she bit her lower lip. "I like kissing you. Not that I've ever kissed anyone like that before, mind." She looked at him thoughtfully.
"Better not tell your brother that." Severus said, thinking of the beating he'd get if Sirius ever found out he'd just kissed his sister, not once, but twice.
Amethyst snorted. "I no longer care what my brother thinks." She said defiantly. "I'm a young woman now, fourteen years old and can make my own decisions who I like and who I don't."
Severus broke into a smile. "That reminds me. I needed an opportunity to give you this." he pulled a small package out of the pocket of his robes. "Happy birthday, Amethyst."
She opened it and gasped at the lovely, golf ball sized amethyst inside. She took it and looked at it closely. She looked up and saw Severus had his hand on the door, ready to open it.
"Severus," she said. "Where are you going?"
"We have had our last tutoring session. I'm not your tutor anymore and we hardly dare to be," he paused. "Friends."
"Are you saying good-bye to me?" Amethyst said; her jaw slacked.
Severus took his hand from the door and took her in his arms again. "Yes." He said. "You have taught me more than you know, Amethyst Black." And he kissed her one more time then took her long braid and laid it over her shoulder. He ran his finger along the braid, feeling the ribbon he'd given her as well as her silky black hair. Then he turned and left the room.
Liber I - Severus Snape's True Love
Copyright (c) 2001 by Cassandra Houston
Illustrations by Gabriel (http://www.angelfire.com/art/angelgabriel/)
Author's Notes:
Most of the characters within belong to JK Rowling. Amethyst Rayne Black Snape, Lapis Meaker and some others belong to me, Cassandra Houston. I will not accept money for this book, nor any others made with the wonderful characters JK Rowling has created. I am only putting on paper my interpretation and theory of what the Rowling characters may have been like before the Harry Potter series and what they may be like after. I am not trying to insult or steal from Rowling. I am only having fun here.
If you like what you read (and I certainly hope you do), please feel free to forward a copy of this ebook along to friends, family and anyone else who may enjoy its contents.
I must take the time here to thank Gabriel. Gabriel! You are a saint and I am forever in your debt!
I now give you Severus Snape's True Love, the first in the Liber Severi series.
Cassandra Houston
Chapter One: The Third Year
"Amethyst Black!"
Amethyst stepped forward, took the Sorting Hat off of the stool and sat down, placing it on her head. It was actually dark and somehow quiet inside the hat. You would never know there were all those people out there!
"Hmmmm, this will be difficult." A voice said in her ear. "Hufflepuff? No, that will never do. You are too adventurous for that. I see cunning. I see a very cunning girl indeed! Perhaps Slytherin." The Hat paused.
Amethyst Rayne Black felt herself beginning to panic. "Away from Sirius? I couldn't bear it!" she screamed in her head.
"Yesssssssss." The Sorting Hat purred. "You would also do wonderfully in Gryffindor. But ..........." Amethyst heard the Sorting Hat sigh. "Very well. Slytherin's loss, this time." The brim of the hat opened and shouted:
"Gryffindor!"
Amethyst took the hat off and returned it to the stool. She walked to the enthusiastically applauding Gryffindor table and sat next to her brother. Smiling broadly and laughing, Sirius Black hugged his baby sister. She sat and relaxed as the next name was called. She looked across the room to the Slytherin table. Her eyes fell on a pale boy with oily hair.
Amethyst clapped as the red haired boy whose name she'd missed became a Hufflepuff. She'd been too wrapped up in the memories of her own sorting. She sat and stared across the room towards Severus Snape, who always played a part in her memories, for some unknown reason.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed, as her older brother poked her in the ribs. "What'd you do that for?" she asked, a bit sharper than she intended.
Sirius was looking at her closely. "Where were you? The Astronomy Tower?" He laughed.
"Wha? No, of course not. I was just thinking of my own Sorting is all." She stammered.
Sirius looked where her gaze had been. "Well, I don't remember you becoming a Slytherin." He said, glaring over at the Slytherin table.
"Oh, Sirius!" she said, sounding exasperated. She didn't like talking about Slytherins, especially not with her brother and his band of merry men. They hated Slytherins. They said the whole bunch of them weren't worth anything.
Fortunately, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, her brothers' best friends, began tossing peanuts at her brother, distracting him from her.
Her head was full of worries as she joined the other Gryffindors on their way up to the Tower and bed. She had almost been held back last year. Her Potions mark was so low she just barely passed the class. She worried so much she barely slept that night.
In the morning, Professor McGonagall stopped her in the Great Hall before breakfast. "Miss Black, would you please come with me."
Amethyst followed Professor McGonagall up to her office, her stomach writhing. Upon entering, she spotted Professor Dumbledore and almost fainted. She must be in serious trouble!
"Please sit down, Miss Black." Professor Dumbledore said, motioning to a large chair. Amethyst barely made it. She collapsed into the chair fearing the worse. She wondered if something might have happened to her father. No. Sirius would be here, then.
"We have been looking over your grades, Miss Black and, frankly, we are worried." Professor McGonagall said, stiffly.
Amethyst could only nod. They weren't going to set her back now were they? She had passed the class. Just barely, but she'd passed.
"We have been thinking that you may need a tutor to aid you in your studies" Professor McGonagall said, looking down her nose at Amethyst. "Professor Dumbledore has found you such a tutor." She went on. She did not sound pleased about the idea.
"Oh." Amethyst managed. The idea of someone to help her with Potions sounded wonderful to Amethyst. She hardly ever asked for help. Her brother had tried, but he didn't have much time anymore. He and his friends were always hanging out.
"You will go down to the dungeons this afternoon and begin sessions once a week." Dumbledore was saying. "Dungeon Ten. Your tutor will meet you there."
Dungeon Ten was deep under the school and Amethyst had never been there. She'd find it though, if it meant a chance of passing Potions this year with a decent grade. She nodded, and then found her voice. "Thank you Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall." She said.
Professor McGonagall's lips thinned. "Don't thank me yet, Miss Black." She said, stiffly.
Dumbledore silenced her with a look. Amethyst was a bit confused, but didn't ask what the Professor meant. She was taken down to breakfast with them and hurried over to the table where she sat beside her brother.
"What did they want with you?" He asked, looking stern.
"Leave the kid alone." James said, looking at Sirius and frowning.
Amethyst felt the colour come into her cheeks. "I'm not a kid." She said. "I'm thirteen years old. A Third Year!"
"Of course you are." Remus Lupin said to her, and not in a condescending way either. "You're probably more mature than all us Fifth Years put together." And he winked at her.
Amethyst didn't take this as an insult. She smiled back at Remus. It was sort of like having four brothers instead of just the one. They looked out for her, she knew, when they had time. She was grateful.
That afternoon, she headed down to Dungeon Ten after dinner. She was worried she would be late, and sure enough it didn't take too long before she was convinced she was lost. She paused before an unmarked door and listened. Footsteps approached her. She peered into the darkness, trying to see who it could be.
It was Severus Snape. She knew him on sight because her brother and his friends were always talking about him. How nosy he was, and jealous of James. Jealous of all of them really.
Amethyst cleared her throat. "Could you tell me how to get to Dungeon Ten,
please?"
Severus Snape was a head and shoulders taller than she was. He loomed over her and seemed to glare at her. "You're Sirius Blacks sister." It wasn't a question.
"Yes. I'm supposed to meet someone here. At seven o'clock." She said. "Could you tell me how to get to Dungeon Ten, please?"
"You are in front of Dungeon Ten." Severus said, waving to the door. "But you'll
need the key, won't you?"
Amethyst felt instead of saw the sarcastic smile on the face of this Fifth Year Slytherin. "My tutor will have it." she said, and regretted the words immediately. She hadn't planned to admit to anyone she was in need of tutoring and she had gone and told the one person who was sure to somehow use it against her brother. Sirius had told her how Severus was always trying to get in their inner circle and maybe he'd try to use the information to get there. Blackmail.
Severus smirked. He reached into the pocket of his robes and came up with a key on a chain. "And he does."
Amethyst gaped at him. Severus Snape was going to be her tutor? She had been expecting a Gryffindor. This was what Professor McGonagall had meant when she'd said not to thank her.
Severus unlocked and opened the door. He waved her through and closed it behind them. He lit the torches along the wall with a wave of his wand. "I am Severus Snape, but you already know that, don't you?" He looked down at her.
Amethyst did not answer. She didn't have to; she knew it was a rhetorical question.
Severus shook his head as he approached a caldron on a table. "Imagine me, tutoring the little sister of Sirius Black." He said. "My life is now complete." He drawled, sarcasm thick in every syllable.
Amethyst spoke to the thin back. "Listen," she said, trying to sound tougher than she felt. "Don't go around trying to use the fact that I am an idiot in Potions against my brother."
Severus turned to face her. "I wouldn't dream of it." he said. "Really." He added, sounding more sincere. "Your brother would probably pound me or something if he knew I'd been so close to his precious sister. Him and that gang of his." He looked at her closely. "No, I think this should remain as secret and silent as we can possibly make it. Dumbledore and McGonagall know what they're doing." He said. He waved to the caldron behind him. "Agreed. Shall we continue?"
Amethyst nodded; though she didn't think her brother would pound Severus Snape if he found out he was tutoring her -- would he?
By the end of a month, it was obvious to both of them that Amethyst had some sort of block about potions. She'd melted three caldrons and blown one up in their first three lessons.
"Are you all right?" Severus helped Amethyst off the floor, where they had been thrown when the caldron exploded.
Amethyst walked over to the table where the cauldron's remains were still smoking. As she held her arms to steady their shaking, she discovered that her skin was very dry. Similarly, when she ran her fingers through it, her hair was dry as a bone, even though a potion to prevent thirst had drenched them both. "I'm fine." She wailed, covering her face in her hands and crying.
Severus looked extremely uncomfortable. He went to drag his fingers through his own hair only to find it, too was dry -- not simply in the sense of an absence of wetness, but really dry, not at all oily.
He was rubbing the top of his head trying to understand what had just happened when he was brought back to earth by the huge sob hefted by Amethyst. "I'll fail!" she cried. "I'll never figure this out!"
"Amethyst." He called over her sobs. She didn't appear to hear him. He called her again and again. He walked behind her and called her. She spun around and found herself facing his chest. They both backed up quickly.
"Yes." She sobbed, whipping her face with her hand.
Severus handed her a handkerchief. "You didn't exactly fail, you know." He said, trying to smile. She made him so nervous; he was surprised he hadn't managed to blow something up. She was extremely pretty. It was hard to imagine that she was related to that arrogant Sirius.
Amethyst sniffed, taking the handkerchief and blowing her nose. "What?" She said. She looked wildly around the room. "The potion was supposed to explode?"
"Good point." Severus Snape smiled the first genuine smile Amethyst had ever seen on his face. She thought it looked rather nice.
Suddenly he seemed to realise what he was doing and quickly removed the smile from his face. "Look at me... My hair." He ran his fingers through it again. "It seems your Anti-Thirst potion has some sort of drying property. It would have to have to in order to dry out my hair."
Amethyst burst out laughing. Between guffaws, she tried to apologise. "Oh! I'm so sorry Severus. I don't mean to laugh at you! But you're right. I guess I'm not so bad at Potions after all."
Severus laughed long with her. It was the first time either had laughed in the others presence. Getting himself under control, Severus said. "What exactly did you do?"
Amethyst looked at him, gaining control of herself. "I, well, I followed your instructions." She said.
Severus was on his knees with some old rags he'd taken from a table near the door. He looked up when she said this. "No you didn't, or the potion wouldn't have exploded." He said simply. He mopped up the mess and transferred it to a glass jar. "I'm going to analyze this," he said. "Maybe I can make sense of it."
He looked around the room. His eyes landed on a shelf with many potions ingredients upon it. He slowly approached the shelf for a closer look, then went to the table with the exploded caldron and peered inside. He picked a broken jar off of the floor and read the label. He picked up another. Then another.
"I think it probably had something to do with this Sand Dollar Dust. I'll find out later." He looked at his watch. "Tell you what. We won't experiment with potions for a little while? Lets talk theory, all right?" He looked at Amethyst. "Why do you keep making stupid mistakes?"
Amethyst turned to the table and began clearing the exploded caldron off of it. She found that she actually wasn't insulted by the question. She was making stupid mistakes. It wasn't an insult, she decided, simply a statement. Once the table was cleared, she hopped on it and looked at her hands.
"I wish I knew." She said. "I'm not Prefect material, but I'm not stupid either, if you can believe that." She looked at Severus, who was two tables away nodding his head. Amethyst wondered why he kept such a great distance between himself and her. Because of her brother and his friends? She rubbed her forehead, thinking hard.
"Sirius has always been the smart one." She said slowly, an idea coming to her. "He's charming and smart and handsome and popular. I'm no bubblehead, but I'm none of the things my brother is. Maybe I'm sabotaging myself somehow." She mused. "Negative attention is better than none at all, right?"
Severus stared at her. He couldn't believe his ears. Amethyst was the most charming and beautiful creature he'd ever seen. She had plenty of the boys at school looking at her, but her brother kept them at a distance. And except for her Potions grades, McGonagall had already told him that she would have been top of her class. But he only nodded. He could relate to what she was saying. They seemed to have something in common after all.
He chuckled. "Some would say so. Yes." He locked eyes with her for a moment and his stomach flopped.
They spent their tutoring lessons just talking from then until just before Christmas. At the end of their last lesson before the Holidays Severus talked to Amethyst about her progress:
"I hear your doing better in Potions class." He said. He'd managed to move from two tables away to one. Amethyst took that to mean he was feeling more comfortable with her.
She nodded. She was suddenly afraid the tutoring lessons would end. She didn't want that, somehow. "I'm causing less explosions, that's for sure." She looked at him. "But I still need some hands-on experience."
"We'll start mixing ingredients again when classes start up again in January." He told her. "I don't think you'll blow up any more caldrons."
She smiled at him. They had learned a great deal about each other. Amethyst was willing to say that Severus was even a friend to her, although she doubted she'd ever admit this in public. Especially to Sirius, James, Remus and Peter.
"Good." She said. She went into the pocket of her robes and brought out the package she'd brought for him. "I will be going home tomorrow, and I won't see you on Christmas." She said, holding out the package. "So I wanted to give this to you now. Merry Christmas."
Severus stared at the package for so long, Amethyst was sure he was going to refuse it. Then, slowly, he walked over and took it. Amethyst noticed his hands were trembling as he opened the package and looked inside.
She had never returned the handkerchief he'd given her that day she'd blown up the caldron. She was now giving him three replacements. They were light green, hemmed with silver. The Slytherin house colours. He unfolded them. Inside was a medium sized vial. A potion. He looked at her, questioning.
"Well, I lost your handkerchief." She lied. She hadn't wanted to return it. "I'm giving you three to replace them. One for each month you've put up with my stupidity."
"You aren't stupid." He snapped, angrily. "Never let me hear you saying that again!"
"Alright, I'm sorry." Amethyst said, a bit taken aback by his anger. "The potion is the Hair Drying Potion. I noticed you were using the potion we made." And she looked away quickly.
She was right, in a way. Severus had found out what the potion had been made of and made himself a little. He only used it when he was going to see her. He didn't want her thinking of him as that slimy, oily haired Snape, like her brother and his friends did.
"You made this on your own?" He asked. He sounded impressed.
"Yes. I broke in here earlier this week and made it. I made the handkerchiefs myself too. Got the material in Hogsmeade."
Severus was speechless. He stood staring down at her. "Thank you." He whispered. "I have never received a present from another student before." He touched the top of her head, tentatively. "Never mind the Potions Mistress Amethyst Black." He said. He had thought of saying something like "The prettiest girl in the whole school" but found he didn't have the nerve.
Amethyst beamed at him. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. Severus tensed, but she did not let go for a long moment. "I couldn't have done any of it without you, Severus!" she said into his robes.
When she had let him go, she noticed his face was a deep red. He fumbled in his pocket and fished out a package of his own. He handed it to her.
She smiled as she accepted it. Inside were three very long hair ribbons in the Gryffindor colours of red and gold. Her jaw dropped.
"One for each month." Severus said, "It would appear we had similar thoughts."
His voice was shaking. "You don't -"
"I love them." She said, taking one of the ribbons and putting the other two into her pocket. She took the ribbon and tied it in her hair, which flowed past her hips. Severus thought she looked radiant.
She hugged him again and this time he managed to put his arms around her loosely. She looked up at him while still in his arms and said, "Thank you so much, Severus. I will treasure this always."
He resisted the urge to kiss her, remembering who her brother was.
As per their agreement, they did not acknowledge each other on the Hogwarts Express on the way home for the Christmas holidays, but Severus overheard several Gryffindor girls loudly admiring the ribbon he'd given her, which she'd worked into her long plait. He grinned to himself when she said she liked it so much, she would be wearing her hair like that often.
By the time the Easter holidays rolled around, Severus was comfortable enough to stand right beside Amethyst while they mixed potion after potion in Dungeon Ten. They learned a great deal about each other during these sessions, talking both about their families and potions. Besides exchanging birthdays, which ironically were the same day, although he was two years older than she was, Amethyst learned that Severus has a very bad home life. His mother was dead and his father was abusive. She suspected that his father had something to do with his mother's death, though Severus never confirmed this. Severus learned that Amethyst's mother was also dead, although she had not died the same way his had. He also learned that her mother had been a Slytherin; something that she said was a deep secret in the family. Her father had been a Gryffindor.
Final exams loomed. Amethyst seemed on the verge of some sort of nervous collapse. Severus assured her constantly that she would do wonderfully with her Potions. They met in Dungeon Ten after her exam, which she felt very good about. The results would be out in a week. Since exams were over there was no reason for them to continue their tutoring sessions, they said good-bye.
On June the eighth, the day the exam results came out, Severus received an owl over breakfast. He had been looking over his exam results and thinking about Amethyst's. He'd done wonderfully, as expected, but found no joy in it. No one would be pleased. There was no one to please. A large owl landed in the middle of his breakfast plate. The note attached read:
Meet D5 4 - A
He grinned.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Came a drawling voice from over his shoulder. Lucius Malfoy had read the note over his shoulder.
Snape frowned. Lucius Malfoy was becoming more and more of an annoyance. "Aren't you going to read your exam results, Lucius?" he asked, avoiding the question. Beside Lucius, Narcissa giggled.
"Oh shut up," Lucius snapped at her, completely distracted.
The owl had taken flight and was replaced with another. Severus took this note and read:
Happy Birthday - Father
Severus tore it up and stuffed it in the pitcher of pumpkin juice. He looked across the room at the Gryffindor table. Amethyst was leaning against her brothers' shoulder and crying! She couldn't have failed her exams. She couldn't have! But he couldn't go over there now. Her brother, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin and Lily Evans, surrounded Amethyst. He sighed and resolved to wait until four o'clock and see her in Dungeon Ten.
He spent the day with Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and a bunch of other simpering idiots he'd rather not be bothered with today. His temper flared more than usual and he took perverse pleasure with throwing Lucius Malfoy into the lake with a well-placed Cannon Charm. He watched, laughing, while Lucius swam back to shore, being grabbed more than once by the various things that lived in the lake.
He managed to throw the gang off his back before the Leaving Feast and went straight to Dungeon Ten. Amethyst was on the far side of the room.
"Are you all right?" He asked first thing. "I saw you crying over breakfast."
She turned at the sound of his voice. She was beaming. "I got one hundred and ten percent!" She shouted. "Severus, I passed!" and she ran across the room and threw herself into his arms. Not thinking, just reacting, Severus returned the embrace and when she looked up at him, he kissed her for the first time.
The kiss lingered. When they finally broke the kiss, they did not break their bodies apart. They remained in each other's arms staring at each other. "I'm sorry." Severus suddenly stammered, breaking the bond and backing away. "I shouldn't have done that. I got carried away. I'm sorry."
Amethyst grabbed his hand. "Please don't, Severus. Don't be sorry." She said, pulling him back towards her. She did not wrap her arms around him this time, but looked up into his black eyes. She blinked. "I was crying because I passed. I was so relieved. Of course everyone thought I'd gone mad, but, there you go." She smiled. "And I owe it all to you."
Severus shook his head, but Amethyst grabbed his chin and stopped the movement. "I do." She said. "You helped me get over my phobia about potions. You are a wonderful friend, Severus."
Severus gaped at her. She kissed him. When they broke apart, she bit her lower lip. "I like kissing you. Not that I've ever kissed anyone like that before, mind." She looked at him thoughtfully.
"Better not tell your brother that." Severus said, thinking of the beating he'd get if Sirius ever found out he'd just kissed his sister, not once, but twice.
Amethyst snorted. "I no longer care what my brother thinks." She said defiantly. "I'm a young woman now, fourteen years old and can make my own decisions who I like and who I don't."
Severus broke into a smile. "That reminds me. I needed an opportunity to give you this." he pulled a small package out of the pocket of his robes. "Happy birthday, Amethyst."
She opened it and gasped at the lovely, golf ball sized amethyst inside. She took it and looked at it closely. She looked up and saw Severus had his hand on the door, ready to open it.
"Severus," she said. "Where are you going?"
"We have had our last tutoring session. I'm not your tutor anymore and we hardly dare to be," he paused. "Friends."
"Are you saying good-bye to me?" Amethyst said; her jaw slacked.
Severus took his hand from the door and took her in his arms again. "Yes." He said. "You have taught me more than you know, Amethyst Black." And he kissed her one more time then took her long braid and laid it over her shoulder. He ran his finger along the braid, feeling the ribbon he'd given her as well as her silky black hair. Then he turned and left the room.