Harry Potter and the Trials of the Siren: An AU subplot fanfiction
It seemed to be a perfectly ordinary morning. Well, as perfectly ordinary as any morning could be when you are a professor at the most notable school for young witches and wizards, which could never be classified as normal. Possibly your definition of a normal morning details you to drag yourself out of bed, brush your teeth and/or other articles, eat breakfast and go off to your chosen occupation. For a certain potions master at the previously mentioned school, a morning involved gasping for breath while pulling himself out of another nightmare involving a green-eyed doe, getting dressed in his trademark black cloak, sneaking off to his classroom dungeon to plan out a lesson, and possibly making another potion that he could only dream of using on a certain child that had survived the most evil of the curses the world has ever seen. Then he could be seen looking as sullen as ever inside the Great Hall, while pretending to eat the eggs that were magically placed before him.
But for some unknown reason, Professor Severus Snape did not go along with his daily routine. For starters, he dreamed not of doe frolicking freely in the Forbidden Forrest close by the school he inhabits, but instead he dreamed of skull, with a snake for a tongue, capturing him within its nasty cave of a mouth and swallowing him whole. Once he pulled himself out of the vision, he looked around, as if expecting the one person he feared to be standing right there in his chambers. But he was mistaken, for no person was lurking in the shadows of his room, no matter how many times he checked. Satisfied, but still shaken, he went to put on his robes and get ready for the day. Sadly, he could simply not find his left shoe.
"Accio Shoe!" he shouted, and heard a thump against his cavity door. He opened it and immediately caught his missing shoe in his hand.
Now, let it be known that Snape was not a superstitious man. He did not believe in luck, chance, or anything of that sort. He believed that man made his own luck, took chances away from others if he missed his, and anything else that said something similar. So, of course, the only way his shoe could have gotten out of the room is if he accidentally left one out, or if they were somehow enchanted to walk on their own. Perhaps Mr. Longbottom's Leviosa went haywire yet again. Neville seemed to make many things happen these days, much to Snape's displease. Whatever the case, the shoe was now on his foot, safe from anymore weirdness that was happening at the school.
Snape left his chamber only to be cornered by a group of teachers, Dumbledore included.
"Severus! Glad to see you!" shouted the one and only headmaster of the school, eyes twinkling from behind his half moon glasses. "We were just headed to the staff room for a quick little meeting. Come, walk with us."
With a shared glance between the professors, Snape joined the group as they made there way to the staff room inside the castle. He gave a terse good morning to Minerva McGonagall, as they walked along, which she responded to with a nod. Professor Flitwick tried to engage him in a conversation about Slytherin's chances for winning the Quidditch championships, but it was a half-hearted attempt that was quickly ended by Snape's refusal to answer more than two questions. He walked along in brooding silence as the other teaches ignored his less than happy demeanor. They were all used to it by now.
They reached the staff room not three minutes later and all filed around the table which was already set for them, plus one empty seat to the left of Snape. As soon as they sat down, their favorite breakfast was set before them. Snape looked at his hot porridge and tea with a look of contempt. He never really had the time to tell the house elves that made the food that he happened to hate porridge. But, no matter now. He took his spoon and swirled the brown concoction around in the bowl, occasionally taking a sip of too sweet tea. Everyone else chatted amongst themselves as the teachers finished their breakfast.
Snape had the great displeasure of sitting next to the worst teacher in the school, none other than Professor Trelawney, the divinations teacher. Snape was not one to believe that divinations were real, let alone that someone should be teaching them. So it is quite obvious that these two did not get along. While eating drinking her morning tomato juice, she kept looking at Severus as though he had a rather large bug on the tip of his long, pointed nose. She kept opening and closing her mouth as though she had something to say, but then suddenly thought better of it. After several minutes of this rude and completely annoying torture that was afflicted upon him, he turned towards her and asked "What is it, Sybill?"
She looked into his eyes with a quick glace and then lowered them to her plate. Then, gaining confidence, she turned in her seat and faced Snape.
"I sense a very strange energy around you this morning, Severus. You seem agitated and irritable. You aura is fading into a sickly shade of yellow, when it should be bright green." She then grabbed his hand with an incredibly strong grip that he would not have expected from such a small woman, and began to trace the lines on his palm with her index finger.
"Ah, just as I suspected," she said with pursed lips. "It says it all right here. You will meet someone from your past, someone you have not seen for years. You have disliked this person, yes, yes, it is all here. You will see this person soon, very soon."
She continued to stare at the lines on his palm through her thick and bug-like glasses while everyone around the table was looking at them. Snape was suddenly very conscious of the markings decorating his left arm. Someone from your past…you have disliked this person…
Dumbledore cleared his throat and smiled to the teachers surrounding the table. "I suppose I should probably explain why I have called this meeting today." He gestured towards the empty seat at the table.
"As you can see, we have an empty spot at the table, just as we have an empty spot at the podium at one of our classes. I have finally filled the position for the Muggle Studies professor. Actually, she should be here any moment. She is running late, as she always has."
Then Professor Dumbledore looked at Snape with a small, smirking grin on his face. "I believe our new teacher was a classmate of yours, Severus. And yours as well, Lupin-" he glanced at the teacher de jour for Defense Against the Dark Arts, Remus Lupin- "When I she gave the year she graduated Hogwarts, I said that our Potions professor and our Defense professor also were from that year. She was not a Slytherin, though. Hufflepuff, if I'm not mistaken."
Professor Sprout looked rather pleased at this. "Albus," she said, "Who is this new professor?"
At that instant, the door opened with a loud creak. Everyone except for Snape looked towards the sound of the noise. "Ah," exclaimed Dumbledore, "It seems our new professor has arrived. Everyone, I would like you to meet Desdemona Pendrengoto, the new Muggle Studies professor."
At these words, Snape gasped silently and turned around. He wished that he hadn't. No, he thought, No it couldn't be. But it was.
The woman before him was almost the complete opposite of himself. She wore a white traveling suit, with a skirt that went almost down to her knees. In her right hand was a lacy parasol that she held over her head, even though she was inside and in no danger of the sun's powerful rays. She wore what seemed to be a safari hat on top of her burgundy colored, long, curly hair, though Snape could think of no possible reason for that. She looked around, grinning at all of her new colleagues and when her gaze dropped on Snape, she gasped and gave her first real smile since entering the room.
"Sevie!" she cried, and rushed over to him. She practically launched herself into his arms and gave him a tight, wind-knocking hug. She gave him a peck on the cheek and sat down on the chair next to him. The rest of the teachers either had dropped their jaws or were looking very confused on what had just happened. Snape swore he saw Lupin, look thoroughly amused by this. McGonagall looked at Lupin and none too subtly mouthed "Sevie?"
"I was right, Severus. Miss Pendrengoto, I believe you remember Remus Lupin from school as well."
The new teacher looked from Snape across the table to where Remus sat. "Ah yes! How are you Lupin?" she asked.
But she didn't wait to find out the answer. She turned her attention back to Snape, who looked as though he had just swallowed something even worse than the hot porridge. "Sevie, I am so glad to see you! You must be the Potions Master, aren't you? You were always so talented at Potions." She squeezed his right forearm. "You were always so talented at everything."
An awkward pause followed after that, where Severus scooted away from Desdemona. It was exactly like he was back at school again…
28 years ago…
Severus Snape was trying very hard not to spill his vial he was holding over a steaming cauldron in Potions class. He needed one drop of this solution in the potion that was being brewed beneath him. Only one. Two drops would completely ruin the entire thing. He tipped the vial very carefully and-
Perfection! Only one drop. A cloud of green-ish mist rose from his caldron with a sound of a trumpet playing a G note. The entire class applauded.
"Very well, Mr. Snape!" praised his professor after he examined Snape's potion. "A perfect antidote. Full marks for the day."
It was a rather brilliant day. No Potter bothering him, and gone with Potter are his crew of miscreants. His final class of the day over and done with. Things were beginning to look up.
"Severus!" a voice sounded. Snape sighed. He knew that voice all too well. He put on the best fake smile he could come up with and turned around. There, in her signature white outfit, was Desdemona Pendrengoto. How she managed to always find him, he will surely never know. It's almost as if she had a map that showed her exactly where he was.
"Severus! How was your last class?" she asked, falling into step with him. She was wearing annoying clacking shoes that sounded as if she was pressing keys on a typewriter every time she took a step.
"It was fine, Desdemona," he answered with little enthusiasm.
"Oh, well, yes. Of course, it was Potions, wasn't it? You're so very good at Potions. I wish I had that talent in Divination," she gestured towards her soaking textbook reading Divination: the Art of Seeing. "I spilled tea all over it this morning while looking at the tea leaves."
Clack, clack, clack, clack…
"So," she spoke again, as if she had something to say, "The next trip to Hogsmeade is coming up."
"Yes, I believe it is," answered Snape. Oh, no, he thought, here it comes again.
"I was wondering maybe if you wanted to do something when were there?"
It was at these times that Snape hated Hogwarts: these stupid Hogsmeade visits were a constant source of pain and suffering. He either had to go with Desdemona on some horrible awkward date or just blow her off and hear her crying silently in the hallways whenever she sees him. Most of the time, he managed to walk to Hogsmeade with her, but then he was most likely the target in a snowball fight or some other sort of punishment. Maybe he could get away with the homework excuse.
Just as he opened his mouth to give some excuse about Dark Arts homework, none other than Lily Evans, his best friend, came up beside him. "I'm glad were going to Hogsmeade together, Sev," she said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, "It's going to be so much fun. Maybe will start the snowball fight instead of being caught in one, huh?"
He loved Lily in that moment more than ever. He smiled at her, almost forgetting the girl in white by his side.
"Oh," said the forgotten, "Well, I guess I…maybe next time, Severus."
Clack, clack, clack, clack running down the hallways and out of hearing range.
"Thank you Lily," said Snape with a relieved sigh. "I really had no more excuses left."
She laughed and continued to walk with him. "She really likes you, you know."
"Yes, I can see that. I'm surprised she hasn't switched all of her classes so that we have a matching schedule. How on Earth does she keep on finding me?"
"Maybe she put a tracking device on you, Sevie," she said, in a mocking tone.
"Don't joke. I'm really in a bind here!" he answered sighing with exasperation.
Lily took his face in her hands. This stopped him from walking. She peered over his face carefully and curiously, like trying to find some sort of secret code. "You know," she said, looking closely at his face, "I just don't see it." She gave him a tiny slap with her left hand and started walking away.
"We still have plans for Hogsmeade, Sev!" she called over her shoulder. "Don't forget about me because of your admirers!"
Snape placed a hand over his left cheek, just where Lily's had been before. Oh, Lily, he thought, I could never forget about you.
Snape was brought back to the present with a breaking glass. It seems that being right shocked Sybill Trelawney into dropping her glass.
"It seems that Sybill was right," chuckled Albus Dumbledore.
"At last," he heard Minerva mutter.
But Desdemona did not pay attention to anything but Snape. It seems as though he was the only thing in her universe. She gazed at him with such sincere and utter devotion it made him extremely uncomfortable.
"So," he started, trying desperately to break the silence, "What have you been up to, Desdemona?"
"Oh, I've been living with the Muggles for the past ten years or so," she said, with a small smile of embarrassment on her face. "No magic, no contact with the magical world. It was a really eye-opening experience. I actually became a Muggle History teacher! Their history can not reach that far back, you know. Really tragic."
"So, you have been living as a Muggle?" asked Professor Sprout, with a shocked expression on her face.
"Oh, yes! I absolutely adore Muggles, so I wanted to just try and be one for a little while. It was hard at first. Did you know that Muggles have to use all these complicated machines just to communicate? I mean, there's the Internet, telephones, text messages, and that's just the tip of the iceberg!"
"Hex messages?" asked Professor Flitwick, looking very confused on how Muggles manage to hex people without magic.
"No, no, text messages. It's like letters that you send to people using a telephone."
"Telephone?"
"Well, it's like a machine that carries your voice to another machine. It also sends text messages. It's all rather brilliant, really. Muggles can get along very well without magic."
The other teachers looked at Professor Pendrengoto as if she were talking in Gobbledygook, not English. If she noticed their confused stares, she didn't mention it.
"So, what have you been doing, Severus?" she asked, leaning in towards him.
"Umm…well…I've been the Potions Master at Hogwarts for the past 12 years."
"Oh, how lovely! I didn't know you've been here for 12 years!" She absolutely beamed at him. It was this kind of adoration that made Severus think of another woman who simply cherished every moment that she spent with her "Lord," even though her name would expect her to be more independent and outspoken.
Dumbledore cleared his throat and for a second Desdemona pulled her eyes away from Severus to look at the headmaster, who had an enormous, fatherly smile on his face.
"I suppose," he began, trying not to laugh as Desdemona continues to stare at Severus, "That we should go to the Great Hall to introduce you to the students."
"A perfectly sensible suggestion, Albus," she replied. As she looked at him, she pulled her right ear and stood up to go to the door. She looked around the room, continuously pulling her right ear.
"A pleasure to meet you all!" she cried as Dumbledore guided her out of the room.
The second the door closed, all of the professors turned to Snape. Lupin finally let out his long suppressed laugh.
"Out of all the people in the world, he chooses Desdemona Pendrengoto!" chuckled Lupin, whose sides should have been splitting the way he was laughing.
"Who is Professor Pendrengoto?" asked a curious Flitwick.
"She's Snape's biggest fan!" Lupin answered between gasps of breath. "She used to follow him around the school and bring him cookies on Sundays! She was completely obsessed! It seems she still is, though.
"Severus, did she actually call you Sevie?" asked a shocked McGonagall.
"It was her favorite nickname for me," Snape answered with his head in his hands.
That's when everybody lost it. McGonagall tried to keep her laughing lips together by force, but found that this made her look even more ridiculous. Flitwick gave a quick little ha! before running out of the room, for his fear of Snape was great. Lupin had never stopped laughing. Trelawney was looking quite smug with a grin on her mouth, for her prediction had come true. Professor Sprout was just looking at her feet and shaking her head, a small grin on her face.
Snape could take it no more. He rushed out of the room and to the part of the castle that housed the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore was going to hear a few choice words from him.
AN: J.K. Rowling owns the characters, but Desy is all mine. By the by, all of the characters have only four or five syllable names. Try it out, it's kinda creepy. Mine has 8, though, so I guess I don't fit. But, anyway, tell me if you want it to continue. Read and review (It's the law. The law in my world.)