"I'll never forgive mother for naming you Angel." a strong voice from the end of the hall he had just turned down said and Severus spun around to find himself face to face with the approaching Emmanuelle Volkov, the eldest Volkov girl in school still and the second of the children to be placed into Slytherin. He realized she was glaring at the little girl in the painting before she cleared her throat. "Off to your picture, go on." the girl slinked off and Emmanuelle looked at Severus who was trying to look anything but relieved. "Professor, if you'll follow me, the library is this way." she said before she turned and lead him down the right hallways, soon they were near the stairs again, and Severus let out a small sigh. Thank Merlin. "I know, the house can be a little like Hogwarts at first, confusing and extremely easy to get lost. I'll never forget the first time I got lost in the dungeons." she shook her head.
"Is that when Cole found you?" Professor Snape asked and she nodded with a small chuckle. "Hard to imagine you've made your way all the way to Head Girl." he said and she nodded again.
"I agree." she said softly, before she turned to the left and opened a set of double doors. The library in the Volkov manor almost gave the library at Hogwarts a run for its galleons. "The bathroom is through to the back." she pointed to the east corner of the room. "Right over there." With a quick nod he followed the wall along to the back corner of the room. When he came out and was walking back to where he had seen her sit down, he could hear voices speaking in slightly angered tones.
"He wants you to come downstairs now!" he knew that voice to belong to the eldest, and only male Volkov child, Roman, also the only other student to be in Slytherin
"I can't go down there Roman, not Now." she said softly. "Not with Him watching my every move, trying to connect himself to me at the hip."
"He's Papa's friend." Roman sighed.
"Papa's friend who asks for alone time with me every evening." she said pointedly and Severus took Roman to know what that meant. Severus wasn't sure why he was listening to this- obvious private- conversation, but for one reason or another it intrigued him. Perhaps because it was just as intriguing as the girl who was having the conversation. She was a good student, the top of her class, Head Girl, and yet she seemed to have no friends. Any time off she had she spent with her sisters, and he doubted that was going to change this year. Last year when he was supposed to choose her classes based on what she wanted to do outside of Hogwarts she and her sisters had been pulled out of school for a few days, when they returned they didn't tell anyone where they had been, just that it was family business.
"I know." Roman was saying with a small sigh. "I've tried to talk to Papa about it..."
"So it's true then?" she asked. "He's asked?"
"No, no, not yet." Roman said and Severus heard Emmanuelle sigh. "But... I don't doubt he will."
"Roman, I have no intentions of becoming Mrs. Emmanuelle Karkaroff." she said and it was Roman's turn to sigh. Severus however was suddenly much more interested in the conversation. How was it he had missed seeing Karkaroff here? This is where the slime had run off to after the Triwizard tournament. Snape scowled and made it a point to mention this to Dumbledore. He had a feeling he would also be mentioning this to another person...
"Look, Pavel is here, and so is Mikal and a few of the others. I'll ask Pavel or someone to dance with you and keep an eye on you. You like Pavel don't you?"
"Of course I like Pavel." she said. "But I just don't want to go down there, you know how I feel about gatherings." she sighed.
"Papa thinks you wish to disrespect Adrianna."
"Why does it always have to be about respect?" she sighed. "I'll be down in a little while, okay?" she asked and Severus heard Roman start to walk away.
"Oh, and one last thing, we're going to Diagon alley tomorrow at ten."
"Okay Roman." she said and Severus could hear the annoyance in her voice. A few moments later the double doors closed and Emmanuelle popped up at the end of the bookshelf he was leaning on. "You can come out now." she said and he looked up at her.
"So this is where Karkaroff ran off." he said simply and she nodded.
"Unfortunitaly."
"Why?"
"He believes Papa can use his influence to protect him from the Dark Lord." she said and Severus raised his eyebrow.
"You believe he's back?" he asked.
"Well Cedric Diggory didn't just drop dead on his own." she shrugged, her eyes flickered over to his left forearm, where his Dark Mark was under his robes. As they walked out from behind the bookshelf she suddenly gasped. "Professor, look out!" she grabbed the front of his robed and yanked him towards her quickly, stumbling slightly at the force the girl pulled him with he managed to look behind him and the bookshelf they had been next to suddenly (and rather violently) swung out, and sped down the aisle. "The bookcases are like the stairs at school." she explained before letting go of the front of his robes. "Sorry." It was then Severus realized this was the most he had spoken to a Volkov child- with the exception of Roman- The girls were so secretive, always keeping together, never letting outsiders in and only speaking in classes when spoken to, it was no wonder he really didn't know much about them. "We should go back downstairs." Emmanuelle was saying as she looked at the clock in the library.
"Are you sure you'll be able to find the way?" Severus asked dryly and she chuckled lightly.
"I may be the only Volkov who knows the house as well as I do." she smiled as she looked back at her head of house and potions professor, her bright icy green eyes sparkling with amusement as they walked out of the library. When they got down to the party a young man with thick shoulders, a thick neck and a babyish face and curly short blonde hair approached the two.
"May I have this dance?" he asked looking at Emmanuelle with a small knowing smirk.
"Oh very well Pavel." she said as she took his hand and stepped down the remaining two steps with him. Looking back at Severus she smiled softly and he just gave her the slightest of nods. The two stepped onto the dance floor and Severus couldn't help but watch as they danced, Pavel was a big man and Emmanuelle, though she wasn't short, she was only 5'5", looking puny compared to Pavel who was also very thick- not fat, but wide, he had a sort of thick build to him. As he spun Emmanuelle around she laughed before twirling back to him, the second time she was spun her eyes caught Severus' gaze, the moment their eyes connected she smiled brightly, and his Dark Mark burned as it had been since June. Scowling he quickly made his way to the door, not noticing the disappointed eyes that followed, she shrugged it off, he was a temperamental man, six- going on seven- years of going to school and being taught by him made her well aware of that, but what she wasn't aware of was that when he was outside he caught a glimpse of her through the window, happily dancing with Pavel, then he saw him- Igor Karkaroff interrupting their dance. Severus' lip curled slightly, The Dark Lord would definitely be hearing about this. And with a pop- he was gone.
