Disclaimer:I don't own anything, it's all JKR's except a select few characters.
A/N: Here's chapter two. I'm gonna try to update a chapter a week. I have the first 6 chapters already written so it should give me enough time to work on the rest of this fic and others. For now though I need to eat before I pass out. PLEASE R&R!
Chapter 2
I
woke up the next morning to something scratching at my bedroom
window. I flung back the blankets and climbed out of bed before my
eyes even had time to focus. It wasn't until two owls flew in over
my shoulder that I looked around to take in my surroundings. I didn't
recognize anything, until my eyes met the bed. There sleeping in a
huge king-size bed was Severus Snape. My heart jumped. I quickly
surveyed myself. I was only missing my shoes, which I now saw at the
side of the bed, my socks, and my robes and cloak. I crept over to
the bed and lifted the blankets and peeked under. Though he was
shirtless, he was otherwise decently clothed. Satisfied with my
search, I crawled back in bed next to him and lowered my lips to his
ear.
"Morning Hooknose," I whispered. He moaned and flung out
an arm around me pulling me against him. I bit back a giggle covering
it with a sigh. "Come on Severus, it's time to wake up." I
allowed him to hold me for a moment longer, until my words finally
sunk in. He bolted up in bed.
"Esther!" he exclaimed looking
at me. I just smiled while he did the same thing I had done checking
his self and myself and the room for any signs of foul play. "Oh."
he gave me a crooked grin.
About that time he caught sight of
the owls and hopped out of bed. He paid them both and took their
Prophets before setting himself back in bed. He handed me one. On the
front page was a huge story about the Potters. But I wanted the
highlights so I flipped to the obituaries. It seemed a little
heartless to only care about who had died and nothing else, but I
would catch the details later. Their under the P's was Cassidy
Pennington, then James and Lily Potter. But no mention of a third
Potter.
"What's the boy's name?" I asked. Severus looked
up from his paper at me. I felt like I was playing grown ups with my
sister again.
"Harry James." he said after a moment. "Don't
call him the boy either. If someone has a name - use it." I gave a
harsh laugh and suddenly his face softened. He'd forgotten how many
times I had to make up names or codes or something else of the same
sort to protect people. If someone had a name you didn't use it no
matter what the price. "I didn't mean to bring in our pasts." I
shook my head.
"You're still not forgiven." The only reason
we'd broken up was because I found out through the media of all
places that he'd been playing a double agent. I had told him; been
straight forward and honest. He'd lied to me.
"I know. Essie,
it's just that I didn't want you…" he trailed off.
"Hurt."
I finished for him. He didn't want me hurt and I didn't want him
hurt so I had told him. "We just have different ideas of what
hurts worse," he leaned over and kissed me; a soft, nervous kiss
that tried its best to make me lighten up.
"That's why I love
you so. You always know why." I shook my head.
"Don't,"
was all I managed before he kissed me again. This time with more
passion and after a few seconds I kissed back. When the kiss broke,
we were panting. "Okay you may be forgiven, but I haven't
forgotten." He smiled at me pressing his forehead against
mine.
"Go get cleaned up. Let's celebrate."
Without
thinking about how we could celebrate the deaths of three amazing
people, I took off. I was so joyful about the new terms of our
relationship that I actually sang a beer drinking song my father had
taught me while I bathed. I was quick in trying not to lose the
moment, but it was being killed, without my knowing, down stairs. As
I bounced down the stairs, towel wrapped around my head like a
turban, and yesterday's clothes on, I was stopped by voices.
"He's
gone."
"Are you sure? How could a baby stop
He-Who-Mustn't-Be-Named?" Severus questioned the other voice.
"I
don't know. I have theories. Right now I'm just getting all my…
all my ducks in a row." I caught it then. This was Albus
Dumbledore. I knew only because of the Muggle phrase he'd
used.
"I'm not a duck." Severus challenged.
"You and
Esther will be under enough microscopes without adding a reunion.
People will think-"
"Let them think!" Severus broke
in.
"Sirius has just been locked in Azkaban for the murder of
Peter Pettigrew. No trail, Severus. If Rita Skeeter digs, even a
little, your past will surface and both of you will meet the same
end." I rarely heard Albus talk in this forceful manner. He was
usually such a kind, gentle man. It was hard to imagine him… Before
I finished my thought, I remembered Peter and Sirius fighting last
night. I jumped down off the stairs skipping the last few.
"Sirius
couldn't have done it. We all heard him leave." I
tried.
"Esther, my dear girl, you don't know what you're
doing. You should be at home with your family. Didn't your sister
just wed yesterday?" I nodded.
"Yea, but I know what I'm
doing as well as I know Sirius didn't do it." Dumbledore looked
away from me to Severus.
"See to it that you're not seen
together. Or I'll withdraw my pardon." He took a few steps away
and apearated. Severus turned to look at
me. He sighed and shook his head.
"You-Know-Who is dead. He was
stopped by the baby."
"The baby has a name." I tried to
tease.
"I don't think it's too early to drink," he said
wandering off to the kitchen. I followed.
"Sirius is innocent.
I'll prove it." He pulled two beers from the cabinet and put a
chilling charm on them before handing one to me.
"Don't,
Dumbledore is right."
"He's always right. But I'm not
going to let him know it. We're not doing anything wrong."
"Now
about us." he stopped before I reached a rant. "You don't know
what you're doing. You can't just take on Sirius' case without
any evidence." I grabbed his paper of the table and scanned the
front page. No news of what Sirius had done. But there was the
disturbing bit, that this was the evening news, when it should have
been the morning paper.
"What time is it?" Severus leaned
back in his chair so he could read the clock. "Merlin!" he swore,
"It's after ten." I dropped the paper in front of him and
pointed to where it read Evening Prophet. He looked up at me a little
more than confused. "We need to back track here."
I
sat down at his kitchen table and together we worked through the
previous day starting with when I arrived at the pub. We Apparated to
his place and had several drinks before I passed out. He knew I hated
sleeping on couches so he carried me up to his bed where he drunkenly
decided to stay because the bathroom was closer. But even if we'd
talked through an entire keg, neither of us was so light weight to
have slept through an entire day. It wasn't adding up. But there
was some pressing business I needed to attend in this case. So I
dismissed myself from Severus' home.
"As soon as you get home
Floo me." he said hesitantly as I stepped out the front
door.
"Sev, I'll keep in touch. You just take care." I
called over my shoulder. I took off walking out of town to a safe
distance to Apparate.
I had to repeat this to get to my own
house walking two blocks to my door. My neighbor, an elderly overly
religious woman, quoted scriptures to me as I climbed the steps to my
front door. She had a theme today: I was going to hell for a sinful
life style. I already had figured that much, and I had never touched
a Bible, well there was one time when I was sworn into court, but
that was a Muggle affair. The moment I opened my door my dog burst
through. She didn't stop to say 'hi', she just ran straight for
the nearest patch of grass. The family who had lived here before me
had let their son play with a chemistry set in the front yard and for
the most part grass didn't grow. I still haven't figured out how
a Muggle chemistry set could conquer Severus Snape.
I stumbled in
the front door leaving it open for when Hobo came in. I dropped my
keys on the end table in the living room and picked up the mail.
Water bill, garbage bill, my sister, my mother, Flourish and Blotts
catalogue, Lily Potter, my boss… WAIT! Lily Potter? I ripped open
the envelope carefully so as to not to destroy her seal. The letter
within was short.
Dear
Esther,
I know you were looking forward
to dinner with us, but the baby's not feeling well. James, of
course, not Harry. If it were Harry we'd already be at St. Mungo's.
We'll have to reschedule. How did your sister's wedding go? I
know you planned on spending the weekend with your parents, so I
won't expect a reply back right away. I just hope you get home
safe. Peter says that there are some copy cats showing up, nothing
too serious yet, but enough to cause worry. I can't wait until this
is all over. I never thought I'd be raising a son in this war. It
terrifies me.
Well, dear Esther, James wants
to get to bed and I still have to bathe the little one.
My best,
Lily Potter
She
must have written this just before she died. My heart sank. I heard
Hobo come in and kick the door shut, which reminded me to search for
her little messes. I started out just cleaning up her messes, but
after a few moments I decided to sweep and then clean the carpet.
Before I knew it, it was dawn and I had scrubbed every inch of floor
in my home. The toilet and bath tub were shinny now. When I needed to
think, I cleaned. It used to drive my parents nuts, because I'd
take off cleaning and house elves would complain that I was doing all
the work. I set a pot of coffee on to brew and stoked the fire before
putting in a fifth load of laundry. I had managed to wash all of my
dirty clothes and this was the last of the furniture covers. As I was
tugging a plaid cover over my loveseat, the door bell rang.
In my
current world, this was a very late call, but since for everyone else
this was only a little after seven o'clock it was really an early
one. I stood up brushing stray hairs from my lose ponytail out of my
face and trotted after Hobo to the door. Remus Lupin's distorted
head met my eye when I looked through the peep hole. I unlocked the
door and opened it.
"Morning," I said. There was no need to
sound cheerful. He'd just lost three friends in one 24 hour period
and a fourth was locked up.
"May I come in?" I nodded
stepping out of the way.
"Of course. What do you need?" He
gave me a wry look.
"How about the past 48 hours back."
"I
wish I could do that. I really do." He patted my shoulder.
"Well,
then I have a different favor to ask of you." I showed him to the
kitchen and poured us both a cup of coffee.
"Alright. Name your
price." He looked so ragged. He always looked like he'd been run
through the wringer, but that was a well loved teddy bear look. This
was a different sort of thing. His eyes were obviously red and puffy,
he was in possession of a five o'clock shadow, and his hands shook
terribly.
"I want information. Everything you have. I want to
know how long this had been planned. Who planned it? How Sirius got
involved without anyone noticing. I want it all."
"How am I
supposed to do that?" I asked. He was shocked.
"You don't
know? Everyone else does."
"It's seven in the morning and
I've been up all night. There are a lot
of current things I don't know so why don't you fill me in." He
pulled a page from the Prophet from within his patched up robes and
handed it to me.
"Your unit is in charge of clean up and
investigation of Peter and the Muggle deaths." I scanned the page
and sure enough there was my unit's listing.
"I don't know
how much I'll get, Re. I'm a witness at this point." He watched
me quizzically.
"What did you witness?"
"That fight
yesterday, then when I was leaving I saw
Peter talking to someone in the alley." Remus sipped at his coffee
for a while, thinking.
"You'll still give me what you can
get?"
"I'll lose my job if I'm caught, but yes, of course
I will." I answered.
"I wouldn't want you to lose your
job." he said worriedly.
"I won't get caught."
After
he finished his coffee, I walked him to the door. He hugged me before
leaving telling me to take care and stay in touch. I finally had
something real to do. So I went and showered and dressed for work. I
had to do this for Remus. Remus and I barely knew each other. We'd
talked a few times, shared tricks of the trade and such, but never
really made it to the friend stage. I will doubt to the day I die,
that I was so determined just for him. I wanted the truth about
Sirius while the tracks were still fresh.
