Ron shrugged, a piece of toast in one hand, his eyes squinting to look up over the large platters of breakfast food trying to catch a glimpse of Professor Snape at the staff table.
"What do you reckon?" Harry murmured. "Do you think he looks any different?"
"Not really," Ron said, "I can't see him much at all."
Hermione rolled her eyes, jerking Ron back down as he looked suspicious, standing up while everyone else was eating and chatting excitedly. Harry had told both of them about the unclear mission Sirius had given him before he had boarded the train, last night in the Gryffindor common room. He was a little relieved to see that both of them were just as confused as he was about what exactly he was supposed to do and what Snape could be up to.
"It's definitely strange." Hermione said thoughtfully after Harry had finished his story. The three had crowded around the dying fire of the common room. "Sirius never did get along with Professor Snape, and Sirius wouldn't be the type to try to force feelings just on Dumbledore's account."
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "He always hated Snape so unless it's something really personal, I mean, why would he ask me to look out for him?"
"Greasy git," Ron said. "Maybe he's threatening to tell the ministry where Sirius lives. Wouldn't put it past Snape to out him if he got in a foul enough mood. He's still probably really mad about not catching him and getting the Order of Merlin."
"But why would he ask Harry to keep an eye out for him?" Hermione disputed, shaking her head at Ron, "He would probably tell Harry to keep a low profile and not make Snape angry if that was the case, it sounds more like he wants Harry to see if he gets sick or injured."
"Maybe he's doing really dangerous stuff for Dumbledore?" Ron proposed, "Like what Hagrid is doing, you know?"
Harry shrugged but Hermione shook her head again.
"But he's still here teaching though, isn't he? None of it adds up." Hermione opened her standard spell book, burying her nose in it. "I wouldn't do anything Harry, unless something is really obvious. Dumbledore trusts Snape and he had his privacy. I wouldn't start invading it on Sirius's account."
Harry agreed, to some extent. He wasn't about to go into Snape's personal room or watch him after class unless he had substantial evidence that Snape was doing something fishy or he was in real danger. He thought back to his first year when he was sure Snape was trying to go after the philosophers stone and thought he had been injured by Fluffy, and watching Snape limping around the castle on his bad leg. Harry knew he would take Sirius's words to heart however, having seen the look of distress on his eye yesterday, he would do what he could. Even if it was confusing.
Harry's agreement with Sirius was put to the test not long into his first O.W.L. potions class. As pleased as he was with having a short word with Cho Chang before entering the classroom, he was instantly reminded of how unpleasant Snape could be when he quieted them all down for a beginning of the year pep talk.
Snape was feeling unpleasant after finally having caved under his early morning pregnancy symptoms and had been sick in the bathroom after breakfast. He was grateful he had made it after being very dizzy on the way to his class, but it was a close call. He sat during his first hour with a pitcher of water and a box of crackers under his desk that he snuck while his students wrote the directions off the board, but still could not shake the dizzy uneasy feeling in his stomach. Perhaps it was first day back jitters, but he thought his unrest was more due to what professor Umbridge had talked to him about over breakfast that morning. He had been halfway through the meal, listening to McGonagall praise the new head of the Gryffindor quidditch team- Angelina Johnson, when the distinctly obnoxious sound of Professor Umbridge clearing her throat made him turn his head.
"Professor Snape, how are you this morning?" She asked with her usual air of sweetness. Snape merely nodded, pouring himself an extra side of maple syrup to begin eating a fresh piece of french toast.
"I had hoped to catch you sometime before classes started this morning," She drew her cardigan a little tighter over he shoulders. "I had to ask you if you were head of Slytherin house last year."
Snape looked up to her, raising an eyebrow. Umbridge set her chubby hand on the table favorably, leaning in close to him to speak softer.
"I wanted to know if you were familiar with the student Alicia Steward."
"Familiar?" Snape asked, bewildered. Abandoning his breakfast all together as Umbridge nodded curtly. The other teachers were starting to look around.
"Was she one of your students, professor?"
"Not that I remember." Snape muttered, trying to break gaze with Umbridge's fierce large eyes. She blinked, he could smell a very strong perfume coming off of her clothes.
"Alicia Steward was a seventh year last year, in Hufflepuff." Umbridge stated matter-of-factly. "I've checked the records and she's a single parent now, working in London."
"Is this girl supposed to have some significance to me?" Snape inquired, now annoyed at Umbridge's close proximity, he backed his chair away a few inches.
"Alicia Steward was the last student to check out that book in your personal chamber, Professor." Umbridge said slyly. Snape's heart skipped a beat. "I find it very interesting that you've come across books in the Slytherin common room that haven't even been left there by Slytherin students."
"I'll... Look into it." Snape said softly. His toes clenching inside his shoes as Umbridge nodded knowingly and stepped back to take her seat on the other side of Dumbledore. His hands were shaking and his half eaten breakfast looked rather unappealing to him after that.
While he had taken his first hour to largely recover, his bad mood still carried through the rest of the day. Only intensified when his double second hour class with the both Gryffindor and Slytherin began and the Potter-Weasley-Granger dream team was already talking and bickering at the start of class.
"I'm certainly not going to be taking all of you into N.E.W.T potions," He began. Leaning on his desk while the sea of students followed him with their eyes. "It would be foolish to think all of you will be able to maintain the high standard I hold my students to for their O., but I think with a little optimism we can have everyone leave this year in one piece."
Neville Longbottom looked away from Snape, staring into his cauldron and gripping his shoulder nervously.
Snape waved his wand over the blackboard, instructions for their first potion appearing magically. The students began, leaving him to himself as he sat back down at his desk, filling his glass again with water. The classes initial first assignment had been rescheduled by Snape himself while he had sat with the third years in first hour. Today they would be making the Draught of Peace, which if the students had any luck in brewing, Snape would most likely take himself to settle his stomach and mind for the next few days. The potion was an O.W.L level potion, so he had no trouble rationalizing that it would be a good potion for them to brew on their first day back.
He found his hand stealing a cracker from the box he kept down by his extra rolls of parchment and caught himself, pushing the box shut and out of sight. Instead he went for the book he had brought in a stack with him to class.
He thought it stupid to be carrying around the pregnancy book but because he was so well prepared and as of right now had no homework to correct, he spent the spare time he had reading through the week by week guide as well as the mother's health book. He had taken the hint of some of the other girls who had checked the books out and cleverly disguised it as his O.W.L potions guide. The books gave him some relief as his eyes ran down the pages, not because of the text, but the little notes and scribbles the previous readers that had checked out the books made. Snape sympathized more as a reader then an expecting parent however, remembering his glorious days using his Half Blood Prince moniker to rewrite many of the spells and potions in his text books. There was a time between being fourteen and seventeen where his greatest thrill came from writing in books, whether he got them new or secondhand (He always preferred secondhand) he was quick to go through them with his quill, underlining and making notes in the margins.
He paused after reading the margin for the fifth week. Reading the line "Heartbeat" over and over again. The thing was only a few millimeters long and it would have a heartbeat soon. The book stated however, that he wouldn't be able to hear it for a few more weeks.
His hand wandered curiously over the pages leading up to the 20th week in the 2nd trimester. It sounded all very far away, but it would all be happening before the start of the new year. He would be able to find out the sex of the baby probably right around christmas. He wasn't really sure if he had a preference, as we was still in a grumpy mood about the entire ordeal, so he wasn't really sure if he cared whether it was male or female.
He imagined though, in his mind. Having a young boy. Not knowing who the father was, he though rather of just having a smaller version of himself. What he looked like being a toddler. Gangly even as a baby with a crop of black hair and downturned dark eyes.
If it was a girl, he wasn't exactly sure what to think. He thought of having a girl that looked like his mother, heavy eyebrows and dark sweeping black hair. Pale, yet thin and elegant.
He wasn't some seasoned mother with hearty maternal experience, so he was unsure what might be easier. But then, he thought again, maybe he wouldn't really see the thing at all. Voldemort could very easily snatch the child up straight from his open legs, or Dumbledore would insist that the child needed order protection and that it would be raised by someone like Molly Weasley.
He had mixed feelings about this, as much as the idea of childbearing and mothering disgusted him, he had a small flicker of fear at the thought of his little lump of flesh being taken and raised by someone else.
He put the thought out of his mind rather quickly, remembering that he didn't have the time or energy to own anything more time consuming then Marciana, which the school cared for over most of the year. He didn't have the money for any nanny to watch the child either.
His eyes flickered over the page, seeing the words 'breast enlargement' circled several times by a previous reader. He looked closer, reading the passage on the swelling of the breast tissue for the purposes of feeding.
His eyes narrowed, taking a long sip from his glass of water. Was this going to be another disturbing ailment he had to add to the list? Was he really going to have to wear a bra to his classes? His chest had never changed since his transfiguration accident, and it was one of the things he was thankful for. If he was happy for anything in his confusing teenage years of identity crisis, he was certainly happy he didn't have a pair of breasts. Nor did he appear to have them now, but it was something he would have to ask Madame Pomfrey about, making a mental note as he looked up to his class for the first time in minutes. The majority of the students were finishing, silver mist and vapors had begun to fill the classroom. Some had even begun to chat as they were finished with a flagon ready for Snape to test.
He snapped his book shut, walking through the aisles to see what the students had been able to make. Out of habit, he rounded on the Gryffindors, walking the aisles. Hermione, true to her nature had concocted a perfect potion, but Harry's and Ron's cauldrons were far from perfect, and he smirked rather viciously before cleaning up Harry's with a flick of his wand and awarding him zero marks for the class.
Once he had assigned the homework, the class did their typical dramatic sigh and began packing up. Snape's desk filled with flagons of freshly brewed draughts of peace before the bell rang and he was left with a slightly smoky class room.
Feeling much better as the day went on and with a little bit of the draught of peace for him to take, he felt much more relaxed and his head had stopped hurting. He was however very tired just from the hustle and bustle of the students and sank into his bed for a light nap after dinner. Fall seemed to come over night and he was woken around seven o'clock by a cold wind drifting into his room from the open window. He hastened to shut it before rolling back into his warm bed, but now unable to sleep. He curled up a cup of hot cocoa and looked over his O.W.L and N.E.W.T planned test dates sheet that Marciana had brought from the ministry while he was sleeping.
It really was likely that he would be giving birth right around end of year and wouldn't be observing the students taking the test. It wasn't something that was so important to him that he would lament missing, but he was curious as to what the students got, and which students he would not see in his classes the following year. He supposed Dumbledore would have to have a substitute come in for the last weeks in June to oversee review days and help them with any questions they had. The last week Snape devoted to cleaning the classrooms as they rarely got a simple mop over during term and things such as spilled potion and dirty caldrons were often let to rest in the floor sink. He had each class clean and polish their caldrons, and wash out the cabinets where their extra books and spare scales were kept. While normally, classes were let out early if the students finished cleaning so that they might have the chance to socialize or pack their personal belongings; Snape was a different mind. He gave the class the list of summer reading and explained the new chapters they would be covering next year. He also gave them a handwritten note detailing all the extra potion materials they should buy at Diagon Alley when they got the chance.
Snape typically spent the last month's personal time gathering his things to take back to Spinners end. Now it was all blocked off for most certainly recovering from the damage he was going to put his body through. He thought about what Madame Pomfrey had said about his pelvis being too angular, and thought to see if he could find something on bone growth and transformation to research.
Snape slept that night very peacefully, taking little bits of the draught of peace throughout the week, he found his sleeping schedule more normalized and overall, felt more relaxed teaching and letting stray thoughts of animosity out of his mind. He'd almost been so comfortable and loose, he awarded a Gryffindor student 5 points in his wednesday first year class for brewing a very clear boil curing potion. Which he thought, a little to his own surprise, was a first.
On thursday, he only had one class and it was mid morning, so he slept in, missing breakfast. His stomach was starting to almost nag him when he forgot to eat, which he found very obnoxious, but he now took to carrying around the box of crackers he could eat in the event he might be a little late to a meal. He had just gotten dressed and was heading to his Advanced Classroom when he was stopped by a very large ginger cat, sitting in the very middle of the hallway leading to the first floor. He looked around quizzically, no one was wandering the halls as it was the middle of second period. The cat meowed lowly as he approached however, getting up to brush up against his ankles, it purred very loudly and stood between his legs.
"Shoo," Snape snapped. He nudged the cat with his black heel, pushing it to the side as he made his way to winding staircases leading toward the dungeons. The cat meowed even louder however, following Snape at a trot to keep up. Snape stopped again, student were supposed to keep their animals in the common rooms during the day time, it made no sense for any of them to simply be walking the castle. The cat caught up to him, it's smashed face looking up at him sagely, still purring like mad.
"Go back to your common room." Snape muttered, nudging the cat again. He felt stupid trying to talk to an animal, but he knew some cats did possess magical powers and could sometimes understand certain words, the cat however did not appear to, but continued to rub it's flat face against his leg lovingly. Snape broke into a short sprint, running down the stairs to the hallway that connected to his classroom. He shut the door quickly and walking over to his desk to make a note of the cat. He would present the note to filch to find out who's animal had been wandering the corridors.
His advanced class began to file in after the bell about twenty minutes later. Snape was prepared to begin collecting their summer assignments as the came through the door but his students seemed to be very distracted by the large cat who had sat outside the dungeon class room, it's eyes flickering at Snape whenever he caught a glimpse of it through the open door. A few students petted the cat lovingly before coming in, laughing and comparing the cat to their own animals.
"Settle down," Snape said, shutting the door very abruptly, almost in an effort to scare the cat away. His older students were always a little harder to intimidate, they began to quiet, but even Snape could not wipe away their good moods.
"Sir," asked a 7th year Ravenclaw. "Was that cat yours?"
"No," Snape answered curtly. "Whomever it does belong to will be loosing their house quiet a few points when I do find out the owner. I don't suppose I have to remind you that pet animals must be kept in your respective common rooms."
"Professor, I think that cat was half kneazle." Another 7th year girl piped up. "You can sort of tell by their disposition if they've have a lot of the other physical traits bred down." Some of the students nodded.
"And why would it matter of the cat was half kneazle," Snape asked, raising an eyebrow. "If anything, that would make the crime all the more punishable. As it is a slightly more dangerous animal, walking around the castle."
"Well," a shorter hufflepuff girl with square spectacles began, "Kneazles are supposed to be pretty smart, aren't they professor? I mean..." She trailed off from a very condescending look from Snape. "...They're really protective and they can be really aggressive towards distrustful people."
"I'm quite aware of what Kneazles are, Miss Ellenburg." Snape hissed. "Anyone who touches that cat, If it remains outside my classroom after the bell will lose ten points for their house."
The students plowed through their summer review work that day and Snape spent the hour going through the rolls of parchment from the students and graded their summer assignments. For the most part he was fairly confident in their work, always more satisfied by his N.E.W.T classes as they were always his top students. The most he had to worry about was poor penmanship when he looked over homework. The content was always fairly good. He tried to put the cat out of his mind as he began to set up his projector to show slides. The students took notes in the semi darkness, not very enthralled with classifying brewing by observation. When the bell rang, the students gathered their things, blinking in the new light, and they left the dungeon with forced apathy about the determined large cat, still waiting outside the door. Snape put away the projector and gathered the slides back into the black case he kept under his desk. The cat meowed a long low garbled call and pushed through the door, staring at Snape peevishly. It flicked it's long tail back and forth, sweeping the floor before it hoped up onto Snape's desk, knocking some papers to the floor as it purred loudly for attention. Snape grimaced, he knew what Professor McGonagall's animagus form looked like so he was sure it wasn't her, but he didn't know any cat, other then perhaps Ms. Norris, who acted this way. He walked to his desk, intending to put the cat back on the floor, as badly as he wanted to kick it, he may be in trouble if a student's cat was injured, even if it was breaking the rules. Before Snape could put a hand around the massive creature, it meowed loudly again and rubbed it's face on his side, purring like mad and flicking his chest with it's tail.
Snape sighed, letting the cat bump up against him and rub it's face against his robes. He had a sudden, scary thought however. The words of his student echoing in his head, Kneazles are supposed to be pretty smart, aren't they professor? They're really protective...
The cat was now pawing at the front of his robes, rubbing circles over his stomach, giving him goosebumps. Had someone sent the cat here? To watch over him? It wasn't as though the cat was much of a guardian, just a very over large animal that seemed intent on rubbing all it's hair off onto his black robes. The cat wasn't so much even interested in him then it seemed to be interested in his still flat stomach.
Snape knew that animals were more attuned to nature and feelings then most people, he supposed he was probably leaking a catastrophic amount of pregnancy hormones that animals could pick up on. The thought did little to comfort him, and he shooed the cat away, trying to remove it from his desk without upsetting any more of his things. The cat only came closer to his hand, as though invited. Resigned to losing, he gathered his papers and N.E.W.T schedule and stared at the cat, wondering if he could will it to leave him alone. It continued to rub against him even as he drew farther away from the desk.
"I'm fine," Snape said exasperatedly. The cat jumped off the desk to follow Snape, he brushed the cat hair off his front with his stray hand. The cat walking behind him as he left the dungeon and headed up to the great hall for lunch. Instead of following him all the way there however, it stopped by the banister of the marble staircase, it's eyes still following him as he kept walking. He didn't bother to stop and look at the cat, but merely ignored it, rounding the corner where lunch had just started, Tomato bisque with grilled cheese sandwiches.
Assuming the cat was going back to the common rooms, it had to belong to either a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw. He wasn't sure now if he wanted to report the cat to Argus Filch, as he figured it was most likely following him around because he was emitting pregnancy hormones like a satellite, if he told Filch a half kneazle was on his tail, he could assume Umbridge would find out, and he didn't much care to give her any more reasons to suspect him of anything.
The weekend was coming up and it would probably be Snape's last bit of time to himself before he was buried in correcting school work. Fall had quashed out the last bit of summer heat coming into the castle and a misty wetness descended over the grounds. The nights were much cooler and darker but it was still a little too soon to break out his thick woolen black robe he typically wore in the fall. Instead, he broke out his thick knitted fingerless gloves and his choice Green and Silver Slytherin scarf. Since looking at the mother's health book, he had tried to be more conscious of getting regular exercise when he could, as the book said it was good for the health of the baby and especially good for stress. More for himself then for the baby, he took to walking over the grounds after dinner, a cup of tea or cocoa in hand, steam floating in the air as he strolled across the gravel pathways.
Occasionally he would catch students outside, sneaking a cigarette or lighting off filibuster fireworks near the forbidden forrest, and Snape didn't pretend disciplining them wasn't nice to blow off steam. He took twenty points from Ravenclaw for breaking up too students almost mid-coitus by the lake one night, threatening to write to their parents if it happened again.
Late on sunday he followed a reflected light outside almost all the way to the Whomping Willow, only to discover it was the same Ginger cat who had been following him earlier in the week. He groaned angrily as the cat bounded over to him, purring and rubbing up against his leg. He had a feeling that the cat had still been following his around, almost floating in his periphery when he walked through the castle corridors. Perhaps it knew how annoying he thought it was, but it didn't stop the cat from bothering him and rolling on it's back as if trying to get Snape to pet it's belly.
Snape had never been much of an animal person, he personally found the idea of humanizing something like a cat or dog and holding it in such high esteem like a family member was downright disrespectful to it's very nature. Hagrid and his stupid obsession for dangerous beasts was living proof of that. Nevertheless, he let the cat stroll alongside him as he returned to the path heading back to the castle. It wasn't as though the cat was really doing him any harm now, if someone saw it he could just say he had found it outside anyway. He assumed now that the cat was simply following him around out of it's own humor, as he couldn't think of anyone who had a cat like this and would set it up to following him around.
"What are you saying, you lost him?" Ron whispered, lighting a fire under his caldron with his wand. "You checked everywhere in the girls common room?"
"He obviously came back last night to be fed but since then I haven't see him." She recalled. "I think he's got to be somewhere in the common room, I don't know how he would have been able to get out and back in without someone letting him in."
"That cat is smarter then you think." Harry mused, remembering the times in his third year when Crookshanks had been prowling the grounds with Sirius. "He's probably got his ways."
There was a sudden whooshing noise that snapped them all back to reality. Snape had summoned all the homework from their tables without much notice, Neville gasped and upset his ink bottle. Malfoy and the other Slytherins laughed.
"I will remind all of you that I will be grading your homework to O.W.L standard this year," Snape called loudly over the din of laughter. Hermione helped Neville clean up the ink that had fallen over the desk, and Snape put the parchment on his desk with his class score book. Harry's heart sank, remembering he had only managed to write about eight inches on the properties of moonstone last night.
"We will be looking into the composition of a strengthening solution today," Snape continued, waving his wand over the black board where a list of page numbers appeared. "As this potion is one that must simmer overnight, I must impress the weight it will reflect on your grades. Those of you who have not started very strong would do well to research this potion well." He stared coldly at Harry who glared right back, he was still angry at Snape for giving him a zero for the last class.
"I want significant notes on the strengthening solution, it's use in magical healing as well as it's restrictions in international sports. Furthermore, I want five inches of brewing notes that are to be used to your own advantage next class."
The students turned, dully to the first page described in their textbooks and began to read. Neville borrowed a new bottle of ink to use and the class hummed with the occasional turning of pages and parchment.
"Pretty boring day," Ron murmured, waving his wand at the fire under his cauldron so it went out with a pop. Harry and Hermione didn't answer, Harry couldn't afford any more slip ups in Snape's class and Hermione wasn't about to pass up a chance to learn for something as trivial as socializing.
Snape began his first stack of correcting by opening up his red correction ink. Starting on the first essay which was from Pansy Parkinson. She had gotten the gist of what he wanted, only leaving a few finer points out, he graded her rather well he though, with an Acceptable. Writing notes in the margins to indicate what she had missed.
He was feeling the dull start of a headache coming on and he pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. Even when he got enough sleep sometimes it wasn't enough to guarantee a good morning. He had polished off the last of his crackers earlier on in the week, and so he was to sit through a torturous two more classes before lunch.
He brought the next sheet of parchment to the front. Hermione Granger's essay, easily 13 inches with tiny cramped writing. Without much thought he instantly scrawled "too long," across the top. Not much interested in straining his eyes to focus on her miniscule writing, he wrote "too small" under his previous note. From what he read, Hermione, like always seemed to have gotten the point home with words to spare. She added an extra paragraph on Moonstone's limitations in love potions and the difficulty in exporting it to countries in the far east. Snape gave her an E without reading much of it, his head pounding too much.
He would like very much to either be sleeping or perhaps lying in a very warm bath, the essays to be graded at another time. Snape was surprised at how much heat had played to his favor since coming back to Hogwarts. Teaching in the dungeons meant resigning yourself to always having a bit of a chilly classroom, which Snape nine times out of ten, would have preferred. It kept the students a little more on edge and focused, and he preferred to dress in comfy layers. In the summertime, not expecting company, Snape was resigned to breaking out muggle T-shirts and shorts because he didn't care enough to buy robes that breathed much better then his long flowing black ones.
But this new highly sensitive, sick as a dog version of himself had magicked the room much warmer this year. Even with his robes, he felt a distinct draftiness that seemed to make his body much more sore and likely to feel achey unless the room was warm. The draw back was that he felt very sluggish and tired, like he was ready to nap now that he had found his perfect temperature.
He thought lovingly of the staff bathroom near the headmaster's tower. He hadn't even looked into it for many years, preferring his own bathroom and his privacy. He had never much cared for having an aqua jet or scented bath before, the thought now seemed much more enjoyable then he previously imagined.
It was that thought that floated like a bubble in his chest over the course of the day, getting him through his classes with ease. He felt marginally better after having eaten more at lunch, but the headache didn't dissipate until he adjourned his last class of the day, finished his dinner and climbed the long shifting staircases leading up to the staff bathroom. He brought with him a spare towel, a bottle of his own shampoo and a change of clothes for when he had finished, unsure exactly how much the bathroom would supply him with, his memory of the place was foggy anyway and he supposed the place could have changed some since he had last seen it.
The bathroom itself on the outside looked to be a very dingy water closet. The small wooden door was locked, the brass faded and tarnished. Snape knew better, and drew a long sallow hand down the wood, as though petting it, he turned the knob again and found it unlocked this time. He supposed the safest enchantment to hide a teachers bathroom was to have the door only recognize other teachers.
The bathroom candles instantly illuminated upon him entering and he was surprised to see the splendor it had been kept in, since he didn't think many of the staff had used it. It was very amazing to behold, there was a large, very deep circular pool, almost resembling a grotto that had many multicolored taps to chose from. Two glass dolphins were arched at the entrance to the pool and were spraying foamy jets of water from their blowholes into a large irrigated stream that ran the length of the room and was filled with glass beads. Hundreds of bottles of shampoo and body washes lined the left far left wall in transparent shelves while on the right, a waterfall flowed calmly with mossy rocks and very large blue and purple koi fish circling where the water touched down.
The ceiling was mirrored and gave Snape the impression that he was underwater, watching his reflection as the candelabra floated overhead, a distinct smell of incense wafting over the secluded paradise. It was very different from the feel of the rest of the castle and Snape supposed it must have been redone in the last few years.
He began to undress, hanging his robes on one of the hooks and stuffing his socks inside his shoes, he drew his towel around his waist rather protectively and sighed longly, filling his chest with the floral smell of the incense and feeling pleasantly dizzy. Only in his condition now could he enjoy this place to the upmost. Bathing and sleeping had never taken up such a precedence in his life where he seemed to become so easily bothered when he went without them. Now if he didn't shower at least once a day and clean his face twice, he felt dirty. His skin was more oily and warm now, and his body seemed to make up for the new constant warmth by sweating awkwardly throughout the day. His hair seemed to enjoy the new constant cleaning regime however, and had a new shining brilliance that competed with his usual matte black profile.
Snape dipped his foot in the edge of the pool, feeling a tingling sensation up his spine as it was just right. He draped his towel over one of the large dolphin statues and sank down to sit on the edge relishing the perfect warmth. He instantly forgot about the stack of papers he had to grade and the reading he had to refresh himself on so he could propose study questions to his students the next day. He sank into the deep pool, taking a deep breath and letting himself sink a few feet deep.
There was an ineffable sort of pleasure being perfectly suspended, he remembered the last time he had gone swimming, years and years ago. It was at a muggle public pool, at invitation from Lily.
The Evans had a membership at a local community center for many years, as Snape remembered. They used to take their daughters to swim at the pool while they were working over the summer holidays, it sounded like enormous fun to Snape, who had never really got to go swimming as his parents could never afford to take him anywhere.
On weekends where Lily convinced Petunia to let her borrow her pass, Snape walked to Lily's house where then Lily's parents would drive them to the pool. He was always intimidated by their kindness and mumbled out low thank you's as they left them with a lunchbox full of snacks and sandwiches for the day.
"You don't have a swim suit?" Lily said bewildered as they were about to enter their separate changing rooms. Snape, a gangly twelve year old, looked sadly at the list of pool rules, reading NO NON-SWIM WEAR ALLOWED IN SWIMMING AREA.
"My mum gave me some shorts," He showed lily the gray draw string exercise pants she had dug out for him when he told her about swimming with Lily. "But don't the boys ones have nets in them?"
Lily had looked from Snape to the shorts, and back to the changing room in rapid succession. She grabbed the pair from him and took them into the girls locker room, calling "One minute!" Behind her.
He waited awkwardly by the boys changing room, leaning on the wall with his plastic shopping bag full of dry clothes, watching the families coming and going until Lily came back out, excitedly handing Snape back the shorts, now lined with a black netting that made them unmistakably swim trunks. Snape beamed at her, not saying a word. She must have used some magic to have done it so fast, but having left their wands at home, it was small enough not to get in trouble for.
As much as Snape was excited for the pool, he did not understand how deep the pool was initially, and since he had not swam very often, he made up excused for staying in the shallower end while Lily took to water like a fish.
"Tuney taught me how." She exclaimed when Snape had asked her where she had learned to swim. "Mum and dad got me some lessons when I was really little but Tuney is really good at swimming and she taught me how to float."
Lily didn't mind that Snape was a little anxious to swim with water much farther over his head. They stole goggles from the pools gutter side and took to playing with the pool toys and seeing who could stand on their hands the longest underwater. They would leave after a few hours, very exhausted with pruned fingers and toes, they sat in the pools observation room to eat the snacks Lily's parents had packed them and talked about how Hogwarts should have a pool for swimming. They would be picked up in the evening again by her parents, Lily's mother scolded her for ripping her net sports bag and holding the contents in her arms as she got into the car.
They had their fun, going to the community center up until about third year, when the Evan's canceled their membership and Snape had outgrown the modified shorts.
A long echoing meow interrupted Snape's memory and he gasped, splashing water as he looked around to see the Ginger cat, sitting on the edge of the pool, looking disapprovingly at him.
"Won't you leave me alone?" Snape pleaded, his heart still racing, he angrily splashed water at the cat who stayed resolutely still. Watching him beadily. He couldn't imagine how the cat had gotten in, but decided against trying to figure out how. He had come to relax, and the presence of the cat wouldn't shake him from being able to enjoy the water and the warmth. The cat seemed to understand as well, it wasn't toeing the water precariously or meowing loudly for him to leave. Perhaps the cat knew how good it felt and far from trying to annoy him, it was just chaperoning. He felt stupid, putting it out of his mind. It was just a cat. A very nosy, ugly cat.
He investigated the nozzles to the poolside with interest. Some were a simple gold or silver while others were bright red, murky brown, and even a pearly white. Loopy cursive writing was written across the porcelain above the nozzles, some reading Aches and Pains, Moisturizing, Anti Aging, and congestion. Snape walked along the slanted side of the pool, turning some levers on. Making a curious concoction of water to suit his own bathing experience. The Aches and Pains and Migraines taps flowed into the pool and left a steamy mist to float in the air, breathing deeply, Snape felt instantly better, his skin tickled at the new water pouring in. He felt light and radiant, sinking in up to his eyes so his hair floated on the water's surface, his sighs became thick pearly bubbles that floated to the surface.
His knees floated to his chest and he balled himself up, eyes closed. Willing himself to leave the bath was going to be very hard. It seemed to have been enchanted to never loose it's heat and it wasn't until the cat meowed rather loudly that he snapped back to reality to find the bath close to over flowing, he turned the taps off quickly but sank back to his resting position.
His heart seemed to do a very alarming summer salt in his chest as he drew his arms closer to him, he felt his front closely, an inarticulate groaning mumbling of dread coming from his throat. Just below his bellybutton, he could feel a small accentuated bubble. Unremarkable to anyone except himself, but a huge distention from his norm. He felt over the tiny bump, his eyes wide, the color gone from his face. He hadn't noticed anything that morning while he dressed, had it really just magically appeared in the last eight hours? Was he even supposed to be showing yet?
The magic of the bath suddenly gone, his heart racing as he pushed a little on the pooch, almost trying to force it back. He hoisted himself back out of the bath, sitting on the side to see his stomach.
He felt stupid, both hands feeling over the bump, he had known this was going to happen, he knew it was going to only get worse from there, but now it was there. Just slightly puffed out, it wasn't even really the baby yet, it was just his baby pushing on his organs to bloat him out, but it was a sign for things to come.
The cat meowed loudly, striding over to sit next time him as he dripped water all over the side of the pool, it's tail held jauntily high.
My dumb ass forgot it was NaNoWriMo so I guess this is my project this year, not like it really matters, at the pace I'm going this could probably make it. Thanks for those who have reviewed, I feel like people are less interested in this because it's not a love story but I feel like with the circumstances Snape's in, it doesn't make sense for it to be about love at all. He's just so negative, you know?
Keep reviewing, I think chapter five is going to be hard to start. Thanks!