AN: I have to say, I love writing this story. It is a challenge to have a character, the main character, to not be able to speak. I suggest you try it if you have the chance. Though I am cheating this chapter.

SlytherinLuv: Reread the first chapter.

Thunderous Silence

Chapter 7

Understandings

"So we're going home," Nick begged me as we came into the Great Hall for breakfast one Wednesday. I smiled and nodded and Nick broke out into a grin. The man truly hated teaching.

Halloween had come and gone, with out much incident. I think I should count myself lucky that nothing major happen since there had been a troll in the castle only a few years earlier. We were that point in the semester where everyone was counting down the days to the holiday break.

We walked in between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables. Nick immediately got pulled in to a conversation with McGonagall for shirking his duties as a professor. I sat down next to Severus.

His eyes flicked over to mine and he nodded his greeting. I smiled and nodded mine in return.

"Stop it you two," Nick groaned as he escaped McGonagall and sat next to me. "It's bad enough that I have one person who doesn't talk. I don't need two."

"It might do you good to perhaps learn," Severus snapped at my cousin.

The two began to quarrel; I sat calmly in between the two. I reminisced about the earlier months of the semester where Nick was the calm one. Of course it wasn't going to last.

"So here's the end all be all mate," Nick concluded. "We're going home this weekend and we're going to drink with our friends and see our family. You're going to sit in your dungeon and drink by yourself."

My elbow nailed Nick in the rib cage with perfect precision. And just to make sure it bruised, I hit him there a second time.

I turned to Severus and smiled. I made my eyelashes flutter.

"Is this your way of inviting me?" Severus asked.

Nick said "no" while I nodded yes.

"Will I be a bother to you and your friends?" Severus asked.

Nick said "yes" while I shook my head no.

Severus looked me in the eyes and smiled. "I'd be glad to come."

After breakfast, Nick and I walked towards our classroom. I was surprised by his actions at breakfast. While he knew and liked the mauraders well enough, he had never felt the need to join in on their jokes. Nick and Severus had been rather civil, friendly almost, during their time at Hogwarts. And it wasn't like I had identified Severus as a Death Eater.

"I was a jerk today at breakfast," Nick said as he rubbed his bruising side.

My elbow gently nudged the bruise that I knew was forming.

Nick sighed and racked his hands through his hair. "I don't know what is about this place. I didn't like Hogwarts while I was here as a student and I don't like it now. Being a bartender was just so much more fun."

That's when I realized that I wasn't doing the favor for Dumbledore, he was doing one for me. He had given me some purpose to my life once more. Nick didn't need anyone to give his life purpose.

"I'll apologize to him at lunch," Nick muttered to himself.

As soon as we reached our classroom, the bell rang and students began to pour in. Our routine began with deducting ten points from Slytherin for foul language.

True to his word, Nick apologized at lunch. While the two weren't really friendly with each other at the moment, they weren't hostile either.

Dinner went on normally. Nick and Hagrid were deep in conversation, thinking that perhaps they could combine their lessons together somehow. McGonagall was talking about flower arrangement, thankfully not for a wedding, with Dumbledore. Flitwick was surprisingly missing. So that left Severus and myself to our own devices.

He had learned how to speak my language. We spoke silently to one another. As dinner disappeared from the table we both reached for the same desert. Our hands touched and we looked at each other before retracting our hands. We both smiled, knowingly.

After dinner, Nick and I walked back to our rooms. My cousin looked over at me. "What is going one between you and Severus."

I shrugged.

"Would you tell me if there was?" Nick pushed.

I grabbed his arm and looked him in the eye. It was an action I did often, particularly right after I had been released from St. Mungos. It was the way I asked if something was wrong.

Nick shook his head. "Everything is fine, I just want to know if something going on. We have to work with him, you know."

We reached our room. Nick had wrapped an arm around my shoulders and I had wrapped on around his waist. I was curious which one of us was comforting the other. Nick could tell I wasn't saying something to him. I knew he was upset about this knowledge.

I was careful to wait for Nick to go to sleep before I slipped out for my dessert with Severus. As I left my our rooms, I promised myself I would tell Severus as soon as I knew myself.

Severus was waiting for me in the kitchen. He had gotten us each a slice of chocolate cake. He handed me mine, and we stood side-by-side eating. We were quiet, not using words and not using movements.

After we had finished, Severus took me by the elbow and led me to his office. It was a cozy room. It was similar to mine, one end held a cauldron and a desk while the other had several arm chairs circling a fireplace. Severus lit a fire for us. He sat down in one of the armchairs, and gestured me to do the same.

We sat in silence until Severus asked. "What are we?"

I shrugged.

"I need more than just a shrug," Severus said calmly. I could feel the tension that he must have been feeling. "I need to know."

"Why are you so worried about?" I asked him point blankly.

Severus looked shocked for a minute before shaking his head. "You would know legimacy."

"I know it," I admitted, "but I don't like using it. Defeats the purpose of being silent."

"And what propose would that be?" Severus asked coolly.

I shrugged. "No clue."

"But seriously, what are we?" Severus asked.

I shrugged again. "Why label it?"

"Why?" Severus sputtered. "Perhaps because McGonagall is pushing marriage down our throats. Or maybe because your cousin would not like us 'hooking up' on the side. Not to mention we are both teachers here and should set a good example of what a relationship it."

My body moved from the chair that I was sitting on the arm of the chair that Severus was sitting on. "Those are all reasons why others want us to label what we are. Why do you want to label us? We have time to figure this out."

"We do?" Severus asked. I slid on to his lap. "We do. I've just never been close to this."

"Neither have I," I admitted.

Severus buried his face into my shoulder. "I miss your voice."

I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face into his soft hair. The tears began running down my cheeks. I'm not sure when I began crying, all I knew is that we both were.