After much contemplation about VS I and II, I've decided to keep them up. I know there are probably some groans out there right now, but that's okay. Anyway, Snape's Tale is almost done. I have two more parts to post after this one. Enjoy.
Chapter Seven- Longing
Harry spent the rest of Easter break alone until the day before classes resumed. He finally told Ron and Hermione what he had been up to all year. Both told him that he had been crazy to go through with such a plan. Ron, however, said that it would have been really cool if Harry's form had been a dragon.
Harry felt miserable the next day. It was true that classes were back and session and that he wasn't alone in Gryffindor Tower, but that didn't cheer him up. He missed his usual dash from Snape's room to the Great Hall in the mornings and vice versa in the evenings. He thought fondly of those days as he went through his morning classes.
Harry's fond memories came to a halt after lunch and were replaced by anxiety and nervousness. This would be his first time seeing Snape since that fateful day and he wondered how the Potions Master would act. Harry suspected that he would act exactly the way he did before Evans.
Harry's suspicions turned out to be right. Snape was back to his old, vindictive self. Despite the attitude change, Harry's potions performance remained the way it had when he was Evans.
Snape prowled around the room, looming menacingly over the Gryffindors he passed. He noticed that their performances were poor again. He didn't care.
As he checked Harry's potion, he noticed that the boy seemed miserable and a little tired. Of course Potter was miserable: His great trick failed.
Snape got a surprise when he looked in the cauldron. The potion was coming along nicely! Keeping the surprise out of his voice, Snape said, "Very good Har-Potter."
Obviously, Potter heard the slip, but he chose not to acknowledge it, probably because he was still mad about failing. Snape turned away and continued to circle the room, wondering why he almost called Potter by first name again.
Several hours later, Snape headed for his office. He swung open the door and drank in the silence that had dominated the room for several days now. No cat items were in sight. Snape had Vanished them the day he exposed Potter. After all, what use did he have of pet supplies when he didn't have a pet?
Snape deposited the parchments in his arms onto his desk before sweeping out the door. He was on patrol duty tonight and he was anxious to catch a student out of bed, particularly a Gryffindor.
The fifth-floor corridor was deserted. Torches were lit along the walls which cause the suits of armor to gleam weakly. Stripes of moonlight shone through the windows and landed on the stone floor. Snape strolled down the hall until he came to a section that was very dark.
Snape pulled out his wand and said, "Lumos." His wand lit up and a gleam in the darkness drew his attention.
Two pinpricks of light appeared close to the floor, evidence that it wasn't a student. As he got closer, the wandlight soon fell on a black kitten.
'Evans?' he thought, his heart pounding. He crouched down and scooped up the kitten. It was then that he took a good look at it.
There was no lightning bolt patch on the head and all four paws were white. Furthermore, the gold eyes had a greenish cast to them. Snape frowned. Why was he thinking it was Evans? Evans wasn't a real cat.
Footsteps reached his wars and he turned back to a cross-corridor he had passed. The footsteps grew louder and a fourth-year Ravenclaw appeared in the hall. She had a frantic look on her face that changed to relief when she saw Snape and the kitten.
"There you are Mittens. You naughty boy," the girl chided gently as she came closer. "Thank you for finding him, Professor."
"Do you have permission to wander the corridors past curfew?" Snape asked.
"Yes, sir." The girl held out a note which Snape took. He saw Flitwick's handwriting giving the student permission to look for her pet.
Snape handed the note and the kitten to the girl. "You have him. Now, get to bed."
"Yes, sir." The girl headed back up the cross-corridor, the kitten propped on her shoulder so that its front half faced Snape.
Snape locked eyes with the kitten's until the girl tuned a corner. It was then that he realized something surprising: Severus Snape was lonely.
Harry sat in front of a table in the Gryffindor Common Room writing a DADA essay. His quill scratched a line before he looked in the book for a minute, and then scratched a few more lines. A girlish giggle caught his attention and he looked over.
Hermione was playing with Crookshanks nearby. She was dangling a length of ribbon (without a wand) above her cat. Crookshanks stretched himself up and batted furiously at it, making his owner laugh.
Harry was reminded forcibly of how Snape played with him. The way Snape laughed had been pure and innocent-sounding and Harry had felt pleased that he was the reason Snape had been happy.
While he dwelled on these thoughts, his eyes followed the sway of the ribbon. He also felt a strong desire the play with the ribbon himself. He shook his head and turned his attention back to his essay. What in the world had he been thinking! He wasn't a kitten. He was a human. A human with homework, to be precise.
He tuned out Hermione's laughter as he wrote his essay. His thoughts, however, kept turning back to the ribbon and Harry felt the urge to transform and play. He reminded himself that he was really human, even though he longed for his carefree kitten days.
Poor Harry. A bit of an interesting plot twist, isn't it? How will Harry and Snape resolve their problems? All will be revealed in the next update.
