Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 9
Illy walked into the room and looked for a friendly face, desperately needing someone to tell her things would be okay from this point on; she spotted Hermione across the room and was at her side in a matter of seconds.
"So, what's on the reading list this week Herm?" She ask, as she adjusted her bun. Hermione looked up with a smile,
"Oh not too much, we have Finding fauna and fighting fiends: a safety guide for field wizards, Bridging the Non-Magical world: a history of human and wizard myths, and of course, because obviously I'm enjoying Rupert Roderick's works at the moment, At Home in the Field of Research. After a reading list like this we could probably keep up with your parents! By the way, do you think I might be able to join you one summer? Or maybe over winter break!" Hermione began getting worked up at the thought of real field research.
"To be honest, we don't spend much time together, I travel with them, but I really only reach destination and take off for deliveries from there, I do a lot of research work, but some how its rarely having to do with their big discoveries. Mostly they like to work on their own, so me being around is pretty useless, they don't feel comfortable with me there." Illy explained, the whole conversation was the opposite of what she was looking for.
"How could they be uncomfortable with you? They've been your parents since you were an infant right?" She asked confused.
"Look, when I was eleven I got injured pretty badly, something to do with falling off my broom, apparently it's a wonder I don't have a horrible fear of flying, but at any rate, I've been sort of different since then, they still love me and everything, they're just a little uncomfortable working around me, evidently I'm more inquisitive than I used to be…" Illy trailed off as she saw Ron and Harry walk in, Harry waved at her.
"What do you mean evidently? Don't you remember what you used to act like?" Herm was still talking, but Illy had lost all interest, as she looked from the now seated Harry to the entering Draco. She smiled and turned to Hermione.
"Hey I'm gonna go say 'hullo' to Harry ok?" She asked, but without waiting for a response she walked away, Hermione just chuckled and waved her off with a 'see you tonight' Illy made her way to the table that Ron and Harry sat at, she took one more glance at Draco, who was now trying to pass off his scabbed knuckles as more of the trauma he received from Buckbeak earlier that year.
Killious had been present for the original injury, but she was one of the few people who Draco usually didn't pretend with, after ten or fifteen minutes of screaming like a child he showed her his arm, which was entirely unscathed, Harry came closer to get a look but so save a fight Illy leaned down and kissed Draco's arm affectionately before letting him have it back, leaving Harry irritated, but less so than if he had actually seen Draco's uninjured state.
Illy walked up behind the two, who were discussing the potion they were supposed to be making that day, she placed and arm on the shoulder of each boy and squeezed their heads to her for a hug, before giving each a small kiss on the cheek. They smiled up at her, and Harry glanced over a Draco, who was now all but seething,
"What a load of shit, like a wound would show up almost a month later! He's such an arrogant asshole, I bet there isn't even anything wrong with his hand!" Harry turned his head to Ron, who nodded in agreement.
"Oh, there's something there…" Illy absentmindedly mumbled.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"He was harassing some girl this morning, accidentally busted up his knuckles…" She explained. "So anyway, what are you up to these days Strawberries?" Illy asked Ron,
"Oh…um not much I guess…wait what?" Rod began to turn shades of read all over his face. Before she could explain Snape walked into the room and sent stray students scrambling to their seats.
"That's the second Weasly I've seen turn the same color as their hair this morning!" Draco shouted out at Ron, who was too distracted talking to Harry about his shampoo to even notice that the entire class was now laughing at him. Illy took her seat next to Draco reluctantly, pulling her stool as far away from him as she could get it before actually settling in. Snape began the class and went over the procedures for the potion, it was a simple procedure and between herself and Draco, Illy was done within fifteen minutes and was just letting the potion finish brewing, stirring absentmindedly with one hand while she sped through the pages of her book with the other. She finished the last chapter on the book and slammed it shut with a sigh of irritation, she hadn't brought a back up, and Draco had been staring at her since class began, nursing his would, making her reliever her morning every time she looked at it. She turned to him,
"You can stop fucking acting like a pussy, you're not the one who almost got raped!" She whispered in a scolding tone.
"Neither are you." He smirked back in her direction.
"Just stop looking at me, it makes me feel even more filthy than I did before."
"No, you have no reason to feel dirty, and I'm not going to stop looking because you won't stop pretending that our morning ended with Fred and George." His voice was getting a little louder, but she was still the only one who could hear it over the chatter of the teams in the class.
"It's not like that was going to make me forgive you."
"I fucked up ok? I let my pants think for me, it happens. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"No! Because that's not even what you believe about the whole situation."
"Congratulations, you're not as thick as I thought. But in that case I have no reason to apologize, I wanted revenge for your prank and found out that you're into rough sex, big deal."
"It is a bloody big deal! You're such a bastard!-"
"Ah, well you'd be wrong there, my dad is alive, we just both wish it was otherwise"
"And yet you seem to model him so perfectly!" Illy was now speaking above a normal level and people had begun to notice.
"That's not even fair…and you know it." Draco lowered his head and snatched the spoon from her, stirring the cauldron violently as he did his best to look away from her now onyx eyes.
"I really don't give a shit, you don't play fair, why should I? Stay up late with my nightmares and see just how much alike you are!" She shoved her book away from her and checked the time. "It's been long enough. I'm going to get Snape to check this so I can get the fuck away from your spoiled rotten arse!" She exclaimed before getting up to put away their supplies properly so that Snape could look the potion over.
She walked up to Snape's desk, putting a noted bounce and sway to each step she took.
"We're ready to have you check our potion." She said cheerily, smiling at him.
"So you're done with your lovers quarrel now?" Snape asked; Illy's smile dissipated instantly.
"Servious, don't fuck with me today, if you have a problem with the men which I associate with we can talk about it in private." She informed in a hushed voice. Snape stood up and headed towards the table.
"Very well then." He said as he walked to Draco's side. Illy dropped a note in Harry's lap as she walked by, causing him to nock over a bottle when he jumped from the sudden disruption in his intent stirring.
He tapped Ron and had him take over until the potion was ready for the next step, as he unfolded the note that had been given him. Illy's hand writing was small, thin but loopy, crammed together so that words and letters were running into one another, and in purple ink:
"I'm sitting with the Gryffindor's at lunch today. Can you ask Ron to tell Fred and George to make sure they save me a seat? Thanks bunches scar-head, -Illy" Harry sniggered softly at the name, when it came from Draco it seemed cruel, but when it was from Illy it just seemed cute, funny, even affectionate. He turned to tell Ron to convey the message but the Red head was totally asleep, leaning on one hand like a pillow, with the potion bubbling fervently on a high flame.
Snape had just began to run through procedures with Illy and Draco when Ron let out a shriek, his foot had been crushed quite brutally by a heavy cauldron and their table seemed to have a large hole in it. Snape rushed to the table, agitated and having trouble comprehending how a simple hiccup curing potion could burn through a table and then turn to stone.
"What did you do Potter?" He spat Harry's last name, as if it were a horrible insult.
"The potion had gotten too hot, I tried to add the next ingredient but the feathers reacted badly and sent everything pouring out the edge, so I added the iron fillings and cut off the flame, but the acid had already weakened the table and the iron solidified and made the cauldron heavier, and then…umm, his foot is bleeding pretty badly." Harry pointed to Ron who was now whimpering in pains as his crushed foot began to bleed. Hermione rushed to his side, levitating the cauldron off his foot and moving to carry him up to the hospital wing.
"Do hurry miss Granger, the acid won't help the pain." Snape as Hermione did her best to carry Ron out the door. "Vincent, use your ridiculous bulk to help miss Granger with her freckled friend." Snape commanded and Crabbe scurried to take Ron from Hermione, who was now crying harder than Ron the more she looked at his foot.
Snape turned back to Harry who was panicking, "Twelve points from Gryffindor for almost severing a student's foot! And you didn't pass this test, jut in case you had any doubts, also, I'll be needing to see you after class." Draco sniggered loudly next to you, smirking at the expression of anguish on Harry's face.
When the class finally ended most everyone had the time to turn in their potion Draco and Illy made an A, even though she had inadvertently sent Ron to the Hospital ward, on the plus side Hermione earned the Gryffindor eight points for helping Ron and making it back in time to finish her potion perfectly, of course. Just as the bell rang for lunch she heard Snape call Potter to talk with him. Harry gulped down his fear and stood behind as the class fled the room, laughing about the days events, or cursing about their grades. But she stood with Harry, just behind him actually, so that he didn't see her, but Snape did.
"Come." Snape gestured with his long bony fingers. Harry stepped forward, but Snape frowned, he stopped dead in his tracks, clearly panicking, but as Illy walked by she placed a soft finger on his shoulder. "Potter…you really think you're the more important student here?" Snape chuckled coldly and put an arm around her shoulder as he led her into his office, leaving Harry confused, and angry.
Snape's office was cluttered, but organized. The walls were lined with ingredients and strange objects and Illy smiled as she noted that a large majority of them were hand delivered by herself.
"Is there something I can help you with Miss Enquirus?" He asked harshly. Illy whipped her head around, from where her eyes had wandered to some pickled tad poles, and raised an eyebrow before putting her sneakers up on his desk and laughing.
"Oh please Servious, no one can hear us, I know you have enchantments on this room." He smiled a little in the right corner of his mouth and looked her over.
"You look ridiculous, Ike." He said getting to the point.
Ike was a very specific to Snape nick name that Illy had picked up two summers ago when she had first delivered something to him. He was out of the office, but Gringott's made a point of ensuring that she protected all delivered packages, and made sure that every customer knew who had handled their goods. At first she wasn't sure what to do about Snape's absence, but classes would start soon and no one was supposed to see her. Placing a weak incarcerous on the box she left a note on the desk and showed herself out. The tag said: "Delivered by IQE, the box is charmed to protect it from snooping students" Snape spent weeks trying to form her initials into a name, so that he could thank her for taking care of his package, and could only come up with Ike. About a week and a half later Killious came to the school to drop off some special flutterby bush clippings for Fawkes.' As she headed back through one of the castles many secret passages she ran into Snape, successfully giving him an accidental bump to the chin with her broom. He beamed down at her, looking almost teary eyed, though it couldn't have been from the bruise now bluing on his chin, and took the opportunity to say "Thank you for your delivery, and your clever behavior Ike." Illy gave him an odd look and he came out and asked her how to pronounce her name, she burst into a fit of laughter that made him turn bright red before explaining that I was for Illy and the rest were initials, and since then, she had been Ike.
"Oh come off it, so I had a rough morning, you're not looking so tidy yourself." She said pointing to his hair.
"No, not today, you look fine today, I mean every other day. You've got barely a thing on and you're prancing around this school like you own it! It's insane! I mean just the other day I could see way too much cleavage and I know I was not the only one, I could even see your...erm, undergarments…"
"Don't start, I wear less than this when I do deliveries, so why's it matter now?"
"You weren't around a bunch of teenage morons then! You think I don't notice how half the school is tripping over themselves for you? You've turned this place inside out, Fred, George, Ron, Draco, Blaise, Cedric, Christian, Jackquinne, Dolan, Clause, even Harry gets his damn tongue tied around you! And that's just half the people, even Mattie talks about you…I'm worried."
"Please, just because I don't look like you, and because kids here take notice means I'm doing something wrong?"
"You know damn well I'm up all night working, it's a wonder I have time to bathe let alone spend hours grooming as I'm sure you do."
"I do not! And I have bad mornings too, I mean look at me today!" Just as she finished the sentence she realized that she had mentioned her morning too many times, Snape narrowed his eyes on her. "Don't you dare." Illy threatened. "I'll never forgive you; my thoughts are my own, as are my memories." He blinked finally and looked away.
"Ike, I knew your Dad…and I knew your mom, and before they died they asked me to look out for you. I'm just worried is all…what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" He asked, finally dropping the subject.
"Leave Potter be, he didn't do anything, I did. It was funny in all honesty, he was following procedure perfectly and I dropped a note into his lap, I needed to talk to Fred and George, I should've known that he wouldn't wait until after class to open the thing. Besides, its not as if he crushed Draco's foot" She winced a little as she said his name, Snape raised an eyebrow but stayed silent. "I have a grudge to settle with him…there really is no way around this is there?" She stood up and walked around the front of Snape's desk, taking a seat on its top.
"You can look…but don't get mad, and when I say you're done you are…deal?" She offered. Snape's eyes met hers again, pleased at the chance to invade someone's thoughts.
"Deal." He said. He stood up and she followed suit so that he could fix his gaze and have easy steady concentration. Her morning played out before her, along with the conversation she had with Draco the night before, but just as she was re-entering your dorm she stopped Snape.
"Enough, here's where you need to stop." He closed his eyes and pulled her close to him, hugging her around the neck, and kissing the top of her head softly. She could tell that he was about to come undone.
"He'll never come near you again he whispered." Illy broke the embrace and looked up at Snape. Over the past two years she had grown very close to him, he was a father figure that made up for my adoptive parents who were never around. She rarely thought of them as not my own family except when she was around Snape, then it seemed like this was the kind of father she was supposed to have, one who worried about her, and yelled at her for the clothing she wore, and threatened the boys that didn't treat her right, as opposed to one who brushed off her problems and kept her out of school so that he could turn her into his personal brain-child.
"You can't do that, he's your second favorite, and on the inside, he's a good guy. There's more to things than you realize, so please, just don't panic over nothing okay?" He nodded his head and hugged her again.
Illy sat down on the desk again, trying to think of a way to lighten the mood somewhat, she looked down at his desk, it was less cluttered than usual and had become more personal over the last two years, as its vacant corners were filled with a clutter of odd gifts she had brought him from her trips. Vanishing depth boxes, everlasting candles with hand crafted bases, several books of native charms and spells, a book on human healing potions, a picture of herself and Snape soaking wet and looking miserable came to life as her eyes stopped on it, the figures began doing their best to wring their robes out, only to be covered in water again by the tidal wave of a splash created by the giant squid in the lake behind them.
"I remember that day…you were harvesting globbersnout eggs for a potion and asked me to come along…damn lake nearly swallowed us, and then after we got out that kid Colin decided to take a picture, I had to chase him down soaking wet to get it back." She fondly watched as the figures laughed at one another, and began to pick the sticky, ping-pong ball sized eggs off their clothing. Snape smiled at the wooden framed photo that accompanied three or four others on his desk. "How'd you get that one?" She asked, pointing to a white framed photo, featuring her in a sun dress, on a beach in Guam, smiling as she held a large Fobbler in her arms, the purple gray dog sized creatures nose hung down to her knees and its leathery skin made it look almost like a miniature elephant.
"You mum sent it to me last summer, said you were having a great time in Guam…which was ironic because the very next day you were here telling me that they had only let you stay on sight for two days." He explained as Illy moved aside another picture of the two at a dark arts awareness banquet where Illy had accompanied him, her spaghetti strapped black dress contrasting with her tan skin and the white gold jewelry around her neck and on her ears. "Last winter's banquet," She was distracted now though, by the silver framed picture in her hand, "Will you be taking this lovely young lady this year?" She asked, staring intently at the tan woman in the photo. Her eyes were a dazzling ocean color, and her hair was bright blond, with an electric blue under layer, she was standing outside a large brick home in a tropical location, torn denim jeans, bruise spotted legs, cuts and scrapes every where from her nose to her sandaled toes, her white shirt just thin enough to show the silhouette of a black bikini underneath, her busty form posing for the camera with grace as she moved from one modeled stance to the next, laughing and waving in between, each time she lifted her arm Illy could see the dark mark on her wrist.
"If she were still alive I would." He said taking the photo from Illy and putting it back into place, hidden from plain sight behind the others, "But she died a long time ago…just about thirteen years ago actually." He said snapping his fingers and turning the photo black.
"Why do you hide it? Who was she?" Illy asked, Snape breathed in, debating in his mind if the timing was appropriate.
"You better get to lunch you haven't eaten yet, and take Potter with you, you got him off the hook." He said as he pushed her out the door, handing her a book on defense against the dark arts as she left, as if he thought Draco really knew any dark arts. He slammed the door and locked it behind Illy, she was about to turn around and begin to bang on it, but she noticed the confused looking Harry.
"Let's go funshine." She said as she exited the classroom, lacing her arm through Harry's and heading off down the hall towards lunch. Snape smiled as he watched her go, but when he turned back to his office he slipped down to the ground, head in his hands, and cried until his eyes were puffy and his sobs were but a whisper.
(AN: Even Snape has secrets and mysterious half naked women on his desk! R&R, -Richard S.)