I picked up the pieces of my broken ego
I have finally made my peace as far as you and me go
-Good Day, The Dresden Dolls
Although her thoughts still were on the subject of Hogwarts when Draco returned to the school, Tempest did not ask Dobby whether or not her request for him to make sure Harry Potter did not to go to Hogwarts was fulfilled. Her suspicions, though, were that it was not. The house elf avoided her at all costs, only in her presence when Lucius summoned him while in the same room. Even then, he was quick to leave.
For some time, Tempest had felt it rude to ask Dobby whether Harry Potter had gone back to Hogwarts. It was none of her business in the first place. However, she decided that it did not matter whether she was rude or not, as long as she asked politely. At least, as politely as she could manage. It was easy enough to corner the house elf, and even easier to find him. He was shoving his head into an oven for some reason or another, as he usually did. Tempest hurriedly held him by the scruff of his pillow case clothing and pulled him out.
"What are you doing?" she asked irritably. The house elf looked up at her with wide, watery eyes.
"Dobby turned the master's socks blue, mistress," Dobby replied, blinking rapidly. "Dobby had to punish himself."
"But you can just turn the socks white again," Tempest said.
"Dobby did, mistress, but it was foolish of Dobby to do it at all."
"More foolish to try and burn your head off," she pointed out. Dobby shuffled his bony feet and looked down at the floor. As told by Lucius, he was silent until asked a question or demanded a task. "You remember I asked you about that Harry Potter boy?" Dobby looked up quickly, trembling.
"Yes, miss."
"And?" she said pointedly. Dobby seemed to shudder more at this.
"Dobby did his best, miss," he said tearfully. "Dobby stopped Harry Potter's letters from his friends, and Dobby even went to his house. Even when Harry Potter went to the train, Dobby stopped the barrier. But Harry Potter is very clever, miss, and found his way to Hogwarts."
Tempest blinked, slightly shocked. She had never seen the house elf in such a state before. Dobby, however, misinterpreted her shock, and wailed a single cry of fear and regret.
"Dobby will punish himself, mistress!" he said through choked tears.
"Don't be so silly," Tempest muttered, thinking. "Well, there must be something you can do."
"Whatever you ask, miss."
"I don't know what to ask," she said mournfully. "Just…can you just try your best? Improvise or something? I'm giving you permission to do whatever, Dobby, just so long as it works."
"Yes, miss," Dobby said, bowing his head, his eyes slightly more dry than before. There was more awe in them than anything else, and also slight curiosity. Seeing this, Tempest tilted her head slightly, looking at the elf.
"You want to ask me something?" she asked, causing Dobby to jump as if in shock. He nodded his head, but only after looking about the room first. "Go on then."
"Dobby shan't be rude, miss, he won't!"
"If you don't want to be rude, tell me what it is you want to ask." Dobby was still silent, looking down at the floor. "Dobby, I order you to tell me what it is you want to ask."
"Dobby only wishes to know, mistress, why it is she asks Dobby to help Harry Potter," he said hurriedly, stumbling over his words. Tempest paused, staring at him.
"Would you rather I didn't?" she asked simply, before turning on her heel and leaving the room. Dobby watched as she left, satisfied enough with the reply.
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"I'd probably learn better if you'd stop losing it with me," a bitter thirteen year old Tempest said to a rather tired looking and irritated Severus Snape.
"I am not losing it," he said tiredly, his thumb and finger rubbing his temples in a strenuous manner. "I am simply finding it impossible that you can be so thick-headed."
"Maybe I wouldn't be if you would keep your part of the bargain!"
"You are only thirteen, and I have yet to have the chance to murder you myself."
"I only have a week! One week! And Lucius is taking me back in two days, as you very well know."
"Yes, and that time could not come a moment sooner, could it?" he snapped. "Now look what you've done! How many times must I remind you to not use crab grass with newt gill?"
"And how many times have I told you that it's in-the-book?" she replied through gritted teeth. Severus slammed his hand down on the table.
"Who is teaching you, might I ask? Me or the textbook?"
"You're the one who gave me the blood book," she muttered.
"And I'm also the one who's telling you not to use crab grass with newt gill," he seethed. With a quick movement of his wand, the content of her cauldron disappeared. "Start again." Tempest bit her tongue, and swiftly collected the ingredients requested in the book. She paused at the cabinet, and then swallowed.
"So do I use crab grass or do I use newt gill?"
"For the last time," Severus Snape said quietly, "neither." Shrugging, Tempest took hold of the beakers and arrived back at her cauldron where Severus stood, his teeth gritted.
"They didn't give you the job again, did they?" Tempest said with a smile.
"No," Severus replied reluctantly after a pregnant pause.
"Then stop taking it out on me."
"My aggravation at that fact does not mean I am any more annoyed with you than normal. I am reacting in the same way anyone would if they were forced to teach you."
"You're not being forced," she pointed out. "Lucius isn't even paying you."
"He has his ways of making sure I'm forced to abide."
"By doing what? Death threats? Blackmailing? Homosexuality revelation thre-"
"You are beyond belief," Severus spat. "And no, it isn't any of them."
Probably a threat to wash that hair or something, Tempest thought privately.
"I heard that," Severus said.
"That's what you promised me!" Tempest cried out. "You said when I turn fourteen and haven't died, you'll teach me how to do that stuff."
"What 'stuff'?"
"Defend myself. My mind! To stop people like you looking in it all the time."
"People like me? I don't know what you're talking about," he said, with an odd twist to his lips.
"It's not fair, I only have a week left. One week!"
"A deal's a deal," Severus reminded her, walking towards the door. "If you haven't progressed well by the time I get back you'll be drinking what's there."
Tempest pulled a sour face, then returned her attention to her cauldron. She was supposed to be creating a sleeping draught- extremely simple, but she hadn't practised it with her tutor and so he decided it best to patronise her. Under the pressure that Severus exerted upon her, though, she wouldn't be surprised if it could knock a person out for a few weeks. She doubted that, if she were to drink it, Severus would bother with waking her again. It would count as death for a little while and she wouldn't get her lessons as promised. The very idea annoyed Tempest, and she promised herself to do well in the lessons for the last two days of her stay with the Potions master.
The past few years had been no different in excitement or thrill than her first years had been before Draco had ever gone to Hogwarts. For the past two summers she had been returning to Severus Snape's dingy home for amateur potions lessons, although Tempest was sure she had proven she was talented enough to not require lessons. Lucius, however, revelled in the idea of being alone with his wife for one week a year- Draco had, by this point, become powerful enough amongst his Slytherin companions that he escaped to their homes most of the holiday.
"Certainly, it's the happiest day in a parent's life when they realise their child is too embarrassed of their parentage to get in the way," Lucius had mused aloud in the library one day after Draco disappeared through the fireplace.
This, of course, came with no sourness on Tempest's part. In fact, she enjoyed the idea of being alone in her room or the library, or sneaking about the manor, while Draco was not around a corner, prepared to hex her, having long found out a loophole in the 'no magic out of school' pact. Tempest herself hadn't known that it would just be assumed that the Malfoy parents had casted the spell. To tell the truth, knowing this, she rather missed Draco and the duels that always came whenever he was there.
"Have you finished?" came an abrupt voice, startling Tempest. She only just realised that she had been daydreaming ever since she finished the potion about ten minutes beforehand.
"Oh, yeah, I think so," she stuttered, standing aside and revealing the contents. Severus wrinkled his nose slightly.
"I'll still have to make you drink it, you know," he said.
"I guessed as much. You never did play fair." Severus smiled his own twisted smile as he summoned a goblet and dipped it into the potion, then handing it to Tempest.
"I should warn you now, I am under no obligation to do anything if it goes wrong," he said in one of his more cheerful tones. Tempest pulled a face.
"Lucius might make it an obligation."
"We'll see, won't we?"
Tempest paused, looking down at the potion. She was sure enough she had done everything right, but an idea came to her mind that made the corner of her lips twitch slightly.
"I have a wager for you," she said brightly, smiling.
"And I have no time for wagers."
"Can you make time?" she asked, receiving no reply. Tempest took this as a cue to continue. "How about, if it works, you'll pretend my birthday's today? You'll teach me all that stuff today instead."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because you seem so certain that I'm wrong." Severus pondered this. It was true. He was sure enough that the potion would not work- she was indeed a brilliant student at the more complicated potions, but far too cocky to achieve at the more simple ones.
"Fine then," he said finally. The two shook hands reluctantly.
With a defiant smile, Tempest raised the goblet in a toast and drank it in a swift gulp. Both of them waited in curiosity, before Tempest fell to the floor. Severus Snape watched for a moment before realising that she was asleep. Cursing himself slightly, he sat down, waiting for the girl to wake up, timing it in the meanwhile. She had two hours before she lost the bet.
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Tempest shot up the moment she awoke again from her sleep. She found that she had been left on the floor where she had collapsed. Rubbing her head, she looked around the room, trying to find Severus through her blurry vision. When the room stopped spinning, she saw Severus Snape sitting in the armchair, looking at her with disgust. She smiled brightly, guessing well enough why he seemed so bitter.
"So, how long was it?" she asked innocently.
"A day," Severus replied briskly.
"No it wasn't, that was two hours!"
"How would you know? You were asleep." Tempest laughed and pointed at the grandfather clock in the corner. Severus scowled. "And how do you know that we are not a day onwards?"
"Because I'm not stupid," she said happily, bringing herself to her feet. "And I know you'd try and trick me out of what I was promised."
"You certainly are observant," Severus noted, daring to smile slightly. His composure returned almost instantly, though, as he brought his wand out. "Fine, I shan't try and cheat you out of it."
"Promise?"
"You have my word," Severus replied. Tempest wrinkled her nose.
"It's never worth much."
"Either you take my word, or we'll go back to potions." At this thought, Severus sneered. "Perhaps we'll start again with the Hiccoughing Solution."
"And why would I demean myself with such tasks?"
"Because I am your tutor, and therefore have the right to demean you in any fashion I so choose." Scowling, Tempest clenched her fists and sighed heavily.
"Fine then, your word."
"I warn you now, I have not taught Occlumency before now."
"Have I just witnesses Severus Snape admitting to a fault in his educational skills?" Tempest teased.
"Of course not," Severus replied with a smirk. "It just means I'll have to use a little more force with you."
"Severus, haven't you learnt yet? You hold just about as much threat to me as a Puffskein." She paused to laugh. "Maybe a Porlock, the nose kind of bears a resemblance."
"And here I thought you might have a little imagination." He sighed. "Soon enough I'll be able to see where it all went wrong with you. Legilimens," he said in a bored voice. For a mere moment, Tempest was not sure what was meant to happen. As soon as that moment was over, though, the room started to spin and images started to flash through her mind.
Draco poking her incessantly when they were both seven. Not long afterwards, Draco screamed as red boils started to appear over his face and a rather disgruntled Tempest smiled daringly.
Tempest watching as Draco received his letter to Hogwarts, a look of annoyance on her face as she stared at the boy.
Dobby the house elf's expression when Lucius walked in to find Tempest proffering a sweater in a friendly gesture. As a three year old, she hadn't had a clue about what sort of trouble the house elf was in for it.
Then there was a moment that wouldn't have made sense to anyone who watched. A young Tempest sitting at the end of her bed. The moment she realised she was adopted.
Tempest jolted as she was released from the spell, the room coming back into focus. Realising that Severus was sneering slightly, she scowled.
"What the hell was that?"
"That was just a taste of the rest of our lessons."
"How's that going to help?"
"It won't," Severus admitted without a hint of apology. "But I must say, your mind still holds simple little pleasures I really can't deny myself."
"You're sick, did you know that?"
"I've been told so." Severus raised his wand again. "Now, before I teach you anything, I think I might take another look."