Chapter 25

The RAS

Patience's hand hovered over the pale green parchment—her favourite pink quill held loosely in her fingers as she tried to decide what to write. It was a little over four weeks since term had begun. Luther had received six letters from him and she had none. She had not written to him either, since everything that she had to say would be unlikely to interest him. He already knew how her studies were going and anything else of major importance in her life—such as Elspeth's engagement dinner and Eva's invitation to take her with the Rosser family when they took a holiday to Naples in late March—because Luther dutifully wrote and informed Snape of everything as per instructions. Otherwise, she might have had an excuse to write him to ask permission for things such as a holiday she knew he would refuse and she did not want to attend.

Now she had her pretext and not a single word came to her as she stared at the parchment. She supposed that she ought to have been the one to begin correspondence, since she was aware of his feelings for her and yet knew his personality would not allow him to openly demonstrate this by writing casual owls to his wife. She ought to have given him the opportunity to write by handing him the excuse of having to reply to her owls. It was her own fault, so she need not feel irked that her husband had written Luther and not her.

How did one go about this? Feeling a sudden surge of inspiration, Patience scribbled out several lines and then read them over. No, they sounded pompous. She had better try again. Pulling over a new piece of parchment, Patience thought briefly before she wrote a solid half page. Yet now as she read it through, she realised that she sounded angry. Well she was not angry this week; that had been last week. Patience pulled over a third piece of parchment and started again. This time she wrote and wrote as she poured out all of her thoughts and feelings and did not stop to read through until there were almost three filled letter-sized pieces of parchment.

Patience started to read the letter and then stopped. Was she ever going to be satisfied with anything she wrote to him? The fact was that it was a terribly awkward thing to write about and that was not helped by the fact she felt awfully nervous and uncomfortable with him. However, she wondered if perhaps the very best sort of owl to send was a really honest one. He might react better to her news if she were frank about her feelings. He might even appreciate her confidences. Patience rolled up the parchment, knowing that if she read it she would be too embarrassed to send it to him, and then sealed the outside with her small wax stamp.

As Patience walked back down the stairs from the attics, she felt strangely nervous. She did not know how he was going to handle what she had told him, especially since he had given her laxorica root. She had used his, not Eva's, so she was quite confident that it had been the best quality laxorica possible. She could not imagine him purchasing anything else, so either it was not as effective as the label had said or she had taken it improperly.

The only night after which she had not dutifully dropped the little white pellet into her morning tea had been the first, since she had not yet been given any. However, she absolutely knew she had not been pregnant after that first time. Even Patience had learnt the Indicator Spell that afternoon when they had taught all the seventh-year girls. Eva and Patience had been in a rare row that week, so it had been Elspeth who spent two evenings working with Patience to get the wand strokes just right. Nevertheless, Patience had learnt it, so she must have taken the laxorica incorrectly.

When Patience walked into what had been her private sitting room and had now become a schoolroom of sorts, Luther was waiting for her with a scowl. She really did not feel like managing Luther's moods that morning, but he did clearly have something to say to her.

"Snape is going to be here this afternoon. He is taking you to the RAS."

Badly startled, Patience stuttered, "W-what?"

Luther held out a long scroll of parchment and said, "Read for yourself."

Patience did not take the parchment, replying acidly, "I don't read Latin, Luther."

Luther looked down at the letter and said with surprise, "Right, I had forgotten. I will summarise. He has been in correspondence with a member of the RAS, who has consented to grant an appointment committee for you."

Patience dropped into the nearest chair staring glassily at her brother. Why would her husband want to do this? Didn't he know that Professor Sinistra had contacted the Royal Astrocartographic Society on her behalf during her seventh year? She had been quite touched by Professor Sinistra's gesture, even though the response had been so negative. Why would things be any different now?

"Professor Sinistra contacted the RAS for me, asking for their permission to allow me to use the calibrated asterothen to prepare a paper for posit."

Luther asked interestedly, "Did she really?"

"Yes. I am not qualified to earn any letters, since I cannot perform any calculations, but if I could use the calibrated asterothen then I would be able to place a paper in file so that I could be registered."

"I had no idea you had considered registering with the RAS, Patience."

"No, well you really didn't have any idea that Mother was feeding me hen's root in my breakfast tea either, so I wouldn't say that you were precisely in touch with my life during that time, Luther. Luckily, Mother never found out about Professor Sinistra's plan, since she had strictly forbidden the idea."

Luther looked both guilty and angry at Patience's reference to their conversation the week before about the methods their mother had used to force Patience into the marriage. "Perhaps Snape has a better contact within the RAS."

Patience shrugged her shoulders and looked down at Biter, who was pawing at her robes to request her to pick him up. "Professor Sinistra is a member and she couldn't get me listed for time on their asterothen. Either he has bribed someone or they owe him a favour. However, I don't understand why he would want to do this. It would hardly help him, Luther, since if he really wants to use my charting abilities he doesn't need to have me registered."

Luther did not appear to have any answers, since he merely shook his head and said, "He will be here this afternoon and has requested that you be ready to leave at 2.30. He has asked you to bring a chart, actually. One would think that he would give you fair warning. Those blasted things take hours."

Patience smiled, "Not for me. What does he want me to plot?"

Luther raised an eyebrow at his sister's apparent confidence and drawled, "Nothing too complicated, only just the point of lunar prognosis during solar diminish."

Patience snorted, "That's a trap. One can't do that. Read me what he has written, please."

Luther, looking somewhat bewildered by his sister's unusual self-assurance, read aloud, "She is requested to bring a chart showing the point of lunar prognosis during solar diminish and a posit about how she performed this chart."

Patience laughed merrily, "That's an excellent one. I should think better than half the applicants to the Society panic and try to create some sort of chart. Let me sit down at the desk, Luther?"

Luther stood up and watched as his sister picked up his quill, dipped it into the inkwell, and pointed her wand at the blank piece of parchment in front of her. The quill began to spin round, drawing a large circle with what was clearly the Earth in the centre. Then Patience wrote in very neat script along the bottom: 'The point of lunar prognosis would be at some point on this orbit. This chart was performed by plotting the standard lunar orbit.'

Patience turned to her brother and said with a smile, "That will sort them."

Luther looked at his sister and replied slowly, "You know, I don't even understand why that is a trick. I do remember trying to plot lunar prognoses and that it took hours."

Patience laughed, "Do you want to know? I will show you."

Severus Snape stood in his office, holding the green parchment scroll in his hand. The table in front of him was piled with essays, which he had intended to mark before he left for home. However, he had not spent a productive morning. His anticipation at seeing his wife had disrupted his thoughts throughout the unusually noisy Saturday breakfast in Hogwarts' Hall. However, the appearance of Patience's owl had effectively hijacked his sanity and left him desperately forming new plans. This news was extremely unwelcome.

As he had told his wife a month before, his situation was not necessarily safe. The day on which he would be forced to openly declare himself seemed to loom closer on the horizon. At the beginning of his marriage, Snape had felt that his wife was safe from becoming collateral to his games and machinations. There was no reason for anyone to involve her, as he certainly would not. However, several conversations with both fellow Death Eaters and members of the Order of the Phoenix had demonstrated that he had misjudged the relative secrecy and lack of outside interest in his marriage.

Snape had quite intentionally never mentioned to any of his colleagues that he was now married. He had additionally avoided any conversation that would cause him to be forced into admitting that he now had a dependant. This was as much due to his desire to avoid the inevitable gossip that his marriage to an extremely beautiful 18-year-old witch would bring, as it was to keep any speculations about Snape's possible vulnerabilities away from the truth.

Therefore, Snape had been surprised that every member on staff already knew about his marriage before the first day of school. Any doubt that his other associates were aware of Patience was cleared away when he was congratulated by Rookwood at having pulled off such a 'surprising coup'.

For the past several months, whenever his wife was mentioned Snape had been very carefully balancing a look of general unconcern and disdain with just enough intelligent interest to imply that, although he might think his wife was a silly, expensive nuisance-like most spoilt pure-blood witches of her class, he was quite likely to sever the hand of any wizard who dared to touch his personal property. Additionally, Snape had only needed to mention once that his obedient little wife had come with a generous settlement, since he was certain this information would be repeated to those whom he wanted to hear of it. This obvious explanation for his surprise marriage carried with it the additional implication that a family, which had settled such a sum of money on their daughter's marriage, would not take kindly to any harm that came to her. Whilst this would not deter anyone who actually knew Morag Kent, it might still act as a deterrent for some.

Snape was relatively certain that he had been successful in navigating the dangerous waters of intrigue surrounding his personal affairs so far. He was not truly trusted by any of his associates, either group of colleagues for that matter. Although Dumbledore would keep his subordinates in line, it was of paramount importance that Snape walk a very careful path concerning the Dark Lord's followers. Snape's youthful deeds would certainly work in his favour here and his reputation at Hogwarts could not hurt either, however it was known to those that had spent the years after the Dark Lord's fall in Azkaban that Snape had avoided prison because of Dumbledore. Snape had not been present at the Dark Lord's rebirth, either. There were quite a number of questions that Snape was fully aware were being raised about his loyalties. The Dark Lord had asked Snape about all of them numerous times, so Snape was not likely to forget what was being said and what lies he now had to protect.

Morag's little piece of personal revenge had been far more successful than she could have foreseen, therefore. Snape's scheme for self-preservation and the protection of his chosen cause had been modified and adjusted a dozen times since his wedding as new challenges to his wife's or his own safety had arisen. This latest piece of news, however, was more dangerous than any of the previous concerns. It could not be supposed that Severus Snape would be uninterested in a possible heir. Therefore, Patience had just owled a letter that would have to be the death warrant for their fledgling relationship. He must distance himself and do so quickly. If the child were a son, he would have to send his wife away until his own position were secure, which might never happen. There was nothing else for it.

It was past time for him to leave, so Snape gathered up his cloak and pushed his hat low onto his brow. It was more fortuitous than he had previously imagined that he had seen Myrna Morehead that day. It would not have occurred to him to contact the RAS for his wife otherwise. However, Morehead's own suggestion that she take Patience up for full membership had surprised him. He had not immediately seen what Morehead had wanted out of him in exchange for this favour, but when she had made her request Snape had felt that it was almost too easy. Snape had known Jugson for years. He did not think that there would be any problem.

Morehead had apparently heard from Sinistra about Patience's skill and had somehow formed the idea that Snape would welcome a favour on his wife's behalf. Consequently, Snape had almost refused, since it might imply that he cared too much for his wife's happiness, when an inspired idea had come to him. Career was one of the things he would be expected to entirely discourage for his wife. Therefore, career was a perfect excuse to use for the inevitable separation that he foresaw. He would set her up with the RAS, ostensibly to 'shut her up', and then later utilise this for his plan.

Snape hoped that Patience knew enough to be able to pass the various tests that the RAS committee would give her. He had handed her one of his own in sending on the committee's attempt at a trap. If he got to the house and discovered that she had not known how to answer the question, he would, of course, tell her, However, he would know that he would have to force Morehead to allow him into the interview, as well.