Walk Down Memory Lane
"Where did you find these, Remus?" Aurora asked with a soft smile.
"You'd be surprised what you can find in the old yearbooks," Remus quietly replied. "There's room in the back so you can add to it if you want." He then caught Severus's arm reaching across Aurora and stopping her from turning the page. He sighed softly. Slowly, Snape's eyes glanced at him. "Don't ask me, Snape. I don't know how Albus got that picture, but I knew that I should include it."
"Awe," Aurora said as she noticed the picture that Snape was referring to. "You're carrying me."
"It was either that or I leave you there," Snape muttered while he stared at it. The bumbling old coot had somehow taken it when he was looking down at Aurora in his arms. In the picture, Snape looked like he was more relaxed than he had ever been before in his life.
"I still think that's sweet," Aurora replied smiling before turning the page. She then burst out laughing as her eyes caught the picture in the middle. "Do you remember this day, Severus?"
Even though the picture showed him with bright green hair, Snape mumbled, "You were green." He knew everyone could hear him. However, she had asked. He remembered almost every picture in the album with surprising clarity. "For some moronic reason, you stepped in between one of Black's and Potter's hexes meant for me. The two immediately apologized and told you that you shouldn't have gotten in the middle. They even tried to change you back, but it didn't work. You hexed them and acted as if it didn't really bother you that you were green. If anyone else made fun of you, you'd resort to either your magic or your wit." He could feel everyone's eyes on him, including Aurora. "You refused to see Madam Pomfrey. I had thought you were just being a stubborn jackass, but that wasn't it. You didn't want anyone fussing over you. You just wanted to handle it on your own. Everyone else had gone to dinner. So it was only us in the dorms."
"You remember," Aurora quietly spoke breathlessly.
"Of course I remember, Sinistra. You looked ridiculous," Snape replied curtly. "You were green from head to toe with silver hair. It's rather hard to get that image out of one's mind." He then frowned. It probably wasn't a wise move on his part to start reciting the lovely little anecdote, but he wanted her to know that he remembered. He remembered everything about that night.
"Yeah, I bet that is sort of hard to forget," Aurora mumbled.
"I was reading in the common room when I heard what sounded like a cat dying coming from the girl's dorms. I stormed up there to give you a piece of my mind for disturbing me. I didn't even think about where the sound was coming from. I just stormed into the room. You were sitting on the floor with your knees drawn up and head hung down. With your silver hair spread out all around you, you looked like a drowned rat. You looked so pitiful down there."
"You know, when I asked if you remembered a simple 'yes' or 'no' would have sufficed, Severus," Aurora snapped. "Not a lecture like I'm one of your goddamn students."
"You were crying," Snape continued, ignoring Aurora's anger. "For nearly two hours, you tried to scrub off the green and silver in the shower. In fact, you had scrubbed so hard that your skin was raw and blistered in places." He noticed the slight hitch in her breath as she stared at him. He had never told her that he had been there for her all those years ago. Frankly, he didn't really know why he was telling her now in front of all their co-workers. "Your right arm was badly bleeding, but you didn't seem to notice. For the first time, I…I didn't know what to do. I just stared at you. I…I had always believed that we Slytherins never allowed others to see us at our weakest. There you were, though. Sitting down and crying as the hot water fell on you. Numbly, I walked towards you and silently took off my cloak. I gently placed it around you and sat down beside you. My arm then draped around your neck and I gently pushed your head against my shoulder. You never once looked up."
"I felt safe," Aurora whispered back as if that explained everything.
"I understood that when you fell asleep on me, Sinistra," Snape quietly replied with a chuckle. "It was the first time I carried you. Granted, you had no idea I was the one carrying you, since you were asleep, but you trusted me implicitly. To trust me that much shocked me. No one had ever trusted me that much. That was why when I carried you through the halls with my cloak covering you, I was soaked to the bone. I didn't even think to use my wand to dry us off first before heading to the Hospital Wing."
"I remember that," Madam Pomfrey said speaking up from behind Minerva. "I was so shocked when you carried her in that state that I immediately fire-called the Headmaster. I had thought something improper happened between the both of you. I mean, she was only wearing your cloak."
"Another thing I understood," Snape quietly replied. "I can remember every word Dumbledore said to me in that lecture. I had never felt more…ashamed of myself than that night." He then glanced towards Aurora. "I remember everything about that night, Aurora." Sighing heavily, a thought flashed across his mind. "I even remember the next day when I started that fight with Potter and Black and Dumbledore's lecture then," he said with a soft laugh.
"Don't forget the subsequent detentions with me afterwards, lad," Horace Slughorn spoke as he stood next to Hagrid and Lupin. "Course, there were hardly days when you didn't have detentions."
"OH MY GOD!" yelled Aurora suddenly.
Snape and everyone immediately glanced towards the witch with confused looks. It wasn't as if it was that shocking of news that he had detentions. His constant dueling with Potter and Black had seen to that. Snape's eyes narrowed on her. Could it be the baby? No. He guessed she would have yelled a bit louder and a bit more higher pitched than that. No. She looked more outraged at something than being in horrendous pain.
"What?" Snape asked as he prepared himself for anything.
"You've seen me naked!"…except that.
Almost immediately, soft snickers echoed around the room. Snape stared at Aurora before closing his eyes and hanging his head. Sometimes she made him wonder how on Earth the Sorting Hat ever placed her in Slytherin. He desperately wanted to cast an invisibility spell on himself and flee to his dungeons as he felt the others' eyes on him. He quietly shook his head as he thought to himself how this was the woman he wanted to marry.
"Hon, I'm pretty sure you didn't get pregnant without you being au natural," Septima quietly spoke as she held back her laughter. "Though, I'm sure Sev here can do some amazing things with his hands, so perhaps." She then winked towards him again.
A/N: Next chapter is the long awaited return of Eileen Prince. Can you say fireworks? :) Hope you enjoyed.
