Chapter 36: Painfully Encased
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the story which directly takes ideas from JK Rowling. This story is not being used for commercial purposes; it is simply for pleasure and fun.
Author's Note: Alethea27 Yes that is one of the places I traveled to this past summer along with parts of Italy and Eastern Europe. IonicAmalgam If by 'this' you mean the story then no, this is a long term multi-year project. If you mean the mini story arc then yes, nearly there… =D No one had a clue about Eloise? Really? I've been hinting at it ever since they first met in ch. 29 and Eloise was caught staring at Lily's kilt a bit too hard. If you read through Lily and Eloise's interactions again I think you'll see it. Anyone seen Bridget Jones 2?
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Snape staggered backwards and allowed the door to close on the scene. He was in complete shock. For a few moments he stood there in front of the door, mouth agape with the drinks tilting precariously in his hands, on the verge of spilling. Then a couple started towards him and he snapped out of his daze, bolting out the back door into the cold night beyond. Severus wasn't sure what to do or think. He had thought about the possibility that one of the Durmstrang winners might catch Lily's attention but never Eloise. Even among the women, not that he had any suspicion that Lily swung that way, but even so, Eloise of all people? Suddenly Snape felt like he had always disliked Eloise greatly even though a voice in his head reminded him that he had sympathized with her. Snape put the drinks down on the first flat surface he found and walked around in the snow covered courtyard. The cold was having little effect on him as Snape was flush and hot with surprise, anger and a hint of something else. No matter how long he walked around and thought, nothing came to him. He was simply not prepared for this eventuality. Snape decided it was best to pretend he didn't see anything and that nothing happened. He didn't even consider that Lily was the one who had engaged Eloise, because the only thing worse than losing Lily to another guy was to lose her to a girl, that he had no chance in hell at all.
Snape reentered the ball and looked around for Lily. His heart jumped in a moment of panic when he considered that Eloise and Lily might have left the party together to be alone. But then he spotted Eloise drinking something by the bar and although he searched the crowd for her bright red hair, Lily was nowhere to be found. Snape held back the temptation to go over to Eloise and demand an explanation; he was pretending it never happened so he couldn't be mad. Severus assumed Lily had gone back to her room so he did the same.
When Snape reached his room he looked down the hall at Lily's door and considered going over there and seeing how she was. It could be casual, just checking on her since she left so suddenly. He coughed a few times and tried to relax then went over to her door. He knocked but no one answered.
"Lily, are you in there?"
He heard movement behind the door. Then the door opened slowly and Lily popped her head out, looking up and down the hall before inviting Severus in.
"Hey, sorry about leaving, I wasn't feeling too well."
"It's alright. Do you think your fever is coming back?"
"Oh, yeah maybe."
"Well then you should probably call it a night early, wouldn't want to be feeling sick tomorrow, you know considering how much food they've prepared for lunch."
"Yeah, definitely."
"Well then I guess I'll let you get to bed. Presents at 7 am sharp right?"
"Yup. As always."
Lily did her best to give Snape a wide smile but it shook and staggered off her face quickly. Snape gave her a smile that probably looked very similar and then left. He quickly went into his room feeling somewhat better. It seemed that whatever happened, Lily was none too thrilled about it. He slid into bed and tried to erase the image of Lily and Eloise under the mistletoe from his head but every time he closed his eyes it appeared in his mind as clearly as the first time.
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7 am came both quickly and slowly at the same time for Severus. It was a restless night where he drifted in and out of sleep, always too warm or too cold and his forearm tingled annoyingly. When he saw the clock hit 6:50 in the still dim morning light he got up and washed then got dressed in a Christmas sweater, just because he knew how much Lily liked them. At 7 sharp he went to Lily's door.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS SEV!"
Lily greeted him with her usual warm smile and bright expression as though last night was perfectly normal. Snape was glad for it.
"Happy Christmas Lily. You didn't open anything without me did you?"
"Of course not! Come in"
Snape saw, under the tree they decorated, two piles of presents. He knew right away which one was Lily's because it was significantly larger. Lily noticed what he was looking at and turned away awkwardly before saying,
"Half of those are from Potter. I'm not even going to bother opening them, I'm sending them right back. Come on, my mum's sent you something."
Snape tried to look cheerful but only managed a half smirk. He sat down as Lily handed him a large, heavily wrapped gift with a green velvet bow from Lily's mother. Snape hurriedly unwrapped it and chuckled slightly at what he found inside. Lily's parents disliked shopping in Diagon Alley because of the crowds and various magical contraptions which they didn't understand so they would try to find muggle equivalents for things. Snape had been gifted a handsome eagle feather pen which he was almost certain wouldn't work with magical ink, a Christmas sweater with several reindeer on it, including real jingling bells, an assortment of muggle cookies and chocolates and a set of glass vials. Snape remembered wondering what Lily's parents thought of him, he supposed Lily never told them anything. Had things turned out differently would Snape be sitting alone in his room at Hogwarts opening a gift from Lily's parents, sent without any clue of the fresh wave of pain it would cause him? Snape managed to smile then, things had worked out better than he could have dreamed. Lily took his smile to mean he liked the gift.
"Guess now your snowman sweater will have a friend. Let's see what mum got me."
Lily opened her present and found a similar sweater and tons of bath products and make up. As Lily looked through the gift box Snape saw a tear slide down her cheek.
"Lily…?"
"Oh sorry it's just, it's the first Christmas since, you know, without my dad."
"Oh Lily, come here."
Snape reached out his arms and wrapped them around Lily in a tight hug. Snape hadn't considered that this Christmas would be bittersweet for her. Lily reached around and hugged Snape back and they stayed that way for a several minutes and it seemed like heaven for Severus. He couldn't help but pout slightly when she pulled away and said,
"Sorry about that, I'm fine really it's just… he loved Christmas time.
"Don't apologize Lily, its okay. Here, open this one next. "
Snape handed her just any random present from her pile. Lily smiled weakly and took the present, ripped the paper open without checking who it was from. It was a polished stone chess set and all of the pieces seemed to be women. Snape picked up a pawn and saw in tiny letters the words 'Joan D'Arc' on the base. Lily picked up the tag and her faced dropped.
"What is it?"
"It's from Eloise. How embarrassing, I didn't think to get her anything."
Lily mumbled and quickly grabbed another present.
"Here this one is for you."
Snape took the gift which was from Avery and opened it to find several potions ingredients and supplies. Lily smiled and opened a gift from Alice, ignored a small stack of boxes from Potter which were now shaking to get her attention.
Once all the other present except those from James had been opened Lily and Snape sat cross-legged holding each other's presents.
"You go first Severus! You've been watching me open stuff for the last 20 minutes."
Snape looked down at the large heavy package and shook it, but nothing seemed to move. Snape opened the package a saw an impossibly black cloak lined with a thick metal chain. Snape picked it up but it felt too light considering the chain, but the fabric itself felt too heavy.
"Wow Lily, it's beautiful, but… what is it?"
"A cloak."
"It can't just be a cloak, it… it feels… not right."
"It's a Nightcloak, lined with a replica of the Gleipnir. It isn't as strong since I only managed four of the six impossible objects but… you know."
"You made this?"
Lily blushed and nodded 'yes'.
"Wow, you really have a talent for it, it looks amazing. A Nightcloak huh? How did you know?"
"Well after what happened with well, I thought you could use a little extra cover at night, it should make you blend in more once the sun sets. Don't know how good a job I did."
"A replica of the Gleipnir, wait a minute, you mean the mythical binds that hold the great wolf Fenrisulfr?"
"Well it's just a replica based on the ancient description, I translated the runes instead of working with that nonsense list muggles have. The breath of a fish, honestly… they just didn't know how to make sense of magical objects. Anyways like I said this one is only composed of four of six objects, if I translated them correctly. I tried the chain out, it is pretty strong and uncommonly light so I guess I did something right."
Snape put the cloak on and reached to his shoulder where there was a handle built onto the chain so that it could be pulled off the cloak with ease. He pulled it out and weighted it in his hands, noting how light it was, as though he was holding a length of light fabric. He tied the chain to Lily's bed and pulled. The chain held and the bed creaked a few inches towards him.
"Impressive. Well once again you've not only outdone my present but out done yourself Lily. You really want to make me look bad don't you?"
"Don't be silly, for all I know I've totally messed it up and it's useless."
"I doubt that. Alright open yours up."
A giddy Lily put her present up to her ear and shook it and heard plenty of rattling. After giving Snape a quizzing look she tore off the paper and opened the lid to the box, only to find another box. Lily laughed and then opened the lid to the smaller box and found an even smaller box. Severus watched Lily's growing frustration with satisfaction; she looked so cute to him. After several more boxes Lily was left holding one smaller than the palm of her hand. She shook it and heard something metallic, causing her to give an excited gasp. She slowly opened the lid of the box and found a lily-shaped pendant the size of a galleon. It was painted like a white lily on one side and a red lily on the other, the chain was silver. Lily gasped again and picked it up.
"Sev, it is just breathtakingly beautiful. It must have cost you a fortune, you shouldn't have."
"Naw, I bought it from a muggle shop, I enchanted it a bit here, let me."
Snape reached for the pendant and twisted it so that the pedals of the lilies didn't match up and opened the pendant which was really a locket. Inside the locket images of Lily and Snape at various ages were swirling around, becoming mist and fog and then reforming as a new picture over and over. Lily looked at the images hungrily, not wanting to miss a single one, laughing every now and then.
"Sev, how... I mean where did you get these pictures?"
Snape pointed to his head.
"From up here. They're still images from my memories, our memories."
"Oh!"
The images had stopped and the inside of the locket was black for nearly a minute until the pictures started again, with a picture of Snape and Lily the first summer they met.
"Bit of a bug there Sev, it goes black for a while."
"Not a bug, I left a few spaces open for you know, future memories."
Lily turned her head away from the locket and towards Snape with tears in her eyes. All of a sudden she hugged his and whispered,
"Sev it is absolutely wonderful I don't, I can't even. I love it, I love it so much."
Snape blushed, in his mind the 'it' turned into 'you' in that sentence and he enjoyed his fantasy for a few seconds, pretending Lily had confessed to him, it was likely the closest he'd ever get. He held her and hugged her more tightly than necessary. Two hugs in one day, Snape was catching some of Lily's giddiness.
When she pulled away Lily was wiping tears from her cheeks.
"I think you won this year Sev."
"It isn't a competition Lily.
"I suppose not, but still… because you said before."
"I was just joking Lily."
"Here can, can you put it on me? Or should I not wear it out much? I wouldn't want to lose it."
"Don't worry you can wear it without any worries. I put a charm on the chain. It won't break and no accio spell will take it from you."
"When did your charm work get so good Severus?"
"It was always good I just don't show off, unlike someone I know."
Lily laughed and then suddenly stopped holding her stomach. Snape heard her tummy growl.
"Alright all done, it is on. Should we go down to breakfast?"
Lily nodded 'yes' while blushing slightly and playing with the locket in her hand.
Lily and Snape went down to the dining room off the inn kitchen for breakfast. As they were sitting at the table they saw a familiar face walking by.
"Professor Locus?"
The old, toothless wizard turned sharply when Lily called his name.
"Do I know you?"
"My name is Lily Evans, I'm one of the winners, from Hogwarts. My friend Severus and I were at your potions seminar at Beauxbatons a few days ago."
"Ah, yes, yes, I remember."
"Are you feeling okay? We heard you were sick."
"Ah yes, that, just a small mishap nothing to worry about. Now if you'll excuse me."
And with that professor Locus walked away, never even bothering to look at Severus or Lily. He went up the stairs towards the bedroom.
"I guess he's staying here too."
"Well not too many places for visiting wizards to stay here in Paris Lily."
"Guess so."
She replied and sat down at the table with a shrug of her shoulders.
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After breakfast Lily and Snape retired back to their rooms to indulge in their presents. Snape started making some potions and Lily was trying on some robes Alice had bought her.
When it was time for lunch Lily and Snape went down to the main dining hall where a large Christmas Lunch was being served to all the guests at the inn. All the other winners were at the lunch, including Eloise but both Lily and Snape avoided her.
"Happy Christmas Lily, and you too Lily's faithful gargoyle."
"Shove it Yanko."
"Not much Christmas spirit in this one huh Lily? How about a Christmas kiss?"
"How about you go wank yourself?"
Yanko gasped and put his hand over Lily's mouth, looking serious for a change. Snape was ready to rip his arm out of its socket.
"Shhh! Lily don't say things like that! The baby Jesus will hear you!"
Lily rolled her eyes and pushed him away, taking a seat as far from them and Eloise as possible.
The lunch was almost as good as the feast as Hogwarts. Snape hated the few years he had to stay at Hogwarts alone during the holidays, when Lily's family went away. However, the one thing he did enjoy was the massive Christmas lunch. Here there were several three-bird-roasts which was a chicken stuffed inside a duck, stuffed in a turkey. All sorts of potatoes, pies, gravies, vegetables and pastas. Snape ate his fill and then remembered dessert which consisted of several French pastries which made Snape's mouth water.
"I don't know about their food but French desserts are amazing."
"I second that."
Replied Lily with a sigh, she had to unbutton her pants slightly.
After pulling crackers and playing a round of exploding snap, Lily said she was confidant she could walk once more. The pair got up from the table and made their way towards their room. While Lily was lagging behind, after she noticed that she had forgotten to button her pants back up, Eloise approached Snape.
"Joyeux Noël!"
"Uhh, Happy Christmas Eloise."
"Zorry to bother you but, I was wondering, per'aps if you could spare zome time for me tonight. I just… well… yes would like to talk."
Snape had a faint idea what about.
"Uhh, sure, maybe after dinner then?"
"Okay then."
Eloise smiled a little and then went up the stairs. Lily joined Snape shortly after and he had a vague suspicion that she purposely waited until Eloise was gone. As they were walking up the stairs they heard a scream from the floor above. They ran upstairs to see what was the matter and saw Eloise standing in front of her room, the door swinging on its hinges. Lily seemed to be debating whether she should risk going over to help or not but then decided it was alright as a crowd of people was forming around Eloise. Severus, being the taller of the two, craned his neck over the crowd to see what the fuss was about. He saw Eloise's room in shambles. Furniture was tipped over and drawers were left open with papers spilling out, the room looked as though it had been ransacked. He saw the Durmstrang boys at the other side of the crowd, giving each other meaningful looks. Eloise saw the crowd and seemed to be embarrassed; she hurried into her room and began to tidy things. She only allowed the maid to help her and slowly the crowd dispersed. Lily glared at Snape and they walked back to Lily's room.
"What do you think that was about?
"No clue Lily, maybe someone has it out from Eloise, you know, didn't seem like she's too popular."
"Yeah, she is a bit of an outcast… I hope it isn't… nevermind who knows."
But Snape knew what she was thinking, what if someone saw what happened and was sending Eloise a message about what they thought of her kind around Christmas. He would ask her about it when they met up later that night but he made a note to tell Lily to lock up well from then on.
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It was well after 8 when everyone had left the dinner table. The sky was already pitch black and there was a chill in the air. Snape decided to take his new cloak with him, just in case Eloise and he ran into any trouble, it could come in handy.
He went down to Eloise's room and knocked on the door. It took her a while to answer and she seemed nervous and on edge.
"Did anyone follow you? Does anyone know you are 'ere?"
"No, I didn't bother to tell Lily either, well, just because."
"Good, that will make thingz nice and easy."
"Make what easy?"
But even as the words were leaving his mouth Snape felt his forearm tingle and the hair on the back of his neck stand. He never heard what Eloise said, he just felt a sudden darkness overcome him and then there was only cold darkness.
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When Snape awoke he was groggy and disoriented, as though he was drunk. He didn't feel his bed but something cold and hard beneath me. His forearm which was tingling before was now stinging horribly and he let out a groan. He opened his eyes but his vision was blurry and it was very dark. He turned his head to the right and felt something cold and hard on his cheek, he was on a stone floor. He tried to get up but it was a though he was being held by Devil's Snare. He tried to look around and gather his bearing but everything was dark. All he could make out was some sort of paint of the floor next to him, forming some sort of marking but from this vantage point he couldn't be sure if they were letter or not. His forearm gave a particularly nasty sting and he groaned in pain again.
"Ah you are awake, finally."
Snape tried to find the source of the voice, but he needn't search long. Eloise stood above him with a bloody dagger in her hand.
"I was worried we would be be'ind schedule."
She smiled down at him in a way Snape had never seen her smile before and then dragged the dagger on the floor, scraping the tip over and over. Severus looked down at his forearm and saw a long, bloody gash. It was then that he realized the markings on the floor weren't drawn in paint, but his own blood.
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Need a last minute gift? How about a review? =D