AN: Please leave a little review for me!
Chapter 37
-Familiarisation-
The next morning was rough. I suffered from a horrible hang-over when I stumbled into my living-room where Severus slept on the couch.
I could hardly remember last nights events, but I was pretty sure that I had tried to drag him to my bedroom, but he just shook his head and fell on the couch. But I was not sure whether this really had happened or it was just my imagination.
"Severus?" I whispered, gently tipping him on his shoulder.
"Hmmm?" A mere grunt came.
"It's nearly eleven o'clock!"
"It's holidays." He groaned.
"Adhara will be here in an hour."
"Oh, right." His disgruntled face appeared out of a cushion. "Gimme a second."
Though it caused a horrible ringing feeling in my head I had to laugh at this. "Right. I will be showering."
When I left the shower some ten minutes later, he stood in my kitchen, yesterday's shirt unbuttoned, looking well rested, waving with a little phial.
"Oh, give it to me! Give it to me!"
"You know- I was always wondering why you aren't keeping a decent stock of hang-over potion. And by decent I mean at least two buckets." He sneered, handing the phial over to me, and allowing his shirt to slip to the floor as he headed for the shower.
____________________________________________________
Two hours later we sat on my terrace having lunch with Adhara. It took my by surprise how she had grown during the last year. She was already a little taller than me which gave me some kind of uncomfortable feeling for I couldn't pretend she was my little girl any longer if she was towering me.
She was simply delighted that Severus had "returned" to us, now confabulating with him about her teachers, telling him that Madame Maxine did not appear to the end of term feast and it was rumored that Karkaroff didn't return to Durmstrang either.
"Yes, we heard that much, too. But Madame Maxine is taking a well earned break. She wasn't feeling too well the last month and is taking a cure. Even Dumbledore advised her to do so. She will be back in September."
"Oh, that's good. I really like her. And what about Karkaroff?"
"I have no idea." Severus repeated curtly. "Maybe you should go and unpack your stuff now."
"All right." She laughed, jumping to her feet and rushing into her room.
"You really don't have any idea what happened to him?" I smirked.
"No, but I can tell what will happen to him soon. Assuming it will be only a question of time Igor makes a foolish mistake, revealing his hideout."
I slowly nodded, my attention focusing on an owl, coming down at us, clearly heading for Severus. My stomach gave a jolt when I realized the letter had Sirius' handwriting.
Severus opened the letter, jeering, his black eyes glistening malevolently. "See, see. A little love letter for me from Black."
"What does he want?" I snapped.
Severus eyed me over the edge of the letter, his eyebrows raised, smirking.
"Here you go." He dropped the letter on the table for me to read it.
"Snape,
Dumbledore told me you are not even man enough to allow me to write to Sadra herself, so I will have to request this way. I want to see Sadra and talk to her. Tell her to meet me at Grimmauld Place and tell her to bring along Adhara. I want to see my daughter.
Sirius Black"
"Did someone ever tell him that a request should be phrased in a nice way?" Severus was clearly enjoying this.
I tried hard to ignore the fact that Severus obviously had declined his permission for correspondence between Sirius and me.
"What do you say?" I sounded just as unaffected as I had intended to.
"For all I care." He shrugged, sounding bored.
"Fine. Tell him we will come to London next Wednesday. I could do some shopping there for Adhara anyway. She grew out of most her clothes."
Getting up and directing the dishes into the kitchen with my wand, I felt Severus' gaze lingering on my back.
_____________________________________________________
Of course, Adhara was very happy about going to London with Severus and me. Severus had seized the opportunity to tell her that he now knew, too, about Sirius' innocence that very evening, but leaving no doubt about what he was really thinking of Sirius.
"You don't like him, do you?" Adhara asked after he had finished.
"As a matter of fact, I don't."
"But why not?"
"He is an exaggerated opinion of himself and is a selfish, sloppy person."
Adhara eyed him insecure. "I thought he was nice."
"Well, you have been mistaken. Besides, it is quite a feat to be in prison for twelve years without reason." He shot me a nasty glance.
"That's enough, I think. Adhara, just because Severus doesn't like him it doesn't mean necessarily that he is a bad person. Everyone has his own opinion. Just remember your friend Ingrid- you liked her while Yvette hated her."
Severus sneered. " Right, Adhara. Take your mother for instance. While I hate Black she thinks he is a very nice guy."
Adhara looked from me to him, back to me and again at Severus. The tension was seizable.
Adhara was clearly feeling uncomfortable now.
"Anyway- I am really looking forward to the trip to London! I heard Diagon Alley is always worth a visit." Neither me nor Severus showed any reaction.
"Right. I think I will go to bed now." She got up.
"Good night, darling." I said, Severus gave her a nod.
When she had vanished, I hissed: "Do you want her to know by all means?"
"Want her to know what exactly?"
"That Sirius is the reason we broke up?"
"We broke up. That sounds so much more innocent than the truth, don't you think?"
"You want me to tell her?!"
"No, there will be no need to confess that you are a cheat."
"Fine."
"You should go to bed now, too. I think it is better for both of us when you are sleeping when I will be joining you."
"You want to join me?"
"You expect me to sleep on the couch when we are supposed to be back together again? What do you think Adhara will think?"
"No. Of course not." I was puzzled by the strange conversation.
"Don't worry. Unlike other persons sitting at this table I am true to my word. I will not touch you."
"Sure." I got up wondering why he had to be that mean again.
___________________________________________________________
I hated these nights. He usually came to bed one or two hours after me, slipping under the blankets, making himself comfortable and falling asleep almost immediately, leaving me lying there in the darkness without a mere touch or a word. I was relieved when he started to be gone for the nights, doing work or whatever I wasn't supposed to know about.
____________________________________________________________
Diagon Alley was overcrowded, but Adhara and me enjoyed the afternoon very much.
"I really cannot decide which style I like better- Paris or London!" Adhara sighed, looking at a pair of fly shoes in a shop window.
"Just chose Milan." I laughed. "Come on now, we better hurry or we will be late for our meeting with Severus."
We had agreed to meet at the entrance of Nockturn Alley, when we approached, I saw he was already there, talking to a very attractive young witch. She laughed out hearty the second we had reached them. I heard my brain roaring with jealousy. What did he have to tell her that was so highly amusing? Who was this anyway? Whoever she was, she was surely ranking below me!
"Ah, darling! There you are." Severus greeted me, placing a decent kiss on my hand. "See you around, Luana!" He was taking leave of her without as much as introducing us.
Luckily, Adhara popped the question I was trying to bite back.
"Who was that?"
"Oh, that was Luana Gamp. She graduated from Hogwarts four years ago."
"Gamp? Pure-blooded?"
Severus looked at me surprised. "Why…yes. She has been in my House."
"Aso."
He smirked. "I see. Now let's go. We don't want to be late for our appointment with yet another pure-blood."
_____________________________________________________
In Grimmauld Place Number 12 my mouth hung open. I had never been to this place ever since the party I had visited with my parents years and years ago. The house now was gloomy, filthy and somehow...eerie. I just wanted to start complaining about this fact when I saw Remus approaching.
"Remus!"
"Sadra! What a pleasure to see you again!" He exclaimed, embracing me hearty. "Severus." He was greeting the latter with a nod.
"Lupin."
"And you must be Adhara. I already heard a lot from you." She beamed.
"Follow me, the others are in the kitchen."
"Others?"
"The Weasley's arrived yesterday and Mundugus and Tonks are here tonight, too."
"And..." with a sideward's glance at Severus he added "Dumbledore will be here in a few minutes, too."
He took us to the kitchen, the only room halfway decent in the house and introduced me to Tonks and Mundugus and the whole Weasley gang. I recognized immediately that Adhara was more than taken with the twins. Sirius was sitting at the table, far from the door, staring at Severus hatefully from the moment we had entered the kitchen. Only when Adhara jumped over to him to say hello, he looked away, gazing at his child instead.
When Dumbledore had arrived, he swept out of the kitchen with Severus, leaving the rest of the chatting community to prepare dinner. Adhara was talking animatedly to Fred and George when I slipped on a chair next to Sirius.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"You said you wanted to talk to me."
"I did."
"Well, what is it?"
He laughed bitterly. "What it is? I wanted to tell you that I didn't mean to let you down. I didn't write to you because of the sequence of calamities in Hogwarts, I really thought it would be no problem to return to you this summer. But now…"
"Now?"
"Does he treat you good?"
"As good as I can expect."
"Hm."
"Sirius." I took his hand.
"Sadra. I really love you. I really do."
"I know."
"But now I am stuck here, I am not even allowed to leave the house! And this arrangement…it makes me sick."
"Sirius, you know why we have to do this. He really does not touch me at all."
"But to beg for his permission every time I want to see you or my child! Not being allowed to write to you! He only set these conditions to humiliate me!"
I looked into his grey eyes. What was I to say? Of course this was a triumph for Severus, turning the knife in Sirius' wounds though it had been my faults as well.
"And being a prisoner in this house. I hate this place more than Askaban!"
"It will soon be over. What is the Order going to do next?" I tried to distract Sirius from his bitterness for I knew there was nothing we could do right now.
"O, I guess Dumbledore and your husband are discussing that matter right now. There must have been some kind meeting with Voldemort yesterday."
"I think so. He didn't come home tonight."
"Home?" His eyes were sad.
"Sorry." I whispered.