Once again, I hate that I had to take a week to post this, but, you know... school. But anyway, it's my birthday today! And my gift to myself was finishing this chapter. On another note, this story's only gotten 2 new reviews since the last chapter... Come on guys, you can do better than that! Oh, and I have a DeviantART account now, the link to which is in my profile. I've posted a few pictures I've drawn for this fic on it.
During each of the three days that Severus had been busy working on the Wolfsbane Potion, Vesperra was in a particularly bad mood, knowing that she wouldn't be able to talk to Severus at the end of the day. Being the pessimist that she was, she could hardly even enjoy her Ancient Runes lesson on Tuesday. And though she was quite used to it, the taunts she regularly endured seemed even worse. She knew that, with Severus too busy to talk to her later, she couldn't possibly be happy, and therefore she wasn't.
But she wasn't obvious about being in a worse mood than usual. Vesperra knew that if the other Slytherins noticed, which they likely would (Malfoy, at least), they would start interrogating her about what had put a damper on her already sour mood, as though they had a right to know everything that went on with her. They were too nosy for their own good, which Vesperra found extremely frustrating. Why couldn't they just worry about themselves?
Having been down this road many times before, Vesperra knew that they would begin to guess as to why she was in a bad mood, and they would undoubtedly surmise that it must have had something to do with Severus, and then that would be another few days of taunts all about him, with them occasionally dipping back into the topic of her Boggart. It was unsettling how accurate their guesses sometimes were, and even more so that they weren't even being serious when they guessed.
Apart from her determination to make sure her and Severus's relationship remained a secret (though they had already failed, since, besides Dumbledore, Lupin, and her parents were now aware of it), Vesperra would have liked to see the look on Malfoy's face if he discovered that his half-joking taunts were mostly right. Then again, it might not have been as shocked as the others' would be, since she wasn't entirely sure how serious Malfoy was about them. He had, after all, often spied on her in the past, so he might not have given up on his supposed theories.
It was lucky Vesperra was smart enough to foresee this sort of thing, because she simply hid her anger over lack of Severus behind an only mildly angry expression, which was her usual one. And even that was hidden behind her hair, which strategically covered her face when her head was tilted down at her desk or plate or whatever was in front of her.
Three days shouldn't have been much of a pain, but it was to her, and she figured it must have been for Severus as well. At least she wasn't completely deprived of him for that time, because she could still see him for seconds at a time during meals. Without making it obvious to anyone else that she was looking in Severus's direction, she would glance at the Staff Table at an angle, unable to view it too long without her eyes hurting from having been turned to one side as far as they could go. During the time that she managed to get a good look at him, she noticed that he looked very irritable, as though he hadn't slept much lately. It made her feel slightly bad for getting enough sleep while he wasn't.
For those three days, Vesperra tried to do her homework half as fast as usual so that she'd have something to keep her busy for a while after dinner, but her natural instinct and nature to finish as quickly as possible without breaking her train of thought kept her from doing so. So she had nothing to do but sit in her dorm and read her textbooks (Merlin, this was getting sad) until she was tired enough to fall asleep.
When it was finally Thursday, she was relieved that she could talk to Severus again. She did realize that he could have talked to her the night before, since he had finished the Wolfsbane Potion before it was too late into the night, but she didn't mind, as she was glad that he was able to finally get to sleep and make up for the lost hours. Happier than she should have been, she eagerly wrote him a message directly after dinner.
How was your three days?
It was a few minutes before he replied.
I wasn't even in my office when you sent that. I'm lucky I was just leaving the staffroom and no other teachers wanted to talk to me, or that would have been terribly awkward, with me trying to hold a struggling journal still for several minutes.
I'm sorry. I missed you.
It's fine. You sound like we've spent weeks apart, though.
It feels like it… I don't like not being able to talk to you. And you didn't answer my first question.
Well, you know. I've been working my arse off, so it wasn't a picnic. I didn't do much else but teach, eat, and sleep, sleep being the thing I did the least. But I am glad I can talk to you again. How was the three days for you?
Not quite as difficult as yours. Malfoy was a right prat yesterday in Charms, saying that he couldn't focus on spellwork with the pain of his arm distracting him, but what else is new?
I wouldn't have expected any different. Although, I do wonder when he's going to take the bandages off.
Probably not until Hagrid's fired.
Hagrid won't be fired, Dumbledore likes him. Dumbledore didn't even fire Quirrell when he knew the man was after the Sorcerer's Stone, so I doubt that he would care about Hagrid's love for dangerous creatures. Even if the school governors want Hagrid fired, Dumbledore'll use his influence at the Ministry to make sure he isn't. That's not exactly reassuring to me, though. I've never hated Hagrid, but I would prefer if he was merely the Gamekeeper. It's only a matter of time before he brings in a beast that hurts you.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. He's had us taking care of flobberworms for the past month ever since the first lesson. I think it'll be at least until all the flobberworms die that he'll bring in anything else. If he does bring in something dangerous, I won't be stupid like Malfoy and antagonize it.
I wasn't insinuating that you would be. But Hagrid might get a hold of something hostile and untamable that would attack without being provoked. He's been known to have an affinity for creatures like that…. The three-headed dog that nearly bit my leg off on Halloween two years ago was his. And he once tried to keep a dragon in his hut. I suppose he'll be getting a manticore or something else of the sort next.
Merlin, I hope he doesn't. Dumbledore would do something if he did, though, wouldn't he?
Don't expect me to know whether he would or not…. Dumbledore's never been consistent in the level of sanity with which he makes his decisions. It's impossible to predict what that man does.
You know, we haven't spoken in three days, so perhaps we shouldn't talk about things that stress us out. You've gone through enough stress in the past few days, what with the Wolfsbane Potion and everything. Actually… could you explain that potion to me? I know only the most skilled of Potioneers are capable of it, and it seems like the sort of thing I'd try simply to see whether I could do it or not.
Severus was surprised that she'd want to know about the Wolfsbane Potion at first, but he quickly understood and agreed with her reasoning. He smiled slightly after hearing the tone of near reverence her voice was in as she pretty much said she considered him one of 'the most skilled of Potioneers.' He wasn't so arrogant as to point out his own skills that set him apart from others, but he liked recognition for his abilities—especially from Vesperra, who clearly admired him.
You're right. I won't mention Dumbledore again until he actually affects our lives this year. Well, there's only two ways to know whether or not you did the Wolfsbane Potion correctly—one of them would be testing it on an actual werewolf, and I can't think of any way that scenario would be a safe one. The other is a very subtle detail that's difficult to pick up unless you're very experienced in potion-making. You have a natural skill, but there are certain things that must be learned, so I wouldn't expect you to know how. I've completed my education at Hogwarts and have been the Potions Master for twelve years, so I've learned to separate a potion's scent into its parts. Then I can tell if a single one of those smells is wrong.
Severus went on to explain what exactly made the Wolfsbane Potion so difficult, and Vesperra continued to listen and read, fascinated despite the potion's connection with Lupin, who she hated. For the rest of the night, it felt like the past three days hadn't even happened, because everything was back to normal now. She had nearly fallen asleep to Severus's voice at least three times when she finally wrote;
I'm about to pass out, Severus. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Night.
I'd say 'sweet dreams,' but I know you don't dream. Goodnight.
Her eyelids feeling very heavy, Vesperra smiled at his last message and hardly had time to close the journal before falling directly to sleep.
A few days later, Vesperra was once again spending the day with Severus, but it wasn't quite all day, as it had been a week before. It was another month until Severus would have to brew the Wolfsbane Potion again, so they didn't feel the need to cram as much quality time as possible in between dawn and midnight. He had asked Vesperra to come down to his office after breakfast, which she did.
"Is that the Wolfsbane Potion?" asked Vesperra as she entered his office, noting the large cauldron on the table in the center of the room, which was smoking even though there was no fire lit underneath. There was a faint, acidic smell in the dungeon room; it didn't bother her that much, but she knew it must have been from the potion on the table.
Severus didn't answer until the ball of light from his wand was absorbed by the door, meaning the Imperturbable Charm was in effect.
"Yes," he said, glancing at the smoking cauldron. "Lupin's taken a goblet of it each of the past three days—it's annoying, having him come down here the past four days, and keeping the cauldron in here makes it stink a bit, but the more he takes, the safer he is, so I'm not complaining."
"Doesn't that mean that his werewolf symptoms are kicking in early and making him too sick?" said Vesperra, sitting on the couch and turning long-ways so that her feet rested in Severus's usual spot. She pulled her feet back almost immediately, as Severus was about to sit down and gave her a look of mock-annoyance. When he settled himself into the couch, she extended her legs again onto Severus's lap.
"It does, but then again, Lupin's symptoms may not be in the extreme just yet. That's another important thing about the Wolfsbane Potion—the werewolf in question has to know what they're doing. As long as he only takes a goblet a day, the potion will still work just as effectively in keeping him safe during the full moon, but if he's taking too much more than he needs, his cognitive abilities may be impaired for a day or two afterwards." Severus smirked, knowing that if Lupin ended up seemingly inebriated after the full moon, it would be his own fault.
Vesperra noticed his lips curl into a small smirk as he finished his explanation, and hers did the same. She, like Severus, would wish Lupin nothing but ill if it weren't for the fact that he would hurt other people if he was subjected to the full effects of his illness. She did consider Lycanthropy a curse, as it had been one of the Twenty-Six Malignant Cards, but that didn't make her hate Lupin any less. Dragons couldn't help but eating people, but she would definitely hate them if one nearly killed Severus. On the other hand, she wouldn't mind Malfoy being bitten, because then he'd suffer.
They refrained from talking about Lupin for much of the day. It was an entirely normal visit with Severus until some time after lunch, when Vesperra was about to reply to something Severus had said but was interrupted by a brief rushing sound, as green flames suddenly shot up in his office fireplace.
"Do you mind if I step in for a moment, Severus, to take a dose of my potion?" Lupin's voice rang out from the fire and into the room as clearly as though he were in there with them.
Vesperra scowled at the sound of it, and Severus turned to her. Knowing what she had to do, she saved him the trouble of trying to tell her to step out of his office for a minute without voicing it (since Lupin would hear), and immediately stood up. She glanced at him with a slightly annoyed look before quickly walking in large strides to his ingredient storeroom and shutting herself in there.
Feeling sorry that she felt obliged to suddenly make herself nonexistent, yet appreciative all the same, Severus stood and said, "Fine. Come in, Lupin."
As Severus crossed the room to the table in the center of the room, a large shape revolved into view in the grate. Lupin emerged from the emerald flames in his fireplace and stumbled out onto the stone floor; he brushed the ash off his robes while regaining his balance.
"I hope I'm not bothering you, Severus," said Lupin warmly, watching Severus conjure a goblet and ladle the exact amount of Wolfsbane Potion needed for a single dose and not a drop more or less.
His upper lip curled slightly as his mind went to Vesperra, who was currently waiting in his ingredients storeroom for this exchange to be over. But he set the ladle down a bit harshly, turned to Lupin, handed the man the goblet, and said coldly, "Not at all."
Lupin took the goblet with a grateful smile and made to take a large gulp of it, frowning only a little at the foul taste. "Thank you again, Severus," he said before taking another gulp, probably to let the taste settle so that he wasn't hit with it all at once. "The full moon's in two days, so I thought it would be safe to take just one more before then—after Monday, I won't bother you again until next month."
Severus regarded the man with a simple "Hm" and a cold, emotionless look, and the only reason he wasn't allowing his face to suffuse with hatred was because he was trying to do what Dumbledore wanted and be at least somewhat polite. His arms were folded over his chest as he waited impatiently for Lupin to finish the gobletful and leave, and he wondered how angry Vesperra was inside his storeroom.
Truthfully, Vesperra wasn't exactly angry, just annoyed. And it was only at Lupin, not Severus. It wasn't Severus's fault that Lupin chose that time to get his Wolfsbane Potion. A similar situation had happened in this office once before, almost exactly a year ago, when Malfoy and Flint had arrived at Severus's door to get permission to use the Quidditch field.
It was strange, now, remembering that, because Lupin was actually aware of the fact that she and Severus were friends, whereas Malfoy had had no idea. He had, however, become suspicious after that, having supposedly realized Severus hadn't been alone in his office. But even though Lupin already knew, he didn't have to know that Vesperra and Severus were close enough to spend time alone together, whether or not he already assumed it. Carefully pressing her ear to the inside of the storeroom door, she listened to what was happening.
"I did come down to the dungeons on foot and try to knock," said Lupin, annoying Severus even further simply in that he continued to talk, "but there seemed to be an Imperturbable Charm on your door. It was strong enough that I couldn't knock—my hand was forced away if it got within a couple inches of the door." He then tilted his head back and drained the goblet, setting it back down on the table. "So I returned to my office and used Floo powder instead."
Lupin had said that casually, as though it was a matter for simple conversation, but Severus knew by his very small smile that he wanted to know why Severus had placed an Imperturbable Charm on his door, and a particularly strong one no less. But the man also must have been resigned to the fact that he wasn't going to find out, and was even less likely to get an answer if he asked directly.
"You know that I prefer my privacy, Lupin, more sometimes than others," said Severus with a bit of a sneer.
"Right. Well, I'll be leaving you alone. Good day to you, Severus." Lupin's curious look turned into a polite smile as he turned back towards the fireplace.
"Good day," he spat back, watching Lupin take a pinch of his Floo powder and throw it into the previously normal-looking fire, then step into it and quickly revolve into nothingness, appearing to be sucked down a giant drain.
Frowning despite being glad that Lupin was gone, Severus said somewhat loudly, "You can come out now."
Vesperra stood up straight to turn the handle and stepped out as she pushed the door open, remembering the last time she had had to hide in there for a couple minutes; Severus had opened the door, and caught her when she nearly fell out. Almost disappointed that he hadn't given her the chance to let him catch her again, she sat down on his couch and huffed.
"I'm sorry," said Severus, noticing her brow furrow as he sat back down with her and unconsciously reached for her hand. "I hate to make you hide in there, even though—"
"No, it's not that," Vesperra said in a sort of pensive way without looking at him, brow still furrowed. She felt Severus's long fingers slide in between hers, and squeezed his hand more out of habit than any desire to have him hold her hand at the moment. "You didn't even make me, anyway—I know we can't let anyone, least of all Lupin, know that I was in here…. But, I just realized… that both me and Lupin have a potion that we have to take every month. And with both of us, we only recently started taking it—well, relatively recently, at least…."
Vesperra had only started thinking about that while she was inside the storeroom, listening to what was going on outside of it. She wasn't sure why it had just come to her then, since she normally would have picked up on that sort of thing earlier, but the thought had suddenly squirmed its way into her head when Lupin mentioned the full moon.
She scowled, and, automatically knowing what was bothering her, Severus tightened his hold on her hand.
"Don't," he said sternly, unintentionally jerking her arm a little too hard so that he pulled her abruptly towards him. Having been startled by it, Vesperra turned her head to him and raised her eyebrows, still frowning slightly. Severus realized what he did at once and relaxed his grip, but it was still firm, just as firm as the way he held her gaze with his. "Don't compare yourself to him. You're absolutely nothing like him."
"But—"
"I don't give a damn if you share a couple things in common with him, so you shouldn't either. You could become a werewolf yourself and I still wouldn't care—no, I would, because then I'd kill the werewolf that bit you, and I'd devote my life to discovering a cure for Lycanthropy…. But if I have anything to say about it, that will not happen, so we won't have to worry about that."
A small vein had temporarily bulged in Severus's temple when the thought had crossed his mind of Vesperra ever being bitten by a werewolf. He couldn't stand the thought…. It wasn't so much that she would be like Lupin, who he loathed, as it was that she would become even more dangerous than ever, especially to herself. He would hate for her to be forced to undergo a painful transformation. And even as he thought about this, his view on werewolves in general didn't change. Severus still hated them and believed that they were untamable beasts—which was why he wanted nothing less than for Vesperra to become one. Vesperra would always be Vesperra—that would never change, and he wouldn't love her any less, but he wouldn't assume that she could be kept docile even if he tried to help her suppress her animal urges. Unless he did find a cure… But he didn't want to even think about that possibility anymore, so he leaned back into the couch and squeezed her hand again.
Vesperra wanted to think that she was anything like Lupin just as little as Severus did, but it had really been everything he said about her ever being bitten by a werewolf that had her believing him more. She felt a sudden gush of affection for him at his aggressive protectiveness over her, and even more so that he would pretty much devote his life to her—because she knew he was serious. If Severus said he would do something, he would do it.
Ignoring the sudden hitch in her breathing (which happened often when she was around Severus), Vesperra unfurrowed her brow and nearly smiled. He looked relieved. And then, the topic of werewolves brought a new thought into her mind, and she frowned curiously.
"Severus… where did Lupin go before he was able to take the Wolfsbane Potion?" asked Vesperra, inching closer to Severus—once again out of habit. "As a student, I mean. Dumbledore wouldn't have let him stay in the castle—?"
"The Shrieking Shack," sighed Severus, automatically remembering the night he had crawled down the passageway in the Whomping Willow for what felt like hours, all the while thinking that he would finally have the dirt on Lupin when he saw what was wrong with him, and catching a glimpse of a full-fledged werewolf before Potter pulled him back. The memory seemed so much darker and more ominous than it had actually been when he looked back on it—likely because had hadn't known he'd be close to death when he had first left the castle that night. It filled him with hot anger, just to remember it…. However he continued—
"I told you how Black and Lupin nearly killed me—well, the passageway from the base of the Whomping Willow leads to the Shrieking Shack, which was where I saw Lupin. I'm one of the few who know he went there every month at the full moon, because Dumbledore explained it to me after he discovered that I knew, and forbade me to tell anybody."
His breathing shallow from the heat building up inside him, Severus's brow knitted together, and he looked straight ahead rather than at Vesperra, because he didn't want to look in her direction while there was such hatred in his eyes. He ignored the urge to lift the back of Vesperra's cold hand to his cheek to soothe the boiling headache he suddenly had, but wasn't sure why.
Though not quite as angry as Severus was, as she wasn't the one that had actually experienced it, Vesperra felt a stab of hatred for Potter (both of them), Lupin, and Black upon hearing his explanation. She didn't blame him for looking the way he did, and starting rubbing soothing circles on the back of his hand with her thumb.
"I'm sorry I asked, Severus," said Vesperra truthfully and in a way that was strangely calming to him. He looked down to his left and at his hand to see her thumb working in circles on it, which he didn't fully realize that he was feeling until he saw it. Moving his eyes back to hers, he raised his eyebrows very slightly, most of the traces of his previous hardened scowl gone.
"Don't be sorry," he said calmly.
"I made you upset."
"You did nothing. I'm fine."
"Would you mind if I asked one more question, then?
"Of course not. Ask whatever you like."
That, of course, wasn't an entirely serious allowance he was making—but Vesperra knew that. She wasn't going to ask him anything terribly personal that she would never have asked him in the first place. But Severus knew it was going to be related to what they had just been talking about, so he braced himself for more irrational anger.
"The Shrieking Shack—that's that supposedly haunted building in Hogsmeade, isn't it?" she asked. Surprised and at the same time relieved that it hadn't been a question regarding something more serious, Severus let his walls come back down.
"Yes, it is," he said, only slightly curious as to why she was asking about it, as he already had a good guess.
Vesperra didn't know much about Hogsmeade, having grown up in a home where simply talking about the magical world would have her or her mum yelled at, but she had heard things about the Shrieking Shack in passing, since students she walked past in the hallways were often talking about Hogsmeade, and would mention the Shrieking Shack. Several times she had heard it referred to as 'the most severely haunted place in all of Britain. And she wouldn't have remembered it before now, when Severus told her about it, since all the past mentions of the building had been only vague in her mind without something to bring it to the surface. She didn't, after all, focus very much on anything the groups of students in the corridors were saying excitedly to their friends.
"Well, it's not really haunted, then, is it? If the villagers in Hogsmeade had no idea it was Lupin in there…" She realized that, as a werewolf, Lupin must have howled a lot, and Dumbledore wouldn't have sent him to a haunted building.
Unable to suppress a smirk at how perceptive Vesperra was, Severus said, "No, it's not haunted at all. Once again, I—we are two of the few people that know that. Although, I don't see why people would be stupid enough to think it was still haunted, when noises haven't come from the Shack in sixteen years…."
Both of them felt a sense of satisfaction at knowing several things that the vast majority of the rest of the Wizarding population didn't. Vesperra didn't have anything else to say about the Shrieking Shack, so the two remained in comfortable silence until one of them found something to talk about—it wasn't long.
"Do you think Lupin knew I was in here, Severus?" asked Vesperra as the entire conversation she had heard through the door came back to her. There was a hint of worry as well as irritation in her voice.
"He couldn't have known," said Severus in almost a growl, having been thinking about this before Vesperra had mentioned the other thing about Lupin. "But I know he suspected it."
Her eyes flashed suddenly at him. "Did you use—?"
"I didn't have to. I could tell just as easily by the stupid little smile on his face…."
That topic didn't last long, as it had only been fueled by frustration, which disappeared soon enough, thanks to Vesperra.
And throughout the rest of the day, absentmindedly, she continued with the slow, calming circles on the back of Severus's hand. He didn't necessarily need it anymore, but he liked it and would have been admittedly upset if she stopped.
During the first couple weeks of October, talk of Quidditch steadily grew more and more common among all Houses, and especially among those who sat near those on the House teams during meals. The Quidditch season was approaching and, though no one seemed quite as eager to start setting up practices as the captain of the Gryffindor team, people were getting quite impatient for the first game of the season, which was over a month away.
The Slytherin team tryouts had taken place in the second week of September as always, and anyone who regularly sat near Malfoy, the Slytherin Seeker, knew that Christoph Warrington had replaced Adrian Pucey as a Chaser, and the two new Beaters were even thicker than Crabbe and Goyle (both physically and mentally), if that was even possible.
Like the others, the Slytherin table was full of the talk about Quidditch, though it was in an entirely different manner. Rather than ditching his bandages so he could practice, Malfoy kept up the fake injury so that the Slytherins team would have an excuse not to play the first game of the season. Marcus Flint didn't go into too much detail about what strategy he had planned out, but he assumed that no Slytherins that heard would rat on them, so he and the others didn't bother to keep it entirely a secret. It was only the other Houses they needed to make sure didn't overhear.
According to the hisses and whispers of Malfoy, Flint, Bletchley, Warrington, Montague, Derrick, and Boyle, who were all sitting in a group near the third years, they would begin to practice at times that they would make sure would remain unknown to the other teams, and not tell Madam Hooch that they couldn't play until a week before the match was scheduled. It was a rather ingenious plan, actually, Vesperra thought, because then the Gryffindor team would think all the time that they're practicing that they would be up against Slytherin, and waste time forming strategies based on that. Vesperra couldn't believe that any of those trolls had been smart enough to come up with that…. She assumed it must have been Malfoy that had suggested it in the first place.
Even though she hated Malfoy and couldn't care less about Quidditch (alright, she could care slightly less), Vesperra found herself hoping that the Gryffindors would get flattened in next month's match. And, as the rest of them had assumed, she had no intention to tell anyone of their rather unorthodox plan despite all the trouble she knew Malfoy would be in. That trouble wasn't worth making Slytherin ultimately lose the House Cup for the third time in a row since its seven-year streak, and even less, the torture she would have gone through for the rest of the year from the rest of her house. But she still told Severus, who reacted like she expected, and didn't mind.
"I'm sure we'll win the House Cup this year, then," he had said with a small smirk. "It only bothers me that our team is so bad that they have to resort to these measures…. That's one thing I've always hated—the Slytherin team always goes for bulk rather than skill."
"I know what you mean. Malfoy's by far the smallest on the team, and the rest are twice as big as him," huffed Vesperra, frowning as she mentioned Malfoy. She had wanted to hate Quidditch ever since Malfoy had gotten on the team last year, but she still had some House pride, and therefore she couldn't help but want the Slytherin team to win.
"That may change next year, though," said Severus. "I doubt the new Beaters will last long, and Flint graduates this year…. They'll need a new Chaser. And you're a decent flyer, so—"
Vesperra immediately shot him an annoyed look. "I'm not going to try out for the Quidditch team, not when I'd have to be close to Malfoy even more often," she snapped. "Besides, I haven't even flown since my first year. I doubt I would have coordination in any sport."
"Relax, I wasn't serious," said Severus, holding back a smirk he felt coming on at how little he had to say to make her angry. "Trust me, I would never let you play Quidditch—you'd be at practices too often to spend time with me. And I don't doubt Malfoy would think that an opportune time to antagonize you, or try to make you fall off your broom."
Grimacing slightly in agreement of his would-be predictions, Vesperra said, "You just like to gauge reactions out of me, don't you?"
"Sometimes," said Severus, still trying not to smirk.
Vesperra didn't normally ever even bother to glance at the bulletin board in the Slytherin Common Room, as she only ever stepped foot in there while passing through to either her dorm or the exit, and since there was never anything of importance on there. The couple times in her first year that she had looked at it simply because she thought it would be safe to regularly do so, she had gathered that it was all advertisements for illicit Dark objects that older Slytherin students were trying to sell (or just wanted to get rid of before it hurt them somehow) and for certain clubs in Hogwarts. After becoming friends with Severus and getting a means to talk to him daily a few weeks into her first year, she had figured that he, being a teacher and her Head of House no less, would tell her anything important that she needed to know, and therefore she would never need to look at the Common Room bulletin board. So far, nothing of the sort had happened.
But after leaving the library on Thursday evening, winding her way through the labyrinth of corridors of the dungeons back to the Common Room, and giving the empty stretch of stone wall the password, Vesperra entered to see a group of people surrounding the bulletin board. Curious, she went against her better judgment and let her feet carry her to the group of students rather than straight across to the corridors leading to the dormitories.
"…course, I know plenty about Hogsmeade already," Malfoy was saying in his usual smug voice and from his usual armchair near the wall where the notice board was. "My father's taken me there loads of times, even before I came to Hogwarts. There aren't as many interesting things there, like there are in Knockturn Alley, and it's really not worth getting very excited about."
By the vagueness of his words, the tiniest hint of excitement in his voice, and the uncharacteristic shine in his normally cold eyes, Vesperra guessed that Malfoy was lying both about having ever been to Hogsmeade and that he thought it wasn't anything to be excited over. Actually, considering his wealthy family, it wasn't that unlikely that he'd been there before, but Vesperra doubted he had gone there after turning five, and so he wouldn't remember any of it. Otherwise, he might have gone but not been allowed to look around and had to stick to his father's side. He was pretty much a daddy's boy, after all. And now that Vesperra thought about it, her mother might have taken her once or twice as a very small child, but she had no collective memory of it.
"Speaking of interesting things in Knockturn Alley," drawled Malfoy seconds later as he turned his head and caught sight of Vesperra, "she's here. Were your ears burning, Grease-perra?"
The nearby third years that Malfoy was talking to as well as some older and younger Slytherins followed Malfoy's eyes and mad grin to see Vesperra. Wearing her trademark scowl, she ignored the stares and laughs (having been used to them for a while) and Malfoy's last question. "What's going on?" she asked half angrily and half curiously, harshly arching an eyebrow and folding her arms over her chest.
Vesperra hated to talk directly to Malfoy, as she always felt like speaking to him was somewhere on the level of civility (however low it was), and any civil interaction with him felt disgusting, but she wanted to know what all the hubbub was about.
"First Hogsmeade visit, Grease-perra," said Malfoy with a hearty-casual tone. "Two weeks from now. On Halloween. It'll be the perfect chance for you to ask Professor Snape on a date—who knows, he might say yes, since you could both use some time out in the sun…. And I bet he'll be a proper gentleman and pay for everything, because we all know you haven't got any money…."
But Vesperra was already on her way to her dorm, having promptly turned her back on Malfoy and started to walk away the moment he used 'Professor Snape' and 'date' in the same sentence, grinding her teeth together very hard. She ignored the laughter that had rung out, but still caught the last of Malfoy's taunts before she walked completely out of earshot. Once again, it was almost disturbing how accurate he had been without knowing it. That was exactly what Severus would do, actually, if for some reason he accompanied her to Hogsmeade. He was a right proper gentleman with her, and she could clearly imagine him insisting to pay for anything they came across. But there was no way he would come, even if he wanted to. How could they possibly hide from the hundreds of students there that she and Severus were friends if they were there together? The very idea of it was just plain stupid.
Though her face wouldn't have shown it, Vesperra's heart had made a small leap in her chest upon discovering the upcoming Hogsmeade visit. However, she couldn't help but be disappointed that she would have an entire Sunday of fun and visiting the largest entirely non-Muggle place in Britain without having Severus there to share it with. She didn't share those particular feelings with him through the journals that night, though, nor did she mention what Malfoy had said. Instead, she simply told him that she knew about the Hogsmeade trip, and apparently he had been planning on telling her that night. Vesperra didn't express any of her eagerness to visit Hogsmeade to him, as she felt childish just feeling it in the first place. Then again, she was a Slytherin, and Slytherins were rarely enthusiastic about much unless it involved others being hurt.
All that was on a lot of the third years' minds for the next couple weeks was the upcoming Hogsmeade visit, as it would be their first ever. Even if they had been there before, with their parents, Vesperra supposed it would be a very different experience to go there during the school year. It would be a nice break from schoolwork for most, as well as a break from authority.
One of the best parts was that it was completely unchaperoned, and students were free to go wherever and buy whatever they wanted without teachers watching them. However, that might not have been the best idea, because it would make people like Malfoy think that they could go around mercilessly bullying people as they liked, and without fear of being caught. But at least they could expect full retaliation.
And of course, it wasn't unexpected in the least that Malfoy and the other third years (which was now more often including students from other years and Houses) now had a whole hew range of ideas for taunts, all having something to do with Severus and Hogsmeade. Vesperra had been living with this sort of thing happening for the past two years, so she knew what was going to happen the night before and had mentally prepared herself for it. She even thought of a few good, harsh comebacks for possible things they might say beforehand, but she'd prefer not to talk at all.
Most of the older students were looking forward to Halloween as well, and there were only a few seventh years that didn't seem to care about going, as they had already been to Hogsmeade so many times. Vesperra knew for a fact that her time in Hogsmeade would not be perfectly pleasant (not while Malfoy was still alive and actively sought for her to be miserable, at least), but she was definitely not going to stay behind and miss out on the first trip simply because her fun would be hindered by the same thing she endured every day. Even though doing so would allow her to spend an entire day alone with Severus in the empty, quiet castle, Hogsmeade would be worth it. It just had to be.
Exactly two weeks later, however, on the last Thursday of October, Vesperra found out that staying behind wouldn't have meant a day alone with Severus, anyway.
Those weeks had gone by smoothly for the both of them—well, 'smoothly' compared to the majority of their lives. It was generally uneventful and void of things that were out of the ordinary—what was ordinary for them, at least. Neither Severus nor Vesperra had been driven to annoyance or frustration beyond what they often felt by Lupin and Malfoy, and nothing regarding Sirius Black had happened since the Muggle woman had supposedly sighted him. But, as Halloween grew closer, so did the full moon, which was exactly eight days from Friday the twenty-ninth.
You're not busy with homework, are you? was the first message Vesperra had received in her journal Thursday evening just after dinner.
No. I'll be at your office in a minute.
She didn't need to ask—it was obvious that he wanted her to visit him, because there was no other reason he'd say that. Ignoring the cold, gray eyes that were surely following her, she walked back through the Common Room without any question as to why Severus wanted her, because that part was just as obvious.
"I suppose you've already done the math and figured out that the full moon is in exactly eight days?" said Severus after casting an Imperturbable Charm on his door, his lip curling in annoyance—not at her, but at the month's timing. Vesperra was already sitting on his couch, waiting for him.
"Yes, I did," Vesperra sighed, equally annoyed. Severus was less than careful as he let himself fall onto the couch, jostling the other cushions slightly.
"I thought we could have a few hours of time together before not speaking at all for three days. I'd obviously prefer there was more time—but it's a weeknight," he finished, with his brow creasing momentarily until he looked back at Vesperra, whose expression conveyed something along the lines of "Yeah, we might as well."
And they did. It wasn't a particularly eventful visit, but at least they could be physically close for the time being. They eventually came around to the topic of Hogsmeade, the trip to which would be in three days, also the day that Severus would finish the Wolfsbane potion for the second time.
"At least you'll be mostly brewing on the weekend this time," said Vesperra. "So you'll have time to sleep and do the other things you have to do…."
"One convenience robbed to be replaced by another…" Severus muttered, also grateful for his time being on the weekend as he had been when he first planned out his brewing schedule a few days prior. "And I'll be finished midday on Halloween—you'll be in Hogsmeade then." And he didn't say it, but they both knew that it would then be another week until they could have more than a couple hours to spend with each other.
Trying not to dwell on the near future and instead just enjoy her time (which was quite a feat for people like her and Severus), Vesperra thought for a moment, then said, "While I'm at Hogsmeade, do you want me to bring you back anything?" She knew that he could visit Hogsmeade whenever he wanted, since he was a teacher, but she figured it would just be more convenient.
Severus was forcibly reminded of his childhood years at her words. Not that he'd ever had to stay behind during a Hogsmeade trip as a student, but her tone was strangely Lily-esque. It was a simple, casual, innocent, friendly question, but it made him smile. And yet—
"No, you don't need to waste your money on me," he told her. "You already have very little as it is. And if anything, I'd want to restock on Firewhiskey, which neither Rosmerta nor Aberforth would let you purchase."
Vesperra frowned slightly. "It wouldn't be wasting it…. I really wouldn't mind spending money on you." Severus seemed to be about to open his mouth to argue, but Vesperra promptly gave his hand a hard squeeze. "And—you told me about Madam Rosmerta from the Three Broomsticks, but who's Aberforth?"
He hadn't realized his slip at first, but quickly decided that it didn't matter and had no consequence. "He owns the Hog's Head pub," said Severus with slight indifference. The next sentence, however, he was more careful in saying. "And he's… Dumbledore's brother. Aberforth Dumbledore." This was a rare time that Severus had a somewhat surprising piece of information that wasn't personal to him, so he didn't mind telling Vesperra at all.
"I didn't know Dumbledore had a brother…." She raised her eyebrows in mild surprise. Vesperra had never even thought about Dumbledore having a family, let alone any members of it that were still alive. It was an odd thought and simply didn't seem real, in the same way that she could hardly imagine what the part of Severus's past was that he kept from her.
After Vesperra accepted that fact, which didn't seem so bizarre the more she thought about it, they resumed normal conversation.
"I suppose I'll leave now, since you'll need sleep before tomorrow," said Vesperra a good twenty minutes before Severus would have told her to get to bed. She stood up without waiting for his assent, hardly looking tired.
"It's not that late," Severus protested, frowning and refusing to let go of her hand as she made a weak attempt to pull hers away. She took in a quick, yet quiet breath, almost as though she was annoyed at him being so immature.
"But you won't be getting much sleep tomorrow night, so I thought you'd want to make up for it tonight," she said.
Severus would have argued further, but there was something in the fact that she cared more about whether he got enough sleep than whether she spent enough time with him. His grip on her hand slackened, and his chest relaxed, releasing the breath he had been holding and saving for telling her to stay. So he did not insist that she stay another twenty minutes, and he was not going to make her stay.
"I really should," said Severus, defeated, suddenly feeling a lot more tired. "Goodnight, then."
Glad, Vesperra continued walking towards the door, but stopped at the right side of the couch, where he was sitting. Without warning, she bent down and placed a quick kiss on his temple, very briefly burrowing her face in his hair. "Night, Severus. See you tomorrow—sort of." A small smile reached her eyes but wasn't quite strong enough to reach her lips, and then she left.
As Vesperra had said, the two of them only caught brief glances of each other at meals throughout the next couple days. Well, Vesperra was the one glancing, but she knew that Severus may very well have been watching her the entire time. She hardly realized that that should have felt slightly creepy to her.
It was, however, easier to deal with now that she had the Hogsmeade trip to look forward to and take her mind off of it for the last day. In fact, she felt mostly confident that this Halloween would prove to be the best she'd had. Of course, all her Halloweens before her first year at Hogwarts had been just like normal days (only a bit more miserable), so that was nothing to even compare to…. But two years before, Quirrell had let a troll into the dungeons, disrupting the feast, and Severus's leg had nearly been torn off. Vesperra winced inwardly at the thought. And last year, the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. For this year's Halloween to be worse than the last two even with visiting Hogsmeade, someone would have to die.
As she and most Slytherins usually did, Vesperra had retained her calm even throughout breakfast on Halloween, though she was rather annoyed by the more jovial mood filling the Great Hall than usual. The Bloody Baron didn't try to start a conversation with her this time, but instead just drifted a few inches above the table as usual, gaunt and staring with his silvery bloodstains glittering in the early morning sunlight from the enchanted ceiling and high windows. It was ironic, though, because she was starting not to mind him so much. And she found herself strangely curious as to how he had gotten those bloodstains, though she had never wondered before.
That calm slowly ebbed away to be replaced with undeniable anxiousness when the majority of the students third year and above filed into the Entrance Hall, where they queued up into a very long line at the great oak doors. Going to Hogsmeade for the first time was just one of those things that you can't believe once it's actually happening. Vesperra hastened to get in line, not paying attention to anything except the decreasing distance between her and Filch, who was checking off names and screwing up his already heavily wrinkled face at every student who walked past him.
"Staying here, Potter?" shouted a voice close by, which told Vesperra, who was suddenly very tense, that Malfoy was a couple people behind her. "Scared of passing the Dementors?"
She glanced for a moment at Potter, who was ascending the marble staircase and disappearing out of sight rather than lining up with everybody else. Vesperra was somewhat curious as to why he wasn't going to Hogsmeade, and would have smirked in satisfaction that he was going to miss out on everything, but she was suddenly focused on the fact that she would have to pass the dementors too. Dread seeped slowly into her and made her heartbeats suddenly heavy, as though she was already experiencing the dementors' horrible effects….
But it would only be for a few seconds, wouldn't it? She'd be able to handle that, it wouldn't be like it was on the train, she wouldn't be reduced to a shaking mess, no, she'd be fine…
With these thoughts haunting her, she almost didn't realize it when she was finally standing in front of Filch, and the old caretaker was scanning his eyes down the list and repeatedly looking suspiciously at her in a way that made most students visibly uncomfortable. Though she was extremely uncomfortable, she merely stood there and waited for him to find her name, which should have been on there, since she had given Severus her permission slip a couple weeks ago.
"'D'... 'D'… D'Monicas. Right… fine," said Filch. He looked apprehensive about letting her leave, but that was for obvious reasons. Filch loathed the idea of children enjoying anything.
The chilly morning breeze hit Vesperra as she stepped outside, blowing her hair momentarily out of her face. She went down the stone steps, trying not to think about the dementors up ahead. Following the students in front of her, she walked down the dirt path that the horseless carriages treaded at the beginning and end of the year as well as holidays to take students from Hogsmeade station to Hogwarts, and vice versa.
And hardly ten minutes after leaving the castle, Vesperra was passing through the towering, iron gates flanked by the statues of winged boars. Two dementors, high above them, were circling ominously as guards, their black, withering cloaks drifting in a way that made Vesperra's stomach churn. As she drew closer to them, the air grew colder, and her mood steadily dropped into near hopelessness… but she looked only ahead, and tried to think only of Severus…. She obviously couldn't produce a Patronus, but focusing hard on the source of all her happiness would make it more difficult for the dementors to suck it straight out of her…. And, after a minute, Vesperra realized that the dementors were at least fifty feet behind her now, and the blood returned to her face.
Figuring early on that it was going to be a long walk, since it normally took at least twenty or so minutes to reach Hogwarts from the station by the carriages, Vesperra supposed that that was one of the drawbacks to visiting Hogsmeade. But it would be worth it, however badly her calves were burning by the time she got there. Further down the trail they went, groups of students nearby talking animatedly and looking very glad to get out of the school. It seemed that Vesperra was one of the only ones walking alone, and Draco Malfoy must have noticed it as well, because—
"I don't even know what you're doing, going to Hogsmeade, Grease-perra," he drawled, walking behind her. "What are you even going to do with no money and no friends? Professor Snape won't be there, so I expect you'll be tremendously bored, just wandering around and scaring small children…"
That was followed by sniggers, undoubtedly from Crabbe and Goyle. Vesperra scowled but otherwise ignored them and made no indication that she'd heard them. She did, in fact, have money, which she had nicked from her mum back when the woman had still had a job, but she couldn't help but agree that not having Severus there would make Hogsmeade a lot less of an experience that it could have been. Hogsmeade wasn't just a village, it was a place to get away to, and a place you went to spend time with friends. If only she had gone to Hogwarts the same years as Severus, or they were suddenly in an alternate universe where no one would care that they were friends.
After what felt like ages, the trail had widened and branched off—the right side leading directly to Hogsmeade station, and the other into the main part of the village, near the square. The road was no longer dirt, but made of stone, which was perfectly flat unlike the cobblestones in Diagon Alley. The sight that met Vesperra's eyes as Hogsmeade came into full view around her was overwhelming, even for her.
Even if she had never heard of Hogsmeade before, she would have known that this place was only for witches and wizards, because there was a distinct magical quality about it. It was a welcoming feeling, with all the thatched cottages and shops that were clearly magical…. After all, Vesperra had never felt like she belonged near Muggles. The surrounding trees and mountains gave it the feel of a safe little haven, sitting in a valley, guarded by the mountains all around. But it was anything but little—it was several times larger than Diagon Alley, as it had far more shops and included cottages on the outer streets and even outside the village boundaries, becoming sparser and sparser as the surrounding nature grew rougher. It was just peaceful, and even Vesperra couldn't resist simply appreciating how beautiful it was.
As she walked slowly down the wide streets (in order to observe everything properly), it quickly became apparent to Vesperra that the main street of interest was High Street, which was where most of the shops were. Hardly any students wandered off elsewhere, and they were mostly congregated inside the Three Broomsticks Inn, which seemed to be both the biggest and most popular place by far. She would have gone inside, especially with it being her first time in Hogsmeade, but it was much too crowded for her liking. The students and locals in there must have been packed with at least three times the density that the Great Hall normally was at mealtimes. It would have been impossible to find an empty booth or table in there, and she would have been very uncomfortable.
Vesperra walked past the Three Broomsticks with a bit of regret, almost deciding that she'd try to come back later when it wasn't as crowded (since she didn't want to miss out on what was a very well-known Wizarding pub), but then she remembered what Severus had said a couple days before about the Hog's Head barman and owner being Dumbledore's brother. Her curiosity was piqued, and she just had to catch a glimpse of the man. So, still looking at all the shops as she walked past them, she made her way up High Street and wandered through some of the other streets until she reached what looked like one the very corner of Hogsmeade. In it stood the Hog's Head pub, looking rather beaten-down in contrast to most of the shops, especially the Three Broomsticks.
It wasn't at all difficult to surmise that this was the sort of establishment that shady people would hang around in, almost like the shops in Knockturn Alley, and she didn't doubt that illegal trading went on in there. Considering this, it was hardly the type of place she would associate with anyone related to Dumbledore, and that sparked her curiosity even further. She should have walked straight away at the look of the place, but she felt drawn to the Hog's Head just like she did to Knockturn Alley. It was the knowledge that she probably shouldn't be there even though it was perfectly within the rules for her to be, which she knew because Severus had spoken about it in a way that implied he wouldn't necessarily mind her coming here. And it was also the fact that the place seemed much quieter and less crowded than the Three Broomsticks.
Glancing at the sign out front, which showed a severed hog's head on a white table cloth and its blood staining it, and quickly down the street to see that it was nearly empty, Vesperra walked closer and pushed the door open. The moment she did, she saw that it was a dingy, one-room pub, and the floor was extremely dirty. She found that she didn't mind it so much. The others in the pub certainly did look very dodgy, and many of them had their faces covered—she wasn't surprised, the air in the Hog's Head wasn't as breathable as the air outside. Most of them were sitting alone, and if there was any conversation going on between those who weren't, it was kept to very low voices. Only a couple of them raised their heads to look at her, as far as she saw (though she could have easily been mistaken, since she couldn't follow their eyes under their veils and hoods), and they almost immediately looked back down, paying her no attention. Vesperra found it strange that none of them seemed at all concerned as to why she was here, since she doubted students came here often, but was grateful nevertheless.
Caring not whether anyone in the room felt that she should be in there, she walked confidently up to the bar and avoided looking at two men on one end of it that were speaking to each other with thick voices in what sounded like Russian. Behind the bar was the man that she had come here specifically to see, and he was passing a smoking goblet—Firewhiskey, it must have been—to the Russian men at the end of the bar. He then turned to her, but didn't look very surprised like Vesperra thought he might have, and picked up a rag to start cleaning an empty glass.
And Vesperra was admittedly shocked by how similar and yet how different Aberforth was to his brother. Like Dumbledore, he wore glasses, and had the same twinkling blue eyes that had annoyed her and Severus so much—but she didn't see that as a reason to have anything against this man. He was also just as tall and thin, and had a very long beard and hair, but it wasn't quite the silvery gray that his brother's was. Although, these similarities wouldn't have been as apparent if she hadn't known beforehand that it was Aberforth Dumbledore. His demeanor was far from calm or serene, and he rather looked like a grumpy old man. And Vesperra couldn't help but associate his appearance with that of a goat's, what with his somewhat grizzled hair and the positioning of his mouth and nose. She made sure not to make it look as though she was staring at him, however, and only let her eyes rest on the man for a second at a time.
"What?" he grunted at once, apparently indifferent to the fact that a third year girl was in his pub.
For a second, Vesperra considered asking for Firewhiskey, just to see whether Severus had lied about that, but didn't think it would be a good idea to return to Hogwarts slightly inebriated. Instead, she remembered one thing Severus had told her about, which was pretty much the only thing she was allowed to have that wasn't served at Hogwarts already—
"A butterbeer," said Vesperra casually, still trying to inconspicuously get a better look at Aberforth. She had never had any of that stuff, but from what she heard, it wasn't the sort of thing you'd want to miss. The barman, looking a little grumpier now, bent down and pulled a dusty bottle out of the cupboard underneath, slamming it on the bar.
"Two Sickles," grunted Aberforth. While separating that amount from the small pile of coins inside her robe pocket, Vesperra noted how odd it was that Dumbledore's brother would have such a gruff voice.
Dropping the Sickles onto the bar and taking the bottle, she moved away from the barstools and made for the booth in the far corner. As she sat down, she inspected the bottle of butterbeer, and guessed that it wasn't sold very often in the Hog's Head. But of course, the outside of the bottle being dusty didn't affect the taste—not that she'd tasted it yet, anyway—or add any health hazards, so she wasn't concerned. Still, though, she used her robes to wipe off most of the dust, especially around the rim, before she drank any.
The butterbeer tasted surprisingly good—better than good, even. Not that she had expected it to be awful, but she hadn't imagined that she'd like it this much. It tasted much like butterscotch, but without the dry feeling in your throat when you ate it. And though it wasn't warm, it seemed to warm her insides. It was a very pleasant feeling—not unlike the warmth that spread through her chest whenever she was close to Severus, but much milder.
While she drank, Vesperra looked around more at the dingy pub. If it weren't for the residual acidic stench in the air and the fact that she was the only person that didn't look as though they might be doing something illegal or hiding a deadly skin affliction, she'd have liked it. For now, she just didn't mind it. It was better than being harassed by Malfoy or being surrounded by other people with barely any room to move. The windows were just as dusty as her bottle of butterbeer had been, but she could still see outside, and decided, as she finished her butterbeer and the misty look of the early morning was replaced by clearer light, that she should leave. So Vesperra promptly stood up, and glanced once more at Aberforth before stepping back outside.
Feeling satisfied that she had gone to one place that she wanted to go, she thought about where to go next. Of course, High Street would be crowded all day, and she couldn't avoid it forever if she wanted to see everything, but she didn't want to subject herself to having her personal bubble horribly invaded just yet. The only place of interest she could think of that wouldn't be noisy and crowded was the Shrieking Shack, and she suddenly had a burning desire to see it. She wasn't sure why, considering how it was associated with several things that she hated, but she just had to see the place….
Without noticing at first, her legs started taking her back to High Street and down the way she came, in the direction of the Shrieking Shack. Vesperra walked with her hands in her pockets, looking around occasionally to see if Malfoy or anyone else that would like to antagonize her for fun were nearby. She didn't see them at all, but she didn't let her guard down completely as she walked past the Three Broomsticks and up the slope to where the building in question was. For a while she just climbed the hill, but then stopped when she felt she was close enough.
Even in daylight, the Shrieking Shack was particularly creepy. The surrounding air was that of grim foreboding, and it leaned ominously over the overgrown grass. It would have been clear even if she knew nothing about the place that no one had ever lived here, because of the very old-looking wood and boarded up windows. There didn't seem to be any way to get in, and Vesperra was one of the few people that knew why—the only entrance was the tunnel from the base Whomping Willow, which Lupin had entered every month as a child… because he was a werewolf.
Vesperra felt a strong surge of loathing towards the place, especially now that she was so close to it…. This was the place Severus had almost been killed when he was fifteen, because of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Though the memories were not hers, they stung as she looked at this dilapidated building, and she hated Black and Lupin more than ever—and even James Potter, because even though he had saved Severus's life, he had merely been saving his own skin. Grinding her teeth, she decided that she had looked long enough. She had faced it, and now she was done. Rather than feeling angry at herself for ever coming, however, she was glad that she had gotten it out of the way. She likely would have been angry with herself if she never did come.
And then, just as she turned around—
"So is this where you've been the past hour?" said Malfoy, who, even though he was going up a steep slope, still managed to swagger up it, with Crabbe and Goyle at his sides. He stopped a good ten feet from her, as though careful not to catch some disease she had. "I'm not surprised—the setting fits you pretty well, actually…. Anyone coming up here that didn't recognize the back of your greasy head would think that you haunted this place."
Malfoy grinned smugly, and Crabbe and Goyle chuckled sycophantically as expected. Vesperra, who was already scowling, shot him a deadly look and resisted the involuntary twitch of her right hand to her sleeve as she made to walk quickly past him back down the slope. She didn't know why she resisted it, though, seeing as there was no one else there, no witnesses…
"Aw, why so upset, Grease-perra?" Malfoy called after her. "Is it because you realized you'll never live in a house as nice as this one? Of course, this would be the perfect place for you and Snape if you ever got married—and if you could afford it, which I doubt…"
Why don't you just shut the bloody hell up, Malfoy? Vesperra thought savagely. As she did, her hand shot to her sleeve and pulled out her wand at once, and she started to turn around, but she couldn't swivel on her heel like she was used to because of the angle of the slope, and had to be careful not to lose her balance.
It was because of this, and likely also because Malfoy had already had his wand out, that Vesperra was hardly able to say "Lang—!" before he had his own wand on her and, looking very frightened, was saying "Expelliarmus!"
Her wand flew out of her hand and Vesperra was thrown back a few feet, horribly reminded of what had happened with Quirrell years before, with him silencing her, then using the Cruciatus Curse, and all that pain… and then having the Full Body-Bind on her for what seemed like forever until Severus had found her and she had broken down, crying, and then he had carried her to the Hospital Wing… And she was sure Malfoy wouldn't use anything as serious as the Cruciatus Curse, since he couldn't have known how, but she was suddenly robbed of breath, and it was in a far different way from what Severus's kiss had done to her. Vesperra was scared, because Malfoy had the upper hand; he had a wand, and she did not. She wasn't even standing—she was half on her side and half on her arse, holding onto a rock to keep from rolling down the hill, waiting with dread to see what he would do and not letting her face show just how afraid she was. Whatever Malfoy did, Severus couldn't come save her this time.
"Leave it to Grease-perra to take her wand with her wherever she goes," sneered Malfoy, glancing at Vesperra's wand, which had rolled a ways down the hill and was only kept from rolling further by a tuffet of grass. "Good thing I decided to bring mine, or else I might be dead…. Well, not this time, Grease-perra." He looked as though he was about to raise his wand again and hex her, but then something in his malicious look in his pale gray eyes changed—to fear?—and it seemed that seeing Vesperra in a helpless state was enough for him as he let his wand arm stay at his side and started walking.
"Come on—Crabbe, Goyle." he said, folding his arms. "Have fun, Grease-perra…."
As relieved as she was, Vesperra couldn't help but mutter "Coward" under her breath when Malfoy was too far down the hill to hear her. Smart of him, though... He knows if he did anything worse I'd get revenge, even worse than I did last time… She waited until Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle disappeared into High Street to pull herself to a standing position and find her wand, and she immediately felt safer when she held it again. She felt so vulnerable anytime she was apart from her wand….
Scowling, she slid her wand into her sleeve, and wiped all the dirt, which was nearly wet enough to be mud because of the weather lately, off her robes. At least it hadn't rained in a few days, and it wasn't wet today, or else she would have been covered in mud. Vesperra was in a rather foul mood now, and her stubbornness made her want to go straight back to Hogwarts, because she didn't even want to see if the rest of Hogsmeade could get her mind off Malfoy. But that only lasted until she made it to the bottom of the hill, because being on level ground with all the shops on High Street that she hadn't yet seen the inside of restored her rational thinking.
She just couldn't leave now… no, she was just being stubborn, of course she wasn't going to leave. Malfoy hadn't done anything but disarm her, that wasn't worth missing out on all this….
Still disgruntled, however, she sighed and walked into High Street rather than down the trail leading back to Hogwarts, deciding simply to avoid Malfoy for the next few hours.
Most of that was just the goings on at Hogwarts during October... But I hope you liked it. And yay, Hogsmeade! I'd really love to go to Hogsmeade, so you can expect me to go into a lot of detail for the rest of it in the next chapter.
In the meantime, please review! ^_^