Chapter Seven – Ominous

Severus had not been expecting the owl from Cecily. They had agreed they had both been extremely busy lately and would have to meet up for tea at a later date, so her telling him she missed him had come as a surprise. He couldn't recall someone ever having said those words to him before – not even Lily back in school. He shook himself out of his thoughts, and focused on the task at hand.

Dear Cecily,

I am glad to hear you are doing well regarding your magical studies and meeting other witches and wizards. I can understand why you feel lonely, as you put it, but as I keep telling you - with study and practice you will catch up.

I am free Wednesday afternoon at three. I will come to pick you up if you are agreeable and can get the time off of work, although I am sure they will be lost without you. I'll be glad to help you pick out adequate potion ingredients, although it escapes me how you can have gotten through the cuttings I sent to you already. Clearly you are an even bigger fan of brewing than you let on.

Severus furrowed his brow. He wasn't actually eager to help her with picking out ingredients. He generally tried to avoid being seen in the busy streets of Diagon Alley, usually using a cloaking charm and moving quickly to get what he needed and then get out again. It didn't do for people to recognise him; the reaction would always go one of two ways. Either a snide remark, implying he was a traitor all along or they didn't buy his redemption of role as a spy one bit, or worse – over-the-top gratefulness and praise. It was the reason why he never ventured to the Leaky Cauldron and preferred the Thestral's Wings. The local patronages of Knockturn Alley's pub were far less likely to bother him and mind their own business, other than Branderly of course who seemed to take great joy in winding Severus up. He assumed an afternoon in the middle of the week would be when he would least likely be cornered, although it might be an inconvenience to Cecily.

For tea, may I suggest a muggle café? They are usually much quieter so we will be able to go over your notes in relative peace. I am familiar with a fairly pleasant place not too far from the Leaky Cauldron.

I'll be awaiting your confirmation.

Severus

…

It was five minutes to three, and Cecily was running around her flat like a headless chicken. She had managed to get the afternoon off, but had started adding some finishing touches to Severus' painting and had lost track of time. She was fed up with the tempus spell at this point – nothing beat a muggle clock and one of which would have stopped this situation arising. She wanted to make at least some effort for meeting up with Severus, especially since the last time she saw him she had the majority of a small bush in her hair and then proceeded to throw up in front of him.

She used the Weasleys' Everlasting Eyelashes, and braided her hair into two French plaits. She would have liked to do more but she just didn't have any time. With a cry of frustration she rummaged through her clothes. It was cold today, so she pulled on some thick corduroy trousers and tucked a t-shirt into it, before yanking on a black cardigan and her windbreaker jacket. She looked in the mirror in the bathroom. Once her cheeks had calmed down from her frantic rushing about, she would look alright. She brushed her teeth as quickly as she could before grabbing her tote bag, just as someone knocked at the door. Just in the nick of time, she thought, heading to open it, before hesitating. She realised that the painting was on full display in the front room.

She opened the door a fraction, just enough for her to slip through.

"Hi!" she puffed, pulling the door to behind her.

Severus raised an eyebrow, but didn't seem particularly suspicious, thankfully. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah! I just got distracted so I had to dash around a bit. Shall we go?"

He nodded and they walked down the stairs, through the alleyway and into the streets.

"It's busier than I had anticipated."

"I suppose everyone's starting on their Christmas shopping." Cecily replied. Severus peered down at her inscrutably as they walked. He hadn't thought about the festive season or if Cecily would expect a gift from him. He wasn't really a gift-giving person, as a general rule, and he hadn't been one to receive many presents of the years either.

"Have you got much gift-shopping left to do?" He tested.

"Oh, not really. I don't have much spare cash at the moment, so I'm trying to make most of my presents this year." She brushed off with a shrug.

Severus frowned. That hadn't shed any light on the issue at all. He had no idea what sort of gift she would like to receive, or if she even wanted anything from him. He would have to give it some thought later on.

They headed to the apothecary that Hogwarts students usually got their supplies from. Since specific ingredients were in such high demand due to the never-changing syllabus, they were often grown in bulk and therefore a little cheaper than the competition. He scoffed at her choice of lacewing flies, and reached over her to push the bottles at the front of the shelf to the side and pulled a bottle from the back. Cecily reluctantly admitted they did look a fair bit fresher. She only picked out a few other ingredients before she went to pay.

"I thought you were nearly out of ingredients?" Severus questioned as they left the shop.

Cecily went a little pink. "I didn't say how many I was nearly out of." She mumbled, avoiding his gaze. Severus smirked a little. She was definitely hiding something, and doing a terrible job to boot.

"Is that so." He drawled non-committedly, trying not to show his amusement. He was about to pry further, but a flash in the corner of his eye distracted him. He glared into an alleyway a little ways off where he thought the light had come from, but couldn't see anything. The streets were busy and he was very aware that himself and Cecily stood out like a sore thumb – him for his past role in the War that was now very well known about thanks to Potter insisting he was some kind of hero, and Cecily for her incredibly obvious muggle garb riddled with paint splatters that could quite easily be magicked away if she knew how.

"You okay?" Cecily was staring at him now, he realised he must looked concerned suddenly.

He smiled down at her as reassuringly as he could. "Fine, let's go-" just as he looked away, there was another flash. He seriously considered marching over to the offending spot to find out what exactly was going on, but there were too many people about, so he settled on pulling Cecily by the crook in her elbow and marching them to the Leaky Cauldron where they could enter muggle London.

"What was that all about?" Cecily grumbled as they approached the café Severus had mentioned.

"Too crowded." Severus avoided, sitting at a small table in the far back corner of the room. "Let's order, then we can take a look at your progress."

They got a pot of tea to share, and went over Cecily's notes after he cast a quick muffliato. To his surprise she had managed to make her way through most of the beginner recommended potions and had committed most to memory, and had even started on the next few years' worth, although in not the recommended order. Her spell work was improving, but oddly much slower than he would have thought. This perplexed him a little; she was putting the work in - that much was clear from her notes. She would write how the spell had gone, what she thought she did wrong, different hand and wrist movements. She would eventually be able to cast the spell to some degree, but it was very rarely completely successful and in her words, spluttered out of the end of her wand.

He was about to tell her all this, but when he looked up he saw Cecily biting her lip and wringing her hands around her teacup. He remembered she had told him she was embarrassed about her perceived lack of ability, so instead he smiled gently and nodded at her in approval.

"You're working very hard, and have learned a great deal already. Your strengths definitely lie in potions so far, obviously I am quite pleased with that. Once you're ready, you can pick up some elective subjects if you wish."

"I don't think I'll ever be ready." Cecily cringed a little. "Don't patronise me Severus. I know I'm slower than I should be. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong; I know you said it was a confidence thing and that helped a bit but I still can't get the hang of it."

"I'm not patronising you." Severus snapped before he could stop himself.

Cecily winced a little. "I know. I'm sorry. It's just so frustrating; when I found out I was a witch I didn't realise I wouldn't be able to do anything properly."

"It's normal to have strengths and weaknesses. Potions may not be as flashy or exciting as waving your wand about, but it's as valid as the other subjects. You may find some of the electives come more naturally to you as well. Don't write it all off yet."

"Don't get me wrong, I like potions. But potions on its own won't help me pass the exams, if I ever get to take them at this rate."

"You're putting too much pressure on yourself. Remember that Hogwarts students have five years before they take their OWLs. You're expected to take them a little sooner since you're older, but ultimately you choose when you want to apply for the exam slot at the ministry. There's no time limit."

Severus was doing his best to convince her, but truthfully he was confused too. Of course, her lack of teachers and the structure of dedicated classes couldn't be helping her predicament, but there wasn't a real reason he could think of that would hinder her progress so much. She should at least be flying through the set spell list for first years. If she was struggling with potions too then he would be able to come to the conclusion that she just wasn't very academic in the context of magic, but she was handling that easily enough – in fact, faster than he would have expected. She wasn't lazy; she put the work in and practiced enough. There was something else going on, he mulled, as he sipped at his tea.

…

After they had said goodbye, Severus apparated back to his cottage and made a beeline straight for the library. There had to be some information on Cecily's issue somewhere and his small selection would be a good start. It wasn't the most extension selection of volumes, but all the books were hand-picked and collected by him over the years and only the most informative and accurate tomes made their way onto his shelves. He couldn't quite place his finger on why he was so bothered, in all honesty, but something was nagging on him, something was telling him this was important.

Unfortunately, after several hours he had to admit defeat. He couldn't find anything that would answer his questions, and this was after several seeking spells for keywords, as well as manually rifling through countless books. He would have to look elsewhere.

Making his mind up, he headed to the fireplace and grabbed some floo powder.

"Malfoy Manor." The flames engulfed him, licking at his legs in a burst of green fire and smoke. An slight pull on his navel, and then he had arrived. Lucius was lounging in one of the ridiculous plush armchairs before the fireplace, reading. When Severus spilled out of the grate, he raised an eyebrow. After the War, he had secluded himself in the manor, choosing as quiet a life as possible. Strangely, he looked slightly dishevelled, and like he hadn't slept in a while, despite not doing much other than reading, dining, and lying about as far as Severus knew. He long platinum hair was pulled back in its usual low ponytail, but it lacked its former shine, and he had dark shadows under his eyes, and his mouth was frozen in a pinched expression.

"Severus." He smiled coolly. "How unexpected."

"Lucius." Severus nodded. Despite the Malfoys' pureblood ideals, Lucius had defected from the Dark Lord years before he was finally vanquished, so the two wizards still held a kind of truce. Severus' hand in helping to end the War had earned him some respect in Lucius' eyes, although there wasn't a huge degree of warmth there. "Forgive my intrusion, but I would make use of your library, if you don't mind."

"Of course," Lucius stood up and led him upstairs. The Malfoy library was huge; it took up nearly an entire floor of the manor. The walls were covered floor to ceiling in bookshelves, ladders on wheels leaning precariously against them. There was a maze of freestanding bookshelves throughout the free space between the walls, and despite the sheer mass of books, every nook and cranny was dust free. There was definitely something to be said about the duty and care house elves took when cleaning.

"What in particular are you after?" Lucius asked as the made their way through the room.

"I'm not certain. Anything you have that mentions magical development, or lack thereof."

Lucius glanced at Severus, and paled a little. "Is that so." He flicked his wand, and a dozen books jumped off their shelves in unison, and floated in formation down to them, hovering obediently in a line. "These should be the most helpful. If they're not what you're after let me know, feel free to take them home with you to peruse at your leisure."

"My thanks, Lucius." Severus gathered the books and made his way back to the fireplace, Lucius following behind. He made to throw the powder in the grate, but just before he did, he caught Lucius' eye. Only because Severus knew him did he recognise something in his expression. It was fear.

"Something is coming Severus. I can't say what yet, but be careful." He whispered, just as the flames whirled Severus away.