A.N.: I'm writing all of the things I thought of that I couldn't weave in any other way. Snapshots of life? Snapeshots? Either way, enjoy!
The library was silent, save for the ghosts that occasionally drifted through. Hazel was completely alone, but she was fine with it. The Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match had been that afternoon, and most of the school was off celebrating or trying to drown out their defeat. Though she had been invited to the Slytherin party, she'd declined. There was a History of Magic paper due soon, and she'd locked herself away in the library to finish it. Bathed in the light of the full moon, she kept a careful eye on the candle that was burning down in front of her. Madam Pince had bade her a good night hours before, leaving her the only person still working. Part of her wondered where Severus was, but she assumed he'd gone to the Slytherin party. It was his friends who had won, after all. A small, nagging voice in the back of her mind still wondered if everything was alright.
A door swung open, hurried footsteps racing towards her. Drawing her wand as a precaution, she lowered it as soon as she saw him. Snape was covered in dirt, sweat, and a bit of blood. He was practically shaking in terror as he stood there, Hazel gaping at the sight before her. "What happened to you? Sev, what the hell? Where have you been?" She jumped out of her seat, staring in disbelief. "What did they do?"
"Lupin is a werewolf," he managed, tripping over his words as Hazel looked him over. "I very nearly - James Potter… I'm going to kill Black… I… the Whomping Willow and the Shrieking Shack -"
"Sev, deep breath. Here, hold on." She waved her wand over him, removing the dirt and cleaning up the scratches he'd gotten from the Whomping Willow. She'd never seen him that rattled before, even when James and Sirius had done real damage.
He numbly reached out for a hug, Hazel not letting him go as he talked. "Black told me… I followed them down there. The Willow was planted to cover it all up. Lupin's a werewolf, and he transforms in the Shrieking Shack every month. He would've killed me or turned me if Potter hadn't pulled me back. I hate that I owe him, I… thank you," he breathed, stepping back when he realized how long he had been holding onto her in an attempt to keep himself from trembling. "You already knew. You and Remus… you knew."
Forced to admit he was right, Hazel nodded. "I've been their lookout a few times when they were coming back in the mornings. I never would've let you go down there if I had known you were planning on it. I'm so sorry, Sev. Professor!"
Snape wheeled around to see who she was addressing. Dumbledore had materialized behind them, intent on finding the young man. "Good evening. Severus, if you would please come with me." He and Hazel exchanged a glance, Dumbledore assuring him that he wasn't in trouble. "Miss Ashmore, I will continue to pretend that I do not know about this young man spending time in Ravenclaw Tower. If you would like to talk to him about tonight's events there, I would not blame you at all. He could do with a cup of tea and a nice, warm fire in, shall we say twenty minutes?"
Taking the hint, Hazel began to pack up her things, telling Sev that she would see him soon. He looked back at her once more, trailing behind Dumbledore and wondering what the Headmaster had in mind.
The lightning storm had been building all day. Sev and Hazel were out by the lake when it hit, a torrential downpour springing up and soaking them in an instant. They grabbed their books, racing into the castle and franticly trying to dry their books off before they worried about their robes. Both of them were freezing, agreeing to go back to their houses to change before meeting up in Astronomy Tower.
Normally they would have just picked a common room to work in, but Snape had been working on something for the last month or so, an ancient and complex form of magic that he needed a lightning storm to complete. So Hazel met him at the top of the tower as soon as she had changed and fully dried off. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"I need your help," he told her. "I wouldn't trust anyone else to be here."
"If you're sure, Sev." She kept her distance as he downed the blood-red liquid he had closely guarded for a while now. He'd been working on the potion for over a month, going through the incantation that accompanied it every morning and evening without fail.
Doubling over in pain, he dropped the vial. As glass shattered all over the floor, Hazel raced to his side. "I'm fine," he grunted as she reached out for him. "If Potter and Black can do this, so can I." They had spent months in the library researching. Both of them knew what was happening, but it didn't make it any less frightening. Or any less painful. "Hazel I'm fine. Agh!"
"Are you sure you don't want me to get Professor Dumbledore? Or Madam Pomfrey?"
"I'm fine," he Insisted, gritting his teeth as he tried to ignore the deafening double heartbeat that rang in his ears. It was a sign that the transformation was going well, but it felt like his eardrums were splitting in half too. He felt like he was suffocating, the air knocked from his lungs. All he could do was focus on her and try to breathe.
They locked eyes as he began to shrink, his dark cloak turning into dark wings. Dark hair transformed into dark fur, his nose flattening and his voice turning into a sharp squeak. For a fraction of a second, both of them were afraid that he would be stuck in half-human-half-animal form. But soon a rather large bat hovered in the air next to her. His dark eyes hadn't changed, both of them staring at each other in awe. The bat looked down at itself, nearly careening into the wall in shock. "Merlin's beard, Sev, you did it!" Hazel smiled, watching him slowly stabilize and fly around Astronomy Tower.
When he felt decently bold, he flew out over the open field that lay below the tower, returning quickly, clearly frightened. Hazel watched him closely, glad that the complex magic had actually worked.
Eventually he flew back over to her, transforming back to his normal self and immediately falling on the ground. He stood, dusting himself off and looking himself over. "I don't have bat ears, do I?" he smiled as Hazel engulfed him in a hug.
"That was fantastic. Bloody brilliant," she laughed, nearly spinning him around. "Sev, that was incredible."
"I've got to work on my landing." He couldn't help but to laugh, the culmination of over a month's work finally upon them. "Now that we know this works, I can brew more for you, if you want."
Astronomy Tower had been abandoned all summer, but Severus and Hazel took up their old study spot as soon as classes resumed. Sixth year gave them freedom from their O.W.L.s, but both of them were going for a lot of N.E.W.T.s the next year, so they couldn't fall behind in the slightest. It was a warm evening, summer barely turning into fall, when Hazel was taken aback by the man in a robe, a silver mask over his face, closely watching her as she walked in. Her heart in her throat, she scrambled for her wand. "Who are you? Sev? Sev!"
Severus stepped out of the shadows, telling her it was fine. "It's a boggart. Here." He moved in front of her, the Death Eater turning into a whisp of smoke before re-forming into the biggest werewolf she had ever seen. To be fair, she had only ever seen one. "Riddikulus." The wolf shrank into a puppy, which barked once before disappearing. "It got in here over summer. They do that sometimes, like how you get cobwebs in places you haven't cleaned in a while."
"And your biggest fear - I should've known." It hadn't been that long ago when he had nearly been mauled by a werewolf, James Potter pulling him back just in time to keep him from going into the Shrieking Shack and facing off with a wolf.
As she set her books down, Snape watched her carefully. "And yours - it's not the Death Eaters, Is it? It's what they stand for."
"They burned down my great aunt's town over summer. I... so many of our friends want to fight. So many of them are fighting. I don't want any of them to be next." she made no mention of what she had seen off in the corner of the tower, the broken body of one of her best friends lying behind the Death Eater that had been advancing on her. He had seen it too, his own body lying dead in the shadows. But he wasn't going to say a word.
Hazel her summer traveling, partly because she was tasked with checking on the remote family that had dropped out of contact in an effort to avoid the war and party because she had nowhere to call home anymore. The Death Eaters had destroyed her immediate family when they found out that they had been hiding Muggleborns in their home. Luckily she had been away, but there was nothing she would have been able to do. So this summer was spent between family and friends' homes.
She had just left Molly Prewett's when she realized that Cokeworth was just an hour's train ride away. So she sent her owl ahead, hopping onto the earliest train she could catch. Within an hour, she was there.
Sev met her at the train station, telling her that his mum was ill but she wouldn't mind if Hazel stopped in to say hello. Eileen had been diagnosed with cancer a year before, and no matter what magic they cooked up, nothing was working. The two of them crept into the house quietly, Severus clearly uncomfortable and embarrassed. "Sorry it's not... better."
"It's a nice place, Sev," she offered comfortingly, petting the owl that had perched near the front door. "Very cozy. Besides, you've been busy with your mum."
As if on cue, a rail-thin woman appeared, coming from the kitchen with a cup of tea. She was nearly transparent. Even the slightest gust of wind would blow her away. "Severus, is this her?"
"I'm Hazel," she smiled, extending her hand. Even Eileen's bones felt frail in her grip.
"Nice to meet you, dear," Eileen coughed. "You'll have to excuse me. I need to rest." Hazel waited patiently with her owl as Sev helped his mum up the stairs. Though he was only gone for a few minutes, he apologized profusely when he returned.
"Mum's - today is a good day. I'm glad you saw her on a good day. Do you want some tea or something? We don't have a lot, but we tried growing our own. Sorry you had to see her like that. She was a lot better last year."
"Tea sounds good." Hazel followed him into a small kitchen, leaning against the counter as he worked. "You don't have to apologize for everything, Sev. You couldn't help any of this."
He gave her a weary smile as he handed over a chipped mug. "Thanks." The two of them moved to sit on the front stoop so they could talk without waking his mother. Almost as soon as they sat down, Sev had a question for her. "Can I tell you something?"
"Of course."
He stared out into the churning water of the river that ran along Spinner's End. "I don't think she's going to make it past Christmas." It was the first time he had said the words out loud, though he'd been dwelling on them a lot as of late. "She didn't have a lot of time after Dad died to recover from that before she found out she was sick. Nothing's working, not even magic. So it really doesn't matter that we can't afford the Muggle stuff. Either way, I don't think she's going to make it."
"I'm sorry, Sev." She reached out and squeezed his hand. "I know she hasn't always been the best mum, but it's never... Loss is hard." She too stared out into the water. Both of them were silent for a while. Sev had been by her side at the funerals and helped her sort everything out. Neither of them knew much, but Sev had helped his mum handle everything after his dad's death, so he was some help. Though her extended family stepped in to help, it was still a comfort to have him there.
"Did you ever find out who did it?"
It was nearly impossible to hunt down the exact Death Eaters who killed her parents. Both of them knew it, but they refused to admit it to themselves. "No. I'm hoping the Auror Office will give me some answers," she confided, finally looking at him again. "Assuming I pass my N.E.W.T.s. Have you sorted everything out yet?"
"Potioneering is interesting. I'd be good at it," he mused. "But the Dark Arts... What a job that would be."
"You could join me in the Auror Office," Hazel mused.
"No thanks. I think that's more of a you thing."
The two of them sat there talking for hours, watching the people of Cokeworth go about their days, some of them heading home from work and others heading out. When the sun started to set, they got up and went back inside. Though the pantry was sparse, she and Sev still managed to whip up something for dinner. Eventually realizing there was no way she would catch a train that late - not that he would have let her wait in the train station late at night on her own, especially in the middle of a wizarding war - Sev scrounged up a couple of pillows and blankets so she could camp out on the sofa.
It had been a difficult and confusing last year. From her parents and the friends she had started to lose to the war, to the impending exams that would determine if she became an Auror or not, to the normal chaos of the beginning of the school year, Hazel had a lot on her mind. As she rolled over on the sofa, she smiled to herself, grateful that she had people like Severus in her life.
