AN: The eighties flashback, a la 'Friends', is something I've wanted to do for a long time (hope you enjoy)
Chapter 53 - "We hear the playback and it seems so long ago."
"Circe, are you doing that bloody stupid trick again?" Severus asked with a scowl. "When you think that if you keep a song in your head, you'll block me from reading your thoughts?"
"No! I swear I'm not doing it on purpose..." She responded, seizing on the opportunity to have a brief break from her Occlumency lesson. She reached for her glass of water, downing it in one as Severus waited for her to rehydrate. They'd been going at practising her Occlumency skills for most of the afternoon by this point, and Circe was looking rather sweat-drenched and bedraggled from their efforts.
"Then what is happening in there?" Snape asked as he pointed at her temple with the tip of his wand.
"I don't know…I suppose it was Tonks talking the other day about school and such. It's been on my mind."
"Well, you need to focus! Especially when you have issues on your mind. They sit at the top of your brain, it's easier for a Legilimancer to pluck it out!" Severus explained, waving his hand about in the air and miming how he might draw out a memory from the forefront of her consciousness, like a grabbing claw machine at the seaside. "God, I can practically smell the Electric Youth when I'm inside your head…"
"I never wore Electric Youth in the eighties. That was Myron…"
"You seem to be steadily improving. I can't hear much else of the memory past the sound of that music, apart from your voice. You sound so young… It's unmistakably you, but as if your voice had been put on double speed…" Severus couldn't help but titter.
"It was nineteen eighty-one, Sev! I was fifteen. Everyone sounded like that!"
Severus looked up sharply from his desk, back to Circe's shiny face. "Nineteen eighty one?" he asked in a noticeably different tone.
"Yeah, could you not tell by the song that's stuck in my head?" she replied with a smile. "It was what we were listening to, in the courtyard by the Staff Room, when we heard the news…"
"The news?" Severus echoed her.
"I'm getting better at this! I can push you out of my head before you hear the announcement on the Wizarding Wireless Network then." Circe said optimistically.
Does she mean the news of nineteen eighty one? Severus wondered.
"When it was announced that Voldemort had been defeated and that he had killed-" She stopped dead as Severus's eyes took on that haunted, distant look. "Do you… want to see?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"My memory of that day. I'll let you in, I won't try to block you. I want to show you. I want you to know where I was on the day Harry defeated him. I want you to see what the war was like through my eyes..."
"Alright." Severus confirmed, nodding slowly.
"Just… don't laugh at my hair." Circe added quickly.
"Fine..." Severus muttered, rolling his eyes. "Are you ready?"
Circe nodded, leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes. She'd spent so long trying to fight off Severus's mind-probing, it took her a second to remember to relax, to let him in.
"Legillemens!" Snape cried….
"I heard you on my wireless back in '52
Lying awake, intent at tuning in on you
If I was young, it didn't stop you coming through…"
"Myron…! Myron!" A familiar, but startlingly more youthful voice, came through the darkness to Severus's ears.
The vision cleared before his eyes and he suddenly found himself in the Hogwarts corridors staring at a girl running towards him….
"Myron! Change the station! Put the news broadcast on!" The girl cried out again, waving a newspaper over her head and dodging around other students loitering in the hall. As she ran towards him, her mass of frizzy, tight curls bobbed up and down, making her appear like a big, brown cloud of hair.
"They took the credit for your second symphony
Rewritten by machine and new technology
And now I understand the problems you can see.."
Oh good Lord…! Severus thought to himself. That's Circe!
"He's been defeated! He's gone!" She cried out, not just to whoever she was running to, but to the expectant faces of the other students around her. All turned to look at her as she careened through the corridor, waving the paper above her, and she left them in fierce whispers when she ran on past them. Her blue Ravenclaw scarf fluttered behind her and Severus realised he'd never seen her in a uniform before… She was already her strikingly tall 5"9 at just fifteen years old, but parts of her body were still adolescent, not adult: her hips slimmer underneath her pleated school skirt, her breasts not quite fully developed beneath the grey Ravenclaw embellished jumper. He was looking at her caught somewhere between girl and woman.
"Oh-a oh-a
I met your children
Oh-a oh-a
What did you tell them?"
The young Circe ran past him and Severus could see the heavy blush and startling blue eyeshadow on her face as she passed by. Her face was an open-mouthed expression of pure excitement, still a little rounded and full from youth but she was still undeniably her. Her brilliant green eyes sparkled in the way they had always done, her full lips panting with anticipation. Severus followed her as she ran on into the grassy courtyard where a group of other Hogwarts students seemed to be lounging about together, gathered around an old Boombox.
"Is that today's Prophet, Cee?" A young male student asked eagerly, his hair spiked into four long tendrils in the punk style.
And there's Myron…. Severus thought, recognising the eccentric frontman having met him at the Quidditch World Cup a few years back. Circe flopped down into the grass beside him and pushed the paper into his lap. She began toying with the boombox as Myron frantically flustered with the paper, scanning his heavily black smudged eyes over the words.
"What is it, Cee? What does it say?" Another student in the group asked. A little, freckle faced girl with short cropped bubblegum-pink hair.
Tonks! Severus balked, not quite able to believe she had ever looked so sweet and innocent.
Circe fiddled with the various buttons on the boombox, causing the machine to scream and whine with the sound of static as she tried to find the right radio station.
"Myron, read it out!" Circe exclaimed, waving an exasperated hand at her friend as she carried on tinkering.
""The Boy Who Lived and the Dark Wizard Who Died"." He quoted the headline, pausing as his eyes widened and his mouth fell open with shock.
"Oh my God…" little Tonks breathed.
Around them, a crowd of other students had begun drawing nearer, eager for the news Circe had been spouting about on her heraldic charge down the Hogwarts corridors. Severus looked around their faces, recognising few amongst them. All of the students here had been in the years below him and thus he had paid them no mind during his time at school, but it somewhat amused him to look amongst the sea of crimped hair, shoulder-padded robes and high waisted trousers.
The radio blared into life, once again on the song Myron and his posse had been listening to before:
"Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
In my mind and in my car
We can't rewind, we've gone too far."
"Oh for fuck sake!" Circe hollered. She took out her wand and pointed it at the boombox. "Sonoruso WWN!"
Her spell made the boombox blare static, and the gathered cohorts covered their ears as the deafening noise echoed through the courtyard. Eventually, however, the static subsided away into human voices:
"... It has just been confirmed by the Ministry, folks. You Know Who is dead!"
The crowd of students erupted into elated shouts, turning to one another to embrace and cry with joy.
"Shhhh! Shut up, they're saying more!" Circe shouted over the noise.
"... The Potters of Godric's Hollow were found dead in their home yesterday evening. May they rest peacefully."
Severus felt his chest tighten with emotion and for a second, the memory of the days after Lily's death was too much for him to bear. Seeing those awful moments play out again, he in the depths of despair whilst the world celebrated, was excruciating.
"However their son, Harry, has become the subject of much speculation having been discovered still very much alive. Both James Potter and Lily Potter were confirmed to have been killed by use of the Killing Curse, so what does this mean? Did young Harry somehow survive the spell?! If so, he would be the first person in wizarding kind's history to have done so! At just one year old, the poor mite!
The Dark Lord and his followers have since scattered to the winds. Witnesses reported to The Prophet that they saw You-Know-Who enter the Potter's residence and after hearing several screams and shouts a bright green light flooded every window. When the light faded… well… Voldemort never came out of that house. But Harry. Little Harry has been marked with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
A short break now for the weather. But we will be back soon with an interview with the Minister for Magic, Millicent Bagnold. But the speech she gave this morning, in the Ministry atrium, was loud and clear: "Celebrate and be happy. For the Dark Lord is no more"."
The students in the courtyard once again overflowed with cries of delight and joy, running off in all directions to spread the good news all over the castle.
"Lily and James… they're both dead." Circe said mournfully when her and her friends were once again left alone.
"On your birthday too, Cee. That's gonna be a bit of a bummer for future parties."
"But Circe, how is this possible? How can anyone survive the Killing Curse?" Tonks asked her, looking up curiously into the puzzled face of her older friend.
But before she could muster a reply, Myron exclaimed suddenly, "Oh, shit…". His head still buried in the central pages of The Prophet.
"What is it, Myron?"
Myron lowered the newspaper down, revealing his pale, morbid face from over the crinkled paper.
"Cee, I'm sorry."
"Myron… What are you looking at?" She asked, a slight shake in her voice. "Tell me you're not on the Obituaries page…"
"It's The Mckinnons. They… they're dead, Circe."
"No… the war's over. You heard the radio." Circe stated. Severus could hear the pain and confusion tightening her throat to an almost croaky whisper.
"They were killed a few weeks ago, it says here."
"Marlene?" Circe asked, her eyes growing moist with tears.
"... and Michael." Myron added gravely.
"No…" Circe said, rising to her feet quickly and pacing about the courtyard. "No, that's not fair. Michael said he was going to talk to Dumbledore for me… tell him how much I wanted to fight… see if he could make a special exception to his "no under 17's" rule for The Order. I can't… I can't…"
"Circe…" Tonks said gently, rising to stand also and trying to place a steadying hand on Circe's arm.
"No, Tonks!" Circe screamed, lunging out of her grasp. "This fucking war can't be over before I've had a chance to fight in it! To fight for the people I love! Michael… Michael can't be dead, check it again…"
"Cee, we've all gotten quite good at picking out names we recognise from The Prophet's Obituaries. I know you had a massive crush on him, Circe..." Myron stated, his expression miserable, tears forming in his own eyes.
"Fuck off, Myron." Circe spat out, the tears creeping down her cheeks. Myron seemed unbothered by the insult, but Severus almost flinched with the venom of Circe's outburst. He couldn't recall a time when Circe had lashed out at others when she herself was upset… that reaction was more like his 'modus operandi'... "It must be wrong. It must be a misprint…If the Obituaries were written by that Skeeter woman, then she's notoriously unreliable-"
"It's the whole family, Cee. They're all in here. If every other McKinnon is dead, then-"
"This isn't fair… This isn't fair…" Circe repeated again, running a fretful hand through her huge frizzy hair.
"You-Know-Who's dead and gone, Cee. Everything Michael fought for has happened. He died to make it happen." Myron stated solemnly. Both he and Tonks were crying openly with Circe now. "He'd… he'd want us to try and be happy."
Fireworks erupted in the sky above their heads. Obviously some of the students were spreading their jubilation of Voldemort's supposed death by casting the bright, loud display as an act of their mass celebration. But when Severus looked back down from the sky, to where Circe had once stood, he found she was gone. He looked around for her and saw her blue Ravenclaw scarf flutter away behind a wall and he chased after it. Severus followed Circe as she ran, able to hear her cries echoing off the same walls she'd been running down not moments ago, telling everyone of the "good" news. He had no clue where she was going, but he kept hot on her tail anyway, his heart aching with each painful wail she omitted. But as she rounded a corner, she collided with another person stood in the Hogwarts corridor. Severus was just able to stop himself from wrenching himself out of the memory with the pure shock of seeing what, or more accurately, who he saw…. Who Circe had run into on that day as she fled from her grief and sorrow. Who she had not even cast a second glance at before she'd carried on running through the halls to a place where she could continue sobbing privately. The other person had also barely given her a second glance before they too had swept on past the wailing schoolgirl.
That… that's me.
Severus watched himself, his younger self, march resolutely on down the corridor, unbothered by the tearful schoolgirl he'd just bumped into. He looked awful: Grief stricken, deathly pale, eyes flaming, bloodshot red… And Severus knew from his own memories that he had felt every inch as awful as he appeared on that day back in 1981. He looked at once grey-faced and flushed red. Possibly from having just screamed out his rage and bitter sadness at Dumbledore, who he'd been to see earlier that day to inform him of Lily's death. He'd been inconsolable. The first day of life he'd ever faced knowing that Lily no longer inhabited the world. The worst day of his life.
The memory came to an abrupt end as darkness bled into everything around him. After a moment of spinning in the blackness, Severus found himself standing back in his Potions classroom, in the present day, in front of Circe.
"Shit, that was you." Circe breathed out into the heavy silence, trying to catch her breath. "Well, look at that Sev. We did meet when we were in school after all…"
"I don't even remember…" he began, his voice trembling. "I met you on that day. On that day, of all days!"
"The cruel hand of fate…" Circe mumbled. She looked long and hard into Severus's face, waiting for him to say something, to voice anything that was swirling around inside his mind. She had known full well that Severus's reaction to that memory would be visceral. It had, after all, been the day that the world had learnt of Lily's death. Of her son's survival. But she had wanted him to see that moment in time through her perspective. To have known where she was at that moment. To understand that she too had pain attached to that day…
"So… Michael." Severus began after a long moment's silence. "Who was he?"
"I think his sister Marlene was in your year." she offered helpfully. Severus nodded, remembering the Mckinnon girl who he'd often seen hanging about with the Marauders during his time in school. "Michael was her younger brother."
"Yes I gathered that…" Severus said rather hotly. He could feel the old stirrings of jealousy in his stomach once more, knowing Michael had been someone rather special in Circe's life.
"He was part of our little group. Sorted into Hufflepuff, unlike his sister. He was a wonderfully kind boy. Tall, blonde, broad shouldered… And funny too. He could make me laugh just by looking at me funny…" Circe trailed off into chuckles as a whole cohort of pleasant memories stirred behind her eyes. "I think he was about two years above us. Left Hogwarts to fight in the war not six months before the memory you just saw…"
"And you were sweet on him." Severus stated flatly.
Circe nodded honestly . "After that whole business with Gilderoy… and the rumours that spread about me and him… It almost ruined my time at Hogwarts, Sev. I couldn't walk down a corridor or into the Great Hall without someone snickering or pointing at me. And as far as the Duelling Club went… well, no one would touch me with a barge pole, just in case they stood on Gilderoy's toes, you know?" Circe cringed.
"Wanted to avoid getting pulled into another "wand fight"?" Severus asked with a cheekily raised brow.
"Well… that was the problem. No one would fight with me. I was desperate to up my skill so I could join The Order. And, one day, when I'd been crying to Myron and Tonks in the courtyard outside the Staff Room, Michael was there. He was one of the Hufflepuff prefects and he was after Tonks… she'd transformed herself into Sprout and changed all of the passwords to get in and out of the dormitory! And he'd just arrived to give her a telling-off when he saw me in tears. I'd seen him before in the Duelling Club, he was good, one of the best in the school, but we'd never really spoken to one another… and I told him everything. Everything that Gilderoy had said and done… how everyone at Hogwarts was looking at me...And even the Duelling Club, the thing I loved most of all...even that was becoming something that I hated. So he just handed me a tissue, nodded slowly, and left.
But the next time the Duelling Club met, he made a point of approaching me and asking me publicly to duel. God, I could have thrown my arms around him in that moment. But everyone was watching… everyone was looking. No more snickers, no more rumours. This was Michael Mckinnon, one of the best duellers in the club, asking to fight me. The girl who'd shagged Gilderoy Lockhart…"
"I see. So he rescued your reputation and pulled you out of the firing line of the gossipers." Snape stated, nodding slowly.
"It was more than that, Severus. He completely turned around how people treated me. I enjoyed being at Hogwarts again. I enjoyed Duelling again. And it was all thanks to him."
"So… did anything-"
"No. He was a few years older than me, Sev. A golden-haired Mckinnon. Way out of my league."
Severus frowned to himself. There was a time when I considered you out of my league… he mused.
"But I suppose it was obvious to Myron and Tonks whenever we'd all hang out together that I had a "thing" for him." Circe continued.
"But you would have followed him into The Order." Severus said, his tone curious and probing.
"Sev, I probably would have followed him into the pits of Hell if he'd let me." Circe said matter-of-factly. She noticed how Severus almost winced as he realised the depths of how deep her "crush" had gone for Michael. Yet, he'd seen just how distraught she'd been when she'd heard of his death…
"But the way he spoke to me. The way he treated me. It was the first time a boy had shown me real, proper respect. Not just seen me as an object to garner experience or kudos from. He went out of his way to ensure that I felt comfortable at Hogwarts again. He made this place feel like home again. And then he died…"
"I am sorry." Severus spoke in hushed tones.
"I know it's not equivalent to your mourning for Lily…"
"Hurt is hurt." He stated. "And you remember what I once told you about being hurt young?"
"That it always feels deeper and more intense, because it's the first time you've ever felt emotions on that level." She looked vacantly into the distance, recalling that horrible day of mourning whilst the world celebrated. "I don't even know if he felt the same way about me. Probably not, considering I was still an annoying little schoolgirl...pestering him to try and get me into The Order, when he was the one really out there fighting and protecting us all..."
"I mean… I saw the hairstyle you were sporting back then." Severus muttered as a small smile crept across his face. "The poor man would have had to wade through that curtain of frizz to just have been able to see your face…"
"That was the style, Sev!"
He approached her slowly and tucked one of her curls behind her ear.
"Much better." He stated with a longing glance that seemed to penetrate deep into her psyche. "If he had been able to see your face…" he stated teasingly. "He would clearly have been able to see how utterly, breathtakingly beautiful you are."
"Who was it that did kill the Mckinnons, Sev?" Circe asked suddenly. "Which one of our new, lovely colleagues?" She asked sardonically through clenched teeth.
"Circe, if I tell you… you might compromise our mission. If you're seen to be behaving differently towards him at the conclaves-"
"So it wasn't Bella. Was it Macnair?"
"No."
"Rodolphus or Rabastan?"
"No. Circe-" Severus sighed exasperatedly.
"Come on, Severus. If you didn't know who'd killed Lily, you'd want to find out so you could avenge her in some way, wouldn't you? I want to do the same for Michael. Not today, or tomorrow. But someday. One day, maybe I can get them back for taking my friend… For all my friends "
Severus sighed heavily, taking her hand in his. She had that look in her eye of dogged determination and he knew that this was an issue that she wasn't going to let go of. And she was, of course, right; if the person who had killed Lily had been anyone other than Voldemort himself, he'd hide his time just long enough to gain their trust and then stab them in the back.
"I believe that mission was Lucius's."
Circe kept reading and rereading her Dad's letter as she walked down to Hogsmeade, her heart thumping in her ears with mounting panic. It had obviously been written quickly, Matthew's handwriting was messy and scribbled, not the normal careful cursive she was used to receiving from him. And it had been written on the back of an old Airfix model instruction manual…
"Circe,
Please write back ASAP. We're getting worried about you. Haven't seen/heard from you for going on six months now.
Weird things happening here. Odd woman with black teeth and crazy eyes seen at the end of our street a few times. One of your lot? Sue and Tony next door said she was asking after you, trying to find out where you lived. Sue told her that there was no one here called "Circe" and apparently she called her a "filthy muddle (sp?)".
Is everything alright? Are you in trouble?
Love Dad"
Her chest ached as her eyes scanmed over her Dad's questions of love and concern again. She had come outside for a bit of fresh air, to think and clear her head. But the conclusions she was coming to did little to calm her and unsettled her even more so as she marched through the winters landscape.
Bellatrix. Why is she snooping around my home street? Is she after my Dad for leverage against me? To root me out as a half-blood? God I must have made her more jealous than I originally thought…
Whatever Bellatrix's motives were, one thing was becoming clear: Dad, Jane, Alec and Tom were all in danger because of her.
She had hoped that keeping her distance from them all would have been enough to throw anyone off her scent should they choose to go looking for someone or something to use against her. But it seemed Bellatrix Leatrange had a rather nasty grudge against her. The Dark Lord had shown Circe favour and her scorn publicly in front of all of the other Death Eaters at the last conclave. She should have expected repercussions to have come from that night.
But what do I do now? I could try and hide them all like Karkaroff did. But he still wound up dead. And his wife and child are still in hiding, still frightened for their lives even after Igor sacrificed himself for them. Dad's already suffered enough grief because of his entanglement with magic folk. If he had to go into a life of hiding because of my spying…
I don't think I could bear to see him grow to resent me... like he did before…
Circe's emotions were running close to the surface that day, and she hastily wiped away a tear from her face as she strode onwards into Hogsmeade. She wanted chocolate. Lots of it. Having been craving it like mad recently. Severus's Occlumency lessons had left her drained and short-tempered, but her efforts were starting to produce good results, but making her a tad erratic and quick to anger. She strode into Honeydukes and swept a whole shelf of chocolate frogs into her basket. The cashier looked up at her a little warily as he tallied up just how many she was planning to buy, but Circe gave him no mind, concentrating on counting out her galleons.
"Um… you know you've got twenty three here?" The young, spotty boy asked cautiously. Circe glared at him sharply and the young boy shrank back from her stare with a small whimper.
"Just that time of the month." She muttered, packing them all away into her wicker basket as the poor kid coloured bright red from embarrassment. The cashier handed her change to her with a trembling fist and Circe strode from the shop with a deep scowl on her face.
Once she was out of Honeydukes she was at a loss for where to go next. She didn't want to go back to Hogwarts yet. Severus was busy teaching and Dumbledore was still shutting himself away from the rest of the school. If she ran into Umbridge, after the scene she'd caused yesterday, then Circe wasn't sure she'd be able to hold her tongue.
Poor Sibyl. Circe thought, tearing open one chocolate frog as she began meandering. Dolores had arranged to have all her belongings dumped in the clock tower courtyard in front of the whole cohort of staff and students. Circe had watched on bated breath as Minerva had strode in to her assistance, praying to anyone that would listen that Mcgonagall didn't blow her top at Umbridge and get the sack too. Dumbledore had stepped in at what had seemed like the last minute, only when Trelawney's safety was at risk.
If Sibyl leaves the protection of Hogwarts, she'll be Voldemort's prisoner the next day. Circe thought morosely. He'll torture the rest of the prophecy out of her without hesitation.
Circe pondered on Dumbledore's apparent laissez-faire attitude to his own Staff.
If he only stepped in when Sibyl was on the very verge of danger, then what help, if any, will he extend to my Dad and his family…?
Almost without realising, her eyes came to rest on a rather dilapidated looking little building right on the edge of the village. This was a part of Hogsmeade where none of the students came to. The streets were empty of all but her and there was little of interest on this side of the village. But the ancient building in front of her stood there in defiance of that fact nonetheless. It was a place she'd never been to before, yet she had always known it was there, but just… faded into the background somehow. She must have walked past it a dozen times, but until now had never given it so much as a second glance. The wood-beamed exterior looked grimy and rotted, the windows smeared with many years of dirt and smog. Circe's eyes travelled up to the sign hung above its door…
So, this is The Hog's Head. God no wonder I never wanted to set foot inside it before...
She tried to will herself inside, to see the scene of the crime where Severus had overheard The Prophecy on that night long ago. But something deep inside her was stopping her feet from moving. Almost as if she didn't want to bring to life the place of Severus's shame and regret. The place that had set in motion the terrible events which culminated in The Potters' deaths and Harry's strange and nebulous fate.
But Circe was suddenly brought back to the present day when an odd burning sensation began in her pocket. She frowned and delved a hand inside, almost exclaiming out loud when her fingers brushed against one of the galleons she had received back from Honeydukes as change. The coin was red hot to the touch. Circe fumbled with the small round disc, managing to draw it out into the open air as it burned her skin. But her clumsy, hot fingers suddenly dropped the coin and it landed with a tiny thud into the snow beneath her, face up. She grumbled with frustration, still silently battling with her wounded arm. It seemed like whatever progress she'd made in Occlumency, making leaps and bounds in her mental strength, her body was still failing her; her hand was still stiff, her fingers still rigid and clumsy, her scar still painfully noticeable. She was about to lapse into another spiral of feeling sorry for herself when the door to the pub suddenly creaked open and Circe was gripped with the overwhelming feeling of wanting to hide from whatever was inside. She ducked behind a nearby alleyway as the sound of several quiet and conspiratorial voices emerged from within The Hog's Head.
"Well, Aberforth doesn't have it in his till. So you didn't spend it in the Post Office or here…" a girl's voice said with a tired sigh.
"So I must have used it in Honeydukes." a boy's voice replied, sounding rather embarrassed.
Circe peeked curiously out from her hiding spot in the alleyway and saw Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom standing together outside the dingy little pub.
"Honestly Neville, this could give the entire game away!" Ginny said rather scoldingly to Longbottom as she wrapped her scarf around her neck. Neville's face was a mix of distress and mortification.
"Don't tell Harry...Or Hermione. Please Ginny." he begged her.
"Neville, we might have to. They'll find out eventually that you've lost your summoning coin when you don't turn up to a Dumbledore's Army meeting that's been called." Ginny spoke in a hushed voice. Now Circe really was intrigued and she strained her ears to listen closely.
"Let's… let's just check Honeydukes first, please… I think I might have paid for my fudge flies with it by mistake."
"And what if it's been given out as change already?!" Ginny asked vexatiously. When Neville didn't answer her, she sighed aloud and grabbed his arm. "Come on."
But the two of them had only advanced a few steps when they came to a sudden halt, looking down onto the ground where Circe had just dropped the hot galleon in the snow.
"Ginny! That's it! We found it!" Neville cried out joyously, bending to the floor and picking up the coin. "It must have dropped out of my pocket the last time we met here!"
"Oh Neville, you really do need to be more careful…" Ginny spoke softly. "If Umbridge had been here or Filch or one of Malfoy's trolls… and they'd found it before we had-"
"I know. I'm sorry, Ginny. But please, don't tell Harry that I lost it."
After a small moment of silence, the Weasley girl sighed again and fixed Neville with a slight grin. "Lost what?" Ginny asked playfully, giving Neville a small wink. "What Harry doesn't know won't hurt him."
"Thanks, Gin!" Neville cried out, wrapping the Weasley girl in a tight hug.
When Ginny had finally been released free of Neville's strong embrace, she fumbled in her own pocket and withdrew a similar looking galleon from her own pocket. "Come on, we need to get back to the castle. Mine's warm."
"Yeah this one too…"
Circe listened closely for the sound of Ginny's and Neville's hurried footsteps to fade into the distance. She re-emerged from her alleyway still holding her basket of chocolate frogs and she delved into it for another snack as she puzzled away. As she munched down on another froggy sweet, she thought to herself:
"Well… those bloody Gryffindors are up to something again."
Severus was closely watching his Sixth Years brew their amortentia, smelling the overpowering stench of peony and blushed suede emanating from each one of their cauldrons as he peered inside to inspect their work. His head, as a result, was swimming with images of Circe. His mouth able to taste her perfume. His senses overpowered with her scent.
He'd already caught several of the girls trying to smuggle a series of small vials of the love potion away into the folds of their robes, and he had quite the list of detentions for that night. After looking up from Arabella Forthingate's cauldron, and feeling his mouth water with the smell of chocolate Yule log, he startled slightly as he spied Circe striding into his classroom. Her face was set into an expression of worrisome confusion. A look that didn't necessarily mean she was in danger, or that she came bearing bad news, but rather that she was about to start off in one of her odd little crusades...
"Professor Smith, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" He asked in his traditional sarcastic drawl.
"Do you have a moment, Professor Snape?" She asked, a glint of something strange in her eye.
From the other side of the room, a cauldron erupted into an overflowing torrent of pink bubbles, sending the girls nearby screaming as it sizzled their exercise books away to nothing.
"Can it wait?" He asked with a roll of his eyes.
Circe sighed, but slowly tucked a strand of hair behind her right ear, looking at Severus and waiting silently for his reply.
Severus waved his wand in the air and the pink bubbles shrank back into the offending cauldron with a series of loud cracklings pops.
"Start again, Miss Cleaver, Miss Hodge. And you'll stay here until you get it right!" He shouted at the previously screaming Hufflepuff girls.
Before he left to aid his students, he turned briefly to Circe and tucked his own hair behind his ear.
"Wait for me there. I shall join you as soon as I can." He whispered to her, barely audible above the noise of bubbling cauldrons and hissing liquid.
"When will that be?"
Another loud bang went off at the other end of the room as someone else fluffed up their potion. Severus rolled his eyes and groaned.
"It might be quite some time."
"Fine… I'll bring some marking to do while I wait." She chuckled back to him. But Severus was in no mood for jokes and he turned from her to see to the most recent mess…
Circe left the potions classroom with heavy footsteps. She ached to tell Severus of what she'd seen down in Hogsmeade, to discuss with him what they should do with regards to her Dad, or simply just to snatch a few precious moments away from the trials and tribulations of teaching for just the two of them. Again, she began to aimlessly wander, not quite knowing where she was heading to or what she planned to do. She could wait for Severus in the "shag-palace" and have a little nap to get her energy up. She had a feeling her and Severus would be up long into the night discussing their options and planning their course of action… plus she had the rest of her chocolate frogs to work through.
"EDUCATIONAL DECREE NUMBER FIFTY FIVE: STUDENTS ARE NOT PERMITTED TO GATHER TOGETHER IN GROUPS LARGER THAN THREE."
Umbridge's voice echoed out of the announcement system, reverberating off the ancient stone walls. Circe grimaced and flicked a middle finger up at the speaker.
Her stomach churned as she approached the corridor that led to the Room of Requirement and she reconsidered eating the small stash of chocolate frogs she had amassed. She was feeling fidgety and agitated, a tad nauseous and restless. At times like these she would have picked up her guitar to play a few songs to quieten her nerves, but that was an avenue that she hadn't even attempted to go down since her accident. She hadn't even picked up her beautiful acoustic guitar, her present from Severus, as it was too painful for her to hold the instrument in her hands with the knowledge that she may never be able to play it again. But her soul ached for her music, or for any sort of occupation that would save her idling mind. These "in between" stages were becoming increasingly hard to bear and she longed for a distraction. She swallowed hard, trying to push down the mounting sense of nausea in her stomach as she approached the empty space of wall where her and Severus's room would appear.
"EDUCATIONAL DECREE NUMBER FIFTY NINE: ANY STUDENTS FOUND IN POSSESSION OF THE MAGAZINE 'THE QUIBBLER' WILL BE EXPELLED."
Circe tapped her foot agitatedly on the flagstones, eager to get inside the Room of Requirement and shut out Umbridge's grating voice. She paused and waited for the door to appear. But after a few moments, there was still nothing. She frowned, staring doggedly at the empty wall with her hands on her hips. However she was pulled out of her confused pondering when she once again heard the steady approach of students voices behind her. She grunted in frustration and hurried away to hide behind another corner as she waited. This time, she recognised well enough the voice of the student without having to see them: one of her fellow Ravenclaws, a strange girl who she had quite the soft spot for. It was a high, soft voice of an ethereal quality tinged with a slight Irish accent.
"Those poor Thestrals really do garner quite the negative reputation. Professor Trelawney once told me they're supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them." Luna Lovegood's misty voice drifted through the air to Circe's ears.
"Well, I can kind of see why…" the voice of Harry Potter replied to her. "If everyone who's able to see them has witnessed death."
"Oh, but you know now that they're quite gentle. Intelligent too. I think they can almost sense when you're upset. They're very attentive to me when I visit them in a bad mood."
"I've never seen you in a bad mood, Luna." Harry laughed.
"Ahh the Nargles get on everyone's nerves from time to time…"
"Right, of course..."
And then their voices disappeared…
Circe peeked out from her hidden corner with a deepening frown, wondering where the two of them had gone. This was a corridor with no turnoffs or classrooms in it, there was nowhere for them to have gone without having walked straight past her.
And they didn't do that.
But Circe's eyes widened in shock as she saw a door in the space on the wall where her "shag-palace" entrance should be. For a moment she panicked, thinking Harry and Luna may have just walked into her and Severus's meeting spot, but her mind calmed a touch as she realised that it was a totally different door to the one that normally appeared to lead her to their room. This door was bigger, wider, of a lighter coloured wood than the door that led to the "shag-palace".
How… How is this possible? Another room in the same place? Circe wondered to herself, slowly approaching the door.
"EDUCATIONAL DECREE NUMBER SIXTY SIX: DOLORES JANE UMBRIDGE HAS BEEN APPOINTED HIGH INQUISITOR AT HOGWARTS."
Almost on cue, like the heralding of a villainous leitmotif, Circe heard the steady approach of Dolores's clacking little heels approaching her location. Circe looked furtively behind her, quietly swearing to herself as Umbridge drew nearer. But as her eyes drifted back to the entrance to the Room of Requirement, she began to notice that it was slowly dissolving back into the wall, disappearing before her eyes. She gasped quietly to herself and rushed forwards, laying a hand on the door handle. She threw caution to the wind and decided to escape Dolores's coming by entering in to the new and strange door… She heaved the large door open and stole away inside, just before it could dissolve back into bare brick and leave her to Umbridge's mercy.
When she was inside, it took her a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the unfamiliar room within. It certainly wasn't her and Severus's "shag-palace"; it was much larger, spacious and open, lined wall to wall with mirrors and dotted with thick stone columns. It appeared almost like the inside of a great, mirrored cathedral... and it was occupied…
A select group of Hogwarts students stared back at her, all with terror-stricken faces, each one of them silent as the grave and as still as statues.
Circe looked from face to face, noting Harry stood at their lead, his wand in hand, waiting for her to say or do something.
"So… does someone wanna explain what's happening here?" Circe asked, her eyes jumping from Hermione to Cho to Ginny. She looked expectantly at the boys too: to Fred and George, unable to keep from grinning like idiots, Ron with his hand clasped protectively around his wand like Harry, Neville who looked on the verge of tears…
"The room let her in…" a small voice from within the silent crowd of students suddenly sounded out. Luna waded through the teenagers, gazing back at Circe curiously and drawing Harry's attention to her. "It trusts her, Harry."
"But she's a Professor." Seamus Finnegan piped up. "She'll be on her side."
Circe suddenly realised the positions the students were standing in: in something of a vague circle, with Parvarti Patel and Dean Thomas facing one another in combative poses, wands drawn at the ready.
"Are… are you Duelling?" Circe asked incredulously. "But Umbridge has said-"
"See, I told you!" Seamus sighed. "Game's up, lads and lasses. We've been discovered."
"Professor, please…" Harry strode forwards, looking at her imploringly. "Don't tell Umbridge. All we've been trying to do is ready ourselves for whatever's out there. Umbridge doesn't want to teach us any actual defense against the Dark Arts. You saw what she called me…" he growled, holding out his scarred hand to her. Circe saw the still red and raw marks there, brandishing him as a liar and her guts tightened into a knot of anger. "All we want to do is to learn how to protect ourselves."
"Well, if you're Duelling in those stances… Your foot placement is all wrong, Parvati and your wand grip is incorrect, Dean." She chided, pointing at them both in turn.
"Did you Duel, Professor?" Luna asked, her eyes wide with curiosity. She was the only person in the room who didn't appear on edge.
"Bloody hell, she was amazing." Fred chuckled, tugging on George's arm. "Do you remember that demonstration Professor Smith and Professor Snape did a few years back, Georgie? She carried on fighting that slimy git even after he broke her nose!"
"Oh God, yeah! I lost ten galleons to you that day, Freddie!"
"You were a champion duellist, weren't you Professor." Hermione asked gently. "See, Harry's been teaching us what he can. Spells, hexes, curses but in terms of actual fighting-"
"I just got lucky." Harry butt in. "When I've had to fight before, I survived mostly on brute force and adrenaline. But actual technique…"
"Harry, shut up! You're incriminating us all further!" Seamus hissed through clenched teeth.
"But Seamus, the room let her in." Luna repeated gently. "That means it doesn't see her as an enemy. It sees her as a-"
"Luna…!" Circe interrupted her forcefully. She paused, looking around the large room as the students of Dumbledore's Army collectively held their breaths.
She took out her wand slowly, holding it in her stiff, useless hand. She stared down at her mangled fingers as she felt the eyes of everyone else in that room upon her, waiting for her to make her decision.
Perhaps the best way for a lioness to protect her cubs is to give them the claws to protect themselves...
"I'm not sure how beneficial of a Duelling teacher I'll be. What with my hand…" she muttered quietly. Yet the room was so still that everyone heard her. "But perhaps Mister Potter can help demonstrate." She looked up at Harry with a coy smile on her face.
A similar smile of rebellion and hope bloomed across the faces of all of the others gathered in the Room of Requirement. Circe strode forwards and the children parted for her as she made her way over to Parvarti at the circle's center.
"Now, Parvarti, stand as I stand." She instructed, spreading her feet wide and squatting slightly. "Harry, show Dean."
"Yes, Professor." Responded Harry, his expression happier than she had seen him all year.