AN: Apolgies that I haven't updated in a while. I was actually preparing for an interview... And.. big news: I got made a Head of Year! I manifested it through Circe's appointment as Head of House and then I FUCKING DID IT TOO. I start in September and I'm gonna be hella busy, so I'm going to try and get as much of this written over the summer as possible, but I doubt I'll have it finished... But I WILL finish this. But for now, I'm a bit more of an adultier adult and I'm ecstatic. I did it guys...
Chapter 72 - "No alarms and no surprises."
"Bloody hell, Sev. How many copies of 'Advanced Potion Making' do you have in here?" Circe asked, as she lay down a small pile of purple books with a huff.
"Dumbledore kept insisting on buying them, despite the fact that I never use them." he replied, depositing a similarly large pile on the tabletop.
"Why didn't you use your own subject's textbook?"
"Because the textbook is useless." he said, his disregard plain.
Circe and Severus were spending the first Saturday back at school going through some of the old Potions storage cupboards, clearing some space for the new inhabitant. Slughorn had quietly requested of Snape that he clear out a few of the brimming wardrobes, shelves and drawers that were in the Potions classrooms. The accumulation of of over fifteen years of teaching. Circe had marvelled at how organised and put-together Severus presented himself. But just under the surface, hidden from sight and stashed away, was his chaos. Every door she opened and every drawer she withdrew was jam-packed with crap. Books, empty flasks, odd bits of paper, confiscated items, badges, ties, quills, apparatus… Circe realised that the only reason Severus was able to find anything, was because he just organised his mess into these hidden spaces. The textbook cupboard that they were currently sorting through, being one of those places.
"Oh Severus, do you ever throw anything away?" Circe asked with a scoff as she pulled up a pewter cauldron from the floor of the cupboard, it's bottom disintegrated from what looked like had been a small explosion. Out of the cauldron cascaded out a few more copies of 'Advanced Potion Making', spilling onto the floor with a light flutter.
"Will you be doing this throughout this whole exercise?" he asked a little shortly.
"Doing what?"
"Nagging."
"Nagging?!" Circe asked with a scoff. "I am not nagging. I'm just highlighting that you're a bloody hoarder!"
"A hoarder attributes sentimental value to their items. I don't much care for any of this..." Severus replied in a mutter, sweeping his arm over the full cupboard. "I think this was just depressional laziness…"
"A heart that's full up like a landfill
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won't heal
You look so tired, unhappy."
"Good Lord, this is a cheery album…" Severus mumbled, glancing at their old CD player, positioned at the far end of the room. Circe had "re-borrowed" it from the Ravenclaw girls for their morning of chores, as well as helping herself to one of the new CD's the girls had kept in the hole in the dormitory wall. She didn't know if this was one of Luna's, Cho's or Padma's choices, but she'd grabbed it to play whilst her and Severus worked. 'OK Computer' chugging along soporifically in the background.
It almost felt like old times.
Circe went quiet and watched Severus for a beat. She realised that his rather frank summation was probably true. The state of his old classroom was probably a reflection on his mental state in the years after Lily's death. Keeping it together on the surface, but beneath in utter shambles. That had been the Severus she'd met six years ago. She cleared her throat and glanced down.
"Good lord, you should have hired Dobby to go through this place." Circe said, continuing with her heaving of textbooks.
"I'd rather not have that Elf hovering around here, especially with Malfoy's trigger-happy attitude of late. He'd pounce on the opportunity to give Dobby a spot of vengeance on behalf of his father."
"Ah. Good point." Circe said succinctly. "And how is... Draco coming along with his task? Have you heard anything from Narcissa recently?"
"I have." Severus replied, avoiding her eyes.
"And?" Circe asked with another huff of books.
"Her and Draco have a… plan. Of sorts."
"A plan? Involving what?"
"Something that you will be quite familiar with now. Given your recent jaunt in Flourish and Blotts."
"What do you mean?" Circe asked, looking over a pile of books at Severus with a frown on her face.
"Think about it." Severus replied with a knowing smile. "You'll get it eventually."
"Oh, Sev!" Circe exclaimed, picking up a book and swatting him on the arm. "As if I don't have enough mysteries and riddles to be dealing with already…"
"Once we are finished with our task here, I shall show you." Severus said, glancing about the room with a whisper.
"You better…" Circe mumbled approaching him with a coy smile. She leaned across the table and hovered just in front of Severus's face. "Unless you're keeping more secrets about Narcissa from me." She teased.
Severus rolled his eyes and Circe chuckled, moving to return to her work. But Severus seized her face and turned her abruptly back to him. He kissed her deeply, weaving his fingers into her hair and clinging on to her.
"You know all of my secrets." He whispered. "Every little one. You are the guardian of them all. You are the guardian of my heart."
"No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises"
Circe placed a quick peck on his lips and withdrew herself from his loving hand.
"Love you too, darling." She said flippantly.
Severus scoffed and watched a while as Circe went back to her work.
"What are you thinking of this?" she asked, as she absent-mindedly sorted through a large wad of old exam papers from 1988.
"The exam papers?" he asked sarcastically.
"The album, Sev!" she laughed. "I haven't checked in with Radiohead for a while. An alt, indie band of weirdos from Yorkshire… They have no business being as big as they are..! I can't believe this album is a hit! It's putting me to sleep..."
"It's an exploration. I can't quite fathom that this is the same "weirdos" that made 'Creep'… That "outsider pop", guitar chugger of a song… . But I'm stumped over how that band made this dystopian, lush, layered, avant-garde, textured, dense record…"
""Avant-garde" is just another word for pretentious, isn't it?" Circe mumbled with a challenging smile.
"Am I meant to be dismissive of musicians who can actually play their instruments and compose good music?" he shot back. "I know you simper over those meatheads in the Britpop scene-"
"That's different! That's stripped back and raw!"
"You can't say this isn't stripped back and raw too."
"Wow. You do like this record." Circe said with a grin. "It's nice to hear you praising something!" Circe stated with a cheeky grin.
"This is just like old times, isn't it." she almost whispered.
Severus smiled. How long ago had it been that the two of them had been sharing heated and laden moments in this classroom? Intense staring matches and hot, heavy words? How long ago had it been that the urge to tell Circe that he loved her had sat heavily on his tongue as if the notion were made of silver? All that desperate pining and angst seemed like a distant memory now. If anyone had been around to hear them in that moment, they might have assumed they were an old, married couple.
"Now do you think Slughorn has enough of these for a set for an entire NEWTS class?" Circe asked, pointing at 'Advanced Potion Making'.
"I suppose so." He replied with a shrug. "Like I said, the instructions are basic at best and misleading at worst. I found several mistakes in this when I was of NEWTS age."
"You corrected the textbook?!" Circe asked, rather impressed.
Severus simply nodded, as if she'd just asked him if the sun had come up that day.
"You know, Sev… I never really got why you had such a… vendetta in pursuing the Defence Against the Dark Arts role. Your natural ability always seems like it's been in Potions."
"Am I not allowed to have more than one interest?" he asked sarcastically. "The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible. Your defences must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the Arts you seek to undo."
"Like the role of a Double Agent?" asked Circe. "Flexible, varied, ever-changing..."
"Not forgetting in my school days I would invent my own curses as much as I would brew drafts." Severus added, a sinister note to his deep voice.
"...The one you used on your father." Circe said, remembering what Severus had told her. "The "gashing" one."
"Sectumsempra." he said slowly, announcing the spell with almost an air of pride in his tone. "For the very worst of your enemies."
"Oh lord, don't tell me you used it on-"
"James got a rather controlled version of it when the arrogant bugger almost choked me to death on a bar of soap." Severus said, his eyes glazing over as he recalled a far-off memory. "That is, a bar of soap that he'd first of all tried to "wash my mouth out with"..."
"After the "mudblood incident"?"
Severus nodded.
"Oh, Sev. You shouldn't have tried to gut him..." CIrce said reproachfully.
"What would you have done?! He humiliated me. Him and his toerag partner in crime, Sirius. Year upon year. Repeatedly. Mercilessly. You can't tell me that you wouldn't have lashed out at some point too!"
Circe could feel Severus's anger beginning to bubble to the surface and she dropped the issue. Circe had done plenty of reckless things herself. Perhaps Severus was right…
"I did also invent the healing incantation to combat it…" he muttered after several seconds of silence. "Vulnera Sanetur."
That small addition did help to assuage Circe's worried mind; Severus had taken some precautions to combat his own curse, to ensure that Sectumsempra couldn't be used to kill as long as the caster knew the counter curse. He may have provided the venom, but he had also produced the antidote as well.
"So, a Potions extraordinaire, a DADA pioneer and a healer. Anything else you're good at?" Circe asked sarcastically, fixing him with a playful smile.
"Well I don't know. You tell me…" he purred softly, rising from his seat in a flash and striding over to her once more. He seized her by the behind and pulled her into another heated kiss. When she pressed up close to him, she could feel his hardness against her stomach.
"Oh yes, I suppose you are quite good at that." she whispered back to him.
They locked tongues once again, Severus running his hands all over her, the desperation of his wanting growing with each steamy second.
"You and me never quite managed to fuck in here, did we…" Snape whispered sinfully to her.
"No… Nearly did once or twice." she uttered back, feeling her face flush with desire.
"The amount of times I fantasised about bending you over one of these tables..." he moaned into her ear, setting her arms ablaze with goosebumps. "Or having you in just the right spot under my desk…"
"Oh good lord. WIth or without students around …?"
"That paltry detail didn't stop you up in the third floor corridor, Professor Smith." Severus murmured, softly biting at the flesh on her neck. "What do you say we "christen" the place before I'm forced out of here for good?" he asked wickedly. He spun her around and pushed his hips against her. One hand seized at her throat and the other pushed her down from in between her shoulderblades until she was bent over the desk, pressed into Severus's hard cock. She could feel the pulse of him against her sex, and for a moment, she allowed him to continue. To feel his hardness pressed up against her with such desperate wanting, to be pinned under his firm hands as if she were his thing to play with, to be strewn so deliciously inappropriately over the classroom desk… But she suddenly remembered something rather important and she raised her head from off the wooden tabletop.
"Sev!" Circe exclaimed, in scandal. "Stop it…"
Severus instantly relinquished his hold on her and allowed her to stand up straight.
Circe turned around to face him with a smile on her face. She leaned in close, running a hand over his groin and eliciting a small, deep moan from his open mouth.
"Later…" she whispered into his ear, meeting his lust-filled eyes head on. The almost animalistic look in his black irises made her weak at the knees.
Severus growled and turned from her to adjust his trousers. Circe giggled as she saw Severus's awkward fumbling, trying to hide his arousal as best he could.
"My fantasies must forever go unfulfilled, it seems…" he grumbled half-seriously.
"Well, I don't fancy being caught by Slughorn!" she shot back, rolling her eyes. "You know he's been in and out of here too. I don't think I could show my face at Staff meetings if he discovered us at it…"
"Alright, alright…. You make a fair point."
They settled back into more sorting and scouring. Every so often they would stop to look at a particular item that one of them had found in the depths of Severus's cupboards. Little knick-knacks and relics from the years Severus had spent in that room. Some grim and some sentimental. And some a mixture of both.
"Eurgh, this coffee mug is crusted in mould." Circe chided, lifting a white cup from out of the bottom of a drawer. ""World's Okayest Teacher", she read aloud from the side of the mug.
"Oh, Miss Tonks got me that when she left Hogwarts . I suppose she thought it would be a funny joke…"
"And you still kept it." Circe said with a smug smile.
"Have you not noticed? I keep everything."
Circe snorted and placed the mug on the "for keeping" pile they had begun amassing. She returned back to her tidying with a smile on her face.
"Circe…" Severus called out to her when she had her head buried in another draw.
"Hmm?" Circe lifted her head up and looked absent-mindedly towards where Severus was. A bright flash of light hit her square in the face. "Ahh! What the bloody hell…?"
Severus chuckled and lowered a small, disposable camera down from his face.
"There. That's my revenge for the nagging." he teased.
"Bloody hell, Sev! You'd have caught me looking like a deer in the headlights!" Circe chuckled as she rubbed at her still starry eyes. "Why do you have a muggle disposable camera, by the way…?"
"I think I confiscated this off the Creevey boy a few years ago…"
"Oh, do another one! We can finally have one photo of us together." Circe said, a grin on her face as she rushed to Severus's side.
"How do I…?"
"Oh hand it here." she said, taking the camera from Severus's hand and pushing the small wheel on to the next photograph in the film roll. When it clicked into place, she held the lens up in front of them and paused. "I'd tell you to smile, but I wouldn't want the lens to shatter…"
Severus scoffed and poked her in the ribs. "Just hurry up and do it." he grumbled, with a small, lop-sided smirk.
The flash struck both of them in the face again and Circe dropped the camera.
"Hope that turned out okay. Maybe when the War's finished, I can get the film developed." she said quietly, glancing at the device in her hands. "Another thing to add to the "when the War's finished" list…."
Circe went quiet and speculative. Severus watched her for a moment as her face grew morose and far-off. Almost as if she was seeing that world of "after the War" infront of her, but she was unable to reach it. Standing on the other side of a window to that happy and contented future, denied access to it.
"Perhaps your assessment of me is more accurate than I originally gave you credit for." Severus stated in a drawl, trying to distract her away from whatever morose thoughts she was having.
"How do you mean?" she asked, glancing up from the disposable camera in her hands.
"Perhaps I do attribute some sentimental value to a few of these items." he muttered, picking up a random copy of 'Advanced Potion Making', turning it over in his hands. "You know… I had my own copy of this book back in my schooldays."
"But I thought you said it was useless."
"It is. I made corrections and annotations in mine. Wrote my findings and personal amendments in the margins. I used it more like a notebook than a textbook…" Severus said, his voice taking on an almost loving, gentle quality to it. His eyes were soft and tender as they passed over the book's cover.
"I wonder if it's still in here somewhere." Circe said, glancing at a pile of books that remained on the floor of the cupboard, waiting for her to sort through.
"Doubtful. It'll be almost falling to pieces if it is though. I rather used it to death myself, until the spine was snapped and some of the pages falling out. I dread to think what state it would be in almost twenty years later…"
"Sounds like it was more like your diary than your notebook." Circe said a little teasingly.
"Do you remember what you asked me when we were watching Umbridge's leaving party?" he asked, wistfully. "I think, if I did ever make one, it'd be this." he stated firmly, waving the textbook at her.
"What? What did I ask you?" Circe said with a frown, struggling to understand Severus's words.
"If I ever made a Horcrux, what would I choose as the vessel?"
A great smashing noise sounded off behind them. As one, Circe and Severus both flinched and turned to the source of the awful sound. There, standing in the middle of the Potions classroom as white as a sheet, was Slughorn. His hands were still out rigidly before him, at his feet was the tray of potions flasks he had just dropped. All smashed to pieces around him as he stared open mouthed at them both.
For a moment, Circe began to panic, thinking Slughorn may have been hovering around the classroom for long enough to hear some of the more revealing or outright embarrassing moments that had passed between her and Severus. But from the pure, unadulterated look of horror on his face, Circe knew that his reaction was down to more than just second-hand embarrassment.
"Professor Slughorn, are you alright?" Circe asked, approaching him slowly. With each step closer, Circe could see the coal-dark kernel of fear nestled deep within his eyes.
"H-how do you…." He stuttered, his hands beginning to shake, still held rigidly in front of him as if he was unaware he had dropped his tray.
Circe watched as his expression changed from frightened to angry, so fast, she'd have missed it if she'd blinked.
"How do you know that word?" He hissed at her.
"What word?" She asked cautiously, although she already suspected the answer.
"You know damn well! I shan't repeat it… It's a dirty word. It's foul… Dark magic." He continued, his voice a nervous splutter.
Horcrux. Severus said "Horcrux" and now he's more frightened than a pig in a slaughterhouse. Circe realised.
"Are you working for Him?! For You-Know-Who?!" Slughorn asked, the volume of his voice rising. "Come to send his Death Eaters to hunt me down inside Hogwarts, has he?"
"No! No, Professor! That's not true…" Circe called out to him desperately.
"I remember the stories..! I remember reading in the Prophet about him!"
Slughorn cried out, pointing a finger straight at Severus. "He may have been pardoned by the Wizengamot, but I know what side of the war he was truly on!"
Circe sensed Severus stiffen at Slughorn's comment as the air turned icy between them. His back straightened out rigidly as he answered Slughorn's accusations with a murderous stare.
"Professor please, you don't understand. It's… for my research! I'm teaching my Sixth Years about Herpo the Foul and I was telling Severus about what I had planned for my lessons…" she lied quickly.
"And if we were in league with The Dark Lord, either of us could have had you dragged in front of him long before now, Horace." Severus stated condescendingly.
Slughorn was shocked into a reeling silence. Circe too held her breath, waiting for either Severus or Slughorn to lose their temper and launch into a confrontational duel. But that moment never came. Instead Slughorn merely sighed, realising the truth in Snape's words. He waved his wand, sending all of the items that had been in Severus and Circe's "for keeping" pile floating into the air, and dropping all of them into a neat stack in the corridor outside the classroom.
"Get out. Both of you." Slughorn muttered. "Go, on. Get out of my classroom."
She knew that Severus was too headstrong to adhere to a demand like that. So before sheepishly withdrawing herself, Circe turned and grabbed Snape by his wrist, tugging him with her as they crunched silently over Slughorn's dropped glass. As they passed by Slughorn, Circe prayed that Severus wouldn't say anything else inflammatory, acutely aware of the ice-cold staring match ongoing between them. She let out a sigh of relief when Snape stayed silent all the way to the classroom door without provoking him further. Once they were outside, by their pile of items, the classroom door banged shut behind them with a great thud.
"His classroom…" Severus muttered through gritted teeth. "It is not his-"
"I'm afraid it is now, Sev. You gave it up for the DADA rooms, remember?" Circe mumbled.
"Well, what the bloody hell was that about anyway?" Snape asked in a vicious hiss, pointing at the now firmly closed door.
Circe grabbed Severus's hand again and pulled him down the dungeon's corridors, far enough away from the Potions classroom until she felt comfortably out of earshot of Slughorn. WIth a final tug, she pulled him into a dimly lit alcove with a stone statue of a gargoyle holding a lantern in his mouth.
"Did you see how riled he got, just because you said the word "Horcrux"?" She asked in a whisper, her face illuminated in the greenish light that came from the lantern. Her frown seemed deeper in the shadows it cast, her eyes seemed more fierce... "Now why was that?"
Severus paused, staring at the gargoyle as he organised his thoughts. A memory returned to him as he stared at the gargoyle's twisted features and he looked back to Circe with dawning realisation.
"Just like how he behaved when Regulus tore the page out of the book…" he muttered.
"He knows. He knows something, Sev." Circe said confidently. "That's why he thinks The Dark Lord is after him. That's why Dumbledore wanted him here. He knows something about Voldemort's Horcruxes…"
"You have to give it to Narcissa and Draco… I never would have thought of this to get past the no-apparation zone in Hogwarts." Circe mumbled to herself as she stared up at the Vanishing Cabinet. Severus had made good on his promise to share The Malfoy's secret plan and he had, to her surprise, led her to the Third Floor corridor. She had expected originally that Severus wanted to take her to the "shag palace" to re-enact one of those unfulfilled fantasies he had mentioned, but she had instead been led inside the Room of Hidden Things.
"You wouldn't?" Severus asked beside her. "How do you think Dumbledore snuck back into the castle after he…"
Severus trailed off, realising that Circe knew nothing of the night he had found the Headmaster in the Room of Hidden Things.
"What?" Circe asked, looking at him sharply.
"Nothing…" He muttered, avoiding her eyes.
"You know all my secrets, Circe…" She said in a high-pitched, mocking tone. "You hold my heart, Circe..."
But before Severus could decide whether to tell her about the night of Dumbledore's return, she approached the Vanishing Cabinet and placed her hand on the door.
"So where is the other one?" She asked.
"It was in Borgin and Burkes." Severus replied, folding his arms over his chest. "Thaddeus apparently charged Narcissa a small fortune for it."
"So it's now in Malfoy Manor?"
Severus nodded.
"So the plan is to release all the hounds of Hell on Hogwarts, and this is the portal that will herald them forth…" Circe breathed, feeling a shiver go up her spine.
"Fenrir, Bellatrix, Yaxley, the Carrows and anybody else they can fit into this thing." Severus muttered. "If Draco can get it to work."
Circe looked back at Severus with a deep frown.
"Narcissa paid a small fortune for it and it doesn't work?"
"Most don't… I was rather surprised to hear the one that you used did."
"Mr McInally said it's because most people just don't know how to use them properly." Circe said, turning to face the large and looming cabinet again with a curious expression...
"Circe… you aren't trying to figure it out, are you?" Severus asked reproachfully. "Need I remind you that currently we don't actually want Draco to be able to use it... The poison in Dumbledore's body won't be critical to his system until towards the end of the year. He told you himself, he has many things to do before his-"
"I know, Sev. But wouldn't it make more sense for us to decipher how the Vanishing Cabinet works so we can calculate ways to stop Draco from figuring it out?!" She shot back with an exasperated sigh.
There was a moment of silence. During which Severus blinked back at Circe, amazed that he himself had not come to that conclusion.
"Sabotage it…" Severus muttered.
"Precisely. And then we can let Draco have the answer to the Cabinet when the time is right, for all of us."
"It is a genius plan, my love." Severus said, approaching her and laying a small kiss on her forehead. "If you and I can actually figure out how the Cabinet works…"
She approached the dark ebony doors cautiously, extending her hand out to the surface. Her fingers found the same strange series of dots pricked into the cabinet's doors as there had been on the cabinet she had seen briefly in Flourish and Blotts. She tracked a few of the dots and lines, spreading over the wood in seemingly random patterns. Each small cluster of dots was encircled by a deep square border. Looking up and down the cabinet, she realised the door was decorated with a great number of these "tiles", all with their own collection of dots on them and after a moment's fiddling, Circe managed to pluck a square free and it came loose in her hands.
"What are they?" She asked quietly, slotting the dotted tile back into its place on the door.
"No idea…" Severus said, his hand appearing at the cluster of dots nearest to hers. He glanced up at Circe and saw her, tongue out, in deep concentration.
"Do you know you do that?" Severus asked with a chuckle.
"Do what?"
"Stick your tongue out of your mouth ever so slightly when you're thinking very hard about something."
"What?! How long have I done that for?!" She asked incredulously.
"For as long as I've known you. I always knew you were stuck into some juicy tidbit of research in the Library, or marking some astoundingly awful essays in your classroom when you made that face. It really is quite amusing…" Severus stated, his mouth curling into a small, teasing grin.
"Watched me often, did you?" Circe asked, turning to him and placing her hands softly on Severus's chest.
"Excruciatingly intently…" He whispered back, looking down his long, straight nose at her with an exhilarating twinkle in his eye. "Until I knew every little expression that passes across your face and it felt, to me, like I was watching a masterpiece come to life. Your face moves like one of those old Hollywood starlets in a close-up. Each movement... the opening of your lips, the flex of your brow, the fall of your blinking eyelashes... is so small, but achingly stunning to watch. I would know you by your footfalls alone. Your scent, the rhythm of your breath. All of it beautiful to my eye."
"Oh, I feel a poem coming on…" Circe said playfully.
"I would have every poet pen a verse for you, if I could read it aloud and watch it reach your ears." Severus stated in his rich, low voice.
Circe felt a shiver of delight ripple through her, his deep, velvety tone making her stomach squirm with pleasure. She was suddenly reminded of what Minerva had said about deep-voiced men and she blushed a little.
"Oh go on then, give me a quick one…" she said with a glowing smile.
"She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes."
"Byron… Minerva would be pleased." Circe muttered to herself.
"You what…?" Severus asked, tilting his head to the side in his confusion
"Nothing…" she giggled. "That's your thing, by the way. You tilt your head to the right when you're confused." Circe said, tapping Severus on his temple with the tip of her finger.
"Oh good Lord… like some perturbed chihuahua?" He grumbled, pushing a curl back behind her ear.
She laughed. "Well, what do I look like with my tongue hanging out my mouth? Some belly-up bit of roadki…"
Circe stopped dead, turning back to the Vanishing Cabinet and wrenching herself out of Severus's hands.
"Cloudless climes and starry skies…" she muttered, running a hand back over a series of dots again. "Sev, how good at astronomy are you?"
Severus frowned and approached the cabinet again, looking intently at the small cluster of dots Circe had her hand on. He narrowed his eyes, squinting at the holes until suddenly he could see it emerging out of the chaos, staring back at him with maddening obviousness.
"Is that…"
"Virgo." Circe said confidently. "I recognised it because it's currently right in the center of the Ravenclaw Common Room's ceiling. And that one there is-"
Severus stared at the tile beside Virgo. It was another series of dots and lines, but this one forming into a sort of triangle, with one bent leg from one side, and one straight leg from the other.
"Libra." Severus stated firmly. "Scales, do you see…?"
"They aren't random dots, Severus. They're star constellations. The stars of the zodiac!"
"But how do they pertain to the Vanishing Cabinet?" he asked with a heavy frown.
Circe thought for a moment and looked up and down the tall cupboard in front of her. She realised her tongue was out again and her eyes bulged as she flicked it back in her mouth. She glanced at Severus, who looked back at her smirking from ear to ear.
"Stop it…" she said, pointing a reproachful finger at him.
"I said not a word." he stated, holding his palms out before her.
"The tiles come off." she continued, reaching for the Virgo square and plucking it off the door. "And when I was in the cabinet that Mr McInally had, I could hear things being moved about outside..."
"So, you think the Cabinet's power has something to do with the positioning of these tiles?"
"Maybe. Perhaps they have to be in a special arrangement… in a certain order or something." Circe muttered, circling around the Vanishing Cabinet as she pondered aloud.
"Perhaps that explains why so many people find them difficult to use. Astronomy isn't a popular subject at Hogwarts at the best of times… Although, perhaps with our new equine colleague, interest might pick up…" Severus stated with a raise of his brow.
"That is if the girls don't chase him out of here first…" Circe muttered back. "Some of the Ravenclaws have started to notice that he often comes to the top of the Tower. I've had to start issuing detentions and deducting House points from people who I see hovering around that staircase… Poor Firenze, he must feel like a spectacle."
"Well… he is a half-man, half-beast mystical hybrid creature. It is only natural that the students are curious about him."
"Curious yes, but swooning over him..?" Circe said exasperatedly.
"I bet a few of them wish that they could have had theirs and Umbridge's positions swapped… Be carried off into the Forest by a herd of centaurs like the handsome Firenze…"
"Ugh, Sev! Stop it… I don't really want to speculate on the fantasies of teenage girls…." she chided, going back to the door of the Vanishing Cabinet. "Plus… I don't think they realise how uncomfortable a centaur would be in their-"
"Let's try putting these in order." Severus interrupted her swiftly, his ears turning red.
They fiddled with the tiles for a while, talking with one another and trying to figure out which zodiac constellation each assortment of seemingly random dots was which.
"Oh this is ridiculous.." Circe muttered as her and Severus looked down cluelessly at the squares in their hands. "Wait, here. I'll be back in a bit…"
She shoved the tiles into Severus's arms and went striding off through the mountains of things piled into the Room of Hidden Things. Once outside of the room, she made her way swiftly through the corridors of Hogwarts towards Ravenclaw Tower, pausing only when she found herself in front of the old marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. She hesitated for a moment, expecting the ghost of Helena to come screaming out of it like before, but alas, there was nothing. Circe hadn't seen the ghost since her first night on the job, but she still kept an eye on the empty halls late at night, or the shadows in the corners of the Great Hall, for the next time their paths crossed.
Once inside the Ravenclaw Common Room, Circe found it full of bright young Ravenclaws, getting on with homework, having a friendly chat over chess, or quietly reading in the many comfortable places available in the space. Circe tried to act as inconspicuous as possible, nodding politely to a few students who bade her hello or good afternoon, but she nevertheless made her way slowly to the center of the room, and glanced up. The starred ceiling was still beautiful and intricate, reflecting the heavens back down on her in much the same positionings that it had been in on the first night back. She glanced around her for a spare bit of parchment and a quill, her eyes falling on a small group of Third Year girls, all gathered around a bench, doing some astronomy homework together. She strode over to the girls and they all looked up at her expectantly.
"Right… spot check, Ravenclaws." she said, pretending to be confident. "Has Professor Firenze taught you the zodiac constellations yet?"
They all nodded back at her. One of the Third Years, a short girl with a blonde pixie cut, let out a small giggle.
"Good. Hand me a bit of parchment then, and I'll quiz you." Circe continued. "Let's see if Miss Presley has been doing more in her astronomy lessons than just giggling over Professor Firenze…"
The blonde girl gasped and ceased immediately in her giggles.
"Um… alright." replied another one of the Third Years. A tall, slender girl with straight brown hair, plaited into two long pigtails. Christina Wilde, Circe remembered her name was.
Circe glanced up at the heavens and made a quick drawing of each of the little clusters she could see, roughly in the same place that they currently were in the ceiling above, until she had twelve vague shapes in front of her.
"What's this one?" she asked, laying her finger on a, by now, familiar pointed box with four arms sticking out of it.
"Virgo." Christina replied.
"Correct." Circe said, making a quick note beside it. "And this?" she asked, pointing to a constellation that looked like a cat-o-nine-tails whip.
"Scorpio." the third girl in the little group said.
"And this?"
"Aries."
On and on Circe's "quiz" went, until she had all twelve of her drawings of the constellations labelled.
"Thank you, girls. Five points to each of you." Circe said with a smile, folding her piece of parchment in half and tucking it into her pocket.
She made a quick exit from the room, almost breaking into a run as she moved past the old statue of Rowena Ravenclaw and down the many steps of the Tower. But a voice called out to her before she had reached the moving staircases.
"Professor Smith!"
Circe halted and turned to the voice slowly, a little annoyed that she had been stopped in her return to Severus. The voice was a soft but firm, young scottish brogue...
"Cho. How was Quidditch practise?" she asked before she had even turned fully to face her student. "Whipping the new recruits into shape, Captain?"
"We had a good training session. But the Gryffindors were having their tryouts at the same time as us." Cho replied, dusting off a few flecks of mud from her blue and bronze Quidditch coat.
"Oh, was there a problem?" she asked, remembering the fight she had, once upon a time, had with Severus over a clash in Quidditch training sessions…
"No, not that. But we got to see who Harry was trying out for the team! He's made the whole squad reapply for their positions… and he auditioned some new people."
Despite the very much larger fish she had to fry, Circe was nevertheless intrigued by this bit of sporting gossip.
"Oh? Which new people?"
"Cormac McLaggen was trying out for Keeper, but we already knew he would. He used to talk about how he wanted to join the Quidditch team last year at the DA meetings."
"And did he get it?" Asked Circe.
"No! Completely fluffed the last save." Cho explained, her eyes brighter than Circe had seen them for a long while. "Harry gave Keeper to Ron."
"Weasley?!"
"Yes!"
"Bloody hell, how many Weasleys does Harry want on his team?!" Circe scoffed. "He'd be a fool to drop Ginny as his Chaser and Fred and George are-"
"Not here anymore. Remember the fireworks, Professor?" Cho cut in swiftly.
"Ah. Of course…" Circe muttered. "I wondered why it felt so quiet around here…"
Cho laughed to herself and sighed. "It's not the same without the Twins here, is it?"
"I think, as much as I'd have liked them to stay and complete their NEWTS, that Hogwarts became too small to contain them." Circe said, returning Cho's sigh with one of her own. "Still, there's enough of their legacy lurking around here still… I saw all the love potions and puking pastilles you lot tried to smuggle in here, in your luggage, at the beginning of term."
"Love potions?! People actually bought that stuff?"
"Well, you teenagers are weird things. You think with your… hormones. Not your heads." Circe said with a playful smile, stepping on to a staircase. "But I can't say I wouldn't have thought about slipping a bit of love potion to Gaz Coombes if he turned up at my door!" She called back to Cho as the stairs took her floating away.
"Professor!" Cho exclaimed with a grin, her hands on her hips.
As she floated away on her steps, and the last bits of her laughter simmered away, Circe's mind went wandering back to the task at hand.
Now, what was I doing before the teenage drama and gossip? Ah yes… trying to save the world…
Severus was waiting exactly where she'd left him: stood rigidly, arms folded across his body, in front of the Vanishing Cabinet.
"And where did you disappear off to?" He asked sharply.
"The Ravenclaw Common room. To make this." Circe replied, taking the bit of parchment she'd mapped the stars on out of her pocket.
Severus took it from her outstretched hand and opened it up.
"Ah! Well at least now we know which constellation is which. Perhaps now we should try putting them in order."
"Order?" Circe asked.
"I had a look at the display on the cabinet's front whilst you were away." Severus explained, leading her by the hand back over to the huge cupboard. "All fitted correctly, the tiles should make up a sort of circle. Do you see?"
He pointed at the doors and Circe squinted into the gloom and only when she'd been staring at it intently for a few moments did she see the faint outline of two semicircles, one on each door.
"I see it. So… start by putting the first star sign of the year up at the top of the circle and work our way clockwise through the others?"
"Can't hurt to try…" Severus mumbled.
"Oh, you should know this one then! First star sign of the year, the star sign of early January is…"
"Capricorn." he muttered back, rolling his eyes.
Severus reached for the constellation of his birth time and slotted the tile into the twelve o clock position in the door. They worked together to place the other tiles into their positions, going through their chronological occurrence in the year, until they were all in a place on the Vanishing Cabinet's front.
"I don't know if this is right, Sev." Circe breathed. "Look there's places to put tiles in the center of the circle, not just on the perimeter like numbers on a clock."
"I suppose I better give it a try then." Severus mumbled, opening one of the doors and stepping inside. He shut the door behind him and Circe held her breath.
A long and tension-filled silence passed. Circe waited for something to happen. A noise, a light show, perhaps even for the Cabinet to move… but when she heard a knock on the other side of the door, she jumped out of her skin.
"Uh, Circe… You better let me out." came Severus's awkward, muffled voice.
"Oh right. No handle from inside…"
Circe rushed forwards and opened the Vanishing Cabinet, seeing Severus's disappointed head, cocked ever so slightly to the right, emerge from out of the darkness as light touched his face again.
"Ahemm…" Circe cleared her throat with a jovial smile, tilting her head to the side in the same way Severus was doing just then.
Snape brusquely straightened his head as his eyes widened. "Alright fine, you caught me doing my "perturbed chihuahua"." he grumbled, stepping out the cupboard.
"It didn't work then?" Circe asked, after her small giggling fit had died down.
"Clearly not. As I am still here…"
"Perhaps… they shouldn't be in chronological order. After all, if it was that simple, all people would have to do is memorize in what order of the year the signs of the zodiac occur and then everyone could use them…"
"So, how are you meant to order them? What is the correct way to place them?"
"Maybe, Sev… the correct way to place them changes, depending on…" her voice trailed off as she picked up the familiar sign of the Virgo constellation.
"Depending on what?" Severus asked quietly, intently watching Circe's face as an idea came to her.
"Depending on where they are in the sky…"
Circe placed the tile into the very center of the circle, roughly in the same location where the Virgo constellation had been in the great domed roof of Ravenclaw common room…. Where it had been in the sky that night Firenze had shown it to her. A flash of light illuminated the tiny dots as it slotted into place and Circe gasped aloud. The lit-up stars shone into her face as she glanced back to Severus at her side, open mouthed.
"Another! Place another!" he encouraged, folding the map out for her to see where each tile should go.
Circe silently thanked her past self for drawing her little diagram out accurately to the places of the different constellations in the skies, and not just a list… But each time she slotted a tile into the correct place, the dots in the square would illuminate, telling her she had it in the correct location. She paused for a moment, holding the constellation of Libra in her hands.
"So… that's why most people can't figure these things out. The correct place to put these tiles in must change throughout the year… as the stars move through the Heavens." Circe said, the realisation finally coming to her. "This won't even be right after September the 22nd… When Virgo moves out of prominence and Libra is in ascendance."
"Are you quite certain Professor Firenze hasn't been giving you private lessons?" Severus asked her, delicately prying the tile from her grasp and letting his deft fingers linger on top of her hand. He turned from her with a wicked smile and placed it in it's correct location on the door.
"My dear, you are quite large enough for me. I don't think my delicate lady-parts could handle a centaur phallus." she said, her voice becoming mockingly sweet and innocent.
Severus turned a bright crimson colour and let her resume her placing. Soon, all twelve tiles were placed on the door and Circe turned to Severus with a small triumphant smile.
"My turn, this time…" she whispered, charging forwards and closing the door of the cabinet behind her before Severus could protest.
She could just about hear Severus's alarmed voice slowly slipping away from her as the Vanishing Cabinet transported her out of the castle….