Just picturing Dumbledore in his fabulous robes going, "You get a point! And you get a point! Everyone look under your chairs, you all get points!"
Not going to spend much time on an author's note because I'm sick with a bad stomach inflammation so I plan to just upload this and pass out.
If Someone Cared Enough
Chapter Eighty-Nine: Passing out Points like Oprah
"Another Year gone," Dumbledore announced at the ending feast, standing up at the staff table with a merry smile, "And another adventure over. For some, it has been more…adventurous than others."
A snicker rose up among the tables, students stealing peeks at the now quite infamous assortment of Gryffindors, and a Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff who'd finally been given the official clear from the hospital wing.
Severus glowered in response to the stares, sending some particularly harsh looks down towards a seething Rosier.
He scooted away from some awestruck first years who'd been slowly inching closer along the bench to him all evening. Ever since Severus first fought against Avery, the divide between blood purist and blood equality sympathizers in Slytherin had grown larger. Many wide eyed, naïve little first years came into these hallowed halls only intending to learn and make friends, to have a wonderful little journey into their magic potential.
Imagine many innocent Slytherins' surprise then, when many of them were told they couldn't associated with a kid they befriended on the train, all because he or she wasn't pureblood.
To the younger years, Severus was a hero for standing by his friendship with Lily, a martyr for risking his life for her. And now he went and saved a Gryffidor he hated, simply because it was the right thing to do. He gave many younger students in his house hope that their house didn't have to be the hated scourge of the school, that they could represent something just as positive or noble as Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.
Severus was honestly loathing the attention. He wasn't some fame hungry fool like Potter with his oversized ego.
"Now before we announce the winner of this years House Cup," Dumbledore went on, drawing both Severus's and his fans' attention, "There are some last minute points I believe must be given."
"For their bravery and dedication to their friends, even when their bonds were severed, I award Sirius Black and James Potter twenty points each."
A cheer went up from Gryffindor table, Potter and Black reveling in the attention. Of course, the points they received were paltry given what they'd actually done in fighting the basilisk. However, seeing as no one was to know the truth, it seemed fair in the eyes of a school who thought the two merely took on an unstable hermit looney hiding in the school all these years.
Dumbledore waved his hand to assuage the excitement, "For their kindness and willingness to put their friends first, even in times of great danger, I award Mary Macdonald, and Remus Lupin twenty points each."
More cheering went up from the lion's table, people pounding their fists on the table and wolf whistling.
"For demonstrating that even in times of great fear, one can still be brave, I award Peter Pettigrew fifty points."
Peter flushed crimson, jolted by the hearty thumps on his back by his friends.
Severus sighed; he supposed he couldn't really fault Dumbledore for that choice. Pettigrew was a coward through and through; the fact that he somehow managed to overcome his terror to fight back in the Chamber was astounding.
Dumbledore smiled at the Gryffindor table, "For showing great courage and love, twenty-five points each to Lily Evans and Marlene Mckinnon."
Severus felt his face going red, sinking into his chair as he glared that the benignly smiling Headmaster. Sure, the students may not know the true meaning behind those words—most associated Lily with an overall love for just about every living thing—but Severus knew what that playful jab was really about.
It seemed Lily caught it too, blushing deeply as she stared at the table among the cheers and applause of her friends.
Marlene for her part simply preened under the attention, openly flaunting her closeness to Peter by draping herself all over him with a kiss to his cheek.
"Looks like Gryffindor is going to win again," a second year Slytherin sighed.
"Of course," another groaned.
Severus grimaced, of course the Gryffindors would win like every year.
"Settle down," Dumbledore chided, "Settle down. I believe we have more points to give out. For joining his friends in doing what's right, even when it wasn't what's logical, I award Davis Diffley twenty points."
Severus spied Davis looking torn between smug and embarrassed. Anyone could see that rushing headlong into a dangerous situation, as a ragtag bunch of students was the most illogical, poorly thought out plan in history. It went against every bit of intelligence Ravenclaw's house stood for.
"Slytherin has earned its fair share of points as well," Dumbledore said, turning his twinkling eyes towards the table of serpents, "It is noble to risk it all for one's own friends, but it takes greater strength to save those you would call enemies. It shows a level of compassion and maturity to set aside one's differences to do what's right. For this reason, I award fifty points to each to Severus Snape—"
Severus friends went wild, drawing many into their celebration. Thinking back on all the presents left by his hospital bed, Severus was still stunned he'd won the admiration of so many people.
"—And Simone and Thea Serapuem," Dumbledore went on, "Whom I'm sure you all join me in wishing a very happy marriage."
Most people cheered or whispered excitedly over the latest scandal, but Severus could hear some displeased hissing from the older Slytherins.
Regulus was nodding along to something Rosier angrily hissed in his ear, but Severus could tell by his eyes that the heir of Black wasn't truly as bothered by the 'traitorous marriage' as he would have Rosier believe.
He met Severus eyes briefly, cocking his eyebrow slightly as if to say, 'Married, who'd have guessed it?'
"And now," Dumbledore announced, calling the hall to quiet once more, "There is one last student to acknowledge. One who has shown great kindness, bravery, and above, loyalty. This student has gone beyond the expectations others have of her house to support, assist, and protect her friends in a time of great peril. Without her forethought, planning, and ingenuity, it is likely this hall would be a few seats emptier today."
"It takes great courage to throw yourself in the face of danger for others," Dumbledore went on, "But what is courage without cleverness and insight to plan things through? This student has demonstrated critical thinking and care known to her house, a house oftentimes taken for granted. Her loyalty to her friends and upmost determination to provide them with all the protection and tools they needed shows a resourcefulness akin to Helga Hufflepuff herself. It is for this reason that I award one hundred points to—"
He didn't even get to finish his sentence, Hufflepuff table exploding in a roar of triumph. Nesme was hefted up onto her housemates' shoulders as they all cried out in jubilation, for across the room, the hourglass containing Hufflepuffs gems had risen a fraction above Gryffindor.
"How in the world?" a Slytherin gasped.
Severus snorted, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor had been just about even all year, the latter unable to truly rise above after McGonagall had vowed to take points fairly as possible and as such held her house accountable for every action they took this year. Potter's antics and the bathroom brawl definitely hampered their chances of winning.
Of course, with the number of awarded last minute points going to so many Gryffindors it seemed a sure thing that they would close the gap and overtake Ravenclaw in the end.
However, what no one had paid attention to was Hufflepuff's sudden rise when Gryffindor was temporarily dethroned. It seemed the most unassuming house collectively strived to steal first place in the lions' absence by racking up as much points as possible in Herbology and extra credit. No one ever paid the house any mind, so it came as quite a shock to see that the hundred points Nesme earned was apparently all they needed to be just a mere twenty points over the lions.
"Well now," Dumbledore said merrily, observing the hourglasses, "It looks like we have our winner for the House Cup."
With a flick of his wand, Hufflepuff's colors unfolded from the rafters, swaying in a magical breeze. The Hufflepuff table erupted into applause again at seeing their colors proudly bedecking the hall.
Nesme simply looked on mystified at this turn of events, staring around her in a daze as classmates patted her on the back.
"Now then," Dumbledore said as the food appeared upon all the tables, "Tuck in."
{page break}
"I still can't believe those two are married," Davis said in wonderment on the train ride home, "I knew they were close, but that close?"
"It does come as bit of a surprise," Mary confessed, "I honestly didn't think Simone the type to do romance. She's very contrarian; I figured she'd be against crushes and love in order to be avoid being labeled stereotypically 'girly'. Now it turns out she might be the biggest romantic of them all."
Lily nodded, "I'll say; doesn't get more romantic than star crossed lovers escaping disapproving families."
"Technically only Thea's parents would disapprove," Severus pointed out, "If they could remember they had a daughter. Moreover, Simone still managed to set herself apart from the typical 'girly' role in romance. Rather than a damsel, she played the role of prince charming and rode in to save her princess."
Nesme sighed, "Either way, it's all very romantic. I always thought they'd make a lovely couple."
"You just never mentioned it out loud," Davis said sourly, "Seriously, you couldn't drop a little hint? It would be nice to know what's going on with my friends."
Nesme shrugged, "It was hardly my business to tell anyone."
"Just so were clear," Mary said, looking around her, "No one here has any problem with it, right?"
Lily shook her head, "Doesn't bother me."
"I've always rooted for them," Nesme added.
"If someone can figure out how to have sex with a giantess to make Hagrid, I can't say two witches in love is the strangest pairing I've heard of," Severus said bluntly.
"I didn't need that visual in my head," Davis groaned, scrubbing a hand over his face, "And yeah, I guess I'm not against them being together or anything. I just don't appreciate being left in the dark. I mean we were all privy to this triangle," he gestured at Severus, Lily, and Mary in turn, "And it seems like one or all of you are always poking around in my love life."
"Getting bewitched by a manipulative cow like Gertrude Pierce hardly counts as a love life," Nesme grumbled.
Davis glared at her, "I'm just saying; would it have killed Simone to share what's going on in her life?"
"Maybe she didn't know how we would react," Severus offered, "How all her bravado, Simone is an exceptionally sensitive girl deep down. I imagine she can handle disagreement among us on ideas and viewpoints, but she wouldn't be too keen on the possibility of one of us opposing who she is."
Davis huffed, "Still she could have said something. We're her friends," he slumped into his seat.
"Running off to do a goblin ceremony," he grumbled, "No invite, no note. Didn't think it important to drop us so much as a card."
"They're on the lamb, Davis," Nesme stated with a roll of her eyes, "Don't get your knickers in a twist simply because you wanted to be best man."
Davis flushed, "That's not why I'm mad."
"Uh-huh," Nesme said with heavy skepticism, "Simone's own parents weren't invited and I bet they're taking this better than you."
"I have to say I'm surprised goblins are so forward thinking," Lily said, changing the subject before Nesme and Davis could have a row, "They always seem so rigid and strict; marrying two women is rather progressive."
Davis shrugged, "Most sentient magical beings are accepting of various forms of relationships. Marriage—or 'bonding ceremonies, as most of them call it—are less for expanding one's property or bloodline and more for love and the sense of a strengthened community. It's humans that put so much importance on heirs and property."
"A clan led by two bonded men without any heirs hardly meant the end of their line," Severus added, "Goblins practice strong blood oaths for adoptions, making any child or ward they take in magically theirs by right. Considering how long other magical races live to begin with, reproduction is hardly that important to beings that live centuries and don't die easy."
"Humans lives are fragile and fleeting by comparison," Davis pointed out, "We're weak. Squishy. With how easy it is to die by illness alone for humans, having as many kids as you can as soon as possible has always been stressed as crucial. And then when fathers started using marriage as a way to trade daughters off for better goods and land, and marriage became a contractual arrangement of finances and population increase."
Davis turned to Lily and Mary, "In muggle culture, same sex marriage isn't legal most anywhere, right? Well in wizarding culture, it's frowned upon but occasionally accepted, usually only between same sex couples who are deemed past 'child bearing' age, which is…ancient. Old women can marry other old women because they're no longer capable of giving anyone an heir and vice versa for men."
"Now, marriage aside," Davis went on, "Homosexuality is sort of viewed as inconsequential; men are generally allowed to take male lovers, provided they still marry a woman and have a child. You just never talked about it. The same goes for women, though many people view lesbian relationships as hardly qualifying as relationships at all since idiots think a woman could never truly be satisfied by another woman the way a man could."
Lily scowled, "That total dragon dung!"
"Not arguing with you there," Davis agreed, "It's pretty stupid. But unfortunately that's how our society functions. Heirs come first; therefore marriage has to be between a man and a woman."
"But Simone and Thea could have a kid without marrying a man," Lily argued, "They just need a male friend willing to help them out."
Davis shook his head, "That's all very logical for you and me, but most old fashioned purebloods don't think so. You see, marriage is about binding one family to the other in wizarding culture. You both get access to certain assets and power in exchange for giving up something of equal value, be it your child or some of your family's wealth."
"The problem," Davis went on, "with a same sex couple seeking an outside source to make an heir is that biologically, only the parents involved in making the child can name it their heir; the spouse who didn't bear the child or provide their genetics would be parent in name only. Since heirs are everything in pureblood society, this usually doesn't sit right with them. This becomes an exceptionally big deal when the married pair are both male, since both have a family name to carry on."
"There's also the issue of getting someone from the outside to agree to help make a kid at all," Nesme tacked on, "Normally the only way a pureblood family would agree to a same-sex marriage between their family and another's would be if the outside party chosen to provide an heir is also pureblood, to keep the blood line 'clean'. The general agreement is that a person who provides an heir for a same sex pureblood couple cannot marry, to ensure there are not multiple families vying for rights over the heir. "
Nesme smiled wryly, "Trouble is most purebloods would never agree to give someone an heir for only moderate access to power and wealth allotted to a parent when they could just marry into another pureblood family and gain all the power and wealth allotted to a spouse."
"This is all sort of making me glad I'm not a pureblood," Lily confessed.
"All those contracts and agreements certainly takes the romance out of marriage," Mary agreed.
"Technically, we're still a slight step up from muggles," Davis pointed out, "I don't know of any modern societies in the muggle world that allow legal marriage between homosexuals. Wizarding society at least made exceptions."
Nesme snorted, "Yeah, ones based entirely on whether or not a woman had any remaining potential as a broodmare."
Davis cringed, "I didn't say there exceptions were based on fair reasons, just that its lucky we even have that. It could have easily remained illegal across the board for witches and wizards."
"If you ask me, Simone had the right idea," Lily declared, "Why play by the government's rules if they're discriminatory? Sure, maybe she and Thea could be allowed someday to marry under Wizard law, but probably only after they'd already been married to men, had children, and become widowed; basically only after they'd been deemed no longer of use for continuing a bloodline or two. If that's the legal option, I'd rather run off and marry on my own terms too."
Mary nodded, "Exactly. You know, in America, it was illegal to marry a muggle for some time after it became legal in Europe. Many folks just up and left the States to marry in England and Scotland, even at the risk of being arrested when they returned home. I can't see myself being kept from someone I loved or forced to live in secret all to accommodate some unfair laws."
"There was even a time where it technically wasn't illegal for a pureblood family to kill off a son or daughter who married a muggle or muggleborn," Severus stated gravely, "Without laws that outright declared it illegal to kill someone for intermarrying, Aurors weren't expected to actually hold the culprits responsible. The same went for occasions where a pureblood woman would be killed by her husband's pureblood family for failing to produce a male heir."
Lily shuddered, "Utterly barbaric. How can anyone have ever justified such things?"
Severus ticked off on his fingers, "Classism, sexism, prejudice, just a general hatred of all things 'other'; it can really warp a person."
"So glad I'm not a pureblood," Lily said, "I could never have the choice of who I marry be controlled by anyone but me. Imagine, arranged marriages."
"Arranged marriages are actually quite common in my stepfather's culture," Nesme admitted to the shock of her friends, leading her to quickly follow up with, "But it's usually not set in stone. Many families keep very open minds and you can turn down the arrangement when you come of age if you wish to find a partner on your own."
Mary relaxed hearing that, "Well that's good."
Nesme smiled, "You know, it's even common for single adults to ask their parents to set up an arranged marriage for them."
"They actually ask to be married off to a perfect stranger?" Lily bawked.
"Well it's not like they set it up and you are instantly married, "Nesme explained, "You meet the person many times, like on dates, and see if it's a suitable match. Normally you can still say 'no thanks' if you aren't compatible. But yeah, some people ask to be set up, usually if they haven't married by a certain age. Parents typically treat it as a means of assuring their child has a stable, hardworking partner with which to start a family. I mean, not every family is so easy going or kind, but most people I've met don't treat it like an unbreakable contract that you aren't allowed to refuse."
"I just can't imagine wanting to marry a person for any reason other than love?" Mary said, mystified.
"Well, an arranged marriage doesn't automatically mean a terrible, loveless marriage," Nesme pointed out, "I think Thea's betrothal was one of the extremes. Plenty of relationships set up that way, while maybe not a whirlwind romance, can be amicable and friendly. Some at the very least become good friends with their partners, even if they never romantically love one another."
Lily wrinkled her nose, "Still, I have plenty of friends, I'd hate to give up a chance to know true love just because a friendly arranged marriage was practical of convenient."
"You're a true romantic, Lily," Nesme grinned, "A sappy sort."
"I just want to be with 'the one', you know," Lily admitted. She risked a shy glance at Severus.
Severus felt his ears grow hot, hoping no one else noticed. This summer would mark the first time Lily and he would truly have some time to themselves since they got back together, since the infighting and trouble with the diadem had died down. He remembered all the heat, all the tension between them last break, when it had been just the two of them for hours at a time, lying next to each other at night, hidden up in some secret spot in Cokeworth during the day, where no one could see. He'd be lying if he said he didn't miss that.
He'd being lying more so if he said he wasn't nervous.
Things had been on the beginning of escalating before their fight, heading towards far more explicit intimacy than either of them was familiar. It was new and foreign to them, but their excitement had pushed them onwards, probably more quickly than either of them truly felt ready for.
Severus couldn't deny he wanted Lily; he was a teenager with needs and desires. But that didn't mean he'd honestly know what to do when the time came. For Merlin's sake, they'd be naked! He wasn't entirely sure Lily would like what she saw. He certainly wasn't the athletic build girls drooled over.
Severus shook away his thoughts. Perhaps he was overthinking this; maybe nothing like that was on the horizon anytime soon. Lily probably was nowhere near ready for such things.
Severus glanced at Lily, the redhead merrily chatting with her friends, not a care in the world.
As if feeling his gaze on her, Lily spied Severus out of the corner of her eye. She smiled flirtatiously at him, bringing the heat to Severus face once again.
Severus hid his face behind a curtain of hair; things promised to be very interesting this summer…
If anyone remembers me ever giving Davis a last name, please tell me XD. Also forgot Nesme's.
Make this quick before I pass out again, anyone happy with the points distribution? When you think about it, Nesme really was the only one to go into the Chamber with any sort of plan for worst case scenarios, including potions, blinding agents, and even something to imitate the cry of a cockerel. The others sort of went in only with a plan to avoid the creature at all costs; Nesme's the only one who thought to prepare for if the creature was unavoidable.
I still think marriage for procreation is mostly a human hang up because of how short their lives are compared to other creatures like Goblins and such. Why focus so much on using marriage for kids when everyone lives so long and you could just marry for love and friendship?
Review please :)