By Marie Noire
Chapter Three : Marauders' Mistake
They'd been revising for nearly five hours when she finally stretched back in her chair with a yawn and patted him on the back to draw his attention away from his own Potions notes.
"Hrmm?" he grunted by way of a reply, looking up at her like he had just been woken up from a deep sleep.
"It's past midnight, Severus…either we take a break and get some food or I'm calling it a night. What do you say?" she smiled, although her eyes were weary.
"Ahem… I didn't notice the time. Is it really past midnight?" he coughed in embarrassment.
"By my Time-Keeper, it's quarter after… but I'm not surprised you didn't notice." She paused, looking at his various spread papers meaningfully. "You're really passionate about this, aren't you? I mean you're tops in the class and Professor Jekyll thinks you're god's gift to Potions."
He flushed at the compliment. "I suppose I am… passionate about it, I mean… not god's gift… ahem…" Inwardly, he cringed at his sudden habit of sounding like a babbling idiot around her. She was easy enough to ignore when he only saw her from across a classroom… but the one-on-one revisions were making him entirely too aware of how pretty she was. The fact that she was a Gryffindor barely seemed to register in his mind.
"I knew what you meant, Severus… allons, let's go raid the kitchen. I bet there are plenty of leftovers from dinner." She tugged at his sleeve.
"But… we're not suppose to wander the halls at night. What if we're caught?" he protested as she pulled him through the library doors.
"Caught by whom? Peeves? None of the teachers are up this late either, I imagine. If someone stumbles on us, then we tell them the truth. We were studying and got hungry. We're not going to get expelled for having a snack-attack, now are we? Besides, as long as we're quiet, no one will catch us." She insisted as they rounded the corner and heading for the great dining hall.
Despite his misgivings, she was right… the school was quiet and still all the way to the kitchens… even the house elves were nowhere to be seen. She winked at him as she pointed at the remains of a large roast on a counter top. His stomach grumbled softly and he was reminded that the two of them had skipped dinner to revise. Now the idea of sneaking to the kitchens for food seemed like the best idea of the millennium. She handed him a plate and together they finished off the leftover roast. Conversation was slow to start in favor of eating, but soon enough, she broke the silence.
"What are you going to do after graduation?" she asked as she piled a few more slices of roast on her plate.
He shrugged. "I'm not all that certain yet. I want to pursue Potions of course, but I haven't decided how. Maybe I'll research new ones…test combinations that haven't been tried yet."
She nodded thoughtfully. "I can certainly see you making breakthroughs in potion-making… on the cover of the Daily Prophet… Hogwarts Grad Severus Snape Discovers Cure For Vampirism…"
He chuckled at the extremity of her suggestion, but flushed with pride nonetheless. "I doubt that…"
"I think you'd make a brilliant professor. You could teach and research those new potions of yours. You'd never let anyone get away with anything, that's for certain." She suggested.
"I've thought of that… not sure I'm cut out to be a professor thought. We'll see." He shrugged. "What about you? What are doing after graduation?"
"Well… since I spent most of the last seventeen years with my mum here in England… I promised my dad that I'd go to a wizarding university in Paris. I've already been accepted to Beauxbaton's School of Higher Wizarding. I think I'll be majoring in some branch of Charms." She explained around a swallow of pumpkin juice.
"Why Charms?" he asked, uncertain as to why he was troubled by the idea of his uninvited study partner going to live in France.
"It's my best subject. And I enjoy it. I've been working on modifying a few of the simpler spells on my own." She admitted with a pink blush to her cheeks.
"Have you? Which ones?" he queried curiously.
"Voyons…well…the levitation one…I've got to where I can get an object to float in one spot without moving for up to a week without recasting the spell. The petrifaction spell… I can work at a longer distance and the duration I longer. A few others too." She listed a little reluctantly.
"How have you gotten such results?" he wondered aloud.
She bit her lip. "Promise not to laugh?"
He looked taken aback. "I don't laugh at anything that gets results."
"Eh, bien… I don't suppose you remember that section in fifth-year Charms about musicology?" she sighed.
"Vaguely."
"Well… I rather enjoyed it and found that using musical elements combined with material ones yielded a significantly improved outcome. I've even created a spell or two that are worked using only musical elements." She whispered conspiratorially.
A rare smile spread his mouth. "Brilliant! Can you show me?"
She glanced around, as though looking for any errant house elves. "Well… d'accord." She hopped out of her chair and fetched what looked like a glass ball from her bag.
"What on earth..?" he mumbled.
She smiled and abruptly dropped the ball, which promptly bounced off the floor and right back into her hand. "Relax… it's just clear rubber… a Muggle toy called a super ball. I used it because it wouldn't break."
That said, she placed it on the table, right by his hand and took a few steps back, her wand still in her pocket. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, clearly concentrating. Then she opened her mouth and began to sing. He distantly recognized the words as those used in the levitate spell, but he had never heard such a voice! Her soft soprano was clear and soothing… it wasn't until the ball was several feet off of the table that he was able to focus on it. It was floating gently in tandem with her voice, without the benefit of a wand! His jaw dropped slightly as he watched it float towards her in a gentle ballet before landing in her hand.
She smiled at him expectantly. "Well… what do you think?"
He blinked. "That was… superb. Amazing! And you did it without even using your wand!"
Her smile broadened as she came back to the table. "Thanks, Severus… that means a good deal coming from you… I mean it."
He shrugged. "Why should you care what I think?"
She blushed again. "Well… you are one of the few people who I know would tell me the truth regardless of how I might react. If you thought it was stupid, you'd say so. And you are not easily impressed."
"True enough…" he admitted.
A comfortable silence descended while they both cleared their dishes and began the trek back to the library. He wanted to take her hand as they walked; as he had seen other students do in the light of day. But he resisted the urge carefully, chiding himself for being childish. As they drew closer to the library, he swore that her heard whispering ahead. Tally must have heard it as well, for she slowed her step, brow furrowing as she tried to make out the words.
"Can you see them? Are they studying?"
"Hush up… I don't see them. If that slime-ball lays a hand on her, I'll punch his big nose off his face."
"Guys, hurry up… we are not supposed to be in the halls. What if Peeves shows up?"
"Oh can it, Peter."
Tally and Severus rounded the corner silently to find James, Sirius, and Peter crouching by the library doors and peering through the crack, trying to see beyond. Tally's stance changed, her hands straying to her hip immediately as she stopped.
She cleared her throat loudly and nearly sent the three boys through the roof. "What are you three doing here?" she demanded in an angry tone.
Sirius was the first to recover, approaching her confidently, sneering at Severus. "Keeping an eye out for our friend, of course."
Tally's sweet smile did little to tamper the sarcasm in her voice. "How sweet… go to bed, Sirius. That goes for you two as well."
"Great." James said cheerfully enough. "Come on, Tally… we'll walk you back."
"Severus and I are not done studying yet, thank you very much." She replied coldly, ignoring James' offered hand and walking through the library door. She all but ran to the table without looking back, her blood boiling.
"The nerve of those gits!" she growled. "Thinking that they can direct me. Just who do they think they are?"
She turned to address Severus and was momentarily stunned when he was not behind her. The sound of someone being thrown against the library door sent her running back outside. There, Sirius had shoved Severus against the wall and was snarling aggressively. James and Peter stood to one side, having the decency to look shocked at their friend's actions.
"I swear to God, you touch one hair on her head and I will hit you so hard that Salazar Slytherin will feel it. You got that, trash?"
"Let go of me." Severus replied fairly evenly. "Or does it make you feel superior to bully those smaller than you… and of higher intellect?"
"You ugly sonofa-"
"SIRIUS!" she shrieked, causing yet another wave of heart attacks among the boys. Without warning she threw herself at Sirius, knocking him off of Severus purely by the element of surprise, several choice phrases streaming out of her mouth in angry French. "Don't you EVER threaten my friends again!"
"Tally!" he yelled. "What on earth has gotten into you? WE'RE your friends remember? Not that greasy excuse for a wizard!"
"If you are going to behave like this, Sirius, then you and I are NOT friends… understand?" she fired back, her voice deadly serious. "Now go to bed before I kick you all the way there myself. Peter… James… goodnight."
Sirius picked himself away from the wall, rubbing his jaw where she had struck him. "What are you saying, Tally?" he asked in a softer voice. "I'm just trying to protect you. I mean, have you forgotten who he is?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Remind me, Sirius… just who is he?"
"Severus Snape! A Slytherin! A greasy, prejudiced slime-ball who's probably feeding you the wrong answers just to make you fail… jut so he can congratulate himself on topping a Gryffindor." Sirius grumbled.
She nodded. "Severus…are you helping me… or hurting me?"
He didn't look surprised at the question and answered on beat. "Helping you… as of right now, I will be taking your grade in Potions as seriously as my own."
"There's your answer then, Sirius… if you still feel that way… then YOU are the one being prejudiced… not him." She said quietly, turning and heading into the library with Severus in tow. "Goodnight, Black. See you in Muggle Studies tomorrow."
Severus stood in startled silence while Tally marched off in a considerable temper. The other three boys, with Sirius looking particularly stricken, eventually followed her path towards the Gryffindor common room. Severus remained at the library door, vaguely noting that he should extinguish the lights and lock the door for the night before Peeves or the Bloody Baron showed up. She had… stood up for him? To her own Gryffindor housemates, no less? Why? True, he was helping her with Potions… and technically she was in his debt… but such a display of fury for the sake of a Slytherin was not in usual Gryffindor habit… even one with a debt.
Could it be that… even as he was starting to genuinely enjoy her company… to the point of wishing they could spend time together outside of studying… was she possibly feeling the same? His heart lifted at the idea. He had never thought of it before. Certainly he noticed others in the school pairing off together… James and Lily, naturally… Sirius and whomever he was dating at that particular second of the day… Lucius and Narcissa. But he never paid much attention and preferred devoting his attentions to his schoolwork over the nubile charms of his female counterparts. This was not to say that he didn't notice when a pretty Ravenclaw passed him in the hallway or when a sultry fellow Slytherin sat across from him at dinner… he just noticed and then went on with his business. But now this fair-haired Gryffindor was stealing his concentration from him.
He wasn't certain he liked this.
But he couldn't deny that the light in his soul unquestionably felt more comfortable than his usual heavy-hearted mood.
How could he have known then how everything would end up?