Nightbirds
And when the wind draws strong
Across the cypress tress
The Nightbirds cease their songs
So gathers memories.
-Loreena McKennitt, "Courtyard Lullaby"
This had gone too far.
Snape stormed out of his classroom, clutching the parchment tightly in a white-knuckled fist. His normally flat black eyes were flashing dangerously as he flew through the corridor looking for her. There was no other explanation; it had to be her behind these ridiculous messages. "Tinuvial!" he yelled angrily, hoping that she would hear him. By a stroke of luck, he found her in the next corridor.
"What is it?" she asked, somewhat annoyed.
"Most everyone else is still asleep, Severus. You're being very rude indeed."
He shoved the parchment at her. "Why
the bloody hell are you doing this?" he asked in tone that was part furious,
part hurt.
"Doing what?" she asked somewhat snappishly, her previous good mood
quickly dissipating. She took the
parchment and read:
JAMES AND LILY! THE LONGBOTTOMS!
CEDRIC DIGGORY!
The list went on for quite some time, but Tinuvial stopped
reading after a few lines. She looked
at Snape in utter disbelief. "Why," she
began to ask very deliberately, "do you think I would do something like this?"
"Because you're the only person here who ever said I was a murderer," he
snapped. "You accused me of it once,
remember?"
"Of course I remember. There is nothing
wrong with my memory." She glared at
him, rather angry that he would even accuse of her of something so
ridiculous. "But in case you've
forgotten, I apologized and forgave you a long time ago, do you
remember?"
"Well, then who's doing it?" he asked, not entirely sure he could believe her.
She spread her hands. "Why do you think I would know? What, do you think I'm…smuggling Sirius Black in here just to torment you? Believe you me, Severus, if I wanted to give you a hard time, you would know."
He stared at her for several seconds. "Alright," he finally said with gritted
teeth. "But this isn't the first thing
I've gotten. The first morning you were
here, I went into the lounge and all the photo albums were opened to pictures
of the Potters. Everyone knows that I'm
usually the first person in there every morning."
"I didn't know," Tinuvial said rather sharply.
"Did you think of that? My first
morning here and you expected me to know your daily habits?" He didn't answer. "I respect you more than you can know, Severus, but, honestly! There are times when I could positively
strangle you." She turned on her heel
and stormed away from him, all vestiges of her good mood gone completely.
***
Although he would never admit it, Snape did feel rather guilty about accusing Tinuvial of leaving such childish messages around for him. When he actually did think about it, it didn't make any sense that she would do something along those lines, as subtlety is not one of her more prominent attributes . He looked at the paper again. He saw her family listed on there, but apparently she had not seen it.
He sighed, crumbling up the paper and throwing it into the fire. Perhaps he would apologize to her again if he saw her later, but, if not, he would simply let it pass. Back in school, after the death of her brother, she had been quite emotional for many months and would quickly lose her temper over something trivial. Snape learned that the best way to deal with it was to let it pass and she would eventually tire of avoiding him. Hopefully, that hasn't changed much, even if he did rather start this argument.
Luck was with him that day, it seems, because when he saw Tinuvial at dinner,
she was friendly enough, but not overly so.
The assembled staff of Hogwarts spent a great deal of dinner discussing
the resignation of Cornelius Fudge and the appointment of Arthur Weasley as
Minister of Magic.
"I think it's a brilliant move!" Professor Flitwick
proclaimed, jumping up on his seat, yet still only reaching the shoulders of most
teachers. "The Weasleys are one of the oldest and most respected wizarding
families around."
Professor Trelawney, whose glasses seemed to get bigger every year, shook her
head wispily. "I have seen," she said
dramatically, "that hard times are ahead."
"I'm sure you have, dear," Madam Pomfrey said absentmindedly. "Albus, what do you think?" Dumbledore
merely smiled.
"In my opinion," Snape said, cutting through the silence that had fallen
briefly, "it's a disastrous idea.
Arthur Weasley is the father of Fred and George Weasley, not to mention
Ronald Weasley. Any father who cannot
control their children can hardly be expected to control a government."
Professor McGonagell cleared her throat.
"In case you've forgotten, Severus," she said in a somewhat reprimanding
tone, "Arthur is also the father of Bill, Charles, and Percy Weasley. I need not remind that the three of them
were all model students and are doing quite well for themselves. And his daughter, Ginny, is heading along
those same lines."
Snape heard someone trying not to laugh a few seats down from him. He glanced over and saw that Tinuvial was
bent over her food and biting her lips, unsuccessfully holding back a smile. "Besides, Severus," she called down to him,
unable to look for fear of losing control, "since when have you become an
expert on parenting? Unless you're not
telling us something, I see no offspring of yours that enable you to speak on
the parenting skills of others."
Several of those present smiled or laughed lightly.
He said nothing back, but concentrated on his dinner. Despite the remark she made at his expense, Snape was actually
rather relieved. If Tinuvial was
throwing retorts back at him and smiling while she did so, perhaps his
behavior this morning has been forgiven.
The rest of the dinner conversation continued, but Snape did not participate in it anymore. He ate quickly, occasionally throwing glances down the table at Tinuvial, who was speaking animatedly with Professor Flitwick. Something about her was different tonight. She didn't look so pale and wan as she did when she first arrived, nor as thin. There was a definite flush to her cheeks and seemed more energetic than before. He didn't realize it, but there was a tiny smile- just barely a shadow of one- on his face as he watched. She seemed less like the frail woman he had seen before but more like the promise of the lady she would have become years ago if circumstances had not prevented it.
He excused himself from the table and left the Great Hall,
considering going to his office, when he heard footsteps from behind.
"Severus," Tinuvial said, catching up with him, her eyes somewhat anxious, "are
we alright, then? From this morning, I
mean?"
He nodded. "I really am sorry," he said
quietly. She shook her head with a
sigh.
"I could see how you would have thought it was me doing that," she
admitted. "It does seem rather
suspicious, doesn't it?" Snape did not answer.
She laughed rather bitterly. "This
has been a bit awkward for us both," she said, looking at him keenly. "We're not the same people we were eleven
years ago and a lot has changed in the world around us." Her brow
furrowed. "Although, if you think about
it, we're very much close to the same situation now that we were back then.
With Voldemort, I mean." She smiled
somewhat. "Except you're on our side
now. And that makes a huge difference."
Snape looked at her intently. "If you
had the chance," he asked carefully, "would you kill him?"
"Voldemort?" She bit her lip. "Yes."
"Have you ever killed anybody before?"
She looked away from him. "Yes," she whispered. "Three Dark wizards. One in Romania, two in Dublin. I don't want to talk about it."
"I've killed before, too," he admitted, surprising himself. "But I expect you knew that." Tinuvial shook her head.
"You were a Death Eater, so I rather expected that you had," she answered in a
neutral tone. She was about to say
something else she abruptly changed the subject. "Ready for the term to start?"
The rest of their conversation was centered around the safe topic of the
beginning of the school term and teaching.
In time, Tinuvial bid Snape good night and left him standing alone in
the hallway. He watched her close her
bedroom door with just the faintest flicker of a smile on his face again. For some reason, he felt- he knew-
something had just been repaired in their friendship. For the first time in God knows when, his heart felt just a
little lighter.
