{Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers. I, therefore, own no parts of this save Andromeda McGee and Wyvern, who are figments of my imagination.}
Chapter 30
Puzzle Pieces
**Don't let me second guess / What I know to be real/ Put away all I know for tonight/ And maybe I just might learn to let it go/ Take my security from me/ And maybe finally I won't have to know everything/ I am falling into grace to the unknown to where you are/ And faith makes everybody scared it's the unknown/ The don't-know that keeps me hanging onto you/ I got nothing left to defend "Unknown" Lifehouse**
Andy slumped again the wall, grateful for its early morning coolness. Her headed throbbed mercilessly with the metronome beat of a drummer echoing off the walls of her skull. She moaned, rubbing her eyes and cursing the little voice inside her that was calling her a stupid idiot for drinking too many martinis.
"Well, well, well, what have we here?"
She mumbled something that sounded like distinctly like "Sod off."
"I don't think so. You're coming with me, McGee. It would do you no good to have students see you like this."
Another garbled response came. She slowly lifted an arm, more needing than wanting help to get up. Snape stared at her hand for a moment before deciding that she actually did require the assistance. With a hand on her back, he guided her into his lab. He silently handed her a dark brown phial. Andy gazed at it, doing nothing.
"You are supposed to drink it."
She lifted her eyes away from the potion and began to clearly enunciate her words. "I know. I was deciding whether or not it would be wise. I was attempting to teach myself not to do that again. Taking the potion would dull the consequences."
"That is the whole point of why I gave it to you. We need to talk and you need to be able to think straight."
"Fine," she tipped back the vial and closed her eyes. Almost miraculously the pain vanished. She reopened her eyes to a clear, non-spinning world. "Now that the marching band has ceased playing in skull, what do you want?"
"I want to know why you did what you did last night."
"I have three words for you."
Snape gave her an odd look.
"No, not those words, you bastard! I was inebriated." She ticked each word off on her fingers. "That's three."
"There was something else, you weren't that far gone."
"Well, yes, I suppose that might have been some thing else…"
"Tell me."
"Are you sure you want to know?"
"McGee, just stop your stalling and give me an explanation."
"Fine, if you really want one. Sirius was watching. His door was open and he easily saw us there."
"And you kissed me just to get him riled up. Congratulations, you've almost learned how to plot against some one."
"You didn't think I meant something by it, did you?"
"I told you before, there is nothing serious behind any of this. I just wanted to know if it was simply because you were intoxicated."
"Sure you did," Andy replied, not believing any word of what he had said. "Look, I apologize for doing it, if that's what your problem was."
"You don't need to apologize for it."
"If it made you hunt me down at," she looked at her watch, "before seven in the morning, then its needs an apology because it obviously confused you. So how about dinner?"
"Dinner?"
"Sure, why not? Think of it as part of the plot. Black is next door to me, you know. He'd be thoroughly aware if you were to come over."
"What time?"
"Let's say around eight, my room."
"You have yourself a deal."
"Marvelous. I shall see you then." Andy left the room, leaving Snape to wonder about her once again.
"Why, Remus, I ask you why?"
"Padfoot, Andy is perfectly capable of surviving on her own."
"That's what I'm afraid. She still won't listen to me! I've tried, I really have! I can't get through to her!"
"I am honestly not surprised with her reaction."
Sirius stopped his pacing to face the werewolf. "Why? She's always listened to me before."
Remus leaned back in the chair, arms crossed over his chest. "For those three months that you refused to talk with her, her life was completely miserable. If you noticed, not only did she all of the sudden close her self away from the world, which is highly un-Andy like behavior, she stopped eating for a while, she stopped talking to people, she was highly depressed! She even stopped talking with me, just because of you."
"I know."
"No, you don't know, Sirius. She has every right not to listen to you. You killed every chance with every dark word you said. Slamming the door in her face was just the beginning. I bet you that she remembers every insult you called her, every time you told her that she couldn't be trusted, every one of your angry glares."
"Remus, I..."
"No, listen to me. She came in here one night, balling her eyes to me because of something you had said. Do you know awkward it was to have one of your friends do that to you and know that another friend caused her pain? No, you don't and that's where your problem lies."
"Fine, I'm listening, okay? I know what I did to her was wrong. All I want to do is apologize."
"Andy is currently plotting your demise; she is not going to take that very well or easily. It will take awhile."
"Yeah, I suppose it will."
"Give her time. She knows you are trying to talk with her. Eventually she might give in."
"Might? She's turned me away more than once, walked out on me, burned the letter I tried to send to her."
"That's my point. You chose the wrong person to piss off. She's almost as bad as Snape with holding grudges."
"That's the other thing: she and Snape!"
"What's wrong with that?"
"She's spending too much time with him."
Remus laughed. "No matter how hard you try, she's not yours anymore. She can spend time with whoever she wants to, even if it is Snape."
"But I saw her kiss him!"
"Where?"
"What do you mean, where? They were outside her room."
"No, where did she kiss him, lips, cheek?"
"Cheek, why?"
"You have nothing to worry about, then. If you remember, our Andy is also one of the biggest teases in Hogwarts' history. A kiss on the cheek is nothing serious. She's kissed me before. She probably did it just to piss him off."
"But you're a Gryffindor! He's a Slytherin, and a greasy one at that!"
"Which is why she would do it, because we all Snape hates Gryffindors and probably hasn't had a girl in who knows how long. Andy takes great pleasure in infuriating the man."
"She's doing a wonderful job infuriating me right now!"
"And she's probably enjoying every minute of that, too."
"How can you say such a thing, Moony?"
"You made her life a horrible mess, why shouldn't she do the same for yours? It would make perfect sense."
"Yes, but…" Sirius trailed off, not wanting to believe it.
"Let me tell you something. Andy told me that she and Snape worked together for years under the old Potions Master. She said that was the only reason that they ever got along was because the old bat had forced the two of them to work with each other. All they'll ever have is a working relationship, nothing to worry about."
"Why didn't she ever tell me?"
"I believe her almost exact words were 'Sirius might have killed one or both of us if he knew it was just me and Snape in the dungeons.' She didn't want anybody to get hurt."
"She still should have told me."
"She just told me a few months ago because she knew I wouldn't harm anyone. She also warned me not to tell you until after the Quidditch match so no one would get hurt then either."
"Pity, I have yet another reason to murder Severus Snape now. When I get my hands on him, he's going to be one sorry bastard."
"Do wait until after the Quidditch match. It is impossible to play without a Seeker and he's the only one we have."
"Fine. I suppose I can wait."
Snape calmly walked down the hall towards Andy's room. It was a minute to eight o'clock. For what he knew, she was not a stickler on time. He knocked at the door.
"It's open!" Andy's muffled voice was followed by a loud crash and a few explicatives. He reluctantly opened the door to the room, expecting the worse. An orange blur shot out, nearly missing his legs.
"Damn cat!" He cursed the creature. He glanced around the room anticipating complete chaos. What he saw was far from it. The Gryffindor had some how managed to clean up the entire area. A table and two chairs sat in front of the fireplace, neatly set and adorned with floating candles. An ice bucket sat nearby, chilling a bottle of wine. Rachmaninoff played in the background, countering with the sizzling coming from the kitchen. He stood by the door, arms crossed, and waited for her to make an appearance.
"I'll be right out, just have take this off the burner…" A few seconds later Andy appeared, carrying a large bowl of what ever dinner happened to be. She set it on the table. Tucking a loose tendril of hair behind her ear, she turned toward the visiting Slytherin. "Well, don't you clean up nice." He had indeed cleaned up very nicely. He was wearing a simple black pair of pants, and a black Oxford type shirt, but what impressed her the most was that his hair was washed and combed.
"I could say the same to you as well."
"But…"
"There was no 'but."
"You implied one," Andy put her hands on her hips. She had ended up in a nice pair of black dress pants and a striped tank sweater.
"Slytherins don't do complements."
She pouted. "Alright, if you say so. Have a seat, it's all ready. I hope you can use chopsticks."
Snape looked warily at the bowl in the middle of the table, then to the chopsticks crossed over his plate and the perspiring glass of white wine that Andy had just poured him. "How far did you have to go to find a decent Chinese restaurant?" he asked after successfully picking up a shrimp with his chopsticks.
"Not very. The kitchen was close enough."
"The Kitchen, I'm not familiar with that one."
"Sev, I cooked this. Well, stir-fried it, actually, if you want to be specific."
"You made this?"
Andy solemnly nodded her head. "Of course I did! I am perfectly capable of creating edible food."
"I'm impressed, McGee. I was fully expecting you to have made the house elves make something up."
"Nope, I made it. I made desert too, but that's for later."
"How long did you spend on this?"
"A few hours, between finding the ingredients and actually preparing them, I think. The stir-frying itself only takes about a half hour with all the preparation. Desert took a little longer, but that was because that was a new recipe."
He raised his eye brows, not expecting her to have spent that much time on creating one meal and for him nonetheless. "You didn't have to do that."
"I know, but it was fun. I haven't had a reason to break out the wooden spoons in a long time."
"What exactly is this that you made?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I used a few different recipes. Basically, it's shrimp scampi with vegetables over pasta. The sauce is a wine and butter with a bit of ginger. I improvised most of it. Why do you ask?"
"Because I want to know what I am eating."
"Don't worry, I wouldn't try to poison you, especially in my own room. That would be too easy to trace."
"I know that."
"Do you?"
"You wouldn't use poison. It's too subtle for your Gryffindor mind."
"Very funny, even though you probably are right. Poison wouldn't be as much fun as slowly strangling you to death with my bare hands."
"McGee," he warned her.
"Alright, fine, not tonight, no death threats, except for maybe Sirius…" Andy noticed his empty plate. "You all finished?"
"Yes."
She stood up, clearing the table. Balancing the dishes on one hand and the remainder of the scampi on the other, she returned to the kitchen. With a flick of her wand, they were cleaned and put away, the shrimp saved for Wyvern. She turned to walk out of the small room to see Snape there holding the rest of the dishes. "Oh, thanks." The dishes disappeared like the others had. "You didn't have to help, I could handle it."
He shrugged. "I wanted to see the rest of your rooms."
"Alright, if you say so." Andy opened up the small refrigerator and pulled out a covered container. "Do you want desert now or do you want to wait?"
"What is it?"
She popped the lid with a flourish. "Black Forest Cheesecake. This is what took me the few hours. Damn difficult things, cheesecakes."
"Then why did you make one?"
"I did it to see if I could still make one. So do you want it or not?"
"Is it edible?"
"It should be."
"Fine, slice it up."
"Do you want coffee or tea with it? I have both around here some where."
"Tea, please."
"Alright, give a few minutes to get things together."
Snape left the room with the plate of Black Forest Cheesecake and sat down on the overstuffed red leather couch that had been moved to where the table had been. He hadn't expected Andy to do any of this. He had maybe expected something that the house elves had cooked up, but not for her to have slaved for hours in her kitchen for him. It had surprised him that she cooked, though it probably shouldn't have. With her potions experiences, why wouldn't she understand the subtleties of spices and flavorings? She was rather good at it and he had immensely enjoyed what she had prepared. He took a bite of the cheesecake as Andy reentered the room holding two steaming mugs of tea.
"It's Earl Grey, only thing I could find that would go with the cheesecake. Green tea with mint just wouldn't do it," she placed the mug on the end table and sat down on the other side of the couch. "Does it pass?"
"Yes," he surprised himself with saying. "It does. Where did you learn to do all of this?"
Andy laughed before answering. "My father taught me a lot of it, actually. He'd come over on weekends over the summer and we'd cook. My mum wanted nothing to do with me, but dad was still there, so he taught me what he knew. Ben, of course, forced me to prepare dinner and such for him so I had practice. I spent the summers cooking, that's all."
"And you retained all of it after what happened to you?"
"Sure, it had nothing to do with my memories of myself. It's the same reason I remembered the piano and the Spanish and a bit of martial arts. They had nothing to do with who I actually was, just stuff I learned to do."
Snape took another bite of the cheesecake. It was addicting after awhile. He took a deep breath, not wanting to admit to what he would have to say. "I am thoroughly impressed with all of this, McGee."
"Wow! That wasn't too hard to do. I'll have to remember that. The easiest way to impress Severus Snape is with a good, home-cooked meal. How long has it been since you've had one?"
"I cook perfectly fine for myself when school is not in session."
"How about the last time you had someone else cook for you?"
He paused before answering, thinking about the last time. "Years. The last girlfriend I had couldn't tell salt from sugar."
"That bad, eh? You must have been highly disappointed."
"That was why we broke up." It had been that and a few other reasons that weren't worth mentioning.
"I'm sorry, that was probably a very bad topic," she peered at him over the rim of her over-sized mug. "I'll cook for you sometimes if you want me to. It's rather boring only cooking for one person."
"Why me? Why not someone else?"
"Because you need it more than anyone else and the rest of the faculty still hates me from when I was a student here, so there is no one else. Plus, you seemed to enjoy it."
"What about Lupin?"
"He put up with my cooking skills for years. He's used to it."
"Your friends used to make you cook for them?"
"No, I chose to do it. It annoyed the hell out of the house elves when I started small fires in the corner of the dormitories to stir-fry over. They never liked me doing that for some reason."
"So that explains why they would grumble about the scorch marks in the Gryffindor Common room."
"Yeah, after a few times, I got it to be fuel-less and portable but that took a bit of time. Until then, they had to put up with me."
"What about the rest of your house?"
"They didn't care. As long as I cleaned up after myself, they didn't bother me, I got to cook, and the rest of the gang got food."
Snape looked at his watch. "It's getting late. I'd better get going, especially if we have practice early tomorrow morning."
"Alright," Andy walked him to the door. "Bye, Sev. Just owl me when you want to do it again. I have a new lasagna recipe I want to try sometime."
"You have yourself a deal. I suppose I should thank you, McGee."
"It was nothing."
"No, thank you. It was enjoyable. Good night."
Andy watched him stalk down the hall in a blur of black. What an odd man. She had gotten him to loosen up a bit. It had surprised her that he had liked her cooking. The dishes she had made were nothing spectacular. The cheesecake was the more difficult of what she had created, but that had turned out close to perfect. There were only a few cracks on the top. She laughed to herself, leaning against the door. The poor man probably hadn't done anything like that in, literally, years. That was what he got for getting himself involved with Andromeda McGee. He had been serious about the lasagna thing, too. That was for next time.
Snape strolled back to his room, hands shoved in his pockets, and a slight smile on his face. Yes, it had been years since he had done something like that. Andy was a nice girl, but she was not his. They were only friends. It helped a good amount that she could cook. That had highly impressed him. It had been the first time that someone had made him a special dinner in a long time. The scampi dish had been simply delightful and the cheesecake, he shook his head, that had been as near to perfection as a cheesecake could be. He almost felt content with life. It was a pity that her talent had been wasted on a Gryffindor.
{Author's Note: That was a long one, but I promise more action to come. The next chapter is the Quidditch match. From what ideas I have for that chapter, things will get pretty interesting to say the least. Yes, interesting definitely describes them. Insert evil laughter here The plot bunnies are returning! Some how I have always pictured my plot bunnies as the little while rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That's a point to think about. Just to warn you, the first half of this was written between 12:30 and 2 in the morning.
Anna Black: I shall have to read it again. Yes, poor Snape. He honestly does not realize what he's getting involved with. Lover's spat at breakfast? Maybe in the sequel that I am considering writing. He hasn't gotten himself too involved with her yet to realize that he maybe likes her. Yes, poor Sirius as well, but that's his problem. He chose the wrong person to mess with. But things change…And olives are a part of martinis, not margaritas. The chapter did say martini and I'm not hallucinating. My friend Kate was sitting next to me when I checked. She saw 'martini.' A margarita is a frozen drink. I don't remember exactly what they're made of, but I think its tequila and lime.
VMorticia: It gets more confusing, that's all I have to say. Just out of curiosity, where do you think that its going?
WeasleyTwinsLover1112: No, not cuddly. Somehow when you said that, I kept thinking about the scene from 'Lilo and Stitch' with whole "You forgot Fluffy!" Never mind.
Hikahi: Of course I updated! I have up to chapter 33 written so all I have to do is find time to post the chapters and write author's notes to them and finish the story, but that'll take a while. Yeah, poor Snape, that's what I said. I glad you liked that part. If you want to know when I update, just give you e-mail in a review. I have a list on my yahoo account that I use for update notices. You can be as hooked as you want. I'm hooked on writing this; you can be hooked on reading it.
Ignominia: Those would be my fortes, even more so since school started and the only classes I look forward to are AP Physics and Sculpture.
Enjoy! Peace, Love, and More Coffee Ice Cream, Nataly Ravenlock}
