Ok, I'm sorry about the part of this chapter with malfoy in it. I thought
it was extremely funny, and I know I said malfoy would get to her. He
does. Just not yet. Ok? And here it comes.
Sasina (Sass for short) Chapter 7- Surprising Implications
Inside, Professor Lupin sat at his desk, head in his hands, with an expression of such mourning that Sass wanted to just sneak back out and pretend she'd never been there. But Lupin had looked up upon her entrance, and now gestured to her to enter.
"I'm sorry," he said, and she guessed, from his voice, that he'd been crying, "I forgot completely about our meeting. I got some- some bad news today."
Sass almost offered to leave, but then she remembered Myrtle's offer, and their consequent friendship. She knew that Severus hated Professor Lupin, but that didn't mean she had to as well. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked tentatively.
Lupin looked hard at her, as though surprised by the offer. /He's probably heard all the rumors and more about Severus' and my friendship/, she thought. But then Lupin spoke. "Alright then. It's going to be all over the school by tomorrow anyway." He sighed, as if wondering where to begin.
"Well, my older brother and his family live in the United States," he said. "He and his wife work for the government in their capital, in a place called the World Trade Center. Early this morning several wizards from Afghanistan, suicidal religious fanatics, hijacked some commercial planes and crashed into the two WTC towers, as well as another building. I just got the news from my parents- they're both dead." He looked down, obviously too shocked for words.
"I- was very close to my brother. After- I had some problems as a child, and he really helped me come through, despite danger to himself. And his wife was a wonderful woman. I- I'm really going to miss both of them." Sass surprised herself by empathizing with the man. Before she knew it, she had crossed over to his side of the desk and gripped his shoulder.
"I'm sorry for your loss," she said, facing him squarely. "If there's anything I can do to help you, just let me know. Seriously. I know how it is to lose someone you love, and I would like to help you however I can."
Lupin looked up, surprised. But as he looked into her eyes and read the pain there, he nodded slowly. "Thank you Sasina," he said. "I appreciate that."
Then Sass grinned. "Call me Sass," she said. "Everyone does. And how about we postpone our talk about the dementors until, say, Saturday. Sound good?"
Then he smiled too. "Sounds good, Sass. And. call me Remus."
Sass nodded, then left.
* * * * *
Sass was almost right in her thoughts about the other students' reactions to her being moved up in classes. But, to her mild surprise, Sandra was sticking by her as best she could. She was nicer to Sass than anyone else, and never tried to trip her or insulted her.
Another surprise was Sass' steadily growing friendship with Myrtle, who, she now knew, was called Moaning Myrtle by most of the school. She looked up some spells in the library, and now the damp and mold were gone from the bathroom, and two stalls had been combined to make a cozy little room where Sass could study, eat, relax, or sometimes even sleep, when the other girls decided to do something nasty to her bed.
Sass was determined not to let the student's petty cruelty get to her. She always had Myrtle, Severus, Sandra, and was beginning to count Remus Lupin as another good friend. The dementors talk had gone well, and now she was meeting with either Remus or Severus almost every night. So even though it was miserable a lot of the time at Hogwarts, it was better than the orphanage, and Sass knew it would get better. But to her surprise, something changed very quickly, and although it didn't fix things, it certainly did make them better.
* * * * *
It was Sass' third Potions lesson with the third year Gryffindors and Slytherins. She wished, as she brewed an Enlarging Solution (they had just finished with Shrinking Solutions), that she were in Hermione Granger's position. Sass was no smarter and no more stuck up than she, but Sass would bet that if /Hermione/ had been pushed up in some classes, she wouldn't be getting scorn and abuse from every student in the school. There would be a little unpleasantness, but mostly just sighs and shaking heads, because /everyone/ knew that /Hermione/ was smart. Unlike the little brat of a first year who'd made friends with /Snape/ to get pushed up.
/And besides/, Sass thought wistfully, /I keep my head down in class. I'm never a know-it-all like she sometimes is. Oh well, that's life for you./
She sighed and stirred her potion. She instantly regretted showing her moment of weakness, because Malfoy was sitting across from her and looked up slyly.
"What's wrong, mudblood?" he said, not bothering to lower his voice. Sass was a little surprised. He had been reacting to all four Houses' raucous approval of torturing her by stepping it up, but this was the first time he had taunted her in a class. "Wishing you could go home?" he continued, smirking at the grins on everyone's faces, Gryffindors included. Sass sighed again and pressed a small button on her watch. Had he forgotten her friendship with Severus? Right now he was out of earshot, but with the ruckus this was causing, it wouldn't take long for him to see that something was up. "Oh yes," Malfoy sneered, "I'd forgotten. You don't have one. You're a," he pretended to wipe a tear from his eye, "orphan. Poor child." He reached over as if to pat her on the head but stopped. "Oops. Wouldn't want to get my hands dirtied on you," he said, smirking.
Sass looked to see what the rest of the class thought of this statement. She noticed that Harry Potter and his friends weren't smiling like everyone else was. Not that they felt sorry for her. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been rivals with Malfoy before they'd even set foot in the school. Plus, Harry himself was an orphan, and Hermione was a 'mudblood,' so there were two more points against Malfoy. Sass sighed a third time and added her newts' tails to her potion. /This sighing is getting to be a habit/, she thought with a trace of grim amusement. /I should stop./
She ignored Malfoy as his insults grew steadily more creative, moving from her parentage to their- and her- probable sexual orientation and pastimes. He then insulted her looks, her intelligence, and her eating habits. Sass was getting sick of it, though, and had started thinking about something that would shut him up when a sudden hush fell over the dungeon, which had begun to ring with the badly-hidden sniggers of her 'classmates.'
She looked up to see Severus silently gliding over to her table, and smiled a little, touching her watch again. Malfoy apparently hadn't noticed, and was now moving on to the origins of her ancestors. Severus' soft voice cut across his sneering one like a whip. "What, exactly, is going on here, Mr. Malfoy?" he said silkily and completely neutrally.
Malfoy looked /just/ like someone in a movie who's heard the bogeyman behind him. He started, and for a moment there was a look of total shock and horror on his face. But he recovered his composure quickly and turned to face Severus, sneering once again. "Sir," he said plaintively, "I was sitting here, minding my own business, brewing my potion," he gestured at his cauldron, his voice sickeningly sweet, "when she," no doubt who he meant, "slapped me on the face!" He showed Severus the side of his disgusting face, which was not at all red.
"And then," he continued, "she reached over and dumped an extra /cup/ of thistles to my potion! I may have gotten a bit carried away," he said, sniggering a little, "but I was very frustrated, and it had just happened when you came over." Sass sighed. /Got to stop that. Fourth time this lesson!/ Malfoy had neglected his brew in favor of taunting her, and, predictably, it had turned bright pink (as opposed to ice blue).
Malfoy sat back, his speech done, waiting for Severus to take the accustomed fifty points from Gryffindor. /I don't believe it!/ She thought in amazement. /Can he actually have forgotten that it's Severus I'm friends with?/ It certainly seemed likely, judging by the look on his face when Severus, instead of barking out something about detention and points, calmly said, "Is this true, Miss Celeborn?"
Malfoy's mouth opened in shock. "No, Professor Snape," she said, just as calmly as he. "I did not touch him, and the problems with his brew are his fault and no one else's. And he had been cursing at me for," she looked down at her watch, "four minutes and fifty-nine point six-two seconds before you asked him what was going on."
Sass hadn't thought that Malfoy's mouth could open any wider, but she was wrong. He gaped at her, completely and utterly flabbergasted. "You- you-"
"I timed you," she said, fighting the urge to laugh in his face. Then she turned back to Severus. "Sir?"
Severus smiled slowly, and looked from her to Malfoy and back again. "Mr. Malfoy, your rude conduct is shocking. I am very regretful that a student in my own house would use such shocking behavior. You lose thirty points, and you will have detention for the next week."
Then he turned to Sass. "Miss Celeborn, I am impressed with your restraint in the face of Mr. Malfoy's rudeness. Take fifteen points." He walked back to his desk and delivered the parting shot over his shoulder.
"Mr. Malfoy, this is a warning. I will not accept this behavior in my class. Next time, it will be sixty points." Then he sat down in the chair at his desk and turned it so his back was facing them.
Sass looked around at the puzzled students, and (a/n: guess what) sighed again.
* * * * *
The events of that Potions class dramatically changed Sass' standing with the other students, at least the Gryffindors. Jessica and Marisa, of course, still hated her and were mean at every opportunity, but those were fewer as the others weren't so into it anymore.
Another unexpected event was when Hermione Granger took Sass aside the next time they were together in the library. "Look, Sasina, I'm sorry everyone's so mean to you about getting pushed up in the classes. You have to understand that we all hate Snape, and, well, frankly, for good reason. But I can see that you're a good kid, and, well, if you need help catching up in your classes, I'm glad to help."
Then, before Sass could respond, Hermione had walked briskly away and buried her nose in a book, leaving Sass staring at her in total and complete shock.
Thereafter, Hermione always helped Sass with her homework (when she needed it) and gave people who teased her glares that Sass thought should be able to melt ice. Sass was so happy to actually have some friends near her age, for really, the first time. On Hermione's suggestion, she took out a subscription of The Daily Prophet (a wizarding newspaper) to help her get caught up on news. There she found out about the escape of Sirius Black (an inmate at the wizarding prison of Azkaban), who, upon investigation, turned out to have been one of Voldemort's best spies- and the Potters' best friend.
One thing puzzled her about the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing, though. Why had Voldemort wanted to kill Harry in the first place? It made no sense.
She resolved to start looking for Black around the grounds. She had a hunch that, no matter what people said, he could, and had gotten in to Hogwarts. And her ability to avoid Paul's henchmen back at the orphanage had taught her to always follow her hunches.
So that was why she left dinner early on her birthday, and walked, deadly silent, up to the Gryffindor common room, ready for anything.
* * * * *
Sass peered down the hall before her, struggling to see if anyone was there. The darkness obstruction, though she was pretty sure not as much as Black's would be, if he was here. She heard a noise, and froze instantly, shrinking into the shadows. As Mrs. Norris passed Sass, she breathed a sigh of relief. She had always gotten on well with cats. Whatever. When Mrs. Norris turned a corner, Sass unstuck herself from the wall and continued down the hall. Sass was almost to the Gryffindor Tower when she heard the noises. She dropped lower into her crouch and listened intently. It seemed like someone was arguing.
As she drew closer, Sass recognized one voice as the Fat Lady, but the other one was no one she knew- that of a man, hoarse and angry. /Black,/ she thought. Sass felt a thrill of excitement and silently told her nerves to behave themselves. From all accounts, Sirius Black was a hardened killer, and a traitor to boot- not someone she should be excited to see.
The last corner melted away just as the Fat Lady started to scream.
Sass started as a gaunt, scraggly man attacked the Fat Lady's portrait with a knife, slashing her canvas into strips. He was cursing loudly, in between demands, almost prayers, for her to let him in.
From what Sass could see, the Fat Lady had refused to let Sirius Black into Gryffindor Tower, and so he had resorted to violence.
Suddenly, the Fat Lady fled her ruined portrait, leaving Black staring at an empty frame. He cursed once more, softly this time, and looked around. Sass resisted the urge to shrink away. Her hiding place was perfectly good, but the gaze that swept over her was haunted, piercing, and not quite sane.
Sass blinked. Black was gone! In his place was a large black dog. / How could he have Transfigured himself so quickly/- she started to think, but then it hit her. /He's an Animagus!/
As she followed the dog down the almost-dark hall, she realized it made perfect sense. If Black could turn into an animal, then he could slip past the guards of Azkaban. Azkaban was guarded by dementors, which could only sense emotions- they were blind! They must not have been able to sense him as a dog. And he retained his sanity by becoming the dog, because the dementors couldn't drain him then! And no one was guarding Hogwarts against animals. it made perfect sense.
Thinking done, she refocused on following Black, only to see that she had lost him. /Shit!/ she thought. /Sass, you've got to keep your mind on what you're doing, or else-/
"Who are you and why are you following me?" A rough hand grabbed her shoulders and she felt a knife at her throat.
~~~
Well, that's the 'or else!' who is it? Read on, as the next part is in chapter 8. REVIEW!!!!!!!!
Sasina (Sass for short) Chapter 7- Surprising Implications
Inside, Professor Lupin sat at his desk, head in his hands, with an expression of such mourning that Sass wanted to just sneak back out and pretend she'd never been there. But Lupin had looked up upon her entrance, and now gestured to her to enter.
"I'm sorry," he said, and she guessed, from his voice, that he'd been crying, "I forgot completely about our meeting. I got some- some bad news today."
Sass almost offered to leave, but then she remembered Myrtle's offer, and their consequent friendship. She knew that Severus hated Professor Lupin, but that didn't mean she had to as well. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked tentatively.
Lupin looked hard at her, as though surprised by the offer. /He's probably heard all the rumors and more about Severus' and my friendship/, she thought. But then Lupin spoke. "Alright then. It's going to be all over the school by tomorrow anyway." He sighed, as if wondering where to begin.
"Well, my older brother and his family live in the United States," he said. "He and his wife work for the government in their capital, in a place called the World Trade Center. Early this morning several wizards from Afghanistan, suicidal religious fanatics, hijacked some commercial planes and crashed into the two WTC towers, as well as another building. I just got the news from my parents- they're both dead." He looked down, obviously too shocked for words.
"I- was very close to my brother. After- I had some problems as a child, and he really helped me come through, despite danger to himself. And his wife was a wonderful woman. I- I'm really going to miss both of them." Sass surprised herself by empathizing with the man. Before she knew it, she had crossed over to his side of the desk and gripped his shoulder.
"I'm sorry for your loss," she said, facing him squarely. "If there's anything I can do to help you, just let me know. Seriously. I know how it is to lose someone you love, and I would like to help you however I can."
Lupin looked up, surprised. But as he looked into her eyes and read the pain there, he nodded slowly. "Thank you Sasina," he said. "I appreciate that."
Then Sass grinned. "Call me Sass," she said. "Everyone does. And how about we postpone our talk about the dementors until, say, Saturday. Sound good?"
Then he smiled too. "Sounds good, Sass. And. call me Remus."
Sass nodded, then left.
* * * * *
Sass was almost right in her thoughts about the other students' reactions to her being moved up in classes. But, to her mild surprise, Sandra was sticking by her as best she could. She was nicer to Sass than anyone else, and never tried to trip her or insulted her.
Another surprise was Sass' steadily growing friendship with Myrtle, who, she now knew, was called Moaning Myrtle by most of the school. She looked up some spells in the library, and now the damp and mold were gone from the bathroom, and two stalls had been combined to make a cozy little room where Sass could study, eat, relax, or sometimes even sleep, when the other girls decided to do something nasty to her bed.
Sass was determined not to let the student's petty cruelty get to her. She always had Myrtle, Severus, Sandra, and was beginning to count Remus Lupin as another good friend. The dementors talk had gone well, and now she was meeting with either Remus or Severus almost every night. So even though it was miserable a lot of the time at Hogwarts, it was better than the orphanage, and Sass knew it would get better. But to her surprise, something changed very quickly, and although it didn't fix things, it certainly did make them better.
* * * * *
It was Sass' third Potions lesson with the third year Gryffindors and Slytherins. She wished, as she brewed an Enlarging Solution (they had just finished with Shrinking Solutions), that she were in Hermione Granger's position. Sass was no smarter and no more stuck up than she, but Sass would bet that if /Hermione/ had been pushed up in some classes, she wouldn't be getting scorn and abuse from every student in the school. There would be a little unpleasantness, but mostly just sighs and shaking heads, because /everyone/ knew that /Hermione/ was smart. Unlike the little brat of a first year who'd made friends with /Snape/ to get pushed up.
/And besides/, Sass thought wistfully, /I keep my head down in class. I'm never a know-it-all like she sometimes is. Oh well, that's life for you./
She sighed and stirred her potion. She instantly regretted showing her moment of weakness, because Malfoy was sitting across from her and looked up slyly.
"What's wrong, mudblood?" he said, not bothering to lower his voice. Sass was a little surprised. He had been reacting to all four Houses' raucous approval of torturing her by stepping it up, but this was the first time he had taunted her in a class. "Wishing you could go home?" he continued, smirking at the grins on everyone's faces, Gryffindors included. Sass sighed again and pressed a small button on her watch. Had he forgotten her friendship with Severus? Right now he was out of earshot, but with the ruckus this was causing, it wouldn't take long for him to see that something was up. "Oh yes," Malfoy sneered, "I'd forgotten. You don't have one. You're a," he pretended to wipe a tear from his eye, "orphan. Poor child." He reached over as if to pat her on the head but stopped. "Oops. Wouldn't want to get my hands dirtied on you," he said, smirking.
Sass looked to see what the rest of the class thought of this statement. She noticed that Harry Potter and his friends weren't smiling like everyone else was. Not that they felt sorry for her. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been rivals with Malfoy before they'd even set foot in the school. Plus, Harry himself was an orphan, and Hermione was a 'mudblood,' so there were two more points against Malfoy. Sass sighed a third time and added her newts' tails to her potion. /This sighing is getting to be a habit/, she thought with a trace of grim amusement. /I should stop./
She ignored Malfoy as his insults grew steadily more creative, moving from her parentage to their- and her- probable sexual orientation and pastimes. He then insulted her looks, her intelligence, and her eating habits. Sass was getting sick of it, though, and had started thinking about something that would shut him up when a sudden hush fell over the dungeon, which had begun to ring with the badly-hidden sniggers of her 'classmates.'
She looked up to see Severus silently gliding over to her table, and smiled a little, touching her watch again. Malfoy apparently hadn't noticed, and was now moving on to the origins of her ancestors. Severus' soft voice cut across his sneering one like a whip. "What, exactly, is going on here, Mr. Malfoy?" he said silkily and completely neutrally.
Malfoy looked /just/ like someone in a movie who's heard the bogeyman behind him. He started, and for a moment there was a look of total shock and horror on his face. But he recovered his composure quickly and turned to face Severus, sneering once again. "Sir," he said plaintively, "I was sitting here, minding my own business, brewing my potion," he gestured at his cauldron, his voice sickeningly sweet, "when she," no doubt who he meant, "slapped me on the face!" He showed Severus the side of his disgusting face, which was not at all red.
"And then," he continued, "she reached over and dumped an extra /cup/ of thistles to my potion! I may have gotten a bit carried away," he said, sniggering a little, "but I was very frustrated, and it had just happened when you came over." Sass sighed. /Got to stop that. Fourth time this lesson!/ Malfoy had neglected his brew in favor of taunting her, and, predictably, it had turned bright pink (as opposed to ice blue).
Malfoy sat back, his speech done, waiting for Severus to take the accustomed fifty points from Gryffindor. /I don't believe it!/ She thought in amazement. /Can he actually have forgotten that it's Severus I'm friends with?/ It certainly seemed likely, judging by the look on his face when Severus, instead of barking out something about detention and points, calmly said, "Is this true, Miss Celeborn?"
Malfoy's mouth opened in shock. "No, Professor Snape," she said, just as calmly as he. "I did not touch him, and the problems with his brew are his fault and no one else's. And he had been cursing at me for," she looked down at her watch, "four minutes and fifty-nine point six-two seconds before you asked him what was going on."
Sass hadn't thought that Malfoy's mouth could open any wider, but she was wrong. He gaped at her, completely and utterly flabbergasted. "You- you-"
"I timed you," she said, fighting the urge to laugh in his face. Then she turned back to Severus. "Sir?"
Severus smiled slowly, and looked from her to Malfoy and back again. "Mr. Malfoy, your rude conduct is shocking. I am very regretful that a student in my own house would use such shocking behavior. You lose thirty points, and you will have detention for the next week."
Then he turned to Sass. "Miss Celeborn, I am impressed with your restraint in the face of Mr. Malfoy's rudeness. Take fifteen points." He walked back to his desk and delivered the parting shot over his shoulder.
"Mr. Malfoy, this is a warning. I will not accept this behavior in my class. Next time, it will be sixty points." Then he sat down in the chair at his desk and turned it so his back was facing them.
Sass looked around at the puzzled students, and (a/n: guess what) sighed again.
* * * * *
The events of that Potions class dramatically changed Sass' standing with the other students, at least the Gryffindors. Jessica and Marisa, of course, still hated her and were mean at every opportunity, but those were fewer as the others weren't so into it anymore.
Another unexpected event was when Hermione Granger took Sass aside the next time they were together in the library. "Look, Sasina, I'm sorry everyone's so mean to you about getting pushed up in the classes. You have to understand that we all hate Snape, and, well, frankly, for good reason. But I can see that you're a good kid, and, well, if you need help catching up in your classes, I'm glad to help."
Then, before Sass could respond, Hermione had walked briskly away and buried her nose in a book, leaving Sass staring at her in total and complete shock.
Thereafter, Hermione always helped Sass with her homework (when she needed it) and gave people who teased her glares that Sass thought should be able to melt ice. Sass was so happy to actually have some friends near her age, for really, the first time. On Hermione's suggestion, she took out a subscription of The Daily Prophet (a wizarding newspaper) to help her get caught up on news. There she found out about the escape of Sirius Black (an inmate at the wizarding prison of Azkaban), who, upon investigation, turned out to have been one of Voldemort's best spies- and the Potters' best friend.
One thing puzzled her about the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing, though. Why had Voldemort wanted to kill Harry in the first place? It made no sense.
She resolved to start looking for Black around the grounds. She had a hunch that, no matter what people said, he could, and had gotten in to Hogwarts. And her ability to avoid Paul's henchmen back at the orphanage had taught her to always follow her hunches.
So that was why she left dinner early on her birthday, and walked, deadly silent, up to the Gryffindor common room, ready for anything.
* * * * *
Sass peered down the hall before her, struggling to see if anyone was there. The darkness obstruction, though she was pretty sure not as much as Black's would be, if he was here. She heard a noise, and froze instantly, shrinking into the shadows. As Mrs. Norris passed Sass, she breathed a sigh of relief. She had always gotten on well with cats. Whatever. When Mrs. Norris turned a corner, Sass unstuck herself from the wall and continued down the hall. Sass was almost to the Gryffindor Tower when she heard the noises. She dropped lower into her crouch and listened intently. It seemed like someone was arguing.
As she drew closer, Sass recognized one voice as the Fat Lady, but the other one was no one she knew- that of a man, hoarse and angry. /Black,/ she thought. Sass felt a thrill of excitement and silently told her nerves to behave themselves. From all accounts, Sirius Black was a hardened killer, and a traitor to boot- not someone she should be excited to see.
The last corner melted away just as the Fat Lady started to scream.
Sass started as a gaunt, scraggly man attacked the Fat Lady's portrait with a knife, slashing her canvas into strips. He was cursing loudly, in between demands, almost prayers, for her to let him in.
From what Sass could see, the Fat Lady had refused to let Sirius Black into Gryffindor Tower, and so he had resorted to violence.
Suddenly, the Fat Lady fled her ruined portrait, leaving Black staring at an empty frame. He cursed once more, softly this time, and looked around. Sass resisted the urge to shrink away. Her hiding place was perfectly good, but the gaze that swept over her was haunted, piercing, and not quite sane.
Sass blinked. Black was gone! In his place was a large black dog. / How could he have Transfigured himself so quickly/- she started to think, but then it hit her. /He's an Animagus!/
As she followed the dog down the almost-dark hall, she realized it made perfect sense. If Black could turn into an animal, then he could slip past the guards of Azkaban. Azkaban was guarded by dementors, which could only sense emotions- they were blind! They must not have been able to sense him as a dog. And he retained his sanity by becoming the dog, because the dementors couldn't drain him then! And no one was guarding Hogwarts against animals. it made perfect sense.
Thinking done, she refocused on following Black, only to see that she had lost him. /Shit!/ she thought. /Sass, you've got to keep your mind on what you're doing, or else-/
"Who are you and why are you following me?" A rough hand grabbed her shoulders and she felt a knife at her throat.
~~~
Well, that's the 'or else!' who is it? Read on, as the next part is in chapter 8. REVIEW!!!!!!!!