Chapter Sixty-Nine: Confrontation
"Just what is going on here?" Severus asked his daughter, a little too threateningly. He realized a second later how frightened she was, and with some pride watched her straighten and face him as she would any adversary –bravely.
"I don't know what on earth you're talking about."
"Yes, you do."
Julie scratched at the white lock in her hair and tried to look nonchalant. If he knew about what she thought he knew about, she was dead meat anyway, so she might as well try all the tricks.
"If it's about Chloe's wardrobe, I had nothing to do with it."
"Oh, don't play that game with me, Julia!" Snape whispered coldly. Inside it was hurting him to do this to his own child, but there were no remaining alternatives. "Your friends aren't quite as loyal as you hoped."
Julie knew that was a lie and gathered strength from it.
"So Jen squealed about the smut Mitchie found on the telly here."
"No, Julia. Your other friend." Snape indicated her still-sore arm. "One of the greater lessons that they don't teach Aurors, always warn your men not to drop their guard. Even if it's, say, around someone unconscious."
Julie went ashen.
"Never?" she asked, voice trembling a little.
"Even if it's to say, oh, I don't know –'I love you'." Severus sighed. "How long has it been going on?"
"Since- since a little before the play in drama club."
"And how serious is it?"
"Not very. I see more serious things among Hufflepuff third-years."
"As serious as Michelle and Donaghan?" Julie looked at her father in surprise. "Yes, I know about that, too. Draco lacks the vaunted Gryffindor chivalry, enough to go sneaking behind my back, but the Scot doesn't."
"He was only sneaking because I told him not to tell."
"You lie worse than your mother, Julie." Snape smiled almost tenderly and Julie sprang back to the argument.
"And what about Mum? She knew that I fancied him. You were older than Draco when you two fell in love, what kind of hypocrisy is this?"
"The situation is similar, but the parties involved are not!" Snape almost shouted. "Your mother was an honest person, a Gryffindor, and apart from one mistake mostly on my part, we conducted ourselves far from the way I'd expect from two Slytherins!"
"One mistake? Meaning me? You said to put me in Gryffindor!"
"Because I hoped it would make you more like her!"
He had said it. Julie kept up the bold façade or Severus would never have continued:
"You are a Slytherin, Julia. If you hadn't grown up with Muggles you'd want them dead, and it's only your mother's blood that gives you enough compassion for that! You are cold, impetuous, and if you weren't in Gryffindor you'd loath yourself. That's why you're there, not because of some silly scar. I didn't want the dark in me to come out in you, but it looks like it is."
Starcatchers didn't cry. Julie stood coldly.
"Fine."
A second later, the blinds on the huge window bent and tore apart, bits of glass flying inward from some outside force. A man dressed in black had swung in on a rope, wand pointed at Severus Snape.
"Avada-"
Just as suddenly, a thin woman with black hair appeared at his side and knocked the man's arm awry. Green light hit the wall behind Julie and her father, breaking chunks of plaster off. A knife in the thin woman's hand slid into the attacker's throat.
Watching de Diablo die was nothing like this. Julie stood in horror as blood bubbled from the man's neck, cries for mercy in a foreign language rendered unintelligible. The woman let the body fall and walked toward Julie. White, colorless eyes, with only a ring of black to mark where the iris should be, stared like something from a strange nightmare.
"I never happened," the figure said.
A second later, she was gone in a puff of smoke. Horrified, Julie turned and hugged her father, sobbing like a very tiny child. Snape found himself apologizing over and over for what he had just said, uncertain as to what might have happened a moment ago. Finally, he picked up the woman's discarded knife.
"Which of us saved whom?" he asked his daughter.
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"Go on, Sweets! Get the ball! Good doggie!"
Chloe was having a much better time with the Brooklynite as a bichon frise. A chastened-looking Mitchie appeared, drew her wand, and mumbled the spell to reverse the transfiguration.
"Arf! Shit!" Sweets found herself looking very silly on all fours.
"Mitch! Did you have to?" Chloe protested.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Mitch?" Sweets got up and gave Mitchie a little shove. "Turning me into a dog! And I thought we were friends!"
"You thought."
"Well, whyever wouldn't we be?" Sweets inquired, looking a little sad. A light suddenly went on above Mitchie's head.
"You didn't fight to keep me off the team?" she asked.
"I offered to quit so that you could play. You're a better Keeper."
"You never fancied Theodoric?"
"You didn't either!" Sweets protested, then suddenly reconsidered her position. "Well, I did think his butt was hot."
"But that article about werewolves?"
"The editors re-cut it! I thought it was fascinating, being able to turn into something else, but they wanted to sell papers!"
"So you aren't a bigoted, brainless New Yorker?"
"So you don't hate me for writing that article?"
"No!"
The two girls hurried and hugged each other.
"Wolfy witch?" Mitchie offered her hand tentatively.
"And Brooklyn bitch!"
The two females then executed a genuinely bizarre, freakishly complicated secret handshake that involved no less than three rather scandalous gestures. Donaghan, who was standing off to the side, went scarlet and ordered Theodoric to stop watching.
"You mad? I've seen it, lots."
"All they need is a really polished pole and some costumes," Chloe observed. Donaghan went really red and looked about to smack her. "Sorry, mate."
Having finished their little ritual, Mitchie and Sweets began to animatedly discuss what sounded like a combination of Quidditch, local news, and smutty music videos. Chloe eventually managed to join them, but Theodoric and Donaghan were shut out. Jen appeared a moment later with a shiny cellophane ball.
"Do you think Emmy will like this, Theo?"
"Yes, darlin', I think she will. By the way, are you up for a broomstick ride?"
"Oh, sure." Jen tucked the ball into her pocket. "Where are we going?"
"I was thinking Richmond, Virginia."
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"What the hell happened in here?" Snape asked, looking around at the sea of furry creatures.
"The pliquash reproduced," Hermione explained, taking one away from A.J. just before he popped it into his mouth.
"How?"
"Apparently pliquashi and puffskeins can mate." Narcissa Malfoy looked more amused than anything. "Randy little fluffballs, though, aren't they?"
"What are we going to do with them?"
"Ee-ee!" A.J. shrieked happily.
"Oh, yes, 'ee-ee.' That's so very helpful, son."
"Don't you dare be sarcastic to that baby!" Narcissa intervened. "It's not his fault the bad old house-elves left Barry White playing." She tickled A.J.'s tummy and he laughed.
"You still have house-elves?" Hermione asked, amazed.
"Of course! Some of them are still in therapy, but mostly they've gotten over Lucius well." Narcissa took another sip of her martini, gently removing the pliquash who had been trying to taste it. "Webby and I have played poker since Draco was born."
"Speaking of your son," Severus began.
"Fancies your daughter? Don't worry, they aren't shagging."
"Balls on a stick! When did you find out?"
"You know, Sev, I've been telling you for years to pay more attention. It's just about flamingly obvious."
"I've known Julie fancied him since the moment he squeaked in in those leather pants," Hermione remarked. Severus looked about to swallow his own tongue. "Don't worry, dear, it's because you're a man."
Severus picked up his baby son.
"Tell me you don't know everything I don't?"
"Da-da!"
"Well, alright then. How serious are they?"
"Oh, Sevvy, it's the sweetest little affair, the pampered, rich little mama's boy falling in love with the self-sufficient and streetwise daddy's girl…"
"Don't throw the word 'affair' around like that, Narcissa!" Severus pleaded.
"Why not? It's so beautifully French, like –what was that Louis Jourdan movie?"
"'Gigi'?" Hermione suggested.
"That's the one. Except there aren't any fountains to burst into song around."
"There will be no bursting into song!"
"Why not?" Narcissa waved her wand and the traditional orchestra started out of the woodwork. "A man chases a girl,"
"Until she catches him," Hermione supplied.
"It always turns out exactly the way she planned." the two witches chorused.
"Are you saying Julie's responsible for this?"
"Lord, no, Sevvy!" Narcissa exclaimed. "When an
irresistable force,
Such as hers,
Meets some old immoveable stump
Such as his
You can tell as sure as you live,
Something's gotta give
Something's gotta give
Something's gotta give."
"That sure sounds like you think she's responsible."
"We can't help it, dear, we're female," Hermione explained. "Just by being her normal self, Draco fell arse-over-teakettle."
"Poor sod didn't stand a chance." Narcissa looked to be winding herself up for another song and Hermione shook her head. "Oh, okay."
"So you two think it was going to happen anyway?"
"As Sibyll Trelawney would say, 'it is the promptings of fate.'"
"They'll probably just get sick of each other eventually. My son's a real ass sometimes."
"And if not?" Severus raised his eyebrow.
"Well, I always have thought of you as a brother, Sev." Narcissa fixed herself what was either a second or an eighth martini, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. She turned to Hermione. "One more song?"
"If you feel you must."
"The French are glad to die for love-"
"Not that again."
"Oh, okay." Narcissa leaned over A.J.'s crib and began to sing a Raffi song. Disturbed by the sight of Slytherin's most devious grande dame performing the ballad of a little white whale, with no merciful Captain Ahab in sight to stop her, Severus fled. Hermione winked at Narcissa and followed him.
"Darling, are you alright?" she asked.
"No, I'm not. She's supposed to graduate and repel the adoring throngs of men like a duck until she finally settles down with someone perfect for her." Severus leaned his head on his hands. "I thought we would have more time."
"We did lose a lot," Hermione admitted. "I really don't think this is serious, though. Narcissa just likes to yank your chain."
"What if it is? Look how young you were!"
Hermione bent down and kissed Severus.
"That doesn't mean I stopped being a daddy's girl."
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