Layers of Nonsense

Chapter 2:

Dungeon Man

***

Author's Ramblings: I'm going to Boston for the weekend, so everybody waiting for chapter two of I Thee Wed should be expecting an update for early next week when I get back. I hope you enjoy this until then.

Disclaimer: I don't own Snape or Sinistra. If I did, well, let's just say Snape would look like Alan Rickman from Sense and Sensibility all the time. Have I commented on that too much?

Dedication: To the cute guy at Starbucks who always knows what I want, even when I don't. It's freaky and flattering all at the same time.

***

Ever since Snape and Sinistra's last parting, the castle had felt the war they were waging with each other. Well, not so much felt, but saw and heard, because neither were actually very subtle about their feelings.

The first morning after their argument in the corridor, they greeted each other like so:

          "Good morning, Severus, I do hope you slept badly."

          "Only because I had nightmares involving you, Auriga."

Snape-0; Sinistra-0.

On the second morning they only sneered at each other, something that Snape did much better than Auriga. Something he did much better than anyone.

Snape-1; Sinistra-0.

The third morning Auriga accidentally tripped Snape as they both entered the Great Hall, but threw off suspicion by attempting to help him up. "Clumsiness gets a hold of the best of us sometimes," she said in a saccharine voice.

Snape-1; Sinistra-1.

These sort of occurrences continued on for a good week, ending with Snape taking all the lenses out of the telescopes in the astronomy tower, and then claiming he'd only wanted to clean them. "To help out my dear friend, Professor Sinistra," he'd insisted when McGonagall confronted him.

That was the last straw. By early evening they were both seated in Professor Dumbledore's office, being offered lemon drops as they sat in their chairs sulkily.

Eventually, the headmaster moved past greetings and onto bigger and better topics of conversation.

          "So, Severus, how have you been finding the dungeon in the summer heat? Somewhat dank, I suppose?"

Snape only shrugged, casting his gaze out the window as he did so. Dumbledore only laughed.

          "And you, Auriga? It must be somewhat hot so high in your tower?"

Auriga smiled bashfully. "I suppose so, headmaster." In truth she found the tower no such thing, she'd cast cooling charms weeks ago. She suspected the headmaster knew this, but was getting at something neither she nor Severus would be happy about. After all, her intuition hadn't died with her ego that night she'd been discovered peeking into Snape's chambers.

          "Well, that is a dilemma!" Dumbledore continued. "Of course, it's not the only one."

          "Is there anything we can do to help, Headmaster." Auriga did not see the nasty look Snape shot her when she uttered the word "we."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in a way they hadn't in a very long time. The past few weeks had been terrible ones for the aged wizard, not even the blindest of men could have said otherwise. For this reason, the expression he wore now made Auriga's heart soar, and she promised she'd do anything he asked of her.

          "I want," the aged wizard began, "for you and Severus to go on a mission for me."

Both stared at him in complete incredulity.

"Together," Dumbledore added.

Auriga swiftly reexamined the definition of the word anything, then went back to her silent stupor. Finally, Severus managed a humorless chuckle. It sent chills up Auriga's back and she studied him through a curtain of her hair.

He didn't look happy. Indeed, he looked downright homicidal. Auriga edged her chair away from the potions master very slowly, hoping nobody would notice the scraping of her chair on the floor.

          "Professor," Snape said, his voice practically a growl, "you cannot expect to let such a person jeopardize the lives of countless innocents because of inexperience and sheer ignorance."

Though Auriga had been silent until this point, she jumped to her feet when Snape was finished. Nobody she had ever met managed to make her feel as terrible about herself as Snape did, and she wasn't above showing him her "experience" the old-fashioned way. She reached for her wand. However, Dumbledore shook his head at her, and waved her back down to her seat. Once settled she began to fix Snape with a look of the utmost loathing.

          "Severus," Dumbledore's words were no longer light. "I have faith in Auriga, and you should as well."

Snape showed the barest trace of a nod, at which Auriga snorted. Snape raised an eyebrow at her, and Dumbledore ignored the sound all together.

          "This summer I will be closing down the castle to all but myself and a select group of Aurors, all of whom will be working with me to put up extra wards and precautions. The evil that threatens us cannot be expected to stay clear of our school, and I want to be prepared if need be.

          "Every professor will be asked to find other means of occupation during the holidays, but each will not be left to wander aimlessly. You two shall be going to a provincial town in France, located directly on the sea. There, a small monastery is located."

Snape, who seemed unable to withhold comment one moment longer, said, "Sorry, Professor, but I'm not exactly devout, nor do I enjoy the sea."

Dumbledore smiled at Snape's comment, taking no offense whatsoever. Snape got the notion that the headmaster found his ire amusing, and his scowl deepened to a level that was not only near impossible, but totally deserving of the myth that it could freeze that way. "It is not, Severus, just any religious building. In it, you will find scrolls of great importance to me, scrolls that contain some of the most powerful spells ever to have been created. They exist only to protect innocence and purity, and have been safeguarded for years. It is time, however, to bring them back to Hogwarts. The students here need them."

Snape had his head in his hands now, and Auriga's mouth was hanging open.

          "Merlin, Dumbledore, next you'll be asking us to bring back the Holy Grail!"

          "Nothing so difficult, Severus."

Auriga swallowed a lump in her throat that she'd had since Dumbledore began telling his tale. "Professor," she squeaked, "why do you need me to go?"

          "Indeed," Snape muttered not-so-under his breath.

          "Because, Auriga, I need you to transport the scrolls, for they can only be touched by one who had never killed."

Auriga eyed Snape warily. "If what you're saying is that Dungeon Man can't do this himself, I'm left to draw only one logical conclusion."

Snape rolled his eyes. "When have I ever given off the impression that I'm innocent and pure, you twit. And don't call me Dungeon Man!"

          "That doesn't mean you'd have to have killed…Dungeon Man," she shot back.

Dumbledore gazed at Snape thoughtfully. "You two have much to talk about," he said. "I cannot force either of you to be as open as I would like, but I do hope that in time you will become closer than you are now."

The two stood to leave, but not before Dumbledore muttered, "Which wouldn't really be accomplishing much, would it?"

***

As Snape and Sinistra walked down the hall, neither made any form of contact with the other. When they reached the Great Hall, Auriga hesitated, staying firmly rooted to where she had stopped.

          "Right foot, left foot," Snape sneered, "it's not that hard!"

Auriga made a face at him that she hadn't used since she was eleven. "Thank you for your concern." She moved her arms to her hips. "I think we need to talk."

          "Ah," Snape said. He remained silent for a moment, then told her, "I think not."

          "I'm not asking you for your favorite type of pastry. This is just a tad bit important. You don't think you owe it to me to tell me who you killed?!"

Snape moved a hand over her mouth in one swift moment. When he removed it, Auriga was staring at it strangely. "You smell like the herbs my mother used to grow in her garden."

Snape rolled his eyes. "First you shout out to the whole world that I've…you know, and now you're going all nostalgic about your childhood."

Auriga reddened a bit. "Shut it."

          "Gladly."

With that Snape turned in the direction opposite the Great Hall and began heading for the dungeons. Auriga huffed and ran after him.

          "Wait, Dungeon Man!" Oddly enough, Snape did nothing of the sort. "Oh, bother." Auriga muttered, before trying a different approach. "Severus! Severus, please wait!" This time Snape slowed down a little. Auriga broke into a full out run this time, catching her prey on the arm.

          "If Dumbledore trusts you, I trust you." She looked him straight in the eye, and for a brief moment Snape couldn't help but notice their intelligence. Quickly he shoved the thought aside. Surely Sinistra had never had an intelligent thought in her life.

          "Your trust is ill-placed, I'm sure. You have no reason to have faith in me, and I suggest you take your pity elsewhere," he said. Auriga found herself pained by his words, and she wondered if she'd ever go numb to him. But then again, Severus Snape wasn't exactly the type of man one could block.

          "Now that you mention it, Dungeon Man," Auriga spat, "I do pity you! You walk around like some sort of vampire, dead to everything and everybody but yourself!"

Instead of getting angry, Snape smiled at her. It was much like his chuckle, though: not in the least bit friendly. "Good day, Professor."

And then he was gone.

***

          "I can't believe him!" Auriga was once again talking out loud to her tower room, something she seemed to do very often when school was not in session. "That overgrown bat thinks he's so smart, but I'll show him. By the time this mission is over, I'll have him read like a book!"

          "That's nice, dear," her mirror replied from the opposite end of the room. It said things like that often.

          "Don't patronize me, Mimi!"

          "Of course not, dear," Mimi replied. Auriga seriously considered throwing something at the piece of glass, but managed to calm herself before reaching for her paperweight.

***

The moment Snape reached his dungeon he threw himself at a wooden cupboard that held thousands of essays he'd assigned to students who had misbehaved in his class. He never read them, however, only checked them over to make sure the writer hadn't skived off and handed in a dud.

He picked up one that had the name "Harry Potter" scrawled across it. A malicious gleam entered his eyes as he sat down and began to read.

After an hour or so the entire paper was covered in red marks, marks that eerily resembled blood. It even had tiny rivulets of the stuff and blotches where Snape had held the quill just an incy-wincy bit too hard. So hard, in fact, that eventually the quill broke and he had to replace it with another. It was just ink, actually, but Snape was a master at mind games and liked to use this particular shade of red on those students he loathed with all the fire of a thousand suns. Not so surprisingly enough, Harry Potter was one of them. He even had his own special shelf, which was labeled "Satan Spawn" in very large letters for easy access.

Snape then proceeded to make his way to the owlery, which he reached in an alarmingly short amount of time. Once there he sent the paper to its rightful owner, adding onto it a note that expressed in no uncertain terms that said owner had all the brain cells of an amoeba. The owl that he chose studied the professor with great unease throughout the entire process, and even squawked when Snape threatened to break his leg off through his none-to-gentle attachment of the parchment.

Snape felt much better.