By that evening, everyone seemed to know about my Father's unfortunate demise. The stories surrounding his death varied, and as I didn't even know the exact details myself, I couldn't really rule any of the wild tales I overheard. My father was well known in the wizarding world as a shrewd and ruthless business owner and entrepreneur, so it wasn't very surprising to see a large article about his death in the Daily Prophet the next day.

"Well, he made the front page," I said, grimly looking at the large black and white photograph of him scowling back at me. "He would have been pleased about that," I added.

Franco made a small noise of agreement and pretended to be concentrating a buttering his toast.

"Oh, Franco!" I shouted, a little louder than I meant to, because a few people turned to look at me. "I hardly even knew him," I began more quietly. "He was just this big, ugly, yelling thing whose house I lived in for a few months of the year. Don't be afraid to look at me."

"Sorry... It's just that if my father died, I'd be really upset, that's all," he said quietly.

"Yeah, well, you have decent parents don't you? Franco, it's just like every other day. Don't act any differently around me, alright?"

"Okay," he said, then game me a toothy grin and began telling me how he had overheard Chloe St. Francis talking about how my father wasn't really dead, but had staged his death by using a clever 'ro-bat' ("Muggles use ro-bats all of the time to do that sort of thing," Chloe said) and then escaped to New Zealand.

"Well, this article should set Chloe straight. It says that my father was killed when a group of renegade goblins cornered him in Knockturn Alley. 'Exact details are as of yet not clear, but it is believed that Howard Cockerham attempted to cheat the goblins, currently at large, in a business deal.' Big surprise," I said. "Isn't it funny how I have to find out about my own father's death in the Daily Prophet? Aunt Agnes never was a big letter writer."

"Is your Aunt really terrible?"

"Well, other than being a back-stabbing, conniving, nasty old hag, she's a barrel of laughs."

"I'm really sorry," Franco said sincerely. "Maybe you can come spend some time at our house this summer, if your Aunt lets you."

"Oh, I'm sure she'd love to get me out of her hair for awhile. Thanks, Franco!"

"Anytime," he said taking a large bite of his thickly buttered toast.

The weeks passed by much too quickly from that point on. Every now and then someone would give me a pitying look in the corridors, but soon most Ravenclaws knew not to talk to me about my father or my Aunt Agnes. That topic quickly put me in a sullen mood no matter how happy I may have been. I was dreading spending an entire summer with Aunt Agnes, minus the week or two that I might be spending at the Polley's.

I could tell that Professor Snape was a bit embarrassed to be near me after I had given him that peck on the cheek in his office. He tried to stay away from me during Potions class, perhaps because he did not want anyone to notice if he treated me any differently. It seemed to be working. Franco had stopped badgering me about him and those detentions. Even outside of class, Snape did not seem to know how to act towards me, nor did I know how to act towards him. A few times, we met going in opposite directions down a corridor or staircase, and he would only make a slight nodding movement with his head and then quickly walked away with his head down. At first his behavior toward me left me feeling very dejected, but then I reasoned through that. What else could I expect from Snape, anyway? Perhaps his aloofness was his form of affection. At least he wasn't sneering or yelling at me anymore, and anyway, he was my teacher. Anything else would be inappropriate, I told myself. Still, there was a tiny little twinge in my chest every time I saw him, and though I kept it to myself, I often wished he wasn't my teacher, and that I was just a bit older. Unfortunately for me, the end of the school year quicky came, and soon it was time for the end of the year feast.

"Well," Franco said as we slowly went up to our common rooms, feeling very stuffed but content from the feast. "one more year and we'll be done with school. I think I'm really going to miss this place," he said looking affectionately around the common room.

"Me too, believe it or not," I said. "I can't believe that next year is our seventh year. It seems like I've spent all of my life here. It's going to be strange not being at Hogwarts everyday."

"Yeah," sighed Franco. "Well, I suppose that we better go pack a bit."

I packed up my trunk slowly that night, thinking about the year, in particular, the last few months. I feel asleep after lying awake in bed for nearly two hours, thoughts of Snape floating in and out of my head.

"Come on, Meta!" Franco called from the bottom of the staircase the next morning.

"I'm coming," I said yawning. "Oh, bloody hell," I yelled suddenly remembering something I had forgotten. I whipped around and ran back up the staircase. "I'll be right there, Franco! Go save me a seat in the carriage," I called out.

I had almost forgotten the handkerchief. The night that he had given it to me I went up to my bed and stuffed it under my mattress, never intending to give it back.

I ran up to the dormitory and lifted up the mattress. There was the green silk handkerchief with black embroidery lying flattened on top of the box spring. I snatched it up and stuffed it into the pocket of my robes and ran back out the empty dormitory and common rooms.

I turned a corner in one of the corridors and ran right into something very hard.

"Oh! Sorry," I said, picking myself up off of the ground.

"Miss Cockerham," I looked up and saw Professor Snape looking at me with a slightly amused look on his face. "I should have known it was you."

"Sorry, Professor, I shouldn't have been running..."

"Hmm, well, it's quite alright," he said and began to walk away.

"Miss Cockerham," he called out. I turned around and to my horror saw Snape holding the handkerchief. "You've dropped something," he said, walking over to me with that amused look on his face again.

"Thank you," I mumbled, my face burning with embarrassment. He held out his hand and I grabbed the handkerchief, my fingers brushing his as I took it. I felt my cheeks flush even more.

"Have a nice holiday, Miss Cockerham," he said. "See you in the fall."

"Goodbye, Professor," I said, not managing to suppress the smile that was spreading on my face. Snape nodded again we both continued our seperate ways down the corridor.

I finally reached the carriage where Franco was waiting a few minutes later.

"Final-- hey, what's up with you?" He asked, noticing my still-red cheeks and the slight smile on my face.

"Oh, nothing," I said cheerfully.

Franco gave me one last suspicous look and we rode to the train station in silence, my hand wrapped around the handkerchief in my pocket the entire time.

"See you in the fall," I whispered to myself.


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Well! That's it for this story! I'm seriously thinking of writing a sequel... I've got a few ideas swirling around in my brain, but it may take me a while to put it up. Thank you so much for reading!