Chapter 16- And So It Begins
The Master said, "Life leads the thoughtful man on a path of many windings. Now the course is checked, now it runs straight again. Here winged thoughts may pour freely forth in words, There the heavy burden of knowledge must be shut away in silence. But when two people are at one in their inmost hearts, They shatter even the strength of iron or of bronze. And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts, Their words are sweet and strong, like the fragrance of orchids."
-Excerpt from the "I Ching"
"YOU VICIOUS BASTARD!" the black-haired man bellowed in infuriation as
he pushed the door with all his might. "Open, damn you! Open!"
Aletta snorted at the man's thickness and drawled in a Snape-like way, "The door handle usually helps, Sirius."
His cheeks turned faintly red as he glanced down at the knob. "I knew that! I was just . . . testing it."
Aletta arched her brow at him and he added irritably, "For sturdiness! You never know when a door like this'll give out!"
Aletta gazed at the gargantuan steel doors and shook her head. The perturbed man glared at her before he finally twisted the handle. The enormous door swayed open promptly to show a breezy, summer dawn. It thumped against the side of the castle before it steadily began to sway back. Sirius, on the other hand, failed to see it in quest of its vengeance. With an immense clout, Sirius went soaring onto the granite arctic flooring. He hurriedly gathered himself up from the floor and brushed his hands across his robe, which had collected a superior amount of filth.
"I swear that thing is decisively pissing me off!" he said with steam coming out of his ears and flared nostrils.
"It appears as though inanimate objects despise you as much as inhabitants do, Black," Snape said silkily as he approached the two with a bulky suitcase and rolled-up, muggle sleeping bag.
He dropped the two items to the ground, causing rim of the heavy suitcase to crash onto his foot, "Son of a bitch!", he hissed as both Sirius and Aletta started to titter.
"The same could be alleged to you, Snape!" Sirius laughed as Aletta picked up a small backpack and sleeping bag and started to take them outside.
Snape gave Sirius one of his bone-melting glares before he started to lug his oversized baggage out onto the lawn.
"Where is the exhibition area?" he asked Aletta as he dropped his luggage to the ground, but not before making sure his feet would not be smashed to pancakes.
"For Merlin's sake, just call it a tent! Must you constantly employ such problematical vocabulary to illustrate such self-explanatory things?" she said, extracting a tiny, satiny box from her pocket. Snape arched his black brow at her hypocritical question. "And it's in this little box," she added as she looked away from his mocking stare to the object in her hand.
"You're shitting us, right?" Sirius asked as he joined the two professors.
"You know, I've never really understood that grotesque idiom, but no, I am not 'shitting' you," she responded to Sirius and Snape smirked to some extent.
"I can see how a tent can fit in there, but how do you think you're going to make it work when you're in the Dume Zone?" Sirius asked as he gave her a glinting smile that was invented to make her feel trodden.
"Well, oh petty one," she said slowly as she walked up to him, holding the box up so he could plainly see it. "The Dume Zone does not consent to wand magic. Severus had never mentioned that this nature of magic couldn't work."
She pushed a small button on the bottom of the box, and it instantly began to renovate into a tent. The three professors had to move back to allow it to transform into its complete structure. When it had entirely altered, the tent was a good ten feet high. Sirius' mouth literally dropped open as he circled the astounding tent.
"I considered just the prospect of sleeping with Snape out in the undomesticated wild was nauseating," he joked as he entered the tent. "Yet," he added as he popped his head out of the opening, "Staying with him in the same tent is going to be worse, Aletta."
"I'll survive," she joked as Snape looked away from the tent to glower at her.
"If you were going as an alternative, Black, I would fear for Aletta's safety," he drawled as he loomed toward Sirius in the tent. "If not her purity."
"Well, I don't think Aletta goes for men with extensive, black, flowing locks such as yours, Snape," Sirius shot back smoothly.
Sirius' hair used to be just as long as Severus', but he had cut it recently, and his black tresses now were always tousled about his head.
"I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public," Snape droned as he walked over to Dumbledore who had approached them just in time to hear his remark.
"Chickenshit," Sirius mumbled as he brushed past Snape with his head hung in defeat.
"Dickhead," Severus murmured back.
Dumbledore gave Severus a look of disapproval and Snape glowered even more. Albus then smiled as he gazed at Snape and Aletta who were now side by side. "I trust you both have everything you require for your stimulating adventure into the Dark Forest?"
"I do," Aletta said jubilantly as Professor Mcgonagall arrived.
"I do as well, Headmaster," Snape said inaudibly as Dumbledore nodded his head in endorsement.
"Very good, very good indeed," Albus said lightly as he examined the two professors. "I think that this is all the people that are watching your departure," he added as he glanced back at the open door.
Severus started to charm his huge suitcase to become as undersized as Aletta's as she walked over to Sirius, "Is Maya coming?"
Sirius abruptly seemed sort of tense, "I would assume so. Why are you asking me anyway? I don't keep track of your friends."
"Ah, but you keep track of the young ladies around Hogwarts, don't you?" Sirius glared at her and she added, "Besides, you guys seemed pretty relaxed with each other's company last night."
Sirius was about to speak when the five professors heard loud footsteps running toward them from inside the castle. Out ran a flustered looking Maya and she stopped running right when she saw Sirius. Maya blushed to a bright scarlet when she saw him wink at her.
"Sorry!" she said as she stopped in front of Aletta. "The mirror didn't wake me up like I asked it to last night."
"Is 'mirror' your latest nickname, Black?" Severus droned with a smirk, and saw Sirius shoot fire at him from his eyes.
Aletta walked over and elbowed Severus in the ribs and he grunted curtly in retort. He gave her one of his death glares but received two full- blown scowls from both Aletta and Maya.
"Grungy git!" Sirius shot back at Snape.
"Pissant," Severus murmured as he headed over to the edge of the forest.
"Boys!" Albus almost yelled. "Please don't make this departure any more unpleasant than it already is. I don't like seeing you," he gave Severus one of his looks, "and my niece in a position such as this, and your quarrelling is making it more unbearable."
He then followed after Snape as did the others. When they were all gathered in the dappled trees, Albus walked to the front of the group to where Aletta and Severus were.
"Are you ready?" he asked soothingly to the two professors.
Aletta nodded her head, somewhat reluctant to go now that she realized how friendless she would soon be. She knew that Severus wasn't one for idle tête-à-tête, and she could never keep her mouth shut. Particularly when she traveled. Albus then interrupted her thoughts.
"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art . . .," Aletta turned to Snape and saw him smirk, "It has no survival value," Aletta couldn't believe her uncle was saying such a thing, "rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."
Aletta heard the mumblings of the other professors as they approved of Dumbledore and his statement. Aletta smiled lightly as she took his words to heart. A tear almost escaped her eye as she thought of how much she was going to miss her uncle's guidance and consideration.
"You okay?" she heard her friend's voice ask.
Aletta turned her glazed eyes to Maya and said nonchalantly, "I suppose so."
Maya saw a tear escape the blonde's eye and embraced her friend in a affable squeeze. "What's wrong? And you can't say 'nothing' because you've said that to me so many times-."
Aletta giggled and stepped back to get a last glimpse at her most loyal friend before the aloofness overcame her. "It's just," Aletta sniffled and wiped her pink nose on her sweater, a foul habit she has had for so long. "I don't know how to . . . to get along with him."
Maya glanced over at Severus, who was indifferently leaning up against a tree as the professors bid their goodbyes to him, save Sirius.
"Don't let him get you down," Maya said. "And if he does anything to upset you, just smack him!"
Aletta chuckled as Maya did a mewing sound and leaned her head against Aletta's shoulder.
"There's one thing that always brings a smile to my face," Aletta said as Maya looked up at her. "And that's when you purr."
Maya smiled and did a perfect purring noise and Aletta succumbed to laughter.
"Thank you," Aletta said, grateful that she had such a good buddy.
Maya smiled just as Severus called to Aletta to bring her things over by his. The two girls approached Severus.
"I am going to charm our luggage into one sack," he said casually as he set her belongings next to his so they made a small pile. When he was finished, he picked up the small backpack and handed it to Aletta. She took it willingly, not wanting to spur up his fury by telling him to carry his own damn bag.
After she bid goodbye to her friends and uncle, she set off after Severus, who had already begun their journey.
And so it begins, she thought, and so it begins.
A/N: As you can see, I am now able to access the computer. But only by my own permission. I have found the key to my computer (No metaphor intended. My computer actually possesses a key. Silly, huh?) I will still be a bit slow on the updating since I can't freely be on the computer when they are home. But at least I have this short chapter up, eh? Well, review please!
The Master said, "Life leads the thoughtful man on a path of many windings. Now the course is checked, now it runs straight again. Here winged thoughts may pour freely forth in words, There the heavy burden of knowledge must be shut away in silence. But when two people are at one in their inmost hearts, They shatter even the strength of iron or of bronze. And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts, Their words are sweet and strong, like the fragrance of orchids."
-Excerpt from the "I Ching"
"YOU VICIOUS BASTARD!" the black-haired man bellowed in infuriation as
he pushed the door with all his might. "Open, damn you! Open!"
Aletta snorted at the man's thickness and drawled in a Snape-like way, "The door handle usually helps, Sirius."
His cheeks turned faintly red as he glanced down at the knob. "I knew that! I was just . . . testing it."
Aletta arched her brow at him and he added irritably, "For sturdiness! You never know when a door like this'll give out!"
Aletta gazed at the gargantuan steel doors and shook her head. The perturbed man glared at her before he finally twisted the handle. The enormous door swayed open promptly to show a breezy, summer dawn. It thumped against the side of the castle before it steadily began to sway back. Sirius, on the other hand, failed to see it in quest of its vengeance. With an immense clout, Sirius went soaring onto the granite arctic flooring. He hurriedly gathered himself up from the floor and brushed his hands across his robe, which had collected a superior amount of filth.
"I swear that thing is decisively pissing me off!" he said with steam coming out of his ears and flared nostrils.
"It appears as though inanimate objects despise you as much as inhabitants do, Black," Snape said silkily as he approached the two with a bulky suitcase and rolled-up, muggle sleeping bag.
He dropped the two items to the ground, causing rim of the heavy suitcase to crash onto his foot, "Son of a bitch!", he hissed as both Sirius and Aletta started to titter.
"The same could be alleged to you, Snape!" Sirius laughed as Aletta picked up a small backpack and sleeping bag and started to take them outside.
Snape gave Sirius one of his bone-melting glares before he started to lug his oversized baggage out onto the lawn.
"Where is the exhibition area?" he asked Aletta as he dropped his luggage to the ground, but not before making sure his feet would not be smashed to pancakes.
"For Merlin's sake, just call it a tent! Must you constantly employ such problematical vocabulary to illustrate such self-explanatory things?" she said, extracting a tiny, satiny box from her pocket. Snape arched his black brow at her hypocritical question. "And it's in this little box," she added as she looked away from his mocking stare to the object in her hand.
"You're shitting us, right?" Sirius asked as he joined the two professors.
"You know, I've never really understood that grotesque idiom, but no, I am not 'shitting' you," she responded to Sirius and Snape smirked to some extent.
"I can see how a tent can fit in there, but how do you think you're going to make it work when you're in the Dume Zone?" Sirius asked as he gave her a glinting smile that was invented to make her feel trodden.
"Well, oh petty one," she said slowly as she walked up to him, holding the box up so he could plainly see it. "The Dume Zone does not consent to wand magic. Severus had never mentioned that this nature of magic couldn't work."
She pushed a small button on the bottom of the box, and it instantly began to renovate into a tent. The three professors had to move back to allow it to transform into its complete structure. When it had entirely altered, the tent was a good ten feet high. Sirius' mouth literally dropped open as he circled the astounding tent.
"I considered just the prospect of sleeping with Snape out in the undomesticated wild was nauseating," he joked as he entered the tent. "Yet," he added as he popped his head out of the opening, "Staying with him in the same tent is going to be worse, Aletta."
"I'll survive," she joked as Snape looked away from the tent to glower at her.
"If you were going as an alternative, Black, I would fear for Aletta's safety," he drawled as he loomed toward Sirius in the tent. "If not her purity."
"Well, I don't think Aletta goes for men with extensive, black, flowing locks such as yours, Snape," Sirius shot back smoothly.
Sirius' hair used to be just as long as Severus', but he had cut it recently, and his black tresses now were always tousled about his head.
"I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public," Snape droned as he walked over to Dumbledore who had approached them just in time to hear his remark.
"Chickenshit," Sirius mumbled as he brushed past Snape with his head hung in defeat.
"Dickhead," Severus murmured back.
Dumbledore gave Severus a look of disapproval and Snape glowered even more. Albus then smiled as he gazed at Snape and Aletta who were now side by side. "I trust you both have everything you require for your stimulating adventure into the Dark Forest?"
"I do," Aletta said jubilantly as Professor Mcgonagall arrived.
"I do as well, Headmaster," Snape said inaudibly as Dumbledore nodded his head in endorsement.
"Very good, very good indeed," Albus said lightly as he examined the two professors. "I think that this is all the people that are watching your departure," he added as he glanced back at the open door.
Severus started to charm his huge suitcase to become as undersized as Aletta's as she walked over to Sirius, "Is Maya coming?"
Sirius abruptly seemed sort of tense, "I would assume so. Why are you asking me anyway? I don't keep track of your friends."
"Ah, but you keep track of the young ladies around Hogwarts, don't you?" Sirius glared at her and she added, "Besides, you guys seemed pretty relaxed with each other's company last night."
Sirius was about to speak when the five professors heard loud footsteps running toward them from inside the castle. Out ran a flustered looking Maya and she stopped running right when she saw Sirius. Maya blushed to a bright scarlet when she saw him wink at her.
"Sorry!" she said as she stopped in front of Aletta. "The mirror didn't wake me up like I asked it to last night."
"Is 'mirror' your latest nickname, Black?" Severus droned with a smirk, and saw Sirius shoot fire at him from his eyes.
Aletta walked over and elbowed Severus in the ribs and he grunted curtly in retort. He gave her one of his death glares but received two full- blown scowls from both Aletta and Maya.
"Grungy git!" Sirius shot back at Snape.
"Pissant," Severus murmured as he headed over to the edge of the forest.
"Boys!" Albus almost yelled. "Please don't make this departure any more unpleasant than it already is. I don't like seeing you," he gave Severus one of his looks, "and my niece in a position such as this, and your quarrelling is making it more unbearable."
He then followed after Snape as did the others. When they were all gathered in the dappled trees, Albus walked to the front of the group to where Aletta and Severus were.
"Are you ready?" he asked soothingly to the two professors.
Aletta nodded her head, somewhat reluctant to go now that she realized how friendless she would soon be. She knew that Severus wasn't one for idle tête-à-tête, and she could never keep her mouth shut. Particularly when she traveled. Albus then interrupted her thoughts.
"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art . . .," Aletta turned to Snape and saw him smirk, "It has no survival value," Aletta couldn't believe her uncle was saying such a thing, "rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."
Aletta heard the mumblings of the other professors as they approved of Dumbledore and his statement. Aletta smiled lightly as she took his words to heart. A tear almost escaped her eye as she thought of how much she was going to miss her uncle's guidance and consideration.
"You okay?" she heard her friend's voice ask.
Aletta turned her glazed eyes to Maya and said nonchalantly, "I suppose so."
Maya saw a tear escape the blonde's eye and embraced her friend in a affable squeeze. "What's wrong? And you can't say 'nothing' because you've said that to me so many times-."
Aletta giggled and stepped back to get a last glimpse at her most loyal friend before the aloofness overcame her. "It's just," Aletta sniffled and wiped her pink nose on her sweater, a foul habit she has had for so long. "I don't know how to . . . to get along with him."
Maya glanced over at Severus, who was indifferently leaning up against a tree as the professors bid their goodbyes to him, save Sirius.
"Don't let him get you down," Maya said. "And if he does anything to upset you, just smack him!"
Aletta chuckled as Maya did a mewing sound and leaned her head against Aletta's shoulder.
"There's one thing that always brings a smile to my face," Aletta said as Maya looked up at her. "And that's when you purr."
Maya smiled and did a perfect purring noise and Aletta succumbed to laughter.
"Thank you," Aletta said, grateful that she had such a good buddy.
Maya smiled just as Severus called to Aletta to bring her things over by his. The two girls approached Severus.
"I am going to charm our luggage into one sack," he said casually as he set her belongings next to his so they made a small pile. When he was finished, he picked up the small backpack and handed it to Aletta. She took it willingly, not wanting to spur up his fury by telling him to carry his own damn bag.
After she bid goodbye to her friends and uncle, she set off after Severus, who had already begun their journey.
And so it begins, she thought, and so it begins.
A/N: As you can see, I am now able to access the computer. But only by my own permission. I have found the key to my computer (No metaphor intended. My computer actually possesses a key. Silly, huh?) I will still be a bit slow on the updating since I can't freely be on the computer when they are home. But at least I have this short chapter up, eh? Well, review please!
