A/N: another Thursday, and if ff.net doesn't get stubborn, this chapter will be on time too!!!!!
Note to readers: I will not change this story to fit OotP (which I haven't read yet, so spare me the spoilers, I have enough with those in summaries), I figured it was enough AU by now…..
IvyCrane: ::looks up from where she's building a nuclear refuge:: Hey, it's you….. I thought it was someone from the SWP (Society for Werewolf Protection), they're after my blood….. you shouldn't have asked me to see Remus!!! I'm afraid you'll try to kill me too when you read what I've done with him….. but that won't be for another two chapters so, for now, sit back and enjoy!
To other readers (if there are any): reviewing this story gives you a chance to ask for little presents, like character appearances and other suggestions, but like IvyCrane will be able to tell you in a couple of chapters, that's not always a good thing….. do you dare?
PART XVI
Svetlana was very tired that night, and she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, without realising that the door to her bedroom wasn't closed all the way. Snape did notice, though, when he returned, and he peered inside to check if everything was as it should be.
//And is it?// asked the annoying voice inside the Potions Master's head //You're more afraid than you let on, you know you are. And what are you doing slipping into her bedroom like a thief? What would she say if she awoke to find you here, standing by her side like an overgrown bat, watching her sleep? Are you really that bothered by Potter's infatuation with your wife?//
Severus shrugged and continued moving noiselessly across the heavy carpet of his wife's bedroom until he came to a stop merely a feet away from where her tousled head was resting in a satin pillow. Svetlana hadn't bothered to dry her hair after she had returned from Mandy's grave, and the dark mane was now curling naturally, looking very different from its customary complicated hair-dos. It reminded Snape of….. of something he shouldn't be thinking about: it reminded him of how Svetlana had slept on their wedding night, of how the emotions of that remarkable day had closed her blue eyes as she laid naked by his side. And it reminded Snape of the internal battle he had had that night, the part of his heart that screamed to take her into his arms and settle down with her fighting with his rational self, that argued that the marriage could compromise his safety. He still wondered if his decision had been a wise one.
Other memories pushed through the open floodgates of his subconscious. The other night he had spent with Svetlana, many years later, in her home, his body still aching from the tortures Voldemort had put him through, her body an uncharted territory he had wanted to re-discover. This time it had been her who had remained awake and walked off when he succumbed to sleep. Afterwards, he remember waking up alone in a strange bed, with the shrilly voice of a house-elf announcing it was time for him to Apparate to Hogwarts. Svetlana was nowhere to be seen, and he didn't have news of her until that brief owl she had sent him, not in her own handwriting but a copy of the medical report that confirmed she was pregnant again.
Their next meeting after that had been awkward, to say the least. Svetlana, Serguei and Severus waiting in a small white for the medi-witch to appear with the latest analysis the Russian witch had been subjected to. The hostile atmosphere between father and son was somehow taken off the spotlight by Svetlana's refusal to look at her husband, no matter how hard he searched her gaze. He didn't cross more than ten words with her after that and until her arrival into Hogwarts, with the notable exception of their argument at Siena's birth. //And yet you seem to think that everything is as it should be?// mocked Snape's conscience. The wizard refrained a snarl in consideration for the sleeping woman, and chose to leave the room instead, exiting as quietly as he had entered.
Once outside, he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and wiped the his sweaty hands on his black robes. He had been on the brink of leaning towards his very own Sleeping Beauty, and trying to awake her from the nightmare that lasted for more than twelve years, but he had been glad //Glad? In your dreams!!!// to have remembered that he was not her knight in shining armour anymore. //'I loved you, you know?' *She* said it, and you just stood there like a Gryffindor when asked for the properties of the dried root of Gillyweed…..// Falling back into a ritual he was aware of repeating too often since Svetlana's return, Snape poured himself a shot of Firewhisky and sat down in his armchair.
Who was her knight in shining armour now? That question had plagued his mind after his second night with her, when he had discovered that she was not as innocent as she had been when he had left her, and had come back with full force after her confession about Potter….. that insolent child! Snape didn't bother hiding the snarl anymore, and swore that if he found that The Boy Who Lived was so much as looking at Svetlana in a way he shouldn't be looking, he would….. he would what? Take points off Gryffindor? Talk to Dumbledore? Sue him for sexual harassment? Hand him, tied hand-and-foot, to Voldemort? Severus growled in frustration at the lack of options, but was interrupted in his search for a more creative punishment by a knock on his door.
The Potions Master stood frozen for a second, dreading the arrival of Potter in search of comfort; he would probably strangle the boy with his bare hands at the moment, and it didn't seem like such a bad idea. He would lose his job at Hogwarts, but Voldemort would surely thank him….. Whoever was at the door knocked again impatiently, and Snape charmed the door to open. To his surprise it wasn't Harry Potter, or Albus Dumbledore, but Serguei Snape who walked in, dark green pyjamas peering through his dressing robe.
"Is my mother awake?" asked the child in a strangely subdued voice.
"No, she isn't" answered Severus, adjusting his tone to his son's. "What did you want?"
"I wanted to talk to her; she asked me to wake her up if I needed her….." Serguei struggled through the next words, apparently forcing back tears "I had a nightmare" Obviously it had been very bad if the boy had been forced to trek the Slytherin dungeons, on his own, at (Snape checked the grandfather's clock on the corner) half-past one in the morning.
"Come in, then, don't just stand there" ordered the Potions Master, summoning a cup of tea and a dish of cookies from the fire; he was getting good at this "Have a seat"
Serguei complied, looking suspicious and vulnerable at the same time. He was favouring his father with an unflinching look, but there was no trace of arrogance left in it now, and Snape wasn't bothered by it at all.
"What did you dream about?" Serguei looked at him and bit his lip hesitantly, not sure on whether to confide on his father "My mother used to say that if you told someone your nightmares out loud, they wouldn't come true" Severus felt uncomfortable sharing that piece of information, but if he didn't tell that to his own son, who was he going to tell it to?
"Does it work?" asked Serguei eagerly.
"Trying can't hurt" shrugged Snape.
"It was my mother" started Serguei after a pause "I dreamt she was hanging from the doorway, like that woman the other night, and she was dead but she kept saying: 'Hogwarts isn't safe anymore, Hogwarts isn't safe anymore…..'" He broke off and shuddered, and Snape shuddered as well "Is it true, then?"
"What? That your mother is hanging from the doorway?" Stalling for time, the words sounding harsher than he had meant them.
"That Hogwarts is not safe anymore" insisted Serguei, dismissing his father's previous words. Seeing that the older wizard wasn't answering, the boy decided to share a bit more information "Everyone in my dorm is scared, saying that nothing like this has ever happened at Hogwarts, not even when the Chamber of Secrets was open; even the Lestranges, who go to Azkaban to visit their parents every summer, were afraid to blow out the candles and….. Mother is scared too, I can tell, but she told me we had to stay because there isn't anywhere else we can go"
"Do you want to stay?" Suddenly Serguei's answer mattered a lot to his father.
"Do we have an option?" asked the boy back, some of his usual insolence seeping back into his voice with the warmth and the tea.
"Not really" accepted Severus with a crooked half-smile; Serguei saw this and hesitated for a moment before giving his own reluctant smirk. They shared camaraderie for a moment, before Serguei put down his cup of tea and yawned (not widely, he had been taught manners, but unmistakeably). Looking at the clock, and considering the option of walking the child back to his dorm, Severus made a decision. "Would you like to stay here tonight?"
"All right then" agreed Serguei readily. After a quick consideration, Snape lead him to Siena's room, where he Transfigured a bed out of a teddy bear that was lying around.
"You'll sleep here tonight" admonished Snape in a low voice "You know where your mother is, should you need her, although she is so tired I would hardly recommend it. My room is to your left, and I'm a light sleeper, so it'll probably be a better option" Looking around at the somewhat crammed room, he remembered something else "And we'll see about fitting you your own room tomorrow, it seems like your going to spend a lot more time here than originally intended; what colours would you prefer for the decoration? No, don't tell me, we'll talk about that tomorrow….. Now go to sleep, and remember that next time I catch you out of bed after curfew I'll have to take points off Slytherin"
And Severus was gone, leaving Serguei standing in front of his bed, lit by the fairy lamp on Siena's bed-side table. The little boy, seeing that he didn't have an audience to restrict him, gave a small smile at the thought of getting to choose a new room, all for himself, and laid down to sleep thinking about wallpapers, all nightmares forgotten for the time being.
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Svetlana awoke next morning to the sound of quiet voices talking in the living room. She propped herself up on her elbows and remembered all she could remember from the night before: the exorcism, Draco going to her rescue, Severus catching Harry spying on her, her husband's murderous look, going back to her bedroom, falling asleep….. as she tried to run her hand through her hair, she remembered she hadn't dried it the night before, and sighed in annoyance.
"….. but it won't go with the wallpaper" argued Serguei softly from outside her door; Svetlana frowned in confusion, all thoughts about her hair forgotten. What was Serguei doing there at eight o'clock in the morning, talking about wallpapers with Severus?
"Maybe you should think about some other decoration for the walls that doesn't involve brooms and Bludgers then" answered the Potions Master sarcastically.
"Humph" answered Serguei, munching on something or other "Change the Quidditch wallpaper so I can have my own aquarium? Sounds like a deal"
"Are we negotiating then?" chuckled Severus; Svetlana allowed herself to fall back on her pillows: it was a bit of a rough awakening to find her husband and son, previously not on speaking terms, discussing the decoration of a room she didn't know existed.
"Mom will be glad" said Serguei reflexively after a pause "She is always complaining that I don't spend enough time here with her, now I'll have something to bring me here….."
"As if the mere thought of spending some time with your mother wasn't enough incentive" commented Svetlana wryly, tying the belt of the expensive silk kimono that she used in place of a dressing robe. "Good morning" All right, she had tied her hair back in a hurry, and it would be the first time that Severus saw her in such an informal attire, but she was dying to know what had happened the night before.
"Good morning. Tea?" offered Severus, averting his eyes quickly from the unusual figure of a half-dressed, mussed up Svetlana.
"No, thank you" replied Mrs Snape civilly "Aren't you going to give me a good-morning kiss?" Serguei, to whom she had been addressing her request, stood up, wiped the imaginary crumbs of toast from his dressing robe, and complied.
"Father is going to get me my own room here" announced Serguei, trying in vain to disguise his excitement and pride "Oh, and I came here last night looking for you" he remembered suddenly.
"Why? Did something happen?"
"I had a nightmare" answered the little boy with a shrug he wouldn't have been able to pull off the night before "So I came here looking for you, but you were asleep….."
"You should have woken me up" scolded Svetlana.
"….. and Father gave me some tea and told me I could spend the night in Siena's room, and see about my own room today" continued Serguei, without missing a beat. "And now I'm getting an aquarium, and maybe for Christmas Lucius will get me that Shape-Shifting Salmon we saw in Diagon Alley last summer"
"I see" said Svetlana, trying to hide the immense feeling of exclusion she had. She had always been the only one her son could turn to, for presents, advice or comfort (and maybe Lucius, but he didn't count), and now that Severus had begun to assume his parental role, she couldn't help but feel jealous.
"I thought that maybe this room would be the better choice" explained the Potions teacher, showing them a door in front of the other bedroom doors. It opened to a medium-sized room (bigger than Siena's, that was true), empty but for a few crates and cobwebs. "I can get it cleaned up later in the morning, and the decorations delivered by this afternoon, and by this evening it would be ready. The aquarium might take a bit longer to set, specially if you wish to have tropical species in it"
"I saw a book on Mediterranean marine wildlife, maybe I can go to the Library for it and choose something" answered Serguei, his mind already lost in the possibilities.
"Of course, you will have to spend the nights in your dorm" Snape reminded to his son "You can come to visit after lessons and on weekends, and you will spend the holidays here, but during normal school-time, you quarters are with the rest of the first-years"
"I know. Besides, Lewis would kill me if I left him to fend off Pucey and Flint's snores on his own" commented Serguei, already planning how he could smoothly introduce into the conversation with his friends his new room.
"I'm glad to see you are getting on so well now" announced Svetlana, not without a hidden edge behind her cheery words "I'll leave you to it, and go to take a shower. I'll see you at lunchtime, I suppose"
She left majestically and both male Snapes watched her leave, turning to each other with a question in their black eyes. Serguei shrugged it off first and re-started the conversation.
"I will come by later to look at the wallpaper catalogue, is that all right?" Snape nodded and ushered the boy out, feeling oddly satisfied by the developments of the night before, but equally bothered by Svetlana's bad mood and the sarcastic little voice in his head that kept asking him if buying his son's acceptance was part of his master plan to conquer the world.
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A few days later, Harry marched up the stairs leading to Gryffindor Tower tiredly, keeping a handkerchief to his bleeding nose; he also sported a cut lip and a few bruises in his arms and torso, but the Slytherins who had ambushed shouldn't be faring better, he thought with grim satisfaction. So lost he was in those thoughts that he didn't notice when he entered the common room, or the shocked expressions of his housemates; only Hermione standing directly in front of him with a reconvening expression on her face shocked him out of his daydream.
"Harry James Potter, have you been fighting with Malfoy *again*?" she asked, very much like Professor McGonnagal would have.
"No, Mione, I haven't been fighting with Malfoy" answered Harry dejectedly "His latchkeys have been using me for kickboxing practice, that's all"
"What did they do this time?" asked Ron, already starting to become red.
"The same they do every bloody time!" exclaimed Harry, flinching away from Hermione's Healing Charm "What does it look like?! They weren't exactly reciting poetry!"
"What is wrong with those people anyway?" asked Hermione under her breath as Harry stormed up the stairs without paying her any mind; Ron did hear her, and was opening his mouth to add a descriptive comment about being a Slytherin, when his girlfriend carried on "Ever since of lately, they've been more aggressive than usual….. Harry has got beaten up at least three times in the last couple of days, and they don't even worry about getting detention!"
Meanwhile, in the dorm, behind the closed curtains of his bed, Harry was trying very hard to calm down; he wasn't only bothered by the beating, but also by the fact that he had had to face it alone, because Hermione and Ron weren't spending as much time with him as they used to. He still loved them dearly, no matter what, but he would be thankful if they could look away from each other's eyes for a while and help him repel the increasingly violent attacks from the Slytherins.
It wasn't easy saving the world, regretted Harry, but even less when every day, between nightmares, lessons and guilt, he had to deal with a whole house determined to make him suffer, via insulting comments or occasional aggressions. He knew he shouldn't let them get to him, but he couldn't help but getting incensed with every disrespectful mention of his parents, with every cowardly ambush, with every prank during lessons. And he had noticed that starting a few days back, the Slytherins had been going out of their way to make his life miserable, with no apparent reason. Not that they had been exactly amicable before, but lately they were really making an effort to beat their previous record of Potter-bullying. Harry was almost starting to miss Dudley and Piers Polkins.
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A/N: I'm evil and I have exams, that's my excuse….. what's yours for not reviewing?