Black & White
by Lunatic
Chapter 2 – A Woman's Worth
Severus Snape was sitting on a large black silver couch with his head in his hands. It wasn't fair! He didn't know if he could keep the act up for much longer. Of course he was aware that he had been living in this lie for most of his life, but it was getting harder with each year. And now she had come to teach at Hogwarts, the only person silly enough to take the job as DADA teacher. At times it looked as if that job was cursed. Every wizard and witch would think twice before excepting to teach that at Hogwarts. But she… she had cheerfully said yes like she always did. Two opposites, but still brother and sister… twin brother and sister.
They were different like day and night, even with their hair colour, although Elvira's hair once had a beautiful black colour… before everything had changed.
Slowly he heard a person enter his rooms. Without looking up he know who it was. He had always seemed to be able to sense her, to feel how she was doing. Normally it would probably have been Albus who came to see how he was doing. The headmaster seemed to have a sixth sense himself, according to his depressions.
"Sev?" she says insecure. 'Albus gave me the password to your room… you know that I'm staying here right?"
"H'hm," he nods, still not looking up.
"You know that I actually started to miss your depressed appearance?"
Severus snores and slowly looks up. "Do you know that I actually started to miss your cheerful appearance?"
Both look at each other in silence. Then they both start to move in the same time. Severus is standing up from his couch and Elvira approaches her brother, pulling each other in a bear hug.
"I missed you," Elvira whispers in her brothers ear while he strokes her long white hair.
"Missed you too."
*
Harry, Ron and Hermoine were sitting on their usual spot in the common room. It was almost midnight and they were the only ones left. The first years had excitedly go to their dorms and most of the older students went to bed early as well; tired from the ceremony and the shock of the 'second Snape' as well.
"She doesn't look like her brother," states Hermoine, "I mean… if you look closely you can see that they are related, but they have such a different personalities! And what about her hair? I've never seen anybody so young with such a colour of hair."
Ron snores. "I don't care about her hair or if she looks as a Snape or not… she did take points and she is going to ruin our lives even more!"
Hermoine sighs. "Now who is the ones who isn't paying attention here? I must say that I can understand why she has taken points. If I would have a brother and people would call him like you did I would try to protect him," (Ron snores even louder after this comment) "as well!"
While Hermoine and Ron have one of their usual conversations, Harry is deep lost in his thoughts. He doesn't know what to think about the Potions professor anymore. Not after last year. First what he had seen in the pensive had completely changed his look on the hated professor. He could understand why he was such a bitter person and he certainly could imagine how the young Severus had felt. Wasn't Harry himself teased when he was a young boy? His hair, his glasses, the clothes from Dudley… al those things had given him a miserable school live. He had been lonely as well. He even had started to get some sort of respect for Snape. He could understand how he had felt back in Harry's third year, when Remus and Sirius came back into view.
Sirius… like always when he thought of Sirius a sick feeling filled his entire body and mind. Above all it had been his fault that his godfather had died. After Sirius death Harry had been convinced that it was all Snape's fault. Snape had hated his godfather his entire life and therefore it was Snape's fault that he had died. Snape who didn't want to save Sirius. But during the summer holiday he changed his opinion. Again he thought of the young Severus. He could understand that Snape hated Sirius. Didn't he hate Dudley and Draco as well? He remembered that the headmaster had told him that Snape had tried to save Sirius, but that he was too late. Too late, like Harry had been to save Cedric. If it hadn't been for Harry a lot of people would have lived by now.
Suddenly Harry notices the silence around up and he looks up. Without knowing it from himself he had been staring at his hands as if he had never seen one before. Ron and Hermoine looked with worried faces at him. They had been even more worried about him since Sirius death. He loved them for it, but at times…. At times it seriously annoyed him.
"What?" he snaps.
"Are you alright Harry?" says Hermoine carefully. "You look worried."
"It's nothing." Harry still hadn't told them about what he had seen in Snape's pensive. He couldn't do it. He just knew that if he would tell them Snape would find out. Sooner or later Ron would mutter a 'Snivellus' during a Potions lesson and Harry didn't think he would be able to handle Snape's rage by then… especially when his sister was here as well.
"I was just thinking a bit… when do we have our first DADA lesson?" Harry turns to Hermoine, knowing that she would probably know the timetable already by heart.
"Tomorrow the first two hours together with Slytherin."
"I can't believe that we always end up together with Slytherin in the same room as a Snape!"
"Ron! Will you stop! We will know how she teaches after tomorrow. I'm sure she's fairer than her brother."
"Why are you sure about that?" mutters Ron, not thinking of changing his mind about the greasy git's sister.
"Well…she's a woman is she? Goodnight." states Hermoine with a superiour look, while she stands up and leaves to go to her own dorm.
"A woman she says!" hisses Ron, while he and Harry go to their dorms as well. "And what about Umbridge and Trelawney?"
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