Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot…all credit goes to Ms. Rowling.
Thank you for the wonderful reviews. They keep me writing chapters.
7
Severus remained staring at the door for a full minute. That had been spooky. For a man who met on a fairly regular basis with Voldemort and his sadistic cronies, Severus was not often driven to define something as spooky…but nothing could better describe the recent performance of the lovely Elena.
Tearing his gaze away from her point of exit, Severus surveyed the mess she had made of his perfectly ordered room. Quills, books, and scrolls were scattered around the room.
His perfect organizational system was shot to Hades.
He did not look forward to putting everything back in its place. As his eyes roved over the chaos an unholy grin lit his ascetic features. He would let somebody else do the wretched job.
Most students were as dim-witted as mountain trolls, but he had a handful of students that could perform a filing job with adequate precision. Having decided to pass the buck to some poor scholar, Severus waved his wand, muttering "Purgo." The ink that had splashed the floors and walls vanished. There was no point in allowing the stain to set.
Now that he had taken care of the more mundane matters that had been brought up by Elena's impromptu tempest, Severus reluctantly turned his mind to other possible effects of her visit.
He hadn't meant to infuriate her. Severus had only wanted to scare her into becoming more forthright.
Her passionate speech against the evils of…well, evil, had appealed to Severus. He had been fighting darkness, both his own and that of the Death Eaters, for most of his hollow life.
But he was too battle-hardened to trust a person just because their words were tempting. If he did, he would have died a long time ago.
Elena's revelations concerning his career as a spy had torn through him. His existence depended upon his privacy, and having a ghost to whom he had been speaking for only a handful of minutes blurt out his most private, dangerous secrets had shaken him to the core.
In all honesty, he did not believe that she was working for Voldemort or any of his subordinates. If the Dark Lord had heard even a whisper of the phrase 'Order of the Phoenix' in connection with Severus' name, he would already have been vaporized.
Voldemort, a genius tactician when it came to facing his enemies, handled betrayal from his inner circle with a great deal less finesse.
Rather than dupe a known traitor into revealing information and divulging the identities of his associates, Voldemort was far more likely to eviscerate the traitor while laughing and taunting the dying wizard.
Although Severus believed that she wasn't working for Voldemort, he did not believe that she was in any way connected to the founders. Too many things suggested she was lying.
The biggest fact that worked against her tale was the simple detail that ghosts did not linger that long.
Witches and wizards who had died unnatural deaths or left their lives unfulfilled would sometimes remain trapped on the earthly plain, doomed to wander this realm until they achieved peace with their lives and deaths.
Traditionally, this process took between one and six hundred years. The Bloody Baron was the oldest ghost that resided at Hogwarts. Almost five hundred ninety years had passed since his death.
The length of his haunt was understandable. The Baron, close-mouthed when it came to most of the living, had struck up an odd friendship with Severus a few years after he had arrived at Hogwarts.
Through their conversations, most of which took place in front of his hearth, Severus had discovered that the Baron and he had a great deal in common.
Both were the only sons of wealthy, old-blood wizarding families, which had created a great deal of pressure to wed and produce an heir for both men.
Severus had lightened the pressure by simply severing relations with his interfering mother, Helena, shortly after her second marriage.
After his father, Vespasian, had died in a duel, Helena had begun an affair with a French wizard, Marcellin Garnier, a wizarding merchant who dealt primarily in dark objects.
Severus had disliked his father, but he absolutely loathed his stepfather. Deciding that continuing a relationship with Helena, a beautiful, but cold woman who had nothing remotely resembling love for her son, was not worth putting up with the irritating frog-eater, Severus had ceased communicating with the woman who gave him life.
Unlike Severus, the Baron, whose first name had never been divulged during their numerous discussions, had lived up to the expectations of his family…as was to be expected in his era.
The Baron, a fellow potions master, had decided to take a wife when he reached his fortieth birthday.
As he made rounds in London's wizard marriage market, home to upper class, unwed women of pure blood, the Baron had met a lovely young woman who made the prospect of marriage more than palatable.
Marianna Dovetree, an 'ebony-haired goddess,' as the Baron had once bitterly described her, became the object of his ardent affections.
She was intelligent, possessed a lovely alto singing voice, and enjoyed potions making. The Baron had thought her to be the perfect bride, and he quickly arranged an engagement with her guardian, Marianna's cousin, Marcus Dovetree.
What he did not know, was that Marcus and the entire Dovetree clan were in dire financial straits. The Baron's generous bride price was a welcome source of income for the family, but the Dovetrees, especially Marcus, wanted more.
It had also turned out that Marianna and Marcus had been lovers since the girl was thirteen. Although marriage between cousins was frowned upon in that time, it was not illegal, and the two Dovetrees could have wed…if not for their greed.
The Baron was unknowingly pulled into this circle of avarice and incest, which would have dire consequences for the potions master from the age of the Plantagenets.
Marianna and Marcus plotted to eliminate the Baron and claim his wealth and holdings after their inheritance was ensured by the birth of a son. For the Baron and Marianna, a male child came quickly to their marriage, a lucky act of providence for the scheming cousins.
The birth of Charles was greeted with joy by both parents, for drastically different reasons. The Baron had been delighted by the birth of his son, utterly infatuated with the perfect human being he believed was a manifestation of he and Marianna's love for one another.
Marianna was overjoyed to be freed from a loveless marriage.
Almost two months after Charles' birth, the Baron was invited to a romantic dinner for two in his wife's chambers. Thinking that this meeting would mark a renewal of their enjoyment of the marriage-bed, the Baron had come with eagerness.
After finishing a delicious first course of vichyssoise, the Baron found himself paralyzed by an undetected poison that it had contained…a poison that he had most likely brewed.
He watched, in frozen horror as Marcus entered the bedroom, explaining he and Marianna's relationship and plans.
The Baron been forced to observe Marianna make love to her cousin with an enthusiasm that she had never been able to feign for her husband.
Marcus had then stabbed him repeatedly with the rapier that had been passed down by the male heirs of the Baron's family for over two centuries. The betrayal that the Bloody Baron had experienced was so horrific that he had yet to achieve harmony.
Although the Bloody Baron's haunt was exceptionally long, others had resided in the realm of the living for longer.
The most extensive stay in recorded history, if Severus recalled correctly, was experienced by a Japanese wizard named Hino Ikari. A nasty piece of work while he had been alive, the wizard had haunted the emperor's court for seven hundred fifty years after his death at the hands of his three sons.
It could be possible that Elena had been a ghost for somewhere around six hundred years, though it was highly unlikely. But one thousand years…absolutely impossible.
Also, the older the ghost, the more strange the
individual. Although Elena's sense of
humor seemed a bit skewed and she was far too irreverent, she wasn't crazy, a
characteristic that marked older spirits.
Still, Severus couldn't dismiss her claims out of hand. He would research Hogwarts' enrollment books, and see if indeed Elena Morreton had been a member of Hogwarts' first class.
***********
Thank you for all the kind reviews. They provide great motivation.
Also, when I wrote 'frog-eater' in reference to Snape's stepfather, I in no way meant to disparage people of French extraction. I was merely portraying Snape's snarkiness.
See what Elena does about Snape's not-so-great reaction in the next chapter.
Also, I've corrected my death age problem, so it sticks to canon now. Thanks for the constructive criticism, Myranya and Tangwystl Quidditch.
Until then.