Things been the way they were for the whole time that Sylvia was there.
That was till this day, Christmas. This was the day when things took a
sudden turn for Sylvia. She didn't realize that of course as she turned off
her alarm.
Sylvia stretched as she glanced around at her room. She was still at the
Leaky Cauldron, unable to find a place she could afford just yet. Well,
actually she did, just doesn't have enough to have the place enchanted.
It wasn't long when she was out the door with a muffin in her mouth. Sylvia
was leaving early that day to pick up something she ordered.
****
Snow covered the buildings and signs. All around Christmas music was heard either by carolers or shoppers. Sylvia glanced at her watch to see the time as she walked down the Alley with a bag at her side. Just as she did that, someone came walking out of Apothecary right in front of her. There was a collision and the two managed not to drop what they were carrying. The one she ran into had just managed to catch something before it smashed into the pavement. "Sorry about that!" The man looked at her with anger on his face. She didn't blame him. If she was carrying something she had JUST bought and someone came crashing into her, she would be upset as well. That thought flew out of her mind when she recognized the face, and black hair. It was some years ago since she last saw him. "Why don't you watch where you are going you ideate?" The man turned to leave, but, against Sylvia's better judgment, Sylvia said, "Severus? Severus Snap? I mean.. ah.." Severus turned to look at her with a curios look on his face, "Snape. Severus Snape. Who are you? And how do you know me?" Sylvia was not sure weather to respond to that question. For several reasons of coarse. She had just upset him with the bump, and she messed up his name, and now she was going to remind him of a time when she and Sirius had got away from him. Considering on the fact that he obviously did not like Sirius at all, that would not be a good idea. But then again, Severus is still waiting for an answer. "I ah. I was.. ah.." This was not going very well. Sylvia mentally added getting him annoyed to the list of things she just did. "I saw you years back when I. snuck into Hogwarts even though I was a Muggle." He recognized her. Sylvia wasn't sure if that's a good thing or not. "So here you are again getting on my nerves." "Now hey, that wasn't 'me' getting on your nerves at that time, that was Sirius. And that was not on purpose." Referring to what had just happened. "Really," said Severus as though he did not believe her. What Sylvia didn't know, Severus was using her as a test subject as he looked into her eyes. She was telling the truth. But that didn't mean that he was going to lent up on her. "Maybe next time, you could look at what's around you instead of going around like you own the place like some pin headed horned toad." Severus turned and began walking away. Sylvia thought he was out of ear shot with all the music going on when she said, "Maybe you should lighten up." Sylvia quickly learned her mistake when Severus rebounded back on her angrier yet. "What was that!?" Sylvia thought fast, "Maybe you should.. brighten up. It's Christmas. Merry Christmas. Good day." Sylvia almost ran from the spot.
****
Sylvia came in to work in a huff. Several people made glances at her. Perkins, whom was just walking through the room asked, "You alright?" "Yea," said Sylvia as she put the bag down by the Christmas tree, "I just ran into Severus Snape this morning. Literally." "Oh boy." "Hmhm. He almost dropped the stuff he was carrying because of it." Sylvia reached into the bag and pulled out a box as she heard some people chuckling. It was then that she noticed something. "Think of it this way. It could have been worst. Like if he did drop something and it broke." Sylvia interrupted him, "Or fell into my bag." She just stared at the brown sack that was in her bag. This was not good. What didn't help was Helga busting up big time and saying, "I hate to be in your shoes." Sylvia placed the box underneath the tree. There was already a bunch a presents under it. They were going to be opened that night. Kingsley shouted, "Did I hear that right?" "Hear what right?" asked Frank Longbottem as he walked in through the door. Sylvia told him the story. "Yikes. Good luck to you." "Good knowing you," shouted Helga. Sylvia wished she could cast Petrificus Totalus on her to get her to stop laughing. Sylvia stretched out her arm, "Owl." Almost instantly an owl landed on her arm. "Can someone lend me a quill and paper?" "Here," said Kingsley. Sylvia walked over to his cubical. Just as she arrived there, Alastor asked, "Can I see what's in the bag?" This was the first time he spoke to her for almost two months. "It's just a brown sack," said Sylvia as she showed him. He reached in and took a close look at it. It looked like to Sylvia that he was also sniffing it. Alastor dropped it back into the bag, "Just some feathers. Probably Jobberknoll." He sounded disappointed when he said that. Sylvia wrote a letter to Severus to let him know what she found. Hopefully he would have cooled off before it reached him. Today was supposed to be a great day for Sylvia. She didn't need to work that day, but she still did what she's been doing for the past two months. That wasn't the reason it should be a great day. Today was Christmas. She wasn't supposed to be worrying over a wizard that could easily put a hex on her for what happened. But that's the way it was for her that day.
****
"So you were able to enter her mind then." "I have." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair with a smile on his face. It was obvious that Severus has come a long way in a short time. "Very good. So what did you find from Sylvia?" Severus was taken by surprised by that question. He himself didn't know her name. How did he? It came to him very quickly as to how he knew her. There was no way she could have snuck around Hogwarts the way she was and not have Dumbledore knowing. "Simply that she was just picking up a present for a friend of hers. Something really dumb in my opinion." Dumbledore let out a small chuckle, "You came a long way Severus. It may be that you've come to the end of your lessons." At that moment, and owl came in and dropped a letter onto Severus'es lap. He picked it up to read it.
Dear Severus,
Remember about some of your items falling. One fell into my bag. I just thought I'd let you know. I want to give it back to you when you can come get it.
Sylvia Esterson
****
Severus was digging through the potion ingredients he bought that day to find out what it was that Sylvia has. It wasn't long before he noticed that his Jobberknoll feathers were missing. Severus let out a sigh of annoyance, "That woman has the knack of getting into trouble."
****
Sylvia watched as almost everyone started opening up their gifts, and partying as it drew into the evening. Alastor looked around at everyone with great annoyance. So far things were going just as Sylvia hoped it would. Partying with friends. It's going to be around eight that she's going to be meeting up we Severus in the halls to give him the sack. Sylvia remembers the letter he sent back to her.
It better not be damaged. I'll come by at eight to pick it up. In the hallway.
Sylvia thought it strange that he didn't want to come into this room. Who knows, he might be like Alastor, whom had moved his stuff into Author's office because then he can close the door on the noise everyone was making. Not much for parties. Sylvia passed out her gifts to people and she received gifts as well. A few of them were gag gifts. That was better than the History books. Who knows, they'll probably be some fun reading. The people that gave her those felt that she need to know more on their history, not just their ways. What she really like were the gloves that came from Alastor. They were black, and felt like a combination of velvet and leather. According to a note, they are supposed to allow the wearer to hold grip of anything no matter what. Fancy, practical, and may come in handy. Sylvia put them. They made her fingers tingle inside. She decided to put them to the test. She grabbed hold of one of the cubical doors and Kingsley and Ginger tried to pull her off. Sylvia's feet were up in the air as they lifted her to get a better grip to pull. For some reason, mainly it was because of the gloves, Sylvia did not feel the pull in her hands. Kingsley and Ginger looked at each other, both getting the same idea, and both dropped her. The gloves didn't keep her from falling. It was around seven thirty when Nelm came up and joined them. Sylvia pulled out her gift from under the tree and gave it to him. "I do believe that you would find this to be funny, and strange." "Oh, really," Said Nelm as he opened his gift. Inside the box was a red barrel shaped thing. "Open that up." Nelm did and reached in. He pulled out red monkeys that were hooked together. They were also making little monkey sounds. Nelm busted up. "What is this?"
"Monkeys in a Barrel. I bought them in America two years ago, and just sent them in two weeks ago to get them enchanted where they would make monkey sounds." "I bet it wasn't cheap." "Why do you think they only make monkey sounds?" Nelm chuckled, "Here, this is for you." He held out a box that was wrapped in blue wrapping paper. "Thank you." Sylvia opened it up and found that it was a mirror. It was rimed with silver vines. "I remember you were looking at some over at the junk shop. What this does is allow you to see what's going on in the next room. You don't need to be a witch to do the command. All you have to do is, aim the back side to the room you want, and say, 'Look.' Go ahead, try it." Sylvia held it up in the direction where Alastor was "Look." There he was, looking at some stuff. Stuff she realized that she should not be seeing herself. "How do I turn it off?"
"Done." "Done." The mirror only then showed her face. Sylvia thought of the possibilities for this gift. "Thought you might have some fun with that. Just be careful of what you're pointing at." He pointed in the direction where she had aimed. "I will. Oh, you would not believe that kind of day I had." Sylvia told Nelm about her encounter with Severus. All the way to the part with finding the sack in her bag. "That isn't good." "What do you know of this guy?" "Only that he has the temper of a dragon." Sylvia laughed when he said that, "I kinda figured that out myself." "Well I don't think telling him to 'lighten up' was too smart of a move on your part." "I didn't know that he was going to hear me. Come to think of it," Sylvia looked over at the clock, "I need to meet him out in the halls to give it back to him." "Why out there?" "I don't know. I'll be right back." "You sure you want to go alone?"
"Why?" "I just wanted to know if you feel like you can handle him by yourself." "He's just coming to get his stuff. I'm sure that is all." "Ok." Sylvia went over to her back and pulled out the sack. She took another look at the clock and saw that it was five till. Sylvia was heading towards the doors when she noticed the Evan had exited into the hallway. She went out after him, and saw him disappear into one of the rooms. Sylvia thought it all to be a little strange. What is he doing? She fiddles around with the mirror, and made her decision to investigate. Sylvia placed herself just outside the door, and said, "Look." She saw Evan in there with someone else. The man he was talking to had black hair and a goatee. He looked at the door as though he was expecting someone to burst right in. He obviously didn't like where he was. Sylvia looked more and saw something shining in the man's hand. Sylvia had heard of them, but this was the first time she saw an invisibility cloak. Sylvia wished she could hear what they were talking about. She watched their lips carefully to see if she can find out. Focusing on the mysterious man, Sylvia made out, "I don't know. What do you expect from me? I can't even show my face..... I don't care. All I want to do is get out of here before.." "What are you doing?" Sylvia let out a small cry and almost dropped the mirror when she heard Severus'es voice. "I was. just playing around. You know. With the gifts I got today." Severus made a glance at the door that led to the room she was looking at. "Here," said Sylvia, in trying to get him to leave soon, handed him the sack, "All in one piece." Severus looked back at Sylvia. She had a bad feeling about that look. It was like as if he was doing something with those eyes of his. He reached up and grabbed a hold of the sack when the door opened. "Sylvia. Severus. Oh, I see that you've come to get what you've dropped." "I did," said Severus as he pocketed the sack into his robes. Sylvia said, "What were you doing in there? I thought you were back in there with the party and everything." Evan moved away from the door as though he wanted to get closer to the conversation. Sylvia knew better. He was just moving aside for who ever it was in there to leave. She can't wait to fill Alastor in on this. "I was just taking care of some things." Sylvia opened her mouth to say something else to see if she could get anything else. But Severus stepped in. "You've all been busy from what I've heard. Five caught so far." "Yes. Pretty good odds." Sylvia noticed a twitch in Evan's lip as he said that, "So how have you been?" "Could have been better," turning to Sylvia, "If you don't mind, I would like to chat with him privately. This doesn't concern a muggle." Sylvia made one final glance at him before heading off back to the party. Nelm asked her, "How did it go?" "Pretty good."
****
That night, as Sylvia got ready for bed, and owl arrived at her window with a letter. She opened the door and the owl flew in dropping the letter on the bed. Sylvia froze when she read it. It was in Severus'es handwriting.
Are you out of your mind?
****
Snow covered the buildings and signs. All around Christmas music was heard either by carolers or shoppers. Sylvia glanced at her watch to see the time as she walked down the Alley with a bag at her side. Just as she did that, someone came walking out of Apothecary right in front of her. There was a collision and the two managed not to drop what they were carrying. The one she ran into had just managed to catch something before it smashed into the pavement. "Sorry about that!" The man looked at her with anger on his face. She didn't blame him. If she was carrying something she had JUST bought and someone came crashing into her, she would be upset as well. That thought flew out of her mind when she recognized the face, and black hair. It was some years ago since she last saw him. "Why don't you watch where you are going you ideate?" The man turned to leave, but, against Sylvia's better judgment, Sylvia said, "Severus? Severus Snap? I mean.. ah.." Severus turned to look at her with a curios look on his face, "Snape. Severus Snape. Who are you? And how do you know me?" Sylvia was not sure weather to respond to that question. For several reasons of coarse. She had just upset him with the bump, and she messed up his name, and now she was going to remind him of a time when she and Sirius had got away from him. Considering on the fact that he obviously did not like Sirius at all, that would not be a good idea. But then again, Severus is still waiting for an answer. "I ah. I was.. ah.." This was not going very well. Sylvia mentally added getting him annoyed to the list of things she just did. "I saw you years back when I. snuck into Hogwarts even though I was a Muggle." He recognized her. Sylvia wasn't sure if that's a good thing or not. "So here you are again getting on my nerves." "Now hey, that wasn't 'me' getting on your nerves at that time, that was Sirius. And that was not on purpose." Referring to what had just happened. "Really," said Severus as though he did not believe her. What Sylvia didn't know, Severus was using her as a test subject as he looked into her eyes. She was telling the truth. But that didn't mean that he was going to lent up on her. "Maybe next time, you could look at what's around you instead of going around like you own the place like some pin headed horned toad." Severus turned and began walking away. Sylvia thought he was out of ear shot with all the music going on when she said, "Maybe you should lighten up." Sylvia quickly learned her mistake when Severus rebounded back on her angrier yet. "What was that!?" Sylvia thought fast, "Maybe you should.. brighten up. It's Christmas. Merry Christmas. Good day." Sylvia almost ran from the spot.
****
Sylvia came in to work in a huff. Several people made glances at her. Perkins, whom was just walking through the room asked, "You alright?" "Yea," said Sylvia as she put the bag down by the Christmas tree, "I just ran into Severus Snape this morning. Literally." "Oh boy." "Hmhm. He almost dropped the stuff he was carrying because of it." Sylvia reached into the bag and pulled out a box as she heard some people chuckling. It was then that she noticed something. "Think of it this way. It could have been worst. Like if he did drop something and it broke." Sylvia interrupted him, "Or fell into my bag." She just stared at the brown sack that was in her bag. This was not good. What didn't help was Helga busting up big time and saying, "I hate to be in your shoes." Sylvia placed the box underneath the tree. There was already a bunch a presents under it. They were going to be opened that night. Kingsley shouted, "Did I hear that right?" "Hear what right?" asked Frank Longbottem as he walked in through the door. Sylvia told him the story. "Yikes. Good luck to you." "Good knowing you," shouted Helga. Sylvia wished she could cast Petrificus Totalus on her to get her to stop laughing. Sylvia stretched out her arm, "Owl." Almost instantly an owl landed on her arm. "Can someone lend me a quill and paper?" "Here," said Kingsley. Sylvia walked over to his cubical. Just as she arrived there, Alastor asked, "Can I see what's in the bag?" This was the first time he spoke to her for almost two months. "It's just a brown sack," said Sylvia as she showed him. He reached in and took a close look at it. It looked like to Sylvia that he was also sniffing it. Alastor dropped it back into the bag, "Just some feathers. Probably Jobberknoll." He sounded disappointed when he said that. Sylvia wrote a letter to Severus to let him know what she found. Hopefully he would have cooled off before it reached him. Today was supposed to be a great day for Sylvia. She didn't need to work that day, but she still did what she's been doing for the past two months. That wasn't the reason it should be a great day. Today was Christmas. She wasn't supposed to be worrying over a wizard that could easily put a hex on her for what happened. But that's the way it was for her that day.
****
"So you were able to enter her mind then." "I have." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair with a smile on his face. It was obvious that Severus has come a long way in a short time. "Very good. So what did you find from Sylvia?" Severus was taken by surprised by that question. He himself didn't know her name. How did he? It came to him very quickly as to how he knew her. There was no way she could have snuck around Hogwarts the way she was and not have Dumbledore knowing. "Simply that she was just picking up a present for a friend of hers. Something really dumb in my opinion." Dumbledore let out a small chuckle, "You came a long way Severus. It may be that you've come to the end of your lessons." At that moment, and owl came in and dropped a letter onto Severus'es lap. He picked it up to read it.
Dear Severus,
Remember about some of your items falling. One fell into my bag. I just thought I'd let you know. I want to give it back to you when you can come get it.
Sylvia Esterson
****
Severus was digging through the potion ingredients he bought that day to find out what it was that Sylvia has. It wasn't long before he noticed that his Jobberknoll feathers were missing. Severus let out a sigh of annoyance, "That woman has the knack of getting into trouble."
****
Sylvia watched as almost everyone started opening up their gifts, and partying as it drew into the evening. Alastor looked around at everyone with great annoyance. So far things were going just as Sylvia hoped it would. Partying with friends. It's going to be around eight that she's going to be meeting up we Severus in the halls to give him the sack. Sylvia remembers the letter he sent back to her.
It better not be damaged. I'll come by at eight to pick it up. In the hallway.
Sylvia thought it strange that he didn't want to come into this room. Who knows, he might be like Alastor, whom had moved his stuff into Author's office because then he can close the door on the noise everyone was making. Not much for parties. Sylvia passed out her gifts to people and she received gifts as well. A few of them were gag gifts. That was better than the History books. Who knows, they'll probably be some fun reading. The people that gave her those felt that she need to know more on their history, not just their ways. What she really like were the gloves that came from Alastor. They were black, and felt like a combination of velvet and leather. According to a note, they are supposed to allow the wearer to hold grip of anything no matter what. Fancy, practical, and may come in handy. Sylvia put them. They made her fingers tingle inside. She decided to put them to the test. She grabbed hold of one of the cubical doors and Kingsley and Ginger tried to pull her off. Sylvia's feet were up in the air as they lifted her to get a better grip to pull. For some reason, mainly it was because of the gloves, Sylvia did not feel the pull in her hands. Kingsley and Ginger looked at each other, both getting the same idea, and both dropped her. The gloves didn't keep her from falling. It was around seven thirty when Nelm came up and joined them. Sylvia pulled out her gift from under the tree and gave it to him. "I do believe that you would find this to be funny, and strange." "Oh, really," Said Nelm as he opened his gift. Inside the box was a red barrel shaped thing. "Open that up." Nelm did and reached in. He pulled out red monkeys that were hooked together. They were also making little monkey sounds. Nelm busted up. "What is this?"
"Monkeys in a Barrel. I bought them in America two years ago, and just sent them in two weeks ago to get them enchanted where they would make monkey sounds." "I bet it wasn't cheap." "Why do you think they only make monkey sounds?" Nelm chuckled, "Here, this is for you." He held out a box that was wrapped in blue wrapping paper. "Thank you." Sylvia opened it up and found that it was a mirror. It was rimed with silver vines. "I remember you were looking at some over at the junk shop. What this does is allow you to see what's going on in the next room. You don't need to be a witch to do the command. All you have to do is, aim the back side to the room you want, and say, 'Look.' Go ahead, try it." Sylvia held it up in the direction where Alastor was "Look." There he was, looking at some stuff. Stuff she realized that she should not be seeing herself. "How do I turn it off?"
"Done." "Done." The mirror only then showed her face. Sylvia thought of the possibilities for this gift. "Thought you might have some fun with that. Just be careful of what you're pointing at." He pointed in the direction where she had aimed. "I will. Oh, you would not believe that kind of day I had." Sylvia told Nelm about her encounter with Severus. All the way to the part with finding the sack in her bag. "That isn't good." "What do you know of this guy?" "Only that he has the temper of a dragon." Sylvia laughed when he said that, "I kinda figured that out myself." "Well I don't think telling him to 'lighten up' was too smart of a move on your part." "I didn't know that he was going to hear me. Come to think of it," Sylvia looked over at the clock, "I need to meet him out in the halls to give it back to him." "Why out there?" "I don't know. I'll be right back." "You sure you want to go alone?"
"Why?" "I just wanted to know if you feel like you can handle him by yourself." "He's just coming to get his stuff. I'm sure that is all." "Ok." Sylvia went over to her back and pulled out the sack. She took another look at the clock and saw that it was five till. Sylvia was heading towards the doors when she noticed the Evan had exited into the hallway. She went out after him, and saw him disappear into one of the rooms. Sylvia thought it all to be a little strange. What is he doing? She fiddles around with the mirror, and made her decision to investigate. Sylvia placed herself just outside the door, and said, "Look." She saw Evan in there with someone else. The man he was talking to had black hair and a goatee. He looked at the door as though he was expecting someone to burst right in. He obviously didn't like where he was. Sylvia looked more and saw something shining in the man's hand. Sylvia had heard of them, but this was the first time she saw an invisibility cloak. Sylvia wished she could hear what they were talking about. She watched their lips carefully to see if she can find out. Focusing on the mysterious man, Sylvia made out, "I don't know. What do you expect from me? I can't even show my face..... I don't care. All I want to do is get out of here before.." "What are you doing?" Sylvia let out a small cry and almost dropped the mirror when she heard Severus'es voice. "I was. just playing around. You know. With the gifts I got today." Severus made a glance at the door that led to the room she was looking at. "Here," said Sylvia, in trying to get him to leave soon, handed him the sack, "All in one piece." Severus looked back at Sylvia. She had a bad feeling about that look. It was like as if he was doing something with those eyes of his. He reached up and grabbed a hold of the sack when the door opened. "Sylvia. Severus. Oh, I see that you've come to get what you've dropped." "I did," said Severus as he pocketed the sack into his robes. Sylvia said, "What were you doing in there? I thought you were back in there with the party and everything." Evan moved away from the door as though he wanted to get closer to the conversation. Sylvia knew better. He was just moving aside for who ever it was in there to leave. She can't wait to fill Alastor in on this. "I was just taking care of some things." Sylvia opened her mouth to say something else to see if she could get anything else. But Severus stepped in. "You've all been busy from what I've heard. Five caught so far." "Yes. Pretty good odds." Sylvia noticed a twitch in Evan's lip as he said that, "So how have you been?" "Could have been better," turning to Sylvia, "If you don't mind, I would like to chat with him privately. This doesn't concern a muggle." Sylvia made one final glance at him before heading off back to the party. Nelm asked her, "How did it go?" "Pretty good."
****
That night, as Sylvia got ready for bed, and owl arrived at her window with a letter. She opened the door and the owl flew in dropping the letter on the bed. Sylvia froze when she read it. It was in Severus'es handwriting.
Are you out of your mind?