Disclaimer: The characters that look familiar to you belong to J. K. Rowling. The ones you cannot find in any of her books are mine. I don't intend to make any money out of this. I'm just having some fun.
In The Viper's Nest
Amanda stretched luxuriously and jumped out of bed. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and she had Malfoy Manor all to herself. Narcissa and Draco had left the night before, they had been invited to spend the weekend with some friends, and although both of them would have rather stayed, social niceties had to be observed, and so they had accepted the invitation.
At the beginning Amanda had thought that maybe she could go back home for the weekend and spend some time with Sandrine and the others, but then she realised she wouldn't have many more chances of being alone in the house, and she had two whole days to try and find something interesting in Malfoy Manor.
So far she had been mostly enjoying herself with Narcissa and Draco. They had cooked, and talked, and worked in the greenhouse, and sunbathed... Mmmm. Sunbathing! That was an idea!
Some time later, Amanda was already lazing in the big terrace of Malfoy Manor, wearing a yellow bikini that would have probably made her aunt's glasses fall off her nose, a cup of white coffee and some peanut cookies at her side. She was reading an amusing children's book by the Grimm Brothers, two muggle writers who had written the most hilarious stories about witches and fairies.
"Oh! I must tell Edvard about this!" She told herself, closing the book after finishing 'Little Red Riding Hood'.
She checked her skin. She was already quite tan after her sunbathing sessions with Narcissa in the morning, but she didn't want to run the risk of getting burnt, so she laid the book aside for another time and went back inside. The house was silent, but Amanda had the sensation she was being observed, followed everywhere she went. She didn't think Narcissa distrusted her, but maybe she had put some wards up, just in case someone else came while she was away -say, for instance, thieves or... aurors.
Amanda leaned on the handrail and looked downstairs from the last floor of the house. She had already checked the guest rooms, Narcissa's and Draco's. She hadn't found a thing in the kitchen nor the garden nor the greenhouse either. The sitting-room seemed to be in order too. She moved her nose unconsciously while pondering what to explore today. Maybe she should go back to the library. She knew there had to be a secret door there, because Narcissa and Lucius himself had often talked about his study, but they didn't seem to mean Lucius official study, so she guessed he had another one for distinguished visitors. She had never found the door, though, and the Malfoys had never showed it to her. Yes, she would try to find it today.
She started descending the stairs, but stopped dead in her tracks when a loud whistle came from behind her. She turned slowly around, and glared at the portrait of Pedicurus Malfoy, 1457-1509.
"Sorry my lady," Pedicurus said. "Women in my time didn't walk around like that," he commented, eating Amanda with his popping eyes.
Amanda felt revolted. She rolled her eyes and turned again to go on walking downstairs, very conscious of the portrait's disgusting stare following her every move. She would make sure to tell Narcissa that she didn't like that Pedicurus in the least. Maybe they could hang him inside a small and dark cupboard or somewhere similar. She hesitated for a moment and finally decided to make a stop in her room and put on some more clothes. She took a long black shirt, and took a look at herself in the mirror.
"You look like a gypsy," the mirror uttered disgusted.
"Thanks!" Amanda smiled at the glass, and turned to go. If that snobbish mirror didn't approve of her looks, it must mean she looked quite well.
The Malfoys' library was a very big room with its 6 meter high walls covered from floor to ceiling in mahogany bookcases holding thousands of books. This room had been originally two rooms, one on top of the other. When the downstairs library turned too small to contain all the books the Malfoys possessed, Lucius' grandfather had decided to make the ceiling of the room disappear, and now the upper room only had a small corridor running along each wall to allow people get the books there. The high arched windows along the right wall let a clear and warming light come in. Amanda walked along the bookcases, running her fingers through the books and the wood, trying to find something that would open a secret door, or at least hoping to find the door itself. She stepped up the wooden ladders resting upon the bookcases in regular intervals to allow people reach the upper rows of books and reached as far as she could while balancing on the tip of her toe, looking for some gap, some hole.
Nothing. She had spent already more than two hours there, and still nothing. Amanda liked mysteries as any McGonagall should, and she promised herself she would find that room if it was the last thing she did. Maybe she could try to pray some information out of Draco and Narcissa...
She went back to the terrace -taking another staircase, to avoid Pedicurus-, and tried to clear her mind and analyse all the possibilities while she munched the tuna salad sandwich that the house-elves had brought her. Maybe the door was concealed by a secret word, or maybe it just opened for the owner of the house, or maybe you could only find it at a special time of the day... She took a sip of her butterbeer and let the refreshing liquid bathe her tongue before swallowing it. That was it, she would go downstairs after her lunch and would stay in the library as long as she had too. Maybe the change of light would reveal something, anything.
***
Four strokes in the distance. Four o'clock already! Amanda rubbed her tired eyes and laid aside the book she had been reading. She looked around. Still nothing. The book she had been reading, Proud to be me: A Genealogy of the Malfoy Family, had made her sleepy. At the beginning the book had been amusing. She had checked the Malfoys she knew and had found their descriptions highly distorted and very funny, but after some pages it had started to get boring.
Amanda yawned. She took off the ribbon holding her hair back and let it on the floor, and then put her feet on the armchair and made herself as comfortable as she could. The sun fell on her seat, and she felt completely relaxed. She started to dove off, and the more asleep she fell, the smaller she looked. She seemed to be shrinking. Then she suddenly sprouted whiskers, pointed ears and a furry black body. Amanda was finally asleep, a black slender cat in the middle of the green armchair.
***
The grass was green and cool, and the black cat was dreaming that she was chasing butterflies. Jumping now and again trying to catch one, but the beautiful insects just battled their colourful wings at her and flew higher, out of her reach.
Suddenly the fields disappeared, and the cat was sitting on someone's lap. The chair was close to a fireplace, and the flames danced merrily in front of her. A hand caressed her smooth fur and then scratched her behind the ears. Oh, that was bliss! She remembered that sensation too well. Mother petted her in the evenings, before going to sleep, singing to her beautiful lullabies. She had got used to sleep as a cat on those distant nights, and since then, when her worries wouldn't let her sleep, Amanda would turn into a cat and try to get some rest.
Then the shouting started. They were coming. She knew it. She could feel the dark magic in the air. She knew what would happen. Her mother would tell her to hide and then those horrible men would come in wearing their masks. Footsteps. Footsteps coming closer. They were there. They were there! Mum!
The cat awoke with a start. Two men were standing there, one of them kneeling in front of her, caressing her fur, the other one standing to her right, speaking to the other man, almost shouting. Amanda spat angrily at him. He had awaken her! Why couldn't he speak lower, couldn't he see she was sleeping?
The man looked at the cat and catching it by the collar threw it to the floor.
Amanda spat like mad and turned back into a woman before hitting the floor.
"What do you think you are doing? Show some manners!" She said, and slapped the man across the face, living four scratches in his cheek that immediately started to bleed. She then retreated some steps.
Both men looked astounded at her. The one who had been caressing the cat recovered first. The other took his hand to his bleeding cheek, still gaping.
"Please, accept my apologies, Madam, we didn't mean to interrupt your nap," the first man said in a silky voice, standing and bowing slightly.
"I didn't mean you," Amanda said politely, and then she turned to glare at the other man, "I meant you."
"Sorry, I wasn't aware you weren't a real cat..." The man tried to apologise.
"So? What does it matter if I was a real cat or not? What gives you the right to abuse animals?"
The man didn't answer, but Amanda saw him fingering nervously something shiny hanging from his belt. An axe!
"Don't tell me, you must be McNair, am I right?" Amanda asked.
McNair looked absolutely pleased that such a beautiful woman would know his name.
"At you service, Madam," he said, bowing.
Amanda charged like a bull and put a finger menacingly on his chest. "I don't like people who execute defenceless creatures. Try not to cross my path too much, McNair, or you might find that axe stuck in your ass."
McNair looked aghast at Amanda's reaction. So much for his hopes of impressing her.
"And you are?" Amanda asked the other man, with an eyebrow raised in a way that let them know she was the boss there.
"Severus Snape," the man answered, a little bit annoyed now, "and you are?" he asked, mimicking her.
Amanda narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "Amanda Ming," she said. "I'm a friend of the Malfoys."
"We thought there was nobody at home," McNair said.
"You were obviously wrong," Amanda said, glaring at him. "And my I ask, why did you come, if you thought that there would be nobody?"
The two men looked at each other.
"We are friends of the Malfoys too," Snape explained. "Mrs. Malfoy invited us and some other friends to come any time we wanted to."
"And you decided to come when she wasn't here? That's not very nice, don't you think?"
"Don't get me wrong," Snape said, trying to remember his good manners. "We didn't know for sure when we would arrive because we had some... business we needed to attend, but we talked to Mrs. Malfoy a few hours ago at the house of a common friend, and we informed her we would be here when she came back. She didn't mention you were here, though."
"I don't like Death Eaters..." Amanda said, but stopped to roll her eyes when she saw both men gaping at her. "Yes, I know you are Death Eaters, I can feel the Dark Mark on your skins. As I was saying, I don't like your lot, so I told Narcissa I had the intention of avoiding you all as much as I could when you came. She probably thought I would see you coming and stay in my room, which I would have done if I hadn't fallen asleep here. And now, if you'll excuse me."
Amanda stepped around the two men and walked stiffly to the door, but it opened before she could reach it, and in came another man, this one smaller than her -or maybe it was that he walked a little bit bent-, balding and with watery nervous eyes that immediately swept the room. Through the open door, Amanda could see more people standing in the foyer. She turned to the other two men and asked shocked:
"How many of you are coming?"
"Some," Snape replied shortly.
Amanda glared at him as if she wanted him to melt on the spot. Then turned and left the room with a quick step. She didn't stop at the hall -although she could feel everybody turning to look at her-, and instead went straight to her room and closed the door with a bang.
"So much for my free time to explore the house!" She shouted in anger.
She turned to her right and suddenly saw her reflection on the mirror.
"Oh, no!" She was still wearing her bikini, no wonder the men had stared at her like that.
***
Downstairs, the three men in the library were still trying to recover from the shock. The one that had come in last, and who was none other than the rat Peter Pettigrew, approached his other two companions.
"Who was that? What is she doing here?" He asked worried.
"A friend of Mrs. Malfoy," Snape said. "A very bad-tempered one."
"She scratched me!" McNair said, as if it wasn't obvious.
"That will show you to be more careful around supposedly defenceless animals, McNair," Snape said amused. Pettigrew had to agree -although he didn't dare show it-, McNair had killed too many rats who had been his friends, just for his amusement.
McNair glared at Snape. He then took his wand and tried to heel his cheek with it. It stung a lot. It shouldn't have. He grimaced. Snape and Pettigrew were looking at him with a suddenly serious face. Pettigrew looked a bit scared, Snape intrigued.
"Let me see that, McNair," he said, and grabbed the man's chin to make him turn his head to the side. The scratches had closed and stopped bleeding, by they could still be clearly seen in his skin. The heeling spell should have made them disappear completely. Scratches were never a problem if you had a wand.
"Have you had problems with your wand lately, any spells that didn't work, anything strange?" Snape asked.
"No." McNair replied. "What is it? It stings. Is the wound still open?"
"No, it's closed," Snape answered, half to himself. "I don't know why, but the scratches haven't disappeared, though. Maybe she had been touching something poisonous before falling asleep. This looks quite bad. I think you will wear this mark for the rest of your life."
"What? You must be joking!" McNair exclaimed.
Snape raised his eyebrows. "When have I ever joked, McNair?"
"A mirror! I need a mirror!" McNair said, and left the room quickly, with a hand on his scarred cheek.
***
Amanda was sitting on her bed, hugging her knees, looking out of the window and cursing her bad luck. Of all the days the Death Eaters could have chosen to come to Malfoy Manor, it had to be today. Maybe she should have gone home for the weekend after all, with so many people in the house, she wouldn't be able to explore much anyway. Maybe she could still leave... No, that wasn't wise. The Death Eaters would think she was scared of them, and she would have to face them when she came back anyway. She had a mission. She had to stay at the Malfoys for the summer.
What worried her the most was that the Death Eaters were far too many. She had expected two or three, but there were at least fifteen. If they were to attack her, they would be too many for her. She'd better keep a low profile until Narcissa and Draco came back. The Death Eaters wouldn't dare harm her in front of the hostess of the house.
A sudden knock startled her out of her musings.
"Who's there?" She asked, a little bit more sharp than she had intended.
"Snape," came the silky reply.
Amanda thought for a moment. She didn't dare open the door. What if he wasn't alone? She stood in front of the door and waved her hand at it, suddenly the door seemed to be made of clear water instead of wood. Snape was obviously impressed, but not as much as she had expected.
He looked Amanda in the eye. "May I ask to what caste of ashanriis do you belong?"
Amanda couldn't avoid a look of surprise. It angered her that this man had been able to surprise her. "What makes you think I am an ashanrii?"
"I've met some before," Snape replied smoothly.
Amanda took a deep breath, trying to sound less annoyed. "I'm a jilguerei. Is that what you came to ask?"
"No, I came to tell you that my friend's face is not healing... properly. I thought you might have been touching something poisonous before we came. I happen to know that the Malfoys have poisoned the covers of some books, to protect them from an unauthorised use. I was worried that you would poison yourself unawares."
"How nice of you to worry," Amanda said haughtily.
"Of course, I know now I shouldn't have worried. You probably poisoned the wound on purpose, didn't you?"
Amanda put her better look of superiority. "Yes, I did."
"Isn't that too hard a punishment for McNair's slight fault?"
"Slight fault? You think almost strangling me with that big hand and throwing me in the air is a slight fault?" She said, breathing rapidly in anger, trying not to shout.
"Doing that to a cat yes, I think it's a slight fault," Snape said silkily and perfectly calm.
"I am a woman, in case you haven't noticed it yet," Amanda said. It was costing her a big effort to control her voice.
"I have. Believe it or not, Death Eaters can appreciate beauty too. But you weren't a woman when my friend grabbed you."
"And Death Eaters don't know that animagi exist?" Amanda chose to ignore the man's compliment.
"We thought the house was empty," Snape insisted.
"And that gives you the right to harm any being in it? Animals or house-elves?"
Snape let go a tired breath and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "This conversation is going nowhere and I have more important things to do. I came to make sure you wouldn't hurt yourself accidentally, but it's obvious you can take care of yourself pretty well, so, if you'll excuse me..." He bowed slightly and turned on his heels before Amanda could answer. She stayed there, fuming silently for a couple of minutes more, before waving her hand once more to restore the door to its original shape.
***
The rays of the sun awoke Amanda in the morning. She looked at the clock: barely seven. She had a terrible headache and felt very weak. Of course, that might very well be because the day before she had only eaten a sandwich and some biscuits, and then her worries wouldn't let her sleep until late at night.
She went to the attached toilet and washed her face. She took a look at herself in the mirror. She looked awful. Wonderful!
She took a quick shower, got dressed, and went downstairs silently, hoping the Death Eaters would be still sleeping and she wouldn't have to meet anyone. She could have summoned the house-elves to bring her some food, but she wasn't going to stay all day in her room like a prisoner. She would avoid the Death Eaters as much as she could, but the house was big enough, no need to stay hidden. She could eat something in the kitchen, take some books, and go up to the terrace, to work for a while. Since she had come, she had only spent a few hours on her research, and she had intended to work at least three or four hours a day.
Amanda had said at work that she wanted to take a sabbatical year to do some independent research. Her boss had been very interested. Amanda was a very efficient worker, and thus her boss had agreed to go on paying her the usual wage if at the end of that year she would give the lab the rights over her work. That had been excellent for her, because it allowed her to have free time to work for the Order, but still get some money. She had some savings, but she'd rather not touch them, just in case there was an emergency. It wouldn't do to go back to the lab and have nothing to give them now.
"Good morning!" She said in entering the kitchen, and she smiled at the house-elves, already working. Did they ever sleep?
The house-elves smiled back and bowed.
"Good morning," someone said from her left. Amanda turned shocked, she didn't expect to find anyone in the kitchen. "I see you seem to be in a better mood today," Snape said, nodding haughtily. He was sitting at the kitchen table, reading the Sunday Prophet and eating some cereals.
"My good mood has suddenly disappeared when I've seen you," Amanda replied in anger. "What is a Death Eater doing in a kitchen? Wouldn't you rather be brought breakfast to your room?"
"Are you offering to do it?"
Amanda clenched her jaw. The nerve of the man!
"Miss Mandy will have the same as always?" A house-elf asked, approaching her timidly.
Amanda fought to control her anger. She looked down at the elf with a forced smile on her face.
"Yes, please," she said.
The house-elf bowed and moved the chair in front of Snape a little bit back, waiting for Amanda to sit. She doubted for a moment, but finally decided she wasn't going to give the man the satisfaction of knowing that he had offended her. She sat gracefully, looking daggers at Snape all the way.
Another house-elf came running with two cups, one full of dark coffee, the other with white coffee.
"Your coffee, sir," he said, and levitated the black coffee to Snape's hand.
"Thank you, Kreacher," Snape replied politely.
Amanda was quite shocked. One of Lucius' 'friends' addressing a house-elf politely! That had to be a first.
She took her cup and drank some coffee. She felt much better immediately. She studied Snape over the rim of her cup. He had chosen to ignore her and had gone on reading the newspaper. Amanda smiled mischievously at herself. He wanted to read, did he? Well, he was going to have his fun spoiled.
"You are very nice to house-elves for a Death Eater," Amanda said, feigning a pleasant smile.
Snape looked up from the newspaper. "You are quite annoying considering you are a friend of Narcissa's."
Amanda's smile faded immediately. Snape raised an eyebrow at her, daring her to retort.
Amanda took the knife and started buttering a toast as if she wished she was spreading acid on Snape's nose. And she would need a large quantity of acid too, because the man had a very big nose.
She ignored Snape and summoned her quill and some parchment. She started scratching some notes while she ate, and immediately forgot about the man sitting in front of her as she immersed herself in her work. She was making a list of the concepts she wanted to check in the Malfoys' library, she was sure there was quite a collection of herbology books there. She might as well search for some information on a couple of ingredients Michel wanted to try to add to the Wolfsbane Potion. She reread her list while biting her quill, her toast forgotten half-eaten in her other hand and her coffee getting cold.
Snape studied her above the newspaper. She looked absolutely beautiful like that, lost in thought. Her face was relaxed, and she kept wrinkling her nose in concentration without noticing.
Amanda scrawled some more words on the parchment, finished her toast in two bites and drank half her coffee in one gulp. Then she rose, taking the parchment and the quill in one hand and the cup in the other, and left the kitchen without a backwards glance at Snape.
She headed straight for the library. The morning light gave it a welcoming glow. She let the cup on a small table, stood in the middle of the room and closed her eyes in concentration.
"Show me all the books that contain the word 'adelphia'," she said out loud. The library reacted to her command and the books she was looking for stood out of the rest. Amanda opened her eyes and looked around. She counted at least seven volumes, maybe some more in the upper floor. She summoned them all to the big table in the middle of the room, brought her cup to it, and started working immediately. The terrace could wait.
Three hours later, Amanda finally stopped reading and writing, and rubbed her eyes. She marked a couple of pages she found specially interesting and then waved the books back to their original position.
She summoned a house-elf. "Could you please bring me another white coffee?" The house-elf nodded and hurried away. He was back before Amanda had had time to decide what to look for next.
She repeated the same procedure with another concept and went on working. She could hear voices now and then outside the room. The Death Eaters were already waking up. Nobody came in to disturb her, though.
Around one o'clock, Amanda left the chair to pick a book from the upper rows. She could have summoned it, but she wanted to stretch her legs a bit too, she had been sitting in the same position all morning. She stepped up the wooden ladder and reached for the book. It was too far away, she couldn't reach it. Amanda tried to get the book for the last time. She stood on the tip of her left toe and took both hands out of the ladder. She lost balance, and fell with a cry, but she never reached the floor. She had covered her face with her hands instinctively, but when the crash didn't come, she looked around. She was floating in mid-air. Just inside the doorway of the library stood Snape, his wand raised at her.
Amanda would have thanked him heartily if he had been anybody else, but she couldn't thank him, so instead she put an annoying look and commanded:
"Put me down!"
Snape raised his eyebrow, and then turned his face a little bit, putting his free hand behind his ear, as if he couldn't hear what she was saying.
Amanda was beyond herself with fury.
"I said put me down," she commanded, in the same tone of voice.
"I didn't hear you say the magic word," Snape said. "I'm sure a well-educated jilguerei as you must be able to pronounce the word 'please'."
Amanda tried to free herself from his spell. She'd rather fall the rest of the way than take lessons on good manners from a Death Eater, she could almost touch the floor anyway.
"PUT ME DOWN!" She shouted angrily.
"Say 'please'," Snape demanded placidly.
"NO!"
"Say 'please'," Snape insisted.
"I WON'T!" Amanda shouted, mad with fury.
"Very well, as you wish," Snape said. He waved his wand, but didn't put Amanda on the floor, he just let her fall. Amanda hit her left hip and her left elbow, and cried out in pain.
Snape approached her and stood towering over her. "Come on, it can't be that bad, you were almost touching the floor."
Amanda was trying hard to control her tears. It was true that she had been hovering only inches from the floor, but she hadn't been prepared for the fall, and had end up sprawled in a bad position. She tried to sit, but she couldn't. Snape offered her his hand. Amanda looked at him with such hate in her eyes that he doubted for a moment, but then insisted once more.
"Here, let me help you. Take my arm."
"Leave me alone!" Amanda said.
Snape was loosing his temper. He kneeled and tried to scoop Amanda in his arms.
Amanda kicked him with her healthy leg and arm. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!" She shouted.
"What's going on in here?"
Snape stood as if bitten by a viper. Narcissa Malfoy was standing on the doorway, looking indignantly at the scene in front of her. She almost flew to Amanda's side and kneeled beside her.
"Severus, I didn't expect something like this from you," she said, giving Snape an angry look. "Leave us alone!"
Snape didn't say a word. He nodded curtly at Narcissa and left the room.
"Oh, dear," Narcissa said, hugging Amanda.
"Issa," she said, and started sobbing on her friend's shoulder, not so much for the pain, but for the humiliation and the anger at not being obeyed by Snape. As a jilguerei, the least she had expected was a little bit of deference from a wizard.
***
"Severus?"
Snape had confirmed once more his suspicion that cauldrons were much more easy to understand than women, so he had closed himself in the Malfoys' dungeons and had started working. Madam Pomfrey had asked him to try and lessen the side-effects of the Dreamless Sleep Potion, basically the addiction aspect. That was something that interested him a lot personally too, because he depended a lot on that potion. Sleeping during the years of the Dark Lord's disappearance was difficult enough, but now that he had recovered his power and Severus found himself working as a Death Eater again he couldn't sleep without it. He had been working there for a couple of hours when Narcissa Malfoy came looking for him.
"Yes?" He said looking at her with a blank expression.
Narcissa stepped inside the room and closed the door behind her. She wrung her hands nervously. "I... I wanted to apologise for shouting at you earlier. I should have known better than to think you had attacked a woman. I know you are a true gentleman, Severus, but I only heard Amanda shouting at you, and saw you trying to take her in your arms, and I thought you..."
Snape didn't say a word, he just looked at the floor and back at Narcissa.
"I'm sorry," she said, "Amanda told me it had been all her fault, that you had only tried to help, that you actually saved her when she fell from the ladder. She told me she was so angry at herself for loosing her balance like that... that she took her anger out on you. She asked me to tell you she's sorry, and hopes you'll excuse her bad temper."
"How is she?" Snape asked, in a neutral tone.
"Fine, her arm is working perfectly, her hip still hurts a bit, you know it's a difficult bone to heal. I rubbed some ointment on it and she says it doesn't hurt so much anymore. It hurts when she tries to walk, though, so I told her to stay up in her room. She was reading when I left her."
Narcissa remained silent for a moment, but Snape didn't seem to care. He went on stirring the contents in the cauldron.
"Maybe you could keep an eye of her for me?" She asked tentatively.
Snape looked at her utterly surprise. "Pardon me?"
"I have to go back to the Goyles, Draco is still there. I just came to make sure you had everything you needed..."
"And to check that we hadn't hurt Miss Ming," Snape finished for her.
Narcissa smiled at him. "Yes. Sorry about that. I know you wouldn't hurt Amanda, but I'm sure some of those guys Lucius and you associate with can be really nasty."
"You are right, Narcissa, no need to apologise."
"So, would you keep an eye on her? Draco and I should be back this evening or tomorrow morning. I don't trust her to stay in her room for so long. She can be very stubborn, and she doesn't like spending a lot of time between four walls, unless she is working."
"I will," Severus said, "but I cannot promise you I will be able to control her."
"I guess not, she can be a bit temperamental at times."
Snape thought 'a bit temperamental' was the understatement of the year. "I'll do my best," he assured her.
"Thanks," she said, and kissed his cheek.
Snape felt very uncomfortable, he hadn't been kissed by a friend in many years.
***
In the afternoon, Snape walked slowly upstairs. He wasn't sure Amanda would welcome him, but he had promised Narcissa he would keep a eye on her, and it was going to be difficult if he stayed in the dungeons all day. He took a deep breath and knocked firmly.
"Come in!"
He opened the door slowly and waited in the doorway, with his hand on the doorknob, until Amanda turned. She was sitting with her back to him, in front of the window. She finally turned. When she saw Snape, she turned a little bit pink and tried to stand. He hurried to her side.
"Don't!" He ordered, and then checked himself. "You shouldn't walk yet," he said in a less commanding voice.
Amanda sat again.
"I came to check if you needed something," Severus said.
Amanda signalled to a chair that had suddenly appeared behind Snape. He sat a little bit stiffly.
"I wanted to apologise," Amanda said. "You probably saved my life before, and all I did was shout at you and give you orders instead of thanking you. My behaviour was.. very childish. I don't usually behave like that. I guess I was a little bit nervous. I had had a bad night, I was tired because of lack of sleep and because I had been working all morning, and then I was scared that a moment ago I had almost killed myself. I'm sorry." Amanda extended her right hand as a truce offer. Snape barely touched the tip of her fingers and then, to the girl's surprise, kissed her hand briefly. Amanda blushed.
"Apologies accepted," Snape said solemnly.
Then there was an awkward pause. Severus Snape wasn't very good at socialising, but he knew he should probably say something. His eyes went to the book resting on Amanda's lap. The pages seemed to be full of colourful drawings.
"What were you reading?" He finally asked.
Amanda smiled. "The Grimm Brothers' Fairytales," she said, "they are very funny. There are some about witches, and wolves that talk... It's amazing what these muggles came up with. I wonder if maybe they knew some wizards or something."
Snape raised his eyebrows, intrigued and amused at the same time, but he couldn't find anything else to say, he didn't know much about muggle writers.
"What about your friends?" Amanda asked.
"My friends?" Snape asked confused.
"The other Death Eaters," Amanda explained.
"Oh, well, I don't think 'friends' would be the right word to describe them. I've reached a kind of amicable understanding with some of them, but most of them are just 'co-workers', so to say."
Amanda nodded.
"They are gone. They just wanted to leave their things here, because they'll be coming back soon, but for now they had to leave. Businesses," he said, uncompromisingly.
"And you stayed." Amanda stated.
"Yes, I'm on holidays now, so I have some free time. Narcissa asked me to stay some days. She thinks Lucius would feel better if he knew I was looking over her and Draco."
"I'm sure he would," Amanda said approvingly.
"Probably," Severus agreed, "but I doubt very much my presence here is really needed. I have the feeling you are a good protection enough."
"Thanks," Amanda said frowning, "I guess."
Severus couldn't help but laugh, though with some difficulty, his throat wasn't used to laughter any more. "You are welcome," he said.
There was another awkward silence after that. Amanda looked at her hands and Severus out of the window. He was the one to finally brake the silence.
"I took your notes to my room. You left them in the library and I thought the house-elves could throw them away thinking they weren't useful anymore."
"Thank you."
Snape cleared his throat. "I took a look, I hope you don't mind. Some words caught my eye... May I ask if you are working on the Wolfsbane Potion?"
"Yes," Amanda said surprised.
"Yes, I may ask, or yes, you are working on it?"
"Both," Amanda said, rolling her eyes.
"I've had some experience myself with the Wolfsbane Potion. Do you follow Vladimir Popinski's recipe or Magdalena Lasalle's?
That got them into a long and productive discussion about Wolfsbane, and from there they easily moved to other potions and ingredients. At some point, Snape interrupted their heated debate to summon the house-elves to bring them some dinner. They ate some salad followed by some cheese with toasts, and took some red wine. At one o'clock in the morning, Snape felt he shouldn't stay any longer in Amanda's room. If someone were to find him there so late at night, it could arouse some unfounded suspicions. People didn't seem to understand that a man and a woman could simply enjoy each other's conversation without having any further interest. So he emptied his glass of wine -they were on their second bottle by now- and said:
"Much as I'm enjoying this conversation, I'm afraid I'm robbing you of a most needed rest. Your hip will probably recover much faster if you sleep some hours."
"Oh." Amanda looked a bit put out. "Of course, it must be quite late."
Snape took off his chain clock and showed it to her. Amanda gasped. "Is it really so late?"
"I'm afraid so," he confirmed, standing to go.
"Severus..." Both Amanda and Snape wondered at that moment when had they started to be on a first name basis, they hadn't even realised until now. "Thanks for your company. I really didn't deserve it after behaving so badly before...".
Snape reached over and put a finger on her lips to silence her. "I thought we had agreed that we had both behaved like children and that we wanted to forget about it all and start anew," he said.
Amanda nodded silently.
"Very well, goodnight then," he said, and kissed her hand before finally turning and leaving her.
When Snape closed the door, Amanda caressed the hand he had kissed, and then her lips, where his finger had rested. For a moment she really regretted that he had left, but immediately shook herself.
"Amanda, please, what were you thinking? He is a Death Eater, remember?" She said aloud, and laughed at her silliness. She had to admit she didn't remember having spent such a wonderful evening with another man before. They seemed to have a lot of interests in common, and Severus was really clever, there was no doubt about that. They didn't agree in everything, in fact, they disagreed in almost everything, but that made their conversation more interesting. They had each defended their point of view wisely and had justified their opinions. In the end, they had each held to their original ideas, but that didn't diminish the enjoyment in their discussion.
And he was rather good looking too. Ok, he wasn't a handsome man, someone whose beauty you could appreciate at first sight. But on closer inspection... he had a very... gentleman-like appearance. Oh, did that sound affected! 'Gentleman-like appearance.' Amanda laughed again and then shook her head. Why was she thinking about the man? He was a Death Eater, end of the question. She couldn't be attracted to him, Death Eaters were despicable and she could never feel attracted to one of them. No way.
She tried to think about other things while she changed into her nightdress and brushed her hair. Like the fact that her hip didn't hurt anymore, or the things she planned to do the following day, or what she could buy Draco for his birthday...
When she finally went to bed, she felt relaxed as she hadn't been for a very long time. That night she dreamt of princesses in enchanted castles who were rescued by valiant and handsome princes, and even while asleep, a happy smile illuminated her beautiful face.
*****
Thanks for the reviews!
Thanks all for reading and reviewing!
Well, well, well, dear Amanda has met our favourite Potions Master. :D We'll come back to Malfoy Manor in a couple of chapters.
In the following chapter, we'll go back to Yamiko's house, and we'll visit a fuocciri village. Harry will be much more interested in the outskirts of the village, though. ;-)
Makalani Astral: I got your review when I had already updated Chapter 20, so I'm answering you now. First of all, thanks for reviewing. I wanted to tell you something: don't trust in my good intentions too much, I can be evil when I want to. :D I'm glad you enjoyed Edvard and Lupin's conversation.
Kadi Rilla Wholi: Thanks for your review. Yes, you are right, poor Sirius! I'll make it up to him soon, although I must admit things don't look too right for him yet... ;-)
hermionegreen: Mrs. Black's new portrait is certainly going to be very different, but I'm not sure Sirius will like the new Mrs. Black much better. :D And thanks for reviewing, I'm glad you liked the chapter.
Lady Arwen of Rivendell: Hi! Thanks for your review. I'm glad to hear from you again. I'm afraid that Irish IS a language. It's a form of Gaelic, and it's still spoken in Ireland, although not by many people -I'm not an expert on the subject, so everybody excuse me if I'm mistaken. There is literature written in Irish and you can even learn Irish on the Internet! Maybe I should have said Irish Gaelic, I'm not sure... Oh, and we'll get the OWL results the 31st of July, because Harry usually gets his letter from Hogwarts together with Hagrid's birthday present.
Iniysa: Thanks a lot for reviewing! I'm glad you are enjoying my fic. Hope you liked this chapter too.
