Disclaimer: I am very aware I don't own Severus Snape, nor do I lay claim to Morganna Montaque. Y'know, I don't have an original bone in my body. Well how about that. All belongs to JK Rowling. Actually I own the Cactus idea. But that's because I'm edging into insanity. If you want to read about the real cactuses go here ..- But unless you are quite bored, I'm going to assume you aren't going there to read about cactuses instead of my fic.
Onto this. Blah, review it if you can be bothered.
Dedication-y thing: To my Haystack Kitty, who knows who she is. And whose fic I just read. S'excellent!
Chapter 19- Bloody Cactuses
"And just how old exactly do you think are?"
Severus sat on a bed in the Hospital Wing, boredly picking at lint on his trousers, resentment written on his face. He looked up at Wesley for a moment, so that he might find a shred of amusement in the look Wesley would be pulling. And he did.
His guardian was standing before him, rolled up newspaper in one hand as if he were about chide a dog and the other hand placed on his hip, staring down at Severus from where he loomed with a searching expression.
With a raised eyebrow and unpleasant smirk Severus went back to his fascinating trousers without answering the question, swinging one leg in his idleness.
"Don't do that!' Wesley smacked the offending leg promptly with the newspaper, a scandalized expression befalling Severus.
"That's assault!" He cried angrily, shifting away.
"Don't be ridiculous Severus. I hope you don't talk to your teachers like this."
Severus mimicked him as he spoke, rolling his eyes and putting on a pained expression, as if he'd just been asked to partner up with James Potter or the like.
"No I don't, they don't bore me. You do, not that, that takes much."
"That it, not that that. And mind your manners."
"Yes sir." Severus replied resignedly, able to clear his tone of sarcasm, but not his face of the utter resent. He was seventeen; he didn't need to be told what to do, like a three year old. He was not a child; he was an adult, just like Wesley. This was patronizing.
Wesley only caught glimpses of the contempt in Severus's expression though, marvelling at the audacity of Severus, to be so disrespectful to him, especially since he virtually raised him from where Angele and Edward left the game so to speak, no more than 8 years ago. He'd like to think Severus was turning out the way he was because of what happened, and probably thought that's what Severus would like to think too. But he was sure that wasn't it. What was the boy thinking, getting engaged?
"I'm not quite sure what you think you are doing Severus, but you are too young to get married. I don't know whether this is you just wanting to play Mummys and Daddys-"
"-Wesley, don't be sick-"
"Or whether you really love this girl, but you are too young. Why are you in such a rush? You are only seventeen, what is it that you want boy? A child by eighteen? life wasted by nineteen? –"
"Don't be dramatic I-"
"What about a career? Aren't you going to study beyond this? Well I don't suppose you will be able to if you have a wife and child, - "
"-I never said we were planning on having a kid-"
"Stop interrupting me Severus."
Severus gaped incredulously, offended that he wasn't being given a chance to defend himself. Wesley crossed his arms, pausing while Madam Pomfrey bustled past.
"Also the Matron tells me you've contracted some fatal illness, one that isn't commonly found in Europe anymore; tell me Severus, how in the name of Merlin did you manage that? Also she tells me despite her efforts you ignore your treatment and are becoming progressively worse. It makes me wonder what you do, do."
Severus opened his mouth, but it swung shut again.
"Wait a minute, how come you can have a do do, and I can't have a that that?!"
"Don't be cheeky with me, Severus." Wesley scolded, "While I'm at it I might ask you to keep out of your parents' accounts' please. That privilege hasn't been bestowed upon you yet, the money isn't yours to squander right this moment."
Severus made a face, mimicking him again, until Wesley thrust the newspaper at him brusquely, dropping it. Severus leered at him, obviously showing no respect for his authority, though not understanding the gesture.
"If your health continues to deteriorate you will be withdrawn from Hogwarts, and that is a threat. I am a busy man-"
"Sure," Severus muttered doubtfully under his breath.
"- So I will leave you to your devices. Be warned."
Severus made faces at Wesley's turned and retreating back, until he was out of sight.
"The potion, Severus." Madam Pomfrey reminded him, beetling through again under a heap of sheets.
He glanced over at a bottle of purple liquid on a side table, and groaned, collapsing back on the bed in exasperation.
Severus stared distractedly out of the nearest window of the library, watching the dust float through the rays of glittering sun, gathering the right wording for his sentence meant for an essay on juice extraction from insulting cactuses, and methods on catching them. Their main methods … No that's in the title.. Their main means of transportation… Well its not really transport now is it… Their main means of moving.. Doesn't sound right...
Severus frowned and shot a menacing glance at a textbook, in suggestion that it should feed him the paragraph starter. The most helpful thing so far had been his disjointed thoughts that were floating over there in the sunlight, being no help whatsoever really.
So while his best ideas were getting a suntan Severus revised the previous paragraphs.
The Cardoon Offenses (Cynara cardunculus), or as it is more commonly acknowledged, Insulting Cactus, is best known for its defensive and offensive distractive techniques and remarkable speed. The properties and characteristics of the Insulting Cactus are much like the non-magical variant of the plant, and share the common structure with it. Cactuses are generally known as succulents and can be recognized by the following criteria.
There was a large gap where Severus intended to quill in the long list of criteria for both, non magical and magical cactuses, but simply didn't feel like it. He'd leave that until last, like he was going to leave the diagram of the Insulting Cactus till last. Hell, just leave the whole essay until last, he thought, folding his arms on the desk and resting his head on them. He squinted at something carved into a wooden bookshelf that he had noticed in his peripheral view, when the whole sentence caught up with him and willed itself into his quill. He sat upright quickly before the whole entire idea decided to go back to sun baking, and began to scrawl onto the now creased parchment in front of him.
The Insulting Cactus's key methods of travel are unique to its surroundings, more regularly however makeshift legs are sprouted from Areoles at the base of the Cactus, giving it the ability and strength to dislodge its roots from the sand or soil, and move as do bipeds. The energy for this process is gained from an advanced system of 'CAM' (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism) photosynthesis, a procedure also unique to Insulting Cactus.
Severus smirked in victory at the almost covered parchment, dipping his quill in the nearby bottle of navy ink, to continue on with the words that were spewing forth out of his writing apparatus.
"Hello there."
Having pulled herself up a chair and thrown her books over his things, none other than Lily Evans plonked herself down opposite him. Severus gawked, shoving her 'Livers of the world' book aside, aggravated at the interruption of his now missing A+ sentence.
"No I don't mind at all, sit yourself down, it's not like was doing anything important anyway." He drawled, with much sarcasm. And every word of his derisive sentence fell upon deaf ears. Lily was already absorbed in flicking through a great big moth eaten book which was generating much dust and filth as she flipped the grimy yellow pages.
"How is your jaw, by the way?" She asked Severus, ignoring his quip and pointed looked, prompting him to rub his jaw, having brought attention to it.
"It's alright, no thanks to you."
"I'm sorry about that. But it's not like you didn't deserve it."
Severus nodded, waving the dust away from himself unenthusiastically. He was quite happy to disregard the whole incident involving the slapping. And so was Lily apparently.
After a moment Lily had found the page she wanted and had heaved the book off her lap onto the table, with a dusty thud, hiding the majority of the table under its great mass. Severus's textbook and half his essay disappeared underneath it too. Severus directed a sharp, even more pointed stare at the book.
"If you don't mind, I'm doing something." He snapped when she ignored even a glare, capable of burning a hole in the felonious object.
Lily however remained ever cheerful, beaming down at the page she'd opened it to.
"Is that anyway to talk to your saviour?" She asked lightly, pressing her lips together as she searched the decrepit page.
"Saviour?" He spat, "You're not a Saviour! You're an antagonist. And right now you are putting the submission of my Essay on the due date in serious danger."
Lily looked puzzled, leaning over to see what he was working on, previous to her ambush.
"Oh!" She exclaimed, falling back into her chair. "You haven't done that yet?"
"Evidently." He replied deprecatingly, a tune that Lily reminded him off popping into his head. It was one of those annoyingly repetitive ones too, he thought rubbing his temples.
"I did that ages ago," She said, making over exaggerated hand movements, Severus frowning. "It took me ages too-"
"You're not helping Lily!" He interrupted, pushing the book off his Essay, before catching the title of the page.
"Disease Cleansing Medicinal Potions…?" Severus made a face.
Lily fixed him with an impertinent smile. "Well if you aren't going to do anything about it, I will!" Severus looked uncertainly at the page from where he was, brow quirked.
"Well Matron, don't you think if there was something that would get rid of this damned thing, Madam Pomfrey would know about it?" Severus knew Lily was intelligent, even though she acted like her brain cell count was less than the number of players on a Quidditch team, but doubted she could come up with a cure Madam Pomfrey couldn't. Madam Pomfrey had no doubt studied Magical Medicine, whereas all Lily studied was James Potter. Which were, in Severus's opinion, two very different things. Medicine was about fixing a problem and James Potter was just a problem, that couldn't be fixed.
"Well she wouldn't. It's just a theory, nothing more. But I thought I might be able to draw the theory from this book, and make some changes of my own y'know."
"I think that's clutching at straws Lily, I'm getting better anyway. And if I wasn't, who cares right?"
Lily huffed, it being her turn to raise an eyebrow. "Now you are just being stupid. You know that isn't true Severus."
Severus muttered an inaudible reply, eyes straying to a bunch of Gryffindors who were eyeing the conspicuous pair curiously and probingly.
"Well fine. Have you talked to Morganna lately? I bet she'd care." Lily smiled at him, placidly and almost knowingly, even though he was scratching the wood of the desk, trying to look uninterested.
After a few more minutes of silence Lily laughed softly. "Cat got your tongue over there Sev."
"Severus." He corrected through gritted teeth. "And I hate that expression..."
"You went all aloof over there when I mentioned Morganna." She pointed out, barely suppressing the urge to smirk and look smug when Severus looked up, smothering a flash of alarm. She knew it! And if she didn't know any better and fear Severus's wrath unleashed she'd go and scream it from the castle's rooftops. He loved Morganna too!
And it had only taken a comment against Severus's endless self pity to find it out.
Lily was purposely overlooking the little matter of Severus's engagement, and was giddy to no end, so much so she wanted to lean over and squeeze him until his eyes popped out. But then like a scared animal, he could lash out, ferociously, to save his skin, so she settled for beaming idiotically at him as she gathered up her books.
"Yeah, you'd better leave or I'll be telling the Potions Master I left my Essay on the corner of the round table." He said, crossly bowing his head to the Essay, hand to his forehead so Lily wouldn't see his unhealthy complexion taking on an interesting shade of pink, foreign to him. Severus glared at her back as she ambled over to Madam Pince's desk to check out the huge monstrosity and the various strange books on Livers he had noted. If she didn't seem to be such a push over Severus would truly fear her. No normal girl checks out no less than 4 books on Livers, but of course this was Hogwarts, blame it on the curriculum. Blame it on Dumbledore.
Common practice in the capture of the Insulting Cactus is to cast a light blocking charm on the plant while it is dormant so it hasn't the energy to uproot or defend itself. A law was passed in 1896 against the shooting of magical darts at Cactuses as it usually resulted in the death of the plant, a contributing factor to the number decline of 1890. It is also practical these days in handling the cactus to investigate the surroundings first to be aware of any other cactuses, as we cannot forget the lesson taught to us by Graig Hertle Of Engerdeen in 1962 when he attacked a Cactus after it named him 'Turd Burglar', a neighboring horde of Cactuses came to its defense and ravaged him, resulting in head wounds and loss of memory.
..I hate this, Severus thought, throwing his things together so he could escape the library, having drained the surroundings of every possible idea for his Essay.
"Severus!"
Severus closed his eyes wearily, listening as her soft footsteps came closer, not slowing in pace himself.
"Severus?" Akira questioned coming to hurry alongside him, a hairpin in her teeth as she pulled her crimson hair back into a tight ponytail. Sighing quietly Severus opened his eyes and plastered a surprised expression on his face.
"Akira, I didn't see you there." He said, indifferent smile fading, adding "Darling," For good measure. He wanted to avoid a run in with her at all costs today, and his seeming inability to be affectionate to her at the present time could cause friction, not the good sort either.
"Wne bee 'ooking for you." She said, taking the pin from her mouth and using it to secure stray bits of her hair back. Severus tried to smile, or whatever it was he was doing when he thought he was smiling, but it came out as a sort of grimace.
"What?"
"Nothing I just didn't hear what you said properly." He lied tactfully, "You were after chewing on a pin at the time." He pointed out jokingly. In the back of his mind he was bitterly thinking to himself how he should have taken the 2nd floor route down to the entrance hall instead of trying to take the most direct path.
Akira grinned up at him sheepishly, "I'm sorry Sev,-"
Let it slip Severus, let it slip… He nodded understandingly
"I just said we've been looking for you, and now I've found
you!"
"Evidently-"Severus seemed to be interested in the 'we' part of her statement.
He frowned. "We? Who we? Why?"
"Just a couple of us Slytherin… we were bored. Is something the matter?"
"No nothing." Severus replied bluntly, surprising even Akira at how short he'd been with her. She bit her lip, looking dejected, clasping and unclasping her hands anxiously. Severus was making her feel very nervous suddenly.
"Should I leave you alone then because..."
"No, no, no." Severus came to a sudden halt, trying to gather some benevolence. "I'm just not having a good day and I've got this silly essay to do for Potions…"
"You haven't done that yet?"
"What did I- Yes I've done it, I just said that to humour you."
"..Sorry."
"No, don't be sorry."
"Well anyway I just wanted to ask if you wanted to come with me and some people to the astronomy tower... or maybe you and I could go somewhere..?"
Severus stared determinedly at stone wall behind Akira, ignoring her suggestive tone of voice and wicked grin, so he could keep his reply as dead-pan as possible.
"No, I have this essay to do, so I'll see you at dinner or afterwards... or something?"
Akira shrugged casually, "Yeah alright." She leaned up at Severus and kissed him ardently, to which she only got a little response. And with no thanks or word further Severus broke away and began off again, even faster in pace this time.
The common room was completely deserted, which didn't strike Severus as odd; it was after all the first of the snow. Personally he didn't like the cold much and chose the chair closest to the fire to settle into with a Gronlims Encyclopedia volume, a-d so he could look up cactuses. Blasted things, if he ever met one he'd out insult it then step on it. That is however of there wasn't a clan nearby. After reading about that Graig Hertle Severus wasn't so sure what to think of those sweet looking roses in the courtyard.
Of course he didn't actually believe they could be a pack of bloodsucking wild roses, but he was sure it'd surface in a nightmare sometime, alongside Lily and her livers, and worse James Potter.
Lily. Her reaction to his ignorance of her remark about Morganna had stirred something in him, a kind of fear. Though he couldn't put his finger on what exactly he was meant to be afraid of.
The soft rhythmic and constant noise of the crackling fire in the background was comforting, as was the lulling warmth of the room. But it was empty, aside from himself. Really, if he thought about it, he was always alone. One was always alone, left to the mercy of their minds. Their thoughts, however light and happy or dark and twisted they were, they were ever constant. From his mind he couldn't shake the Dark Lord. Not ever. It wasn't like Akira didn't know, even if she did try and avoid touching his left arm. And when she did, she tried not to look into his face. She understood so little about him, and seemed to want to know even less, and this was the woman he would take to be his bride.
Of course, that seemed a little demanding on her. He hardly knew her either, and he tried very hard, very constantly to forget she was related, by blood no less, to Sirius Black. Though it was an interesting contrast, the red headed Slytherin beauty Akira, against the black furred pug dog Gryffindor Sirius. Perhaps Sirius was adopted from the pound out of pity. Severus hadn't even though to ask her if she was actually pureblood. But then he thought about her very rarely these days. His time was usually spent pondering the executions of the mudbloods, and the power of Voldemort. Sometimes he looked over at Luicus, when he couldn't sleep, and wondered if the man behind it all was ever like him. Sleeping so peacefully and innocently. But then he knew Satan lurked beneath Lucius's skin somewhere, so he hardly associated him with innocence.
Columnar Singing cactuses, with leguminous trees, characterize the Sonoran Desert
Besides columnar singing cactuses, other major groups include Fire barrels, hedgehogs, pincushions, smoking chollas, and prickly pears
Smoking? Severus snorted, knowing full well what the book was talking about, but decided to entertain himself with the image of a cactus with a smirk and sunglasses, cigarette butt shoved in one Areoles-hand.
COLUMNAR SINGING CACTUSES: Have cylindrical stems, with ribs (see pleats) running from bottom to top, that are at least 10x taller than wid. Is only vocal active when flowering. Includes species in the genera Carnegiea (Saguaro), Lophocereus (Senita), Packycereus (Cardon), Stenocereus (Organpipe Cactus), and others) .
Becoming of someone's approach Severus shut the book and slipped it onto a table beside the armchair. He didn't feel like fielding the 'Haven't you done that yet?' question once more. He supposed it was Akira again, god if she didn't know when to just leave him alone.
"Severus?"
Not Akira. Morganna.
Severus tried not to choke on his breath, the fear returning to his stomach again, though it was hardly anything to be scared about. Just because she was pleasant and had the decency to say hello as she passed through. Despite this 'fear' on the outside he could be perfectly unresponsive and apathetic, like he was to any other person god put on this earth for him to drawl at. There was certainly someone up there who was getting in at night and screwing with his brain, because it couldn't be possible for one person to put themselves in such a hopeless miserable position on ones own. He ignored what he thought was an acknowledgement, not a question. The volume it was spoken at really gave away that she had some sort of intention for a conversation, and her voice had held a hint of a cadence. The sort of cadence he hated to hear in music, wanting to physically find the music and push it along.
"Severus?"
So she wanted to talk. Perhaps if he made that gap even larger she wouldn't be able to bridge across.
"Yes Morganna?" He replied resignedly, trying to sound curt.
"I've got something to tell you."
He didn't feel much apart from cactuses was really important at that moment in time. He dragged his gaze away from the fire, wanting to back her away with his stare.
"Spit it out Morganna." He couldn't have sounded crankier if he tried.
But apparently, from what he could see, she was in some sort of distress, however small the amount at the given time, distress all the same. Or perhaps that wasn't the right word.
She was murmuring, so Severus had to lean forward a bit to catch what she was saying.
"I-I love you."
What the in name of Satan and all his little Devils was she saying that for when he was engaged... Holy Merlin, he thought, gripping the arm of the chair. She couldn't not know.
"Morganna," He paused, he was risking sounding very stupid if he was telling her old news but Morganna had more sense then to tell an engaged man she loved him…
"I'm engaged." And then, as an afterthought, "To Akira Black."
Authors Notes: 'Dele. Are you happy? I uploaded it now, just for you.
-le sigh-.
-crickets chirp-
Anywho. I know there is more after the last line of this chapter. I know. I'm just seeing how I choose to document the events that follow. Its 4:29am, and I think I'm going to bed. Everyone knows what happens after this is trust, apart from those who are new to this story, and said people should move themselves, fast to Adele Elisabeth's works.
Even if she does write scarring character torture in forms of "…bad kitty!Bad Kitty!"
Squee.