Chapter 4 - Snips and Spirals Reunited

The crowd of students in front of the Quality Quidditch Supply shop made it impossible for Martis and Sev to get in.

"What's the deal?" Sev asked.

"I think Nimbus came out with their next model," Martis answered, trying to push her way in. "I've wanted a look at it myself while I'm in here."

"If we can get in," Sev muttered as someone jostled him.

Martis turned full around and poked him in the chest. "Bother!"

He caught on and poked her shoulder. "Bother!"

"Bother!"

"Bother!"

"Bother!"

"Bother!"

"Bother!"

This went on for another minute until people began clearing away in disgust at their behavior. Martis and Sev finally quieted down and entered the shop.

"Great Mother," she sighed, hugging him. "I missed doing that! We'll have to do it around Lucy next time, hopefully with Nasty-issa in the room, too."

"Certainly," Sev answered. He glanced at the newest broom model on display. "Nimbus 1001 - quite a beauty."

"Drool," Martis said aloud, gazing in rapture at the broom. "I wish I had a few more galleons, I'd get it for this year. You know my sister Phaedra gave me her 1000 when I played that one time on our house team."

"I was wondering where you got your own broom."

"It was hers. She said it served her faithfully her first year as Ravenclaw's Chaser."

Sev caressed the handle, feeling the spells within the Quidditch broom. "Very nice." Images of Martis playing Slytherin's Beater again flashed through his mind, backhanding Bludgers into Gryffindors Sirius Black and James Potter. It brought a smirk to his lips. "You have to do tryouts again this year."

"You're doing them with me," she retorted. "I've seen you fly - you've gotten better over spring term."

"No. I'm not Quidditch material. You are."

She hugged him around the waist. "Suit yourself. I just thought it would be nice for both of us to do tryouts - make Potter and his lover Black their turn to sweat."

Sev laughed. "The image that brought to mind is quite disgusting."

"Well, it intrigues me to no end," she admitted. "Come on, I need to find some padding and armor in my shape. Nearly killed myself that one game because I was wearing Phaedra's and she's slightly wider on top than I am. At this point."

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A little while later, Martis and Sev were sharing a sundae at the ice cream parlor across from Gringott's Bank.

"How much longer do you have?" she asked.

"About a half hour," Sev answered. "Then it's back home with them." He reached across the table and squeezed her hand, his face flushed. "I want you to continue writing me when we get back."

"Of course I will," she answered. She turned his hand over and caressed her fingertips over his palm. "I promised I would for the whole summer." She suddenly looked up. "Snips, want to come with us? Phaedra has enough Floo Powder for all of us to go back home to Crete, it'd be no trouble at all - "

He dropped his spoon and clasped her hand in both of his. "No! I can't go. I can't drag your family into my family's problems. I won't have my Father hurt you or your sisters because of me."

"He won't get very far," Martis started, jutting her jaw out. "It's not fair. You shouldn't have to stay with him."

"I have to," Sev said quietly. "He's my father. And given the chance, I would run to Crete with you. I really have nothing here."

"Then why do you stay?"

He looked away. "Obligations. Besides, he could locate me anywhere. The monster wouldn't let an island full of warriors get in his way."

Martis put her spoon down and picked his face up with her hands. "Then we'll meet again at Hogwarts. All we have to worry about are the Maraudiots and that can be dealt with." She brushed hair out of his face. "My fragile Snips ... "

He lowered his dark eyes, not wanting her to see the anxiety in them. He wanted to pull her into a corner and just hold each other again. He had craved her touch all summer, realizing how addicted he became to her hugs. Just hold each other and never let go, not for anything.

Ridiculous, he decided.

His eyes flickered up and he caught sight of the figures of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black walking down the street. "Wonder what they're up to?"

Martis turned toward the window and observed the blonde pair make their way across the street toward the ice cream parlor, then off down the sidewalk again.

"Isn't Knockturn Alley a door or two down?" she asked.

"Yes." He saw the spark of an adventure forming in her smirk. "Oh, no, Martis, you don't want to go to Knockturn Alley; it's where all the Dark Arts shops are and - "

"We're just doing a little spying," she said as she got up and deposited her part of the payment on the counter.

Sev added his own. "No, Spirals, we can't, you don't know what's down there."

"Well, it'd be no different than Diagon Alley," she concluded as they exited the parlor.

"That's not what I mean, Martis! Damn it, come back here, you won't be able to survive down there!"

He dashed after her long ash-blonde hair as it swished about her cloak.

Both teens made their way down the steps and into the darkest, dingiest alley Martis had ever seen.

"What's that smell?" Martis whispered, surprised to find herself whispering.

"Biological rot," Sev answered, grasping the back of her cloak. "Please, Martis, we have to go back. My Father goes down here. If he finds me down here, he'll do worse things than breaking my arms and splitting my head open."

She pulled his hood up over his head. "Then shut up." She spotted a flash of white-blonde hair. "There they go."

"We're going to die if we stay down here."

"These people are going to die if they don't get out of my space," Martis muttered, glaring at one man with a bright blue beard who was licking his lips at them.

Martis dragged Sev to a shop window, looking in on Lucius Malfoy (in his expensive black cape) and Narcissa Black (in a pretty silver-blue cloak) as they bought candles from the shopkeeper. "Hm. Red candles covered in honey and cinnamon."

Sev swallowed. "I don't want to know what those are for."

"I know what those are for. I wonder why that would be considered Dark magic?"

"What are they used for?"

"Lust spells, mostly."

"That's why. Underage Wizarding Laws won't allow them to be sold to minors."

"Oh." She smirked. "Now we have to do our duty to - "

Hands clapped down on their shoulders, causing both to gasp.

"Ans what," a strong, feminine voice said. "Are two young children like yourselves doing in Knockturn Alley?"

Both looked up to see a thirty-ish woman with frizzy brown hair and wearing jeans and a green cape looking down at them. Next to her was a man about the same age with long red hair pulled back in a ponytail and wearing a non-descript brown suit under his maroon cape.

Martis and Sev began babbling at once as the two escorted them back toward the juncture to Diagon Alley.

The woman turned to the man with her. "I can't believe these are our professors."

He grinned in a fatherly way. "They had to start somewhere, didn't they? Good thing they look like their kids. Easy to spot."

"Sure," the woman snorted. "Except he doesn't have the spiky hair and the skull t-shirt like Junior. Just what do you think you two were doing?"

"Spying on some classmates buying lust candles," Martis answered, now knowing these two were not Dark wizards. The familiarity the two adults showed with each other reminded her of married couples on Crete.

The redheaded man sighed. "Bloody hell. I didn't ask for this job."

"No, it was given to you." The woman released Martis as the man released Sev in Diagon Alley. "Stay out of trouble you two, I mean it."

The man added brightly, "And watch out for a guy whose name rhymes with 'Baldimort'."

The woman gazed at him. "If you weren't so good in the sack, I'd slam you into a wall." She looked down at the confused Martis and Sev. "You owe me one - remember that."

They walked off. The man snorted. "They owe you? HA! The great Hermie telling me not to do any warnings, but it's okay for you to set yourself up for a favor from those two?"

"Shut up, Ronny."

"That's Snape and Vox," he complained as they blended into the mob of shoppers.

Martis and Sev looked at each other, looked in the direction where the two people vanished, then looked at each other again.

"All right," Martis said. "Not the weirdest thing I've heard, but the weirdest I've witnessed."

"I don't want to think about it," Sev added. "I'm going to have to go soon."

Both walked slowly back up the street to the Leaky Cauldron. "The invitation is still open."

"And the invitation would be accepted, you know that." He gently reached his arm out and pulled her close as they walked. "We're still going to meet on the train to school."

"Nothing will stop that," she agreed. "Then us against the world again."

"Snips and Spirals Forever."

"Eternally." She hugged his shoulders and stood on tip-toe to kiss his cheek, whispering, "Take care of yourself, Sev. I'll be waiting."

He nodded, hugging her again before he tapped his wand against the bricks of the wall. The wall opened up into the courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron and Sev turned around, waving at her, forcing himself to smile.

She waved back, also smiling, even though he could see the tears starting to leak from under her sunglasses as the bricks shifted back into place.

He entered the pub and found his Mother sitting by herself at a table, his few packages in a chair near her. He covered his face with his hair and sat across from her.

She looked up. "She cares for you, doesn't she?"

Sev allowed a strand of hair to slip away, one dark eye staring back at her. "Yes."

His Mother shifted uncomfortably. "Quite fiercely, I must say."

"Her mother doesn't give a rat's dropping about her," he stated. "Her siblings have had to raise her. Where she got the idea of Protective Motherhood is beyond me."

"She is right, you know."

"How would you know?"

"Because I'm not a fierce creature like that. I've never had it in me. I was going to devote my life to study, not marry or have children or anything."

Sev looked down again. "So, even if given a choice, you wouldn't have had me, anyway."

"Sadly, yes."

"And you hate my very existence."

"No."

He looked up at her, surprised. "Why not? Father forced you into marriage and having me and you're stuck with us. You never had enough spine to take me and leave. Or even leave yourself."

"Because you're my baby. And he's your father. And I am the Lady of Snape Manor."

Sev felt disgust. "Keeping up appearances. Great one, Mother. Great excuse."

"I know you hate me, Sevvie, I can't change that. But it's still the both of us under your father's foot, not just you."

He looked up at her sharply. "Why is he always 'my' father? Why can't you call him 'your' husband? Or better yet 'our' Godly Master? This whole damn charade of poor aristocratic Purebloods makes me sick! Once I become of age, don't be surprised if he's on the end of the worst Unforgivable."

She set her mouth. "Please take that back."

"I'd think the old bastard would appreciate the challenge. Probably half-expecting it; if he didn't with the way he's been teaching me, then he's stupid as well as evil." He pulled his hair back from his face. "And, Mother, given the chance - yes, I would follow my friend to the ends of the Earth to get away from this cesspit. Nothing is worth the crap I've been through. At least with her I'm a human being rather than a punching bag apprentice."

"He's coming," his mother said quietly.

Confutatis Maledictis Snape swept over to the table, his ravenhead cane clutched tightly in his leather-gloved hand. "Time to leave." He glanced at the packages. "Surprised you found so much. Thriftiness is a virtue. Come along."

Mother and son got up and exchanged the look that the patriarch was in a good mood, then made their way out of the Leaky Cauldron and into their carriage.

Sev felt the pockets inside his robe, and his fingers enclosed over a small silver trinket box Martis had bought him in the junk shop. The silver felt cooling to the touch. She said it was for him to put in anything he wanted. So he asked for a lock of her hair, which was tied with a gold ribbon and placed inside the box before they left the shop. 'There,' she had said. 'Now I'll always be with you.'

He clutched the silver box and smiled behind his hair.