Disclaimer: Anything created by J. K. Rowling is still not mine.
Chapter 6: Shed A Light
The next day, Madam Pomfrey examined Geillis and pronounced her fit to return to her teaching duties, but warned her that she should take it easy for another week or so. Geillis thanked her, changed into her black robes from the grey nightshirt with which she had been provided, and walked back to her classroom. She had not gone far, however, before she saw Professor Snape stalking towards her, black robes billowing.
"What are you doing?" he snapped. "You should be resting."
"Good morning to you, too, Professor Snape," she said sarcastically. "Not that it is any of your business, but Poppy examined me this morning and decided that I was well enough to resume my usual tasks. That is what I am doing, and I would appreciate it if you would please get out of my way."
Snape hesitated for a moment. She was obviously in no mood for conversation--or at least, she was in no mood for conversation with him. He had to admit that his rather waspish greeting likely had not helped. Still, he had been on his way to the infirmary with new information about the exploded harp, and had been taken completely by surprise when he had seen the very person he had been going to visit.
"Would it interest you to know that I have found out what it was that made your harp explode?"
"What?"
"I said, I have discovered what it was that made your harp explode. Is there any place where we can speak privately?"
"I suppose that my office will have to do. It's right around the corner."
Snape nodded, and they walked in uncomfortable silence until they reached a pretty statue of a harp which was carved into the wall. "'My spirit sang all day'," sang Geillis, and the door slid open.
Geillis' office was small, but comfortable. The thick carpet was a rich emerald green, the chairs looked soft and welcoming, and there was a large painting of a violin and a clarinet on one wall. On inspection of the small label hanging underneath it, it proved to be called "Because Music Touches Everything". On another wall was an immense bookshelf, filled with books about music and songspells. There were also two large filing cabinets, upon which were stacked several boxes--and, to Snape's surprise, a blue plastic crate which looked suspiciously like the ones which Muggles used to transport bags of milk. Geillis noted the surprise on her colleague's face, and smiled. "Those boxes and filing cabinets hold the songs which I pass out to my students to practice their sight-reading," she explained. "There are about 50 copies of each, and each copy is numbered. All of my students are assigned a corresponding number, so I know who has returned their music at the end of the period, and who has not. I carry them to class in the milk crate." She gestured to a chair that sat at a small round table in one corner of the room. "Do sit down," she said. "Would you like some coffee or tea?"
"Tea would be fine, thank you," he replied. He paused, and then asked, "Why are you suddenly being so nice to me, Professor?"
The question brought a slight tinge of pink to her pale cheeks. "I suppose I'm trying to make up for being so impolite when I first saw you this morning," she explained. "After all, nobody asked you to examine my harp, much less conduct any investigations regarding the incident, or to visit me with your findings. You listened to my story, even though you did not want to--and I am profoundly grateful for that. It was such a relief to tell somebody at last. And yet, there I was, yelling at you to get out of my way! If that isn't a good reason to be nice to you, I'll eat my hat, feathers and all."
He actually chuckled at that. "That will not be necessary."
She smiled and flicked her wand, and two cups of hot tea materialized on the table. "I hope you like Earl Grey, Professor. I'm afraid that that is all that I have at the moment."
"It isn't my favourite, but it will do," he replied, sipping it.
There was an awkward silence of several moments as they sipped their tea, neither really willing to speak first. Snape was taken aback that he had shown his normally well-concealed sense of humour to somebody who had been at Hogwarts for scarcely over a month and a half. Finally, Geillis spoke.
"What was it that you wished to tell me, Professor Snape?"
Suddenly, the formal mode of address which she used annoyed him. "First of all, can we please dispense with the formalities?" he said irritably. "We are colleagues, whether we like it or not, and I have observed that I am the only member of the faculty who you do not address by name. You are even on a first-name basis with that pathetic excuse for a Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher. So, why do you not address me as familiarly?"
"I have observed that you are not the sort of person who would take kindly to familiarity from a stranger," she said, wryly. "I thought it best to play it safe and uphold the formalities until asked to do otherwise."
She's got that right, he thought. "Then we shall drop the formalities now? I may call you 'Geillis'?"
"If I must call you 'Severus'."
He nodded. "Now, to business. When I analyzed the coating on the strings of your harp, I discovered that you were definitely the only intended target of this attack. I need not have been so cautious when I went to pick it up."
"How can that be?" she asked, perplexed.
"The chemicals in the coating were charmed to react only to the oil from one person's fingertips—yours. I can only assume that she obtained your fingerprints somehow, or perhaps a hair from your head."
"Fascinating," she murmured, taking another sip of her tea. "Is there anything more?"
"As it happens, yes, there is," he said. "There was a poison in the ink of that note that was on your desk, probably in the event that you had managed to survive the explosion. Again, it was designed and charmed to only kill you. I took the liberty of neutralizing it before I brought it to you yesterday."
"Goodness. She really wants me dead then, doesn't she?"
"I'm afraid so." Severus paused. "You know, you are taking all of this terribly calmly," he said.
"Well, Severus, there is no point in going into hysterics, is there?" she said. "It would do no good for me, or for my students. Far better to keep my head clear and calm, and try to find some means of solving the problem. Although, to be fair, I'll probably manage to panic anyway at some point once it's had a chance to sink in."
He nodded, though the thought intruded into his mind that he liked the sound of his name in her warm, rich voice. It was a thought that Severus Snape did not much like, so he hastily finished his tea and excused himself, leaving in a bit of a hurry.
"What did I say?" Geillis wondered aloud. Then, she shrugged. If he ever intended her to know, she was certain that he would tell her.
***
The woman crept unnoticed through the halls under the cover of darkness, her black cloak blending in with the shadows. Why was the school not in mourning? Why were the only people in black the students and that dreadful, greasy-haired teacher? She had thought that the poisoned ink and the exploding harp would have done the job.
Perhaps they had. Perhaps that whore Sashara had warned the other witches and wizards of Hogwarts and had requested them to act as though nothing was wrong should she suddenly meet her demise. Or perhaps they simply were not fond of their new Songspells professor; perhaps she had indeed died, but had been so despised that her death was a matter for great joy, or at least not to be mourned.
Yes, that had to be it. The whore deserved nothing better
.
Codanna Tangol was well pleased with this thought—until she saw Sashara Elford Bonosares in the flesh, walking through the corridor, deep in conversation with a witch dressed in emerald green. She looked unscathed, unworried, and very much alive.
Codanna hid in the shadows, considering her options. She could, now that she knew that her false friend was alive, plot new ways to kill her. She could even jump out from her hiding spot, grab her wand, and kill Sashara with a quick "Avada Kedavra!", but she dismissed the idea almost before she thought of it. Try that here and she would have Merlin-knew-how-many expert witches and wizards on her heels in seconds. Sashara would die, but so would she, and the point of killing her was, after all, to be around afterwards to gloat about the bitch's downfall.
Codanna slipped out into the now-empty corridor and, shapeshifting into a large black raven, flew out into the dark and back to Malfoy Manor.
***
A/N: I think that from reading this chapter, you may have found exactly what that development is that I mentioned not being pleased with in my last author's note. Unfortunately, I needed a way to get him out of her office, and that was the only way I could think of.
At any rate, the chapter title is a reference to a song by Roch Voisine, "Shed A Light". (For the record, the only other song of his that I like is "Kissing Rain".)
Geillis' password, "My spirit sang all day", is the title and first line of a part song composed by Gerald Finzi; the words are by Robert Bridges. I first encountered it when I was fifteen years old, and it's been a favourite of mine ever since.
The painting "Because Music Touches Everything" really does exist. It was painted by a very talented friend of mine, and I bought it from him the day that it was supposed to go to a local gallery for sale. =) I figured that Geillis might like it, so I decided to share--though strictly speaking, that painting isn't supposed to exist during this story. It wasn't painted until 2003, after all.
The milk crate is a personal joke, and no, I won't explain.
I had them drink Earl Grey tea because it's my personal favourite. I'm not sure where it came from, though. Perhaps Flitwick taught her a charm for really instant tea. (Sometimes I wish I could do something like that, particularly when I've been up all night working on an essay. ;) It sounds useful.)
Codanna becomes a raven mostly because that's the bird that I always figured she'd identify with. (Figures that she'd be an unregistered animagus.) Ravens, after all, are intelligent birds, but they don't generally have the most positive associations in mythology. For example, they often emerge as trickster figures, and I see Codanna as being more or less the dark side of a trickster figure.
Incidentally, for a really entertaining story about another trickster, I recommend "The One About Coyote Going West" by Thomas King. It can be found in an anthology called "All My Relations", as well as "One Good Story, That One".
Oh, and Codanna goes to Malfoy Manor mostly by default. I honestly couldn't think of any other place for her, though it certainly would suit. Exactly why she's there remains to be seen, though; maybe she's enlisted Lucius Malfoy's help.