Chapter Three-Quantum to Outings
Several minutes later there was a knock at her door and she heard Snape's voice call through it. "You're going to miss dinner!"
"Nah, I'm not too hungry, thanks." And she turned her concentration back to letters and got lost in the music.
The next week passed in a complete whirlwind for Georgie. She met with and tested with the remaining teachers, and was starting to feel more at home in here dungeon in Hogwarts School. She even held a brief conversation with the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin House ghost one evening on the appalling behavior of Peeves the Poltergeist and how Dumbledore will take almost any ghost these days, regardless of breeding. She had miraculously held a straight face the entire conversation.
On Friday she had a free day so she went into Hogsmeade after breakfast with Hagrid. Hagrid was the only person she could really talk to at the castle. She could be herself, goofy and childish and witty and he enjoyed her even more for it. It was a glorious day and Hagrid pointed out the sights of the town: The Three Broomsticks, The Shrieking Shack, Zonko's, and lastly a smallish bookshop that Georgie immediately got lost inside. She and Hagrid poured over a book on Kelpie's with fabulous illustrations, laughing at each one in turn.
When they headed up the hill for the castle for lunch they were laughing and plotting he entire way. Snape wasn't seen at lunch, and come to think if it, frowned Georgie, he wasn't at breakfast either. But before she gave herself time to ponder over it, she shrugged the feeling off reminding herself that the man's entitled to his privacy.
She spent the afternoon on her broomstick, just going back and forth above the castle grounds. She felt so free up here! Nothing pulling her down or hindering her, it was an exhilarating feeling. She dove and spun, hovered and caught the gusts of wind ever higher. What a way to relax.
She landed and, broomstick in hand, started a tromp around the grounds. She used to love hill-walking, and she was quite good at going great distances over rugged terrain. Lost in her own thoughts she circled behind the school's Quidditch field enjoying the temporary shade. She happened to glance up and ahead of her, sitting on a fallen tree trunk was headmaster Dumbledore.
She almost skipped over to him. "Fancy meeting you out here!" She exclaimed.
"I oftentimes wish I had more occasions for going outdoors," He stood and smiled at her. "It's a truly fine day."
She nodded in acquiescence, looking all about her. The old man with the long beard, offered her is arm, so she switched her broomstick to her free hand and accepted his arm. Off they went.
Suddenly he asked her, "Do you have a favorite animal?" She almost stopped in her tread, but regained herself quickly and responded. "Yes. I'm fondest of Sea Creatures. I think my favorite of the week is the Sea Turtle."
"Oh really?" He asked, head cocked to his side surveying her. "That was surprising. I pegged you for furry creature-perhaps a canine…"
"Why do you ask?" She ventured, wondering what on earth a dog and herself would have in common.
"A colleague once told it me it can tell a lot about a person's character and desires. Honestly, I haven't Trewlany's powers of interpretation, as I have no idea what a Sea Turtle's character and traits might be."
Georgie stopped, put one palm on top of her other hand so that her fingers pointed straight out and she had a thumb sticking out from each side. She then began to rotate her thumbs, and Dumbledore beamed when he realized it looked like her hand was a rudimentary Turtle and it was swimming. "Sea Turtles are highly intelligent and fiercely stubborn, but everyone assumes they're just simple-minded because of their docile temperament and sweet facial expressions. Mark my words, they'll take over the world one day!" She got him to laugh at this last bit. And she relaxed back on his arm as the continued on.
"How do you find the school?" He asked after a few minutes silence.
"It's better than anything I'd anticipated. Everyone is so friendly here, It sort of takes one by surprise."
They walked on a few more minutes, Georgie thinking hard to herself, and Dumbledore smiling to himself..
"I wonder sometimes at the precarious position I'll be in when the term starts." She started. "I'm not a professor, but at the same time I'm not a typical student. I worry at times that the first friends and acquaintances I've made were teachers. I fear I may alienate the other students with my age and with my relationships with the teachers."
On perceiving him looking at her, she turned to him, "But I still wouldn't have it any other way. The people here a very dear to my heart now after only one week. I couldn't imagine changing that." She smiled and looked wistfully away.
She didn't feel awkward at the lapses in conversation with him. The silences seemed natural, and she was in no hurry to speak just to fill the space.
"Do you regret our choice of living arrangements for you?" He asked quietly. "Minerva mentioned that you and Severus were sometimes at odds…" She cringed on hearing this, thinking, Minerva, you've got a big mouth. Dumbledore seemed to sense she was thinking this because he immediately replied. "She hasn't told me really anything, I'd sort of gathered as much by my own observation." And he left it at that.
"We're fine, nothing serious. We're just not the best of friends." She explained away hurriedly.
The old man nodded then brought up the fact that he'd seen her up on her broom earlier, and complimented her on her flying.
She smiled at this, "I'm no Quidditch player, but I love flying up there by myself. I feel so unencumbered and light as air." She laughed at that cliché. "It's nice to leave everything heavy behind you, back on the ground." She added seriously.
He seemed to understand. "Yes, I haven't gotten the occasion to fly just for pleasure for many years now. I envy you, my dear." He said with a twinkle in his eye. The headed back up to the castle.
Dinner came and went. Afterwards Georgie ventured to play her music loud enough so she could hear it from her station on the couch, as she was sure Snape wasn't home. Maybe he went to visit a girlfriend or family on the weekend. She didn't really care.
Around 11:30 Georgie burst back into her room at a run, throwing the door wide-open, and cranked up her stereo's volume as she recognized a favorite song. Gapping like an idiot, the music blared in front of her.
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!
She was doing a little jig and hopping in place, feeling the blood course through her again. She was having fun again.
"Sa-sa-sa-sa-Saturday Niiiiiiight!" She howled along with the song. It was an older one she hadn't heard in a long time, but it brought back memories.
She leapt up on her bed. Hopped around a bit, and grabbed her hairbrush off of her nightstand. Spinning and flouncing about, she sang with all her might into that poor hairbrush, strutting up and down her bed, jiving and dancing up something awful.
"S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!"
"But it's only Friday." She looked up in terror at Snape standing in her open doorway, sneering at her through clenched teeth. Her knees fell out from under her as she sunk onto the deep covers of her bed and she made a mad scramble to slam the off button on her player. Getting to her feet she just stood there as he looked down at her as if she were a worm. She felt so incredibly foolish, she honestly wished she could sink through the floor and disappear. Maybe she could use Obleviate and erase it from his memory. Damn, she'd probably looked like a huge idiot!
He turned on his heels and glided back into the lounge. She followed him, waiting for him to say something. He sat gingerly on the couch and she stood at the end of hers, quite a bit away from him. He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath, ignoring her.
"Snape?" She asked, suddenly unsure of herself.
He snapped one eyelid open. "What?"
"Where'd you go tonight?"
He laughed a low, malicious laugh, which made her frown. "It is of no concern of yours, of course, " He spat thunderously. "But your concern touches me." His silky voice was like venom tonight, grating on her nerves.
"Snape?" She tried again.
His eyes rounded on her, so she grimaced and continued. "You're bleeding."
His frown deepened. His spindly fingers slowly reached up to the hairline on the right side of his forehead. She noted that he knew to look for it there, with no small amount of suspicion. She eyed him curiously. There was a great gash on his head, and it looked angry and raw. What the hell did he get up to?
He rose and exited the room for the hospital wing, she assumed. Well if he didn't want to tell her, she didn't want to know.
She wondered if she should wait up for him, but she hadn't the patience to put up with his attitude. She returned to her room and turned the music back up, but only half as loud. She didn't find the joy in it anymore tonight, so she grabbed her broom and headed outside. Running away was always a good thing.
The next day Minerva and Georgie went into town to do some shopping in Diagon Alley and to stock up on school supplies. They gabbed about this style of robes, and shook their heads at some author of romance novels who was doing a book signing in the bookshop. She came home with a large parcel of potion ingredients she figured she'd need soon enough, some enchanted jewelry, a few more books at Flourish and Blotts ("Oh no, where am I going to put them!")-Some she figured she'd need for her classes, and a slight headache from the butterbeers she'd consumed. Butterbeers, it seemed where one of her many weakness, she thought with a lop-sided grin. She was virtually skipping by the time they figured they should head back.
They'd passed what Minerva had pointed out to be Knockturn Alley, and Georgie was intrigued and desperately wanted to explore the street, but Minerva looked shocked and quickly dispelled any such notion of that on this trip. She'd just have to return another time; she smiled at the prospect. Minerva really was a dear, and she had only the best intentions in mind, but my goodness! She needed to loosen up quite a bit.
"Hey Hagrid."
"What?" He looked up from his plate at dinner at his friend sitting next to him.
"Wanna hear a joke?" She chided.
"Sure. Give it a go." He lifted a fork of mashed potatoes to his mouth.
"A man walked into a bar and he said 'Ouch!'"
Potatoes flew across the table and hot the transparent Professor Binns, who was just a spectator at meals anyway. The whole table's eyes turned on them both as they were doubled up with laughter over Hagrid's reaction. Hagrid's laugh shook the entire room and Georgie's was just as jarring.
He apologized to Professor Binns, who in turn whispered good-naturedly to Georgie that it happened at least twice a week, so he was used to it. Georgie was close to tears.
"That was the dumbest joke, I can't believer you laughed at it. I just expected you roll your eyes or something!"
"Well, If you liked that one, I've got heaps worse even than that." She poked him the ribs
They were acting ridiculous, but she didn't care. She could tell that Hagrid had a good heart the first day she met him. Of course it helped that Hagrid wore his heart on his sleeve. He was honest and open with everyone, and he never even took notice if people's meanings were different than their words. Kind of naive, but in a good way.
They teased until dinner was over, then they waved their goodnight.
Georgie set a small stack of books down on the coffee table and settled into her couch noiselessly. Lifting the topmost one she tore through the pages noticeably quicker than the average person would have taken to read it. Snape, lowered his own book, and looked over in he direction with an air of interest.
"Speed reading?" He jabbed.
"Studying." She hadn't bothered to look up.
"What book?"
"Dracula."
He snorted. "Muggle fiction..."
"Actually the blood-sucking, self-centered killer reminded me of someone I knew, so I decided to look into it…" She replied with a shrewd smile and bowed in his direction.
She set that book down and lifted another, this time taking more time to read it, as she sat with her brows furled in concentration. She almost forgot he was in the room, until he interrupted her thought process with, "What book this time?"
"Why?" She getting a little bit annoyed and angry.
"Trying to be, as you so delicately put it, 'neighborly'." Nosy, more likely, she thought
"You wouldn't know it." Or understand it, more likely she thought. This conversation is pointless.
"Try me." He replied steadily.
"It's called The Quantum Self, " She started with a sigh, and set the open book on her lap
"What are you reading about?" Damn, she didn't feel like spending the night explaining theory to this pompous ass.
"Noncomputability It has to do with Penrose's backing of Quantum theories for the mind. He argues that human thinking has an element that cannot be duplicated or simulated by a computing machine. It follows that humans can 'understand'-it comes intrinsically within each of us, this capability does-and therefore we understand what we are doing, comprehend the meanings, and act on this. Computing machines cannot in a sense 'understand'. They may follow a set of pre-determined algorithms, or logical commands, but that meaning and everything along with it--consequences for others, feelings, emotions--be damned in a word. Humanity is the essence of sensitivity, creativity, chaos, and at the base of it all, lies the soul."
She stopped and paused. "I'm interested in understanding intuition at this moment-specifically whether it is brought on by environment or something else that can be measured or duplicated. I have a speculation about Magical theory and how it can co-exist in a Muggle world of concrete physical rules that appear to be sound enough and proven. I figure it has to do with either the mind operating at a Quantum level-but if so, how is it that there still exists the two groups, and 'Squibs', and the like. One simplistic approach is that it is 'Magic' and Magic is just what it is. An age-old mysterious force, but if that were so, and it were a force in-and-of itself, then we wouldn't be able to harness it as we do."
She leaned back and shrugged. Heaving a sigh. Snape's face was expressionless. She'd probably lost him…or maybe, she didn't. She looked him over closely.
"Perhaps there is some spiritual power behind it all." He offered.
Raising her eyebrows, her mouth twitched into a smile. "Well, no self-preserving scientist would say so, only what we can see and prove is real right? But I think that perhaps there's a god who runs things in his time and creates it's own brand of order in the world. Just a theory…Just as possible as Quantum theories are, but makes more sense, in it's own unpredictable, human way. I guess if one had a stronger faith it'd make more sense…" Her voice dropped off as she sat in silence again.
"What do you plan on doing when you graduate?"
She laughed her usual boisterous laugh, eyes squinting. "Ah, there you go assuming I buckle down and graduate at all!"
"You'll graduate." He spoke under his breath. "Wouldn't what you would want most in the world to be working for the Ministry? Probably Department of Mysteries…" He ended dryly.
"Not what I want most in my life. But it'd be kind of fun. I don't know what I want to do with my life-who knows if I ever will. Maybe I'll open a shop or a pub and sell Butterbeers…" Her voice trailed off, imagining the fun she could have.
"That seems like a waste."
"You'd probably think so, " she nodded in assent. She twisted her lips with her fingers and stuck her face in an odd shape. "Blargh." She shook it out laughing.
Snape just sat there staring at her as if she had a horrible disease.
"You are so very odd."
"Yeah, well you are an odd duck." She laughed at him.
"You are highly infuriating."
"Yeah, well you're a moody, sniping, towering bat with no sense of humor." She stretched her arms up over her head and gave a loud, drawn-out yawn. Then smacked her lips a few times, before looking back at him with a simpering smile. "Wanna tell me what else you think of me, while you're at?" She said sarcastically.
However to her surprise and horror, he did. "You're immature. You don't take your studies or your life seriously. You fraternize with those decidedly below you. You live for fun, and play mind games. You're lacking in all proper manners and decorum. Your vocabulary nearly takes my breath away. You run about like you're all of 8 years of age, when most people your age are settling down, becoming serious, starting families, studying or working-OH! But not you." He bellowed. "Perhaps you're too good for anything like that. Wouldn't want to be molded into any semblance of a normal person. Is it part of your quest to be unique? Or do you have ulterior motives?" He hissed at her.
Her heart was pounding and she by now full of white-hot rage. "How dare you? How fucking dare you?" She was on her feet in a second. "You're the one with the dark past and secrets! You're the one who show's up at midnight after having disappeared with blood all over you, like a common mongrel in a street fight. And my language? Where do you get off?! Everything you've ever said to me has been tinged with disdain and hatred. It must be physically impossible for your cold freaking heart and mind to think of anyone else in this world. Of their feelings, comforts and thoughts."
"Decorum and manners my ass. I don't remember being vindictive as being taught at all the major finishing schools. And I've done my best to not upset you or any of your work and shady dealings.
You're constantly trying to bait me into some petty argument, as if neither of us had anything to do. I reckon you must get some rise out of, so don't talk to me about mind games." She absently fingered her wand in her right hand pocket. His gaunt face was blanched and his black eyes were glittering and flashing as he took this all in, sneering.
"And my goodness you must be really dense. I was sarcastic when I was saying spill your guts on what you thought of me. A true gentleman would never had said it, even if invited to. How's that for manners.
Now you, you try and frighten and piss me off to hold me at arms length-If that's your M.O., more power to you, buck-o. But your constant scowling and glares are really starting to piss me off!" Her voice rose until she was almost hysterical and screaming. "But that still doesn't explain your greasy hair and your horrid habit of using that abysmally huge nose of yours to sniff out the rudest and most hurtful comments imaginable!" She clenched her knuckles so tightly they were turning white, even through her brown skin.
They stayed for a minute too utterly outraged at each other to move or speak and so they just stared daggers at each other and wished they other one dead. Finally Snape stood up and swept back to his room and shut-the door behind him.
Georgie put her head in her hands and wanted to cry. She had too big of a mouth and unleashed it too much and for too long. She was such an idiot. That sort of argument was beneath her and she regretted everything said. Oh course, she was still very, very upset about the things he had said about her, but for the most part she felt she hadn't done anything wrong so if his opinion of her was so low, well, oh well…
"Incendio." She whispered across at the fireplace and it sprung to life, the orange and red flames licking and cackling at the wood. It was suddenly very cold in there, and she shivered to herself. But she deserved to suffer. She didn't fight clean, and she was ashamed at herself. She felt like crying, and felt horribly helpless and small, but she wouldn't allow it of herself.
"Damnit." She whispered at herself. She hated herself right now. That was not George. George wouldn't act that way. She'd joke and tease, but really saying those things was awful. She was bigger than that. She felt a headache come on and she slumped back into the cushions and starred straight into the fire, losing all sense around her. Time seemed to melt away from her and her blank mind relaxed a little as she heard a clock somewhere tick of the passing seconds.
Hours must've passed, hell, if she didn't know better, she'd have said days. The silence was a comfort to her, thinking was a bad idea. She was pathetic. Emotions suck, she allowed herself to grimace at that, then returned to her frown. Consciences do too.
Suddenly there appeared a cup floating directly in front of her. Sitting up slowly, she followed the arm holding it around to the man standing right behind her couch. She hadn't heard him come in. His face was blank, his eyes cold and telling nothing once again. Geesh, is he drugged, she wondered. She stared a moment more at him, "Tea," he spoke quietly. Wrenching her gaze away from him she turned slowly back around and accepted the cup. He stepped carefully around and sat down on the other couch.
He was studying her face, but she wouldn't allow herself to meet his gaze. She was still frowning deeply, was he going to apologize? Was she? Should she?
"It's not poisoned," He submitted. He must've interpreted her concentration for suspicion.
She cleared her throat. "I never thought that." She said quietly then drinking the fragrant beverage. It smelled of herbs like anise and sweetgrass.
"Listen," She said, setting her cup down on the table and meeting his eye. "Um, I feel really shitty about this all tonight. I just think we got off to a strange start, ya know? I don't think either of us are lost causes, but I do think we're both pretty stubborn and hopelessly flawed. I abhor what I did and how I feel. We can start over and try to be honest and stuff, I mean, I think we should. We have to live down here for the next year…" Her voice trailed off.
He looked her straight in the eyes and nodded. Picking up her cup and tapping it with his wand to refill it before handing it back to her. She nodded curtly at this. She was done talking.
"I don't really know if this is a good idea, but…." He paused as if weighing whether to continue. "Well, perhaps as a token of our good faith and all, I'd like to take you somewhere tomorrow."
Whatever she'd been expecting, this certainly wasn't it. She thought for a minute that this was a joke and didn't answer right away. At this point the last person on earth she wanted to spend a day with was Professor Snape-she was dead positive the feeling was still mutual. But if he was making an effort here, far be it from her to stand in his way. "Where to?" She asked.
"That will be a, "he stopped her and smiled an insipid smile," A surprise." He was probably going to murder her and dump her body somewhere.
She flicked an insolent, false smile his way. "Okay. Tomorrow."
"After breakfast. We'll come back here." He stood, bowed in her direction, then went back to his room.
This is going to be hell, pure hell, she whispered to herself dejectedly.
She eventually fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, but she still woke up in a sour mood. She was still angry with her self, disappointed in herself. And purposefully putting herself in harm's way was the dumbest thing she could be doing today. She didn't want to think about it. But her prospect brightened a tad bit when she realized that tonight she'd find out which classes she would be taking this year. That idea excited her.
At breakfast she mechanically chomped her bacon and eggs, and was polite and civil to all the inquires as to how she slept. Hagrid gave her a side-long glance, but didn't push it. He was so kind. Snape nodded to her down the table when she'd accidentally caught his eye. Dumbledore asked what she was doing that day and she gave a half-assed answer 'just going out.' He nodded and smiled, with a peculiar twinkle in his eye. Holy crap? Did Snape tell him something? No Snape's as tight-lipped as the come, literally and figuratively.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she rose and excused herself from the table. A few minutes later Snape grumbled something inaudible and flew from the room. McGonagall pursed her lips, and spoke low to Dumbledore, "That can't be good." He chuckled at this. She continued. "Do you think we should separate those two?"
Dumbledore shook his head wisely, "No, they'll both figure things out among the both of them. Both of them can be a good and sobering influence on the other one."
"If they don't manage to hex each other to death first." Minerva pointed out.
"I won't let it get to that," He assured her.
She was sitting straddle-legged over the end of the couch wearing her cloak when he arrived downstairs. "Need anything?" She asked.
"Just your broomstick and your person." She plopped up and ducked inside her room to snatch up her broomstick. Returning back, she saw him nod at her, his in broom in hand. "Ready?"
She nodded. He spun around and headed outside. She followed him and his billowing robes closely, not wanting to give any reason for complaint.
He stopped a few feet away from the building outside and motioned for her to stand next to him. He reached out and wrestled away her broom to her chagrin, looping some rope-like, luminescent stuff over the front of it. "What the hell is that?" Georgie pointed as he handed it back to her. "It's a lead rope, so you don't get lost on the way." He snarled as if it were blatantly obvious.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not that bad of a flier, you know, I can just use my eyes and go where you go." She spoke to him as if he were five years old.
"But that won't be possible," he smile mockingly and held up a long strip of black fabric. Her eyes flew open and she began shaking her head, harder and faster. "No. No….No freakin' way. No way in hell. Not happening. No." It was a blindfold. She folded her arms defiantly across her chest.
He seemed amused at this. "I'm afraid I must insist. It would be dangerous for you if you saw where we were going and how to get there, so it's for your own safety entirely."
She wrapped her cloak even tighter around herself, frowned hard at him, then nodded the okay.
She gripped her broom tightly and saw the world vanish before her eyes as Snape reached around tying a secure knot. When he finished, she instinctively moved her head, left, right, up and down, and saw blackness in every direction. "You know you could have just cast a Blinding charm on me." She said in the direction he was last in.
"Yes, but this way's much more fun." He replied from somewhere on her right side.
"For you," she muttered to herself. Lots of fun. She felt really vulnerable and wanted to get this over with. She wondered if they were going to be back for lunch.
"Watch yourself, I'm kicking off now," he warned. And a few seconds later she felt a tug on her broomstick so she kicked off too. She didn't even want to think about the landing.
"I hate flying blind." She said so quietly he wouldn't hear her. She grasped the handle with both hands and found it much easier to keep her balance then she expected. Not so bad, she almost smiled. The wind was refreshing and she could feel the sun on her face. Too bad she was missing the view.
They flew in silence for a very long time. She didn't really have anything to say, so she just pondered some mundane things. Which robes to buy, which classes she might have, how much she really needed to clean up the floor of her bed-chamber. Bummer, she actually ventured a smile on that one.
Severus Snape was happened to be looking back to check on her and half-smiled himself when he saw her own smile. He knew she'd come around if given time. Not that he cared if she were happy or smiling or not, because he didn't. He was just glad she was not going to hex him.
After another long silence-an eternity it felt like, "Okay we're landing, so hold on." She grasped a together hold and felt her broom make a wide circle that kept getting lower. "Here we go, pay attention now!" He barked. As if I could fall asleep, she thought bitingly.
A/N-I'm having a lovely time writing this. I figure it's therapy.
You know the drill, it belong Rowling. Bow to her, not to me. Ciao.
Several minutes later there was a knock at her door and she heard Snape's voice call through it. "You're going to miss dinner!"
"Nah, I'm not too hungry, thanks." And she turned her concentration back to letters and got lost in the music.
The next week passed in a complete whirlwind for Georgie. She met with and tested with the remaining teachers, and was starting to feel more at home in here dungeon in Hogwarts School. She even held a brief conversation with the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin House ghost one evening on the appalling behavior of Peeves the Poltergeist and how Dumbledore will take almost any ghost these days, regardless of breeding. She had miraculously held a straight face the entire conversation.
On Friday she had a free day so she went into Hogsmeade after breakfast with Hagrid. Hagrid was the only person she could really talk to at the castle. She could be herself, goofy and childish and witty and he enjoyed her even more for it. It was a glorious day and Hagrid pointed out the sights of the town: The Three Broomsticks, The Shrieking Shack, Zonko's, and lastly a smallish bookshop that Georgie immediately got lost inside. She and Hagrid poured over a book on Kelpie's with fabulous illustrations, laughing at each one in turn.
When they headed up the hill for the castle for lunch they were laughing and plotting he entire way. Snape wasn't seen at lunch, and come to think if it, frowned Georgie, he wasn't at breakfast either. But before she gave herself time to ponder over it, she shrugged the feeling off reminding herself that the man's entitled to his privacy.
She spent the afternoon on her broomstick, just going back and forth above the castle grounds. She felt so free up here! Nothing pulling her down or hindering her, it was an exhilarating feeling. She dove and spun, hovered and caught the gusts of wind ever higher. What a way to relax.
She landed and, broomstick in hand, started a tromp around the grounds. She used to love hill-walking, and she was quite good at going great distances over rugged terrain. Lost in her own thoughts she circled behind the school's Quidditch field enjoying the temporary shade. She happened to glance up and ahead of her, sitting on a fallen tree trunk was headmaster Dumbledore.
She almost skipped over to him. "Fancy meeting you out here!" She exclaimed.
"I oftentimes wish I had more occasions for going outdoors," He stood and smiled at her. "It's a truly fine day."
She nodded in acquiescence, looking all about her. The old man with the long beard, offered her is arm, so she switched her broomstick to her free hand and accepted his arm. Off they went.
Suddenly he asked her, "Do you have a favorite animal?" She almost stopped in her tread, but regained herself quickly and responded. "Yes. I'm fondest of Sea Creatures. I think my favorite of the week is the Sea Turtle."
"Oh really?" He asked, head cocked to his side surveying her. "That was surprising. I pegged you for furry creature-perhaps a canine…"
"Why do you ask?" She ventured, wondering what on earth a dog and herself would have in common.
"A colleague once told it me it can tell a lot about a person's character and desires. Honestly, I haven't Trewlany's powers of interpretation, as I have no idea what a Sea Turtle's character and traits might be."
Georgie stopped, put one palm on top of her other hand so that her fingers pointed straight out and she had a thumb sticking out from each side. She then began to rotate her thumbs, and Dumbledore beamed when he realized it looked like her hand was a rudimentary Turtle and it was swimming. "Sea Turtles are highly intelligent and fiercely stubborn, but everyone assumes they're just simple-minded because of their docile temperament and sweet facial expressions. Mark my words, they'll take over the world one day!" She got him to laugh at this last bit. And she relaxed back on his arm as the continued on.
"How do you find the school?" He asked after a few minutes silence.
"It's better than anything I'd anticipated. Everyone is so friendly here, It sort of takes one by surprise."
They walked on a few more minutes, Georgie thinking hard to herself, and Dumbledore smiling to himself..
"I wonder sometimes at the precarious position I'll be in when the term starts." She started. "I'm not a professor, but at the same time I'm not a typical student. I worry at times that the first friends and acquaintances I've made were teachers. I fear I may alienate the other students with my age and with my relationships with the teachers."
On perceiving him looking at her, she turned to him, "But I still wouldn't have it any other way. The people here a very dear to my heart now after only one week. I couldn't imagine changing that." She smiled and looked wistfully away.
She didn't feel awkward at the lapses in conversation with him. The silences seemed natural, and she was in no hurry to speak just to fill the space.
"Do you regret our choice of living arrangements for you?" He asked quietly. "Minerva mentioned that you and Severus were sometimes at odds…" She cringed on hearing this, thinking, Minerva, you've got a big mouth. Dumbledore seemed to sense she was thinking this because he immediately replied. "She hasn't told me really anything, I'd sort of gathered as much by my own observation." And he left it at that.
"We're fine, nothing serious. We're just not the best of friends." She explained away hurriedly.
The old man nodded then brought up the fact that he'd seen her up on her broom earlier, and complimented her on her flying.
She smiled at this, "I'm no Quidditch player, but I love flying up there by myself. I feel so unencumbered and light as air." She laughed at that cliché. "It's nice to leave everything heavy behind you, back on the ground." She added seriously.
He seemed to understand. "Yes, I haven't gotten the occasion to fly just for pleasure for many years now. I envy you, my dear." He said with a twinkle in his eye. The headed back up to the castle.
Dinner came and went. Afterwards Georgie ventured to play her music loud enough so she could hear it from her station on the couch, as she was sure Snape wasn't home. Maybe he went to visit a girlfriend or family on the weekend. She didn't really care.
Around 11:30 Georgie burst back into her room at a run, throwing the door wide-open, and cranked up her stereo's volume as she recognized a favorite song. Gapping like an idiot, the music blared in front of her.
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!
She was doing a little jig and hopping in place, feeling the blood course through her again. She was having fun again.
"Sa-sa-sa-sa-Saturday Niiiiiiight!" She howled along with the song. It was an older one she hadn't heard in a long time, but it brought back memories.
She leapt up on her bed. Hopped around a bit, and grabbed her hairbrush off of her nightstand. Spinning and flouncing about, she sang with all her might into that poor hairbrush, strutting up and down her bed, jiving and dancing up something awful.
"S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!"
"But it's only Friday." She looked up in terror at Snape standing in her open doorway, sneering at her through clenched teeth. Her knees fell out from under her as she sunk onto the deep covers of her bed and she made a mad scramble to slam the off button on her player. Getting to her feet she just stood there as he looked down at her as if she were a worm. She felt so incredibly foolish, she honestly wished she could sink through the floor and disappear. Maybe she could use Obleviate and erase it from his memory. Damn, she'd probably looked like a huge idiot!
He turned on his heels and glided back into the lounge. She followed him, waiting for him to say something. He sat gingerly on the couch and she stood at the end of hers, quite a bit away from him. He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath, ignoring her.
"Snape?" She asked, suddenly unsure of herself.
He snapped one eyelid open. "What?"
"Where'd you go tonight?"
He laughed a low, malicious laugh, which made her frown. "It is of no concern of yours, of course, " He spat thunderously. "But your concern touches me." His silky voice was like venom tonight, grating on her nerves.
"Snape?" She tried again.
His eyes rounded on her, so she grimaced and continued. "You're bleeding."
His frown deepened. His spindly fingers slowly reached up to the hairline on the right side of his forehead. She noted that he knew to look for it there, with no small amount of suspicion. She eyed him curiously. There was a great gash on his head, and it looked angry and raw. What the hell did he get up to?
He rose and exited the room for the hospital wing, she assumed. Well if he didn't want to tell her, she didn't want to know.
She wondered if she should wait up for him, but she hadn't the patience to put up with his attitude. She returned to her room and turned the music back up, but only half as loud. She didn't find the joy in it anymore tonight, so she grabbed her broom and headed outside. Running away was always a good thing.
The next day Minerva and Georgie went into town to do some shopping in Diagon Alley and to stock up on school supplies. They gabbed about this style of robes, and shook their heads at some author of romance novels who was doing a book signing in the bookshop. She came home with a large parcel of potion ingredients she figured she'd need soon enough, some enchanted jewelry, a few more books at Flourish and Blotts ("Oh no, where am I going to put them!")-Some she figured she'd need for her classes, and a slight headache from the butterbeers she'd consumed. Butterbeers, it seemed where one of her many weakness, she thought with a lop-sided grin. She was virtually skipping by the time they figured they should head back.
They'd passed what Minerva had pointed out to be Knockturn Alley, and Georgie was intrigued and desperately wanted to explore the street, but Minerva looked shocked and quickly dispelled any such notion of that on this trip. She'd just have to return another time; she smiled at the prospect. Minerva really was a dear, and she had only the best intentions in mind, but my goodness! She needed to loosen up quite a bit.
"Hey Hagrid."
"What?" He looked up from his plate at dinner at his friend sitting next to him.
"Wanna hear a joke?" She chided.
"Sure. Give it a go." He lifted a fork of mashed potatoes to his mouth.
"A man walked into a bar and he said 'Ouch!'"
Potatoes flew across the table and hot the transparent Professor Binns, who was just a spectator at meals anyway. The whole table's eyes turned on them both as they were doubled up with laughter over Hagrid's reaction. Hagrid's laugh shook the entire room and Georgie's was just as jarring.
He apologized to Professor Binns, who in turn whispered good-naturedly to Georgie that it happened at least twice a week, so he was used to it. Georgie was close to tears.
"That was the dumbest joke, I can't believer you laughed at it. I just expected you roll your eyes or something!"
"Well, If you liked that one, I've got heaps worse even than that." She poked him the ribs
They were acting ridiculous, but she didn't care. She could tell that Hagrid had a good heart the first day she met him. Of course it helped that Hagrid wore his heart on his sleeve. He was honest and open with everyone, and he never even took notice if people's meanings were different than their words. Kind of naive, but in a good way.
They teased until dinner was over, then they waved their goodnight.
Georgie set a small stack of books down on the coffee table and settled into her couch noiselessly. Lifting the topmost one she tore through the pages noticeably quicker than the average person would have taken to read it. Snape, lowered his own book, and looked over in he direction with an air of interest.
"Speed reading?" He jabbed.
"Studying." She hadn't bothered to look up.
"What book?"
"Dracula."
He snorted. "Muggle fiction..."
"Actually the blood-sucking, self-centered killer reminded me of someone I knew, so I decided to look into it…" She replied with a shrewd smile and bowed in his direction.
She set that book down and lifted another, this time taking more time to read it, as she sat with her brows furled in concentration. She almost forgot he was in the room, until he interrupted her thought process with, "What book this time?"
"Why?" She getting a little bit annoyed and angry.
"Trying to be, as you so delicately put it, 'neighborly'." Nosy, more likely, she thought
"You wouldn't know it." Or understand it, more likely she thought. This conversation is pointless.
"Try me." He replied steadily.
"It's called The Quantum Self, " She started with a sigh, and set the open book on her lap
"What are you reading about?" Damn, she didn't feel like spending the night explaining theory to this pompous ass.
"Noncomputability It has to do with Penrose's backing of Quantum theories for the mind. He argues that human thinking has an element that cannot be duplicated or simulated by a computing machine. It follows that humans can 'understand'-it comes intrinsically within each of us, this capability does-and therefore we understand what we are doing, comprehend the meanings, and act on this. Computing machines cannot in a sense 'understand'. They may follow a set of pre-determined algorithms, or logical commands, but that meaning and everything along with it--consequences for others, feelings, emotions--be damned in a word. Humanity is the essence of sensitivity, creativity, chaos, and at the base of it all, lies the soul."
She stopped and paused. "I'm interested in understanding intuition at this moment-specifically whether it is brought on by environment or something else that can be measured or duplicated. I have a speculation about Magical theory and how it can co-exist in a Muggle world of concrete physical rules that appear to be sound enough and proven. I figure it has to do with either the mind operating at a Quantum level-but if so, how is it that there still exists the two groups, and 'Squibs', and the like. One simplistic approach is that it is 'Magic' and Magic is just what it is. An age-old mysterious force, but if that were so, and it were a force in-and-of itself, then we wouldn't be able to harness it as we do."
She leaned back and shrugged. Heaving a sigh. Snape's face was expressionless. She'd probably lost him…or maybe, she didn't. She looked him over closely.
"Perhaps there is some spiritual power behind it all." He offered.
Raising her eyebrows, her mouth twitched into a smile. "Well, no self-preserving scientist would say so, only what we can see and prove is real right? But I think that perhaps there's a god who runs things in his time and creates it's own brand of order in the world. Just a theory…Just as possible as Quantum theories are, but makes more sense, in it's own unpredictable, human way. I guess if one had a stronger faith it'd make more sense…" Her voice dropped off as she sat in silence again.
"What do you plan on doing when you graduate?"
She laughed her usual boisterous laugh, eyes squinting. "Ah, there you go assuming I buckle down and graduate at all!"
"You'll graduate." He spoke under his breath. "Wouldn't what you would want most in the world to be working for the Ministry? Probably Department of Mysteries…" He ended dryly.
"Not what I want most in my life. But it'd be kind of fun. I don't know what I want to do with my life-who knows if I ever will. Maybe I'll open a shop or a pub and sell Butterbeers…" Her voice trailed off, imagining the fun she could have.
"That seems like a waste."
"You'd probably think so, " she nodded in assent. She twisted her lips with her fingers and stuck her face in an odd shape. "Blargh." She shook it out laughing.
Snape just sat there staring at her as if she had a horrible disease.
"You are so very odd."
"Yeah, well you are an odd duck." She laughed at him.
"You are highly infuriating."
"Yeah, well you're a moody, sniping, towering bat with no sense of humor." She stretched her arms up over her head and gave a loud, drawn-out yawn. Then smacked her lips a few times, before looking back at him with a simpering smile. "Wanna tell me what else you think of me, while you're at?" She said sarcastically.
However to her surprise and horror, he did. "You're immature. You don't take your studies or your life seriously. You fraternize with those decidedly below you. You live for fun, and play mind games. You're lacking in all proper manners and decorum. Your vocabulary nearly takes my breath away. You run about like you're all of 8 years of age, when most people your age are settling down, becoming serious, starting families, studying or working-OH! But not you." He bellowed. "Perhaps you're too good for anything like that. Wouldn't want to be molded into any semblance of a normal person. Is it part of your quest to be unique? Or do you have ulterior motives?" He hissed at her.
Her heart was pounding and she by now full of white-hot rage. "How dare you? How fucking dare you?" She was on her feet in a second. "You're the one with the dark past and secrets! You're the one who show's up at midnight after having disappeared with blood all over you, like a common mongrel in a street fight. And my language? Where do you get off?! Everything you've ever said to me has been tinged with disdain and hatred. It must be physically impossible for your cold freaking heart and mind to think of anyone else in this world. Of their feelings, comforts and thoughts."
"Decorum and manners my ass. I don't remember being vindictive as being taught at all the major finishing schools. And I've done my best to not upset you or any of your work and shady dealings.
You're constantly trying to bait me into some petty argument, as if neither of us had anything to do. I reckon you must get some rise out of, so don't talk to me about mind games." She absently fingered her wand in her right hand pocket. His gaunt face was blanched and his black eyes were glittering and flashing as he took this all in, sneering.
"And my goodness you must be really dense. I was sarcastic when I was saying spill your guts on what you thought of me. A true gentleman would never had said it, even if invited to. How's that for manners.
Now you, you try and frighten and piss me off to hold me at arms length-If that's your M.O., more power to you, buck-o. But your constant scowling and glares are really starting to piss me off!" Her voice rose until she was almost hysterical and screaming. "But that still doesn't explain your greasy hair and your horrid habit of using that abysmally huge nose of yours to sniff out the rudest and most hurtful comments imaginable!" She clenched her knuckles so tightly they were turning white, even through her brown skin.
They stayed for a minute too utterly outraged at each other to move or speak and so they just stared daggers at each other and wished they other one dead. Finally Snape stood up and swept back to his room and shut-the door behind him.
Georgie put her head in her hands and wanted to cry. She had too big of a mouth and unleashed it too much and for too long. She was such an idiot. That sort of argument was beneath her and she regretted everything said. Oh course, she was still very, very upset about the things he had said about her, but for the most part she felt she hadn't done anything wrong so if his opinion of her was so low, well, oh well…
"Incendio." She whispered across at the fireplace and it sprung to life, the orange and red flames licking and cackling at the wood. It was suddenly very cold in there, and she shivered to herself. But she deserved to suffer. She didn't fight clean, and she was ashamed at herself. She felt like crying, and felt horribly helpless and small, but she wouldn't allow it of herself.
"Damnit." She whispered at herself. She hated herself right now. That was not George. George wouldn't act that way. She'd joke and tease, but really saying those things was awful. She was bigger than that. She felt a headache come on and she slumped back into the cushions and starred straight into the fire, losing all sense around her. Time seemed to melt away from her and her blank mind relaxed a little as she heard a clock somewhere tick of the passing seconds.
Hours must've passed, hell, if she didn't know better, she'd have said days. The silence was a comfort to her, thinking was a bad idea. She was pathetic. Emotions suck, she allowed herself to grimace at that, then returned to her frown. Consciences do too.
Suddenly there appeared a cup floating directly in front of her. Sitting up slowly, she followed the arm holding it around to the man standing right behind her couch. She hadn't heard him come in. His face was blank, his eyes cold and telling nothing once again. Geesh, is he drugged, she wondered. She stared a moment more at him, "Tea," he spoke quietly. Wrenching her gaze away from him she turned slowly back around and accepted the cup. He stepped carefully around and sat down on the other couch.
He was studying her face, but she wouldn't allow herself to meet his gaze. She was still frowning deeply, was he going to apologize? Was she? Should she?
"It's not poisoned," He submitted. He must've interpreted her concentration for suspicion.
She cleared her throat. "I never thought that." She said quietly then drinking the fragrant beverage. It smelled of herbs like anise and sweetgrass.
"Listen," She said, setting her cup down on the table and meeting his eye. "Um, I feel really shitty about this all tonight. I just think we got off to a strange start, ya know? I don't think either of us are lost causes, but I do think we're both pretty stubborn and hopelessly flawed. I abhor what I did and how I feel. We can start over and try to be honest and stuff, I mean, I think we should. We have to live down here for the next year…" Her voice trailed off.
He looked her straight in the eyes and nodded. Picking up her cup and tapping it with his wand to refill it before handing it back to her. She nodded curtly at this. She was done talking.
"I don't really know if this is a good idea, but…." He paused as if weighing whether to continue. "Well, perhaps as a token of our good faith and all, I'd like to take you somewhere tomorrow."
Whatever she'd been expecting, this certainly wasn't it. She thought for a minute that this was a joke and didn't answer right away. At this point the last person on earth she wanted to spend a day with was Professor Snape-she was dead positive the feeling was still mutual. But if he was making an effort here, far be it from her to stand in his way. "Where to?" She asked.
"That will be a, "he stopped her and smiled an insipid smile," A surprise." He was probably going to murder her and dump her body somewhere.
She flicked an insolent, false smile his way. "Okay. Tomorrow."
"After breakfast. We'll come back here." He stood, bowed in her direction, then went back to his room.
This is going to be hell, pure hell, she whispered to herself dejectedly.
She eventually fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, but she still woke up in a sour mood. She was still angry with her self, disappointed in herself. And purposefully putting herself in harm's way was the dumbest thing she could be doing today. She didn't want to think about it. But her prospect brightened a tad bit when she realized that tonight she'd find out which classes she would be taking this year. That idea excited her.
At breakfast she mechanically chomped her bacon and eggs, and was polite and civil to all the inquires as to how she slept. Hagrid gave her a side-long glance, but didn't push it. He was so kind. Snape nodded to her down the table when she'd accidentally caught his eye. Dumbledore asked what she was doing that day and she gave a half-assed answer 'just going out.' He nodded and smiled, with a peculiar twinkle in his eye. Holy crap? Did Snape tell him something? No Snape's as tight-lipped as the come, literally and figuratively.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she rose and excused herself from the table. A few minutes later Snape grumbled something inaudible and flew from the room. McGonagall pursed her lips, and spoke low to Dumbledore, "That can't be good." He chuckled at this. She continued. "Do you think we should separate those two?"
Dumbledore shook his head wisely, "No, they'll both figure things out among the both of them. Both of them can be a good and sobering influence on the other one."
"If they don't manage to hex each other to death first." Minerva pointed out.
"I won't let it get to that," He assured her.
She was sitting straddle-legged over the end of the couch wearing her cloak when he arrived downstairs. "Need anything?" She asked.
"Just your broomstick and your person." She plopped up and ducked inside her room to snatch up her broomstick. Returning back, she saw him nod at her, his in broom in hand. "Ready?"
She nodded. He spun around and headed outside. She followed him and his billowing robes closely, not wanting to give any reason for complaint.
He stopped a few feet away from the building outside and motioned for her to stand next to him. He reached out and wrestled away her broom to her chagrin, looping some rope-like, luminescent stuff over the front of it. "What the hell is that?" Georgie pointed as he handed it back to her. "It's a lead rope, so you don't get lost on the way." He snarled as if it were blatantly obvious.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not that bad of a flier, you know, I can just use my eyes and go where you go." She spoke to him as if he were five years old.
"But that won't be possible," he smile mockingly and held up a long strip of black fabric. Her eyes flew open and she began shaking her head, harder and faster. "No. No….No freakin' way. No way in hell. Not happening. No." It was a blindfold. She folded her arms defiantly across her chest.
He seemed amused at this. "I'm afraid I must insist. It would be dangerous for you if you saw where we were going and how to get there, so it's for your own safety entirely."
She wrapped her cloak even tighter around herself, frowned hard at him, then nodded the okay.
She gripped her broom tightly and saw the world vanish before her eyes as Snape reached around tying a secure knot. When he finished, she instinctively moved her head, left, right, up and down, and saw blackness in every direction. "You know you could have just cast a Blinding charm on me." She said in the direction he was last in.
"Yes, but this way's much more fun." He replied from somewhere on her right side.
"For you," she muttered to herself. Lots of fun. She felt really vulnerable and wanted to get this over with. She wondered if they were going to be back for lunch.
"Watch yourself, I'm kicking off now," he warned. And a few seconds later she felt a tug on her broomstick so she kicked off too. She didn't even want to think about the landing.
"I hate flying blind." She said so quietly he wouldn't hear her. She grasped the handle with both hands and found it much easier to keep her balance then she expected. Not so bad, she almost smiled. The wind was refreshing and she could feel the sun on her face. Too bad she was missing the view.
They flew in silence for a very long time. She didn't really have anything to say, so she just pondered some mundane things. Which robes to buy, which classes she might have, how much she really needed to clean up the floor of her bed-chamber. Bummer, she actually ventured a smile on that one.
Severus Snape was happened to be looking back to check on her and half-smiled himself when he saw her own smile. He knew she'd come around if given time. Not that he cared if she were happy or smiling or not, because he didn't. He was just glad she was not going to hex him.
After another long silence-an eternity it felt like, "Okay we're landing, so hold on." She grasped a together hold and felt her broom make a wide circle that kept getting lower. "Here we go, pay attention now!" He barked. As if I could fall asleep, she thought bitingly.
A/N-I'm having a lovely time writing this. I figure it's therapy.
You know the drill, it belong Rowling. Bow to her, not to me. Ciao.