Chapter Twenty-Five -- Sanctuary
Several evenings later Georgie was passing her hand round Severus Snape's calf with a roll of bandages in her hand. "You know..." She quipped to his deep dislike. He waited until he had his own appendage back in his sole possession before looking at her to indicate she continue. She took her time replacing the stoppers in shallow bottles and replacing them carefully in a cabinet in her own room.
"You know.... I hadn't thought of it really, but you'll have to rely once again on Pomfrey next year. It's horrid to get you out of the habit then force you to go back to as it was before..." She rambled as she dug under the sofa for her wand which had rolled underneath when she had knocked it off the table a few minutes before. "It's not really fair, but it's one of those...what's it? 'Necessary evils', I suppose. Though it's not really evil at all, just an inconvenience--just a sort of annoyance. No, not evil. Evil isn't really necessary. Well it is, I guess, but not necessary- necessary. Just sort of, last resort sort of thing...."
Severus watched his friend's quirky dialogue with amusement, always with amusement. He assumed that she sometimes forgot he was in the room. It was a bit of a stretch for him still. The fact that someone could forget his presence--that he didn't frighten her out of her senses--well, he was at least getting somewhat used to the fact. It didn't bother him as it once did. He no longer felt as if he were going soft, thanks in great part to Dumbledore's gentle hinting over the chessboard.
Georgie prattled on, analyzing now whether mankind ("Or womankind for that matter") was inherently good or evil. A heavy and commonly mused topic for himself, but for Georgie she just talked to work things out in her mind. She would argue the sides of the issue with herself, tackle it from one direction then decide it was the wrong way to go about the issue that way, then start all over. Methodical, but at the same time very helter-skelter. Perhaps she could find a job with The Daily Prophet as some sort of social commentator, or some other such rubbish.
The burn on his legs suddenly brought his attention back to the babbling before his eyes.
She paused as she had obviously stumped herself and was scratching at the back of her head absent-mindedly. Severus sighed, "Always burns for me. If I were superstitious I would find something to that."
Her eyes widened. "Of course you would, Trewlaney. Burns, burn la da. Shouldn't play with fire little boy." She wagged her finger at him in good fun. "Heat and flames and fires licking up at the souls of the damned, hell-fires perhaps? Are your robes singed? Oh dear, Mummy will fix that right up for you. Have you been playing fair with all the other little demons in your class? "
His own eyes twinkled in response. He was no longer amazed, no longer angered--just very accustomed to her tangents in conversations. She was quick to pick up on things, one of the things he was grateful for--how could one live with someone who couldn't see the obvious nose in front of ones face! "I never play fair with anyone. You of all people should know that!"
"Oh yes, I forgot." Looking quite as if she really had.
The door flew open and banged against the wall and Georgie stormed into Snape's office. "I got a letter saying I was failing Potions and I needed to report to my House Head. What the devil are you playing at!" She leaned over the desk and snarled at the man, whose face was blank and expressionless, but whose lively eyes gave away his amusement.
"Oh that. There must have been some mix-up; some accident." He steepled his fingers as he silkily explained.
"It's wrong! You posted it on the board in the Common Room!" She hissed. "If this is your idea of a joke, it sure as hell isn't funny."
"Of course it's not correct. It's just a mistake, so calm down." He leaned back further in his chair.
"I cannot calm down!"
"I personally think it's rather comical."
She threw the letter across the desk and it hit him squarely across the chest. "I should have let you bleed to death a long time ago!" She bellowed and stormed from the room, slamming the door after her.
"Peeves!" Severus got to his feet, "Peeves, I know you changed the marks-- you were in here as well last night when I was assigning marks." He opened first one cupboard than another. "You didn't leave; I know you're still here. You heard the witch--it's not funny."
Peeves floated down from the ceiling where he'd been perched, "Nasty, nasty Professor Snape. Why would you think I would do that?" He poked a finger at Severus but Severus swatted at it before he made contact. Peeves the Poltergeist just grinned broader and cackled to himself. "Nasty, nasty Professor. Poor, poor Professor--getting yelled at by the girl. Poor, poor Professor."
"Shut-up Peeves!" Severus roared.
Peeves stopped speaking, but continued in his maniacal cackle and horrible faces. "If she allows me to bleed to death I will come back and make sure to remind you every single second that I am not pleased."
Peeves stuck out his tongue and flipped on his head mid-air, wrenching Snape's grip around and loose before floating away. The Professor reminded himself to approach the Bloody Baron and ask him to speak to the little pest. Severus did have more clout with the pesky squat little ghost than the other Professors, but the Baron could patch things over immediately.
"Severus!" Georgie wheeled into the room at a run, slamming into the front of his desk tensely. He looked up curiously to see who could have been chasing her. When satisfied that no mortal foe trailed her, he relaxed back into his chair much like he had earlier that day. He had a bit of finishing up and tidying up to do.....but this should prove to be rather amusing.......
"What is it now?" he demanded shortly.
"Get Peeves off of my ass!" She shrieked. He wasted no time in leaning forward across his desk and feigned looking for the poltergeist said to be haunting her posterior.
"Snape!" She hissed through clenched fists, interrupting his playing. He resumed his seat and nodded at her to speak if she had something to say, noting with caution her white tense knuckles gripping the edge of his desk.
"You told him to be nice to me? To 'become friends', to 'play nice', to make himself 'helpful to me'?"
He didn't reply as he figured she didn't expect an answer to that, however he found he was mistaken. "Well did you!?" He was taken aback at the force of her words. "He won't leave me alone! I can't read or study because he's forever turning summersaults across my worktable...He bloody flew into my shower while I was in there to ask if I need assistance with the soap! Everyone's avoiding me like the plague. I am not amused and you have to fix this right now!"
"Oh do I?" He couldn't stop himself from slipping that in, however he regretted it as soon as the sounds passed his lips.
"Argh," She grunted in exasperation as she re-clenched her knuckles and ran from the room.
"Sanctuary!" Georgie screamed as she ran literally into the room, the heavy door echoed by banging into the back wall with an eerie thud.
"Dramatics...." Professor Snape returned his gaze to the end of term papers of the First Year students--always better to get those out of the way first. He always found them to be the most taxing and dull of any of the years, so to get them out of the way was always Severus' first goal.
"Day one's finally done. Er, that almost rhymes...I'm a poet, aren't I? A poet and I didn't even know it!" She sniveled. She was referring to the first of four days of testing for her. Not exactly the usual N.E.W.T.S, but comparable. Her testing procedures, like always, were a little different.
"Oh, yes. A regular Shelley or Frost."
Georgie sprawled out along the opposite sofa and put her feet up and closed her eyes with a definitive sigh. In the process she knocked her schoolbook onto the floor.
"Interesting. I had just minutes before come here after saying to Flitwick that only here--in my sanctum sanctorum--could I properly get through this pile of rubbish."
She opened a gleaming brown eye. "Ah, ya big softie. Tell us how you really feel 'bout those First Years."
"You miss the point." You always do, he thought with a sense of sobriety.
She let whatever had got to him slip by. There was a week left, so she couldn't afford to start something between them.
"How was your day?" It was a funny little ritual with them by now and Georgie joked with Minerva about how it had a sort of creepy hint of 'Honey, I'm home...' to it. Speaking of Minerva... "Do you know what Minerva actually had the gall to suggest!" She sat up and her hands went automatically to her hips.
Severus looked up and took in her queer positioning and chuckled silently to himself, "I cannot imagine."
"She said that as I'm 'competent' in her subject, so that I wouldn't be tested in it at all."
"Yes. What the gall indeed."
"Would you let me finish? Anyhow, then I was just mentioning in passing about how I felt in need of becoming better in shape, so she suggests that be my testing. Not fair. I'm a lump, but that should have no bearing on scholastic issues. Really, there should be uniformity all across the board- -it's when we break down the students into sub-categories to assess and test their strength and thus set them apart, do we open the door wide for feelings of inadequacy and failure."
"All fine words for excusing your laziness."
She hissed at him, but he ignored it rightly. "Well imagine if you were in school and James Potter was tested in Potions for Potions class and you were tested in a Quidditch match for the same class. Not fair then, eh?"
"You've made you're point. Potter would have still ended up failing and I would have had to resort to cheating."
"Lovely." Georgie snorted. "You didn't really cheat did you?"
He sat back and a deep rumbling escaped from his throat. He was outright laughing at her. "Georgie, things were different then and I of course was just as different. If I did would it make a difference?" He continued in his laughter.
She crossed her arms over her chest, "Prolly not, I just think it's bad. Stupid question." She'd gotten her answer anyhow.
"I never cheated in any class if it makes you feel any better for me."
"Stop laughing at me," she warned him seriously.
"I'm not laughing so much at you. Rather just at how I forget that you can be rather inexperienced at times--at least in the extent of this particular Wizarding School and it's protocol in the past." Nice save, she thought to herself.
"You lie well enough. You should run for public office." Her countenance brightened considerably. "So then you cheated in Quidditch or something perhaps? Or was it just in the extracurricular activities? Wreaking havoc during meals and in the library...."
"For some extremely singular reason you have a sort of over-romanticized view of mischief. Mischief makes most normal people upset--dangerous steps to take." He stopped himself from overstepping any bounds by pointing out shortcomings or voicing any other warnings of impending doom. She never stopped long enough to listen to him, and when she did she never took him seriously. No Georgie, like a younger Severus Snape, had to make her own mistakes to learn from them properly.
"So wait...." Her squeaking voice interrupted any further thoughts. "If I send an owl to Dar-O-gan, will you get it then?" Severus constantly surrounding himself with concealing spells and he even admitted it was difficult for Dumbledore to get hold of him at times.
"If it gets to Darogan, yes I will see it."
"Promise?"
"Promise." He half-smiled at her childish antics. "Why do you want to send me an owl?"
"Just like to know where you are--not as if I want to stalk you or anything funny like that, just I like to know where you are because...because it's nice to know where you are. That you're....there, and all." Georgie's face heated up and at that moment she was so very appreciative that her face wasn't as obvious to the rest of the world as it was to herself.
"Suit yourself." He tapped his quill absently on the inkbottle. "I can always find you as well. I'm not very, er, pleasant when writing letters, and the majority of the time I ignore them in the logical favor of things more pressing. But I will make some effort not to pass you by entirely during the summer holidays."
She beamed on him. "You read my mind, don't know how you do that. I'm just transparent--I've said it before. Good, that you'll try is all I ask."
"You must have some idea of what your plans are by this late point in time." Snape baited.
She giggled, "I figured it out simply weeks ago: I just couldn't be bothered to tell you." She giggled a bit longer and paused for dramatic effect. "I'm taking a class and I'm working in a Pub in London. It's going to be such fun." She picked at her fingernails absently. "Wait. How would you find me?"
He leered down his hooked nose at her. "If I need to find you, I'll find you."
"And until then I sit on my hands and hope and pray every night that dear friend Snape remembers me." She prattled along in an insipid sing-songy voice.
"If it were only that easy to forget."
"Ach, ya big softie." She shooed her hand at him.
"I don't care." He nearly stuttered. Blast it all man! Control yourself, there's no place for sentimentality or softness now--she's going to leave you soon enough, you'll see it all: She'll forget you in time.
She sniffed. "Nor do I." Taking up a cushion from the sofa she lofted it at a surprised Snape. "Sometimes I wish I could do something that you couldn't--you know, be better'n you at just one stupid little thing. It's not fair."
"You say that a lot."
"It's true."
"Is it now?" He toyed with her. "I wonder what your basis for comparison is."
"As far as I can see it is. Even Professor Dumbledore says you were the brightest student he's ever seen. That's saying quite a bit, and I'm not just saying that because the man's seen so many students and he's ancient."
"You shouldn't call him ancient. If you live to be that old you'd be insulted."
"So I would be. But you're trying to change the subject. I was trying to say something: Oh yes, that you're hard to keep up with."
He frowned apparently deep in thought and leaving Georgie wiggling in her seat, wondering what exactly she'd just said. His own mind was attacking a certain idea, toying with it for a few scant seconds--and the idea wasn't even a new one to him. Dumbledore said and did everything for a reason--a wholly controlled man in everything. Severus envied the man, if he envied anyone at all, which maybe he didn't. There was something in Albus' telling Georgie this. In fact, the more he thought of it, there was a motive behind Georgie's presence with him from the very beginning....
"Did you ever eat paste as a child?" She blinked at him patiently.
"Er, I don't recall." Wondering as to what on earth this could be connected to.
"I wonder what it tastes like."
He sighed and abandoned all hope of finishing the corrections of the exams at that point. He didn't mind the conversations they had, even when Georgie showed herself to be in a 'mood' as he dubbed it. No, precious little amused him these days, and he tolerated even less of those things that did. So he let her prattle on about eating paste and whether it was toxic, and perhaps she should pick some up from town next time to try just a teensy bit....
He rose to his feet and rounded the sofa to the bookshelf against the wall by the door to the Common Room. He always conversed better with a book in his hand--he got that from his grandfather, a great man.
"Don't eat it." He returned and half-heartedly attempted to persuade her from her research.
"Oh, of course I wouldn't really eat it!" She giggled. "Still, one does wonder what it tastes like, if you don't remember."
"Don't be an imbecile. There are hundreds of things of which I cannot tell how it would taste, yet I am quite able to refrain from sticking them heedlessly into my mouth."
"Really?" She smirked with a haughty air. She stared at him dead-on. "So you are telling me what exactly? Please, you are of course the Potions Master here, teach me something. My brain's dusty from disuse. Share some great gem of knowledge. So I'm not to research on myself is that it, or something else?"
He did not appreciate being mocked all the same. "Precisely. Do not test anything out on yourself. It is foolhardy and dangerous--no exceptions. End of discussion. Do you understand that fully?"
She gaped at him loopily, then drew herself up very straight and proper. "May I have your permission to show you something?"
"Yes."
She leapt off of her couch and leapt right on to the one Severus was seated on, right beside him. She reached across his body and snatched at his skeletal forearm, wrenched it towards herself, threw back layers of sleeves and lifted his own arm up to Severus' blatantly confused gaze.
His eyes narrowed and his face blanched with rage. Then just as it came, it diminished. "Point taken." He whispered as he reclaimed his own arm, and lowered his sleeves down over the blue-tinges covering his wrists. Indeed they ran all the way up to his neck and covered his body in great ugly splotches.
"Come on, let's go see what's happening in the kitchens, we can stretch our legs and play Spy in the corridors." She was just pleased that he wasn't pummeling her. There was always one moment when it felt, well dangerous, to push Severus in that sort of a way. But he wasn't as excitable or conceited as when she'd first met him. Perhaps she was becoming too confident for her own good....
"You can go on without me, I need to finish up here for awhile."
"Suite yourself, Snape." And she bolted through the door.
At last, at last he was nearly through the second years' pile of exams. What remarkable progress he made when left to his own devices. And ahead of schedule. Why, he'd have time to spare by the end of the week. Maybe get a jump on the next year's lesson plans...
But there would be no more progress that afternoon as the Potions Professor would be receiving a visitor.
Georgie was walking the corridors on her tiptoes. She wasn't exactly sure as to the reason for this, but she didn't bother to curb her behavior in the least. She passed the Bloody Baron and muttered a curt greeting to the apparition as she passed it, eyeing the man from behind veiled eyelids. That was coming to be her person stance for tuning something or someone out. It annoyed Siobhan to no end, but no one else made the connection as of yet. And it really was something of a subconscious behavior anyhow.
She knew where to find the dour Potions Master, but she was putting that off as a last resort. Severus was lovely, but she knew better than to go to him right off with no substantial aim, and to expect him to entertain or even humor her boredom.
She tried to leave him well enough alone, truly she did, but her retched curiosity brought her right into the steamy classroom where Snape was utilizing a student's worktable and two iron cauldrons. She continued her tiptoe farce, even though she knew he would be in no humor for it. Still she tried. It was always a surprise to see what he laughed at, what he ignored, and what he belittled her for. It was a fair judge of his moods right from the start.
"Hulloa." She drawled lazily. as she swayed in place on her tiptoes, with her hands behind her back. Usually she only made eye contact when it was absolutely required that she do so: A holdover from her days at The Institute. Culture there dictated that every time a Professor entered or exited the classroom the students must all rise to their feet out of respect. Also approaching a Professor in and of itself was generally frowned upon, and old habits are hard to break Georgie found.
But today she was feeling exceedingly bold and assertive. She felt like pushing people's buttons. "What are you up to?"
Snape snorted at the audacity and ignored her for the time being. This was important and he didn't have time to be distracted. If she had something to say or to ask, she certainly could wait.
She stopped swaying long enough to inspect the ingredients lain out on the worktable. "What are you making?" She ventured at what seemed to be a lull in his movements. She fingered what she looked to be finely chopped Mandrake. She turned her nose up at it.
His eyes glittered up at her as he straightened himself to his full imposing height. "What does it look like I'm masking? Use your eyes, witch." It wasn't a cruelly toned dart, but rather a true, challenging question.
He was obviously making a variation on the Mandrake Restorative Draft-- though why the bezoar was eluding her at the moment. Petrifaction usually came about from some curse or charm, not from any poison. God, in heaven, Hagrid might've gotten a Medusa Harpy. "I'm not your student." She bristled. "Don't speak to me like one."
"Using one's mind never hurt anyone, even in dire cases such as your own." He sneered. He joined her at the smooth surface of the worktable and head bent over he unrolled a rough burlap roll and retrieved from it, sever hunks of fleshy consistency. He set this aside, rolled the burlap once again then turned his attention to his paring knife.
Georgie sighed and turned to stand shoulder to shoulder with the man at the table. She sifted out the bezoars from a canister, and deposited several into a stone mortar. "Crushed, correct?" She queried, and attacked the difficult stuff with energy. She had a philosophy, perhaps better attuned to a Hufflepuff mentality, but should there be work to do and one's around, one really ought to just get down and get to it, instead of bitch about whose job it is and why one shouldn't be forced to help out.
"I want a harpy too. It's a pity they make such retched pets." She muttered. In all honesty she had no desire for a Harpy, let alone to see one anywhere near the school. But she figured it would be an appropriate utterance at a lull in conversation. Very Georgie-esque, she mused.
"I found you something today." Georgie announced in a sort of level and humorless tone.
"Oh?" Severus didn't turn his eyes away from the ingredients in his hands. He was fully capable of carrying out two tasks at the same time. It was more efficient anyhow.
"Well, I thought they were lovely, striking colors and fragrant, and I know you're generally not into the aesthetic and the seasons and Earth Magic and all, but I felt it, so here." She apologized as she took from her pocket a leaf.
He finished his task then turned on the leaf lying on the worktable a bit above the ingredients laid out in preparation. "What am I supposed to do with it?" He narrowed his eyes at her.
"I knew I shouldn't have said anything." She shrugged and handed over to his side of the worktable the bezoar. "I just had a feeling today and I was moved by the trees and the winds blowing and there's a patch of heather growing out of season down the hill towards the lake, and it was all, just......." She sighed. Never mind. She turned around and headed for the closed door out to the dungeon corridor.
As she slipped out into the smooth, hewn stone underfoot, she turned around and called at Snape's back "I don't know how you do it either. How you can you be so blind? To miss the colors surrounding us, to feel the sun, dipping through clouds. Not even that you walk around avoiding it, or you're colorblind. And the grand thing about all this is that you just don't care. You're so...unromantic." She snorted at the probably asinine choice of wording as she turned on her heels.
It was no use trying to make him see the world through her eyes, or even through his own eyes. At first she thought he could be rehabilitated. But that never lasted long. She'd have been appalled if it had worked. Who wants to bother over a person with no backbone? She began to wonder though, if all Severus possessed was backbone.
Georgie sat with Siobhan at the Slytherin table that evening at dinner. Georgie had come up behind the girl as she was entering into the Great Hall and they fell into such a pleasant conversation that Georgie was desirous of continuing it immediately and not under the noses of those discerning and proper Professors. Yes, some would have found such frivolous gossiping to be in poor taste, but then no one had alerted either of the girls to this fact.
Niamh entered in shortly afterwards and listened to the other girls, but didn't join in. She had been so quiet lately, Georgie surmised it had to do with going home for the summertime and being a bit sad over the prospect of not seeing a certain someone. They hurried out on finally noticing that they were the last students still lingering about.
"Would you fucking stop being so tall?" She had literally jumped on perceiving The Potions Master towering right behind her as he had followed her into the room.
"As you wish," He sneered at her. "And to what do I owe the honor of this foul mood?" He cast aside the cloak she had deposited onto the back of his sofa. It landed with a flutter a few paces behind her and she wound her way around the lounge and back to where she started. She grunted and retrieved the article and banished it to her room.
"I'm fine." Her eyes flashed and she fought for control of her voice and it's volume. "This has been the most lovely day of my life. Lovely." She nearly screamed.
Severus didn't want to know, and she didn't want to divulge. She just wanted her mind taken away from... "What're you reading?" She stopped her impromptu tirade long enough to glance at Severus and cast herself upon her sofa.
"Nothing of interest to you, I am sure."
"You are a fish-monger."
Severus smiled wryly. "What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals-and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me."
"No, nor woman neither...."
He looked up at her curiously. "Perhaps you will think that I will have 'lost all mirth' as well?"
"I never saw any to begin with."
"Catty aren't we?" Snape smiled broader than he had in days. "Your hair looks like an owl in an ivy bush. Did you get up to some trouble?" He pointed at her with the spine of his closed book.
"Trouble?" She spat the word back at him. "What sort of trouble could I get into here? At Hogwarts? On the grounds of the safest school in all of the world?" She swept her arms grandiosely about the room.
"I feel like we're playing the question game: What happened while I was away? The dog died. How did the dog die? When your home burned down. How did my home burn? A candle fell from your wife's funeral. How did...? Oh, go on for goodness sake. I don't care, and I won't wrestle it out of you. Be obstinate if you like--I won't stop you."
"And you were saying I was out of sorts today. I was going to give you a nasty look, but I see you've already got one." She grinned, happy at getting a reaction from him. She settled back into her cushions and closed her eyes before speaking. "I've got good news."
He glanced up and gave her a sharp look. "Yes?"
She smiled slyly. "Later."
He looked away. "It has been quite a long time since you have produced your guitar. I'm rather glad for the quiet it's allowed. No more screeching and twanging away at that blasted thing. No more moody dirges. I'm extremely grateful." She took all that up in silence, but he could see the gears turning in her head.
When she returned half an hour later with the thing under her arm, he was all in amazement at how easily led and persuaded she could be. He gathered that she knew what he was up to most of the time, but it still amazed him that she...well, put up with him. It was all rather humorous. In the most pathetic of ways of course.
I don't mind,
I don't mind if you forget me
having learned my lesson.
I never left an impression on anyone
so now you send me your hardened 'regards'
when once you'd send me 'love'
sincerely I must tell you
your mild 'best wishes'
they make me suspicious
but I don't mind.
I don't mind if you forget me
having learned my lesson
I never left
an impression on anyone
the pressure to change, to move on
was strange
and very strong
so this is why I tell you
I really do understand.
BYE BYE
I don't mind if you forget me
no no no no no no no
REJECTION IS ONE THING
BUT REJECTION FROM A FOOL
IS CRUEL
REJECTION IS ONE THING
BUT REJECTION FROM A FOOL
IS CRUEL
and I don't mind if you forget me
I don't mind if you forget me
"Georgie, you're very predictable." She beamed on him, squinting her eyes up into mirrors of his cold ones.
"So..." She swept a stray frizzy curl from her eyesight. "Had any fun with the ol' D.E.s?
"Pardon me? D.E.s? Whatever do you..." He stopped and scowled. "Oh, how trite of you."
"Yes, well I rather thought it was clever. Sounds like the old D.T.'s a bit."
"Excepting that with Death Eaters there is less compulsion to lump it all and run back to the bottle." She shot him a sidelong glance. "No, you're right; there is no difference." They laughed nervously to themselves. "Has Dumbledore said anything to you then?"
"No, just getting rusty at brewing that's all," she baited.
"Oh, well if that's all, let me just remove a finger for your enjoyment."
"Aw, you're the sweetest. Would you really?"
"Anyhow, I'm going out of country this weekend."
"Damn, and it's the last one!" She whined and furled her brow.
"Oh, how dejected you look. I know it can't be real. You're just a fine actress." She bowed. "No, I'm attending a social function. I've managed to excuse myself from it the past five years, but not this year..." He ran his hand through his stringy hair.
"Unfortunate." She shrugged.
More than you'll ever realize, he thought to himself. "Yes, well, can't do much about it."
"Will you need any help?" He shot her a nasty glance "From anyone at all?"
"I could use help on this 'errand', however I am not desirous of any specific person's assistance." Perhaps in future...no, never would he ask that.
"Yes, but--"
He interrupted her. "I repeat myself by saying that I am not accepting of any person's assistance, even though I acknowledge that I need it."
He was getting better.... "If you want to increase your insanity, avoid the asylum." She pointed out.
"You're a wit Georgie."
"Better that than a dim one." She glared at him. "So shall I prepare bandages now or later?"
"A social gathering."
"Ah yes." She smiled. "And all the times you go out with your little friends you just go out for a pint and tell off-color jokes. I repeat myself: bandages?"
Severus frowned and looked on her with scrutiny. "When did you get to be so impertinent?"
She never did answer him.
Several evenings later Georgie was passing her hand round Severus Snape's calf with a roll of bandages in her hand. "You know..." She quipped to his deep dislike. He waited until he had his own appendage back in his sole possession before looking at her to indicate she continue. She took her time replacing the stoppers in shallow bottles and replacing them carefully in a cabinet in her own room.
"You know.... I hadn't thought of it really, but you'll have to rely once again on Pomfrey next year. It's horrid to get you out of the habit then force you to go back to as it was before..." She rambled as she dug under the sofa for her wand which had rolled underneath when she had knocked it off the table a few minutes before. "It's not really fair, but it's one of those...what's it? 'Necessary evils', I suppose. Though it's not really evil at all, just an inconvenience--just a sort of annoyance. No, not evil. Evil isn't really necessary. Well it is, I guess, but not necessary- necessary. Just sort of, last resort sort of thing...."
Severus watched his friend's quirky dialogue with amusement, always with amusement. He assumed that she sometimes forgot he was in the room. It was a bit of a stretch for him still. The fact that someone could forget his presence--that he didn't frighten her out of her senses--well, he was at least getting somewhat used to the fact. It didn't bother him as it once did. He no longer felt as if he were going soft, thanks in great part to Dumbledore's gentle hinting over the chessboard.
Georgie prattled on, analyzing now whether mankind ("Or womankind for that matter") was inherently good or evil. A heavy and commonly mused topic for himself, but for Georgie she just talked to work things out in her mind. She would argue the sides of the issue with herself, tackle it from one direction then decide it was the wrong way to go about the issue that way, then start all over. Methodical, but at the same time very helter-skelter. Perhaps she could find a job with The Daily Prophet as some sort of social commentator, or some other such rubbish.
The burn on his legs suddenly brought his attention back to the babbling before his eyes.
She paused as she had obviously stumped herself and was scratching at the back of her head absent-mindedly. Severus sighed, "Always burns for me. If I were superstitious I would find something to that."
Her eyes widened. "Of course you would, Trewlaney. Burns, burn la da. Shouldn't play with fire little boy." She wagged her finger at him in good fun. "Heat and flames and fires licking up at the souls of the damned, hell-fires perhaps? Are your robes singed? Oh dear, Mummy will fix that right up for you. Have you been playing fair with all the other little demons in your class? "
His own eyes twinkled in response. He was no longer amazed, no longer angered--just very accustomed to her tangents in conversations. She was quick to pick up on things, one of the things he was grateful for--how could one live with someone who couldn't see the obvious nose in front of ones face! "I never play fair with anyone. You of all people should know that!"
"Oh yes, I forgot." Looking quite as if she really had.
The door flew open and banged against the wall and Georgie stormed into Snape's office. "I got a letter saying I was failing Potions and I needed to report to my House Head. What the devil are you playing at!" She leaned over the desk and snarled at the man, whose face was blank and expressionless, but whose lively eyes gave away his amusement.
"Oh that. There must have been some mix-up; some accident." He steepled his fingers as he silkily explained.
"It's wrong! You posted it on the board in the Common Room!" She hissed. "If this is your idea of a joke, it sure as hell isn't funny."
"Of course it's not correct. It's just a mistake, so calm down." He leaned back further in his chair.
"I cannot calm down!"
"I personally think it's rather comical."
She threw the letter across the desk and it hit him squarely across the chest. "I should have let you bleed to death a long time ago!" She bellowed and stormed from the room, slamming the door after her.
"Peeves!" Severus got to his feet, "Peeves, I know you changed the marks-- you were in here as well last night when I was assigning marks." He opened first one cupboard than another. "You didn't leave; I know you're still here. You heard the witch--it's not funny."
Peeves floated down from the ceiling where he'd been perched, "Nasty, nasty Professor Snape. Why would you think I would do that?" He poked a finger at Severus but Severus swatted at it before he made contact. Peeves the Poltergeist just grinned broader and cackled to himself. "Nasty, nasty Professor. Poor, poor Professor--getting yelled at by the girl. Poor, poor Professor."
"Shut-up Peeves!" Severus roared.
Peeves stopped speaking, but continued in his maniacal cackle and horrible faces. "If she allows me to bleed to death I will come back and make sure to remind you every single second that I am not pleased."
Peeves stuck out his tongue and flipped on his head mid-air, wrenching Snape's grip around and loose before floating away. The Professor reminded himself to approach the Bloody Baron and ask him to speak to the little pest. Severus did have more clout with the pesky squat little ghost than the other Professors, but the Baron could patch things over immediately.
"Severus!" Georgie wheeled into the room at a run, slamming into the front of his desk tensely. He looked up curiously to see who could have been chasing her. When satisfied that no mortal foe trailed her, he relaxed back into his chair much like he had earlier that day. He had a bit of finishing up and tidying up to do.....but this should prove to be rather amusing.......
"What is it now?" he demanded shortly.
"Get Peeves off of my ass!" She shrieked. He wasted no time in leaning forward across his desk and feigned looking for the poltergeist said to be haunting her posterior.
"Snape!" She hissed through clenched fists, interrupting his playing. He resumed his seat and nodded at her to speak if she had something to say, noting with caution her white tense knuckles gripping the edge of his desk.
"You told him to be nice to me? To 'become friends', to 'play nice', to make himself 'helpful to me'?"
He didn't reply as he figured she didn't expect an answer to that, however he found he was mistaken. "Well did you!?" He was taken aback at the force of her words. "He won't leave me alone! I can't read or study because he's forever turning summersaults across my worktable...He bloody flew into my shower while I was in there to ask if I need assistance with the soap! Everyone's avoiding me like the plague. I am not amused and you have to fix this right now!"
"Oh do I?" He couldn't stop himself from slipping that in, however he regretted it as soon as the sounds passed his lips.
"Argh," She grunted in exasperation as she re-clenched her knuckles and ran from the room.
"Sanctuary!" Georgie screamed as she ran literally into the room, the heavy door echoed by banging into the back wall with an eerie thud.
"Dramatics...." Professor Snape returned his gaze to the end of term papers of the First Year students--always better to get those out of the way first. He always found them to be the most taxing and dull of any of the years, so to get them out of the way was always Severus' first goal.
"Day one's finally done. Er, that almost rhymes...I'm a poet, aren't I? A poet and I didn't even know it!" She sniveled. She was referring to the first of four days of testing for her. Not exactly the usual N.E.W.T.S, but comparable. Her testing procedures, like always, were a little different.
"Oh, yes. A regular Shelley or Frost."
Georgie sprawled out along the opposite sofa and put her feet up and closed her eyes with a definitive sigh. In the process she knocked her schoolbook onto the floor.
"Interesting. I had just minutes before come here after saying to Flitwick that only here--in my sanctum sanctorum--could I properly get through this pile of rubbish."
She opened a gleaming brown eye. "Ah, ya big softie. Tell us how you really feel 'bout those First Years."
"You miss the point." You always do, he thought with a sense of sobriety.
She let whatever had got to him slip by. There was a week left, so she couldn't afford to start something between them.
"How was your day?" It was a funny little ritual with them by now and Georgie joked with Minerva about how it had a sort of creepy hint of 'Honey, I'm home...' to it. Speaking of Minerva... "Do you know what Minerva actually had the gall to suggest!" She sat up and her hands went automatically to her hips.
Severus looked up and took in her queer positioning and chuckled silently to himself, "I cannot imagine."
"She said that as I'm 'competent' in her subject, so that I wouldn't be tested in it at all."
"Yes. What the gall indeed."
"Would you let me finish? Anyhow, then I was just mentioning in passing about how I felt in need of becoming better in shape, so she suggests that be my testing. Not fair. I'm a lump, but that should have no bearing on scholastic issues. Really, there should be uniformity all across the board- -it's when we break down the students into sub-categories to assess and test their strength and thus set them apart, do we open the door wide for feelings of inadequacy and failure."
"All fine words for excusing your laziness."
She hissed at him, but he ignored it rightly. "Well imagine if you were in school and James Potter was tested in Potions for Potions class and you were tested in a Quidditch match for the same class. Not fair then, eh?"
"You've made you're point. Potter would have still ended up failing and I would have had to resort to cheating."
"Lovely." Georgie snorted. "You didn't really cheat did you?"
He sat back and a deep rumbling escaped from his throat. He was outright laughing at her. "Georgie, things were different then and I of course was just as different. If I did would it make a difference?" He continued in his laughter.
She crossed her arms over her chest, "Prolly not, I just think it's bad. Stupid question." She'd gotten her answer anyhow.
"I never cheated in any class if it makes you feel any better for me."
"Stop laughing at me," she warned him seriously.
"I'm not laughing so much at you. Rather just at how I forget that you can be rather inexperienced at times--at least in the extent of this particular Wizarding School and it's protocol in the past." Nice save, she thought to herself.
"You lie well enough. You should run for public office." Her countenance brightened considerably. "So then you cheated in Quidditch or something perhaps? Or was it just in the extracurricular activities? Wreaking havoc during meals and in the library...."
"For some extremely singular reason you have a sort of over-romanticized view of mischief. Mischief makes most normal people upset--dangerous steps to take." He stopped himself from overstepping any bounds by pointing out shortcomings or voicing any other warnings of impending doom. She never stopped long enough to listen to him, and when she did she never took him seriously. No Georgie, like a younger Severus Snape, had to make her own mistakes to learn from them properly.
"So wait...." Her squeaking voice interrupted any further thoughts. "If I send an owl to Dar-O-gan, will you get it then?" Severus constantly surrounding himself with concealing spells and he even admitted it was difficult for Dumbledore to get hold of him at times.
"If it gets to Darogan, yes I will see it."
"Promise?"
"Promise." He half-smiled at her childish antics. "Why do you want to send me an owl?"
"Just like to know where you are--not as if I want to stalk you or anything funny like that, just I like to know where you are because...because it's nice to know where you are. That you're....there, and all." Georgie's face heated up and at that moment she was so very appreciative that her face wasn't as obvious to the rest of the world as it was to herself.
"Suit yourself." He tapped his quill absently on the inkbottle. "I can always find you as well. I'm not very, er, pleasant when writing letters, and the majority of the time I ignore them in the logical favor of things more pressing. But I will make some effort not to pass you by entirely during the summer holidays."
She beamed on him. "You read my mind, don't know how you do that. I'm just transparent--I've said it before. Good, that you'll try is all I ask."
"You must have some idea of what your plans are by this late point in time." Snape baited.
She giggled, "I figured it out simply weeks ago: I just couldn't be bothered to tell you." She giggled a bit longer and paused for dramatic effect. "I'm taking a class and I'm working in a Pub in London. It's going to be such fun." She picked at her fingernails absently. "Wait. How would you find me?"
He leered down his hooked nose at her. "If I need to find you, I'll find you."
"And until then I sit on my hands and hope and pray every night that dear friend Snape remembers me." She prattled along in an insipid sing-songy voice.
"If it were only that easy to forget."
"Ach, ya big softie." She shooed her hand at him.
"I don't care." He nearly stuttered. Blast it all man! Control yourself, there's no place for sentimentality or softness now--she's going to leave you soon enough, you'll see it all: She'll forget you in time.
She sniffed. "Nor do I." Taking up a cushion from the sofa she lofted it at a surprised Snape. "Sometimes I wish I could do something that you couldn't--you know, be better'n you at just one stupid little thing. It's not fair."
"You say that a lot."
"It's true."
"Is it now?" He toyed with her. "I wonder what your basis for comparison is."
"As far as I can see it is. Even Professor Dumbledore says you were the brightest student he's ever seen. That's saying quite a bit, and I'm not just saying that because the man's seen so many students and he's ancient."
"You shouldn't call him ancient. If you live to be that old you'd be insulted."
"So I would be. But you're trying to change the subject. I was trying to say something: Oh yes, that you're hard to keep up with."
He frowned apparently deep in thought and leaving Georgie wiggling in her seat, wondering what exactly she'd just said. His own mind was attacking a certain idea, toying with it for a few scant seconds--and the idea wasn't even a new one to him. Dumbledore said and did everything for a reason--a wholly controlled man in everything. Severus envied the man, if he envied anyone at all, which maybe he didn't. There was something in Albus' telling Georgie this. In fact, the more he thought of it, there was a motive behind Georgie's presence with him from the very beginning....
"Did you ever eat paste as a child?" She blinked at him patiently.
"Er, I don't recall." Wondering as to what on earth this could be connected to.
"I wonder what it tastes like."
He sighed and abandoned all hope of finishing the corrections of the exams at that point. He didn't mind the conversations they had, even when Georgie showed herself to be in a 'mood' as he dubbed it. No, precious little amused him these days, and he tolerated even less of those things that did. So he let her prattle on about eating paste and whether it was toxic, and perhaps she should pick some up from town next time to try just a teensy bit....
He rose to his feet and rounded the sofa to the bookshelf against the wall by the door to the Common Room. He always conversed better with a book in his hand--he got that from his grandfather, a great man.
"Don't eat it." He returned and half-heartedly attempted to persuade her from her research.
"Oh, of course I wouldn't really eat it!" She giggled. "Still, one does wonder what it tastes like, if you don't remember."
"Don't be an imbecile. There are hundreds of things of which I cannot tell how it would taste, yet I am quite able to refrain from sticking them heedlessly into my mouth."
"Really?" She smirked with a haughty air. She stared at him dead-on. "So you are telling me what exactly? Please, you are of course the Potions Master here, teach me something. My brain's dusty from disuse. Share some great gem of knowledge. So I'm not to research on myself is that it, or something else?"
He did not appreciate being mocked all the same. "Precisely. Do not test anything out on yourself. It is foolhardy and dangerous--no exceptions. End of discussion. Do you understand that fully?"
She gaped at him loopily, then drew herself up very straight and proper. "May I have your permission to show you something?"
"Yes."
She leapt off of her couch and leapt right on to the one Severus was seated on, right beside him. She reached across his body and snatched at his skeletal forearm, wrenched it towards herself, threw back layers of sleeves and lifted his own arm up to Severus' blatantly confused gaze.
His eyes narrowed and his face blanched with rage. Then just as it came, it diminished. "Point taken." He whispered as he reclaimed his own arm, and lowered his sleeves down over the blue-tinges covering his wrists. Indeed they ran all the way up to his neck and covered his body in great ugly splotches.
"Come on, let's go see what's happening in the kitchens, we can stretch our legs and play Spy in the corridors." She was just pleased that he wasn't pummeling her. There was always one moment when it felt, well dangerous, to push Severus in that sort of a way. But he wasn't as excitable or conceited as when she'd first met him. Perhaps she was becoming too confident for her own good....
"You can go on without me, I need to finish up here for awhile."
"Suite yourself, Snape." And she bolted through the door.
At last, at last he was nearly through the second years' pile of exams. What remarkable progress he made when left to his own devices. And ahead of schedule. Why, he'd have time to spare by the end of the week. Maybe get a jump on the next year's lesson plans...
But there would be no more progress that afternoon as the Potions Professor would be receiving a visitor.
Georgie was walking the corridors on her tiptoes. She wasn't exactly sure as to the reason for this, but she didn't bother to curb her behavior in the least. She passed the Bloody Baron and muttered a curt greeting to the apparition as she passed it, eyeing the man from behind veiled eyelids. That was coming to be her person stance for tuning something or someone out. It annoyed Siobhan to no end, but no one else made the connection as of yet. And it really was something of a subconscious behavior anyhow.
She knew where to find the dour Potions Master, but she was putting that off as a last resort. Severus was lovely, but she knew better than to go to him right off with no substantial aim, and to expect him to entertain or even humor her boredom.
She tried to leave him well enough alone, truly she did, but her retched curiosity brought her right into the steamy classroom where Snape was utilizing a student's worktable and two iron cauldrons. She continued her tiptoe farce, even though she knew he would be in no humor for it. Still she tried. It was always a surprise to see what he laughed at, what he ignored, and what he belittled her for. It was a fair judge of his moods right from the start.
"Hulloa." She drawled lazily. as she swayed in place on her tiptoes, with her hands behind her back. Usually she only made eye contact when it was absolutely required that she do so: A holdover from her days at The Institute. Culture there dictated that every time a Professor entered or exited the classroom the students must all rise to their feet out of respect. Also approaching a Professor in and of itself was generally frowned upon, and old habits are hard to break Georgie found.
But today she was feeling exceedingly bold and assertive. She felt like pushing people's buttons. "What are you up to?"
Snape snorted at the audacity and ignored her for the time being. This was important and he didn't have time to be distracted. If she had something to say or to ask, she certainly could wait.
She stopped swaying long enough to inspect the ingredients lain out on the worktable. "What are you making?" She ventured at what seemed to be a lull in his movements. She fingered what she looked to be finely chopped Mandrake. She turned her nose up at it.
His eyes glittered up at her as he straightened himself to his full imposing height. "What does it look like I'm masking? Use your eyes, witch." It wasn't a cruelly toned dart, but rather a true, challenging question.
He was obviously making a variation on the Mandrake Restorative Draft-- though why the bezoar was eluding her at the moment. Petrifaction usually came about from some curse or charm, not from any poison. God, in heaven, Hagrid might've gotten a Medusa Harpy. "I'm not your student." She bristled. "Don't speak to me like one."
"Using one's mind never hurt anyone, even in dire cases such as your own." He sneered. He joined her at the smooth surface of the worktable and head bent over he unrolled a rough burlap roll and retrieved from it, sever hunks of fleshy consistency. He set this aside, rolled the burlap once again then turned his attention to his paring knife.
Georgie sighed and turned to stand shoulder to shoulder with the man at the table. She sifted out the bezoars from a canister, and deposited several into a stone mortar. "Crushed, correct?" She queried, and attacked the difficult stuff with energy. She had a philosophy, perhaps better attuned to a Hufflepuff mentality, but should there be work to do and one's around, one really ought to just get down and get to it, instead of bitch about whose job it is and why one shouldn't be forced to help out.
"I want a harpy too. It's a pity they make such retched pets." She muttered. In all honesty she had no desire for a Harpy, let alone to see one anywhere near the school. But she figured it would be an appropriate utterance at a lull in conversation. Very Georgie-esque, she mused.
"I found you something today." Georgie announced in a sort of level and humorless tone.
"Oh?" Severus didn't turn his eyes away from the ingredients in his hands. He was fully capable of carrying out two tasks at the same time. It was more efficient anyhow.
"Well, I thought they were lovely, striking colors and fragrant, and I know you're generally not into the aesthetic and the seasons and Earth Magic and all, but I felt it, so here." She apologized as she took from her pocket a leaf.
He finished his task then turned on the leaf lying on the worktable a bit above the ingredients laid out in preparation. "What am I supposed to do with it?" He narrowed his eyes at her.
"I knew I shouldn't have said anything." She shrugged and handed over to his side of the worktable the bezoar. "I just had a feeling today and I was moved by the trees and the winds blowing and there's a patch of heather growing out of season down the hill towards the lake, and it was all, just......." She sighed. Never mind. She turned around and headed for the closed door out to the dungeon corridor.
As she slipped out into the smooth, hewn stone underfoot, she turned around and called at Snape's back "I don't know how you do it either. How you can you be so blind? To miss the colors surrounding us, to feel the sun, dipping through clouds. Not even that you walk around avoiding it, or you're colorblind. And the grand thing about all this is that you just don't care. You're so...unromantic." She snorted at the probably asinine choice of wording as she turned on her heels.
It was no use trying to make him see the world through her eyes, or even through his own eyes. At first she thought he could be rehabilitated. But that never lasted long. She'd have been appalled if it had worked. Who wants to bother over a person with no backbone? She began to wonder though, if all Severus possessed was backbone.
Georgie sat with Siobhan at the Slytherin table that evening at dinner. Georgie had come up behind the girl as she was entering into the Great Hall and they fell into such a pleasant conversation that Georgie was desirous of continuing it immediately and not under the noses of those discerning and proper Professors. Yes, some would have found such frivolous gossiping to be in poor taste, but then no one had alerted either of the girls to this fact.
Niamh entered in shortly afterwards and listened to the other girls, but didn't join in. She had been so quiet lately, Georgie surmised it had to do with going home for the summertime and being a bit sad over the prospect of not seeing a certain someone. They hurried out on finally noticing that they were the last students still lingering about.
"Would you fucking stop being so tall?" She had literally jumped on perceiving The Potions Master towering right behind her as he had followed her into the room.
"As you wish," He sneered at her. "And to what do I owe the honor of this foul mood?" He cast aside the cloak she had deposited onto the back of his sofa. It landed with a flutter a few paces behind her and she wound her way around the lounge and back to where she started. She grunted and retrieved the article and banished it to her room.
"I'm fine." Her eyes flashed and she fought for control of her voice and it's volume. "This has been the most lovely day of my life. Lovely." She nearly screamed.
Severus didn't want to know, and she didn't want to divulge. She just wanted her mind taken away from... "What're you reading?" She stopped her impromptu tirade long enough to glance at Severus and cast herself upon her sofa.
"Nothing of interest to you, I am sure."
"You are a fish-monger."
Severus smiled wryly. "What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals-and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me."
"No, nor woman neither...."
He looked up at her curiously. "Perhaps you will think that I will have 'lost all mirth' as well?"
"I never saw any to begin with."
"Catty aren't we?" Snape smiled broader than he had in days. "Your hair looks like an owl in an ivy bush. Did you get up to some trouble?" He pointed at her with the spine of his closed book.
"Trouble?" She spat the word back at him. "What sort of trouble could I get into here? At Hogwarts? On the grounds of the safest school in all of the world?" She swept her arms grandiosely about the room.
"I feel like we're playing the question game: What happened while I was away? The dog died. How did the dog die? When your home burned down. How did my home burn? A candle fell from your wife's funeral. How did...? Oh, go on for goodness sake. I don't care, and I won't wrestle it out of you. Be obstinate if you like--I won't stop you."
"And you were saying I was out of sorts today. I was going to give you a nasty look, but I see you've already got one." She grinned, happy at getting a reaction from him. She settled back into her cushions and closed her eyes before speaking. "I've got good news."
He glanced up and gave her a sharp look. "Yes?"
She smiled slyly. "Later."
He looked away. "It has been quite a long time since you have produced your guitar. I'm rather glad for the quiet it's allowed. No more screeching and twanging away at that blasted thing. No more moody dirges. I'm extremely grateful." She took all that up in silence, but he could see the gears turning in her head.
When she returned half an hour later with the thing under her arm, he was all in amazement at how easily led and persuaded she could be. He gathered that she knew what he was up to most of the time, but it still amazed him that she...well, put up with him. It was all rather humorous. In the most pathetic of ways of course.
I don't mind,
I don't mind if you forget me
having learned my lesson.
I never left an impression on anyone
so now you send me your hardened 'regards'
when once you'd send me 'love'
sincerely I must tell you
your mild 'best wishes'
they make me suspicious
but I don't mind.
I don't mind if you forget me
having learned my lesson
I never left
an impression on anyone
the pressure to change, to move on
was strange
and very strong
so this is why I tell you
I really do understand.
BYE BYE
I don't mind if you forget me
no no no no no no no
REJECTION IS ONE THING
BUT REJECTION FROM A FOOL
IS CRUEL
REJECTION IS ONE THING
BUT REJECTION FROM A FOOL
IS CRUEL
and I don't mind if you forget me
I don't mind if you forget me
"Georgie, you're very predictable." She beamed on him, squinting her eyes up into mirrors of his cold ones.
"So..." She swept a stray frizzy curl from her eyesight. "Had any fun with the ol' D.E.s?
"Pardon me? D.E.s? Whatever do you..." He stopped and scowled. "Oh, how trite of you."
"Yes, well I rather thought it was clever. Sounds like the old D.T.'s a bit."
"Excepting that with Death Eaters there is less compulsion to lump it all and run back to the bottle." She shot him a sidelong glance. "No, you're right; there is no difference." They laughed nervously to themselves. "Has Dumbledore said anything to you then?"
"No, just getting rusty at brewing that's all," she baited.
"Oh, well if that's all, let me just remove a finger for your enjoyment."
"Aw, you're the sweetest. Would you really?"
"Anyhow, I'm going out of country this weekend."
"Damn, and it's the last one!" She whined and furled her brow.
"Oh, how dejected you look. I know it can't be real. You're just a fine actress." She bowed. "No, I'm attending a social function. I've managed to excuse myself from it the past five years, but not this year..." He ran his hand through his stringy hair.
"Unfortunate." She shrugged.
More than you'll ever realize, he thought to himself. "Yes, well, can't do much about it."
"Will you need any help?" He shot her a nasty glance "From anyone at all?"
"I could use help on this 'errand', however I am not desirous of any specific person's assistance." Perhaps in future...no, never would he ask that.
"Yes, but--"
He interrupted her. "I repeat myself by saying that I am not accepting of any person's assistance, even though I acknowledge that I need it."
He was getting better.... "If you want to increase your insanity, avoid the asylum." She pointed out.
"You're a wit Georgie."
"Better that than a dim one." She glared at him. "So shall I prepare bandages now or later?"
"A social gathering."
"Ah yes." She smiled. "And all the times you go out with your little friends you just go out for a pint and tell off-color jokes. I repeat myself: bandages?"
Severus frowned and looked on her with scrutiny. "When did you get to be so impertinent?"
She never did answer him.