Chapter 3
The feast had just finished and Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean and Seamus were in their dormitory. Ron was still finding it hard to get over the fact that Snape had a girlfriend.
"I'm telling you it's true!" Neville cried, for the fifth time. "They were in Diagon Alley together. Well, for a while anyway. Me and my Gran had just come out of Flourish and Blotts and they were standing a bit away from the door. Sinistra went off to join a group of witches sitting outside a café and he just sort of drifted away. I think he went towards Knocturn Alley actually."
"Well, I'm sure we'll soon find out, what with lessons starting again and everything," Seamus said. "Ha, we should try and spread it around the whole school!"
"No!" Neville looked terrified. "He'll find out it was me and do something horrible, like with that Boggart!"
They all laughed at the memory of the Boggart and the conversation turned to their third year for a while before they eventually drifted off to sleep.
- - - - - -
Someone was knocking on the door. He froze with the piece of parchment in his hand, looking around desperately for somewhere to hide it.
More knocking.
He dived for the bottom drawer in the chest by the empty fireplace, slipped on the stone floor and knocked over the coffee table, which fell to the floor with a resounding crash. He had just slammed the drawer shut and righted the table when the door swung open and Aurielle Sinistra walked in.
"Severus, what are you doing in here?"
He straightened up and glared at her. "Preparing for your arrival."
"What, by wrecking the room?" she asked, frowning slightly.
He smirked at her. "I'm doing it for you, I thought I'd save you the trouble."
Aurielle smiled, remembering the last time she'd been here and accidentally smashed one of his precious potion jars.
Well, maybe not so accidentally. But in essence, it had been his fault ... for provoking her.
She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "To save some of your more valuable possessions from ... erm ... destruction, maybe we should go for a walk," she murmured into his cloak.
Snape looked highly uncomfortable as he tried to extract himself from her limpet–like clasp.
"I'd love to," he said shortly and somewhat unconvincingly. "Unfortunately I have more pressing matters to attend to at the moment."
"What, like oiling your hair?" she asked sourly, feeling a little disappointed.
"Why yes, it's a possibility," he sneered. "Now if you will excuse me."
"Well maybe I'll come back later, when you're feeling more sociable," she snapped. He turned away but didn't reply.
Aurielle sighed and tossing back her thick, curly black hair, strode out of the room. Snape listened to the sound of her footsteps dying away along the passage and tried very hard not to feel just a little bit guilty. He looked back towards the drawer containing the map and felt disgusted with himself, but that map was going to be extremely helpful.
With a feeling of immense panic, he began to notice just how hungry he was. Lessons would be starting tomorrow; the idea that he would be able to keep this ... condition hidden seemed almost impossible. For the first time in his life, Snape almost felt sympathetic towards Remus Lupin. He laughed bitterly. It was very difficult to keep anything hidden from Dumbledore, Sinistra was practically stalking him around the castle and nosy Potter and his friends, especially Granger, had a knack for finding out things that they shouldn't. He wondered how long it would be before one of them found out.
A few minutes later, a terrifying thought hit him. What if Voldemort had a different, bigger plan that he wasn't telling him about? Something that would not only harm himself, but also the Order. Suddenly, the idea of being found out (even by Potty or his mudblood mate) seemed very appealing indeed.