PART FOUR

Thursday morning, the owl returned with three roses and a note in its grip.

Sev looked up at Martis across from him at the table in the Great Hall. "So, you really did send this?"

"Yes, I really did."

Sev brushed back a strand of fluffy hair. "You know, in my culture, the male is supposed to give the female flowers."

"I'm not doing anything by culture, it's just something I do." She raised an eyebrow over her sunglass frames. "Although if people want to interpret it in other ways, that's their problem."

He glanced up at her, then bit his lip and looked down again. He was beginning to suspect 'Ginny Weasley' from yesterday was part of X's Conspiracy, and Martis' note with the roses (she had never sent notes with roses before) was beginning to worry him. And he had a feeling that X would approve of something like this.

The thought of censoring her expressions of affection made his gut hurt; he needed those expressions ... her touch, her hugs, her hand in his, her special ways of saying he was her friend.

This 'X' was a truly insidious enemy, to use their own innermost needs against them to fulfil his Evil Machinations - whatever they were. If he just knew who X was, Sev could confront him, discover his Evil Purpose ... and maybe agree to help in it as long as it had nothing to do with his father or his father's cronies, all things considered.

But until he knew that Purpose, he had to assume anyone attempting to manipulate him and Martis was an enemy. No matter how attractive their apparent goals.

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"Any signs of the creepy redheaded girl?" Martis asked later on as they made their way across the field toward the Quidditch pitch.

Sev shook his head. "No sign, which is GOOD."

"Excellent. Hope she went back to wherever she came from." She reached across and laced her fingers into his, her fingerless gloves creaking.

Sev squeezed her hand back. "She may have thought we were 'together' and decided to see if we could be 'broken up'."

Martis blinked behind her sunglasses. "Where in the world did you come up with something like that?"

"St. Claire suggested it. He says his sister and her fiance had friends trying to break them up because it was 'something to do'."

"True. That happens in my family a lot - mostly from parents who want arranged marriages for my siblings." She squeezed his hand harder. "I'll be strung up before I settle for an arranged marriage."

"Why does your family have them, anyway?"

"My family is considered 'elite' because we're one of the oldest families in the priestesshood. Plus my father's family had been advisors to the royal court for well over five hundred years."

"Aristocracy," Sev remarked. "I know what you mean."

Martis snickered. "Your bastard father talking about marrying you off?"

"No, thank the Gods of Above and Below for that. He still considers me an 'idiot apprentice' at best. But it was how my parents were married."

"Yeah, I can see why; no woman would want to lay eyes on him, much less anything else."

Sev snorted. "And what of me? Even though I'm a little worn around the edges and have the social skills of a rabid nundu, I'm a pretty good catch."

Martis smirked. "Indeed. A Dark Prince, who is a spiderweb that is too fragile for the likes of these bumbling girls."

Captain Fearghus Flynn yelled, "Come on, Spirals, get your ass over here and start practice! Snog later!"

Sev blushed and Martis stuck her tongue out. "Jealous 'cause I CAN snog him!"

Flynn made an ungentlemanly sound. "If you've seen his skinny ass in the showers like I have, you wouldn't be so quick to say that."

Sev blushed even redder.

"Snips!" Martis giggled.

"It's a guy thing, which means it totally mystifies me."

"Yeah, it's called 'male bonding'. Why I'm included in it, I have no idea." She swept around, her almost straight hair swinging around his body as she quickly kissed his other cheek and separated from him.

Martis mounted her broom and rose into the air, pulling her Beater bat out of her robe. "All right, time to practice."

Sev climbed up into the stands to watch practice and was surprised to see Igor Karkaroff sitting in Slytherin's section.

"Snape, good to see you," Igor called. "Come sit with me."

"You're not upset about two days ago?" Sev asked.

"Just released from your infirmary this afternoon. I am well, just a little ... out of it, you say?" He scooted over, allowing Sev to sit next to him. "What was all that about, anyway?"

"We thought you were up to no good, but we found out otherwise."

Igor smirked. "If I was ever up to 'no good', I would admit it. It's rather de classe - as our Beauxbatons fellows would say - to perform controversial deeds without slapping one's name on it."

Sev watched his House team practice, not looking at the seventeen-year-old. "Usually. Have you talked with Lucius Malfoy yet? He's more up your alley."

"Yes - knew him for a long time, our fathers work together on occasion."

"My condolences." Sev leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees as he plopped his chin in his hands. "His and mine are part of the Pure Blood Cult."

Igor chuckled. "Same here. Not a bad idea, all told." He leaned back, resting his elbows on the seats behind him. "So, is Panni Vox one of Us as well?"

Sev shifted his eyes, not turning his head. "What do you mean 'one of Us'?"

"Oh, Pure Blooded, I mean."

"Yes." Sev shifted his eyes back to the game. "Almost required to be to be in Slytherin. A few mixed-bloods get in, and those are the ones who are most dangerous. I once heard our House Master comment that his own Headmaster said that it was a good idea all the 'bad guys' were sorted into Slytherin because it made bookkeeping easier."

Igor released a loud belly-laugh. "At Durmstrang, you wouldn't have to worry about that; we try to remain ambiguous about our reputation as the Dark Arts school."

"But aren't you?"

"It's merely reputation. If anyone found out we really were, then we'd be flushed out and tried before the Confederation of Wizards. If one stays vague about the truth of their reputation, it fosters a sort of respect." Igor leaned forward and licked his lips. "But we could use some good Quidditch players. Like Panni Vox for example."

"There's less chance of pulling her into Durmstrang than me."

"Pity. She would brighten the school considerably."

Sev finally turned around, his face quite close to Igor's. "Forget it, Karkaroff."

"I know." His cold gray eyes seemed to become colder. "But none have resisted for long."

Sev whipped his wand out. "I - said - forget - it."

Igor rolled his eyes. "Have it your way, Snape." Sev lowered his wand. "Incidentally, when is the next Slytherin Quidditch game after this tie-breaking match?"

"We usually have a mini-match with Ravenclaw in early December."

"What's a mini-match?"

"A game played without the Seekers and Snitch. Usually played until the first team reaches fifty points."

"Sounds like good exercise."

Sev narrowed his eyes and turned back to the practice. Igor Karkaroff bore watching ... whether to protect Martis from him or throw Martis at him to distract X, he was not sure.

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"All right, mediocre practice, team! If we don't kick the Gryffies in the teeth during the re-match, I'll personally spank all of you!"

Demetrius and Thomas snickered while Jonas and Bill looked worriedly at their captain.

Martis and the Woot brothers made very loud raspberry sounds at Fearghus and laughed on their way down to the pitch.

Ryan elbowed his brother Keith in the gut. "I think the captain just wants an excuse to swat the Beater."

Martis made a face at them. "Yeah, I'm sure Demetrius needs some love-swats from Fearghus."

The brothers howled in laughter and Martis touched down to the pitch. She glanced back up at the cloudy sky and sighed. "It's going to rain again. Great Mother, this place is depressing."

The Woots were busy trying to make each other crash, so Martis turned back to the audience stands and waved at Sev.

She thought it was odd how Igor was sitting with Sev, but dismissed it and walked through the Slytherin entry and to the outside.

And into the arms of an older boy.

Martis looked up at him, noting the dusky skin, long wavy black hair, cleft chin, dark blue eyes, a good amount of manly stubble on his chin and cheeks, and his perfectly sculpted mouth.

"Allo, Bretomahrtes," he lilted in an outrageously thick French accent. "I am zee world's greetest lov-ar. My name eez Armand - remembeer eet, for vous will be screeming it lay-tar."

Martis quite suddenly and abruptly broke into loud hysterical giggles, snorts, and guffaws.

The older boy was not fazed by her reaction. "Vous laugh now, but I shall pozess your tight leetle backend and bouncy - "

"WHAT'S going on??" Sev demanded as he and Igor appeared from the stands.

Martis continued giggling. "This guy ... who looks like ... my cousin Spiros ... is trying to ... " She paused for a long moment to allow the new wave of laughter to taper off. " ... is trying to proposition me!"

"What?" Igor asked in confusion.

Sev raised an eyebrow. "You Voxs cannot be so distinctive-looking!"

"I em not related to vous, ma Britty bouncy-bouncy," the stranger called Armand said, his arms rounding her.

She broke into harder laughter. "Yes he does look like my cousin!" She gasped for air. "All right ... that was funny ... Thanks for the laugh. Lemme go now."

"But I em seerious! I em 'ere to seduce vous!"

"That's all I need to know," Sev stated, drawing his wand out and pointing it right at the dark stranger. "Let her go, freak."

Martis became silent and moved to leave, but found the arms around her were quite tight. Her sunglasses slipped down her nose and she gasped, "Snips!"

"Zat ez impossible, silly En'lish-type person! You're a spineless jellyfish 'ithout stones! Now go awey, before I taunt vous a se'ond time!"

The stranger did not expect the stomp on his instep from a Quidditch boot, nor did he expect the backhanded fist to the groin or the armor-enhanced elbow to the gut, which quickly crumpled him to the ground in time to get a cabbage-head hex from Sev and a nasty hex of blisters from Igor.

The spells hit at once, but the result caused a flash of blue, and instead of a blistered, cabbage-headed individual on the ground, it was the House-Elf in the Slytherin robe that had told Sev about Martis and the dragon last Saturday.

"It's YOU!" Sev shrieked.

"Yes, I am the Dark Mask - the World's Greatest Lover!" The House-Elf picked up the hem of his robe and bolted across the grounds toward the school. "AND THE FASTEST!" he shouted over his shoulder.

"COME BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE PISSANT!" Sev yelled, his wand raised. "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO SPIRALS???"

Martis and Igor followed, Martis waving her wand and yelling a Minoan war cry and Igor trying to figure out what the hells was going on.

"Well," the House-Elf yelled back to them. "First I was going to CENSORED-CENSORED-CENSORED - "

"BWAAK!" Martis cried. "YOU DIE!"

"Nobody's allowed to do that to her except me!" Sev growled.

Igor wondered aloud, "So why is it obvious it's never happened?"

"Shut up!" Sev and Martis spat at once.

"Get back here and die!"

"And be tortured for a long time!"

"No way," the House-Elf lilted, entering the school. "Toodles!"

Martis, Sev, and Igor dashed into the school and looked down the corridors to see where the House-Elf had gone.

"Bugger it!" Sev snorted. "The little bastard's gone!"

Martis paced around. "This is ridiculous! Where did that little freak come from? I bet that was the same one that kept jumping from Ravenclaw Tower last weekend!"

Igor nodded. "It was, unless all House-Elves here wear school robes and Chudley Cannons capes."

"No."

Sev withdrew from the conversation and pondered what had happened.

This House-Elf - wearing clothes and not talking like a House-Elf at all - had led him to the Forbidden Forest where the dragon held the potion-covered Martis last Saturday. This House-Elf had also been sighted on numerous occasions stealing food, yelling at the students in corridors, sang some loud garbage at the Hallowe'en Party during Martis' bull-leaping, and jumped from Ravenclaw Tower multiple times without killing itself. And just now, it had been Transfigured into a human male and attempted to seduce Martis.

The House-Elf was behind all of this??

No, the concept of a House-Elf being a Mastermind and doing all this was ludicrous. He was probably acting by X's orders.

But dressing a House-Elf? Was not the act of putting a House-Elf into clothes negating command of that House-Elf? And why did it not talk like a normal House-Elf anyway? It talked like a ... human.

A very sophisticated, intelligent House-Elf with a smartass streak.

If Sev were not so angry, he would have found the whole concept intriguing.

All right, it's about all he had to work with, but what if X and this House-Elf were working together? What would their motive be? And why trust a House-Elf with very obvious low self-control in doing something as delicate as trying to get two people together? And what was this last trick supposed to accomplish?

Sev glanced up at Martis and Igor still talking about the weird stuff they had witnessed over the past week (Igor talking about the second sighting of the tap-dancing Centaur, of which Martis knew nothing about the first), and it finally occurred to Sev what the latest attempt was about.

The way Igor gazed at her, the way his body was positioned in relation to hers, the way his eyes moved ...

Sev wanted to crack his fist across Igor's jaw but refrained. The Transfigured House-Elf failed where Igor was succeeding - getting close to Martis and making him jealous.

THAT was what the House-Elf was doing. And Sev would bet his own cauldron that the freaky redheaded girl from yesterday was also the House-Elf with another Transfiguration spell on it, and trying to make Martis jealous that time.

If he could catch the House-Elf, he could force it to tell him where his Master is. He needed to study up on the effects of Veritaserum on House-Elves, but he was quite sure he could make the little toad talk.

No, too risky. He needed something that would get X's attention and act desperate.

Something that would ruin X's plans.

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During dinner, Sev scratched out a note under the table and pressed it into Martis' hand. Puzzled, she glanced at Sev for an indication of what he was doing, and he remained concentrated on his dinner.

She opened the note in her lap and read: 'Spirals, the mysterious persons who kidnapped you weren't your sisters - it was someone else and they're still harassing us.'

She picked up the quill between their seats and scratched out: 'Who?'

He accepted the note back, read, then answered in the note: 'Unknown, but I intend to find out.'

'You mean the static and the redhead and the House-Elf?'

'And the lovenotes - all part of their plan to get us "together".'

'They're stupid. What shall we do?'

'We need to make them desperate enough to show themselves. We'll need to fight and make it look like a "break-up".'

She took a long moment to answer. 'But we're not even "together".'

'Rhetorically, Spirals. Shall I start the fight or you?'

She smirked as she wrote. 'We both will. If what you say is true, then it should be something that should make them very desperate. Here's what we'll do - '

Sev read her plan, then blushed, and chuckled under his breath. He responded with: 'The idea is rude, crude, and socially unacceptable, especially in Slytherin. I shall do my utmost duty and set a Protection Spell off to make sure.'

'That's my Snips! We may get into a bit of trouble with Penderdandis and Price, but we'll find out who these creeps are!'

Sev transfigured the note into an Ice Mice candy and stuffed it in his mouth, getting rid of the evidence of their plot.

Tomorrow morning, the mysterious X was going to get gray hair.

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