Thank you to my COS friends, LouisaB and Mollisk (Molly), for the lovely reviews!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Celeste woke the morning of the Hogsmeade visit wondering why she felt somewhat guilty. Then she remembered, the night before in the common room she had taken Sirius aside and told him it was over. He had taken it pretty hard, but Celeste was sure that once his bruised ego had healed a bit, he would be fine.
Celeste hoped he would be all right anyway. They had been dating a long time, almost a year, but she knew it was just out of habit. Her parents had divorced mainly because her mother's job, taken year after they married, kept her at Hogwarts most of the year. They were never together long enough to develop comfortable habits around each other and when they were together it was chaos, their love had kept them together for twelve years, but a long distance marriage just couldn't last. Celeste and Sirius had just the opposite problem. They were always together, and so used to each other that it had taken Celeste almost a year to realize that she didn't love him.
The guys had left for Hogsmeade early leaving Celeste free to tell Lily about the night before. Lily approved of Celeste's decision; she had been expecting it for some time. Lily liked Sirius very much and knew he would take the rejection hard for awhile, but she agreed with Celeste that soon enough he would be back to normal, pulling pranks and ignoring every girl that dared to look his way.
When they had finished discussing this Lily asked if Celeste was planning to come to the village.
"No," Celeste sighed. " I'd better stay here and get started on that Potions essay, what was it, three rolls of parchment?"
Lily laughed. "Actually you said it was four, and I just know that when I get back you won't even have started on it."
Celeste smiled ruefully and agreed this was probably true.
After seeing Lily off in the entrance hall, Celeste thought about what she might do. The common room was filled with students studying for O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, and she really did not wish to join them. She considered stopping by her mum's office for a chat, but hit upon a better idea as she watched a group of Slytherin students leaving the castle for Hogsmeade.
Stopping only a moment to exchange pleasantries with Peeves the Poltergeist, Celeste hurried towards the library. Creeping in silently, so as not to disturb the cranky librarian, Celeste searched the aisles until she found the very person she was looking for, sitting at a table in the back of the library, engrossed in a large, ancient looking volume. Seating herself across the table, Celeste waited silently to be noticed.
Happening to glance up as he turned the page, Severus Snape scowled as he caught sight of Celeste watching him patiently.
"Have a moment?" Celeste inquired politely. "I was hoping we could talk."
Severus raised a dark eyebrow. "Oh," he said. "You were?"
"Yes, right now, actually."
Severus raised his other eyebrow. "Right now," he repeated.
Celeste rose to her feet. "Yes, right now you dolt. Follow me," she said imperiously, taking him by the wrist and leading the way out of the library and out to the courtyard.
Once outside he laughed. "Serious business, I take it."
Celeste looked at him reproachfully. "You're impossible," she said crossly. "I can't even have a conversation with my most beloved childhood friend without beating you over the head, can I?"
"Where would you like to talk?" he asked with a small bow of submission.
"The stone bench over near the woods," she answered promptly.
"It rained last night," Severus commented, surveying the mud soaked grounds. "Tell me princess, would you like me to carry you across the muck?"
"No thank you," she answered lightly. Bracing herself against his shoulder, she removed her shoes and socks, rolled her jeans up to her knees, and started out across the wet lawn.
Sitting down on the damp bench, Severus turned the cuffs of his jeans up off his muddy boots. He winced as a cold drop of rain dripped off the tree above and rolled down his neck. She would pick such a miserable place to talk, he thought glumly, as he watched Celeste squish her toes in the puddle of mud in front of their bench.
"How do you plan on cleaning those off before you go back inside the castle?" he asked suddenly, pointing at her feet.
Celeste thought a moment. "In the fountain I suppose"
Severus rolled his eyes, imagining what Minerva McGonagall would say if she saw her daughter washing her feet in the marble fountain in the courtyard.
"So what are you doing this summer, Sev?" she asked, "Rumor has it your parents are going to be throwing some parties, why wasn't I invited?"
"Very funny Celeste, you know my mum can't stand you, even if you were a pureblood I doubt she would invite you," he frowned at her a moment, then continued, "I'll probably spend most of my time in the tree house, if that's all right with you of course."
Celeste laughed. The tree house he referred to was one her father had built for her when she was small. It was in the backyard of her mother's summerhouse, less than half a mile from the Snape mansion. Her mother rarely used the house now, but before Celeste had started Hogwarts they would spend the summers there together.
That was how Celeste had met Severus when she was four and he was five, they would play pirate ship and rain forest together up in the tree house and even though Celeste now spent the summers with her father, Severus still visited the tree house whenever he could. He stayed there mostly to avoid his parents; sometimes he took blankets and spent the night. Now it was a little joke between the two of them.
"All right, now what was it you wanted to talk to me about," Severus asked, wishing the bench was not so wet.
Celeste took a deep breath. "I'm going to tell you something that should make you very happy, last night I broke up with Sirius."
Severus nodded but didn't seem surprised. "I've always wondered why you ever went out with that egotistical moron in the first place."
Celeste turned her face away so he would not see her smile. The reason she had gone out with Sirius was simply because he reminded her of her childhood friend, Severus Snape. She would never confess this to either of them, but it was true. Although Celeste had never been romantically attached to Severus, she cared for him deeply and was fascinated by the likeness she saw in Sirius. They looked nothing alike, although each was tall and had long black hair. Their likeness came from something else; something if Celeste could have named it, would have called arrogance. An arrogance which was born to all those of a wealthy pureblooded family. There was also vulnerability under their tough appearances that appealed to Celeste's nurturing nature. They also had similar situations at home, two sets of parents, each a disappointment to their sons.
Turning back to Severus, Celeste continued. "There's something else you might not like so well," she paused, unsure, but Severus' eyebrows rose again and she went on. "I'm in love with Remus Lupin."
Whatever Severus had expected, it wasn't this. He was silent for a moment, thinking it over. He knew that she and Remus had been friends for a long time, he sometimes checked her more wild sensibilities, but Severus had never imagined Celeste felt that way about him. The more he mused over Remus' character, however, the more he became convinced that Remus Lupin was just the sort of guy Celeste needed, calm, sensible, and loyal. Severus didn't particularly like Remus, but that was because he was good friends with the two people Severus hated most, but if Celeste really felt that way...
Realizing that Celeste was waiting for a response, he asked, "Does Remus know how you feel?"
Celeste blushed. "Well, no," she answered. "I mean, I just broke up with Sirius last night. And I'm not sure he feels the same way, I, I think he does."
No, Severus thought. Remus didn't seem to be the kind of guy who would feel all right about taking his friend's girl, but there had to be something wrong with him if he wasn't in love Celeste Potak.
Severus often marveled that he wasn't in love with her himself, as it was she was like a little sister to him and he had never cared for her to be more than that. Severus wondered as he watched her twirl a wildflower between her fingers, how even a narcissic fool like Sirius Black could have parted with a girl like her so easily.
"Perhaps you would be better off with Lupin," he said aloud.
"Oh, I'm so glad you think so," she beamed at him. "Do you know, he's known about mum for two years now, he told me yesterday!"
Severus started to say that Lupin wasn't a blind idiot, when he noticed a group of students returning from Hogsmeade.
"I'd better go," he muttered, standing up.
"Why, Severus," Celeste said mockingly, "are you afraid of what the Slytherins would say if they saw you in the company of a Gryffindor, or even worse, a halfblood?"
Severus looked down at her a moment. The truth was he didn't care what his house would say, he was more concerned about her house. Celeste was rather popular and well liked, Severus wasn't sure her social position would be helped if people knew she kept company with a none too popular Slytherin like himself. Because she was his friend and he cared about her Severus did not want to ruin her chances with Remus, even if he was a friend to Potter and Black. He did not tell her this, however.
"No," he said at last. "I'm afraid of what they would say about your feet. Get a start on your Potions homework, by the way. It's due Monday."
Celeste watched him walk up to the castle and disappear inside before she followed. When she reached the courtyard, she walked over to the huge fountain and stepped into the icy water. Careful not to be sprayed by the water gushing out of a badger's mouth, Celeste swished her feet around the side to remove the mud. She waved cheerily at some passing Hufflepuffs but at the sight of some approaching Slytherins, decided her feet were clean enough. Drying them with her socks, she headed back inside the castle.