MAID QUIET
WHERE has Maid Quiet gone to,
Nodding her russet hood?
The winds that awakened the stars
Are blowing through my blood.
O how could I be so calm
When she rose up to depart?
Now words that called up the lightning
Are hurtling through my heart.
-William Butler Yeats
He wanted to ponder what Harry meant in that one enigmatic statement but he never got the chance.
Parvati Patil was murdered on the next Hogsmead trip.
No one knew she was missing until that evening when she didn't come back in the carriages. It was too late when Snape found out. She was still alive but the damage was too great and he could only watch her bleed out while the Death Eaters laughed. And he had to pretend he didn't feel his very soul crack into a million tiny pieces.
He couldn't even save her body because Voldemort decided he would like to take it with him and dump it right inside the front door of the ministry of magic.
When he apparated to his usual spot at the edge of the Forbidden Forest and finished noisily throwing up Potter was headed his way, tears streaking his face and another vial of Dreamless Sleep in his hand.
"I could have gotten that myself."
Potter's voice was steady, regardless of the tears still streaming down his cheeks. "I had to get myself some anyway."
"You saw?" But it wasn't really a question. He knew and felt another weight drop into his stomach at the thought of a child seeing what he had seen.
"The aurors are on their way right now." He looked like he wanted to say something more but couldn't.
"He didn't tell me." And Snape wondered why he was trying to justify himself to Harry Potter anyway but it hurt and it had been a child that had died, a child that had been under his protection.
"I didn't know either." Harry's shoulders hunched inward and his head dropped in defeat.
There was a long silence as both struggled with something terrible and dark, with things they shouldn't have had to speak.
"The headmaster will announce it at breakfast." Snape's head pounded with the need to run to his dungeons and hide and wipe out what had happened in sleep with no dreams. "You don't have to go."
Something that looked like a smile but was really some sort of sad grimace came across Potter's face. "I know." Without another word he silently made his way back in the direction from which he'd come.
And Snape discovered that his cheeks were wet too.
Author's Notes: Thanks everyone for the great response to the last two chapters! I think it's really funny that you guys figured out what Harry was doing by reading Hermione's favorite book and yet Snape's still so clueless. Don't worry, he'll figure it out! Anyway, this chapter was really hard for me to write. I really didn't want to kill Parvati but it just kind of happened. So...review and let me know what you think!
