Disclaimer: (man this thing is long for my fiction...) Thorn/Sparkie-me, Maken/Cade- Maken-Wood, Celestial- Setalina Muro, Taffy- unimportant sister. EVERYONE else- JK Rowling
Author's Note: Wow, Chapter nine! Anyways, I hope you guys like it!
Chapter nine
Gifts -received and given
Soon Christmas break was upon them, classes were over for the time being. The four of them were on the grounds, Celestial talking to Thorn about some thing or another, Thorn sitting, reading her book, and Maken and Cade were discussing Quidditch tactics. They were sitting around a small fire that Sparkie had coughed up.
"So," she heard Celestial say, "Have you all gotten everyone their gifts?"
Thorn looked up and nodded. She had gotten everyone's gift but Severus's. She had gotten Maken A set of Quidditch players and a book of tactics, Cade a small, golden pocket watch with a tiger engraved into it, and Celestial a book called, Guide to Advanced Transfiguration. She knew what she wanted to get Severus, yet she still had to go talk to Albus.
Maken smiled, "Yep! I got everyone's!"
Cade nodded as well, "So did I."
Celestial smiled, "Yeah, can't wait till Christmas!"
"Me either! It's always been my favorite holiday!" Maken exclaimed as he bit into a chocolate frog that he had had in his pocket.
"Same here," Cade said as he laid back in the snow.
Maken laughed and looked to Thorn, who was staring at the white sky, "Thorn? You've been a bit quieter then usual, is something on your mind."
She shook her head, "I just need to get one more thing... Celestial?" The red-head looked up, "Where, might I ask, is Albus's office?"
Celestial watched her strangely, "Uh, on the fourth floor, the Griffin statue, the password is 'Chocolate Frog,' but why ever would you want to go see him?"
Thorn had stood and brushed the snow off of her robes, holding her book under her arm. Sparkie climbed onto her shoulder as she picked up the rest of her things. "I need to see him about a gift." She began to walk back to the castle, waving behind her.
She quickly got to the statue and said the password. The stone griffin came alive and leapt aside, revealing a spiraling stone staircase. She walked up it, and came to a large door. She knocked and it opened on its own accord.
She walked into the room and looked around at the walls. They were covered with portraits of former heads and the shelves were filled with silver instruments, a phoenix sat at its perch in the corner. "Professor?" She asked as Sparkie looked around tentivly.
Then the headmaster appeared over the banister. "Ah, Miss Rose, it has been a long time. A good, what was it? Eight years?"
Thorn nodded. "Yes sir, it has, I was wondering if you could help me."
"Help you?" he asked as he sat at his desk, "With what, my dear?"
"Well, I was wondering if you had something that I could, well, have," she said as she sat across from him in a puffy chair that he had.
Dumbledore watched her down his crooked nose, his hands clasped together in front of him. "What is it?"
"Well, I was wondering, if you had any pictures of my mothers wedding, I know you were there, but I was hoping for one with her and Severus together, not with my father."
Albus looked thoughtful, then he said, "Why don't you want your father in the picture?"
"I want the picture for Severus's gift, and he was never too fond of my father. I've noticed that he doesn't have any pictures of my mother when she's an adult, all of the pictures he has are when they're young, and I figured that the very last pictures taken of her were at her wedding."
"Actually," Albus said, "There was one other, without Romulus, and, better yet, there was a third person in the picture."
Thorn watched the elderly wizard as he stood and walked over to a cabinet, where he took out a large, leather photo album. He flipped through the pages until he came to the one that he had been looking for. "Ah, yes, what do you think of this?"
He handed the book to Thorn and she looked at the picture and smiled. "Yes, this will do perfectly; may I have it, Albus?"
He nodded, his silver beard bobbed slightly. "Thank you."
Thorn woke on Christmas day before everyone else, like she always did. At the foot of her bed were four gifts, one from Maken, one form Celestial, one from Cade, and one from Severus. She wasn't going to see her friends until lunch, for Maken wouldn't be out of his pajamas until then, so she planned on spending her morning with Severus, after she opened her gifts, of course.
She stood and quickly got dressed. Today, she wore only her regular clothes, not her robes. The tank and pants that fit her perfectly, and, obviously, the cover.
She unburied Sparkie from her covers and placed him onto her shoulder, where he wilted. She gathered her small bundle of gifts into her arms and went down into the common room.
Setting them on a table she unwrapped Celestial's first. Her only female friend had got her a stationary set, serpents winding themselves up the parchment, and a quill that had a serpent engraved into it as well. She read the note attached to it.
Thorn,
Merry Christmas! I saw this and just thought that it was meant for you, with the parstletounge thing going on!
Your friend,
Celestial.
Thorn slightly smiled. She remembered telling them that she was a parstlemouth. She had told them not a week previous, at one of their Animagi lessons, when they saw her speaking to Sparkie. Maken hadn't been surprised, he'd seen her talk to him for such a long time, and Cade hadn't known what it was in the first place. Celestial, however, had been shocked. It was nice to know that she had gotten over her unpleasant surprise.
Then she opened Cade's. He had gotten her a very nice set of potions vials. Then she turned to Maken's. She tore the wrapper off and let out a small chuckle. "Sparkie, look what Maken got,"
The lizard opened his eyes slightly, then they sprang wide when he saw it. "A lizard's leash! And collar!? Why that little-"
"Oh, get over it, Sparkie, it was a joke, it says in his note." She held the bit of parchment up for Sparkie to read.
Thorn,
Hey! I found this book and it just screamed you! I also found this lizard leash; you should try it with Sparkie sometime! Just kidding! I just want you to know that if you ever need to talk to someone, I'm always here, I'll listen.
Maken
The lizards eyes narrowed, but he dropped it. Maken had also gotten her a book called Worlds Most Difficult Potions. She would probably make every one of them just to prove that she could.
Thorn then moved onto the last of the gifts, a rather large one from Severus, in a black box. She opened it to reveal a silvery grey cloak that felt like liquid beneath her touch. Atop it was a note in Severus's neat handwriting that hers had been modeled after.
Thorn,
This had been your fathers, as an auror, he came to own one. It was left to you when they died, and I figured that now would be a proper moment to receive it.
Merry Christmas,
Severus Snape
Thorn set the note aside and took the silver cloak from its box. "Oh, I know what this is," she muttered. Then she slipped it over her shoulders, the liquid like material cool on her skin. She looked down at her body, or rather, where her body had been.
"An invisibility cloak!" Sparkie exclaimed as he looked up to her from the head of the chair.
She nodded her head, the only part of her that could be seen. Then she took it off and put it back into its box quickly, for she heard footsteps behind her. Dreara came from the girls' dormitory, looking rather tired. She was the only Slytherin girl in Thorn's year that had stayed for the Christmas break. Her eyes narrowed as she saw thorn and her nose crinkled.
"What're you doing up, Rose?"
"Well, Horst," Thorn said calmly, "I'm always up early, not like you would notice." She took her gifts and walked back to her dormitory, ignoring Dreara. She put them all onto her trunk and locked it with a spell that none of her classmates would be able to open. In Slytherin, you kept everything locked.
Then she walked back into the common room, past Dreara, and out into the halls. They were abandoned, few people were up yet, but then again, who would be in the dungeon anyway?
She walked along the dungeon halls to Severus's office, where he probably was at that moment. She knocked and heard her uncle say, "Come in."
She opened the door and walked into the cold room that somehow felt comforting. Sitting in the desk was Severus, and in his hands was a silver serpent frame holding the picture that Thorn had given him.
His eyes never left the picture. In it was Severa, holding little Thorn up, who was a year old, and smiling, and next to his sister, was himself, also smiling. He remembered that day, Thorn and Severa had come to his house for her birthday, Romulus had stayed behind, for common courtesy. He remembered when Albus Dumbledore had come and taken the picture.
"Thorn," he said in barely more then a whisper, "Where did you get this?"
She stood at the front of his desk, Sparkie drifting of to sleep on her shoulder. "Professor Dumbledore, Severus. He gave it to me. Do you like it?"
Severus stood and walked around the desk to face her entirely, "Yes, I do." he smiled as best he could to her and said, "Thank you, Thorn."
She smiled slightly back and went into his arms in an embrace. "You're welcome. And thank you, for my father's cloak."
Severus nodded. "He would have wanted you to have it."
"I know." She broke away from him and said, "Severus, when will I get to tell the others of, well, what I've done."
Severus shook his head, "I don't know, I'd rather they didn't find out."
"Why?" She asked as she sat on his desk, looking up to him.
He sighed, "Thorn, right now they claim that they'll understand, yet I doubt that they will. After your friends find out, there's a good chance that they'll leave you, and if they don't, they'll treat you differently."
Thorn nodded, "Maken really wants to know what happened to Severa and Romulus. I know he means well, but I just can't bring myself to admit that I'm a... A murderer."
Severus sighed, "Thorn, you are no-"
"Severus, don't kid yourself," Thorn cut him off, "It doesn't matter anymore anyway. What can I do to change the past?"
Severus shook his head, "Nothing, you're right. Now, you might want to go check up on Shooter, Feather, Talon and, oh what was the new ones name?"
"Shadow, and yes, I should," she stood up and walked across the room, "Good-bye."
Severus sighed, "Good-bye, Thorn." He shook his head. He knew that if anyone knew what Thorn had done, if it were an accident or not, she would be treated differently. The ministry of magic already had made it clear that if anything was heard on her that she would be locked up. They couldn't afford to have a murderer running around. All he wanted for his niece was for her to lead a normal life for as long as she could.
Thorn walked out into the grounds. The snow was deep, coming up to her knees, but she didn't go back to get her cloak. "If I can stand pain," she said to herself, "I can get through the cold."
Sparkie was shivering on her shoulder, "Well, g-good for y-you," he said through his chittering teeth, "B-but I c-can't s-stand the c-cold."
She smiled coldly, and picked Sparkie up off of her shoulder and cradled him in her bare arms. "Happy?" she asked the reptile.
"Yes." Sparkie said as he curled up in her grip.
She walked through the snow and to the forest, she entered and called out. When no one came, she figured that they were too far in to hear her.
"Hmm," she looked around yet saw nothing that would betray their hiding. "Maybe," she closed her eyes and called out with her mind. Shadow? Come here with your mother, father, and Talon. She looked down to Sparkie who was holding his head, "Do you think she heard me?"
Sparkie looked up to her angrily, "I dunno, but I sure did!"
"Oh, sorry," then she heard a whisper at the edge of her consciousness.
We're coming.
"It worked," she said, and Sparkie glared at her.
"Really?" he said sarcastically, still holding his head from Thorn's mental shout, "I hadn't noticed."
Not long later the four forms came running at them through the trees. Shadow led the group as they came to their owner and friend.
Shadow whinnied and nuzzled Thorn's shoulder. Are you cold? she asked quietly.
Thorn shook her head, No. Are you guys okay? Shadow nodded. Thorn walked by her and bowed to Talon. He bowed back and nudged her lightly with his beak. Thorn ran her hands over his smooth feathers and closed her eyes, resting her head on the hippogriffs soft neck.
Then she looked to Shooter, who was giving her the begging eye. She laughed coldly and wrapped her arms around his neck as well. Then the same to Feather. "Merry Christmas." she said.
Then she froze dead. "Oh great," she muttered, "Someone's coming." She turned to the others and said, "Run! Now! I don't know who it is, but you've got to get the heck away from here!"
They all sprinted off and Thorn turned to whoever, or whatever, was coming, her wand held in front of her at the ready, Sparkie, now alert, poised on her shoulder. Whatever was coming, it was large.
She stood, ready to face anything, the noise of a large body breaking through underbrush was near now, then she saw the unmistakable figure and sighed in relief.
"Rubius!" she called and the half giant stopped.
"Ah! Thorn! Dere yeh are! Professor Snape told me to look for yeh here! Good thing yeh are, too, I got a gift for yeh."
Thorn was somewhat surprised. Rubius was related to her distantly, yet he hadn't spoken to her in a long time. "Do you? I'm sorry, I didn't get you anything in return."
He waved his hand and said, "Ah, don' worry 'bout it! Now, Come 'ere!" He began to walk off through the forest again, Thorn shrugged to Sparkie and followed.
He led them into a clearing, much like the one that they had their Animagi lessons in. He looked around then nodded. "He's here."
Thorn looked up to him. "Excuse me?"
Hagrid turned to her, smiling under his broad beard. "Well, Thorn, I heard that you had a thing for animals, and, well, I have a Thestral here that doesn't get along well with the others, and I was wonderin' if you'd have 'im."
Thorn looked up to him. "Thestrals? They're only visible to those that have seen death."
Rubius nodded, "Yeah, so I knew that you'd be able ter."
Thorn nodded as well. "Yes, I've read a lot about them, they're rumored to be an omen of death, because of the fact that you only see them after you've seen someone die. Rubbish"
Rubius nodded. "Yeah, that pretty much explains it. Oh!" he exclaimed as he looked into the trees, "Here he comes!"
Thorn looked to were he was and saw a pair of white, pupil less eyes staring back at her from the darkness. Then it emerged from the forest cover and into the white light of the dawn. He looked like a horse, yet with a reptilian appearance as well. His form was sleek, yet he seemed no more then a skeleton, his black flesh clinging to every bone in his body, all of which could be seen. He had large wings protruding from his back; they were large and powerful and bat looking.
Thorn watched as the thestral came forward and noticed that he had many scratches on his right side. "He really isn't getting along with the others," she murmured.
Rubius sighed, "No, he's not. Poor fella. Anyway, so, what'd yeh say? Will yeh take 'im?"
Thorn looked up to Rubius, then back to the thestral. "Yes," she stated, "I will."
The gamekeeper smiled, "Ah, Thanks, I dunno what I woulda done. Poor guy's been abused by the others for quite sometime now." Then he turned to the thestral and said, "Fell, Come 'ere."
The thestral, Fell, came forwards, and Thorn held her hand out to him. He smelled it, then ran his head under it.
"Fell..." she whispered and he looked up to her with blank eyes.
She felt Sparkie stir on her shoulder, "Oh great," he mumbled, "Another one."
She laughed coldly, "Yes, another one."
"Wha's that?" Hagrid asked, for all he heard was her chittering in Sparkie's language.
She looked up to him, and shook her head. "Nothing. Thank you." Then she began to walk away from him, Fell at her side. When she was well out of earshot, and eye shot, of her somehow related friend, she whistled and Shadow, Shooter, Feather, and Talon came to her instantly.
"Guys," she said quietly, "This is Fell." The Thestral came forwards, his white eyes searching over each of them. "He's had a tough life, watch out for him, he'll be staying with us from now on."
They seemed nervous at first, and Thorn thought that they wouldn't accept the new addition to their mixed up family, yet then Talon bowed to Fell, and Fell, in turn, bowed back. It all clicked together after that and soon they were all getting along.
Thorn smirked, "Well, I should get back to the castle, I'd like to spend more time with Severus. After all, he's been alone every Christmas since, well, since Severa died."
Shadow nodded, We understand. Merry Christmas.
Thorn ran her hand over the pegacorn's silky mane. Thank you, good bye. Then she made her way back up to the castle, Sparkie on her uncovered shoulder.
"Why did you agree to take in another animal?" He asked her with a hint of scorn in his voice.
"Sparkie," she reasoned, "What did you expect me to do? He's had a rough life so far, I couldn't just leave him to die."
Sparkie sighed, but agreed. When they entered the castle, the first person they saw was Minerva McGonagall. "Ah, Miss Rose, out on the field? And, Dear Child! Why weren't you wearing a cloak?"
"Well, Minerva," Thorn said calmly, she often called many of her teachers by their first name, "I didn't think I needed one."
"Why ever not? It's freezing out there!" She sighed, "You may be immune to pain, Thorn Rose, but you can still get sick."
Thorn nodded, "I know that, yet I don't remember ever being sick."
"Well," Minerva said sternly, "There's a first time for everything."
Thorn nodded and walked away from the transfiguration professor, and down to the dungeons. She entered Severus's office once again, to find him grading papers from his sixth year class.
"Thorn," he said as he looked up to her, "Back already? I thought that you would spend the day with Mr. Wood, Mr. Roran, and Miss Moon."
"I was planning on spending the after noon with them, for at the moment they are in Gryffindor's common room."
"Don't you know the password? I thought Sparkie had gotten it for you." Sparkie held his head high in pride, and Severus marked a seven out of twenty-three on some Hufflepuffs paper.
Thorn nodded, "Yes, I do, yet I wanted to spend the morning with you. I mean, you've spent every Christmas alone since, well, I killed Severa, and I wanted to make it up to you."
He looked up to her, his dark eyes showing the caring that they only showed for her. He was like her father, and she loved him as such, and he loved her as a daughter. His lips curled into a small smile and he said, "Thank you, though you own me nothing."
Thorn nodded, "Of course." She decided not to press the matter. She still strongly believed that she owed him her life after taking her mothers, and she planned on paying that debt, yet for now, since it was Christmas, she would let it go.
They talked for a long time, about her classes, about what Severus had to go through teaching his, and, eventually, talk moved to her parents, again.
"What was Severa like?" Thorn asked him.
He sighed, "She was much like you, except, of course, she showed much more emotion. She was an excellent student, and she was powerful in body. Though, her mind wasn't as strong as yours is. She could never master Occlumency, like you and I."
Thorn nodded, "How else was she similar to me?"
"Well," Severus said as he set his quill down, having finished with grading the reports, "She was protective of her family and friends. If someone so much as looked at someone she cared about wrong they were facing her wand. In fact, she stood up for me on countless occasions."
Thorn looked up to his face, where his calm expression had changed into one of disdain. "What are you thinking about?"
He sighed. "Remember that memory I showed you? With Potter and Black?" He had showed his niece his worst memory, by use of Dumbledore's pensive. She had instantly understood his feelings of the two of them and joined him in hating them. He hadn't been able to watch it all, for it hurt even her to see her uncle suffer that humiliation.
Her usual emotionless expression was exchanged for a slightly angry look. "Yes, I remember," she said icily. "Black and Potter." She hated the two of them. Sirius Black, and James Potter. One would think that that hate would carry onto Harry Potter, though she couldn't hate him. She felt everything he did, though she blocked it out half the time, and it was nearly impossible to hate someone that you had a mental connection with, save for Voldemort.
Severus nodded. "Yes, well, they never succeeded in what they had been planning on doing. Your mother came out into the grounds, and, let's just say, she wasn't very happy."
"What did she do?" Thorn asked, now interested in the end of the memory.
Severus smiled slightly, "Severa was always talented at curses. She was furious, needless to say, and she didn't like the fact that... that, she didn't like what Black and Potter were up to. So she threatened them with their lives, and she made them fly into the lake." He shook his head, "She never let anyone bad talk me around her."
Thorn smirked. "Yes. Did she have many friends?"
Severus sighed, "She had one really good friend. In fact, they were friends from the moment they met. He was a pure blood wizard that worked hard, was strong, and never let her down. Romulus Rose."
Thorn looked up to him again. "My mother and father were best friends their whole school lives?"
Severus nodded. "Yes, they were."
Thorn nodded as well, yet kept silent. She knew that Severus had never liked her father, not because he was a Gryffindor, but because he'd loved his sister. Severus had hated it when Romulus had taken her away from him.
Thorn looked to her watch. "Well, Severus, it's noon. I'll be going to the great hall, are you coming?"
He shook his head, his hair swaying slightly, "No, I'm going to stay down here. Have a good day."
Thorn nodded. "You too."
