Updated: Sunday 27th February 2005
Disclaimer: See Chapter One
Chapter Thirty Seven: I'm Bored…
It was nearly Halloween. Like all nine-going-on-ten year olds, Estella was looking forward to her birthday with much anticipation.
"Uncle Sev! Uncle Sev! How many more sleeps 'til my birthday?" The excited child asked, hovering at the side of his desk.
Severus paused in his marking and glanced sideways at the infernal child before him.
'Darn Lupin and his full moons!' He thought. "Until, Estella, not 'til'." He admonished, casting a disproving look at his niece's rushed vocabulary. "I will not have you conversing like some street urchin!"
"Sorry Uncle Sev." Estella said, rolling her eyes. "How many sleeps until my birthday then?"
"I do believe the answer hasn't changed since last you asked me, Estella!" He said absently, returning to his work. "Now for Merlin's sake, find yourself something to do before I lose my mind!"
Stella blinked her eyes, unfazed by her Uncle's mood swings.
"So still two sleeps then, Uncle Sev?" She said sweetly, cocking her head to the side.
Severus gritted his teeth. "Yes"
Estella nodded, turning to leave, but stopping mid step.
"I know this weekend is a full moon, but why am I here? I stayed with Uncle Remus over the full moon at Easter." She asked, turning back to lean on her Uncle's desk.
"The man is your Godfather, not your Uncle." Severus said shortly, his defensive walls going up at the insecurities the implication that his Niece preferred another's company to his own caused. "And you stayed here this weekend because it would have been redundant to spend the time with a man who would only be able to spend only a few hours with you."
Estella wrapped her arms around Severus' rigid shoulders where he sat. "You're my only Uncle! Silly Uncle Sev!" She said, then looking to her Uncle she added in all sincerity. "You know Uncle Remus is just a pretend Uncle, don't you? I didn't want to hurt your feelings!"
Severus spun his head around to peer at his niece curiously. 'Perceptive child' he thought.
"I assure you Estella, my feelings are not concerned with what you call your Godfather." He explained.
Estella untangled herself from her Uncle's robes and straightened herself up to her full height. "Well what would you have me call him then, Uncle Sev?" She asked snidely.
'Gods she is so like Selina when she's like that!' Severus thought, quirking his lips at many a memory. Then, focusing his eyes on his niece, "Who am I to question what Mr Lupin sees fit to tolerate?"Estella shot her Uncle a quizzical look at her Uncle. "But you said…"
Severus smirked at his niece, shushing her with a hand. "I said nothing of the sort. I simply remarked that the man was your Godfather."
Realisation dawned on Estella's face. Placing her hands on her hips indignantly, she stamped her foot and shook her head. "Oh Uncle Sev, you're such a Slytherin!" She scoffed, turning on her heel and stalking away from his desk, in a perfect imitation of him.
Severus sneered, his eyes glittering at the compliment. Then, seeing his niece head towards the doorway of their shared quarters, he cleared his throat. "Where do you think you're going?"
Estella stopped, her hand on the door. "Outside to watch Quidditch practice!" She answered, not turning around, and most definitely deliberate in her neglect to divulge which team she had set her sights on observing.
"Estella, it's raining out and you know I don't care for you gallivanting around the castle unaccompanied during the days of the full moon!" Severus admonished. Ever since that night she had gotten lost and spent the night under the Whomping Willow, that had been the rule.
Estella turned around and glared at her Uncle hotly. "So!" She snapped, "Uncle Remus isn't all Moony during the day you know. And he's all the way in London! The Quidditch team still practices in the rain too, it's not like it's raining acid or something. Why do you care anyway? I'm clearly being a bother to you here!"
Severus was up from his chair and across the room in mere seconds. Crouching down so his eyes were level with his niece's, he grasped her shoulders firmly. "Don't you ever misinterpret my current preoccupation for not wanting you here, Estella." Severus said quietly. "Nor do I appreciate you taking that tone with me and disregarding standing rules, do you hear me?"
"Yes Uncle Sev," Estella replied quietly. "I'm sorry."
Severus nodded in acknowledgement and rose, his hands on his niece's shoulders guiding her back towards the lounge. "Now you will sit and think quietly about how you've acted whilst I complete marking the first year's essays. Understood?"
Estella nodded mutely. But before he could settle back behind his desk and resume his work, she spoke.
"Uncle Sev, how come I can't go watch Quidditch?"
Severus inhaled deeply – in a effort to calm himself. "I know perfectly well which team is scheduled to practice this afternoon, Estella." He revealed. "I know who you've been trying to get close to, and I won't stand for it. There's too much at stake. Especially with Draco Malfoy watching your every move."
"Can't you give Draco a detention or something? Distract him somehow?" She pleaded. "I just want to talk to Harry, that's all."
"Draco Malfoy is hardly the only student you need to worry about," Severus said snidely. "Well over half Slytherin house would take adverse offence to a child of your standing being even remotely nice to the boy who lived."
Estella frowned, startled. "Oh." She muttered, sinking into her chair. "It's not fair, Uncle Sev."
"Life hardly ever is." Severus said softly, thinking specifically of his sister. Pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation, he waved his quill at her irritably and scowled. "Perhaps you could write your Godfather."
"Thank you Uncle Sev," Estella said, picking up a quill from the table. "I'll do that."
Severus nodded, sighing in relief. 'Finally, some peace!'
He thought too soon.
"Uncle Sev?" Estella said, pausing in her work to look at her Uncle pensively.
"Yes child." Severus asked, lowering his quill rather pointedly.
"Could I maybe write Harry a letter?"
"What, and have him reply with that obnoxiously recognisable Owl of his?" Severus scowled. "Really Estella, have you no concept of espionage?"
Estella shrugged in defeat and scribbled aimlessly on her parchment. Severus mirrored her action and returned to his marking, letting the matter rest. Two essays later he cast another look at his forlorn niece and frowned, his guilt getting the better of him. Casting his quill aside, he picked up his wand and waved an auto-marking charm at the remaining essays. First year Gryffindors were hardly expected to score past a D anyway. Satisfied that all was in order, he straightened the stack and put them aside. Rising from his seat he gave his niece a sidelong look before striding towards his private lab.
Turning towards his niece where she sat absorbed in her work, he banished her utensils and unmarked parchments away and leaned against the doorframe, awaiting her reaction. Smirking at her bewildered expression as she looked up at him in question, he beckoned to her with his hand.
"Come. I am starting a particularly challenging potion and I require your assistance." He said, raising an expectant eyebrow at her, then smirking when she scrambled to her feet and was by his side before he could even finish his sentence.
"Splendid," he said, as he noticed that his niece was walking at his side and not tearing in front of him into the lab where volatile cauldrons may cross her path. "Do you remember the first rule in Potion making?"
Estella nodded as she took her usual seat at the workbench on the far side of his own. "Always listen to your Potions Master." She recited.
Severus nodded in affirmation. "Good. Now come away from that table Estella, you will be working alongside me here today." He said, waving at the seat immediately to his left.
Estella beamed and moved to the proffered seat, watching her Uncle in wrapt attention.
'If only all his students were like this!' he remarked to himself. 'instead of blundering dunderheads!'
"Now, for the second rule?"
"One must always keep their Potions kit clean and free of contaminants. A knife with a trace of boomslang skin on it for example, when used to prepare dragons liver will assuredly have disastrous effects." Estella recited by rote. "What will I be learning about today, Uncle Sev?"
"Invisibility Potion." Severus said, a triumphant look on his face when he saw his niece's unsolicited delight. "Do you by chance know of any of the ingredients?"
To his surprise, it became apparent that Estella had all but memorised the chapter from 'Most Potente Potions' for she could recall more of the ingredients than most of his Seventh Year NEWT students put together… although, he supposed, the child did have a vested interest in potions.
Estella meanwhile, had dutifully collected an array of ingredients from his stores and summoned the appropriate book from his private collection for reference. "Shall we begin?" She asked, unwittingly echoing her first words to him as she had sat behind a toy potions set not so many years ago. "What do you require me to do?"
Severus looked at his niece's calm, organised efficiency with a measure of awe. "Any potion master would consider himself proud to call upon you as his apprentice one day." He hypothesised with a thinly veiled expression of pride.
Estella nodded flippantly but then sighed audibly when she saw her uncle had not yet began to organise his side of the workbench. "Honestly, Uncle Sev," she said impatiently. "Things would move a whole lot faster if I had my own potions kit! I could have started on pulverising the dried mandrake roots by now!"
Severus glared mockingly at his niece. "Just who is the potions master here, Missy?" He smirked inwardly, not yet willing to give away his niece's birthday present just yet.
"Shall we begin?" He continued, spelling a sheet of parchment to reveal his directions for Estella.
End Chapter: I'm bored