A/N – Yeah! My writer's block is finally cured! This chapter was originally going to be more complicated, twisted and dramatic than this one and so much longer, but my floppy disk mysteriously went missing, and I didn't have a back-up copy. (I have suspicions that my computer swallowed it up) So this chapter is letting go of a mystery, and hopefully you'll be able to piece everything together. If you can't, don't worry. There's more chapters to come. Anyway, on with Chapter 11 which is a fluffy excuse of a chapter.
Chapter 11- A very short revelation"I really don't see the problem. Give her a couple of detentions as first agreed and let her off with a stern warning," Professor Snape said, opposing all what Professor McGonagall had said in the past quarter of an hour.
"You don't see it because it's your daughter," Professor McGonagall snapped back. She was going to stick to what she was saying. It took more than a few comments to bring her down.
"The fact that she's my daughter has nothing to do with it and you know that. Simply because your precious Potter got taught a lesson, you can't stand it."
"If we let her off the hook, the students will think we're weak. They already think I'll be suspending her, so letting her go with a string of detentions won't exactly scream 'power'."
"And have you thought about the situation I am in? If you suspend her where exactly is she going to go? With me and Lupin both working here, it won't be possible, unless you expect her to stay in my quarters for the time she is suspended."
McGonagall gave him a look and immediately Snape shook his head, and backed away towards the door as if he was going to make an attempt to run. McGonagall grinned in triumph at the discomfort she had caused him.
"No, you have to be joking. No way. Dumbledore will never agree to it. No."
"Suspending her doesn't mean she has to leave the school. If she stays in your quarters, people will think she's been suspended and you can keep an eye on her."
"Is there anyway I can get out of this?" McGonagall shook her head and Snape hung his head in defeat. It hadn't changed. Snape was still the student arguing with the teacher and losing. "I will get you back, Minerva, some way or another."
"I'd like to see you try." Siobhan looked on from her chair and half-expected Professor McGonagall to stick her tongue out at her father, and saw she was struggling to maintain her composure.
"You're on."
Siobhan had been sitting there calmly, listening to their boring bickering and decided to shut them up. They were meant to be telling her off, and all she had gotten was a medium-sized lecture and then they had started debating what punishment suited her. That had been fine with her. She had gotten time to go over the days event s over in her mind. How could she have let that comment get to her head? 'Good thing your mother isn't here, she'd probably die of shame to see her daughter be so stupid. Oh wait, I forgot, she's already dead!' That was all it had taken to set her off. She thought she was over her mother's death but obviously not.
"It's great that you enjoy your childish bickering, but quite frankly, I'm bored. I've had the lecture, now I've got the punishment. How much more of this do I have to endure?" Siobhan said, interrupting the flow of insults, sarcastic comments, and anything else they were talking about.
"Oh, right. Go pack your things and find me downstairs in my office. You can start of by helping me out in the dungeons. Pack a weeks worth of clothes and that sort of thing. I don't think you'll be suspended for longer than a week. Personally I don't think you should be suspended at all."
"Don't start, Severus. As Head of Gryffindor and Deputy Headmistress, I decide her punishment, and my decision is final. Have a nice week." She gave them both a toothy smile, and began marking a piece of work that was just waiting to be marked. Snape and Siobhan made their way out both grumbling under their breath. As Snape opened the door, his and Siobhan's gaze met.
"Grumpy old hag," Siobhan muttered hoping that only Snape could hear her. She turned to see if McGonagall had heard but she didn't seem to. She was still grading that piece of work.
"Potter-lover," Snape contradicted, not in a good mood. Not that he didn't like Siobhan, and didn't want to spend quality time with her, but he preferred the peace and quiet he returned to every evening after a day full of idiotic teenagers. Now, for a week, he would have to come home to.........Siobhan.
"I heard that," Professor McGonagall said looking up from the pupils homework she was grading. "Fifty points from Slytherin for that uncalled comment."
"You can't do that. I'm not one of my idiotic students, so you can't take points away from me."
"You're a Slytherin, and I have permission to take away points from any Slytherin."
"Alright then. 50 points from Gryffindor because you're their Head of Year. 50 points for Potter's behaviour. And a point from every student that's in Gryffindor for being sorted into that house."
"Oh, that's just plain cheek. Take it back or I'll........." Siobhan decided it was best to leave them alone to squabble and left the room gladly to go pack. If her father was mature then what on Earth was immature? She shook her head, as she made her way to the Gryffindor Common room.
"Best go to the Hospital Wing, mate. She didn't do your face any favours that's for sure," Ron said to Harry who was standing over by the window, looking out into the grounds, for the fifth time.
"If I'd wanted to go, I would have done so. I'm fine, alright?" Harry snapped back, not in the mood to be harassed by his best friend. What he didn't need right now was Madam Pomfrey fussing over him and rambling on, on how in her day people didn't behave like this.
"Ron's right, Harry. Plus, if Siobhan comes here I don't think she want to see your face. I still can't believe you said that to her," Hermione said from her seat in the armchair. She had been giving him grief ever since Professor McGonagall had left with Siobhan.
"Whatever. She deserved it."
Harry looked out of the window and is remembered what happened on the grounds, all on in the time of five days. From the window you could see a bit of the lake where he and Siobhan had had their first kiss under the moon. He could also see the Quidditch pitch, where he had seen Siobhan's talent on a broom, where he had first seen Siobhan's powers, and where she had jumped on his back. Why on Earth was he acting as if they had known each other for years? Or as if they had been actually dating? His thoughts were interrupted as he heard somebody come in through the portrait hole. He turned to see if it was anybody interesting, and it was. It was Siobhan.
"Siobhan!" Hermione said at sight of her friend. Siobhan mustered a smile but her gaze was not focused on Hermione, but on Harry. "What happened?"
"Been suspended for a week. No biggie," Siobhan answered casually, acting as if the thought of being suspended didn't bother her. It didn't but she really wanted to patch things up with Harry.
"Wow, McGonagall must have been angry. The amount of time Fred and George got in trouble and never suspended," Ron said, being his insensitive self. Now Siobhan understood what Harry had meant when he had told her Ron was on the insensitive side.
"That's because they never beat up the Boy-Who-Lived, her favourite student," Siobhan sneered and then lightly added seeing Hermione and Ron's and looks, "Best go and pack. Dad should be here any moment to get me."
Harry turned and looked at her properly. God, she was so beautiful, and he had done damage to her face. Just a few bruises were enough to ruin that creamy complexion, but she still looked gorgeous. He expected her to say something or at least give him a punch but she walked past him. Before Siobhan could get out of his reach, however, he got hold of her arm and twisted her towards him. What he saw in her eyes wasn't the anger and hatred he had seen before, but a mixture of emotions. Anger was still there, but he could also see pain and sadness. Had he caused that?
"We really do need to talk. Rationally. About us. Our friendship, relationship if there is one and air out our feelings," Harry said softly, quiet enough so that Hermione and Ron couldn't hear them. The last thing he needed was Hermione later telling him how unreasonable he had been I what he had said.
"I think my feelings are pretty clear. I don't like you in the same way you like me, I'm with Draco now, and it has nothing to do with you. As for the friendship, I think it's pretty much destroyed, don't you? If you'll excuse me, I need to go pack," she answered, and pulled her arm out of his loose grip, and turned and went up to the girl's dormitories.
Harry followed her, and to his surprise the stairs stayed normal, instead of turning into a slide, which is what usually happened when a boy tried to go up them. He walked into the dormitory Siobhan had just walked in and found she was already stuffing stuff from her trunk into a fairly large holdall. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, who were discussing the fight that had happened twenty minutes, went quiet as Harry entered, listening out for any gossip.
"You're going out with Malfoy for a reason, but what is it?" he said as he walked over to her bed. Siobhan ignored him and continued doing what she was doing.
Deciding to be useful, he picked up and folded the clothes that Siobhan was aimlessly throwing onto the bed from the trunk. A pair of knickers were thrown into his face but Siobhan and noticed and quickly snatched them away blushing slightly. This would have been a funny moment if there hadn't been so much tension between them. Siobhan continued to rummage through her trunk and finally found what she was looking for. Her photo album, something she never went anywhere without, and chucked it on the bed absentmindedly.
It fell open on a page full of photographs with her mother, Harry's father, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Harry noticed it, and his eyes were attracted to a particular photo. This one seemed like a year photograph, taken possibly in fourth of fifth year. There were all the four houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff all organised neatly in front of the lake. Siobhan's mother was standing next to Sirius who had his arm wrapped around her, both looking positively smitten with each other, and then the rest of the Marauders, with the exception of Peter that is, pulling faces. Siobhan finished what she was doing and look up to see Harry looking in her album. She leant over and slammed it shut.
"It's none of your business. I may love him. You'll never know." Harry looked at her, completely ignoring what she was saying and thought of what he had just seen. Why did she have more pictures of the Marauders than he had and what did Siobhan's mum have to do with it?
"How did your mum know Sirius, Remus, and my father? Can I have a look at those pictures?" Siobhan picked up the album and stuffed it in the holdall first, and then the clothes, some of which Harry had carefully folded for her. She looked up at Harry and wondered why on Earth, they of all people had to fall for each other. A week from now she had never imagined she would fall for Harry Potter.
"I don't know. Maybe they were school friends. I've got to go, my father will be here any minute. Sorry I can't be much help." She zipped up the bag, and was about to pick it up, when Harry reached for her hand and didn't let her go. He wasn't finished with her yet. Her father could wait.
"Your hiding something, I can tell that. Not just one thing but lots of things. Why you're going out with Malfoy, and how your mother knew my father and his friends. Heck, I don't even know who your father is."
"I'm not hiding anything. You're just paranoid. Plus, I don't think you've told me everything about yourself, so I have no reason to tell you either."
"Look me in the eye and tell me, that you love Malfoy, and that there are no feelings between us. That you know nothing about that picture. That our friendship is well and truly down the drain."
"You know I can't tell you all of that. Look, Harry, I really have to go. I'm sorry for what happened between us." Siobhan picked up the bag and went towards the door, past Harry but he stepped in front of her blocking her passage. He held her by the shoulders and lent in for a kiss. Their lips connected and Siobhan felt faint. She really didn't know what to say after that unexpected kiss. She wanted to scream out 'I want to be with you as much as you want to be with me', but for some reason found she couldn't. "Bye."
Harry watched her go out the door and wondered what had possessed him to do that. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. Perhaps Siobhan had given him concussion or something making him feel so light-headed. He sat down on her bed, ignoring the curious eyes of Lavender and Parvati and found he was sitting on a photograph. He took into his hands and studied it. It must have fallen out of Siobhan's photo album because it was a picture of a Siobhan with a little girl on her lap; of about one or two, who looked so much like Siobhan apart from the brilliant blonde hair, both waving at the camera. He wondered who the little girl was. Perhaps she was a sister or something, but he had always thought Siobhan was an only child. Thinking of how much he didn't know Siobhan, he turned over the photograph. What he read caused him to believe that Siobhan was hiding so much under those mysterious dark eyes. In bright pink felt-tip a short message was scrawl on.
To Mummy, I had so much fun. From your baby Emily.
A/N- Did I mention this was a fluffy excuse for a chapter? Don't worry, the next one will be longer to make up for this one. And it'll be faster updated. Thanks for the advice I got from one reader. I haven't forgotten you. I took your advice and twisted it a little. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!