Here's where the cat from the summary comes in. As always, I hope you like it, please review!
Chapter Four: Of Young Cats and Old Wounds
A silver cat, like a ray of moonlight, hopped into his lap.
"Get off," he murmured.
She didn't move.
He threw a pinch of Floo powder into the fire. "Sinistra," he hissed.
"What?" She came spinning into view, irritated and half-dressed under her dressing gown. "I am about to go to bed, Snape. I, unlike you, do need to get some sleep."
"Please keep your cat where she belongs, will you?" He pushed Sylvia off his lap. Sinistra scooped her up and stalked back to the fire.
"You think I control my familiar? Cats are too sophisticated for that sort of control."
"Or too stubborn and nosy," he muttered.
"I heard that," she shot back before disappearing into the fire.
Severus watched her disappear into the fire. He had delivered the Wolfsbane Potion to Lupin already, so he had no other obligations. He leaned back in his chair, staring out the window. Severus liked stars, but Sinistra was never to know that. He'd never hear the end of it.
The Potions Master shifted his gaze to look moodily at the one photograph on his desk. She stared back at him, smiling, her red hair shining in the sun and her green eyes twinkling. Lily Potter… he had loved her, but she had disliked him... The reason he'd become a Death Eater, the reason he hated Harry Potter… it was all summed up in that bright smile.
In a fit of anger born of an old hurt, he turned the picture over and walked quickly out of the room. He didn't need to think about her now. She was dead and nothing would bring her back.
A soft purr came from his bed. He jerked back the curtains, saw the grey cat, and howled at the top of his voice, "Sinistra!"
"How the hell did it get down here again?"
"How should I know?"
"Why can't you keep her in your rooms?"
"Do I have to repeat myself?"
"Damn it, Sinistra, just get it out of here, and keep it out! The next time I see it, I'll poison it, and she'll be dead before she can blink those accursed green eyes. And you know I can."
"Yeah," she muttered. "And I know other things about you, too."
"Such as?"
"Only the stars can tell," she replied mysteriously.
"You sound like Trelawney."
Sinistra picked her cat back up and walked out of the room. "But what I say is fact, not guess. By the way," she added cruelly, "she won't come back…"
His face darkened with rage. He strode over to her, grabbed her shoulder, and flung her against the wall in anger. "You know nothing of my mind."
"Thank God." She slipped out of the room, leaving him breathing heavily, clutching his wand and barely managing to keep it from hexing her.