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Chapter Eight: Of Dusty Books and Shadowed Corners
It was unavoidable. A trip to the Library was a necessity. Severus sighed, stretched, stood up. Just one more step before he was done. And he almost had it right… It would be something to be proud of, he was sure, and those things were rare. But if he could successfully shorten the recipe for Veritaserum while still making it effectively…
Severus breathed in the dusty, worn smell of paper and ink that hovered like a cloud in the Library. He nodded stiffly to Madame Pince, who glared at him over her narrow spectacles. He passed rows of meticulously labeled shelves—Bibliomancy, Restricted Section, Magical Creatures A-M, Magical Creatures N-Z… Potions. He slipped between the familiar rows, examining each book's Latin or Greek title, searching for the one he needed…
He eased it off the shelf and opened it, careful of its fragile, crumbling pages, squinting at the faded words. For twenty minutes he looked through the book, committing a phrase here, a paragraph there to his needle-sharp memory. When he'd found exactly what he needed, he smiled slightly, replaced the book, and hit something soft.
"You again," he muttered. "You're like a curse, you know."
"Thank you ever so much," said Sinistra angrily.
"You're very welcome. But please try to stop running into me. It's rather tiresome…"
"If I had a choice, I'd stay twenty feet away from you at all times."
"Then I'm sorry you don't have a choice." He swept out of the heavily shadowed corner into the magically illuminated reading room of the Library. It occurred to him that she probably should have been on the other side of the Library—wasn't Astronomy over with Divination and Defense Against the Dark Arts?—but he didn't have time to think about it. All he could concentrate on was the last step of the puzzle… And to think it was only lacewing flies. He should have seen it right away, he supposed…
"Headmaster," Severus announced himself.
"Yes, Severus?" He was greeted with a smile and a twinkle in the bright blue eyes that were so familiar by now.
"I have finished." He held out the parchment to the old wizard, who looked it over before a broad smile spread over his ancient face.
"Congratulations, Severus. You have solved an old puzzle, very old."
"Thank you, Headmaster."
Dumbledore looked at him the way a father looks at his favorite son. "My boy," he said, "can you accept it yet? You have always been so opposed to the fact, but you truly are the greatest master of our time."
Severus bowed slightly, shaking his head. "Not at all, Headmaster."
"Well, congratulations, anyway," the old man sighed. "Will you have a cup of tea, Severus?"
"No, thank you, Headmaster. I have other matters to attend to."
"No doubt you do. I'll see you at dinner, then."
"Yes, of course." He slipped out of the room, down the stairs, and back to the library. Sinistra was still in that dark Potions corner… Merlin knew why. He let it go and strode over to the Astronomy section, looking for something interesting to read.
"The Pleiades, main components of Taurus that are sometimes called the Seven Sisters, are often seen as four stars, the last three being dim in comparison. The brightest four are named Maia, Merope, Alcyone, and Elektra; the dim three being Asterope, Taygeta, and Celaeno…" Severus shut the book—an interesting volume entitled The Seven Sisters: Facts and Mythology—and closed his eyes, not realizing how very interesting it was for him to have chosen that particular book…
How very interesting indeed...