Author's Note: But the plot is precisely what is giving me the opportunity to be slightly unorthodox with Snape's character. The Snape that we are so familiar with from the first five books has not had Cassandra on his mind, nor has he had Necia nearby to unknowingly encourage his memories. He has been reintroduced to feelings that he has kept suppressed for eighteen years and he is reacting to Necia because she looks so much like her mother. Just because he has been deliberately ignoring the resemblance since the first time he spoke to her doesn't mean that part of him isn't responding. This is entirely new territory with him, so his reactions are open to interpretation.
I know my interpretation will be different from the next person's, but that's the way it should be. To me, Snape is the mostcomplex character in the books, so without shoving him into a pink tutu and making him propose on bended knee, there aren't too many limits as long as there are reasons.
Haunted
By Be Boring
Chapter 7: The Good Old Days
The past few months had been both some of the best times of Necia's life, and some of the worst. She had better friends than she could have ever imagined, which was something she never had growing up, due to the lack of others her own age. Her mother had been her friend, which was what made things so difficult now. In general she was happy, but when it came to dealing with Draco and Snape, she couldn't think of anyone but her mother to talk to, so she had taken up a diary. She never failed to write in it, and it was a constant source of relief to her.
Draco hadn't eased up on her at all since their very first encounter, and after their disagreement at the Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts, he had become more predatory towards her. Everywhere she turned, she was sure to see him in the shadows, and if they ever confronted each other, she usually came off worse in the argument. She had no idea why Draco was so interested in crushing her spirits every day, but if he didn't manage to succeed, Snape finished the job for him. Lupin had been right about Snape's motives for tutoring her; it was another excuse to make a student miserable, and she was one of his favorites in that respect. Her first lesson had been horrible to the point where she considered simply dropping the subject and studying it independently, but she knew Dumbledore wouldn't support that. Potions were a potentially dangerous form of magic, and allowing a student to instruct themselves in that discipline would never be allowed. Hence the reason that she was currently sitting in Snape's dungeon, carefully overlooking the instructions for a very complicated potion. She knew that one of the reasons that Snape was so sour towards her during these sessions was because he could never find anything to criticize in her work. When it came to potions, she was an extremely capable student, and he was finding it difficult to intimidate her without the benefit of her helplessness to assist him, so he had taken to standing a few feet off to her right and behind her, where she couldn't see him clearly but she was always aware that he was there.
Thankfully, the joys of her friends greatly outweighed the depressing encounters with her two least favorite people. She was now undoubtedly best friends with Ginny, and she strongly sensed Harry's feelings towards her. With Christmas and the Yule Ball approaching at high speeds, she was finding it harder to avoid situations where he could ask her to the ball, but it was starting to feel like a hopeless battle anyway. He clearly had no interest in Ginny, although she did everything in her power to push the two together, always finding excuses to leave them alone with each other. At least Ginny clearly understood Harry's mild feelings towards her and was steadily becoming more and more indifferent about the situation every day. Still, Necia didn't want to allow anything to happen between herself and Harry. Draco had taken to calling her "Potter's lapdog" with particular emphasis on the syllable lap, and she didn't want to give him any basis for continuing. Of course, Harry was making that exceedingly difficult. During their first Hogsmeade trip, although they had made no verbal agreement, he followed her everywhere. No matter which shop she decided to enter, he would be close behind, and it was hard to avoid Draco's smirks at the interesting scene.
Necia understood why Harry was interested in her. She felt she was a decent-looking girl, which was clearly selling herself short, and they had many things in common. They were both orphaned in harsh manners, they were both ridiculously modest, and also fairly shy. Harry, although he had fame to increase his personal value, was not extremely attractive. She would never have said he was ugly, but he was rather plain. He wasn't very tall and had no visible muscle to speak of. If it weren't for the shock of black hair sticking out in all directions, he would have had no physical traits to make him stand out, so combining that with his preference for sticking mainly to his own friends, he hadn't been in many situations where hopes of a relationship were possible. She had already heard about his short fling with Cho, but it hadn't amounted to much. Naturally he would be interested in an attractive girl who was easily available to him, and perhaps open to the idea. 'If only he could see that Ginny's been perfectly available this entire time,' she thought sadly.
How could she not have made a mistake yet? Severus would have been in awe of the girl if it weren't for the vibe of strong resentment that seemed to roll off of her whenever he was around. He hadn't been nearly as talented in Potions at her age, and he had somewhat liked his teacher. At the very least he had respected him. Here, however, it was clear that Necia was only submitting herself to the agony of his presence because of her sheer determination to learn about Potions. He watched as she added the beetle eyes to her potion and it turned the proper shade of neon orange. Despite her open hostility, his mind immediately made the vision of her waver and change smoothly into that of Cassandra, her image reminding him of the times they had spent down here in this very room working on potions after school hours. Cassandra had been sufficiently gifted enough to be able to help Severus in this task, and he had always enjoyed stepping back and watching her work on it for a while, very aware of the sacrifice of her free time that she was giving him by helping him with the potions that he was always eager to test out for himself.
"How many dragon scales am I supposed to add, Sev?" Cassandra asked nervously, biting her lip and staring at the small pile of scales in front of her. "And am I supposed to put it in before or after the Flequorn ash?"
Severus's eyes widened as he rushed forward to inspect the potion. "Please tell me you didn't already put in the ash," he muttered almost to himself.
Cassandra cringed and held up the tiny box containing the ash. "I, uh, might have done that already," she replied hesitantly.
A vein in his forehead that would become considerably more prominent later in his life began to pulse frantically. "After spending two weeks working on this?" he asked incredulously. Suddenly, she chuckled and selected the correct amount of dragon scales she needed to add.
"Relax, Sev, I didn't add it. I just wondered if you had fallen asleep back there while you were letting me do all the work," she teased gently, making sure not to aggravate him too much. Joking was fine, but Severus was a volatile teenager and she didn't much fancy setting him off.
He sighed with relief and backed away, leaning on the desk behind them. "I think I was just about to have a heart attack," he grumbled lightly, already forgiving her for her trick. She was right, he had let her work on it much longer than she usually did. He generally liked to be in control of the potions. No wonder she had tried to shock him like that.
She leaned over the cauldron momentarily to add the scales, then flipped her hair over her shoulder to look back at him, smiling through the half of her hair that had stubbornly decided to stay in front of the shoulder. "You really need to learn to lighten up, Sev," she taunted playfully, flicking one of the remaining scales in his direction.
"Not likely," Snape muttered to himself, leaning back against the very same desk that he had rested on so many years ago.
Necia, confused by the unintelligible sound, flipped her hair quickly over her shoulder to look back at him. "Did you say something, Professor?" she asked curiously. Snape was usually silent during these sessions.
Severus watched her try and blow some strands of hair away from her face, which was only part of a large chunk that hadn't followed the rest over her shoulder when she'd flipped her head back. For a moment, no sound could pass his lips; it felt like someone had replayed a scene before his eyes, changing his memory only by way of the hair color of the girl in front of him. He turned away from her for a moment and pretended to cough, then turned back. Now that she had succeeded in moving her hair out of the way and she was looking at him with the same wary hostility that she always did, the resemblance seemed to melt away. "Not that I am aware of, Ms. Holt. Please concentrate on your potion before it boils over." He inclined his head towards the cauldron in front of her, forcing her to realize that the potion had risen up to bubble at the very top edge. She quickly set about decreasing her flame and stirring carefully to bring it back down, and Severus was allowed to enjoy his little victory. Necia had finally slipped up.
With more relief than she could have possibly expressed, Necia collapsed onto one of the squishy chairs next to the fire. It was so late by now that most of the other students had already gone to bed, with the exception of her friends who had vigilantly waited up for her. She stuffed a pillow over her face to block out every bit of light and groaned in very muffled tones, "I don't suppose my homework magically finished itself?"
Ginny laughed, pulling the pillow off her friend's face, although she stubbornly kept her eyes squeezed shut. "Sorry, it's still waiting for you."
"Is anything due tomorrow?"
"The essay question for Charms," Hermione replied quickly. "Other than that, there's nothing, and you can afford to put that off until tomorrow. We'll have Advanced Potions, so you'll have your study period." Sometimes Necia just didn't know what she would do without Hermione there to keep her schedule straight.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Ginny stated excitedly, "Actually, we've been talking about something that we think you'll like."
Necia peeked open one eye to look at her. "Really? What is it?"
This time Ron leaned forward. "Instead of the middle of our Christmas vacation like last time, the Yule Ball will be on the last official day of school before the break, which leaves us the time to make plans, and my family really wants all of you to come to our house for the holidays."
She sat bolt upright, hardly believing the news. "So that includes me?"
All four of her friends laughed, with Ron managing to say, "Of course that includes you. My mum really wants to meet you. She thinks it's exciting that I'm finally talking to someone other than Harry and Hermione. Besides, I like showing off our house. Ever since Dad became Minister of Magic, we've been doing a lot of repair work."
Ginny grinned. "The only place fancier is Malfoy Manor, but our home is more comfortable." After several minutes of happily discussing the prospects of what they could do for fun over the holidays, Ginny was able to speak to Necia alone, which was something she had apparently been waiting to do. The others announced that they were heading to bed, while Ginny and Necia procrastinated as much as possible. When she was sure of no one hearing them, Ginny leaned in close to her friend. "Just to let you know, while you were gone we talked a lot about the Yule Ball, and Harry is going to ask you to go with him. He told us so not too long before you came back. Just say yes, it will save everyone a lot of trouble."
"But Ginny…"
"Don't give me any excuses. It's pretty obvious that Harry likes you, and I'm not stupid enough to fight that. I think if it weren't for me, you would have been dating a long time ago. Besides, I think Neville's been working up the courage to ask me to go with him. I just hope his dancing skills have improved in the last three years."
Necia lagged behind her friend, hoping for a few moments completely alone by the fire to sit with her thoughts. She felt terrible about hurting Ginny, but she liked the idea of going to the Yule Ball with Harry and now that there was nothing in the way, why not? She liked him too and at the very least she knew they would have fun. As she stared into the dancing depths of the fireplace, a hand gently descended on her shoulder and she turned to look up into Harry's eyes, partially hidden by the reflection of the flames on his glasses. She smiled up at him. "Hi," she said quietly, moving her arm so he could sit on the armrest of the chair. "I thought you went to bed?"
He looked down at his feet, at the fire, then back at his feet again. He apparently wasn't used to asking girls out. To his credit, though, he didn't waste any time dancing around the subject. "Would you like to go to the ball with me?"
She could have smiled at the directness. "Sure, that should be fun," she replied nervously, wishing she didn't sound like such a complete idiot.
To her surprise, he sighed with relief and slumped back against the chair. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to work up the guts to do that?" he asked shyly. "That was harder than asking Cho last time, and she turned me down." He appeared a little embarrassed at having mentioned his ex-girlfriend while asking someone else out on a date, but he couldn't be held accountable. With the way he was rambling, he couldn't be expected to say everything right.
Necia slid over in the chair so that he had room to come down and sit next to her. It was rather cramped, and their legs were touching no matter how they twisted themselves around, but Necia finally gave up and rested her head on his shoulder. It was rather nice to have free rein to do with him as she pleased, without having to worry about Ginny. Although not happily, Ginny had given her consent, and Necia was planning on taking her at her word. "What plans do you think we'll all be making next year at this time?" she asked thoughtfully, letting the fire lull her into a daze. "Will we be getting together at Ron's house like this year, or will we all be so busy that we'll only be able to send each other Christmas cards?"
"I hope it's the first one," he said longingly, "but I know it's just as possible that we could all be living completely different lives with new friends, and we'll be making separate plans to go to their houses. But I wouldn't just send you a card, I'd send you a huge letter."
A quick grin flashed across her face. "And I'll send you a Howler, just to yell at you for only sending a letter and not coming to see me."
"You know, it's perfectly okay for you to come see me," he teased, giving her a gentle jab in the ribs as he spoke. "I don't always need to make the first move."
Necia tilted her head back thoughtfully and looked up at him. "You're right, you don't." With that said, she slowly leaned up and planted a light kiss on the corner of his lips. They weren't in a great position for a good kiss, but she could tease him with it. To her surprise, Harry twisted himself enough around in the seat so that they were facing each other comfortably and leaned in for a real kiss, awkwardly placing his hands on her shoulders as their lips met. She slid a hand up to the back of his neck to deepen it for a moment, but with the ever-present awareness of how new this was for both of them, she decided that was more than enough. They sat back, eyes jumping around uncomfortably for a few seconds until they both quickly blurted out some ridiculous excuse about how they had to get up early the next morning. As they stood up and prepared to go their separate ways, Necia reached out and took Harry's hand in her own to give it a light squeeze. "Goodnight, Harry," she said quietly as she released his hand and headed for the stairs to the girls' dormitory. She heard his quiet reply, and walked up to her room with a smile on her face. She had plenty to write in her diary tonight.
Severus lay quietly on his back, slowly rolling a practically ancient Snitch between his fingers. If he let go of it, it hardly had the magic left to hover three inches above his hand, so now he tended to use it as a stress reliever. There was something strangely relaxing about releasing something so feeble in its age only to snatch away its freedom. As he stared at the frail relic in his hand, his mind wandered back to the time when he had acquired it.
Despite the undoubtfully cheery appearance of the day, Severus just couldn't be happy. Cassandra was sitting next to him on the Hogwarts grounds near the lake, but even she couldn't distract him from stubbornly watching James Potter throw that ridiculous Snitch around. 'Just a few more weeks, that's all the longer I have to put up with this,' he thought gratefully. He couldn't wait to graduate, it just couldn't come fast enough as far as he was concerned. His eyes followed the group of four scrambling around on the far shore, everyone competing with James to catch the Snitch first. Remus had even lowered himself to join in the chase, with Peter miserably falling behind, and the only person who was capable of occasionally grabbing it first was Sirius. When he did manage to get his hands on it, he would race across the shoreline, calling back loud jeers to James, taunting him into a rough game of tag, which was something Sirius was better at than his best friend.
Cassandra followed the direction of his eyes and flopped back, giving an exasperated snort. "Why do you watch them like that, Sev? You don't have to deal with them much longer, so why don't you just ignore them? You know you're going to get farther in life than them anyway."
He shrugged, never taking his eyes from Sirius, who was steadily and unknowingly drawing closer to their current spot on the shore. "Maybe I'm just finding my own way to appreciate my freedom more once we're out of this hellhole," he replied absently, just barely finishing his sentence when Sirius reached them. The other boy paused, looking down at them with a combination of curiosity and disgust, then flicked the Snitch down at Snape so that it bounced harshly off his nose.
When he spoke, however, it was directed at Cassandra. "Why are you sitting over here with this git? You could probably contract a disease from him without touching him."
Cassandra scowled, looking remarkably like her cousin as she responded airily, "I happen to like people who can carry a conversation for more than one minute."
Sirius pressed a hand against his heart as though she had deeply offended him. "You cut me so deep, miss, that I might never recover." Dropping his hand and smirking at her, he added, "Besides, if you are capable enough in other areas, a conversation isn't always so important."
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms obstinately across her chest, giving him the firmest signal possible that she wanted him to leave. He took the hint and jogged back towards the others, muttering something from which Snape could only discern one word: Snivellus. Angrily pushing himself to his feet, he started marching across the grounds to the school, deciding that perhaps the library was a better place to relax. Cassandra hurried after him, catching the back of his robe and slowing him down.
"Wait, you have something in your robes."
Snape paused, looking down to see that a portion of his robes was jumping around like someone was tugging them. He reached down and closed his fingers around a firm object beneath them, pulling it out to reveal the Snitch that Sirius had thrown at him. He glanced back over his shoulder to see if James had realized that his prized toy was gone, but seeing that the group hadn't even noticed its absence, he tucked it away in his pocket. Cassandra raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "What are you keeping that thing for? Just let it loose and maybe something in the forest will catch it and choke on it."
He smiled vaguely at the idea, but didn't move to release the struggling little winged orb from his pocket. "I'd rather hold onto it," was the only reply he would give her. After that, she gave up asking and joined him in the library, where she was finally able to encourage him to have a normal conversation without the presence of his rivals.
'Just a few more weeks, that's all the longer I have to put up with this,'Severus snorted and gave the old Snitch a tight, cruel squeeze. Why was he thinking about Cassandra so much lately? Ever since his dream at the beginning of the school year, he hadn't been able to completely get her off his mind. He had spent eighteen years with the satisfaction and relief of having her pushed to the far back of his mind, but she had stubbornly come forward again. Where was she right now? What had she decided to do once they were no longer together? He knew that she hadn't kept up any kind of communication with Sirius, not that he had expected her to, but she had also broken away from her family. As much as she didn't like her family's reputation, he couldn't foresee her actually wanting to cut herself off from them completely. What would have made her want that?
He finally put the tiny orb away into a small box that he had discovered long ago was perfectly suited to holding it. Actually, Cassandra had found it for him. Once he had his own little prison for the Snitch, he had locked it away and refused to touch it until the second war with Voldemort was nearing its most volatile time. He looked at the box closer, studying the intricately carved designs that covered it. It was a beautiful box, no doubt about that, but why would someone go through the trouble of putting those useless curls all over it? As a flash of lightning temporarily brightened his room, something suddenly stood out to him. He grabbed his wand and murmured, "Lumos," holding it directly above the box. Now that his attention was drawn to it, he realized that the designs did indeed have a purpose other than merely looking attractive. They met in the center of the cover to form the initials C.M. They were hardly discernible, but the shadows cast by his wand made them more prominent. He had always been under the impression that she had simply found the box and thought he could use it, but unless she had just happened to come across a box with her own initials on it, then it was one of her own possessions.
He flipped up the lid again and dropped the Snitch into his bedside drawer to keep it from lazily trying to escape, if it were even capable of it. Moving his fingers around the worn cloth lining, he finally felt a small square beneath the beaten material. He ripped the lining out to get at it and tossed it aside. Why had it never occurred to him, especially when she had first given it to him, that she might have left something inside for him? She was always doing things like that, he had found notes of hers everywhere when they were at school. The square object turned out to be a small piece of parchment that had been folded several times.
Now he hesitated, staring apprehensively at the scrap in front of him. Did he really want to read it? The last thing he needed was another reminder of his history with Cassandra Malfoy. After a brief moment's deliberation, he finally unfolded it and held it under his wand so he could see it. In Cassandra's beautifully flowing handwriting, it said:
This belonged to my grandmother, and I stole it when
I was a little girl. I figured that because you
needed something to keep a stolen item in
that this would work perfectly for you. I have
another little stolen trinket that I think you
might like. I'll bet you can guess where I hid it.
It was only the work of a moment to realize what she was talking about. In the corner of the Potions classroom was an old brick could be easily slid out of the wall, revealing a pit inside that was roughly the size of his fist now. It was one of her favorite hiding places, and if she didn't hide something in there at least once a week, he would wonder if she were mad at him. She gave me that box in the last week of school. I never had time to check that spot before we left. Out of spite he wanted to forget about it, but curiosity wouldn't allow him that satisfaction. Within seconds he had climbed out of bed and was walking straight for the classroom, thankful that he didn't run into any students along the way.
Once he was in the classroom, Severus paused in front of the loose brick, once again wondering whether this was such a good idea. Finally he kneeled down in front of the brick and carefully slid it out, unsure if whatever she had left for him would even still be there, or in what kind of shape it would be in if it was. He peered into the opening, then he realized what he was staring at. He reached inside and gently drew out a minuscule, grimy, gold figurine of a dragon battling with a giant snake. The claws and fangs were silver, and the eyes of the dragon were emeralds while the snake's were rubies. He carefully started to rub away the grime with his robe sleeve, revealing the true shine it possessed. It was a family tradition to give each Malfoy child this figurine, which supposedly symbolized everything their family stood for. Severus had been incredibly jealous of them, but Cassandra was too attached to hers to give it up. He tilted the model over and looked at the engraved initials on the bottom, stating L.M. For the first time in many years, Snape earnestly chuckled and sat back on the floor to examine his prize. Cassandra knew how much he had wanted one, so she had stolen Lucius's for him.
Long after he had returned to his bedroom and fallen asleep, Cassandra remained on his mind. For the first time since the day of the class reunion, he regretted leaving her.
