A/N: Thanks a bunch for the reviews!
Chapter Two: Secrets To Be Told
Eve pressed her hot forehead against the cool window pane, staring at the richly dressed people walking carefully up the icy drive. Tonight was her grandmother's Christmas ball, the first that she had held in years. Eve could vaguely remember the lavish affair, from the days when she was very small. She would sit under a table and watch the skirts of beautiful witches swirl as they danced, and her grandmother would let her sit on her lap and share her wine.
It was only proper that they would have another ball now that Eve was nearly out of school, and her grandmother was so eager to find a match for her. The show of opulence and wealth surely couldn't hurt Eve's chances at a fruitful match, and perhaps it would help forget the tragedy and scandal that had occurred so many years before.
Feeling more miserable than ever, Eve pulled her curtains shut and flopped down onto her bed. Of course she had gotten sick, and despite all of the potions the healers had shoved down her throat she could not be cured. It was only fever, but it was a resistant one at that. This morning, for the first time in three days, Eve was able to get out of bed. She wasn't nearly well enough to attend the ball however, much her grandmothers annoyance and her own disappointment.
Downstairs Eve could hear soft music playing, and sound of laughter carried up the stairs like daggers through her heart. She had not been really looking forward to it, at least not until it had been snatched away from her. Pummeling a pillow with her fists, Eve sank back into bed, holding tears at bay. She knew she shouldn't cry over little things anymore, but it was so difficult sometimes. Really, it was Eve's only true failing. She was clever and caring, interesting and charitable, but her emotions knew no moderation. Her intense moments of happiness and misery could not be contained or suppressed, and this often left her feeling foolish and exposed. She still could not really fathom why one wouldn't want to dive whole heartedly into their emotions, to ride them like a hexed broom. What passion was there in the world if you were never truly miserable, or truly happy?
As the party continued below, Eve lay back exhausted. There was a pile of work waiting for her in her trunk that she knew would have to be done eventually. N.E.W.T.'s were fast approaching, and Eve was determined to make a good showing. It didn't really matter of course, she would probably be wed before she even got her results, but she did not want to think all her years at Hogwarts were spent in vain.
Silently debating whether or not to start a particularly difficult charms essay, she wasn't listening for the footstepsin the hall, or the sound of her doorknob quietly turning. A sharp knock drew her attention towards the door, though Eve had no time to send them away before the door opened.
"You!" She exclaimed, bolting upright. "What are you doing here?"
Severus Snape stood in the doorway, staring intently at her. He had obviously not walked in here by accident, but was finding it hard to say anything.
"Do you do this all the time?" She demanded, sliding out of bed. "Insult people and them accost them in their bedrooms?"
Her legs had gotten tangled in the sheets, and as she took a step forward she nearly fell. Severusstepped forwardto steady her, but she shoved his hands away.
"I came with Lucius Malfoy, I didn't know it was your party." He explained. "But when I realized I thought I should come and apologize. Your grandmother said you be awake."
Eve stared coldly at him, crossing her arms over her chest. She was suddenly aware of how horrid she must look, her rumpled nightgown, her unkempt hair, and her face flushed from fever. He had called her plain, but why should she suddenly care what he thought?
"I didn't mean to insult you." Severus continued, inching back towards the door. "Not exactly."
Eve stared at him, deciding whether or not he should be forgiven. Perhaps he hadn't meant to offend her, but still...
"Sorry to bother you." He said stiffly.
He turned towards the door, but Eve called out for him to stop.
"Don't you want your books?" She asked, crossed the room and digging in her trunk for them. "I was going to return them to you at school, but you can take them now."
She held them out to him, smiling at the look of surprise on his face. He crossed the room swiftly, and took them from her hands, staring down at them in amazement.
"I thought I had lost them." Severus explained. "Thank you."
Eve causally tried to tuck a few stray wisps of dark hair behind her ears, unsure of what to say next, but knowing it should be said.
"You should be careful with those." Eve offered, carefully watching his expression. "People might think you run with certain...crowds...if you are seen with things like this."
Severus paled a little, though his face did not change.
"Should I care what people think?" Snape said, tucking the books under his arm.
"I would." Eve said. "Especially if I was close friends to Lucius Malfoy besides."
Severus shrugged, and looked as calm and collected as ever.
"What Lucius does is own business." He said casually, crossing the room to get a closer look at the picture hanging above her mantle.
A smirking woman stared down at him, he couldn't know of course that she had once been described as the most beautiful witch of her age. Severus marveled at how the painter captured her eyes, how they seemed to glow like fire. Eve had those eyes, he had noticed it today.
"That's my mother." Eve explained, almost reluctantly.
"I thought so." Severus replied, turning back to face her. "She was very beautiful."
"She still is." Eve said, followed by a bitter little laugh.
It almost didn't seem fair that her mother's beautiful exterior should hide the darkness that dwelled within.
"Oh." Severus responded, his voice betraying none of the shock that his expression implied. "I thought she was dead."
Eve swallowed a growing lump in her throat. Nearly everyone in good pureblood society knew what had happened, so she never really had to explain before. Her friends at school had sensed that it would be better not to ask, and she had gladly left them wondering.
But it was the truth anyway, and he was bound to find out from someone else before the night was over. Even after all these years later there were still witches that would be glad to tell the story, merely for the pleasure of the scandal it revived.
"We don't speak to my mother anymore really, she only comes 'round when she needs money." Eve said, knowing she could not leave it at that, but hoping that she could.
"She left you here with your grandmother?" Severus asked, looking at her curiously.
She could not decipher his gaze, but it was neither harsh nor judgmental. Eve got the sense that he was approaching her like he would a puzzle, slowly and deliberately putting all of the pieces together until he found something he could recognize.
"We all lived here together since the day I was born, so Grandmother was the one that really raised me." Eve continued.
That was the truth. She could never remember a day when her mother had actually acted like one. She barely paid any attention to Eve at all, and when she did she treated her daughter more like a lapdog than a child.
"What about your father?" Severus asked.
At these words he could not help thinking of his own father. His chest tightened slightly, but he quickly suppressed these unpleasant thoughts.
"My father?"
Eve felt the color drain from her face. This was going to be the hard part.
"He was murdered." Eve said, her eyes darting away from Snape's unyielding gaze. "My mother killed him."
Surprisingly, Severus did not look stunned. It was nearly as if he had been expecting it, though he claimed not to know. Eve tried to ignore how quickly her heart was beating. It hurt just to breath, whenever she stopped to think about it.
"But she's not in Azkaban?" He gently prodded, watching her for signs of tears or anguish, anything that would force him to stop.
"She was coming home late one night." Eve said, not wanting to tell but feeling that she had too. "My father and I were waiting in the library for her. I was only six at the time, and I didn't really understand what was going to happen."
She stopped and bit her lip, while Severus bravely put his hand on her forearm for encouragement.
"My father had heard rumors about my mother being unfaithful to him, but he didn't want to believe it. He was a good man, a kind man. My mother flooed in that night with another man, thinking my father wouldn't find out. He was going to give her a second chance, I know he was going to. They started arguing, and her lover grabbed me and pulled me out of the way. I suppose he thought they were going to have it out, and then him and mother were going to leave."
Eve paused, remembering back to that night. Sometimes she swore she could still feel the young man's hands rapped tightly around her wrists, holding her back as she struggled. She could see the hate clearly on her mother's face, etched so deeply that it would never entirely disappear. Her father had been screaming at first, but then he was pleading. He was begging her not to go, crying in spite of himself.
"While they were fighting, he reached for his wand." Eve said, remembering his raw desperation. "He wasn't going to hurt her, he wasn't like that. But my mother didn't give him a chance, she drew her wand. Her lover yelled for her to stop, I'm sure he knew full well what she intended to do. He threw me the ground, and I was too frightened to look."
She stopped and took a deep breath. Snape's hand was still on her forearm, gently squeezing her. If it was anyone else she would have pulled away, and scolded him for even thinking of touching her. Now she felt like she couldn't pull away even if she wanted to, just like she felt that she needed to him everything. It was oddly frightening and comforting at the same time. Almost intuitively, she knew that she could trust him with her secrets, that she could trust him not to hurt her.
"My mother screamed, and when I lifted my head I saw my father falling to the ground. There was green vapor in the air, and my mother's wand was lying on the floor just beside my feet. She must have thrown it after she cast the spell. My grandmother was woken by the all the commotion, and burst into the room a second later. My mother was on the floor, laughing and crying like madwoman, and I was at my father's side, shaking him, trying to wake him...it must have been very clear what had happened."
"But your mother wasn't punished?" Severus asked, standing much closer to her now.
It was making her uncomfortable, but at the same time she didn't want to step back or push him away.
"A house elf brought me upstairs, and I was given a potion and put to bed. When I woke up the next morning my grandmother told me that the lover had been arrested, and though my mother was free she wouldn't be living with us anymore. I tried to tell her that it had been my mother that did it, but she wouldn't hear me. It was hard enough on her I suppose. For a long time after that old friends would pretend that didn't see us on the street, people stopped coming the house and sending us letters. I think everyone knew that it my mother that had really done it, but if she had been sent to Azkaban the family name might have never recovered."
"So your grandmother sent an innocent man to Azkaban to save face?" Severus said, so boldly that Eve was too shocked to be angry.
"She never could believe that my mother would be capable of killing her only son. She had loved her like a daughter, I think that she still does in a way."
"I'm sorry." He said simply, pulling away from her.
Eve felt a small shiver as he moved away, and tried to laugh at herself. It was ridiculous, that she was telling him things she had never told anyone before. They had just met, and he wasn't even charming or handsome. There was something about him though, that she couldn't begin to understand. It was something unspoken in the way he carried himself, in the way he had drew her to him so easily.
"Now you know everything about me." Eve said, bravely staring him down. "But I know nothing about you."
"I hardly know everything." Severus said, with a quiet scoff. "And there is nothing about me that you need to know."
Eve laughed for a moment, before realizing that he wasn't joking. When he started walking towards the door she didn't think that he was really going to leave, believing he would at least turn around and say goodbye. He merely turned around and walked from the room without a word, shutting the door quietly behind him.
She stood in the middle of the room, dumbstruck, for a long while. She fully expected him to come back, to say something at least. When he didn't she debated going after him, because she was suddenly desperate that he should say goodbye to her.
The nerve! After she had confided to him...
Though she really wasn't angry. She was perplexed, and suddenly felt restless and feverish.
When her grandmother came upstairs later that night to check on Eve, she wouldn't hear any questions about Severus Snape. She ordered Eve to bed, scolding her for straining herself when she was ill. She insisted that Eve take a dreamless sleep potion, but she must have grabbed the wrong bottle.
Eve did sleep, but she dreamed as well. She was singing happily to herself, while a green vapor slowly rose up around her, turning her to dust as it encircled her.
Even as the dust blew in the wind, she could still hear herself singing.