15. Silva
A couple of days after Harry had to listen to the dreadful tale of how Professor Snape lost his love, Dumbledore's Army held their first meeting without quarrels or any interruption. Everyone was present except for Marietta Edgecombe. Even Cho and Zachary showed up – and waht was best: no-one was staring at Harry anymore, trying to gauge if he really was mad.
The threesome had agreed not to mention Professor Snape's possible involvement at all, and decided to give it some time before they invited his sister to join.
Hermione and Ron had complained about Harry's being lost in thought so much lately, but he asked his friends to please leave it be Harry told them that it was nothing serious, no, he couold not talk about it, and would be passing soon, so they let up.
Silva Snape seemed to settle in quietly, and wasn't seen by the students at all except in the Great Hall at eating times. The rumours about her spectacular arrival were abating already.
The Gryffindors had their lunch break that day after a Double Herbology lesson. Harry told his friends that he wanted to talk to Silva and would follow them later. He thought that he might find her by the greenhouses, and maybe they could start her tutoring. Harry was undecided about approaching her, but the hope that she might have answers to some of his questions about the past drove him on.
Harry found Silva right where he thought he would, without much trouble. She had obviously started her assistance job and was scouring away at a large pile of pots, manually.
"Erm... Ma'am... Professor... How are you today?"
Harry felt more than a bit nervous.
She was much older than him of course, but did not look at all bad, cleaned up and in fresh wizard clothes now, if there were some soil smears up to her elbows.
She wiped her lower arm across her forehead, leaving a smear there, and got at him before he could even grin because of it.
"For Merlin's sake, Harry, call me Silva, will you now, like I told you! Just like you did before? I am going to take house points off anyone who gives me Madame or Professor or, worst of it all, Miss Snape, once I am fully installed here! Is that understood? Tell this to your little friends too, will you? I am not, and will never be a Professor if I can help it! Didn't even finish school!"
Harry almost jumped at that rant. Silva Snape in her anger sounded exactly like her brother, if not in her tone of voice, then by the words!
He tried to change the subject instantly, but still felt awkward.
"Mmmaad… Silva, I wanted to ask when you want to start your tutoring… You know, I have a lot of things to do, and Quidditch practice, and now that I'll…"
Harry stopped again.
Silva calmed down as abruptly as she had blown her top, and smiled.
"You want to fix a date," she suggested.
"Yes, right," Harry said, relieved.
Silva tried to hide her grin. At that age, asking completely banal and innocent things of others could become a huge endless ordeal of awkwardness, embarrassment, and insinuation. Also, this seemed to be worse for boys than for girls. There were people who made fun of that and tried to make it worse, but not her.
"So why don't you just tell me what times would be convenient for you, and I'll see if that is okay with me? I don't really have a schedule here, punctual watering and feeding of certain plants excepted, but that is mainly in the morning. Professor Sprout won't mind my absence as long as things get done."
"That'd be great – I had hoped to – er, meet you this afternoon. I know the Headmaster said that you or he would approach me, but…"
Harry was at a loss for words, unable to explain that he really wanted to ask her about his parents and their time at school.
"There's no Quidditch practice today, and there will be not too much homework, so…
"That's fine with me, Harry. So what time do you think?"
They set the date for four o'clock, behind the greenhouses to be well out of sight. There was a bit of lawn and a fringe of bushes, so if anything went wrong during practice, not much damage would be done.
"There might be the occasional snoggers, trying to find a quiet place," Silva teased, just to see what Harry's reaction would be.
Harry Potter blushed a little and turned away awkwardly. There seemed to be a twinge of disappointment in him, too – he'd apprently had his first experiences.
They settled for a schedule, agreeing that they'd just follow the curriculum right from first year, or what Harry remembered of it, to see what was lacking and where Silva's weak points lay.
Silva was ready to go to lunch, but Harry would not get up from the rickety wooden bench they'd been sitting on. He desperately wanted to know more about his parents, and about Sirius. Harry found that difficult to ask, avoiding the subject of Sirius whenever he could, but whom else, or when, could he ask about his relatives?
"Silva – did you know my parents? Or – or my godfather – Sirius Black?"
"Oh yes, I did, all of them… They were some years ahead of me… In the same year as my dear brother. You are saying that you don't know a thing about them, do you? Albus hasn't told you the lot?"
Harry shook his head mutely. "Only now, with the story of, er, your… brother. I only… I only saw something once, in the Pensieve, and I didn't like it. My father and" – Harry wanted to say godfather but found he could't bring himself to say it again – "and Sirius, were they really bullies?"
Silva considered the question, and the implications of what Harry just had not asked, for some moments. Then she said:
"I don't mean to hurt you, but your godfather was not really a brilliant wizard, technically... Not a Squib, of course, but I bet he had a hard time hiding out after his flight from Azkaban, because he would have to find himself supplies much in the Muggle way..."
Harry was about to start at these words in the angry manner that had become almost habitual withim whenever someone said something about Sirius Black that he considered derogatory, but suddenly remembered how desperate Sirius had been for them to bring him food...
He'd had no wand, of course, but why had Sirius never tried to get one, or asked them? Harry remembered how Sirius had complained about always having to eat rats, and hunting in his Animagus form, and how very grateful he'd always been for what they brought. Or was that because the Ministry could detect illicit magic, and who'd done it, just like with school kids?
Sirius had done well enough though in the Shrieking Shack, though.
Harry could not see what Silva was getting at. But he was afraid that her circumventing of his plain and straightforward question was an answer in itself, so for once being patient was fairly easy.
Silva Snape continued: "I know that doesn't sound nice... Sirius excelled in the magical theory of all subjects, which is what made him second to none but your father as a student. When he put his mind to it, he was a brilliant strategist, but usually he didn't bother, claiming that knowing in advance what would happen was boring, and trying to plot it even more so. He was not one for Divination, as you can imagine. Sirius acted on impulse a lot, making up for his weak magic by sheer impact of attack, cunning, speed, and recklessness.
Sirius was really good at two practical things though – one, with all kinds of magical creatures. At some point, the Romanians tried to convince him to take up the study of dragons and work down there, but Sirius was not persistant enough for scientifical work. Much like Hagrid in some ways... I do think that Hagrid would be the better wizard of the two, all things considered."
It was easy to see that those words raised Harry's hackles. But he did not interrupt her.
"Don't get me wrong, Harry – he made up for much of that by caring, his unfailing devotion to his friends, his absolutely attractive personality – he WAS reliable and utterly sweet with his friends – I should know, I was in favour with him. He was a very good-looking boy, too... Sirius was moody sometimes, you know?
"None of the abler wizards – like Malfoy, or my brother, or that brute Macnair for instance, would dare get at him because of the other thing he was not only brilliant but also completely unpredictable at: Battle Magic. That is a subject which, I believe, was cut out from the curriculum shortly after Voldemort's downfall. Too many of the fresh Death Eaters had rather excelled in this subject, and the Ministry would not have that. They felt that this form of magic was far too dangerous and two-edged for our oh-so-civilised present... the teaching of it now is part of the Auror training, I understand.
"If there would still be a Court of the High King and hence, we'd still have Battle Magi, Sirius would probably be – have become their leader...
"He was absolutely brave, and strong, and reckless. His aim was close to unerring, much like some people have absolute hearing, and the formidable power behind his battle spells is probably what accounts for his lack of magic in everyday life.
"Have you ever heard of the Battle Magi of olden days?"
Harry shook his head.
"No? Some of them are said to have almost been Squibs outside of a fight... and that, again, made for trouble. Some, being strong and wilful, hated being at the mercy of their peers in times of peace, and did everything for a war to continue...
"With the rise of more peaceful times, the services of the Battle Magi fell into disuse. Many of them stopped practicing, even went to the Muggle world, and much of their knowledge is buried or lost since it was not written down. They didn't bother to change, so they became extinct, sort of."
The boy's eager and amazed expression told her enough.
"Well, never mind. It's still Binns, is it?"
Harry was startled by that disconnected question, and by what seemed an abrupt change of subject at first, but he then understood, and nodded.
"That old ghost would never consider mentioning affairs that are remotely disgraceful to wizardry, or of any topical interest. No idea why Albus keeps him. It's probably not easy to get rid of the ghost of a teacher."
She smiled at him.
"I'll try to let you do some catching-up with the sort of History of Wizarding that deplorably is not taught here anymore, if you care? While we are at it, in exchange for your tutoring..."
Harry nodded eagerly. So much of this was new to him, and so very different from what he'd learned!
"So, Sirius, by what he was due to a quirk of genes, could not kill innocent folk, no matter if he wanted to. He could do nasty things to them, but never kill them. That is something like the mark of the true Battle Magi. Some parts of the Art can be learned by anyone, and be abused, but not by a true Battle Magus. He or she will, on the other hand, be able to do magic that cannot be learned. One is born to that. Someone like that can't just use any wand either, like you may pick up someone's wand that they dropped, and turn it against them rather successfully. He can try, but it will cost him... I'm sure you have used someone else's wand, haven't you? Not to be able to do that's a huge drawback in a fight, occasionally."
Remembering the struggle against Snape and Pettigrew in the Howling Hut, among a couple of other incidents, Harry nodded. He had at the time put the strain down to Sirius's generally distraught state.
Silva continued.
"I said that his aim was unerring. Sirius could have, had he chosen to use that curse, Kedavra'ed a moskito off someone's forehead, and not leave a scar. You have seen and felt that Unforgivable. You know that if just anyone uses it, for them, it is impossible to control or to dose... But being able to do just that is another sign of the true Battle Magus, or Warlock. Sirius was one in a million, the only one born in generations! In that respect, he was a genius; much like my bro is with his Potions... They are both one of a kind, sort of. Sirius must have been out of practice entirely to have fallen for Bellatrix's tricks just like that."
"It wasn't 'just like that'!" Hearing Voldemort spoken of as 'just anyone' by inference did not register with Harry at the time.
"Well, Harry, you have seen Sirius in the Ministry. I'm sure he fought excellently even though he must have been out of practice completely, even more so than I am now. And Bellatrix is a mean and brilliant fighter, one of those that stop at nothing... From what the Headmaster told me, it was just a stumble and the wrong choice of a hiding place for lack of knowledge that – made Sirius fall through the Veil..."
Looking at his knees to hide the tears that were, once more, welling up at the memory, Harry whispered: "He fought like wild… And then..."
"I'm sure he did! Has Albus, or anyone else, told you about the background of all this?"
Harry shook his head.
"They should, really they should. He always said it was too early... Now we all pay the prize..."
Silva stopped musing and said: "You know, I am not sure but I think that he'd just started to practice again, and was not ready for a fight by far…"
Harry now shuddered. He had made Sirius go into the Ministry, it was his fault... He would not cry in front of this woman, even if she was kind! She was Snape's sister, after all, the sister of his father's worst enemy in school.
Shakily, Harry inhaled, bracing himself.
"Do you think Vol – You-Know-Who knew what Sirius was and wanted to prevent him from becoming strong again?"
"That may well be… I wouldn't know, Harry. But the gist of this is that Sirius Black would never have needed to, or been able to, blow up twelve Muggles, even together with Pettigrew! Albus Dumbledore knew that, but they all thought at the time that Sirius'd been in war stance even if that should not happen – and he may have been, having had his best friends killed by treason. There were doubts...
"I do believe Albus retained his doubts about Black's guilt when he came here after his escape, didn't he?"
Harry, looking at Silva, tried to make out if she was making fun of him.
Silva sensed his distrust, but merely said: "I wasn't there, you know."
"Right, sorry... So, no-one knew that he had shifted that Secret Keeper duty to Peter... Dumbledore trusted my story, and Professor Lupin and my friends could all confirm that they had seen the rat transform. Did you know that he was an Animagus? Sirius, too? And my dad?"
Silva Snape was amazed and Harry revelled in her unmitigated attention.
"No! Were they, indeed – that sure explains several things! This is wild, really! Albus mentioned that Peter Pettigrew had been discovered there alive, after having been someone's pet rat for many years. I thought that bit of it quite funny..."
"You know he was Scabbers? Peter Pettigrew?"
"Scabbers?"
"Ron's pet rat. He'd been living with the Weasleys as a rat for 14 years or so!"
Silva Snape now gaped at the thin boy before her. "And Remus Lupin is in this, too? I know he was supposed to teach here a couple of years ago, with my brother's loving assistance, and that it did not work out. But this is wild! Pettigrew a pet, how fitting!
"The Headmaster told me that the Ministry was having none of this story. He said the Order had no proof since Pettigrew had escaped. Albus never said though that you and your friends were involved in Sirius's escape and Pettigrew's discovery, or that a Weasley was in it as well. Even though it is hard to imagine that anything of import could happen without one of them about... They are always there, a bit like live beacons.
"Imagine how amazed I was to hear that that ugly, dumb kid had managed such a difficult feat! See, I never liked Pettigrew; he was a real jerk – crawling before his friends, and trying to get at the girls in their wake, sometimes using the Marauders as a threat... I could never understand why Sirius and James bore him around. When I asked they only said that people like Peter also need friends. I retorted that my brother did too, and they said that he was a sick creep... And off we were, fighting like wild... never mind.
"Peter being an animagus, however, makes it likely that he wasn't the only one. I doubt he could have managed this kind of highly complicated magic alone..."
"Professor Lupin said it cost them most of three years, and that they did it because of him, to keep him company when he changed..."
"He is a werewolf, I know that. Nice one, too. My brother told me after he found out... If Peter could become a rat, that would at least explain why he was accepted by the Marauders. I never liked to think that they only revelled in his grovelling and fawning.
"That shape ought to be most useful if revulsive. One can get everywhere. It means almost unlimited and inconspicuous access to the Muggle world, too. On the other hand, none of them can have been animagi already when I left Hogwarts..."
"Silva, please tell me what really happened that day in the Shrieking Shack! I only have a few words on it from Professor Dumbledore and Professor Lupin, and Snape seems to go raving mad whenever the subject is touched!"
Silva Snape sighed.
"I will, I promise, Harry, but not just now. It is a difficult subject, and I can't blame my brother for not forgiving your father and his friends."
"But my father saved his life, in the end!"
"That he did Harry but, as I said, this is a difficult subject, and I'd rather not speak about it now. There are other reasons for my brother's aversions..."
She stopped herself before saying something that might really offend Harry.
"I'd really like to hear your story about Pettigrew's discovery, Harry! For some reason, Albus does not seem to have been generous with information in this instance... I gather he helped Sirius to get away from the Dementor's kiss after all this?"
"Yes... "He let us help Sirius escape – with a time-turner, you know? There was Buckbeak, too..."
Silva shook her head in amazement.
"Who's that?"
"A hippogryph... That was after Sirius had been arrested by Snape, and before the Dementors could get him... Dumbledore told me that there had been times when he believed Sirius to be the murderer... It seems he thinks now that Sirius and... and probably my Dad too had attempted to spy on the Death Eaters..."
Harry was amazed to find Silva Snape staring at him in great surprise. Almost exasperated, he said: "But surely, you must know… You are an Order member..."
"No," said Silva in agitation, "I'm not, and I know nothing of this! It's not like what happened is general knowledge! See, the Headmaster has only given me a very raw outline of events, due to a general lack of time whenever we meet – met. I remember Albus mentioning the possibility of their attempt at spying in passing, a long time ago. He said it would have been just like them to not inform him or the Order about something like that, but since it was all surmise, we did not dwell on it.
"But – are you saying that YOU helped Sirius escape from Hogwarts? And do I get you right that he stayed in the Howling Hut?"
"Yes, I, Ron and Hermione were there, and it wasn't me who discovered him, Hermione and Remus Lupin did! Sirius knew about Pettigrew, he had seen his picture in Azkaban. That is why he escaped! We didn't believe him at first."
Silva was gaping now unabashedly, not looking very pretty. She closed her mouth with a snap when she found Harry smile at her. Harry, in his turn, was beginning to enjoy surprising her.
"Now this is..."
Harry shook his head in amazement.
"I still can't believe that you don't know a thing about this... On the other hand, hardly anyone does – we had to keep Sirius safe... What happened is still so vividly present for me, even though many other things have happened in the meantime..."
Silva smiled at the young man before him.
"I know that feeling. Some things, one will never forget for the rest of one's life, and it's hard to imagine that nobody else knows about them, because they changed everything..."
Harry nodded. He was serious again, and Silva felt pain and anger growing in him once more.
"If Snape… if Prof…"
"Oh, leave it be, Harry!" Silva said, grinning.
"If Snape had not barged in on us and disturbed things, we might even have arrested Peter Pettigrew! It was his fault that he got away! Snape wanted to kill Sirius and Professor Lupin too, handing them over to the Dementors! He was like mad! It was him who wouldn't listen to what Sirius had to say, and turned him over to the Ministry in the end!"
This was Silva's turn to shudder.
Harry's mind was overflowing with questions and grief simultaneously. Suddenly it appeared to him that all Silva had said about Sirius had been meant to make him feel his loss and cry.
And that was true – Silva could sense the pain closing up Harry's mind, cramping his insides, confusing him, and wanted to draw about the release for him.
She had done that quite successfully before with others.
Unadmitted tears were clogging the boy's throat already, making him swallow hard every other instant, but young Harry was not ready yet. He would be soon, though, and Albus had been right – she WAS needed here... Not that being needed had great priority in her life.
There were clouds of guilt that Harry had to get rid of.
And Silva Snape still had not answered his initial question.
They sat in silence for some time. The boy must be allowed to regain his composure, and get ready for the eventual shedding of tears over someone he'd loved but could not talk about to anyone who had a greater picture.
Silva considered how to continue this. It would be a kind of torture for her, not only for Harry, to give the boy the view she had of his father and his friends today. Yes, those two Marauders had been bullies in school – James much more so than Sirius for reasons she had named: out of sheer boredom, and something that was not all that different from a Death Eater's pureblood arrogance, only the other way round. She had not been their target, but her brother had. They liked to have a clown of their own around, someone who sucked up to them...
Remus had always tried to moderate, but even as a Prefect, he'd been a failure in that where his friends were concerned. He needed them too much – that had been obvious, even if one did not know what they really had done for him. When in a good mood, the Marauders had been great fun, and she able to divert some of their misdemeanour from Severus who had only hated her for that in turn…
Eventually, all of them had grown out of those childish games… Or so Silva preferred to think.
After some minutes, she continued.
"I was sure – I knew all along that Sirius was sent to Azkaban for something he could not possibly have committed, if he was still anything like the Sirius I had adored as a second-year girl, and despised later that same year already as a Snape for never leaving my brother alone. He never changed in his affections and dislikes, and he would never have betrayed James – your father."
Harry's eyes were filled with tears, but he would not let go.
Harry stammered: "He – he d-died in the f-fight in... in the Ministry, because of me..."
Harry did not continue – nor did he cry, yet. Silva decided to give Harry time to make up his mind for himself when to breach the subject of Sirius again.
Silva looked at him for a moment, realising it would be okay to go on.
He'd crack up eventually, and soon.
Albus would be the one to take the first blast of this; not her, or her brother.
Attempting to draw Harry's attention away from painful memories that he was not ready to face yet by all appearances, Silva continued with her own story.
"I may have relieved myself from this school in fourth year, but I did try and stayed in touch with things, as I said. Not many people have ever managed to hide things or thoughts from me anyway. I do not need a wand for that. My brother is exellent at Occlumency and Legilmency, as you know, but with me it is a natural gift.
"I, like Severus, would probably have made an excellent Auror, I think. It's only that the Snape name won't really go well with that... Nor does taking sides though, and with the Ministry policy of abandoning so much of the old pureblood glory...
"Whatever relatives I have left would never have stood for it, and I'd have been at the receiving end of worse than howlers. Not that I cared. For me, there were more important reasons against that job. For instance, there would be – would have been a fair chance that Severus and I would have met on opposite sides in a battle. I could not have born that! Besides, I never finished school, as I said.
"There are other good reasons not to become an Auror, too. There were then, and are now, things going on in the Ministry that decent and law-minded Aurors should not stand for... You did get a taste of that in connection with Alastair Moody, didn't you?"
Silva had heard from Dumbledore how the Ministry had acted when Sirius had finally been arrested (rather than about the manner of his flight) too, but this was a subject to be avoided right now.
Harry gave no sign of listening; he was staring at the points of his shoes or thereabouts.
"I do think you are considering that job an option, right? You should know about those things. I'll tell you another time if you want me to. Maybe we can bring up the subject with your defence club – Dumbledore's Army, is that? Surely there are others who consider that job?"
Harry did not react, but Silva did not mind, the question being rhethorical anyway.
"In any case, I never enjoyed using my knowledge of people against them, be they who they may. Tom Riddle excepted, of course."
"Couldn't you teach me? Instead of- of... him?" Harry asked disconnectedly.
"Me? Teach you? Not history? You teach me, rather…"
Silva was befuddled, but for an instant only.
"Oh, Occlumency? Sorry, Harry, but no. I could not because I never went through the motions – I've never had to learn it in the way you have to. What I had to learn was to sort out the voices in my head, and not cringe at many, many of the thoughts I had to receive and that I could not block out while still a child. So many things that a child cannot conceive of, and should be spared...
"You know, I also do get emotions and so on, often in the shape of colours, or smells. Muggles have that, too, if in a much weaker way. It is called Synaesthesia, and has only recently attracted the interest of their scientists on a larger scale.
"Did you know that trees, for instance, feel and sing, in a way? They dream up their blossoms... Then they burst into song, sort of, when the blossoms open, much like a log does burst into flames... To them, all is bliss, the flowering, and the end of it, spring as well as autumn. They are invincible, spirit of life, and in a sense, they 'know' that... I can see and hear this, and feel the heat, the love of life in that... It is very beautiful, and hard to stand for a human being.
Silva paused, hoping that she had not sounded too potty just now, but Harry still was only half-listening, lost inhis own thoughts.
"I learned the hard way not to judge what I came by by that Gift. I had to learn to close myself up to my own noise as well as the incoming static, and I had to do that all on my own at a very early age. What one sees and feels in the mind is entirely subjective, and does not necessarily correspond to reality in any way except, maybe, a symbolical manner. My methods cannot be transferred to someone who does not feel and see the world in a similar way.
"In the old families, this gift is thrown upon children occasionally, mostly on females, and not too many of them live to go to school. Of those again, few remain sane... I was lucky so far, even if my dear brother occasionally asserts the need to claim custody for me– which now is not an issue anymore…"
The witch inhaled deeply, trying not to touch upon that painful subject.
"Being able to shut out those perceptions and voices was essential, living among the Muggles – they are mentally babbling all the time. Most of them can't stand a moment of silence. If they don't talk crap in their minds, think about food, or their need to lay someone, or their wish to kill them, and preferably the same person in the same instant for the same confused reasoning, they constantly hum to themselves the most horrible sounds.
"They are never quiet of mind like wizards are, in between actions. This is, by the way, one of the criteria that make the Gift easily detectable to other wizards, or the Ministry, helping to mark those Gifted in Muggle families? They can't be heard, mentally... Which, on the other hand, also makes for the occasional miss.
"Let me give you an example. It's not a happy one.
"If you lock the average Muggle up in the dark with his likes, they are very likely to try and go about fighting for predominance over whatever is there – a stone to sit on, the spot at the window, or at the food flap – and kill each other, or submit... Once finished with the violence or rather, establishing of who gets at whom, they will fuck each other mindlessly just because they cannot stand the darkness quietly by themselves, what with the babble in their heads driving them to do this and that. This is much like what rats will do.
"Humans hardly ever, without an authority around, will share or become sociable of themselves, while they could be just that just as well by choice – or become still for instance to merely listen, or even stop to listen to their inner psychobabble whenever they like... If they just bothered. As it seems, they hardly ever turn to face themselves, trying to still their minds.
"Some few Muggles have achieved inner quiet and control of their thoughts to some extent, but it is a terribly hard struggle for most of them..."
Silva had the boy's full attention by that. Harry considered what he'd just heard, more than a bit shocked. He wasn't sure that he understood what Silva was talking about.
"Huh – you don't really like Muggles either, then?"
"No, Harry, that is not it. This has got nothing to do with liking someone, individually, or because of the group they belong to. I just have no qualms about what Muggles are and why they can be dangerous to wizards, as well as to themselves. It's their fears... I've got no qualms about wizards either, believe you me!"
"See, the noises they make are not always ugly or scary. Some Muggles are really nice. They sing or hum, sort of like the trees; there is a harmony in them. Your mom's family was like that for instance, most of them. Admittedly, not many of them are like that... They hadn't become quiet, but found a harmony, which I believe is just as good. Sometimes, I think that Muggles are sort of a like a musical instrument out of tune… Never mind."
Silva paused.
"With me, still reading other people's thoughts, while I can control that ability and switch it off at will, is just big fat curiosity. I think it saved this cat's skin more than once. I want to know what things are, and why they are what they are. I do believe that some of that is in you, too?"
Harry glanced at her, thoughtfully. He didn't understand all of what Silva Snape had said, but he was sure he trusted her, and that what she was saying might be helpful eventually. Having her know about one's secrets and pain would no t be too bad. There was something as soothing as tenderweed about her.
Harry's thoughts snapped back to what she had said about Muggles.
"Locking them up – that is horrible! You just said that to annoy me, didn't you?"
"No, Harry. I am not my brother. There have been experiments, conducted by the Muggles themselves, by their scientists. They wanted to know why, after blackouts, and during wars, birthrates rise in the areas affected.
"And... well, there has also been some such thing commited by Voldemort, during his first reign – well, period of power –, which went horribly wrong along the lines of what I said, in the manner I described, and hence right for him, proving his point: he abducted and locked up 25 Muggles in a dark dungeon without any wardens to stop things. They, instead of working together to free themselves, or trying to at least, turned against each other, behaving worse than rats in all manners, and ended up killing each other – all dead in less than a month... They were not starved or anything. Not one was killed by the direct intervention of a Death Eater! Voldemort made sure the remains of that experiment were found, and explained in detail. The Muggles were horrified. It is still one of the worst and most mysterious cases of mass-murder outside of a war in their criminal textbooks.
"Riddle wanted to show wizardkind how very inferior and worthless Muggles are, and he did succeed with that one... with the old purebloods, in any case..."
"This is revolting!"
"It truly is, Harry. But you can't blame the Dark Lord for that one entirely... Muggles lock each other up all of the time just to achieve such effects..."
"Well, I think not."
"Hm. Do you know about the Great Witch-Hunts?"
Harry just stared.
"Oh, right, Binns again. Sorry, but I forgot! If someone ever was stillborn, dead right from the day of his birth, that ghost was! Never taught anyone anything of use, and what there could be of interest in his subjects he brings up in a way that bores one senseless. Being a ghost, he is not likely to have changed... His being dead for a good two centuries by now of course does not help to qualify him to teach Recent History either. This is, by the way, a relatively new concept with the Muggles, too. They seem to realise that there is a value in trying to learn to avoid the repetition of recently made mistakes, instead of, say, looking back very far and idealise what one can never know for sure to have been real. I think, Harry, there is a lot in history that kids should know about today, in order for it to not repeat itself!"
"You sound like Dumbledore right now, you know."
Harry still was not sure he got her meaning.
Silva smiled.
"Do I? I frankly do not understand why the Headmaster does not hire someone else, at least in addition, to teach that subject. Not that Binns would mind an empty classroom in front of him.
"In any case, I think my gift was one reason why my dear brother was very good at the Mencies even before he got to Hogwarts."
Harry did not understand at first. When he did he just had to smile.
Thinking of Snape trying to escape a thought-reading sister by a variety of desperate attempts was quite attractive... particularly in view of his own upcoming lessons.
He'd be hard-put to avoid that mental picture from now on. It was sure to raise the Professor's wrath... Just one more reason to try and be REALLY good at the subject, to not give Silva Snape away to her brother.
"May I ask you something else, er – Silva? It's rather personal…"
The first-name basis was still not familiar, but Harry did try.
"Go ahead, Harry."
Harry looked at her. He'd figured out the lifespan thing alright, but – no, it was impossible. Yet, by what she had said...
"Erh, Silva...?"
"Harry?"
"How old are you, then?"
"Me? Oh, forty-ish, became 42 in May."
"You must be, or about, I guessed that much, but I just can't believe it... You really mean to tell me you are that old! I thought you were, say, 26, maybe ten years older than me! At the utmost!"
"Oh, how very flattering, my dear young man, thank you very much!"
Speaking like that, she sounded – well, sqawky, a bit like Professor Trelawney maybe, and really auntish. Had they been to school together, too? Harry had to laugh.
Silva smiled back widely. "Now you do know how to pay a girl compliments, don't you? A charmer you are, just like James was!"
Suddenly, she giggled in a very silly and artificial manner, reminding Harry of Pansy Parkinson and Lavender Brown simultaneously. But Silva obviously was not serious, even if she'd honestly enjoyed what he'd said. This was playacting, and her whole attitude was infectuous. Her mood had changed completely. Silva had thrown off what weighed each of them down effortlessly for the time being. Right now, she imitated an elderly lady, blushing and holding a handbag. Her antics and her demeanour were so funny that Harry couldn't stop laughing, and it felt so good... When had he done this last? Surely not in Dumbledore's office in a long time...
When making plans, yes. But that had been not quite as... innocent.
"Really, I wouldn't have thought..."
"Silva, there is another thing still. You said you didn't finish school... Dumbledore told me, too. Like... Like Hagrid, maybe? You know?" Harry volunteered, a bit warily, hoping this would not raise her hackles. For all Harry knew Silva hadn't been accused of things, but from what he gathered, she'd have preferred to stay on at Hogwarts. He wanted to know why but felt he could not ask such a question just like that.
"Hagrid? Hm – yes, probably... I didn't even get to take my O.W.L.s. Pretty much like Hagrid, come to think of it, only that I left of my own volition – well, sort of. I was accused of no crime. Much later it was, too."
"Like Fred and George, then?"
"Weasley that would be, Arthur's twins? Those two that you are writing with?"
Harry nodded.
"Maybe – I only know about the Weasley twins what Albus told me, but I do like those two from that alone, you see? Is it true that they turned the fifth floor into a swamp last year, called their brooms into the Great Hall through the closed office door of that Umbridge woman, and took off in front of the whole school?"
When Harry nodded again, grinning widely now, Silva Snape smiled. "I think I'd have loved to have seen that!"
Harry said "You know, I tried to convince them to come back here, but they refused – they even hexed my ears when I wouldn't stop. That was when we met in the Headmaster's office. Their Wizard Wheezes business is a huge success, and they say they won't just give that up again for some stupid exams. But they'd be a tremendous help!"
So that was what that blackmail thing had been about.
"I don't see that Voldemort can be laughed to death, but ridiculing the Death Eaters surely would be a good idea…"
Harry nodded eagerly.
"They promised to help, too. They are going to send in things…"
He realised that Silva had no idea of the suspicions he and his friends held about the about Snape and the Dark Arts, so he stopped speaking.
"I suspect you miss them? Let's hope my brother is around when their jokes hit Hogwarts! He needs that! But let's go eat lunch. I think we are late already."
They got up and walked toward the great castle, laughing and making things up that could happen to the Death Eaters and Severus Snape by Wizard Wheezes. By the time they reached the steps of the main entrance, Harry was completely at ease with the witch by his side, and felt like he had known her for ages. The pressure that had weighed him down when talking about Sirius was forgotten once again.