Redemption
Severus Snape was none too impressed to have his precious private time interrupted, let alone the few hours of sleep he got in the early hours every night. Hearing someone or something hammering away at the small window of his dungeon chambers, he flung back the covers and hissed as his feet met the icy floor. Reaching up to the window's handle, he saw the snow white owl flapping its wings outside.
"Potter!" He snarled, recognizing the bird instantly. "Bloody Potter playing tricks, is he?" Changing his mind and deciding not to let the creature in after all, he spun on his heel and went back to his bed, pulled the curtains round and laid back down, head under pillow. "Won't get the better of me, two can play at his game."
He had assumed that the bird would give up and go harass someone else, but she did not. If anything, she increased the intensity at which her wings hit the window, and began shrieking in a most ear-piercing manner. Throwing the pillow and snatching back the curtains so fast that one of them pulled down, Snape arose from his bed for the second time and strode angrily across the room. He pulled down the handle and pushed the window open to let the panic-stricken Snowy in.
"Why couldn't you go and harass Dumbledore?" He asked, and then chastised himself, remembering that the headmaster had been called away to the Ministry on special business. Running his hands through his lank hair, he waited for the bird to alight on the chair beside his desk. Instead, she kept fluttering around his head and then to the door, continuing to shriek at him.
"Just bloody well sit still, so I can pick up whatever note or letter you have for me!" He hollered at her, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to properly wake up. Removing his fists form his eyes, and reaching over to grab his robes off the foot of the bed, he looked properly at he panicked bird and realized three things. Firstly, she did not have a letter or parchment tied to her leg (how completely absurd), and not only was she looking thinner than she ought to, but there seemed to be, was it, BLOOD streaked on her left wing.
"Come here, fool creature, so that I can inspect you." He held out his arm, and this time the owl obliged. Ruffling her feathers with his hands, the potions master realized both from feel and scent that it was indeed blood on her wing, and there was more of it on her underbelly. It didn't have the scent of animal blood, it had the smell of WIZARD'S BLOOD, which had it's own specific feel and tang to it. There was only one wizard who would have been messing with this owl, and he could guess by the birds panic that something had happened to the Boy-Who-Lived.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" he hissed at the bird, waving a wand over his head to get dressed and heading out the door as the owl darted over his head. "What in Gods name have you gotten yourself into now, boy? Can't even handle yourself for three weeks once school shuts, can you? Well, whatever it is, I hope you can bloody well wait until I get there to save your hide once again!"
With that, the door to his chambers slammed behind him, and he ran through the dungeon corridors out through the Great Hall and out the front steps of the Castle to the Apparition Point at the main gates.
Severus Snape was none too impressed to have his precious private time interrupted, let alone the few hours of sleep he got in the early hours every night. Hearing someone or something hammering away at the small window of his dungeon chambers, he flung back the covers and hissed as his feet met the icy floor. Reaching up to the window's handle, he saw the snow white owl flapping its wings outside.
"Potter!" He snarled, recognizing the bird instantly. "Bloody Potter playing tricks, is he?" Changing his mind and deciding not to let the creature in after all, he spun on his heel and went back to his bed, pulled the curtains round and laid back down, head under pillow. "Won't get the better of me, two can play at his game."
He had assumed that the bird would give up and go harass someone else, but she did not. If anything, she increased the intensity at which her wings hit the window, and began shrieking in a most ear-piercing manner. Throwing the pillow and snatching back the curtains so fast that one of them pulled down, Snape arose from his bed for the second time and strode angrily across the room. He pulled down the handle and pushed the window open to let the panic-stricken Snowy in.
"Why couldn't you go and harass Dumbledore?" He asked, and then chastised himself, remembering that the headmaster had been called away to the Ministry on special business. Running his hands through his lank hair, he waited for the bird to alight on the chair beside his desk. Instead, she kept fluttering around his head and then to the door, continuing to shriek at him.
"Just bloody well sit still, so I can pick up whatever note or letter you have for me!" He hollered at her, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to properly wake up. Removing his fists form his eyes, and reaching over to grab his robes off the foot of the bed, he looked properly at he panicked bird and realized three things. Firstly, she did not have a letter or parchment tied to her leg (how completely absurd), and not only was she looking thinner than she ought to, but there seemed to be, was it, BLOOD streaked on her left wing.
"Come here, fool creature, so that I can inspect you." He held out his arm, and this time the owl obliged. Ruffling her feathers with his hands, the potions master realized both from feel and scent that it was indeed blood on her wing, and there was more of it on her underbelly. It didn't have the scent of animal blood, it had the smell of WIZARD'S BLOOD, which had it's own specific feel and tang to it. There was only one wizard who would have been messing with this owl, and he could guess by the birds panic that something had happened to the Boy-Who-Lived.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" he hissed at the bird, waving a wand over his head to get dressed and heading out the door as the owl darted over his head. "What in Gods name have you gotten yourself into now, boy? Can't even handle yourself for three weeks once school shuts, can you? Well, whatever it is, I hope you can bloody well wait until I get there to save your hide once again!"
With that, the door to his chambers slammed behind him, and he ran through the dungeon corridors out through the Great Hall and out the front steps of the Castle to the Apparition Point at the main gates.