Have Faith

Part two:

Summer!

The next two days went by all too quickly for Severus Snape. Before he knew it, forty-eight hours had snuck by him, without leaving him anytime to prepare. The kids all left--as well as the teachers--without incident. The other Professors were all busy arranging vacations, cleaning their classrooms, tedious things that had to be done before the fun; before the summer escape. Snape was one of the few teachers who actually liked the medieval appearance of the school. To him, it was the ultimate vacation, as long as it didn't have obnoxious teenagers.

Snape was surprised at the relief he felt when he heard Filch was fired. He had always just barely tolerated the clingy squib. He had decided, somewhere along the line, that Snape would be his one and only friend other than his beloved cat, which didn't work out too well for Snape. Instead a flighty, spindly looking nymph woman kept the school now. They said she was half house-elf, which would explain the improved condition of the castle, and why she spent extended amounts of time in the kitchens. Her name was Loral, and she had chestnut skin, with bleach blonde hair tied back into two French braids, and the brightest silver eyes. Her ears had a slight elfy kink to them, and her nose was like a ski slope. From time to time Severus would run into her in the hallways, but if he mentioned her to any of the other faculty, they said they barely ever saw her.

The day after the students went home he was out walking the perimeter of the pond, when he heard a small voice call out to him. For a second, he thought it was a school day, and the voice behind him was that of a child's. But as he turned, he was faced with the cherub faced, chestnut skinned she-elf.

"Good day, Severus." She said modestly, averting her eyes. A cloud of thought stormed over the professor's head.

"Loral." Was his simple response as he turned and kept walking. He realized after a few steps that she was not following. He paused, raised a hand, and beckoned her to his side. She scurried forward and fell into step with him, her spidery hands folded over a black apron and a green alice-in-wonderland type dress. He turned his head to look at her as they strolled along.

"Haven't seen you much of late..." He commented, offering the faintest of smiles.

She blushed and looked at her feet. "I've been busy...my job and stuff."

Snape tilted his head a bit more, allowing his eyebrows to knit together for a brief second. "Constantly? Doesn't that get tiring?" He asked, his voice clearly joking.

Loral didn't get it." Oh no, I sleep at nights. And besides, I like my job."

They didn't really progress in the conversation besides that, and so walked along the lake in silence. At first it was akward, but once both of them loosened up a bit, it was quite enjoyable. He even turned to smile at you and saw her looking straight at him, and for the first time, she didn't look away, but looked right back, and smiled.

That night was the first that he had slept peacefully in a long time.

Snape awoke to a knocking on his door. In a dreary haste, he pulled on a pair of pants and a shirt that could have passed for a normal muggle shirt, if it weren't for the extremely tight arms and sleeves that ran down to his knuckles. He buttoned the shirt up, and started making an attempt to tuck it in, but abandoned that at the second harsh knock at his door.

He turned the key and nearly flung the door open. What he saw stunned him.

"Good morning, Severus. You look well rested," Said an amused voice; one he'd known for the better portion of his life. A voice he'd grown accustomed to hearing ever since the age of eleven.

There stood an extremely silvery, transparent Albus Dumbledore, looking the same as he ever did, and quite a bit happier. As if he could read Severus' thoughts, he held up a finger, and said "I was tired of ageing Severus. I think that is a sufficient answer, and lets leave it at that."

Snape stammered for a second, opening and closing his mouth awkwardly, belying his usual dark coolness. But before Snape could think of saying anything, the ex-headmaster pulled a folded piece of parchment out from the folds of his magnificent robes, and handed it to him.

"A beautiful woman," Albus said, eyeing Severus over his half-moon glasses, "That we are both familiar with, a Miss Sylvestra MacMathan, ex-catcher for Ireland, and a Hogwarts alumnus, asked me to give you this."

And as Severus Snape took the parchment, Dumbledore dissolved into thin air. So the potions master stood there, alone in the doorway, his shirt half tucked in, staring at a ripped up piece of parchment as he held his head in his other hand. Right now he wanted to think of so many things, he wanted to think of Dumbledore. He wanted to feel the emotion sweep over him, the relief of knowing Dumbledore was still there. But as soon as he tried, so came the guilt; it was he that put him in that state either way. It was his fault that Dumbledore, once a man so great, was now so thin a memory that you could stick your hand through him. And so he pushed Dumbledore out of his mind and focused solely on the words in front of him. Two words that were written in shiny green ink in the middle of the parchment.

"Courtyard. Now."

As he walked to the courtyard, Severus could feel his heart beating faster and faster. When he saw her, who would she be? What part had she played in his past? In a time so full of pain that he had tried to block it out entirely, yet he could never walk away from (that's why he had taken up the job in the first place), would she be on the good side, With Albus and Lily, or the bad side, with James and Sirius?

No, he was sure of it. With every step closer to her, he became surer. She was definitely on the good side. The murky visions started to become clear pictures. An innocent little girl that for some reason had idolized him. It was common enough for a younger student to cling to an upperclassman, but he never had anyone look up to him. Suddenly that day that James did that...terrible thing...the thing in the memory that Harry had seen...She had been there. Yes, it was clear now. Suddenly he had a flashback to a piece of his life that up until then he forgot had happened.

Severus sat there, in the darkest, most discreet corner of the library, knees up against his chest, head buried in his arms to hide the horrible tears of rage and indignation that ran down his pale, sallow cheeks. Five years had gone by and he hadn't made a friend last for more than a year before he lashed out at them, alienating himself from anybody from fourth-year up, who thought him a laughingstock. Anybody third-year and below was scared of him already. Let them be scared. Wasn't fear just a form of respect? So that meant he was respected.

As he was silently making a pact never to be close to anyone ever again, (Respect was better than friendship anyway) a cool hand clasped his.

Catching him unaware, she was able to pry his hands away before he went on the defensive. He sat there, staring into a frowning, ghostly face, framed by hair redder even than Arthur Weasley's.

Left with nothing else to do, he stared back at her, hoping to make it a point with his eyes that he wished her to die. To his dismay, she just looked at him. Slowly, a thin third-year's hand lifted, touching his jaw, hot and sticky with anger and tears. He pushed her hand away forcefully.

"Go away, Syl." He barked. To make sure she didn't see any more of his embarrassing face, he covered his eyes with a hand. But then he felt those persistent, frustrating fingers pry it away again. It was like as soon as she touched him, his muscles melted to nothing. Looking at her, into her eyes, he could tell that this young girl's determination would outlast his own, as it always had. He dropped his hands to his side. Unfortunately, he knew when he had lost. So he just glared at her, let her read his eyes. 'Why did you have to see that?' That was all they implored. At the sight of such a heartbreaking stare, Sylvestra suddenly flung herself at him.

It was so sudden, at first Severus thought she had tripped. And suddenly, there was this girl in his arms, and this girl was weeping. She pressed her face against his, hiding away in the teenager's black locks. Their tears mingled, along with their sorrow. and for once, he felt his sorrow being lifted. Sylvestra had volunteered to share his burden. And although it was not anything he would have done five seconds ago when she had walked up to him, he suddenly wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, thinking that this must be what it's like to have a family.

And for the second time in three days, Severus Snape, potions master, and former death-eater, smiled. And there she was! He nearly skipped down the steps into the courtyard, his eyes falling on a much different figure than he remembered.

Her eyes were still round, a striking blue, with a sea of freckles and disobedient curls surrounding them. Her smile was that of unbridled joy; the smile that a muggle toddler smiles when he gets his first red fire truck. Her nose was straight, up until the end, where it rounded out and pointed up, almost taking a smile shape by itself. The knobby kneed, awkward looking girl had filled out into a slender, tomboyish woman. She wore muggle clothes; a green polo and blue jeans, and she still carried her entrancing Irish brogue.

And then she lept into his arms. He inadvertently breathed in as she wrapped herself around him, and so he inhaled her scent. Suddenly he wanted to do everything, tell her everything, let her read every nook and cranny of his mind. He had a sudden need to meld their two separate lives into one. But then she pulled away and looked at him, breathless, and said "Severus, I've missed you so much, you'd never imagine"

And he watched in horror as a face, nearly scowling, said. "I know. I have to." His voice sounded emotionless! He wanted to let her know how overjoyed he was!

Her smile faltered. "Severus, is everything alright?" Her hands had fallen to his shoulders, and she kneaded them reassuringly

But it was better for him to suffer his emotions silently to let her get too close, and then have her rip his heart out.

"Yes, everything's fine." He lied, brushing a hand off and turning to walk toward the corridor. She followed after like a beagle puppy; like always. He couldn't help it, and his emotions got the better of him as he turned and smiled at her over his shoulder. "You know, you haven't changed a bit," He said through the quietest of smiles.

She grinned, relief plastered all over her face as she bounced up next to him and grabbed his hand. "You know, I was about to say 'and you've changed so much' but you really haven't. You just put all these walls up." She said, poking him.

He felt his face growing hotter in a flush, before he remembered that this was exactly how she had acted when she was in Hogwarts with him. Did she really expect that their relationship would stay exactly the same, even though both of them had completely matured?

"So. Aren't you going to take me on the grand tour?" she asked, looking at him with those glittering eyes that in the past twenty-four hours, he realized he remembered so well. And now he couldn't get the stupid grin off his face.

"Sure, why not?" And he finally grasped her hand back. At felt amazing to be this close to someone, even if that someone didn't even realize how much this meant to him. Finally, he found a sanctuary where he could get away from it all, if just until he retired to his bed tonight, when every guilty thought came back to his head. He had grown used to constant pain, and so postponing it was almost as good as eliminating it entirely.

It was at that moment exactly, as Snape grasped her hand and their fingers intertwined that Head mistress McGonagall decided to descend the stairs.

Next episode:

Typical Girls