Chapter 5- Glimpses

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By the end of the first month of school, Severus had adjusted to the schedule of lessons and developed a routine of his own devising for between classes and outside school hours.

In the mornings, he awoke early to avoid the majority of his fellow students in the Great Hall. Unfortunately, a certain second year was also an early riser. Since the start-of-term feast, the little blue-eyed girl never failed to smile at him, although he had never smiled back or returned any of her whispered good mornings. That didn't seem to affect the irritating girl's determined cheer.

On the last Friday of September, he snapped in response to yet another unsolicited greeting, "What is your name?"

Tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture, she squeaked, "Dani Brannagh, why?"

"I needed to know who to report as a Hufflepuff mistakenly sorted into Slytherin," he replied snidely.

The girls that sat nearby giggled. Dani flushed bright red and stood, making an interestingly scrunched face before saying, "Would a Hufflepuff do that, you grumpy git?"

She stuck out her tongue and flounced away. The other girls laughed openly, pointing at his plate. Severus looked down at the ham and eggs that were now Slytherin green, inwardly admitting that a Hufflepuff would not have done that. He affected nonchalance and ate a sliver of ham, chewing thoughtfully. He rather liked it. Shrugging at the exclamations of disgust his actions received, the boy methodically cleaned his plate.

Between classes, Severus traversed the corridors, head down, hair swinging forward to conceal his face. Since he drew no attention to himself, his fellow students talked openly to each other. It was as though he were invisible. He heard all sorts of information. Some, he documented in his coded journal. Students with parents working for the Ministry, especially, had indiscreet habits of bragging about what mum or dad told them was happening at work.

On that day, he shadowed two Gryffindors on the way from lunch to the doubled class of DADA. Dorcas Meadowes, an imprudently chatty girl, confided to her friend Lily Evans, "Dad said that the Auror office is receiving tips everyday about You-Know-Who and his supporters."

Evans asked, "How do they know if the reports are true or false?"

Meadowes shook reddish hair that looked faded next to her friend's vibrant shade. "They don't, unfortunately. Aurors have to check them all out to see whether they're valid or not." She added in an unhappy tone, "Dad said if the wrong people start flooding the office with false claims, Aurors will be rendered ineffective."

That information was going directly into the journal. It might come in very handy. The slight smile on Severus' face disappeared when the girl laughed suddenly and said, "Why am I talking about my dad, when there's a much more interesting man to talk about?"

The emphasis placed made the eavesdropping boy uneasy, even though Lily said smilingly, "I wish you'd talk to Remus instead of constantly nattering on about him."

"I can't, my tongue becomes glued to the top of my mouth. Unlike Jane and Samantha, who gushed all over Remus the day Professor Kettleburn got his leg slashed by that creature." The girl said frowningly, "I already told you how awful they were, but did I tell you how that Slytherin, Greyback, was openly staring?"

"Yes, yes, she pushed him down in the tall grass and had her way with him. I remember."

Dorcas shrieked, "She did not…she just talked to him, the snaky…oh, you, don't laugh, that's not funny!"

Behind them, their listener didn't find the topic amusing either. He found the change in subject equally unwelcome. "You're trying to keep me from talking about Potter, but it won't work. I've seen you peeking at him, Lily."

"I've done no such thing. You're barking mad." All traces of humour in Evans' tone had vanished.

"It's not crazy to notice that since he's stopped trying to get your attention, you've wondered why. Admit it. You miss him trying to get on with you all day, every day."

Severus agreed that Meadowes was mental. Why should Evans miss an imbecile like Potter's maladroit attempts at courtship? He was sure that she was relieved the arrogant Chaser had realised his efforts were futile.

Before the girl could do more than open her mouth, undoubtedly to say just that, her friend held up a hand and said, "Fine, be in denial, but when you want to talk, I'm here, okay?"

"You're the one in denial, Dorcas," Lily retorted, walking faster.

Not attempting to keep within eavesdropping distance, Severus contemplated everything he'd overheard. He decided that the Ministry item was the only one worth recording. He considered how best to parlay the information when Malfoy contacted him.

Deep in thought, he was unaware of a small group approaching from behind. A push by an unseen force propelled the teen forward. He fell, books and parchment spilling from his bag.

Familiar, taunting laughter floated down the corridor. "Look who tripped over his two left feet again. Best watch where you're going next time, Snivellus."

Not bothering to push the long strands out of his face, Severus gritted his teeth and began picking up his things. Disregarding Black was the best revenge. The blood-traitor hated to be ignored.

"What's the matter, cat got your tongue, Snivelly? We know it's not a bird since no female's ever going to fancy a greasy git like you."

Stuffing the last parchment back into his bag, Severus rose and started to walk away. He could hear Black's pal cautioning him. "Leave off, Sirius. You don't want another detention."

Lupin's voice of reason was seconded by the hero of the Quidditch pitch. "Come on, mate, what did I try to get into your head all bloody summer? I'm Head Boy now. I can't allow you to target Snape, no matter how much I'd like to see the sneer hexed off his ugly face."

Severus hurried to escape Potter's insufferably righteous tone. He took a deep breath to control his temper and strode into the DADA classroom. At the table in front of his, a Slytherin girl was saying apologetically, "Clive wanted to trade seats with me. I had to say yes, because I've been dying to sit by Owen since third year!"

A quick glance showed that Eris Greyback was less than thrilled, although she nodded. "Fine, Emma, go switch." When the other girl scurried off, Eris turned and said, "Hey, Snape, anybody sitting by you?"

His eyes narrowed. "Wilkes is supposed to, why?"

She jumped up and tossed her school bag onto his table, turning to the boy who approached and beseeching, "Hi Tom. I'd like to sit here, if you don't mind."

Looking up slightly to meet her eyes, Tom jerked his head toward the seat she'd just abandoned. "Who's going to be sitting there that you want to avoid?"

"Clive Sutton."

A malicious smile made his roommate look like an imp. "Sitha! The scraumy-legged gawby is right narked. Good job for me, Bad job for him. I'd be happy to, Eris."

She sat down beside Severus and leaned over to ask, "Do you have any idea what he just said?"

He nodded, translating curtly, "Look now, the spindle-legged fool is angry. Fortunate for me, unfortunate for him…" After a pause, he explained, "Wilkes and Sutton aren't on the best of terms."

Eris smiled widely. "Bad job for the gawby, good job for me."

Her accent was awful, but the glee was infectious. One corner of his mouth jumped up. The professor walked in and Severus turned his attention to the front of the classroom. If P. C. Postlethwaite wasn't the worst DA teacher in the history of the school, he came so close as to make no difference. Short and slim, with bony, prominent cheekbones, the man looked like a librarian. He acted like one too, constantly assigning silent reading and essays instead of practical lessons on combating the Dark Arts.

"Good morning, class." Shuffling toward the head of the classroom, the professor placed a piece of parchment on each table. In a voice his students had to strain to hear, the wizard said, "Today, ill health prevents me from continuing my lecture on Dark creatures throughout history."

Severus shot a glance at Lupin. He looked uncomfortable. Good. The Slytherin's contentment vanished when Postlethwaite continued in his soft-spoken voice, "Take your assigned topic and your partner to the library. A half scroll essay will be due next class." After a series of coughs, the man concluded, "You are dismissed."

A gasp brought Severus' attention to the girl beside him. She was looking at the parchment she'd dropped onto the table with an expression that was impossible to fathom. Snatching the topic sheet up, he read 'The origin of the Muggle Werewolf legend'. Sharply, he asked, "Are you afraid of werewolves?"

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Eris released a shaky breath and replied lightly, "Of course I am. I don't want to be killed, or become a killer once a month."

Penetrating dark eyes seemed to be gauging the veracity of her words. He shrugged. "Who would?" His eyes darted away for a moment, his lip curling briefly before thinning out once more. He said, "I do not suppose you would agree to permit me to do the report by myself."

"Sorry."

Severus' withering look called her a liar. She grinned unrepentantly. Her smile faded when Clive reached over and wrapped his hand around her wrist. "You don't want to partner up with him. Let Snape and his pal Wilkes do a report together while you work with me."

Eris gazed into the face of a boy who personified 'tall, dark, and handsome' and felt nothing but irritation. "No thanks, I've got the partner I want." Pulling out of his grip, she headed for the door. Snape followed close behind.

In the main corridor, he said in an undertone, "Are you playing a game with Sutton? It is unnecessary. He is already obnoxiously infatuated with you."

Eris looked sideways to meet his eyes and laughed shortly. "Obnoxious is the right word. I'm not interested, but he refuses to believe it."

"Either that, or he's got the comprehension skills of a troglodyte."

She giggled. "Good one. Can I use that?"

"As long as you give me credit," he agreed dryly.

Eris laughed, thinking Severus was funny. Not in the odd way she used to think, but possessed of a sly wit. His sardonic tone and arched eyebrow made her smile as she said, "Snape says you've got the comprehension skills of a troglodyte. I think I can remember to say that." His eyes narrowed into slits. She blinked innocently and then broke into laughter.

"Ssshhh!" The librarian hissed as they entered the library.

Eris assumed a respectful demeanour. "Yes, Madam Pince." The moment the woman turned her attention to another student, the girl looked at her partner and imitated the librarian's sour puss expression.

He frowned. "I thought prefects were supposed to respect authority."

She looked at him in chagrin. He smirked and strode toward the Muggle Reference section. Rolling her eyes over her gullibility, Eris followed.

They sat at a table in the back near the Restricted Section. Eris took the thick book Severus held out and opened it, suggesting, "Why don't we each take part of the topic and then combine them for the essay?" He was giving her one of those impenetrable looks. She offered, "I'll copy your half onto my scroll, or vice versa, if you'd like."

"That is unnecessary. A simple Coniungere charm will combine our work into a united parchment."

Eris stared across the table. "Simple. For someone who creates spells as easily as potions, maybe, but this is the first time I've heard of such a thing." Severus didn't comment, keeping his attention on the book in front of him. She sighed and began leafing through her own text.

After finding and reading the appropriate section, the girl took her quill and began writing in the elegant, flowing script her mother had taught. In three quarters of an hour, her portion was completed.

"You write in calligraphy?"

Severus' brow was creased as he looked at her parchment. She shook her head and turned the parchment around. "No, see, it's just fancy script." Ruefully, Eris admitted, "Mother always said that fine handwriting got higher marks, and so far, she's been right." She glanced at his parchment. "You may get by on scholarship alone, but I need a bit of style."

Peremptorily, he took her parchment and read aloud, "In Greek mythology, the god Zeus is responsible for creating the werewolf. On one of his earthly journeys, he disguised himself and asked the ruler of Arcadia for hospitality. King Lycaon, recognising Zeus, tried to kill him by serving the god human flesh. Zeus didn't eat the flesh, but he was so enraged by Lycaon's treachery that he condemned the king to spend the rest of his life as a wolf." Without looking up, he commented, "You failed to mention how Lycaon knew that Zeus was a god, but otherwise the information is well presented."

"The text didn't say. Should I have made something up?"

Severus' mouth did that twitching at the corners thing she knew meant he was amused. He shook his head. Eris studied him while he silently read her accounts of the mythological werewolf beginnings from other cultures. His lips were thin and clever-looking. She'd never kissed a boy with a mouth like his before. Startled at the direction her mind was wandering, Eris asked to read his parchment.

"Here."

Taking his part of the essay, she scanned the rigidly controlled handwriting and grimaced. "This man in the sixteenth century, Peter Stubbe. Did he really murder sixteen people in Cologne, Germany…thirteen children…his own son?"

"He was put on the torture wheel." The boy's lips twisted in derision. "I imagine he would have confessed to anything to stop his flesh from being pulled off with a red-hot pincer."

She pressed her hands against her stomach. After her insides stopped churning, Eris returned to the essay, marvelling how quickly word of Stubbe's brutal crimes had been spread across Europe. The stories had rapidly changed from describing the atrocities of a disturbed man to declaring that there were creatures that hunted their fellow man in the shadow of the moon—werewolves.

"You are not one of those silly girls that romanticise werewolves, are you?" her partner demanded.

His voice was darkly compelling. Eris would've told anyone else that her opinions were none of their business, but she found herself confessing to Snape, "No, I don't think they're romantic. I think they're very, very sad."

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This made twice in one day that he'd sat by a Slytherin girl with disturbingly Hufflepuff tendencies. Not wanting to deal with the possible consequences of saying so, Severus nodded slightly in acknowledgment. He took the parchments, waved his wand and combined them using the Coniungere charm.

"Cool."

His lips quirked in amusement while he said, "I concur." Rolling up the parchment, he stored it in his bag and began re-reading the material that was scheduled to be covered during the next class.

"Pssttt…Severus."

He ignored her.

She persisted. "Pssttt…Severus…Sev-er-us…."

Continuing to give the appearance of reading, he replied coolly, "Yes?"

"I've already read next week's chapters, and I know you have too."

He flipped a page. "Your point is?"

She was irrepressible. "This is boring. Let's do something else."

A vision of Eris pushing him down in the Restricted Section and having her way with him was firmly suppressed. She took his prolonged silence as a negative response and pleaded, "Come on, I've got a deck of cards. I bet you a galleon that I get more into the hat this time."

A galleon was nothing to her, but it would buy him a butterbeer on Hogsmeade weekend. Looking across the table, he smirked. "Prepare to lose."

Her face lit up. Eris tossed her gear carelessly into her school bag and stood by the table waiting for him. Putting her hand on his arm, she gave a small push. "There's a window seat at the back of the restricted section, let's go there."

Following her graceful stroll, Severus' lips turned up at the irony of her pushing him toward the restricted section, having her way. Minutes later, he watched her transfigure robes into a top hat.

Eris held up a pack of cards. "High card goes first."

He drew the King of Clubs.

She smiled. "Ah, the Dark Man, very appropriate." She drew a card, looking confused. "I shuffled. You shuffled, so this is unusual." Eris showed the Queen of Clubs. "The Dark Lady, or reversed, the Chestnut Brown Lady." Looking at her hair, she asked, "What shade of brown do you think this is?"

"Dark, like chocolate."

His succinct answer brought a smile. She smiled a lot, for a Slytherin—must be the Hufflepuff in her. Eris searched through her bag and brought out a couple of chocolate frogs, tossing one to him. "Here, for energy, and because the mention of chocolate made me crave it."

Severus bit into his frog, but Eris allowed hers to hop away before snatching it back. The look on her face reminded him of something, but the ephemeral thought was lost when she challenged, "So, do you have the nerve to go first?"

Refusing to dignify that cheeky remark, he took his card and sent it winging across to land into the top hat. Hers was stopped by the brim. He flicked his cards with cool skill. She alternately beseeched and berated hers, which was illogical, but rather entertaining. After a hard-fought victory, Severus pocketed his galleon. He picked up his bag and bid Eris good afternoon.

A carrying voice halted his steps. "There's a window seat back here with our names on it, beautiful."

Sirius Black was headed toward them with one of his conquests! Severus turned on his heel and whispered, "Disillusionment Charm—now!" He felt Eris' hand touch his sleeve, and pulled her to the side. When the Gryffindors passed, the Slytherins moved into the aisle.

Before they were out of hearing range, Black said disgustedly, "It smells mouldy back here. Some Slytherins must've been slithering around. Do an air-freshening spell, would you sweetheart?"

While the girl complied with Black's request, Eris breathed, "That prat needs a hex." Pulling him back, his unseen partner stopped on the other side of the stacks from the couple and removed a book to give her wand a clear shot. Immediately after muttering softly, she yanked his arm, urging him to leave quickly. Once visible in the main section of the library, she began to giggle.

Severus asked, "What hex did you…?"

A shriek erupted, bringing his attention to the girl storming out of the Restricted Section, wiping her mouth furiously. He looked at Eris, who smiled angelically. "Halitosis."

He snorted in amusement before taking his leave. For the rest of the day, Severus chuckled inwardly every time he heard the rumour that Sirius Black had dog-breath.

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A/N: No, I couldn't resist the Dr. Seuss breakfast or the dog and cat allusions, so throw me a bone (or a chocolate frog) and review! Thanks go out to the wonderful people who made me smile by reviewing the last chapter...:♥ 40/16 ♥ cupcakeswirl ♥ ElspethBates ♥ Embellished ♥ FNP ♥Funnykido ♥ GraceRichie ♥ kathaania ♥ Nazgulgirl ♥ sunny9847 ♥