Title: Making Tomorrow Yesterday: Chapter Four
Summary: Salene Snape transfers to Hogwarts after she runs away from her parents. Immediately, she catches the eye of Sirius Black. However, she refuses to like him because of his immaturity and...she doesn't want to just be another one of his one week flings. When Professor Carter, the DADA professor, finds out Durmstrang didn't teach defense, she assigns Black to tutor her, because he is the best student. And that is when it all begins. It would be easier, of course, if her cousin Severus wasn't breathing down her neck all the time. In this chapter, you find out what happens to Salene and Sirius. Something "bad" happens...
Pairings: SB/OC RL/SS JP/LE
Feedback: ALL feedback is appreciated, as long as it is not needless flames. Those you can keep to yourself.
Rating/Warnings: This is M (R) for language, romance, and torture. The romance in this story, however, does not pass a light PG-13, if that. Mainly you have to watch out for language and torture/abuse.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: I reposted this chapter because last time I was rushed and distracted. The only really noticable change is the scene where Salene and Sirius make up.
Chapter Four:
Salene studied the unconscious form before her, anger pounding in her veins, a roaring filling her ears. Severus was so...so...insufferable and...overprotective! Dammit! What right did he have to attack Sirius while his back was turned...and about to kiss her? Not to mention, he attacked her in the process, though that was an accident. Madam Pomfrey had healed her up easily, mending her broken arm in five minutes and rubbing salve on her cuts.
She raised her hand to her face and found the deep gashes there were gone. She glanced at Severus, who was standing in silent fury before the headmaster, half listening to his lecture as he scowled at the ground. All the anger left her and she sighed. Severus had it hard enough, he was just trying to make sure one of the few people who did care about him didn't leave...like his mother had. Eventually his abusive father, to Salene he was Uncle Sev - Purebloods loved naming the firstborn son after the father - had driven Aunt Christy (as was her nickname) over the edge. Salene had been visiting with Severus and would never forget her swelled face, bulging empty eyes, the rope tied around her bruised neck...and worse, the bleeding wounds on her wrists, gently dripping. Apparently, she had planned to bleed to death but changed her mind and hung herself. It had hit Salene hard, but not nearly so much as Severus. He had almost died from depression.
"Salene?" She looked up into Severus' onyx eyes, which looked sincere. "I'm sorry."
"I forgive you. But I stay mostly out of your love life, so please stay out of mine," she said, standing up and surprising even herself by drawing him into a hug.
"Mostly?" he asked, eyebrows arching. "What, exactly, do you mean by that?"
"Nothing," she replied vaguely, but flashing him a smirk. "Let's just say Lupin's...quite a catch. Intellectual - more than most of these imbeciles anyway - not bad looking...and he thinks he loves you, though why I'm not sure." Severus went bright red, a rare occurrence. He never blushed, nonetheless went scarlet. "Don't worry, I told him you love him too."
"I...You love Black," he snapped, looking uncomfortable.
"I do not. But that's okay, about you and Lupin. Do you know he's a we-"
"Miss Snape, Severus has detention to serve," Professor Dumbledore said kindly. However, something in his eyes told her not to reveal Lupin's secret to Severus. "I believe you have a certain friend in a hospital bed that would like your attention, though unconscious he may be." Salene looked down, ignoring Severus' farewell smirk as he followed the headmaster out of the room.
She turned around and looked at Sirius, now uncertain. She lowered herself to the foot of the bed and drew her knees to her chest, watching his fingers twitch as he slept. A simple Ennervate would wake him, but perhaps it was better he was unconscious. She reached out and took his hand, feeling self-conscious, which was rather stupid because the only other person in the room was knocked out. "No one knows how to kill a mood like Severus," she sighed, absently running her thumb across his palm. "This feels really stupid because it's not as if you're in a coma or dying. I could tell you all this in five minutes when you're awake, but I don't think I can handle your reaction. It's not fair, really, that I like you so much in so little time. I've never liked anyone, I was brought up not to. It's not normal for a Snape. Then again, Severus likes Lupin..."
"What?" The boy in bed shot up, eyes opening wide. "Snivellus likes who?"
"You were supposed to be unconscious," she accused, standing and crossing her arms over her chest, eyes narrowing. He looked suddenly abashed and his cheeks colored.
"Well, I know...I woke up about five minutes ago and I didn't really want to open my eyes," he said. He seemed extremely uncomfortable but that only angered her further.
"I was about to pour my heart out to you, and you-" He reached up and pulled Salene's head down to press her lips to his. She resisted for a few seconds, but then relaxed in the kiss. His tongue darted out and slid across her lower lip and she opened her mouth to his, moaning quietly. Then, like a punch in the stomach, she realized what she was doing and she pulled away. "Sirius, we can't." She controlled her breathing, though she noticed Sirius was having a bit of a problem with that. She had somehow ended up straddling him and slid off the bed, standing next to him.
"Why?"
"I can't be one of the girlfriends you forget in another week." He wanted to say something but she didn't let him because she'd turned away and left before she could digest the raw hurt on his face.
When Salene opened the door and stepped outside a balst of cool air hit her face, almost as physical as a slap. Tears stung her eyes, but she assured herself it was the cold. She stuck her hands in her pockets, an act that was unquestionably a disgrace to the Snape name. But at the moment, she could care less what happened to the Snape image. It wasn't as if she'd done such a great job anyway.
"Salene?" She froze, stunned at the sound of her voice in Sirius' voice, and the earnestness it portrayed in that single word. "Can we talk?"
She stopped to think about that before shaking her head. "I'll just go back to Durmstrang and be initiated because I'd rather kill people for a living than spend another minute alone with you," she explained, in a tone of forced control.
"Do you really mean that?" This time, the question was sad and defeated. Her eyes closed automatically and she pressed her palms into her eyes, trying to wake herself up. It didn't work. Sirius was still standing a scant feet away, slouched and an unfathomable look in his eyes.
"It's not like that. For the past seventeen years, I've been alone, but not exactly lonely. I can be alone, it's easy, and I...I think I can kill. But I can't..."
"Love," he supplied and she glared.
"I never said I even remotely loved you. I said there's a possibility that I could maybe one day like you."
"That's the sweetest profession of love I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot," he teased. A wry laugh escaped her, and they simply stared at each other for several minutes. "What do we do now?"
"I guess, this," she said softly and stepped forward, kissing him softly and quickly.
"Ah, we kiss," he said, grinning widely. "We made a poem!" She wordlessly smiled in return him, trying to calm her fluttering heart and hoping it was a physical fault - cold, perhaps - and not the side effect of the kiss.
Salene frowned at what she had written, before scratching out her last sentence angrily, ink staining her hand and forearm. She continued scribbling and then paused, her eyes zooming over the words. She swore and snapped her quill in half, causing ink to squirt across the table and splatter on her face. Then she tore her paper into tiny confetti bits and glared at them once done. "Are you alright?" She looked up, startled, to see Lupin standing over her, frowning lightly in concern. She remained silent, scowling in no specific direction, and he sighed before waving his wand at the mess she had created. "Incendio," he murmured and her scraps of paper disintegrated.
"Now there's a pile of ashes," she snapped, reaching for her own wand and swishing it. The ashes fluttered into the air and then disappeared altogether.
"What was that?" he asked curiously, seeming to disregard her tone.
"It's a spell that turns an object, or objects, into oxygen," she explained, sighing and rubbing her temples. "Very useful when a rope or a snake is cutting off your air supply. Not only are the restraints gone, but you have a fresh supply of air floating in front of you." He ducked his head to hide a smile and took a seat across from her.
"What had you so angry?"
"I told Sirius you and Severus were together," she said, carefully studying her still-stained fingers. "And," she continued, ignoring his sudden glare, mingled with horror, "when I told Severus a few days ago he got so angry he hexed me so I can't talk to Sirius for a week. I'm writing out my frustrations, but it results for a poor quality essay."
"Why would that bother you?" He seemed genuinely interested, and for a moment she paused to consider why. Then she realized...she was his boyfriend's cousin. And she was most likely Severus' best friend.
"Ask Sirius."
"Well...I was actually wondering if you knew where Severus was. I haven't seen him since his last detention on Thursday," he said. She looked up, eyes flashing in alarm, going visibly paler. He'd been gone three days?
"He wasn't in any classes on Friday, either. I figured he was sick." Salene rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes. "Did you two...ever discuss the war?" She hated bringing it up, because it was pinning suspicion on Severus and planting seeds of distrust in Lupin's mind. But it had to be done.
"Er - not really. I just figured he wouldn't want to be a Death Eater...I'm a so-called Mudblood, after all," he said, shifting in his seat. "You don't think he would, do you?"
"Severus...is a very hypocritical man. There is a chance he was initiated, but there is just as large a chance he wasn't. As soon as he comes back I'll talk with him...but please don't approach him. If I find out anything, I'll tell you." Lupin smiled and stood.
"Do all Snapes have a...not so biting interior?" he asked, studying her thoughtfully.
"No," she answered, closing her emotions once more. "Normally their interior is much worse than their exterior." She also stood and began to carefully pack her bags away as Lupin shook his head and left the library. It wasn't until she straightened and also began to exit that she noticed Madam Pince had been glaring at her the entire time.
The door to the common room opened and Salene's head snapped up in time to see Severus limp in, clutching his arm and trembling uncontrollably. "What happened?" she asked, her anger replaced with anxiety. "Lumos." The dim form of Severus lit up before her, and had she been anyone else her dinner contents would have been spilled across the carpet. As it was, she had seen both her parents in similar states, and knew immediately what had happened. And even though she knew, she hoped against hope she was wrong. "Severus, tell me you didn't..."
"I did," he growled savagely. "Are you going to run to Dumbledore? Better yet, your stupid bo-" He cut off abruptly as she buried her face in her hands and began to cry, silently and softly, but still producing tears. "...Salene?"
"How could you? How could you? Pretty much all suffering in the Wizarding world is because of him. He keeps people awake all night, terrified of being attacked. He makes the best of friends hate each other because of a suspicion that was normally wrong." She met his eyes for the first time, sapphire challenging onyx. "He killed your mother."
"What?" He lurched back, fingers tightening on his forearm, and for half a second she to paused to wonder on it. "She killed herself."
"Technically, yes. But it was only after your father entered the service of Voldemort that he started beating her and you-" Once again, she was cut off, this time by a sharp backhand across her face. She tumbled backward, half unaware she had risen, and stared at her cousin with wide eyes, a hand pressed to her cheek.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" he snarled, hands now balled into fists.
"A better person than you," she answered with quiet venom and turned on her heel to stomp into the dormitory. Bellatrix was sitting up, fully alert, and grinning wickedly. The fireplace had been lit and, by the faint shimmer of silver in the air surrounding it, a silencing charm on Bellatrix's bed. Kendall and Claire were suspiciously still, when Salene knew Kendall often screamed in her sleep and Claire was prone to rolling out of bed. "Yes?" she asked warily, face still stinging as she subtly reached for her wand.
"This is from my master," Bellatrix whispered and, before Salene could fully process the statement - she was half asleep and struggling with tears - a hex was flung at her and she crumbled to the ground, unconscious for the second time that day.
The first thing Salene saw when her eyes fluttered open was Claire peering anxiously into her face, a potion clutched tightly in her hand. "Oh God, are you okay?" she fretted, shoving the phial into the other girl's hand. "Drink this. It heals internal bleeding, and I have some cream for you to rub on any cuts. I have no idea what she did to you, but it looked like it hurt. Oh my God, I can't believe her..." Salene's hand wandered across her nightstand and froze when she didn't find her wand. "Oh, right," Claire said, smacking her head before reaching into her robes. "I nicked it for you. Bellatrix was furious..." she trailed off once more as Salene closed her fingers around the familiar, slightly pulsing - with magic - handle of her wand.
"Thanks," she said, setting the potion down on her nightstand and ignoring the ripping pain that jolted through her every time she moved. She could handle this, and she would not give Bellatrix the satisfaction of knowing how much she had hurt her. Telling would be doing just that, and personal revenge was much sweeter. "Listen, you have to keep this a secret. You may not understand, but if you don't agree to keep quiet I'll have to obliviate you, and I honestly don't want to do that." Claire nodded, suddenly tight-lipped and white, disapproving. "What?"
Claire shook her head and remained silent for all of three seconds. "You're sating her twisted lust for power! She wanted to hurt you enough that you'd be scared to tell the headmaster. You have to tell!" Salene sighed, wondering how in Salazar's name the girl before her had been sorted into Slytherin.
"Look, you can whine on and on about this, or you can help me get revenge." This statement brought a wicked smirk to Claire's face and she settled more comfortably on the bed, answering Salene's silent question immediately.
End Author's Notes: Thanks goes out to CerealKiller for the review, and to those who (possibly) are reading and enjoying, but not reviewing. I appreciate the effort anyway.
