Disclaimer: All Harry Potter people, places, things, or ideas (all Harry Potter nouns) belong to J. K. Rowlings.
Chapter 7: The frivolousness of shrinks.
Minerva sat at her desk after class, chessboard out and set up, a pot of tea also prepared, waiting for her usual guest. She glanced up at the door expecting to hear someone knock… and nothing happened. She waited another fifteen minutes and he had still not appeared. This is peculiar. He is usually punctual. Something must have gone wrong at some point. I do hope nothing dreadful has happened to him, she reasoned, wondering why he had not come.
She did not see him again outside of class until the Quidditch game just after St. Valentine's Day between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. "Mr. Snape, you missed our meeting," she remarked as they neared the bleachers.
He looked over his shoulder and nodded politely at her. "Believe me, I'd rather have been there, but I had detention with Professor Eygore," he admitted.
She raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Dare I inquire as to what you did?"
Slowing his pace so that she caught up to him, he waited until the crowd was not as dense and responded loudly enough for only her to hear him. "I suggest that we play that game of chess that I missed after the Quidditch match. If you win, I will tell you why I had detention. If I win, you can tell me something about yourself."
"You've made an interesting challenge. I accept," she stated before they parted for their respective seats.
Gryffindor had won the match, putting Minerva in a bright mood as she returned to her office and waited for her guest. After roughly ten minutes she heard a knock at the door. She invited him in and the two had tea as the chess game commenced. Both were competitive enough to allow the game to last for two hours, each attempting to outsmart the opponent. Severus finally won and Minerva sighed.
"That was a game well played, Mr. Snape. However, I do not know what information that I could give you about myself would be of enough interest to you to satisfy our bet," she remarked.
He thought for a moment. "I am merely curious about what your firs name is."
Well that doesn't sound so bad. "It's 'Minerva,' after the Roman goddess of wisdom. Something you may find interesting is that 'Minerva' is another name for 'Athena.' The Greeks called their goddess of wisdom 'Athena,' but when the Romans took over, they renamed several of the Greek deities. For example, 'Zeus' became 'Jupiter,' 'Ares' became 'Mars,' and 'Aphrodite' became 'Venus'" she explained.
"And then we let the Romans name the planets, I suppose?" he mentioned wryly.
"Not exactly," she commented as she laughed and shook her head.
He stood as if he was leaving, but faced her. "I want to tell you why I had detention. It was because I corrected Professor Eygore on a potion he had told the class to make. He was trying to use porcupine quills, and though the potion still would have worked, if he were using dill weed, it would be less volatile. I made the suggestion and received a detention for it," he clarified.
Sighing, she stood and walked with him over to the door. "You really must stop looking for trouble. There are ways of proving yourself that are less confrontational."
He shook his head. "But I was not trying to cause a confrontation. As I mentioned before, regarding the potions that cured you, I excused his involvement on my own bad luck. I was only trying to make a contribution to the class. That man hates me and I am not certain as to why."
Perhaps it's because he knows you are smarter than he is, she theorized. "I really can't say, Mr. Snape. Will you be at our next appointment?"
"Providing that I don't find myself in detention again I should be," he added with a smirk before leaving. She closed the door and returned to her desk to check over the lesson plan for the next week.
Later that day an owl arrived at her window. The creature was not an ordinary owl though, but was only twenty-two centimeters with brown plumage and white spots. Who would have an owl this small and why? The only reason I can think of at the moment is so that messages would be harder to trace if a smaller owl was taking them, she surmised as she untied the parchment. The bird left immediately after being freed of its charge. She raised an eyebrow as she read the note:
Dear Aphrodite,
You are both a goddess of wisdom and a goddess of beauty. You do not know who I am, but I assure you that I mean you no harm.
Your Black Knight
"What on earth is this? Is it someone's idea of a joke? I truly hope that whoever sent this knows what he or she is doing," she mused aloud.
They met the following Thursday for their regularly scheduled chess game. Her mind wandered as they played. I wonder why he comes to these games. It isn't as if he does not have homework or something else he could be doing. Is it a need for something consistent? I suppose it's time that I finally asked. Halfway through the game, she asked him a question that had been nagging at her for a while.
"Why do you keep coming to these sessions?" she asked him as she moved her rook.
He took a pawn with a knight. "These aren't sessions: these are chess games in which the opponents are evenly matched. This is all an ongoing chess tournament. If these were sessions, I wouldn't be here. Professor, people that are sent to sessions are there because others feel that they have something psychologically wrong with them that needs adjusting, or that their life needs a change of direction. In such situations though, the advice only goes one way."
"And things run differently at chess tournaments?" she inquired, taking one of his pawns with her rook.
He nodded. "You have never made me feel as though I needed some sort of counseling, and for that I respect you all the more. And then of course, there is the fact that you don't look much like a shrink," he paused and looked at his knight. "And as for an equal exchange of ideas and advice, your king is in check."
She sighed and realized that she had paid too much attention to acquiring his pawns and not enough attention to where her other pieces were. He eventually won the game and they parted company. As she was about to leave her office for the evening meal, the small owl returned to her window with another note. It flew away again as soon as she had removed the parchment and had begun to read it:
Dear Aphrodite,
Your wisdom beguiles me. I do hope that all has gone well with you and that your day brought a few interesting discussions.
Your Black Knight
She shook her head as she pondered who could be sending her such notes. I think I'll ask Ro if she knows anything, Minerva decided before going to the Great Hall for dinner.
(My thanks to excessivelyperky and Miss eo-Wyn for reviewing :D)