They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
When Severus and Sage approach Albus to inform him of the death of MacDonald's familiar, he fails to hide his surprise. He evidently hadn't believed another familiar would die – or, more likely, not so soon. Whisking them off to his office, he spends a good hour asking them all kinds of questions. It starts with ones about how long MacDonald's familiar was missing, where they found her rat, what the rat looked like when they found it (his face when they told him they let MacDonald take it home would have been laughable in any other situation). Then, he started asking questions about MacDonald herself, if they knew anyone who was angry with her, or if there was anyone that didn't like her. Unfortunately, neither he or Sage could answer those questions. They knew MacDonald only in passing.
Eventually, when they start going in circles, Severus says, "Sir, we don't know anything more than we've told you."
Albus sighs. "No, I suppose you don't."
Sage, who's begun to shrink into his seat as the interrogation wore on, sits up a little straighter. "Does that mean we can leave?"
"Yes, Mister Montague. You and Mister Snape may leave."
Neither one needs any more permission to get to their feet.
"One last thing, boys. Mister Snape?" Albus calls as Montague begins to open the door to the office.
Severus turns to face the Headmaster.
"I strongly advise when your house prefects reset Slytherin's password after holidays you don't give it out to non-house members. Even if they are friends," the old man says while dipping his quill in a pot of ink.
He bites his tongue hard enough to hurt. "Yes, Headmaster," Severus says after swallowing down at least a dozen other less polite responses.
Seemingly mollified, the old man turns his attention to pulling a new piece of parchment from his desk and Severus and Sage slip out without any more impediments.
Once in the hall, Sage asks, "How'd he know you gave out our house's password?"
Severus is in a foul enough mood at this point he doesn't even bother to explain what Legilimency is. He just spits "you!" at the boy before stalking off in the opposite direction of their dorms.
After him, Sage calls, "Where are you going?"
"To see Sirius!"
-O-
It's an utterly childish way to spend an afternoon, but Sirius is insistent Severus help him build a snowdragon. Currently, it looks quite a lot more like an overly large snake than a little dragon. Severus shivers, but not from the cold. Plonking another heap of snow on top of their growing sculpture, Sirius asks, "Why didn't the girls wake the boy's dorm? We would have helped look for MacDonald's rat."
"I don't think any of them slept much last night. They were too tired and fixed on finding the familiar as soon as possible to be smart about it," Severus explains. He then pulls out his wand and carves a bit into the snow with a couple of cutting spells, leaving a scale-like pattern on what is going to be the body of their dragon.
Sirius makes an impressed noise and inspects the scales. "You have to teach me that spell!" he exclaims.
Severus nods. "Sure."
"Anyway, why was Montague helping you and the girls then?" Sirius asks.
He joins Sirius in gathering snow for their latest segment and answers, "He woke up when Lily came for me and wanted to."
"Why?"
Not bothering to look up as he packs on more snow to what will be the dragon's back leg, Severus says to Sirius, "Did you hear about what happened to his owl in October?"
"Yeah, Narcissa mentioned it once," the boy replies.
Giving a satisfied nod at this information, Severus tells him, "He knows what it feels like to lose a familiar. I don't think he had any reason beyond wanting to help someone going through what he went through."
"That's… nice."
Severus snorts as he stands back up. "You make it sound like a bad thing."
Sirius frowns a little. "Slytherins aren't nice."
He raises an eyebrow at the boy.
Blushing a little Sirius looks away and corrects, "Most aren't nice. I guess Montague is one of the rare ones."
Severus can't help himself. "What about me? Or your little brother?" Then, grinning, he asks, "What about Narcissa?"
"Oh, belt up. I already said I was wrong!" Sirius grumbles.
Teasingly, Severus asks, "Did you? Perhaps you should say it a little more plainly next time."
Sirius lobs a snowball at him. Severus dodges it and tosses a handful of snow back in the boy's direction. They keep this up for a while, shouting now and again when one of them manages to make a hit (meaning Sirius yells quite a lot and Severus only when he lets Sirius get a shot). From behind, a child gives a battle cry and Severus falls to his hands and knees when a pile of snow is dropped on top of him.
As he works to get the cold, wet snow from his eyes, he makes out the sound of Narcissa's laughter as Sirius continues to yell, but at someone this time. When the snow is gone from his eyes, he rolls them at the sight in front of him.
Sirius and Regulus are battling it out, using the snowdragon Severus and he had been building as a makeshift blockade. As for Narcissa… He turns his head and sees the teenager smirking down at him.
"You dumped all of that on me, but you're not going to join in to help Regulus?" he asks.
Narcissa shrugs. "I helped him already," she says. "You would have sided with Sirius if I hadn't taken you out."
"Probably," Severus agrees. Then, after a moment, he realizes something. "Why are you and Regulus still here?"
The amusement fades from the teenager's face. "Christmas is for families."
"Sirius didn't just decide to stay again this year to spite his parents, did he?" Severus says more than asks, feeling both a little disgusted at the Black families and at himself for not realizing Sirius had lied to him.
Narcissa purses her lips. "No," she answers. "But Regulus and I are."
"You're doing a really good thing, Narcissa," Severus assures her. "He's not going to forget this."
Something just a bit too close to sorrow crosses Narcissa's features. "I hope you're right," she whispers.
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