They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
Even with him and Lily surreptitiously searching for the corpse of Carrow's cat in addition to Carrow himself, they don't find it. At least, not in time to save the life of another familiar. On the last Tuesday before NEWTs and OWLs, another familiar is officially missing. It's a cat, just like last time. However, instead of another Slytherin familiar, or a second Gryffindor one, it belongs to a Ravenclaw prefect by the name of Margo Peasegood.
Severus can't say he knows too much about her future. He knows her twin, Arnie Peasegood, becomes a highly esteemed hit-wizard and obliviator by the time of Severus's death, but, otherwise, the Peasegoods are an unknown quantity to him. He just hopes her cat died the first time too and this isn't going to cause some kind of big wave in the futures of her and her brother.
When Lily informs him after hearing the gossip from a couple of her dormmates, she is beside herself.
"No more were supposed to die!" she says.
He sighs. Then, he frowns. Is this her way of calling him a liar? Severus asks, "Are you blaming the cat's disappearance on me?"
Lily's jaw drops in horror. "No!" she all but shouts, drawing more than a little attention from other students who are out on Hogwarts green expanses trying to both study and enjoy the good weather.
Shooting off several glares at students who are paying them far too much attention to them for his liking, Severus puts a hand on Lily's arm and says, "I didn't know Carrow's cat would be so difficult to find." Feeling a little glum himself at the admission, he mutters, "The other two were easy enough to find."
His friend wraps him up in an abrupt hug. "I know," she whispers.
He pats Lily's back before he pulls away. "I am sorry another has disappeared."
She offers a grimace of a smile in return. "I think we need to start thinking of new places she may have hidden the familiars," Lily remarks.
Severus is about to agree when a shriek carries on the wind to them. They share a look before hurrying to their feet. "I think it came from near the Forbidden Forest," Severus says.
Worriedly, Lily asks, "Do you think someone wandered into it?"
"Perhaps," Severus answers. Children are dunderheads a lot of the time and he wouldn't put it past one to dare another to go in.
Like many other students of varying ages and houses, they wander toward where the shriek came from – from where yelling is now coming. Grabbing Lily's wrist when they come to the growing crowd, he shoulders them through it until they are at the very front. Severus is only slightly surprised to see the ones that caused the commotion is the Marauders. Off to the side, Pettigrew is emptying his stomach into the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Lupin stands beside him, hands hovering just above the smaller boy's shoulders, expression concerned. As for Potter and Sirius, they are next to one another, one standing, one kneeling, creating a wall around whatever it is that elicited the shriek in the first place.
Nudging Sirius, who's the one knelt on the ground, with his toe, Severus demands, "What happened?"
The boy looks up. His eyes are frantic and just a little bit afraid. "I think we might have found one of the missing cats."
Severus doesn't hesitate to drop down beside Sirius after that. When he does, he hisses at the sight of the corpse, which is mostly bones at this point. Meticulously scanning them, he notes none appear to be broken. Which is both helpful and very unhelpful to know. It rules out a number of curses that could have been used on the creature, but also leaves so much unknown since there is so little of the flesh to study. All he can do is speculate about what actually killed it at this point.
Pale and looking a bit ill himself, Potter asks, "D'you think it wandered out here and got eaten or something?"
"Not even a bit," Severus answers. Turning to where Lily stands just a few steps behind, he tells her, "Go get a professor."
Lily nods, but before she can run off, Potter says, "I'll come with you." And hurries over to her side. He watches the way Lily's face flickers between shock, confusion, and worry. She knows just as well as he does Potter's offer is not selfless. He wonders if she'll manage to get him to talk later about why he insisted on accompanying her.
Severus next turns his attention to Lupin and Pettigrew. "Is he still throwing up?" he questions.
"Just heaving now!" Lupin yells back.
He nods, not bothering to let the boy know he heard. After a moment, he advises, "When he's done, take him to the infirmary. Madam Pomfrey can give him something to settle his nerves."
Lupin says, "Alright." And then he begins to pull at Pettigrew's arm, bringing him to his feet. "C'mon, Peter…"
As the two begin to walk around the crowd and back toward Hogwarts, a prefect finally manages to get their way through the gathered students and yells, "What's going on here?"
Severus stands to face the prefect, who he now recognizes as Frank Longbottom. "Sirius, Potter, Lupin, and Pettigrew found the skeleton of a cat."
Longbottom's expression turns to one of horror. But it quickly falls away and is replaced with a look of determination as he turns to face the students who are now speculating and jostling one another closer, trying to get a look at what lays at Severus's feet. "Oi!" he shouts, "backup you lot!"
Some of the children start to look mutinous as others do as they are told and step away from Sirius, Severus, and Longbottom. Watching Longbottom direct the children away from them, Snape is reminded of the man's son. For most of the time he knew the boy, Neville Longbottom had been a bumbling dunderhead. It was only in the boy's last year at Hogwarts he even began to see a fraction of the confidence his father now displays. Perhaps if Severus and Lily can find a way to keep him from being tortured into nothing more than an imbecile, his son will show that confidence far sooner in his life. Merlin knows Hogwarts can always use more prefects who actually hold some kind of authoritative sway over their fellow students.
While Longbottom begins to threaten the few who remain with losing house points, Lily and Potter return with the Deputy Headmistress and Headmaster. When Albus's gaze settles on Severus, he once again tries to poke around in his thoughts. Just as he has the last couple of times, Severus blocks him out of the things he doesn't want the old man to see and pushes forward irrelevant images and thoughts. While Severus combats Albus's attempts to intrude on his mind, Minerva stops to talk with Longbottom and the last couple of students who have not been scared off. Finally, the headmaster gives up on invading Severus's mind and instead comes over to Severus and Sirius's sides.
"Mister Potter tells me you and your friends found the skeleton, Mister Black," he remarks.
Sirius nods. "Yes, Headmaster," he says, "we were walking along the edge of the woods and Peter tripped over it."
That explained the shriek from earlier. The man's eyes move to Severus then. "And you, Mister Snape?"
"Sir?"
Albus's expression is quite grave as he asks, "What has brought you here today?"
"Lily and I heard Pettigrew scream and came to see what happened." He frowns. "Like everyone else."
The man's expression remains unimpressed. "I assume you believe this cat was killed by a student? Like Miss MacDonald's familiar? Montague's?"
Severus doesn't even bother to hide his annoyance. "I know it was."
Beside him, Sirius asks, "How?"
He looks at the confused boy, then at Albus, whose face is now unreadable, and, finally, at Lily, whose steady gaze meets his. Ever so slightly she dips her chin. She's by far the readiest of the two of them for this reign of terror on Hogwarts's familiar to be over. This is far different from his imaginings of the scenarios where he would tell Albus about what he saw that night, but it will do. It has to.
Severus feels like he owes Lily the end of this too. He'd said there would be no more killings and he had been wrong. Another student lost their familiar and if he doesn't do something soon, yet another will join those murdered.
Feigning something he hopes looks a bit like hesitancy, he says, "I didn't really think much of it when it happened." Meeting Albus's stare head on, Severus dredges up the memory to sit on the surface of his thoughts, praying the man will once again try legilimency on him. "However, the disappearance of Peasegood's familiar has made me wonder if there hadn't been more to what I saw." He starts to fidget with his wand as he says, "Just a couple of days before Carrow started to ask after his familiar, I saw Evangeline Channing with it. She also said something about a spell she wanted to do, but couldn't do in the dorm because it was messy. She then walked out of the dorm, after curfew you, mind, with the cat, and then it hasn't been seen since." Severus glances at the skeletal remains at his feet. "Until now, anyway."
Albus, who did look into Severus's mind, just as he hoped would, looks torn between disbelief and alarm.
"How come you never said anything before?" Sirius asks, sounding a bit miffed that he would keep such a secret for so long.
He shrugs his shoulders and says, "I didn't think much of it until lately. It's not all that strange for others to play with someone else's familiar when they don't have one. It's just… It was another cat that went missing. That made me think about Carrow's and how I last saw it with Channing. The spell bit has begun to feel kind of dark now too, you know?"
He obviously does, because Sirius's eyes are big and his face as white as some of the ghosts that wander Hogwarts's corridors. He's also not the only one, because Albus has gestured for Minerva and the others to come closer. Voice sharp, he orders, "Mister Longbottom, I want you to to take these four back to the castle for me and then alert Professor Slughorn that I want to see him and Miss Evangeline Channing in my office."
The teenager nods. "Yes, Headmaster." Gesturing for Sirius, Severus, Lily, and Potter to join him, he says to them, "Come on you lot, let's head inside."
As Longbottom herds their group away from the Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress, Severus tilts his head back ever so slightly to listen in as Albus talks to Minerva.
"Minerva, I need you to contact Miss Channing's parents for me…"
The knots his stomach put itself in begin to loosen. By some stroke of luck, it appears Albus has not only heard Severus, but listened. He looks around Sirius and Longbottom to find Lily gazing back at him. He mouths at her, "He listened."
In return, Lily grins brilliantly.
I feel like I should apologize for the fact Carrow's cat wasn't the last familiar to die in this fic. So, sorry you guys. How did you all like this chapter? Albus finally knows and is going to do something about it!
Also, great job last chapter figuring out who's mother Evangeline is, guys! All of you who guessed Blaise Zabini's were correct :)
Thank you times a billion for reading everyone!