They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
He drives his elbow into Sirius's face. "Back up!" he growls.
Sirius only shoves him in return – which moves Severus a lot more than his elbow ever moved Sirius. Damn the Black heir and his extra height and weight. "You back up!" he grumbles. "I'm the one who convinced James to let me lend them his invisibility cloak!"
"I made the lanterns so they'll be able to see each other's bloody faces when they reach the spot!" Severus argues back.
The boy snorts. "Why you gloat about that, I don't know. You made their mood lighting. It's so girly."
Severus flushes angrily. "Is not!" he snapped. "I had to sneak into Slughorn's stores to find the glow worms." He crosses his arms. "I risked getting another detention. What did you risk, you cowardly prat?"
Sirius's face screws up with anger-tinged irritation. However, before he can unleash it on Severus, Lily squeezes in right between them. "Did they reach the spot yet?" she asks.
Severus stretches his neck as far as he can to peer out the slit of a window. "No," he answers. "I don't see the glow of their lantern."
"I hope they like the spread I managed to get the house elves to put together for them," Lily frets.
Severus smiles at her. "Who doesn't like empire biscuits?"
Before Lily can reply, Sirius nearly jumps halfway out the window. "I see the lantern!"
"Sirius!" yelps Lily as she grabs his robe. "You'll fall out!" she cries, tugging on the larger Gryffindor hard.
The fabric of Sirius's robe taut, he stays where he is for a moment. Then, almost as if he's humoring Lily, he falls back quick and heavy as if her pulling worked to reign him in. He beams a flippant grin at her. "Hogwarts is warded against that kind of thing, you know."
Displeased Lily childishly sticks out her tongue. "I'm sorry, next time I'll just twiddle my thumbs while you throw yourself out the window."
"Thanks!" Sirius chirps annoyingly.
Severus rolls his eyes and shoves the other out of the way once more. This time, Sirius lets him. Peering out, Severus reaches into his pocket for his telescope. He can't see much but the dim light of their lantern as things are. Once he's got his telescope situated, he points it the direction of Clara and Benjy's light.
"You brought your telescope?" Sirius asks, amused. "What are you? A voyeur?"
Before Severus can so much as twist around to whack his friend upside the head, Sirius lets out a painful yelp. "Merlin! That's my hair, you bint!"
"I'm the one who asked him to bring his telescope in the first place!" Lily snaps. "If Sev's a voyeur, then so am I! And I'm not!"
Severus doesn't bother to hide his laughter.
Sulkily, Sirius demands, "How was I supposed to know that?"
Readjusting the telescope so he can better see the shadowy figures of Benjy and Clara, Severus tells him, "Perhaps you should learn to speak more kindly."
The boy makes a noise that Severus likes to think is a hum of agreement.
Lily sidles up beside him and asks, "How do they look? Are they sitting close together?"
"Fine," Severus answers. "Ah, one of them just leaned in toward the other." He stares a while longer, waiting, watching for them to separate. Eventually, they do. "I think they were snogging."
"Let me see," Lily demands, fingers brushing his as they wrap around the hilt of his telescope.
Severus lets it go and pulls away. A couple of moments later, Lily gasps. "I didn't think Clara knew how to be so forward."
"What? What?" Sirius demands, trying to take the telescope from the girl.
Lily refuses outright. "Nope, no, not in your lifetime," she says. Collapsing the telescope back down, she hands it to Severus. Cheeks a little flushed, she tells him, "I think they're just fine."
Severus smirks. "Caught an eyeful, did you?"
She glares at him.
Finally, he sighs. "Let's go. We don't want Filch or his damn cat to find us."
-o-O-o-
Even though he doesn't need to. Probably shouldn't, either, Severus waits in the common room for Clara. Half past one, he hears the portrait move aside and let someone in. Putting his head in his hands to wait, he smirks when he sees her ruffled form come into view.
"How was it?" he asks.
Clara's face turns pink as she smiles and looks away. "Brilliant. I'd give up my magic for another night like that."
He raises an eyebrow. "Fenwick's that good, is he?"
She turns crimson. "That's not what I meant," she says. "We did, but…" she sighs, a little smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. "He said he loves me."
"What about you? Do you love him?" Severus asks, partially out of curiosity, but mostly to see if this is going to be the beginning of Clara's fall from Pureblood grace.
The young woman's hand goes to her necklace. She's quiet for a time, just toying with the white-gold between her fingers. Finally, she whispers, "Yes. So, so much."
Severus won't be able to say later what compels him to, but he questions, "Enough to give up your family?"
A stricken look overtakes Clara's countenance. "That's what's going to happen, isn't it? I'm going to have to choose."
He looks at his bare toes and then back at her. "If you don't, one of them will."
"You don't… I have time, don't I?" she asks, a pleading lilt to her tone.
Severus lifts his head out his hands and nods. "Some," he agrees. "Some."
Tears now building in the corners of her eyes, Clara takes a shuddering breath. She smiles at him. "Thank you," she whispers. "Good night, Severus."
"G'night," he returns.
He then watches the Parkinson girl leave for her dorm. When he is alone once more, Severus hides his face in his hands. Silently, he asks himself, 'Why did I have to ruin her night?'
-o-O-o-
Severus knows it's a bad idea. Has since he first received his mother's letter, even, but he has to know. Just how much has Severus's mother shared with the man? Waiting just outside the door to his grandfather's classroom as Ravenclaw and Gryffindor sixth years file out, Severus fingers the worn edges of his mother's last letter to him.
He's tried to write her back several times since she sent her warning, but never could bring himself to actually send her his letters. He doubts she'll tell him who the killer is in a letter, or who their sister is, or how his father was killed, either. Nor has Severus been able to pretend it's not on his mind in the aborted letters he's written to her. Even when he tries to just focus on telling her about the banalities of Hogwarts life, it's always derailed into demands for more information on what she's discovered.
(The worst part, despite him refusing to do more than acknowledge the possibility, is that she could be wrong. The madness that's overtaken her since his father's murder may have finally gotten the better of her. The killer she thinks she's found might all be just a figment of her mental mind. And if that's the case, the last thing Severus wants to do is encourage it).
When the last student hurries past Severus to catch up with a small group of lingering students just down the corridor, Severus squares his shoulder and strolls into Demitri's classroom.
The man, who sits behind his desk, a student's essay in hand, sighs. He puts down the parchment and steeples his hands in front of him. "Hello, Mister Snape," he says. "What has brought you here? You've served your detention already with me this week."
The key word being detention and not detenions. Since the boggart mess, his grandfather has been almost lenient with Severus. Perhaps the man feels guilty, perhaps he's trying to make Severus thinks he is, but whatever the reason, Severus doesn't trust Demitri to let it continue much longer.
"Has Mum written you lately?" he asks.
His grandfather eyes him for a moment. "Yes," he answers.
Severus hands the man his last letter from his mother. "This is what she last wrote me."
He watches the man's eyes read and, then, re-read the warning. Finally, he gives it back to Severus. There's a pained set to his mouth when he says, "Your mother has not shared with me that she identified your father's murderer."
"Oh?"
Demitri doesn't look away when he asks, "Has she said anything else on the matter?"
He shakes his head. "No. I haven't heard from Mum since I received this letter."
"When did she send this warning?"
Severus tries to hide his unease. "…Over a month ago."
The man can't hide his astonishment. "A month?"
"I don't think she's hurt or anything if that's what you're worried about," Severus explains in a hurry. "Aunt Vesta has written me several times since I received Mum's letter. She mentioned finally getting a hold of her long enough to visit Madam Malkin's together to have gowns and robes made for Boyd's wedding."
Severus scowls. The surprise on Demitri's face now looks much more like pity. He doesn't know why and doesn't appreciate it either. "What?" he demands.
"Do you often have such long stretches between letters from your mother?" he asks.
He sputters. "That's what you're concerned about right now? How often she writes?"
"I've gotten two letters from her in the last week and a half – And only one was about her investigation into your father's murder. The other was fully about the mundanities of life with Vesta."
Severus is speechless. Then, with a feeling of crushing guilt and hurt, he says, "It's my own fault. I never wrote back after her warning."
"She's the adult. She should be reaching out to you, not the other way around," Demitiri tells him.
He ignores what his grandfather says and pleads (loathe he to call it such), "Don't write to Mum about this. She knows I don't like discussing Dad with her. I reckon she hasn't written because she didn't want to upset me when I have school to focus on. I can't be the top of my year if she's constantly bothering me with him." His grandfather tries to place a hand on his shoulder. Severus sidesteps the touch and glares up at the old man. "Don't," he hisses.
"Son–"
"I am not your son!" Severus cuts in, vicious and loud.
The old man's hand falls to his side. "I'm well aware," he replies in a level tone. "If you were, you'd know how to mind your elders."
Severus scoffs. Then, after a moment, brings a hand to wipe away the tears he feels trickling down his nose. "If I were, I'd have run away a half dozen times by now."
Demitri flinches.
Despite himself, he feels bad for the old man. That was (an unintentional) low blow. "Professor," he murmurs, "I didn't mean–"
"If that's all, Mister Snape, I think it best you leave now."
He sighs. "Sir–" he tries, only to be cut off by a finger pointing him toward the door. A feeling of defeat washing over him, Severus slinks out of the room. The feeling of his grandfather's hard stare needling the back of his neck.
How did you all enjoy this chapter? We got a happy little scene with our favorite Gryffindors and Severus! And then… Then we got a lot of not so happy.
Thank you times a million for reading, I appreciate it :)