They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
One of his latest synthetic Basilisk poisons simmers in a cauldron behind Severus. In another corner of the room, Lily's flipping through the pages of a Muggle romance Petunia sent her by owl a few days ago. She told him it's rot yesterday, but it doesn't appear to be bad enough for her to leave it in her satchel as they await Cresswell's arrival. Severus checks his watch and sighs.
Lily looks over the edge of her book and raises an eyebrow.
He turns his face away and glares at the door of their classroom. What is taking Cresswell so long?
As if on cue, the door opens and in slinks Cresswell, a harried expression on his face. "I had to lose Mrs. Norris," he gives in way of explanation.
Severus rolls his eyes as Lily marks her page in her book and puts it away. "It's alright." Smiling, she says, "We haven't been waiting too long."
He scoffs, letting Cresswell know that is a lie. Lily shoots a warning glare at him as Cresswell scowls. Otherwise, nothing more is said about the Ravenclaw's tardiness. Watching Cresswell go and take one of the desks near Lily, Severus asks, "How is the hunt coming along?"
Cresswell stills. Not looking at either of them, he mumbles, "I don't think there's a time-traveler among the Hufflepuffs."
Severus gets to his feet. "What? There has to be."
"Well, there isn't!" snaps the Ravenclaw. "I've been hinting at an interest in Goblin Liaisons all week and about some of the things I know a few of the Hufflepuffs get up to in the future and not one's ever looked the least bit surprised or uncomfortable."
"Maybe they have an excellent poker face and are scared to say anything?" Lily suggests, rising to stand as well.
Cresswell sneers at them. "What in Merlin's name would they have to be scared about? I wasn't a Death-Eater."
Severus shoves down the urge to hex the Ravenclaw. With no small amount of bite in his voice, he counters, "Maybe they were."
He laughs as if the idea is utterly ridiculous. "A Hufflepuff a Death Eater?"
Face hot, Severus yells, "Yes, you prat! Have you forgotten Barty Crouch?"
Lily comes to fill the space between them. "Hey, knock that off right now!" she orders. "We are working together and so help me, you are going to be polite to each other."
Breathing heavily, Severus takes a moment to regain control. Finally, he manages to grumble, "…My apologies."
"It's fine. I guess."
"It can't just be us," he mutters after a moment. "We know nothing."
"Well, there isn't another of us in Hufflepuff," Cresswell reiterates.
Lily, who at some point came to stand next to Severus, places a comforting hand on his arm. "It was a good theory, though, Severus."
"Yes, it really was," the Ravenclaw echoes, sounding as if he truly means it. "Shame it didn't pan out."
Severus lets the conversation move on as Lily starts to ask other questions and Cresswell offers new, different theories they can test and look into. As they talk, he tunes them out and resolves to do a search of Hufflepuff himself. A time-traveler has to be there. Cresswell must have missed something. He may be a clever man, but he's not a spy. He didn't spend the better part of his life gathering intel and tricking others like Severus did.
He will find the final time-traveler. Must. They've gone on long enough separated and confused and without answers.
-o-O-o-
Sage claps along with everyone else when seventh-year Pandora Ollivander is announced the winner of the duel between her and sixth-year Crispin Smith. Perhaps a little louder than most, actually. He likes Pandora, she helped him when he got lost trying to find the Charms classroom his first year (while Crispin Smith snickered at him after he tripped walking up the Grand Staircase on the very same day). Sage is also impressed by her skill. Most duels would be over after someone lost the use of their wand-hand, but not with Pandora.
After Smith burned her hand with a curse, Pandora just dodged the next enchantment he sent her way and put her wand in her uninjured hand and kept going until she had Smith not only disarmed, but knocked out cold on the dueling platform. It was a very Slytherin show of dominance (for a Ravenclaw) and Sage knows he's going to be in good company this evening when his common room is abuzz with re-hashes of the duel and speculations for her next duel.
When Great Uncle Demitri leaves the dueling platform a couple of minutes later, Sage absently watches him part through the crowds of still gathered students. Sage frowns when he sees him not going to rejoin the professors, but head towards Barty Crouch Jr., one of the other dueling competitors alongside Severus, Scabior, and Pandora. A feeling of suspicion overcoming him, he narrows his eyes and looks on as the old man leads Crouch away from the crowds and to a more private spot a bit away from everyone.
He stares as he sees the man whisper something into the boy's ear and wave his wand. When Sage sees Great Uncle Demitri give Crouch a scrap of paper he feels his stomach roll. What's he doing? Why is he giving him that? Why did he look like he just showed Crouch a spell? Is… Is the old man fixing the next duel? Sage glances over to Severus. Unfortunately, his brother's not paying the old man any mind for once. He's too busy talking with Lily.
Sage wonders if he should say something. His eyes wander back to where Crouch and Great Uncle Demitri are huddled together only to find they are already gone. Worrying the inside of his cheek, Sage decides to keep quiet. Maybe it's not what it seemed? Great Uncle Demitri wouldn't help anyone cheat, he put together the tournament! But if it is… Perhaps it's fair. Severus trained Scabior and Severus is so brilliant. How else is Crouch to have any kind of chance without a bit of assistance?
In spite of all the assurance he gives himself, Sage still feels uneasy and fails to get back in the celebratory spirit.
-o-O-o-
"Be careful."
The words echo between Severus's ears as he comes to stand on the dueling platform across from Barty Crouch Jr.; why had Sage said that? Did his brother know something he didn't? When Severus dueled McKinnon the only words Sage uttered before the duel were for him to not be too hard on her. Where has his brother's confidence in him gone? Eyes darting out to look over the students enclosing the platform, Severus spots Sage two rows back.
The teenager smiles at him, but it's not joyous – not like Lily's or Sirius's. In fact, his cousin looks awfully nervous. Severus isn't sure what to do with that. He returns his gaze to Crouch. The younger smirks at him in a cocky, knowing way. He frowns. There's definitely something that's not on happening right now. Severus's eyes slide over to his grandfather, who's staring right at him as he once again repeats the rules for him, Crouch, and everyone else to hear. There's no way he can use legilimency on the younger boy without getting disqualified on the spot.
Gripping his wand tighter, he steals himself for whatever the duel might hold.
After Demitri steps off the platform, Severus doesn't wait for Crouch to make the first move. He casts off a levicorpus, which the freckle-faced boy just barely steps out of the way of. He shoots off a few more jinxes and hexes, Crouch throws up shield charm after shield charm. Tiring of the game far quicker than he may have in different circumstances, Severus casts a spell he knows will break right another shield. Crouch appears to understand just as well as Severus that his charm won't work on the spell Severus has just cast and drops low to the platform to avoid it. However, before Severus can finish the wand-movement for his next enchantment, Crouch finishes the wand-waving for his counter-spell.
A moment later, the world falls away. All Severus can see are the bright, yellow eyes of the slightly over-large snake that's suddenly slithering his way. Panic constricting around his throat like the damn monster might any moment, Severus's vision blurs around the edges. He tries to move, but his feet feel as if they've taken root in the platform beneath him and his legs have turned into tree-trunks. Desperate for calm and clarity, Severus attempts to move his gaze away from the snake or at least close his eyes, but he can't. In fact, it's like he's Mowgli under Kaa's lure from that Muggle film he once watched with Lily when they were truly children.
His breath growing ever more shallow, he desperately tries to take his eyes off the bloody thing. He can't. He can't. Merlin, Severus can't breathe. What if it–
As suddenly as it appeared, the snake vanishes and his wand is gone from his hand. Air rushing into his lungs at a double-pace, his vision clears and the world grows around him into a familiar size. Severus becomes aware of all around the Great Hall cheering and his grandfather ushering him off the platform as Crouch plays up his win and basks in the attention given to him by their fellow students. When he's off the platform, Demitri gives him back his wand and points Severus in the direction of Lily and Sage, who wait together, as close to the platform as the barrier spells will allow.
"It's for the best," Demitri murmurs, "you looked like a very typical fifteen-year-old today, rather than like something pretending to be a boy."
He doesn't have a chance to respond before the man returns to the platform to show Crouch off. It doesn't matter, anyway. Severus feels as if he's just been saved from drowning. He's too tired for this. All he wants is a quiet place to lay down.
Severus walks over to his best friend and brother. "Oh, Sev!" exclaims Lily, pulling him against her. "Are you okay?"
He just sighs into her neck and presses closer. Severus isn't in the mood for talking. A hand comes to rest lightly on his shoulder. Severus turns his head to see who the hand belongs to. When he does, he sees through his hair that it's Sage. His brother looks at him with an expression mixed with guilt and worry. "It's not your fault," he tells Severus.
This makes Severus frown. Of course it is. If he hadn't frozen like that…
"Really," Sage insists. Chin dropping into his chest he mumbles, "It's mine."
Lily turns stiff beneath him and she attempts to keep him in place with her arms. Severus ignores this and uses his superior strength to jerk upright. He narrows his eyes at the boy and fights down the rage he can feel pressing to take control. This is Sage, he reminds himself. His brother couldn't have sabotaged Severus like this. There has to be more the boy isn't saying.
He grabs Sage's arm and starts to drag him out of the Great Hall, Lily on their heels, hissing and whisper-shouting his name at him. He doesn't listen and continues until they are not only out of the hall, but in one of the side-corridors parallel to the Great Hall. Looking around, he casts a Muffliato charm and then pushes Sage into the corridor's cold stone wall.
"Explain yourself right now," Severus growls.
Some more non-Severus POV! I really felt like the only way to do that part of the chapter was from someone else's view. Since we've been a little light on Sage as of late, I thought he'd be an excellent candidate for the POV-switch along with some more significant reasons. Thoughts on the rest of the chapter?
Thank you for reading :)