They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
When it comes time for Mari Scabior's sorting, Severus straightens up and pays close attention. The girl walks up to the stool quickly, though, if it's from nerves or excitement he can't say until she's sitting on the stool. Even then all he gets is the briefest look at her white face before Minerva drops the Sorting Hat atop Mari's head.
The Great Hall doesn't fall entirely silent. At the Slytherin table, there are whispers behind him. He knows they are putting down knuts on Mari's addition to their house. Scabiors are nearly always Slytherin. When they aren't, they are Hufflepuffs. As Mari's sorting goes on, Severus glances at the Hufflepuff table. He sees them eyeing Mari with more and more interest. They undoubtedly think this Scabior is going to be theirs rather than Slytherin's.
Severus isn't so sure.
Another minute passes and the anticipation in the hall builds. Finally, after a nearly audible cackle from the Sorting Hat, it roars, "GRYFFINDOR!"
The Gryffindor table erupts in cheers and Mari Scabior is smiling as she hops off the stool. Severus tracks her with his eyes as she goes to sit next to Wong, who welcomes her with a grin and short hug. She then keeps a hand on Mari's arm as she introduces her to her friends. Steepling his hands in front of him, Severus contemplates the sight and tries to recall if Gryffindor was Mari's house in his last go too.
He's not sure. The Scabiors had been of little interest to Severus, even the ones he taught as a professor managed to stay under his radar. How many were Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw escapes him. Even so, it feels different. New. Severus thinks Mari went elsewhere before. He hopes Gryffindor is just as if not more agreeable a house than the last she was in.
Scanning the Slytherin table for Scabior, he sends the boy a smirk when he catches his gaze. Scabior smiles back, seemingly happy for his little sister. But why wouldn't he be? Scabior knows Gryffindors, Lily, Wong, and Sirius. He knows she'll be well cared for there. Severus is about to return his attention to the Sorting Ceremony when a thought comes to him. Searching the table a little more, it's not long before he spies Duffield among her fellow sixth years. Her eyes are not fixed forward on the child being sorted, but to her right, to where Mari sits among the lions. It looks to Severus she is attempting to keep her features neutral, but she is not so versed an actress he can't see the tightness around her eyes or the small downward quirk of her mouth.
Duffield is not happy.
Severus makes a note to mention such to Lily. She'll keep an eye on the girl for him. Severus's eyes flicker back to Scabior. He stares at the faint, but still very present scar running across the boy's face. Lily won't fail at her task as he did his.
-o-O-o-
He tosses the diary on a desk. The other three come closer, eyes wide as they inspect the inconspicuous cover. "This is one of his Horcruxes."
Cresswell narrows his eyes. "Are you sure? It's not very menacing at all."
Severus nods. "Very." He picks it back up and tucks it into his robes. "It's one of several." He looks around the classroom. "I believe there's another in the castle," he tells them. "Somewhere," he adds after a moment, not entirely sure giving away any more details is such a good idea. His gaze darts to Rookwood a moment, who rolls her eyes at him. She knows he holds very little trust in her. She probably thinks he'll tell Lily and Cresswell another time where he believes this other Horcrux waits. The worst part is Rookwood isn't wrong.
He suspects he will tell them long before he tells her. He probably won't say anything until he's holding it in his own two hands, even.
"How do we destroy it?" Lily asks.
"I know of one way: Basilisk venom."
Cresswell sighs with exaggeration and throws up his hands. "Perfect. It won't be suspicious at all for three fifteen-year-olds and a fourteen-year-old to go around seeing if anyone knows where they can get their hands on some."
Lily reaches over to lay a hand on Severus's arm. "Is there really no other way to destroy it?" she questions, tone anxious.
He shakes his head. "Not that I personally know of."
"There must be!" Rookwood argues. "Most everything can be destroyed two or three ways."
He glowers at the Hufflepuff. Does she take him for a dunderhead? Of course there must be more ways to destroy a Horcrux. That, however, is not the point. "That may be so, but I do not know the one or two other ways and I'd rather this destroyed quickly so it cannot fall into the wrong hands."
"Surely it won't take that long to research other ways—"
"—All information on them will be in the restricted section. Irma will notice if several of her books go missing from the shelves. It might not seem like it, but she's very aware of what is and isn't in her library at any given time. Especially books from the restricted section. If you think Irma is strict, you're mad. She likes her quiet, is all. She's really quite soft.
"When a book goes missing from her library through less than proper means she doesn't kick up a fuss for quite a while. Even when it's from the restricted section, she doesn't say much of anything until it's been gone for a few days. She thinks knowledge shouldn't be kept from anyone. Even dangerous books she thinks can teach a lesson to the students who read them. Be it the ones they were looking for or other ones. However, if several go missing at once… I highly doubt Irma will waste any time telling Albus." He levels them all with a dark look. "Do you want the professors to start a hunt for those books and, in turn, us?"
Rookwood turns away while Lily and Cresswell shake their heads.
Severus runs a hand through his hair to calm himself down before he says, "I do know a way to get our hands on Basilisk poison."
"Oh?" Lily murmurs.
He nods. "Do you remember my story about Harry's second year?"
Her eyes go wide and her face drains of all color. "No. Absolutely not."
"It's the quickest—"
"—But what if it gets away from us? It could hurt the children!"
Severus slams a fist down on one of the desks. "Do you not think we'll take precautions to prevent anything from happening to the children? Tell me, Lily, what kind of reckless twit do you take me for?"
Lily falls silent, eyes averted, but a distinctly upset quiver to her lips. Severus has a feeling he will have to apologize later. He really shouldn't have yelled at her so quickly. She's just worried. Cresswell, who stands close to Lily, starts to pat her back. "It's great you're thinking of the other students, Lily. We need to think about their safety above all else, but that's not the real issue we need to be considering, is it?" he asks, looking straight at Severus.
He itches to shove Cresswell away from Lily. She's his now, not the Ravenclaw's. However, he fights down the frightfully immature idea and nods. "Yes, that's right."
"What's the problem then?" Rookwood demands, trying to sound authoritative, but failing spectacularly. Which is quite sad, given that she's a mother. Perhaps that explains why Vincent Crabbe was such a bully. Rookwood never bothered to punish her precious son and instead let him turn into a brutish troll.
He pointedly looks away from her and at Lily and Cresswell as he explains, "To get into the chamber, you must say 'open' in Parseltongue to the snake faucet in the second-floor girl's lavatory."
"No one speaks Parseltongue!" balks Cresswell. "You can't even really learn it. Just mimic the sounds and hope to Merlin you don't offend any snakes!"
Severus nods. "I know."
"So how are we to get in?" Lily asks.
He lifts a hand and begins to list off several different rough ideas he's come up with. "One of us writes in Riddle's diary. He will eventually possess the one who does and make his own way in there. At that point, the rest of us can follow. However, then comes the tricky problem of destroying the diary and making sure the one who is possessed is released from Riddle's hold at the same time. Otherwise, someone could end up dead, which I'm sure you all can agree is a far from ideal. Another idea is we all try to become animagus. If we are lucky, one of us will turn out to be a snake and the snake among us can hiss the password, letting us all in. A third possibility is we scour the castle for another entrance. I suspect there must be one. It would be quite foolhardy to not have another way in – or to escape – should something happen to the initial entrance. Salazar Slytherin wasn't foolhardy."
"Or we could find a way to change the password to the chamber, " Cresswell suggests. "Better yet! The language one has to speak to get it to open."
Rookwood jeers, "To what language? French?"
Cresswell scowls at her a moment before he says, "No, of course not. That's far too common. What if there's still a Triwizard Tournament in this lifetime? We can't risk a Beauxbaton student opening the chamber." He then puffs out his chest a little and says, "I was thinking Gobbledegook would be a fine replacement. It's not a language the majority of students will ever come to school speaking—"
"—But Professor Flitwick does—"
Louder, over Rookwood's dissenting grumbles, "—Nor one Hogwarts has offered classes in for over two hundred years."
"I think that sounds brilliant," Lily praises, smiling favorably at Cresswell, which makes the Ravenclaw look even more pleased with himself than he already does.
Severus resists the urge to roll his eyes. He then points out, "How are we to change the language? We don't know the spell he used on the chamber in the first place."
Cresswell deflates a bit and scratches the back of his neck. "Surely it won't be a spell that's too hard to find? I mean, how many password charms are there?"
"I can name four off the top of my head and I think I've heard of at least two more," Severus counters.
Eyes darting between the two of them, Lily says, "Then I think we ought to test what we know now and start researching for more."
Severus sighs. "Yes, alright. Let's start tomorrow, shall we? I know you have a Gryffindor prefect meeting you need to be at very soon and you have your own in Ravenclaw, don't you, Cresswell?"
The two nod. The four of them then quickly discuss what time would be best for the four of them to regroup tomorrow and settle for a short time after lunch. With that, they split off, Lily and Dirk heading in the direction of their respective towers as Rookwood and Severus descend toward the dungeons.
As they walk in silence, Severus feels Rookwood staring at him. He, however, doesn't so much as peek at her out of the corner of his eye. He's not interested in speaking to her any more than he has to. She's already shown she's out to make cracks in their group, not be a solidifying force.
"How many Horcruxes are there right now?" she asks.
Severus sighs. "At least four, most likely, five."
She makes a noise of shock. "That many?"
He shrugs his shoulders and speeds up. The Hufflepuff dorms come before Slytherin's. If he can pass her, she'll have no reason to follow him.
"You have the diary with you. Where are the others?"
Severus grits his teeth. He doesn't like this line of questioning at all. "As I said, one's in the castle. I have an idea for some of the others and I don't know about the rest."
"What is the other Horcrux in the castle?" she asks, staring blatantly at him.
He contemplates lying. That, however, is far too likely to backfire on him. She will either think he's not as knowledgeable as he's been leading them to believe or will want to know how he knew it was a Horcrux when they find it. "A diadem," he answers.
"Huh. You know where it is too?"
He turns to face her fully. "Yes, I have an idea. That's all the more I'm going to say on it too."
Rookwood smirks at him. "You don't trust me, do you?"
"After all you've done today?" he replies. "Not even a little."
She steps closer and tries to grab his wrist. "We don't need them, you know—"
"—Yes, we do. Cresswell and Lily bring an invaluable perspective to our plight," Severus cut in, raising his voice as he does so. Pulling out his wand he casts a privacy spell on them. "If anything, Rookwood, we don't need you. You say you want to save your family and you don't care for Voldemort, but here you are trying to sabotage our mission for a better world!"
The Hufflepuff bares her teeth. "They will turn on you. Someday, you'll have to make a hard choice and those pricks won't understand. I know what kind of people they are, they see everything in black and white. When you make that choice, they will berate you and accuse you of terrible things, and then abandon you!"
Severus shakes his head. "No, they won't."
"Just you wait, Snape. You'll see I'm right." She laughs darkly. "Quite soon, I reckon."
Briefly, he wonders if Rookwood knows something he doesn't. Severus contemplates using legilimency to find out, but thinks better of it. Rookwood doesn't know anything. She can't. She was once daft enough to marry Bernard Crabbe and have a child with him. Rookwood is trying to get in his head and put doubt there. She wants to create a fissure between him and Lily and Cresswell so she can have him all to herself.
What she thinks will happen then is beyond Severus. Even if (Merlin forbid) they all fall apart, he's going to continue the work he is doing now. He will make sure Voldemort dies to never return and the future here is better than the one they lived. Rookwood is delusional if she thinks he'll drop everything to help her with her goals and her goals alone. Severus is his own master now.
Hands in fists, he tells her, "Goodnight, Rookwood."
She smiles. "See you tomorrow, Snape."
Severus almost scoffs. He'll be making a point of avoiding her tomorrow now, that's for certain. Canceling the privacy spell on them, Severus leaves the Hufflepuff for his dorms. Severus doesn't look back, but he keeps himself light on his feet in case Rookwood tries to hex him while his back is to her.
How did you like the chapter? Mari's sorting? Rookwood showing that she has no plans to be a team-player?
Thank you for reading :)
Edited: 12/27/19