They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
When Severus sits down to dinner the day after he discovering the diary missing, he frowns. Keeping his hands by his side instead of reaching for the spoon stuck in the dish of Shepard's pie, he scans the faces of those sitting around him. Much like last night, and at breakfast, Sage is missing. While reaching for the pitcher of water to pour himself a glass, he inquires, "Has anyone seen Sage since classes let out?"
Wilkes and Crabbe bend their heads together and snicker at him. Pucey starts to search the faces around them for Sage as Rosier eats on, ignoring Severus's question, and Regulus, to the teenager's right puts on an expression of thoughtfulness.
"Shouldn't you know?" needles Crabbe. "I thought you two were best mates."
Severus rolls his eyes at her and almost says something smart about how at least Sage has someone who cares where he is, unlike her, but Pucey speaks before he does. "I talked to him after class, he mentioned having something to do and possibly being a little late for our patrol this evening," she tells him.
He nods at this, wondering what it might be his brother is up to. He's timely with his schoolwork, almost never receives detentions, and as far as Severus knows, he's not in the midst of any personal projects. Perhaps he's looking to finish a book? Or a letter to his mother or brother?
"I saw him when I stopped by the common room to get my letter to Narcissa that I left there," remarks Regulus. "He was heading in the direction of the stairs to our dorms. I said hello, but he was distracted by whatever it was he was writing down."
Severus furrows his brows. "Thank you," he replies. It must be a letter that's keeping him. Boyd has been writing him more frequently as of late (which is really of no surprise to him, with Sage being older and the war only intensifying). Severus contemplates pocketing a couple of rolls and putting a few slices of ham in his handkerchief to take to Sage when he finishes eating. Dinner is coming towards an end and Sage really shouldn't be skipping meals. He's growing at an unprecedented rate and Severus reckons by Christmas he'll be as tall as his older brother.
While he helps himself to the Shepard's pie, he resolves to wait and see if Sage shows in the next ten minutes before he gathers some leftovers to take to his brother.
-O-
Twenty minutes later Severus walks into his dorm to see Sage sitting on his bed with his back to the doorway. Reaching for the food he's brought for his brother, he calls, "'Lo!"
Sage jolts and doesn't turn immediately. When he does swing around to face Severus, there's a nervous air to him. Severus narrows his gaze and ponders what might he be hiding from him. Why does he look so uneasy? Is there unpleasant news from home that he hasn't been made aware of? It could be. It's not as if it'd be the first time either.
Slowly, he approaches. "Is everything all right?" asks Severus.
"Yes, yes, all is well," Sage assures.
He raises an eyebrow, but otherwise stays quiet. Sometimes, waiting works wonders on Sage. "Here are some rolls and ham from dinner," he says, handing the leftovers to his brother. "You missed it," he tells him. "And breakfast this morning." A thought comes to Severus and he leans forward to place a hand on Sage's forehead – only for his brother to jerk away.
Severus retracts his hand. "Are you ill?" he asks.
Sage shakes his head. "No," he answers. "It's just, um… Boyd's being pushy about… stuff… and I'm a little…" the teenager looks away and runs a hand through his fringe. "On edge, I guess you could say."
He nods. "I can see that," replies Severus. "Remember, be firm with him – and your mum – they'll listen and come around eventually. The last thing they want is to risk losing you as they lost Mum."
His brother flashes a smile at him. "Thanks," he says.
Severus pats Sage's shoulder before he points his head at the food sitting on the bed. "You better hurry up and eat. Pucey's down in the common room pacing. I reckon she's only going to wait so long for you before she comes up here."
Sage chuckles. "You're right." He rips into the roll and puts a piece of ham between the halves. "Thank you, by the way."
"It was no trouble."
There's a beat of silence, then, almost hesitantly, Sage inquires, "Are you… Will you be in bed when you're supposed to be tonight?"
This makes Severus pause. It's an odd question – and one his brother's never asked him before. "Should I be?" he returns, contemplating if perhaps this isn't some sort of warning for a bed-check tonight.
"No… Not tonight, if you don't want to," Sage tells him. "But later this week, probably."
He nods. "Thank you." He walks over to his own bed and opens his trunk to take out his charms book; there's an essay they have due tomorrow and he needs exact quotations from their textbook to get an O. "I'll stay to the dorms for the rest of the week starting tomorrow," he tells Sage. "Will that suffice?"
"Yeah," replies his brother. "I mean, you don't have to stay all week if you don't want to or can't. It should be safe to go out again by Friday." Sage bites into his dinner then, as he chews, he gets to his feet and heads for the door. "Bye!" he shouts to Severus before he finishes his dinner, effectively ending their conversation.
Severus waves distractedly in return.
-o-O-o-
Entering the Gryffindor dorms is always a risk. Less so the later in the night it becomes, but it never disappears entirely. Thankfully, however, Severus has had a lot of practice over the past couple of years on how to avoid attracting the attention of any night owls and insomniacs that might be amusing themselves in Gryffindor's common room. Severus keeps to the edges of the room and shadows and leaves the upper-year girl reading on one of the common room's sofas completely oblivious to his presence.
As he darts from shadow to shadow, he draws his wand and casts a Patronus. He glances over at the upper-year to see if the teenager still absorbed in her book. To his fortune, he finds she's turned her back to him and is facing the back of the sofa and not him. In an almost inaudible tone, he gives his message for Lily to the Patronus before he sends it off to get her. Then, crouching lower so he is nearly invisible in the darkness of the shadow he's chosen to hide in, he waits.
Not quite five minutes later Lily appears from the stairwell leading to the Gryffindor girl dorms. Her hair is a haphazard mess of knots and curls and it appears she's just put her robe on over her jimjams and she's not even wearing slippers. He almost rolls his eyes at that one. He would think she'd be better at preparing for their late-night conversations by now. Lily is going to be freezing when they step out into the corridor.
When she looks over in his direction, Severus stands up. She glances once at her housemate reading on the sofa before padding over to him. She raises an eyebrow in question when she joins him at his side. In response, he nods and gestures they should step outside. Lily bites her lip, but agrees with a short dip of her chin.
Once they are out in the corridor, he puts up a privacy charm. Severus highly doubts there is anyone lurking nearby listening in or that anyone will come across them and stop to eavesdrop, but he knows better than to risk the possibility – now more so than ever. He's already potentially buggered things to high Hell and he's not about to let anything else go wrong if he has any say.
"What is is, Sev?" asks Lily.
He starts to speak, only to falter and fall silent.
Concern begins to overwhelm Lily's features. "Severus? What's wrong?" she questions while reaching forward to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.
Severus sighs. "I… The diary, it's gone."
Lily's mouth fell open and she stares at him, speechless. When the ability to talk finally returns to her, she hisses, "What?"
He winces. "You didn't…?"
"Take it! No! Why in Merlin's name would I do that without telling you?"
Severus nods, still cringing. "I imagined as much, but I felt I should ask. I know you weren't exactly happy with its hiding place and felt I couldn't entirely rule you moving it out of my trunk to another hiding place a possibility until I checked with you."
She seems little appeased with his explanation, but indicates she understands all the same. "Do you think Rookwood could have taken it?" Lily demands.
He shrugs. "She hasn't been behaving strangely since it went missing—"
"—How long has is it been missing?" Lily cuts in, eyes narrowing into little more than slits as she realizes that Severus may have (and didn't) immediately alert her or anyone upon finding it gone from his school trunk.
Severus shakes his head. "I can't say for certain. I noticed it was gone yesterday, but it could have disappeared almost four days ago now."
"Why didn't you say anything yesterday!"
He looks away. "I wanted to see if there was perhaps any change in your, or the others', behavior that could indicate one of you took it the day before." He drops his gaze to his feet, the abysmal feeling of regret overcoming him. He should have talked to Lily last night, not put it off in hopes it would reappear or he would find it before he would have to mention it to her and the others. "There wasn't."
Lily's silent and when he looks up, he sees she is pinching the bridge of her nose. "Do you think Rookwood may have it?"
"There is a strong possibility," Severus answers. "Though, I am not entirely certain why she would take it, now, of all times, especially."
She nods. "Talking to her about it likely won't get us very far in finding an answer, will it?" she questions without really questioning at all. As optimistic and inclusive as she is with Rookwood overall, Lily knows just as well as Severus they can only trust her so much. This is something she would lie about even under the threat of death.
"I reckon it won't," he concurs. "Perhaps you could go through her things, however?" he suggests.
Lily scowls. "I'll have to, won't I?"
Severus winces. "I am sorry," he tells her. "I never— I thought it would be safe. My dormmates are a lot of teenagers."
She puts her hands on her hips and snaps, "Well, you were wrong!"
"I know."
Lily falls quiet for a moment. "What happens if we find Rookwood doesn't have it?"
He turns his hand's palms upward in uncertainty. Severus can't say with one hundred percent certainty, but he does share his working plan with Lily, "I may have to dose the drinks at the Slytherin table with Veritaserum and ask them all if they have seen the diary."
She groans and puts her head in her hands. "This has become a mess."
"It has," he agrees. "Once we recover it, we will immediately have to go into the Chamber to retrieve the venom to destroy it. I don't want to risk the children more than I already have." He shudders. "If it turns out it was one of my dormmates who broke into my trunk…" He sucks in a breath. "Perhaps they're a lot of spoiled Death-Eaters in the making, but they don't deserve a death like the one the diary will cause."
His best friend suddenly surrounds him in an embrace.
Severus attempts to turn his head to get a glimpse of her features and an understanding of what's brought on the hug, but, for his troubles, all he gets is a mouthful of red hair. "It's going to work out," assures Lily. "You've recognized your mistake and already have an idea for how to fix it." When she pulls back, she pauses. "I do have one question, though," she told him.
"Yes?"
Lily asks, "Where does retrieving tears from Fawkes fit into your scheme?"
He sighs. "It doesn't," he admitted. "I… If something happens, one of you may have to tell Albus so he may bring Fawkes to the Chambers to assist us." Severus searches Lily's face. "Unless, perhaps, you think we shouldn't?"
"No, no," she replies. "That's… Albus wants to defeat Voldemort just as much as we do. He'll probably be a fine ally to have if such a scenario happens."
He smiles slightly. "Yes, he would make a good ally," agrees Severus. "All we will have to do is ensure he doesn't try and use us for his designs."
Lily flashes a grin in return. "Shall we head to Hufflepuff now?"
"Yes, let's."
-o-O-o-
He pushes off the Hufflepuff common room wall when Lily steps out of the corridor to the girls' dorm. "Well?" he demands, not bothering to quiet his voice below the volume one uses in day-to-day conversation. There are no Hufflepuffs slumbering in the common room's armchairs and none writing furiously to finish an essay at one of the study tables before the morning to be mindful of. Thank Merlin.
Lily shakes her head, red hair bouncing around her shoulders in the process.
Severus balls his hands into fists and presses them to his eyes. "Fuck!" he curses.
She clears her throat, drawing his focus back to her. "When are you going to douse Slytherin's drinks with Veritaserum?"
"Tomorrow," he answers, then, after a moment to consider the time, he corrects, "Today." He unfurls a hand to rubs his eyes a moment and take away the grit of tiredness before he returns his gaze to his friend. "Are you sure it's not there?"
Lily bristles, baring her teeth at him a moment as she hisses through them, "Yes!" They disappear a moment as Lily looks right and starts to tap a beat on her thigh in a cleary cross way. Finally, she breathes in a deep breath and returns her gaze to him. "Look, I know you like to think you're the only one who can do anything right, but I do know how to properly search a trunk!"
He purses his lips. Severus wants to say that isn't the case at all, he just wants her to be wrong. Because… Because he doesn't like the other possibility. However, it's the last thing he wants to admit to, so, instead, he huffs irritably. "I'm not doubting you," he argues, voice cracking from exhaustion. "I just… I may know who stole it."
"You do? Who?"
Severus thins his lips into a line and looks away from Lily. He can't say – won't – not until he is certain. Perhaps he's been willfully blind these past few days, having been so certain the thief was Rookwood he ignored the signs, but Severus isn't anymore. Hindsight is always perfect, even now, in this case, and Severus is going to prove it tomorrow over breakfast.
But first… He breathes in. "Later," he tells Lily. "I'll tell you later after I have the diary in my hands and the four of us are off to the Chamber to gather the venom to destroy it."
Lily's eyebrows are knit with displeasure at his choice, but she nods all the same. She knows she can't change his mind. He breathes out. Thank Merlin for small mercies.
"Find Dirk before breakfast and take him to retrieve Hagrid's rooster. When you have it, go to the classroom and wait for me, I'll bring Rookwood. I want everyone on the same page about what to do when I have the diary back in my possession in the morning," he orders.
She starts to drum her fingers along her thigh. "Is there anything else we need to do? Now or later?" she asks.
He shakes his head. "Thankfully, no."
-o-O-o-
They are sat around a pair of pushed together desks in their classroom and all of them are glaring at Severus. It's uncomfortable, but he's not going to show it – or say anything. That's unlikely to help him out of this hole he's found himself in. Instead, he decides to focus on the lack of rooster in the room. "Where is Hagrid's rooster?" he demands.
"Not there," Lily answers. "I even went and knocked on the door of his hut to ask after the dear. It seems it died from old age at the start of the year and Hagrid hasn't had the time to get another."
Severus feels his stomach bottom out. Of all the bloody luck—
More than a little peeved, Rookwood questions, "Does it truly matter that much? Can't we just transfigure ourselves one from a chair or old ink well?"
"How dull are you?" snaps Severus. "A fake rooster will be as good as no rooster on a Basilisk! There is a difference between the two!"
For a moment, she looks taken aback, then, she invades the space around him and snarls, "How the Hell should I know that? I'm not an employee of Beast Division!"
"That's enough!" Lily shouts, coming between the two of them and pushing them apart. Turning toward Severus, she forces him to take a seat in a desk in front of Dirk and points Priscilla toward one a couple of seats down. "We are not going to act like children and row about what one should or should not know!" she scolded. "Instead, we are going to start on our back-up plan." She looks at Severs then, expectant. "It's swords, isn't it? Which ones did you wish for us to use?" she questions.
"Wait!" calls Dirk, throwing up his arms. "I still don't understand," he says, "Why did we need the rooster? Or the swords now? I thought we were waiting until we had those tears to go and kill the snake?"
Severus shifts his gaze to the top of the desk he's seated at and mutters, sour, "Plans change."
"Why?" demands Dirk, arms falling to his desk with a forceful clatter.
Unable to help himself, Severus sighs and buries his face in his arms. Why did Sage have to turn into such a typical brother this week and go through his trunk? And why did he need to take the diary of all things?
"The diary was taken from Severus's trunk," Lily tells Dirk in a soft voice. "He's going to retrieve it now from the one who took it." Severus lifts his head and ignores the burning glares of Dirk and Rookwood on him as Lily continues, "We're destroying it right away after so it can't be stolen again and no one ends up dead because of it."
Across from him, Dirk leans in. "Tell me, Severus, how long has it been missing?" he demands as he tugs at his hair in frustration.
"Four days, I reckon," he answers in a calm, clinical tone in hopes of delaying or outright stopping the volatile reactions of Dirk and Rookwood at the news.
Dirk slams his hands on the desk again as Rookwood gives a wordless, shrill, shocked cry. "Four days!" Dirk thunders. "Why are we only hearing of this now?"
Rookwood, who is now swinging between gleefulness and disgust to his left, sneers at the Ravenclaw, "Because he didn't want us to know he's just as imperfect as the rest of us!"
Severus pushes himself to his feet in his outrage. "I've never pretended to be—!" Severus stops short and sighs. Through gritted teeth, he says, "I wanted to ensure its absence wasn't due to someone in this group." All the while, he keeps his gaze fixed on Rookwood.
In return, the Hufflepuff jumps up and snarls, "I hope you aren't implying I would ever do such a thing. It was you who stole it from the Malfoys in the first place!"
"For a damn good reason! No one should harbor the Horcrux of another! Especially not Voldemort's!"
"Oh, bullocks! Once a thief, always a thief! The why doesn't matter!"
Severus just barely contains the urge to curse her, though, he's quite certain his expression is screaming his intentions as Lily's swung back around the desks to stand between the two of them.
"The both of you just shut up!" his friend shouts at the two of them.
They stare at her and with no small amount of contempt too, they do not appreciate Lily putting a stop to yet another row between them. He crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow in question.
She glares back at him. For a moment, she closes her eyes. When she opens them, there's a sharp edge to her gaze as she slowly works her eyes over all of them. "Severus made some mistakes." To herself, she mutters, "bloody stupid ones at that," before she continues, "but he's not hiding them and he's telling us all so we can be on the same page. Severus is going to get the diary back in a matter of an hour and we all need to go over what will follow after it's back in his hands."
Silence settles over them after Lily's final declaration. They are in a cycle of exchanging glances and looks when Dirk finally appears to grow tired of it and asks, "What are we going to do once you have the diary?"
Severus clears his throat. His plan is mostly the same as it was before he knew they wouldn't have the rooster to help them. There are just a couple of added steps to complete near the middle part. This in mind, he begins to explain, "When I have it, I will signal such to you in the Great Hall, Dirk…"
-O-
Dousing Slytherin's pitchers of water and pumpkin juice with Veritaserum is laughably easy. What's trickier is waiting for all of his dormmates to sit down and drink from the pitchers. Thankfully, they suspect nothing, as they are rarely a talkative sort in the morning. He watches in satisfaction as one by one they pour themselves glasses and sip from them between bites of sausage and porridge. However, Severus worries if it will all be for naught as breakfast starts to draw towards its end without an appearance from his brother.
Then, Sage walks into the Great Hall.
There are purplish smudges beneath his eyes and a certain skittishness to his gaze from the way it refuses to settle on any one thing, but, otherwise, he appears normal. Perhaps Severus shouldn't feel so poorly about failing to realize Sage has been off. He hides it well for a boy and Severus had set his sights elsewhere. To keep up the ruse, he smiles at Sage when he sits down next to him when all he wants to do is shake him and scream why?
"You made it," he remarks.
Sage nods as he reaches for the pitcher of juice. "I have," he agrees. "You're right I shouldn't be skipping meals."
Severus watches his brother out of the corner of his eye as he spreads marmalade on his toast, waiting for the moment he takes a sip of his drink. Finally, after what feels like a century instead of just a handful of minutes, Sage does. In response, he puts down his half-eaten toast and errs on the side of caution by putting his hand on his wand. He doesn't actually believe him and Sage will come to hexes, but he isn't entirely sure the other young witches and wizards around him won't try anything once they realize what he did to them all.
"I've been meaning to ask," he starts, loud enough for all in his vicinity to hear, "has anyone seen my diary? It's black leather with gold-protected corners. It was in my trunk the last I saw it."
"No," all but Sage answer in near unison. They blink and frown at one another as soon as they say it, realizing that it wasn't entirely their choice to answer, but uncertain why they felt so compelled to answer Severus's question. He nods at them before he turns his gaze on Sage, who's very obviously struggling to keep silent. His jaw is shaking from the force he's using to keep it closed and Severus worries a little his brother might hurt himself if he fights the potion much longer.
To increase the compulsion, he prompts, "Sage? What about you?"
"Yes!" he all but explodes; face suddenly void of all color but the ever starker purple underneath his blue eyes.
Severus finds himself suddenly torn between rage and despair as his suspicions are slowly being confirmed. How could Sage have broken his trust by going into his trunk without permission? Are they not brothers in all but blood? How dare he steal something that isn't his from Severus! Who does he think he is?
However, for all his anger towards Sage, he feels more for himself than he does brother. How could Severus be so careless? He knows Sage watches his every move – of course he figured out how to open his trunk. Severus should have been more careful about opening it, or changed the spells he used to keep it locked and protected every now and then to make it harder to memorize the combination of spells to open it. What if one of the other lads had been the one to break into his trunk? They may have very well taken much more than just Riddle's diary.
The others around them appear to have caught on to what Severus has done and across the table, Wilkes growls at him, "You paranoid freak!"
He ignores him and keeps eye contact with Sage, whose gaze is growing ever wider with panic and fear. He looks as if all he wants to do is duck beneath the table to hide from shame and to protect himself from the fury Severus's eyes are surely aglow with. "Where is it now?" demands Severus.
"My pocket."
Severus doesn't ask for Sage to give it to him, just cants forward and reaches into his brother's robe to pull out Tom Riddle's diary for himself. Thankfully, Sage doesn't fight. He lets it happen and even helps by moving his arms out of Severus's way. Once it's in his hands, he gets to his feet and leans in next to his brother's ear to warn him, "We will be discussing this later. You can try and hide if you like, but know I will find you Sage Montague."
With that, he looks over to the Ravenclaw table, where Dirk sits, waiting for the signal. Severus makes a show of putting the diary in his robe. In response, the blond starts to cough loudly into his elbow; which alerts Rookwood, who Severus can just barely see reach into her satchel for a textbook, which will signal to Lily that the diary has been recovered.
Without a backward glance, he starts for the second-floor girls' lavatory. The rest will join him soon enough and then, then the four of them will enter the Chamber of Secrets.
Merlin save them all.
Off to the Chamber they go! Excited?
On another note, if you aren't following me as a writer and don't already know, I have recently begun to upload a new fic called Black Eyes. It's an AU where Severus has a little sister and the world takes a slightly different path. The summary is:
"When his mother insisted he come home for Christmas hols during his fifth year to share some important news, Severus came up with dozens of possible, not-so-possible, and impossible theories about what she could have to announce.
This, though, he never dreamed it would be this."
If it sounds like something you might be interested in reading, I encourage you to check it out and I hope you enjoy it :)
Thank you for reading!
Edited: 1/13/20