They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
Hello. Old readers will notice that there appear to be fewer chapters of TDKWWS than previous. This is not the case. I have simply chosen to combine some while doing a few edits to improve the story (thank user MartaPuck for being a lovely sounding board for that issue). This is something I have wanted to do for a while, but seeing as I'm posting chapters again (starting with this one!) for this story I figured now would be a good time to do it. Do not be surprised if you are unable to review as a signed-in user. if I recall right, FF will think you've already reviewed this chapter because there has been a chapter 96 before.
"What's he doing here?" Priscilla demands when Severus and Sage meet the others at the landing on the seventh floor. Sages steps back and an uncertainty crosses his face. In response, Severus squares his shoulders. There are going to be many events and plans in the future he will not be able to include his brother in, but this is one he can. One he should, he thinks. It will be good for Sage to feel involved in this facet of Severus's life, his mission, to see what doing the right thing for the world means.
Eyes narrowed, he tells the Hufflepuff, "He will help us look for the diadem."
"Is that a good idea?" asks Dirk, frowning contemplatively. "After the diary…"
Severus prepares to explain what he told Sage on their way to meet him, Lily, and Priscilla, but Sage speaks up on his own behalf. "I won't touch it," he promises. "Severus showed me what it looks like and if I find it, I know to call for one of you to retrieve it."
Dirk nods. "Right," he says, sounding neither approving or disapproving. Severus takes it for a victory.
Turning his gaze to Lily, who's stood silent this entire time, he asks, "For everyone's edification on this issue, you don't have any objections to Sage's help, do you, Lily?" He knows she doesn't. She was there when he invited Sage along to find the Room of Requirement and search for the diadem.
Lily surprises him slightly when she replies, "Not for this, no."
He frowns and crosses his arms. "But for other things?"
"We shouldn't be drafting children to help us deal with dangerous situations," she says.
"This isn't dangerous," objects Severus, now becoming cross. "There is no danger in this search and seeing the room, it will be both interesting and educational for Sage."
Lily sighs, seemingly disappointed with him."This is dangerous, Severus. We are looking for a Horcrux."
He snarls at her and balls his hands at his sides. "Which he knows not to touch!"
"I can leave," offers Sage in a whisper. "You can show me the Come and Go room another time."
"No!" Severus snaps, whirling around and grabbing Sage's wrist before he can flee. "You will come and you will see us find and destroy this Horcrux."
His brother stares back at him, eyes wide and mute. Finally, he nods and Severus lets him go to turn his attention back to the others. "Let's get going," he says. "We've wasted enough time on this nonsense."
They say nothing as he brushes past them, Sage following behind him. A couple of minutes later, as they walk past where the door will soon appear, Sage clears his throat, breaking the silence. "This… Come and Go room just knows what you need it to be before you even go inside?" he questions.
"Yes," replies Severus.
Sage sounds just shy of disbelieving as he asks, "How "
He bites back a groan. "We can find that out later," he assures the teenager. Pointedly, he tells Sage, "What we need it to know right now is that we need it to be the room the Lord hid the diadem in." The last thing Severus wants is for it to think they need the room to be some sort of library on creating semi-sentient hidden rooms.
As they come around to start their third lap, Sage in a still ever so dubious tone asks, "It just knows all of this by you lot thinking it as we pass by it a few times?"
"Yes! Did you listen to my explanation before at all?" Severus growls, shooting a glare over his shoulder at Sage. "Now stop thinking about how it works and about how we need it to be a room with the diadem so we can find the bloody thing!"
"Oh, Severus, come off it, would you?" Dirk grumbles. "I'm sure the room will be exactly what we need even with Sage's very good questions."
He glares at the Ravenclaw and hisses, "You shut up, Cresswell."
"Severus," rebukes Lily. "Stop."
For an incredulous moment, Severus looks at Lily, who glares back at him. Finally, he casts his gaze away from her and huffs, "Sorry."
"Thanks," Dirk replies in a calm, unbothered tone. Attention now on his brother, Dirks says to Sage, almost smiling, "I know it's odd, Sage, and seems too amazing to be real, but it is."
"Okay," his brother replies after a moment, nodding as he accepts Dirk's assurance without question. Severus rolls his eyes, annoyed.
"We should be able to find it now," declares Priscilla, stopping just short of where the door will be.
"Yes, we should," agrees Severus. He looks at his brother. "Sage, would you like to do the honors?"
"The door, it's just going to be… there?" he inquires, eyes flickering from Severus to Dirk, to him again.
"Yes," he grinds out. Pointing in the direction of where it will be with more force than necessary, he says, "Now, hurry, go open it."
Reluctantly, Sage moves past them and to where Severus is pointing. Once there, he stops. Wonder is on his face as he looks back at all of them. "There is a door here!" he exclaims.
Severus makes a derisive noise at Sage's awe and crosses his arms. "What did I say?" he grumbles.
"Severus, hush," Lily chides to his left.
Sage, however, doesn't even seem to notice as he's gone on to open the door and is now staring into the Room of Requirement with large eyes. "Oh, wow," he whispers.
"Wow?" Dirk echoes, moving forward to join Sage in staring into the room. "Wow what?" he asks before his own eyes go wide at the sight of the room. In a murmur, he says, "Oh, he's right…" Whatever about the room managed to surprise the two does not stop them from going into it, however.
Lily, Priscilla, and Severus share a glance before going to join Dirk and Sage in the Room of Requirements. Once inside, Priscilla's face twists into an expression of outrage. "This place is a rubbish heap!" she cries.
Lily, beside him, mutters only loud enough for Severus to hear, "How are we going to find the diadem in here?"
Severus has one idea. He draws his wand and chants, "Accio Ravenclaw's Diadem!" Unfortunately, there is not so much as the rustle of moving paper or the tinkle of falling glass to indicate that the diadem tried to come to him, but could not free itself from the mess it was buried in.
"…I don't think anything even moved," Lily says, dismayed.
Severus sighs. "I suppose we'll be doing this the old fashioned way," he declares. "Close the door, Lily," he commands. She hurries to do so as he says, "We are going to split up and begin searching the room. He turns his gaze on his brother. "Sage, if you are the one to find the diadem don't—"
—I won't touch it," he cuts in. The smile he sends Severus is strained. "I did swear not to several times already."
"Who's not good at listening now, Snape?" Priscilla jabs, snickering.
He bares his teeth at her. "Oh fuck off, Rookwood," he says. With his wand-hand, he points at what appears to be a particularly messy corner of the room and yells, "Go look over there!"
The Hufflepuff puffs out her cheek before turning on her heel and doing as directed. As she gets to work, she hears her curse him. "Bloody prat…"
Severus decides to ignore it and looks at Dirk and Sage, who watch him warily as they await his instruction. He sighs and rubs his forehead. "Go pick an area to start searching," he tells them. "Lily and I will find our own spots to start."
The two waste no time splitting off and going to opposite sides of the Room of Requirement to being looking. When it is just him and Lily left, he turns and asks, "Do you have a preference?"
Her face is pinched and critical as she shakes her head. "No, you can have the first pick," she tells him.
Severus furrows his brow. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he demands.
"You're awfully cross today," she says.
He snorts. "Perhaps it's because you only spoke your reservations now instead of earlier when I first suggested Sage accompany us on this task."
Lily pursed her lips. "He's not my brother, I didn't think I should say anything unless you asked."
Severus rolls his eyes. "You've rarely had problems voicing your opinion on things before."
She slumps in place and says, "I didn't really know what to think when you first suggested he come." She bites her lip. "I mean… We weren't very old ourselves when we got pulled into the war, but the more I thought about it, it just feels wrong. We're doing this so children won't have to save us all and yet," she gestures over to Sage who pulling pieces from a pile of books and broken bits and bobs. Now and then, he casts a furtive look at them, Severus chooses to ignore it. They're talking quietly enough he can't hear what they are saying much at all. "Here we are," she finishes.
Severus sighs. He hates it, but he can see Lily's point. That is what they are doing. They are trying to end this nightmare with Voldemort before they have to rely on a boy-savior to pull them back from the brink world's end. "I understand," he says. "I will refrain from requesting Sage's help in the future," he promises. "I did want to show him this room," he explains. "I thought he would find it quite interesting." Lily nods at this, understanding, but not approving. His heart beats a little fast in his chest and he looks down at his wand. Twisting it between his fingers, he admits to the other reason he wanted Sage to help them, "I also wanted to show Sage that not only do I trust him to know all of who I am, but I also trust him to be involved in all parts of my life too."
At this, Lily is the one to sigh. "I think I understand now," she says. "It's okay," she tells him, drawing his gaze to her when her fingers come to rest on his shoulder. "This is really a rather safe way to show him all of the sides of yourself." Smiling slightly, she says, "But let's agree no more involving children if we can help it?"
He smirks. "Yes, alright," he replies.
"Are you two going to keep rabbiting over there or help us?" Priscilla calls almost immediately after they come to their resolution. Pausing in her search, she glares over at them, hands on her hips. "We need more hands," she insists.
Severus shares a half-amused look with Lily. "Shall we?" he says.
She grins. "Yeah," she answers. "I'll go look here and you can look there?" she suggests, pointing at one pile and then at another to its right.
He agrees. "Yes, that is fine."
-O-
With the five of them at work, it only takes so long before Dirk yells out, "I found it!" Scrambling away from their respective piles of rubbish, the rest join Dirk at his own. The Ravenclaw is grinning as he holds the diadem up for them all to see. "It's it!" he exclaims. "I'm sure of it."
Severus nods and reaches forward to take it. Inspecting it carefully to make sure it is truly the diadem, he tells them, "I found a dull dagger in my heap of rubbish."
"I've got some of the poison," Priscilla breaks in. Reaching into her blouse, she pulls out a chain that has a metal vial hanging from it. "Here," she says after undoing the clasps that hold it around her neck and handing to Severus.
Taking the vial, he says, "Thank you." Going back to the pile he'd been sorting through, Severus moves aside some loose parchment and empty potions bottles until he unearths the dagger once again. Severus had found it interesting, it is old, he does not doubt, and its gold hilt is made to look like two snakes entwined together. More interestingly perhaps the blade is rusted red-brown from the tip to mid-way up in an uneven way. Severus had decided not to think further on why that might be after studying it (he is quite sure he knows why and prefers not to let it sit in his mind and dwell there). Uncorking the vial, he pours the venom upon the blade, coating it.
Bringing it to the diadem, he lifts the dagger high and brings it down on it with all the force he can manage. To everyone's relief, it shatters beneath the onslaught of Severus's dagger. The broken pieces are tarnished black and there's the faintest smell of something burning in the air. Severus takes it as a good sign that the dagger and venom worked.
"Merlin," Sage breathes.
Lily gives a weak laugh and reaches over to hug Dirk, who returns the embrace with a kiss to her forehead. "It worked," he murmurs. "We're okay."
"I'll take my vial back, Severus," says Priscilla, reaching out her hand to him. He places it in her palm.
"You're welcome," he grumbles.
She just puts it back around her neck and looks to the closed door of the Room of Requirements. "Which one is next?" she asks.
"There are a ring and a locket," Severus tells her. "I asked for Albus's help to locate them. I will also start researching myself, but it may be a time before we can destroy either."
She raises an eyebrow. "A long time?" she demands.
"Not if I can help it," he answers.
She nods, apparently satisfied. Severus, however, can't say he feels the same.
Happy 2020 everybody. I hope you're all as excited as I am to get back to this story.
Thank you for reading!