Chapter Thirty-One

A Picnic by a Stream

The tension around Lenore during breakfast was enough to make her wish that she had merely stayed in her room that morning instead of getting out of bed. Mrs. Weasley nearly spilled the eggs all over the floor when she turned around and saw George carry Lenore into the kitchen. Ron came down only when the food, the sticky buns in particular, was set on the table. Mrs. Weasley snapped at him for not being dressed but soon forgot Ron when Mr. Weasley came in the door.

"What are you doing home?" she asked abruptly, stopping literally everything in the kitchen.

Mr. Weasley looked at the group in the kitchen, tiredness surrounded him and he looked as if he wanted to go back to bed. "I'm here for the Order, Molly." The plump redhead paled, her eyes shooting to her children, George in particular. "Lenore, Dumbledore has asked me to explain your tutoring system to you."

"He pulled you off work to do that!" exclaimed Ginny, her eyes wide with shock.

With one look from the red-haired head of the house, the only Weasley girl fell silent, looking at her plate, her ears burning slightly. Lenore shifted nervously, getting to her feet. She planned on grabbing a sticky bun for the road, for he didn't look as if he wanted to talk in the kitchen, but as she started to reach for it, Lenore realized that the old scars were completely visible, for all to see, especially if she reached forward. Her hand shot back to hand by her side and she looked down, her face tingeing pink slightly. With her wrists pressed by her sides firmly, carefully hiding the undersides of her arms, she walked around the table.

"It's a beautiful morning, how about a walk?" Mr. Weasley asked, and without an answer he strode out the back door. Lenore felt everyone single person's eyes on her as she walked out of the kitchen. They walked away from the house a good ways before he spoke. "How are you feeling today, Lenore? You seem to be limping."

She looked down and as she walked she realized she wasn't bending the leg that had shattered, she was merely swinging it as she walked. A deep blush rose in her cheeks. "I didn't stretch last night or the night before. I got distracted so my leg is paying for it."

Mr. Weasley's eyes darkened. "Your fall," She bit her lip and nodded. The overwhelming urge to look behind her came upon Lenore, as if Wormtail might be sneaking up behind her to kill her. "Lenore," he stopped walking and looked down at her. He was tall but Severus would have towered over this man, she decided, by about two inches or so; but not much more. "I have to ask." Uh-oh. She thought, her mind racing to all the things he could be getting ready to ask her. "Was Professor Snape," he seemed to be groping for a word. "Kind to you?"

Lenore snorted. "Far from it at times." She said out right. Then stopped, going over in her head all the things that he had done for her. "But," she countered before Mr. Weasley turned away. "There were other times while I was at Hogwarts that he seemed to genuinely care about me…like when my anger got the better of me and I nearly destroyed the Great Hall…" she smirked at the memory. "Or when I fell…he was there…I know he was…he didn't have to be but he was by my side the entire time." She swallowed hard, her eyes staring off to the side. "Or after the fall. He helped me understand what was going on in my mother's journals. He's helped Saul and Laura. He even helped me in my stretches, working them a different way so that I could heal faster…" Lenore sighed. "Let me phrase that in a simpler answer," she said with a slight smile. "He was kind to me in his own snide way."

Mr. Weasley stared at her with kind and understanding eyes, but he seemed guarded. "Yet you chose to come here and live with my family instead of remaining at Hogwarts."

She shivered. "I couldn't stay. Not after that…that rat got in there twice…" she glanced over her shoulder, looking back at the house, her arms clutched around her waist.

"Lenore," he said quietly. "Look at me." Obeying, the brunette shifted her eyes into the redhead's. He seemed to radiating nothing but caring. It was strange. "I was merely curious."

"It's all right. I don't mind." She said brushing her hair away from her face.

The look on his face froze and she stared at him before realizing what she did and dropped her arm fast. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! Her mind screamed as he stared at her. After a moment Mr. Weasley spoke. "Dumbledore sent me to tell you that your tutors will be arriving in another day, they were delayed unexpectedly. According to him, you will have a single Almost Human mentor and a single Elf mentor. Both will teach you thinks about magic, magic history, and controlling your new powers."

She made a face. "He couldn't have owled me this?"

He laughed. "Apparently you're still a secret we have to keep from the Dark Lord."

Lenore grimaced. "Voldemort."

Mr. Weasley flinched but nodded. "That's all he wanted me to tell you."

She snorted. "Thanks."

They started back to the house but Mr. Weasley stopped walking after a couple of seconds. "Lenore," she looked at him. He licked his lips nervously. "May I ask you a personal question?"

Lenore bit her lip and nodded. He was going to ask about the thin scars that decorated her arms and the pale scar that went don her left wrist. "Go ahead."

"Where did you get those scars?"

"Any scar in particular you want to know about?" she challenged looking down. After a moment she looked up at him, feeling nothing. "Some are from me cutting myself when I was younger, others are from battles with nature. The long one down my left wrist, I suppose might be the one you are most interested in. Well that one comes from November, back when I was 14. When I was so depressed that I tried to kill myself; Renee found me before I finished." She swallowed hard. "There you are. Now you know."

"You used to have a glamour on,"

"The glamour was malfunctioning." For a moment they held each other's gaze before shame overwhelmed her and Lenore' eyes dropped to the ground. She swallowed hard, rubbing her wrist self-consciously. "Sorry. I shouldn't have spoken to you like that."

"It's all right—"

She cut him off, turning away from him. "No it isn't. My mother would have killed me if she was alive and heard me speak to anyone like that. Especially someone enquiring after these scars,"

"Why didn't you have them removed?"

"I used a conjured blade." She said softly looking at him through haunted eyes. "These are the scars as much removed as they possibly can be. The conjured blade leaves permanent scars. I knew that…I hadn't expected to be alive long enough for them to scar. The others were left because I wanted to remind myself of the times I fell pray to weakness during my 'treatment' at the hospitals." Tears burned in her eyes. "To remind myself that every scar I made on myself, I had stabbed my mother and my friends a hundred times over."

Mr. Weasley stared at her. "Surely that wasn't in your mother's knowledge; Stef would have never—"

"She didn't know. I used Muggle make-up because she made the glamours drop." Why am I telling him this? This is not something he needs to know about me. Her thoughts screamed.

"Lenore," she looked at him sharply. "If you ever need someone to talk to, I am here. A father of seven, there are a lot of things I've seen."

Lenore smiled weakly. "Thank you, but I'll have to decline. Talking about myself is not something I enjoy doing, nor something I ever wish to do." She nodded curtly at him. "Now if you'll excuse me," she made a beeline towards the house, knowing full-well that the father's eyes were on her the entire way.

Finding herself devoid of an appetite, Lenore excused herself and limped her way to her room. Her leg was killing her. Maybe she should talk to Snape. After the twenty minutes it took her to reach her room, she shut the door and collapsed into her chair, the stationary that Dumbledore had given her was already out on her desk. Taking a pen she clicked it 'on' per say and went to write and then realized, she had nothing to write about. He would merely yell at her for not stretching. Would even care? Setting the pen down she went over in her mind what was troubling her. So many things. Her discovery at what she was; her discovery of the truth of her mother's leaving England; the Horcruxes, her glamour, her leg…everything seemed to be brewing just below the surface, just far enough from her thoughts that she could avoid it but it was still there, bugging her. Nagging at her until she got some more answers. Hand shaking she began to write to Severus.

Severus? Are you there?

There was no reply. The ink did not fade away however, giving her hope that she might be able to writ the letter without him interrupting her.

Severus, Dumbledore revealed to me something that has alarmed me a great deal. It's about my mother. Why didn't you ever tell me that you planned to have her leave England? Why didn't you ever let me know that you hadn't thrown her out, that it was merely another step in an intricate plan of which I had no knowledge? I don't understand how you could do this. You purposely allowed me to hate you for a reason you knew was unjustified and untrue. Why did you go on, allowing me to believe in a falsehood?

She stopped, her mind shooting to the next question but knowing that she could never actually write it. Why didn't you come back after the war was over? Her mind asked as she set the pen down, the ink still a vivid black on the page. Unsure of what else to write she place the paper aside and began to draft another letter, this one to Laura, on a separate sheet of stationary that had a blue fairy in the right hand corner.

Dear Laura,

Life is interesting here at the Weasley's. Especially this morning. My glamour began to go on the fritz and George took it off. He saw my scars so I'm expecting questions about them soon. My tutors are due to arrive in two days…I'm nervous. I don't know what all I have to learn—ha-ha, yes I know that's why I have to learn it—but I'm apprehensive about actually learning it. Something in me tells me that it will stretch me into someone I might not want to become yet. Laura, I'm not sure I'm ready to take on the responsibilities of an adult. But I get the pressing feeling that is what Dumbledore will eventually push for.

I have a few questions for you that I hope you will answer A.S.A.P. Laura. How well did you know Snape before he and my mother were married? Why do you hate him so much now? Did you know the circumstancing that caused my mother to leave England? (Don't tell me it was because Snape kicked her out unless that is all you know). And lastly, why can I not come back to Salem to go to school? I still don't understand that. If you could answer those for me I'd love you forever.

If you hear anything from Saul let me know. He said that he'd contact you and Renee and have you two relay to me that way it does not get back to Dumbledore. Now I have to figure out how to send this blasted letter for I have no owl…you know what I want to do right now, Laura? Play the piano. I haven't done that in ages. I had one in my room back at Hogwarts. I wish I had one here. Well, anyhoos, miss you a great deal.

Relentlessly Waiting Answers,

Leo

Reading the letter over twice she then set out to find an owl to deliver it (which wasn't an easy task), a half hour later Ron (reluctantly) lent her his exuberant owl with directions to send it off to the International Owl Mail Society, where they would send Lenore's letter off themselves. A full hour later, Lenore made it back to her room, collapsing onto her bed with exhaustion. She would have to start walking with a cane again. The leg just hurt too much. With a sigh, Lenore grabbed her mother's journal and opened it to the marked spot. To her surprise there was a glowing rune on the page with a single paragraph above it.

I've decided to place my memories of Severus and I into my journal. A single memory per page is all this book can handle unfortunately. For security purposes, if anyone attempts to go through my memories they will find none of the one where I am truly at bliss. Manufactured memories have been placed in their stead of me being distracted in order to procure the proper cover. This is the Picnic by the Stream.

Lenore frowned and then traced the rune. Suddenly the room around her drained away and she was standing in a shady field, trees near by creating a grove of cover. The field looked like it was out of a dream, with blue and yellow flowers blowing in the gentle breeze. There was the sound of laughter drawing Lenore to look towards the tree. She caught glimpses of someone through the trees. Walking briskly as she could towards the people was brought to a stop when she saw her mother on a picnic blanket laughing. Lenore herself snorted as she saw a much younger version of Severus with juice or wine (by the looks of it, it was probably wine) spilled down the front of his black shirt. He apparently had spilled in his attempt of pouring her a drink and looked quite sour and embarrassed over it.

"Sev, please, relax. No one will find this place."

He was mopping himself up as Lenore sank to the ground to watch her parents mingle and her mother flirt. "What makes you so sure?" he asked darkly.

It then struck Lenore that, while her mother was in a sleeveless blouse and long skirt, her sandals beside the blanket, Severus was in long black jeans and a long black shirt, the sleeves fastened tightly around his wrists.

"Because," she said firmly. "No one can see it at the moment."

Severus stared at her and then, to Lenore's surprise, he began to smile. "You and your magic. Those creatures you share blood with have the strangest forms of stealth."

She giggled pouring him a glass of wine and then herself. "We are meant to be camouflaged in, and those who don't pop out colored," Severus snorted, nearly spitting out the wine he was drinking. "Pop out with magic to blend. Right at this moment, where we are looks like a rotting dead tree."

"Lovely mental picture but I must appreciate the measures of—" He stopped short when she threw a bread roll at him. He looked at her agape. "What was that for?"

"For being a ninny." She said moving closer to him.

Lenore made a face as Snape stared stupidly at Stef. Stef in all her beauty looking, well, like plump berry. Stef, in her younger years as Lenore had taken notice, had been anything but the thin creature she was while Lenore was growing up. In fact, as the memory proved, Stef was quite on the heavier side but was proportioned just right so that she looked balanced, strong, but delicate and beautiful. Shaking her head out of the thoughts, Lenore realized she missed a full few minutes of the conversation and Stef was now looking very agitated.

"Sev, don't you understand that I don't care!" she exclaimed getting on her knee and staring at him. "I love you." Severus scoffed at her. She grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. "No, don't scoff as if this is some passing fancy of mine. I knew from the moment you kissed me in four year that I loved you. All of you, not parts of you and just because," she ripped the cuff of his left sleeve open and yanked it up, revealing the Dark Mark. "You made a stupid mistake in sixth year doesn't mean my feelings for you will change. Or haven't I proved that all ready! I haven't left your side in two years." She was close to tears as she stared at him. "Severus, no matter what you were tricked into doing, I love you. I'll always love you."

There was a darkness spreading through his eye. "No matter what?" he growled, his hand shooting out and grasping her forearm. "Don't you know what I have done? What I can do?" his wand was suddenly out and pressing into her throat.

"MOM!" she exclaimed going forward but there was nothing she could do. This was a memory, nothing more. She couldn't change what was happening.

"I know what you have done and will do to stay alive." Stef said, her breaths coming in deeper. "But that is no more that what some others have done in the name of self-preservation." Her eyes were on his wand as he pushed it harder into her neck. "I know that no matter what I love you."

"No matter what?" he twisted her arm and pushed her down. His hair hung in waves over her face as he leaned over her, Stef's body pinned beneath his. "What if I rape you?" Her face paled. "Right here, right now. Would you still love me then?" He leaned in closer. "Or if I took you to the Dark Lord and allowed you to be used as a toy? Being passed around like in your nightmare, a whore," Tears leaked out of Stef's eyes. "Would you still love me then?" his wand was jammed harder into her neck.

"Yes." She whispered. He stared at her in shock. "Yes. I would love you to the ends of the Earth if I have to." He fell back on his knees, releasing her from his grip. He looked sickened by everything that he had done and what Stef was saying. She was up on her knees, shaking but staring at him. "Severus, you are the man I'm meant to be with. I love you, I'll proclaim it to the whole world if I have to. I'd do anything for you."

"Anything?" he said in a horse voice.

"Anything."

He handed her his wand. "Then kill me." Stef stared at him. "Kill me now. Free me of the servitude that I am about to endure to a madman! Kill me Stef! Please."

Shaking her head Stef began to cry. "Then a Romeo and Juliet we shall fall. Each dying because the other is dead." She said softly before whispering: "Avada Kedavra." She said pointing his wand at him. The green light shot out from the wand and enveloped Severus but then shot back to Stef and circled her before shooting straight up and hitting a bird, causing the bird to fall to the ground, dead. Severus was shaking as he stared at the bird and then at Stef, who dropped his wand. "I cannot kill and therefore the curse rebounded on me. But being that you love me as much I love you, the curse from your own wand could not kill me." She looked at him. "I'm not leaving."

He stared at her before he fell into her arms. Tears falling down his face as she hugged him to her chest. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Stef." He cried. Lenore stared at the scene in shock. "I'm sorry for everything."

Suddenly the scene faded away and Lenore was back in her room, tears rolling down her own face. Severus was destroyed inside when he was only eighteen. Eger to go on, she began to turn the page when a knock at the door caused her to shut the book quickly before the person came in.

"Leo?" George's voice drifted through the door.

Frantically she wiped her tears away and called, "Come in," Lenore marked her place and carefully putting the book over the letter she wrote to Severus. Her mother was confusing her with so many stories, so many tales that it seemed improbable that the man in that memory was really the snarky cold Professor she knew now.

George opened the door, a tray was in his hand, the smell of food wafting from it was enough to cause her stomach to growl. "I thought I'd bring you some brunch. Since you missed breakfast." He set the tray down over her legs. Arranged on the tray was a glass of juice, a sandwich—some sort of deli meats, an apple, and, even better, an apple tart. "Mum insisted a full balanced meal—I insisted on the apple tart." He pulled her desk chair over and straddled it backwards.

She grinned at him, feeling very touched but still rather shaken at the memory her mother had placed in the journal. She pulled the tray closer looking at him with a grateful smile. "Thank you. This is really sweet of you,"

He smirked as she took a large bite of the sandwich. "All right, the sandwich was a bribe. I want to talk." Lenore's mouth went dry. She had forgotten that he had seen the scars too. Forcing herself to chew, she nodded at him to speak, going for the juice to swallow the sandwich down. George looked at his hands. "I was wondering…" he shifted nervously taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "I was wondering if you would like to go to the Muggle world tonight? There's this thing they do, call it bowing I think, they throw a ball down a lane to hit pins at the end. Dunno why but they say it's fun."

She nearly spit out the juice, partially because of his name for it and partially because of what he was asking. "As in a date?" He nodded nervously. Her mind raced. Did she really want to go out with George? It would be fun…but her leg. She should really stretch extra tonight. "Well…"

"No pressure to answer right now. It's all right if you say no. I mean, I won't get mad or anything. Well, I mean it's not like I'm prone to anger—" George said really fast before she could cut him off.

"George, George, George." She said laughing. "It's not that I don't want to. I think that a movie would be fun but, it's just—" he cut her off.

"You have a boyfriend at home."

"No!" she exclaimed.

"You aren't allowed to date."

"Who's going to stop me?"

"You don't like red heads."

She snorted. "You're running out of excuses. Are you going to let me finish?"

"You have to wash your hair." Laughter bubbled up in her as she shook her head and quickly explained about stretching. He shrugged. "Then we'll use a Time Turner."

She stared at him. "Are you crazy?"

"Of course. You see, Fred and I have a Time Turner so that we can work double time in different spots. No pun intended. So we'll go to movie and then turn time back so you can stretch or the other way around. Very simple."

"Don't you have to have a permit to turn time back?"

He smirked standing up. "So, I'll be here around eight?"

Laughing she shook her head. "You're incorrigible," she said with a smirk before nodding. "All right."

George lit up like a Christmas tree before he saluted. "All righty then, mate. You better get plenty of rest and begin to stretch as soon as you're done eating." Lenore laughed. "I think I'll go get us, what do they call it? A lane…how about dinner afterwards?"

"Upping the ante now?"

He grinned before disappearing down the stairs. Lenore laughed looking back at the food. It was really sweet of him to bring her lunch…or brunch. Glancing over at the journal a shiver ran through her. How would she talk to Snape about that entry?