December 20th, 1996
This excerpt takes place during Chapter 67: Frosted. Because of this there may be plot points or spoilers for other chapters before and after that are revealed in the following text. You have been warned.
Severus wished, above all else, that he hadn't needed to come to Slughorn's ridiculous excuse for a party. Like all occasions where he needed to draw attention to himself and his false sense of success, Horace was loitering around groups of uncomfortable students and trying to impress them with grand, exaggerated tales of accomplishments he hadn't actually made himself. All the while, Snape couldn't help but sneer at what had become of his once-beloved dungeon hideaway; the ceilings had coloured drapings centered around an ornate golden chandelier decorated with hovering fairies, large silver platters of food Severus refused to touch, and old tunes muted from the Defence Professor by the haze of pipe smoke coming from the new and old Potions Master.
His dungeon had been ruined. It was suddenly festive.
The most upsetting part of entering the evening's festivities, however, had nothing to do with the drapery. Instead, it had to do with one of the students whom he had come to keep an eye on: Audrey Potter had gotten here before him – for the first time in her life it appeared she had been on time – and now she was talking to a vampire. She looked absolutely disturbed by his presence, despite how she looked in her fancy dress. She didn't even look like herself, grown up and dolled up with her skin more pale than he had ever seen it and her hair tidy and blood coloured against her skin. He didn't like the look of blood on her.
"Oh, Severus!" He couldn't help but close his eyes to prepare to speak to his old – though still enigmatic – professor. "So glad you could make it, so glad. Have you tried the dumplings? The house elves really outdid themselves this Christmas!"
"I'm sure they have," he couldn't help but drawl.
"Great turnout, isn't it?" Slughorn, horrifyingly, took Severus round the shoulders and pointed out the crowd to him. He'd never had any understanding of personal space. "Everyone loves my parties!"
Certainly not everyone.
"Ah, look – my prized pupils made it! Ah, Audrey," Snape could not help but notice that the younger Potter reacted just as he had at the sound of the new Potion Master's voice. "Look who I've found!"
He dragged Severus over to the girl, his arm still wrapped around him. She looked at Snape curiously and with a raised eyebrow before it seemed she was trying hard to hold back her laughter. She would get a failing grade for that.
"Doesn't she look nice tonight, Severus? Why, I've never seen her hair so tame!" She looked away and busied herself with her half-empty glass of mead. Severus couldn't help but frown and wonder how many of those she'd had; that could have been the cause of her red cheeks.
"Yes, it appears both Potters put time into their appearance today," Severus ground out. "If only they put as much time into their homework."
"I am doing quite well in Speechless Spells, thank you very much," she snapped back. She wasn't exactly wrong – she could perform a speechless spell, if she was able to perform anything at all. She had improved greatly in his time as Defence professor...though she was still falling devastatingly behind with her other techniques. "Perhaps if you assigned us some different work, I wouldn't feel like I've written the same roll of parchment seven times."
As he had been for the past few weeks, he was surprised by just how angry she sounded with him. He knew that she had been having a hard time this year – from being forced onto patrols with Nott, to whatever she thought he was up to with the young Malfoy...but he had still never seen her so mad with him. It brought back painful memories that Severus would have preferred not to contemplate.
"I am more than pleased to give you detention for the following term, Miss Potter," Snape frowned.
"Severus, this is a party," Slughorn defended quickly. "She's just-"
"Sadly, Miss Potter has displayed this kind of aberrant behaviour since long before she was in your classes, Horace. She can be just like her father was," Snape couldn't tell if he was pleased or disappointed when the girl frowned in response.
"Well, if that behaviour is what makes her so talented in Potions, then so have it – but look here," the girl looked horrified when Slughorn grabbed onto the older Potter's shoulders and dragged her brother from his conversation with the Divination teacher into the one they were having. "Look here, Severus, I don't think I've ever known such a natural at Potions! The both of them together? Why, they would be an unstoppable match! Both Instinctive, you know – Miss Potter can manipulate the ingredients and Mr Potter can manipulate the final result; they're just like their mother! I've only ever taught a few with this kind of ability, I can tell you that – why even you, Severus...Oh, stop skulking and join the conversation, Severus – did you hear that I was just talking about the twins exceptional potion-making? Audrey is quite impulsive and Harry – why, he's a natural! Some credit must go to you, of course, you taught them for five years!"
Severus Snape could not believe what he was hearing. Yes, he was quite used to people raving over the Potter twins – particularly the boy – but Snape had never heard of him being so good in potions. And the look on the girl's face...he couldn't tell if she would vomit or murder.
"Funny," he made sure his voice indicated just how unamusing it was. "I never had the impression that I managed to teach Mr Potter anything at all."
Miss Potter let out a loud snort.
"Well, then, it's natural ability!" Slughorn was completely blind to the fury building within the young girl in front of him. "You should have seen what he gave me, first lesson, Draught of Living Death – never had a student produce finer on a first attempt, I don't think even you, Severus-"
"Really?" Snape repeated, his eyes narrowing. "Not even Miss Potter?"
She looked at him briefly, her eyes still shooting daggers, before they turned on her brother in the same accusing way. Ah, so there was more to this story...
"Well, she did as well, of course – but it wasn't quite as flawless as her brother's work. Quite impressive, the both of them – they both got prizes of course: Audrey some Veritaserum and Harry a small vial of Felix Felicis!" Severus felt his eyebrows raise – he could only imagine what those two twins would do with those kinds of prizes and weapons. "Don't look so shocked, Severus, the natural ability-"
"I tend to prefer the ways of 'natural selection' to 'natural talent'," the girl pointed out with a dark tone. "But to each their own."
Snape couldn't help from feeling proud over the way she was defending herself and her position – she was the best he had taught in years and they both knew it. So if the other Potter were somehow above her in that class, it was by some form of trickery; Severus had no doubt. He also had no doubt that Potter wouldn't be above trickery to get his way – he was so like his father.
"Remind me what other subjects you're taking, Harry?" Slughorn asked, completely ignoring Miss Potter's threats.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology..."
"All the subjects required, in short, for an Auror," Snape couldn't stop himself from sneering. And how like his father he was; he wanted to even follow in the monster's footsteps. What did Potter do behind closed doors, when professors couldn't see him? Did he torture other students, did he bully and lie, was he as arrogant as his father had been? Severus saw glimpses of the behaviour, but he did not doubt that all that greed was there somewhere.
"Yeah, well, that's what I'd like to do," the girl's brother bristled immediately, glaring at him in a way that he was so used to seeing from Potter's sister, from their mother...
"And a great one you'll make too!" Slughorn clapped the boy on the back, giving Severus time to breathe. "What about you, Audrey, what classes are you taking?"
"Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination and Charms," she answered, looking back down to her mead and frowning when she realized she was reaching the bottom of her goblet.
"A little bit of everything then – why, have you ever considered working for the Ministry's Medical-Examiner position?" Severus nearly rolled his eyes as Horace so easily slid back to his bragging. "You would be quite apt, if you continue in those subjects. It'd be beneficial for you to take Herbology, of course-"
"I don't want to work for the Ministry," she stated blandly. "That's my brother's plan, not mine."
"I don't think you should be an Auror, Harry," Snape was startled to see that Lovegood, the young Ravenclaw from the year below the Potter's had joined the conversation. She was dressed in a ridiculous set of dress robes that made Snape raise an eyebrow at the redheaded Potter, who rolled her eyes exasperatedly at the blonde. "The Aurors are part of the Rotfang Conspiracy, I thought everyone knew that. They're planning to bring down the Ministry of Magic from within using a combination of Dark Magic and gum disease."
"Oh my Salazar," the girl moaned, throwing back her goblet and finishing the mead once and for all. She looked briefly to her brother's goblet and swapped drinks with him – Snape's eyes narrowed at her irresponsibility. Perhaps she had been drinking too much mead. "At least we have some entertainment for tonight."
"You're right. Now we do," the boy was narrowing his eyes through his glasses and looking at the door – the others were quick to follow his gaze. The horror that painted the girl's face was immediate: Draco Malfoy was being brought in by Filch.
Severus felt his fist clench. He had told the boy to keep a low-profile. But he acknowledged quickly that he should have known that Malfoy was incapable of following orders...particularly when the boy knew that Audrey Potter was nearby.
"Professor Slughorn," Argus Filch was out of breath from how Malfoy was trying to wriggle out of his grip. "I discovered this boy lurking in an upstairs corridor. He claims to have been invited to your party and to have been delayed in setting out. Did you issue him with an invitation?"
Malfoy wriggled free, rubbing his ear and looking at Snape worriedly before glaring back at Filch. "All right, I wasn't invited!"
Filch beamed in pride for all of five seconds.
"I wouldn't say that," Miss Potter interrupted loudly and cleared her throat when all eyes turned her way. Still, she straightened herself up – as her mother had always done when she was being stubborn – before she spoke as clearly as she could. "Well, er – he's my date, Professor. I invited him, but if you recall me saying, I thought he'd been busy."
"Oh, did you?" Slughorn smiled widely, suddenly quite accepting of the students he feared may get him in trouble with their Death Eater parents. "Is that true, my boy?"
"You freed yourself up for the night, did you?" Potter asked, her tone heavily suggesting of following along. Malfoy paused for a few moments, his eyes taking her in before Snape was able to catch his eye and try to indicate that he could not play along as Miss Potter's date – not with everything that was happening. Snape had made it clear: he had to keep his distance from the girl. It was, thus far, the only demand he'd heeded.
"That's right, Professor. My work didn't take me as long as I thought it would, so I came down to be Potter's date, here," Malfoy turned back to Filch and gave him a withering glare. "Are you happy, now?"
"No, I'm not!" Filch was still smiling, knowing that the boy would be in trouble from the sour look on Snape's face. He was not pleased that these two would spend time together over the course of the night if this little rouse worked. "You're in trouble, you are! Didn't the headmaster say that night time prowling's out, unless you've got permission, didn't he, eh? Meeting your lady-friend-"
"That's all right, Argus, that's all right," Slughorn waved his hand, taking a step forward to put some distance between Filch and the boy. "It's Christmas, and it's not a crime to want to come to a party – especially to see Miss Potter when she's all fancied up for tonight! Just this once, we'll forget any punishment; you may stay, Draco. Would you like some mead?"
"I would," Miss Potter immediately interrupted, throwing away her own goblet to intercept the goblet that was supposed to be for her Slytherin comrade. Snape couldn't help but eye the newly filled goblet darkly – he didn't like how red her cheeks were getting beneath her makeup and he knew well the horrible situations people got themselves into when they were intoxicated. And now she was with the boy that was so obsessed with her? It spelt out bad news. Was this behaviour average for her? Was this something she did often? She cleared her throat when she saw his glare. "It's quite good, Professor Slughorn..."
"Isn't it? Madame Rosmerta's best," as always, Horace was quick to brag. Honestly, Severus didn't even know why it still surprised or disgusted him. "Dumbledore's favourite as well – you have good taste, my dear. In wine and dates, it seems."
She forced a sweet smile that Snape could swear he had never before seen – it was startlingly like her mother's, even though it rang of false intention. "Thank you, sir."
"It's nothing, nothing," when Slughorn moved to smile towards Malfoy, Miss Potter went to do the same thing – her face burnt even brighter and her smile turned sheepish before she made the move to hide any evidence of it. Snape felt his teeth grind – this was not a good sign.
"Thank you, sir," Malfoy smiled, Snape knew well that it was also fake. "I was just trying to surprise Audrey here, she was so excited for me to come."
Snape's eyes narrowed at the way he said her name; Malfoy even made it sound affectionate.
That had better have been a performance for the Potions Master and nothing more.
"And a great surprise it is! She didn't tell me that you were the date who couldn't come," Slughorn turned to ask Potter more about the apparent 'date' she was on, urging her to look around for some sort of escape – she did not find such an escape with Severus. Instead, she found him glaring at her with a suspicion that he could not reign in. She looked shocked for a moment before glaring right back – ugh, she was so like her father when she glared like that. It made him sneer against the bitterness that curled his stomach as a copy of Lily stared at him just as James would have. "I did know your grandfather, after all, Draco..."
"He always spoke very highly of you, sir," said Malfoy quickly, his voice extra posh and polite. "Said you were the best potion-maker he'd ever known..."
Potter looked away from him and went back to examining her date and her brother in turn. Snape was glad that the glare was off of him, as it weighed heavily on his memories, but he was upset by the way and the intensity with which she was watching Malfoy instead. Could it have been that Malfoy had ignored everything that Snape had warned him of and stayed close with Potter anyway?
No, no, definitely not.
There was a sadness behind that look, a worry that Snape could identify all too easily. It struck a chord that registered deeply and made him uncomfortable while the realization was trying to fight its way through; that horrible realization that these two might actuallyhave feelings for one another.
"I'd like a word with you, Draco," Snape suddenly found himself interrupting the look that Potter was giving off, just in case Malfoy would catch it. He didn't want to see how the boy would respond to something so disgustingly...intimate.
"Now, Severus," Slughorn hiccoughed, his tone sloppily stern, "it's Christmas, don't be too difficult on them and take away the night!"
"I am his Head of House, and I shall decide how difficult, or other-wise, to be."
"I'm sorry, Professor," Potter, ever the brave and stubborn thing she was, stepped in front of Malfoy as if to protect him from the talking-to that was to come. "Actually, it is the day before the holidays and as he isn't being punished, he is mine for the night. Now if you wouldn't mind, I would like a dance with my date."
"Audrey," her brother growled, taking a step forward as if to talk privately, though his words were cutting and loud. "You can't just dance with him. He's-"
"Ah-ha!" Slughorn laughed boisterously, interrupting whatever the girl's brother was about to continue on with. "What a fighter! This girl, she reminds me so much of Lily..."
Snape couldn't help but look down at the girl at the mention of it – and he couldn't agree more. It was impossible not to see the resemblance, of course, even if that constant bitter look in her eyes was so unlike the woman in question. But the current distaste in them, what he saw right now, towards him...well, that was certainly and painfully familiar.
"You will find me before the end of this night, Mr Malfoy, and we will have words," Snape muttered, looking away from the girl before his discomfort began to show.
"I'm sure he looks forward to it," she sneered, the venom in her tone was enough to send Snape away before he did anything he would decidedly regret later. He went to go get himself something that wasn't alcoholic and find somewhere so he could properly survey the scene he now knew he needed to chaperone.
Chaperoning was indefinitely needed with the two of them. How could Snape not watch as they took to the dance floor, dancing slowly and stiffly and bitterly? They were talking about something or other and it was clear Potter was bothered...even Severus couldn't believe how much that bothered him. He had gone to all this trouble to protect the girl and here was the boy he was meant to protect, ruining all of his hard work.
Malfoy was even brave enough to glare at Severus as Potter spoke to him, almost as if trying to inform him how displeased he was and also how he wasn't doing anything he wasn't supposed to be – though the Defence Professor highly doubted that.
There was a familiarity to this scene that made it all the more bittersweet. Severus couldn't bear to admit to himself what bothered him so much about this all – was it that he knew Malfoy was dangerous towards Potter? Was it because he had explicitly told them not to pursue this? Or, worse, was it because it was everything he had wanted and lost twenty years before?
There was no denying how reminiscent it all was, after all. How could one deny that a Death Eater and an Order Member whom could never be together was such an old tale? He knew how the tale ended: with heartbreak. With death.
"Just like her mother," Snape nearly cringed at the words and the voice. He wanted to hear nothing more from Horace Slughorn, but it appeared the man was very excited to converse with him.
"They are quite different," Snape bit out. "I assure you."
"Not too different. Why," Slughorn let out a wheezy, drunken laugh. "It's almost like watching James and Lily fall in love all over again. Quite sweet really."
Snape slowly eyed Slughorn, making a conscious effort to keep in his dinner. "Pardon me?"
"Well isn't it? Look at them, fighting all the time and yet they can't keep their hands off each other!" Slughorn laughed again, swigging the rest of his mead and looking into the goblet as if he didn't remember finishing it. "Love makes fools of us all!"
And with that, he turned away, heading down towards where the mead was left.
Snape went to watch the two Slytherin students again and horrifyingly, it was almost like they were...flirting. Oh Salazar's Snakes, they were. He couldn't stand to watch it – not because it was disgusting, not because they weren't supposed to, not because they looked like Potter and Evans...but because he knew that the real end of this story would end like his and Lily's tale had.
Horrifyingly, as Snape watched them, the girl smiled at the boy. A smile he had never seen Audrey Potter smile...a dangerous smile that meant a lot more than spite, or flirting, or misguided adolescent affairs. It was full of relief, of happiness, of danger.
"Draco," the Defence professor spoke before he had even reached them. It was impossible not to ruin this before it went too far. "Come with me."
"He's still dancing with me, Professor and you can't-"
"I can," he cut her off, sneering down at her blushed face. "One more word out of you and I will give you so many detentions you will have to stay here over the break to serve them all."
She looked nearly shell-shocked by his tone, which he was glad to see, while Malfoy sighed and moved to follow him. He noted that the boy instinctively knew that this conversation would not be for prying ears and followed Severus outside of the party, through the corridor and to the end of the hall. Severus checked to make sure they were not followed, he listened to the music of the party which did not falter with their absence, and then quickly and without warning waved his wand to the empty hallway.
When nothing came back from his Legilimency check, he moved into the closest classroom and waited for the young Mr Malfoy to follow him.
"You are drowning, Draco," Snape said immediately, turning on him like an angry animal. "And you are dragging down everyone you know. You are not being at all cautious; you are not being at all productive-"
"That's not true!" He said immediately. "I've been more than productive, I've been actively-"
"Attacking students?" Snape asked, watching as the young boy paled. "It was easy to assume – one moment you are working so desperately, the next you become desperate...soon after, a student nearly dies. You do acknowledge who caught you, don't you?"
"No one caught me," he assured, his voice low. "Because I didn't do it."
"Your precious Miss Potter was in that bathroom," Snape hissed, his voice venomous. There was more rage about this than he cared to admit, because of how she had almost gotten hurt by this entire situation all over again. "Not only did she know that the package was poisoned, she was nearly the target – that would have left you a little at loss with what to tell the Dark Lord, wouldn't it? Did you not tell him that you had planned to pursue the headmaster-"
"Potter didn't take that stupid necklace and it wasn't my fault because I didn't do it. I wasn't even there!" He hissed. "I wasn't in Hogsmeade; I wasn't in the girls' bloody bathroom, so leave it alone!"
"Your excuses are weak, Draco!" Snape sneered. "How do you expect to have any chance at success while you are being so careless? One moment you nearly kill Miss Bell, the next you're dancing with the very enemy the Dark Lord told you to-"
"He gave me a choice!" The boy interrupted him, shaking his head as if he were denying that the end of Severus' sentence could actually happen, that it was an option he was free to pursue. Luckily he wouldn't...even if Severus had to stop the boy himself. "Not like you care."
"I do care, I've been trying to help you for months, assist you to make this all the easier..."
"That's not at all the problem, is it?" The boy hissed, moving to pace around the room. "I've had to sneak around to ensure people like you don't get in my way. Not that you've had to sneak, have you? Instead you just go around slaying things in the middle of corridors."
"Are you accusing me of something, Draco?" Snape asked, his eyes narrowing at the young boy in front of him.
"I didn't ask you to kill her bloody cat," Draco sneered, accusing him openly for the first time since that night. He had just gotten glares beforehand, but Severus was sure not to give any emotion away as the boy ranted. "She loved that thing, possibly more than her brother or any of her friends – you think she'll leave it alone now? Potter's on the hunt for answers."
"That 'cat' was a kneazle," Snape corrected pointedly. "An apt one, at that. Not only was she hissing at you in the corridors, she had attacked you, aiming right at your Dark Mark that very day in the middle of the Great Hall – what if she had ripped open your sleeve, Draco? She was a liability."
"So if I become a liability, are you going to chop me up too?" Draco asked, his eyes narrowed as he stopped walking to glare. "Or were you just showing me that you could kill and take over my mission once you've gotten rid of me?"
"Gotten rid of you? What nonsense," Snape scoffed. "When I went to try to charm her, she attacked – I thought a little warning to both you and Miss Potter may have gone a long way. I can see now how much reason I have to worry."
"So instead of warning us, you decided to handle her cat – which you couldn't even charm properly," Draco mocked, his voice bitter as he ignored all talk of Potter and aimed straight for Snape's pride. "So how could you ever think you could help me?"
"Be that as it may, I protected you from the threat as I have promised your mother I would."
"Carving up a cat and keeping me where you can find me is not protecting me or helping me," Draco pointed out. "Nothing you're doing has any meaning besides showing me you want in on the glory later."
"Really? You are so misguided, Draco, that you do not acknowledge the danger you are in. One wrong move and the Headmaster could figure out your plans."
"I've done a lot to prevent that," Malfoy hissed. "Do you think I'm stupid? Of course I've been covering my tracks."
"Not well enough," Snape hissed. "And instead it appears you wish me to leave you to flounder."
"I'm not floundering – I could have done everything on my own! Including kill the damn cat," Draco's eyes narrowed. "If it had been important. Which it wasn't. I can deal with a scratch or two."
"Apparently not," Snape sneered. "You've been completely transparent towards the Slytherins. I've heard them conversing, I've heard them theorizing over what's been wrong with you these past weeks. Surely you don't believe that your girlfriend has ignored the fact that something's wrong; it won't be long before she'll realize just what her loverboywas really up to."
"Loverboy?" Draco repeated, stuttering out something between a scoff and a laugh. "You only made it worse! Don't you see that she'll never leave it alone now because she doesn't have anyone else to go to? Now every time I leave to go somewhere she's following me, waiting to find her answers."
"Exactly why the things you are planting, your methods of offence are not enough. You cannot afford mistakes, Draco, because if you are expelled-"
"I didn't have anything to do with it, all right?" Draco ran a hand through his hair, hitting a desk and moving away from him as he was accused once more. What he didn't understand was that the irritation was sign enough that Severus was correct.
"I hope you are telling the truth, because it was both clumsy and foolish. Already you are suspected of having a hand in it," Severus explained, keeping his face smooth.
"Who suspects me?" Malfoy scoffed, he stopped walking to glare at his professor. "The Potters? The Chosen One has always hated me, that has nothing-"
"And Miss Potter's fascination with you?" Snape asked again, no matter how he tried he could not keep the viciousness out of his voice. He knew that he kept bringing her up, but he could not help himself – he had told Draco to stay away from her. From her, not from anyone else...so why was he trying to rely on her when she was the one being put in danger by the entire mission? "Are you sure that is of no consequence?"
"That girl is stupid," Malfoy hissed back, shaking his head and turning away from Severus so he could pace some more. "She doesn't even know what she thinks – she's so wrapped up in protecting other people like some bloody Gryffindor-"
"Do not try to fool me, Draco," he responded, stopping the boy's pacing by stepping in front of him and pointing at him accusingly. "For I am not foolish. And I know what goes on in these corridors – I know everything that-"
"For the last time, I didn't do it, okay?" He deflected, throwing his hands up in the air and gripping them to his hair. "That Bell girl must've had an enemy no one knows about..."
But Snape knew better and he knew how to get the proof of it. Tilting his wand slightly in the hand that was already pointing at the boy, he tried to pierce into his mind. He could immediately see bright images, things that were jumbled and hard to make sense of...but as soon as he was starting to identify them, they were ripped from him and he was left back in the darkness until he opened his eyes to his glaring pupil once more.
"Don't look at me like that," Draco sneered, his glare more intense than Snape had ever seen it. He nearly looked embarrassed of what Snape may have seen in his mind's eye, had the professor had more time. "I know what you're doing, I'm not stupid, but it won't work – I can stop you!"
"Ah...Aunt Bellatrix has been teaching you Occlumency, I see." To use against him, no doubt, more so than Dumbledore. How Bellatrix hated him...not without reason, of course. Severus hated her just the same. "What thoughts are you trying to conceal from your master, Draco?"
"I'm not trying to conceal anything from him, I just don't want you butting in!"
"So that is why you have been avoiding me this term? You have feared my interference?" Was it really so simple? Or was it something worse, that he feared the interference would get the job done? The boy could be having second thoughts; it would only be natural...and if that were the case, Severus would gladly hide him, protect him, just as he had promised his mother months ago. Draco Malfoy was a child...as much as Snape resented the boy and what opportunities he had and squandered, he was still just a boy. "You realize that, had anybody else failed to come to my office when I had told them repeatedly to be there, Draco-"
"So put me in detention, report me to Dumbledore!" Draco laughed at him, bending over and sounding slightly hysterical. He was working himself up thanks to a mixture of stress and exhaustion. Snape watched him closely, suddenly seeing what he believed Miss Potter to have been seeing to have been so worried about the boy, before he shook his head.
"You know perfectly well that I do not wish to do either of those things."
"You'd better stop telling me to come to your office then," Draco threatened. "I have better things to do."
"Dancing with Miss Potter did not seem like the things you are supposed to be doing, Draco," he accused, raising an eyebrow. Draco moved past him at last, too frustrated to stay still.
"It wasn't my plan to," he promised. Severus was surprised to hear that it sounded genuine. "I remember what I was told. I'm staying away from her and if you don't stop bringing her into this damned situation, I will start writing back and letting them know just how detrimental you-"
"Listen to me," Snape hissed, his voice low and threatening – he tried to make it calmer, he tried to make it sound urgent instead of how furious he was about what he would have to do for this stupid, arrogant little boy and his Potter. As if Snape was the one dragging her into this mess! The boy had some nerve. "I am trying to help you. I swore to your mother I would protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow, Draco-"
"Looks like you'll have to break it, then," Draco pursed his lips, moving to the side and slapping away one of the trophies that had been left out on the desks after being polished. "Because I don't need your protection! It's my job, he gave it to me and I'm doing it, I've got a plan and it's going to work, it's just taking a bit longer than I thought it would!"
"What is your plan?" Snape took a step closer and the boy immediately took a step away, recoiling as if Snape's words had actually injured him.
"It's none of your business!"
"If you tell me what you are trying to do, I can assist you..."
"I have all the assistance I need, thanks," Draco took another step away, looking out the keyhole of the door as if to check for listeners. When he seemed pleased, he looked back to Severus with a proud smirk. "I'm not alone!"
"You were certainly alone tonight, which was foolish in the extreme, wandering the corridors without lookouts or backup, these are elementary mistakes," he was trying to make him seem as childish as he was acting, trying to get the boy to understand just how foolish he was being – but he was deaf to criticism.
"I would've had Crabbe and Goyle with me if you hadn't put them in detention!" The boy all but yelled; Snape immediately took two steps towards him to shush him.
"Keep your voice down! If your friends Crabbe and Goyle intend to pass their Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL this time around, they will need to work a little harder than they are doing at pres-"
"What does it matter?" The boy laughed with that horrible, hysterical tone once again. "Defense Against the Dark Arts – it's all just a joke, isn't it, an act? Like any of us need protecting against the Dark Arts-"
"It is an act that is crucial to success, Draco!" he shook his head, trying hard not to grit his teeth as he spoke. "Where do you think I would have been all these years, if I had not known how to act? Now listen to me! You are being incautious, wandering around at night, getting yourself caught, and if you are placing your reliance in assistants like Crabbe and Goyle-"
"They're not the only ones; I've got other people on my side, better people!"
"Like who? I hope you've left Mr Nott out of this and surely it couldn't be Miss Potter," Snape stopped when he saw Draco's face drop and he felt the blood in his veins freeze – all that talk about how she had been snooping, hunting for answers...that couldn't have meant that she had found them, could it? He could hear that his voice came out like a curse. "Surely, you have not told her."
"Of course not! She doesn't know and she won't." And yet he sounded disappointed.
"Why do I not believe you?" Snape growled, taking a step back as he tried to take in what he was hearing – the boy, by all accounts, wanted her to be part of this mess. He wanted to tell her to ease his conscience. "I have got to strenuous lengths to keep her apart from this, Draco – you heard what the Dark Lord said. She can no longer be your confidant; you need someone else to confide in, someone on the inside, as I-"
"I know what you're up to! You want to steal my glory!" The boy accused, his voice hoarse.
"You are speaking like a child," Snape coolly stated again. "I quite understand that your fathers capture and imprisonment has upset you, or that what you're up to has ruined your year but-"
"His imprisonment? Ruined this year?" he repeated, his tone horrified and insulted. "Do you know what he's asked me to do; do you realize what I need to do? Ruin my year...you don't know what I've done this year! You don't know what I will do and what – what I'll have to..."
He shook his head, giving in to the stress of the conversation before he turned on his heel and left. He slammed the door behind him, Snape forcing the door open to ensure that he wouldn't walk off to Potter to divulge all his secrets to the girl, as he feared would happen any day. Severus was relieved when the young Malfoy looked as if he would walk past the party...before he suddenly stopped, standing by the door and holding his hands on either side of the frame.
He was looking for her. Contemplating all the words that had been said, all of the regret that Severus could feel having been wrung out of him like a wet rag. Snape couldn't believe the relief he felt when Draco could not find her and moved away from the doorway. All he could think was how the boy might now try to do to ease his guilt.
Draco Malfoy wanted her comfort...and this was something that Severus had not anticipated.
He hadn't realized that the two had been so close; he hadn't realized that their 'relationship' had been anything where they had relied on each other. But apparently it was all Draco was relying on – or else he would have just taken her to Voldemort. Or else he would have just told her how he despised her. Or else he would have just left her alone because of how dangerous they were to each other, like water and flame.
As he watched Malfoy go there was a sudden the feeling of panic that made his own heart race. It was foreign to him, his heart did not skip like that for someone like Draco...and Severus knew well that there was only one person whose panic could become his own when they could not be seen. His eyes scanned the area around him as he searched for some sign of her – there was none. He pushed at the silence of the corridor, pushing his mind against each flagstone...
I know you're here. He thought it loudly, loudly enough that anyone who was listening would have heard the message and jumped...but there was no response other than a bright flash of colour and the feeling of something heavy and final shutting closed against him.
She was here.
Severus closed his eyes as he walked away from her, ready to disguise himself again as a party-goer instead of like the protector he had no right to be. After all, Severus knew that the only possible thing worse than Draco Malfoy wanting Audrey Potter near was having Audrey Potter know it.
Based off of my story Green Eyed Monster.
I do not own the Harry Potter universe, or its characters. I do own Audrey Potter, her vivid potion-making skills, and her wicked nicknames.
I hope you liked the flashback, please review!
-Egypt