I walked the whole way through the winding halls of the school with my hand in the pocket with the flower. I pressed my fingertips gently against the thorny belly of the blossom and felt them sharp against my skin. The prickles were contrasted by the satiny feel of the petals.
I finally reached the door to Ravenclaw house and reached out to knock and receive my riddle. I pulled my hand back and breathed in the milk and spices smell that now clung to the skin of my fingers. I answered the riddle only half having heard it and entered the empty common room. Only it wasn't really empty.
Susan sat in a chair near the fire, her face dimly lit by the dying embers. Something about her sitting in the dark was more menacing than anything and made me nervous. She lifted herself from the chair and walked to me unspeaking which only added to my nerves.
"What are you doing up?" I asked with a cracking voice.
"Helen Boggs said that Millicent Crane said that David Grenley saw you walking into the Forest with Snape." She said. "I wanted to make sure you didn't come back dead if it was true. Did you really go into the Forest with him?"
I nodded my head and gave a gentle squeeze to the flower in my pocket, the thorns pressed against my palm.
"Well are you okay?" She asked.
"Of course I'm okay." I answered.
"You're not hurt at all?" She questioned with an air of accusation.
"No." I said.
Her eyes landed on the hand that I'd had in my pocket since I'd come back. Before I could let go of the flower she seized my arm and pulled. The flower tumbled from my hand and pocket and hit the floor with a slight bounce. It glowed dimly purple in the dark.
"What is that?" Susan asked eyeing the blossom.
"Moon Thistle." I answered and quickly scooped it off the floor and back into my pocket.
"Where did you find a flower in January?" She asked.
"In the Forest." I answered. "It's so strange in there. There isn't snow on the ground and the dense trees almost make it warmer. There was a patch of moonlight somehow deep in the woods and that's where the Moon Thistle was growing."
"So he just let you grab one?" She asked.
I shrugged, "Maybe he didn't see me take one."
"I can't believe it." She said with disgust, my heart pumped hard and the blood that flowed through me went cold. "He wasn't even paying attention to you! You could have been killed and he wouldn't even have noticed, would he?"
I certainly didn't want to tell her just how much Severus really did pay attention to me so I gave a slight nod to her accusation.
"Unbelievable." She said shaking her head. "We have to tell Dumbledore how incompetent Snape is, he's going to get someone killed."
"I'm fine." I insisted. "Let's not go overboard."
"So I'm supposed to wait until you're dead to make a complaint?" She asked angrily.
She was past the point of reasoning. I pulled the flower from my pocket and told her to smell it hoping for a change of subject and possibly Susan's attitude.
She leaned forward and smelled with a look of annoyance but quickly her face smoothed. "Maybe you're right. I don't know what came over me. I think I'm just tired."
I internally thanked the Lord for the calming drowsy powers of the scent of Moon Thistle as Susan and I headed for the dormitory.
We changed into pajamas and crawled into our beds. I had taken the bloom from the pocket of my robe and now held it in my hand. I inhaled its scent deeply and felt the drowsiness sweep over me. I gently placed the Moon Thistle under my pillow and rolled over to sleep.
"Someone is very cross with you." I said leaning against the doorway to Severus's office the next night after supper.
He looked up from his spread of open books. "Why are you angry with me?"
I took a few steps inside and gently nudged the door shut with my foot behind me. "It's not me that's cross, it's Susan."
"And why is that?" He asked.
"Because you didn't make sure I was safe in the forest the other night." I smiled.
"Is that so?" He questioned.
"Yes." I asserted. "I thought it was better to say you ignored me than to tell her that our lips did meet under the light of the full moon."
"Would you have been so poetic in telling her?" He asked with a slight smile.
"Of course." I said taking a seat across from him at the book covered table. "If I'm going to tell her something so incredibly juicy I should at least use words that paint a picture."
"Well you should probably be going." He said standing from his chair. "You don't want her to become more cross with me for keeping you."
"Well technically," I said leaning back in my chair. "I'm at defense club so I can stay as long as I'd like."
"I'm not going to be very entertaining tonight." He said striding to a shelf with bottles and vials of ingredients. "Just experimenting."
"Can I watch?" I asked.
"If you want I suppose you can." I said plucking a bottle containing dark red liquid from the shelf. "But it's going to be boring."
"I don't think it will be." I assured him.
"That's right." He said walking with the bottle to three empty cauldrons in the corner of his office. "You're inquisitive."
He added equal amounts of the thick red syrup to each of the three cauldrons and picked up a jug of clear liquid and added equal amounts of that to each cauldron. He put the stoppers back in each of the two bottles and walked back to return the red bottle to the shelf. I watched as his eyes scanned the shelves for a new ingredient. His fingers flicked as he waved his hand slowly before the bottles. His eyes lit up and he pulled a vial of silvery spider web thin sticks. He quickly after that took a second vial from the shelf.
He walked back to the tree cauldrons and added two strands from the silvery spider web looking vial to each cauldron before stirring each one clockwise three times except for the third cauldron which he stirred fourth time and added to black beads from the second vial in his hand. There was a flash of golden light from the third cauldron and a small puff of white smoke.
He returned the vials moving his lips as he went over a mental list. He shook his head and sat at the chair across from me again before he started leafing through several books at the same time. He slid a slender finger gently down one of the pages.
"Could you not look at me like that?" He said with his eyes still focused on the page he was reading and his lips pulling slightly at the corner to form a half smirk.
I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror behind him. My head was resting on my hand and my eyes were in a sort of daze. My lips were curled into a vague and dreamy smile. I snapped up, sat straight, and smoothed my expression. Severus smiled and got up from his seat again.
Something blue on a shelf behind me reflected in the mirror caught my attention. I turned around and looked up to see closer what was resting on the overstocked bookshelf.
"Is that one of Flitwicks?" I asked pointing.
"What?" He asked visibly unnerved by my question. "No."
"Sure it is." I said. "I'd recognize on of Professor Flitwick's cupcakes anywhere."
I stood up and admired its curling streams of blue and bronze frosting.
"Aawww," I cooed. "Were you sad? Did he make it dance for you?"
"He made it do something much worse than that." He said.
"I can't believe you haven't eaten it yet." I marveled. "They really are quite delicious."
"Ruby, don't touc…" He began to order, but it was too late. My fingers grazed the paper wrapping.
"Haaaaaaappy Birthday to you!" A high pitched voice wailed.
I jumped away from the cupcake and the shelf, startled. I realized that the voice was coming from the cupcake and I felt a wide smile that one only gets when one figures out a great secret.
"Happy Birthday, dear Severus." The cupcake sang. "Happy birthday to you."
The room was quieter than before the cupcake had sung its song. I stood looking at Severus with the ridiculous smile on my face. He was frozen in place his hand floating over an ingredient he had been about to grab.
"It's your birthday, isn't it, Severus?" I guessed, my voice distorted by the wideness of my smile.
"No, it's not my birthday." He answered after a string of silence.
"Of course it is, the cupcake…"
"It was given to me when it was my birthday but I can't seem to bring myself to eat something after it sings my name." He said and took the bottle his hand had been hovered over.
"Which was when?" I asked.
"That doesn't matter." He said adding a few drops of the contents of the new bottle to two of the cauldrons.
"Of course it matters." I said. "It's supposed to be friends and family celebrating the day they got you."
"I've never had a birthday party before." He said placing the bottle back on the shelf. "Why would I start after twenty-two years?"
"Oh, Sevy." I half whined. "You've never celebrated your birthday?"
"Don't call me Sevy." He said and grabbed a jar of orangish-brown paste. "And not really, no."
"Well, when was it?" I asked. "I think I should know something like your birthday."
"Why?" He asked stopping the action of adding the paste to the cauldrons and instead turning to face me.
My throat went dry. What if I was thinking too much about what had recently started happening between he and I. I ignored my gut panic and choked out the words anyways.
"I'm your girlfriend." I chickened out as soon as the last word escaped my mouth. "Type thing…"
He continued to look at me, his face unchanging. With every passing second without him saying anything my heart beat harder against my ears.
"Saturday the ninth." He said finally.
It took a bit to understand that he was telling me when his birthday had been. "We weren't even talking then."
"I know." He said and finished adding the paste to the last cauldron.
"I'm so sorry." I plead.
"It's alright, Ruby." He said walking the jar back to its place.
"No it's not." I argued. "I'll make it up to you."
Realizing what I had said my mind lit up with an idea which spread a smile across my face.
Severus looked at me and his eyes filled with understanding at my statement and smile. "No, Ruby, don't."
"It's already done." I said. "I should be going. I have plans to finalize."
"Ruby, no!" He objected.
"Too late." I teased and I opened the door to the classroom. "You won't know when it's coming, but it's coming."
"Ruby." He said rushing for the door.
"Goodnight." I said quickly before slamming the door on him and running through the classroom to the safety of the halls. Once in the hall I allowed myself one quick smile before I ran up the stairs.