The Pureblood Prince
By mystfatale.
Disclaimer: All characters you recognise belong to J.K. Rowling.
Notes: Thanks so much for all the wonderful and constructive reviews. I hope you continue enjoying this story as much as I am in love with writing it. Sorry for the delay in this one... uni is now into full-swing, unfortunately. This chapter is a bit less all-over-the-place than the others, but there is method to this madness, I promise ;)
Enjoy.
CHAPTER X: Telescopes and Greasy Bats
"God damn it!"
Damn it all!
Severus aggressively threw an ancient looking volume of Advanced Potions Making (which was definitely not his own) across the Potions classroom where it hit the stone wall and broke effortlessly in half at the binding. He had spent the last day of freedom that he would ever have, rushing around the school searching for a 50 year-old hardback. Superb.
Give up, Severus. Just give it up.
The thought of what would happen if anyone found that book… his insides squirmed at the thought. No one could possible make the connection that it was his, would they? No. The majority of Hogwarts students, and indeed staff, were such self-obsessed dolts that they wouldn't even think twice about who owned the book with all the dark curses in it. Well, maybe all except Dumbledore.
His very own Levicorpus jinx had now become so popular thanks to idiot Potter and his womanising mob of imbeciles, that practically everyone in the school was now using it merely to pass the time. Something suddenly clicked within his ever-spinning mind… if Regulus was being honest to him, that he didn't share the curse with anyone, then maybe…
He had to find Potter.
That was, if Evan Rosier wasn't currently blocking the way out of the Potions classroom, the inbred git.
"What the devil are you doing in here?" Rosier questioned in that permanently irritating aristocratic tone of his.
Severus closed the cupboard swiftly. "Sunbathing."
"Sunbathing…? Jolly cold in here for that, isn't it?"
Severus had to close his eyes for a moment to hide the fact that he was rolling them spectacularly.
"So it would seem. Would you excuse me?" Severus replied in the most well-to-do, poncy voice that he could, even bowing sardonically. If Rosier couldn't understand mockery in the slightest then he might as well have fun with it.
Rosier stopped him just before he managed to escape his presence.
"So have you… er… have you got your orders then, Snape?"
Severus paused a while, mulling over Rosier's bewildering query. "To find a sunnier spot to tan? Yes, I have, thanks to you."
Another bewildered expression was thrown his way. Severus thought he'd better start being serious else Evan's head explode.
"What orders?" he added, trying to sound as interested as he possibly could when he was not in the slightest.
Evan placed a hand on his back, which, as always, caused Severus to tense his muscles. He leant in so close to Severus that his breath began to make him nauseous. "From the Dark Lord! Avery and Mulciber have theirs as well. We are all to meet for our initiations on… you mean to say you never got-? You were not even informed of it?"
"The Dark Lord sent you invitations by owl willy nilly?" Severus scoffed. "Surely Dumbledore's got wind if it by now… honestly; was it at least in code?"
It was Rosier's turn to scoff. "Don't be ridiculous, Sev! Lucius Malfoy has written- only, well…"
"Well, what?"
"Well… if you weren't invited I don't think I should be talking to you about it, should I?"
Severus opened his mouth to protest, but shut it again. So, the Dark Lord didn't want him after all. After all his grandmother had said, after all she had promised… another part of his mind was fighting against these thoughts – you said no, anyway. Even if she seemed so sure that you would change your mind, you still said no. Yes, indeed he did. What was the point of feeling so dejected if he had refused this invitation? Severus was not quite sure… but he felt the sharp stabbing pain that that seclusion brought nevertheless. He had spent the better half of four years planning his life around a group of people who didn't want him…
"No… I suppose the Dark Lord would not be pleased if you did…" he said quietly.
Evan was apparently attempting to construct his facial features in such way as to look sympathetic; it wasn't working very well – he looked more as if he had sat on something terrible sharp and long.
"I am very surprised you were not offered a spot, Severus. My condolences." Evan's words were so stilted that Severus was positive he was neither surprised nor concerned.
It was only until Rosier left the room in an infuriatingly cheery manner that the reality of having something that he had dreamed of having so brutally ripped away from him truly hit Severus. The temper inherited from Tobias getting the better of him, as it so often did (and something he would forever toil resiliently to keep under control), he delivered a swift angry kick to the table leg – a kick so hard that the following jab of throbbing pain that radiated from his foot almost convinced him that he had broken something.
Of course… the sudden shot of pain only made him angrier. Indeed, it filled him up with inexcusable anger.
Were he a tad older, Severus would have thought to take a deep breath and close his eyes for a moment while he collected his thoughts. But instead, and with all thoughts of his book gone, he decided to rush back to the Slytherin seventh-year boys dormitory, retrieve the wand which he had left in his haste to rush around the school and find the book, and curse James Potter into oblivion.
~*~
~*~
Aurora Sinistra was laying in a rather awkward position on one of the common rooms couches feeling like the ceiling had just collapsed onto her face. She slowly placed a cool palm to her aching forehead, daring not to make any sudden movements… thank Merlin I have terrible circulation… she thought; a painful wince following as her cold hand started to warm against her throbbing skull. The exams were now completely over and, though she was certain that she had done as well as she could, Aurora could not help but feel slightly resentful that her migraines had to play up just when everyone could start relaxing.
And then a part of her felt ridiculous for even contemplating wanting to switch from having a jackhammer to the head over her free-time to during her exams; and then she just wished she would shut-up and go to sleep.
Being a fantastically sunny day, all the Slytherins were either outside swimming in the lake, or under the more secluded of the trees undertaking more intimate activities. A few of her fellow Slytherin friends had taken control over the dormitory with their pubescent drama-filled discussions of nonsense… Aurora groaned and wished they would leave so she could lock herself away and shut the curtains.
The boulder guarding the common room suddenly swung open violently, sending prickles of torturous fireworks off inside her head. She could not bare to let any light in by opening her eyes and thus just lay like a corpse on the couch, praying that they would not sit, nor walk, anywhere near her.
"You wouldn't… happen to have… ice?" she called out feebly, but she was not answered. The person was now hurriedly moving up the boy's stairs.
"Prick." Aurora murmured, holding her head.
The steps stopped.
Oh, hoorah.
"What did you call me?"
Forgetting the pain, Aurora opened her eyes and immediately wished she hadn't.
"Severus? Huh. I should've guessed. Look… could you-" She tried to sit up, but it was all in vain.
"Shut-up." The words were spoken so harshly that she knew he meant them. His footsteps continued up the stairs; Aurora now lay both in agony and fury.
She heard him throw various objects and swear from all the way up the stairs. Something bad must've happened… but she knew him well enough not to pry. Still, she had to do something. She didn't really know why, but she did. Ever since that popular Lily girl dropped all contact with Severus for calling her a name and started strutting around the with boy who almost killed him like it was nothing – well, Aurora supposed she was the only friend he had left… even if he didn't consider her anything like he considered Lily.
Aurora smiled to herself disconsolately; what an arrangement for a proud Slytherin such as herself to find herself in. Running around cleaning up the mess left by a haughty little Gryffindor, astonishingly unappreciative of the friend she once had wrapped around her little finger.
When Severus returned down the stairs, Aurora opened her eyes far enough to see a wand being swung around in his hand.
"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice flashing with a warning. She knew he was about to do something rather untoward.
"That is none of your concern. Go back to sleep." And he was gone.
Though her head felt it was going to explode, Aurora knew that she would have to be the rational brains of this operation (naturally). She heaved herself up – gasping in pain as she did so – and struggled to follow her imprudently difficult friend out of the common room.
It was out of instinct, more than logic, that she found herself outside the library in the Gryffindor hangout spot under the trees. It was lucky she did as sure enough, Severus was making his way around the corner, wand at the ready.
With a leap that could have put grasshoppers to utter shame, Aurora managed to grab the back of his robes with a pincer-like grip; Severus snapped around so violently that he knocked the already-crouching Aurora Sinistra to the floor.
"Ow!"
"Sinistra! What do you think you're doing, grabbing me like that? I could have hurt you!"
There was a certain fear in his face as he said this… the way in which he spoke indicated that he was angry more at himself than at her for grabbing him. In one swift move, he grasped onto her upper arm and pulled her up to face him.
"Ungh…" Aurora murmured, momentarily forgetting why she was there amidst the throbbing pain in her head.
"Did I hurt you?" utter panic rang in his voice.
"No!" Aurora bit back, dusting leaves off her robes. "I'm not a porcelain doll, you arse! I have a migraine!"
"Then go and see Madam Pomfrey and stop following me!" now satisfied that he was not to blame for her pain, Severus turned away from her with superlative velocity.
Another hand grabbed the back of his neck. Once again he winced.
"Not until you stop being an empty-headed moron!" Aurora retorted as he turned to face her. "What do you think you're going to accomplish, cursing people in broad daylight? Being expelled on your last day of school is going to go down so well on your references. Is prison life something you think you'd quite enjoy, Snape? Because that is where you always seem to want to go."
Severus's uneven teeth were now bared. "You are nothing but a meddlesome spoiled brat who wouldn't know suffering if it spat in your face."
Aurora was so taken aback that, for once, she had no sharp retort to give him.
"Spoiled, huh…" she said in nothing more than a whisper. In her silence, Severus attempted yet again to move closer to James Potter and Sirius Black, who were sitting on one of the high branches of their usual tree. This time, they spotted him.
"Oh look who's here Jamesey!" Black shouted cheerfully. "Snivellus has come back for more. I guess it's his last chance to grease us with his presence!"
A few of the Gryffindors laughed at this, including the Head Boy.
"You'll be laughing on the other side of your face in a minute, Black."
"Ho ho! Don't get Snivelly mad, Padfoot." Potter laughed, leaping from the tree and smartening up his robes as he got up. "He and your brother might just come back and waste more of our valuable charms on them! Why, here's one now!"
A bolt of red light erupted from James's wand, but Severus blocked it with an effortless flick.
"Oh look, Snivellus has got some balls. Who'dve thought it, hey?"
"Ugh, Padfoot, please, don't make me throw up my breakfast."
Severus sent a jet of green over both Black and Potter. Potter managed to block the curse, but Black took a deep cut to the cheek.
"You'll pay for that Snivelly!Bet your Mummy wouldn't like you to come home with all cuts now, would she? Huh. Or maybe that'd just make it easier for her to suck out all your blood, the vampire bitch!"
Aurora had to sprint across the lawn, shouting at the top of her lungs for all the violence that ensued next. Severus had thrown his wand completely away and was now pummelling Potter with his fist, while Black had jumped down and was doing the same to Severus.
"STOP IT! STOP IT!" Aurora screamed, pulling Severus away from the tangle of fists and testosterone. Her long dark brown hair was matted all over her sweaty face.
"You'll pay, Potter! YOU'LL PAY!" Severus was still shouting. Aurora grabbed his shoulders and yanked him away so hard that this time both of them fell onto the ground. By this time two other people had run into the circle; Lily Evans and Remus Lupin were pulling both Potter and Black away from the circle.
"Stop it, all of you! Would you stop coming here and riling him up, Severus! Nothing's going to change," Lily said, while holding a struggling James in her arms. "Just… leave me alone."
"He wasn't looking for you!"
"I wasn't looking for you!"
Both Severus and Aurora retorted at the same time. Lily looked highly unbought; Aurora wanted to smack that expression right off her face.
"Then what are you doing, exactly?" she questioned.
"Just taking up space, as always!" Potter said, still squirming in her grasp.
"Shut-up, Potter. As if your head doesn't take up ten times more space." Aurora couldn't contain herself any longer. She had no idea why Severus spent the slightest amount of time worrying about these cretins. She began to pull Severus away, who thankfully, wasn't as resistant as James was.
"Don't talk about my boyfriend like that, Aurora!" Lily protested.
"Oh, don't even get me started on you and your sense of entitlement, Evans - I'd miss the train home. Come on, Severus."
Sirius and James burst into howls of laughter as Lily's face slowly began to drop. "Why the hell are you sticking up for old Snivelly all of a sudden, Sinistra? Got a bit of a fetish for mangy little greasy bats, have you? What a life you have, huh, telescopes and greasy bats!"
"Ooh, Prongs, let's get out of here before the bat and the batette start snogging all over us!"
"Leave it, guys." Lily interjected.
"Got nothing to say, Sinistra, eh? That's a new sound isn't it? Sinistra not opening her big mouth." Sirius exclaimed upon seeing Aurora place a hand to her head.
"I think she knows that she has more sense than to lower herself to your level of idiotic remarks!" Severus snarled all of a sudden.
Amidst the fits of laughter and whooping – Aurora forcibly grabbed Severus and marched the two of them clear away from the Gryffindor den. She held up the palm of her hand to Lily Evans, not bothering to turn around to face the Head Girl who called "Aurora…!" after her.
"You should've let me curse them all," Severus said harshly, which caused her to return a fierce glare in his direction. He had to purposely slow himself down to be able to stay at Aurora's side; she began to grasp the wall.
"Yes I… I'd let you get expelled the last day of school…. Mmm!" Aurora sank to the floor in pain. "Wow, Severus… have… you been hanging out with the wrong friends… I think I just need to pop in the broom closet and cut my head off, could you help?"
It had suddenly seemed to click in his mind that she actually did have quite the unpleasant migraine. "You should've stayed in bed, not have run after me. Not in the state you're in." He pulled her up gently and helped her walk. "You look like you've crawled out of a swamp."
"Nice."
"Don't mention it."
"I would have preferred a space-centred comparison…"
"Alright. You look like you've crawled out of a meteorite, you astrophysics drip."
As they both turned away from the direction of the hospital wing, Aurora had to make herself speak again: "considering how many times you've been there I'd have thought you would know the hospital wing's that way."
Severus issued an amused snigger. She hardly ever heard him snigger, let alone laugh, it rather unnerved her. "Oh, I am much more adapt at Potions than Pomfrey, trust me. You'll feel better in an instant."
The bat has a point.
~*~
~*~
The common room was rather packed when they both stumbled back in, Aurora barely able to stand at this point. Knowing the dangers that awaited the people of the masculine persuasion were they attempt to walk into the girl's dorms in order to brew the potion, they went instead to the boys.
"You can wait downstairs, the potion should take more than five minutes." Severus said as she motioned to follow him.
Aurora scoffed. "And be subject to all that ear-piercing banter, I don't think so. Can I just lie on your bed?"
Severus tensed up as they reached the door. He didn't answer straight away, but instead creaked open the door to his dormitory, checking if anyone else was residing within it.
"Yes, I suppose you could…" he finally stated, happy that none of the other boys were there to give him grief for it.
Before he even finished his sentence, Aurora had collapsed into one of the beds, facedown.
"How did you know that was my bed?" he asked, quite stunned. It wasn't even the one closest to the door.
A quick jab of a finger behind her back motioned to all the potions equipment resting on top of the trunk at the foot of the bed. How could it be anything but his? Aurora heard an amused snort behind her back as he quietly clanked and clinked with all his potions bottles; he knew enough not to talk and aggravate her head… she was rather touched by this thoughtfulness on his part.
Ten minutes later, Aurora was sitting up on Severus's bed, her back propped up with his pillows, toying with the potion bottle still in her hands. Severus sat on the edge next to her, as they discussed the directions they were to take after all this Hogwarts business had finished.
"Of course I want to do something with Astronomy," Aurora told him. "Though there aren't really that many jobs available for Astronomers in the Wizarding world – not that it bothers me. I was thinking of joining Muggle astrophysicists."
"You would need extra education for a Muggle astronomers job."
"Yes, well, astronomy is all Muggle physics really… I wouldn't mind doing that anyway: going to university and all. Continuing to learn everything I can about the final frontier."
'Indeed?" he seemed rather shocked. "What was the point of you coming to Hogwarts exactly? Not to mention Slytherin?"
Aurora laughed. "I see nothing wrong in integrating oneself in the Muggle community. It's ignorant and unwise for a wizard to pretend it doesn't exist. Especially when the only other option in the wizarding world is Divination and "reading" people's futures from the stars, and I'll be hung and drawn before I start going down that road. No… as long as I get any sort of money coming in I'll be fine; it's my mother, you see, she's all the way back in India and I'm trying to get her over here to live with me. She's… she's gone through some terrible things."
There was a long pause as she sipped the last drops of her migraine-easing potion. It was indeed a lot more efficient than the ones she usually received in the hospital wing. Severus opened his mouth a few times, as if trying to find the words to something. Aurora shook it away.
"Oh, don't bother. I won't continue to bore you with my life story as a little girl in West Bengal; it's rather dry. Do you want to go for a walk? This room isn't exactly the most clinically sterile place in the world…"
The two Slytherins continued their banter all the way down to the lake, where a few students were still lounging… awaiting dinnertime.
"I didn't realise you were born in India, I thought… well…"
"That I was spoiled English brat with filthy rich Indian parents?"
"No! That's not what I… I didn't mean to call you spoil-"
"No, no, it's fine Severus. I have a far too comfortable life here, able to do what I choose and study my obsession; that's spoiled enough to me."
"Uh… yes. Well, no… I mean, you should always be able to do what you want…"
He looked completely uncomfortable with the whole situation now. As if mentioning anything else about her old home would send Aurora into a nostalgic fit of sob stories. What a ridiculously pubescent boy thing to be afraid of… they both settled themselves under a particularly shady tree.
"Anyway, thanks for the potion. I think we all know what you're going to be doing after school, Mr. Apothecarist."
Severus shifted uncomfortably.
"No? Mr. Healer? Professor Snape, Potions teacher? Dr. Snape, Anaesthetist? Neurosurgeon?"
"Never. I'll never be a Muggle Doctor."
Something had suddenly changed in his eyes... as if something that was laying dormant had suddenly decided to pounce out of its safe hiding place within the reeds of his subconscious.
"It's called a joke, Severus, Merlins beard…"
"I want nothing to do with the Muggle world. You may think they're interesting, fantastic beings, Aurora, but let me assure you – they're all scum."
Aurora blinked at him in utter shock at least four times. What the hell did he just admit to? Did he admit to hating all Muggles? Surely not.
"Severus… that's almost Death Eater talk right there. That's not like you."
"You have no idea what I'm like."
"I know you're not a Death Eater."
And that was it.
Severus got up so quickly that he could just have easily apparated – Aurora wasn't sure which of the two it was.
"No, I'm not a Death Eater, you're quite right. What the hell could they do with a half-blood like me anyway? What chance do I stand with all these inbred purebloods running around like they own place, brains the size of grapes. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to and pack my things before dinner."
"Whoa, whoa…" Aurora, who had also got up almost as fast as he did, held up her hands to stop his rampage. "Now I'm gathering the distinct impression that you… you want to join the Death Eaters. Tell me I'm delusional. Please tell me I'm delusional… no, I'd have to be delusional to believe that garbage – oh Merlin, I'm delirious!"
"Would you stop your nonsense!" Severus snapped. "Life isn't as black and white as you make it out to be. People will get hurt because I don't cut it. There's nothing I can do about it anymore."
"'Don't cut it'?! Don't cut it for what? To be a murderer? A rapist? Do you know what the Death Eaters do to Muggles?"
"Some Muggles deserve it!"
Aurora almost fell over in disbelief. Everything she thought he was… it was now crumbling before her eyes.
"So the one or two Muggles who deserve it are worth killing innocent little children for, is it? For… Merlin, I can't even get the words out… such unimaginable acts… to children, Severus… they rape people for the hell of it!"
Aurora was so livid that anything he may have been retorting was going straight through her head and out again. "Fuck, Severus! I can't believe you of the all people in this entire world would even consider something like that!"
"What difference does it make anyway? I'm not joining them!"
"Do you think that was the point I was trying to make, you idiot?" she snapped back equally as vehemently. "The mere fact that you'd be willing to conform to their ideologies just to get some sort of revenge on one or two people who you don't get along with shows me that you're just the same as all those bigoted spoiled rich kids who give up their lives to follow You Know Who like trained chimps." Her breath was rising in her chest, she was so angry; she didn't know whether to turn away from this sorry sight or keep shouting at him – praying that he would tell her it was all a joke.
"Is all the money and power that he promises really worth your freedom, Severus Snape? Do you hate yourself that much?" she asked, genuinely interested to know.
"It's not about me." He replied simply. "I have never wished for myself to gain any sort of benefit from this; I didn't join because I know my mother would be wholly disconsolate if I did. She doesn't need anymore pain than she already has."
"Look, Severus… " Aurora said, talking to him in a much more gentler tone than before. "I know you must have had terrible, unimaginable experiences with… your father…" she pressed this softly; the way in which he turned his head away from her proved her to be right about the person he wanted to extract revenge on. "But don't you see that you'd be giving your entire life away, just for a few moments of shallow pleasure at watching him suffer?"
"It's not all about watching him suffer! It's about finally doing something for my mother that I should have done long ago! Eighteen years she's taken beatings and even more terrible acts for me. For years she would not even let the filthy Muggle lay a finger on me and took it all on herself… until he weakened her so much that she didn't have the energy to fight anymore!"
Aurora let him stay silent for a while. She knew he had not intended to just divulge what he did… anything Aurora could have replied with would seem intrusive and possibly clam him up for good.
"Anyway, I said no. And that's that. One way or another, it's not going to turn out well." He finished, gathering himself up once again.
"I still don't think you get the point though," Aurora had to add. Noble intentions or not, she was still bubbling with fury over the fact that he'd be willing to kill thousands of people just to get rid of his Muggle father was beyond all comprehension. "You say it's not about you, Severus, when it so clearly is."
"Could you spare me your wise words of wisdom, Borealis? You really don't know when to shut-up do you?" he shot, gaining more momentum from her continuing arguments. The use of that old, annoying nickname would have managed to amuse her if she weren't so incensed. As Severus turned away to make his way back to the Great Hall, she threw herself out in front of him.
"If you thought I didn't know when to shut-up before, you're in for a big surprise. You know why it's all about you Severus? Because you're the one wanting the power to extinguish your Muggle father by force when there are obviously a million more ways to do so."
She spread her hands wide, as if gesturing for him to make an attack on her right then and there. "Alright, I'm a Muggle now, and You Know Who has told you to kill me, to strike me down in cold blood. Would you do that? Would you kill your friend on his orders?"
"I… no! Which is why I have refused to join them, for the last damn time!"
"You talk like you wish you were there."
"Oh, stop acting so high and mighty with your 'sensible' advice. It's a wonder why you didn't get sorted into Ravenclaw if you think you're so smart!"
It took all of Aurora's will power not to break down right then and there; she had lost him, she knew it.
"Because I know what's best for myself!" she stammered, emotion finally getting the best of her. "And besides, signing a death warrant over my own head to fight for a cause I don't even agree with is not what I call very Slytherin, do you? I think that's more of a Gryffindor thing… or perhaps that's what you want, to be more Gryffindor?"
She viciously wiped away a tear that had rebelled against her wishes and was now rolling defiantly down her cheek. Severus seemed to watch it in disbelief.
"Lily was right about you, you know. She was right. You're a lost cause. And I should have known that the only reason you returned to spend any time with me this year was because she stopped talking to you… just because you needed someone else to look out for you, something I stupidly mistook for some kind of friendship like the idiot I was!"
The words fell out of her mouth like a waterfall of grief.
"Aurora, that's not true!"
"Well, you'll have to run along and learn to amuse yourself on your own now, because I am wholly finished with playing the understudy. Take care, Severus."
"Aurora, don't be ridiculous! We've been friends for years! Before… her!"
She never shot a retort back at him and made her way hastily up to the castle, sniffing back the rest of the basted tears that had decided to join their comrade. In the distance she heard him utter a howl of anger, but Aurora Sinistra kept walking.
It would be many years until they spoke again.
~*~