Chpt. 11- Pictures and Regrets

Lyric carefully walked through the hallway to the west end of the school. Even under the Invisibility Cloak, she felt exposed. She took her time slowly crawling along the walls to Snape's quarters. When she arrived at his door, she took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing," she muttered quietly. Lyric took the top of the Lucency Potion.

"How will you get into his room," Iona had asked them when she heard their plan. "The teachers' quarters all have individual passwords."

"Lucency," Tristan replied, "you can walk through up to five of solid brick with just a small bottle."

Now, Lyric stood with the small blue bottle in her hands, uncorking the bottle.

"Only take half," Tristan had warned earlier. "Too much and you'll fall straight through the floor."

'That's comforting,' Lyric thought to herself. She moved the bottle to her lips and let the potion flow down the back of her throat. It tasted revolting, but Lyric did as she was instructed and swallowed approximately half of the liquid. Just a few moments later, a quick wave of nausea swept over Lyric and left quickly as it had come. She took another deep breath, closed her eyes, and stepped forward. As she hit the door, she felt a tug but was still able to walk straight through the thick wooden door. When finally inside, Lyric opened her eyes.

Snape's quarters were an eclectic mess of books, unmatched furniture, scary-looking things in jars, and darkness. The walls were lined with cheap looking cedar bookshelves. Hundreds of books were randomly stacked all over the room. Lyric tried to read some of the titles, but the room was too dark.

The only light in the room came from a large green candle on the large pine desk, where Snape was currently grading assignments. Snape briefly looked up from his papers and glanced in Lyric's direction. She immediately froze. She stopped breathing for what seemed like an hour, until Snape went back to his grading. Lyric, as quietly as possible, drew another breath.

Lyric crept over to the desk, and had a silent congratulatory scream. Snape was having a cup of tea. This would make the Sleeping Powder much easier. But of course, there was now the challenge of getting it into his cup without exposing her hand from underneath the cloak. Luck was on her side tonight, because just as Lyric stood wondering how to do it, Snape got up from the desk, grabbed the candle and went to the bookshelf on the opposite end of the room. No doubt looking for a reference. Lyric wasted no time in dumping a capful of the powder into his cup. She then ran for cover near the door, and waited for Snape to sample his tea.

Lyric sat near the door for nearly ten minutes. Snape was not at all interesting in the cup on his desk, and Lyric was getting impatient. While she waited, Lyric began to look at the collection of books on the walls. There were a number what looked like old school textbooks. Potions books for years and years of school. Lyric swallowed hard when she read the title Pollard's Paperback of Perilously Poisonous Potions. Then Lyric found something that surprised her: a few shelves near the bottom that was entirely devoted to Muggle books. A seemingly committed collection of classics: Beowulf, Paradise Lost, The Odyssey, A Tale of Two Cities, Frankenstein, The Republic, Antigone, War of the Worlds, Candide, The Canterbury Tales, Don Quixote, East of Eden, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Prince, Dante's Inferno, and dozens of battered and dog-eared books littered this shelf in the most unorganized fashion.

Lyric was in awe. Most wizards found it unnecessary to keep up with Muggle literature. It was often hard to get a hold of a book if you were a wizard withdrawn from the Muggle world. The summer before her first at Hogwarts, while on location with her mother in Florida, Lyric had occupied the summer in the public library. There, she had found thousands of novels and stories that she had never heard of before. Lyric's first book was Of Mice and Men. Lyric was completely entranced by the story of George and Lenny, and soon found herself reading the rest of Steinbeck's novels. She quickly moved on to other authors and other books. She couldn't get enough. When at school, she only had the few novels she had brought with her, but here was a small library of books she loved. She looked a Snape with a new sense of respect, before remembering what an ass he was to her and that godforsaken destiny.

Just as Lyric turned to look at the well-read professor, Snape had taken a sip of his tea. Soon after putting the cup back down, his eyes rolled up in his head, and he slouched backwards to the floor. Even though Lyric was expecting him to pass out, she hadn't counted on him going out so quick. Lyric threw off the Invisibility Cloak and quickly ran to her professor. She sat for a minute, making sure that he was alright. After watching the steady rise and fall of his chest, Lyric pulled out the tutu, ready to dress Snape in it.

Problem: how the hell was she going to lift him up and be able to dress him? She and Tristan clearly hadn't thought the logistics of their plan through entirely. Thinking for a minute, Lyric then withdrew her wand and said "Mobilicorpus." Snape's limp form slowly rose to standing position.

Lyric stood in front of the floating Snape for a minute, trying to force herself to reach out and touch him. This was the part she dreaded. In order to get the photo op Tristan and she planned on, it would require Lyric to first undress the greasy bat. She finally went for it and quickly unbuttoned his robes and the rest of clothes. He now stood, or floated, in front of Lyric wearing nothing but a pair of dingy gray knickers. To Lyric's absolute horror, she was not disgusted at the sight. She put her hand to the professors pale chest. Like his hands, he was warm to the touch, almost comforting. His skin was soft, but tight across small, but defined muscles. Lyric suddenly found the tremendous urge to feel the rest of he professor, but slapped her own hand away from Snape's body.

Pushing certain thought out of head, Lyric quickly dressed Snape into Tallula's now-black tutu. Seeing as how the tutu was made to fit a pudgy, short girl, it hardly fit this tall, skinny man. Stretched tight over his shoulders, but hanging loosely in the stomach. Lyric stifled a giggle, and got out the camera. She tilted Snape's head back so that people were sure to see his face in the photo, and took the picture. She redressed him, and moved him over to his bed. She lifted the spell and watched him fall onto the burgundy duvet in his oak four-poster bed.

Lyric watched him sleep for a minute. Suddenly, he wasn't so scary, he wasn't so mean, and he definitely wasn't so revolting. In sleep, he looked vulnerable and human. Lyric sat down next to him on the bed, and put her hand on top of his hand. It was warm, just a Lyric had expected. She sat and stroked his hand for then next few minutes, wanting to do more, but terrified that she would wake him. The powder would soon wear off.

Sadly, she got off the bed and put the Invisibility Cloak back on. She looked at the room, for anything she may have left behind. Finding nothing, she drank the other half of the Lucency potion and walked though the door. She immediately walked to her uncle's office, as he was away from the school until this weekend. She whispered the password, ran into his office, and put the Invisibility Cloak back in the trunk labeled J.P. He hadn't mentioned it missing to anyone, so Lyric just assumed he knew nothing of its disappearance. She ran out of his office and back to the Gryffindor common room. Tristan was waiting for her, no one else was around.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Just finished up with Filch. How'd it go," he asked excitedly.

"Um, good, I guess," she answered with far less enthusiasm.

"Well, did you get the picture? Did anyone see you? Did you need the fireworks as a distraction?"

"Yeah, I got the picture, and no one saw me, but…" she trailed off.

"But what?" Tristan was worried, "What happened?"

"Nothing happened, I just…" Lyric struggled with her words, "we can't do this, Tristan."

"We already did it, Lyric," he was annoyed with her.

"No, I mean, we can't develop these pictures, and we can't show them to anybody. It's too much, Snape doesn't deserve this."

"What? He's been on your case since school started, and mine, and about three-quarters of all the students in this school. He hates everyone that isn't in Slytherin. He's a complete, elitist bastard, not to mention ugly as sin."

"He's not ugly," Lyric defend before realizing what she had said. "I mean, that's no reason to do this to him."

Tristan was angry, Lyric had never seen him like this before. "Is this because of Trelawney's prediction?"

Lyric was dumbfounded, "How did you know about that?" she yelled at him.

"Iona told me. Lyric, you can't believe some cryptic bullshit description from that hack. You don't even know what it means. Even if it was accurate, which I highly doubt, it most likely has nothing to do with Snape. C'mon, we've worked for a month to get back as the greasy git, but now you're too scared? This is stupid Lyric. That man has this coming. If not from us, think of all the students he tortures now. And think of all the students he'll torture in the future." Tristan was almost pleading with her. "We have to do this, after all that work."

Lyric thought for a minute. "Why are you pushing this so hard, Tristan? You would never ask me to do something I didn't want to do. What's in it for you?"

Tristan's anger immediately dissipated. "I'm sorry," he said. "You're right. I can't ask you to do this. We won't do it. I'll get rid of the film and we'll just forget the whole thing," Tristan walked over to Lyric and threw his arms around her. "We okay?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah, we're okay," Lyric said smiling up at him. "Can I just go to bed now?" she asked, "I really need some sleep."

"Of course," he said smiling. "I'll see you in the morning."