Chapter 3: Finding Fables
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Finding Fables
"What the bloody hell do you mean by, you "found" her?"
Minerva's voice was low and forced calm, but Severus could pull the sharp drastic edge in her tone as she looked around the man to the young girl who sat on her couch. The child was hunched over, hood drawn and feet kicking her legs back and forth, her toes just unable to reach the floor as her fingers picked nervously at the armrest.
It was quickly after their arriving when Minerva had placed the girl in her family room before pulling Severus into the darkened kitchen to aid her with tea, which is where they now spoke in low tones.
"I don't know how else to explain this, Minerva!" His voice growled anger, "She's not a student, but she used my wand against me.. I…" Severus's voice broke in the slightest of weakness that brought the old witch's eyes to him, "I also can't get into her mind." Severus set the kettle on the stove heavily turning his shoulder from Minerva whom stood in silence unsure of the eternity of truth behind his words.
"I also had Lucius check the records. Nothing is noted so I know her magic lays unknown." His admitting was heard in a very low tone.
"So Lucius Malfoy knows?" Minerva's glared irritably at the mans black cloaked shoulder.
"He's owed me a favor and I figured her magic was recorded." Severus sighed, turning back and meeting the woman's eyes. "Honestly, maybe I had plans of turning her in for that reward." A cobra smirk broke his lips as he slid his eyes on to that of the igniting stove while ignoring the feeling of Minerva once again weighing in his words behind heavy eyes.
"I will never understand your friendship with that man." She sighed, circling the table in her approach to the shadowed professor.
"Then how wonderful it must be that you don't have to." He spit,"Stay on topic!" his eyes flashed towards an invisible line on the floor that he expected the unfazed women to stay behind
"Fine, Severus." She sighed as her steps casually walked the edge of his line, "let me see if I understand properly." her palms lowered to the table top. "'You'… found a thirteen year old orphan, who never received her Hogwarts letter. Okay. It has happened. But, and here is where I begin to cast doubt because, now you're also telling me she is untraceable?"
"Don't say it like that." Severus sighed pushing away from the stove and making room between them.
"Well, is that what happened or not?!" Minerva quietly demanded taking another step closer.
The man struggled with the black and white but after a moment, with his eyes glaring angrily at the lightly steaming tea pot, his hand waved and he admit in a solid, emotionless tone, "Yes."
Minerva stared at the man before her, unknowing how to continue or where to start. Giving up and unable to process anymore from the infuriating man, the elderly witch glanced across the kitchen and through the small hallway and into the family room.
"I wonder why you brought her here?" she asked out loud to the quietly ticking wall clock.
Neither the clock nor Severus would respond. Instead, the man would cross his arms and lean his back against the counter like an angry child, his eyes resting over the headmistresses head and focusing on the rooster print wallpaper in the corner of the kitchen. Minerva understood his silence and gave a nod before making her way to the cabinets as the pot began to hiss.
She had been sympathetic during Severus's school years, as a young man she insured his worth at Order meetings, and then at some point between now and then, a mutual respect and a form of trust was formed between the two heads of houses. The man would be hard to tolerate most days but, Minerva had seemed to adapt, taking notice to his triggers which made him slightly easier to manage. They shared a sort of friendship full of lovely arguments and harsh words, but there were these very rare occasions that allowed her to understand it all.
Minerva sighed with the sound of the ticking wall clock and she placed the cups down on their appropriate saucers. Severus would go on to mix the tea for his bidding before sliding the china across the counter to Minerva with the back of his hand without another word. Picking up the tea, Minerva lay her gaze on the stone man for a quiet, ignored moment before turning around to approach the girl who quickly looked up from her seat.
"Good evening child." Minerva started in a tone only meant for the broken as she entered through the living room threshold, "My name is Professor Mcgonagall."
The older women spoke in a light, warm tone and she smiled a smile that could relax and sooth. Placing the steaming cup of tea on the table in front of the guest, Minerva would place herself on the sitting couch across from the child who instead of engaging in any sort of interest, kept her eyes cast towards the shadowed kitchen. Minerva would watch the child stare for a long, quiet moment until the form Severus broke from the darkness of the night cast home and leaned himself against the threshold of the dimly lit living room. Minerva followed her gaze and meet eyes with her younger colleague before she looked back to realize the child now stared directly at her.
"You've met my friend Severus, I see." Minerva speculated gently and when no response was granted, Minerva would wave an inviting hand towards the tea before taking a sip of her own.
"He tells me you can do special kinds of magic tricks. Is that true?"
Haven's eyes flashed back to the witch and silently she gave a nod.
"He tells me you're thirteen years old?"
Another nod.
"That's wonderful," Minerva took another sip, "the age of the adulthood some call it. Haven,... that is your name?"
Another nod.
"Has anyone ever asked you about schooling?" She would ask with another seemingly casual sip of tea, "or maybe an owl came to you at one point?"
Minerva tried to be careful with her words while she kept a grandmotherly tone, but Haven seemed to be no fool or in search of help of any kind, for she sat in continued silence giving no useful information while a casting a cold look from within her eyes.
After a tense moment of waiting, Minerva turned at her shoulders to look up at her colleague, asking him for assistance with a strained expression.
Giving a sigh that came from deep within his chest, Severus pushed himself off the wall while rolling his eyes. As if he traveled as water, his fluid steps moved him to the child side and he landed himself on the cushion next to Haven. The ticks of the clock would be counted as the two women watched him sit with his hands pressed together on either knee of his opened legs. When he turned his eyes to Haven, he leaned forward with another quiet sigh and rest his elbows on his knees, before glancing at Minerva before pulling his wand from his sleeve and handing the child by the wooden handle. With hesitance that prompted a head nod, her small fingers wrapped around the black wood and slid it from his unwrapping grasp. He would look away then, and she would follow his gaze to a framed portrait that hung on the wall at her side. Maintaining the soothing of silence that the Potions Master longed for, he gave her a final nod before Haven would take a deep breath and give a flick the wand in the proper direction.
With a gout of fire the portrait immediately burst into flames, splintering the frame apart in different directions. She dropped the wand the moment the damage ignited and as the wood flew back into the palm of it's owner, Minerva would glare irritably at Severus who himself wore a self accomplished grin as he quickly extinguished the flames and mended the fixture.
"And, how do you know The Ministry didn't track that?" Minerva asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Because, she cast a similar spell in the Ministry and we waited for someone to come running."
"I'm tired of this." A hard voice rose up from the seat next to, Severus. "Stop talking about me as if I'm not here!" Haven stated with her voice angry and her words surprising both adults who now turned their attention to her.
** Flash Back**
She remembered the trip to the Ministry of Magic, and remembered the grasp Severus had held on the back of her neck the entire time. She was told nothing about the place, only ordered to follow him which for whatever reason she had. She was given no time to herself and was rushed through leaving little time for looking. She gathered it was an important place where he had taken her, what with it's secret entrances, expensive floors and high domed ceiling. She noted that most people's clothing looked sophisticated and rich with heavy pockets while others carried boxes of screeching things and paper airplanes flew vicariously through the air above their heads.
Old fashion robes seemed to be the fashion at this job and Haven found herself immediately uncomfortable and out of place among the curious gazes of those she passed. There was an easiness to these people; an easiness that brought her chuckle as she slipped her hand into a passing strangers robe, successfully withdrawing a coin bag undetected by its patron.
In a flash, his feet had stopped and his fingers wrapped around her wrist in a painful, constricting hold, his eyes flashing at her that brought up a involuntary flinch.
"Not here!" Severus hissed yanking the bag from her hand as his grip on her wrist dropped and his fingers around her neck tightened and tugged her closer.
For the rest of the travel, Haven would do her best to ignore the strange looks from the few people that noticed them and after a few turns she found they had entered an empty hallway where eventually they landed before a blank, wooden, office door. There, behind that wooden barrier, she would granted the 'privilege' of meeting the venom spitting cobra which was that, Lucius Malfoy.
Even at first glance, all he reminded her was of every shining example of every evil villain in every book or movie. Strikingly handsome and wearing what looked as the most expensive of robes, his movements were liquid as his voice came as a velvet purr. She quickly felt a darkened power pulsing from his walking staff the moment it touched the stone floor and his aura rose the room, bringing up the hair on the back of her neck. She would sink beneath his venomous grey eyes as Severus continued to pull her with more force towards the beautiful aristocratic creature who stood leaning against the large, deep wooden desk.
"Stop." Severus's voice echoed in the room that staticed, and triggered an insulted face from the blond. Nonetheless, Haven felt the energy pull back dramatically as he lift his black leather gloved hand in front of him and curled his fingers.
"So this is her then?" Lucius asked dully, stopping before his seeming acquaintance as his eyes dragged over the disheveled girl with slight disgust.
"Lucius,"
"Severus." Lucius interrupted, his eyes meeting the mans black inkwell gaze while his voice dropped suddenly into a dangerous hiss. "I've promised a thousand times already, and I will not assure you again. Answer my question or leave."
A moment of sizing dominance through glares would pass before Severus dropped his gaze and nodded. Haven watched Lucius hold his glare on Severus for a moment longer before turning his heel and walking around to the back of the desk.
"Well the-"
"Who are you?" Haven interrupted, flinching at once under Lucius's suddenly sharp glare.
"No one you want to know." Lucius said slowly in poison in attempt to silence her with fear.
"Then why does he get to know?" Haven pushed along, looking at her guide.
Lucius's lip twitched but he finished pulling the wand out from the drawer and slithered over to her.
"Hush."
Lucius would go on to instruct nothing, only hand her the wand before stepping away, directing her with his eyes to the large wooden desk as he landed at the side of the, Snape. Passing her gaze, Haven looked to Severus who gave her a sharp nod and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
.
*********End Of Flash Back*********
Haven:
Now she sat here, in this old woman's house that smelled of old person life and dust, somewhere off in a quiet part of England away from the only train station to the city. She had been pulled place to place like a obedient dog, silently doing what this stranger wanted and her patience had finally run out. She spent a whole day being dragged and shoved into places, to and from rooms she'd never seen before with no explanation of what or where she was going next and frankly, she was hungry and had enough. For her, she was talking to freaks in stupid outfits with stupid names who did stupid magic tricks. All of this was stupid and the least anyone could do, was be nice to her.
Minerva glanced down at the angry girl and rose to her feet.
"Severus, may I speak to you in private?"
Haven turned her gaze to Snape, who stood at once and gave a slight shrug at her, turning without a word and slipping once again into the kitchen.
"What's your opinion?" Minerva asked once they were out of view.
"She's unmarked and unusually strong in more ways than magic," Severus explained, pointing out her traits and the refusal of tea, "All with mental walls thicker than over half the adults I've encountered.."
"In yet you didn't hand her over to the Ministry. Why would you give up such a plentiful bounty?"
Severus stayed quiet and examined the planks of wood that made up the table top.
"Severus." Minerva pushed again.
"You know as well as I do that the Ministry is corrupted and full of spies. The thought of the Dark Lord acquiring such amount of unrestricted and moldable power is... unsettling."
"What about, Lucius?"
"He won't tell anyone."
It was the strength in his voice that would turn Minerva from furthering asking any questions about Lucius. True, that man was not a man to be trusted in most cases, but this was Severus and when it came to Severus, Lucius had yet to break a word.
"Should we alert the Order then?" Minerva asked exhausted and running out of options.
"I will contact, Albus."
Minerva nodded and looked back to the child.
"What's her real name?" Minerva's voice was light and thoughtful.
"She refers to herself as Haven," Minerva turned to see Severus watching her also, "though I place reason in the suspicion of that being more of a dream than a name."
"How can you possibly know that?" Minerva asked looking back slowly at the child.
After a pause, he pulled together an honest response while turning his glare blindly at some overhead cabinets in the kitchen. .
"I don't know."
Something else sat festering in the protection of Severus mind. He was bothered by her familiar energy that tugged at his subconscious, only irritating him further when finding no reason behind it.
But he wouldn't say that. Not to anyone.
"Where will she stay tonight? Albus-"
"I don't want to stay with anyone. I want to leave."
The two adults turned and looked down at the voice that broke their conversation. Haven had gotten up and come to them without any notice. She was fed up and angry and acting out over her setting in fear and washing of overwhelming exhaustion towards the sudden attention and the events of the day.
She wasn't happy, was very hungry and she wanted to leave.
Minerva opened her mouth to speak but Severus stepped ahead and began.
"Go on then." Both Haven and Minerva stared at him.
"You wish to leave? You may leave." He insisted.
"Severus!" The older women hissed as he raised his hand to her.
"No, Minerva. If she wants to leave, she can." Severus's eyes glared at the older witch and he tilted his head slightly before turning back to Haven. Straightening his back he held his head high in a threatening posture as he waited.
Haven stared at Severus, then at the women, then the front door before returning to Snape. The cold chill of outside was hardly gone from her bones and the failure to collect rent today would push her out into the weather.
"But." The darkness of Severus's voice brought the chill of outside in. "If she were to ever wish for somewhere to go. She can just remember this address." Leaving on that, Severus moved into the kitchen, his dark figure fading into the shadows soundlessly. Minerva and Haven stood silently together, the weight of his words hanging in the air.
"Well. Go on then." Minerva easily forced a strictness into her voice.
Haven took cautious steps backwards until her hand met the brass door handle. With a turn of the knob she watched as Minvera started to turn her heel and and began to follow Severus as the door was opened. A sudden bite of cold winter air lashed her face that immediately shivered her bones and pushed her back inside and the door to shut quickly.
As her eyes held on the wood her breath caught in her throat as she felt the eyes landing on her back. She knew she had to turn around, that as much as she wanted to she couldn't just stand and stare at the door. So, with a deep breath she rotated around before rising her eyes to meet those of the adults who watched her.
"Problems?" Severus asked in a sarcastic bite as he strolled back into the living room, sipping from a hot cup of tea and raising an eyebrow.
"It's cold out." Haven mumbled looking at the steaming cup.
"And? You want to leave remember?"
"Yeah..- I know, but..-"
"But?" Severus said sharply his voice raising.
"I don't want to anymore..." Her voice broke against her will which immediately brought her to feel small and weak and her to eye's sting. Glaring at one spot in the wooden floor before the darkened professors toes, she tried to burn a hole in the ground with her embarrassment. Through her anger she once again felt the the familiar itch she had felt on and off all day and she rose her fingers to her temples and pushed it out as she had every other time.
She was tired, and would miss Severus's eyebrows furrowing as he turned away from her.
"Can I.. go with you...Maybe."
When the girl referred to him, Severus stopped his retreat into the kitchen and stood stalk with his back to her.
Minerva quickly spoke up, "my dear, I don't think Severus is prepared for comp-"
"Yes. Yes she can." Severus said in a low voice as he slowly turned around.
Minerva stared for a moment as Severus did his best to avoid the meaning behind her glare.
"Severus.. Do you really think that's.. appropriate due to your current-"
"It was her request, and after all-" Severus turned to Haven, "It will only be for one night..."
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