chapter four:
Professor Snape and Trudy ate together in the Great Hall. Once they were finished they returned to Snape's house by floo powder. Trudy had the hang of it better and managed not to get soot all over the place.
Snape handed her the bag full of books. "Here, you can look through these."
"But, I thought..?I don't have a wand." Trudy replied sadly.
"We'll go to Diagon alley tomorrow morning." He said as he eased into his armchair.
Trudy opened the bag and spread the books out on the floor.
"I've seen this book. Lenore was reading it." Trudy declared, pointing to the Standard Book of Spells.
Snape cleared his throat loudly. Lenore, What an irritating student. Snape thought, picturing the cheeky little devil. Last year he caught her and her friend Leticia Greene magically gluing dead caterpillars to the desks. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about Trudy being friends with her.
"Oh! Something weird happened today." She said.
"Oh?" He replied in a bored voice.
"Yes, I met a talking portrait. She yelled at me when I complained about those awful moving staircases." Trudy continued. She laid down on her belly and propped her head on her hands.
"She asked me something weird though. She wanted to know where I lived! I told her I lived at your house and she called me a Slytherin. Do you have any idea what that is?"
"You are not in my house!" He said in outrage.
"I'm not...? This isn't your house?" Trudy asked, severely confused.
"No! No! This is my house, but you aren't in my house at Hogwarts."
"Well, certainly not. I didn't know you had a house at Hogwarts." She replied. Why did teachers have houses in a school?
Professor Snape pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.
"Hogwarts is broken up into four houses." He explained slowly. "Students live in them,like dormitories. I am the head of the Slytherin house."
"Oh!" Trudy laughed. "No wonder I had no idea what she was talking about. Ravenclaw must also be a house then?"
"Yes." He said, rubbing his temples. How could one girl be so irritating?
Trudy opened the Standard Book of Spells and began skimming through it. She was pleased to find that she actually knew a few of these spells.
"She didn't like you very much." Trudy remarked.
"Who didn't?" He asked, humoring her. He didn't really care if someone disliked him. So what else was new?
"The lady in the portrait. She was insulting Slytherin. She said I looked like a fool on the staircases."
"You probably did."
"That's not the point!" Trudy hissed at him but then laughed sportsmanlike.
"Anyhow, She was quite rude." She continued conversationally.
He nodded. She probably had been rude. The house of Slytherin tended to be disliked by the rest of the castle. Snape told himself that it was because the rest of the houses were simply jealous.
"When I go to Hogwarts, maybe I'll be in your house." She added pensively.
Who knew? Only the sorting hat knew that, but if Snape were to guess which house she'd belong to, he'd guess Hufflepuff. At this thought, he snorted to keep from laughing out loud.
The next morning when Trudy came to the kitchen for breakfast she found the professor once again seated at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. He glared as he scanned the headlines. Trudy stared at him. He was a young man, maybe in his early twenties...yet he acted much older. Why did it look as if he'd lived a thousand years?
"You better hurry up and eat if you want me to take you to Diagon alley today." he remarked, continuing to read the paper.
About 20 minutes later they'd left via floo powder to Diagon alley.
"Oh, Look at that!" Trudy said excitedly as they past the Magical Menagerie. "Is that a fox? Can we-"
"No." Professor Snape said promptly. He grabbed Trudy's shoulder firmly and directed her toward Ollivander's. The shop was tiny and an elderly man stood at an old cash register. He was scribbling frantically on a piece of parchment. It wasn't until Trudy sneezed that he noticed his customers. Trudy was allergic to dust and this place was covered in it.
"Good morning," He said, striding over to them.
"Morning, Mr. Ollivander." Professor Snape replied.
"And who is this young lady, Severus Snape?" Mr. Ollivander asked.
"Miss Quinn." He replied. It was obvious Ollivander was expecting him to elaborate, but he did not.
"Very well, Nice to meet you, Miss Quinn."
"A pleasure, Mr. Ollivander." Trudy said.
"Are you in for a wand, my Dear?" He asked, wandering back along the shelves.
"Yes, Sir." She replied. Her eyes were watering and becoming red, but she followed him down one of the rows. He pulled down several small boxes appearing to be at random. He had her test nearly 30 wands before he paused. He began to circle her and surveyed her very carefully. "Hmm." He pondered.
"My Dear, Are you perhaps...an alchemist?" He asked.
"Well, Yes...but how did you know?"
He walked purposefully to the last row and pulled a large scaling ladder with him. He climbed to the very top of the last row and pulled out the box at the very bottom of that shelf.
"Here we are." He said, handing it to her. She flicked it and a spray of gold sparks burst from the tip.
"Well, There you are. I believe that is your wand. Mahogany, 10 and a quarter inches. Peacock tail feather core." He said rather affectionately.
"How did you know? How did you know I'm an alchemist?" Trudy asked, almost upset.
"I've been doing this for a very long time, Miss Quinn. I have learned to recognize people for what they are. I must admit though, there has only been one other like you that has come to me."
"I see." Trudy replied. She remembered getting her first wand. Her family had to travel quite a distance to get to a wizarding settlement. Full blooded alchemists had no use for wands.
"Well, if you will accompany me to the register-"
"No." Snape interjected. "I will meet you at the register."
"Alright, then." Mr. Ollivander replied looking a little perplexed.
"Black locust, 11 inches wasn't it? Raven feather core?" Mr. Ollivander said conversationally to Snape.
"Yes." Snape replied, producing said wand from his robes.
"Ah, Yes. A very good wand indeed. Quite strong." Ollivander commented, admiring Snape's wand.
After Professor Snape paid for the wand, they bid goodbye to Mr. Ollivander and stepped outside. The sun was high in the sky now, the errand had taken longer than expected.
"Thank you very much," Trudy said sincerely. Truthfully she felt uneasy. What if that wand was expensive?
"You're welcome." He muttered, leading her swiftly through the crowded street. Trudy thought they were heading back to the fireplace they came in from, but she was pleasantly surprised when they stopped at a shop called Slug and Jiggers Apothecary.
"Don't touch anything." Snape said to her.
"I'm not four years old, you know." Trudy said defensively.
He shrugged and went off down an aisle labeled 'scales' in black letters. Visiting an apothecary wasn't exactly new to an alchemist, but Trudy found an even wider array of ingredients available. She retreated in surprise when she walked along the back wall and found several dead animals hanging from ropes. The dead cockatrice had startled her in particular.
"What are you doing? Come on, let's go." Snape said as he approached her. He had a brown paper bag which implied he already bought what he needed.
"Look at this...I've never seen one before." She said in awe and indicated the dead cockatrice.
"It's a dead cockatrice." Snape replied, unimpressed.
"Ooh," she said and wandered a couple feet to the right. "What's this?" She was examining something that had several tails.
Professor Snape eventually managed to drag her out of the store. They made their way down to the Leaky Cauldron, ate lunch and then stood in line to use the fireplace. Snape noticed Trudy rubbing her eyes. They were red and swollen.
"Are you alright? Your eyes are all red." Snape asked as he took hold of her chin and examined her face more closely.
"Oh yes. I'm allergic to dust." she explained.
"Oh. I thought you touched something in the shop." Snape said, trying to act like he hadn't been concerned.
"No, no." She laughed. "If my brother, Simon was here, he'd be ten times worse! Poor Simon would sneeze a thousand times and his eyes would swell up! My sister and I made fun of him all the time. He gets so mad...I mean-"
"He used to get mad." she said flatly. He was gone now. Talking about him was too painful.
Finally it was their turn and Trudy stepped into the fireplace first. Unfortunately, when she shouted her destination, she slipped on one of the logs and landed hard on her knees in Snape's fireplace. She groaned and started to crawl out, knowing Snape would being arriving any moment now. As if one disaster wasn't enough, Trudy panicked when she noticed the corner of her dress was caught on the grate. She turned and tried to yank it free with all her might. It ripped and hooked onto the grate stubbornly. Come on, Please! If she didn't get free soon the professor was going to land right on top of her. To her horror, the flames flashed brighter green and Snape crashed down onto her.
"Ouch!"
"What are you doing!?" He yelped in alarm. He dropped his brown bag and the box holding Trudy's wand.
"I fell." Trudy explained, coughing violently from inhaling the ash.
He braced his arms on the sides of the fireplace and pulled his weight up. It was a difficult thing to do with his knees cramped on the left side and the girl trapped underneath him.
"Get out. I can't stay like this forever!" He said, his voice was thick with fury.
"I can't! I'm stuck!" She announced miserably. Snape roared in frustration, but tried to stand up. He managed a half-sitting-half-standing position and tried to balance enough to see how she was stuck.
"I don't see it! How are you stuck?!" Snape's forehead creased in irritation. Honestly! What I put up with for Dumbledore! I hope he appreciates this!
"My dress, it's stuck on the grate. Right side!" Trudy choked.
He spotted it, reached down and gave it a mighty tug. It protested, but ripped free.
"You're free, now get out!" He shouted. Snape's left arm ached from holding his entire weight.
Trudy scrambled out of the grate and turned around to see if she could help the professor. He regained his balanced and ducked out, glaring fiercely at her.
"You go last from now on!" He spat. He removed Trudy's wand and the brown bag from the grate.
"Okay," Trudy agreed, still choking and coughing. She had inhaled quite a bit of ash and soot.
"I'm not sure I like the Floo network much..." She remarked, examining the damage done to her dress.
"Ya think?"
Professor Snape cursed and pulled out his wand. He magicked his clothes clean and looked to Trudy. She was quite a mess. Her knees were bloody and her light blue dress was ripped and covered in soot. She paced back and forth, fretting silently to herself.
"Here," He said taking out her wand and handing it to her. "Your first lesson."
She gripped it tightly and looked a little nervous.
"Point your wand at your dress. The incantation is 'scourgify'." He instructed.
"S-scourgify." She repeated hesitantly. Nothing happened.
"You have to concentrate on what you want to do." He explained more patiently than he felt.
"Sorry, I'm a little nervous." Trudy straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath. It's okay. You can still do this, she told herself. "Scourgify." she stated clearly. The light blue dress was clean once again, but still had a rip at the bottom.
"Now do you know how to fix that?" Snape ask pointing at the rip.
"Only with alchemy..." Trudy admitted shyly.
"I'll teach you that as well. Flick your wrist like this and say 'Reparo." He said demonstrating the wrist flick slowly. She gave it a try, but the fabric gave a half hearted tug.
"Sorry..." Trudy sighed. This wasn't going so well. She hoped he wouldn't give up on her.
"Just try again." He said. "Flick your wrist more like this and you should do it a bit faster." Snape demonstrated the wrist flick again even slower. The second try worked much better and the dress appeared as if it had never battled with the fireplace.
"Okay. That's enough." He said in a final tone and slumped into his armchair.
"Thank you. Thank you very much." Trudy stared at him in disbelief. He was being awfully nice to her today...She was even more surprised that he was an excellent teacher.
They contented themselves with reading for the rest of the afternoon and when dinner time rolled around, Trudy got up and busied herself in the kitchen.
Snape could hear her singing in the kitchen as she cooked dinner. Her voice was soft and wasn't extremely beautiful, but it was pleasant to listen to. It sounded sad and Snape was sure it was in another language. Gaelic perhaps? He thought sleepily. He hadn't even noticed when it lulled him to sleep.
"Professor...?"
Snape jerked awake. Trudy was bending over him, her green eyes full of concern.
"What?" He asked groggily.
"Sev? Are you alright? You slept through potions." A familiar voice whispered in his head.
"Don't get so close to me." He said, pushing her back by her shoulder.
"Dinner's ready, but perhaps I should have let you rest? You look tired."Trudy said, thinking that he always looked so tired and a bit of extra rest might do him some good.
He merely grumbled and strode into the kitchen. He might as well get up, after all he was hungry. Trudy joined him at the table and they began to eat.
"Maybe you should go to bed early?" Trudy commented. She had noticed Snape normally retired after she did.
"Sev, honestly! You don't look well! Maybe you should go to the hospital wing?"
"Lily, I'm fine."
"Are you sure...? You've never slept through potions before."
"Yes. I feel fine. Want to-"
"Professor Snape? Are you alright?" Trudy asked. She stood up from the table and looked concerned. Snape scowled as he shook the memory from his mind.
"Miss Quinn! Would you kindly hold your tongue!? I don't get a moment's peace with you around here!" Snape yelled at her.
"Yes, Sir." She whispered and sat back down. She watched him for a moment longer. He did not look well. Sweat clung to his brow and he had dark circles under his eyes. Then it occurred to her that she recognized that look in his eyes...loss. Without a doubt, everything about him screamed 'loss.' Had Professor Snape lost something? They finished their meal in silence and Trudy retired to her bedroom. She sat on the bed and stared at her new wand. Her old one had never been this nice. Her heart skipped a beat as she envisioned the warden snapping hers, Simon's and Anna's wands in half and casting them into the fire. He had not been pleased. All three of them had been punished for having them. She could still almost taste the blood.
A little bit of "Who's on first?" kind of humor in the first part of the chapter. Oh! I forgot to mention that all this takes place two years after Harry's parents are killed. Well that does it for Chapter four. Hope you enjoyed it!
CindersNSmoke