Part 39 – Mischief Managed
The next morning Severus was still no wiser as to why it was that Lucius needed the older edition of a book that was readily available in Diagon Alley.
Justin had handed him the book with a look of pride on his face, only for Lucius to barely glance at the volume before tossing it carelessly to one side without so much as a thank you.
Justin had quickly schooled his annoyed expression to a more neutral one and Severus didn't fail to notice that the other boy was quick to escape from Lucius's presence. He couldn't blame him for not wanting to get another job foisted on him.
Severus himself had hovered for a while to see if Lucius said anything about the book but he didn't and the next morning it was safely put away so there was no chance of getting another, closer look at it.
By the end of the week Severus had almost put the matter from his mind. With the arrival of the Daily Prophet on Saturday morning, containing the news that there had been another attack, this time on a family of wizards who had been recently protesting for the equal rights of muggle-born wizards, Lucius's book was forgotten about completely.
Severus read the article, noting that once again the place of the attack was marked with what the papers were calling the Dark Mark. Again it was a sign that someone had died, this time the father of the family. The paper reported that the mother was still alive but had been admitted to St Mungos, and appeared to have been attacked more than once with the cruciatus curse. The staff of St Mungos were unsure whether she'd recover and hadn't yet broken the news of her husband's death to her, fearing it might hinder her recovery even more. The two children of the family had thankfully been staying with relatives at the time of the attack.
Severus read through the article, trying not to look at the picture of the skull with the snake protruding from its mouth. At least this time it wasn't quite such a shock to see his own drawing in such a terror inducing form. But his stomach still turned at the thought of how many more times he would see his drawing displayed in such a manner.
Severus didn't have time to dwell on the article though and all too soon he was buried in textbooks as he started the research for his History of Magic Essay which was due on Monday afternoon and still barely started.
Settling down at a table in the dim recesses of the library Severus was soon distracted from yet another essay on the Goblin Rebellions by the far more entertaining pastime of doodling the said goblins along the edge of the parchment.
Before he knew it half an hour had passed and he was no closer to finishing the essay than he'd been at breakfast.
Casting the parchment aside he dug out a fresh piece and started again. He didn't notice a hand reaching across the table to pick up the discarded piece of parchment.
"This one looks like Professor Flitwick," a familiar voice commented. Severus jumped in his seat and looked up to see Lily sitting opposite him with the parchment in her hands. He hadn't even heard her sit down. "This is one of your drawings?"
Severus nodded, a small smile forming at her delight at the drawings.
"Can you draw the professors?"
"Sure," Severus muttered with a shrug.
"Can you do McGonagall?" asked Lily with a girlish giggle. Severus looked up to see the sparkle of mischief on the girl's face and pulled out another piece of parchment.
"McGonagall as she is or McGonagall…er…?" Severus smiled slightly, hesitant to put his thoughts into words, unsure for the moment as to what Lily would think.
"Something amusing?" Lily suggested. "I think I need something to laugh about this morning.
Severus looked at the items Lily had placed on the table and saw her copy of the Daily Prophet amidst the textbooks and scrolls. He knew that the family in the report couldn't be connected to Lily, but he understood immediately why the story might have upset her. If she wanted something amusing then he would do his best to oblige.
He chewed on the end of his quill for a moment as he waited for inspiration to hit.
Finally he decided on an amusing, cartoonish caricature, of the head of Gryffindor house. Exaggerating her features just slightly, he achieved the effect he was after. The picture was instantly recognisable as the Transfiguration professor but with a few marked differences. The nose was just a tad too long, the frown just a little overdone and the bun that she wound her hair back into looked just a shade too tight.
Severus added the finishing touch to the picture and was about to scrawl his initials on the bottom of the page when Lily's hand grabbed the quill from him to stop him.
"Don't sign it," she advised with a wicked grin. "I've got an idea. Can you do the other professors too?"
Severus nodded and pulled out another piece of parchment and quickly produced an actual picture of Professor Flitwick, this one looking a little less goblin-like than the one Lily had commented on, but enough that the resemblance was there.
"Do Professor Binns next," Lily insisted with a delighted laugh that was quickly smothered at the forbidding look from Madam Pince who hadn't failed to notice the two first years disturbing the quiet of her library.
Ignoring Lily's request Severus instead drew a Madam Pince, following it up with Professor Binns before turning his attention to Filch, Mrs Norris and the rest of the staff of Hogwarts.
Eventually he had produced amusing caricatures of all save Headmaster Dumbledore whom, for some reason, he didn't feel comfortable poking fun at, and whom Lily hadn't asked to be immortalised like the rest.
"Can I have these?" Lily asked, gathering the various parchments together, chuckling now and again as she looked them over.
"What for?" Severus asked suspiciously.
"These are too good to hide," Lily said. "I thought perhaps we could put them up around the school and give everyone a bit of a laugh."
"No!" Severus gasped, reaching to grab the parchments back.
"Why not?" asked Lily, holding them out of his reach, clearly reluctant to relinquish them.
Severus hesitated to answer. He wasn't sure why he didn't want anyone to see his pictures, he knew that a few others, mainly Slytherin students had seen him sketching. And of course Remus had also caught him in drawing in the library before Christmas. No one had ever criticised his pictures but there was always a first time and he wasn't sure, with everything else happening, whether he wanted that first time to be now.
"They're not signed so you won't get into trouble," Lily pointed out. She pulled aside the picture of Professor Kettleburn and waved it enticingly. "This one would look nice stuck up in the Entrance Hall I think."
Severus chewed on his lip as he thought things though. Without his name on them there was no way to trace them back to him. Those who knew about his drawings were mainly Slytherin students who would be unlikely to get him into trouble, even if they made the connection.
But what about Remus?
Would the Gryffindor be tempted to tell his friends who the artist was? Would he tell one of the Professors if asked?
"And what about this one in the Great Hall?" Lily waved the picture of the extremely skinny Filch and the ferocious looking Mrs Norris. "No one will know where they've come from. I'll stick them up, so you won't be taking any risk if that's what you're afraid of."
"I'm not afraid of getting caught," insisted Severus as he chewed on his quill for a few moments longer before finally nodding his agreement. He just hoped that Remus wouldn't recognise his handiwork.
Lily assured Severus that she would put all the pictures up over the course of the next week, starting the following morning. Severus was not therefore surprised to see a group of students crowding around the first of his pictures in the Great Hall the following morning when he went down to breakfast.
He joined them to avert suspicion away from himself and also to see the reactions of the students who were, he was relieved to see, admiring his work.
"Where's Filch?" a Ravenclaw boy asked with a nervous glance about the room to check he wasn't there.
"It's so like him," laughed one of the sixth year Hufflepuff girls. "Who do you think did it?"
"I don't know," another student gasped out between guffaws of laughter.
Severus smiled at the reactions of the students as he turned his back on the picture and moved towards the table. He spotted Lily at the Gryffindor table, already tucking into her breakfast; she winked at him and grinned before innocently diverting her attention back to her friends.
During the course of the week the rest of the pictures appeared one by one around the school. Severus wondered how Lily was managing to put up his pictures without being caught but had not had the chance to catch her alone to ask her.
His first moment of unease was when he'd spotted a knowing look from Remus who'd returned to school on Tuesday morning after another family emergency.
"Interesting style," Remus had commented on spotting the drawing of Madam Hooch near the Quidditch supply room.
Severus ignored the knowing smirk on Remus's face, shrugged and declined to comment as he joined the queue of students picking out brooms for their Tuesday afternoon flying lessons.
He was sure that the other boy had figured out who'd drawn them but was ironically saved from being publicly unmasked by none other than James Potter.
"So who do you think the mystery artist is?" Sirius asked in the Friday afternoon Potions lesson. Severus at the neighbouring table felt his heart miss a beat as he looked nervously across at Remus. He wondered briefly why the other boy hadn't already told his friends that he at least suspected who the artist was.
"Concentrate on what you're doing Mr Snape, not your neighbours," chastised Professor Slughorn in a friendly tone. Severus flushed and turned back to his own cauldron. Like he'd need to copy off of Potter and his friends who'd barely started their own potion anyway.
"Yeah, Snivellus do your own work," hissed Peter as soon as the Professor had moved out of earshot and was safely distracted seeing what had apparently gone wrong with the potion of another student. The green smoke was certainly indicative of an error on the part of the girl who was trying not to choke on the fumes that she was frantically waving away with her textbook.
"So do you have any idea who the artist is?" asked Remus casually.
Severus held his breath as he waited for Remus to admit that he knew who'd done the drawings.
"Well it has to be a Gryffindor," a distracted sounding James replied.
Severus sneaked another look at the other table. Remus was stirring his cauldron, pointedly gazing into the contents whilst the others were preparing various ingredients.
"How are you so sure?" Sirius asked. "Could be someone from Ravenclaw. The second one appeared near the foot of their tower."
"One of the pictures was left on the common room table with some books earlier in the week," James answered.
"Who left it there?" inquired Peter.
"Don't know," James replied. "It was Tuesday morning and I got distracted by Remus getting back. When I turned back to see whose books they were they'd been moved."
"What books?" Sirius asked. "First years, fifth years?"
"Just general books, not textbooks for a particular year."
Severus smiled as he realised that Lily had inadvertently diverted suspicion from him very nicely, albeit accidentally.
He turned back to his own cauldron again and darted a look at Lily's desk. She too had clearly been listening to the boys' conversation and she grinned wickedly with, like Severus, the knowledge that there were still a couple of pictures still to be placed on display.
