Chapter 9: Recasting the web
"Professor Snape is wanting you to have these miss," said the elf who had just appeared at her side, jolting her into sloshing coffee all over the papers she was grading. Cassie looked down into the wrinkled hand and saw a book of matches. "He says you is needing them for your lantern at night."
"Oh. How thoughtful," she thought aloud. "Thank you...um..."
"They are calling me Tufty, miss," answered the she-elf, clothed simply in an old ratty blue throw that drug the ground. Had she been green, she would have looked for all the world like Yoda's mother.
"Thank you, Tufty." Cassie held a hand out for the matches and placed them on the desk next to her. "Do you happen to know if Professor Snape will be going to Hogsmeade tomorrow morning?"
"No I doesn't miss. Is you wanting me to ask him?"
"No, that's fine. If you do see him, tell him I appreciated the gesture." With that, the elf disapparated with another loud CRACK! and left Cassie to her thoughts, which she found turned all too often to Severus. She did wonder if he ever took a free weekend to go out to the village nearby and wander the shops. Try as she might, she could not picture him perusing the aisles at Honeydukes or Zonko's, but surely he tipped up a pint at Madame Rosmerta's. Then again, she thought, picturing the curvy blonde, maybe he's better off where he is. Should she ask him to come with her? They had barely spoken since the night he sat with her.
By the next morning, she had decided against asking Severus to go along. Surely that was more socializing that he was capable of. Her own father avoided shopping trips if at all possible, and she did want to look at some new teaching robes since she had just gotten paid. In the end, she found Aurora at breakfast and the two decided to stroll down the hill together with the students.
"I'll show you the grand tour, such as it is," Aurora promised. "I need to get a new book on the Lacerta--constellation, you know--that's just come out...should be at Dervish and Banges, and we can have a spot of tea at Madame Puddifoot's if you like."
"Sounds fantastic. I need to stop at Gladrags too, if I can."
With that, the ladies followed the mass of third to seventh years as they were unleashed on the town. Cassie was wholeheartedly glad that Malfoy had not been turned into a Death Eater as she watched the students blissfully ignorant of how this trip may have otherwise turned out. She spotted Katie Bell poring over the fudge at Honeydukes along with several other Gryffindors, including her friend Leanne, and smiled a bit knowing that at least another person so far had avoided the damage from Voldemort's far-reaching wake. Reaching Madame Puddifoot's at last, Cassie was relieved to see it was relatively pupil free except for a few couples here and there. The place was distinctly female in decor, almost fussily so with its crocheted doilies and tatted lace. As opposed to Harry's fairly sexist reaction in his fifth year, Cassie felt almost as though she were at a real Victoria tea. There were scones with clotted cream and lemon curd, dainty savories and finger sandwiches, and a perfectly steeped pot of classic Earl Grey. She did, however, have to show her Yank side and have it with cream.
Perfectly satiated and tired from all the walking, especially back up to the castle (and not to mention sore from Filch and his Probity Probe), Cassie was glad to get back to her room later that afternoon. She had had no small sense of revenge as she spotted Lump tearing up the stairs in a spirited chase after Mrs. Norris. "Serves them both right," she said, letting the dog have his fun. Muttering the new password, "The Smithereens," she stepped in and hung her new robes, admiring the choice she'd made. Dark green and cut in a long flowing a-line, the robes were off the shoulder and lined down the front with green embroidered buttons. "Let's see what he thinks of this," she said, holding it up to her and swishing back and forth in front of the vanity.
"He'll do his nut if he has any eyes in his head," answered the mirror.
"Good," said Cassie, smirking back.
She secretly congratulated herself that next Monday morning when he did indeed do a double-take over his black pudding and sausages. She had twisted her curls up in a messy chignon, leaving individual strands looping down to touch her bare shoulders. Seeing his face was the perfect way to start off an otherwise wretched day. Glancing up, she was not surprised to see that the pouring rain from the day before had turned to icy sleet and snow.
***
By that Wednesday, however, the week was looking decidedly worse. Not only did the weather continue on in the same vein, but Severus now would not so much as look at her, let alone talk. In fact, he had passed her by on the grand staircase trotting down to the dungeons, without so much as a backward glance. "Sev, darling," she had thought, "you may be a little too repressed."
Yet the worst was to come. In capping off what had started out as a perfectly dreadful day, Malfoy and Barny Doge started sniping at each other right at the end of class over whether or not Muggles should be allowed to vote. Cassie tried not to pay the difference of opinion too much mind as the other students packed up to leave, despite Draco voicing right in front of her the fact that he thought they were not competent enough and should at least be directed how, though they could retain other rights of citizenship. At least he was softening some, she thought miserably. But when he muttered almost to himself, "don't know what my father was thinking," her head snapped up and her eyes saw red. Without thinking she snapped, "of course you wouldn't, Junior."
No sooner were the words out of her mouth then she saw Draco's face got to ash. He leapt up, his books crashing to the floor, and yelled, "You!?" Instantly contrite, for this was not the time nor the place, she held up a hand, "Draco--"
"Get away from me!" he snapped and bolted for the door.
"Here, don't mind him, Professor," piped up Doge. "He's all mouth and no trousers." Ignoring him, Cassie skirted her desk and ran after him. Down the hall she raced, following his blond head bobbing back and forth past students on their way to lunch. He launched himself up the stairs two at a time with Cassie still trailing along behind him. Too late to not draw attention to the plight, she simply took advantage of the wake he left as children jumped out of his way. Her path cleared, she finally caught up to him in the girls' bathroom that Myrtle frequented.
"Draco," he entreated. "Listen, you don't know what went on."
"Bloody hell if I don't," he turned on her. His face was blotchy with rage and streaked with tears. His chest heaving, he raised his wand at her, "you're a murderer! You filthy mud-blooded wench!"
"Enough! You don't know what he did to me and those girls, and now is not the time--"
"It's shite! Everything you say," he spat. "What did you do to him?"
"You don't want to know what happened."
"He was my father!" he screamed, livid. "What did you DO?" And without warning or waiting for reply, he flicked his wand, "Legilimens!"
All at once images assaulted her: Lucius lashing his whip, having him panting and grunting on top of her, fondling one of the other girls while he watched as yet another gave him a blow job. Faster they came and she heard someone screaming, "stop! stop! I can't take it again!" There was the Surrey girl's body, bloody and broken. The snake, fat and full, lying on the hearth rug. Next, faces of family and friends she hadn't seen in nearly a year. Harnessing Lump to go for a walk on a frosty Christmas day. Dancing with her friends at the club and saying good-bye as they walked to their cars. Turning towards hers and finding herself face-to-face with a tall, blonde stranger. Then, as abruptly as the images started they stopped and she found herself kneeling on the bathroom floor retching, tears streaming down her face. She looked up and saw him staring disbelieving, looking every bit as nauseated as she felt. Through her own tremors, she stared back, realizing he was shaking as well. Dropping his wand, he bolted again straight past her and out the door of the lavatory.