Ex Intempestivo Pax
Chapter 12
Exhausted Contemplations
In all likelihood, I will die as soon as she wakes up...
Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, nor do I own the Harry Potter Series.
"...and so James carried Dorcas all the way to the floo, then took her home..."
"You know, Lily, he could have just apparated with her..."
"I know, but it's the principle of the matter. Really, it was very sweet of him to take such good care of Dorcas like that..." Lily then sighed dreamily while Severus fought the urge to throw up, although he wasn't entirely sure if it was because it was an act of vomit-inducing sweetness or because it was Potter who had committed it...
Still, Severus managed to say with only a little bit of stubborn sullenness, gritting his teeth as he did so, "Still...I suppose it wasn't the worst thing Potter could have done. He did carry her after all, even if it included mind-numbingly boring heroics in the process..."
Lily looked at him with a slightly tilted head, seeming to be evaluating him, then she said with an amused giggle, "You know, Sev, I think that that is the most complimentary thing I ever heard you say about James. I'll be sure to tell him if he asks that you think that he did do the right thing."
Severus contemplated whether or not that was a good thing, then shrugged it off for the moment, before asking with a more serious tone while stifling a yawn, "Did anything else happen? I mean, anything that would relate to our 'little problem'?"
Lily thought it over as she sat in one of the wooden chairs of Severus' kitchen, secretly sneaking peeks of the decor while she did so. She had already told Severus about what Dumbledore had said, only to discover that he had already been informed by Dumbledore himself after the rescue mission had finished. Although James' group had needed to fight off no less than twenty Death Eaters until Dumbledore's Portkeys triggered, nothing relating to discovering the spy had happened, not to her knowledge at least...
In the end, Lily shrugged and Severus frowned, supporting his chin with one of his hands as he sat down heavily. He seemed nearly exhausted, no surprise considering that like her he had likely not gotten a wink of sleep since yesterday morning, with . However, Severus still seemed carefully focused as he started speaking, although she could hear the exhaustion starting to creep in,
"Well, although I can't say who is that bloody spy of yours, at least we can start ruling out who isn't. That's assuming that the Dark Lord doesn't have more than one of 'em of course, but we're huuaaah..." Severus yawned for a moment, unable to stop himself, then continued, "...all dead anyway if that's the case, so it doesn't really bear thinking about..."
Lily raised her eyebrow questioningly, and Severus gave her a slight look of impatience, before saying with a touch of annoyance,
"The Dark Lord implied when I spoke to him last night that a 'comrade' would be coming to identify her momentarily, remember? Fifteen to twenty minutes later, you guys came storming in. You said that you were all briefed on the kidnapping about ten minutes before you left, right? Well if that's the case, then whoever was there couldn't be the spy, as that person would most definitely have left to get to Lestrangus beforehand."
While Lily seemed to be thinking it over, beautiful green eyes boring a hole into his kitchen table Severus was reminded of his spart of annoyance toward Dumbledore thanks to the older man's little 'briefing'. Clearly the Hogwarts Headmaster had been planning to drop that little bomb at the Order meeting from the beginning, something which Severus could really have found useful to know about BEFORE he talked to the Dark did understand why he had revealed it of course, Severus wasn't a fool, even when he wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep.
By revealing that he had a spy, Dumbledore had actually probably deflected suspicion away from Severus. After all, what kind of moron would purposefully have one of his subordinates kidnapped, only to rescue her that same night? By having Severus do the dirty deed, Dumbledore had managed to achieve multiple objectives: not only was Potter distracted for the moment, but the Dark Lord was now likely all but certain that Severus was both competant and trustworthy.
Still, if Severus hadn't been careful to make sure that Dorcas never saw his face and hadn't spoken in a monotone that revealed little of his voice to her, then it would have been very likely that he would have been outed one way or another... What had been far more interesting in his opinion was the mild spark of happiness that Potter, Black and Lupin weren't guilty of being the spy...
Lily then spoke, clearly exhausted, but not quite ready to call it quits yet, "That's...uaaah, something that I'm gonna have to consider. Now, my excuse to James for you was that you sent me a Floo-call yesterday telling me that you were going to show me around your lab, right? Well, we might as well get to it, don't you think?"
Severus shrugged, and Lily followed him, staggering slightly from lack of sleep as he led her over to a bookshelf. For a moment, she wondered if perhaps he had gotten so tired that he had...lost his sense of direction or something of that nature, but then Severus pulled out a single book from its spot on the bookshelf and the whole thing moved silently to the side. As Lily looked on in surprise, a simple, wooden door was revealed, which opened with a slight squeak of its hinges.
Slightly amused, Lily poked Severus in the arm, causing him to look back at her with mild irritation. Smiling, she then asked him in a tone slightly above a whisper, giggling quietly, "Severus...you took the time to create a secret entrance to your basement, but didn't bother to oil the hinges?"
Flushing a little, Severus mumbled something that might have been an excuse if Lily had been able to hear it through the blanket that tiredness had cast over her senses. Shaking her head, both out of amusement and a desire to try to stay awake, Lily patted his shoulder and said, "Never mind, le-uaaahh-ad on, Severus..."
Her head beginning to droop, Lily followed him down into the basement of the Snape family residence; it had once been a very dusty, and not particularly large room, used to house his father's pool-table and knick-knacks. However, Severus had clearly remade it in his own image, much like he had the rest of the house...although she didn't know about the yellow-painted walls yet...
Although the room was probably no larger than before, it seemed to be about twice the size of that room that Lily could barely remember. All of the dust, knick-knacks and the pool-table had all vanished, and it had even been repainted a dark shade of white, bordering on grey. Severus had been very economical in his use of space and had managed to fit four cauldrons, two of which were filled with brewing potions which bubbled quietly, as well as two seperate cupboards that Lily was certain were fully stocked with ingredients...
Lily then turned to look into a corner and paused, blinking, at the sight of a single, rickety little bed sitting in the far corner. It was small, no more than a single in size, and had but one brown blanket and a solitary pillow placed on top of it.
Not sure what to say, Lily looked at Severus in confusion, only for him to sigh and scowl bitterly. After a few moments, he yawned then said sardonically, "The bed is there for when I find it necessary to work through the night, should the Dark Lord wish it, as I frequently need to take 'catnaps' in order to keep some degree of alertness..."
Lily was confused, perhaps because of sheer exhaustion, but apparently Severus noticed because he then elaborated with that touch of sarcasm that was all his own, "Apparently, destroying the wizarding world as we know it while depopulating it of Muggleborns is something that has a need for an impressive array of potions...and an equally impressive lack of patience. As I am one of the better Potions Masters in the ranks...it is my job to brew them for him whenever he should happen to need one, day or night..."
As Lily mouthed an 'oh', Severus found himself wishing that there was something about his potions lab that might impress her, but after what he had seen of her lab in the Potter home he was sure that it would be nearly impossible. Feeling tired and embarrassed, he was about to apologize for how decrepit it must be to her when she grinned at him and said with almost-shining eyes, "Wow, Sev, it's perfect!"
Annoyed at her patronizing him, Severus stifled a snarl, then said coldly if tiredly, "Lily, I do not need your pity; I know that it is quite inadequate in comparison to your lab, but-"
Lily pressed her finger to his lips, causing Severus to shut up, then she said with a sincere smile,
"No Sev, I really think that it is great; I mean, it's small, but it's got my lab badly beaten in organization easily. Unfortunately, one of the not-so-great things about using James' lab is the fact that he's got so much empty space in there. Everytime I make a potion, I have to walk like three miles because of how he's organized the ingredients and such, meaning that my legs are killing me by the time I'm done with the day. And the worst part is that James absolutely refuses to change his 'system', if you can call it th-huaaah-at..."
As Lily continued her stream of complaints in spite of her yawn, Severus couldn't help but smirk slightly in his pride, leaning against a nearby wall in an almost arrogant fashion as he did so.
Suddenly, she started giggling, causing Severus to raise his eyebrows in question. Giggling increasing to a point that Severus was sure that her exhaustion must be involved in some way, Lily then walked over to the bed and sat down, before saying in amusement, "Severus, you're preening like a bloody peacock over your lab being better than James'! I'll be-uaah-t that if I said that your house's DUST-BUNNIES had more chara-uah-cter than James' you would be looking at them in pride, you silly goose!"
As his eyes darkened, Lily thought that she had somehow managed to anger him with her comments, but she found it difficult to care much right then as she was just so tired... As her eyelids slowly drooped down, she saw a shadow that she supposed was him slowly walk toward her, then she heard Severus' voice say as her eyes shut completely, "But you will not deny that my lab is better, Lily?"
Lily thought she nodded, but she was no longer quite sure of anything, except for the fact that whatever was touching the side of her face was quite warm and comfortable indeed...
No longer thinking of anything except for the fact that she had just leaned into something that was quite warm indeed, Lily heard Severus' voice say something that seemed to have no meaning, but ignored it as irrelevant in face of the fact that the warmth was now spreading throughout all of the front of her body as she pressed it into said warmth...
Suddenly, Lily felt more of the warmth being wrapped around her, and she mewled happily as she snuggled deeper into it. She could feel some sense of motion, but found that she didn't care much so long as she was in this place of delicious warmth. It even smelled rather nice, reminding her of days spent with...someone important she couldn't quite recall with her brain in this state.
Finally, the movement stopped, and Lily found her back laying on something extremely soft...however something was trying to take the warmth away! That could not be allowed, so she gripped it harder, holding on tightly and wrapping both her arms and legs around it so that whatever was trying to take it away would stop!
Severus wasn't quite sure why Lily was absolutely refusing to let him go so that he could set her down on the King-size bed in the master bedroom, but he was just too tired to try and pry her loose after climbing two floors worth of steps in his state of exhaustion.
Finally giving up, he allowed her to pull him down to her by the bed and shut his eyes, stifling a chuckle as she rubbed her cheek against his while mumbling happily... It was times like this when Severus was sure that she had been sorted properly when she had gone into Gryffindor, as she acted far too much like an overgrown kitten for him to miss the comparison...
As Severus slowly let his breathing match that of the beautiful red-head lying in his arms, falling gently off to sleep, he wondered why the thought of Potter, Black and Lupin being innocent had made him feel any happiness at all...
Author's Note: I do hope that this chapter partially explains Dumbledore's reasoning for letting the Order know about having a spy; it should qualify as one of Dumbledore's cases of 'mad genius' IMO, as what kind of moron would kidnap his own allies, just to steal them back in a high-risk rescue a couple of hours later? Only a complete idiot or a genius.
Also, I hope that the scene was...reasonably realistic.
Lastly, here is another snippet from 'Cursed to Relive'. Unfortunately, it might be a while before it comes out, if it does. However, if there is a lot of interest...I will probably start it up sooner.
Cursed to Relive
"...Did you hear? Celestina Warbeck's thinking about coming out with a new album; it'll be her first since 'You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me'! Think your mum's gonna let you attend the concert?"
"I dunno...I hope so though! How bout you er, Lillian?"
"Um, I'm not sure. I've got to get going though...so see you later, Selene."
"Ok, have fun. Now, my mother was thinking..."
I then slowly walked away, trying to keep the tears from my eyes, frustrated once more at how awkward finding friends was for me. I had hoped that after all the years of being 'the freak sister' and 'that weird Evans girl', I might have finally found somewhere where I could fit in, make some friends who wouldn't go away when weird things started happening around me again...
Unfortunately, while my magic was no longer something to be ashamed of, I had a whole new set of problems; being Muggleborn, I didn't understand what a Pygmy Puff was, or who was Celestina Warbeck...so making friends was just as hard it had been in primary school, even without the stigma of being Muggleborn...
Sighing as I came to the entrance to the Hogwarts library, I wiped my eyes slowly, hoping that they weren't too red. After taking a deep breath, I walked into the one place in the school that I could call my sanctuary. Luckily, as it was a Friday afternoon, there were only a few people in here with me. That meant that at least I would be uninterrupted as I buried my face inside of a good book once again, one of the few things in this school that would grant me peace from my frustrations.
Sitting down at a table in the back after pulling a few books down from the shelves, I began reading a copy of Basic Charms Theory, figuring that it might help me understand a little as to why swishes and flicks were so frequently used in Charm-casting. It was something that I had noticed, but had been too embarrassed to ask Flitwick about, not wanting to become known as the 'Teacher's Pet'...again...
Then the sounds of footsteps made themselves heard nearby and I turned my head, only to see Severus standing in between two bookshelves, looking at me with a frown. He then started walking toward me, causing me to wonder wildly if he were going to sit by me this time, but he took a seat at the next table over. Feeling my eyes beginning to sting as he took out his bookbag, I turned away so that he would not see me cry, only to be surprised by him saying in a murmur, "You may sit here if you like..."
Frowning, I turned to ask him why he couldn't just sit at my table...only to realize that there was only one chair at it. Slightly embarrassed at my oversight, I walked over to Severus' table, then began to read alongside my fellow bookworm in a comfortable silence. Feeling a small grin creeping over my face, I thought to myself with a mental giggle, 'Well, at least I made one friend here other than that Gryffindor, James Potter...'
