In the Head of the Snake

Chapter 5: Notes

Severus stood in an empty, dark hallway. Night time rounds yet again…but this time was different…this time he had another purpose for being where he was.

If Ginny were to leave the Gryffindor tower, then either way she had to come through this hallway; it was the only way to avoid detection from the obvious passages, all of which were watched silently by the castle ghosts. And Peeves.

Snape frowned. Peeves. He was a menace! But Dumbledore found him amusing. Listening to Peeves' cackling drift up to him from two floors below, Severus couldn't understand why. But Dumbledore had many strange reasons to do things, and Severus was not one to question Dumbledore's loyalty. The toad however…that was a different matter all together.

"Oemph!"

Severus was nocked over yet again.

"This is becoming a habit of yours, Ginevra," said Snape as he lay on his back, Ginny squashed down onto him by gravity. She hastily jumped up, her cheeks reddening.

"I-I'm sorry, Proffesor," she stuttered. "I didn't expect anyone to be here and I – "

"Was in a rush to get somewhere, escorted by me?" offered Snape when she ran out of words.

She looked at him curiously, slowly figuring that he had been waiting there, in that dark hallway, for her to come running in his direction.

"Yes," she said slowly. "I'm here to be escorted by you to the seventh floor."

"Then lead the way," Severus drawled. He didn't like the look she was giving him. It was much too calculating. Did she know his mission? His theory? No, he reassured himself, she didn't know that. She couldn't know that. Could she?

Ginny silently lead Severus towards the seventh floor corridor, and once more asked Severus to look the other way.

Not wanting to frighten the girl away, Severus obeyed. He found it ironic that he had thought he would never be bossed around by a red-headed girl, and yet here he was again.

"Alright," Ginny said after a few seconds. "You can turn around now."

Once more, a door had appeared in the wall that had not been there just moments ago. Snape opened the door and let Ginny in first – he might as well try being polite since he was going to be spending quite some time with her. He closed the door behind him and watched as it melted into a large window framed by snaking silver bars. Behind the window he could see the corridor they had just left, a ghost drifting slowly by.

"These, er, windows," Snape began uncertainly.

"Yes?" asked Ginny. If her potions professor was going to be joining her during her night-time pleasures, then she wasn't going to make the situation any more awkward than it was. She was just happy that he left her to her moping. She also had to admit that, when it came down to it, she was curious of Snape and his part in the Voldemort story. Dumbledore had such faith in him, but why?

"Are the images that they project real? Or fictitious? In time? In the past?"

She smiled at his sudden enthusiasm and he caught himself. He tried to regain his sturdy composure, but that just made Ginny laugh.

"Excuse me for saying so, Professor, but you're like a kid sometimes," she giggled.

Snape did something that hadn't happened to him for years; he blushed. A streak of warmth fed its way up his neck and dappled his cheeks in red.

Ginny stopped laughing. All of a sudden, the man looked…human… She coughed.

"The windows show whatever you want to see that has already happened or that is happening. I tried getting them to show me the future, but they just can't do it. Or they just don't want to. Sometimes I ask them to see the past, but then they show me the present. Other times it's vice versa," she shrugged. "This room shows us what we require. I never question its judgement."

"Then this is the room that Harry uses for his Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons."

Ginny didn't ask how Snape knew about the DA's lessons, but nodded her head instead.

"So what image did you ask the room for tonight?" asked Snape. He walked towards a chair that he was certain hadn't been there before he had needed one.

"This one," Ginny turned to the window directly in front of her. Snape raised his eyebrows.

"Why would you want to see that again?" he asked softly.

"The Chamber of Secrets," smiled Ginny, "still has more secrets."

"And you think that you can discover them?"

"I know I can. Or, rather, it's as if I know them already, but just can't remember them."

Her innocence touched Snape. The girl was confused and didn't know who to talk about it with. Dark magic was not an easy subject to broach.

"Ginevra," Snape began.

"Sir," she interrupted politely, "please call me Ginny."

With a nod, he began again, "Ginny, perhaps if you spoke of your issues with someone, then maybe someone could help?"

She scoffed despite herself.

"Help? Yeah, right. No one has been a host of…of that demon and survived, so who do I have to talk to? He plagued my mind, body and soul. He was as close as a nargle to taking my life!"

"What's a nargle?" Snape asked despite himself.

Ginny blinked. She had lost track of what she had been thinking and what she had been saying.

"Luna Lovegood would be able to explain it properly."

With a sigh she sat in a chair next to Severus that he was certain he hadn't seen arrive. She leaned back and looked up at the ceiling of the room of the requirement. She loved stars and was happy the first time that she had stepped into the room, her wishes being fulfilled, to see that the room mirrored the Great Hall's ceiling.

"I just want a year of my life back. That's all. Is that too much to ask for?" a star flew across the open roof.

"Many of us ask for things that we think – no, that we believe – are reasonable. But there is something you must learn, and fast Ginny," Snape scraped the chair along the floor so that he was sitting opposite her. He even dared putting a hand on hers as he said, "the past cannot be changed."

She didn't move her hand away. It alarmed Ginny at the close proximity she was allowing her Professor, but what really shocked her was the warmth of his hand over hers. She had always thought that every part of the man was cold from his sneering lips to his twitching fingers. Now that she had felt the latter…she desired to feel the former…

Not knowing what she was doing, Ginny moved her free hand towards Severus's face. When he didn't move at her touch, she slowly traced the line of his chin. The sad wrinkles along his eyes. The sharp nose. Then finally, she felt his lips. They were as warm as his hands. And they were shaking.

She snapped her hand back. All that her exploring had taught her was that Severus was a very, very sad man.

"You do not want to end up like me, Ginny," Snape said, before standing up. "And now, I think I should take you back to your common room."

Ginny didn't hesitate, nor did she say anything. They walked out of the Room of Requirement and silently made their way back to the Gryffindor tower where she bid her Professor a hasty good night and disappeared behind the Fat Lady.

"She's a good girl, that one," the Lady said to Snape. "I hope you didn't take too many points from Gryffindor for her being out late at night?"

"No," replied Snape, "but that doesn't mean she won't be loosing those points sooner or later.

"I wish all teachers were as biased as you are! But against Slytherin!" shouted the Fat Lady after him as he stepped silently through the quiet school, Peeves having moved on to something better than breaking tables.

He was grateful for his dark chambers – the Room of Requirement was much too bright for him during the night – and was ready to fall onto his bed without even undressing when he saw a notepad and new quill lying over his pillow.

Flipping over the first page, written in green slanted writing, was a message:

"I find that jotting down my thoughts always helps to rearrange them."

There was no signature, but Severus didn't need one. Only Dumbledore could offer him such advice.

Despite his exhaustion, he picked up the quill and tested it in a scribble. As he thought: it didn't need ink. It left a clear blue line over the page under Albus's note.

Thinking for a moment, Severus moved onto a new page and wrote the date in the top corner before writing:

"Genevra Weasley. Prefers to be called Ginny."

He wasn't too sure why that was the first thing he had thought to write.

"The windows show past and present. But never exactly what you ask for. They show you what you require to see."

He looked at this short summary of the room before adding an arrow under the sentence and heading it with a bold "Room of Requirement."

"Ginny shows signs of internal struggle against her unknown adventures."

He added another arrow and, again in bold, wrote, "The Chamber of Secrets."

Linking the two together with a squiggly bracket, he wrote along the side of the notebook, "The room shows the secrets of the chamber, but only that which Ginny needs to know."

He read the last part of the sentence again. "Only that which Ginny needs to know." So if he wanted to find out more about Ginny's relationship with the Dark Arts, then he needed to prove to her that she needed to know more, thus fooling the Room into showing her more, and thus showing Snape more.

Pleased with his efforts, he put the notebook next to his bed and, with a flick of his wand, turned the lights off. The cool darkness flooded his sight and he breathed a sigh of relief at the nothingness in front of him. He remembered the stars reflecting the night outside in the Room of Requirement. Severus made a mental note to add that to his list; Ginny liked the stars.

He fell asleep thinking of the shooting star, and wondering if, and then what, Ginny had wished for.

Safe in her bed, Ginny couldn't sleep. The potions master was on her mind. His actions were so hard to read. She didn't like him, but all of a sudden she craved his presence. It did miracles to calm her. She could think around him. Her mind would become clear the moment he was near her; no longer shrouded by a strangely strong desire for Harry. Why couldn't she be like the other girls and date many other guys without ever being stuck on one person? Why did Harry zoom through her thoughts every day and every night? She shook her head slowly. She was weak. That was why she couldn't be like the other girls. She was weak.

But around Snape…he gave her a certainty. His mere company was enough to drive away wild thoughts and allow her time to think. To choose the thoughts she wanted to think about, rather than having them crash into her mind without notice.

She grimaced silently as Harry popped back into her head, his green eyes glistening with laughter. Ginny didn't even know if the image was a true memory or if it was merely a manifestation of her mind. Either way, she didn't like it being there. She wanted to sleep. She wanted to have a decent night's rest where she awoke tired-free! She closed her eyes in a futile attempt to sleep.

"You do not want to end up like me, Ginny."

Her eyes snapped open. That was Snape's voice. That was definitely a memory. He had definitely said that to her. What had he meant? To end up like him? How would she end up like the shadowy-eyed, greesy-haired, sour-looking man? No; he hadn't meant physically. He had meant emotionally. Snape was…sad. Ginny was confused. Was she really feeling pity for the man? What did she know about him?

Other than him being a spy and that everyone hated him who wasn't in Slytherin, Ginny didn't know much at all about the man.

But he was trying to get to know her. She knew that for certain. Otherwise why else would he meet her for a second night and not take any points away from her house?

A thought taking her by surprise, she grabbed her wand.

"Lumos," she whispered. She scrabbled for some parchment and for a quill and, with her wand between her teeth, she wrote two words as neatly as she could.

Severus didn't bother going to the Great Hall that morning. He had slept badly and wasn't in the mood for raucous children at such an early hour. Instead, he went to his office and did some preparation for the classes he had that day. He had just decided to start marking the third year's paper on "A Relevant Cure for Giggling." He had the first period free and thought he might as well fill it with something useful – although the papers turned out to be tedious to mark. With still half of the period left, Snape was surprised to hear a knock on his office door. He wasn't expecting students until the second period.

"Enter," he drawled. But the door stayed shut. His patience egging away from him, he flicked his wand and the heavy door swung open.

There was no one there, but there was something that looked like a folded swan fluttering around at eye level. The swan flew with papery wings towards the Professor and landed softly on his desk.

He picked up the origami swan, impressed at the charm placed upon it. Under the one wing he spotted writing. Carefully Snape unfolded the swan.

It was a note. Once more, even though it had no signiature, Snape knew who it was from; Ginny Weasley.

He stared at the words, not too sure what to make of them. He pulled out his own notepad and drew an arrow up from "Genevra Weasley. Prefers to be called Ginny." Then, with a small twirl of his wand, a copy of Ginny's note appeared by the new arrow. It read, "Thank you."

...

(A/N: This chapter has taken me a while to upload, mainly because of how Snape's character is turning out, as well as how Ginny is reacting to Snape. So I'm gonna do what I can to make that a little bit more realistic. Let me know your thoughts though ^^. WonderWhiteRabbit hopping off )