In the Head of the Snake
Chapter 6: An Odd Remark
Harry was angry. Then again, Harry was little else in the current time.
"How can she?" he stormed around the empty classroom, only his two best friends his witness. "How can that – that – that TOAD do this?"
"We understand, Harry," Hermione said tentatively. "We feel the same way!"
"Yeah, we just don't show it by breaking our toes on desks," mumbled Ron.
Harry grit his teeth and forced himself to relax his clenched hands. In an eerily calm voice considering how angry he was inside, he said, "I understand her using that stupid quill on me, but to use it on first years? FIRST YEARS!" his anger broke through yet again. He couldn't take it any more. Umbridge had gone too far this time, and he was going to pay her back on behalf of everyone at Hogwarts who hated her. "I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY'D LET THAT BLOODY BI–"
"Now now Potter," drawled an all too familiar voice. "Foul language is the very last thing your mother would have approved of. Ten points. And another ten for waking me from my midday nap."
"Thank you," growled Harry, "Professor Snape, for setting me straight. I'll be sure to play the bongo during this hour instead of my customary time, just for you."
Snape glared at the boy. Those stupid green eyes glared right back and Snape had to turn a smile into a scowl. He was in a bad mood. Last night he had stood waiting by the wall on the seventh floor, and yet again Ginny hadn't appeared. Was she avoiding him? Or was there another reason for her lack of appearance? To add to his anger, his arm twitched from a streak of pain through his Dark Mark.
"Be glad I don't take any more points from Gryffindor – from what I've heard, you've hardly got any left."
"And whose fault is that, Sir?"
"I can only imagine that it's the terrible students who reside in that red and gold common room of yours."
Harry took a step forwards, his hand clenching his wand. Snape delighted in his rage. At least the boy could show emotion; Snape was caught in an ever-lasting blank look. He wondered if he could even frown anymore, or if his skin had forgotten how.
"Now now, Potter," tutted Snape. "It would do your dearest house no good – none at all I tell you – if you were to attack a teacher."
"It would do me some good," said Harry under his breath, but, once again, he forced himself to relax. His anger, however, didn't abate.
Snape nodded at the boy with a sly smile; he was learning. It was a start.
"What can we do to help you, Professor?" squeaked Hermione from one of the classroom corners.
Snape tried hard not to roll his eyes at the silly girl.
"I am looking for Weasley," said Snape in a bored voice. The less these three knew about his meetings with Ginny, the better. Not that it helped that, of the past week, he had only seen her twice. He wanted to know why she wasn't going to the Room of Requirement any more. Was he failing to gain her trust? Was he failing to befriend her? He thought his efforts at friendship were going quite nicely. When she had touched his face…he almost raised his hands to his lips.
"Me?" said Ron whilst pointing a finger at himself in disbelief.
Snape stared for a moment at the boy. That's right. Ron was Ginny's brother. How could he forget? That hadn't been his plan, but a good Slytherin knows when to adapt.
"Yes," snapped Snape. "You don't see any other Weasleys around here, now do you? Although I know this building is bursting at the seams with red hair, there is only one Weasley here."
"Alright," snapped Ron with just as much force. "I'm here, what do you want." Hermione dug her elbow into his side. "Sir," Ron added hastily.
With a wonderfully mischievous gleam in his eyes, Snape said, "To have some tea."
The other three opened their eyes wide and gave each other hurried glances. Snape wanted to have tea? With Ron? Something was up, but they could do nothing about it.
"You other two," said Snape to Harry and Hermione and then he pointed to the door. Hermione scuttled over and opened it. Harry, however, dragged his feet, his hands in his pockets, all the while staring hard at Snape as if wishing he could perform Legilimens on the man to find out what he was up to. Standing in the doorway he looked to Ron. The guy was perspiring but otherwise he looked strong. Ron nodded to Harry.
"A door works both ways," hissed Snape, "it opens and then it closes!" Hermione squeaked again and ushered Harry out, closing the door with a soft click.
Once alone with Ronald Weasley, Snape pulled out his wand. He smiled at the flinch that the boy gave, but directed his attention to some school desks instead. With two short flicks and a long sweep, he had transfigured the tables into a coffee table and conjured up two chairs on either side. Without showing how much relief it gave him, he sunk into the one armchair.
"Sit," he indicated the other chair to Ron who jerkily took his seat. He sat on the very edge of the chair, as if afraid to touch it.
Snape snapped his fingers and a small house elf popped into being beside the table, his arms holding a large silver tray above his head. Happily hopping around the table, he laid it with cauldron cakes and hot tea. With a smile and wave at Snape – his mouth twitched in reply – the elf bowed and pop, he was gone again.
"Help yourself, Mr Weasley," drawled Snape. "I have no reason, nor desire, to know your tea preferences."
Just because he had nothing else to do, Ron busied himself with pouring tea extra slowly. With a glance at the cauldron cakes, he took one and added it to his saucer. Snape hadn't touched the goods and Ron wasn't stupid enough not to notice.
"Won-won't you be having anything, Sir?" asked Ron cautiously.
"Oh very well," said Snape. He was happy that the boy hadn't started wolfing down the food and drink without thinking. Maybe he could work with this one after all. The girl would be easy – just make sure she finds the right books – but this one…Ronald…he had to learn some things fast. This one small step, not trusting a possible enemy, was a large enough first step that Snape didn't have to help with.
He quickly poured himself some tea and happily bit into one of the treats – his smile hid by a full mouth. He hadn't had any breakfast that day. Instead he had been away on Order Duty. It was stupid, protecting that door day after day, night after night. But it wouldn't surprise him if the watches came in handy – so long as another Weasley attack didn't happen. Ahh, yes, the Weasley attack. Now he had his angle. He quickly brushed down the cake with some tea.
"How is your father?" asked Snape.
Ron hurriedly swallowed some tea, scorching his throat, before saying, "Fine."
"No lingering pain? Swelling? Stiffness?" Snape prompted.
"A-a bit of stiffness, yeah," nodded Ron. "But the doctors say that'll go away soon."
Snape nodded his head slowly. It wouldn't go away soon; if you were bitten by Nigini, then it would take a few years before the poison ebbed out of the system. He stopped a shiver at the thought of that snake biting someone. That was one of Voldemort's favourite games; threatening with the snake. Instead, he turned his attention back to the family.
He wanted to know how Ginny had been coping these past few years, but since his relationship with her was such a fragile one, he didn't want to appear to be questioning her. Along with the fact that she had been avoiding their visits at night. He needed her to trust him as much as Dumbledore did. She valued family, so here he was, trying to find out about her many-brothered, huge household.
"And," Snape paused. He didn't want to appear too nice. He hated this boy because he was friends with Harry, and Harry was just like his father. Also, he knew that whatever he told Ron, he would run back and tell Harry and Hermione. Sending them out of the room was pointless, but at least now he didn't have interruptions from Granger and yelling bouts from Potter. "And the family – are they reacting to the attack well?"
"Reacting to it well?" Ron's eyebrows rose. "We're bloody well scared out of our minds! How can you react well to an attack on your father?"
Snape found himself rolling his eyes again. He snapped out of it; that was a childish thing to do. Instead he drawled, "So I take it you are all being extra careful about where you go and who you talk to?"
"Natural defences are up, yeah," growled Ron as he stared in disbelief at the potions master. "But we can't have protective spells on us all the time, now can we? We've just got our wands to work with!"
"Natural defences?"
"Like, who to trust and talk to," said Ron slowly. Snape got the hint, but he still had one more question to ask. This was important.
"And are you the only one of your family daft enough not to have thought about defences sooner?"
Ron blinked.
"I'm not daft. 'Course I've thought about them. Ginny and I got together and discussed them, but she's adamant that nothing we do will be able to stop whatever people want to do to us."
Snape froze. Ginny Weasley didn't want protection? She was a smart girl. Smart enough to know the truth. But she wasn't prepared to try and save herself from that truth? No…there had to be something else. Something beyond what he could gauge from her brother. Armed with this odd information, Snape got up and twirled his wand. The table changed back into its original shape, the cakes and tea disappeared (Ron snapped his jaws onto thin air,) and the chairs swirled into nothing (Ron landed hard on his rear end.)
"Good day, Mr Weasley," said Snape tartly before sweeping out of the room, leaving Ron on the floor, dumbfounded by the encounter.
Snape was looking for Weasley again. This time Ginny Weasley. He heard a crack and a bang, his instincts took over and he ducked fast. Above his head rotated a spinning leg. Behind him, Snape heard sniggers.
"WEASLEYS!" he yelled. He heard the two scatter, but his wand was in his hand and, with a quick whip of his wrist, he had snared the two in an invisible lasso. He pulled hard on his wand and, scrabbling against their invisible binds, the twins came into view from behind a hanging tapestry.
"YOU TWO," puffed Snape as he pulled some more on his wand, "ARE IN DEEP SH–"
"Now now Professor," panted Fred, or maybe it was George, both still trying to free themselves. "Foul language is the very last thing your mother would have approved of."
Snape let the magic fall, and the twins fell onto the ground, puffing for air, but grinning from ear to ear.
"I said that to Potter only minutes ago," intoned Snape.
"Then we must have really good hearing," said the one twin.
"To be able to have heard you all the way from the common room," said the other
"Or just hearing that can extend really far!" they both burst into laughter.
Ah yes…the extendable ears. The twins had been using them the entire holiday to try and listen in on the Order's meetings.
"I would take points away from Gryffindor," said Snape over their laughter, "but I don't think that you have many left. Instead, why deny Professor Umbridge the opportunity to torture any more Gryffindors?"
The two snapped quiet.
"That's not funny."
"Not at all, Professor."
"I suppose you didn't see what she did to that first year?"
"Actually," said Snape, bored and looking at his grimy fingers, "I'm the one who recommended the first year to her."
He had to use his wand fast as both brothers launched themselves at him.
"Muggle antics will get you nowhere," sneered Snape as the twins fought against an invisible barrier. "Use your wands, boys, otherwise this is just child's play." The barrier burst and the red-heads fell backwards, once more on the ground.
"There will come a day," growled the one.
"When all of us will overpower you."
"That"
"Will be child's play!" they said together.
"Very touching," smirked Snape. "In the mean time, try using dried black berries from a Ligustrum lucidum."
He walked away, smiling icily to himself as the twins exchanged raised eyebrows. The berries came from wax-leafed privets often found in the east. The berries would counteract their latest dangerous ingredient for those "Scare Away Sleep" sweets that they were busy developing. And the berries would give a better taste than dragon-dung coffee beans too.
At least he knew that the twins had brains on them. They just didn't like using them for studies. And the elder brothers all knew how to take care of themselves too. It was just Ginny and Ron that he had to help now.
Scrap that. Just Ginny.
She didn't want protection? Why was she being so stupid?
"Good afternoon, Professor," Snape stumbled in his thoughts and stopped in his tracks. There was Ginny, looking serenely up at him. No anger or hatred in those liquid eyes, only a cool expression of greeting. She would make a good death eater. Snape shook himself hard and inwardly berated himself for that thought before saying, "Afternoon, Miss Weasley. Where are you off to?"
"The library," she said brightly. "I have a few spells I want to look up."
"Anything in particular?" they were tiptoeing around each other as if they never saw each other night after night. Actually, Snape wondered at this. He had taken to waiting for Ginny every night by the seventh floor wall, but for the past few nights she had left him there waiting…alone…he often felt as if she had stood him up.
"No, nothing really. I thought I might as well put my time to good use."
"No homework?"
"No, Professor. No homework. I finish it all at night." He noticed how she put extra emphasis on this.
"Pity, considering how night-time should be used for other purposes."
"Sleep evades me," she smiled sadly.
"I find that walking often helps."
"If there is no one around to bump into barely a common room away."
Ah, now he understood. She couldn't sneak out because others were in the common room. Their system had to be remedied.
"I'll see to a solution." Snape nodded his head to Ginny and they walked on.
Back in his dungeons, Snape worked quickly. There was the Dark Mark, the Gold Galleons of Hermione's that she used for the DA meetings, and now, there would be a third system of communication. Used only between Ginny and Snape. Actually, the system had been in use a long time ago between him and Lily. He wondered if it would work any more. Scratching in his drawers he found what he was looking for; a pair of quills. Using the one quill, he wrote on a piece of paper, "Testing," and was pleased to see the second quill react. It buzzed softly. He picked it up and poised it over the paper and it immediately started writing a second, "Testing," under the previous statement.
So the quills worked…but the paper was a problem. Anyone could read the messages sent out. He needed to make a plan either with the ink or with the parchment.
He reasoned with himself and chose the ink – that way it could write on floor, wall, paper, skin or any other necessary surface. Placing the quills side by side, he knew what to do
"Miss Weasley," drawled Snape as the class packed up their potion ingredients, "stay after class."
Ginny waved goodbye to her friends and made her way to the teacher's table.
"I understand that you know the consequences of walking, unsupervised, through the castle at night?" he asked icily.
"Yes, sir," replied Ginny.
"Then I must never – never, Miss Weasley – catch you outside without an accompaniment."
"How will I manage that, Sir?" asked Ginny. She was playing her part nicely while there were still other students in the room. The last one exited and the door closed. Now it was only Snape and Ginny. Their pretence fell and Snape handed Ginny the quills.
"These will help. If you ever want to go to the room again, then call on me with these."
She eyed the quill carefully. It looked similar to Umbridge's sharp torture quills that she used during detentions.
"I write my message on any surface," he used the quill to write on his table. The words glistened for a few moments before disappearing into the surface. "Then this quill is notified of the message." He indicated the quill vibrating softly. "Then you place this quill on any surface and it writes out the message for you." The quill wrote the message a second time, this time on a book and Ginny watched as it sunk into the cover.
"What will our message be?" asked Ginny.
"What do you want it to be?"
"Well," Ginny thought for a moment. "It needs to be something so random, so odd that no one will be able to trace it to either you or me."
"Very clever," agreed Snape.
"I like fluffy things," said Ginny surely.
"Excuse me?"
"That's what my message will be for 'The coast is clear, I'm coming'."
"And my reply for, 'I'll be waiting?'" enquired Snape, his mouth in a grim line.
"As long as it's pink."
"'As long as it's pink'?" repeated Snape, his mouth twitching at the sides.
"No one would guess it was for you or for me," nodded Ginny. "I hate pink things, and no one would suspect you of fluffy things."
Speaking through gritted teeth, Snape said, "Ginny Weasley, you should have been in Slytherin."
She laughed. "And perhaps you in Gryffindor!"
She got up and made her way to the door where she turned and remarked, "I would've preferred you in Gryffindor," before whipping outside and leaving Snape with his carefully still quill.
He picked it up and wrote, "Ten points to Gryffindor."