Chapter 7

Diepseusmenôs

The squeak that awakened her was not something that Patience could immediately identify. However, Patience was so exhausted that it was at least a minute before she could be fussed to open her eyes and focus on where she was and what was happening.

As her eyes trained on the large oak cupboard along the wall with the fireplace, she saw the ugly old housekeeper, whom she had heard Snape calling Rem. Patience thought that this was a very odd name and wondered where the nasty, horrid woman was really from and if she were actually a part-hag or just unfortunate enough to look like one. The old woman was squatting before the cupboard and scooping things from the shelves into a large cloth bag.

"What are you doing Rem?"

The woman did not stand up or look at Patience as she replied in a snarling voice, "I take things. You not need."

Patience sat up in the bed and looked astutely at the woman. It was possible that the housekeeper was making space for Patience's things in the cupboard, however she had a feeling that the nasty old woman was taking away items that Patience might indeed want.

"Let me see those things before you take them away, please. I may want them after all, Rem."

The old woman did not look up as she continued to scoop out what Patience thought were several silver asterothen. "Madame is not needing Mistress' old things. Rem will take. Rem will keep safe."

So these were Professor Snape's mother's things, perhaps? Or maybe even someone else. Patience did not know who the last witch to live here was. Was it even possible that he had been married before? "I would like to look at them, Rem. If those are working asterothen then I might keep them."

"You are not allowed to have Mistress' things. They are not for you."

"Really?" Patience hopped out of the bed and strode forward to where Rem was now standing.

The old woman's expression was mutinous, but she did not reply.

"All I ask is that you let me decide what I will keep and what we will move into storage. Unless these things are something special that Professor Snape wants kept aside, then I want to look through them and see what might be of use to me."

Patience pulled out a bulbous flask from the top of a bag and recognised from the label an older version of the hair tonic her mother used. "You might be absolutely right, Rem, I may not want most of this. Just place the bag on the bed and I will look at the contents later and let you know what you may take away, please."

The housekeeper finally spoke in a poisonous growl, "You do not order me."

Patience was trying very hard not to cross the line and be unreasonable, but was also determined that at least she would not be beaten by Professor Snape's servants even if she were thwarted by everyone else. She spoke very brusquely as she replied, "Yes, I do, Rem. You work for the Snape family, do you not?"

"I work for Master. I worked for the old Mistress. You are not important."

Patience clenched her fists and said sharply, "You work for the family, Rem, which now includes me."

The old woman glared and did not answer.

"Place the bag on the bed, please."

The old woman did not move and Patience's eyes did not leave the housekeeper's face as she waited for the woman to obey the order.

"Place the bag on the bed, Rem, and leave us alone."

Both women were surprised to hear the voice of Severus Snape and both turned hastily to look him as he stood in the doorway. Patience swiftly grabbed up the blanket that was laying on the back of a wing chair and threw it round her shoulders to try to cover her thin gown.

Rem, whose expression was still very unpleasant, started to leave the room with the bag in her hand.

Snape repeated dangerously, "Do as I requested, Rem. Leave it and get out."

The old woman tossed the bag on the floor and left the room angrily.

Patience hung back from where her husband was standing near the door and held onto the corner post of the bed as she watched him close the door to the room. Her heart began beating wildly as he stepped towards her.

"I will be going out this morning, but we have some things to discuss this evening when I return. In the meantime, you will not leave the house and you will not contact anyone via Floo or owl. Do you understand?"

Patience stared at him as she nodded her head slowly.

"Wicket will care for your needs in the meantime."

Patience did not say anything, since there really was nothing to say. She tugged the blanket tighter round her chest and saw the sneer grow on his face before he turned abruptly to the door and walked out saying, "We will talk after dinner."

Patience had spent the morning and afternoon digging through the contents of every cupboard in both her room and her private sitting room and now had a very poor idea of the witch who had last occupied these rooms. Firstly, this woman had a taste for cruelty that Patience thought that even her own mother would decry. The hen's root powder alone was shocking. Who would keep a silver compact of hen's root inside their embroidery basket? Unless the lady had often felt a sudden desire to become temporarily blind and covered with pustules whilst she stitched the particularly complex petit point design Patience had found, there could really be no decent explanation. The false bottom to the baby's toy, however, had been the nastiest thing. Patience shivered as she thought that Rem seemed to have been particularly devoted to this woman.

Secondly, the woman had indulged a taste for petty, vicious gossip. She had compiled dossiers full of trivial, but generally nasty information about dozens of witches and wizards, most of whom Patience did not know. However, she had decided that she would not yet turn these papers over to Rem, since she had found an entire folder devoted to her own Aunt Deirdre and several pages of notes about her mother and father. Patience had too much natural curiosity not to want to read them. It was odd though that her own family would figure so prominently in this mystery witch's library of rumour and scandals.

Patience had found a vast collection of Beautification Potions, all of which Patience knew enough about to realise that this woman, who she had a good idea was in fact Professor Snape's mother, had not thought herself to be very attractive. It was sad, really, because any woman who used a Diapseusma Potion was dealing with nasty magic, which…Patience sat up suddenly from her hunched perch by the bottom shelf of the final cupboard with a surprised exclamation. Professor Snape had been the one to teach the class about the Diapseusma Potions and warn them about the horrible side effects of long-term usage. Had he witnessed first-hand what these potions could do? Patience thought that this was exactly the case and felt a little pity for whomever this witch had been, even if she seemed to have been a horribly unpleasant sort of woman.

There had not been many things that Patience would want to keep. Some of the less dangerous Beautification Potions were still usable. Since they were all quite expensive, which was surprising considering the state of the house, it did not make sense to throw them away. There had been a collection of asterothen, portage oinos, and some old-fashioned but still very useful items that Patience would definitely keep. The rest of the things, however, Patience was more than happy to allow Rem to take away to do whatever she pleased with them. As Patience fingered the top of a very beautiful silver box, which contained a collection of stark white finger bones, she rethought whether everything should be given to Rem. The poisons were not something to hand over to someone as nasty as the old housekeeper. There was no guarantee that the woman would not put the haemorrhagic powder, Ablepsia Potion, or any of the horrible looking potions that had been unlabelled into Patience's tea.

Patience placed the silver box into the bag with most of the other objects that she felt were likely to be cursed and as such undesirable and looked thoughtfully at the basket into which she had placed the items she suspected of being poisons. Perhaps she ought to turn them over to Professor Snape. He would know what to do with them and, honestly, if he were going to poison her he was unlikely to use such common poisons that even someone as unknowledgeable as Patience could readily identify. However, she wondered if perhaps he wouldn't like her having gone through his mother's things, if indeed they were his mother's, although assessing the contents of one's husband's house upon marriage was traditional and even practical for the modern witch. No, she had far better place the basket in her own room and lock it away until she knew what to do with it.

Patience stood up from where she had been kneeling on the floor and looked round the sitting room to see if there was any sort of clock or time-telling device to be seen, because it had to be nearly dinnertime, surely. Upon seeing the wildly spinning aluminium and copper device on the mantelpiece Patience muttered to herself, "How absolutely typical. No one in this house would want anything straightforward, would they?"

Luckily, however, Patience was actually quite able to read a moon clock. The one thing at which she had ever been decent in school was Astronomy. She did not even know how she knew any of it, either. Astronomy had merely seemed the most obvious thing in the world to her and so it had not been until she got to Hogwarts that she had realised she actually possessed a talent. Patience frowned darkly as she remembered that despite exceptionally strong OWL and NEWT results in Astronomy, she still had not received good marks in the class, since she had never been able to explain to Professor Sinistra why the planets appeared where they did. Of course, she could not explain anything in Transfiguration or Potions either and she had no sort of primitive instinct to help her out in those subjects. It had never been the academics of school that had made her love her time at Hogwarts. Patience frowned as she set the clock back onto the mantelpiece and admitted to herself that she had probably only passed Herbology through fifth-year because Professor Sprout couldn't bear to fail a student from her own house, although Patience had killed almost every plant she had been given.

Patience wondered when Professor Snape considered to be dinnertime, since it was already 8 o'clock-8:17, and she was absolutely starving. She was dreading the conversation that he had promised, but she really wanted something to eat. The house-elf had brought her a very nice sort of tea, but his idea of portions was different from hers. Patience was confident that this could be remedied in the future. House-elves were never happier than when they were serving their masters, so she was sure that Wicket would be delighted to make her a more substantial tea in the future. No one had ever accused Patience of lacking an appetite, especially for sweets.

She turned her wand towards her robes and worked very hard to remember the Wrinkle-Releasing Spell again. Eva had always done it for her at school, although of course not without the "poor darling, you're so hopeless" roll of the eyes. Patience shook her head. The word was escaping her at the moment. Perhaps she ought to write down a number of the spells that she was likely to need, but would have to rely on herself to do now. She could put a little crib sheet in her pocket. Of course, about half of them she still couldn't even properly manage. If it had not been for Eva, Sarah, and Elspeth, Patience would never have got through Hogwarts, the truth of which Patience was entirely and painfully aware.

"Madame."

Patience had not heard the house-elf appear, so she turned round in surprise, "Yes, Wicket?"

"Master would like Madame to come to dinner. Master waits for Madame."

Patience felt her stomach tighten, since she was certain that nothing nice was ahead for her that evening. She was not sure what to expect from Professor Snape, since everything else had been different from her expectations, but she was absolutely persuaded that he was going to be just as unpleasant to her tonight as he had been the night before.

When Patience entered the dining room, she saw her husband stand up and push back his stringy hair with one thin hand as he waited for her to sit down. When the platters of food appeared on the table, Snape took the lid off one and began to serve them both without speaking. Patience, who was aware that etiquette demanded she be served first, was rather surprised to see that her former teacher also knew this and actually cared. She thanked him in a tiny voice and began to eat with relish what tasted like boar sausage.

As they both ate their dinner in absolute silence, Patience had ample time to think and to look about the room where they were sitting. Beyond the tapestry that she had noticed before, the room was mostly undecorated with wall hangings. The reason for this was probably the complex, delicate carvings on every second panel of the dark oak walls, portraying what looked like a battle scene involving several beasts and a wizard carrying a large staff. By the time that the pudding course, which consisted of a rather gooey cake covered in nuts, had arrived on the table, Patience had gathered enough of the story background to suss that the unknown wizard with the stick had captured and disembowelled a heap of other wizards with the help of his pet wyvern and two other beasts that Patience didn't recognise in the least. What a delightful story for one's dinner guests to look at whilst they munched on roast duck and peas.

"I will be returning to Hogwarts tomorrow."

Patience looked up from her plate, but was unable to respond, having just shoved a rather large mouthful of cake into her mouth.

"I will not be spending much time here in the future. I may come here at the holidays, but it is entirely possible that I will have work to do that will keep me away instead."

Patience had swallowed by this point and so blurted out, "I won't be going with you?"

"Absolutely not. I have no desire to be bothered with you, girl. You will only be in my way."

Patience, who had no more desire to go with him than he apparently had to bring her along, was still surprised by his rejection. What was she supposed to do?

"You will remain here. This will be your home. I have arranged that your family will not bother you."

That was something, at least, but Patience still had a feeling that he was going to prove every bit as awful as her mother with whom to live.

"I assume that you are still friendly with Rosser, Bruce, and West?"

Patience looked at him and thought with surprise before answering that it was very odd that he remembered who her friends had been at school. "Yes, I am."

"You will not contact them, nor will they contact you. I won't have them in my house or involved with my affairs, do you understand?"

What did he mean? She was to remain trapped in this evil, nasty, dank old house with only Rem and the house elf? "Why can't I have my friends?"

"You will obey me, girl. This is not a question, it is an order."

"Yes, sir."

Patience thought that this was not fair. It was not fair. It just was not fair!

"What did you say?"

Patience was certain that she had not said anything aloud, but as she saw the sneer on his face, she thought again how unreasonable he was. Since he had asked, then she would tell him. "I was thinking that it was not fair, sir."

She could see that he had not expected her to voice her thoughts because there was a momentary pause before he spoke, "You will remain here and do as I ask. I don't care how you spend your time here, girl, as long as it doesn't interfere with me or my plans. I cannot trust your friends any more than I can trust you."

"But…if I don't have anyone with which to talk then I'll go mad." As soon as she finished speaking, however, Patience felt a wave of fear wash over her. She should never have said anything. She could see that he was now furious that she had dared to speak her mind.

"You will do whatever it is that witches do in their own homes. I am certain that you can amuse yourself."

Patience sat gaping at him. It was beyond anything reasonable. There were not even any books or anything. "May I at least go into town? Will I have any money to buy anything?"

Snape stood up, reached into his pocket, pulled out a large bag, and tossed it into the table. From the way it clinked as it hit the surface, Patience knew that it was filled with gold. She stood up as well and looked up at him with scared, hate-filled eyes.

"If you take Rem with you then you may go into town to shop, but nothing else. You may not meet anyone there. If I do hear of anything, and believe that I will if you disobey me, then I will make it impossible for you to ever leave the house. Do you understand me?"

Patience could not speak she was so angry. So his plan was to lock her away in the house where he could not be bothered with her and where she could not cause him any trouble?

"I repeat: do you understand me, Patience?"

"Yes, sir. I understand, sir."

She knew that he could see how much she loathed him at that moment, yet he did not seem to care. He leant forward so that his face was merely inches from hers and said in a low, cruel voice, "I will not tolerate disobedience from my wife. Remember that. You may go."

Patience balled her hands into fists at her sides and swallowed the words that she desperately wanted to scream at him. However, she knew that she did not dare. Patience had more than enough experience with being beaten into submission to know when she was in danger. She turned on her heel and left the room without a word.