Year Two - Chapter 5


Just because you had one encounter with awful muggles doesn't mean they're all like that, don't you ever say something like that ever again.

SS.

Perfect, you ask a simple question and you end up getting scolded.

The rest of the week went by quickly, although I had too much fun. Roger didn't send me any letters anymore, I didn't know how to feel; I wanted to keep talking to him, so it disappointed me that he didn't reply anymore, but at the same time it was a good thing because I didn't want to bother Hermione's parents with the owls going in and out of the house.

Hermione and I did nothing new, in the mornings she would teach me how to ride a bike, and then we would hang out in her room talking or watching TV, only Friday was different, as she used to play board games with her parents on Friday nights, so I was included; I thought we would play something like Explosive Snap (since I saw that Mr Granger had cards in his hand) but it ended up being a game called "Uno", it was entertaining, but I didn't really understand how to play it so I never won.

On Sunday, my last day, I got up later than usual, I really didn't want to leave here, I was getting used to the muggle life (although I was still terrified of the sound the blender made) and I was also getting used to being able to get out of the house to hang out.

—I wish you could stay here longer. —Hermione said as she popped another grape into her mouth. We were both lying on her bed, waiting for my dad to arrive.— Now it's going to be so boring being here alone in the house.

—Hey, at least you can go for a bike ride or go to the mall. —I ate a grape and spoke again after eating it.— I have to stay cooped up in the house all day.

—Why? Where exactly do you live?

—Spinners End.

—Oh.

—Exactly, I can only go out in the backyard because it has a big brick wall that keeps people out, but it's still very depressing so I spend most of the day inside.

—I guess it must be different from living with the Malfoy's. —Hermione popped another grape into her mouth and leaned sideways to look at me, propping herself up on her elbow, so I turned my head to look at her.

—Oh, definitely, the garden is extensive enough to have a Quidditch pitch and there's like a thousand rooms in there, but... I don't know; It made me feel like I was on my own most of the time, as if I were the only one living there. I prefer the comfort of your house.

Hermione said nothing anymore, she just smiled and lay back down on the bed.

—Harry's birthday is coming up and I don't know what to get him, I've never given a boy anything before.

—He'll love anything as long as it's Quidditch related.

—Maybe... Oh!

She sat up quickly from the bed and turned to look at me. Her eyes were so wide they looked like they would pop out of her face, so I leaned back on my elbows to get a better look at her.

—Mione, are you okay?

—I don't know when your birthday is.

—Oh, that. —I leaned back on the bed as I took another grape.

—I don't remember anyone celebrating you all year, so it must be before our first year started.

—Nope.

—So it was during the school year? Why didn't you tell me?

—Why would I? It's no big deal, Hermione. We don't celebrate birthdays.

—Can I at least know when it is?

I thought about it for a few seconds, it's not a big secret that no one should know (and Fred already knows anyway) so I don't see why I couldn't tell her.

—The first of November. Can we go outside? I want to enjoy the sunshine and clean air before I have to go home.

We went downstairs and out into the front garden, lay down under the shade of a tree, and talked about different things to pass the time.

I don't know at what point we fell asleep, but I woke up when I heard some voices a couple of meters away from us, when my sight focused I could see that in the entrance there were my dad and Mrs Granger talking while they were looking at us; I turned to see Hermione, and she was still asleep, so I put my hand on her shoulder and shook her a bit.

—Mione...

—5 more minutes...

—My dad's here.

With that, she finally opened her eyes and stood up. We both shook off the grass that had got on our clothes and walked over to the entrance, where they were. I hugged my dad tightly, and he put his hand on my back.

—Again, thank you for taking my daughter into your home, Mrs Granger. I hope she didn't cause too much trouble.

—Oh, not at all. We were delighted that Eileen stayed here; we hope she can stay again next summer.

I said goodbye to Hermione and Mrs Granger; we went behind the bush my dad had disappeared into the other day; I thought we were going to the house, but we appeared in Diagon Alley and my dad handed me my wand.

—Oh, my wand! I didn't think I would miss it so much but I did; I felt like a big part of me had been taken away. What are we doing here?

—I need to buy some things.

We went in the apothecary's direction, but before we entered, we saw someone coming out of the shop next door. I couldn't help smiling when I noticed it was Roger, and he said hello to me! I thought he would just ignore us and pretend he hadn't seen us.

—Hello, Eileen. Good morning, Professor.

—Hi, Roger. —My dad said nothing, so I assumed he just nodded. What are you doing here?

—Some friends and I went for a walk today, we're meeting at Fortescue's ice cream parlour. Do you want to go?

I turned to look at my dad with my best possible doggy face. That always makes him say yes.

—Can I go, please?

My dad sighed and then looked at the gold watch on his right arm that I had given him a couple of years ago (with my aunt and uncle's money, of course, but I chose it).

—I'll see you at the Leaky Cauldron in an hour. Not a minute longer.

—Perfect. —Thank you!

I took Roger by the arm (I wouldn't hold his hand in front of my dad) and left as fast as I could for the ice cream parlour before he changed his mind. When we were a little further away (and when I saw my dad go into the apothecary) I let go of him and put my hands behind my back.

—How's your summer been so far?

—Oh, amazing. We went to Germany for a couple of days to visit some relatives we hadn't seen in a while; I learned a couple of German phrases.

—Really? Let's see, tell me something in German.

—Du bist... Du bist ein... hübsches Mädchen.

—Amazing, what does that mean?

He smiled and put his right hand behind his head, tousling his hair a little. Why does he always do that? It looks so cute!

—Well, it means you're a beautiful girl.

—Oh.

I could feel my cheeks heat a bit (and since I'm so pale, I'm sure they're as red as a tomato), but it's just a phrase right? I mean, it's just something he learned over there. It doesn't mean he thinks that about me or anything...

We arrived at the ice cream shop and we went in; for a Sunday, there were very few people. We approached the table at the back. There were two other people there. The one on the right I could recognise it was Cedric and the other one was a dark-skinned guy, with glasses and... blue hair?

—Roger! We thought you'd never get here. —Said the blue-haired boy.

—Sorry, I bumped into Eileen. Oh, Eileen, this is Cedric Diggory and Joseph Anderson.

—Hello. —I said as I waved at them, but I couldn't take my eyes off Anderson's hair. Roger and I sat down. He was on my left, Anderson was on my right and in front of me was Diggory.

—Hi, I'm Joseph, but you can call me Joe.

—Hi, I'm Eileen Snape, but you can call me Leen. May I ask...?

—My hair? Yes, I'm a shapeshifter, look. —In a matter of seconds, his hair changed to a deep red colour.

—Amazing! But how come I've never seen you at school? Something like that doesn't go unnoticed.

—I rather have my normal hair at school. So... Snape, huh?

—Please don't start. —Joe laughed while Roger and Diggory got up to buy ice cream.

—Don't worry, I knew who you were. Roger won't stop talking about you.

—Really? But... Good things or bad things? —I turned to look at Roger, he was talking about something with Cedric and then they were laughing; I looked back at Joe when I heard him talking.

—He's always telling us how clever you are, especially when we're studying for Potions, but well, I think that's obvious.

Roger and Diggory returned. Cedric gave Joe an ice cream of what looked like strawberry, while Roger gave me a vanilla cone.

—I wasn't sure what you liked, so I got you a plain vanilla cone.

—Don't worry, vanilla is my favourite flavour, actually. How much do I owe you? I think I have a couple of galleons in my pockets.

—That's fine, don't worry.

—Really?

—Make the most of it, Eileen. He's a guy, and he asked you out on a date, so obviously he has to pay.

—Oh, no, this isn't a date. —I said.

—No? —Roger asked, with a little smile on his face. Merlin, no! Is this a date?

—Anyway, what house are you from, Joe?

Thank Merlin, they changed the subject; we were chatting while we finished our ice creams, Joe (who is a Ravenclaw, by the way) was so funny that several times I felt I would pee myself laughing. When we finished, we left the ice cream shop and went to Quidditch Quality Goods.

Roger and Cedric (after a while of talking, he told me I could call him that) went to buy a new Quidditch uniform, as they had used a Repair Charm so many times that it no longer worked, while Joe and I were looking around the rest of the shop.

—Aren't you on the Quidditch team?

—Oh, Merlin, no. Haven't you seen this face? I can't let it get hit by a Bludger and get ruined. —I laughed at what Joe said, he really is a good-looking boy, but it makes me laugh to meet someone just as (or even more) vain than Draco.— But this year you can try for the Gryffindor team, will you try?

—I don't know, a couple of months ago I might have said yes, but I'm not sure now. I do like Quidditch, but I'm not that good at it. Oh, look, Quidditch Through the Ages is on sale, from 14 Sickles and 3 Knuts to 7 Sickles...

I took advantage of the offer and bought the book for Harry for his birthday. I just hope Hermione or someone else doesn't do the same. When Roger and Cedric finished taking their measurements for their uniforms, the clerk quickly adjusted the uniforms and handed them to them. We paid for our stuff and left the shop.

I still wanted to continue hanging out with them, but Roger reminded me that my dad had only given me permission for an hour, so we both went to the Leaky Cauldron, my dad sitting as far away from everyone as possible.

—I had a lot of fun today, Eileen, I hope we can go out again before school.

—Yeah, that would be great.

He came up to me like he wanted to give me a kiss but quickly pulled away; I don't know if he just regretted it because he doesn't like me or because he remembered my dad is here and he's most likely watching us. I hope it's the latter.

He went back to Diagon Alley, and I went to the back of the shop, sitting on the chair to my dad's left.

—I'm surprised you didn't stay longer and just excuse yourself that you didn't know what time it was.

—I actually wanted to do that, but Roger insisted you had only said an hour, so here I am. What is that stuff you're drinking? Can I try it?

—Absolutely not, you have to be of age.

—It smells awful anyway.

—Are you hungry? You can order something to eat and then we can go back to the house.

I ended up ordering a vegetable soup; I was hungry since I only had the ice cream in my stomach, but for that reason I wasn't hungry enough to order something heavier.

When I finished, we left the Leaky Cauldron and went to an alleyway so that we could appear inside the house; my dad (and when I can do apparition by myself) and I are the only ones who can appear and disappear inside the house, for 'security' reasons.

I went up to my room and threw the bag I'd taken to Hermione's onto a chair and was about to lie down on my bed when I noticed a couple of letters on my desk. The first one was from Draco and judging by the date, I guess it arrived in the morning. I opened it and read it.

Eileen;

Tomorrow Blaise, Theo and Tracey are coming over to the house to hang out, just the three of them because they are not complete idiots like the others and mother asked me to ask you if you want to come too. I know they all are Slytherin, but do not worry, like I said, they are not that stupid and they won't start calling you names for being a silly Gryffindor... Just kidding! You know I love you even if you wear red and gold instead of green and silver. In fact, Theo told me he's interested in talking to you about a couple of things. I may have mentioned to him at some point how good you are at the Dark Arts.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Draco Malfoy.

Draco couldn't be more stupid. What kind of person would put information that could be misunderstood in a letter? Besides, I'm not good at the Dark Arts, I only know a lot about them...

I took the second letter and smiled when I saw it was from Fred but also I was surprised; I didn't expect him to send me a letter during the summer, but now that I noticed, it had the same date as the letter I had received from Roger in the kitchen of Hermione's house, which means that both were sent around the same day, but why did this one arrive here and Roger's arrived there?

Dear Eileen,

Is it dumb of me to write 'dear'? Never mind, I already did.

How have you been? Has Professor Snape got you studying potions already? Just kidding, I know it bothers you when people say things like that about your father, but now that I have your address, do you think he'll kill me for coming to visit you?

Things have been silent here, but George, Ron and I are planning something. I'll tell you when we've done it, and maybe after that you can come and spend a day and play Quidditch?

I don't really know what else I could tell you because nothing ever happens here, but I didn't want to wait until September to hear from you. I hope you have something interesting to tell.

Take care,
Fred Weasley.

PS: George says hi.

I put the note on my desk and went into the bathroom; I think I hadn't been there since morning and my body was letting me know; when I sat down on the toilet, I was scared because there were some small drops of blood on my underwear, Merlin. Am I going to die?

No, wait, I think Aunt Cissy had already told me that this would happen at some point; she told me a few days before I went to Hogwarts last year but how do I keep it from getting all over my clothes?

After doing my business, I took an enormous piece of paper and wrapped it around my underwear. That should be enough to keep it from staining everything; I washed my hands and left the bathroom, went down to the living room, but my dad wasn't there, I looked in his room, the kitchen and his study, but they were empty, so I went back to his study and with my wand I tapped three times on a blue book that was at the bottom of the bookshelf next to the window; the bookshelf moved backwards and then moved to the left, hiding behind another bookshelf.

As it moved, it revealed a small hallway; at the back was a wooden door that I wasn't allowed to open unless it was an emergency (is this an emergency? I'm bleeding to death after all), so I just knocked on the door three times.

—Dad? Are you busy? —I spoke through the door, raising my voice a little so he could hear me.

—Yes.

—When you're done, could you come to my room? This is… A little urgent.

—Give me five minutes.

As soon as I left the hallway, the shelf was back in place and now there was no sign of an extra room in the room; I walked as slowly as possible to my room, afraid that I would stain all my clothes. When I got there, I didn't know what to do; I wanted to sit down but not on the bed for fear of staining it; I was deciding what to do when the door opened and my dad came into the room.

—What do you need?

—Uh... It's just that... I went to the bathroom and... And my underwear had some blood on it.

I've never seen my dad more surprised. I even think he turned paler than usual (if that was possible), sat on the bed and grabbed my shoulder, making me sit next to him.

—Eileen, when a woman gets... Well, when she gets to a certain age, her body...

—Aunt Cissy told me a bit about it last year. —I could see on his face how relieved he was that he didn't have to explain everything to me.— But not a lot, I mean, she told me why it happens, I think, I don't remember... And well; she told me that if it happened, to tell Madam Pomfrey, I guess she thought it would happen while I was at school, but I don't know what to do. I just took a piece of paper and put it there.

—I'll go... I'll go talk to Narcissa, wait here.

My dad left the room, and I heard him going down the stairs, because he left the door open; after a moment I could hear the Floo in the fireplace and then my dad talking to someone, but I couldn't understand what they were saying.

After a couple of minutes, I heard Aunt Cissy's voice clearly; it was getting closer and closer, so I assumed she was coming up the stairs.

—No Severus, you must come too, you're her father and you should know about these things.

The door opened wide and Aunt Cissy came into the room and sat down next to me. My dad just leaned against the doorframe, wishing he was anywhere but here.

—Oh, my dear! You're a lady now. What a thrill! Look, I don't know what you're wearing so you don't stain, but this is a pad, just put it over your underwear and it will fit.

—But won't it stain my clothes? I don't think this will hold… you know...

—No, these towels are special. As soon as the blood touches it, it will fade. Go put it on and then we'll continue talking.

I took the pad that Aunt Cissy gave me and got out of bed uncomfortably, as soon as I did that, I could feel myself as if I were peeing, so I went into the bathroom as fast as I could, but not before grabbing a pair of underwear from a drawer.

I pulled down my trousers and noticed that the piece of paper was completely stained, so I quickly threw it in the bin and changed, putting the pad over the clean underwear, which got a little bigger and stuck to the fabric, no matter how much I moved it, it wouldn't come off.

I left the bathroom and went straight to bed, avoiding looking at my dad. It was awkward enough that he knew what was going on without him being here, too.

—Very well. —Aunt Cissy said— Now that you're ready, do you still remember what I told you a year ago?

—A little.

—All right, I'll explain it further another day. I'll leave you a box full of these pads, change them twice a day and clean them. There is a spell to do it but it's complicated, so I'll show you later; when this happens at Hogwarts, you'll have to go to Madam Pomfrey to get them cleaned.

—But if everything fades, why is it necessary to clean them?

—You clean your clothes after you've worn them, don't you? It's the same with these, they may not collect any blood, but they still need to be cleaned to avoid any kind of infection. Don't worry about that for the time being, they're enough to last as long as you need them. Now, have you felt any pain in your abdomen?

—No, is that going to happen? —I said, grimacing. Isn't it horrible enough that I have to bleed, but it has to hurt too?

—Most likely, though whether that happens, or how intense the pain is, depends on every woman. I gave your father a recipe to make a potion especially for that, it's complicated but quick to prepare. It's also very common for you to have emotional changes during your period, so you —she turned to look at my dad.— or you, don't worry that one day you'll be happy and the next day you won't want to leave your room.

My aunt gave me a hug and stroked my head.

—I can't believe how much you've grown! Well, I have to go; I have some things to do, but there are still a lot of things I have to talk to you about, so I hope you'll come to the manor in the morning. I'm sure Draco sent you a letter.

My aunt got out of bed and walked towards the door.

—Thank you so much for... Helping us.

—It's nothing, Severus. Oh, don't forget to make that potion, just in case Eileen needs it.

And with that, my aunt left quickly. I only heard Floo's flames, and then the house fell silent.

—Do you need anything?

—No, dad, thanks, I think... I think I want to sleep for a while.

He nodded and left my room, closing the door behind him. I lay down on the bed and fell asleep in no time.


When I woke up, my room was almost dark. The little light that came in was from the sun that was coming in, so my room had an orange hue; when I got up, I noticed that there was a bottle on the bedside table next to my bed and it had a note on it.

I hope you don't need it.

I smiled and put the jar back on the bedside table, wishing the same.

I sat down at my desk and started writing a reply to Fred and Draco's letter before I had to go downstairs for dinner.

To the dumbest idiot in the world, Draco,

I want to clarify that I'm not good at the Dark Arts, I've just read a lot about them.

Anyway, I'm going to the manor tomorrow. I hope you're right about your friends, because I'm not in the mood to fight with them just because I'm a Gryffindor.

Eileen Snape.

I took another piece of parchment and started writing the letter to Fred.

Fred,

I'm sorry to reply so late, but your letter arrived at my house and I wasn't here all last week; you can't imagine where I was!

I slept over at Hermione's house for an entire week; I lived like a Muggle for a week and it was amazing! I have a lot of things to tell you, but it would take me too long to write it in a letter, so I'll tell you later. I remember you saying that your dad is really obsessed with Muggle stuff, well I bet he'd be really jealous if he knew.

I don't know if I should be worried or excited about the fact that you guys are planning something and you don't want to tell me.

Maybe we could meet someday in Diagon Alley?
Eileen Snape.

I put the letters in an envelope and went downstairs, went out into the courtyard and gave the letters to Umbra, although she tried to bite my finger because I didn't have any food for her, so I had to go back to the kitchen and grab a piece of bread for her to eat and finally flew out to deliver them.

I got back to the kitchen in time to help my dad set the table.

—You know what's interesting? —I said to my dad as I took two glasses from a drawer and put them on the table.

—What?

—Fred and Roger sent me a letter on the same day, but Fred's ended up here and Roger's arrived at the Grangers' house.

—And that's interesting because...? —Said my dad as he served vegetables on my plate.—Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. They both got here, didn't they? But you just sent Roger's to Hermione's house, because, now that I think about it, it had our address on the envelope.

—I have no idea what you're talking about.

And he just kept on eating, so I left the subject aside. I ate too, but my mind kept wondering one thing;

Could that mean that my dad doesn't hate Roger?