Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter NOR any of his friends NEITHER any of his enemies. It's hard to admit, but when I'm done with them all, I have to return them to Joanne K. Rowling in an original wrapping and unharmed.
I make no money, I mean no harm.

Patchwork
Waiting in the Dark

At first, Tisha didn't even hear the light knocks on her door, having been minding the fireplace - not that the fireplace needed any minding with an army of house-elves in the castle, but Tisha liked the way fire reacted to what she did. The second set of knocks was a bit louder and Tisha stood up, brushed her robes and opened the door.

"Severus," she greeted him with a nod, slightly surprised. They hadn't talked to each other since the morning and offering peace wasn't something she would expect from Severus Snape.

But maybe he hadn't realised she was angry with him and came to check up on her again?

"Tisha. It's your patrol night. I imagine you would appreciate company." Tisha tried to read in Severus' face, but - unsurprisingly - failed.

"That is very thoughtful of you," she said coldly. She wasn't in the mood for more riddles or even insults and decided to refuse as unfriendly as possible, and her mouth said, "And very true, too," for her.

What?

Severus smiled, obviously pleased with himself, and that grated on Tisha's nerves even more, but the only thing she could do without losing her pride was to smile back, go with him and think of a postponed revenge.

Tisha let Severus lead the way to the Gryffindor tower, where, as he briefly explained, most of the mischief originated. Except for that, they walked in an uncomfortable silence.

"I suggest we now take a roundabout way to the dungeons," Severus said once they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. The Fat Lady opened one eyed to give them a stern glare, but seeing a pair of Professors, she went back to sleep without a word.

Somewhere in the middle of a second-floor corridor, the silence became too silent for Tisha.

"Is it always so quiet here at night?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Severus replied grimly. "Usually, there's a lot of troublemakers running through the corridors. That on top of issues this building has on its own accord." He inhaled as if he wanted to continue, then slowly exhaled and, if possible, adopted an even more closed expression.

They descended to the ground floor, Tisha realised, and continued down a narrow staircase. Somehow they had evaded the Entrance Hall. Tisha tried to find out where they were by looking into every corridor they were passing, but with no luck. There was just pitch black there.

"Severus," she said quietly and stopped. Something moved in one of the corridors; something that made her shiver, although she was certain she hadn't seen any form - it could have been a mouse or a rat, or a cat, but Tisha was certain it wasn't.

Severus looked into the corridor and frowned. He pulled out a wand and lit it with a whispered incantation. The darkness didn't really give way to the tiny light from the tip of the wand; if anything, it seemed even darker.

"Stay here," he ordered and pointed to a spot on the floor a little aside from the dark corridor. Tisha stayed where she was, in a full view of the opening. Severus didn't turn around to check whether she had obeyed. He advanced into the darkness, way farther then Tisha expected. She still couldn't see anything and felt inexplicably frightened. The fear was paralyzing her, and rooted to the spot, she heard an unpleasant, hissing voice, murmuring words she couldn't make out. Suddenly there was a high-pitched shreak, silenced abruptly, and whatever had been holding her in place was gone.

"Severus!" she shouted. The wizard emerged from the corridor, tucking his wand away.

"Anything else?" he asked in his most polite voice.

"No. What-"

"Let's go, then." He grabbed her elbow and practically dragged her down another fleet of stairs.

"What was that, Severus?" Tisha asked angrily and jerked her arm free.

"Nothing. Just a... shadow of things that happened. Here we are at the Slythering dormitory." Tisha looked up and recognised, with a relief, her surroundings.

"A shadow?" she inquired. She wasn't quite satisfied with that answer.

"It will take some time until they are completely banished." Tisha shot him a disbelieving stare, one of her best, but Severus kept his eyes on the corridor before them and the stare was wasted.

"Splendid."

"You shouldn't come down here alone," Snape added.

"At night, you mean."

"Especially at night. But it does not make such a great difference in the dungeons." He stopped at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the Entrance Hall and measured Tisha with a grave face. If she hadn't known him, she would have missed that little calculating glitch in his eyes.

"Thank you for your concern, Professor. I will take that into consideration should I ever feel it necessary to come down here." The glitch left Severus' eyes and he frowned when Tisha continued, "I think I can take it from here myself. Thank you for the company and good night." She turned and swiftly climbed the stairs, already cursing her pride. There were still two more hours of patrolling in front of her and she would do them all by her own - Merlin help should she run into another "shadow of things that happened".

Severus waited under the stairs until Tisha disappeared. He was effectively relieved from a duty the Headmistress appointed him - it was "offer Professor Malfoy a help with patrolling and, for Merlin's sake, do help if she accepts", not "force your help on her", right? Then he remembered the residual magic from the curse he had encountered not that far away from here. The castle had been swept, and checked, and swept again, countless times, but these things reappeared on irregular basis and Tisha was foolish enough to walk into an unused corridor.

Another quietly spoken incantation and Tisha's footprints appeared to Snape's eyes, lightly glowing on the steps. With a sigh, he followed them.

"Got any plans for Saturday?" Draco asked, toying with an old returning ball. Each time he threw the ball, it returned and attempted to hit his nose, only this old ball was defective and aimed for his forehead. He could get a training Snitch, he thought, this was far too easy.

"Getting green fingers in the greenhouses all day long," Neville replied from the armchair. He looked down at Draco, who was lying on his back on the rug, and asked in return, "Do you think of anything in particular?"

"Not really. Hermione, what about you?"

"Huh?" Hermione had found enough books she was allowed to check out of the library for a Friday evening and had been immersed in them ever since she returned from her walk. Now she was looking from one boy to another in confusion.

"Do you have any plans for Saturday?" Draco lifted his head to look at her. "Ow!" The ball accidentally hit his nose as it was supposed to and proceeded to do a little victory dance above his head.

"Isn't that a toy for small children?" Neville observed.

"Not really. When is that?" Hermione replied, nose buried back in the book. Draco snatched the ball from the air, shoved it down the back of Neville's shirt and leaned over Hermione's desk.

"Tomorrow, after Friday, as usually." Hermione turned a page and contentendly nodded her head.

"Honestly, you are no fun to be around. That's not what I've been promised," Draco complained, a little disgruntled by the lack of acknowledgement of his best intimidating posture.

"Ow!" Neville, who had fished the ball from his shirt, threw it at Draco, not realising the toy would turn back to him. Draco laughed, collected it from above Neville's head, and stored it away in its box. He then threw himself over another armchair, head and legs dangling over its arms.

"Maybe I can go to Hogsmeade," he speculated. "Pay a visit to Blaise. He is fun, you know. Hermione, do you want to go with me?"

"Only the red ones, I'm fed up with green," Hermione muttered.

"I guess I'm going alone, then," Draco concluded. "I'm heading to bed. Seriously, no fun with the two of you." With that he rose and - shaking his head in disbelief - disappeared in the bedroom.

"Late night again, Headmistress?" Minerva started and looked up.

"Severus," she sighed and pushed the parchment she had been studying away. "Late night, indeed. What brings you here? Can I offer you a cup of tea?" She raised the teapot only to realise what little was left in it had gone cold an hour ago. "Please have a seat, unless...?" Minerva took off her glasses to rub her eyes. Severus remained standing.

"There was another... shadow, Headmistress."

"Where?" The portraits started whispering among themselves, some leaning over from their frames to confer with someone else.

"Dungeons, one level above Slytherin dormitories, at a corridor near the smaller staircase." Severus shifted uncomfortably. Behind him, the portrait of Albus Dumbledore stopped pretending to be fast asleep and the eyes, void of the usual twinkle, watched him intensely - so intensely, that he knew about them without turning around to look.

"A level above. And it's the second time this week." Minerva rose and walked around the table to face the Potions Master. "Severus." He turned slightly and Dumbledore's portrait moved just inside his field of view. "It's getting worse instead of subsiding. And the last month has been so promising."

"It may be the disturbing presence of students," Severus remarked, eyes fixed on Minerva's mouth. Because looking her in the eyes would be too personal. "Peeves has been unusually quiet so far. And the shadow was no stronger than those before, merely farther from the place." It was unnecessary to name the place. Minerva remembered the night during which some younger Slytherings decided to take a pro-Voldemort stance. And they both knew how horribly wrong that attempt had gone.

"Let's hope that's all there's to it. Could you... no, I will talk to Alastor myself." She turned and scooped up the parchments from the desk. "Anything else?"

"Perhaps Tisha should not patrol at all, at least until we are certain about that. It's not a thing she can handle, anyway."

"Perhaps." Minerva moved as to extinguish the lights, then remembered Severus. "If that's all, Severus?"

"Yes, Headmistress. Good night." With a little bow, he left. Minerva walked to the window to look out. It was overcast and the night was very dark. A silhouette of a dark shaped moved before the window, then a bird perched on the windowsill. It cocked its head as it watched Minerva, who watched it back.

"It looks so grim," she whispered.

"Some things take time to heal," Albus offered. Minerva half-turned to him, then changed her mind.

"But how much time, Albus?" She sighed. "It's like there's nothing good in the future at all."

"Oh, you have to look at the brighter things more often!" The chuckle in Albus' voice was a little forced, but it did console Minerva a little. The bird on the windowsill started contentendly cleaning it's feathers.

"For example?"

"The new Transfiguration Master!"

"Oh, that's moving from pitch black to mundane grey only. This school is full of youth and joy, but I still don't seem to find any." To this, Albus replied with silence. Minerva put out the candles and walked to the door to her rooms in darkness.

As she was opening the door, she hesitated and smiled.

"Tisha," she whispered.

In the darkness, Albus Dumbledore's paintings' eyes regained the merry twinkle.

A. N.: I'm sorry for the delay! I have one more coming before what could be called "the first part" wraps up.