Half a Life Without You
Chapter 9: Prince Charming
Severus's POV:
Leave…Black's last word still grates infuriatingly as I stomp into Potions class. I sweep past rows of seats ignoring everyone as I stride past, finally taking up my usual spot in the front. I sigh loudly and roughly push aside the cauldron which had been positioned neatly in front of me. Frustration claws at my insides demanding to be set free – I try to take a deep calming breath, but it only comes out as a menacing growl. This only gains me several startled stares from other students seated nearby, I want to tell them all to fuck off.
Suddenly, Xeno Lovegood swivels round in his chair staring at me with a puzzled expression, "How very…strange. No longer a gloomy gray, but rather a light green. Yes, it's very curious indeed."
"What are you going on about?" I ask with instant regret.
"Why your aura of course." He replies looking back at me with a dreamy expression.
What the actual fuck. I glare back at him threateningly, he simply shrugs, gives me one last mystified glance before swiveling back around to face front just as Slughorn begins class.
Tapping my wand impatiently against the table I try and focus on what Slughorn is saying. "Can anyone tell me what potion calls for fermented spider eye?" He looks around until his eyes land on me. "Severus?"
I scowl in annoyance and reluctantly answer, "it can be used in several potions, the most common is called "Sanitatem" the potion for regeneration and healing."
Slughorn's face lights up with an eager expression, "yes, that's right! Now what do I get if I combine the fermented spider eye with Night-blooming jasmine?" All eyes turn to stare at me awaiting the answer including Slughorn. I resist the urge to roll my eyes before answering.
"Those two alone will yield no true results, but if you add crimson nirnroot and vampire dust you will create a potion known as "Sun's Death" it allows the drinker to become completely invisible and impenetrable to reveal spells, but only for one night, the rising sun will reveal the witch or wizard."
Slughorn claps me firmly on the shoulder, "excellent my boy, just excellent. 10 points to Slytherin for Severus's outstanding answer." Several cheers can be heard around the room.
"Are we making it? Sun's Death?" A Ravenclaw boy seated to my left excitedly asks cutting off the Slytherin celebration.
"What, oh no, no. we'll not be doing that today." Slughorn replies with a slight chuckle as if the answer was completely obvious.
The boy's face fell in disappointment. "Why not?"
Slughorn appears shocked at the follow-up question and proceeds to answer him as if he were speaking to a five-year-old child. "It's extremely dangerous, if the potion is not prepared..exactly..it can cause a permanent allergic reaction to sunlight and in some rare cases death when exposed to direct sunlight. No, no, it's best not to try. Vampire dust is hardly something one would just have on hand. Mind you it's also not easily obtained; you know because of the vampires." He tittered softly causing his belly to shake as he walks back to the front of the class.
I smirk when I hear the boy mutter to his neighbor," what was the bloody point in telling us all about it then."
The rest of the class passes achingly slow as I shift between making the Sanitatem potion and glaring at Xeno Lovegood each time I catch him sneaking peeks over his shoulder at me. Finally, I bottle my finished potion and head to up to the front of the class to hand it over to Slughorn. "Very good my boy, very good." He smiles with appreciation at the contents swirling in the small glass vials. "You may start on your research project in the library or perhaps assist students still working on their potions?" His voice hopeful I'll choose to stay and help. "The library, sir." I say without missing a beat. His face falls in disappointment, "very well, you are excused Mr. Snape."
The smell is the first thing I notice, I take a quick moment to breath in the familiar scents of parchment, dust, leather and perhaps a small hint of vanilla. I'm well acquainted with this place as I walk between the rows of neatly lined bookcases creaking softly as they sway and bend under the weight of large ancient volumes. Hundreds possibly thousands of books are stacked precisely upon the lovingly carved shelves, their spines cracked and dry with age. I head directly to the muggle literature section and begin my search for the perfect book I can read to Everly during my visits. I begin to imagine what seeing her again would be like, the only image I can conjure is one of me staring down at her awkwardly for an hour like a dark shadow watching her sleep…no, I definitely need something to occupy the time I'm with her.
A copy of the Brothers Grimm fairytales catches my eye and I pull it from the shelf, flipping through I catch the story title Sleeping Beauty, this is the one. I continue to flip through the yellowed pages, my eyes widen a little as I recognize nearly all the stories my mother would tell me as a child.
I didn't pay much attention to it then but looking through them now, I can see how each story contains its own unique magical theme. I suppose these stories were her only way to provide me an early introduction into the wizarding world, filling my young mind with thoughts of fantastical beasts, the struggles between good vs. evil, heroes, villains, and the value of selfless love. I smile a little as I continue to read title after title (Hansel and Gretal, Snow White, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella. On and on, story after story all containing witches, wizards, elves, fairies, etc.) I'm impressed she was able to get away with discussing magic so openly in a home where my father literally beat the topic away. All disguised within a book of muggle fairy tales. Well… at least for a short time anyway. Before I can stop it, a memory of the last time my mother read to me flashes through my mind.
Flashback
He was drunk, again. I watch him rip the children's book from my mother's hands, and glare down at the torn pages, "you notice… how the witches… are all… evil in these fairytales?" his harsh words are slurred and slow by alcohol.
I cry out in anger, "that's not true!" He wastes no time smacking me hard to the ground, swaying dangerously he glares down at me, "don't talk back to me boy!" He moves to strike me again, but my mother positions herself in front of me to block him, "Tiberius, no!" He grabs her face and flings her to the ground beside me.
His eyes move back to the pages of the book, "Look here… Snow White's evil stepmother… WITCH! Rapunzel trapped in a tower, by you guessed it…an evil witch, Sleeping Beauty, put to sleep for a fucking hundred years by some evil slut using dark magic!" He turned suddenly and threw the book and torn pages into the fire. He glowers back at us and sneers with disgust at our weeping, "I'm going to get another drink, I'm too sober for this."
We stay huddled on the floor long after Tiberius slammed the front door behind him. My mother cradles me in her arms while gently smoothing back my hair." I pull away and stare into her black eyes, which were so like my own, only hers were like bottomless pools of darkness swimming in sorrow.
My chin quivers, but I had to know, "Mama, is magic bad? Am I evil? Like the witches in the fairy tales?"
"No, my love. Remember Cinderella and her fairy godmother, the good fairies in sleeping beauty. How about Merlin in the Sororcess Stone? Not all the fairytales are about evil witches or fairies. Severus, you must understand magic is not evil or bad, it's the person that welds the magic that decides. You can find dark in everything, but you can also find light. Most people are shades of gray." She said kissing my forehead.
"I love you mummy!" My little arms holding onto her tightly. "I love you too, Severus, always remember that."
End Flashback
Wiping away a stray tear, I slowly begin to close the book but not before I notice a single line heavily penned on the inside cover. "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream." I trace my hand over the untidy scrawl and whisper "once upon a dream" thoughts of Everly pour through me. Time to go, I quickly head up to check out and notice how Miss Pince raises her eyebrows as she sees my choice in literature, I stare back almost daring her to say something. But the corners of her mouth turn up ever so slightly, hardly a smile on anyone else, but the grim librarian seemed oddly pleased by my choice. Her normal uninviting expression returns swiftly, however, as she reads the title of the other books in my hand, "Vampires: A Wizards Handbook" and "Discovering Your Aura". I feel her disapproving gaze continue to bore into my back as I walk briskly out the door.
3 days later…
I notice a small note lying next to a game of chess as I approach Everly's sleeping form, "Game in progress, do not touch! Sincerely, Sirus Black". God, what a prat, noticing his side of the board is winning! visions of simply swiping the board clean brings a wicked grin to my face. Instead, I call out a move "Rook to E4" I watch with pleasure as Everly's Rook crushes one of Sirus's knights.
I turn my sole attention to Everly, not knowing exactly how to begin, I clear my throat self-consciously, "uh, Everly it's me Severus" I sound like a moron. "I'm just going to read to you now." I fumble slightly as I open the book and skipping ahead to Sleeping Beauty.
Once upon a time there lived a king and queen who were very unhappy because they had no children. But at last, a little daughter was born, and their sorrow was turned to joy. All the bells in the land were rung to tell the glad tidings…
"When the princess is seventeen years old, she shall prick her finger with a spindle, and-she-shall-die!" ….
At last, the prince came to a chamber of gold, where he saw upon a bed the fairest sight one ever beheld—a princess of about seventeen years who looked as if she had just fallen asleep. Trembling, the prince knelt beside her, and awakened her with a kiss…
The princess looked at him with wondering eyes and said: "Is it you, my prince? I have waited for you so long." …
As I finish reading the final lines of the story a crazy unforeseen thought crosses my mind. I hesitantly reach over with a trembling hand and tracing her lips with the tip of my finger. I wonder what would happen if I were to try and kiss her awake like Prince Charming in the fairy tales. I pull my hand back scoffing at such ridiculous wayward thinking, but I find myself leaning closer and closer.
I can't help but brush her lips with mine in a soft kiss. A tiny shock wave ripples between us sending a pleasant tremor coursing through my body. I pull back to take in her beautiful face. Only to see her eyes begin to flutter open swirling with surprise, "hi" she whispers. I smile in relief and whisper back, "hi".
Before I can say anything else, small stone butterflies suddenly spring to life separating themselves from the wall, they begin flying excitedly around Everly before swarming swiftly out of the infirmary door. Words escape me, I turn and stare into her bright blue eyes widened with shock.
Suddenly, the stone butterflies burst back through the infirmary doors, a fast-moving Madam Pomfrey not far behind, "move over Prince Charming." I could feel the heat rush into my cheeks at her comment as I she pushes past me. I look up to catch Everly watching me, I can tell she's attempting to suppress a smile and I can't help but smile back. I'm such a simpering lovesick fool.
I move to try and stand on the other side of the bed when one of the damn stone butterflies flaps its hard wings right into my still bruised nose, "FUCK!" I yell out instinctively slapping away the damned stoned creature. I watch in horror as it careens out of control towards the window, "PULVINUS!" Madam Pomfrey quickly cast a pillowing spell; the butterfly bounces harmlessly away from the window before reattaching itself to the wall.
"Mr. Snape! I will not tolerate that type of language here young man! Not to mention nearly destroying part of my wall and window!" She yells angrily at me before taking in a deep calming breath, "now, I think it best if you return to visit this evening after I've had time to check over young Miss Quinn."
Not this again, every damn time something pushes me away, well not this….! Her voice breaks me free from my silent ranting, "Severus?"
"Yes?"
"Will you come back later? I'd like very much to talk with you." She asks so sweetly; my anger dissipates completely. I nod my head in acknowledgment, "I'll return to see you this evening…Everly."