I Walk Alone,
Chapter 10, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
It would be grand not to mention fitting the tales of all great wizards and their vaunted flawless success, to say that Severus, Raislen, and Heather perfected the long distance conjuring charm in less than an hour. Instead they spent most of the night in Flitwick's class room. When the three at last staggered to the Slytherin dorms, it was four in the morning. They would only get a few hours of sleep, and only a few if they slept through breakfast.
"We did it, though," Heather cheered tiredly.
"We did," Raislen grinned. He hefted the opera book in one hand, waving it over his head. "The blasted thing is forever in one piece," he complained and Heather giggled. Once they'd made Heather's amendments to the spell, Raislen tested it out. He did this by calling his family's house elf to take the opera book back home. Then he conjured it directly into his hand without a single page even being slightly crinkled.
"This is only the first of many brilliant original spells we shall craft," Severus told his friends. He spoke with a confident certainty that he felt with every fiber of his being. The idea of that felt exhilarating and empowering.
"But before we do that, we've got to actually wake up in the morning," Heather said around a huge yawn. "Look, if I'm not at breakfast, send one of my girlfriends to wake me, will you, Raislen?"
Raislen reached to tug at the ends of her red tresses and Severus sighed, knowing what was certain to follow. "Only if you'll be my favorite Heathertoy," he crooned, grinning mischievously.
"You are such a git," she snapped, pushing him away before punching him in the stomach just as she never failed to do when he called her HeatherToy. "Without my input you wouldn't have properly completed that long distance conjuring charm!"
"We would've eventually," Severus foolishly interjected. "Granted not as quickly but..."
He broke off when Heather turned from Raislen to bestow her wrath on him. "You little prat! If you want to take his side after I helped you, you can just go hang the next time you need help sorting out one of your spells."
Severus held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry! I just meant that eventually, we would've sorted it. We are very grateful for your help, though, because sooner is definitely better than later. We always want your help when we're working on such things. It's just you don't always want to be around us."
She frowned. "It's only Raislen I don't always want to be around until today. Now I've added you to the list."
"Really, Heather. I didn't mean it in a bad way, and I am sorry," Severus said tiredly. Sometimes girls could be so strange.
Heather sighed. "Fine. Alright then. Only because you've apologized and said that you want me around."
"So now may we go to bed," Raislen asked, rubbing at his stomach. "I promise to have you woken if necessary, providing I'm awake myself."
"And if I am awake and I don't see either of you, I'll go wake Raislen and make sure some girl comes to wake you, Heather," Severus promised.
Heather nodded. "All bases are covered unless none of us wakes up," she said with a chuckle. "Good night, Prats."
"Good night," Raislen and Severus said nearly in unison.
Severus woke to the sounds of his dorm mates moving about the room, readying themselves for the day. He was so very sleepy, but as he was actually awake, he forced himself to roll out of bed. He wanted to be excited about their success on the new long distance conjuring charm, because it was going to be quite useful whenever he wanted books from Grandfather Prat's library, but he was just too bloody sleepy at present to feel much of the glee he knew he should. There was plenty of time for that, though, and his emotions would be properly responsive after a good night's sleep. Unfortunately he was facing the second day in a row of dealing with the Gryffindor Gang of Gits on low sleep with poor reflexes as a result. He'd gotten lucky the previous day, as the gits were occupied with their own affairs and thus not opening their snarky mouths to him. The few times he'd spotted them during the day they were huddled together whispering over some bit of parchment, and not even glancing in his direction. Normally he would've wished to discover what they were up to in hopes of using it against them, but at present he was too tired to care about that. For now he'd avoid them and hope they paid him the same courtesy, though using that word in conjuncture with them was nearly laughable. In a half aware haze, he got himself dressed and with an effort managed to make it up to the Great Hall and over to the Slytherin table. If Raislen wasn't there he planned to go and wake him, but the older boy was already seated, hungrily eating a heaping plate of breakfast. "Did you have someone wake Heather," Severus asked, pausing before taking a seat at Raislen's side. He always preferred sitting with Raislen and the other third years to the first years to whom he still had little to say.
"Yep," Raislen said around a full mouth. "I asked one of the Slytherin girls to go wake her even before I started eating," he added proudly. Severus nodded, then took a seat. Reaching for a cup of pumpkin juice, he downed half of it in hopes that it would rejuvenate his energy. "I want to ask Prof Slughorn for more energy potions, but I'm afraid he'll disapprove of us using too many," Raislen lamented.
"You mean you're afraid he shall disapprove of our lack of sleep," Heather said as she settled into the empty chair on the other side of Raislen. "Thanks for waking me, by the way."
"Yeah, that's it, and you're welcome," Raislen said, neatly covering both of Heather's statements in one sentence.
Severus hadn't even noticed Heather approaching, he was that tired. "How did it go with the spell you three were using my classroom for?" Professor Flitwick stood beside Heather's chair, giving them all a cheerful smile. The small man's eyes were bright and interested, quite as if he'd had his eight hours of sleep, Severus noted enviously.
"Yes sir," Raislen answered, giving the charms professor an enthusiastic smile in return before lifting his hand to cover a yawn. "We can now conjure books from a long distance without shredding them!""""
A wide smile broke over Flitwick's face. "How grand! If you'd like to demonstrate this to professor Slughorn and myself at lunch, I can bet there would be house points in it for you." He sighed. "I feel the hat erred by not sorting the three of you into Ravenclaw house," he lamented. "I always did."
Severus felt himself puffing up with pride. Of course he, Raislen and Heather were proud of their late into the night conjuring accomplishment, but to hear such words from the head of Ravenclaw house and one of his favorite professors gave him the much needed shot of adrenaline that woke him up a bit. "We'd love to! Thank you, Professor. We'll find you at lunch as soon as we've eaten a bit if that's alright?""
Flitwick nodded. "Of course. That gives myself and professor Slughorn a bit of time to eat as well. I love to see students using their after class time wisely, and I hope to see more of the same from you three."
"Of course, Professor," Raislen promised. "That's already our plan."
Flitwick smiled again. "Brilliant. Until lunch then." He gave a wave as he headed back to the staff table. As the little man clambered onto the stack of cushions in his chair that he used to make himself tall enough to reach the table, he was already speaking animatedly to Professor Slughorn. He was surely telling the other man how brilliant the three of them were, Severus imagined. The acknowledgement from established adults was thrilling if a bit unexpected. Though he planned for this first spell of theirs to be their first step on the path to magical greatness, Severus hadn't expected anyone else to care yet. The excitement over this gave him enough energy to fuel him through classes until lunch. As soon as history of magic ended, he was first through the door, hurrying toward the Great Hall to meet Heather and Raislen. Perhaps what happened next was a result of the fact he hadn't slept much at all in the past two days. Perhaps it was because he was so intent on hurrying to the Great Hall quickly. More than likely, though, it was a combination of both. Either way, he completely missed the foot shooting out to trip him. Before he had time to catch himself, he was spilling onto the floor, the stack of books in his arms pelting down around him. The snickers above him were all too familiar. He didn't have to look up to place the voices of three out of the four Gryffindor Gang of Gits. Either Lupin wasn't present or he wasn't amused. Gritting his teeth, Severus decided that he would not give them the pleasure of even glancing up at them. Nor would he waste time getting into a scrap with them. Not when he had better things to do. He was about to demonstrate the long distance conjuring charm with Heather and Raislen to Professors Flitwick and Slughorn. Severus was not about to allow the Gryffindor Gang of Gits to make him do it on an empty stomach which was what would happen if he spent the time he had to eat dueling with them instead. He would settle the score with them later, he vowed silently as he scrambled to his feet with as much dignity as he could. Knowing that if he looked up into their stupidly smirking faces, he may slip and lose his temper, he steadfastly kept his gaze on his scattered books. Reaching out to snatch them up as quickly as he could, he kept his jaw set, struggling for dignity through the rage and embarrassment in which he was awash. He was reaching for his charms text, the one that had slid the furthest when it slipped from his arms, when a foot kicked it out of his reach. With a growl of frustration he rose and stomped down hard on said foot. The howl of pain from Sirius Black made him smile. The smile faded when James Potter swooped in to snatch up the charms text before Severus could retrieve it.
"Oh look what I found," he said, his voice full of feigned pleased surprise. "What do you think I should do with it, Sirius?"
"I think you should put it away for safe keeping," Sirius said. "Snivellus didn't want it, after all. He just threw it in the floor, didn't he?"
"I think he did," James agreed cheerfully.
"Give it back or I'll make the lot of you sorry," Severus snapped angrily. At last he lifted his head to glare dark daggers at the lot of them. Peter, James and Sirius all pretended to be frightened, mock shrinking back as they snickered. As it happened, Lupin wasn't present after all. Severus was considering which series of hexes would get him his book back the fastest so that he could make it to the Great Hall in time to meet with the professors if not to have any lunch when the sound of a throat clearing behind him caused the Gryffindor Gits to freeze in place. Severus turned to see the Headmaster of Hogwarts standing there, giving the group a pleasant smile. "What appears to be the hold up," he asked. His tone was kind and somehow managed to sooth Severus's rage. "I for one am starved. We should all be having lunch right about now."
"Severus wasn't paying attention and fell down, sir," James said, giving the Headmaster what most people would call a charming smile. It was the sort of expression that Tobias Snape used to call a shit eating grin. This made Severus think how much he'd love to make the entire lot of the Gryffindor gits eat an entire troth of horse dung.
"Yes Sir," Sirius chimed in. "We just stopped to help Severus pick up his books because he dropped every single one of them when he fell down."
Severus glared indignantly."I fell because you stuck your foot out, you lying Git! And you tried to steal my charms book!"
Professor Dumbledore frowned at the group in frank disappointment. "Is this what happened," he asked. James, Sirius and Peter all shook their heads.
"No Sir," James said gravely. "Perhaps this is Severus's interpretation of what happened, but Sirius's poor feet are just big. Sometimes, Sir, they just get in the way."
Severus nearly strangled on his rage. "You lying little..."
"Well as you have so kindly picked up Severus's charms book, why don't you return it to him," Dumbledore prompted James.
James nodded, then presented Severus's charms text to him with a slight mocking bow. Glaring his hatred, Severus extended a hand to snatch the book, adding it to the stack in his other arm.
"Get on to lunch now," Albus said, waving James, Sirius and Peter in the direction of the Great Hall. He dropped a hand on Severus's shoulder as he spoke, so Severus remained still. "Have you plans for directly after classes have ended for the day," he asked.
Severus felt his eyes widening in surprise at the question. "Um...Probably something with Heather Knight and Raislen WestCraven, Sir. We just came up with a long distance book conjuring charm that prevents any damage to the book. We may begin work on something else today if we aren't too tired."
"Tired," Dumbledore asked, curiosity in his tone as well as in his twinkling blue eyes.
"Yes sir. We didn't get a great deal of sleep last night due to being up late working on the conjuration charm. The night before wasn't much better." Speaking of the lack of sleep somehow made Severus sleepier and he yawned. "Excuse me, Sir."
"Ah. I see." Dumbledore nodded pleasantly. "Well do you think you could spare a few minutes before you join Mr. WestCraven and Miss Knight to have tea with me in my office?"
Severus felt his eyes widen again. That was important. Dumbledore inviting him to tea was important! Dumbledore may be a simple Headmaster, but he was also a genius, and he'd just asked Severus Snape to have tea with him. "Oh yes sir! I will be there as soon as my final class is over
"Wonderful! I'll see you then." Albus Dumbledore dropped his hand from Severus's shoulder and headed off toward the great hall, whistling cheerfully to himself all the while. Ha! The Headmaster hadn't asked the Gryffindor Gang of Gits to tea, Severus thought as he slowly followed. With any luck, he'd have time to at least grab a few bites before he, Heather and Raislen met with professors Flitwick and Slughorn to demonstrate their book conjuring charm.
"Where were you," Heather demanded as soon as Severus sank down into the seat Raislen had saved for him at the Slytherin table.
"I got held up by the Gryffindor Gang of Gits, but then the headmaster asked me to tea directly after classes are over for the day," Severus replied as he snatched up a piece of roast chicken.
"Why," Raislen asked.
"Not sure," Severus replied around a mouthful of delicious, savory chicken. He wasn't one to speak with his mouth full, but if they were going to continue to ask him questions, he was in no position to choose between politeness to friends and hunger.