Chapter 61, And I Hate Everything About You
When Severus returned home later that day, he had two matters of interest to report to his Mum. After informing her with an amused smirk on his face that Raislen and Heather had slept several rooms apart, he excitedly shared how well his hangover potion had worked. "Mrs. WestCraven thinks I could bring in a great deal of money making and selling it. I have so much to do, though, that I think I shall just show you how to mix it up, and you can do it." Eileen nodded, but her dark eyes were shadowed with silent concern as she regarded Severus.
"I wish you would just let this vendetta against that monster go and lay low with me until someone else at last brings him to justice, Son. You are all I've got. If anything happens to you, I can't imagine what I would do, but I know that I could not stand it, Severus!"
Severus felt his heart twist. "Mum," he struggled to reassure her. "I promise, I will keep safe no matter what. I am not stupid. You know that. I do not intend to let him take any more from us than he already has. I do not consider death an honor or a victory." The only ones who can bring him down, though, are those like me who for their own very personal reasons truly need to see him stopped."
Eileen gave a slight nod. "I know that you are right, but I don't have to like it."
The rest of the holiday break passed far too quickly. Severus spent most of it questing through dragon caves with his Mum. The game never got old, because each dice roll created a potential new outcome, so one never ended up in the same situation twice.
All too soon, though, Severus was back on the train to Hogwarts with his friends. Interestingly he didn't catch even a glimpse of the Gryffindor Gang Of Gits before boarding the Hogwarts Express. He certainly wasn't complaining. The less seen of them, the better.
"It has been so peaceful without Sirius around," Regulus enthused, flopping down into his seat after shoving his trunk under it.
"That must be nice," Heather said.
"It is magical. It is pure magic! Finally I get to experience what a normal home should feel like," Regulus said, spreading his arms expansively, nearly hitting Severus in the face with his right hand.
"Watch it," Severus snarled. If Regulus noticed, it did not dampen his mood in the least. He just kept right on talking. "Things are just comfortable and happy and normal. Well except for Mum sometimes. I mean I think she enjoys the peace, but she is upset that everyone will know that she failed, as she puts it. I agree with Bella, though. Sirius was just born bad. There was clearly always something wrong with him. Bella told Mum as much in an attempt to make her feel better and Kreacher agreed, but it didn't seem to help much. All the rest of us are completely over the moon, though. Mum will get there soon, I am sure. All the peace is too blissful for her not to."
"How does your father feel," Severus wondered.
"Good, I think," Regulus said. "He agreed with Kreacher and Bella, and otherwise hasn't said much. Father is generally more quiet unless he really has a strong opinion, but he does not seem at all unhappy."
"It does sound grand," Severus said, envious. If Grandfather Prince were gone, Prince Manor would feel peaceful as well.
"I wish the snack cart would hurry up and come around," Raislen complained. "I'm already hungry again, nearly as if I did not even eat breakfast." He sighed. "I can't believe this is our last ride to Hogwarts on the train." A tinge of sadness was in his voice as he peered around at everyone.
"Don't talk about it, or I shall be sad," Heather said. Severus felt the knot in his belly that had taken hold at Raislen's words loosening up at her words. She'd said what he had wanted to, after all. "I am eager to move ahead with life, but there are things about being here, with limited responsibility, that I shall miss so much," she continued.
Raislen nodded. "I'm so ready to be done with this place," Regulus said. "You can't know how I envy the two of you. I'd give anything to be traveling with you all and Kreacher instead of taking boring classes at stupid Hogwarts!"
"You will find an education useful, though," Heather pointed out, and Regulus made a derisive sound.
"I could get a real education at Durmstrang. I won't ever learn anything here that I couldn't teach myself either in my own library or yours, Raislen."
"Classes shall get harder in a few years," Heather told him. "You'll see."
Regulus gave her a doubtful look."I've been helping Severus study for his owls, remember? I haven't been impressed yet."
The snack cart arrived then and conversation turned to food. Severus supposed that was a good thing, because in the end, it did not matter if Heather or Regulus ended up being right. Regulus was stuck at Hogwarts, and that was that.
Being set free by his family seemed to have made Sirius even more vicious. He appeared to actually look for opportunities to needle Regulus and Severus over the next few weeks, literally going out of his way to do so. He jinxed Regulus regularly in the halls, either on the way to lunch or after classes, causing the younger boy to always be alert and ready with a counter. Severus assumed that Sirius was angry with Regulus in particular because he would now be the one inheriting everything, while Sirius would actually have to work for a living after he graduated. "I don't feel a bit sorry for him," Regulus ranted when Severus pointed out as much one day at lunch. "He brought it entirely on himself."
This was true, but it did not keep Sirius from being a royal git. When he finally unleashed on Severus, it happened in Transfigurations class of all places. Severus hurried into class with everyone else and took his seat. Then he promptly slid onto the floor, landing on his back. Sirius and James began snickering, then the entire class followed suit until the room was full of laughter at Severus's expense. Feeling his face flaming, he scrambled hastily to his feet, baffled and mortified. How had he fallen? He sat down again, and slid right onto the floor just as he had the first time.
"Mr. Snape," Professor McGonagall snapped. "If you are quite finished performing for the class, I would like to begin."
"I... I wasn't," he said, rage now melding with the embarrassment in his heart. He pressed a palm onto the floor to help himself to rise, and felt it slide. There was grease of some sort on the floor and now on his hand. Still sitting on the floor, Severus turned to touch the seat of his chair with the palm of his other hand. The chair was full of grease! He turned to glare hatred at Sirius and James. "SOMEONE put grease on my chair!" He snapped angrily, turning to Professor McGonagall.
"Perhaps it dripped off of your greasy hair," James chortled.
"It did," Sirius insisted. "I saw it dripping when you sat down!"
Severus felt his face growing even hotter if such were possible. He could not help his oily hair. He shampooed in the bath every night, and even so, by lunch the next day it was looking lank again. His mum had tried so many shampoos too, and though some worked better than others, none worked particularly well.
Though she told him repeatedly that he could not help having a scalp that produced too much sebum, this did nothing for his embarrassment on the matter. Of course this did not mean that his hair was greasy enough to drip onto a chair or anything else, and in that moment, he truly wished he could kill James Potter and Sirius Black. He hated them so very much. Rather than giving the gits detention or even acknowledging that they had done this to him, Professor McGonagall simply stalked over to Severus's chair and performed a Scouring charm. "There you are, Mr. Snape. Your chair is safe again. If anyone did this, I did not see them, but rest assured, I shall be keeping an eye on my chairs in future."
Her tone was stern and full of warning, but she did not even glance in James or Sirius's direction, so Severus decided that he hated her too. He hated James and Sirius more, but he had room for her. Rising to his feet, he sat without a word. He would make them sorry, he vowed silently. So very sorry. The fact that he had no direct plan for how to make this happen as soon as he needed it to, enraged him to a level that was nearly painful.
This made Severus even more determined to discover Lupin's secret, and he was tempted more than once to press Dumbledore for those lessons to begin this year. Instead he ignored the small inner urge to prepare for his Transfiguration O.W.L in favor of poring over the books Raislen had lent him on Legilimency. Though the understanding of that subject was, in its way even more vexingly illusive than that of Transfiguration, he saw far more immediate use in learning Legilimency if it gave him something to use against Sirius and his Git friends!
As nothing came easy, this was no exception however. When he asked permission to practice on Heather, Raislen and Regulus, all freely permitted him access to their minds for the Greater Good, as Regulus laughingly put it. Though he tried and tried, Severus only got a headache for his pains each time he attempted to delve into any of their minds."This is stupid!" He nearly shouted the words as he tossed his wand down into his own lap after a final attempt on Regulus. "I have a dreadful headache behind my eyes now!"
"And I was thinking some thoughts really hard for you," Regulus said, looking disappointed. "I was practically shout thinking in case that helped. Perhaps I have a headache now too."
"Perhaps?" Heather chuckled, lowering her History of Magic text book to peer over at Regulus. "Don't you think you would know for sure if you had a headache?"
"Well it's the feeling that a headache may be about to start up, you know? My head just feels odd." Regulus shrugged.
"It must be all that shout thinking you were doing," Severus said dryly.
"Or you were doing something after all, Kid," Raislen interjected. "Perhaps you were at least brushing the surface of his mind. Just not properly else his head would not be feeling odd,and you would not have a headache yourself."
Severus sighed. "Well if I am not able to do it properly, what's the point?"
"You could at least give the prats a headache if you can't read their minds," Regulus said brightly.
Severus swore! "I don't want to give them a headache if I can't learn to do it without having one myself!" He rubbed at his eyes. "I'm going to Pomfrey for a headache potion," he said, rising sullenly to his feet. "Want me to bring you one back just in case," he asked Regulus.
Regulus shook his head. "I'm fine now. It's sorted itself out."
"Well blast," Severus said. "Whatever I am doing wrong is literally only hurting me." He stalked grumpily from the room, fuming with raw frustration.
"It could be worse!" Heather called after him. "You could always be studying for Transfiguration exams instead!"" At that, Severus couldn't help but snicker. This was true. Though at this point, he couldn't decide which was worse.