Hidden Talents

Severus glanced at the three men before him. Regulus's stoicism was always hard to read, but not hard enough to stop Severus from knowing his tells. Remus was equally difficult for different reasons; he always seemed to have a look of mild apprehension on his face. As for Peter... well, he was Peter.

Snarky finished dealing the cards, and Severus looked at his hand. Two 1s.

"Bad luck this round, eh?" Peter asked, grinning ear to ear as he gestured to his 7 and 9.

"But he has a pair of 1s," Regulus said with confusion.

"You're still thinking about poker," Remus explained. "This is blackjack."

"What's the difference?"

"The person who gets closest to 21 without going higher wins."

"Ah." Regulus looked down at his cards. "So, if I have an 8 and a 10, I win?"

"Not yet." Remus turned to Snarky and said, "Hit."

Snarky gave Remus another card, and the werewolf now had a 3, 4, and 10.

"Almost," Peter said. "Sevvy, you're up."

... Severus took a deep breath, imagining himself beating Peter to death, as he said, "Hit."

Snarky gave him a king.

"Hit!" Peter said quickly. His grin vanished as he was dealt a jack.

"Tough luck, Peter," Remus said. He looked down at his cards and looked back at the deck. "Hit." He let out a groan as he was dealt a 5.

"And the two Slytherins remain," Regulus said with a curt smile. "I'll keep what I have for now."

Severus's mind was racing as he looked over the cards visible. He himself had two 1s and a king. Peter had a 7, 9, and jack. Remus had a 3, 4, 5, and 10. Regulus had an 8 and 10. And Snarky's upturned card was a king. Of the 52 cards in the deck, there were thirteen out of play, fourteen including the card Snarky had yet to upturn. Severus couldn't afford to have any 10s or face cards; as there were four 10s and twelve face cards in a deck, that meant that there were currently two tens and nine face cards sitting dormant. Meanwhile, anything lower than a 10 or face card would help him, within reason; with the playing of two 1s, a 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9, that meant that of the 38 cards that could help him, there were twenty-nine or thirty left. If Snarky had anything lower than a 10, Severus would be at a disadvantage.

Severus's cards added up to twelve, and he had two possible ways to calculate his odds through Arithmancy; either he could add the digits right now or add their values and then the remaining digits. If he did the former, he would end up with 1+1+1+0=3; the latter would result in a value of twelve, which would become 1+2=3. Either way, his hand was stable, perhaps stable enough to afford a hit. Regulus's hand could either be 8+1+0=9 or 1+8=9... both of which were signs of fulfilment or completion; it didn't take Arithmancy to know that he didn't need to draw any more cards, or he would risk losing.

"Hit," Severus said. Snarky drew a card and set it before Severus. An 8, which brought his total to 20. 1, 1, 8, 10. Regardless of how he did his calculations, it would come out to 2. Duality. It would be difficult to know whether he should hit or not.

"Bit of bad luck there," Remus said to Regulus apologetically.

"Will Severus Snape hit again?" Snarky asked.

Severus shook his head.

Snarky flipped over his card to reveal an ace. "Blackjack, sir," Snarky said, shoveling the Galleons on the table over to the sack he kept beside him.

Severus flipped over the next card in the deck and let out a groan. Of course, it just had to be an ace.