The Snake and the Eagle

Chapter 4 - The Starting of Patrolling

That morning breakfast was a very silent one, since none of the witnesses of the 'staff room affair' dared make any comment or say a word to the stoic figures coldly sitting side by side. One could have thought Professor Falconbridge would have swapped her 'assigned' seat with anybody else's, but she was too proud to give Professor Snape the satisfaction of such a sign of weakness, so she preferred to show her superiority by simply ignoring his very presence. That afternoon classes ended early and students and teachers took advantage of the good weather to enjoy a stroll before dinner. Professor Falconbridge was walking alone in the deserted cloister, thinking about the events of the previous night.

"There should be something wrong with that man," she thought while walking with her arms folded on her chest, "First, Alastor warns me to stay away from him but refuses to give me any explanation. Then Professor Flitwick, a man so kind that it seems could have no enemy in the world, he shows signs of uneasiness simply mentioning him in the corridors. And let's not forget his unjustified outburst in the staff room!" she recalled the little bits of information she had on Professor Snape, feeling a certain disconfort in doing so.

"Well, at least I'm not going to meet him before dinner!" she lowly whispered to herself and that thought relaxed her a little. No sooner those words escaped her mind, she felt a pang in her stomach at the sound of a cold, deep, male voice coming from behind her back.

"Professor Falconbridge?" Snape called swiftly approaching her, his robes streaming behind him like a flag. She froze on the spot.

"Oh, no. Not again!" she thought in frustration, biting her lower lip. No matter what he was going to say or do she was not going to let him intimidate her, she was an Auror after all.

"Yes, Professor Snape?" she said slowly turning herself to face him, trying to keep her voice steady. After the previous night, she did not expect anything good coming from that man. In the case of that particular man, a feeling like that was more than justified. She had seen him in one of his scariest performances after all!

"May I have a word with you?" he asked with a certain restrain and evident annoyance. He had really enjoyed that morning mutual indifference, but Dumbledore had later summoned him in his office. The Headmaster had lectured him for being so rude with her.

"She's new here. Couldn't you wait that she settled down a little before giving her your usual kind welcome? And it's not a DADA teacher this time!" Dumbledore had told him reproachfully, exasperated by his tactless Potion Master's behaviour. After that he had extorted from him the promise to apologize to her before that night staff meeting. She was really surprised by his sudden desire of talking with her after he had ignored her all morning. But she had her guards up and was not afraid to face him again, moreover he now looked calmer.

"Of course Professor. Would you mind if we keep walking?" she politely proposed in a calm, casual voice. Maybe walking would have helped losening the tension between them. He curtly nodded and they continued pacing around the square cloister together, both staring straight before them or to the floor to avoid the other's stare.

"I hope I haven't scared you with my outburst of yesterday evening?" he sneered.

"Scared, me? Oh, not at all sir. I need much more than a man's basilisk stare to be scared!" she triumphantly said.

"I see ... for your information, I just wasn't in a good mood when the news reached me," Snape lazily justified himself, surprised but also intrigued by her defiant attitude.

"How strange! I'd thought you were such a sunny person!" She teased him. She knew she was sailing on dangerous waters, but she could not resist the tempation to see how he was going to react to irony. He gave her a suspicious sideways look, taken aback by her shameless attempt at a joke.

"I rely on the fact that there won't be other unpleasant events of these kind concerning you and my House," he coldly whispered.

"And I rely on the fact that your students would behave properly, and show more respect towards their Muggle-born mates," was her pointed remark.

"Well, I believe that a mildly offensive word isn't worth a loss of fifty house points. Is it Professor Falconbridge?" he said giving her a cold and calculating stare.

"Mildly offensive you say? Then I should question my ability of judgement. By the look on Miss Granger's face, I was under the impression she didn't feel much - how can I say it? - fulfiled by Mr Malfoy's careful observation on her family's heritage," she icily hissed.

"Draco Malfoy comes from a pureblood aristocratic family, words like that are learnt as quickly as 'Mother' and 'Father'. You'd better get used to it," he coldly snarled.

"And I presume that's reason enough to justify such an open show of disrespect!" she protested.

"Don't say things I never said. I'm just suggesting that you may have - ah - over-reacted to the whole situation?" he said with as much kindness as he could master. She understood the effort he was doing to restain himself and she was pleased to see he could be reasonable when he wanted.

"Well, maybe fifty points were really too much. But I assure you that my only intention was to teach our Mr Malfoy a lesson. I probably lost control on my emotions. You know, it's a thing that often happens to us teachers too," she smirked allusively.

"Last time someone's wanted to teach Malfoy a lesson he had been turned into a white ferret. So, let's say we both over-reacted to the whole matter," he admitted, and his eyes glinted amused at the memory of Moody's punishment on poor Draco two years before.

"You wouldn't be, by any chance, apologizing to me, Professor, would you?" she teased him.

"Certainly not!" he coldly snapped back.

"Oh, well. Let's forget about it," she said smiling. She had read his apology between the lines but she was under the impression that, like any Slythering of respect, he was too proud to openly admit it. "I beg your pardon, but I have to go to my office before going to the Great Hall for dinner. See you later then!" she excused herself before marching back inside the castle.

Snape stood there, silently watching her leave. She had been quite a revelation for him. After the way he had treated her, he would have bet one hundred Galleons that she would have made up any excuse to run away from him. She had given a great proof of self-control the previous night when she had calmy faced him without screaming or running away for cover. "A peculiar combination that Falconbridge. Beauty and cleverness with the addition of self-composure ... really rare indeed," he thought and a smile escaped his lips as he stared at her elegant figure with rising interest. Then he turned on his heels and marched in the opposite way.

Meanwhile, Madam Hooch had witnessed their conversation from her office window which happened to be exactly above the cloister. She was simply flubbergasted! She could not say whether it was more astonishing to see Snape apologizing or Snape smiling! But Hooch was really too nosy to let herself slip such a ludicrous chance of gossip. Therefore, she run straight away to tell the whole faculty what she had just seen, a rumor which later reached Alexandra too.

***

That little chat in the cloister healed the contrast between Professors Snape and Falconbridge. When they both took seat at the High Table for dinner, it was evident that the previous tension between them was finally over. They still limited their conversation at the rudiments of politeness at the table and the few occasional 'Could you pass me the saltcellar, please?' or 'Have you finished with that plate?'

That night, the faculty met to discuss about night patrollings. They were all sat around a long rectangular black table in the middle of the room. Dumbledore explained, mainly for Professor Falconbridge's sake, that all teachers were to be divided in groups of four. A couple was to patrol the interior of the castle from the owlery to the dungeons while the other was to control the grounds from the entrance gates to the lake and the Quidditch stadium.

"I think I must slightly modify our usual turns schedule," said Dumbledore to the gathered staff, "Severus, you are used do yours alone. But I think it would be better if you do it in someone else's company," he said looking at the Potion Master.

"And who would have the - ah - pleasure to be my partner?" Snape sarcastically inquired. He well knew that no one would be willing to spend those two hours with him. Kind Professor Flitwick had once volunteered, and it had been very funny to see the tiny old man almost running behind him to follow his long stride. McGonagall cared enough for him to give it a go, but then she realized she was really too old to match his marching speed. Dumbledore's decision interrupted the tension running inside the room. After a few seconds of pondering, he spoke.

"Your partner will be Professor Falconbridge. She's new and need a man of your experience to teach her the job. As you two share the same energic stride, that will solve your two previous partners' problem," he concluded, his eyes blinking with amusement. It was a very weak excuse, but it had been the best thing he had found to match them without revealing his true intentions.

"Do you both agree?" he asked staring hopefully at the said teachers.

"If you find it a good matching, I have nothing to object," Snape diplomatically said.

"I am at your will, Albus" Alexandra kindly agreed. Dumbledore had been greatly relieved at the news of the restored peace between the two, they made part of his own secret, special plan.

***

Tuesday night was going to be the first Snape/Falconbridge's patrolling. They had to meet at ten o'clock in the Entrance Hall. She was descending the last few steps of the great staircase when he emerged from the dungeons.

"Good evening," Snape politely greeted her. She felt a pang in her stomach when she heard the sound of his smooth silky voice. It was a strange pang, different from the one she had felt in the cloister. She really could not explain why his voice had provoked such a reaction in her. Maybe it was the fact of being alone with him in the dark deserted hall.

"Good evening, Professor Snape," she readily said as soon as she saw him.

"Let's use first names from now on, and call me Severus," he quickly said. He did not like to be in fist-name terms with people, actually very few were allowed to do so, but a whole year of patrolling together made it necessary. Dumbledore himself have been so kind to suggest him to do so to put her more at ease.

"We'll go straight to the owlery through a secret passage behind this suit of armour. I inform you that I am not the chatting kind," he warned her with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

"So am I. Silence and solitude are no strangers to me, I am only child and an orphan," she sadly whispered the last words.

"I'm sorry," he casually muttered. If only he could have known the puculiar circustances in which she lost her parents, he would have felt sincerely sorry for her, as Death Eaters were a painful mark in his past and present life too.

That night patrolling was uneventful, they caught no students out at night. They parted once back in the Entrance Hall. They had spent most of the time without talking at all, but he had showed her lots of interesting parts of the castle she did not knew. The patrolling experiment was successful, they still did not talk much, but at least they seemed to tollerate each other's company. She started soon to get used to the company of that sphinx-like black cloaked man. He was not that hard to handle, as long as you followed his rules. His imposing figure felt quite reassuring to be near in the deep darkness of the empty corridors. She was not willing to admit it to anyone, but she was still deadly scared of the dark, expecially if she had to face it alone.