Mist and Vapors

Come Saturday, Severus made his way over to the Quidditch pitch with time to spare. He sat down in the stands, selecting a seat with plenty of empty space around it. A few moments later, Filius Flitwick appeared, and to Severus' great annoyance made a beeline straight for where he was sitting.

"Ah, Severus. Mind if I sit with you?" he asked with a beaming smile.

"Not at all," Snape said in a tone that implied the exact opposite. Flitwick, oblivious, hopped up into the seat on his right.

"So, how is the new Seeker working out? I've watched some of the workouts; she's quite impressive."

While he was talking, Severus had taken off his cloak and indifferently placed it on the empty seat on his other side.

"I suppose we will find out today," the Slytherin answered stiffly.

"It should be an exciting season, don't you think? I think Stewart Ackerley will do Ravenclaw proud. Who knows, we might actually have a shot at the Cup this year."

Severus snorted. Not if he had anything to do with it. He made a mental note to add to the extra practice times he had scheduled for the Slytherin team already. Agila Slighcarp, the new Seeker, really was quite gifted. There was definite room for improvement, though.

"Um," Flitwick interrupted his thoughts, "is Hannah coming? I saw you talking to her yesterday..." His ears were turning slightly pink.

Severus looked down his nose at him. He was just about to brush off the inquisitive little wizard's question, when suddenly the thought occurred to him that while Hannah now knew the most pertinent events of his life over the last twenty years, thanks to McGonagall's wagging tongue, he still knew virtually nothing about her. Flitwick, on the other hand, did. Here, finally, was a chance to remedy the situation and even the stakes.

"If I recall correctly, she was planning on attending the match... You knew her before she began teaching here, I believe?" he said, looking out over the Quidditch pitch, where the Slytherin team was now warming up.

Flitwick peered up at him quizzically. "Well, yes, I've known Hannah since she was a little girl."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. Did I ever tell you that I used to work for the Aurors' Office before coming to Hogwarts? I didn't? Oh well... Anyways - Frank and Lydia both were students of mine then. I taught dueling skills, you know." He looked down modestly.

"Frank Hannigan?" He raised his eyebrows

"Well, yes. Hannah's parents. They got married as soon as they finished Auror's training, you see. We became friends."

"You are friends with Frank Hannigan." Both Severus' voice and face expressed his utter disbelief.

"I was, Severus. Was. Oh, don't look at me like that." He looked up at Severus in exasperation. "It's not like Frank was always the way he is now. He used to not be too bad. Never very easy to get along with, mind you."

Severus grimaced. That might be the understatement of the year.

"...Lyddie knew how to handle him, though." Flitwick continued, chuckling at the memory. "It was fun to watch, really. I've never seen a wizard more besotted with a witch than Frank was with Lyddie. He would start to build up a fine head of steam or get into one of his tempers, and with a touch or a word, she could neatly sidetrack him, just like that. Well, most of the time, anyways. She really was quite a lovely person, Severus."

"What happened?"

"She died." Flitwick looked down to where his hands were folded on his lap. "When Hannah was thirteen. Something happened to Frank after she died. Like she had been the one thing that kept his worst instincts in check."

Severus looked off without comment to where the teams were now leaving the field after finishing their warm-ups. The stands were beginning to fill with excited students decked out in their house colors.

"It was such a waste - just some no-account Dark wizards trying to get noticed." Flitwick's voice quivered as he spoke. "Thought they could finagle their way into Voldemort's good graces with a bit of Muggle torture. They had gotten hold of this whole family - husband, wife, two young children. They had already killed the father when Lyddie surprised them. It was the saddest, most senseless thing, really." A tear dripped off the end of his rather pointed nose. "She decided she couldn't wait for re-enforcements to arrive. By the time the rest of us got there, both Lyddie and the Muggles were dead."

"Must have been a Gryffindor," Severus murmured bitterly.

Flitwick sat up straight, and glared at him with indignation. "A Ravenclaw, actually, if you must know. She just couldn't sit by and watch those Muggles get murdered." He looked the Potions master up and down. Mainly up. "And if you think that makes her stupid or reckless, I am sorry." He moved a quarter of an inch away and pointedly turned his head in the opposite direction.

Severus looked at him uncomfortably. "I, er..."

"Hannah's practically family. I will not have you insult her mother." He was still rigidly staring off to the right.

"I didn't mean to imply..."

Flitwick turned around, and angrily poked a finger in Severus' direction. "Of course you did. And really, a simple 'I'm sorry' won't kill you."

At that moment they saw Hannah, dressed in a dark-blue teaching robe and a scarf in Slytherin colors, walk in with Remus Lupin and a couple of Gryffindors. The werewolf was out of the hospital wing and walking again, even though his gait was still stiff and lumbering. As the Potions master looked on, he saw them exchange a few words, and then Hannah waved goodbye to Lupin and turned towards the stands while he walked off with the Gryffindors.

Shading her eyes against the bright sky, she began scanning the seats.

Severus' heart gave that unwelcome twinge again. She was looking for him. For a moment, there was an unaccustomed tightness in his chest. Right then, she finally spotted him, and her eyes lit up with recognition. After hesitating a moment, he picked up his cloak from the seat next to him, and put it across his lap.

When Hannah reached the bench, she was faced with two rather self-conscious wizards presenting carefully schooled expressions. Without further ado, she sat down next to Severus, just as Madam Hooch and the teams entered the pitch. "Oh good, I haven't missed anything!" she exclaimed.

Severus looked her over as she sat down.

"Slytherin colors, hm?" he asked her with arched eyebrows.

"Weeellll..." She looked slightly uncomfortable. "Um - since I teach all the houses, it wouldn't be exactly fair, would it? Here, watch this..." She picked up the end of her scarf. "Go Gryffindor." Immediately, the scarf changed color - it was now red with yellow stripes. "Go Ravenclaw." It changed to blue and bronze. She looked at Flitwick with a bit of a blush. He winked at her.

"I figured I will change it to red when Gryffindor is behind, and green when Slytherin's trailing."

"You better just change it to red then," he said coldly.

She cocked her eyebrows at him and grinned. "Just a bit confident, are you?"

"With reason. Slytherin is fielding an excellent team this year."

"Miss Slighcarp is the Seeker, isn't she? Nice girl."

"And how do you know Miss Slighcarp?"

"She wrote an article she wanted to submit to YW Magazine, and asked me to proof-read it for her. I was quite impressed. You can be proud of her."

His glacial features softened marginally. It was a rare occasion when another teacher actually praised one of his students.

The game was on. Slytherin almost immediately went into the lead. With an apologetic glance at Severus, Hannah switched her scarf color to red.

"So, did you play, Severus?"

It was Flitwick who answered. "Yes, he did. He played Chaser for Slytherin his last two years."

Hannah leaned back so she could catch Flitwick's eye behind Severus' back. "Was he any good?"

"Oh, I dare say he did just fine." His blue eyes twinkled.

"Did Slytherin win those years?"

"Well, let's just say they beat Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw." He winked at her again.

Severus cast an annoyed look in Flitwick's direction, and cleared his throat. "That will quite do."

"It's nice to see things return to normal again," Flitwick said with satisfaction, sitting up again. "There was no Quidditch the last two years," he said to Hannah, by way of explanation. "With the war going on, the Ministry didn't deem it safe to have that many people assembled in one place. A very reasonable precaution of course, but a dire disappointment for the students. It has..."

He was interrupted when Hannah jumped to her feet. "Whoa!" She looked on intently, her hands clenching the fabric of her robe, as the Slytherin Seeker went into a steep dive after a barely visible, shimmering dot. Ginny Weasley, the Seeker for Gryffindor, was hard at her heels.

"Dang!" The girls had to draw up sharply before a wall, and the flitting golden shadow disappeared from view. "She almost had it!" She looked at him wide-eyed as she sat down. "Did you see that? That was close!"

Severus looked at her in amusement. "Indeed it was."

To his chagrin, she did have to switch her scarf back to green for quite a while, but Slytherin pulled out a victory after about forty-five minutes of play when Agila Slighcarp managed to capture the Snitch in a dramatic dive that had the entire audience gasping in unison. The final score of 210 to 140 was enough to put a satisfied smile on the Potions master's face.

"Well, Severus, I think you better avoid Minerva for a couple of days," Flitwick quipped as they stood up to file out of the stadium. "She isn't going to be thrilled." He turned to Hannah. "The Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch rivalry is quite tradition. When Severus took over as Head of House in '85 after Professor Abernethy retired, Slytherin went on a quite unprecedented six year winning spree. Both the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup, mind you. Minerva has never quite gotten over that." He chuckled.

"That was before the Boy Wonder arrived," Severus muttered under his breath.

Flitwick had heard him, though. "Even so, no one has managed to break your record so far, have they now?" He grinned. "Well, a new year, a new season, and so far, it's going well. Nice clean game today, wasn't it? Though I must say I am sorry for Miss Weasley - her last year, and they lose the first game. Not exactly a confidence builder."

From the smirk that graced the corners of the Potions master's mouth it was obvious he didn't share the sentiment. He only bowed his head to Flitwick and Hannah. "I'm afraid you will have to excuse me - I would like to congratulate my team before everyone heads up for lunch." A large, loudly cheering group of Slytherins, carrying Agila Slighcarp on their shoulders, was just now emerging from the field.

"Well, congratulations, Severus," Hannah said with a warm smile. "And tell Miss Slighcarp that I very much enjoyed seeing her fly." He nodded and left. They watched as he walked off and joined the group - soon only his dark head was visible above a sea of green and silver as the Slytherins moved in the direction of their common room to celebrate.

Flitwick looked after them with a sigh.

"What?" asked Hannah. "You don't seem pleased."

"It's just that Ginny -- Miss Weasley -- lost her two oldest brothers in the war...I guess I would just have liked to see something go her way. Be that as it may, I guess the best team won, and that is that. - Come, let's go get some lunch."

Hannah looked at him quietly - from reading Miss Slighcarp's article, she knew that her family had not been left untouched by the war, either. She hadn't asked which side the girl's father had fought on - it hadn't, at this point, seemed to matter.

As they walked off, she turned around one more time to look at Severus and his Slytherins. He never had answered the question she had asked him in the staff room - but she had seen him pick up his cloak and make room for her next to him. She smiled softly to herself. It was actually a better answer than she had expected.