Tears of the Ages

Chacun pour soi. Vive la différence. To each his own, long live the difference.

Of course this phrase sounded better when uttered using the language of love. And when one's relatives were French, one was required to learn that language before being forced to visit them. This took up the majority of Silvia's summer.

It was the month after she had found out her Aunt Maggie had been killed and her mother insisted she meet her other cousins for the first time in a long time. Except going to France for the summer was not Silvia's idea of a good time. She had fully intended to spend it with Aurelia, helping her through the transition of losing her mother. Things changed, though.

There wasn't anything necessarily wrong with her cousins, besides the fact that there were eleven of them; six males, five females and four sets of aunt and uncles. Normally Silvia could have enjoyed France like the rest of them, but her defiance against her mother's will prevented her from succeeding amusement in the regular standards. Her only hope was that her cousins hadn't been permanently classified as rampant as a result of Silvia's influence.

Stepping onto the Hogwarts Express for the seventh time in her life, she icily brushed off the stares she was acquiring on account of her hair. Her previously long, ebony hair was cut short, so that it spiked out from her skull. But that was not the extent to which she had gone. It was also heavily tinted in a deep green against the blackness it held before. France hadn't changed her, just opened an outlet that she grasped readily.

Elizabeth had been shocked into at least five minutes of silence when she had seen Silvia's hair. After that she began bouncing around her like a rabbit, chattering with the other Slytherin girl's of their year. Silvia had shrugged it off in indifference. She had really only changed as she had to annoy her mother, but she found she was quite attached to the idea.

As she stepped into her friend's compartment, she knew she could count on the stupidity of Crabbe and Goyle.

"Something about you is different," one of them said.

Meathead Number Two nodded furiously while squinting at her. "I think she got taller."

"Yeah, that's it," Number One consented.

Lucius, who was sitting in the corner next to Narcissa, rolled his eyes wearily.

"Honestly! She changed her hair, meatheads," he said, seeming to have taken to Silvia's favorite nickname for the pair. It never ceased to cause a grin.

"OH!" the dumb duo chorused at the same time triggering everyone in the compartment to collectively sigh.

"I don't know how you two managed to even pass your O.W.L.s," Silvia commented dryly.

"Bloody miracle if you ask me," Evan muttered.

It wasn't long until they reached the school and Silvia's fourth year at Hogwarts had officially begun.

- - - - -

Aurelia sat next to Lily and Emily in complete and utter silence. She had practiced this technique over the summer times aplenty while her father drank excessively and Romey took to locking himself in his room. He was bent on keeping his mind entirely focused on the loss, as were they all. Her father had, of course, gotten out of control a couple of times while drinking and Aurelia sported a black eye upon her return to Hogwarts. Romey had offered her a room in his new apartment, but she couldn't have just left her father all alone after what had happened, no matter how bruised and beaten she might become.

No one asked about her eye, which was unsurprising, but everyone was looking at her pityingly like she was a stray dog they had seen on a street corner.

The silence did not hold for long after Sirius and James arrived out of the entrance hall. Once they had been seated across from the girls, Sirius exclaimed, "Lia, where'd you get that shiner?"

"Got in a fight with the Giant Squid earlier. You didn't see?" Her usual sarcastic tone was lost to a soft, unemotional counterfeit.

"That's rotten luck," said James. "I'd have liked to see that kind of a fight you put up."

"I feel sorry for the Squid," said Sirius.

Lia smiled. She hadn't done so since last semester, before she had found out about her mother's accident. She wished everyone else could be as nonchalant about the subject as Potter and Black. They knew about her dilemma but tried to put a smile on her face anyway, which made her feel like a real person, not just some bruised ghost wondering through the day dwelling on unpleasant thoughts.

After the feast was over and Dumbledore made his announcements, the students got up from their tables to head to their common rooms, but Aurelia was taken aside by Professor McGonagall while her fellows filed out of the Great Hall.

"Miss Colton, would you like to see Madam Pomfrey about your eye?" she asked, a note of pity exceeding from her voice. Aurelia heard this and her frown deepened.

"Should I see her now?"

McGonagall replied, "I should think so. I doubt she has had any visitors yet. Yours would be a welcome sight, I'm sure."

So before Aurelia could follow her classmates up to Gryffindor Tower, she had to make a detour to the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey stood anxiously, wringing her hands.

"One already!" she said as she watched Aurelia walk through the door. "Good gracious, what happened to your eye, Miss Colton?"

"When the train stopped, I fell on the compartment door," she lied. It had taken her the better portion of the trip to come up with a good enough excuse. Somehow she thought her broomstick going crazy and whacking her in the face was not believable. But Madam Pomfrey's job was not to evaluate excuses, it was to cure ailments and that is what she did.

- - - - -

There were certainly things about the fourth year at Hogwarts that deviated the schedule. A student was one year closer to their O.W.L.s and three years closer to their N.E.W.T.s. Some of their year had already started stressing over those very exams. Some could not have cared less.

Lucius and Narcissa were busy studying while Silvia and the other fourth years had some free time, which they were spending under the shade of the beech tree near the lake.

"Gryffindors seem restless lately," Avery noted almost gleefully. He had been itching for a confrontation for a week now.

Silvia gave him a disgusted look and said, "You need a hobby."

"I have a hobby," the Slytherin protested.

"Sure you do. Say whatever you want to make yourself feel better about not having one."

Silvia was idly picking pieces of grass out of the ground and breaking them into several small sections. Free periods were usually a nice break from classes--a time to catch up on homework, sleep, gossip-- except this lazy day Silvia was absolutely bored out of her skull.

It was then that she spied a group of Gryffindors lounging under the shade of their own beech tree not twenty feet away. Silvia's eyes spotted Aurelia and she noticed the fading circle of the black eye her cousin had possessed. They had yet to meet and so she had not had the opportunity to ask her about what event had produced the bruise. It was then that a smile lit her face.

"Did anyone see the shiner Colton had? I don't really think you can get that from falling," Silvia said wickedly and loud enough for her cousin's group to hear. "Although falling on someone's fist could do that quite nicely. Isn't that right?"

Her statement was returned with snickers and nods of approval.

Evans and Perkins glared her way, but Aurelia kept her face expressionless. "My shiner's not half as bad as that psychotic hair Colton's got. Think she went mental over the summer."

Her friends giggled girlishly.

"How's Charms class this year, Aurelia? How do you manage to get such good grades in Charms? I never knew you liked them that small..." Silvia let the sentence hang in the air to let those listening interpret it how they would. She hadn't left much room for imagination, however.

"Your Potions grade has increased, hasn't it? Is that why you and Snape are such great friends?" Aurelia said casually with a smirk.

The two cousins had stood up and started walking towards each other, by the time they met in the middle, their friends had decided to follow. Silvia pushed Aurelia's shoulder so she staggered and Aurelia pushed her back.

"Want to say that to my face, git?"

"Love to--"

But before Aurelia could get the words out, she was pushed into the lake, splashing and flailing frantically because she hadn't spared herself a moment to gather her breath. Slowly, she rose to the surface and treaded until her feet reached the murky bottom. She heard laughter from both ends of the shoreline and notice the spectacle of people that had gathered at the water's edge. To her left, Silvia was standing, spitting out dirty lake water and looking livid. Apparently Lia had unknowingly pulled her cousin along with her. She splashed at her stark-faced cousin who seemed ready to start throwing knives.

They stood up ungracefully and looked at the shore where their friends were gathered. Potter decided to be a gentleman and offer the soggy Gryffindor girl a hand so he could pull her out of the water. Instead of taking advantage of this rare generosity he was offering, she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the water beside her. Before long, the entire mob of fourth year students had jumped in voluntarily and were splashing about, dunking their friends playfully. It was also not long before they realized they were in mixed company and quickly made their way to opposite ends of the shore.

Silvia wrung out her robes while staring over at her cousin. Something seemed wrong with her, something was off. She doubled over and ran her fingers through her green hair several times finding it nearly dry. She loved that about her short hair.

"Well, that was...interesting," Silvia finally bit out.

Evan raised a skeptical eyebrow, saying, "If that's what you want to call it."

Silvia made a face and turned to see one of the younger among their group.

"Silvia, was it true?" he asked.

"Was what true?"

The kid visibly fidgeted. "What Colton said, about you...and Snape..."

Silvia's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open slightly. Then she walked forward and shoved them back towards the lake. As the splash of contact rang through the grounds, Silvia waited for his head to break the surface. "Does that answer your question?"

- - - - -

It was a whole month before the girls could get together in secret and when they did, they were sure of what they were going to do. Although Aurelia knew it was a horrible thing to take a habit to, she needed to see, just once, exactly why her father acted the way he did when he drank.

Aurelia stood against the left side of the doorframe of Slughorn's office, Silvia on the right. They looked at each other with reassuring, nervous smiles as Silvia made to turn the handle after using Alohomora to unlock it. The door creaked open and they stood frozen in the doorway until Silvia pushed Aurelia into the room. It wasn't hard to find the three liquor bottles on Slughorn's desk. Two were full and one was half-empty and knocked over. The two girls stepped cautiously up to the desk and Silvia wrapped her fingers around one of the full bottles. Lia shook her head in protest but Silvia gave her a sharp nod and whispered in a barely audible voice, "He won't even miss it...trust me."

Aurelia looked over at the third bottle on its side. "By the looks of that bottle, I seriously doubt that."

"Lia," Silvia sighed exasperatedly. "You won't get anywhere in life if you play by the book all of the time."

The good-hearted Gryffindor was still eyeing the bottled liquor with apprehension. This only caused her Slytherin cousin to groan before she snatched one of the full bottles off the desk. That seemed to snap Aurelia out of her thoughts. "Maybe--maybe we should take the one that's half full."

"We can't get drunk off that," Silvia reasoned.

"Who said anything about getting drunk?" Aurelia asked, but Silvia didn't need permission or a second opinion. Lia rubbed at her forehead, already regretting her curiosity. Sighing, she whispered, "Let's go."

Silvia grinned and slung an arm around Lia's shoulders as they began to walk through the silent corridors. "I think you're going to be a friendly drunk."

"No one's friendlier than you, Via," Aurelia praised with a saccharine smile plastered on her face.

Silvia couldn't hold in her laughter as she pushed her cousin away from her softly.

"I'm taking that as a compliment."

"Whatever floats your boat," Aurelia commented while checking around the corner to make sure the corridor was empty.

- - - - -

The next morning, the girls woke up with blistering headaches and nausea unpleasantly tickling their stomachs. They had apparently slept over in the Room of Requirement, but the bottle of Sherry was dry and mysteriously a second one was lying beside it. Then Aurelia tried to think it out in her head and apparently Silvia came to the same conclusion.

"We went back and nicked another one!" she exclaimed, and immediately brought her hand up to her head as the loud gong that was Silvia's voice drummed at both of their eardrums.

"How stupid are we?" Lia whispered so she would not reawaken the painful throbbing in her head by mere sound. "We could have gotten caught by Woldrum or worse--ughhh--my brain hurts."

Silvia put a hand to her mouth while she coughed. "Merlin, I'm thirsty."

"Don't even think about stealing another--"

"No, I mean water," said Silvia, looking at the two bottles on the floor. "I really need water."

Via blinked and sitting in front of her was a glass filled to the brim with ice-chilled water. She let out of a soft gasp and reached out for it almost in the same instant.

"Didn't know it worked that fast..."

Aurelia looked from the glass of water the room had produced to the two empty bottle of Sherry. "Silvia," she whispered as she tried to wriggle the thought from her clouded brain.

"Hmph," Silvia voiced as she had her jaded head buried underneath her arms in an attempt to muffle any noise in the room.

"Well, you know how the room just brought you a glass of water?" Aurelia received another grunt in reply. "Perhaps we didn't leave the room at all. Maybe it just procured another for us."

"Procured? Procured? How can you sound so bloody smart when, when I've got one of those Muggle fire mobiles running around inside my skull?"

Wordlessly, Aurelia handed her another glass which held a slightly steaming liquid. Silvia sipped at it cautiously, eyeing her cousin. When she felt some of the headache subside and found that noises no longer made her so jumpy, she grinned. "What's this miracle and how can I get a supply?"

"Hangover Potion. I make it for dad," Aurelia mumbled.

Silvia muttered something under her breath before pouncing on Aurelia. Then with a cheeky smile she looked down at her cousin.

"Toothflossing Stringmints?"

- - - - -

Severus Snape held no person on a pedestal. He rarely spoke well of another. He had no idols, no heroes. He barely recognized anyone else's talent but his own and thought no one had as great an intellectual view on the world as he did. The Dark Arts fascinated this little grease-ball and it unnerved his fellow students how obsessed he had become in his potion's book. Even his friends, or so he called them, took an actively concerned approach to his attitude by suggesting activities other than studying.

But he was not so delved into his brains that he forgot his two rivals, come to be known as 'The Gryffindor Gits', so named by his housemates. Potter and Black had kept up their taunting and name-calling throughout the years, however this year they were becoming a bit more creative. Spells were aimed his way in empty corridors and during meals Snape could hear spells whizzing past his ears but only missing by mere inches.

He was fed up with the immature weasels' behaviors and intended, by any means necessary, to subdue their attacks. He actually turned violent a few weeks into the month of November. Gryffindors would walk by and expect to hear some pathetic remark for their insults and end up in the hospital wing with shrunken ears or a nose three times its normal size. Aurelia and her friends knew to steer clear of him after Vouldora mentioned the disgusting oily smell in the hall and was forced to stay overnight in Madam Pomfrey's care.

Potter and Black were not frightened by Snape's little outbursts and regularly addressed him with a greeting of "Hello there, Snivellus," and a Bat Boogey Hex or some other such jinx. One day, they were not so lucky to get away with it. Professor Slughorn--irritated and somehow quite knowledgeable of a small display the boys had put on just before Care of Magical Creatures lessons that morning--provided them with two weeks worth of detention. It was an unjust and unseemly punishment for so small an incident in the Gryffindors' eyes. While they complained about it in the common room that night, both Lily and Aurelia sighed loudly.

Sirius turned to see them sitting by the windowsill, attempting to study for Transfiguration.

"Have something to say, do you?" he asked hotly.

"As a matter of fact--" Aurelia began, but allowed Lily to finish for her.

"You two are positively moronic. You truly believe that two weeks worth of detentions for all the things you've done this year is unfair? How can you even say that when after you left Slughorn's office you jinxed a second year Hufflepuff so he couldn't speak the rest of the day?"

Aurelia tried, unsuccessfully, to suppress a laugh. Lily turned and the half-smile Lia wore vanished quicker than it had appeared. The display was enough to make Sirius and James grin.

"So Lia, you think we should still have those detentions?"

"You should have double that!" Aurelia scolded. "Maybe more. Both of you should be ashamed of yourselves for dangling Severus over that pen of Crups. It was quite immature."

"Spare us, Aurelia! We saw you laughing," Sirius said, crossing his arms.

"That's not the point," she answered, lips pursed tight resembling a miniature McGonagall of whom she was certainly unaware of imitating. "It's time you take responsibility for your actions. Stop pretending like your little incidents have never happened."

"Ho, hark who's talking!" James called out.

Aurelia stared at the two boys while the room around her went awkwardly silent. Everyone seemed to be baring their eyes into her and she could see by James' innocent expression that he hadn't meant what he had said. Lily touched her shoulder, but Aurelia quickly turned, grabbed her notebooks and papers off the table helter-skelter and stormed up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. Her name was sympathetically called several times but she did not come back down.

Lily glared at Potter and Black, who continued to stand where they had been. James' eyes were downcast, Sirius' narrowed.

"You really have a way with words, James," she said as she packed up her things and headed up the stairs after her friend.

Not a day later, when the two boys had done absolutely nothing wrong, they were sent to Professor Sprout's office to receive another week of detentions. This happened with several other Heads of Houses and by Friday afternoon, the two troublemakers were booked solid until the spring without having reeked any havoc to deserve it. Sirius was ready for drastic measures--or a release of his controlled fury--and he knew who to take it out on.

They owed it all to Snape anyway. But what started out as a prank to scare the living hell out of the poor kid soon became vastly more dangerous. James told himself his best friend would not be so stupid, but appointed himself overseer of the project, in case things had gotten out of hand.

He also managed to corner Snape after Potions the day before the 'accident' was planned to occur--the night of the full moon.

"Don't do anything Sirius tells you."

"I'm not planning to, thank you," Snape replied nastily and tried to side-step his adversary.

"He'll try to lure you there by telling you a secret so you can rat us out. Don't listen to him. I don't care if you find out really, I just don't want to be blamed for murder."

That word caught the Slytherin's dwindling attention. "What about murder?"

"You've been warned," James finalized and stalked off down the corridor, leaving a bitter rival behind in his wake.

- - - - -

Despite the good intentions of James Potter in this particular instance, some people are just too stubborn to be swayed.

A notorious Gryffindor might have suggested a certain grease-ball try to bypass a certain homicidal tree. Of course the notorious grease-ball seemed to ignore the blatant warning he was supposedly told the day before, in favor of seeing his foes in detention once again. Being as all the supposed persons were boys, their behavior was typical.

Snape had been walking through the corridors out towards the lake with his nose stuck in a book, presumably on the subject of Dark Arts. That was until he heard his least favorite group of people walking down the same corridor.

The Marauders had it planned down the last syllable. To what extent they actually practiced that plan was entirely up to the unpredictable Sirius. The plan started by playing off of Snape's curiosity with only minor suggestions on their point.

So what if he was filleted in the process? All the better for them.

"Remus, Peter, did I tell you what James and I found out?" Sirius asked his friends as they slowly proceeded past Snape, talking loud enough so he could hear every word.

Remus' reply was rolling his eyes. He had told Sirius he would not be part of the game before the plan had ever been laid out but the spontaneous Marauder was determined to keep him in on the fun.

Peter, not knowing to what length the prank was prone to leap, shook his head at the question, then remembered he was supposed to talk, not gesticulate.

"Haven't heard a thing," he said.

"We heard there is a way to get past the Whomping Willow." The excitement in the Gryffindor's semi-hushed voice could easily have been labeled phony.

"Right," Remus said. "I doubt you two are going to try to get past--"

"No, Moony, of course not!" Sirius said, keeping his gaze in front of his feet and crouching down as if he really wanted to keep his secret a secret. "We're not going alone."

"What?" Peter asked in faked surprise, with a proud, but badly concealed, smile for remembering the right note at which to squeak. But Sirius decided just to keep walking. Now he was just making it up as they went and Peter had no idea what to say. They'd given him a script! What had happened to the script? "I...you'll get in serious trouble! McGonagall will--"

"Turn us into toadstools?" asked Sirius with a grin as he watched Snape's keen and attentive eyes hovering just above his book, watching them. "Yeah. Probably."

James was unusually silent during his friends' entire conversation. Sirius noticed this and immediately tried to include him. "Jamesie, don't you want to try to get past that homicidal tree with us?"

He shook the black fringe from his eyes. "I don't know about this Sirius. I mean, that tree is dangerous." James said the last portion while locking his eyes directly with Snape.

Sirius rolled his eyes and pushed his friend. "Who died and made you Remus?"

The mentioned party let out an indignant, "Hey!"

"Oh, sorry, mate," Sirius mumbled, his hand going through his hair as he attempted damage control from his previous statement.

Now that they had finished their mission and were far past Snape, the conversation was turning in a different direction. Meaning Peter would be left behind on all the statements made and James, Sirius and Remus would be due for name calling by the time they reached the end of the hallway.

"I hope something hits you," Remus replied loftily.

"You don't mean that, Remus," said Black. "Who else will rub your feet after a long day of studying?"

"James."

Sirius scoffed. "That boy wouldn't know a bunion from a common callus."

"Well, actually," James supplied, drawing out the last word.

Sirius widened his eyes. "Remus, is it true? Have--have you replaced me?"

"Yup."

Remus' face was void of any expression, belying no guilt whatsoever.

"Git."

"Prick."

"Prat."

"Nark."

"WAZOO!"

Three pairs of eyes flew to their raven-haired friend. James stood there with a goofy look on his face before rolling his eyes and walking past them. The remaining three shook their heads before following.

As the boys walked off, Sirius made a quick glance back down the corridor. Snivellus was nowhere to be found.

"Excellent," he muttered.

Peter turned, noticing the mischievous smirk. "What's excellent?"

"Slimy fish took the bait is all."

- - - - -

"It could very well be the last trip we ever take outside these doors," James said in a morose tone. "All together, anyway."

Peter looked absolutely terrified, which was just him being the stupid git that he was. Wormtail didn't realize where they were going or why. The sun was setting and the grounds were beginning to darken. Although Sirius had clearly stated several times during their 'fishing trip' what they were about to do, Peter was still quite lost.

"Right you are, Prongs," said Sirius. "Take a good look at this room, my friends, for we may never--ow!" Remus had thrown a rather large book in his general direction, which could not be described as a miss. "All right, let's go. Pete, get your tail out from between your legs. It's the full moon tonight."

"And that's supposed to cheer us up how, exactly?" asked Remus.

"Sorry, Moony."

"I guess I should be apologizing to you guys," he said sorrowfully.

"Kind of you, but unnecessary," said James.

"Yeah, mate, don't beat yourself up about it."

All four took a long look at each other, then shrugged off the unintended pun and walked out of the room.

Sirius had kept Remus and Peter out of the circle so that he could go through with the plan. His train of thought was that if his friends didn't know what he was up to, then they wouldn't have the chance to stop him and they would blame him if something went horribly wrong. Everything was going well so Sirius really wasn't that worried about any mistakes.

"Padfoot, do you think it's a good idea?" asked James quietly as they walked down the corridor to the entrance hall.

It wasn't right, James second guessing their masterful prank.

"'Course I do. Wouldn't be doing it if I didn't think Snape deserved it, would I?"

"I know he deserves it but what if Snape really does get killed? What if Remus actually attacks him?"

"Than Snivellus becomes a werewolf," said Sirius apathetically, pausing to let the fact sink in. "Come to think of it, that'd be awful bad luck for Remus. He'd have to share the Shack with that grease-ball. Oh well, better just to kill him straightaway then, eh?"

After that statement, James gave up trying to persuade his best friend to do anything against his will on the subject. While it was played out, he would have to resort to interfering somehow. He wasn't really sure what he was going to do to get Snape out of the picture before the Whomping Willow crushed his bones, but he decided that he would figure that out when the time came.

Remus was beginning to feel twitchy after the sun set beyond the horizon and James made sure he was safely settled in the Shrieking Shack before he started down the stairs again. He heard Remus' howls as he passed through the entrance of the tunnel and looked back, catching himself before he ran back to make sure he was all right. He wasn't all right, he was transforming, and he would remain not all right for weeks until this wounds healed. Then it was just another few short weeks until the cycle started up again.

James could hear the thrashing of claws against wooden floorboards and furniture violently toppling on its side and decided it would be best if he walked a bit faster.

Murder. What had Sirius been thinking? Had he actually expected Snape to come to the Whomping Willow and try to get inside the passageway without the four of them seeing? Trying to get past the tree would have been stupid enough. He would've had to have been--

"Snape, what the hell are you doing down here?"

--completely mental.

"It's none of your business," Snape spat, flashing him a look of abhorrence while behind his eyes was etched terror.

"Actually, it's sort of all my business," replied James. "How'd you even get down here?"

"Your friend showed me the notch in the tree and I climbed down. He told me not to go, he actually begged me not to, but I did what you told me to do. I didn't listen to anything he said."

"Come off it, you little--" There was a loud howl from the other end of the tunnel and Snape's eyes widened. "We'll talk about this later. Right now, run!"

Snape turned and sprinted towards the passageway and James followed only a step behind. They could hear paws pounding the dirt as they ran even faster. James was ten feet ahead of the Slytherin and chanced a glance behind him. Snape was struggling to keep up and Moony was only twice as far away as James was in front of him.

Deciding against his better judgment, Potter stopped, turned and ran at the werewolf. The grease-ball kept running, not looking back to see James deliver the on-coming creature a hard kick to the snout. Remus let out a yelp and tumbled to the floor, tripping over his own legs. James moved to stand from his fallen position on the ground, but an abnormally large paw rested on his stomach with claws that could, if extended a few inches farther, rip the precious organ out of his body.

Moony was opening his eyes and James had to think fast, which never resulted in good ideas. He slipped his hands underneath the paw and pushed it off of him, stood up and ran for his life, but not without receiving a thrash to the back. James felt the knife-like claw tear through his skin and howled in pain. Blood trickled down his back as he raced down the tunnel. When he finally saw the blessed light coming from the entrance and Snape scrambling to get out of the hole, he realized how close the werewolf was behind him. He heard a pair of canines clap shut in an attempt to sink into flesh.

"HURRY!" he roared at Snape.

James collided with his body and used all his strength to haul both the Slytherin and himself out of the passage. Before the events came back to him, Remus was locked in with a pile of wood from a levitation charm produced by Sirius. He stared up at his disgruntled friend, who pointed to the heap of black on the ground that was Severus.

"What is he still doing alive?"

- - - - -

Silvia had learned to enjoy several things at Hogwarts: the ageing Woldrum and his equally ageing sight, the House-elves in the kitchen waiting patiently to serve all ones taste-bud's desires, sending the first years through a rite of passage, the free period of History of Magic where no one cared enough to listen and the Hogsmeade trips that began in the fall. It was upsetting that the do-gooders of Hogwarts were more eligible for these trips than the troublemakers, but Silvia was delighted to know she had been permitted to go.

Sitting comfortably in a carriage, she was joined by Lucius and Narcissa, who had been growing steadily closer in the past three months. It disgusted Silvia to certain extents, but she was happy for them in other ones. They exited the carriage at the station and walked down the beaten path. Numerous amounts of their peers headed off to The Three Broomsticks, the Post Office, Honeydukes and Zonkos. None of these were their destination, though.

They walked down the last lane to the right. Going all the way to the end, the trio was met with an eaten piece of wood, painted with a severed wild boar's head and blood leaking from the serration onto the white cloth below it.

Shaking out her cloak, Silvia passed the grumpy old man at the bar with his long grey hair and beard. The small room had already assaulted her nostrils with a strong aroma of goats and alcohol--cheap alcohol. Moving towards the back of the bar she noticed a hooded figure with a particularly clean glass in front of them. Grinning, Silvia moved to sit next to the figure, while Cissa sat on their other side with Lucius flanking her.

Bellatrix threw back her hood to reveal her signature black hair and sharp features. She gave a small smile to her closest friends. She took out three rose pedals from her robes and pointed her wand at them. Three glasses as clean as her own appeared on the table. It had become tradition for them to meet at the Hog's Head. Unfortunately, the glasses there left much to be desired, as did the clientele. They had discovered that it was an excellent place to talk things over without their discussions being reported to someone.

"How've you been, luv?" Silvia asked cordially.

"Better than one would believe," Bella said, grinning mischievously. Slowly she held up her left hand which held a ring where only one ring was allowed.

Narcissa's eyes widened and she let out a squeal, jumping out of her seat to hug her sister mercilessly. "So you really weren't lying then! This is great, Bella!"

Silvia and Bellatrix exchanged a look. It took awhile after that announcement for things calmed down. Lucius and Narcissa had gone off, leaving the other two to their own devices. They walked down the darkened path towards the carriages that would take Silvia back to the castle. Bellatrix stopped her before she passed through to the station entrance.

"Do you still feel the same way you did the last time we spoke?"

Silvia favored her with a long gaze before nodding slowly. "Haven't changed."

"Then I might have someway that you can alleviate some of it. Rodolphus and I think we found something, but we have to check it out first," Bella explained in a slightly hushed voice.

"Send me something if it works out. I'll give it my own once over, although I trust your judgment."

Silvia's eyes crinkled with mirth while the rest of her face remained solid.

Raising her voice, Bellatrix turned her body outward and more inviting.

"I hope you have a good time back at the school. Be good and study!"

Silvia coughed out a "Not likely."

Bella smirked and surveyed her younger friend once again. "Never told you how much I loved the hair."

The green-haired girl gave a seductive smile while appraising her friend. "It was all for you luv," she said. She winked and sashayed away with a twist of her hips simply to hear the sharp laughter from her companion.

- - - - -

Aurelia nearly jumped ten feet in the air when Romey snuck up behind her in Hogsmeade that afternoon outside The Three Broomsticks. She slapped him across the cheek and then jumped into his arms. They talked in the tavern for awhile about what Romey had been up to, where he'd been and how we was after moving out. He told her he met someone at work and that her name was Mackenzie. He flipped out his wallet and proudly displayed a cute little picture of them hugging outside his apartment in London. They looked like the perfect couple, she'd told him.

Then, like the big brother he was, he warned her about going back to live with their father. Aurelia listened to his reasons with a look as though she was listening but once Romey was finished, she told him the same thing as she had previously. He again offered her a room in his apartment and again she refused.

He then told her the best news he had saved for last.

"I got on a pro team, Lia," he said, his face solid but eyes dancing.

"Romey, which?" Aurelia asked excitedly. He remained silent as she became impatient and shoved him into the back of the booth. "Tell me!"

"I got into..." his voice was soft until he raised his eye and shouted, "IRELAND!"

Aurelia screamed and jumped on top of him, rustling his wavy hair and kissing the top of his head. The words that followed were indistinguishable and Romey just replied by flashing his brilliant smile and hugging her.

Getting onto a pro Quidditch team was enough to knock the stuffing out of anyone, but getting on your favorite Quidditch team since you were five years old was an entirely different scenario--one that was enthusiastically voiced to the entire tavern and possibly the better portion of High Street as well.