Armilla

Chapter 55

The thought that Snape and I practically shared the same Patronus stayed in my mind all afternoon. I wasn't offended by it or anything. I just found it interesting because we had led very different lives and grown up in very different homes.

But the Patronus was unique to the wizard or witch, perhaps what suited his or her disposition. Maybe underneath, Snape and I were more alike than I realised. We both shared a passion for sarcasm. We were both scornful of dim-witted people and held very little patience for them. In fact, neither of us could boast that patience was our redeeming quality. Snape was incredibly stubborn...I used to be before I started giving in to his stubbornness, and we both enjoyed our own company more than socialising.

As far as interests went, Snape preferred Potions and studying the Dark Arts, while I preferred Charms. Charms were used in Potions and the Dark Arts anyway. Though we liked to focus on specific things, we both liked to experiment and be innovative in making magic. I had several books on experimenting with charms, and now I knew that Snape was well and truly old-hand at experimenting.

And now duelling. The more I duelled with Snape, the more I enjoyed it. It was mentally draining as it required the utmost concentration. When I duelled with my brother, it seemed like I had to reach into the very depths of my being to find magic that would conquer the things he taught me. And just when I thought I could reach no further, small bursts of magic would spill through me like disturbed ant nests. Sometimes I thought that if it hadn't been for these lessons, I would never have known such magic existed inside me.

But maybe that was what it was like to be a Snape. Now that I had gotten to know Snape, I was accustomed to him having expectations of me that only he had confidence in. I had mastered some of the things that he had taught me in unusually small amounts of time - and generally I hadn't expected to. There seemed to be endless possibilities when it came to Snape's magic, and I had come to the point where I couldn't be surprised at some of the complex spells he knew. The layers of magic Snape possessed could have easily outstripped the layers of his mind, which was saying something.

I didn't dare to think that I possessed the same level of magical ability as my brother. But the expectations he seemed to have in what I could conquer did make me think that perhaps I possessed more ability than I thought. I believed Snape had dealt with so many emotional episodes as a child that he had accidentally created wild magic and had realised early that he possessed more magic than he thought. Maybe he had seen the potential in me. I hadn't created any wild magic and my emotional experiences were nothing to his, but it was a possibility that Snape recognised something in me that he had previously seen in himself.

Perhaps that was why he hadn't seemed surprised with the revelation that my Patronus was a pony. It could have confirmed for him that he was right in thinking that we were more alike than anyone else thought.

Up until lunchtime, we had practised the new Occlumency-inspired shield. As expected, maintaining the charm had required all my concentration and I had felt a sense of victory that most of Snape's hexes hadn't penetrated the steel wall I had created. I knew that I had a long way to go. I had to become so accustomed to the steel wall that I would be able to mentally keep it up whilst performing other magic. At the moment, I was just stopping the majority of the hexes that Snape was firing at me. If he had been a real opponent in a real duel, I wouldn't have been able to disarm up him and keep the shield up. That was what I had to work towards. Perhaps after that, I could work on back-up shields if the steel wall failed...that would require a level of magic I was not sure I possessed.

After lunch, Snape decided that I had to spend a few hours doing something that was not so mentally draining, so I had to help him with his potion making in his lab.

"And I'll only give you the ingredients that you don't mind cutting up," he added, looking over his shoulder at me as I followed him into the small lab/office.

I sat down at the workbench in the middle of the room, watching Snape magically instruct certain ingredients to leave the cupboard and move to the bench. Once satisfied that everything was in order to begin, he sat down, a slight smirk on his face. It was the same smirk I had seen him wear a lot lately whenever he found a quote he particularly liked in the insults book I gave him, the most recent favourite being He must have had a magnificent build before his stomach went in for a career of its own.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing really," he said, pulling a tray of beetles towards him and starting to grind them. "I was just thinking about your pony."

I glared at him. "You mean the pony that ran through your horse?"

He looked up long enough from grinding the beetles to glare at me. "That's the one," he said smoothly. "The one that made your pony run away."

"It wouldn't be as easy to cast if there was a Dementor around would it?"

"Certainly not. You had an easier time casting it earlier because there was no foul creature around fiddling with your emotions. Pass me that bowl, please."

"So when there really is a Dementor, the happy memory becomes the focus to perform a successful Patronus?" I asked, passing him the small bowl near me.

"That's correct. Just like when you construct a mental shield to focus on when you occlude, where Dementors are concerned, you focus on a happy memory powerful enough to cast a Patronus. That, of course, is what makes the charm so difficult. It is a very complicated thing to do. Under a Dementor attack, it is certainly a challenge for the mind to repel the dementor, select a happy memory and find the magical energy to cast the Patronus."

I looked up from the roots I was shredding. "I never thought I'd say this, but I wish I could see a Dementor, just so I would know if I could cast a proper Patronus."

"I daresay you could," he answered dryly, sparing me a brief sneering glance. "Your experience with Occlumency has taught you how to block out other powers and focus on something inside yourself. Your focus with a Patronus charm would be to choose a memory powerful enough to be successful."

That got me thinking. I had lots of happy memories, most of them from long ago with Merle. But I wasn't sure if they were powerful enough. I tried to think of a time when I had experienced a sudden burst of happiness, happiness so rare that it could only be experienced a few times throughout one's life. Those were more powerful than anything else.

"All this happened years ago," I said. "Lucia would have to be fifteen years old by now. Is there anyway you would be able to identify Lucia?"

"Oh yes," she said. "When I died, something I had that was very precious was passed to my daughter. Lucia would have a silver bracelet on her left wrist, with a silver pendent with an emerald on it. That bracelet could have prolonged my life, but my daughter was dying. I made the decision to die myself so my daughter could wear the bracelet and have the chance to live. If only I could be sure that she is okay..."

I held up my left wrist with the bracelet for the woman to see. Her face paled.

"I'm okay," I whispered, my eyes watering. "I'm so glad I've found you, Mother."

That moment months ago when I had realised that Hazel Merrigan was my mother was still so clear in my mind. It was something I could never forget. I had felt a burst of happiness at the time. The excitement of the situation had been overwhelming.

But I had been violently sick that night when I had been pulled out of my excitement by the thought that even though I had found my mother, she was dead. And I had found out that my father was a Death Father. I had sobbed in the bathroom for ages. That burst of happiness had lost its power because whenever I thought of it, I was reminded that my mother wasn't alive and that my father wasn't a desirable acquaintance. Of course, at the time, I hadn't known that my father was even alive. I smiled to myself as I remembered that Snape had been really annoyed at me that night because I had spent too long in the bathroom. He probably thought back then that my tears were for Merle, not my mother. He hadn't known then...

I continued shredding roots as Snape got up to select a cauldron. My mind shifted to another memory.

"I did not fight for custody of you to just to spite my father. Oh, yes, I did dearly want to take that away from him. I also did it to protect you from being at the hands of such a loathsome fool. I did doubt my abilities in being your guardian, which is why it would seem I did not want custody of you in the first place. But if Father was not here and I was given the option today of giving you to someone else..." Snape paused, looking down his hooked nose at me.

I bit my lip harder.

"I would not," he said. "And for that reason, Armilla," he said, his voice harsh once again, "you are never, ever to imply again that you are a burden. I do not wish to be rid of you and that fact alone contradicts the whole notion of burden. Is that clear enough for you?"

That was one of the most powerful memories I possessed. At that stage, I had been very insecure about my place in Snape's life, and that week especially I had been prone to episodes of depression. I was in over my head in everything - having Snape as a brother, the tension building up before my holiday visit at Father's, the memory of Shar's attack, having my mother's spirit occupy a ring, and of course, Merle's death. That week especially had been one of the most emotional of my life. When Snape had said that he would not give me up, I had felt a burst of happiness through my nerves. I hadn't shown my happiness to my brother. Instead, he had dismissed me and I had fled up to my dorm to cry again. He had let me know that I had secured a place in his life, but I felt that the memory again lost power when I thought of how nervous and vulnerable I had been at the time.

"Here are some ginger roots," said Snape, bringing me out of my reverie. "I need them for a Wit-Sharpening Potion, so what will you need to do with them?"

"Chop them," I answered, placing the shredded roots in another dish and taking the ginger roots from him.

"Very good."

We fell into silence once more, each of us content to work that way, and comfortable in the presence of the other. Before long, my mind drifted back to the night after Snape had told me I wasn't a burden. At the Merrigan Estate, I had had a nightmare in which Snape had told me to get out and Shar had been about to attack me again. I had seen a gentle, albeit still sarcastic side to Snape.

He made no move to leave.

"Close your eyes," he instructed.

I closed my eyes, and my mind welcomed the darkness. I felt Snape take hold of my right hand. He started reciting a charm softly under his breath, the charm sounding slightly melodic. I felt my body relaxing, welcoming whatever charm Snape was performing. As sleep started to overtake me, I let my last tear fall. Too tired, I didn't bother brushing it away. But it didn't matter; my brother's warm hand wiped it away for me.

I vaguely remembered Snape wiping away that tear, but to this day I viewed it as a turning point in our relationship. I had felt so secure with him. I had needed him and he had been there. I was sure that memory contained a sense of happiness so powerful that it could easily make a Patronus strong enough to repel a Dementor.

My thoughts were interrupted once more by a loud hoot out in the sitting room. I knew it wasn't Morag, as she was napping in my bedroom. I had recently discovered that owls could snore when I had walked into my bedroom to find Morag with her beak wide open, and a deep buzzing noise coming from her. I had laughed at the time, but Snape had decided that it was something new Morag was doing to annoy him. He thought snoring was very ill-mannered and undignified.

Snape got up to receive the owl, which had stayed out in the sitting room. Snape had his lab charmed so that owls couldn't enter. It wasn't because of Morag (thought he often told her that), it was just in case an owl flew into it and knocked over hazardous potions. On his way back, Snape paused outside my bedroom door.

"Morag's snoring again," he said, his lip curling.

"You know, it could be from her change in diet. Maybe it's not agreeing with her and it's causing her to snore."

Snape shook his head at me as he came back into the room. "Nice try. But I don't buy it."

He sat down next to me again, opening the letter he had taken from the owl. I continued chopping the ginger roots.

"Well," he said sneering, looking up from the letter a moment later. "It would seem that Father is satisfied with your school marks, and my supervision of your study."

"Did you give him my marks?"

"I did," he replied, folding the letter again. "Father wants a monthly update on your marks." He now wore a most unpleasant expression as he stared at the stored potions in the open cupboard, as if he desired nothing more than to slip the most gruesome one to Father. "Anyway," he continued, looking back at me, "it appears that he was pleased with your marks from January...as was I."

I nodded, feeling relieved that Father could find no excuse to send me a hex. "Did he mention Malfoy at all?"

Snape shook his head. "No, he has gone very quiet on that front."

"That's worse."

Snape sighed. "He may not want to stir things up with us at the moment, especially with your exams coming up. Perhaps he doesn't approve of you spending time with Draco Malfoy when you could be studying."

I looked at him thoughtfully. He made an interesting point. "So, do you think he'll wait until after the exams then?"

"He might," he responded, inclining his head. "If he does, we'll deal with it then. There's absolutely no point in worrying about it now. You have other things to think about."

o o o o o o o o o o o o

We spent some more time late in the afternoon working on the shield charm again. Over and over again, Snape fired hex after hex at my steel wall. He didn't suggest that I try anything else except maintain it. I didn't think I would be up to firing a hex at the same time for awhile yet. After a day of more duelling and strict concentration than I was used to, I was exhausted by the time dinner came. There was an incident where my shield faltered and I ended up with a numb right hand. Snape simply fixed it with a wave of his wand, saying nothing about my concentration waning. Not long after, he announced that we had finished and I was thankful.

Just as we were finishing dinner, another owl came swooping in and landed on the table with a thump. Snape cast the owl a derisive look and then poured himself a glass of wine. He probably needed it.

I recognised the huge tawny owl straightaway. He held out his leg, looking up at me expectantly.

"Hello Howard," I murmured, as I untied the two bulky parcels attached to his leg.

Snape paused just as he was about to take a drink. "Howard?" he repeated, narrowing his eyes at the owl.

"Howard Horatio, actually," I replied, enjoying Snape's disbelieving look.

He said nothing, choosing instead to drink his wine.

Even though I had recognised the owl, I still took out my wand and cast a few spells to determine if it was safe. Snape had taught me a few mail security spells. He nodded in approval after I had cast them.

"To whom does the owl belong?"

"Terry," I answered, carefully unwrapping the first package. Inside was a packet of eucalyptus lollies, a box of chocolate stars, and a short note from both Terry and Lisa telling me to enjoy them.

"They're from Terry and Lisa," I said, putting the note down. Snape was glaring at the box of chocolate stars.

"Are they trying to be impertinent?" he asked, frowning.

I shook my head. "Not at all. They don't know that you don't like them. I only just finished the ones Dumbledore gave to you at Christmas and they know I really liked them."

Snape leaned back in his chair with his arms folded. "You really liked them?" he repeated.

I nodded.

"The chocolate stars?"

"Yes."

He shook his head at me, as if I had just admitted to something terrible.

I opened the second package, wondering why Terry and Lisa had wrapped two packages instead of including everything in the one. Inside was dark blue box. Intrigued, I pulled of the silver ribbon holding it closed and took of the lid.

Inside was the quill I had always wanted. A Lefties Quill! Lefties quills were the best you could buy for left-handed people, as the magic inside them controlled the ink-flow and made the ink dry super fast so the left hand wouldn't be forever smudging it. I had had many quills for left-handed people over the years, but I had never had a Lefties quill. I had been using a regular quill for ages because my last left-handed quill had worn out. I had to constantly stop and charm the ink smudges away. It was so nice of Terry and Lisa to get me such a nice gift.

"You needed a Lefties quill, did you?" Snape asked, examining the quill.

"I've always wanted one," I said happily, gazing at the quill. I looked back at the packaging. "They didn't leave a note with this one,' I commented. 'I wonder why they wrapped it separately."

Snape passed the box back to me. "Well, I would say it means that the second package is from a different person," he said, looking suspicious.

A different person? Then why didn't that person just send me the package with a different owl, instead of going to Lisa and Terry? Now I was worried about who had sent it without a note.

"Well give whoever it was the benefit of the doubt," Snape continued, now examining the sugar content on the back of the packet of eucalyptus lollies.

"The benefit of the doubt?" I said incredulously. Wasn't that a bit optimistic for Snape? Why wasn't he being cynical and telling me not to use the quill until I had found out who it was from?

"Of course," he answered dryly, putting the packet down and looking back at me. "Maybe whoever it was didn't get to go to Hogsmeade and asked your friends to buy it for you."

"But why give it to that person when they got back so that person could send it to me with a note?"

Snape leaned back again and folded his arms, looking amused. "Because I didn't invite them down here for dinner too," he said. "They were shocked enough when I handed them money to buy it for you."

I gazed at him in disbelief as I let the information sink in. It wasn't disbelief that he had bought me something. I was shocked that he had just being playing a game with me as I tried to work out who the person was. And clearly, he had enjoyed it.

"I-" I paused, staring at him. Snape didn't play games. He told Morag that nearly every day.

He raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Thankyou."

"You're welcome."

"How did you know I wanted a Lefties quill?" My friends knew I had wanted one, but I had never mentioned it to Snape. Maybe they had told him.

"I didn't know you wanted one," he said airily. "I knew you needed one. You've been driving me crazy in theory Potions with the way you take out your wand every five minutes to rid your parchment and hand of ink smudges. If you weren't my sister you would have earned yourself a lovely range of insulting comments by now."

I laughed, picking up the quill. "I had no idea that it was annoying you. I thought you rarely looked in my direction in Potions."

"Quite the contrary, I assure you. I may spend a lot of time pleading certain Hufflepuffs to grow brains, but I have noticed the constant presence of your wand."

"When did you give my friends money?" I was perplexed about this. Snape only ever saw my friends when they were in my presence, I couldn't work out when he would have had the opportunity.

He smiled mysteriously. "You can't deduce that on your own?" he asked mockingly.

"Not really," I said wryly. "Unless..." The only class I didn't take with my friends was Arithmancy. They had Care of Magical Creatures at that time. I had had Arithmancy the day before, just before lunch. And I knew Snape always had a free period when I had Arithmancy on a Friday. "You cornered them either on the way to Care of Magical Creatures, or on the way back."

He scoffed. "I wouldn't say cornered. It wasn't like I threatened them or anything. Nevertheless, you are correct. I had a word with them after their class."

"They didn't say anything to me."

He sneered. "Of course they didn't. I told them not to. They weren't about to defy me."

Those sneaky people. Lisa and Terry had probably changed their minds about Snape being mean in not letting me go to Hogsmeade. Giving them money to buy me a present had probably brought Snape up higher in their esteem.

o o o o o o o o o o o o

Sunday morning was devoted to more duelling and practicing my new Occlumency shield charm. Snape taught me the numbing spell that he had used on me yesterday. I thought it was highly effective. Depending on the level of magic you used in casting the hex, you could either create the pins and needles sensation in your opponent so they lose control of their wand movement, or numb them altogether.

On Sunday afternoon, just as we were about to go and visit Mother in Dumbledore's office, Snape felt his Dark Mark burn.

He had just reached for the door handle when he suddenly clutched his left forearm.

I knew Snape was called every now and then to You-Know-Who, but I had never been around when his arm burned. It sent tingling sensations through me, though I tried not to show my uneasiness to my brother.

He let go of his arm abruptly and turned to look at me.

"I'm afraid you'll have to go and see Mother by yourself," he said quietly, his black eyes glittering.

I nodded.

"I'm not sure how long I will be," he went on, his expression unfathomable. "If I'm not back at six o'clock, you'll have to tend to that potion still brewing in the lab, otherwise it will be ruined. Add three drops of Essence of Murtlap at three minutes intervals and stir just once clockwise. Understand?"

"Yes," I answered. Thank goodness for Occlumency. The man was remarkably calm for someone about to face the Dark Lord.

"You'll have to get the Essence of Murtlap from the classroom storeroom though. I don't have any left here. It's on order."

"Alright."

"Very well then. I will see you later. The password to Dumbledore's office is Mocha Marshmallows." He opened the door for me, his face still void of all emotion.

I said nothing, and a moment later I was on my way to the Headmaster's office. I thought about Snape all the way, wondering why he was being called. Snape never mentioned meetings with the Dark Lord to me, or what was discussed. But ever since the meeting with Coleman at Father's house on New Year's Eve, I had been paranoid about them discussing my potential as a Death Eater. From the dismal display I had given Coleman, he must have given a report that I had no talent for Death Eater activity. Even so, I was worried that as a member of the Snape family, my apparently awful duelling skills might be a topic of conversation - it was strange after all, that I had appeared no where near as good as my brother. I was fearful that the Dark Lord might have seen through Coleman's report.

But then, Snape might have been called for an entirely different matter. I was only worried now because I had been there when he had been called.

Dumbledore wasn't in his office. He generally wasn't on a Sunday afternoon, so as to give Snape and I privacy with our mother. I had at first wondered why Mother's ring didn't just stay down in the dungeons, but then I rationally concluded that Dumbledore's office was probably a lot safer than our rooms in the dungeons.

I climbed the stairs and sat down in an armchair in front of the ring, which Dumbledore had left sitting on a small table. To a complete stranger, it would have appeared to be just another strange magical object that the eccentric Headmaster had collected.

I touched the misty substance inside the ring and my mother's face came into view. Her blue eyes shone as she gazed up at me.

"Hello, dear," she said brightly. "Have you had a nice week?"

"Yes," I answered. "Severus has been teaching me a new shield charm."

She smiled. "One of his own inventions I'd say. I always knew he was going to be clever like that. Where is Severus?"

"He got called away," I murmured.

Mother nodded in understanding, but she looked a bit uneasy herself. "I worry for him, Armilla," she whispered. "He's a clever man, but I still fear for him."

I nodded. "I do too."

"He doesn't talk about it much with you, does he?"

"No. It's probably dangerous to...not to mention that it would probably make me worry more if I knew details."

Mother nodded slowly. "I suppose you are right. Severus doesn't tell me much either." She looked thoughtful. "In fact, Aurelius rarely spoke to me of his meetings with the Dark Lord."

We were both silent for awhile, each of us lost in thought.

"I was so relieved when you found me," Mother said finally, looking at me with a sad expression. "It was such a long time to wait, but that was the risk I took when Emiliana McGonagall and I organised it all those years ago."

I said nothing. I wondered why mother was suddenly bringing this up. She looked quite desolate.

"I wondered about what had happened to you...whether you were happy...whether you were loved. But I also worried for Severus. He and Aurelius had parted in such a heated manner. I knew that he was unhappy and I never dared to suggest that he might be lonely. When I went into hiding I worried that he might do himself harm. Aurelius had disowned him, absolutely convinced that he was a traitor, and many people from the Light Side didn't trust him at all. I couldn't be there for him after I went into to hiding to have you. He must have felt so deserted at that time, like there was no one left in the world who cared whether he lived or died. It would have been a terrible thing to think that no one would miss him if he died...and I don't mean miss his skills or talents, but miss him."

Hearing Mother speak that way made emotions start swirling around inside me. I hadn't felt emotional like that since coming back from Father's house.

"I would miss him," I whispered.

Mother gave me a tearful smile. "I know you would, dear. When I saw Severus again in the Secret Wing, I was so determined that he should look after you...and not just for your sake..."

I gazed at her, pondering these words.

"He needs you more than you realise, Armilla...more than he realises..."

o o o o o o o o o o o o

At five thirty, I left Mother and made my way back down to the dungeons, Snape on my mind still. Mother's words were ringing in my ears. Before I had discovered that we were related, I had viewed Snape as my bitter, nasty, and terribly intimidating teacher. But sometimes, having watched him in Potions, I had wondered if he had a family. I had known about his position through Merle, but I had still wondered if loneliness and bitterness had aided him in becoming such a vindictive teacher.

Snape had been shocked when he had found out about me - he had openly admitted that to me. But from living with the man and becoming more comfortable with him, I had come to see past the sadistic façade that the other students saw. When I looked at him now, I never thought of him as cruel, or bitter...or even lonely.

I wondered what happy memory Snape used to cast his Patronus. There must have been something happy in his life that contributed power to his Patronus. I would never ask; it was a personal question. I supposed that was why Snape hadn't asked me.

My thoughts were interrupted when I turned into the corridor outside the Potions classroom and noticed that the door was open. Intrigued, I walked as quietly as I could towards the room and peered inside.

Seated at a workbench in the middle of the room, were two people I could easily place by their flaming red hair without seeing their faces. Fred and George Weasley. And sitting on a desk near the front of the room (not daring to sit at Snape's desk), was Filch.

I walked in and Filch looked up abruptly, his mouth wide open ready to tell me off for being out of bounds. Upon realising that it was the Potion Master's sister in the doorway, not any random student he liked to berate for no good reason, his face relaxed. "Can I help you, Miss Snape?" he said politely. Clearly, he believed being civil to me would help him remain on good terms with my brother.

Fred and George had looked up upon hearing my name. They both turned to grin at me. It seemed that they were copying down something into their books. Detention, of course. I wondered why they were doing it with Filch in the Potions classroom.

"No, thankyou," I said, just as politely. "I just have instructions to retrieve an ingredient from the storeroom."

He nodded his approval and I moved past the twins towards the storeroom.

"Wipe those grins off your faces!" Filch snapped. "Get back to work."

"Yes, sir!" they said in unison. They seemed a little too cheerful for people doing a detention in my opinion.

Just as I entered the storeroom, I heard another person enter the classroom.

"Do you have any reason for being here, Vanderway?" Filch asked curtly.

Vanderway? He was a first year Ravenclaw.

"Yes, sir. Someone's just set off a load of Zonko's water bombs outside your office. There's water everywhere, sir. Professor Vector just sent me to get you."

I bet Filch would have been purple in the face by now.

"Impish students!" he roared. "This has to be the work of-" He stopped short. Obviously, he couldn't blame the Weasley twins because they were seated right in front of him.

"You two stay here!" he barked. "You had better be finished by the time I get back."

I heard the scurrying of feet and then the door slammed. With the Essence of Murtlap in my hand, I went back out to the classroom.

"Ingenious," George said to his twin. "Best five sickles I ever spent."

"That'll get rid of him for at least twenty minutes," Fred responded, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

"So who did you pay to do it then?" I asked, smiling. Anyone who could annoy Filch deserved praise.

"Kirkpatrick," replied Fred, leaning back in his chair. "A third year Gryffindor. I hope Hermione doesn't find out though."

"Why are you doing a detention with Filch down here?"

"It's Snape's detention," George answered, putting his quill down. "We've been doing this detention every Sunday afternoon for weeks. This is the last one."

But Snape had been with me every Sunday afternoon since the new term had started. What had the Weasley twins done to earn such a long detention period?

"Oh, it's Snape's detention, but Filch has been supervising them," George explained when he saw my puzzled look. "Filch was honoured to do the job actually."

"He was excited that we had received such a detention," Fred went on, "and he wanted the opportunity to have a few hours a week to feel like he was making our lives hell."

"Oh." Well, that was interesting.

"But he wasn't," said Fred airily, also putting down his quill. "We've been having a great time."

"A great time?" I repeated. "It looks as if you've been copying stuff down."

"Yeah, we have." George indicated all the parchments in front of him, most of them covered in writing.

Fred suddenly took out his wand and performed a warding charm, similar to the one Snape used when he didn't want to be overheard.

"Here's the deal, Armilla," he said quietly. "George and I want to open our own business, a joke shop in fact."

"How surprising," I said sardonically.

They both laughed.

"Well our hearts were set on becoming joint Ministers for Magic," Fred admitted, looking quite serious, "but then we found out that we possessed too many brains cells for such a job and we decided we that we were better suited in the joke shop business."

"Wise decision." In all honesty, I thought either of the twins would be good Ministers for Magic.

"Yes, we thought so," Fred continued. "So for ages now, George and I have been experimenting with all sorts of stuff when we've been designing our products."

"How many explosions have you had?"

"An embarrassing amount," George replied, looking amused. "And we've injured ourselves so many times that we've had to make our own healing potions so we don't have to go to the hospital wing. Umbridge monitors who goes in and out of there."

I knew that. Snape had told me that during the detention I had had with him at the beginning of the school year.

"Anyway," he went on, "besides our dorm, we've been using random classrooms to experiment in. We've had help in making sure Umbridge stays away. But rather unluckily one evening, we were caught-"

"-No, I would say luckily," Fred interrupted.

"Quite right, Fred. Yes, luckily we were caught experimenting by none other than Professor Snape. No where near the dungeons of course. We had steered clear of the dungeons."

"Luckily? Really?" I had a feeling that this was going to be an amusing tale.

"Certainly," said Fred, smiling. "We had been trying to find just the right combination of certain potion ingredients for awhile with little success. Snape was so angry when he found us. He demanded to know what we were doing...and so we told him flat out that we were experimenting and couldn't come up with the right combination."

I stared at them in disbelief. Any other student just caught by Snape would have either stuttered or tried to come up with a good lie.

"Oh, we're not worried about being expelled," George said cheerfully. "We actually weren't sure if we were going to come back for our seventh year."

Not come back for seventh year? I knew I would never have that choice. Not that I would leave before my last year anyway.

"The problem was," he continued. "When Snape found us, the classroom we were in was already a mess from a few minor explosions just before he came in. We think it must have pained him to see potion ingredients put to such waste."

Personally, I didn't agree. I was sure Snape would have wasted plenty of ingredients over the years when he was experimenting.

"And so you got detention," I finished.

"Yep," Fred replied. "A number of them actually. All with Filch...which brings us to the part about why we're quite cheerful about the detentions, and why we've been telling all the other DA members to lay off you about being dark."

Excellent. Some answers about that, finally!

"All our detentions have been the same," Fred went on, quite enjoying himself. "We've been given old lists of potions ingredients and their properties and we have to copy them all out. There are heaps of them, that's why the detentions have been going over several weeks. Anyway, at first we thought that it was going to be an incredibly boring experience, copying out ingredients and their properties, but then we noticed something a bit fishy."

"A bit fishy?" I asked, quite amused.

"Certainly," replied George. "Snape didn't leave us standard lists of potion ingredients to copy. He gave us long lists of course, but they included all sorts of rare ingredients that we don't use so much in class, and the properties included what combinations they work most effectively in. So every now and then, we find something incredibly useful for our experimenting."

"Oh," I said breathlessly. I didn't dare believe that Snape was...helping them.

"Of course, Snape would never admit that he has secretly been teaching us about the ingredients that we have been experimenting with by giving us these lists." Fred smirked as he folded his arms. "It looks like your average ingredient list. We only find something useful with about every twentieth ingredient; but all the same, we're a lot closer to finishing some products than we were before."

I couldn't believe it. Would Snape go out of his way to help the Weasley twins concoct new products for their business? It was common knowledge that the twins wanted to open a joke shop. Maybe Snape thought that the twins had potential for making more than joke products. Snape could have given them any old school list, but he hadn't. It must have been a ploy on his part. Snape was up to something.

"And Snape wants as little to do with it as possible," said Fred. "That's why he got Filch to oversee the detentions. He doesn't want us to ask him questions or seek help openly from him."

I nodded. That sounded about right; Snape wouldn't want to encourage the twins to go to him when they came to a problem. It was a very clever plan.

"We've absolutely convinced that Snape works for the Light." Fred looked very serious now. "And that's why we now threaten to hex anyone who even insinuates that you're dark."

George nodded. "You're alright, you and Snape. You're a strange little family, but you'll always have our loyalty."

o o o o o o o o o o o o

Well I certainly had been given a lot to think about over the weekend. As I walked back to our rooms in the dungeons with the Essence of Murtlap, I was thinking about Snape again, and for yet another reason - helping Fred and George.

Snape wasn't back, so I went into the lab/office to add the three drops when six o'clock came, which wasn't far away.

Snape came in when it was nearly half-past six. His face wore no expression as he took off his travelling cloak, but I knew he was tired. I didn't dare ask any questions - I knew I would receive no detailed answers anyway. After asking about my visit with Mother and whether I had any problems with the potion, he left again to see Dumbledore. No doubt Snape reported to Dumbledore after every meeting with the Dark Lord.

That night, I laid awake, thinking about what Mother had said about Snape needing me as much as I needed him. I had needed Snape many times over the last few months. At first, I hadn't liked needing him because I hadn't been comfortable around him. But the idea of him needing me was very different. What did I have to offer him? What did I have to offer such a talented, brilliant wizard?

I stared up into the darkness, pondering this question. A memory suddenly came to me, called forth in my mind as if by another power I had no control over. It was the night I had returned to Hogwarts after staying with Father. I had reached breaking point and had yelled at Snape in frustration. He had let me yell and I had only stopped when he had pulled me into his arms. My friends and Tonks aside, I hadn't been hugged by a family member since Merle was alive. Again, even after yelling at him, Snape, the formidable Head of Slytherin, had shown me affection. The memory seemed to focus around one particular moment.

"For what it's worth," I said, reaching a hand up to wipe my eyes, "I missed you."

Snape caught my hand in his before I lowered it and squeezed it.

"I missed you too," he whispered.

He had missed me too. Only four words, but looking back, they seemed to encapsulate the nature of our relationship. I had been happy to hear him say it at the time, but after Mother's conversation today, they meant so much more.

"He needs you more than you realise, Armilla...more than he realises..."

I had happy memories of when I had needed my brother and he had been there. But this memory revealed something to me now that I hadn't thought a lot about at the time. He had missed me too. He needed me too, just like I needed him, and this thought created a sense of happiness in me that was more powerful than any other. That memory would be the source of my most powerful Patronus.

And then, out of no where, the answer to the question I had been pondering appeared. What did I have to offer Snape?

Love.