The Embittering of Severus Snape

Severus and Muriel walked to Hogsmeade, relieved that the weather had finally warmed. Rena was a tropical bird and couldn't be outside in winter. Now, however, she was flying great circles around them, twittering happily.

She was the only one, however. "He ought to have known I couldn't have charmed that snowball," Severus said angrily. "I was right in front of him, he would have seen me!"

"It wouldn't have mattered. He hexed you because he's mad at me," Muriel explained for the fourteenth time. She'd spent a week visiting Severus in the hospital ward, trying not to tell him who had hexed him, only to give in. Then she'd spent two months trying to convince him that there wasn't much they could do about it. Her word wasn't proof enough to get Avery into trouble.

It didn't help that Avery was stuck like glue to Malfoy these days. She guessed that his embarrassment at the Christmas party had led him to seek out an ally who hadn't been there. Malfoy was becoming more dangerous every year, and now even Muriel, in spite of all her years of dueling practice, didn't relish the idea of upsetting him.

Severus was looking at her strangely. "What?" she asked.

"Did you hear what happened to him last Saturday?"

"No, what?" He held open the door to Honeydukes before answering and she walked past him.

"Someone scattered all his underwear around the common room. The rest of the house doesn't want the school to hear about it, though." Severus whispered nervously, looking around the shop.

Muriel laughed quietly. "I imagine they don't! But it must have been someone in your house, right?"

"That's just it, Malfoy has asked everyone. He even wanted me to see if you knew anything about it."

Muriel put down the box of candy she'd been holding with a thud and turned to him. He knew at once that he shouldn't have told her that.

"What are you, Malfoy's errand boy now?" she asked incredulously. She'd come to terms with the fact that Slytherin house was made up of two-faced gits late last term, but somehow Severus just hadn't seemed to fall into that category.

"Of course not! I told him that if you'd done it, you would have told me already. I'm only telling you about it now because I thought you'd think it was funny." Muriel felt a great deal of panic coming from her friend. Something wasn't right. But she couldn't tell what he was thinking, except that it matched what he'd just said.

"Right." Muriel said darkly. "And it is," she added a moment later in a warmer voice. "In fact, I almost wish I HAD done it."

She smiled then, and Severus decided it was safe to continue. "And that's not all. He's been losing his homework several times a week, and he keeps finding his wand in the library. You and I both know he hardly ever goes in there."

Muriel listened to all this with growing apprehension. When Severus turned toward another display of sweets, she reached up a hand and caught Rena, who had been sitting, quietly for once, on her shoulder. It only took a moment of concentration before she knew. Her little bird had done it all. She would have laughed, but the thought suddenly came to her that she shouldn't tell Severus. What if he really DID report back to Malfoy? He certainly was acting strangely.

"Hey, Sev? I just realized that I left Rena's seeds up in my room. I think I'll take a carriage back up to the school and get them. Why don't you meet me up there when you're done?"

He nodded and she headed quickly out the door. A moment later the other students in the shop were startled when a glass vial shattered against the door. Poly juice potion sludged down to pool on the threshold and a very angry-looking Severus swore loudly before heading to a less obtrusive location to meet Malfoy and tell him that it hadn't been Deesia.

Muriel made it back to the school in record time. She had a funny suspicion that she had not been talking with her best friend. She made her way to the Slytherin dormitory and pounded angrily on the portrait. Rosier opened it for her and she raced up to Severus' room. She threw back the bed curtains, which shrieked angrily.

She charmed them to be silent and sat down beside her friend, understanding. Avery had tried to trick her, and it would have worked, too. If she'd done it, she would certainly have told him. She couldn't understand how she'd failed to recognize the differences between their thoughts.

"Ennervate," she said, pointing her wand at Severus. His eyes popped open.

The first thing he said was, "Where's Avery?" She smiled. He was fine.

"I left him in Hogsmeade. Severus, I need to know that you are really you before we can talk." She didn't want to have gotten past Avery's poly juice potion trick only to find Malfoy doing the same thing now.

He nodded resignedly, and she pulled out her wand. "Legilimens," she whispered. She sifted through his memories, recognizing several that Malfoy couldn't have known, nor anyone else for that matter. She ended the spell, satisfied that this was, in fact, her friend. If she had still been unsure, his overwhelming annoyance with her when he opened his eyes would certainly have convinced her.

"I hate that!"

"I know," she said smugly. It was a great spell, when they used it to talk from a distance, but it was very invasive when she used it for real mind- reading.

It took him a minute to realize where he was, but once he did, he pulled his covers up a little higher. "What are you doing in here?" he asked self- consciously.

Muriel laughed. After all, they had been swimming in the pond behind their houses lots of times, and Severus without a shirt wasn't a new sight. "Avery tried to trick me into telling him that I was responsible for scattering his underwear all over the common room last week, stealing his wand and burning his homework. He must have stunned you and made some poly juice potion to take your place for today's Hogsmeade trip." She explained calmly.

"Did you do all those things?" he asked.

"No, but I know who did, and we can have a really good laugh about it if you'll just get dressed so we can get out of here." She rifled through his trunk and threw him some robes. He pulled his bed curtains shut briefly and emerged a moment later, feeling more himself.

Rena flew from Mur's shoulder to his when he appeared and twittered affectionately in his ear. He swatted at her playfully, so she took off and landed instead on his head, which he ducked.

The bird followed them all the way to the library, landing on the table as they sat down. "So, who did it?" he whispered.

Muriel pointed to Rena, who was blinking innocently up at him. "She must have sensed how angry I was when Avery hexed you earlier this year. She's been tormenting him ever since!"

On the other side of the library, Wilkes pulled his head back around the bookcase that separated him from their table. He wondered how long it would be before Malfoy and Avery got back so he could tell them.

They decided it was best to pretend that they'd fallen for Avery's trick. Muriel even asked him Monday morning at breakfast why he hadn't gone to Hogsmeade. He had only sneered at her angrily.

She and Severus chose a desk far from the door for their potions lesson. Something was wrong. Somehow Avery knew, and they didn't want him throwing anything nasty into their potion again.

Muriel left Rena in the dormitory on days when they had potions. Sometimes the fumes were strong and she didn't want to make the poor bird sick.

It wasn't until she got to Divination that she got an indication that something was far more wrong than she'd thought. "I didn't see Rena in the room when I went back for my books after lunch," Marisa whispered to her.

Mur had told her about the bird's new-found interest in annoying Avery. "She's probably breaking into the Slytherin common room again," Mur said, not worried. Rena had gotten away with so much this year that it never occurred to her that the bird might get caught.

But when a week had passed with no sign of the little creature, Muriel found herself wondering if she had managed to get into trouble. Sometimes, after she'd been trained, she would disappear for a day or two and come back with one of Malfoy's dark arts toys, or a Gryffindor prefect badge, hoping for a pile of blue treats. But she'd never been gone so long before.

Mur sat morosely in Divination, waiting for the professor to show up and ignoring the sympathetic looks Marisa was giving her. She'd asked everyone if they'd seen the bird, but no one had.

The marauders came in and Muriel instinctively put her wand on the desk. She didn't even have to think about it anymore. She was surprised, however, when James cleared his throat and Sirius walked over to stand in front of her table. Muriel watched with amusement as Marisa got all misty-eyed. She kicked her under the table.

"What?" Marisa exclaimed. Sirius thought she meant him and looked at her strangely for a moment before turning to Muriel.

"Mur? We found out something about your bird." Muriel narrowed her eyes. She had taken great care to search the marauders thoughts and make sure they hadn't taken her. Sirius honestly liked Rena, so she'd been sure that he hadn't done it. But then, she'd mistaken Avery for Severus too, so she knew her abilities weren't infallible.

"What did you find out?" she asked quietly.

"We heard Avery and Malfoy talking. They have her." Apparently the marauders had learned their lesson about what was fair game to tease about and what wasn't. There was no hint of humor in Sirius' expression. He didn't tell her that he and Remus had gotten detention for trying to break into the Slytherin dormitory last night and get Rena back, but she heard him thinking about it and smiled wanly.

"Thanks. Sev and I will take care of it." She replied as the professor arrived to begin class.

Sirius nodded shortly and went back to his friends, the hand in his pocket releasing his wand. You never knew when you walked up to that girl whether she'd let you talk or just hex you. He wondered briefly why she hadn't just cursed him. She was obviously in a bad enough mood because of her bird.

For Muriel's part, she was connecting several events in her mind. Black had caught her on the stairs under an invisibility cloak first year. Now he had gotten detention trying to get her bird back for her. She thought back to the Christmas party. She'd concentrated hard on everyone who stood around the fire after Severus had taken Avery inside. None of them had done it. But she remembered now that Sirius hadn't been standing with them near the fire. He had disappeared after the snowball fight. Maybe that had been him as well. When she realized that she was still staring at Sirius, she snapped her eyes down to her book and flipped it open as James sniggered.

She caught Severus' attention at dinner and beckoned to them, unwilling to talk at the Slytherin table. Marisa moved over as he sat down. She never quite knew what to do around Severus and generally preferred to stay out of their conversations. "I think Avery has Rena," she whispered.

"But I searched his room two days ago."

"Did you search Malfoy's?" Severus looked at her in alarm. Of course he hadn't searched Malfoy's room. Was she crazy? "Then that's where she is." Mur said glumly. It meant that at least three Slytherin 6th years, the ones that roomed with Malfoy, had lied to her when she asked them about Rena. How they had managed it without her noticing was quite a mystery.

Severus waited patiently while Muriel thought. She would come up with something, he was sure. After a few long moments, she looked back up at him. "Meet me in Myrtle's bathroom at 11."

He nodded and went back to his house table. He was an excellent actor, and when he caught Avery giving him a very satisfied smirk, he took care to look puzzled. "What are you looking at?" he asked in an annoyed tone. He watched as Malfoy nudged Avery and they both turned away. Severus wondered how Muriel had known.

At 11, he was pacing Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. By 11:15 he had mortally (oh, well, not really) offended Myrtle, and was pacing the bathroom with his drenched robes clinging to his legs. He was getting very annoyed.

He'd finally flopped down on the only dry span of floor to wait when the bathroom door opened and closed. No one came in. 'Has she really gotten that good at the spell?' he thought.

"Yes, I have," came the answer a moment before Muriel appeared. "Ten minutes! It's my new record."

"You need me to open the portrait hole." He didn't ask. It was obvious what she planned to do.

"Twice," she confirmed. "I've got to be able to get back out. I can't exactly hide in your room, I'm sure your dorm mates are as anxious to impress the next head boy as the rest of the Slytherins."

Severus looked at her hard. "You understand that you aren't sneaking into Gryffindor Tower to hex brooms. Messing with the marauders is different from dealing with Malfoy. Gryffindors don't torture people for invading their privacy." She almost smiled at the intensity in his voice. He was worried about her. But she understood the risks as well as he did.

"Let's go," she said shortly. "And think up a reason why you're not in there now. Stay in the common room where everyone can see you and then when I tap you, offer to get everyone butter beers from the kitchen."

Severus stayed quiet as they made their way to the dungeons. As usual, she had thought out all the excuses he'd need.

He greeted his housemates coldly, as he always did, and threw himself into a chair by the fire which Rosier had purposely vacated a moment before. Then he waited, making gruff conversation and trying not to watch the staircase to the boys' dormitory.

Muriel ran soundlessly up to the door marked "6th years." She took out her wand and cast several unlocking charms on the door, then whispered, "Finite incantem," just in case the doorknob had been enchanted to harm her. She and Marisa had done that once when Vanessa had made fun of Marisa for being skinny. It had been both useful and amusing.

But if she got caught today, it would be neither. Finally she opened the door. Only Minchew was inside. He was sitting on his bed, reading something that looked an awful lot like that Mad Muggle comic book that had just come out. Muriel stored the information away for later use and crept to the other side of the room.

She found Rena, her tiny feet chained to nails driven into Malfoy's dresser, and her wings bound to her body with spell-o-tape. The poor bird was lying down sideways and Muriel could see that she'd been through a lot. They hadn't just caught her. They'd hurt her.

She pried open the chains and tenderly took her feet out, though she left her wings bound. She wouldn't be flying for a while anyway. Muriel took the little bird behind Malfoy's bed hangings. She would have to recast the invisibility spell to include the bird. She hoped Minchew wouldn't notice.

She dropped the spell and cast it again, then walked quickly for the door. Minchew looked up. For a moment she was afraid that the spell hadn't worked, but then she realized that he was looking right through her, at Malfoy's dresser.

Minchew swore vehemently. Where had the damn bird gone? It couldn't have flown away! He scrambled out of bed and started looking on the floor, under the dresser and under the beds.

Muriel pulled his door closed behind her as she left and tapped Severus quickly on the shoulder. They needed to get out of there before Minchew sent up the alarm.

"Well, I think I'll go down to the kitchens and see about getting us some butter beer," Severus began in a disinterested voice. He stood, but never got to ask who would like one, as Minchew was racing down the stairs.

"Malfoy? Where's Malfoy?" None of the younger students knew, but some 5th years in the corner sniggered and pointed toward the girl's dormitory. "Well go get him," Minchew snapped at one of the girls. Her eyes widened a bit and she hurried up the stairs. Muriel didn't even want to know how he had managed to get into the girl's dormitory.

It didn't matter. There was no way Severus could leave now without arousing suspicion, and she was starting to feel the spell draining her. She set off for his dormitory before Malfoy could arrive. Thankfully, both his dorm mates appeared to be asleep. She cast a silencing charm on his bed hangings before pulling them closed around her and dropping the spell. Then she thought hard. How was she going to get out of this?

She heard footsteps running up the stairs, and the boys in the room sat up groggily. Severus stuck his head in the door. "Either of you see a bird flying around?" he asked sharply. "Malfoy's lost one." They shook their heads, and one of them began to roll over to go back to sleep. "Don't you think it would be wise to help us look?" Severus asked pointedly.

The boys groaned, but knew better than to appear as if they didn't care about whatever Malfoy cared about. They got up and followed him upstairs. A moment later, Severus stuck his head back in the door. "Take my broom and go out the window," he whispered before pulling the door closed again.

Muriel smirked into the darkness as she flew away toward her own house's tower. Why hadn't she thought of that?

* * * * * * *

Muriel left a note at Professor Kettleburn's place at the Head Table before breakfast the next morning. It was imperative that no one but her dorm mates knew she had the bird back, but Rena was sick. Muriel couldn't figure out what they'd done to her. The professor seemed to understand, and she didn't hear from him until her Care of Magical Creatures class the next day.

"Miss Deesia! That is NOT the correct way to handle a bow truckle. Five points from Ravenclaw for your ineptitude and you will stay after class today!"

"Yes Professor Kettleburn," she answered humbly. This caused the marauders to look up. It was rare for Deesia to say anything humbly. Sirius tried to catch her eye. He highly doubted that she'd been handling her bow truckle wrong and he could think of only one reason why she might need to speak with the professor. He hoped that she had been able to get Rena back.

Muriel took care not to look toward the Gryffindors at all. She was getting good at determining which thoughts in this chorus around her belonged to Sirius, however, and she appreciated his worry over Rena.

When she was sure the rest of the class was out of hearing, she pulled the dejected little bird out of the pocket of her robes. Rena didn't twitter at all, she only blinked stupidly at the sudden light. Mur had done her best to take the spell-o-tape off without hurting her, and there was no indication that she'd been injured. She just wasn't acting like herself anymore.

"She doesn't even like her treats anymore, professor," Mur said sadly, trying to feed Rena a little blue seed. The bird only turned her head.

Professor Kettleburn had never seen anything like it. Although he knew what the birds ate and how they behaved, he had never actually dealt with one before, and had no idea what was wrong with her now. "Perhaps you would let me keep her in my quarters? If I can observe her for a while I might be able to find a way to help her."

Muriel nodded. "But professor, it really is very important that no one knows I got her back." She told him what she'd gone through, and that 'several others' might get into trouble if word got out. She agreed to bring him the cage and seeds after dinner as they walked back to the castle together.

But when she got to her room she saw a horrible sight. Marisa appeared beside her and gasped. Their things were scattered over the room. And in the cage beside the window was the badly deformed body of a little blue bird. Muriel took it out of the cage, not understanding. It looked just like the bird she'd given to Professor Kettleburn, and she KNEW he would never have let anything happen to her.

Before she could help herself she sat down on the floor with the little bird in her lap and cried. Marisa took another look around the room. "I'll get Severus," she whispered, and she ran for the Slytherin dormitories.

She nearly ran into Jolina Avery and her friends on the stairs. Marisa had never dealt with the Slytherins at all, because of her mother's warning. But she'd seen Mur do it dozens of times.

She took the girl's arm, hoping to talk her into fetching Severus from the common room. But Jolina wrenched her arm back out of her hand. "Don't touch me, you filthy mud blood!" she spat angrily.

Marisa realized immediately that much of the respect they had for Muriel was because she was pure blooded. She was about to resort to the OTHER reason people respected her dorm mate when a cold voice behind her brought her around.

"It wouldn't be wise, so close to the Slytherin dungeons, for a mud blood like yourself to go hexing Miss Avery." It was Severus, and though his voice was taunting, his face was worried. He knew Marisa wouldn't be down here for no reason.

Jolina was looking at him appreciatively but he kept his disgust from registering on his face. "Run along," he said to Marisa. But she stood, uncertain as to whether he would follow or not. "And tell Mur that next time she sends someone to find me she ought to choose with a little more taste."

Now she was really infuriated. She turned without another word and huffed back up the stairs as the Slytherin girls laughed wickedly. Severus followed her at a distance, not sure what could have gone wrong.

Marisa could hear him behind her, but she didn't turn. When she reached the portrait hole she said the password clearly and went inside without a backward glance. Severus shook his head. There was no sense in trying to make the girl understand. If he had appeared to approve of her presence there, it would have complicated things to no end.

He respectfully waited a moment, but it must have been a moment too long, because Marisa stuck her head out again. "Are you coming or not?" she asked irritably.

He smiled: a real smile that was the closest to an apology as he could come, and followed her into the Ravenclaw common room. Marisa thought briefly that he really wasn't so bad looking when he smiled like that. Maybe that's how Muriel saw him.

Mur had come down to the common room, and was surrounded by her housemates. They made room for Severus to sit beside her and she showed him the broken little bird, crying silently.

It was a tough moment for Severus. Did he act like a cold Slytherin git and maintain his reputation, or did he comfort his best friend. Silently he put an arm around her and took the lifeless body out of her hands, placing it gently on his robe. The Ravenclaws drifted away, then, except for Marisa, who sat staring at the bird with her head in her hands.

A few minutes later, Muriel had composed herself, and snatched Rena back from him. "Incendio," she whispered. Several of her housemates gasped, and Kyle even shouted in alarm as her hand appeared to catch fire. But when the flames went out her hand was unmarked except by a pile of ashes, which she threw unceremoniously in the fireplace. Marisa was looking at her as though she was mad, but Severus understood. She was done mourning. It was time to move on. He sat with her until dinner time and even let her hold his hand all the way down to the Great Hall.

They parted ways silently and Muriel went directly to the head table. Severus had ventured a guess that Malfoy had transfigured some other creature into a Cornish Wren to trick them, and she wanted Professor Kettleburn to find out and change it back. For all they knew, it could have been one of his house mates. Malfoy wasn't above such things.

"I'll kill them one day," Muriel whispered to Marisa as she sat down. Marisa felt a chill run down her spine. She said it so matter-of-factly that there could be no suspicion that it was an idle threat. "When I'm an auror and they're death eaters, I'll really enjoy killing them."

Marisa ate in silence. She had just been reminded again of the vast difference between her and her friend. It was better not to speak of it.

Avery had no proof that Mur and Severus had taken the bird, but that didn't stop him from keeping an extra close eye on them. But Muriel spent only a few days in sullen silence before she came into the great hall for breakfast, the day before their first exams, and threw a fillibuster firework onto the table in front of the marauders. She was determined that it would appear that everything was back to normal so that the Slytherins would have no reason to suspect Severus' involvement. That would truly be dangerous.

The marauders answered in kind, and for the last few days before summer, everyone but the 5th and 7th year students thought life was pretty good again.