The Embittering of Severus Snape

Muriel was sitting with her father at the formal dining room table when their owl, Gypsy, flapped through the window and deposited a letter in Mr. Deesia's lap. Muriel wordlessly handed the bird a bit of her toast and it flew off again.

The summer was half gone. Severus had finally started acting semi-normal again. He was still blocking her, but he'd at least been able to give her a reason. His father was pressuring him. She worried about it all the time. Severus was learning Occlumency, from Papa no less, so that he wouldn't betray himself when his father questioned him about becoming a Death Eater. Muriel had been silent all through breakfast as she pondered this. There just HAD to be a way to get Severus out of the house before his father forced him to take the Dark Mark. It was this thought that had her so distracted that she missed what her father said.

"What Papa?" she asked, snapping out of her own thoughts. Her father was examining an unopened envelope suspiciously.

"The Black family crest," he said again, showing her the wax. "Why would anyone from that family be writing to me?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "I'd forgotten! It must be from Sirius. It's alright, Papa, he's a friend." Her father was now looking over the envelope at her as though she was crazy.

"I put up with Severus because I know he isn't like his father." His voice was hard, and though his thoughts were continually veiled from her, Muriel could feel that he was worried. "The Black family aren't Death Eaters yet, but they support the Dark Lord none the less. I don't think I want you becoming friends with their son."

"Papa! He's best friends with James Potter!" She knew she sounded utterly exasperated. Her mother would have said that she'd played her Ace too soon. But her mother was gone now, and Muriel wasn't altogether upset about that. On the other hand, her mother would have been only too happy to send her to the Blacks'. "Please just read it and see what he says." She added this a little more quietly, hoping he would listen more to what she was saying than what she was feeling. Her stomach was all in knots!

Still looking at her, he slit the envelope and pulled out a short letter. His eyebrows went up and stayed that way. It seemed to Muriel that he took forever to read it. It was only a short bit of parchment, after all.

"Apparated from the school once or twice, didn't you?" he asked calmly, and she knew she was in a great deal of trouble. Her father had taught her to Apparate before she'd ever attended Hogwarts, but you weren't supposed to do it until you passed the ministry's test after your 6th year. The first thing she was going to do when she saw him was hex Black for letting that slip!

"Yes Papa," she admitted. She fixed her eyes on the table in front of her and waited, but the tirade she expected didn't come.

"And how did this young man find out?" Muriel ventured to look up at him. He had a small smile on his face and she judged that he was in an indulgent mood, so she took a deep breath.

"Did mother ever mention that I sent you a letter asking for some new clothes the year before last?" He shook his head sadly. "Well, a Gryffindor girl named Lily Evans had a pair of blue jeans that I liked a lot. I sent an owl to ask if you could send me a pair."

"Oh no." her father said dejectedly.

"She sent me a howler." Muriel tried to keep the emotion out of her voice. "She told the entire school that her daughter would not be dressing like that filthy mudblood in her blue jeans. I actually had to stand up on the table to get everyone's attention, and stun someone to prevent a fight. I even apologized. Lily came and found me afterward and offered to have her mother get me a pair. I told her I had a better idea. The next Hogsmeade weekend I Apparated to London and bought 3 pairs of jeans." She looked up, feeling rather ashamed of herself. Her father had taught her to Apparate so she could escape if the Death Eaters ever tried to capture her, not so she could go on an unaccompanied shopping trip to London. "Lily must have told Sirius," she finished quietly.

To her surprise her father was laughing softly to himself. When his eyes finally met hers, though, his smile melted away again. "But why would your friend Lily have told a Slytherin that you could Apparate?"

"Oh, he's not in Slytherin House, Papa. He's a Gryffindor." They were both startled by the doorbell.

"That will be young Mr. Black," her father said tonelessly, but a smile was playing on the corners of his lips. Muriel jumped from her seat. "I will get the door, young lady!" He sounded strict, but he was smiling in earnest now.

"Yes, Papa. I'll just go change into my dress robes!" She heard her father's laughter again as she raced up the stairs and knew she would be allowed to go.

When she came downstairs Sirius was waiting for her, looking rather pale. 'Lord only knows what Papa said to scare him!' she thought, fighting back her laughter. A moment later her father came downstairs as well, and handed her a bag.

"You'll be spending the night at the Blacks' tonight, since I will likely be away until late tomorrow afternoon." He wasn't smiling, and suddenly neither was Muriel. This wasn't like him at all.

"Papa, will you be alright?" she whispered.

"Of course." He sounded worried, though. "Your mirror is in the bag, be sure to keep it near you and I will contact you when I can."

"Yes, Papa."

"Go on, then, have a good time." He was smiling again, though it looked rather forced. She let Sirius lead her outside and watched her father close the door. When she turned back to Sirius, she saw that his face was now deathly white.

"Come on!" He grabbed the sleeve of her violet robe and pulled her onto what she could only assume was a flying carpet. He was staring at Severus' house, so she did too. As they rose into the air she saw that Mr. Snape had emerged from the house. She knew it was he, in spite of the mask he wore. He was heavier than Severus was and a bit taller. Sirius steered the carpet right into a cloud to keep Mr. Snape from seeing them, which is why neither saw a second figure exit the house as well.

"Snape is a Death Eater?" Sirius was nearly hysterical. Muriel hadn't quite planned on this.

"I told you not to come here. Why didn't you just let me Apparate to your house?" her voice was as cold as the saturated air through which they flew.

"He's your best mate, you must have known! Why haven't you told anyone? Why haven't you told your father?" This was definitely not what Muriel had hoped her time alone with Sirius would be like.

"Not Severus, his father! And I haven't told Papa because he's a Death Eater too." This had the effect of closing Sirius' open mouth and giving her time to explain. "Listen. You know my abilities. My father blocks me at every turn. I can't read him at all, so once I forced the issue. I sneaked into his room one night last summer and cast the spell. I saw it all. But I never told him what I'd done. Severus and I decided that it was best to ignore what our parents were doing for as long as we could. When he feels the call of the Dark Mark, he tells me it's ministry business and off he goes. He can tell that I'm worried, but who wouldn't be worried about Auror's business?" She was out of breath, so she fell silent, waiting for Sirius' response.

He thought about asking her why she didn't turn them both in, but he knew why. Where would she live? How would anyone catch them anyway? And most importantly, would they come back to get even with her if she did?

"I've always been the white sheep in the Black family," said finally, staring hard into her eyes. "Looks like we really are in the same boat." She nodded silently and he realized she was fighting back tears. He looked away.

The sun had burned away the clouds by the time they reached Grimmauld Place. Muriel cast her invisibility charm as they descended and held it until they stood in front of the house. Sirius rolled the carpet and hoisted it up under his arm. He offered her a hand and she took it, not allowing herself to hesitate. "Up for some good news?" he asked slyly as he opened the front door. She narrowed her eyes and nodded warily. "My parents won't be back until dinner."

As Muriel got into bed that night, content from dinner with Sirius, and his brother and father, she was startled by her father's voice whispering her name. She took her mirror out of the pocket of her pajama shirt. "Papa?" she whispered back. Her father's face appeared, looking pale and drawn.

"Muriel, you're going to have to stay with the Blacks longer than I'd expected. I'll send your things over as soon as I can. Whatever you do, don't come back to the house. And don't go anywhere but Diagon Alley this summer. Don't go into Muggle London, all right?" He was panicking, but Muriel stayed calm. After all, she already knew why he was telling her this.

"Yes, Papa." His face disappeared. It was a long time before Muriel was able to fall asleep.

---

Mrs. Black was sitting alone at the kitchen table when Muriel awoke and went downstairs. She had been away most of the night and had missed dinner. "Regalus mentioned that we had company." Muriel was a bit startled to find herself alone with Mrs. Black, but recovered quickly and thanked her graciously for allowing her to stay.

"Papa and I really appreciate you letting me stay with you last night. He's been very busy." She felt uncomfortable under Mrs. Black's hard, dark eyes. She was also acutely aware that Mrs. Black was excellent at Occlumency.

"Yes, I expect the ministry will have their hands full for quite some time. Coffee?" Mrs. Black got up suddenly and poured them each a cup, then returned to the table.

"Thank you." Muriel knew she'd better broach the subject now. "Mrs. Black? My father contacted me last night." She saw the knowing grin on the older woman's face and set her mug down. This woman knew about her father! Well, that explained why she was being so pleasant. Muriel smiled back, knowing she could use this information.

"I'm sure you're aware that he's not going to be available much this summer. He suggested that you might be willing to let me stay here, as a favor to him." Now Mrs. Black was smiling in earnest. She was glad that the girl knew the real reason that her father would be busy for the rest of the summer.

"Of course, my dear. We'd be glad to have you stay. Perhaps you could give my sons some dueling lessons. As I'm sure you've noticed, our home is well protected from the Ministry's magic detecting charms."

Mur bit back a smirk. Apparently Regalus had told his mother about the duel at the end of last year. "Yes, Mrs. Black. But I don't think - "

Mrs. Black cut her off. "If you're staying the summer, you'd best call me Mum." She stood suddenly, and smiled at the girl before leaving.

'Perhaps this is just what we need to get Sirius to see reason,' the woman thought to herself as she headed upstairs. 'After all, what better way to bring him back into the family than to set this pretty young daughter of a Death Eater on him?'

By the time Sirius came downstairs, Muriel was already sitting on the back porch watching the Muggles on either side of the fence chatting to one another. To them, she knew, there was no yard between them. They couldn't see her or hear her. It was unnerving. "What did you say to my mother?" he asked as he opened the door to join her. "She was downright pleasant to me a moment ago!" Muriel looked up at him with a worried expression, and told him all about her father's request and how his mother had responded. She was a little amused at the sudden wave of anxiety that she felt from him when he understood that she'd be staying with them for the next 3 weeks.

"Well, if she knows about your dad, then she's probably counting on you to make a dark wizard out of me." he laughed nervously and she smiled. "She's been very disappointed in my tendency toward harmless pranks."

"Harmless pranks!" Muriel exclaimed. "Didn't you mention to her about sending Severus to meet Remus at the full moon?"

Sirius looked at the ground. "I'm not proud of that." He spoke quietly.

She snorted forcefully, and he looked up again. "I imagine not. Especially since Severus would likely have killed Remus to save himself. He's perfectly capable of it you know." From the look on his face it seemed that this hadn't occurred to Sirius at all. "Potter must have realized it, that's why he went after him. There aren't many curses that work on werewolves, Sirius, but there are a few and Sev knows what they are."

They fell silent. Sirius was beside himself. The fact was that he hadn't even considered that Severus might be a danger to Remus. He'd thought, after the long talk he'd had with Dumbledore, that he understood where to draw the line with his pranks. But obviously he still hadn't thought it through entirely if he missed something that was so obvious to Muriel.

He was just wondering how he could change the topic of conversation when she did it for him. "Why did you invite me here, Black?" He groaned inwardly. The only other thing he really wasn't prepared to discuss. "Your reputation precedes you," she continued. "You've dated every other girl in my dormitory, after all," she paused, then continued a little more forcefully. "We've spent the last 5 years at Hogwarts hexing each other in the hallways and all the sudden you want me to come to dinner? Why?" Her gray eyes were fixing him with a piercing stare, but he met them anyway.

"Why did you agree to come?" he asked quietly. He seemed so utterly different from the boy he was at school. She'd spent a good deal of time last year comforting her friend Marisa when she'd caught him kissing someone else, and he had only laughed. 'Why AM I here?' she asked herself suddenly.

The answer came to her in a sudden wave of understanding. It was what she felt from him. His range of emotion was so like what she'd come to cherish from Severus. So like what she'd lost when Sev learned Occlumency. But she couldn't tell that to Sirius. She wasn't even sure she was ready to admit it to herself.

"Well," she answered slowly, choosing her words carefully and not meeting his eyes, "any girl would be flattered to have your attention." He looked away from her quickly, and she could see that he was turning a bit red. "But that isn't why I agreed to come." She took a deep breath. He was staring out into the yard. It struck her as odd that she suddenly wasn't feeling anything from him until she realized that he was feeling precisely as confused as she was. Their emotions matched so well that she couldn't tell the difference.

"Have you tried at all to keep me out of your head?" She knew the answer already. He had made no effort to shut her off. She'd thought once she explained it on the train that he, like Remus, would at least TRY to keep her from "poking around," as Severus liked to call it. Everyone who'd ever learned of her ability had made an effort to block her. In Maverick's case it had been feeble, but she'd felt it. In Malfoy's case, it had been perfect. She was still wondering how he'd found out. Maybe Severus had told him.

"No," he answered, quietly. He'd heard the argument she and Snape had on the train and he wasn't about to repeat that slimy git's mistakes. As he thought about this he heard Muriel snort and looked up to see her chuckling into her fist. Some of the tension in his stomach eased a bit, and he laughed a little too.

"Come on," she said, pushing her chair back as she stood. "You need to learn to cast a better shield charm." They spent the morning and half the afternoon dueling in the back yard, careful not to let any curses be deflected over the fence.

The days went by quickly as Sirius and Muriel dueled. She showed him every charm, hex and jinx she'd ever found in a book, but it didn't take him long to ask the obvious question. "What about all those curses you threw at me last year?" He must have asked the same question twelve different ways, and by the end of two weeks she was still coming up with new ways to avoid answering. Today she was lucky. Her owl, Gypsy, arrived with several letters and deposited them on top of Sirius' head with a screech before landing on the fence behind him.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed, as Muriel laughed.

"Accio letters," was her only response. The letters flew from the ground to her hand. "Let's take a break. I'm sure one of these is from Sev, and I'd better write him back as quickly as I can." Sirius scowled and nodded, not noticing that his ear was a good deal too high on his head. She laughed quietly as she followed him upstairs to the drawing room.

She finally performed the counter curse after Regalus came out of his room and stared interestedly at Sirius. "That's a real improvement. Are you thinking of leaving it like that?" He sniggered wickedly and went back into his room.

Sirius threw himself onto the couch as Muriel sat down at a highly polished desk and opened a bottle of ink. She opened her book list from Hogwarts and handed Sirius his. "Looks like we'll have to head over to Diagon Alley pretty soon." Sirius didn't answer. He wasn't sure he wanted to think about Diagon Alley. They'd be sure to meet up with the rest of the marauders there, and he was a little concerned that Muriel's friendship would crumble to dust when faced with James' rather aggressive personality.

Muriel wisely chose to ignore that thought. It was a valid worry that she shared. Instead, she opened the letter from Severus. "Ack!" she exclaimed. She put her forefinger in her mouth and looked at Sirius. "Stinging hex," she said thickly. She pulled the letter out carefully and pointed it away from her as she opened it. Nothing happened.

M -
Are you well? Send your location by return owl and I'll pick you up. Mother says you can stay with us. I've been awaiting an owl from you for some time. My father is away. Stop sucking your finger.
-Severus


"Not a very warm character is he?" Sirius asked, his head just over her shoulder. Muriel jumped.

"What? Oh, this is pleasant, for Sev." She was a little embarrassed, actually, that Sirius had read it. He removed himself to the couch again. Whether he realized it or not, Severus was extremely worried that she wasn't at home. He'd obviously already figured out that she wasn't with Aunt Rosa. She pulled out a clean piece of parchment and wrote back.

S -
All is well here. Father has already arranged for me to stay the summer.
Hope your OWL results were satisfactory. See you on the train.
-Muriel


'Now that is going to have him in a rage, but it's the best I can do,' she thought to herself, sealing the envelope and throwing it at Gypsy, who had stationed herself at the open window. The bird spread her wings and launched across the room, catching the envelope easily. She headed back out the window as Muriel called, "Don't wait around for a response!"

Muriel looked back down at the last letter. It wasn't for her. "Looks like this is from Potter," she said, tossing it into Sirius' lap. He sat up with a start and ripped it open.

"I wonder where Gypsy got it?" A goofy grin spread across his face. "That lousy git thinks he beat me on OWLS with his pathetic 7. Two of them weren't even E's!" Muriel smiled faintly. That sounded more like the Sirius she'd known at Hogwarts. He lowered the parchment to look at her. "I got 8, but none of them was lower than Exceeds Expectations."

"That really is astounding, since I didn't even know you studied."

"How'd you do, then?" He shot back, unwilling to be teased about something he really thought was a miracle to begin with.

"9 OWLs if you count Arithmancy, and acceptances to all the NEWT programs I applied for." She didn't bother to mention that she'd taken her Arithmancy OWL years ago. It sounded better to say she'd beat him.

Sirius chucked the paper at her and headed for the door. "Well, come on, enough letters. I'm starving."

---

Muriel lay in bed thinking about the reply that she'd sent Severus. She'd thought about it for days and she couldn't think of anything else that she could have told him. He would be irate if he knew she was here. Severus had hated Sirius from day one and it had only gotten worse since the werewolf incident. And she couldn't go and stay with him. Papa had specifically told her not to come home. She drifted to sleep. Her dreams were filled with the images of her childhood: Severus, pale and sick because she'd carelessly cast a spell on him without first learning the counter spell. Severus, a 1st year student upset at breakfast because Muriel had been put in the wrong house and they couldn't share a common room. Severus, comforting her in their fourth year after her mother's awful howler. Severus, pacing her dorm room deciding how to murder Avery. Severus, on the train home telling her he had no emotions left. She awoke with a start and realized that the sun had been up long since. Sirius was standing in the doorway.

"Mum sent me up to see if you were alright." He walked over to the bed and knelt down to look at her. Her eyes were a bit wild, but she fell back onto the pillow.

"I'm fine, just overslept." He pushed a stray lock of chestnut hair out of her eyes. She shivered.

"Bad dreams?"

"I've had worse," she said, grimacing and sitting up. Sirius stood.

"Up for a trip to Diagon Alley today? Mum said we should get it over with. She's taking Reg, but I don't think she expects us to stick with them." He knew his mother made Muriel nervous. For that matter, she made him nervous too.

"Sure. I'll be down in a bit." When the door closed behind him, she got out of bed and was startled when she looked up at the mirror and saw him in it. She walked over to it. It was showing, in perfect detail, the image of Sirius as he'd walked out of the room. As she watched, it changed to her. When she moved away, it didn't disappear. A sneaking suspicion began to form in her mind. She walked back in front of it again and tapped it with her wand. "Show me the last picture again." Instantly Sirius' face replaced hers, just as it had appeared a moment ago.

She threw on her robes and ran downstairs, wand out. She ran into the kitchen, startling Regalus and Mrs. Black. Sirius wasn't there. "Out on the back porch with his toast, I think," Mrs. Black responded to her unasked question.

"Thanks Mum," she shouted, heading back upstairs. The next word out of her mouth was, "Rictusempra!" Sirius, caught in the back, flew into the yard, his chair landing soundly on top of him. She heard sniggering behind her.

Muriel was glaring at him. "Did I deserve that?" he asked, picking himself up. His hair had come out of its ponytail, and his eyes were wide. Before answering, she rounded on the still laughing form of Sirius' little brother. "Otalgia," she hissed. Immediately both his hands flew to his ears and he ran screaming into the house. She slammed the door and rounded again on Sirius, who was now sporting his usual flirtatious grin.

"You enchanted the mirror in my bedroom to store images," she accused, her wand pointing at his chest. Sirius swallowed hard, the grin disappearing instantly. He had known that the mirror did that. And he'd thought about sneaking in there once or twice to see what it would show him, but he hadn't done it. And he certainly hadn't been the one to enchant the mirror in the first place.

He laughed, then, as she dropped her wand. She must have caught what he was thinking. "It's a painter's mirror. It was meant to capture an image so the painter's subject wouldn't have to stand still all day." He explained as she looked sheepishly at the ground.

"I guess I lost my temper," she mumbled. He walked over. When she looked up he was grinning at her again.

"Yeah, well, I think I've done that once or twice." She smiled back, remembering how angry he'd been when she'd thrown James in the lake.

"So go on," she said, putting her wand into her robes. He tilted his head sideways and gave her a questioning look. "I hit you in the back with a spell. Our ongoing duel dictates that you get a shot at me. I'd rather have it now than when I'm not expecting it."

Sirius thought fast and came up with the perfect spell. He'd heard Lily telling one of the younger Gryffindors about it last year. He whispered it so that she wouldn't hear. Muriel felt the spell hit her, but nothing seemed to happen. She looked at her arms and down at her bare feet. She checked for a tail. She pulled her long, chestnut hair around in front of her eyes to see what color it was.

Finally she asked, "What did you do?" Sirius just grinned and shook his head. "What?"

Instead he walked away from the house and sat down at the base of the tree. She followed, bemusedly wiggling her toes. "I'm not sprouting any extra appendages, so what did you do?" At this he snorted, but he still wouldn't give her a straight answer.

Instead he asked, "How do you feel?" They were sitting with their backs against the tree, shoulders touching, and when she turned to answer she found him already looking at her. He inhaled deeply, enjoying the scent of her hair.

"What do you mean? I feel fine. I should be asking you, since you're the one who flew across the yard!"

He chuckled at that, then took her hand. "No, I mean how do you feel about this," he asked again. He held the back of her hand up to his cheek and she felt her heart flutter a bit.

"The same as I felt half an hour ago when you brushed my hair out of my face." Her voice was unsteady and she looked away. She was confused. Maybe that accounts for why it took her so long to figure out what he'd cursed her with. It was almost a full minute before she dropped his hand and jumped up.

"You tricked me!" Muriel was trying hard to look angry, but she couldn't help but smile. Sirius was grinning very broadly and nodding.

"A simple infatuation spell, only lasts a few minutes. All I needed to know was that you felt no change, and I would know that you were already infatuated." He stood too.

"Outsmarted by a Gryffindor," she laughed as he put his arms around her.

"We Gryffindors may not study, but we do know how to get what we want."

Muriel looked up into his eyes. It was hard to imagine eyes so dark shining that way. "And what is it that you want?" she asked quietly. She felt his hand passing gently through her hair as he bent slowly and brushed her lips with his.

"Oi, SIRIUS! MUM SAYS IT'S TIME TO GO!"

The shout from the house pulled him upright, but he didn't turn around. "That will do to start," he murmured.