Aqua Regia

Chapter One „Secrets"

At midnight Selene Petersen jumped out of her bed, then she grasped the torch and started to cast the light on her friend's bedroom's window. Their rooms'd been leveled and located above a narrow dead end.

They went together to Hogwarts - Magical School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - for four years. Now they had holidays for two months, after those, it would be Hogwarts again, the next year. They both were in one of the Four Houses - Ravenclaw - and were very proud of it. Though Rien Ricin had a bigger reason for looking down her nose at everybody she'd met, because she was a daughter of Abbery and Jean Ricin (both French), who'd had no idea about the existence of magic before. Whereas the Petersens were an old Welsh pureblood and rich family of wizards and witches for ages. Although they hadn't had a good reputation - the Ministry of Magic had told aurors (a special group of people who are "hunting" dark wizards) to kill all of them and to destroy their houses. Well... the Petersens were on Voldemort's side. Of course not all of them, but mainly. Selene's parents'd never followed the Dark Lord, but the present minister of magic - Cornelius Fudge - however found prooves, which were refering against them. Selene's older sister Charlene had been alarmed by her closest friend in the nick of time and they had been able to run away as fast as they could. Two-year-old Selene and twenty-two-year old Charlene hid in an old forestry in the mountains. Aurors gave a chase after them, but they came back empty-handed. The sisters had been found after a week by Charlie's friend. He helped them with sneaking to Mayfair in London. Emaciated, hungry, scratched and moody, Charlie and Selene could count only on him. He had told them not to worry about Ministry moves and to start a new life in Mayfair. After three years Ministry'd finally found them, but they did absolutely nothing. They hadn't even touched them, because "it had no sense to run after the Petersens". They'd found out that Charlene and Selene's parents weren't Death Eaters, including Charlene. But it was too late. Far too late. Nowadays Charlene was wondering why they'd stopped hunting them.

Selene saw the curtains in Rien's window parting, and after a while they showed the* pale and curious face of her friend. There was a click and Rien opened the window. Selene threw back her long darkblond plait and whispered:

"Hey, Rien! Everybody's sleeping there?"

Rien shook her head.

"Manticore's not sleeping," she explained. 'Manticore' was how she's called for her younger brother Rigel, who was always concocting something, getting into a lot of trouble at Hogwarts because of that.

"That git should make friends with Fred and George Weasley."

"Rather not, Hogwarts wouldn't stand still for long," chuckled Selene.

"It must be a serious matter you want to talk with me about at this time, during one of the most boring nights in holidays," Rien said ironically.

"Obviously, yes. Two words: Demon's Hatchery. Do you know something about it?"

Rien frowned.

"Turn the light off," she commended and looked over at the empty and calm street.

"Well? Don't worry, nobody's eavesdropping..."

"How do you know that? Now, when Voldemort's in power again, probably he has got his useful spies everywhere." Yes, Rien wasn't afraid of calling the Dark Lord by his name. She really didn't care much about it by the way.

"So, what about this Hatchery?"

"Hmm... I know not much about that place, only Faye'd mentioned it once..."

Faye Valentino was the second female best friend of Selene. The dopey, red-haired miss, daughter of the famous auror Christina Raelly-Valentino, who'd married a muggle journalist, knew about many things, which happened to exist in wizarding world. Selene'd better not to risk asking Charlene about Demon's Hatchery, because otherwise she'd have to tell her about all the previous year's trips to Restricted Section in Hogwart's Library, and long walks in Forbidden Forest.

"Demon's Hatchery is located in Argh Plains beyond our lovely Forbidden Forest," Rien started in a quiet voice. "It's well know that there are hatching one of the most beautiful, intelligent and strongest creatures, which like to play with other's lives and sometimes they kill for pleasure. They usually eat lunch at Voldemort's place... No, I'm just kidding! I know nothing more about them. They're probably immortal."

"But it hasn't been prooved yet," sighed Selene. She decided that when they'd go to Hogwarts, they'd visit the Restricted Section as soon as possible.

"I've got and idea! We'll go to Hagrid! He likes to talk about that kind of stuff, he wouldn't refuse a little chat about demons..."

"Rien, are you crazy? He'll rather kill us when we'll ask him 'bout it, as we're not allowed to know anything about demons."

"In that case, Faye's going to go and ask a proffesor. Teachers usually like her."

"Especially male teachers. Besides, we can't ask teachers. They'll expell us from school."

Rien hesitated for a moment and asked with no special interest:

"Exactly, why is asking about demons so dangerous?"

Selene didn't know. That is, some people had told her that it's some kind of a taboo and a mention about these creatures in any place is a menace of losing one's life, but why?

"I have no idea," she said finally. Suddenly, the night's silence was cut off by Charlie's happy shout. Selene jumped and did big eyes. "Geez! What's up with her? I though she was asleep already."

"Better check," suggested Rien with a slight smile on her face.

Selene told her that she will be back soon, and she closed the window and heard Charlie's shrieking. The girl was very curious about what'd happened, so she went straight to the living room, where her sister was jumping, holding a letter in one hand. Maybe it had something to do with a new job? Charlene had given an annocement to 'Daily Prophet', in order to find a normal occupation. Hitherto, she'd been working in 'Northern Star', a club for a rich people on Diagon Alley, so she could look up to people like the famous viceminister of magic - Helen Moore, retired Miguel Inde - the most famous Seeker in Quidditch in the Irish Dream Team and many others. Lucius Malfoy came there very often too; as for his presence Charlie wasn't so pleased, but he always gave her high tips. It wasn's that bad in 'Northern Star', Charlie earned enough money to keep Selene and herself alive.

Charlene at last noticed her sister and stretched out a hand with the mysterious letter.

"Read it!" she squeaked . Her sapphire eyes were twinkling with laughter.

Selene started to read what had been written on a piece of parchment.

Dear Charlene Petersen!

I have to admit, that I haven't read such an original announcement

from you as a job-seeker in 'Daily Prophet'. I'd like to tell you that you

got the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher's position. I have to

add that it would be much better if you came to Hogwarts before

starting of the new term.

Yours,

Albus Dumbledore

P.S. Don't thank me, it was your second half's credit, who has slightly changed.

"'Your second half's'?" repeated Selene, after hugging her sister tightly.

"Oh, it's about Severus!" said Charlie. "I'm wondering what it means that he's 'slightly changed'?

"Your second half, well, well!" mocked Selene.

"Stop it. We're just friends."

"You talk! Oh, no! You'll be keeping an eye on me at Hogwarts! My sister is going to teach me Defence Against the Dark Arts! I hope you'll do your best, if you don't I'll never talk to you again!"

"Small loss. Come to the kitchen, we have to celebrate it! By the way, I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry."

"It's not true. Only when I'm nervous."

"That means ALWAYS."

"Selene!" warned Charlie.

"OK, OK, I'm quiet now."

Selene went to the kitchen right after Charlene. She liked this room the most in their small flat. Rays of sun always lightened it , unlike her bedroom. The walls were supposed to be white, but one unlucky day Charlene had been furious, because Lucius Malfoy'd told her that she was pretty while being angry, and Charlie had taken her wand in her shaking hand... Now the walls were looking like they were after the Second World War - all in doodles. Despiting these facts, it was a very nice-looking kitchen. Clean, tidy with a pine smell. Selene'd chosen her favourite, different from the others, chair and waited calmly until Charlie got a big cake out of the fridge. Charlene made it by herself yesterday and it looked yummy!

Indeed - Severus Snape, whom other students hated (but not his own House; he had been obviously spoiling the Slytherins!) as much as possible, Potion's Master and Head of Slytherin House, was Charlene's best friend from their school days. It seemed to Selene that they felt for each other something more, but anytime they'd met, they were acting just like normal friends. Selene had a quite good relationship with Snape - unlike other students from Rowena Ravenclaw's House. Though nobody except her best and closest friends (Rien Ricin, Faye Valentino, Artemis Roberts, Jason Speaks and Terry 'Tee' Lewis) had an idea about her sister and Severus Snape's friendship.

"Isn't that wonderful?" Charlie was fully delightened after the second piece of her delicious cake. "My beloved Sev got me a new job! At last!"

"Then why haven't you taught before?" asked Selene with interest.

"Because Severus never had a possibility to voice his opinion about new teachers."

"And he wants that position too," noticed Selene. "Once he had a Defence lesson with us and Gryffindors... It was worse than in Potions!"

"Severus wants the Defence Against the Dark Arts job?" repeated Charlie thoughtfully. "I had never heard of it from him. And usually he talks to me about everything. That is, he complained that Dumbledore hired a Vampire Slayer, who was sometimes raving mad during the lessons. No, you weren't going to school yet . Then there was Quirrell and Severus was right about him - Quirrell was an 'accidental' Voldemort's servant. Next Lockhart... Sev was really pissed off, because Dumbledore hadn't listened to him. Now he had a free hand, I see..."

Selene frowned and asked:

"Then why he's still contesting on this position?"

"No, it's really not like this!" laughed Charlene. "It's only because he's damn good at it, whereas Dumbledore keeps on hiring such idiots. Except Remus Lupin and a certain Moody (who wasn't exactly that Moody, but now it doesn't matter - if it had been him, it would have been good), everybody obviously didn't fit to teach at Hogwarts, not to mention muggle schools!"

"Charlie... How many Defence teachers did you have?"

"It's weird, but only one."

Selene went stiff.

"What?!" she spluttered. "One?"

"Yeah. The best, in comparison to the present. Professor Aquila Herne. Head of Slytherin House and one of the nicest teachers in the whole wizarding world. He'd been working for two years when Severus started to teach. Though finally they took him to Azkaban. Severus had had a nervous breakdown and stopped teaching for about three months to bouce back. Remember that guy who came to us when you were four?"

She did. Raven-haired, in long black coat, pale, his eyes red from the tears he was crying out, his body shaking. Charlie told Selene to go to sleep and hugged the stranger, who collapsed and started to cry.

It had been Snape? Impossible! He had looked completely different! Well, not quite different, but he had had a fragile shape of the face, normal, somehow fluffy hair, straight nose... He had been tremendously handsome. Why did he look different now, why wasn't he so cute? She automatically imagined Faye staring at him with love in her big eyes and she shook her head.

"It was him?" she whispered, terrified.

"Yes," was the answer.

"But he was different... Handsome." Selene blushed suddenly. "Boyish. He's changed so much, then?"

"It hadn't been natural factors. He had changed himself. Otherwise too many people would have recognized him."

"What?"

Oops! Charlie had no idea about how to make the best of the bad job. Selene knew quite a lot about Severus. Almost everything. Almost. She didn't know that he once was a Death Eater. And Charlene didn't want her to know, that she had a friend who had been a murderer and God knows if he wasn't nowadays. A friend who had been Voldemort's supporter.

"Time will come, I'll tell you," she said finally.

"He killed somebody?"

"Selene, I can't tell you."

"So, he did."

"Selene!" alarmed her Charlie.

"OK, sooner or later I'll get to know."

Charlie let out the breath she'd been holding for a long time. But on that score Selene could be dangerous. Charlene knew that her little sister won't give up until she finds out the truth about Severus Snape. What was more, she would tell everything to her friends and from a small problem there'd be an extremely big one. Currently Charlene started to have a great dilemma - tell her everything with details and colours or Selene would get to the bottom of that matter by herself, and Faye and the others would blurt out it to all the people they happened to know (in that case, Rien Ricin had to be omitted, because she didn't care about Snape without a reason).

"Why was your teacher taken to Azkaban?" asked Selene suddenly and started to drink her pumpkin juice.

"Illegal experiments, stealing artifacts he needed to do these experiments with, or rather comissioning others to steal. We got to know it, when we were not going to Hogwarts anymore. He hid it very carefully. He had three fantastic thieves, but ministry had never caught them."

"So many mysteries..."

"And that's the worst. We even don't know what had happened to him. Probably, they let him go. Severus knows where he is, though I can't cough it up from him."

"Trelawney's inner eye would know for sure," giggled Selene.

"In your stories Sybill Trelawney seems for me to be an idiot, Lene, although sometimes she really can predict something."

"She didn't teach you?"

"No. I was taught by a certain Heather Zimmeckis. German. She was pretty good at it. Now you wouldn't find such a perfect seer. She taught us Hindu magic and Indian Ivoco. I guess that Trelawney'll start to to drum this into you this year or the next. I don't remember."

"Ivoco?" Selene repeated slowly. "I've heard of it before. Rien read about it in one of the oldest books."

"Found it in Restricted Section, maybe?"

"No," lied Selene.

"I can see that innocence in your eyes."

"OK, yes - from *the* Restricted Section. Happy now? And probably you'll personally stand on Library's guard waiting to deduct some points from me or expell me from Hogwarts?"

"No, you can't be expelled this year."

"Do you predict something?"

"Many things," replied Charlene mysteriously. "Lene, tomorrow or rather today we're going to Diagon Alley in order to buy you new books, so do me a favour and go to bed. I have no patience to go to closed shops in the evening."

"Good night, then," said Selene cheerfully and kissed her sister's cheek. She went to her bedroom. After closing the door, she grasped the torch again and at once started to cast the light on Rien's windows. A loud noise was a reply and she could see a tangle of curly hair and Rien's brother's big chocolate eyes through the window. He waved to Selene and he called someone with a small gesture of his other hand. Rien opened the window quietly.

"Well, what's happened to our dear Charlie?" she asked.

"She got a new job at Hogwarts!" whispered Selene. "We have to beware, she's got her eyes all around her head. But I'm sure, that she's not going to expell us!"

"She told you that?" squeaked Rigel, momentally appearing next to Rien, who started to congratulate Selene in Charlie's name.

"Yes, Rigel, she did. She got the hang of that we had night trips to Library. She wasn't that pissed off."

"She was doing the same at our age," mumbled Rien.

"Sure."

"However she got this job?" asked Rigel.

"Snape helped her. And Dumbledore read her announcement she'd given to the 'Daily Prophet'".

"We should have expected that."

"I'm wondering how we're going to call her," said Rien slowly." You, Lene, per 'Professor sister Charlie', me 'Professor Charlie' and Rigel 'Professor'".

Selene chuckled. Rigel looked indignant.

"Hey! It's not fair! You're abusing me! I'm calling her by her first name too!"

"When do you go to Diagon Alley?" Rien ignored him, turning to her best friend.

"Tomorrow. That's... Today. And you?" told her Selene.

"Next week, when parents will finally get the pay."

"You still want to drop out of Divination?"

"I'd love to! With pleasure! Trelawney drives me mad!"

"What lesson will you go to instead of it?"

"Ancient Runes, I think ("You think!" smirked Rigel.). It's the best for me. And I got to know, that it's in the same time Ravenclaws have Divination. What are you looking at?" she was irritated. "Tee had the same last year when he was a fifth year!"

"Oi, you're hedging!"

"What about when in the same time there'll be something else?" catched on Rigel.

"Stop that, you two! I can't go to divination, because I don't care about it, understand? Rigel, go to bed, I'm not able to talk with Lene in your presence."

"You bitch!" snapped Rigel and left both girls alone. Selene heard the door of Rien's bedroom shot.

"Did Charlie told you about something interesting?" Rien kept asking when she was sure that nobody's eavesdropping.

"Something about Snape, that he had changed because too many people would recognize him. You know that I saw him, how he'd looked like before this change?"

"And?"

"Gosh, I feel so stupid telling you this... If now he'd changed - and he changed, Dumbledore said so himself in a letter - then he's the most handsome man I've ever seen!"

Rien sighed deeply. Now, it's the last she wanted - to have Selene in love with the worst teacher under the sun. She'll even tolerate and understand Faye. The Redhead always falls in love with someone older. Well, everyone's different tastes.

"We'll wait and see," she whispered, breaking the silence. "I'm wondering what other students are going to say to this."

"Ahh... Hogwarts!" Selene started daydreaming.. "I can't wait till when we're in our fifth year. But it's still a month. Charlie has to go there earlier, so I think I'm going with her..."

"Oh, no, no, no! I won't let you go there, you'll stay here. Besides: what will you do there all alone? Probably they wouldn't even let you touch anything and you'll have to stay in our dormitory. They would give you meals through a keyhole."

"Rien! OK, so I'll try to entreat Charlie to stay here, I hope she agrees."

"She has no other way. I'm wondering who you'll meet tomorrow?"
"Today."

"It doesn't matter - tomorrow or today. But rather today" she agreed.

"I'm very curious if Charlie's going to do something about Snape... You know what I mean, don't you?"

"Yeah. But it's practically impossible."

"Why?"

"It would destroy their friendship. And friendship is the most important thing here. If yes, then what if they're not going to like each other in lover's roles?"

"Miss Ricin, what rubbish are you talking about?" Selene started to imitate their Transfiguration teacher - professor Minerva McGonagall, one of the sharpest professors in Hogwarts. "We'll see how it goes" she added in her natural voice, resting her chin on her hands. "Maybe I'll be able to officially call him by his first name?"

"Is this so exciting? Severus, Sev, Sevvie... Oh, dear!" she moaned to the air and Selene silenced her, irritated.

"Charlie says I can call him 'Severus', but not in front of students in Hogwarts."

"Sevvie, sweety, how is it like with my sister?" scoffed Rien.

"I said clearly 'Severus', not 'Sevvie'! And I don't know what he'll say to that."

"Minus two thousand points, Selene!"

"Stop joking. I'm taking it serously."

"It's stupid to call Snape by his first name, don't you think, Lene? Let's change the subject, I don't have the nerve to talk about this git."

"At the beginning you were so anxious about it and now? You're mocking!"

"I didn't start it. It was you, dear. I only said that 'it would destroy their friendship.'"

True. Selene's always been complaining that Rien didn't want to talk with her about Severus Snape. She only kept laughing at him in a very unkind way, or automatically changed the topic of the discussion. With Faye was the same - Selene couldn't even talk about homework he gave them. Faye Valentino, as she's been saying so herself, 'had much better things to do'. These 'better things' contained improvement of her beautiful thick hair, make up and fighting with poor Artemis Roberts, her very secret admirer. Artemis, though, valued more to the fact that Snape still existed in Hogwarts and had already deducted points from Ravenclaw House for Faye, who was powdering her gracefull little nose. The best to discuss Snape's matter with was Jason Speaks (who was madly in love with Rien Ricin and vice versa): their Potion's Master existence and deducting points didn't escape his attention that much, he paid his attention too to what Snape had actually said. Jason was the best in Potions right after a certain Ravenclaw Lisa Turpin, who shared the dormitory with Faye, Rien and Selene. They liked her, but had her own company from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff - very nice people, indeed. In the girls' dormitory were another beds too, which belonged to muggleborn Nadia Jefferson and Padma Patil (her twin sister was in Gryffindor). they sticked together with Lisa. Faye reckoned them as 'lifeless', and Rien, as always, didn't care about them. She talked to them rarely, only when she needed something from them or they needed something from her.

Although Terry Lewis - that is famous 'Tee' - always eagerly compared with Selene about Severus Snape. In his opinion, Snape'd been a big alive unknown quantity. He claimed that Snape did something for sure and so now he tried to hide. His suspicions came true - Snape was hiding. Selene told herself to find some more informations about Snape. Maybe she'll go to Charlie... Maybe not.

Selene looked at Rien.

"OK, you're right and you know it," she laughed quietly."But we'll see, who's going to be more interested in Snape."

"I vote for you and Faye," chuckled Rien.

"You've got only one voting voice!"

"Then - you."

"We'll see, we'll see. I think I'll go to bed now, I'm tired. Besides, I'm going to Diagon Alley... Good night, Rien."

"Good night, Lene. Sweet dreams."

"Sweet dreams."

In the bed Selene couldn't stop thinking about Snape and Tee. Tee. That would be great, if she'd see him today, she'd talk to him. Or, if not, she was going to send him a letter. She was pretty sure he'd have something interesting to say about their Potion's Master.

And about Demon's Hatchery too.

And what do you think?