Cause and Effect, My Love

Severus Snape leaned confidently on his black car outside of Hogsmeade Station. Students returning from their Christmas vacation were clutching their arms as their suitcases floated before them to the carriages waiting outside. Some students greeted him. If they were Slytherins, he greeted them back; if not, he sneered. Still he waited, even as the final student darted towards and collided gracefully with a closed carriage. What warmth he could feel was felt at the sound of a phone ringing in the station.

The last person to exit was a slim woman in a black vinyl trench coat. She carried no luggage, and wore no scarf. Her face was grim. Mr. Snape found no delight in her choice to wear sunglasses when the sky was overcast and the white snow reflected no sun. He removed his scarf from where it hung around his neck and walked towards the woman. “That coat of yours won’t keep you warm," he said aloud. "Here, take my scarf.”

She met him mid-way in his path and courteously rejected the offer of the scarf. “Green and silver aren’t my house colors,” she said. “I hope you had a good Christmas vacation.”

“I didn’t,” he said. “I spent the whole of my ‘good Christmas vacation’ grading awful essays on Potions, not to mention keeping an eye out for any troublesome meddlers during my spare time.”

“There weren’t any attacks, were there?” Mr. Snape shook his head, which he expected would be returned with an expression of gratitude he did not receive. The woman responded, “My students are doing fine. Most of them have a good understanding on the subject. Potter’s my best student.” Mr. Snape scowled, refraining from any comment beyond a suggestion to walk towards the car. The woman obeyed, and continued, “I didn’t have a good Christmas vacation, either.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“In the car,” said the woman. When they arrived at the car, Mr. Snape opened the door for her, and entered the car himself with haste to turn on the heat, refusing to drive until he was certain she was warm. “I’m fine, Severus. Don’t worry about me.”

“Only making sure a lady gets her comfort.” Mr. Snape said, beginning to drive up the winding road towards the Castle. The white carriages pulled ahead of them. Snape mused, “I should be so lucky that your brute of a boyfriend isn’t here.”

The woman sighed and looked out the window. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Well!” Mister Snape expressed what his best lip service would describe as “concern” by raising his eyebrows and concealing a satisfied curl of the lip. “This is new. I certainly had no clue. Zion gossip doesn’t reach as far as Hogwarts Base. I’d be interested in hearing the tale, if you don’t mind sharing.”

“Neo and I broke up during vacation,” and here, the woman sniffled, “we broke up because I…I found my cousin.”

Mr. Snape stopped the car. “Did you? Find Thomas Black? The esteemed last heir of the Black family who disappeared at the age of five with his mother? The very boy everyone assumed was dead? Where was he?”

“In Zion.”

“He was? For how long?”

“Seven months. Morpheus found him.”

“He did?” Mr. Snape paused for thought. “But then you must have seen him, unless he was taken on to another ship.…”

“No. He was on the Nebuchadnezzar. For seven months. With us.” She exhaled again and continued, “Severus, the reason why Neo and I broke up is because Neo is Thomas Black. Neo is my cousin.”

Mr. Snape gave an exclamation. It was enough to know that Thomas Black had been found, but to learn that Thomas Black was the very bonehead Snape considered unworthy competition for the heart of his beloved Capella was too much to for his precious nerves to bear. Re-starting the car, Mr. Snape drove forward, and said, “Well…that…certainly…is…new.”