A Cloud Before the Moon

Chapter 3

It was a magnificent summer morning. As he had done every day since coming home from his third year at Hogwarts, the boy intended to eat breakfast and then head down to the dungeon. After two weeks of summer vacation, he still looked as pale as the dead of winter. He skulked into the dining room, where Fippy the house-elf was already serving his mother and cousin. No one spoke to him except Fippy, who asked what he wished to eat.

After silently wolfing down his meal, he stood up to leave the table. His mother apparently took notice of his presence. She too stood up. She was a tall woman, but at 14, the boy already towered over her. "Where do you think you're going?" she snapped.

"I - I have something I'm working on in the dungeon".

She shook her head. "It is embarrassing to have a son who looks so sickly. Think of others instead of yourself for a change."

"What ARE you talking about?" he inquired acidly.

She explained slowly, as if she were speaking to an idiot. "I know it is hard to imagine, but the Malfoys might look at you, and think there's some chance that Narcissa could pass along such blood. Of course we know that's not the case, but we don't want to take any chance of risking your cousin's future happiness, do we? It seems to me some fresh air and exercise might make you look a bit more - normal." As an afterthought, she added, "Besides, it would be good for you."

Severus stared at her in disbelief. Was she out of her mind? Still, he was not in the mood for an argument. "Very well, when I have finished what I am doing..."

"No, now! Outside!" She shooed him away.

Puckering his face in disgust, he realized she was not going to relent. "Very well; I will be right down." Under his mother's glare, he ran up to his room to grab a book he was reading, "The Role of Dark Arts in Political History." He shoved it in his pocket, came back downstairs and ventured outdoors.

He walked a distance from the house, squinting in the unaccustomed sunlight, and found a dense shade tree. He intended to sit down, but he felt the toe of his boot squelch into the mud. It had rained heavily the night before. He walked around a bit to see if there was a dry spot where he could sit. He found a flat rock on a small raised hillock that did not look too damp. Here was a place where he could spend the rest of the morning.

Letha had been sorry to see her second year at Hogwarts come to an end. At school, she had several good friends and already missed them. Her best friend, Anjana, was away all summer, visiting relatives in India, and Letha's parents were away on "Ministry business" for six weeks. In the meantime, Letha had been left at her grandmother's house. Grandma Ephie was okay, a little eccentric, but she left Letha to do as she wished and did not question her whereabouts.

Where Grandma lived was rather remote, and there were few houses. Letha spent most of her time exploring the adjacent woods and the territory on the other side of the woods, where the mansions and fancy houses were. In the past two2 weeks, Letha had seen several Hogwarts students in that vicinity. Unfortunately, they were all Slytherins, and the worst sort. She had spotted Lucius Malfoy, who had finished his time at Hogwarts during Letha's first year. She was not really familiar with most senior students, but it was scarcely possible not to know Malfoy. He had behaved as if he owned the school, and it was rumored that his father did. When Ministry officials would pay a visit, often they would treat Lucius as if he were royalty, anxiously seeking his approval as if he was somebody important. Letha was stymied; to her, he was just some snotty, obnoxious rich kid. Sometimes he was accompanied by two large nasty-looking thugs, whom she recognized as his usual companions from his days at Hogwarts, named Crabbe and Goyle. She wasn't sure which was which. Other times, he was with Narcissa Black. Tall, slender, beautiful and incredibly stuck-up, Narcissa was only a year ahead of Letha, yet she headed a clique of the most popular girls in school, the ones who did their best, and did it quite successfully, to make everyone else feel inferior and unworthy of their much-coveted attention. The only other people she had recognized by name were two disagreeable Slytherin boys, Nott and Bulstrode.

At the moment, Letha was seated on a branch in a large old chestnut tree, imagining she was a Muggle pirate on the mast of her ship. As she looked around her, she saw someone approach the tree, apparently searching for a dry place to sit. He was a very tall and thin boy, dressed in a heavy black robe on this hot summer day, and his head was blanketed in long black greasy hair. Letha recognized him as Severus Snape, a third-year Slytherin. She assumed he was related to Narcissa, though it was hard to believe that he could have any blood in common with the exquisite blond girl. She watched him find a slightly elevated spot he apparently considered satisfactory. He pulled a small book out of his robe and gingerly began to sit himself down.

Suddenly, she heard a noise like charging elephants, approaching from the other side of the tree. Two massive blobs came sailing towards Snape. He fell forward, face first, into a mud puddle, pinned under the bulk of Crabbe and Goyle. The two cretins sat there, braying like jackasses. One of them sat on Snape's back, pinning his arms. The other tugged on a handful of Snape's hair. "Ewww - thlimy!" he guffawed, wiping his hand on the grass. "Hey, Theveruth, I think you need a bath - a mud bath." He then shoved Snape's face into the mud, while snickering at his own cleverness.

Letha had never heard anything particularly nice about Severus Snape. In fact, he had been quite nasty to Anjana on several occasions, but this was just plain unfair. Letha drew out her wand and pointed it at the massive creature on Snape's back. "Oww!" he yelled, grabbing his cheek. He looked down at Snape and shouted, "What did you do that for? Cut that out or you'll be sorry!." Letha shook her head in disbelief. Snape was completely pinned under him; what did this idiot think he could do? She pointed her wand at the other huge boy. He grabbed at his face. "My eyes, oh, my eyes! I'm blind!" She waved her wand back and forth at the two of them until they finally stood up in confusion, grabbing themselves all over, and galumphed away.

Cautiously Snape lifted his head and listened. He began to sit up and looked around, puzzled. He looked up, but apparently did not see Letha in the dense foliage. She could see him, however. With dark forlorn eyes peering out from a pale, thin, mud-spattered face, he looked utterly pitiful. She debated whether she should make her presence known, as she shifted her weight to a lower branch. Abruptly, the issue became moot, as the lower branch cracked and she went sailing down, trying desperately to grab something to cling onto. To her extreme dismay, Severus Snape once again went flying head-first into the mud, arms flailing, as Letha landed squarely on his back.