Black Turtle

Chapter 1

It was had been a long, excruciating two months since the death of Severus Snape. Riva was still distraught over it all. However, the company of Remington had helped eased her pain some.

The intelligent little turtle had been her constant companion, coming second only to Harry's compassion for the girl's loss. Harry was great, and he understood Riva completely. The girl could almost ask for nothing else. Almost.

Now she and Remington sat in the local library that was located at the south end of the small, American town that Riva had lived around her entire life. Technically, pets weren't allowed in the library, only those for the blind and such. However, she had snuck Remington in under her shirt. If turtles could blush, she would've sworn that Remington had when she had removed him to sit him on the table.

Now, she petted the reptile idly as she stared off into space. There had always been something that had bothered her about Snape's death, she just couldn't put her finger on it...

The turtle snapped at her.

"Ow! Remington, why did you do that? I was thinking!" she whispered at him.

He seemed, in his own way, to be telling her off. She scoffed.

"Good thing you can't talk. I wonder what I did to make you so angry though?"

Riva made trips to the library regularly anymore. It was the only place she could find enough peace to think. Her Uncle Remus was constantly entertaining members of the Order of the Phoenix as they randomly popped by with information, and of course Harry was included with everything the Order did. And just last week, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger had shown up for a while, then left.

"Busy, busy, busy," Riva muttered.

Remington slowly lifted one of his feet. Riva watched and waited to see what he was going to do with it. Slowly, ever so slowly, he put it back down again. She lifted an eyebrow at him.

"What was that?" she asked of her turtle friend.

The reptile seemed to groan at her. She laughed. She hadn't known turtles could groan, but this little one kept surprising her everyday.

"Hi, Riva," came a quietly familiar voice.

She looked up to see Harry standing on the opposite side of the table. She gestured for him to sit. He did so and patted Remington on the shell.

"Hey, Rem," he said.

The turtle groaned again.

"I think my turtle has depression issues," Riva said, and Harry laughed. "What brings you by, Harry?"

"Two things. One, dinner's almost ready, and Remus wants you home. Two, the Order found something. They think it's nothing, but I thought you might want to hear about it," the Boy-Who-Lived said.

"What is it?"

"Pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and--"

"The information, Harry!"

"Oh, right. Sorry. They've run some spells on the ashes that were at the place where Snape died," Harry explained.

Remington lifted his head.

"Yeah, I'm interested too," Riva said to him. "Go on, Harry."

"I don't know why they've taken so long to test the ashes, but this is what they've found. None of them are Snape's!"

"Well, I could've told you that. There were none under his cloak that night,"

"Exactly. But they thought that maybe he had put up a fight and might have ended up somewhere else,"

Riva was now catching Harry's drift.

"So, there's nothing to suggest that he died that night?" she asked hopefully.

It Remington could've jumped, Riva was sure that he would've been.

"Nothing. But the Aurors still think that he's gone. I mean, why hasn't he shown back up?"

"Maybe he's stuck somewhere. Harry, we need to talk about this...somewhere else,"

Harry smiled. "Same time, same place?"

Riva nodded. "Now, let's go eat some pot roast!"

Remington groaned again.