Faerie Folly and Wizard Wands

Chapter Sixteen

Severus Snape and Saquoya Dumbledore stared at each other in the dark gloom. She was, ashamedly, somewhat happy he had remembered her name. But he did not seem to notice much else than faults, as he stared at her through the moonlight.

"I did not give you leave to call me by my first name."

"Indeed, Severus," she taunted. "But that is what I will call you. I do not believe you can stop me."

He growled low in his throat, his eyes narrowing.

"Stop that. It makes you sound inhuman." Somehow she knew goading him would make him annoyed, but she enjoyed the power trip, as cruel as it sounded. Severus Snape would have to learn that some women in the world, as well as men, could be just as cutting with their words.

The sound also reminded her of Sirius, and for a brief second she thought of him, traveling alone in the darkness with nothing but a sack of her food around his neck. Severus Snape reminded her a little of the other man; a whisking, intense sort of character...although the actual character of both men completely contrasted each other. One was lighter, and the other...was darker.

And the darkness in him called to her.

"Why are you here?" he answered instead. She gave him a piercing look.

"Do not play games. I live here. I bought this house from the Muggle owner. How dare you enter without leave." Insolence competed with rage in her voice. This was her house. She had bought it, and it was the first thing that was completely and utterly hers. To have someone violate this privacy; someone she had met only once...this was indecent beyond measure.

"I may Apparate when and where I wish, Saquoya. There is much abroad now, and I have little time for spiced words with you." His voice itself pulled at her, and made her realize that although she herself was on the verge of screaming at him, his tone held a paralyzing magnetism that made her stop and fold into her rage, making her angrier and awestruck with him at the same time.

Her eyes traveled down his long face, where his body was lost in darkness. The whole arrangement made her quite giddy, though she did not take time to process it.

"Move," he said in a clipped, low voice, making to pass her forcefully.

"What, you come to raid my kitchen? How...homey," her voice caressed the last word in a low feminine chuckle, and Severus stopped, to glare angrily at her.

"This is no time for pathetic overtures. I am never amused at such whimsy. Now move."

"I will not!" Oh, she was enjoying this. Power over the very man who held power over her dreams was enough to make her cocky, and use language she might otherwise abstain from. This might not ever happen again, and she aimed to make the most of it.

"Foolish pixie," he muttered, using it in a derogatory essence, and shoved her forcefully into the kitchen, while he knelt fluidly next to the doorknob. Whispering words of strange sounds, he brushed his long, white fingers on the oak.

"You needn't do that. All you must do is touch, as I'm sure you know."

"No. That is wrong. There are words used to gain usage of--," he suddenly snapped his head up to stare at her with black, startled eyes. "Wait. How is it you know how to enter?"

"I..." She paused, her head working out a reasoning simultaneously. And then she suddenly knew that she spoke the truth. "I would guess my blood is of the earth. I am of the very earth; this comes from my mother, the faerie Luelinea. Therefore, the wood speaks to me. I merely touch it and it gives up its knowledge." She shrugged, and looked down at him. "But I would think you know this, as the visions seem to be of you."

"You have seen all?" he spoke as he stood swiftly, with a scowl blackening the chalk white of his face. He bore down on her, his teeth bared unbecomingly, but she smiled to herself and took the liberty of touching his chest, pushing him backwards. Her hand briefly made contact through thick black cloth with lean sinew and raw muscle. The touch alone seemed to stop him, making her shove seem almost unnecessary.

"Do not smother me. I only did so out of curiosity." She would not tell him that she began to look on the visions as a solace, a place of refuge, to spend time with him. It was not his concern. And all of this she hardly had processed herself, anyway.

"Curiosity!" he fairly shouted. "You know the saying-Curiosity killed--."

"What is something of your essence doing in my house anyway?" she cried back, halting his words. "This does not belong to you, it is not yours to beholden!" His arrogance matched hers, she suddenly realized, and this battle of words quickly became more important to her.

"Here it is safe. You know nothing of my life--."

He stopped, as he realized how ignorant and foolish his words sounded. She had already told him that she had seen everything in the runes. So, growling and muttering again, he bent back to the door.

In the sudden silence, Saquoya felt her cheeks cool. She wondered briefly how she could have been able to live two decades without feeling such intense emotions. Anger, shouting, everything now gave her revival and life. She was thrilled to her core to be sparring with Severus Snape, and was determined to engage him into more conversation rather than muse on her newfound mentality.

"What, then, exactly is that?" she asked, watching his hands move over the runes delicately.

"My Pensieve. This house is always conveniently empty for my abode during particularly dangerous times. You do know what a Pensieve is, don't you?"

She gave him an icy glance, and said frostily, "You seem to think I am an idiot. You forget my powers. I know what a Pensieve is, my father has shown me his, and I have read of them."

"I am not an imbecile enough to forget your powers."

He paused again, and looked her over in the moonlight, where she stood, half hidden in the gloom. She knew very well she wore a gray, long gown for sleeping, which shone hazily through the moonlight, outlining the curve of her hip and leg. Shifting more into the shadow, she waited for him to continue.

"If I remember," he began, his voice dipped in sarcasm, "The last time we talked-you were a few hours new into the wizarding world."

"If you recalled correctly, you would also remember that was practically a half year ago."

Giving a harsh laugh, he shook his head, and turned away. "If you taught, pixie, you would know there are some children--."

"Who are slow as hell."

"Yes, something like that." He gave her a sudden, keen once-over. "If you would leave me in peace, now, I will continue with my research. I have to remember a few things before I go off to the Death Eaters."

"Oh...the war. Of course." She decided she had nothing else she could say at this point, and moved past him, where he crouched next to her kitchen door.

"Saquoya, I will be arriving at odd intervals. This is my refuge, none know I come here. Sometimes I need to check the Pensieve. But mostly, I come here to escape. Sometimes quite literally."

She turned from the stairs, to see his pale face staring at her in the gloom. Her arms crossed against the chill of the night, and her body was lost in the dusk of the house. She looked away from him, at the floor, and then said quietly before going back to bed:

"If you are hungry, take something before you go."