Two Old Friends

Chapter 2

I'm sitting here, reflecting on my childhood, wondering how Adriana's life was within her own home. Did she wake up in the middle of the night to hear her mother's screaming? Did she ever care to learn any curses? I wonder why our mothers ever put up with the abuse. I know why mine did; she was a masochist and had no self-esteem. But why did Esperanza stay with Antonio? She seemed proud and she had a head firmly on her shoulders.

"What happened to us?" Adriana asks, breaking my thoughts. I look at her; she is still looking at the candle. "I mean... We've known each other so long, how did things end the way they did?" I take a deep breath. She looks up at me, her eyes begging for an answer.

"I think it's just that. We knew each other too well," I say solemnly. She nods.

"And between miscarriages and Death Eaters," she says, looking down. "I just figured that was one of the strengths in our relationship." I give a wry grin. She shifts her glance at me, wrinkling an eyebrow.

"Oh, come on, Adriana. Going through terrible things together would do nothing for us - we're both Slytherins, and you're a Scorpio while I am a Capricorn at that."

"You're acknowledging our astrological similarities, now, also?" I roll my eyes. Using her own logic to elaborate would only get me mockery. I look at her and notice that age actually had appeared on her beautiful face. Stress lines and the smallest of wrinkles were revealing themselves around her eyes and mouth.

"You look tired," I state. She shrugs. I tilt my head and gather her eye contact. "Our problem was that we always knew that somehow we'd wind up back together, so we never put the effort that we really needed into it. Whenever we actually talked was in the middle a battle over who could yell louder and sound more threatening."

"Well, aren't you just chock full of wisdom?" she says, curling her lip ever so slightly.

"You asked a question, I answered it," I reply defensively. She places her elbow on the small table between us and runs her hand through her hair, shaking her head with a mildly amused smile.

"Things really haven't changed, have they?" she asks plainly. "We're still the bickering idiots we ever were." I offer a small grin of assent. We take a moment to look into each other's eyes. She blinks and gives a low chuckle.

"Wooooo," she breathes, looking away. "We are so fucking messed up. How long have we known each other? Twenty-eight years?"

"You're confronting your actual age? Wow, I figured you'd be the same Adriana Rodriguez I knew before," I state sardonically. She sneers at me. A few seconds of silence lingers between us.

"Well," she says, fingering a the rim of a mug of coffee, "now is as good as any other time to actually have a real conversation." I snorted. "What? I'm serious."

"Adriana," I tried to reason. "Us, have a real conversation? With all barriers and walls down? Hell will freeze over before that happens without one of us breaking down or screaming."

"I'm not saying we should have a great debate or anything. Just talk. We've never actually talked to each other, as you said before. Just review over our years and talk. I've had a while to think about this." I pinch the bridge of my nose as she speaks. I highly doubt that this will end pretty. I sigh and shrug in defeat.

"Fine. We knew each other since we were ten. We never actually really acknowledged each other's existence until we were thirteen."

"Well, I could hardly speak English when I was ten, and you just stumbled at the right place at the right time." I nod, remembering that night.

~*~

Needless to say, we both went to Hogwarts and were both very happy to leave our homes. The only thing I was going to miss was learning the "useful magic" instead of that "namby-pamby defence rubbish" as my father called it. Adriana and I didn't do much to acknowledge one another. We had short conversations when we had to. We gave each other answers to questions when were in close enough range to ask each other for them. I often helped her with potions, though exasperatedly as I had learned all the potions they were teaching us years before and she had no interest in dead animal pieces, and she helped me through Astronomy, though slightly annoyed because her mother was an acclaimed astronomer and I had no interest in staring at worlds I would never attend. Our grades, however, in Defence Against the Dark Arts rivalled each other and I wouldn't be surprised if we set a school record.

Our first year at Hogwarts was more noteworthy than the two that would follow because that was when Lucius Malfoy was attending his last year. He made sure that we knew the Slytherin guidelines as he was Head Boy and he guided us through the steps of the true Slytherin ways as he did with every other underclassman. He taught us how to go through the Hogwarts black market and how to haggle student prices and persuade those of other houses to fall victim to our tactics. He treated it very much as if the faculty were a dictatorship and he was the rebel running the underground student society. He was admired by many people from all houses.

He did, however, find me quite intriguing when he learned of my extensive knowledge of rare and effective curses and jinxes and potions and made sure to take me under his wing. He hooked me up with all the appropriate Slytherin upperclassmen as my associates and defenders and make my fellow first years my equals and how to make my future underclassmen my minions. He taught me how to be discreet with my hexing people in the halls, as I had quickly made enemies with James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin.

His counterpart, Narcissa Black (by then they were merely partners in keeping the school in check), though not Head Girl (Head Girl then was a girl from Hufflepuff called Ashley Zanderboot, a pushover if there ever was one), was definitely as influential, if not more, as one, taught the same tactics to the Slytherin girls. She taught them how to remain innocently obliging to the upperclassmen and teachers but keep their equals and underclassmen obedient to their own powers. She taught them to continue this until their bodies and self confidence were attractive enough to be flaunted and then use their sexuality to keep everyone, including the upperclassmen, wrapped around their fingers.

With the student politics explained, I will now continue on to my explanation of how Adriana and I allowed each other to be closer acquainted than cheating partners. It was December of our fourth year, one night I woke up one night at a terrible ungodly hour (I refuse to go into detail as to why I woke up) and couldn't find myself to go back to sleep due to my dorm mates dreadful foghorn snoring. So, I stumbled out of bed to go to the common room hoping to find some peace and quiet there. Unfortunately, I was misled by these intentions and stumbled in on a certain neighbour of mine staring blankly into the fire. She seemed to be almost in shock. With the fire flickering, I could see it glimmering oddly on her face. Mind you, this was very early in the morning and I had just woken up, so I will have you know I wasn't a complete incompetent fool as a child. Her eyes were red and puffy. I realized that she had been crying.

"Trying to blind yourself?" I asked. Adriana quickly wiped away all evidence of her eye's leaking. She looked over at me, blinking a few times (the fire probably effected her vision) and squinted up at me as I approached her to sit in the vacant chair next to her.

"What are you doing up?" she asked.

"I woke up and couldn't fall asleep due to those idiots' dying cow impressions they call sleeping," I said disdainfully. She smiled weakly. "You?" She shook her head.

"It's nothing it's just - I got a letter a little early, that's all." I truly couldn't care less, but she seemed that I needed a further explanation, or I was just an unfortunate victim of her own misfortune. "My father's being shipped off to Azkaban."

"That sucks," I offered. She nodded, wringing her hands in her lap. I saw tears forming in her eyes again. "And my mother's dead." She pulled her knees up to her chest, wiping her eyes off on her knee, trying to conceal them. It's a Slytherin habit of ours - never reveal true tears. I knew she was inwardly begging me to ask why, and being too tired to be completely spiteful, I did so.

"How?"

"My dad killed her," she said. Surprised, but not entirely believing, my eyebrows rose.

"That really does suck, then," I continued. She let out a badly hidden choked sob. Someone's toad hobbled by and she whipped out her wand, muttered Avada Kedavra, and the toad went limp. I stared at Adriana. I then discovered that I knew nothing about abuse or cruel magic by simply the hatred, anger, and despair in her eyes. We then took that opportunity to sit in the first of many awkward silences.

That morning, the both of us ready to fall asleep by then, Adriana and I were dressed and left the Common Room as other students started waking up and sifting out to breakfast. Adriana's eyes were swollen and nearly blood shot from lack of sleep and immense amount of crying. Mine were just a little puffy from my lack of sleep. We drank our tea in silence; Professor Dumbledore smiled down at us (we were the first ones there, so he had no one else to smile at) and ate our breakfast. Well, I ate my breakfast; Adriana pushed hers from side to side. Our head of house, Professor Gabriel, came to breakfast and saw Adriana's pale complexion and less than healthy appearance and just me sitting next to her, and confronted us.

"Is everything the matter?" he inquired silkily. The man had a narrow, sharp nose and a square jaw that was lightly covered in rusty coloured hairs. His eyes were a dark umber and they bore into yours when he spoke to you, and they were doing just that as he looked from Adriana and me. He roughly resembled a beagle. I nodded, seeing no problem. Adriana nodded, also. The man eyed us from the corner of his eye, tilting his head, knowing Adriana wasn't quite all right, but headed to his seat at the staff table.

Within about ten or fifteen minutes more people started filing their ways into the Great Hall for their own breakfast. In twenty minutes the Great Hall was almost completely full with the student body. Then the mail came. Two copies of the Daily Prophet dropped before Adriana and me. Adriana, probably just out of habit, unravelled hers and lightly glanced over the front cover. I looked at my own and my eyes drifted over to Adriana, expecting a reaction. Adriana's face froze when she saw the cover: her father being dragged off by Ministry Officials and a smaller one of her mother, father, and her in a family photo.

Adriana looked more frightened than anything, she held it at arms length and it was shaking from her hand's nerves. I saw her eyes dart frantically over the paper. I noticed that a few older students craned their necks over to look at Adriana. The teachers, after reading their own copies, looked over at Adriana. Some of them leaned over to talk to one another.

She took a steady breath and set the paper down. She calmingly smoothed out her skirt. Nearly the entire school watched her. She seemed perfectly calm, actually. I saw a flicker of a relieved smile spread over her features. She then stood up, straightening her skirt again, took her bag, she saw me staring at her like a nincompoop, and she gave me a small smile.

"Lovely breakfast, eh?" she said. "I'm full, frankly, and I'm going to go wait in class." She swung her book bag over her shoulder and left the Great Hall. I looked at her plate and the very little she had placed on it was simply rearranged.

By the beginning of our first class, all of our fellow third year Slytherins knew of Adriana's misfortune. I'm sure the rest of the school knew also, but then again, I didn't care (and still don't) about the rest of the school. Most of our classmates simply stared at her as she walked by, a few of them asked about the ordeal (no words of condolence, though) and a fair few asked what she reckoned her mum did to deserve to snuff it. A few of the idiots from the other houses stopped her to apologize, but she refused to take any of it.

The teachers however were a completely different story. I don't know why, but being the first person to have been told of made me feel obliged to wait for her with Bellatrix Lestrange after class and walk with her, etc. So, I often hung behind class waiting for the teacher to ask the same as the last one asked: are you all right, do you need to go to Madam Pomfrey, you can talk to me if you want were many of the repeated questions. Adriana was very business-like about it and simply shook her head and politely disinclined.

The headmaster even called Adriana to his office during history of magic. She insisted I come with her. I inwardly thanked her. Class with Binns was not a rewarding one. The messenger, some skinny first year Ravenclaw, gave her the password and we walked to his office. She mumbled the password and we stepped on the revolving staircase.

"Miss Rodriguez, please come in. Mr. Snape, did I ask you to come, as well?" he inquired, looking at me with kind eyes.

"I asked him to come with me," she said.

"Ah. I understand. Well, please, sit. Both of you." We did as he asked and he looked at us over his laced gnarly fingers.

"I am sorry to hear about your loss," Dumbledore said gravely. Adriana, though very subtly, rolled her eyes.

"It's nothing -"

"Nothing? Your parents have been taken away from you! It is not nothing, in fact, I believe it's everything!" he said with calm outrage.

"Well, you would say that, sir, seeing as you haven't lived in my home," she countered with cool respect.

"Alas, you are right. But surely you are affected by this." Adriana shrugged. "I know a great deal more about the student underground than you may think, Miss Rodriguez. I know it is looked down upon by your fellow Slytherins to show emotion about family loss, considering it is an all too familiar occurrence to the children inside these walls, but I implore that you do not allow these regulations to control your emotions." He looked sternly at her. Adriana rose her eyebrows.

"I'm sorry, Headmaster, that my emotions are not up to your expectations, but I assure you that the fact my father killed my mother and is being hauled off to Azkaban is not as dramatic to my emotional range as it might be to a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor." There was a moment's long silence between the two of them as they peered into each others' eyes.

"Who taught you Occlumency?" he asked softly.

"My mother," Adriana said, almost in a whisper.

"She was a very good teacher. I must say, even I cannot break through your barriers."

"Thank you kindly, sir." The Headmaster sighed and set his hands down.

"Well, unless there is anything you would like to add, Mr. Snape, I'm sure the two of you can go straight to lunch, seeing as class is nearly over." I shook my head.

"No, Headmaster, I've'n't anything to add."

"Very well. I will see you at lunch, then." The two of us left his office and went down to the history of magic corridor to wait for Bellatrix and our other Slytherin fellows.

"I'm not the only kid here with dead or arrested parents," she complained to me on the way. "Why can't they gawk at them or harass them for a change? How many deaths were mentioned in the obituaries in the past week? I don't see idiots asking them what they did to get hacked."

"Maybe it has something to do with it being your father killing your mother instead of a casualty," I suggested dryly. She simply shrugged it off. We stood at the classroom door, Adriana tapping her foot impatiently and looking at her watch. The bell sounded as a realization flittered past my mind. "Who, do you think, is supposed to care for you now?"

"We can take you in, Adri," Bellatrix offered, stepping out in time to hear my question.

"No, my sister, Lupe, and her husband are coming in from France to take care of me."

"Is she abusive?" I asked. Bellatrix eyed me curiously.

"Oh, God, no. She's little miss goody-good. She hates violence of all kinds and whatnot. Probably why she left home so early."