Two Old Friends

Chapter 19

"So, that's how you came across Hogwarts?" Adriana inquires. I nod.

"Yes, that is how I came across Hogwarts."

"Oh. And you stayed there for seventeen years after the Dark Lord fell for what reason?"

"It was comfortable," I tell her. "I had no reason to leave and Dumbledore would defend me if I ever got in trouble."

"Dear Lord, you're a suck up." I snort.

"Thank you for that kind remark."

"I mean... I understand staying around a year or two after just to keep yourself clean, but for seventeen years?"

"More, actually," I add, counting on my fingers.

"No wonder you were such a bitter teacher. I hope you got paid well for it." I shrug.

"And you blame me and my persistence to have a healthy child for your lack of money!" she suddenly says, stricken with realization that everything in my past wasn't her fault, despite how much I liked to convince her. "You're a right prat, you know that? How long have you tried to tell me that it was because of me that you didn't do anything? You didn't do anything because you were a paranoid lazy shmuck who didn't feel like getting off his ass to do something!"

"Thank you, Adriana, that's enough." She scoffs.

"Enough, please. I'll tell you what's enough when it's enough. What's enough is when you get the job and then try to convince me that I won't have a hard time in the world raising two children in your house while you're gone on the other side of the world teaching a bunch of children that will make you bitter and resentful when you get home and never learn to know your retarded son. What's enough is when you try to convince me all of this while I'm trying to do something with my Defender's Degree and I'm already stressed out with my beginning cases and then I find out that you're about to leave me! What's enough is when you try to pull all of this without me realizing that you are perfectly capable of coming home on the weekends by simply wandering into Hogsmeade and Disapparating from your job on the other side of the world." I raise my eyebrows.

"Are you done with this hypothetical vent of yours?" She purses her lips and glares at me.

"But whatever, I guess there was nothing I could do about it. After all, you got the job and then you got arrested," she says with an ever so slightly satisfied smirk. I shudder.

~*~

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies..." Are words I overheard one night while at the Hog's Head to spy on Dumbledore so I would know what sort of questions to prepare for when my own interview came along. Unfortunately, the bartender saw me creep in when I forgot to pay for a drink and I was thrown out of the bar. I found this information incredibly fascinating, but I didn't share it with anyone until after my own interview.

Upon my meeting with Dumbledore, I rehearsed my lines to myself and practised the lessons Adriana and I covered in Occlumency. I knocked three times on the door and was told to enter. So I did.

"Mr. Severus Snape, hello, how are you?" Dumbledore greeted, holding out his hand. I nodded courteously and shook his hand.

"I am fine, Headmaster Dumbledore. I hope I find you just as well," I said. He waved his hand at the seat and I sat down. He looked over some papers I sent in.

"I am glad that I have been able to hear from you, Severus. I had hoped that I would. You were an incredibly extraordinary student. One of the best of your year, I believe, if not the best. Right up there with Mr. Black and Mr. Potter." I gave an uncompassionate grunt that he accepted as an acknowledgement. "But what makes me curious is for what reasons are you applying for Defence? It appears to me that you did exceptionally well in Potions and you work as a potions supplier, you have experience in a bar where your mixing skills definitely add to your potion skills. What do you think you can offer Defence?"

"Well, you will also find that I work in a bookstore," I told him, prepared for this question, "and during my spare time I've picked up a few books about the Dark Arts and it compelled me to find more information about the darker side of our magical history and find a way to prevent those things from happening, and I think I can do my part in society my preparing our youth." I immediately practiced Occlumency to keep him from discovering my ties to the Dark Lord.

"I am sorry to sound rude or appear as though I make an accusation, but your history in Hogwarts proves that you have great knowledge of practicing Dark Magic, and you should know very well that I do not tolerate such practices in my school."

"I do know this, sir, but I hope you can put aside old school ground grudges and adolescent angst when considering me for an employee."

"How can I put aside old school ground curses when they are curses that one does not find often on a school ground?" he countered. "You just said that the key to promising the future is by teaching the youth of today, you obviously have been taught lessons I never want to see on my school grounds--"

"Headmaster, I don't mean to sound offensive when I say that you didn't show any action of preventing Potter or Black from continuing their reign of terror upon students in the hallways. Sure, they got detentions and points taken away from their Houses, but do you surely think that had any actual lasting reflection upon them? They continued to harass me and my friends of the time and I didn't see any sort of note home or action against them as you are trying to convince me that had shaped my persona."

"I know James and Sirius, Mr. Snape. They have been along side me for many years since their graduation and I can say that they are not the school ground bullies they were while under my care. I have not known you, on the other hand."

"This is your chance to," I said, fearful of turning him against me.

"I see that you have no record with the Ministry," he said, changing the subject. I shook my head.

"No, not even for a misdemeanour." He made a sound of thought while stroking his chin.

"Interesting. However, if Lord Voldemort were to call for a Death Eater at this moment, would you be forced to make this meeting short?" I blinked.

"Of course not."

"You realize that I have every right to keep you from having a job anywhere near this school if I feel you are being untruthful." I hesitated.

"I..." I had finally decided to go outside my script. "I am a Death Eater," I told him. He looked at me without a change in expression. I expected him to blanch, but when he had no reaction, I continued. "It is my mission to be employed by you so I can tell the Dark Lord what you are doing. However... However, with outside influences and uneasy feelings, I feel that my faith in the Dark Lord has been shifting. I have done several unjust deeds and I have created many potions to help the Dark Lord fulfil his own deeds, and I sit here before you with a muddied conscience. I only wish I could some how make up for my disastrous choices by working under your employment."

"You risk your own freedom to work for me?" he asked. I nodded.

"Yes. I have thought it out... I can make it seem that I am working for the Dark Lord, but in exchange truly work for you. I can be a sort of double spy. The Dark Lord has no reason to think me unfaithful and so he will tell me more lucrative details about his plans and plots. I am perhaps his favourite, and I have the respect of many of his other followers so I can also get inside information from them." He continued to peer into my eyes and I forgot to practice my Occlumency as he looked through my mind with subtlety as I tried to convince him of my plan.

He finally came to a conclusion after a very long silence.

"I will employ you as Potions Master. Professor Slughorn has been implying that he wants to retire for good soon, and you will be able to help shape today's youth as Head of Slytherin. I will not give you place as Defence Against the Dark Arts, however." I nodded, although every part of my being wanted to demand "why?!" But I refrained and shook his hand and made my departure. I had no wish to teach Potions, I had awful memories of the imbeciles in my old classes. I hoped that this generation had one extra brain cell. I also hoped that the Dark Lord would see this subject placement as a different approach instead of a failure.

When I told him the news, he only found it amusing that I got the Potions gig. I scowled on my way home.

I lied back in the sofa, I had put in my resignation with Mr. Gergo with glee and I gave the bookstore notice before I had started to pack for Hogwarts. It was only June, after all, and I still needed some sort of currency before I was on a Hogwarts payroll. Though I was comfortable and laid back for the first time in a very long time, I had a deep fear of telling Adriana the news. I just hoped that she saw it as a change of scenery (for she could easily move to Hogsmeade) instead of my attempt at fleeing responsibility. Obviously, she saw it as the latter.

Before I could break the news to her, Adriana had come home with a ridiculous amount of happiness telling me that she got a job with a firm as a paper worker and advisor so she could learn the field through her superiors' experience. It sounded like law school all over again to me, but she got paid for this instead of vice versa. I didn't feel like bursting her bubble, so I smiled and nodded while she rambled about needing new quills and reading glasses.

It was only a month into her new job when she was needed more than just an apprentice. She soon realized that her natural talent for argument outstripped her superiors' intelligence in the field and her advice was extremely well-heeded and almost independently relied upon.

While she was gone for a large portion of the time, Joshua grew ill. He was barely a year old and he was incredibly susceptible to illness and often got colds in the summer. I didn't know what to do with the child when he had his coughing fits. I wanted to give him potions, but my reliance upon them seemed to have been shifting. What if it didn't work right and I accidentally poisoned the child? What if there was a loophole with the serum that was supposed to prevent his existence? So I was often left to hush him late into the night while Birdie fed him warm milk Adriana put in the fridge every morning before leaving.

Though they were frightening, his colds did not last long. But he seemed to weaken every time he conquered them. But they did not stop him from laughing and they did not stop Rosalyn from constantly terrorizing him. They also did not stop Adriana from leaving every time she got a letter or a call in the fire about an emergency she needed to settle.

"Severus, I've got to get to my office, there's an emergency and it can't possibly wait. Birdie is out buying groceries so you'll have to watch the kids," Adriana informed me as she dashed around the sitting room collecting things and stuffing them in her purse.

"Er--What?" I asked when she said I had to watch the children. I had not been left alone with these monsters without Birdie and I did not want it to become a habit. She stopped and looked down at me sternly.

"Joshua is your responsibility, too. It is just this one day. You can handle it."

"I have no idea how to deal with them... What if I accidentally drown one of them?" She rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

"I'm leaving. Adios, Babies!" she called out before Disapparating.

"But - when will Birdie come back..." I asked meekly. Joshua stared at the place where Adriana stood before in shock at her sudden disappearance. Rosalyn took that opportunity to waddle up to me and stare at me with her ridiculously large blue eyes.

"Tengo sed," she informed me. I blinked.

"No hablo espanol," I countered in my horrendous Spanish accent (to prove my point, note the lack of a tilde over the 'n'.) She blinked. She didn't realize she spoke two languages. "Damn Adriana and her attempts at teaching the children to be bilingual."

"¡¡Tengo sed!!" the child repeated. She looked as if I were as dense as a horny toad. I rattled my mind to remember what on earth she meant by 'tengo sed'. Did she want to dance? I knew that the tango was a dance. Suddenly, I had a vision of Adriana giving her a bottle when the child screeched the statement ages ago.

"Are you thirsty?" I asked. She nodded. I stood up to go to the kitchen. She put her arms up and stared at me expectantly.

"Up! Up!"

"Oh dear lord no. You are capable of walking yourself. I am not picking you up." She then decided to cry. With an angry growl I heaved her into my arms and took her to the kitchen.

She giggled. It was a very painful moment for me.

Adjusting her to fit on my side, I went into the kitchen and opened the cupboards. I found her sipper cup as she patted my head. I placed it on the counter and opened the ice box and moved things around to find the milk.

"I don't like milk!" she informed me loudly in my ear.

"Then what do you want?" I asked. She looked at me suspiciously through the corner of her eye.

"Quiero horchata," she said, her tone clearly telling me that she thought I was a bit dim. I threw the milk back in the ice box and pulled out another bottle of white substance and filled her cup with that. Suddenly I heard a loud screeching from the living room.

"Uh oh," Rosalyn said softly. She pulled my hair to get my attention. "Joshie no happy."

"Really? I never would have figured that out. Here's your drink. I'm putting you down now." My sarcasm lost on the youth, I placed her on the floor and she waddled behind me when I went to Joshua's aid.

"What is it?" I asked him, expecting him to give me a full length report informing me why he was bawling. He just looked up at me and cried some more.

"Ew! Ew! Joshie smell mal!" The stench filled my nostrils.

"Oh god." I picked up the baby and held him at arm's length and took him to the diaper-changing table. I regretted every moment when I didn't learn those baby care spells that Adriana was trying to teach me as I manually changed the child's nappy. With one last valiant repression of what was threatening to leave my stomach via my mouth, I threw away the dirty nappy. Replacing the diaper was a much more pleasant task despite Joshua's flailing about.

I managed to figure out how exactly I could take care of these children with minimal movement. I pulled out Joshua's bottle and charmed it to keep it filled with apple juice. I charmed Rosalyn's sipper cup to keep it filled with horchata. I had a few plates of crackers, breakfast cereal, and biscuits ("Gin-gin liz'rds!" Rosalyn demanded when I pulled out the bag of ginger newts from the cupboard) charmed to keep them filled. I blocked off the staircase so they couldn't get up stairs and I blocked off the archway leading to the kitchen so they couldn't get in there. I kept a large pile of books and papers with smudge proof spells all over them by the couch so I could remain entertained. Every time one of the brats decided to knock down the piles, I cast a small spell to put them back in order. The few times I had to get up was to help Rosalyn in the loo or to get her to stop causing whatever mayhem she decided to reek, and on occasion change Joshua's diaper which I was getting the hang of.

After two hours Joshua spent a good five minutes staring at me as I read a book, sprawled out over the couch. I looked over my book to look at him. I arched a questioning eyebrow. He continued to stare. So, being the mature twenty-one year old I was, I stared back. Suddenly he started swaying and his eyelids drooped. He then crawled to the couch and tried climbing up it. He fell back and started wailing. I put down my book and picked him up and he immediately fell asleep on my chest. I tried moving him, but he seemed to be glued to me, so I had to readjust myself to be able to read comfortably.

Since Joshua had slipped into a temporary coma, Rosalyn insisted on speaking to me. She chattered on about the weirdest things that go through a two-year-old's mind. Most of it was senseless babbling considering she knew very limited English and I knew close to no Spanish. She was perched under the coffee table ("Never let them under the table, they'll hit their heads!" Adriana constantly told me) and would reach over the edge and snatch a Ginger Newt when she took a break to breathe. Eventually, about an hour later, she too started to get drowsy. I was praying that she'd fall asleep under the table, but she had enough energy in her to clamber on the couch and fall asleep on my stomach.

Finally, Adriana came home. She came in, looking quite harassed, and then she laughed out loud when she saw the children piled on me.

"See? I got this parenting thing down!" I exclaimed as loudly as I could, which was barely over a strangled whisper considering my breath was constricted.

Adriana put her things down and took off her shoes and came over to sit between my legs to kiss the brats. Rosalyn woke up, naturally, and gave a shrill shriek of glee when she saw her mother.