The Awakened Sleeper

Author's Notes: I would just like to thank everyone who has been keeping up with this story for the infinite amount of patience they possess. Grad school has been taking up most of my free time; unfortunately, my writing is paying the price. But the tale goes on! Special thanks go to Athena and Ashley for their feedback, and my beta, PirateQueen, for cheerfully resuming her invaluable services after months of e-silence.

"Life is the art of drawing without an eraser."
--John W. Gardner

Chapter 16

Indelible Strokes

So swollen were Lily's eyes upon waking the next morning, she could not tell if they were opened or shut. She sat up, rubbing them and groping for her bed curtains. When she finally got the curtains opened, blinding sunlight hit her eyes. Like a vampire, she shielded her face and recoiled from it.

"Ugh!" exclaimed Mary Macdonald, just as Lily was easing her legs over the side of her bed. "Did Ainsley Abercrombie hit you with a Conjunctivitis Curse again like she did first year? You look terrible!"

"Good morning to you, too, Mary," Lily croaked. She slowly and carefully rose from her bed. At that moment, she was playing hostess to the mother of all headaches, courtesy of her marathon crying jag the night before. Lily marveled at the fact that she was still alive, as it seemed she had cried every last bit of moisture out of her body. Yet, as she hobbled past Cressida's bed, she could feel her eyes watering again. The bed looked just as it had when she'd stormed out of the room the night before.

"Seriously, Lily, are you all right?" Mary asked, concern causing her voice to drop in volume. "If you're sick, you really should go to the hospital wing--"

"I'm fine, Mary. Just... just leave it, okay?" The frown on Mary's face told Lily that, although it was against her better judgment, she would do as she asked.

"Okay, then," said Mary, picking up her bag from where she always dropped it right next to the door. "Let me know if there's anything I can do, yeah?"

Lily tried to give a reassuring smile, feeling the corners of her mouth quiver as it faltered. "Yes, of course. Thanks."

Mary successfully flashed her own grin of reassurance before walking out the door. Throwing one more glance at the bed Cressida had refused to sleep in, Lily strode to the bathroom like a woman with a purpose.

I should really hurry, she thought, discarding pieces of yesterday's slept in clothing as she walked to the shower. Cressa must be waiting for me to leave the room. It takes her so long to get ready every morning she's bound to be late for class if I don't get a move on. I have to show her that I didn't mean those awful things I said.

With haste she jumped into the stall and took the fastest shower of her life, quickly ducking her head under the shower spray in lieu of a proper shampooing and conditioning. Within minutes, she had bathed and dressed. She now stood before the bathroom sink, studying her limp hair and washed-out skin.

"You deserve this, you know," Lily muttered to her red, puffy-eyed reflection. "You deserve to look like something the cat dragged in, ate, and spewed back up. Your appearance should reflect the ugliness on the inside. Lets people know what they're getting up front."

As she hurried downstairs to the common room, Lily considered trying to engage Cressida in conversation. Maybe she'd had an opportunity to rethink and accept Lily's apology. Then again, if she had decided to forgive her, wouldn't she have said so by now? Lily was not sure whether it was common sense or cowardice which made her do it, but she bypassed the sofa in front of the fireplace and headed straight for the portrait hole. Her bowed head formed a curtain of lifeless hair which became a barrier between her and would-be morning greeters.

When she arrived at the Great Hall, Lily stood in the doorway for a moment and immediately scanned the Gryffindor table to find Tegan. To her surprise, Cressida was sitting in front of her, nibbling a piece of toast as she listened to their friend. Not a speck of her Muggle make-up was missing, nor was a hair out of place.

Cressida is never here before me! Lily thought. How early did she wake up? If Cressida was willing to start her day that early in order to avoid her, their friendship was worse off than she had originally believed. Saddened, she swallowed the lump in her throat and began the seemingly miles long trek to the seat next to Tegan.

"Good morning, Tegan," she said as she sat down.

"Morning, Lily!" Tegan answered, her smile bright as the rays of sunlight that had nearly blinded Lily upon waking. As Tegan took in her bedraggled appearance, the smile melted away. "Erm... you look a little... under the weather. Is everything okay?"

She doesn't know yet, Lily thought. I wonder why Cressida hasn't said anything. Following her lead, Lily decided to keep mum about last night's explosion as well. "Everything's fine. I just didn't sleep very well last night." She took a deep breath and licked her lips. "Morning, Cressa," she said in as reverent a tone as she could manage.

"Lily," was Cressida's curt reply.

It's not much, but at least she's talking to me. Lily thought she saw the slightest hint of a smirk as Cressida scanned her face.

"You're here before me," Lily said, making a brave attempt at levity. "That's a first, isn't it?"

To her dismay, Cressida turned her gaze toward Tegan as though she had not said a word. "So, what were you saying again?"

"Erm," Tegan began after the unmistakably frosty reception Lily had just received, "I was just saying that, lately, I've been able to talk to Remus without my brain going on holiday."

Lily managed a weak smile, refusing to let her friction with Cressida spoil Tegan's good news. "That's wonderf--"

"See!" Cressida interrupted, steamrolling right over Lily's words as though they had no importance in comparison to her own. "Didn't I tell you to just be yourself?"

"Yes, you did," Tegan answered, her brows forming a furrowed V as her eyes shifted from one friend to the other. "What's going on--?"

"Before you know it, you two will be making wedding plans, won't you?" It seemed to Lily that Cressida was bound and determined to continue the conversation on her terms--terms which included effusiveness and blatantly ignoring their situation.

"Don't you think you're jumping the gun a bit, Cressa?" Lily asked, simultaneously trying to spare Tegan any embarrassment and assert her presence. As guilty as she felt about what was said the night before, she was beginning to feel irritated with Cressida's behavior.

"'Jumping the gun?'" Cressida asked, directing her reply to Tegan. She still refused to look Lily in the eye. "Where does she get these silly little Muggle sayings from?" She gave a derisive little laugh that made Lily clench her fists under the table. "What does that even mean, anyway?"

"You know full well what it means, Cressida! And my 'silly little Muggle sayings' have never been silly to you before."

"Well, you've never used one so stupid before, have you?" Cressida countered.

"I," Tegan interjected, a little louder than usual, "don't think it matters one way or the other." She immediately softened her tone, as if she had spoken out of turn. "It's just a saying."

Lily recognized the comment for what it was--a call to end the volley of hostility between the two girls and quite possibly a show of support--and her affection for Tegan grew exponentially in that moment. She couldn't help smiling a bit, an action which earned her a heat-tinged glare from Cressida.

"Besides," Tegan continued, unaware of the mounting tension between her friends, "none of it makes any difference anyway. In order for there to be wedding bells, we'd have to have a first date. Since that's not happening anytime soon--"

"Why wouldn't it?" Cressida asked, softening her expression and tone for the younger girl's benefit.

Tegan looked down at her plate, using her fork to pick at the remaining bits of egg. "I don't think..." she began, her cheeks growing rosy.

It was clear to Lily that she was uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going. "If you don't want to talk about it now we can always talk about it later."

"No, it's all right." Tegan looked up from her plate with a look of resolve on her face. She lowered the volume of her voice to a whisper as she said, "I don't think Remus is interested in me that way."

Cressida tilted her head to the side like a confused puppy. "Why wouldn't he be?" she asked as she broke off a corner of toast and popped it into her mouth.

"How should I know?" Tegan let her fork clatter onto the plate and pushed it away.

"I'm pretty sure that was meant to be rhetorical," Lily said. She punctuated it with a good-natured shoulder nudge.

"Of course it was rhetorical," Cressida said. "I think this is all in your head. It's just your insecurity trying to mess up all the progress you've made."

"No, it's not. I may not be very experienced when it comes to these types of things, but I'd like to think that I'd be able to tell if a boy likes me or not." Tegan cast her gray eyes down and became very interested in the smattering of toast crumbs on the table before her. She pressed the tip of her finger down on them, picking them up and sprinkling them on her abandoned breakfast dish. "I've given him hints, but he just hasn't responded to them," she said in a small voice.

"Maybe you were too... subtle," said Cressida. "Some boys are so dense you can drop boulder-sized hints on them and they still won't get it."

"Remus is anything but dense."

"Lily," Cressida began, the arch of her eyebrow the only sign of expression, "all boys are dense when it comes to girls." She began to rise from her seat as she said, "But I can solve this mystery right now. I'll just go ask him what his problem is and--"

"No!" Lily and Tegan exclaimed in unison, ignoring the curious stares of housemates sitting on either side of them.

"What?" Cressida asked, irritation causing her to bark out the word like a general giving out orders.

"Please, sit down," Tegan begged. The possibility of impending mortification had blanched her face so much the school ghosts looked as though they had spent a holiday on the equator in comparison.

"I was only trying to help," Cressida said, pouting as she plopped back into her seat.

"Why is it your idea of helping is sticking your nose where it doesn't belong?" Lily hissed. "It's plain to see that asking Remus if he fancies her is the very last thing Tegan wants you to do. Why can't you respect that?"

Lily thought she saw a flicker of dawning pass over Cressida's face. For an instant she thought that maybe her friend was beginning to understand just how infuriating her habit of butting in could be, but instead she reverted to her old standby of ignoring Lily completely. Turning to Tegan, Cressida asked, "You really don't want me to ask him?"

"Please don't," she whispered. "It would ruin everything. I'm fine with the way things are between Remus and me. He's really becoming a great friend, and if that's all he wants I'm happy with that. If you go to him and ask him if he fancies me, it's going to make things awkward between us."

Cressida sighed. "Fine. I won't do it. I won't!" she added after receiving a disbelieving glare from Tegan.

Seemingly satisfied with this bit of reassurance, Tegan visibly relaxed. "Thank you."

Lily wanted to thank her, too, but because of the precarious situation the two of them were in, she decided to keep her gratitude to herself. Yet she couldn't help letting a small smile slip out. Cressida's decision to let the matter drop gave her hope. Maybe she'll come around and finally understand why she made me so angry last night.

"So," Cressida said, "what are you two getting so chummy about?"

Tegan's eyes lit up. "Lots of things! Remus has been helping me study for my OWLs. I know they're still months away, but with the way they keep piling the work on us fifth years, I really don't have a choice, do I?"

"Not really," said Lily, briefly remembering how stressed she was last term.

"So most of the time we end up talking about school stuff. Classes, teachers, that sort of thing. But every once in a while we talk about other things."

"Such as...?" Cressida asked.

Tegan took a fortifying sip of pumpkin juice. "After I freaked out in front of him and the boys at The Three Broomsticks, he followed me to calm me down. Most boys would've been too embarrassed to follow me to the loo, but he didn't care. He just wanted to make sure I was all right. I... I talked to him about my dad," she said with finality.

"Really?" Lily was astonished. In the five years she had known Tegan, she could only remember talking about Mr. Watts four, maybe five times. After those few prickly discussions, she and Cressida had decided not to talk about him unless Tegan brought him up.

"Yeah! It's so peculiar. I can talk to him about my dad. I never feel comfortable talking about him to anyone, even the two of you," Tegan said, a hint of apology in her tone, "but for some reason I do with Remus."

"So, basically what you're saying is you trust him, right?" Cressida asked. The tone of her voice was very odd--curiosity laced with a smidge of something Lily could not quite place. Whatever it was made her heart beat a little faster, as if the organ was anticipating the worst.

"Yes, he's a walking, talking definition of the word trustworthy. He is very worthy of my trust."

"That's brilliant! Trust between two people is..." Cressida cast her eyes heavenward as if the right word was floating above her head, "...sacred. You know that he won't let you down, no matter what. I used to know what that feels like...."

Lily could now see the track on which Cressida's thought train was traveling. "Cressida..." she warned.

"You don't have to worry about whether he's going to stab you in the back--"

"I did not stab you in the back!" Lily interrupted, a little louder than necessary.

"--or calmly call you a slag to hurt you on purpose."

Tegan's head whipped around. Slack-jawed, her eyes widened as she said, "You didn't..."

Lily's stomach lurched. "It-it's not what you think." She could not afford to have both her best friends angry at her.

"Oh, yes it is!"

"Bloody hell, Cressida! I've already apologized for it!"

"So what? I'm supposed to just forget about it? It's one thing to say something like that in the heat of the moment, but you had time to mull it over a bit before dropping it on me like a sodding anvil!"

Lily knew she could not argue with this so she tried a different approach. "You're crapping all over Tegan's good news just to lash out at me. You're only making things worse, so stop it!"

"Worse?" Cressida asked. A nasty shout of a laugh burst from her before she said, "I don't see how things can get any worse than they already are unless you've got a few more insults to throw my way!"

"I may have if you keep this up!"

"Lily, Cressida, please!" Tegan pleaded, her brittle voice capturing their attention. "People are staring! Can't you two just calmly discuss this? Preferably when the entire house isn't watching?"

The shine in Tegan's eyes reduced Lily's anger down to the guilt at its core. Her breathing, which had become furious panting, began to slow. She looked down at herself to see that she had half-risen from her seat in the heat of the argument. Lily quickly sat down and bowed her head, silently wishing she could vanish from the sight of the many eyes she knew were staring at her.

"Good morning!"

Lily wrenched her eyes up to see Sirius standing over Cressida, placing his hands on her shoulders as if to restrain her.

"Quite the show you girls are putting on this morning. I could hear your melodious voices all the way down the end there," he said with an indicative head nod toward the end of the Gryffindor table.

"C'mon, Sirius," Cressida huffed as she grabbed her bag and stood. "I'm sitting with you."

"The more the merrier," he replied, holding out his hand for her to grasp. His eyes quickly swept over Lily's face before he said, "You're looking a bit... peaky this morning, Lily. Have a little trouble sleeping, did you? That's a shame, that is." He looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing. "Of course, it also means that your Slytherin chum has hasn't completely iced over your heart yet. So it's a good thing you look like the walking dead."

His words were like a well-timed punch to her gut. For a moment, she felt like she had just had the wind knocked out of her. She couldn't reply; she was too busy trying to keep her bottom lip from quivering. Her guilt and shame would not be appeased until she cried a river of tears before the entire student body.

Sirius leaned in a bit closer as he murmured, "I warned you to choose your friends more carefully, didn't I? You never would have treated Cressida like this before. Maybe now you'll listen to me."

Lily was just about to tell him to mind his own business when she noticed a curious thing. Cressida was staring at Sirius, and she didn't look very happy at all. In fact, she looked like she was ready to throttle him. She's mad at him, but why? she wondered. I'm sure she would've said that to me and worse if he hadn't shown up when he did.

Before Lily had a chance to figure out what had caused Cressida to focus her wrath on a visibly oblivious Sirius, he began leading her back to his end of the table. As they walked down the aisle, she threw a very brief glance at Lily. She thought she saw contrition in Cressida's eyes, but quickly dismissed it as wishful thinking.

"She's never going to forgive me, is she?"

Tegan looked down the table toward the retreating couple. "It didn't look like she approved of what Sirius said to you at all," she said, wrinkling her nose and scowling in his direction, "which was very foul, by the way. She can't be that mad at you."

"Not only can she be that mad at me, she is that mad at me."

"Look," Tegan began, looking at Lily with undeserved sympathy, "I don't know what happened between the two of you, but I know she loves you. And I'm fairly sure she's not without fault in this whole mess. People say things they don't mean when they're angry. Cressida knows that better than anyone. She just needs some time to calm down is all. Do you--do you want to talk about it? I know I'm a poor substitute, but--"

"No, you're not," Lily declared, reinforcing her words with a strong squeeze of her friend's hand. "You're not a poor anything, Tegan. I just..." Lily's vision began to blur as tears began to collect in her eyes. "I just can't go into it right now. I-I'm sorry." Her voice faltered as she tried to hold it together. "But I just can't." Lily grabbed her belongings and didn't waste any time in fleeing the Great Hall.

*~*~*~*

Severus sat at the Slytherin table picking at his breakfast as he anxiously awaited Lily's arrival. After his weeklong exercise in cowardice, he was ready to prove that he could compartmentalize his feelings for her. He was ready to prove that he was still capable of rational thought in her presence. After their kiss, Severus had been doubtful that he would ever be able to function normally around her again. Yet over the weekend, a new feeling of optimism had blossomed, pushing most of his doubts aside. In the past, optimism was something he believed was reserved for dimwits simple enough to believe that good can be found in any situation. He was now reexamining that belief--an act he found himself doing more and more with each passing day.

Vaguely aware of the conversations taking place around him, Severus revisited their potion-brewing session from the day before. The two of them had worked very hard--there had been instructions to read and reread until memorized, equipment and supplies that needed to be gathered, ingredients to prepare, and so on. There had been much work to keep the two of them busy and preoccupied, and yet Severus still had the opportunity to revel in the very nearness of her. With every stolen glance, he savored the very alluring effect excitement and the sheen of hard work had on Lily. She radiated warmth and contentment like the red flame of his nocturnal wanderings.

Severus casually cast his gaze in the direction of the Gryffindor table, his eyes quickly searching for the flaming beacon of Lily's hair. She had yet to arrive. His growing anxiety was beginning to make him seriously consider committing social suicide by walking across the room and asking a few Gryffindors where she was. He decided to refocus his thoughts and think about something else lest he attempt such a desperate act. Try as he might to avoid them, his thoughts returned to more memories of their time together.

As he stared at her, Severus had noticed her hair was precariously close to falling into her cauldron. Lily had been so engrossed in monitoring the progress of her potion that she had not noticed how close she had been to ruining her potion and possibly losing a good chunk of her hair in the process.

Lily.

Hmmm?

I need you to hold still for just a moment.

Hold still? But why--

She never had an opportunity to complete her inquiry because Severus had--with hands so sure and steady he was amazed by them--reached over and gathered her hair into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. He still marveled at how he had restrained himself from gliding his fingers through her hair; they had itched to do so. Instead, he had produced a long black ribbon that usually held his place in his textbook and used it to secure her hair.

Thank you, Sev! I can't believe I forgot to tie back my hair before we started. Even a first-year wouldn't have been so stupid. You must be wondering how you got stuck with an idiot like me, right?

Actually Severus had silently thanked her for forgetting basic safety procedures; he would not have been able to touch her otherwise. He now reached into his pocket, blindly searching for the length of ribbon he had kept with him ever since. His fingers caught hold of it, and he let it slip back and forth between thumb and forefinger, rubbing it like he expected a tiny genie to materialize and grant his wish to see Lily in the flesh.

Frowning, he stabbed at the remnants of a sausage link as he thought, What is taking her so long? She should be here by now. He attacked the morsel, chewing as though it was the culprit behind Lily's tardiness. That Corwin girl is already here. She's never here without Lily. Something must be wrong. With this realization Severus came to a decision--he would disregard the stares, endure the inevitable round of questioning that would come from his fellow Slytherins, and march over to the Gryffindor table to demand an explanation for Lily's whereabouts.

Just as he began to rise from his seat, he saw her... and his fears that something was wrong were confirmed. The girl he saw walking through the doors of the Great Hall could not be the Lily he knew. She was walking with her head bowed down, her books clutched to her chest like a shield. Only the occasional upward glance kept her from running into people. It seemed as though all the confidence she normally possessed had been siphoned away overnight. The hair that would normally stream behind her on the air like a fiery banner now hung dark and limp around her face, very much like... his hair. Lily was now using the hirsute curtain that she had accused him of using to keep people out. The state of his hair was all well and good for him--he had never been much of a joiner anyway--but this new look did not suit Lily at all. She thrived on being with others, on the enjoyment she got from being around others. That she sought to hide the eyes that always shone a bit brighter whenever she was around friends spoke louder and clearer than anything else.

Instead of calming him like he had hoped, Lily's arrival had only made Severus worry even more. Part of him still wanted to march across the room and get some answers, but his intellect conquered his emotions. He decided to bide his time and see what unfolded at the Gryffindor table before he reacted. At that moment, Severus felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Oi, Severus," said Hadrian Wilkes. "You've been awfully quiet this morning. What's the matter?" he asked with traces of amusement in his tone. "Daydreaming about that Mudblood girlfriend of yours?"

Severus said nothing. He simply looked at Wilkes and let his expression do the talking.

"Bloody hell, Snape!" Wilkes recoiled slightly from his glare as he said, "You used to be able to take a joke. You'd... well, you never really laughed, did you, but you never used to unleash that Death Stare of yours on me, either. You've changed, mate."

Severus returned to his meal. The shock of seeing Lily in her present condition had made every subsequent bite of food flavorless. He only ate it to maintain the pretense of normality.

"She's not my girlfriend," he muttered into his plate, silently wishing he could say the opposite. "And don't call her that."

"What, Mudblood? Why not?" Wilkes asked. "You got a problem with it or something?"

Severus wanted so very much to say that he did, but instead he said, "Not really, it is just incredibly crude."

"You never thought it was crude when you used it...." As his classmate's voice trailed off, curiosity got the better of Severus. He looked up to see an expression of realization on Wilkes's face, as if he had just had the epiphany of a lifetime. "Evan was right! He said he reckons you fancy her, and you do, don't you?"

Severus felt his heart skip a beat, yet years of practice made hiding his true feelings effortless. "Well, if Evan Rosier says it's true, it must be! Do you actually believe everything Rosier tells you?" He rolled his eyes and returned to picking at the food on his plate. "Oh, right. For a moment, I forgot who I was talking to."

"Hey!" Wilkes exclaimed, frowning at the insult. "I've got a mind of my own! I don't believe everything he says, like that time he bragged about shagging a trio of veela sisters. But we were talking about you and that Mud--er, I mean, Evans--in the common room yesterday and--"

"Don't you two have anything more interesting to do than gossip about me? Oh," Severus said, smirking, "that's right. Evan doesn't have anything else to do, does he?"

"You still haven't answered the question, Severus."

"And I have no intention of answering it, either. You two can think what you like, I really don't care."

For a moment there was silence between the two of them. Believing the matter had been dropped, Severus returned to his breakfast. To his chagrin, he soon learned the pause in conversation had only given Wilkes time to think, which was never a good thing.

"Did you and Evan have a row?" he asked.

Severus managed to control his annoyance. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, we never see you anymore. You never spend time in the common room these days, and you don't hang out with us, which is really mean considering that Evan is housebound and needs us more than ever."

"Unlike some people, I am not here at Hogwarts to socialize. I have been busy. I've had quite a bit of studying to do."

"Yeah, like studying that Mudblood partner of yours," Wilkes muttered under his breath.

Severus stared at him. The convulsive clenching of his hand under the table was the only outward sign of his mounting anger over Wilkes's continued disrespect.

"Evan does not need me," he said. "He's got plenty of sycophantic barnacles to keep his head inflated, present company included."

Wilkes paused for a moment as if trying to decide whether or not he had just been insulted. With a dismissive shoulder shrug, he said, "Well, Evan isn't the only reason why you should be spending more time in the common room. You've been missing out on some very interesting conversations."

Severus sighed. "I hardly think conversations about who said what to whom and when are interesting."

Wilkes ignored his disinterest. "Sixth and seventh years have been talking about who they think will be invited to join up when they've finished their studies."

Severus barely heard what Wilkes said. He had turned his attention to the Gryffindor table and was too busy trying to decipher the conversation taking place between Lily and her friends. It did not appear to be pleasant. Distracted, he replied, "Join up?"

"Yeah," Wilkes said, lowering his voice. "To join the cause?"

The pointed emphasis reclaimed Severus's interest. He shifted his eyes to look at Wilkes. "You mean...?"

Wilkes nodded. "There aren't too many wizards who are good enough to be invited to join fresh out of Hogwarts. Most have to prove their worth first."

"Of course they do. I do not think that he would want just any imbecile to take the Mark." Focusing again on the Gryffindor table, Severus added, "So, who's on the shortlist?"

"Well, everyone is certain that Evan and Avery will join straight away."

"That goes without saying," Severus mumbled. His attention was divided again. The Corwin girl had just moved as if to leave her seat, but then it seemed like she changed her mind. He was pondering what could be happening as he said, "Their fathers were some of the first to take the Mark. Who else has been mentioned?"

"Everyone is saying that the only reason Rodolphus Lestrange finally got the Mark is because he married Bellatrix Black, but now that he's got one Rabastan is sure to get one, too. Then there's Bella's cousin, Regulus--"

"I really don't know what is so interesting about any of this. Everyone you've named so far practically had his place reserved for him at birth."

"Does the same go for you?"

All at the Gryffindor table was forgotten as Severus whipped around to face Wilkes. "Me? What are you playing at, Wilkes?"

"I'm not playing at anything," he said, grinning now that he had a captive audience. "Almost everyone thinks you've got what it takes. You know how much Slytherins love to talk."

"So? What of it?"

"Today's common room gabbing becomes tomorrow's letters home. And believe me, people have been letting Mummy and Daddy know about you for years."

"Why me?"

Incredulity was all over Wilkes's face, as if he could not believe Severus was unaware of what others thought about him. "You were the kid who knew more magic his first day than most adults." He lowered his voice to add, "Real magic... the kind most people are too scared to use."

Severus stared at Wilkes, marveling over his uncharacteristic moment of astuteness. Wonders never cease...

"What?" Wilkes asked, frowning. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and examined it. "Is there food on my face?"

Severus shook his head, ignoring Wilkes's confusion and returning to the mind-boggling topic on the table. "None of what you said means I'll be given the opportunity to join them."

"Oh, really? According to Rabastan, Lucius Malfoy still remembers you from when we were first years. Been known to ask about you from time to time."

"Ask what about me?"

"I don't know. About how you're coming along here at Hogwarts, I suppose." Wilkes shrugged and said, "If that doesn't convince you they're interested then I don't know what will. The Dark Lord hand delivering the invitation himself, maybe."

For the first time in a while, Severus found it very difficult to maintain his expression of impassiveness. There was a surge of emotion being quickly pumped into his system. Since his time at Hogwarts, there were only two former students who were rumored to have taken the Dark Mark immediately after their departure: Bellatrix Black and Lucius Malfoy. The thought that he--a half-blood who had struggled for years to find his footing within Slytherin--was being counted among purebloods considered worthy enough to serve straight out of school filled his ambitious heart with elation, hope, and dread. Dread about his secret and the possibility that they would discover it, especially now that Evan knew. Dread over what would happen if they decided he was not as... talented as they had been led to believe. But most of all, dread about what would happen to his burgeoning relationship with the red-headed Muggle-born girl who was now racing out of the Great Hall.

"I wonder what her problem is--hey!" Wilkes was understandably distracted by the fork that nearly stabbed him in the eye as it flew through the air, courtesy of Severus's lightning fast movement away from the table.

"Sorry," Severus muttered in haste as he picked up his bag. "I've got to leave. Forgot something," he added as an afterthought.

Before he could take a step, Wilkes grabbed him by the arm. "Severus," he whispered with insistence, "you're not actually going after her, are you? Didn't you hear what I said? You're being watched now."

Despite the sense of urgency building inside him, Severus allowed his eyes to slide with deliberation toward the fingers tightly gripping him, his eyebrow quirking up at the audacity of the boy to whom those fingers belonged. "Is that so?" he asked, his glacial tone causing Wilkes to drop his arm as if the words would freeze him, too. "Then watch this." He propelled himself toward the doors of the Great Hall, the sound of his robes flapping behind him trumpeting his exit. He knew he was drawing the attention of every Slytherin at the table, but damage control was something he would have to worry about later. His presence was required elsewhere.