Owls and Musings - The Sequel

Chapter 14 - Back to Normal

Wednesday morning Alisha joined her housemates back at the Ravenclaw table for breakfast. Her four dorm mates were quite solicitous towards her, and the students present gave her an ovation as she sat down. Rena came and sat next to her giving her a bit of a nudge to get her attention.

"I'm sorry, Alisha, we shouldn't have let you go down that alley." She handed her friend the platter of eggs.

"It's alright, Rena. From what they tell me - they would've got me one way or another. At least this way none of you were injured as well," she reassured her friend.

"Are you okay then?" her friend asked. No matter what anyone said to her, she still felt guilty about not acting sooner on her misgivings.

"I'm fine. I'll probably be a bit shy of dark alleys for a bit." She smiled weakly over at Rena in commiseration. She was feeling very well, considering her ordeal, as she had slept most of the previous day after drinking down numerous healing potions from her father, as well as a healthy dose of Dreamless Sleep for the last two nights.

"I can understand that. You haven't missed much in classes, but I'll give you my notes tonight to copy," she offered her friend.

"Thanks. Hey, I heard how you led Da and everyone to the alley; that was really brave of you!" She gave her friend's arm a squeeze then grabbed some toast from a rack floating along the table.

"I was scared to death! And then they wouldn't tell us anything until yesterday morning when the headmistress announced you had been rescued." Rena took a drink from her cup of pumpkin juice. "Your sister was going spare with worry. She was the one who noticed you were missing first. You hadn't shown up with her frogs!" Alisha laughed outright at this bit of news and glanced down the table at her sister who was listening in to the conversation.

"Well, then I owe her a whole bunch of them!" Bree coloured up at that and turned to listen to something someone was saying next to her to cover up her embarrassment at the praise from her older sister.

+++

Alisha did not see Derek Constantine again until the following week when she was heading up to the head's office to have tea with her great aunt. She was surprised when she walked up to the gargoyle-guarded entrance to discover it already open and Derek exiting from the opening. He looked startled to see her, but a smile soon lit up his face at her presence.

"Alisha! How are you? Have you recovered?"

"I'm fine, Derek, thank you. I was just on my way for tea with Grandma - what are you doing here?"

He cast glance around to make sure the corridor was clear. "I'm working for Professor McGonagall now as a spy among the dark contingent," he told her in a low voice. "I was just making my first report. Your father is still up there with her; he was giving me some insight as well."

"Ah, learning from the master," she quipped, but with a smile. Derek shared the half-amused look with her.

"Exactly. The others still do not know that I've defected, or that it was me who rescued you - so I am perfectly placed to report on their activities."

She started moving toward the spiral staircase. "I understand. I better get up there, Grandma gets testy when we are late to tea." She laid her hand on his arm. "Thank you for your help, Derek, I really don't want to imagine what would have happened if you hadn't rescued me!"

He laid his hand over hers, and she felt a little thrill at his touch. "Trust me when I tell you that the reality would have been worse than you could imagine." He gave her hand a slight squeeze before letting it go. "I'm glad you've come through this as well as you have."

"Oh, I still have nightmares - but Da's potions help. I talk to him a lot about it and that has helped as well."

Derek nodded his understanding. "Good. I better let you get upstairs. Hopefully I'll see you again sometime soon?" he asked her with a hopeful lilt to his voice.

She smiled at him as she placed her foot on the first step, letting the stairs draw her upward. "I'd like that!" she called back to him before she disappeared behind a turn in the stairway.

+++

Severus walked a bit wearily along the corridors to the staff room. He had just gotten through with taking his entire fifth-year Ravenclaw/Slytherin class to Madam Pomfrey after someone had tossed a dungbomb into a cauldron of boils potion. He did not have enough antidote on hand in the classroom and so had marched the entire class up to the infirmary. They would all be spending Friday night in detention, as the culprit would not come forth.

He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. He knew why the dungbomb had been thrown; end of term was coming up, along with the Quidditch finals, and the natives were getting restless. Add to that the OWL tests in two weeks and it was a disaster in the making; a disaster that happened every year. He sighed to himself, thinking on past year's pranks. He thought his favourite had been the Weasley twin's fifth-year class when they had perfected the Canary Creams and had managed to turn every Slytherin in the room into big, fat yellow canaries. It had taken every ounce of his years of practiced stoicism to keep from rolling on the floor, laughing. Afterwards, during their detention was when he had broached the subject of helping them in their research - as long as they kept his assistance absolutely secret!

He hurried his pace, as he wanted to make the sanctuary of the staff room before the next bell rang. When the gargoyles at the entrance opened their mouths to make a snippy comment, he gave them such a black look that they shut them closed with an audible click.

He opened the door just as the bell rang and was relieved to find the room almost deserted. He gave a polite nod to those staff members who were on their way out for their next classes and went to sit in a comfortable chair before the fireplace,[Author ID1: at Sat Apr 21 20:25:00 2007 ] picking up a discarded edition of that day's Prophet. Taking one of his favourite red-ink quills out of his robe pocket, he flipped the paper open to the daily crossword, which luckily no one else had started, and began to fill in the answers.

He was about halfway through the puzzle when the door opened to admit Harry. They nodded politely to each other, and Severus returned to his puzzle while Harry fixed himself a cup of tea and sat down nearby with a large tome on advanced defence techniques.

Severus worked his way down to the bottom of the puzzle and was stuck on the corner box. One word was keeping him from completion and he had no idea as to what it was.

A Muggle term for cold-food storage. Just six little letters were keeping him from victory and nothing was coming to mind. He looked over at Potter; he was Muggle-raised - it was worth a shot.

He cleared his throat to gain Harry's attention. Harry peered up at him with a questioning look. "Potter, what is a six-letter Muggle word for cold-food storage?"

Harry looked taken aback for a second, then asked, "Are there any letters you have so far?"

Severus nodded. "Fourth letter is a 'd' and sixth is an 'e'," he supplied.

Harry thought a minute more, then replied, "Fridge." He looked over at the man sitting next to him and noted the puzzled look on his face. "It's short for 'Fridgedaire', hence 'fridge'," he explained. At Severus' still puzzled look he explained further. "It was the leading brand of refrigerators. You're a half-blood; didn't your parents' house have a refrigerator?"

"Yes, but my father always referred to it as an ice-box." Severus raised an eyebrow as he said this, but added the word and completed the puzzle. "Thank you, Harry."

Harry looked up startled from his book. "I think that is the first time you have ever used my first name!"

Severus appeared taken aback for a moment, but recovered quickly. "Well, after your assistance this winter with Alisha, I guess I've been seeing you in a new light," he conceded.

Harry quirked his mouth in a half-smile. "Not the spoiled brat you always thought I was?"

"No, I suppose not." Severus turned back to the paper and flipped it over to the front page.

"I never was, you know," Harry said after a moment's silence.

"Never what?" he said without looking up.

"Spoiled. I thought you had figured that out after the Occlumency lessons. But you never seemed to comment on that. After that I just assumed you hated me for hate's sake." Harry said this dispassionately as he had long ago let go of the hate he had felt for the man next to him during his school years; but it was good to clear the air - they had never done that. After the war, and Harry's apology to Snape, they had silently agreed to be polite to each other as they worked together at various times over the last dozen years and had never spoken of the animosity they had each felt for the other during Harry's school years.

Severus looked up from the paper to stare at the green eyes across from him. "I thought those were random incidents," he said curiously but without apology in his voice. Harry shook his head.

"No, that was normal. Well, normal for me. The Dursleys hated me." He gave a slight snort. "Probably more than you or Malfoy. They knew what I was, you see, but never told me. I slept in a cupboard until my Hogwarts letters started coming. I was their house-elf whilst I lived there, did all the chores inside and out as well as most of the cooking. And if I did anything out of the ordinary, I was locked away in my cupboard or later in my room and starved; for weeks at a time sometimes." He stared off into the distance in remembrance. "As much as I respected Dumbledore, he messed up with that. He never checked on me the whole time I was growing up there. He just dumped me on the doorstep and expected my aunt and uncle to raise me as their own. I didn't even know what I was until Hagrid was sent with my final letter." He looked back over at his former professor, noting the shocked look on the man's face. Well, shocked for Snape; anyone else would have seen a raised eyebrow and a pursing of the lips. "But I have to hand it to you, Severus, you always insisted that I be treated like any other student. No special considerations for the Boy-Who-Lived. I may not have appreciated it then, but I do now. You were always watching out for me back then, weren't you?"

"As much as I could without tipping my hand," he acknowledged quietly. "I owed it to your mother." He laid his paper down and looked thoughtfully at Harry, picking his next words carefully. He wanted to impart this information correctly; Potter needed to hear it, and Severus needed to say it to him. "Despite what you saw in the Pensieve, Potter, your mother and I were good friends through most of the time we were in classes. It wasn't well known, but there you are. I truly regretted that it was my information that led to the Dark Lord singling your family out. When I realised what he was doing was when I went to Albus."

He took a deep breath before continuing. "You have to realise, Harry, that Trelawney made that prophecy in December of seventy-nine. It prophesied for a boy born in July of the following year. The Dark Lord had to wait until you and Neville were born to make his choice. By the time you were two months old he had pretty much decided it was you who was the more potential threat. When I saw that, it was as if I was waking up from a bad dream. I hadn't been under Imperius, I had made the choice willingly in school to join with him; but to target a baby just because of a prophecy that a charlatan had made?" He shook his head as he remembered his incredulity at the Dark Lord's intentions. "It was madness. I went to Albus and became a spy."

He studied the younger man next to him. Harry's face could not be read as to what he was feeling while listening to Severus. That was a change from when he was younger; then, his face had been an open book that Severus could easily read. "There were other reasons why I became dissatisfied with the organisation, but that was the final straw," he continued. "I am aware that you know someone tipped Albus off as to when the raid was going to happen so that he could get your family under the Fidelius charm?" Harry murmured a 'yes'. "What he never told you was that it was I who was the informant."

Harry looked up startled. "You? You were the informant? He never told me! One of these days I'm going to have it out with that portrait!" he grumbled.

"Join the crowd; but don't think too harshly of him, Harry. He couldn't tell you, it would have jeopardised my position within the Death Eater ranks." He let his face soften a little as he looked at Harry. "You had to believe I was wholly with the Dark Lord. That was the whole point of why I had to put Dumbledore out of his misery that night."

"I suppose he couldn't tell me. Not then with Voldemort in my mind at odd times." He stared unseeing at the page in front of him, eventually gave up and closed the book with a resounding thud. "Were you aware at the time that Pettigrew was the traitor?" he asked one of the questions that had been burning in his brain for years and had never had a chance to ask.

"No. The traitor always kept his mask on and hood up when attending meetings, stayed in the back and left immediately afterwards. We never knew who it was, just that there was one," he said shaking his head. "I have a question for you. I heard the rumour, years ago, that you were almost sorted into Slytherin. Fact?"

Harry grinned. "You mean Dumbledore never told you? Yeah, the hat wanted me to go to Slytherin, but I insisted on anywhere BUT Slytherin, so it placed me in Gryffindor. I do still have a Slytherin side to me," he joked.

"So I've seen over the years. You know, if you had been placed there I would have been in a better position to understand your pitiful raising by the Muggles and help you. As it was, I was inclined to see you as the spoiled golden boy of the wizarding world." He let his lips curl up in a half-smile to soften his words. "You do realise, Potter, that part of the animosity I showed you was calculated to keep my appearance as a Death Eater intact?" He folded his paper and placed it on the arm of the chair. "I hope that you and I have managed to move past all that?"

"After working with you these past months and before, on the projects for the Ministry, I have to honestly say that I no longer hate or dislike you," he acknowledged. "In fact, I've respected you for quite some time now but was unsure as to how you felt about me." Harry let a boyish grin light up his face. "Shall we call a cessation to all hostilities and continue on as respected colleagues?" He held his hand out to the Potions Master. Severus took it and noted the strong, firm shake that Harry gave him.

"I think I would like that, Harry." The bell rang for the change of class, and the men stood up to go their separate ways. "You and your family should join ours for dinner some night before the end of term. I know Esmerelda would love to host one, and we'll have Remus and the Lupins as well," Severus offered as they walked towards the staff door.

"Sounds good, have Esme contact Ginny."

"I will. Have a pleasant day, Potter." It would take him awhile to refer to Harry by his first name more often. He still often referred to Remus as Lupin; it just depended on the situation.

"You too, Severus." And they parted at the door - Severus for the dungeons and Harry for the Quidditch pitch.