“What do you want.”, he faced a tall, grim figure blocking the doorway.
“You said, I could discuss the matter with you after lunch.”
“Well, I’m not done yet. Come back in fifteen minutes.”, Severus simply shut the door again and walked back to the food on his table.
“I know what it looks like when you eat.”, Remus had opened the door before it could be locked, entered and closed it behind. “No need to lock me out.”
“There is a reason why I ordered my lunch to my office.”
“Certainly. Cannot face any students after that lesson, can you?”, Remus chuckled and pointed his wand at the lock, which clicked.
“What do you want.”, he repeated when Remus had sat down in the chair on the other side of the dark desk, crossing his legs.
“Answers.”
“I meant, for lunch.”, Severus had picked a paper and a quill.
“Some candles and two glasses of red wine.”
“Lunch, not dinner and you know that I don’t drink.”, murmured Severus.
“I never said that you will get the wine.”, Remus smirked with a wink.
“Tossers will eat in the Three Broomsticks. Not that you mind either of those four, do you?”
“Don’t be so mean, Snivelly.”, chuckled Remus. “You know how I like my steak. And the wine still holds.”, some Sickles on top and the sheet was gone. “Do you mind if I take off my shoes?”
“As long as your socks don’t stink,”, the other man sighed, cut one of the remaining grilled broccoli loafs and elegantly dipped the piece into herb sauce.
“I hope not!”, Remus grinned and bent down the moment the lone rare steak and glass of well coloured wine appeared on his side of the desk. “Ah! That looks fine!”, he was back up, cracking his knuckles in delight.
“If you say so,”, Severus’ expression couldn’t have been more disgusted and he concentrated on his own plate. “Enjoy.”
“Oh yes, I will, thank you. Especially after that morning.”
“How has he taken it?”
“Not sho pleashed. Mmm! That ish delishioush!”
“Save your breath.”, snorted Severus. “`Not so pleased´?”
“’E wash upshet! Todally outrach’d! Never sheen ’im like shat.”, he swallowed heavily, “Even Niggy fled.”
“There is hardly anything that can not make him freak out lately.”
“Understandable. So? Can I read that essay?”, Severus choked and coughed.
“No!”, he moaned, as soon as he could speak again.
“Have you read it all?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Really? But that page I saw – ”, the smile Remus gave him was all other than mature, “It was rather questionable, wasn’t it?”
“There was nothing about that crap that wasn’t questionable, to say.”
“Crap, you call it? Now – she’s got talent, you have to confess.”
“I thought, you wouldn’t drop it.”
“Not at all, no.”, nor did Remus lose his smile. “So? Did you – like – it?”
“Could you – ”, Severus angrily put down his cutlery, hissing through his teeth, “Please – tell, your, toes – to play with something else?”
“Oh come on. You – ow!”, Severus had clapped his legs together, which squeezed Remus’ foot, but though of the furious look he earned, he couldn’t resist laughing.
“This is not funny, Remus!”
“Come on! You have to admit that you’re just a man.”
“But not the kind of man you wish to see.”
“Then tell my why I – ”
“Why you’ve been drooling after me since our school days? Yes, I would indeed like to know.”, Remus blushed, his grin frozen and his foot still trapped. “Oh come, on.”, Severus scoffed.
“You – know?”
“Yes, as I told you. So? What was it?”
“You’re beautiful,”
“Ha, ha, ha. Give me something I can believe you.”
“You are.”
“Shove it.”
“No, really. And – I don’t know – maybe it was the fact that you were in the choir – ”
“Honestly?”, Severus murmured.
“I don’t know – but I do have an idea what gave me the rest.”, the colour of Remus’ was close to that of his wine.
“And what?”
“I’m aware you meant it sarcastic, but it was actually – ”
“Spit it out.”
“When you called me `Moon Pup´.”, there was a long pause.
“You – what?”, Severus blinked, the other snickered. “Remus!”, and his foot fell, after he had playfully moved his toes again.
“Sorry.”, Remus wiped his moustache and both continued eating.
The crackling fire and the candles in the chandelier in the middle of the room cast them in a soft shine as they ate in silence. Severus was done earlier and ordered desert, only getting a gently refusing gesture from Remus when he gave him a questioning look. So soft pumpkin wedge after pumpkin wedge disappeared from the crystal bowl and the level of the sweet juice sank.
Remus cleaned his lips with his napkin and startled. Severus head leaned on his left hand, the dark eyes studying him in thoughts. Another wedge, slowly eaten. Surprised, Remus watched him raising and sitting down on the side of the desk, only the half empty glass of wine stood on now. Severus then took the bowl and spoon from behind and held it in front of Remus’ chin. One last wedge in the bowl. It was lifted and placed in Remus’ automatically opening mouth.
While he bit and swallowed it, Severus drank the rest of the juice and set the bowl and golden spoon back down on the desk. Completely stunned, Remus lightly startled at the warm hand on his left cheek, as a face came closer. The rest, he didn’t see anymore. As soft and sweet as the pumpkin had been, a pair of lips met his. Dazed more by the touch than the wine, he returned the slow moves, the warmth of their breath flowing between them. A tender tongue found another. Hours seemed to pass. Hours in sickly sweet delirium. Then, Severus slowly let go, though his hand remained when he whispered.
“Remember this – Moon Pup.”, Remus dreamy eyes stared into his. “Remember it to the end of your life, as it was the last time. I am your friend, but I can’t give you anything more.”
“You can’t do that.”, the man aspirated. “You can’t do that to me. Twenty years, Severus!”
“Sixteen and a half; no day has passed on which I hadn’t been wishing to see her again just once – to hold her another time – ”, he tried to fight back his tears. “Don’t tell me, Remus. There is just one thing I have been living for. One simple thing. And I would have never believed that she would be right. She promised me that I would find love again. So I did, strangely. Don’t talk about sickness or desire, Remus. Don’t talk about longing. It is far more complicated and sitting far deeper – and I cannot give you what you long for. I can’t. I am not like you and you are nothing like me.”
His hand moved to his left sleeve when he sat up and only a second after the black wand was drawn and waved up into the air, a blue glowing, silvery white doe and otter erupted from its tip, rushing through the small room, coming to halt behind Severus. The doe put her front legs onto the desk and cuddled against his left shoulder, the otter laid down on his lap. Remus only stared at the man above him and the uneven twins, close to tears himself.
“I am sorry, Remus. I am your friend and that is all I can give you. Not less, not more. You are always welcome in these rooms or my parents’ house. Even in my bed, if you learn to accept. If there is anything I can do for you that doesn’t go beyond the will of a good friend,”, he slipped off the table; the otter gliding up to his right shoulder; and put the wand in his left hand, “I will do it. I will be there for you, but just in the way I can.”
A right hand was offered to Remus and he limply took it, letting himself be pulled to his feet. The otter lively jumped off and joined the doe on the desk when Severus gently wrapped his arms around Remus and held him close. Knocking. He let go and the Patronuses vanished before he made the lock click and the was door opened hesitantly. Framed by chin-length dark cherry hair, a broad grin peered in.
“Wotcher!”, Tonks sang. “Kingsley just arrived earlier. So it’s an hour until I have to be in the Ministry. Met Dumbledore in the yard. Told me you might be here.”, she jumped in and her smile got stuck. “Remus – you’re – ”
“It’s nothing.”, Severus hand still on his left upper arm, he wiped off his tears. “I’m fine. Just had an exhausting morning.”
“Looks like a little more!”, with a few steps, she had reached them and placed her hand on his other arm. “What’s going on, Sev?”
“Peeves attacked him with a window, Nymphadora.”, Severus snarled.
“Uh – sorry. Forgot you don’t like nicknames.”, she smirked shortly, then looked between them. “A window? But – ”
“He looked absolutely delicious, I can tell you.”
“You can drop it.”, Remus huffed, lightly shaking his head. “I promise, I’ll do my best.”
“Well, you don’t have any other choice.”
“Huh?”, her head still changed direction every few seconds.
“Alright, alright. Thank you.”
“That took you quite a time.”
“But I said it.”
“Still.”
“Can you two enlighten me?”
“No.”, both men said at once.
“What?”, Tonks chuckled. “Hey! It’s not like I’m a complete stranger, am I? Or is this some guys’ stuff I’m not supposed to know.”
“Nicely phrased.”, Severus gave her a bored smile.
“Okay. And the window?”
“All gone.”, Remus got out the glass he still carried in the pocket of his jacket; not all of the shards were entirely cleaned.
“That – was all – ”, she marvelled at the shards. “Whow! Crazy! Now that’s why Dumbledore was so grumpy!”
“Possibly.”, said Severus. “I’m back in a minute.”
He finally stowed his wand away, went over to the shelf-door and opened it. Naturally nosy, the woman peeked after him as he disappeared in the dark and lit the lamp in the bathroom.
“I didn’t know there was a room,”, Tonks whispered. “You mind if I take a look?”
“I’m not the right person to ask.”
“Sure. Just saying.”
“And you don’t want to go in there.”
“Why not? Are there some disgusting, little, slimy things lurking in the corners?”, she snickered again, moving her fingers up Remus’ chest like spiders.
“No. It’s just sacred to him. Leave him that little privacy.”
“Nah. Come on.”, she pulled at his hand but he remained standing as solid as a rock, pulling her back as if his arm was a rubber band, making her land in both.
“I said no.”, he smiled kindly.
“Party pooper.”, she grinned and kissed him. “Huh? What’s that?”
“What is what?”
“That taste – is that – ”
“Probably the stewed pumpkin he forced me to try.”
“Did he? But there’s something else – ”, she kissed him a little deeper.
“Tonks!”, he laughed, pulling back.
“Is that broccoli?”, she chuckled.
“Alright, alright. I felt for something exotic and tried his lunch. That is why he forced me to have the full.”, Remus lied.
“And? Did you like it?”, Tonks beamed.
“Actually, yes.”, he considered honestly. “Though I don’t think, I can live off it.”
“You bloody Werewolf.”, she grinned broader than before and tousled his hair. “Never happy with something simple.”
“Beef is simple.”, he nuzzled her.
“Sure.”, whispered Tonks and closed her eyes.
“Can you imagine? All those stars up there?”, Lily whispered. “And some people say, we are the only ones? I don’t believe that. Do you?”
“Hones’ly?”, he marked the position of something. “No. Tha’d be insane.”
“Yeah. Imagine the lonelin- Sev! Won’t you ever stop it? I mean, sure, after five years, Dameda should know what you mean with the `Doggy Mess´, but you shouldn’t write that in your O.W.L. That’s just immature.”
“Personally, I’d rather sen’ ’im ter ’ose stars.”
“I know. Still, that won’t look good.”
“I dun’ care wha’ me Astronomy O.W.L. looks like. Ye know tha’ I’m takin’ it ou’ o’ fun.”
“Did the phlegm just say `fun´?”
“God res’ me soul. ’Ere it comes.”, Severus mumbled, looking through his telescope.
“I know what would be fun. If you love that thing so much, you’re using it out of fun, why don’t you glue it to your eye? Oh wait – you can’t do that magic, can you? Shall I do it for you?”, a wand was pulled in darkness, but not unseen.
“James!”, screamed Lily, drawing all attention on the four of them.
“Potter! Lupin!”, their teacher called. “Your telescope is over here! Will you go back to it!”
“Not before I finished my job here.”, James gritted his teeth.
“Please. You don’t want detention in Astronomy.”, Remus begged.
“For that, it’s worth the frustration.”
“You should listen to what Moon Pup says.”, Severus sneered languidly. “It might just save your life.”
“Potter! Now!”
“Come on.”, Remus gargled, but firmly seized his right wrist and dragged him back over.
“You’ll regret fiddling with her mind, Sneezy.”, James growled quietly.
“He’s not fiddling with anything, you brag!”, Lily hissed after him.
“Leave ’im. ’E’s no’ worth yer anger.”
“Say you.”
“I’m no’ angry. I’m totally calm.”
“Ow!”, now really everyone looked at James, who stumbled backwards and held his nose.
“Are you alright?”, Sirius asked, who had been busy looking over to Lily and Severus. “What happened?”
“Damn!”, James snorted at the sight of something dark and shiny in his hand.
“Professor,”, Lily said aloud, “It looks like Potter just ran into his own telescope! He might be needing medical care!”, various people around snickered under their breath.
“Is that so, Potter? Oh Christ! You really are bleeding heavily! Lupin, get him to the Hospital Wing. Quick.”
“Yes, Professor.”, and the two went off, not without a last hiss thrown after them by Lily.
“Vengeance is very sweet, Jimmy Fawn! Who’s sneezing now, huh?”
“Mental bitch!”, James could just mumble before Remus lightly pushed him downstairs.
“An’ ye call me immature.”, sighed Severus.
“Call me mean, Sev, but he deserved that so badly.”, Lily whispered
“Still, confundin’ non-verbally an’ wandless – ”
“You honestly don’t defend him now, do you?”
“No. I’m jus’ sayin’, ye could ’ave ’it Remus.”
“You know I’m too precise for that.”
“All righ’, ye win.”
He sighed again, shortly looked into the mirror and bent down for spitting out the rest of toothpaste. Clear water washed his mouth, seeming colder than it actually was, due to the fresh taste of the spearmint. His left hand reached onto the shelf for the little box with the floss, only to – discover the remaining string to be too short for usage. Letting out a frustrated snort, he put the box back and pulled a single thick hair from somewhere a little up behind his left ear.
Done, the hair simply disappeared into thin air. He dried the sink with the appropriate towel, turned the light off with a snap and quietly walked back towards the lit office. The next sigh escaped him when he stopped in the doorway, finding a tenderly kissing couple in front of him. He couldn’t hold back a tiny smile on the sight of Tonks’ now waist-length brown hair. Smirking a little more, he put his hands behind his back and studied the floor. Even that he started seesawing, didn’t draw their attention, nor another sigh, blinking at the chandelier. Severus curled his lips and coughed pointedly.
Remus gasped and his eyes were on him at once, his lips hanging half on Tonks’ for some seconds, until she turned her head and her hair shrunk up to her shoulders, though not changing the colour. She sniffed.
“What is that?”, her nose transformed to one of a dog and she sniffed even more, making it nearly impossible for Severus to keep a straight face. “Is that – spearmint?”
“Yes, it is spearmint. If you two excuse me now,”, Severus mumbled, pointed to his chair and walked over childishly slow and awkward to get his cloak, “I need to find an old idiot and make sure he can’t move an inch for a week.”
“Old idiot?”
“Peeves.”
“Oh – oh! That one!”, Tonks giggled, her nose back to normal. “I thought, you meat Dumbledore. Yeah. Sure. But you can do that?”
“You’d be surprised.”
“But no one ever managed to effectively hex him!”
“Severus did.”, Remus noted. “In our second year already. Wasn’t too pretty. I wouldn’t have believed either that a Poltergeist can be so vulnerable. He secretly fears Severus since, though that doesn’t stop him from playing tricks on him every now an then.”
“He paid every time.”, Severus smiled murderously as he put on the cloak, continuing calm though. “You know how to lock. Take a rest, Remus. Have a nice day, both of you.”, with that, he was gone.
~~#~~
Curling lips and hazel eyes faced old wood. The very distant ringing of a deep bell. Eight o’clock. Four firm knocks on that certain wood in front of her. Her look remained the same when her hand sank into its former position. No footsteps to be heard. The door was thick enough for that. She wondered how noises could get in, but not out. Was it some kind of spell she had not figured out yet? A spell that was probably even hidden in the depths of Bullock’s encyclopaedia? Waiting, not moving a thou. He had clearly said eight. She couldn’t recall any time he had been late for appointments he had set himself. Something was wrong. Becoming a little worried, Hermione bit her lower lip. Her hand already reached for her wand when she heard voices from the spiral staircase.
“How many more times do I have to tell you that it is impossible to get rid of him, Argus?”
“But there is evidence!”, Filch growled. “So much evidence, Professor!”
“As much as I share your determination regarding him, even Albus is helpless. Peeves is bound to the castle until he himself decides to move on. Not even an enormously fatal damage to the school would be effective if he refused to leave.”
“How long does this curse last?”
“The last time I did it to him, he was petrified for a week. Though that was many years ago. Of course I have developed my skills, but so have his powers expanded. I cannot promise anything or predict his reactions when he breaks free.”, they finally reached the corridor and the light of a lantern mixed into the blue. “If you excuse me now, a student is waiting to be punished and it upsets me a bit that it is you of all to have delayed me.”
“Detention, eh? Then I don’t want to keep you off your duty any longer, Sir. Who’s it?”, Filch had stopped shuffling and peered past his lantern, Mrs Norris skulking around his legs. “Oy! Granger! That’s a sight!”
“Yes, that’s a sight.”, Severus snarled as he reached her and magically unlocked the door, which opened silently for her. “Nighty night, Argus.”, she could see him throwing a nasty smirk at the caretaker from inside, before he walked past her and the door locked itself like automatically. “Sit down.”
Hermione swallowed. Nevertheless he lit the fireplace and chandelier before he rummaged for his pouch. A glass on the desk caught her interest. So she did as ordered and stared at it. Meanwhile, Severus had pulled out some sheets of parchment and placed them before his own chair on which he sat down. As he brought his clothes in order, he of course noticed what she looked at. A wave of his hand and the glass lifted, flew over to the fire, emptied itself into the flames and came back, landing gently on the desk, where it was gone immediately. Sitting rather straight, Severus crossed his arms on the narrow space between the essay and the edge of the desk. The breath he took however was stopped by an appearing note to his right. Frowning, both read the scrawl.
Mister has taken quite long for that sip.
Severus huffed, picked a quill, inked it and wrote beneath:
The Mister has forgotten it.
Three quick knocks on the desktop and the message vanished like the glass had. Seconds later, it came back with a fresh line.
Dobby thought so, Sir.
Severus wrote back again.
What a clever Elf you are, Dobby.
Dobby’s answer came with a simple drawn smiling face that was answered by a finishing, similar drawing and returned wish:
The Sir’s sarcasm doesn’t hurt Dobby. Good night, Sir.
Sighing what seemed to be the hundredth time that day, he watched the sheet with his greet disappear once again and remain gone. Then he put back the quill, cleared his throat and finally started talking to Hermione.
“I will keep this as short as possible for you.”, he said calm and serious; Hermione swallowed another time. “I am talking to you as your teacher now. So first of all, I confess myself totally innocent.”, Hermione frowned again, though a little more concerned. “I have never in any way ever read something at all similar to this only once in my life.”, she could hardly hold back a smirk at the fast spoken words. “Secondly, I actually expected you to hand in ten empty pages.”, he went on a little slower; the girl eventually smirked, though rather embarrassed. “Now, having made my position in the world of this genre and the matter clear, I ask you; and I want you to answer me according to the truth; have you ever written anything alike before?”
“No.”, Hermione gargled.
“Good.”, he mumbled and bit his lip, his look shortly on the top page, pausing, before he continued with only his eyes on her. “Has anyone but the two of us, Remus and Draco read it or possibly gotten a glimpse on it?”
“No.”, he nodded, closed his eyes and scratched his neck.
“Now then,”, his hand was back at the other elbow and his look on her, “Congratulations.”, Hermione’s eyes popped out. “Having only read academical texts and a rather humble number of notes from you, I admit I find your style of writing very – ah – compelling.”, he paused again, “I had no idea you knew such a variety of – interesting words. Did you have any help?”
“No.”
“Did you do some kind of research or study, specifically for this essay?”
“No, Sir.”
“There is no need for calling me `Sir´, honestly.”, he moaned.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologise.”
“So-”, she swallowed heavily at the look he gave her.
“Here comes the complicated part.”, he blinked fast for some seconds. “It was absolutely difficult for me to stop reading, though I felt a certain urge to burn it in front of the class. If it hadn’t been for Remus crashing the party, this could have ended very bad. But what do I say, you know the sickening crap you wrote from page four on.”, heavily flushed, Hermione still gazed into those black depths facing her. “Let me get to point three then. I don’t like to be tied to anything.”, she squinted her eyes shut. “Point four,”, her eyes flicked open once more, “Apart from that, feel free now to go through every single line of that short story. You have the whole night.”
The crackling of the fire echoed like thousands of marching soldiers in the following silence. Hermione’s lips stood ajar in disbelief. A little more; she frowned an eventual time, blinked and a dazed sigh left her as her upper body toppled down, her head lightly slamming against the dark wood. Just hesitantly, she started giggling, which transformed into bright laughing when a hand softly brushed her hair.
“You bastard.”, she chuckled. “I thought you’d kill me.”
“Likewise.”, Severus smiled warmly.
“Do I have to?”, her chin rested on the desk now.
“I said, feel free.”
“May I get up?”
“Of course.”, she did.
“And walk around that desk?”
“Certainly.”
“And sit down on your lap?”, he leaned back in his chair, not losing the smile.
“Now you can.”, slowly, she sat down and her fingers wandered through his hair.
“And – very slow – and soft – and tenderly – kiss my teacher?”
“I beg for it.”
~~#~~
A soft warm breeze of mid May blew through his hair and cloak, making the pouch in his hand dangle by the strings he held it on. In the other, his matt black shoes, the socks stuck into them. The stone under his bare feet was still cold, but he craved the feeling. Gazing over the Black Lake, he stood on the rocks for some minutes, enjoying the view. The cliff at the walls, its edge only a few inches from his toes, went straight down into deep water.
Today he had time for things like standing there. Time for things he hadn’t done in a while. A good side of Saturdays that had no detention written on his timetable. He had corrected the remaining essays handed in the afternoon before. It was a free weekend now. One of those rare two days in a row with nothing to do but dawdling away. One of those very rare days he had missed since January. Skipping breakfast for a specific reason was something he had longed for ever since this option had then been presented to him and the mushrooms at lunch had never tasted better.
Dropping a happy sigh, he stored his shoes and continued to undress, letting his neatly folded clothes sink down gently into the pouch. By the moment he put it around his neck, his ears caught a noise. Heavy panting and groaning. A suppressed squeal and muttered cursing. Then, a bush of brown hair appeared at the rocks to his left; finally a face with flashing red cheeks. She had the laces of her trainers knotted and hung the pair around her own neck so she could climb easier. A little amused, he nevertheless didn’t walk over to assist her. He knew she could do it alone now. She had to.
“What are – you – doing up here?”, Hermione huffed. “Naked!”, she gasped.
“Do you mind?”, he smirked.
“No but – you – you’re not – planning to – go – ”, she straightened herself, robbing her fingers, “Swimming?”
“Any more complaints?”
“No.”, Hermione laughed.
“How is Ron?”
“Just the same.”, she sighed. “Same reaction: no reaction. He still can’t remember, but he at least notices that there is something to both you and me he doesn’t understand. Anyway – why do you ask me about him when you’re – on such a day – after such a night – ”, her eyes drifted up and down his body.
“Because I care for you and therefore I want to know whether you are happy.”
“What is she doing up there now?”, Susan asked.
“Just talking, I think.”, Parvati guessed.
“And he doesn’t care?”, her twin sister wanted to know.
“Obviously not.”
“Can I?”
“Sure.”, she handed the binoculars over to Padma.
“Oh my – ”, she aspirated. “He’s – completely – he actually is – ”
“Let me see, let me see!”, Susan demanded and tore the binoculars from the other girl’s hands as she didn’t obey immediately. “Caterwauling Flobberworm! He’s – ”
“Yeah.”, the sisters giggled together.
“My goodness – “, Susan moaned dreamingly, “I don’t give a damn what she does there – I – I just want to be her right now!”
“What are you three doing out here so close to the borders of the school grounds?”
McGonagall’s upset voice shrunk them as she walked down the hill to the shore. Like hit by a jinx, Susan let the binoculars slip behind her back and all three of them jumped up from the grass, turning to her, totally embarrassed.
“Professor – ”, Parvati aspirated.
“Oh don’t ask me how I found you, Miss Patil. I saw you lot disappearing in the woods and could of course not allow myself to let you get away with this. What by all means are you thinking? Only because it is Saturday and the weather nice, it does not mean you can sneak around the grounds just as you please.”, there was real concern in her words. “And what are you doing with those binoculars?”
“Enjoying the landscape.”, Padma said quick, avoiding her eyes, more than guilty.
“As if. Who are you spying at?”
“No one!”, the girls yelped.
“Don’t take me for a fool.”, she warned. “I heard you talking. Who is it?”
“Uhm – ”, Susan started, “We – ”
“Yes, Miss Bones?”, Padma tried to turn her head and see whether he was still there, in hope not to be noticed. “Or Miss Patil? Who is there on the rocks?”
She quickly snatched the binoculars from Susan and searched the rocks along the walls in distance. They were still up there, talking. Completely flabbergasted, she adjusted the wheels so she could have a better view, fitting her visual acuity.
“Oh minced blaeberry pie – ”, McGonagall breathed, making the girls’ eyes gape with surprise. “I had no idea he – for cripes’ sake – ”, she lowered the tool, her free hand on her thinning lips to cover the girlish smile emerging. “This is not – ”, she took another look, “He really is – my goodness, my goodness, my goodness! How can he hide such a body from the world – ”, neither of the girls could help giggling. “Oh drop it.”, she waved them off, still staring through the binoculars. “But can any of you tell me what Miss Granger is doing up there?”
“Talking to him.”, sighed Parvati, jealousy written all over her face.
“Yes, yes, but why?”
“I really don’t know, Professor.”
“Oh my – ”
She lowered the binoculars, her hand on her chest and marvelled at the rocks in the distance without the tool. The girls lined up at her side, staring equally stunned. He had spread his arms and jumped. In freefall, he sailed down like a crow in the wind. Fifteen feet – thirty – forty-five – sixty – seventy – he spun forward and dived in needle-like, his toes ahead.
Up on the rocks, Hermione just shook her head and looked for a sign of him. A little relieved, she saw his head reappear, splashing water when he threw his long hair into his neck.
“You’re completely lunatic!”, she cried down, hearing her voice echoing across the lake.
“I already did that when I was fourteen!”, he shouted up to her, just as her, loud enough to be heard by those on the distant shore as well due to the direction of the breeze.
“You should be arrested for this insanity!”, Hermione moaned, shook her head another time and went off, trying to somehow climb down where she had gotten up.
“Whatever!”, when no answer would come, he dived in again and swam away.
“He really is mad!”, Susan aspirated. “How high is that, Professor?”
“High enough to not be imitated by anyone without the slightest experience.”, the teacher lightly shook her head as well. “Unbelievable. And I thought, I knew – him – good gracious – he is – swimming in – our direction!”, she attempted to move, but struggled a little. “Now tell me, is it wise?”
“Is what wise, Professor?”, asked Padma.
“To just stand here and wait for him to reach us?”
“Er – ”
“Or should we show a spark of decency and make the biggest mistake ever by leaving this spot?”
~~#~~
Heads turned in the Great Hall, eager to find out who disturbed their lunchtime peace. The upset voices drew nearer and seconds later, the arguing people approached the door, their hair and cloaks billowing with every of their angry steps.
“This does not make sense at all.”, he snorted.
“It does very well.”, Hermione pouted. “She put it in there so he would find it.”
“Why should she have wanted him to find the envelope, Miss Granger. Why.”
“Because she knew he would figure out the combination.”
“Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. She put it into the safe, because she wasn’t sure anymore whether she actually wanted to die, but couldn’t find the courage to destroy the letter either.”
“But that is exactly what everyone is supposed to believe, Professor!”, McGonagall had gotten up from her chair and walked around the staff table while everyone else was watching the two with open mouths.
“We are talking about a suicide note here. She wanted to die, Miss Granger. Mary was a very disturbed character, from the first page on and that was set clear after her scandal at the funeral.”, he stopped midway through the hall, making her almost run into him as he turned and looked down on her, his lips pressed shut with revolt.
“She only freaked out – lost control – ”
“Don’t try to analyse a person who wants to end their life. You have never been in such a situation.”
“Have you?”, Hermione crossed her arms. “Sir?”, there was a long pause before he went on in the same ferocious tone.
“If you love her so much, then go and marry Mary!”, he hissed.
“I’m not in love with her!”, the girl protested. “She’s just – terribly misunderstood!”
“She’s a mass murderer on purpose! What could there be misunderstood?”
“Oh – a lot, actually.”, Hermione sang, causing another short silence.
“Besides, it is only a book, Miss Granger! And what are you grinning at?”, McGonagall had just passed them with a broad smile.
“Nothing, Severus.”
“Pardon?”, he stormed around Hermione and held his colleague back on her arm, turning her around. “I beg your pardon?”, he murmured, distorting his face to a disbelieving grimace when he looked straight into her eyes.
“I didn’t say anything.”, a slight pink hue flashed onto the woman’s cheeks.
He let go, spun around and stormed to the Gryffindor table. Everybody stared at him when he held out his right arm straight across the table and towards Parvati.
“Your binoculars, Miss Patil, if you would.”, he snarled and the girl’s eyes widened with horror. “Now.”, threatened to death by his expression, she crammed for it in her bag and gave it to him, her hand shaking. “This is the last time you have been spying on someone. Twenty points from Gryffindor, as well as Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and until the three of you grow up, you will not see this precious little thing ever again, Miss Patil.”, with that, he stomped off and past Hermione, completely forgetting that he actually wanted to have lunch.
“Severus!”, McGonagall moaned. “You cannot do this! This is not – ”, he spun again and brandished with the binoculars.
“You don’t tell me what I can do and what not, Minerva.”
“Give me that. I am her Head of House. I should keep it.”, now it was her who held out an arm.
“So you can hand it back to her? Dream on. I am not stupid. If there was; as that Miss Granger here longs for so much; a Teachers’ Cup, I would take points off you as well for that blatantly childish act of yours.”, he rushed around once again. “Get yourself a man, honestly.”, he added when storming out of the hall.
“Professor?”, Hermione raised an eyebrow when he was gone.
“Yes, Miss Granger?”, the teacher turned to her, heavily flushed.
“What, was, this, about.”, she said in a very Severus-like manner.
“I have no idea.”, McGonagall said quickly.
“I know that Parvati is an intrusive dangler,”
“Hey!”, came it from a certain spot at the Gryffindor table.
“But that a factual woman like you could lower herself to the level of a stalker, would have never come to my weirdest dreams, Madam.”
“He has a really bad influence on you, Miss Granger. He does alter your sanity in a very questionable – ”
“Well, it might surprise you, but I don’t give a damn on what you believe he does to me!”, she raged and strutted straight back towards the big doors.
“Didn’t you want to have lunch, Miss Granger?”
“I know how to get into the kitchen and I am friends with a Houseelf!”, Hermione snapped and disappeared to the Dungeons.
“Blimey!”, Ron aspirated staring out into the Entrance Hall. “She’s really gone mad now, has she?”
“You might have a right point on this, Mr Weasley.”, McGonagall moaned.
~~#~~
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