“Threatening to prevent him in becoming an auror?” Snape sneered. “That’s a pretty low blow don’t you think?”
Alexis shrugged and said quietly, “I knew what I was doing.”
“I don’t doubt that you did. I just did not expect that from you,” Snape retorted.
“How quickly you forget that I am a Slytherin as well,” she said with a sly smile.
“Touche,” Snape conceded. He took several long sips of his tea as they sat together in the sitting room in silence.
It had been a long emotional day and yet Alexis knew that sleep would be a long time coming tonight. Her mind was fill with questions that she felt that she wasn’t sure she wanted answered.
“What do you make of these dreams that he is having?” Snape said breaking the silence.
“I’m afraid I don’t know. Is this something that he has experienced before?” she asked.
Snape looked up at her and said, “Not like this as far as I know. He had issues that related directly to the Dark Lord, but I do not believe that he has had any other dreams of this nature.”
Alexis nodded and paused for a minute to consider how best to phrase her next questions. She knew that she would need to tread lightly on this topic considering the strong feelings she knew he tried to keep under control.
Finally she decided to just charge ahead with it, “What about his parents? Was there any history of these type of abilities?”
“What?!” Snape snapped in surprise. Alexis could feel the shift in his mood with the mention of the boy’s parents.
“His father or his mother. Did they ever exhibit any prophetic dreams or seer abilities?” she said fighting to keep her voice casual.
She didn’t know why, but she felt as though she was entering into forbidden territory. She had never heard him speak of Harry’s parents before tonight except for the absolute loathing that she knew he had felt towards his father. Tonight, however, when he addressed Harry and spoke of Lily Potter, his pain had been so obvious that she could have seen it even without her gift of detecting emotions.
“Pft! I doubt Potter could even see past the end of his own nose, let alone be able to see anything else,” Snape spat bitterly.
“What about his mother? You were familiar with her if I’m not mistaken?” she said softly.
Snape stared down into his cup of tea as if weighing how he should answer the question. For several long minutes he said nothing and Alexis was scared that he was not going to answer at all. When he finally spoke his voice was so quiet, Alexis had to sit forward in her chair to hear him.
“Lily was not a seer. She was muggleborn. An incredibly intelligent witch, but she would have told me if she had seer abilities. Divination was the one subject in school that she didn’t like,” he said with a hint of a painful smile. “Unless something developed later in her life, which I highly doubt.
As much as Alexis wanted to delve deeper into questioning Severus about Harry’s mother, she knew that she was pushing her luck and risked alienating him further from her. She told herself that she was happy with what information he was willing to share for now in hopes that he would open up more to her in the future.
“Hmmm. Have you ever heard anything about Harry having these type of dreams before?” she said lightly.
Snape hesitated before saying, “Not like this. Before Voldemort had been defeated he was having issues with not being able to keep him out of his head, but that was due to the bizarre side effects of his being made into an accidental horcrux. I don’t believe there were any other incidents outside of that.”
“I’m at a complete loss then at where these dreams are coming from,” Alexis said in frustration. “I don’t suppose we can write it off as some sort of fluke incident, huh?”
“Unfortunately my experience with the boy thus far has shown that there is very rarely many instances that are arbitrary or insignificant,” he said with a sigh.
“Maybe I’ll try doing some research into his father’s lineage. Perhaps there is a seer somewhere down the line that might shed a bit of light onto the situation,” she muttered. “I’ve just never heard of anyone just randomly beginning to have dreams of this type.”
She sat drinking her tea, absorbed in her own thoughts, for nearly ten minutes before she glanced up and noticed that Snape was staring at her. Feeling suddenly self-conscious she placed her cup down beside her and addressed him.
“Why are you staring at me?” she said softly.
Snape smiled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that I was. I was just feeling particularly pensive.”
“Oh? About anything in particular?” she asked in mock disinterest.
“About you,” he said cryptically.
“Oh dear,” she replied in mock concern. “Should I be worried?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied. “I suppose I just do not understand your concerns about Harry, and your dedication to help him. You have only just met the boy, relatively speaking, and yet you have welcomed him into your home, risked your life to rescue him and even accompanied him on his ridiculous rescue mission to get me. Now here you sit fretting about how to attempt to understand what it happening to the boy. It just doesn’t make sense to me,” he finished with a shrug.
Alexis stared at him in a semi-state of disbelief. “Is it really so hard for you to believe that I would genuinely want to help, Harry?”
“No. I find it difficult to believe that anyone unfamiliar with Harry and his turbulent past would be willing to take on the massive task of rehabilitating him into a functional member of society,” he said determinedly.
“Huh…I’m not sure how to take this right now,” she said with a small laugh. “There are so many ways that I could over-analyze this. I suppose, however, I can simply chalk it all up to your general habit of being distrustful and wary of anyone and everyone.” She stood with a yawn and carefully set her teacup and saucer on the small table next to her chair. “If you must have a reason, I suppose the best reason would be you.”
Snape eyes narrowed as he stared at her in confusion, “Me? Well that does not make the slightest bit of sense.”
The quiet chuckle that escaped from Alexis was unexpected, but not cruel. She wanted to tell him more, but she knew that it would probably too much for him to hear at that moment and if she were being fair too much for her to admit out loud. So she instead turned and walked to the door.
Just before leaving she looked back at him and said warmly, “Good night, Severus.,” leaving him staring after her.
Standing on the porch of the large manor, tightly holding on to the plain looking parcel that had been taunting her since the dog-eared owl had unceremoniously dumped it on the kitchen table at The Burrow, Ginny could not control the shake in her hands. While she knew that she no longer had anything to fear from her former Death Eater Headmaster, she still had not been able to get to a place where she could be in his presence and not be intimidated. Still she knew that if she wanted to reveal the contents of this cursed package, Professor Snape was her best option. This didn’t mean, of course, that Ginny hadn’t already exhausted all other reasonable options she had been able to think of prior to making the trip to Prewett Manor.
When the curious package had first arrived she had immediately become suspicious about what was inside. She had almost giggled aloud as she thought about the Ginny from six years ago would have not thought twice about who had sent her owl mail. Back then she would have been simply overjoyed to receive any mail addressed solely to her. With a sigh she could only wonder if she was ever going to be able to relax and begin trusting once again.
She had run every curse detection spell she had been taught and was deeply concerned at the number of curses that had been cast over this parcel. She had managed to break through a couple of curses, but her excitement was diminished greatly as new curses were revealed in its wake.
By the time Ginny had finally given in to the fact that she would need help, she had become almost obsessed with finding out what the package contained. Who would go through this much trouble of sending her a package that was seemingly impossible for her to open? She had ruled out her parents right away knowing that they would insist she turn it over to the Auror’s office. Instead Ginny sought out her closest and smartest friend, Hermione, but only became even more frustrated when the task proved to be too advanced for her as well. It had been at Hermione’s suggestion that she seek out Professor Snape.
Ginny had been most surprised when he agreed to see her despite her lack of information regarding the reason for her request. She had been purposefully vague in the letter she had sent to him in fear of him immediately rejecting her or worse informing her parents about the package. If she were being honest, she still wasn’t sure what his reaction would be, but knew that she had no other options available to her.
The door to the manor opened slowly with a creak, revealing, not one of the house elves as she would have expected, but Snape himself.
“Ms. Weasley,” he said with a slight nod. “To what do I owe this pleasure? Your letter was less than informative.”
Leave it to Snape to get right to the point, she thought. Aloud she said, “I am sorry about that, sir. I am needing some help with something and I was afraid that if I revealed to you what the issue was that you would refuse to see me or…” she gulped, “…tell my parents.”
Snape was silent for what felt to be several long minutes as he stared at Ginny with a peculiar look on his face. Finally he responded, “I am quite impressed with your honesty Ms. Weasle, even if I am left to question your judgment in your concealment of your mysterious request of my assistance. I am to suppose, then, that you expect me to also conceal the particulars of your request from your parents?”
“I would be most appreciative if you would, sir, but I would not expect for you to do so if you would not feel it was the right thing to do,” Ginny replied quietly.
“Fair enough,” Snape said with a smirk. “Follow me then.”
Snape led her into the house and into the sitting room where they were met by Trixie who was immediately dismissed. As they both sat down at a large table off to the side of the room, Ginny hesitantly removed the cursed package from her robes and presented it to Snape. He examined it carefully for a few moments before withdrawing his wand. His discovery of the curses was made evident by the amazed expression upon his face.
“You must be incredibly stupid to be carrying this package around with you,” he immediately snapped. “Are you aware of just how dangerous the curses placed upon this are? You very well could have been injured if not killed had you attempted to open this.”
Ginny felt her face flush at his words but forced herself to fight through the anger. “I am well aware of the curses, sir. I ran every curse detection and counter curse spell that I knew before realizing that it was beyond my abilities. This is why I need your help.” She pulled a piece of parchment from her pocket and laid it on the table. “This is a list of everything that both Hermione & I have already used.”
Snape didn’t say a word as he slid the list across to where he was sitting. He remained silent as he perused the list. Once or twice she saw him raise an eyebrow but still he said nothing. It wasn’t until he had run several curse detection spells himself did he finally speak again.
“This is quite an extensive list. Might I inquire how you came to know so many anti-curse spells?” he asked quietly.
Taken aback Ginny stammered, “Mostly from the library sir. After the whole diary thing in my first year I tried to study up on cursed items as much as I could.”
“Smart girl,” Snape remarked under his breath.
Ginny wasn’t sure if he had been being sarcastic or serious but decided not to comment as he began to study the package once more. After what seemed like forever he muttered a few spells under his breath and tapping the parcel with his wand.
She watched as he diligently worked for almost ten minutes until he finally sat back triumphantly and declared, “Finally.”
Ginny reached excitedly for the package and was astonished when she felt the sting of Snape’s wand crack down upon her hand. “Hey!” she exclaimed. “What was that for?”
Snape glared at her angrily and said, “Do you honestly expect me to let you open this yourself after how heavily protected it’s contents were?! You have no idea what this parcel contains and yet you rush to open it like you have some kind of death wish? You are certainly more foolish than I thought.”
Immediately feeling silly, Ginny sat back in her chair and rubbed the back of her hand. She hadn’t even thought about the possibility of the package being dangerous after the curses were removed. She did have to force herself to keep from barking back at the insults thrown at her. She supposed she would have an even harder time trying to trust the man if he had completely changed from the sarcastic and ill-tempered professor she had come to know.
Snape carefully tore away the brown outer paper off of the package, revealing nothing but a plain but overstuffed looking manila envelope. With a sideways glance at Ginny he reached pulled the envelope forward and slowly pulled a yellowed stack of papers out. He quietly began to rifle through the pages.
Ginny sat anxiously awaiting some kind of acknowledgement or explanation from Snape, but somehow also knew that she needed to keep quiet. She had no idea what was written on those papers, but she knew that it was something pretty serious. However, when Snape finally spoke it, Ginny was so startled she nearly jumped out of her seat.
“What do you know about this?” he asked darkly.
“A-About what sir?” Ginny stuttered.
Snape sighed. “I know that you are not a stupid girl, Ms. Weasley and so I must warn you that I will not take too kindly to being lied to. I will ask again…What do you know about this?” he finished sternly.
“I don’t know anything about it, since you have not even let me know what it is you found,” she huffed angrily.
Holding up a small stack of the aged papers Snape said, “These are old muggle medical records. From what I can tell it appears to be concerning the birth of and adoption of an unknown baby girl. Judging from the look of things, it seems as though there were complications after the baby had been born, however the complications did not appear to affect the mother or child, but the memories of the attending healer and his staff. Someone went through a lot of trouble to hide these files from the public eye, which means I am willing to bet they will not be pleased to discover these have resurfaced. Judging by the powerful curses that had been protecting the package whomever this someone is not one I would want to anger,” he finished ominously.
Chapter 22 - Inconvenient Unknowns
To be continued...