Snape's Match

A/N: I\'d just like to thank all the people who\'ve reviewed my story so far - I\'ve really enjoyed reading it all, guys! Anyway, on with the story.

It was dark by the time Snape swept into Dumbledore’s office, still thinking about the implications of the dreams Lia had described the previous night. Dumbledore entered the office by a different door and sat down, looking concerned at his Potions Master’s evident preoccupation.


“So, Severus, what can I do for you?”


Snape looked faintly uncomfortable.


“I’ve heard something…” he paused, looking for the right word, “disturbing,” he finished delicately.


“From a student?”


“Yes, from Li – from Miss Fitzgerald, in Gryffindor.”


“Well that is a first, isn’t it Severus? Indeed, I think this is the only time you’ve been here about one of my old house for a reason other than to beg for expulsion. What could possibly be the reason for this remarkable change?”


Snape gritted his teeth. Dumbledore was playing with him, he could tell. The blue eyes twinkled, but the headmaster said nothing further.


“It’s about some dreams she has been experiencing, and naturally as a concerned teacher I felt it best to ask you what they signified.”


Dumbledore looked as if he was repressing a chuckle with difficulty. Snape waited.


“And these dreams, what do you think about them?”


Snape hesitated. “Perhaps it would be better if I described them first, Headmaster.”


“Please do.”


As Snape told Dumbledore about Lia’s dreams, remembering as much of the original wording as he could, the older man’s face became graver. When Snape finished telling him about the vision Lia had had in the hospital wing, Dumbledore looked extremely worried.


“And she has no idea what any of this means?”


Snape shifted in his chair.


“It is hopeless. She does not know that Nott was…is a Death Eater, and she has never come face-to-face with Voldemort, so she had no way of realising the hooded man was.”


Dumbledore rose.


“I will look into this. It is imperative that we find out exactly what these means. I have an idea, but I hope for Lia’s sake it is not correct.”


He noticed his Potions Master’s pale face and his expression softened.


“I’m sure you will have plenty of opportunities to watch over her, Severus. I must say I never thought you would fall so hard for anybody.”


Snape said nothing. Indeed, he could think of nothing to say, and sat there, wrapped in misery. What if Lia was somehow connected to Voldemort? Or worse still, what if she had something he wanted. Snape shivered at the very thought – if she did, Voldemort would never stop hunting her. He thought of something else.


“How did you find out?”


“About you and Lia? There is precious little in this school that goes on that I don’t know about, but on this particular occasion – the night she came to see you after getting out of the hospital wing…” Dumbledore coughed delicately.


“I was patrolling the second floor and caught sight of someone under an Invisibility Cloak – you are aware of the charm my glasses have upon them against those things – and naturally I followed them. It was not until she reached the corridor where your office was that I recognized her. It was not hard to piece together the reason for her visit after that. I believe Miss Fitzgerald may have caught a glimpse of me, but I am not sure.”


Snape looked half-embarrassed, half-curious.


“And you - you have no objection?”


Dumbledore gave him the smallest of small smiles.


“Anything that stops you from being your usual self…”


Snape gave him a self-conscious smile.


“You seem to have benefited marvelously from your relationship with Lia, and far be it from me to break the newfound peace of the staff room. Now I’m sure you have classes to prepare for tomorrow Severus…”


Snape rose.


“Of course Headmaster,” he replied, businesslike once more. “You will inform me if you find out anything definite about Lia?”


“I will,” Dumbledore assured him. “Goodnight, Severus.”



Night had properly fallen when Snape left Dumbledore’s office, only slightly more at ease than he had been. Across the castle, in the girls’ dormitory in Gryffindor Tower, the secret pact that Lia and Hermione had refused to tell the boys about was being fulfilled, and none of them were at ease either.


Parvati had got hold of needles, ice cubes and bits of apple, and the five sixth year girls in the dormitory had agreed to have their ears pierced.


“Has everybody got a pair of earrings?” intoned Parvati, the effective master of ceremonies, and the sole girl with piercings already. There was a murmur of assent, and the girls felt a stirring of sick excitement.


“Good work. Now who wants to go first?”


Nobody said anything, and so with an exasperated click of her tongue, Lia volunteered. Parvati looked pleased.
v
“Excellent! Come here Lia.”


Lia sat down in the chair opposite the mirror as indicated. Parvati busied herself with the ice cube, and then lit a candle to sterilize the needle. The other Gryffindor girls looked on in fascinated horror as Parvati pierced first Lia’s left ear, then her right one. Lia bit her lip but didn’t say anything, waiting until the throbbing pain subsided a bit.


“Did it hurt, Lia?” squeaked Hermione, who had never been all that enthusiastic about the plan. Lia smiled at her bravely.


“Course not, it was a breeze.”


Parvati picked up the earrings Lia had indicated to her.


“Wow!” she exclaimed, turning the studs over in her hands. “These are exquisite! Where’d you find them?”


Lia blushed shyly.


“They were my mother’s. My dad bought them for her as a wedding present, I think. They’re the only things I have of hers.”


The girls all looked impressed, and Parvati passed around the silver studs, embossed with emerald intertwining lines. They were only brought back to the table when Lia’s ear started to drip blood onto Parvati’s robes.


“Merlin! Sorry Lia, here you go.” Parvati put in the studs and Lia stood back to admire the effect.


“They’re really beautiful, Lia,” smiled Hermione, “really suit you.”


“Thanks, Herm,” said Lia gratefully. “Now you do it.”


Hermione started to protest, but Parvati glared at her until she sat down, hands nervously twisting in her lap.


“Don’t worry, Herm,” said Lia as she took one of them in her own.



The next day the five girls had the satisfaction of seeing the whole Gryffindor table turn to stare in surprise when they entered at breakfast. Pretending to ignore the shocked looks of Harry and Ron, Lia and Hermione sat down and grabbed a mug of tea each.


“Some night that was, huh, Herm?”


“Oh absolutely. Can’t believe Lavender didn’t faint!” replied Hermione, with the cocky air of someone who\'d just pulled through an ordeal.


“Yeah, and Parvati was just great about doing it,” said Lia, smirking at Harry and Ron.


Parvati sent her a pleased look. Hermione agreed with her, and was just starting on a blow-by-blow account of how scared she had been when Harry and Ron finally cracked.


“All right, alright, you two look great – there, you happy?” said Harry, still gaping at their ears.


“You did those with Muggle needles?” asked Ron, stupefied at the very thought. “No magic?!”


Hermione gave him a smug nod, while Lia sent a cautious look towards Snape up at the teacher’s table. He also seemed to have noticed her new ornaments, and gave her a brief smile. That seemed to be the end of it, but then he frowned and appeared to be peering at her studs. Lia shook her head, confused. What could he possibly care about what her earrings looked like?



She left Charms halfway through in order to go to the bathroom and check her ears weren’t bleeding again. Satisfied that they were not, and after a long argument with the mirror who didn’t like the way she had arranged her hair, Lia left and turned down a deserted corridor on the fifth floor.
She was about halfway down, passing the statue of Boris the Bewildered when a hand snaked around her shoulder and stopped her. She gasped, and whirled around to see Snape there, staring intently at her earrings.


“Hello, Severus,” she greeted him pleasantly, but he paid no attention.


“Where did you get those?”


His gaze had not moved from the delicate green filigrees upon the studs, and she was starting to get uncomfortable.


“From my guardian. Well I mean, he sent them to me, I’ve never met him. He said they were my father’s wedding present to my mother.”


Snape reached out a hand to touch them, but Lia slapped it away, starting to be annoyed.


“What’s so special about them? Severus?”


He seemed to snap out of his trance. He looked at her puzzled face, wondering how much to say of his newfound suspicion.


“I, uh, it’s just that I’ve seen them before somewhere,” he said at last, but continued before Lia could interrupt with the obvious question.


“I have to go…I’ve just realised something and I have to tell the Headmaster.”


“Severus, what –“ but he was already gone, sweeping away into some hidden tunnel Harry had not yet been able to tell her about. Lia hit the wall in frustration. What was going on? What did Severus know, and even more bewildering – what he had said about the earrings. Could he have known her mother?


Lia resolved to sneak down to his office first chance she got and shake the truth out of him. Or if he refused to divulge anything, she would go straight to Dumbledore. Her face wore a determined look.


She knew so little about her parents as it was - she deserved to be let into the secret. She reached a hand up to feel the studs in her ears. Would they be able to tell her more about her parentage? The emerald lines felt hot to the touch, and Lia felt a sudden wish to take them off. She resisted the urge; Parvati had warned them not to take them out for at least six weeks. Tonight, she promised herself. Tonight I’ll find out what this is about.