Chapter 1
Chapter 1. A Past Worth Mentioning But Not To Remember.
(Snape works in potions in his 6th year instead of DATA. Also please push technology time line up,)
6th year. A year of new people, new companions and new enemies. Harry, Ron and Hermione entered their first class of their morning with little enthusiasm. Potions. It was a little way through the year and things had not been good, though, had been far better with the return of Dumbleore as the day had far less Umbridge.
The trio entered the potions classroom but the person behind the desk was not Snape. It was a woman with shaggy black hair streaked with sharp white tips and layered sharp edged bangs with a full, thin white under layer that black lay over. Professional, she wears a dark red vest with brass buttons and accents under a black and blacker monochrome sharp lined robe with a cut robe with an arching design opened slit back to it that resembled many of the accents of the castles edges. She wears a black and dark white lined skirt and silver tipped work boots with a clicking heel. She looks sophisticated, but the outfit looks well worn.
She has sharp face but a small nose, ice blue eyes which didn’t make sense for the raven black hair that dropped down past her shoulders. There’s a deep scar that’s quickly noticed that ran down her right temple, under her right eye and over the bridge of her noes. She was bustling around a steaming cauldron and hadn’t noticed them at first. It was probably because the music deafened the opening classroom door, the music silencing the entering class. When the potions door opened and students filed in enough, a rare occurrence that never occurred occured; their potions teacher looked up and she smiled.
“Hey guys.” She breathed out as she tilted a small bottle of what looked like seeds into the cauldron without a measuring cup. The smoke turned blue and she looked satisfied as she magicked the spoon to stir.
Instantly it would be noted that she was an American just by the accent and her mannerisms to follow were quick to pick it up.
“Okay,” she came around the desk, “Ummm. My name is Professor KatSkill.” She pointed to the black board where her name was written in all caps print. “And I’m not sure what to do so I’m just gonna read off this paper he gave me.”
Hermiones hand was up in the air.
”Whats up?”
”Where’s Professor Snape?” She asked.
KatSkills face fell a bit and a narrowing of her eyes appeared. “What a weird question for someone whose what? 16? To ask and expect an answer to.” Her arms crossed and her hip leaned against the desk.. “You’re Hermione Granger, aren’t you?”
She stumbled. “I umm. Yes mame. How… how did you know?”
”Snape told me… warned me… about you. One of a few, few students who would ask for such personal information about a teacher and believe she’d get an answer.”
KatSkill chuckled and turned back to the black board, waving her hand which flipped the board a few times. When its face landed back to the class the lesson was written out in Snapes familiar script.
“Crap.” The potions started to boil unconventally and she returned to it.
“I will tell you, he’s okay. Healthy and happy as he always is.“ Her voice held a friendly mocking tone as she huffed at her own humor. “And like he always is, he’s” Her voice dipped into dripping sarcasm, “super obnoxious.” She smiled over the potion and a few in the classroom smirked too.
“It’s never, “Can you take me to a doctors appointment? Or, hey can you pick up a few things for me I can’t get away. It’s always 3am messages asking if I want to travel through the Scottish back country for a few days to gather some ingredients he doesn’t want to pay for.” The potions cooperated through her talking. “It was a super fun weekend though,” she muttered, “I’m glad I said yes.”
She looked back at the class and gave a small smile. “Your instructions are on the board,” she waved a hand that showed she had claw tipped fingernails. “Me and Sol will be here for anything you need.”
A sharp looking shepherd dog with short black and silver fur and muscle tone that etched through it’s body steps from around the teachers desk. He looked intimidating as he sat and stared with narrowed eyes that looked through the class. His tail wagged, patting the cold stone floor. He looked friendly enough to be in the school, nothing to be afraid of while docile enough to be obviously well trained. But it was good sized, muscular dog with a heavy stare ghost white eyes. Intimidating came with the look.
”He’s a good boy.” She casually noted as she left the potion again and looked at the paper she mentioned earlier. “Umm. Neville Longbottom… Where are you?”
He raised his hand, clearly unsure of how to feel. “Team up with Hermione. And Collin Creevery, move over and work with Harry Potter.” She paused and watched him for a moment as the two adjusted their seats.
“Are you the kid who lived through the killing curse?”
”Yes, mame.” He said.
“Hm. Cool. And-“ She moved on listlessly and so suddenly that Harry was taken aback. He wasn’t used to such a disinterested greeting. “Draco,” she smiled. “Malfoy.” She looked up and found the blond boy who raised his hand.
“Are you… Merlin, just looking at you this question is stupid. Are you Lucius Malfoys kid?”
”Yes, mame.” he looked proud and sat upright.
She smiled. “I love your dad, he’s super cool.” She spoke so cheerfully that when Hermione looked, Draco himself looked confused.
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, the man has the temperament of a magpie in summer, but he never asks for anything, and even though he’s the way he is, I can’t bash a man whose come through for me when I needed him too.” She mulled over the potion for a moment before looking back at Draco. “Even when I didn’t ask for it. He’s a good guy once you know how to move around him. He likes who he likes.”
”Never heard of you.” Draco tested. It wasn’t a rude statement, just him trying to learn anything more.
“I wouldn’t except you to have. I’m not even from here. I live in America. We really only see each other when Sev is like, right there.” She paused. “Professor Snape.” She corrected herself.
“Well.” She clapped her hands. “Get working.”
”Healing potions,” Hermione whispered quietly to Ron and Harry further into the class, “Weird coincidence.” She added to the potion. “It’s probably related.”
”I wonder how she knows him.” Harry said, and when Hermione looked up, she saw that Harry was watching KatSkill working.
“What’s she working on, you recken?” Ron asked and Neville bumbled around, knocking over his second bottle.
Hemione studied the nameless ingredients and the color of the potion steam but the information wasn’t there for her to give a complete opinion.
”I bet it’s related.” Collin said as he adjusted the burner under the attention of Harry.
“How long will you be here?” A voice perked up later after her first walk around to check.
Not a cruel remark had been given. Instead, she only suggested various things and told them they did well. “Crush that a little more before adding.“ She said. “I would wait a little longer.” Had been another of her helping hand.
“As of now and everything promised, 2 weeks.”
She made it over to their table and Hermione watched Harry perk up. “How long have you been a potions master?” he asked her when she finally landed on his potion.
”Long enough to know that if Hermione lets Neville add that, it’s going to explode in about 5 seconds.”
Harry redirected and Hermione stopped Neville which took everyone away and allowing KatSkill to move on to Hermione.
“You guys must be friends.” She tried.
She smiled at her. “I must be. That, or he had literally no one else to ask, and I’ll tell you, I bank on the latter. I’m not his uhhhh.. Most public friend.”
”Why not?”
“I’m not his aura, you know? I’m lively, where’s he’s low key.” She joked and moved on.
“Opposites attract.” Hermione whispered to the group.
“She’s probably not a you-know-what.” Dean muttered under his breath from the table behind them.
“What house are you?” The table heard Draco ask.
“Thunderbird.”
”That’s not a house.” A voice echoed and some of the class chuckled.
“I meant Hogwarts house.” Draco corrected and KatSkill nodded her head and passed another smile.
“Such like your dad.” She sighed and stepped back from the table. “He also asks me that.”
“So you've never been sorted into Hogwarts?”
”Never went here for school. Soooo, no.”
”Never just for fun?” Blaine questioned her further.
“I like to think it keeps an unbiased hold on me.” She flicked a claw tipped finger over the table of Slytherins. “You understand.”
Hermione assumed Draco was biting back a question and KatSkill seemed to notice. “And that goes for my blood lineage. I’ve also kept that out of our conversations..” She leaned back on her heel. “Eventually Lucius just stopped asking and adjusted. I hope you all will to.”
She smiled a genuine smile that cocked her head, the pointed dangling earrings that coated her right ear hanging independtly, showing their designs.
At the end of class only one thing exploded and through the class she walked the isles talking about the healing potion they all worked on. She told them tales of how they aided famous witches and wizards. She talked about where to find the ingredients. She explained how to see if it was expired, and gave buyers hints to assure they’d never get scammed. At the end she passed everyone a dashed out list of the points she talked about for them to keep. All written in caps letters.
They bottled their work that she approved, they cleaned everything up and just before they started toward the door she spoke up.
“By the way.” The class turned to look. “I was thinking… I’m not a dungeons person. If you’re interested in taking these classes elsewhere, like outside maybe, raise your hand.” She smiled as every hand raised.
”Okay. Come early next class. I’ll leave a note on the door where to find me, if I can’t get messages to you before. Have a nice rest of your day.” Her kind voice was so foreign in the dark space and her wave was so out of place that many looked back at her as she watched them go. Eventually the door closed and she was finally alone to relax her shoulders and breath out heavily.
“Well… I hate this.” She spoke to her dog, frowning when she went to fix the board for the next class and realized that she forgot to assign the homework.
“Oh well,” she shrugged as the board cleared its face, “I’m not a fucking teacher.”
……
The school would take account of her immediately. She never hid away in her… Snapes? Office. She was often out on the grounds with her dog. Throwing a ball, wondering about or just asking for directions from students. On day two KatSkill asked Hermione where she could find the hospital wing, and she asked her question with the reminder that this was her first time ever in Hogwarts and she laughed when she commented how she really wasn’t “digging” the moving stairs in the already confusing castle. The trio were friendly and explained out her path.
She grew favor not only in the students, but it seemed the staff as well. She could be seen chatting with Minerva at the dinner table, and was often seen around Herbology and Hagrids hut. The two dogs played as much as a Mastiff could as the two had tea. She loved the grounds and often talked about its ancient architecture and the nature of everything.
To everyone in Hermiones class and to her own surprise, a few days later, there was indeed a note on the locked potions classroom door.
Take a stick and give it a wave! Was written, and in scattered groups, all 4 sticks were taken and 4 hazy golden lines flew off in the direction they were to follow.
“Weird.” Draco muttered, but in the few days to pass, even he had his sarcasm lulled.
The lines led the class out the castles front door and towards the edge of the forest where the class entered the stained glass walled and roofed classroom. Her dog sat outside waiting, turning to pad inside when he deemed them close enough. Right away, Hermiones breath was taken from her. Colors from the stained glass streamed in from all directions but never touched the tables, in thus, the cauldrons steam and ingredients kept their true color. The ceiling is clear glass and plants line high above their heads in pots that after everyone was settled, she changed to the color of the house it sat below. Snake wrapping vines dripped down and the buds are dotted with dark flowers of a dark purple with a lighter pink center..
“A sudden Herbology lesson.” She started by clapping her hands, expanding them to point upwards. “These are Vistavaul plants.” She took the shocked silent classes attention upwards as they filed in and took new desks. “Your steam from your cauldrons will directly affect the plants above you. So. Now you don’t only work to succeed for yourself and impress your teacher,” She pointed at herself with a cocky grin. “But you also work to aid that of the plants you can use in other potions. Symbiosis. Say it.”
The class repeated the word.
“They rely on you and have never said a cruel thing and will always give you beauty as long as you aren’t cruel either. Work hard for them. Keep your spots, and in two weeks when I leave, you can take some of your work to use for whatever. I’ll even let you propagate them if you’re interested.” She looked at Neville and gave him a wink while the boy couldn’t help but smile toward her.
The atmosphere changed that day. You couldn’t feel small and silenced under her rule. She let them work and talked as she walked around. She asked questions that people seemed to remember the answers to very easily, and she explained that she learned as a student that this was a great way to teach. She never liked to listen and write. She absorbed like the potions they worked on, and grew like the plants that were verbally loved. And even though Hermione wanted to be happy, a concern was growing in her stomach that someone else in the Gryffindor common room would bring up later that night.
”What’s her deal?” The 5th year asked loudly, garnering the attention of everyone. “KatSkill. Does anyone… I don’t know… Know anything about her?”
”Maybe… How can someone like Snape can tolerate her?” Another student laughed out loud.
“The man can’t handle laugher, imagine him being “friends” with someone who teaches his class in a stained glass, rainbow classroom.” another student mulled as she popped candy in her mouth.
“I think shes nice,” Hermione defended but this just riled more people up.
“That’s the oddity,” Lavender spoke as if it was obvious “Snape doesn’t like nice.”
But there was other things Hermione and those who knew, wanted to know. Darker things beyond that of just “Why?”
”Do you think she’s got a mark?” She muttered once the children of the Order circled that night.
“I don’t think so.” Ginny shrugged.
“Maybe that’s’ why she doesn’ align with a house, or talks about blood.” George watched the last ransoms disappear up the stairs.
”Remember what she told Draco?” Hermione pointed out. “Lucius doesn’t even know.”
”And there’s probably a deeper reason for it.” Harry shrugged looking at the fireplace. ”Do you think Sirius knows anything about her? Anything at all?”
As much as the two men hated each other, it was a fact the two were very persistent in each others lives for nearly their entire lives.
”We could ask.” Ron suggested.
Harry sends note that night and asks for a fast return. There’s a time limit. And Sirius listened, and Harry received one back within that 24 hours. The fireplace, he only wrote that and as a group they clear the Commonroom and they all stand by the fireplace, Sirius sifting through just after 1am.
“KatSkill.” He mulled. “I don’t know the name but it also might not be her real last name.” he made a point Hermione never thought of. “American… Those nails, the scar…” His voice mulled as he glanced away. Probably to Remus. “That sounds familiar. Very unfamiliar, very foggy….. But…. She was present in my childhood a few times during the summer before I fled my home. She knows Lucius and all the wrong people. Hang on, I havE questions but Remus has a more recent account.”
He moved from the fire and Remus came through.
“Hogwarts used to have a pen pal program.” He whispered. “It wasn’t a big deal and onLy lasted a few years. But…” Remus paused. “I know thats where she knows him. Quill was his pen pal when we entered our first years.”
“Quill?” Harry asked and the face in the fire nodded.
“Quill.” Remus said definitely.
“I saw her that year when I worked at the castle.” He informed with a slight indecision in his tone. “In his office. I went to gather the potion later than I told him and when he opened the door, I saw her sitting on his couch. We said hi, because we’ve.. Sirius, your father…, Petegrew and I have met her before.“
“When?”
”Like I said, when we were kids… and then teenagers. And I guess now, myself as an adult. It took me a moment to remember that maybe 2 or 3 times I seem her through all the years. But scars are memorable and she’s had that one across her face since the first time I’d.. we’ve ever seen her..”
Remus moved and Sirius returned.
“Tell me about her.” He asked. “What’s your gut feeling?”
”She’s really nice.” Hermione shrugged.
”She moved class into a stained glass house.” Ginny smiled at Hermione who smiled back.
”She’s nothing like him.” Harry mentioned almost disappointed. “She’s actually very warm, and never has said anything cruel.”
Sirius looks disappointed. His voice quiets. “Do you think…”
”No.” the group of students State unanimously.
Sirius looked off to the side before talking. “Remus is right. He probably kept her away from all that.”
”It makes sense.” Harry Shrugged falling back.
This perked Sirius’s attention. “You mentioned, Lucius Malfoy.”
”Draco is in our class.” Hermione noted.
“She told him she, “loves her dad..” Ron rolled his eyes and the vomit in his mouth. “That “He’s not a bad guy.” And he’s “come through for her on his own accord.”
”So Lucius holds favor with her to the day.” Sirius simmered on the knowledge.
“She said he never asks for anything.” Harry mentioned.
”Can’t ask favors from a mirage in your life.” Sirius oddly defended. “Sounds like Snape keeps her away from him too.”
”He brought her around when you were at the House of Black.” Ron tired very hard to peg her as something dark.
“A few times over all the Summers. I wasn’t in my sisters social group so I don’t know much and Snape was obssesed with your mother so…” His voice faded out before he restarted. “She wasn’t around really at all and I never got to talk to her even once. Snape kept her too close to him for that. I honestly forgot about her and Remus and I had to round table it before we placed her. I sent you a photograph…”
He had and Harry pulled it out. A picture of a young KatSkill with the same scar standing next to a younger Snape who had longer hair that had to be about their age, Bellatrix Narcissa and a narrowed eye’d Lucius stand on her other side. The picture was obviously candid and taken without knowledge but there they all were there. It was summer, Hermione knew the room they all stood in and the staircase in the backdrop she traveled with each visit to the House of Black. The photo moved as they all talked,, but the figures were all controlled with small movements.
”Do us a favor and keep an eye out.” Sirius requested. “But keep in mind, Snape wouldn’t hold so close to him an idiot, so remember she’s smart, probably analytic and everything you say will get back to him. So, observe carefully. I got to go. Good luck.”
…
It snowed that night and she fucked hated his office. Cold. Damp. Dark. Gloomy. It was him in all his description, but it was not her and her comfort, but she’d be there than standing in the snow where she was standing at that moment.
Quill KatSkill is leaning on the boundary wall of Hogwarts grounds, her broom leaning at the stone wall next to her, her dog off sniffing something a short distance away behind her. Her toes sit at the barrier line and under the light that flickered a single but doming light. She’s not by the train, she’s against the other side, just where he told her to go.
She takes out a cellphone from inside her winter robe and turns it on.
You there? She texted him and bit her lip as she watched the sending message blink over and over before turning into a green check.
She waited. And waited. And looked around and waited some more as she pulled her scarf tighter around her neck and her gloves tightened as she made a fist. She was warm, she loved the snow but this was a bother to her as it was late, and Albus warned her about such a during the week activity. Suddenly, she felt the phone buzz.
Quill.
She adjusted her stance.
Everything going… as planned? She typed.
As planned.
She smiled at the screen that immuminated her face with a different hew that was cast over her from the overhead, firelit lamp. She quickly glanced behind her when a branch broke and saw her dog break from the forest and trot up next to her. The phone buzzes first.
How’s teaching?
I don’t suck at it.
I’ll ask around when I return.
She rolled her eyes. Can you just trust me? She typed.
I wouldn’t have brought you in if I knew you as at all incompetent.
She huffed through her nose as she fiddled with the phone in her hand. She had so much to say and hated texting so much. But she couldn’t call. That was the rule. She didn’t know where he was or what he had been doing. He never asked this of her and by asking the staff, this had only happened This once. But they wouldn’t tell her anything of anything else. Even Minerva violently diverted any conversation she tired to make of his life as a teacher. They asked about Harry Potter and she didn’t know nothing outside that he was the kid who lived through the killing curse and everyone seemed unsure of how to handle the fact that this was all she knew.
She had been cornered in the staff room a few days after she started, after she moved her classroom and after she showed herself to be nothing like the man she associated so closely with. They knew about her being his pen pal, but was shocked she knew nothing really else while never being lied to. She just… didn’t know about Voldemort, or wars or anything. She knew not to talk about blood, and when the staff asked, she resisted heavily against the “game” they wanted to play by putting the ratty old hat on her head. Snape told her about it. That’s what sorted her. He asked her as a friend of many many years, for many many years to not comply.
Are you okay? She asked
Are you?
Frustrated, she hurriedly responded.
Answer me.
A pause to long to make sense. She knew he was holding his phone, she knew he hadn’t been distracted. She knew he was trying to figure out what to say and saying nothing was worse than saying something.
Severus.
His answer is immediate, Quill.
Are you okay?
Another pause.
I will be. I promise. But no more of this.
Please. He texts his second message.
She sighed out a heavy frustration and dropped her hand to her side. She looked around Tapping the phone on her hip, and then she glanced back toward the castle. The grounds around her were empty, she knows this with her strong and well perfected intuition and turns back to the phone.
Has anyone outside the staff reached out? His text was waiting for her.
You mean like, Lucius?
Him… among a few others.
Like who?
Anyone outside the staff?
She knew she had blown any cover she was supposed to have that first day with Draco. But, she reasoned, the boy would go running to his father regardless. Fight or flight had kicked in, and if that boy was going to say anything to Lucius, she was going to send the compliment she truly meant. That was his son, there was no reason for her to mention the couple other things he’d done that kept her walled against the venomous man.
No….
Tell me if anyone reaches out.
I promised that already.
And that would have to be enough. Snape didn’t trust anyone, but she would demand him to at least pretend to trust her. Especially after all the trust she’s given him.
Drinks when you get back? She asks.
I already said I’d take you for dinner and drinks.
I want you to want to, not just come up with a plan you think I’ll like.
Had I only intended to tolerate you, I would have taken you to a show of any caliber. A stage performance where I pay our time in silence to not even look at each other, then a dinner where all we do is sit across from each other with full mouths and fleeting words.
He had a way to make her smile. His darkness unshattered seemingly to everyone but somehow she always saw his glimmer of light like the sun etching out the edges of a blackout window curtain.
Thank you, Quill.
You owe me <3
Hold true to the fact I’m aware that I owe you for a lot.
I gotta get back…. She knows the Headmaster is aware of everything going on, and the longer she stands here, the worse she looks.
Have a good night. He sends his final message.
You too.
She watches and see’s the “read” icon blinks immediately and only then does she turn off the phone and shove it back into her inner pocket before walking with sol through the fresh fallen snow, through the dark and dotted lit path.
……………..
By the beginning of the second week and without another set of messages, Quill was awake late at night and on a ladder she borrowed from Hagrid. She was watering and checking on and doing the basic care to the over hanging plants that she had truly underestimated the aid all the cauldrons would give.
She was listening to heavy music, fast music with drastic guitars and yelling lyrics and was so in love with what she was doing she’d never have notice her visitor if she didn’t have her dog.
She looked over to see Lucius stepping back outside the glass house, stepping away from the charging animal. His wand his drawn, but she can tell his hesitating.
“Sol.” She said calmly and the dog settled, though stayed between them, holding against that aura he didn’t like, Quill didn’t blame the dog, she felt it too.
Lucius Malfoy had always been a different breed of person.
“Sol, back off.. Come here.”
She keeps the dog between them but Sol did as he was told and retreated infront of the ladder.
“Hey, Lucius.” She said so casually for a completely unannounced visit between a Set of strangers.
True, they knew of each other. But they didn’t know each other, and after he left Hogwarts, he had only seen her once. It was from across a room, a busy room where he wouldn’t be noticed and his attention wouldn’t be felt. He watched for the half hour they shared the space, and Lucius watched the pair walk out togeather. He watched her hand rest in the nook of his bent arm. But that had been years ago, and when asked about it, Severus shrugged him off. It was Narcissa who reminded her husband who that had been.
”Long time no see.” He tired to find imperfections in her cleaning, but every table top was whipped clean, everything put away.
She dropped both arms on the flattop of the ladder, giving Lucius all her attention and the slightest bit of a tone. “Severus sent you?”
He raised his eyebrows and pressed his lips togeather before shaking his head.
I didn’t even know he fled.”
The space goes quiet and they look at each other and here she starts down the ladder.
”Then why are you here?”
”I would ask you the same thing.” He drawled and as she watched him step into the center of the room, into the isle between the desks, right at the opening to her lane.
She decides to stay above him.
”Draco mentioned you knew me.” He filled the silence she would have held until he talked.
”Because I do.”
”He said, “you loved me.”
”I love everyone. And enjoyed the few times I spent with you.”
His eyes flash, not yet triggered to fight, but ready. ”You called me a good man.”
”You don’t even know me, but you’ve shown up for me when I’ve needed help.”
”I did it for Severus.”
She sighed and got off the ladder. His aura was a sitting danger, but she knew he wasn’t a threat here. ”Twist it however you want. You helped me in a few situations Sev gained nothing in.”
His lip turned upward into a sort of smile as he nodded his head.
“I appreciate the socially presented sentiment.”
”It was your son.”
He can see why Snape likes her. She was the rugged of his childhood and upbringing, with loyalty and side steps of something real. He moved Out of her way as she approached and let her into the isle. As he watched her walk toward her desk he looks back up at the plants before looking around the glass house, deciding to pull back his radiation and aura of posion. He turns back to her and sees her looking at him.
“Why are you here?” She asked her question again.
”I want to know if you were real. My memory of you…” He’s looking at her face but she feels his attention on her scar.
”Why?”
He took steps toward her and she stood strong. That dog was a walking threat, but he It nothing he wanted to project. He was meerly curious. All this time, ever since his friend was 11 there was this woman, this myth who vanished for what he assumed was forever a very long time ago.
“Because you’ve always been a summers haze. I see you radiate off the blacktop, but when I approch youre precense is still there, but you yourself are gone. Who are you?”
”What’s my name.”
”Professor, KatSkill.” He smirked out what his son had told him, but she didn’t.
He really remembered so little of her that he and whoever he ran this Plan through couldn’t even remember her name.
”Quill.” She filled in and he took this internally.
“Quill.” He ran her name through his tongue and lips. Remembering now, piece by piece.
“Quill.”
”I remember you from the World Cup.”
“Our fifth year.”
”Your fifth year.”
”That’s right. You had graduated. But you’re right… that was when I met him for the first time.”
”Pity it was the last day when he finally brought you around.”
”Ya. I was already heading out.”
“Yeah…”
Another silence. He’s giving her silent credit for the grass she continued to snake through. More and more he saw what Snape did.
“Does Severus know you moved everything outside?”
”Severus doesn’t know anything because we haven’t talked but once.”
”Where is he?”
”It chips at my heart that you don’t know because I honestly was hoping he was with you…” She spoke with saddened eyes. “Even just if he told you something more than he told me.”
“What did he tell you?”
She shrugged sadly, begging him quietly with her expression. Defeated when he says nothing, she sighs. “Nothing. 2 weeks he said. He’ll be back in a few days.”
”What day?”
”I want that time with him.” Her voice stiffened here. Her expectations clear.
He looks her over before nodding.
“I don’t know what he’s doing or where he is, you obviously have spoken to him more recently than I have… which…” he gives her this, “was longer than 2 weeks ago.”
”I also don’t want him in trouble.”
Lucius cocked his head. “With whom?”
”You… anyone.. I know you’re his closest friend. And if you didn’t know, and none of this staff with tell me anything abut what’s going on-“
”What’s going on?”
She paused, his attention holding on her heavily.
“I…” Something inside tells her to stop. Her gut was telling her to change the topic.
“I think you should talk to him. We’re not really friends you and I, you know…”
”True. I haven’t seen or heard a single thing about you since i graduated…”
Another brush of silence before he steps up to her, face hardening suspicion straight and clear. “And the reason behind why intrigues me. Who are you to to him? ver a decade of friendship close enough where he trusted you to be here.”
”I’m just a friend.” She answered truthfully but he didn’t look too convinced.
”Just..” His voice is a whispered hiss now, they only stand a foot apart.
”You should talk to him. I don’t know you, Lucius. You’ve been great to me through the grapevine, but we don’t know anything about each other. You need to talk to him. I can’t speak for anyone. Especially him.”
He knows this is the final word for her. Nothing he said would seep anything else out. Her walls were up, the chipper tone chipped away. She was still soft in her shoulders and ready to talk about anything else, but about Severus was done.
He grinned a smile that was both something safe, but something etched with fangs.
He understands why his best friend likes her.
Unfortunately, the two weeks would come and go and so would she. And for Hermione and the same for Lucius and everyone else in their world, Quill KatSkill faded into obscurity as the world quickly turned to a war that required all their attention. For many many years, no one would hear a mutter of her name or an essence of her being. Into the grave of the furthest corner of the mind, lost to the world that past by.
Until….