Chapter 7
Scorpia groaned as she began to wake up, and attempted to turn over to curl back up, only to find herself turning into someone's back. She sucked in a breath as her eyes shot open, there was someone in her bed! Or...not her bed. As Scorpia looked around her, noticing the distinctly not Gryffindor decor, the events of the previous night slammed into her. The detention, her friends...Ron.
She bit back her urge to start crying again as she sat up, careful not to disturb Aquarius or Hermione, and found herself giggling quietly when she saw the other two girls wrapped up with each other in a tangle of limbs and blankets. With a shake of her head, she quietly extracted herself from the blankets and slipped out of bed before looking around the transfigured guest room, wondering what to do next. She wasn't sure if Professor Snape would be awake at, she grabbed her wand from the table next to the bed and cast a quick tempus, six in the morning...ok it was probably a good bet that as a teacher he was awake but she still didn't relish the idea of looking around for him. She made a face as she transfigured her nightgown back into her uniform from last night, feeling the discomfort of the garment settling on her as she followed up the transfiguration with a scourgify to at least try and clean away some of the gross feeling of wearing the same clothes two days in a row.
Just as the spell finished running its course a quiet knock drew Scorpia's attention and she made her way to the door separating the office/temporary guest room and cracked it open. Professor Snape looked at her through the crack with a raised eyebrow, and gestured for her to make her way out. After checking that the other two girls were still asleep she slipped out and closed the door, then met Snape's gaze as steadily as she could.
"Um...thanks for letting us stay last night...sorry for, you know, everything."
Snape sighed and rolled his eyes and gestured her towards his desk, transfiguring a chair for her to sit in across the desk from his as he took his own seat. "Apologies are entirely unnecessary miss Black, as inconvenient as it may be to host a trio of girls in my office, it was no less than my duty as an instructor. Regardless, it's good that you were awake, I need to talk to you."
Scorpia took her seat and gave him a wary look, sure he'd helped her last night but, well, it was hard to not automatically assume something was wrong when a conversation starts like that.
"Oh don't give me that look miss Black. I'm merely attempting to be as transparent as is currently feasible and discuss your next steps rather than keeping you completely uninformed."
Scorpia blinked, shocked, "Oh, thank you sir.”
Snape nodded, "So, first, I advise you to trust miss Malfoy about whatever plan she has to get you away from your...caretakers. Certain evidence came to light last night that leads me to trust what she's going to try, but also proved that discretion at this time is key, which unfortunately means keeping you mostly in the dark, I merely felt you should be informed that the plan itself is strong even if we cannot give you more than that."
"And what kind of circumstances would mean I can't be involved in a plan for my own freedom?"
Snape bit his tongue, mind filled with memories of Bellatrix screaming in rage and blasting her fireplace with spell after spell when she realized that Dumbledore had apparently keyed the wards of the castle against her at some point in their...contentious history.
"Circumstances involving actions by those who are likely far too invested in the existence of 'Harry Potter', and the need to be absolutely sure that they are kept in the dark about this. Especially since come next year there won't be a way to link 'Harry Potter' with you at all if things play out correctly."
Scorpia looked at Snape in surprise, "You mean we'll be introducing me as a completely new person, rather than letting people know who I was?"
Snape nodded, "I assure you miss Black, you were always yourself, regardless of who people thought you were, but yes, that is correct. It is also the last we will speak on this matter, understood?”
After receiving a nod Snape continued, "Now, as for the re-sort. You'll need to either get the Headmaster to approve of the circumstances, or at least two House Heads. I strongly recommend the latter option, Dumbledore is not known for his understanding when it comes to needing separation."
Scorpia bit her lip, "Is he really that bad?"
"He'd happily put you in a small room with Ronald until he'd determined you'd put this 'little misunderstanding' behind you. Not to mention...frankly I don't want you interacting with him in close quarters without an adult who knows about your situation present. Which, to my continuing ire, means me and only me at this time."
Scorpia looked at him oddly, but decided that for now she'd trust he knew more about her eccentric headmaster, she already had a bad feeling about him from the meeting with the mirror anyway. Honestly, who lies by saying their deepest desire is socks, that kind of obviously fake answer either means he's an idiot or he knew just how unbelievable that would sound and was throwing some kind of red herring.
"So...who's the other head of house you expect me to tell?"
"Minerva McGonagall."
Scorpia reared her head back as if she'd been slapped, "Professor McGonagall?! The head of the same house I'm trying to leave?!”
Snape shot her a glare, "Minerva McGonagall, the woman who helped me safely fix my body. She may get over zealous about some things like quidditch and the like, but she is firmly dedicated to the students of this school, all of them."
Scorpia, shrunk in on herself, guilt and anxiety flooding her after having yelled at an authority figure like that, but pulled herself back up with a few deep breaths and some grounding exercises Hermione had researched for her, "Sorry, I...sorry. When...when are we going to speak to her?"
Snape watched her intently as she pulled herself out of her developing anxiety, mentally adding a few more curses on the Dursley's and Dumbledore's names, and nodded slightly at her apology, "It would be best to do it now if you can handle it. If you need you can wake the others, and I can call her down here for the discussion."
Scorpia looked conflicted, but nodded, "Yeah...I'll go get them up. You can call her."
With that Scorpia got up and quietly made her way back into the makeshift bedroom, and Snape sighed as he wrote out a note requesting Minerva's presence and tapped it with his wand. He watched with pensive eyes as the paper folded itself up and disappeared with a pop. He was not looking forward to the rest of the day...or week...or year, not that he ever did, but still.
It was only six in the morning and he was wishing he hadn't sworn off alcohol.