Silvanna Snape {Marauders}

Chapter Ten

Whoo, don't you just LOVE bring back at school with all the dickheads - I mean, classmates? :)

Faster than Silvanna could count the days, it was October. She still spent most of her time in the library, often with Lupin, who it looked like had taken her advice and stopped picking his scars. She found Transfiguration particularly interesting, with all the laws and theories that McGonagall said they'd be studying in later years. Potions had similar concepts, which she happily noted down. She took out a book on Astronomy theories at one point, knowing that was a subject she was good at, but she wasn't really all that bothered by it - she much preferred the muggle stuff that Lupin recommended to her.

Halfway through October, Lupin disappeared again. "Does he say anything to you?" asked Potter as she headed up the Astronomy tower for their Tuesday night lesson. "You know, before he goes?"

"No, not really," said Silvanna. "I don't know if he's sick or what. It's inky though."

"He just disappears," said Pettigrew from behind them where he was walking next to Black. "One minute he's with us, and the next he's slipped off."

"And then he'll just reappear at a mealtime," said Black, sounding frustrated. "You watch, he'll be back by dinner tomorrow."

And so he was. At Wednesday tea time, Remus Lupin slipped onto the bench next to Potter, muttering something about not feeling well before adequately distracting them by mentioning the words 'dungbombs' and 'Filch' in the same sentence.

Silvanna went up to him in the common room that evening. "Astronomy, History, Defence, and Potions," she said, handing him a stack of parchment. "You've been picking at your scars again."

"I do it in my sleep," he muttered, looking like he was about to fall asleep right there.

"We're doing Astronomy homework if you want? The moons just past full so the stars are in their quantum positions."

But Lupin just shook his head, spreading out her notes and pointing to them, communicating wordlessly that he wanted to be left alone. Silvanna scowled and went back to her telescope where she'd left Mary trying to find Mars.

*****

Silvanna liked Halloween enough. It wasn't as good as Christmas, where she might get a book or some sweets while her dad went drinking for almost the whole day. Or her birthday when her mum would sneak her and Severus a bit of pound cake from the shop. But it was Halloween, and Halloween at Hogwarts too.

The feast was magnificent, and she filled her guts with pumpkin stew and potatoes, followed by treacle tart and ice cream. The eight first years spent the evening high on sugary sweets that their parents had sent (they shared them out) and playing rounds of exploding snap and gobstones. She hadn't played the latter before, but found that she was rather good. Maybe she could see if her mum had an old set she could borrow.

Aside from Halloween, which had been a very fun night indeed, the first years had settled into a routine of having their own friends. Marlene and Mary were inseparable, but didn't seem to mind if Silvanna tagged along every now and then. Obviously there were the boys. Lily had decided that Severus was the only person worth her time, and spent even less time with her fellow Gryffindors than Silvanna, who was almost always in the library until closing time.

Two weeks after Halloween, Black's twelfth birthday passed (obviously the whole school had to know via some fireworks that they set off at lunch), and Lupin missed lessons again. This was rather inconvenient for Silvanna, because it meant that she was going to have to sacrifice her notes for an evening again. Well, she didn't have to, but it was a good-friend thing to do. She could just about hear Potter, Pettigrew, and Black's conversation in History of Magic, and decided to talk to them again at lunch.

"Any idea-?" began Black as she sat down with them, but she just shook her head, helping herself to a cheese sandwich.

"I'm going to look in the library after Defence, though," she said. "There must be a duplication spell for my notes."

"It's very good of you," said Pettigrew as he bit into a marmite crumpet.

Silvanna shrugged. "I am starting to think though," she said, biting her cheek.

"Oh, Merlin," said Black, earning himself a kick under the table.

"Seriously," she tried again.

"Yes?"

"Do you want a bruised leg?" she snapped, grinning all the same. "Maybe we should go against the beaky family motto and mind our own business?" Potter frowned at her. "I know it might be difficult to comprehend such a foreign concept," she teased, making them smile, "But it might be something we don't want to know."

"What?" asked Black, "Like a long-term illness?"

Silvanna nodded, and they mimicked her, looking thoughtful. "I'm still gonna ask him," Potter decided.

That night in the common room, instead of leaving him be as they had done the last two months, Lupin's trio of friends hounded and pestered him with questions about where he'd been while Silvanna was trying to talk him through the spell they'd been practicing in Transfiguration. She was ignoring the fact that his scars were pink again. He didn't have to listen to her if he didn't want to, she was only trying to help.

She made a point about sending glares their way, but it did little to deter them from their questioning. Eventually, Lupin got fed up, and dismissed himself somewhat politely to bed. "If you say I told you so," said Black. "I will be sorely disappointed in your lack of wit." Silvanna closed her mouth.

"I'm going to do Astronomy," she said, also dismissing herself for bed.

"What?" exclaimed Pettigrew, looking disappointed.

"It's Friday!" said Potter, looking shocked that anyone would consider doing homework.

"And the homework's not due until Tuesday," Black added.

"And we're a marauder down," Pettigrew chimed in. That stopped Silvanna well enough.

"First of all," she said, grinning, "You have a name for yourselves?" Potter's cheeks went scarlet, and Black crossed his arms, challenging her. "Second of all, I did the homework on Wednesday when you were off trying to find the kitchens - Lupin told me. And thirdly, I have to look tonight because the stars are in their quantum phase."

"What does that even mean?" asked Black with an eye roll, slouching into his chair.

"It's an alchemeic theory McGonagall mentioned at the start of term," Silvanna explained. "It's really more third year stuff, and even then it's only brief."

"Won't it happen again?" asked Potter, raising his eyebrows.

"Don't you ever pay attention in Astronomy?" she asked him. "It happens every month after the full moon..." She trailed off, a frown forming on her face.

"You alright, Snape?" asked Black.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Pettigrew added.

"We go to school with ghosts, nitwit," hissed Potter, shoving him gently. Pettigrew toppled off his chair anyway.

Silvanna grinned as Black and Potter cried out with laughter and Pettigrew hauled himself back to his chair, also grinning. "Night," she called before heading into her dormitory. It looked like an early night for her if she was going to hit the books first thing tomorrow.