sister of the wolf | s. snape

thirty | patience

The Gryffindor common room was empty one Saturday, save for the Marauders and Elise. The fire was crackling, as outside of the stone-rimmed window the first snow of the season could be seen falling gently outside. Elise sat on the carpeted floor while the boys and Lily were sprawled out on the armchairs and couch.

"We were informed recently that we need to graduate and turn seventeen before any of us can officially join the Order." Lily said.

The group was delving deeper into the world of war and what they could do to help... to fight. Well, aside from Elise, who was rather peeved about the detail Lily had just shared.

"Ugh," she rolled her eyes. "I'm sixteen! What difference does less than a year and a Hogwarts graduation make?"

"Quite a bit, El." Remus scrunched his brows at his younger sister. "You need to finish your education and acquire all the skill and knowledge you can before going into something like this."

Elise stuck her tongue out at him and he sighed.

"Besides, I'd quite prefer if you kept yourself safe and watched after mum. You know her health isn't great lately."

A frown pulled at her lips. He wasn't wrong. Their mother had recently developed a terminal illness... They weren't sure how long she truly had.

"Come on, Remus," Sirius interjected. "You know how your mum is; she wouldn't want Elise fussing over her."

"Right!" Elise bursted, looking at Sirius gratefully. Remus pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. It was a movement that always reminded Elise of... someone else and caused her heart to squeeze whenever she saw it.

"I dunno why you're itching to be apart of a war so bad, El," Peter said, his worried eyes looking out the window. "It's right terrifying. If I could I'd run for the hills and hide..."

The whole group looked at him, but Lily was the one to question his statement.

"You're not going to though, right, Wormy?"

He quickly turned back to his friends with wide gray eyes and shook his head feverishly. "N-no! Of course not!"

The group chucked at the skittish boy.

"Right, Wormtail's on our side through and through!" James said proudly, before he turned a bit serious and looked to Elise. "Speaking of sides, how's Snivellus? He been up to anything suspicious?"

Elise looked down at her hands and picked at a fingernail uncomfortably. "James, you know that I don't know. We haven't had any contact at all. I try not to even think about him."

"Right, right. Sorry."

"How 'bout that Oliver, though?" Sirius piped up, a mischievous smirk on his face. "He seems like a good lad."

"Yeah, Oliver..." Remus said thoughtfully. "You two, uh... Just friends, or?"

Elise threw a glare at her brother. "Yes, we're just friends. Merlin. Can't I have a male friend?"

Remus threw his hands up in defense. "Of course you can! I was just wondering if you were getting over Snape, is all!"

She dropped her deathly stare and frowned, shaking her head slowly. Oliver was a good person, got along great with her friends and was fun to be around, but...

He wasn't him.

The group talked amongst each other as Elise was lost in thought for a moment. Her eyes trailed up to the clock on the wall and she gasped.

"Oh, shit. Speaking of Oliver, I told him I'd meet him to work on homework like five minutes ago."

"Oh, is it that Potions paper you were complaining about?" Lily asked.

Elise shook her head, standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder. "No, just some History of Magic." She may or may not have always refused to work on Potions with anyone that wasn't Severus... It just felt off to her. And nobody was ever able to teach her as well as he had.

Her grade in the subject also may or may not have slipped a bit.

The girl slipped out of the Fat Lady portrait and walked quickly through the corridors. Within a couple minutes, she entered the Hufflepuff common room and sighted her friend sat at one of the tables in the back corner.

"And I was under the impression you'd forgotten about me." He said cheekily, waving her over.

Elise grinned and sat down at the chair across from him, digging out her homework and dropping it onto the table.

"Course not, Ollie. Just got caught up talking with my brother and his gang."

His smile grew a bit at the nickname, but she hadn't noticed as she pulled out some ink and a quill.

"Talking about Auror secret society stuff again, are we?"

"Ugh, yes! Can you believe they won't let me help out until I'm seventeen and graduated?!"

"Ah, yeah, how horrible of them not to let underage, uneducated children go out and fight wanted mass murderers." He sassed, giving her a playful smirk.

She narrowed her eyes at the boy before showing him her favorite finger. "You sound just like my brother..." she grumbled. "Speaking of who, he and the others think you're just fantastic, by the way."

"And you don't?"

Elise laughed, her grumpy expression slipping off her face. "You're okay, I suppose. But they seem to think I should marry you."

"Hm. Maybe you should let me finally take you on a date, then."

She paused in opening up her textbook and gaped at him silently for a moment.

Oliver chuckled and waved it off. "I'm joking... Partially."

Elise rolled her eyes and flipped to the designated page required for her homework.

"You know I'm not ready for anything like that, Ollie."

He nodded, taking on a more genuine look as he simply watched her.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Us Hufflepuffs are valued for our patience, though, aren't we?"

She couldn't help but crack a weak little half-smile at him. She knew there was a good chance she would never be able to lose her love for Severus. There was no one quite like him in this world to her.

Oliver had hinted time and time again that he held some sort of feeling for her despite her broken heart and longing for another. Nevertheless he never once pushed her - in a serious way, at least - to move on and fall into his arms. And deep down, even Oliver knew that he may never receive the same affections in return. But he was willing to wait around and see.