Silvanna Snape {Marauders}

Chapter Eighty

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Silvanna Snape was not a therapist. So somebody really needed to explain to her why everyone always felt the need to offload onto her. Jesus Christ. First it had been Remus and the hugging incident when the boys found out about his werewolf thingy. Lycanthropy, that was the word. Maybe she should read up on that... Anyway.

Then, there was Lily, who seemed to think Silvanna understood what she was going through with Severus. Whenever they were in the library together, Louisa couldn't go ten minutes without saying something about Sirius. Which, you know, Silvanna didn't mind much because her accent was just so pretty, like the feeling of silk running through your fingers, or a hot breeze on your face.

And now - now - there was this. See, Silvanna didn't know much about quidditch, or how to take care of other people's feelings. But she did know misogyny and general arsehole-ism. So when she walked into the dorm on Saturday lunchtime to see Marlene sobbing, still in her quidditch things, it was a bit of a shock.

"Oh my God," said Silvanna, chucking her library book on her bed and rushing to Marlene. Instinct told her to wrap her arms around her shoulders, so that was what Silvanna did, inhaling the familiar scent of her soap. "Marlene, what happened? Are you hurt? What is it?"

"Fuck," groaned Marlene. "FUCK!"

"OK," said Silvanna, moving to hold Marlene's hands instead, while rubbing her back with the other. "Get it all out-"

"ARGH!"

"Yep," said Silvanna, looking around to see if anyone else could take over. Literally Louisa could do better at this. "Ahhhh! There, we're all shouting."

"You - you can't make me laugh," sniffed Marlene. "I'm angry."

"I wasn't trying to make you laugh," said Silvanna, while simultaneously thinking, no shit. Marlene chuckled a little, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand and sniffing some more. "Fancy telling me why we're yelling?"

"Stupid fucking quidditch," said Marlene. "And stupid fucking men. Boys. Argh, Merlin, they're all such ignorant gits."

"Well, I thought we'd established that last year, to be honest," said Silvanna. "Anything in particular, or are we just not feeling it today?"

"Bloody Donald Macmillan, that's what," said Marlene. "Because he couldn't handle the fact that I am better than him."

"Well what did he do?" asked Silvanna, frowning, but grateful that they were getting somewhere.

"Just the usual stuff," said Marlene, sounding thoroughly downtrodden. "Saying I should be off the team, there's a reason there's only one girl. I dropped the quaffle when someone whistled and he just would not fucking shut up about it."

By the end of Marlene's rant, Silvanna was absolutely fuming. But, she decided to take the non-confrontational route for once, because Marlene was simply more important. "And James let's him?" she asked, teeth already grinding.

"Oh, no, James doesn't know," said Marlene, looking scandalised. "I'd never live it down if he got involved. Half the comments are already about me being friends with him - which we're not."

"Fucking hell," muttered Silvanna. She was glad she was perfectly normal, and just liked waving her wand and looking at the stars. Didn't have to deal with this bullshit. "I don't really know what to suggest. Are you looking forward to playing in front of David?"

"What? Oh - oh, yeah," said Marlene, cheering up a little. "Yeah, I am actually. Just hope I don't fuck it up."

"You won't," Silvanna assured her. "You're the best player out there - I mean it. Now, what I think we should do, is clean up. Go for a bit of a walk, have dinner, and then - because it's a Saturday - get really fucking drunk."

"That," said Marlene, as Silvanna hauled her to her feet. "Is a superb idea. Knew I could count on you."

Silvanna let out a little laugh. "We'll see how much firewhiskey Allard can hold, won't we? You shower and I'll see if James can get us some stuff."

*****

That night had ended up with Louisa stumbling across the common room to the boys, Mary falling asleep, and Lily hanging her head over the toilet bowl. This resulted in Marlene and Silvanna also sat on the bathroom floor, the former holding Lily's hair, and the latter providing water and tissues whenever needed. It had been quite the squeeze, but neither girl had minded - it was nice to have a bit of a cuddle every now and then, even if their noses were filled with the stench of vomit.

Then came Halloween. Silvanna had learned to look forward to Halloween, and Sirius happily boasted it was going to be the best one yet. "It's a Friday, first off," he said excitedly as the four of them made their way to Arithmancy. "So we can just sleep through the hangovers this year. And Wormtail - that's Pete, I mean - found this amazing spell to correct your singing voice, so we're doing karaoke!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Silvanna muttered, making Lily laugh.

"Pads, it's nine in the morning," Remus pointed out. "Do you think you could take a chill pill?"

"Nope," said Sirius, a huge grin on his face. "I'm way to excited for that." Silvanna ignored the new nicknames - probably just some inside joke they had going.

That evening was - quite frankly, magnificent. It opened with James (obviously) singing ABC into his wand, and getting lightly squirted with water every time he sang in Lily's general direction. Then - after a little bit on encouragement - Mary got up, and sang Come and Get Your Love, with Marlene as a backing singer.

This is where it went a bit downhill for Silvanna, because next she was dragged out of her very comfy seat, just to sing Waterloo by ABBA. Silvanna would never tell Marlene and Lily - who had done the dragging - this, but it was actually her favourite, if she had to choose. Their dorm had been very musical so far this year, and if Silvanna ever managed to give them a push in the right direction, it was to put on Marlene's ABBA record.

By the time Silvanna sang her final, "Finally facing my waterloo!" Remus was absolutely pissing himself with laughter, which was probably why the very next thing Silvanna did was force him out his seat to do a duet.

"Fuck's sake," he muttered, taking a swig of firewhiskey for good luck, as Silvanna fiddled with Marlene's record player.

"Language, Moons!" slurred James. Clearly someone could hold their drink.

"What are we singing anyway?" asked Remus, sounding exasperated.

"You'll know it," promised Silvanna.

"Cheer up, sourpuss!" called Louisa from the fireplace. "You are singing to a pretty girl. You should be weeing with excitement." This caused Lily to howl with laughter, and Sirius leaned over to drape his arm over his girlfriend's shoulders.

The introduction began, and Silvanna raised her wand to sing into. "Blue jean baby. LA lady..."

Remus sighed and rolled his eyes, but began to sing. "Seamstress for the band." It was met with whoops and cheers from the other boys, making Silvanna grin.

"Hold me closer, tiny dancer," the pair of them sang, arm in arm, moments later. "Count the headlights on the highway!"

Next up, the boys decided they needed a tribute band, and Killer Queen was put on the turntable. It really was quite the sight, especially when James picked Peter up on his shoulders, and Sirius jumped onto Remus's back. Silvanna was surprised at how Remus took that actually - the full moon had been less than two weeks ago. But he was ploughing through it, showing no signs of weakness. Maybe Sirius was just a bit lighter than expected.

The night ploughed on, and karaoke was put to a sad end when Louisa suggested it might be a bit loud. Silvanna and Remus agreed - though Lily took some persuading to enact her prefect status - and they settled down by the fire, snuggled on the floor and into armchairs and playing a surprisingly tame game of truth or dare, while they took it in turns to catch sweets in their mouths.