The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

THIS August?!

"You left me, you blithering snake!"

Several heads turned along the Slytherin table to look where Regulus Black was leaned over Severus Snape's shoulder, the expression on his face venomous.

Snape calmly took a sip of the pumpkin juice in his goblet and lowered it slowly back to the table, mulling the juice for a moment in his mouth before swallowing. His eyes fixed on his plate, then, very quietly, without hardly moving his lips, he murmured, "Now is not the time, nor is this the place, to be having this confrontation. Go and sit down and we will discuss this later." He turned back to his dinner.

"No, we'll talk about this now, you traitorous --"

"Oh do be careful with the words you choose," Severus said silkily, and his eyes moved over Regulus's face, watching for the response, hoping for a weakness in his mental walls. But none came. Still, Snape smiled because he knew that it was costing Regulus every ounce of strength to hold them up.

Regulus seethed for a moment, glowering at Severus. Then he leaned closer. "Did you at least --"

"I said," Snape replied, waving his palm and forcing Regulus to step back lest he be batted, "That this is not the time nor place. We will talk later, but for right now, I advise that you eat your meal before dinner is over and you miss it entirely. Unless, of course, you've already eaten... elsewhere...?"

Regulus glowered at Severus, then turned and stormed down the table to his usual seat beside Barty Crouch, who was eager to hear how the meeting with Greyback had gone, believing it to have been an important act of service to the Dark Lord.

Snape turned back to his meal, his hand shaking as he balled it into a fist against his knee.

"What's that little vomit bag doing over here, Sev?" demanded one of the older Slytherins, nodding at Regulus.

Severus shook his head, dismissing him, and took another sip from his goblet, taking deep breaths as his eyes roved over the heads of the students crammed into the Great Hall. His eyes fell on red and he focused to see the back of Lily Evans's head, the hair dancing through the air and catching the candles overhead like molton gold as she laughed at some ridiculous thing one of the Marauders must have said. He could see James Potter grinning at her, and Sirius Black was waving about his arms like some sort of wild animal as Remus Lupin sat stoic and staring at his plate beside them. Of course Remus Lupin wasn't feeling well, Severus thought, remembering the mororseness of the werewolves gathered about the tavern. Other than Greyback, who had long embraced the moon's effects on his body, most werewolves were miserable about this time. The waxing gibbous moon nearly full, a mere sliver left before it would fill out the next night...

She did not know that he had saved her life.

He wondered what would happen if she did know?

Would she care? Would she thank him? Hug him, kiss him? Call him her hero? Would she walk away from James - what had he ever done for her that Severus had not, after all? Would she run away, far away, with him, with Severus, if she knew that he was protecting her, all the time?

He wished he could tell her.

He imagined walking right up, right across the room, and just blurting out that he could keep her safe forever from the Dark Lord, if only she would let him. That he would do anything to ensure it.

But he couldn't.

The very thing ensuring her safety was the distance that he kept. He looked down at the sleeve of his arm, which ached though it did not burn, as though somewhere the Dark Lord knew exactly the things that Severus Snape was thinking... and was pleased.