Silvanna Snape {Marauders}

Chapter Sixty-Three

Have a fandabidosi Saturday! :)

As May sped by and exams neared closer, everyone was at the very top of their game, and with the amount of work the boys were putting in, Silvanna was glad she'd started months earlier. She hit the books harder than she ever had - partly because she wanted to be top of the class. Partly because she'd got so in her head about exams that it was the only thing that could distract her.

She'd thought she was alone in this stress, because the boys almost always left the library to go for their strolls around the castle looking perky and cheerful. Silvanna was proven sorely wrong though as May drew to a close, when she was curled up by the fire, nose buried deep in her latest letter from Jim.

"Will you give it a rest, McKinnon?" came Sirius's snapping whisper a little way away. Silvanna peered over and accidentally caught Remus's eye, who had also stolen a glance. They both looked away hastily, ears pricked and feeling sneaky.

"You're my boyfriend," whined Marlene, careful to keep her voice low so as not to distract the NEWT or OWL students. "And we're revising together."

"Yes," agreed Sirius testily, "But that doesn't mean you have to be all over me all the time." His voice was growing steadily louder, attracting the attention of a nearby group of fifth year girls. James elbowed him warningly. Remus's face was still covered by his book.

"Fine then," snapped Marlene, sitting up with a scowl etched in her face. "You were shit in bed anyway." The whole common room felt like there had been a sudden, mini explosion of noise. Seventh year boys by the door where whistling and jeering, and the fifth year girls were scowling furiously at Marlene, who had launched up from the sofa. Whispers and stares had erupted, which were quickly put to rest by glares from James and Peter.

"Was?" challenged Sirius, also jumping up as Marlene stormed towards the girls' staircase. Silvanna hastily gathered her things to go after her. "What do you mean was?"

"It means, we're done, Black," Marlene called over her shoulder, already halfway up.

"Fine!" he snapped. Silvanna realised she would have to get past him to go upstairs, and arrived just in time to hear him mutter, "Women."

"Wanna try that again?" said Silvanna, putting her hands on her hips as he turned round, wide-eyed.

"Not you," he scoffed with a wave of his hand. People started to go back to their business.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she pushed further. He became very flustered all of a sudden, and Silvanna found she was quite enjoying it.

"Nothing!" he said. "Just - I-" Silvanna raised her eyebrows. "Fine," he said defeated, "My apologies. But you've got to admit that was out of the blue."

"Actually," said Silvanna, heading upstairs, "I'm surprised she stuck it out for so long."

She had expected a crying wreck when she entered the dorm room. She had not expected Marlene and Mary embracing and squealing, and Lily grinning while she read her book and mumbling, "Thank God for that."

"I'm lost," said Silvanna blankly as Mary looked at her over Marlene's shoulder. "Aren't you sad? You were going out for ages."

"Pfft, no," said Marlene, rolling her eyes. "We've been on and off for ages."

"Oh," said Silvanna. She couldn't say she was surprised, as such. Just a bit shocked. "OK then. I'll just go back down then."

She turned to leave. "Oh no, don't," said Lily, to her surprise. "It's ages since we've had a proper girls night. And my mum sent some stuff." And once again, Lily Evans had done the unexpected, and Silvanna Snape spent the evening laughing and chattering with her friends.

*****

As if the world wanted to boost Silvanna's ego, she actually beat Hannah in the Hogwarts Gobstones tournament, which was sort of a shame, because it was Hannah's last year. But it only went downhill from there.

Exams went terribly, and the only positive was that she had the upcoming trip to Russia with the Gobstones Club. There was Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, which Silvanna would never be perfect at, but she'd still considered herself OK. Until she flopped the exams. "Just think about how OWLs will be," said an exhausted Remus as they left the latter.

Potions had them brew an anti-venom of their choice, along with a foot on the ingredients and details of how to identify and counteract the effects of acromantula venom. Silvanna had to write big for that one, and she was sure she saw a lump at the bottom of her cauldron. In Charms, her summoning charm went fine, she supposed. Maybe a bit too hesitant, but nothing horrid.

Transfiguration went abysmally, she was sure of it, but Remus assured her she did fine before rushing away for lunch with the boys. "Easy for you to say," she had hissed, "At least your quill turned purple. Mine was lavender."

"Well, it looked purple to me," Marlene had said, before leading her outside along with Mary.

Astronomy and History had them doing star charts and essays, so no problems there, she supposed. Although how much could really be said about the troll rebellions? They were hardly thoughtful creatures and it was more brute force than tactical brilliance.

Then there was Creatures, which Silvanna was seriously considering dropping next year after her krup actually ran away from her.

To make matters so much worse for Silvanna, she thought she'd done best in Herbology, which was easily her worst subject. Repotting the flutterby bushes wasn't even that bad, especially compared to the disaster that was Defence. In fairness, everyone had upped their game this year for DADA, especially after the incident with McGonagall. Well, that seemed like a million years ago now. But the exam had only been basic healing spells, and while it all turned out alright in the end, she was sure she'd messed it up nonetheless.

But it was over. And now all she had to do was win at Gobstones. Easy-peasy.