The Ten Year Hex [Severus Snape]

11

Her grip was tight on the coffee cup in her hands. She had sent Demi an owl that she would be in this coffee shop at this time. She had hoped he would show but by the ticking of the clock, he wasn't going to. It was already half passed three, she had expected him by three fifteen. Demi wasn't the most punctual, but her doubts had already started to mount.

She also began to worry that he had gathered others and would attempt to ambush her. Perhaps she had made a mistake. The waitress came by and refilled her coffee with a sweet smile. Jynx wondered about the life the girl might lead outside of the shop. Did she have a boyfriend? Husband? Children?

She seemed to be about Jynx's age. Her early thirties. Her hair was shoulder length and a dark brown. Her eyes were a close match to Jynx's gray one.

She had become used to the quick second glances as people noticed her eyes, and then the quick politeness of them looking away, attempting not to stare. Some people stared too long, entranced by them. They would strike up conversations about how odd they thought her eyes were. Some even asked if they were contacts.

The bell above the door chimed and Jynx felt the hair on her arms stand. A man with a black goatee entered the shop, thankfully alone, his icy blue eyes scanning his surroundings. Jynx waved her fingers over the rim of her cup and the corners of his lips tipped up.

Demi slid onto the bench opposite her. Everything about him was black, except for his eyes. He wore a black t-shirt under his leather jacket, black faded jeans and of course, his black hair pulled back. He really was handsome and the air around him was filled with mystery. He reminded her so much of Severus, except for those blue eyes. Her fingers began to tap against her cup as regret began to creep in around her.

Demi signaled to the waitress who quickly came and took his order. Black coffee. As if there was a question that he would order anything else. He settled into his seat and rested his arm on the back of the booth. "What can I do for you, Jynx? I know you didn't ask me here because you changed your mind."

Jynx shook her head, "No, I didn't."

Her eyes glanced around the shop at all the people living their lives and wondered if perhaps any of them sat on the same fence she did. She turned her attention back to Demi and pulled the crumpled letter from the pocket of her coat. She thrust it toward him and when he did not reach for it, she knew it was from him.

The waitress arrived with his coffee. Her hair grazed the tops of her shoulders as she sat down the cup and walked away with a smile.

Demi placed a hand on the cup and looked toward the window. A drizzle had started to fall outside, tiny drops of water coated the glass. Condensation had already started to cause the window to fog, adding to the obscurity of the outside world. Yet he stared, as if he could see it all clearly. "I'm sorry for the way I came back into your life," he said. Still looking out the window.

Jynx pulled the crumpled piece of parchment from the table and slipped it back into her pocket. "I don't know that I can accept your apology, not yet."

Demi nodded. "I thought about it long after Severus and I had our row, when I slipped into my flat thankful he hadn't cursed me with that wicked spell of his," he paused and took a sip of his coffee, "I shouldn't have done that to you. I just wanted to know if I would have meaning again. With you and the Dark Lord is the only time I've felt that I had."

Jynx kept her eyes trained on him, looking for the lie in his features. Some flicker of falsehood in his eyes, but there was none. Only the softness of regret showed in the blue. "Then why did you leave? Why did you allow me to believe you were dead?"

"Because you would believe Severus, you would eat the string of lies he fed you as if they were your last meal. I knew how you felt about him. How he felt about you. How I didn't fit in the box that you saw yourself living in," his eyes locked on hers now and they were misty. The blue waters of an ocean holding a growing storm.

"I'm sorry Demi-"

"Do you still love him?"

"I-I don't know," she hung her head, looking into the cup clutched between her hands. There was the tiniest chip in the rim, just above the rim.

"I sent you that letter as a warning. They know where you are and who you are with. What happens if the Dark Lord returns? You said you wouldn't go back, but would he?"

Jynx hadn't thought about that. She hadn't thought about what Severus would do and how what she had seen through Dumbledore would affect them all. She suspected Severus would be apprehensive, it was after all the Dark Lord who had killed Lily. Though he had blamed Jynx, she was not the one who cast the curse. "I don't know," she whispered. It was the truth.

"I loved you, I still do. Whatever may come, I want you safe. You deserve so much better than what I or Severus can offer you. Run. Leave the country. Go somewhere with sandy beaches and palm trees, where no one knows who you are or what you can do," he was leaning toward her, his cup only an inch from his chest. His knuckles were white from the grip he held on it. There was no mistruth in his words, he wanted her to go. His tone was of someone who was reading off a list of their wishes, hoping to have one granted.

"Demi-"

"Jynx, please. They'll find you, even without me."

"Can you help? Can you tell them I left? That you saw me board a plane?" she begged. She had placed her hand on his and he had covered it with his other. She could see in his eyes that she had answered a question he hadn't asked. She had crushed his hope that she would leave with him, perhaps to start a life together. Ten years changes everything, and yet it changes nothing.

'The heaviness of the regret,' Severus had said. She didn't regret letting Demi down. They were better off as friends, she could never love him the way he loved her. However, she did regret her willingness to use him to save herself from whatever the others had waiting for her. Even though he had been so willing to use her.

"I won't tell them where you are, but I can't keep them from finding you," Demi said. It was another truth, he couldn't control the actions of others. Especially those driven to follow the most vile being that had existed.

"You could choose not to follow him, if he did return," said Jynx. Demi pulled his hands away from her slowly and took a sip of what by now had to be frigid coffee.

"No, I don't have a choice. I don't belong anywhere else."

That wasn't true. Demi was an exceptional wizard. He could have found work as a teacher or an Auror. The problem was he was a well-known follower. The Ministry would never hire him, he would be shunned. Jynx shook her head, "I don't believe that."

"It doesn't matter what you believe," snapped Demi. He was done, she could tell by the change in the air that he couldn't stand to be near here any longer. He stood from the bench and looked her in the eyes, really looked at her. The irritation gave way to a softness that reflected in his voice, "Good-bye Jynx," he said before the bell over the door signaled his departure.

Jynx didn't move, she didn't pursue him. As much as she wanted to fix the shattered pieces, they were too small, too irreparable. He had held onto her as she had held on to Severus. He would have fled the country with her, if only she had asked. But she didn't. Instead she sat staring out the now fully condensated window, as if she could see everything clearly.