The Raven and the Snake

The Third Book

She sat up, stretching, then paused. Wrong. She'd been wrong. Someone had seen.

A shadow fluttered a few feet away where the broken streetlamp was. She could see the outline of a person. Someone had seen her.

Ariadne felt for her wand in her sleeve, readying it in case she needed to defend herself or perform a memory charm. She was definitely going to be in trouble with the Ministry again.

The person neared her. She waited. That gate was familiar.

Professor Severus Snape came into view then. Ariadne felt her posture slacken as she relaxed. He wasn't one of Valentine's gentlemen, he wasn't going to attack her. Her little slip with her magic wouldn't surprise or bother him.

But Snape did look bothered. He was ghostly pale. She stood up and grabbed for her bag, moving to greet him only to stop half way.

His eyes were full of pain. It was physically painful for her to see it. Her mind recoiled when she looked into his shattered expression, chest tightening enough to squeeze the breath out.

"Hello, Professor," she murmured with her remaining air.

He seemed to come back to himself. He looked her up and down, seeming to only just now recognize her. His posture straightened.

"Hello, Miss Black. What brings you here?" He was rigid now, his tone frosty.

She breathed. She could handle a pissed off Professor Snape. That was normal.

"I moved into the neighborhood at the end of the term. I sent a letter to the school, I thought you would have been notified."

"And why exactly are you 'here'?" He hissed.

She glanced around. "It's a public area."

His jaw tightened; she could see a vein pulsing. "At this time of night?"

Ariadne glanced at her watch. It wasn't really that late. Still too early for her to go back to Valentine's. Her regular "massage client" wouldn't have left yet.

"It's not that late, Professor. I was just killing time until my guardian is finished with her clients." Ariadne jerked her head in the direction of the dilapidated house she was staying, now one of the most easily seen due to the pink neon light that said "psychic".

Professor Snape's eyes slid from her over to the house, then back. He looked absolutely disgusted. "That's where you live now?"

Ariadne frowned at him, her shoulders tensing up again. She wasn't exactly here because she'd picked it. "Did you think I was going to move in with the Malfoys?"

His eyes narrowed. Had it been during the school year, she might've gotten a detention for her cheek. Snape rarely punished her, but his earlier sadness seemed to have turned to annoyance. His black eyes flashed a little in the dim light.

Ariadne new when to quit while she was ahead. She backed off under his hostile glare. She moved toward the house, figuring she might be able to slip in without notice if she was quiet. The house didn't really have a yard, just a sort of mud pit with a fence that backed the moors.

"Wait." He commanded.

She froze mid step.

"That magic..."

She turned to look at the green grass. It was a little too perfect for the surrounding area, but it would grow in. No one ever seemed to come here anyway.

"Suppose it doesn't matter now. A full-grown wizard is in the area, the trace can't prove that I did anything." She shrugged and started moving again.