Serendipity [Book 2]

In The Eyes of the Wolf [Pt. 1]

**

“Guess what, Remus?” Ariella chirped as she bounced in her seat. Remus chuckled as he sat beside the blonde on the couch in her room.

“What, Elle?” He replied with a tilt of his head. Ariella grinned before answering.

“Snark and I are going on a date!” She announced. Remus choked on the tea he had brought to his lips. Ariella tilted her head to the side. Remus coughed as he put the cup of tea on the nearby table.

“What did you say?” He questioned, unsure if he had heard correctly.

“I said Snark and I are going on a date!” Ariella reiterated. Remus frowned.

“Elle, are you sure you want to be involved with him?” Ariella frowned when she saw her friend was not as elated as she was about the news. She scoffed as she brushed her curls away from her eyes.  

“Why not him? Look I’m not saying we’re eloping, Moony. We’re just going on a date,” Ariella replied, sighing. She couldn’t understand why her best friend was getting so upset.

“Have you forgiven him for luring you into that trap?” Ariella scowled at the memory.

“I think we got him back when James lured him to the Shrieking Shack later that year!” She rebutted; anger flared in the pit of her stomach. Severus, in her opinion, had more than earned repentance. Hell, if she remembered correctly, he had been sorry even before she had been attack.

“Do you wanna come with me?” The sixteen-year old Ariella Cross smiled as she watched disbelief settle across Severus Snape’s sallow features. She felt that if he hadn’t brought them so close to his chest, he would’ve dropped the books he was carrying.

“Well?” Ariella encouraged. Severus looked conflicted before slowly nodding his head. Ariella giggled as she stuck out her hand, offering to carry some of his books. He only handed her one and she grinned at the title. Hogwarts: A History. Severus quirked an eyebrow at her reaction but quickly accounted it to her belonging to Gryffindor.

“Come on. I think I smell Filch,” she commented as she used her free hand to grip the sleeve of his robes. She tugged him down the empty hallway that led to the courtyard.

“You can smell him?” Severus asked, confused. He didn’t know if he had misheard her.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I can’t taste so my sense of smell is highly developed,” Ariella lied cover up her blunder. No one else knew she was an animagus and had developed hyper-sensitive senses from a mistake in the process. Snape stared at her.

“You can’t taste?”

“Nope,” Ariella sighed when they appeared outside. A cold wind bit at the pair and Ariella wrapped her cloak tighter around her form. She took a long breath, enjoying the cold air. Halloween was coming up in a couple of weeks, but the weather felt more November than October. Ariella didn’t mind. She liked the cold weather better. She could breathe easier. Severus watched her as she stood on her toes and twirled.

“You take ballet?”

“I took ballet. My parents let me quit when I came to Hogwarts,” Ariella explained easily. She had never liked ballet, but that did not stop her from showcasing her ability every now and then.

“Say, Snape,” Snape looked up and met Ariella’s amethyst eyes in question. He noticed she had pulled her usually wild, blonde curls back into a messy ponytail. Her cheeks were tinged red from the cold air that surrounded them.

“Do Sirius and James tease you often?” She asked, concerned for the quiet boy that had been her Potions partner for almost six years.  She watched disinterest turn to malice as he glared at her. Suddenly she was afraid of him.

“I’m sorry,” she instantly spouted as she put her hands up in a surrendering maneuver. Severus dropped his hostility instantly when he recognized the fear in her amethyst orbs. He took a step back away from her. He had never seen the bold, daring blonde afraid of anything.

“Do you want to go back inside? I’ll take to the dungeons. I know some shortcuts!” Ariella offered, trying to make up for her ill-mannered question. Snape nodded curtly as Ariella smiled.

“Ok, just follow me,” she remarked as she walked back into the castle. She stopped in front of Severus suddenly and the boy ran into her. He scowled as he went to complain. His complaint fell on deaf ears as he was dragged into a nearby classroom.

“I know I heard voices!” Severus froze when he heard Filch’s voice outside the door. He looked to Ariella as she looked around the classroom, searching for a portrait. She smirked when she found her target. She quickly grabbed Snape’s arm and dragged him to a portrait of Godric Gryffindor. The blonde wizard eyed the two teenagers before smiling at Ariella.

“Sneaking around?” He asked as Ariella grinned at him.

“It’s just Filch, pops. You gonna help me avoid detention?” Severus was perplexed by the conversation. In honesty, he had never heard the Founder portraits say anything. Not even the Salazar Slytherin portrait conversed with the students, and yet Ariella seemed so friendly with Godric.

“Very well. Take care, little one,” Godric conceded as his painting swung open to reveal a dimly lit passageway. Severus stared at it in surprise before he quickly followed Ariella.

“How did you know this was here?”

“Oh, this? My mom found it when she was here,” she replied honestly with a shrug.

“Where does it go?”

“Elle, are you listening to me?” Remus asked as he snapped his fingers in front of the dazed woman’s face. She shook herself of the memory.

“What were you saying?”

“I said while I admit we did some pretty cruel things, we never went as far to physically harm him like he and Malfoy did!”