"so what happened?" serena asks, pulling off her polo shirt as you do the same now the pair of you are up in your dorm room.
the other girls are still in the bathroom, wiping off their makeup and taking out
pins in their hair, and the pair of you made sure to take your time to tick your names off on the registers up on the notice board in the common room so that you could have some time alone in the dorm before the girls would invade.
"your hair-" you can't help but gaze at her shiny brown locks. she knows you don't have much time and snaps her fingers at you.
"sorry." you shake your head. "at first they were all like oh, you're little snape. and then, i was like yeah so? you guys are fred and george what do you want with me? and they were like well you're probably really clever because you're dad's great and he's a genius and you prob's have connections so we want you on our team-"
"really?" serena asks. "and you agreed?
you nod.
she frowns at you. its pitiful.
"they all think i've done something wrong haven't i?" you ask her, leaning forward in just your pajama shirt and underwear.
she nods, now fully dressed in an expensive looking silk night dress and with her hair out. it was almost knee length, brown and curly with the sort of shine you only saw on hair you knew was being well looked after.
"it's not your fault. you weren't to know. you're not a pureblood." she reassures you. "the others won't be so nice about it though."
you focus on putting your woolly joggers on when daphne and pansy walk into the dorm room and head to their beds. pansy has a headband on her head to keep her fringe back and daphne has eyepatches under her eyes, you assume to keep them light and free from dark circles.
they'd never work for you.
you'd need to wear them forever.
"i think fred weasley is rather attractive for a fool." daphne says.
you snort involuntarily. "what?"
"i mean- as far as gryffindors go-"
"is there a limit- to attractiveness now, greengrass, in houses?" serena challenges, lying on her stomach on your bed.
you grab a few strands of her hair and braid them, finding it was much easier to braid her hair than it was to braid your own.
"there is, shafiq." daphne sneered. "for those of us with standards."
"pansy?" you call and pansy looks up at you from a book. "what are you reading?"
she turns a little pink, but hold the book up so that you can see the front cover, green writing reading 'a guide to being above it all by marcus amalcovic'.
"where did you get that?" you ask, tilting your head at the name of it. it seemed not like the type of thing a girl like pansy would read.
it had daphne written all over it.
"it was in the library. i liked it."
"i might read it after you then." you smile.
"you have to read that book you told that mudblood you'd read first, though." daphne drawls, causing your mouth to fall open.
"you can't call her-"
you feel serena squeeze your hand.
not in here, y/n. not tonight.
"yes. i forgot i said i'd read that book by bathilda-" you stop.
your eyes clash with daphne's dark blue ones. "what is it, with you all? why were you listening?"
"whatever do you mean?" pansy presses.
you sit up straighter, ignoring serena's nudges to keep you down.
"i went over there to speak to hermione, but that didn't mean you had to listen to the conversation- daphne." you frown, astounded she had even remembered such a detail. she remembered the book. "it's like you're all spies."
"no it's not." daphne disagrees, peeling off the eyepatches and dropping them into a bowl of water on her bedside table. she pats her face dry and faces you, looking vexed. "youre the spy, y/n."
daphne looks at you incredulously. "why have we never heard from you? all these years, and the only snape we knew of was a severus. never, never a y/n."
"i'm here." you say, defiantly. "i'm right bloody here."
"y/n." serena whispers, loud enough to make you look down at her and realise you're getting worked up over nothing.
you can't get too angry or defensive or it'll blow you're entire cover.
and unknowingly, serena is helping massively in aiding you in maintaining it.
but right now you needed to see severus. you needed to see your father.
"i need to see my father."
you stand, pull on a cardigan, put on your slippers and head out.
gemma calls out behind you as you head out the common room and you ignore her. if you got into any trouble for it, you're sure severus would cover for you.
a clash in the distance signalled the presence of an entity you knew well enough.
"peeves?"
"snivellus the second?" he zooms up to you, facing you in a way- upside down and through the gap between his legs.
"please tell me you're not going to start calling me that." you laugh, rubbing a hand over your tired face.
he frowns and flips the right way round again, his bobble hat falling over his face as he tries and fails twice to move it out of the way.
"is something the matter, li'le one?"
"peeves, everyone sucks." you say. "except serena maybe. and you."
"oh you shouldn't 'ave." peeves guffaws doing a little flip of excitement. "but why does everyone le suck?"
"because they do." you pout. " i don't know. they won't mind their bloody business that's why."
"if you're up to naughty business-" peeves begins.
"i'm not!"
"i was gonna say you betta' include me because i'm getting bored up here." he chortles, wrapping an arm around your arm and walking you up a flight of stairs. "now, i can only assume you're gonna go see the grim reaper-"
"my dad-" you giggle, flicking the poltergeist on the nose. he blows you a raspberry and you duck out of his grip. "but yeah, i am gonna go see him."
"i should tell you, he's at the headmaster's office at the moment-" peeves admits, pointing in the direction of the big golden eagle where the stairs to the headmaster's office is located.
"oh." you say. "you're not pulling the pisser are you? for real? he's there?"
"yea, yea. he's in there, your dad. i wouldn't piss about. not with you, y/n." you study his face, he's not exactly grinning but it's not a frown either.
it's a genuine smile.
from peeves.
who'd a thought?