She stepped up to the desk. "I’d like to book a room for two; we’ll be staying in several days time."
"Name?" the barman asked roughly.
"Selena Snape."
"Snape, you said?"
Selena just snapped. She’d had it. "Yes, it’s Snape. I’m related to him, okay? But just because we’re siblings doesn’t mean we’re alike! It gives you no right to judge me, got it? I’m nothing like the man who killed – "
"Slow down," the barman said, holding up a filthy hand and looking rather bemused. "I only wanted to know how it was spelled."
"Oh," said Selena, feeling her cheeks grow hot. "Right. It’s S-N-A-P-E." She darted out of the bar as quick as possible, and headed over to The Three Broomsticks.
Selena ordered herself a butterbeer and waited for Melissa to come.
***
"How d’you do that Transfiguration spell?" Melissa asked, as she attempted once again to turn her match into a needle.
"It’s more of a light, gentle motion," said Selena, watching her friend’s feeble attempts. "Don’t jerk your wand so much."
"How’d you get so good at all these spells?" Melissa asked her, as Selena easily demonstrated for her. "We’re only on our first week of school and somehow you’ve managed to do everything on your first try!"
"I did a lot of spells before I came to Hogwarts," said Selena casually, now making the needle fly across the room.
"I thought your dad hates magic," said Melissa.
"He does," said Selena, as she distractedly made the needle twirl rapidly in the air. "But that didn’t mean I couldn’t practice it, you know."
"And you were never caught?"
"Oh sure, I was caught sometimes," said Selena, whisking the needle into her hand and giving it to Melissa. "But so what? I got yelled at and all that, sure, but it was all worth it once I learned my first spell." Her tone was a lot more casual than she was feeling. " Severus helped me a lot too – if you think I’m good, you should see him." Selena lowered her voice importantly. "He already knows spells at O.W.L. level!"
"Wow," said Melissa, clearly impressed. Selena beamed with pride, looking over at her brother as she did so. Severus was in a corner, talking in a low voice with Lucius Malfoy and some other boys whose names Selena wasn’t sure of. She wasn’t sure why Severus was friends with those people, since as far as she could see they were, as Severus had put it, more ‘typical Slytherins’ – and if that was the case, he must have told some large lies to get in with that crowd.
Selena shrugged it off. Maybe they were all really okay. Maybe they had really accepted Severus for who he was, despite his family tree. Maybe the whole ‘typical Slytherin’ thing didn’t really exist – although it seemed to from what she had seen of her fellow Slytherins, aside from Melissa of course. But maybe it was just a lot of talk, what all these Slytherins did with the pureblood thing. Maybe it was just to make themselves look good, the way many people suck up to others when they first meet them.
Perplexed, Selena shook herself away from her confusing thoughts and began to work on her Potions essay.
***
"Selena!" It was Melissa, hurrying towards her.
"Hi, Melissa," said Selena vaguely, as the memory faded from her eyes.
"Did you get us a room?" Melissa asked, sliding into a seat across from her.
"Yeah," said Selena, her face screwing up in disgust. "Except it’s at the Hog’s Head."
Melissa wrinkled her nose. "Well, I didn’t expect much better," she said, sipping her butterbeer. "Everyone’s coming in for the funeral. And lots of people are trying to take their kids away from Hogwarts, they think it’s too dangerous now. I don’t see how the kids would be any safer at home, though."
Selena nodded distractedly, her eyes fixed on the distant figure of Hogwarts. Are you actually ready for this, Snape?
***
The large barn owl was soaring through her window again. Selena gritted her teeth and paid the owl, then scanned the headline. Nothing of importance. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and continued eating her breakfast.
Several minutes later, she spotted another owl in the distance flying towards her. As the animal came closer, Selena realized it was her owl, Apollo.
Apollo flew in and landed by her plate, sticking out his leg and hooting happily. Curiously, Selena untied the parchment and opened it up. Written in small, cramped writing, it read:
Never judge a man’s actions unless you know the reasons behind them.
The letter wasn’t signed; it didn’t need to be. Selena could recognize those tiny, cramped letters anytime. She had seen them nearly her whole life.
And they belonged to her dear brother.
Her breakfast lay forgotten. Selena bolted up and Apparated to work.
After poking her head into many doors, she finally found Melissa and nearly dragged her into the nearest empty ward. Selena placed an soundproofing charm on the door, then turned to Melissa, who was looking at her worriedly.
"Selena, what’s wrong?" Melissa asked cautiously.
"I – he – wrote – today – that – " Realizing that she was not going to be able to form a sentence, Selena handed the letter to Melissa, who read it, then looked at her curiously.
"Well?" Selena snapped.
"Well what?" said Melissa.
"He – that – from – him – "
"Selena," Melissa said patiently. "Calmly and slowly explain, please."
"It’s from him," Selena spat.
"From who?" Melissa wanted to know.
"My brother," said Selena shortly.
Melissa’s eyes widened. "Are you sure?" she asked. "I mean, it’s not signed…and even if it was…it could be from anyone…"
"It’s him all right," Selena said. "That’s his hand writing – I’d know it anywhere."
"I wonder why he’s writing to you," Melissa mused aloud. "You’d think he’d be doing all he could to not be caught…yet he’s taking the time to write you a letter – "
"I wouldn’t call it a letter," said Selena, looking at the single sentence written on the paper.
"But it’s still interesting," said Melissa thoughtfully. "Because, judging by this letter – I mean sentence, " she corrected hastily as Selena opened her mouth again. "Judging by this sentence, he wants you to think…that he wasn’t doing anything wrong or something."
"And he thinks he’s going to make me believe that?!"
"Calm down, Selena," said Melissa placidly. "I don’t know…I’m just trying to figure out his intentions, that’s all. I mean, he wouldn’t do this if he didn’t have some sort of reason."
Selena frowned, thinking. Melissa was right: why was Severus taking time to write to her? Surely he’d be on the run, doing tasks for You-Know-Who…that worthless, scummy –
"Let’s not worry about it," said Melissa firmly, before Selena could slip too far into thought. "Come on – we’ve both got work to do."
Selena nodded, even though she knew that she would continue to worry about it, and walked out the door.
***
"Hey, Snivillus!"
Selena stopped abruptly. She had heard that name many times, even though she had only been at Hogwarts a few months. They were never addressing her, the boys who said it, but her brother. Severus kept telling her to stay out of his affairs, and Selena had listened to him so far, but it had gotten harder and harder every time she saw those boys picking on him.
Selena turned to see the boys advancing on Severus, who had been working by the beech tree. Severus quickly stood up and reached into his pocket for his wand, but the others were one step ahead of him.
"Tarantallegra!" a boy with messy black hair bellowed, and Severus’ legs began jerking under him uncontrollably. The boys laughed, along with some of the onlookers who had gathered around. Selena glared at them, feeling completely powerless despite the fact that she had her wand in her pocket.
One of the other boys lifted the spell, and said, "All right, Snivillus?"
Shut up, you, Selena thought angrily. She felt herself reaching into her robes for her wand, but reminded herself that Severus would be mad with her if she did so.
Another of the boys knocked Severus off his feet as he tried to get back up. Selena looked around; why didn’t one of Severus’ friends ever come and help him? It was obvious that in a four against one match that he had nearly no chance.
The boys continued to laugh, now one of them cast a spell that made him break into hives.
Selena’d had it. Quietly, casually, she began to walk behind the boys and slowly pulled out her wand. As cool as could be, she silently hit one of the boys with a well-placed jinx.
The boy whom she’d hit, the one with messy black hair, immediately cursed loudly as his front teeth began growing at a alarming rate. Selena quickly disappeared into the crowd before the boys could find her, and hurried off to the Slytherin Common Room.
She had not gotten very far when a shoulder bumped her roughly, jostling her slightly to one side. "What were you thinking?" a voice demanded. Turning, Selena saw Severus beside her, looking beside himself with fury.
"I was helping you," said Selena calmly.
"I told you I can take care of myself!" Severus snarled.
"I could see you were doing a good job of that," said Selena, raising one eyebrow.
"You only make it worse! I don’t need you butting into my life! They’re going to think I told someone to help me and then they’ll treat me even worse!"
"So I’ll help you again," said Selena. "You don’t stand a chance when it’s four against one, Severus, you know that."
"I get back at them on my own time," said Severus dismissively. "Which is why I don’t need you interfering!"
"A thank you will do for today," said Selena coldly. "And next time I won’t bother."
"I’ll thank you for that!"