Silvanna Snape {Marauders}

Chapter Fifty-Two

Fancy seeing you here :)

September dragged, which was good, because Silvanna was loving being back at school. Remus had his full moon, and as usual Silvanna went up to visit him with a cauldron cake. When she walked in though, it felt like there had been whispering beforehand that had hastily stopped. She could tell because Peter looked so alarmed. They hadn't been taking about her, had they?

"Anyone seen Snivellus recently?" asked Sirius, propping his feet up on the bed.

"No," said Silvanna. It was making her uneasy. "Apart from lessons. I don't think Lily even sees him."

"That's because they spend all their time in the dungeons, the slimeballs," said Peter, and for once he sounded full of hatred. This was very unlike Peter, and surprised Silvanna. He usually had quite a sweet, childish temperament.

"They?" she asked with a frown.

"Him, Mulciber, and Avery," Remus explained. "They're always sneaking around together nowadays."

Silvanna crossed her arms, raising her eyebrows. "And you've been stalking them, have you?"

"Doesn't miss a trick," James mumbled, sounding impressed.

"Everyone knows that, Silvanna," said Sirius, ignoring James. "And regardless, I overheard the two of them talking about it over the summer." Silvanna pretended to ignore the fact that her brother hadn't been in contact with anyone all summer.

*****

Silvanna settled down in the common room one evening to write to Jim. She'd spoken to Professor McGonagall about it after Wednesday Transfiguration, and she'd been given a quick-fire lesson on the Wizarding postal service.

For one, the school offered a free owl service to all its students, that Silvanna could use whenever she liked. She already knew this from writing home, but all she had to do was apply a stamp to make it look genuine.

Secondly, wizarding post offices were a thing for two reasons. One, wizards who didn't own their own owl could use the post offices. And two, any muggle post sent to a strict, wizarding location - like Hogwarts - was first sent to a wizarding post office, before being owled on. So this meant, yes, she could send and receive genuine muggle post.

She sat down and began to write. She had to censor everything, of course, but she told him about how great the library was here, and how her subjects were going relatively well. Of course, she couldn't even talk that much about those.

Her letter ended up being remarkably short, and she filled it by telling him all about the latest book she'd started: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

*****

It was a delight to be back at school. Really. Or that's what Silvanna told herself anyway. She arrived at dinner one night, excited to see a chicken casserole on the tables, and took her seat with Marlene, Mary, and Lily, who were halfway through eating.

She reached out to pour herself some pumpkin juice, but Mary batted her hand away, shaking her head with a mouth full of food. She pointed a little way down the table, to where the boys had been watching her eagerly. Now they just looked disgruntled. "Spoil sport," James called, turning instead to the nearby group of third years that always seemed to hover around them.

Curious, Silvanna watched. One of them attempted to pour some water into her goblet, but nothing came out. She tipped it some more. And some more. And then she shrieked as all the water came tumbling out the top of the jug, soaking the table and her lap, making it look like she'd waded waist deep into the lake. The boys howled with laughter, and Silvanna failed in concealing a chuckle from Lily.

Now that she paid attention, she could hear similar shrieks and yells coming from all over the Great Hall, and even some from the staff table.

*****

The October full moon passed, and Silvanna went to the library after she was kicked out the hospital wing, to see the three remaining boys pouring over their usual ancient volumes. Sirius looked up as she entered and waved her over. "Silvanna," he said, a smile on his face. "My dear, sweet, Anna. So wise, so clever-"

"What do you want?" she asked, crossing her arms with a smile nonetheless.

"Weather charms," Peter said simply.

"What kind of weather charms?" Silvanna asked heavily, although it wasn't much of a fuss for her.

"Electrical storm?" asked James, his voice going up an octave. Silvanna strongly suspected it was for a prank.

"Doable," she said, weighing it up in her head. "Very tricky...needs multiple people to do it...maybe a potion involved, I'm not sure."

"Can you mimic the magical properties of a weather storm?" asked Sirius, frowning at her.

"No," said Silvanna firmly. "No it's like Charms versus Transfiguration there. Really a weather charm is just mimicking the effects of the weather, not actually changing it."

Peter's head dropped onto the table with a loud thud. James just smiled weakly. "Thanks, Silvanna," he said with a polite nod. She took that as a cue to let them get on with it.

*****

The end of October meant a number of things for the Gryffindor fourth years. Firstly, it was the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year, and one Silvanna was looking forward to immensely. Second, was their Halloween get-together that they had every year. James promised them all as they made their way back from a light night of Astronomy, that it was going to be 'magical'. "Especially for you, Evans!" he had called, as Lily stormed off.

Thirdly, it was the upcoming Gryffindor and Slytherin game, which Marlene, James, and Sirius were all on edge about. At one point, Silvanna snuck up behind James and yelled 'boo!' only to get punched in the face. Everyone except Sirius seemed surprised she took it so well, as he knew exactly what it felt like to suddenly get hit for no reason. Nevertheless, she'd earned a new load of respect from her fellow Gryffindors after she'd done nothing but calmly swear and fix her face with her wand.

Fifth, it meant that one of the boys' favourite muggle bands had released new music in time for Christmas. And thus, Sirius hardly went anywhere without singing at the top of his lungs, "She's a killerrrr queeEeen!"

That led her to the last thing. Sirius's birthday. Which, according to Remus in Runes, had been planned by James since summer, and sounded like it was going to be a wonderfully disastrous night.

They left that lesson, their whole cohort heading to the Transfiguration class. Silvanna was tapped on the shoulder and she jumped, whipping round, to see one of the Ravenclaw students in their class smiling at her. Daniel, Silvanna thought his name was. "Hi," he said.

"Uh, hey," said Silvanna, wondering what he wanted.

"Can I walk you to Transfiguration?" he asked, fiddling with the hem of his robe sleeve.

"Both of us?" Silvanna asked slowly, looking to Remus.

"I actually just wanted to talk to you," said Daniel. Remus shrugged and hurried off ahead, and Silvanna and Daniel followed at a slower pace.

"What's up then?" she asked, peering at him. His whole face was very square, and looked like it was made up of different rectangles and squares. His hairline, his nose, his eyes, his glasses. Everything.

"Well, it's Hogsmeade this weekend," he began, looking at her and then quickly at his feet. "I was wondering if you wanted to go? Together?"

"Oh," said Silvanna. She hadn't really been expecting this. Had they ever even spoken to one another? But she supposed she was quite a vocal person. And it then occurred to her that she didn't actually have anyone to go with. Remus would be going with the boys, and she always felt slightly outside whenever she was with Mary and Marlene. "Alright then."

His face instantly brightened. "Brilliant!" he said. He looked like he was going to hug her or something, but decided against it, and just tapped her on the shoulder a few times instead. Silvanna grinned at him before stepping into Transfiguration. One date couldn't hurt anyone, could it?