Silvanna Snape {Marauders}

Chapter Eighty-Six

Hello :)

"Right, I need help," said Silvanna later that week, as the fifth years gathered around the fireplace in the common room. They were supposed to be studying for a Transfiguration test on the last week, but it wasn't going well, and they'd resorted to their traditional game of catching fudge flies in their mouths.

"The Oracle needs help?" said Remus, not looking up. "Things must be getting desperate." Silvanna threw a scrap of paper at him.

"I mean it," she said. "I need to find a date for Slughorn's Christmas party."

"Sounds cheery," muttered Remus. "Who are you taking, Lily?"

"Sev and I thought we might as well go together," she said quietly. Nobody really said anything, but Silvanna was trying hard not to let a smile form on her face as she stared into her lap, and there was a definite snort or snigger from Louisa and Marlene's corner. "You know, because we're friends."

"So take a friend," said Remus to Silvanna, quickly and tactfully changing the subject.

"Oh, ooh," said Peter. "Take Sirius! Oh, that'd really piss off the Slytherins."

"As much as I love you, Anna, no way am I going to that," said Sirius, crossing his arms. "I'm not going to anymore stuffy functions that I can help."

"Dodged a bullet there then," said Silvanna. In all honesty though, she was a bit annoyed. Sirius would've been the perfect candidate, so she didn't mess up her 'social etiquette'.

"Silvanna?" asked James, and she looked up to see him pouting. "Pretty please will you take me?"

Silvanna raised her eyebrows. James probably wanted to go for a multitude of reasons, none of them actually involving her. One, he could ruin Severus's evening. Two, he could attempt, again, to impress Lily. Three, he could cause some havoc. Sounded perfect to her. "If you must," she said.

*****

The last week of term was eventful, to say the least. On Monday, Silvanna's dress robes order came, a lovely deep wine colour with a velvet bodice and pleated below the waist. The girls - mainly Louisa - cooed all breakfast about how great they were going to look before Silvanna escaped in first period Potions. That was it for Monday.

Tuesday was pretty tame. Well, tame considering. The tutoring with Peter had been going well, and allowed Silvanna plenty of time to revise Potions. This week's potion hadn't quite gone to plan though, and so their revision session had ended abruptly when Peter exploded his mixture midway through, coating both themselves and the entire classroom in dust the colour of cobalt blue. They laughed about it the whole way through though, and he wasn't about to do it again, so it hadn't been a complete waste. But once they reached the common room...

"What the fuck have you two been doing?" exclaimed Sirius, gaping at them covered in blue while a nearby group began to giggle. In fairness, it was quite funny.

"Oh," said Peter, clearly panicking. Silvanna crossed her arms. She wasn't helping him out with this one; she's been warning him for weeks that the boys would find out eventually. "Silvanna was just helping me with Potions." He waited for their response.

"That's good of you," said Remus eventually, completely unfazed by the news. As Silvanna knew he would be.

"I'm not so sure," said James, looking entertained. "She can't be that good if you come back looking like this." This caused the group to laugh, and that was that. In fact, disaster didn't strike until Wednesday, when Remus and Lily came back from their prefect patrols.

He sat down next to Silvanna, while Lily stalked off upstairs, clearly disgruntled by something. And Remus was reading the Prophet - which he'd already been through that morning - upside down. "You alright?" she asked him, folding her Charms notes away.

"No," he said quietly, checking for eavesdroppers. It was quite late though, and most had gone up to their dorms. "Lily knows." Now that Silvanna looked closer, she could see he looked quite sick. Could that just be the moon? It was the full one tomorrow...

"Yeah, I know," she said quietly. "Did she ask you about it?"

Remus nodded. "How did you know that?" he asked panicking. "Did you tell her?"

"Course not," she said. "But she's been poking around and dropping hints for years. She's as bad as my brother."

"She's not," he scoffed. "I caught him following me to the Hospital Wing once."

"Git," Silvanna said.

"Agreed," said Remus. "She seemed really off about it though. And she asked me all these questions about the transformation-"

"She just doesn't understand, that's all," said Silvanna gently.

"Well I'm sick of people not understanding," he snapped, and Silvanna saw his eyes were shining in the dying firelight. A group of third year girls nearby stopped and stared at the pair of them, so Silvanna flipped them off, and they went upstairs, leaving the pair completely alone. She leaned into his side and rested her head on his shoulder.

Remus seemed surprised at this, and hesitated before he put an arm around her shoulder. "I know it sucks," she said. "Really, really sucks. Shall we do something fun?"

"Like what?" asked a very grumpy Remus.

Silvanna climbed and got to her feet, offering her hand to help him up too before heading over to the window. "You can't tell anyone," she said. "Dumbledore's orders."

"What are you on about?" he asked with a frown.

"Trust me, OK?" she said, in latching the window and swinging it open. She stood on the sill, and lowered herself out.

"Silvanna, what the fuck?" exclaimed Remus, grabbing her arm.

She laughed, sliding herself out and beginning to fly so she hovered out the window. "I told you to trust me," she said gently, as he gasped at her in complete astonishment. "Come on, hold my hands."

"You mean - I can do it too?"

"Not really," she said, "But I can make you fly if you hold my hands."

"Fuck - fuck, OK," said Remus, lowering himself out the window. He gripped her hands so tightly she thought they might break, as they floated away from the open window, but he seemed to relax a little after a few minutes. "Have you always been able to do this?"

"Yeah," said Silvanna. "Mastered it over the summer. That's why I was at the Princes. But you cannot tell anyone. Not even my brother knows."

"Can he do it too?" he asked, looking back at the castle below them.

"Dunno," said Silvanna. She let go of one of his hands, holding firmly into the other. "You ready?"

"Ready for what-?" Remus began. But before he could finish his sentence, Silvanna took them into a steep dive, and Remus cried out, first in terror, then in exhilaration.

They spent the next half an hour looping and diving, as the freezing winter air beat them raw, and they laughed and played like kids. When they got back to the common room, Remus had cheered up significantly, despite Lily Evan's attitude, and they chatted for a while by the fire before heading to bed.