Within the Wings of a Storm

Taken by the Wind

Slow burn Severus. And I really, really hate saying goodbye to Sirius. 😭 But he'll be back.

Chapter title back to "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac. Hey, it's her name. :)

Song video added— "Cajun Song" by the Gin Blossoms. Sirius saying goodbye to his New Orleans girl...music's crazy sometimes how it just fits. 🎶
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Severus was to be at Grimmauld Place at precisely 4:00 o'clock that afternoon. It was a few hours prior to that, and the Hogwarts elves had just received a delivery of Miss Aspenfell's belongings. Minerva McGonagall was supervising the moving of the items into the the young witch's new dungeon quarters while Severus sipped his morning tea and took a late breakfast in his sitting room. He had slept much later than usual that morning, since he had spent the better part of the night before at Malfoy Manor after being summoned by the Dark Lord. All in all it was an uneventful summons, the latter simply taking the time to outline his expectations for the coming school year in terms of frequency of reports, and the manner of information he would be seeking.

Most of the night was spent not in the Dark Lord's presence at all, but in Lucius's study, where Draco's father outlined the influence peddling he had been engaging in at the Ministry of Magic. Lucius was quite proud at his success in installing the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the upcoming year— a Ministry insider who would be reporting Dumbledore's activities to Minister Cornelius Fudge and squelching any attempts to rally against the Dark Lord within Hogwarts's ranks. Severus knew this would be an added wrinkle to the Order's plans to conceal Miss Aspenfell, contributing both difficulty and urgency to his task at hand. Even if the Ministry hadn't the faintest clue of her identity, her mere presence would arouse suspicion. He would have to be rigid and unyielding in his control of her, not allowing the Thunderbird woman to slip through his grasp and endanger herself or their mission.

Now that nearly two months had passed since their first meeting, Severus found himself distanced somewhat from his initial curiosity about her, and from the slight bit of thrill he got from the idea of embarking on an accelerated course of study with a promising student. Instead he found he increasingly thought of her as monumental chore he would be unable to cross off his list for some time. And any girl who would allow herself to become so besotted with Sirius Black was hardly worth his efforts.

"So the day is finally here," Minerva said excitedly, helping herself to her own cup of tea and a seat in one of Severus's leatherback armchairs.

Snape glared at her. "Rather easy for you to be excited considering this affects you in absolutely no way."

"On the contrary, Severus, it affects all of us. It's rather thrilling to be developing our own secret weapon. Plus she is such a sweet, smart, and vibrant girl. It will be nice to have her here!"

"Well since you get along so swimmingly with her, I will be sure to summon you whenever she is sobbing into her bedsheets over being torn away from Sirius Black."

He sipped the steaming Earl Grey and peered into the room being prepared for the girl's arrival. They had taken a stone-walled, wood-floored room that he had used for overflow storage for potion-making supplies, extra cauldrons and such, and transformed it into a gold and brown bedroom tinged with touches of turquoise blue. Her house was represented well with the gold Thunderbird emblem featured prominently throughout. They had covered the stone on one of the walls and replaced it with a flat wall upon which they painted a mural of a bird flying fast through the clouds, lightning bolts radiating from its wings. Her bed was a white canopy of vines, the bedding itself a gold and white brocade. Two Hogwarts elves were busy placing her newly purchased wardrobe into black walnut drawers. Just off of the room lay a small private bathroom decorated in a similar color scheme. Snape was grateful they had at least spared him the humiliation of having to share that particular space.