illicit affairs || lemongrab x small saverus

Chapter Fourteen - Smoke Signals

I buried a hatchet, it's comin' up lavender
The future's unwritten, the past is a corridor

"How have you been?" Lemongrab started. She wanted to make conversation, but she was hesitant. They hadn't spoken in a while, and their last discussion had set off a domino effect of chaos in Lemongrab's life.

"Fine." Saverus responded. Lemongrab could tell that this statement was just the tip of a very deep iceberg, but they didn't push it.

"Yeah, me too."

Silence.

A bird landed at the edge of the lake infront of them. Lemongrab watched as it dipped its beak into the water and bobbed its head up and down.

"Any particular reason for coming down here?" Lemongrab asked, still trying to diffuse the tension with a gentle line of questioning.

"None of your business." Small Saverus responded, curtly. Damn, maybe the line of questioning hadn't been gentle enough. He was a lot more closed off than Lemongrab had remembered.

The bird began to step into the water, its spindly little legs carrying it forward into the deep, cold blue. It ruffled its feathers to clean itself, wading further in and submerging its body as much as it could.

Small Saverus turned away. "Sorry." He said quietly, almost a whisper.

"It's okay."

"I don't know if you remember-" Small Saverus started.

"Piccolo?" Lemongrab smiled, turning to look at him.

Saverus nodded in reply, amusement in his eyes.

***

Piccolo was a small bird that Saverus had been gifted by his father back in his second year. Over the Christmas holidays, Sav's father was trying to make amends for his bad behavior (this positive kick didn't last of course, when Sav arrived home the next Christmas his father had left). Small Saverus's father was a muggle, and he knew at Hogwarts you were allowed to bring an owl with you as a companion (and to deliver mail), but he hadn't quite grasped that it had to be an owl; he had really just assumed it could be any bird.

So come Christmas day he shows up with a small, black bird in his hands telling Sav he could take it to school and Merry Christmas and so on. Neither of them knew what breed the bird was, but Sav didn't have the heart to tell his father that as long as it wasn't an owl... he probably couldn't bring it. As his father told him the bird's name, he internalised his hatred and said thanks.

On the train, Lemongrab had pat Piccolo, kissed his tiny beak, and whispered sweet words to him the way one does to a puppy. No matter how fed up Sav was with a situation, Lemongrab always found a way to make it seem brighter. However, when they arrived at school, Sav was swiftly ridiculed for the bird.

"You're fucking kidding me." Sirius Black had laughed, pointing at the bird from across the Owlery. "Who brought a fucking crow-" he could barely get the words out. James Potter had begun laughing too.

"There's no way. There's actually no way." Potter had said between laughs.

Lemongrab - trying his best to be helpful but only making things worse - had said "Hey! Knock it off. It was a Christmas present, Saverus's dad didn't realise it had to be an owl!"

"Saverus?? This is Snivellous's bird?!" Potter had practically cackled at the realisation. Saverus quietly sulked in the corner, willing himself to morph into the wallpaper.

The next day, Saverus had walked down to the Owlery to send his mother a letter confirming his safe arrival, and the bird was gone. Lemongrab helped him look, and they had found The Marauders down by the Black Lake... hexing poor Piccolo.