Knowledge is Power

Chapter 16

"Oh I want one," Kereston squealed.
"I'll pay you whatever you want. When can you make it and how long will it take?"

"Yeah me too," Millicent said.
"I'd like a wand pendant like yours. Well not like yours, I want it to suit me, but I want a wand pendant so that people don't realize it's a wand."

"Yeah me too," Kereston agreed.

Both were leaning forward eagerly in their seats, eyeing Mag's chakra wand pendant avidly. They were in their compartment on the train on the way to Hogwarts. Mag supposed she should be pleased to already have paying customers who appreciated her wand idea, but there was another wand she'd have preferred to make instead. Mag had really hoped to give Severus a wand at the beginning of term to help keep him safe, but the obsidian in the size she needed still wasn't in yet so it would have to be a Christmas gift instead. That was alright in itself. It gave her a valid excuse to give him a Christmas gift, but it didn't help her need to feel he was safer considering all the danger he was in.

Now she sat on the train headed to Hogwarts with Millicent and Kereston. As usual Nightshade was huddled in his cage on the floor at her feet, round eyes blank with clusterfobia. A sympathetic glance at her owl caused an idea to click in her mind and it was all she could do not to give a cry of excitement. It wouldn't do to alert Kereston and Millie. It was about Severus, and she didn't want to explain his situation to them.

//Nightshade, I have an idea.//

He made no response. That was expected when he was in the cage as he either ignored anything she tried to say in way of comfort or snarled very unnecessarily profane things into her mind. Mag chose to take his lack of profanity as a good or at least neutral sign, but for all she knew he could very well be tuning her out while lost to his clusterfobia. Perhaps her proposal could serve as a distraction to him. One could hope.

//I want you to help Professor Snape. I want you to tell him who you are and what you can do. You could help keep him safe by remaining with him more often and reading those minds that he feels most useful. If he were in danger you could warn him. You could even accompany him to Death Eater meetings.//

"So will you do it," Kereston asked.

"Mag," Millicent prodded, poking at Mag's shin with the toe of her pointed shoe.

"What?"

"Will you make us wand pendants," Kereston exclaimed, exasperated and beginning to frown in frustration.
"Why aren't you paying attention?"

"I was just distracted. I wanted to make Professor Snape a wand but the stones I wanted for him won't be in for at least a few months," she said, telling a partial truth.
Kereston and Millie knew she had a crush on Professor Snape. She'd been unable to keep it to herself when it had struck her in her fourth year at Hogwarts. Neither of the other two girls understood what she saw in him, or at least they pretended not to for some reason. Mag simply didn't understand how every girl couldn't see what she did in her Severus, yet Millie and Kereston professed to find him romantically unappealing.

"So are you going to make us wands," Kereston pressed.
"Sure, yes," Mag said.
"Give me twenty galleons each."

"That's reasonable," Millicent said and Kereston nodded.

"I've even got it right here," the little blonde said, reaching into her purse.

"I'll go and get the stones set this weekend and have them to you both probably by next weekend," Mag said as Millicent also dug out her money.
Mag would have to owl her parents a description of the stones she wanted from her stash and have them sent by post. As Kereston and Millie both wanted pendants, the pieces she'd need would be easily light enough for Nightshade to carry wrapped in a parchment. She knew he'd not want to do it because he hated doing the work intended for, as he called them, tard baby owls. Still in this case it couldn't be helped. She didn't trust her stones and secret info to the Hogwarts post. She'd just have to find something with which to bribe Nightshade.

Not until they were at the feast did Mag address Nightshade again on the matter of her idea concerning his helping Severus.
//Nightshade? Do you remember what I tried to talk to you about on the train,// she pressed as gently as possible while offering him a large piece of roasted chicken.

//Oh that,// he said, beak tearing fiercely into the chicken in a way that made her glad she knew he'd not accidentally bite her.
//I'll do it sure. He's cool and I always thought it'd be cool to talk to him. He's shitty like me so it'll be fun.//

Mag gave a sigh of relief.
//Thank you!//

//Yeah, it's cool.//

After the feast was over and Mag had done her Prefect duties by helping all the first years settle into the Slytherin dorms properly, she went to professor Snape's office and knocked. It took some time for him to open the door and when he did, his face wore an annoyed frown. When he saw it was her, the frown almost vanished as his dark brows raised.

"Yes, Miss WestCraven? What is it?"

"I...I have someone for you to meet."
She thought it would be easier to explain herself, but suddenly explaining that she wanted to help protect him seemed more difficult than she'd expected. What if he didn't like that and...
//Oh for fuck's sake,// Nightshade grumped and flew off Mag's shoulder, past Snape and into the office.

"Curses! Control that bird. If he deposits droppings on any of my things, there will be problems."

Severus opened his door wider, gesturing Mag inside.
"Well go get him!"

"No. I'm leaving him here for now," she said.
She turned and fled. She knew Nightshade could take it from there...or at least hoped he could.

//Not into pets, are you, Prof,// Nightshade commented casually as he went to land on the back of Severus's chair.
//I'm not either. They're all stupid Dumb food most of them. Frogs taste yummy and so do rats. I bet I could eat a cat too though I've never tried,// he shared conversationally.

Severus stood in the doorway of his office, blinking in shock at the bird. It took only a few seconds for the shock to allow reason into his thoughts, however. Had that really been Mag WestCraven or was this some set up with someone posing as her with Polly juice potion and someone else as her owl? And at that thought he slammed up mental shields around his own mind. The bird let out an indignant hoot and flew across the room toward him. He reached for his wand, but rather than going for his face as Severus had feared, the thing only sat carefully on his shoulder with claws open so that they only pricked his skin through the robe a little.

Stepping fully inside the room at last, Severus closed the door and stunned the bird before wrapping it in a binding charm and hanging it in mid air where he would remain safe from its claws if it took it into its mind to use them. He then walked to his desk and took a seat behind it while waiting for the owl to come around. By the time it did, he'd adjusted his mental shields so that they had select filters that allowed him to hear and receive directed thoughts without having other deeper levels of his mind invaded. The owl had communicated in thought, after all. Just in case it could talk, though, Severus tried addressing it aloud.

"What do you want?"

The owl hissed at him nearly like a cat and he could swear its glittering round eyes held an indignant glare.

"So you are unable to speak aloud," he observed.

//He's a smart one,// the owl threw into his mind, then looked mildly startled that its attempt had worked.
//I couldn't talk to you after you stupidly put those shields up. Not cool. How are we supposed to communicate when you kick me out of your head," it demanded.

"Where is Magritte WestCraven," Severus demanded in turn, ignoring Nightshade's own questions.

//I don't know! You saw her run out just like I did. She didn't tell me she was going to do that or where she planned to go. Her dorm room probably, I'm guessing.//

Realizing that if anyone happened to come along and eavesdrop, it would appear that he was carrying on a very strange conversation with himself, Severus decided to attempt thinking to the owl rather than to continue speaking aloud.
//If that is not the real Miss WestCraven, I will discover as much very shortly, and you will both be in for something very unpleasant.//

//It's her,// the owl returned peevishly.
//Look. I get that you've never seen anything like me before. Fuck I haven't either. I was born this way, surrounded by tard baby owls. Do you think that shit was a fuckin' party, because believe me it was not.//