The Immeasurable Marauder

A White Lie

The next day we had to go the entire day without news about Mary. Remus remained grey. He felt so guilty for leaving Mary even though we kept on telling him it wasn't his fault. Finally, Professor McGonagall came to tell us that she had been transferred to St Mungo's for further treatment, that she was critical but stable. All we could do was carry on and hope that she would recover.

Sirius, James and Peter seemed to be tremendously preoccupied with Remus. He was normally the most stable, level-headed of the bunch but he was taking what happened to Mary hard. Security mean while had been ramped up both at Hogsmeade and Hogwarts.

On Tuesday evening after dinner, I arrived in the classroom for our first actual dance lesson.

"Are you alright?" Severus asked me while I tried, unsuccessfully go get the giant gramophone to start playing. He tapped his wand three times and it began spinning.

"I'm alright." I replied.

"I'm sorry about your friend." He said surprisingly. Since the attack on Mary, there had been a lot of talk about Death Eaters and I heard Lily furiously reprimanding some first years who were calling Snape one. She had forgiven him for his attack on her but things between him and The Marauders were worse than ever. James hated Snape even more for firing the curse at Lily and Snape hated James even more for going to Hogsmeade with Lily.

"Thank you Severus." I said sincerely.

"Shall we?" he said extending his arm.

For our first lesson, I think we did very well. Severus and I danced a waltz first, showing the first years how to stand, and hold each other. Amos and Amelia divided the first years into pairs and they practiced under our guidance. At the end of the lesson, everyone left smiling. Even Severus looked slightly happy. We had fallen into a happy rhythm and it wasn't awkward with him any more. He was an efficient teacher, demonstrative and he explained carefully. It was so strange, the Snape I knew before, was all snarls except when he was around Lily. But now he had become more of a person. He would roll his eyes discretely when someone was particularly inept and I couldn't help giggle.

"We're going in the same direction." He said after class, "May I walk with you?"

"Sure." I said.

"Do you think..." he asked uncertainly, "Who do you think you'll go to the dance with?"

"I actually have no idea. No one has asked yet. I don't think people know I'm around."

"I find that hard to believe." He said, looking at the ground.

"What do you mean?" I needed to know whose radar I had blipped on.

"You are strikingly beautiful Yves. Any man who forgets about you is an imbecile." I stopped walking and looked at after him. Did I just get a compliment from Severus Snape?

***********

Halloween celebrations were in full swing in the Common Room after the feast when Mary returned from St Mungo's. She had lost a lot of weight and was on a continuous prescription of Calming Draughts but otherwise she seemed ok.