Soul of Ice

4. Trust

Abbie dutifully remained in the hospital wing as ordered by Madam Pomfrey, being allowed to leave only for her classes and, after she begged and Flitwick backed her up, choir rehearsals. She ignored the homework piling up beside her; instead, she would spend hours with her head buried in her notebook, writing and rewriting, channelling all the emotions running through her head into music. Being stuck in the hospital wing, she had only her imagination and the tapping of her fingers on the bedside table as accompaniment, but she did her best with what she had.

McGonagall had spoken to Hermione, who naturally was curious, and smart enough to figure out what had happened; the events of that day were a secret Hermione had sworn to keep. It was hard to ignore Abbie's absence outside of classes, however, and although the why of it was not known, the whole school quickly knew that Abbie Payne was being kept in the hospital wing for medical reasons.

The faculty knew what had happened, of course; despite Snape's protestations, McGonagall had insisted they know, so as to facilitate keeping gossip among the students at a minimum. Why Abbie had done what she'd done, however, was known only to Snape. McGonagall had asked, but respected Snape's insistence that it was not for her to know. Abbie was right in suspecting that McGonagall knew Snape was her father; he'd divulged the information to her and Dumbledore shortly after finding out himself, if only to tell them to keep it to themselves.

Snape, meanwhile, visited Abbie in the hospital wing often, sometimes bringing her food from the great hall - always with the curtains drawn so as to not draw any attention from other students temporarily present. It was just before he was about to go and see her, a little over a week after she'd been admitted, that he heard a familiar double knock on his office door as he put away the essays he'd been grading.

"Yes?" he said curtly in response, hoping it was simply another student.

The door opened and in the doorway, much to Severus' surprise, was Persephone.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, standing up.

"Hello to you too, Severus," she replied, shutting the door behind her.

They looked at each other for a long moment. She looked tired, he noticed. One thing he remembered so vividly about her was the way her blue eyes shone so brightly, so opposite to his own; not with the kindness of Lily's eyes, perhaps, but with a vivacity completely unique to her. Now, however, they were dull, drained, like she'd seen more than she ever cared to.

Persephone had never seen Severus look at her the way he was now. In the beginning, perhaps with a passive uncaring, but as they'd grown closer he'd always been glad, even reluctantly, to see her. Now she saw a terrifying anger in his eyes.

Silently, she withdrew a parchment from her pocket and handed it to him. Severus recognised the Hogwarts seal, now broken, and Minerva's handwriting on the front. He didn't have to look at the letter to know what it said.

"So this is what it took for you to appear," Severus sneered. "I'm sure if she'd known, she'd have tried to kill herself earlier."

Persephone's jaw clenched at his words.

"And what have you been doing all this time?" she replied. "She's been spiralling right under your nose, while you were... what? Making the potion for her?"

Severus clenched his fist, screwing up the parchment in his hand.

"I've been here ," he replied through gritted teeth. "Keeping my distance as we agreed . ...Do you truly believe you can accuse me of neglect? Why do you imagine she did it, Persephone? How do you imagine a 13-year-old feels when her mother disappears with barely a letter a year?"