The Stars on the Staircase

Forever Alone With Our Secrets

The enchanted alcove in my office was extremely nicely spelled, although I may be biased to think so. It was an admirable job Filius and I had done in making a secret room inside this very small room. I know for a fact there are four girls making a healing salve in the corner of this room, being instructed with care by Letisha. I can't hear them, can't even see their shadows from the sunlight. It is a masterpiece of charmed space disappearing inside of real space.

The girls start to cross the threshold of the spell, their chatter leaks abruptly into my office. Letisha pokes her head out of the illusioned wall and asks for more dried whitecaps. I get up and rummage in the chest behind my desk for the ingredient she needs. In the process of getting it, I knocked over a bag of enchanted marbles I had confiscated. I swear, hand the ingredients over to Letisha, and begin the labour of picking them up. They were spelled not to come for magic, a purposeful hazzard that had been intended for the Carrows. I had stopped the student in their planned prank, as I knew how badly the last prank of this nature had turned out. An entire class of twelve year olds had ended up with burns as Alecto lost her temper and exploded while trying to find the culprit.

While I kneeled on my office floor trying to locate the glass balls I heard the girls saying their goodbyes just as my office door opened and Professor McGonagall came in. I heard her greet the girls as they left just before I popped my head up from under my desk. "Minerva?" I ask as I lift myself off the floor.

"Snape is out of his ivory tower at a very inconvenient moment. Can you please go and retrieve him? I need him out of the way." She is clipped and urgent.

I don't ask what she needs to do, it almost certainly has to do with the student rebellion and all the teachers have agreed that the less we know about the rebellion and who is involved, the better. "I can try."

"Don't try. Succeed. Open your blouse in the middle of the Great Hall if you must but get him back upstairs. Now."

"Where did you last see him? I will go find him and try... something..." I mutter, I can't help but be annoyed that she is asking too much. In reality I can just explain to Severus to get out of the way for Minerva's operation but if I were truly being asked to seduce a dark wizard back into his office I am not sure I could do so. Not swiftly. Not on command. Severus is not some empty headed dolt that can be manipulated by the easy promise of sex.

"Grab him between the legs, start a fight, anything you like but please, promptly. Ideally within a half an hour."

"Oh you're a double agent! It all makes so much sense now!" Letisha exclaims as she emerges from the enchanted alcove in the corner. I reel at seeing her, Minerva glares at me.

"I thought you left." I croak, she obviously hadn't. I was under my desk picking up marbles when the others left, I had assumed it was all four rather than checking. Minerva had started right in on her demands before I could check we were secure. While the alcove in the corner is invisible and soundproof from the outside, it acted like a two way mirror, and from inside the alcove you could hear and see all, so you would know if it was clear to leave.

"That night he came to your room. I was so confused! I always wondered why you were constantly in his office and stuff. He is always summoning you! I was worried you're a traitor but you're a double agent!" Letisha is beaming with impressed energy and I am wilting under it.

"Why does a student know about this? We should have sworn her in to the secret keeping as soon as she found out!" Minerva scolds me. Minerva holds the secrets for all the teachers. None of us can speak to anyone about the goings on in the staff room, anyone's role in the rebellion, nothing. None of us would be able to say a word about the staff's involvement, even if we were tortured into madness. Minerva is our secret keeper and we all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would go to her death without speaking a word, even under the most intense torture.