Restricted

Chapter 33. Perception

As Ms Sabine Whitby called him over, waving wildly at him, Severus restrained himself from clenching down on his jaw and gritting his teeth in a snarl.

He had told Sabine what had felt like dozens of times explicitly not to make the trip to Hogwarts.

Yet, every single one of his warnings had been returned with her usual candid and dreadfully optimistic letters.

"You won't even know that I'm there!"

"I'll only pop in to say a brief hello to Madeline, I won't cause too much of a fuss."

"The last thing I would do is make a spectacle of myself, Severus."

The loud yellow and feather tipped item she now wore as a hat begged to differ.

The self-satisfied grin across her face also aided in proving her prior sentiments utterly false.

He found it difficult to look away from his neighbour as she continued to smile proudly on his daughter's arm.

At one point, he might have called Sabine of his oldest friends. Now, she would be lucky to receive a Christmas card through her letterbox even on the off chance he felt inclined towards generosity.

Jolie Carrow, though, his chosen prefect and closest friend of Madeline's, cleared her throat loudly as her hand outstretched towards the Weasley boy.

"Well, as fun as this has been," she said politely, "we should probably head back to—"

But, before she could finish, a new voice cut her off. The voice itself, Severus had never expected to hear again.

"Head back?" the voice echoed. "But you have not yet told us hello."

Confirming his inward fear and horror, he tore his attention to the figures lurking just behind his student.

Amycus and Alecto Carrow stood, their horrendous matching grins angled towards the five of them.

It had been years since Severus had last seen them. It had been at their trial, long since he had spoken or heard from either of them.

He had hoped, then, that it would be the last time.

Amycus sent him a cold and scornful stare, an unspoken implication of warning.

The last he'd seen those dark and sinister eyes so closely, it had been the night that his world had flipped on its edge, changing for both the better and the worst.

The night that Alecto and Amycus had accompanied himself and Yaxley to eliminate and cleanse that fateful street in Rothbury.

Back then, as a measure of his allegiance at only the age of seventeen, Severus had stepped into the flat of an unsuspecting Muggle. At the time, he had kept to himself how grateful he was that the owner had not been home.

Newly graduated, a young and naive Severus Snape had combed through the flat, only succeeding in finding evidence that the owner must live alone, no sign of family or significant other. And, according to the decorations of plaques adorning the walls, this flat's owner was a young and accomplished woman. Framed degrees from Oxford hung on the wall, bookshelves upon bookshelves filled with texts on chemistry, alchemy, and surprisingly, arithmancy.

And in his search that horrible night, he'd found photos of the owner, and found that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen—Muggle or not.

Yaxley and the Carrow twins had been livid she was not in at such a late hour in the night, though, as Severus had discovered in the weekly calendar splayed on her desk, she'd been out that evening with friends, the day's date circled and illustrated with red hearts as it had apparently been her birthday.