Determination

LIV: Rising Action

December 1980

Severus carefully pulled his sleeves down over his arms, making sure they were sufficiently covered. The snow crunched under his boots as the winter chill blew onto the back of his neck, causing goosebumps to rise over his flesh. He tried to suppress the shiver that threatened to overtake him as the winter breeze began to pick up. He looked around himself at the small town he'd trudged into, taking in all the floating decorations and prettily strewn lights hanging from the rooftops of shops and houses. The corners of his mouth ticked up a bit as he thought of the girl he was heading to visit. 

Severus huffed, amused to himself as he thought of her. 

Meae loves this shit. 

The glittering lights, the white dusting of snow on every surface in sight. Salazar, that mad woman would even be excited about the frigid temperature here. There was something very wrong with someone who found such joy in everything around them. Severus remembers back to a time in school when Meae had convinced him to venture outside in the rain with her. The weather had been horrendous. It was the first true rainfall of the season, and a storm had been brewing, foreboding a torrential downpour.  Still,. He remembers walking behind her, grumpily holding the umbrella. At the same time, Meae ran slightly ahead, laughing and telling him some long-winded, rambling explanation of the chemical reaction of rain hitting the ground. 

"SEVERUS!" 

He was pulled from his thoughts by the yelling of his name from up ahead. A barely there smile graced his lips as he was faced with the overexuberant joy of his longest and only true friend. Meae was smiling and waving madly as she rushed towards him. It'd been months since he'd seen the girl last; being on different sides of the same war did that to people. But he had Dumbledore to thank for these moments of peace, which were allowed in the midst of all this chaos. The Death Eaters needed a spy on the inside of Hogwarts, and Dumbledore needed a Death Eater turned spy to feed him information as well. It was a risky game they were playing, but as he looked ahead to the girl already running her mouth miles a minute, trying to catch him up on everything he had missed in her life recently. 

He knew he would do this a hundred times over to keep someone like her in his life. 

He sighed as he smiled, shaking his head in exasperation. 

"Meae, earthly beings can't understand you when you talk this fast."

The girl in front of him quickly closed her mouth as a small blush graced her cheeks, a darker pink than the frosty wind had bitten them. 

"Sorry," she said shyly, "I just missed you. And so much has happened! Harry is growing so quickly, and honestly, if I could, I'd just be around him all the time. He's such a cute baby, Severus, you'd love him." She gushed. 

Severus just rolled his eyes at the overexcited girl he called his friend. "The prodigy of James Potter? I doubt it." 

She hit him lightly on the arm and laughed, "Oh shut up," she said. 

Severus led his friend into the Three Broomsticks and led her to a table in the far corner before going to order them two butterbeers. This sort of routine they'd created for their little meetings has been nice. Just two friends catching up over a warm drink; it almost felt normal. Like this is what they'd be doing with their lives even without a war brewing on the horizon. He knew these small bouts of normalcy couldn't last forever; eventually, they'd both be so entrenched in the war they wouldn't be able to do this anymore. He carefully brought the two drinks back over to their table and set one in front of his friend, and gently took in her appearance for the first time that day. 

She looked haggard. There were dark circles under her eyes like she hadn't slept well in some time. What he could see of her hands was covered in new burns and scars, and scrapes from all the fighting she'd been doing for the order recently. The blue in her hair had lost its usual shine, telling him she hadn't the time or energy to redo it sometime. She still smiled at him gently, like he was worth putting forth the energy even when she didn't really have it. This war had put more on her shoulders than he would like; Dumbledore and the Order had been putting a lot on her. He knows she'd been sent mostly to the front lines with the Prewett brothers as of late. He wonders how that's been going for her, seeing Gideon all the time again; she hadn't really mentioned him much, so he assumes it hasn't been too awkward for the two. 

Severus broke the calm silence first. "You didn't ask me here to catch up, Meae, so what is it?"

Meae sighed as she set her mug down, the smile dropping from her face. "He's been trying to capture me lately," she started. "I've noticed the attention shift in each encounter. More focus has been put on overwhelming me and getting me separate from the others." 

Severus sighed as he too set down his mug on the table. "Meae, you know I can't-"

"I know you can't tell me," she interrupted. "That's not what I'm asking you to do, I'm telling you what I know." 

She sighed again. "If he captures me, Severus, everything is for naught. He'll know everything. I haven't been successful in all our attempts at Occlumacy, and I can't risk him being able to navigate my mind. I have to protect everyone, Severus. You, Harry, James, Lily, Sirius, Remus... everyone."

Severus narrowed his eyes at the girl he'd known his whole life in suspicion. "What are you asking me, Meae?" 

She blew all the air from her lungs out before looking back up at him in that stony-faced determination that was so ingrained in her very being. 

"I need to ask you a favor." 

If only he knew in the months to come, this one request would change the course of everything he held dear.  

He might never have done it.