A one time thing {Severus Snape}

Chapter 30: Senga

I pass by

Don't dare to stop

When there's someone I see

There's no one here but me

I'm fooled by something

Inside my head

If I lay down now

I might seem kinda dead

Just keep on wasting time.

Where I'm headed

Lene Marlin

Senga sat straight backed against the cold stone wall; her knees drawn up to her chest.

Her face was tear-stained, her eyes closed against the dying light of the sun as it set.

She just wanted to stop feeling. She just wanted to curl up and disappear.

Why couldn't she disappear?

It wasn't as if anyone would miss her! No one would even notice. Time would keep on going; the world would keep revolving. No one would notice; she could pack and leave and no one would care.

She had been a fool if she thought coming here would make any difference. She was still invisible.

~

Neville cleaned up the last few pots that had been used for the seedlings earlier that day.

He was happy here, happier than he could ever remember being. He was able to combine his two greatest loves; Herbology and cookery.

He had carried on the habit of going each evening to the kitchens to prepare and sometimes even experiment on new recipes.

He was contemplating writing a book. Not the dry cookery and Herbology ones that seemed so prolific, but a new type of cookery book. An interactive one, exciting, one that would introduce people to the delights of cookery.

He set the last pot away as he thought about what he could call his new book.

Satisfied that everything was set for the night he called out a goodbye to where Sally was sitting in her armchair at the end of the greenhouse. She had a radio that was broadcasting "Wizard Fm". She was clucking broodingly over a Spindledunk Candel seedling that Hagrid had brought her back from his summer hiatus in Romania; he had told her that the man he'd bought it from recommended playing classical music. He could hear strains of Elgar's "Serenade for Strings in E minor". He chuckled happily as she waved goodbye to him.

He let himself out of the greenhouse, his eyes watching the sun edge towards the horizon. He made to move away when he saw his neat row of Cabbage seedlings had been not only disturbed but some uprooted. His happy mood was unsettled slightly.

"Darn cat!" He advanced, knowing that Mrs. Norris would get a darn good talking to when he saw it next. It didn't seem to matter how many times he'd complained to Filch, the older man just rolled his eyes and told him to quit complaining.

He was about to get down on his knees and start re-planting when he saw the edges of a black school robe sticking round the corner of the wall that connected his kitchen garden to the other gardens.

He stepped forward quietly and saw the black head bowed, chin buried on knees that were tightly hugged by a pair of very scrawny arms.

"Miss Malfoy?" He would recognise that build and hair anywhere.