The Grants Artefacts

09 the Terror in the Night

The terror in the night.

Arundel's sofa was not a comfortable bed for one person, but with two it was impossible. Severus was sleeping, his chest rose and fell in a satisfying rhythm but she lay with her head on his shoulder thinking about the lessons, the artefacts and the fact that her arm was numb. She pushed herself up, Snape didn't wake, she'd always found it remarkable that he slept so soundly when they had sex and so poorly the rest of the time, Petite Mort was more the word to describe his sleeping pattern than the way the French used it. The fact that this still held true, years after she had last seen him, was strangely comforting.

She pulled tobacco out from a draw and rolled herself a cigarette, poured a glass of water and sat watching the back of the sofa. She was not too sure what she was doing. She'd spent years silently cursing him, feeling like he had used her to pass time because he couldn't get the woman he really wanted. Had that changed? She wasn't so sure, and yet she had been the one making excuses for herself and pining after him like a lost puppy, so eager to have him back. Did that make her selfish? She lit her cigarette, forced herself to think about the reason she was here. Clearly, the hauntings were getting worse, and her sword was in Gringotts, so if one Grants Artefact was here already, another was added to it this year, meaning a teacher or a student brought it with them, or Dumbledore brought one into the school not knowing another was already here. The third explanation, which was less pleasurable to consider, was that the american society had come to England with the other four and were close by, but this seemed less likely as nobody was dead or panicking yet.

Snapes hand ran across the top of the sofa cushions and he sat up bleary eyed. He studied her for a moment with heavy lidded eyes and then he lay back down again. She heard him turn sideways, "Come back to bed," he commanded. "You need to teach today."

Arundel took another puff on her cigarette then she stubbed it out, downed the water and came back to him. Now he'd moved it was more comfortable, and he ran his hand across her to hold her close to him and pulled blankets tight to keep them warm. In no time she fell into a deep and comfortable sleep.

From seven thirty the next morning to seven thirty in the evening Arundel didn't stop. By the end of it she was sick, shaken and fueled by adrenaline alone. If Snape hadn't made her food she would not have eaten again. She didn't understand why anybody would want to teach, the children acted like they had a mental illness for the sheer delight of seeing their friends disgusted. They were so dimwitted, so slow to understand that it was painful to watch them. She could't ever remember a time when she was so uninterested in the world. Her effort far outweighed their gains, which felt like pointless expenditure. And yet if she didn't spent the time planning, and preparing and setting up and packing away, resourcing, speaking to other teachers and calling in as many favours as she could, they would be left with nothing to do, and that was a far far worse prospect. The one break she did hope to take had been taken up with the 'keen' ones who wanted jobs like magizoology (where there were five jobs going every year, if you were lucky) who quizzed her and wanted to play with the flesh eating slugs. There were also a cohort of seventh year potions students hoping for some kind of extra credit, or just some advice on how to make Snape think more of them.

At seven thirty she had missed dinner in the Great Hall and she sank into one of the chairs on the teacher table and put her head into her hands. A smattering of students sat in the hall on the empty long tables reading and playing games. There was a pop and a plate of sandwiches appeared by her arm, "Thanks," she muttered to nobody and took one.

"I hear you are a great success, Miss Granville." McGonagall's voice made Arundel wince. "I trust you are finding it as easy as you thought you would?"