Accio Evans

Chapter 36: Difference

Severus Snape had been unusually withdrawn over the past week since the Charms class – not that he was ever outgoing, but more withdrawn than usual. Calix Mulciber had failed to notice any change in his associate's behaviour, Stellan Avery had noticed that Severus wasn't hovering around as much as usual, but gave it no more thought, and Piers Wilkes was too busy drowning in school work to realise anything was wrong with his fellow Slytherin. Nobody had really noticed the sudden withdrawal of Severus Snape - which was the way he liked it.

The Slytherin common room was a dark and cold place at the best of times, even in the fledging months of spring, an eerie chill hung in the air. Hauled up in an armchair in the far most nether regions of the common room was none other than Severus Snape. If anyone, not that anyone often did (the Slytherin students are not renowned for their companionship), enquired about what he was doing in a solitary arm chair in the corner, his eyes transfixed on the wall, Severus would sarcastically retort 'I am watching for evidence of the paint cracking' or some other comment which he deemed rather witty, but in reality was an obvious lie to avoid the real reason he was sulking. Severus Snape was brooding. Brooding over James Potter. It was not something which Snape would ever admit, but James potter had been on his mind all week. His charming personality, witty sense of humour, quidditch skills, he even found himself in deep thought about his smile, all to try and work out what Lily saw in him. After almost a week of minimal movement and thought so deep his brain was beginning to ache, Severus could not come up with an answer. The only thing he was certain of, was that Lily loved James and there was nothing he could do to persuade her otherwise.

The only Slytherin student who had really noticed Severus' dark mood and sudden withdrawal was Regulus Black, the pair were not close by any means but had been thrown together by Lucius Malfoy and seemed to have formed a mutual agreement that vaguely resembles friendship. The sixth year sat in another lone armchair, a few feet away from Snape and if he knew Regulus was there ignored him or did a very good job of pretending he wasn't. However Regulus could not do the same, he began pondering why Severus could have pulled himself out of normal life, but his thought train eventually arrived at the part of his life he wanted to think about least.

Regulus, with limbs that resembled spiders, was incredibly gawky and awkward. His limbs seemed too long for his rather small body; this made him inevitably clumsy; the other sixth year students could scarcely believe he actually belonged to the Black family. The Black family was renound, not just for having 'The Purest Blood' Toujours Pur and elevated status to that of almost royalty, they were also renound for their beauty. However, there was no denying Regulus was a Black. He had inherited the characteristic grey eyes, the colour of storm clouds before a rain, this distinct colour seemed to be specific to the Black family, it created an air of mystery, you never quite knew what they were thinking – their eyes gave nothing away. They created intrigue, drawing you close to stare deep into those stormy eyes, it was something that set the Black family apart, however on Regulus the grey eyes of the Black family seemed out of place, on Regulus' long face the eyes seemed to get lost in the vast space between his forehead and his nose. Instead of his eyes being the main focus of his face, it was unfortunately his rather long nose – another feature of the Black family, however without the distinct stormy irises to distract the eye, it was more a prominent feature. Regulus also had inherited the natural deepest Black locks, on Sirius Black these fell is perfect waves around his face that lay with no effort at all, on cousin Andromeda (whose hair was however chocolate brown) and on Aunt Druella these fell in huge bouncy curls that gracefully cascaded over their shoulders in a waterfall of hair, on cousin Bellatrix and his mother Walburga, their Black hair formed tight ringlets that although seemed untameable, a torrent of organised chaos, but were still beautiful to look at. Regulus had the colour down to a tee; there was no denying that, however on Regulus his hair did not fall in elegant waves, it fell flat, something that was a constant irritation and sense of disappointment to his beautiful mother. The Black family were all aristocratically beautiful, and paraded with the elegance of a swan gliding across water, none of this came naturally to Regulus, he was gawky and fell over frequently. Regulus was now approaching 17 years of age and his mother was already securing possible marriage matches for him, however Regulus wondered why anyone would want to marry him, the only thing that he had to offer was his name, and in the current world that was counting less and less as muggle born witches and wizards came through the ranks of Hogwarts and took the tops of their year.