Sophia glared at the Head Boy, “you could have tried a bit harder to stop me.”
“But there would’ve been no fun in that for me, and I’m sure the triplets enjoyed the temporary reprieve.”
Sophia glared in response to his flippant grin. She still didn’t like submitting to male authority. Especially when the authority in question was the Head Boy.
“You’re going to be late.”
Sophia grabbed her lines and flounced out of the room, but not before shooting Mark one final look of loathing just for good measure.
“Want to go snog for a bit?” Mark turned to Kay.
“Your room?”
“Sure. Sophia should keep Snape plenty occupied tonight, but you’re worth getting caught for.”
Kay snorted, “speak for yourself. I’m not sure if I like you enough to risk getting caught by Snape. By Filch maybe, but definitely not by Snape.”
Sophia knocked confidently on Professor Snape’s door and swept in with head held high when bidden to enter.
“Tell me, Miss Lupin, what have you learned?”
Sophia set the papers filled with her assigned lines on the corner of her Housemaster’s desk, “they’re not like us, and they don’t understand this, and they never will.”
Snape felt his eyebrows rise in spite of his best efforts to refrain from any and all emotional outbursts, “explain.”
Sophia sighed in frustration as she looked for the right words, “the other Houses… they get mad at each other when they lose points. They fight with their own Housemates. It doesn’t seem right. You don’t take points from us… often,” she frowned, “and so we have little reason to fight among ourselves.”
“And how does that affect the relations between the Houses?”
Sophia chewed her lip uncertainly, “they complain because you never take points from us… at least in front of them.”
“And why does that upset them?” Severus prodded, waiting for Sophia to put it together.
Sophia looked down at the floor and then at the edge of the desk in front of her and then back up at her Head of House, “we’re in competition against each other.” Her face clouded over, “that’s not fair!”
Snape nodded, encouraging her to continue while ignoring her outburst.
“How dare the professors demand that we work together when they pit us against each other by taking points?!” She stomped her foot indignantly, “that makes no sense! What kind of institution is this?” Her eyes widened slightly as she realized who she had just said that to, “uhhh… sorry sir…”
“Now do you understand why I use methods other than point taking?”
“No… sir.”
“I suggest you think harder.”
Sophia worried her lower lip a bit more, “is it because… because you don’t want us fighting each other, you want us working together? But… if its that, the other houses hate us because you don’t take points from us… we’re still not unified, we’re still apart from them.”
“I shall leave the mending of fences between the Houses to you and your classmates, I personally have no desire to get involved in that.”
Sophia hesitated, she had heard stories from her Housemates about the animosity that had existed between Snape and a certain pack of Gryffindors, which included the man who was her father and the man that wanted to be her father. She wondered if any of Snape’s feelings of ill-will would carry over to her.
“Don’t be ridiculous Miss Lupin, you are a Slytherin and therefore in my good graces, unless you do something to remove yourself from them.”
Sophia snapped her mouth shut. She didn’t think she’d said that out loud. Then she realized she hadn’t. “Can you really read minds sir?”
The corner of Snape’s mouth twitched, “I don’t have to when your face is so easy to read. Do you think you understand now?”
“Not completely, but I think I’m starting to. I still think the animosity between the Houses is ridiculous.”
“If you ever figure out why it really exists,” Severus said in a low tone, “please tell me, I would sincerely like to know.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“And this is my secret fort, except it’s not really a fort, but I still like it,” Olivia led Draco into an unused classroom. A few dusty desks were pushed against the back wall, and on the right were several deep window sills where she had placed several blankets and pillows the House Elves had procured for her.
“It’s lovely, I’m sure,” Draco said distractedly. He had gone from fugitive to babysitter and still wasn’t quite sure how that had happened. It was rather unnerving, especially as he had no choice in the matter.
“I even have a secret hiding place, but I can’t show you where it is because then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore.” Olivia continued to chatter up at him, “will you be my friend?”
“Hmmm?”
“Will you be my friend?”
“I don’t suppose I really have much choice.”
“Of course you have a choice. But I want you to be my friend.”
“You wouldn’t if you really knew me,” Draco’s voice was filled with self-loathing.
“I think I would,” Olivia leaned against Draco’s arm and gazed up at him confidently. There was something about him that comforted her, she trusted him completely.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I like Claudia.”
Meg wrinkled her nose in response.
“What is wrong with Claudia?” Charlie demanded.
“I don’t know… it’s just… not what I was looking for.”
Charlie rolled his eyes, but refrained from commenting further, “fine, then what about… Lydia?”
“No.”
Charlie sighed, “you are being impossible.”
“You can’t think of any good names,” Meg shot back as she placed a protective hand over her stomach, “I like Emily.”
“I like that you didn’t ask my opinion, just told me what you liked.”
Meg smiled sweetly, “if it’s a girl her name will be Emily.” Although her tone was pleasant her eyes said that there would be no arguing with her. Her mind was made up.
“Fine then, you picked the name if it’s a girl, which means I get to pick the name if it’s a boy,” Charlie said decisively.
Meg snorted as she fluffed the pillow behind her back and smoothed the blanket over her legs, “do you forget which one of us is carrying the child in question?”
“I believe I contributed something in the conception phase…”
“Because that takes a lot of effort…” she rolled her eyes.
“And here I thought you rather enjoyed it…”
“Edward.”
“Darius.”
“No. Edward.”
Charlie sighed, “do I have any chance of winning this?”
“None whatsoever.”
“So… Emily for a girl and Edward for a boy, have you developed a passion for the letter E?”
“No, it’s just that we have Alan, Bran and Branwen, Cassandra, Diana… are you picking up on the trend yet?”
“That’s adorable, I suppose the one after this will have to have a name that starts with F,” Charlie rolled his eyes.
“I thought it would be cute.” Meg leaned over for a kiss, “the children are all asleep…”
“It’s a miracle. Do you think they’ll stay that way the whole night?”
“I think it looks promising Mr. Weasley.”
“Madame, you are the embodiment of perfection, even when you are being demanding,” he leaned against the headboard and encircled his wife in his arms as she leaned against his chest.
“I love you Charlie. Have I told you that lately? Or have I been horribly hormonal and forgotten?”
“Well… you have been horribly hormonal… but you haven’t forgotten.”
“Hmpf… I’ll show you hormonal…”
“Meg, you are the love of my life, hormones I can forgive. Especially when you look as beautiful as you do tonight.”
Meg snorted, “in this old nightgown? And I didn’t even get to shower today, because I was busy chasing the children, and I think my ankles are swollen, and I…”
“Like I said, beautiful.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
