MMLF's Challenge Responses
This was lovely. The Secret Garden has always been one of my favorite books, and I can see why Severus would relate to and take comfort in it. 💚
One minor typo:
trails of sweat run down his forehead
Hahahahaaa! Schoolboy error! Thanks for pointing that out. I have corrected it now. 😀
Yes, I absolutely love The Secret Garden!
Prompt: Challenge 44 Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall find themselves stuck in a room with a TV, VCR, and a stack of VHS tapes.
Characters/Pairings: Severus Snape, Professor McGonagall
Rating/Warnings: M
"Excellent, Minerva," said Snape, watching as the Head of Gryffindor thrust her wand fruitlessly at a rusty door lock. "I had thought that we ought to spend more time together, and by you locking us into this disused box room, my wishes have been answered."
"I was just trying-- Reverso!-- to clean this lock! Reverso!" Professor McGonagall huffed and put her hands on her hips. Her wand was emitting ruby red sparks dangerously close to the fabric of her green cloak. "Hold on while I get an owl."
"Oh believe me, I have all the time in the world. It's not as if I needed to mark papers this afternoon."
Snape turned to find he was leaning against something smooth. It was a television, placed on a rickety wooden shelf. What on earth?
"Minerva?"
The Head of Gryffindor was now yanking at a grubby window catch on the other side of the room. She muttered impatiently. Clank-clank-clank!
"There's a television."
Clank-clank-clank!
"A what?"
"It's a Muggle--" But Snape was distracted by the VCR underneath, and a tottering pile of videotapes on either side. A swarm of memories filled his mind, days at the video shop in Cokeworth, which had a box-sized television in one corner whose screen was constantly attacked by static. Henry, the shop owner, claimed it was UFO interference.
"What on earth?" Professor McGonagall strode over to the piles of videotapes. "Off the Streets. Just Turned 18! First Time In Park. Severus, do you realise what these are?"
"Ah." He had plucked one unthinkingly from the pile, and now shoved it back. Clunk! The whole pile collapsed, videos falling off the shelf and scattering on the floor. "Apologies."
"Merlin's beard, this is..." But McGonagall didn't have words for the level of obscenity now staring her in the face. "It's bad enough what they sell at the back of Flourish and Blotts--"
"They sell this at Flourish and Blotts?"
McGonagall sniffed as she gingerly picked up the tapes and replaced them. "Well, they claim it's the more literary kind. Load of rubbish if you ask me. A licence for, well, licence. Be that as it may... There. I feel as though I ought to wash my hands."
Her wand produced a jet of water that spattered onto her cloak instead. Whoosh! Splat!
"What is wrong with this wand today?"
Snape was staring at the videos again. "Who left this here?"
"No idea. But as soon as we're free of this confounded room, I'll have the lot Vanished."
"It's Muggle material."
"I'm aware of that, Severus. But you know what Muggles are like."
"It's illegal to purchase this material if you're under 18."
McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"So," Severus said slowly, turning to face her, "that only leaves one option. A member of staff left this here."
"You surely cannot be--! Severus, that is ridiculous. No member of staff purchases this-- this filth. You should be glad nobody else heard such a slanderous claim. Really! The nerve of you!"
"Then why did the door suddenly lock once we entered? Why is your wand malfunctioning? Why are you struggling to open a window?"
McGonagall opened her mouth, but said nothing. Finally, she shook her head. "Piffle. We'll be out soon."
No sooner than she finished speaking did the rusty lock turn green and start making clicking sounds.
Someone was trying to get in.
Prompt: Challenge 47 Severus Snape and Bellatrix Lestrange end up on a bad date
Characters/Pairings: Severus Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, OC
Rating/Warnings: T
Severus Snape sat in the middle of Amortentia's, Diagon Alley's premier restaurant for luckless single men. His black hair was illuminated by a chandelier hanging above him. Other diners were murmuring their nervousness or their discontent, punctuated by the steady clink-clink of glasses, knives, and forks. Snape himself was swirling a glass of Elvish wine, watching the ruby liquid form a whirlpool with every rotation. It was a quarter past nine.
Why he let Lucius Malfoy send him on a date, he had no idea. Frankly, he had no idea why he continued to entertain Lucius' schemes now that they were no longer at school together. Snape had become Hogwarts' Potion Master, Lucius, a well-heeled complainer to the Ministry, now that openly supporting Lord Voldemort had lost its prestige.
Snape gave a humorless snort at this. He too had served the Dark Lord, which was why Lucius had said with his usual force, "You need not fear combing the town for common women, Severus." Purebloods, or at least pure-minded Half-Bloods, would suffice.
"This one," Lucius had said, "is dark-haired, pale, full of zest, dedicated to our cause. A stickler!"
Clearly, this woman wasn't a stickler for showing up on time; it was now twenty-past! She was supposed to arrive at a quarter to nine. Why hadn't he just insisted on meeting at her home first? Instead, he allowed Lucius to insist that she would make the journey to Amortentia's, alone.
"She's one of those, you know, "less traditional" women," Lucius had assured him, with a chuckle.
Hardly reassuring.
Snape shifted in his chair, then glanced at the enchanted clock. Five more minutes, then he was leaving. He had papers to mark.
"I'm sorry, Madam..." he heard a waiter say, "May I ask why... Oh, you're waiting for someone?"
Snape sat up, trying to see past the waiter's crisp white robes and wizard's hat. After some more polite wrangling, the waiter stepped aside to reveal the newcomer.
Bellatrix Lestrange??
Lucius had seriously set him up with Bellatrix Lestrange?
The woman in question seemed to share his thoughts vice versa, for Snape saw Bellatrix's blood red lips turn into a sneer. Her hair resembled a bramble bush. She was as pale as Lucius had promised, but it was the paleness of death, not clotted cream. The only hint of colour her body allowed showed in her cheeks, flushed from recent exercise.
Bellatrix's dark eyes flashed brighter than the chandelier above Snape's head, and she had crammed herself into her usual lace rag dress, or whatever it was. The one that pushed her bosom up to vertiginous heights, and pinched her waist.
No wonder the waiter thought she was an intruder.
"Him," said Bellatrix.
"Miss Lestrange," said Snape, forcing himself to rise. "A pleasure."
She shuffled to his table, impervious to the other diners gawping at her. Snape thought her sneering rather looked like that Muggle singer his father liked. Elton? Elvis?
"You're paying."
Not much of a "less traditional woman" then.
"Of course," said Snape. "I'd hardly suffer the embarrassment of being in your debt." He turned to the waiter, who was hovering on the sidelines, his lined face a picture of fascinated dismay. "May we have a menu, sir?"
This was going to be a long night.
Prompt: Challenge 41 Severus Snape and Lily Evans hurt each other's feelings
Characters/Pairings: Severus Snape, Lily Evans, James Potter, OC
Rating/Warnings: T
"It was just a joke, Sev!" Lily Evans' green eyes had taken on that crazed pleading look as she scurried alongside Severus through Hogwart's chilly corridors.
"I wasn't offended," he said in reply, wrapping his cloak around himself. The corridor did open onto a small green, hence the arches and subsequent cold, but that wasn't the only thing Severus needed protection from. The sight of James Potter swooping down and giving Lily a kiss on the cheek as a 'dare' from Sirius Black... His insides twisted. "I don't even care."
"Oh, come on! You've been pulling that angry baby face since Arithmancy. Lighten up!"
Angry baby face? Was that her opinion? Severus felt the usual surge of irritation rise within him, tempting him to say something he might regret. "I'm sorry my face isn't as pretty as Potter's."
"Honestly!"
Snape sped up, leaving her a few steps behind. "Sev!" she said, but he ignored her. Only when she yanked his arm from behind did he stop walking.
"I know what this is," she said, and her green eyes had turned from pleading to determined. "You're bitter, because James said that stupid thing last Friday-- no, don't interrupt! You were offended, and I know he's a twat, but we were all playing 'Truth or Dare', all of us, and James snogged Mary Twaddle, which was far worse! And you said you weren't even playing, so... you're kind of being a twat as well, if I'm honest."
The surge of irritation broke through Severus's dam of restraint. Before he could stop himself, he said, "Well, at least I'm not a pushover."
Lily didn't speak to him for the rest of the day, and frankly, he wasn't surprised.
Prompt: CHALLENGE 18 Birds and Bees
Characters/Pairings: Severus Snape, Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew
Rating/Warnings: T (innuendo)
Lily Evans had a strange look on her face. Her nose was scrunched, and she was twisting her lips up and down. Severus Snape thought she looked like a child refusing a bowl of gruel, though he had the sense not to say so. It would sound like an insult, even if he ever had the courage to quickly say afterwards that she was still five times prettier than any other girl at Hogwarts.
"What's the matter?" he asked, falling into step with her down the main corridor.
"Have you seen our timetables?" she answered in a low voice.
Severus shook his head, but he didn't mention why. James Potter had Vanished his timetable, then scurried off like a rat before Professor Binns could issue a half-hearted detention. And nobody took Professor Binns' detentions seriously, what with his being a ghost. Worse, Severus' attempt to Hex Potter in return had backfired, literally: he had landed with a thunk on his backside, to a chorus of nervous laughter from passing First Years.
"Really?" said Lily, with that mixture of disapproval and astonishment whenever he didn't do something she thought obvious. "First hour! Come on, Sev, you can't be this disorganised at nine."
Try to stay calm, he told himself, as he yanked his timetable out of his satchel. She doesn't know about Potter, and it's going to stay that way. First hour. The yellowed parchment crinkled under his hands. Personal Magical Functions. He frowned at the moving words in red ink.
"What're those?" He usually knew everything there was to know about magic-- or so he told Lily, as it made her green eyes go wide with admiration and she would stick to him like a barnacle, asking him every question under the sun.
Well, Lily's eyes were wide this time, but from astonishment that he didn't know something. She leaned close enough for Severus to smell that ridiculous strawberry potion she lathered over her red hair from time to time-- or at least she said it was from time to time. "Personal Magical Functions!"
"Yeah-- what is it?"
Now Lily looked scandalised. She glanced over her shoulder, then whispered in his ear. "The You-Know-What!"
But Severus' heart had jumped at the sensation of her hand cupped against his cheek and her lips so close to his ear. He pulled away from her, his face flushed.
"Er yeah," he said, pretending to understand. "That."
"I know, right?" Lily didn't appear to notice his quickened stride, nor the way he was clutching his timetable, instead of replacing it. "Fancy calling it 'magical functions'! I think the Slug is teaching it as well. This is going to be so cringeworthy!"
"Right." Severus was still in a daze.
"Sev?"
"What?"
Lily had stopped a while back, standing beside an oak door that was partly ajar. She was somewhere between cringing and laughing as she gestured at the chink of light with her head.
"It's in here."
Before he could move, he heard mocking laughter. James Potter, flanked by Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew strode towards the same door.
"Morning all," said James, pretending to readjust his glasses. "I hear they'll be teaching us how babies are made today. My favourite subject!"
Sirius and Peter laughed obligingly.
But nothing could have been less funny to Severus Snape as, far too late, he realised the meaning of 'Personal Magical Functions'.
Suddenly, his reaction to Lily whispering in his ear made perfect sense.
"In the true spirit of generosity," said James, throwing out his chest like a peacock, "I volunteer to demonstrate with any ravishing young lady who so desires it-- as a great many do." (Even more synchronised laughter from Sirius and Peter.) "I think Lily will do quite nicely, don't you fellows? Hello, Severus. Nice to see you've found your timetable again."
Sirus and Peter were now almost bent double with laughter.
"Leave him alone," said Lily. She sounded bored, but Severus saw to his horror that she had turned a distinct shade of pink after James called her ravishing. And her lips were twitching.
This was a betrayal too terrible to handle.
Once again, that fatal cocktail of bitterness and suppressed rage took over, nurtured over years of self-denial, of cowardice, of deprivation. The cocktail now mingled with a new poison, so as to sharpen every wretched feeling: seeing James and Lily entwined, Lily with that stupid smirk on her face (how could she?) and James with his hyena-like cackle.
So when the class was admitted by none other than Slughorn, Severus shoved past everyone to the table at the very back, pretending not to see Lily's confused and hurt frown, nor James' triumphant smile.
