The Joys of Herbology - Chapter Twelve

“Are you all right, Siri?” Remus eyed his friend with concern. “You’re looking very pale.”

 “She’s meeting that damned Snivellus again,” snapped Sirius.  “And they’re obviously up to something, because she sure took great pains not to be seen with him.”  He explained the convoluted journey Mariah had taken to the HogsHead, and how Snape had followed her in shortly after. 

Remus sighed, “They probably just wanted a little privacy, Sirius.  I think you’re making too much out of this.”

“Privacy?  Somewhere to snog you mean,” snorted Sirius.

“Who’s snogging?” asked Peter.  He and James carried their new purchases in hand as they joined the conversation.

“And can I join in?” laughed James.

“I’ll give you one hint,” said Remus.  “Take a look at Siri’s face and you’ll have no trouble figuring it out.”

The other boys laughed and Peter began singing, “Snape and Mariah sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-“, at which point Sirius shoved him toward the wall and stormed out of the store, pushing past the older Gryffindor boy who was on his way out.  James followed quickly behind.

“Lighten up, Siri,” he called as he caught up with his friend. “Sirius!”

He clapped a hand on Black’s shoulder and spun him around to face him. “Sirius, what is going on with you?  You could have any girl within two years of us and you know it. Why are you becoming so unglued over a Hufflepuff who has, no offense, very little to recommend her.  No, let me finish,” he insisted as Sirius tried to interrupt. “I don’t think this is about her at all.  The Sirius Black I know wouldn’t waste his time pining over a cream puff like Mariah Grougher, not with all the high quality Gryffindor tail to be had.  The only reason you want her is to take her away from Snape.”

“No, don’t deny it,” James barked as Sirius tried to interject again, “I totally understand, seeing as I’d like to take him down a few pegs myself.  But you’re driving yourself nutters over her and we’re all starting to worry about you.  You have to let go already.”

Sirius just stared at him, no longer trying to interrupt, so James continued.  “Why don’t you go back inside, buy a whole mess of chocolate, apologize to poor Wormtail, and then we’ll all go have some butterbeer.  Come on,” he motioned for Sirius to follow him inside.

Sirius stared a moment longer, then moved to follow his friend.  “You are so wrong,” he muttered under his breath.

“Have a nice trip?”  Mariah had just stepped through the Floo when she heard the familiar voice tease her from just left of the fireplace.  She whirled to face Silas Cloverleigh, casually draped across an armchair, sipping a butterbeer and reading a comic book.  The Continuing Adventures of Solara Pearblossom and Gamit Greenbranch.  Her favorite.

“Can I borrow that when you finish, Si?  I don’t have that issue,” she prevaricated.

“Nice change of subject, ‘riah.  Where’s your friend?”  countered Silas just as Severus stepped out of the Floo.  “Welcome back, children.  I hope you, ahem, found whatever you were looking for.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?  And who in blazes are you?”  Severus’ eyes narrowed as he surveyed the older boy.

Silas stood, dwarfing Mariah and towering several inches over Severus.  “It means that I hope your trip was fruitful, since half of Gryffindor knows you met here today, and that you were trying (rather unsuccessfully I might add) to be surreptitious about it.  As to your second question, “ he rested a giant hand on Mariah’s shoulder, “I’m Mariah’s guardian angel.”

“You are no such thing,” Mariah snipped as she shrugged out from under his grasp.  “Severus, pay no attention to my very bossy and excessively overprotective neighbor, Silas Cloverleigh.  He’s quite enamored of playing the role of the older brother that I thankfully do not have."

“You’re quite mistaken, Mariah.  I have no desire to be your brother,” protested Silas.

Severus looked back and forth between the two of them before drawling, “Charmed, I’m sure.”

Could be worse, thought Mariah.  At least Severus didn’t start snarling about idiot Gryffindors or something.  Then her mind keyed into something Silas had said.  “Wait a minute. . . what do you mean ‘half of Gryffindor knows’?”

Silas explained how he’d overheard Sirius’ outburst at Honeyduke’s.  “It seems your stalker hasn’t given up his quarry.”

Mariah heard something sounding suspiciously like a snort come from Severus’ direction, but when she turned to glare at him his face was blank, the picture of innocence.

“I came over to warn you that you’d been seen, and the proprietor was kind enough to inform me that the pair of you had floo’d away a few minutes previous.  So I went down the street to get some light reading, then came back to await your return.  I wanted to be the first person you saw when you came back so you’d be prepared.”

“Does anyone else know we left Hogsmeade?” asked Severus.

Silas shook his head.  “No one we know has come into the place after me.  From what I could tell, Black’s friends were attempting to convince him that he was acting like a fool.” 

“Let’s hope they succeeded!” exclaimed Mariah.  “He is really starting to annoy me.”

“My offer still stands, ‘riah.  I’ll be more than happy to have a little chat with him for you, housemate or no.”  Silas pounded a fist into his other hand at the word ‘chat’.

Mariah grabbed his arm, “No, I can handle it.  No need to pummel the boy.  I’m just glad they don’t know we Floo’d away.  You won’t tell anyone, will you, Silas?”  She looked up at her friend with what she hoped was her most charming smile.

“Much as you deserve it, little wench, of course I won’t tell.  But as for you,” he warned, wagging a finger at Severus, “Although I know it probably goes against your Slytherin nature, do not get her into any trouble again, or you’ll have me to deal with.”

“I’m shaking in my shoes,” replied Severus silkily, “however you may rest assured that I have no intention of getting her into trouble, as you put it.”

“Silas!  Leave poor Severus alone!  We were just working on our Herbology project, after all.”

Silas raised his eyebrows skeptically. “Is that what you young people call it these days?  Now don’t you start pouting, ‘riah, I’ll leave you to your. . . project.  If anyone asks, you were here all afternoon, basking in the glow of each other’s company.  I won’t be able to help you if you’re late getting back to school though, I have no influence with your head of house.”  He turned to leave, then turned back, tossing something toward Mariah. 

She caught it instinctively, looking down to see the comic Silas had been reading.  “Keep it,” he said, “I’ve already finished.”  And then the large Gryffindor strolled out of the pub, leaving only Severus, who was looking at her slyly. 

“What are you looking at?”

“We’d best be getting back, like your friend said.”  Severus gave no indication of what he found amusing. 

Mariah suddenly felt tired, and had no desire to dig deeper.  “Right.  I’ll try to find my friends, they’re probably still sitting at the Three Broomsticks trying to get one last butterbeer down before heading back.  Back to the lab tomorrow?”

Severus nodded, “I’ll meet you down there after the Quidditch game.”  Hufflepuff was playing Ravenclaw tomorrow.

“Splendid,” she smiled.  “I knew we’d figure it out eventually, you know.”

“That’s the Hufflepuff in you talking.  Slow and steady wins the race and all,” he teased dryly, jumping out of the way as Mariah moved to smack him. “And that is my cue to leave.  See you tomorrow, Hufflepuff.”

“I told you, my name is Mariah!” she called after him.  Still grinning, she opened her pack to carefully place her new comic inside, and then set off in search of her friends.

“I didn’t want to ask in front of the others,” Darby remarked as she and Mariah prepared for bed, “but what took you so long today?  I can’t imagine it would take you three hours to feed Mindy and get back to Hogsmeade.”

Mariah looked around the bathroom before answering in a whisper, “Severus and I went back to Cornwall.”

“You did WHAT?”  Darby dropped her toothbrush in the sink.  “Are you insane?”

“Keep your voice down.  Of course I’m not insane.”  Mariah told her friend how she and Severus had decided they didn’t have time to wait for Professor Samling to take them again.

Darby seemed unconvinced, “You certainly are insane. You could have been caught, which would have probably gotten you expelled, or at the very least a few weeks of detention.”

“You’re being overdramatic, Darby, we didn’t get caught so there’s no sense in panicking about it now.  Besides, it was worth it.  We finally know what the problem is.”  Mariah had often bemoaned the problems she and Severus had been having on the project with her friends, so they were all well aware of how stumped they’d been.

“Well, I’m glad to hear you didn’t risk your schooling over nothing then.  Now more importantly, how was your trip?”

Mariah was confused by that question.  “Didn’t I just tell you?”

“No, silly, did you and Severus have fun?  Alone in the woods?  Together?” 

Mariah sighed.  Darby knew her too well; she never did believe Mariah’s insistence that there was nothing going on between her and Severus.  What could it hurt to confirm that her suspicions were wellfounded, on her part at least?

She began running her comb through her thick curls and sighed, “It was nice, I guess.  We joked around a bit when we were walking out to the woods like we always do.”

“Oooh, so you two joke around now, do you?  Anything, um, more that that?”  Darby prodded eagerly.

“No, Darby, nothing ‘more’ than that.  As I keep telling you, we’re just friends.”

Darby met her eyes with her own shrewd gaze.  “But you want it to be more, don’t you.  I can see it in your eyes.”

Mariah’s hand came down from her hair and she returned Darby’s stare. “Fine.  Yes, I do wish it were more.  But as it is not likely to happen,  I’d prefer you not tell Brownwyn and Erin about it.”

Darby’s eyes widened, “Of course not!  You know I wouldn’t ever break your confidence!  But you should know they suspect it too.”

“Only suspect though, I’m sure.  I’d like to keep it that way.”  The thought that her affections were unlikely to be reciprocated weighted down Mariah’s mood.  She didn’t relish the idea of constantly being teased about the ‘Slytherin boyfriend’ she’d probably never had.

Darby put an arm around Mariah’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze, “Oh come now, why so glum?  I think that just the fact that Snape ‘jokes around’ with you is an excellent sign.  Why, I’ve never so much as seen him smile at anyone else.”

Mariah grinned reluctantly as she accepted Darby’s comforting embrace.  “You wouldn’t believe how nice his smile is if I told you, Darby.”

“You’re right, love, I probably wouldn’t.”

Sadly, Hufflepuff was soundly defeated 320-40 by Ravenclaw the next day.  After consoling Darby and the rest of the team on their loss and ensuring them that “they’d surely win next time,” Mariah gathered her things and headed for the potions dungeon.  Severus was already waiting for her, mixing a foul smelling brew in the cauldron.

“What is THAT?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.

Severus laughed, “Don’t be such a baby.  You’ll hardly notice the smell if you give it a minute.  I did a little research last night on bees and I’m working on a reagent to test for chemical imbalances.  Can you hand me that vial over there, I’ve got to keep stirring.”  He nodded towards the counter where a small vial was sitting.

“Lucky I came in when I did, isn’t it,” she teased as she retrieved the small bottle.

“Hardly,” he drawled. “I just know you have a penchant for punctuality.  I deduced that you would arrive in time to bring me the vial.”

“Ah, but did you anticipate that I might withhold the contents of said vial just to spite you?”  Mariah stood a few feet away from the table, leaping back out of Severus’ reach.

He scowled, then said, “It’s your herbology grade too, Hufflepuff, if you want to fail then by all means continue with your girlish games.” 

A few months ago, Mariah wouldn’t have noticed the gleam in Severus’ eye that indicated his amusement despite his words.  She decided to have pity on him.  “Well, now that you mention it, I would rather pass, so here you go.”  She walked over to the table and gently handed the vial to him.

“Many thanks,” Severus drawled as he slowly poured the vials contents into the cauldron.  As the fluids mixed the foul odor became less pronounced. “Now if you’d skipped the theatrics, I could have done that a few minutes earlier.”

Mariah laughed. “All right, I’ve learned my lesson.  So what do we do next?”

“You won’t like this part,” he cautioned.  “We’ll have to sacrifice one of the bees to get a tissue sample to mix in with the reagent.  From that we’ll be able to see what’s wrong with the bee.  I hope.”

“Lucky for me I’m not particularly fond of bees, so sacrifice away.”  Mariah felt a twinge of guilt for her cavalier attitude toward the bee’s welfare, but only for a moment.

Severus walked to the supply cabinet and extracted a small dropper bottle and a slightly larger spray bottle. “This should do the trick.”  He filled the spray bottle with water then squeezed several drops from the other bottle in.  After replacing the cap and shaking it gently several times, he moved to where the makeshift bee-cage was resting on the counter.  He opened the door and quickly sprayed; the bee dropped motionless to the bottom of the cage.  Using a small scoop, he extracted the bee from the cage and then used a razor to cut a slice out for the tissue sample, which he then placed into a beaker.  Returning to the cauldron, he scooped a small amount of reagent into the beaker where it began to sizzle.

“Now what?” Mariah asked. 

“Now we wait.  We’ll come back tomorrow and I’ll be able to perform all sorts of tests using this mixture.”  Severus covered the beaker and placed it in a cabinet.  “I know how fond you are of waiting, but there it is.”

“Right then.  Until tomorrow!” Mariah smiled.

Severus smiled back. “Until tomorrow!” And then they both left the dungeon and went their separate ways.