Challenges #053, #091
Title: The Envoy
Rating/Warnings: PG
Characters/Pairing: Tonks/Snape
Summary: Tonks has been asked to deliver a message to Snape, and they both mess with one another's heads a bit.
Word Count: 701
Author's Notes: For prompt #53 Rare Paring. It's based loosely around tension in Half-Blood Prince, and then messed with a little. Not sure I'm happy with it; would have liked to have done some editing tbh
Registered purchases?: Both
The candles were sitting low in Spinner's End, Snape waiting patiently for the woman to come with her news. He knew Tonks was not the best timekeeper, but considering she is one of the most clumsy people he had ever had the displeasure to have met, he would have thought she knew better than to cross him now, especially considering her latest loss.
The house was ramshackle, worn down from years of neglect. Snape only ever occupied it during the summer, occasionally returning once in a while to get away from the castle, but it was hardly a place he was attached to: there were too many bad memories here.
Memories that stained the walls. Memories of voices.
Memories that lined the streets, of girls and a lost childhood.
A crack. And then a crash.
"Ah," he drawled. "Afternoon, Nymphadora."
She brushed in with a stumble and a scowl; she clearly disliked being the one to run errands for Dumbledore. Her hair was its natural colour; she rarely did that irritating thing of playing with it these days.
"Sorry, I'm late, it was a-"
"It hardly matters," he said with an idle handwave; she winced, as though she still expected him to dock points from Hufflepuff for her tardiness. "Precautions have to be observed. What is the news?"
"Dumbledore is intending to bring back somebody called Slughorn from retirement," she gasped. "He is probably going to take over the-"
At once she fell silent; Snape had raised his hand to silence her. "If you are about to say he will take up the Defence Against the Dark Arts post, you are much mistaken. Slughorn neither has the prowess nor the temprament to deal with teaching dark magic."
"But there's..."
"Slughorn taught at Hogwarts many years ago," Snape explained. "He was in the Potions professor before I was. Clearly, he is set to return."
"But..."
"Enough," Snape said. He didn't need to hear Nymphadora Tonks' inane stuttering. "I must say, Dora; you have become particularly downtrodden since losing your uncle."
She flushed red, eager to argue, but he knew she was not in the frame of mind for it right now.
"It hardly matters, but is that why you feel so much pull to his best friend?" Snape asked, eyebrow arched.
"What makes you think tha-"
"I have seen you at Order meetings, Nymphadora," Snape drawled. "Your eyes slide over to his so many times, and-- forgive me-- but you are a terrible Occlumens. Wearing your heart on your sleeve is not a good trait in an Auror."
She seethed at him, but rising above it, she stopped to think.
And then she smiled.
"Tell me, Severus," she began, stressing his name in a way that made him flinch. "You knew Sirius, and you know Remus. So you must have known James Potter, too?"
Snape sneered. "Obviously."
"I've seen them all in photographs," she said, trying not to laugh. "Mad-Eye showed me. So.... perhaps I'm doing this wrong, hmm?"
She smiled, and closed her eyes in concentration. Her nose changed, her chin became more demure, her hairline lowered and turned a deep red. She opened her eyes, and they were dazzling green; as close to Harry Potter's eyes as she could muster.
"Maybe this is who you wish you were talking to, hmm?" Tonks smiled, giving him a wink. "Come on, Severus. I'm an Auror. I'm not stupid. I've done my research."
Snape said nothing, but she noticed the telltale grasp on the corner of the armchair; he was tense.
"All this silly backbiting needs to stop, Severus," she said with a smile, leaning in. "Come, Dumbledore will not be back for some time. He is visiting some caves. But for now...."
She leaned in toward him, lips approaching his own. Snape remained impassive, apathetic.
"You have dog hair on your robes."
Recoiling, Tonks straightened up and returned to her natural form at once. "Dumbledore wants you to visit the castle for the next few days. He says he needs you there."
With that, she disapparated, and Snape sat there, watching the space from which she had disapparated, feeling like he had seen a ghost, and deep down loving the living memories.
Title: The Perils of Organisation
Rating/Warnings: Rated G for Granger
Characters/Pairing: Hermione, Ron, Harry, Crookshanks.
Summary: Hermione has noticed her cat is acting weird, but Ron isn't best sympathetic...
Word Count: 848
Author's Notes: For Challenge #91 Brittany. This just reminded me that I wanted to make a weak pun involving north-west France, but forgot. Might be for the best....
Registered purchases?: Both
Ron had always had a strange relationship with Crookshanks. Even since Scabbers' true identity had been exposed, the cat had taken a very long time to get accustomed to Ron being benign, not to mention a little terrified.
The summer of the Quidditch World Cup, Hermione had come to stay at the Burrow; bunking with Ginny, she noticed Crookshanks tended to go into Ron's bedroom with spiders he had caught, which were not always dead. Although Hermione tried to explain that it was her cat's way of apologising to him, Ron wasn't exactly impressed by the choice of gift.
Still, at least the cat didn't go for Ron's new owl this time.
On arriving at Hogwarts, Hermione announced that she had bought herself a little personal organiser to help plan her studies. Harry tried pointing out that the OWL examinations weren't until the end of the following academic year, but Hermione gave him that look and went: "But you know how important it is to plan our time efficiently, Harry! It's not going to be an easy year!"
Resigned to Hermione's new interest in making scribbles in the organiser, Harry and Ron left her to it.
It wasn't until about a week or two later that Hermione came down from her dormitory, looking confused.
"What's wrong?" Ron asked, stopping lying on his Divination homework for a few moments.
Hermione's brow furrowed. "I'm pretty sure my cat is reading my diary."
Whatever Harry and Ron had expected to hear, it hadn't been that.
"Huh?"
"Crookshanks," Hermione explained. "I think he's been through my diary. Sirius did say he's an intelligent cat, right?"
"For an intelligent witch," Ron couldn't help himself. Hermione missed the compliment:
"Well, I went back to my dormitory on Monday, to write myself a note to buy more shrivelfigs next time we're down in Hogsmeade. When I woke up on Tuesday, Crookshanks was sat on my bed with a few in his mouth."
"You know he likes catching stuff, though."
Hermione looked at Ron like he was an idiot. "Ron, Crookshanks must have dug that out of Greenhouse Three or something!"
Harry fidgeted, looking down at his Divination parchment and being surprised that someone as sceptical as Hermione would be coming out with this comment. "Are you sure it's not just a coincidence?"
"Oh, Harry, normally I would, but then I also put something in my diary about returning a library book on Arithmancy before the loan expired. You know how I missed breakfast this morning?"
"Yeah..." the boys looked at one another uneasily.
"Well, I was busy turning the dormitory upside down trying to find the book," Hermione explained breathily. "I think I broke something of Parvati's while doing so. Anyway, I couldn't find it, and I went up to the library to try and apologise to Madam Pince, and she told me the book had been dropped in the return box last night."
Ron looked uneasily. "That doesn't mean it was Crookshanks, though."
"He's right, Harry agreed. "Couldn't it have been Parvati or Lavender, perhaps? I don't think they would read your organizer, but..."
"No, it's not them," Hermione said exhasparatedly. On my way back to the Common Room just now, the Fat Lady actually told me she saw my cat pushing a book along the corridor. I don't know how he does it."
Harry and Ron were really stumped. Over in the other corner of the common room, Ginny had enchanted a length of ribbon to dangle in mid-air, while Crookshanks batted it excitedly with his paws.
"There must be a rational explanation," Ron said. "Maybe somebody has a crush on you."
Hermione snorted. "Fat chance."
Ron looked down to the ground. "In that case, I don't know what to suggest. Maybe you should write Malfoy's name in it with a big dagger through his head!"
"Honestly, Ron: now you're just being silly."
"Well, I'm just tryin' to take your mind off it!" he said, giving up. "Hey, you can have a look at my Divination homework, if you like. I'm running out of synonyms for 'lascerated'."
"No, I have to get a few things sorted tonight," Hermione said, brushing her hair aside and opening the little book again. "I want to write out a proper manifesto for S.P.E.W. If I can get a draft of the leaflets written tonight, that will be great, too. I should really buy supplies for badges when we go to Hogsmeade..."
Harry shrugged, leaving Hermione to it, flicking through his potions book to find a particularly unpleasant fungus to write in his own forecast.
The next morning, Harry and Hermione went down to breakfast together; the Great Hall was filled with commotion. Harry frowned. "What's wrong?"
"There's no food!" Ron said, utterly offended. "There's no food being served from the kitchens!"
A bang and a squeal, and Harry watched in silence as a pair of house-elves ran down the aisle, squeaking in terror.
Behind them, a bottle-brushed animal was trotting briskly, with a plain black bra in its mouth.
Hermione destroyed the diary that very same day.
(701 + 848)/30 = 51.633
52 points + 20 bonus GET!!
Rating/Warnings: PG
Characters/Pairing: Tonks/Snape
Summary: Tonks has been asked to deliver a message to Snape, and they both mess with one another's heads a bit.
Word Count: 701
Author's Notes: For prompt #53 Rare Paring. It's based loosely around tension in Half-Blood Prince, and then messed with a little. Not sure I'm happy with it; would have liked to have done some editing tbh
Registered purchases?: Both
The candles were sitting low in Spinner's End, Snape waiting patiently for the woman to come with her news. He knew Tonks was not the best timekeeper, but considering she is one of the most clumsy people he had ever had the displeasure to have met, he would have thought she knew better than to cross him now, especially considering her latest loss.
The house was ramshackle, worn down from years of neglect. Snape only ever occupied it during the summer, occasionally returning once in a while to get away from the castle, but it was hardly a place he was attached to: there were too many bad memories here.
Memories that stained the walls. Memories of voices.
Memories that lined the streets, of girls and a lost childhood.
A crack. And then a crash.
"Ah," he drawled. "Afternoon, Nymphadora."
She brushed in with a stumble and a scowl; she clearly disliked being the one to run errands for Dumbledore. Her hair was its natural colour; she rarely did that irritating thing of playing with it these days.
"Sorry, I'm late, it was a-"
"It hardly matters," he said with an idle handwave; she winced, as though she still expected him to dock points from Hufflepuff for her tardiness. "Precautions have to be observed. What is the news?"
"Dumbledore is intending to bring back somebody called Slughorn from retirement," she gasped. "He is probably going to take over the-"
At once she fell silent; Snape had raised his hand to silence her. "If you are about to say he will take up the Defence Against the Dark Arts post, you are much mistaken. Slughorn neither has the prowess nor the temprament to deal with teaching dark magic."
"But there's..."
"Slughorn taught at Hogwarts many years ago," Snape explained. "He was in the Potions professor before I was. Clearly, he is set to return."
"But..."
"Enough," Snape said. He didn't need to hear Nymphadora Tonks' inane stuttering. "I must say, Dora; you have become particularly downtrodden since losing your uncle."
She flushed red, eager to argue, but he knew she was not in the frame of mind for it right now.
"It hardly matters, but is that why you feel so much pull to his best friend?" Snape asked, eyebrow arched.
"What makes you think tha-"
"I have seen you at Order meetings, Nymphadora," Snape drawled. "Your eyes slide over to his so many times, and-- forgive me-- but you are a terrible Occlumens. Wearing your heart on your sleeve is not a good trait in an Auror."
She seethed at him, but rising above it, she stopped to think.
And then she smiled.
"Tell me, Severus," she began, stressing his name in a way that made him flinch. "You knew Sirius, and you know Remus. So you must have known James Potter, too?"
Snape sneered. "Obviously."
"I've seen them all in photographs," she said, trying not to laugh. "Mad-Eye showed me. So.... perhaps I'm doing this wrong, hmm?"
She smiled, and closed her eyes in concentration. Her nose changed, her chin became more demure, her hairline lowered and turned a deep red. She opened her eyes, and they were dazzling green; as close to Harry Potter's eyes as she could muster.
"Maybe this is who you wish you were talking to, hmm?" Tonks smiled, giving him a wink. "Come on, Severus. I'm an Auror. I'm not stupid. I've done my research."
Snape said nothing, but she noticed the telltale grasp on the corner of the armchair; he was tense.
"All this silly backbiting needs to stop, Severus," she said with a smile, leaning in. "Come, Dumbledore will not be back for some time. He is visiting some caves. But for now...."
She leaned in toward him, lips approaching his own. Snape remained impassive, apathetic.
"You have dog hair on your robes."
Recoiling, Tonks straightened up and returned to her natural form at once. "Dumbledore wants you to visit the castle for the next few days. He says he needs you there."
With that, she disapparated, and Snape sat there, watching the space from which she had disapparated, feeling like he had seen a ghost, and deep down loving the living memories.
Title: The Perils of Organisation
Rating/Warnings: Rated G for Granger
Characters/Pairing: Hermione, Ron, Harry, Crookshanks.
Summary: Hermione has noticed her cat is acting weird, but Ron isn't best sympathetic...
Word Count: 848
Author's Notes: For Challenge #91 Brittany. This just reminded me that I wanted to make a weak pun involving north-west France, but forgot. Might be for the best....
Registered purchases?: Both
Ron had always had a strange relationship with Crookshanks. Even since Scabbers' true identity had been exposed, the cat had taken a very long time to get accustomed to Ron being benign, not to mention a little terrified.
The summer of the Quidditch World Cup, Hermione had come to stay at the Burrow; bunking with Ginny, she noticed Crookshanks tended to go into Ron's bedroom with spiders he had caught, which were not always dead. Although Hermione tried to explain that it was her cat's way of apologising to him, Ron wasn't exactly impressed by the choice of gift.
Still, at least the cat didn't go for Ron's new owl this time.
On arriving at Hogwarts, Hermione announced that she had bought herself a little personal organiser to help plan her studies. Harry tried pointing out that the OWL examinations weren't until the end of the following academic year, but Hermione gave him that look and went: "But you know how important it is to plan our time efficiently, Harry! It's not going to be an easy year!"
Resigned to Hermione's new interest in making scribbles in the organiser, Harry and Ron left her to it.
It wasn't until about a week or two later that Hermione came down from her dormitory, looking confused.
"What's wrong?" Ron asked, stopping lying on his Divination homework for a few moments.
Hermione's brow furrowed. "I'm pretty sure my cat is reading my diary."
Whatever Harry and Ron had expected to hear, it hadn't been that.
"Huh?"
"Crookshanks," Hermione explained. "I think he's been through my diary. Sirius did say he's an intelligent cat, right?"
"For an intelligent witch," Ron couldn't help himself. Hermione missed the compliment:
"Well, I went back to my dormitory on Monday, to write myself a note to buy more shrivelfigs next time we're down in Hogsmeade. When I woke up on Tuesday, Crookshanks was sat on my bed with a few in his mouth."
"You know he likes catching stuff, though."
Hermione looked at Ron like he was an idiot. "Ron, Crookshanks must have dug that out of Greenhouse Three or something!"
Harry fidgeted, looking down at his Divination parchment and being surprised that someone as sceptical as Hermione would be coming out with this comment. "Are you sure it's not just a coincidence?"
"Oh, Harry, normally I would, but then I also put something in my diary about returning a library book on Arithmancy before the loan expired. You know how I missed breakfast this morning?"
"Yeah..." the boys looked at one another uneasily.
"Well, I was busy turning the dormitory upside down trying to find the book," Hermione explained breathily. "I think I broke something of Parvati's while doing so. Anyway, I couldn't find it, and I went up to the library to try and apologise to Madam Pince, and she told me the book had been dropped in the return box last night."
Ron looked uneasily. "That doesn't mean it was Crookshanks, though."
"He's right, Harry agreed. "Couldn't it have been Parvati or Lavender, perhaps? I don't think they would read your organizer, but..."
"No, it's not them," Hermione said exhasparatedly. On my way back to the Common Room just now, the Fat Lady actually told me she saw my cat pushing a book along the corridor. I don't know how he does it."
Harry and Ron were really stumped. Over in the other corner of the common room, Ginny had enchanted a length of ribbon to dangle in mid-air, while Crookshanks batted it excitedly with his paws.
"There must be a rational explanation," Ron said. "Maybe somebody has a crush on you."
Hermione snorted. "Fat chance."
Ron looked down to the ground. "In that case, I don't know what to suggest. Maybe you should write Malfoy's name in it with a big dagger through his head!"
"Honestly, Ron: now you're just being silly."
"Well, I'm just tryin' to take your mind off it!" he said, giving up. "Hey, you can have a look at my Divination homework, if you like. I'm running out of synonyms for 'lascerated'."
"No, I have to get a few things sorted tonight," Hermione said, brushing her hair aside and opening the little book again. "I want to write out a proper manifesto for S.P.E.W. If I can get a draft of the leaflets written tonight, that will be great, too. I should really buy supplies for badges when we go to Hogsmeade..."
Harry shrugged, leaving Hermione to it, flicking through his potions book to find a particularly unpleasant fungus to write in his own forecast.
The next morning, Harry and Hermione went down to breakfast together; the Great Hall was filled with commotion. Harry frowned. "What's wrong?"
"There's no food!" Ron said, utterly offended. "There's no food being served from the kitchens!"
A bang and a squeal, and Harry watched in silence as a pair of house-elves ran down the aisle, squeaking in terror.
Behind them, a bottle-brushed animal was trotting briskly, with a plain black bra in its mouth.
Hermione destroyed the diary that very same day.
(701 + 848)/30 = 51.633
52 points + 20 bonus GET!!