Nightly Silence // Arabella

These nightly walks through the Castle corridors surely were a lovely thing. No noisy students that were talking ill about his teaching, or any other teacher. And nobody to interrupt his silent thoughts. Severus Snape was well aware of the fact that almost everyone hated him, at least the students did. Not that he really cared, most of them were just a bunch of dunderheads anyway. Far behind from what he knew when he was their age at Hogwarts. Not surprising really. What did he have besides his studies?

With his wand held up in front of him light a torch, the Lumus spell creating a bright light at the tip of the dark wood, he wandered through the corridor near the Library. It was quiet around him and dark. Just how he seemed to like it. Still, as he was about to turn around a corner, Severus heard a faint shuffle nearby and was alert. “Who's there?” his commanding voice filled the silence.



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TAGGED :: open
OUTFIT :: his usual black robes

Arabella had been down in the dungeons, brewing up her latest batch of anti-hangover potions to last her and Alec through the weekend. Supposedly he should have been doing it, being the Potions master and all, but the potions had been her own invention and she wasn't going to entrust those recipes to anyone. Another week gone by, another weekend where she could party it up and sleep like a log. As much as she enjoyed teaching, she couldn't wait for Fridays. Alec and her had great plans for the weekend, with maybe even an Apparition trip into London.

The glass bottles clinked quietly in her leather satchel as Belle made her way back to her office. She wasn't in the least bit tired and her thoughts strayed to how to spend the evening. Maybe she'd go for an evening stroll; Autumn night walks always helped her sleep. There was something invigorating about the brisk air nipping your cheeks; it was a welcome relief after an entire day spent in a stuffy classroom.

A voice was calling out and Belle bit back a smirk as she recognized the voice. She shouldn't have expected any better; most teachers were in their offices or staffroom by this time of night. Only one teacher was known to constantly patrol the corridors at night, with the exception of Filch. "It's only me, Severus," Belle called out softly to him, rounding the corner and giving him the slightest of smiles in greeting. "Patrolling the corridors as usual I see. Are you hoping to catch a Gryffindor out of bed?" she asked, a hint of teasing sneaking into her tone.

TAGGED``: snape
OUTFIT``: blue knit dress, black stockings, black boots, blue cloak
NOTES``: ---

Severus, not really expecting an answer to his question, was a slight bit surprised when Arabella suddenly stood before him, the slightest smile on her face as a greeting. The first few times when he'd seen her in the corridors, he instantly thought of Lily. He just couldn't help but notice the similiar looks. Of course, he knew Arabella was not Lily, because his love was dead, killed a long time ago, yet he remembered how he froze in place the first time he'd seen her. Not that anyone but him would have noticed of course.

Snape, being at least somewhat polite, lowered his wand a little, studying the woman before him for a few moments. How well she seemed to know him... it was, privately admitted to only himself, a little frightening. Then again... his dislike for Gryffindors seemed to be rather obvious. And if he wasn't the always serious, controlled kind of person, perhaps he might have smiled at her comment. Of course, he would not do so.
“Here I was... thinking the rest of the Castle was asleep.” he said, not the slightest bit of change seemed to be in his expression. “Still not entrusting those Potion recipes to Mr. Elwyn-Blake, I see.”

Oh yes, it was hard to keep such things from Snape. He was, after all, an observant person and had a pretty analytic mind. Well, at least they didn't take their supplies from his storage. That would have made him a little... unhappy. And one would not want Snape unhappy. Oh no. Well... perhaps one would not want Snape at all, but that was a different story.



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TAGGED :: Arabella
OUTFIT :: his usual black robes
NOTES :: thought I'd use his analytic mind a little bit geez, it's hard not to have him smile, when I'm usually a happy person. oh well, he can at least smile in his thoughts XD although... I have to admit, I used to write longer replies...

"Sleep is boring. You can sleep when you're dead. It's why I have coffee," she shot back with a smirk. Running her hand through her fiery locks to brush her fringe from her eyes, she leaned against the wall, bringing one foot up slightly to anchor herself against the wall. It wasn't much of a secret that Arabella drunk obscene amounts of coffee every morning. Sometimes she wondered just how much damage it was all doing to her, but the next minute she would brush the thought off. That was for the Healers to deal with if it ever came up. And if they couldn't, Aleksander surely would be able to create some potion to counter-act all the badness. She knew she had to cut down her coffee intake, but damn was it hard!

Belle chuckled softly at his comment. "I shall never entrust that to him. That's a secret that will be only passed onto my successor when I'm so old and wrinkly that I can't reach the cauldron. Though maybe I'll be lucky enough to replicate Sir Nicholas Flamel's work and still be brewing my potions well into my hundreds!" It was every alchemists dream to create such a stone, and yet in all of time, only one had succeeded. The Philosopher's Stone had always been a topic of great intrigue within the alchemy circle, and though Belle would hardly use it for its intended purposes (she didn't really feel like living to 665, nor did she need any more money than what she currently had), she wanted to recreate it just to see if she could. The redhead loved a good challenge, and this seemed like the greatest challenge of all.

"What's gotten you wandering the corridors this late anyhow?" she asked, brown eyes studying him intently. "I thought with the current spate of Slytherin troubles you'd be holed up in the common room to make sure that they don't put a toe out of line," she commented, though not meanly. Her words weren't meant to taunt him or annoy him; she was simply curious as to what had gotten him out, instead of keeping an eye on his students. Belle, for one, found the whole matter rather amusing - Slytherins fighting each other over Gryffindors. Maybe the newest generation of snakes were finally learning some house unity.

TAGGED``: snape
OUTFIT``: blue knit dress, black stockings, black boots, blue cloak
NOTES``: pose is like this, except her foot only goes up to her calf, not as high as in the photo

Severus, still holding his wand in his hand as his light source, listened to the redhead. Usually he wasn't one for small-talk, but since it was probably late at night and nobody else was around, he could afford to spend some time here talking to Arabella. Her company wasn't too bad, although he preferred the silence at night for himself. Still, one had to make sure that everything was in order. Someone other than Filch of course, although that man surely did his duty well.
However, with Harry Potter now attending Hogwarts, Snape knew that bad things could be happening. It was only a matter of time. Dumbledore had made sure that he understood the thread that a certain Dark Lord still was, even though he had been gone for almost fourteen years now. Sometimes Snape didn't believe that he would return, but on the other hand he knew of some dark magic that could bring even the dead back to life and some people certainly were crazy enough to do just that. Not Snape of course. No, he's had his share of badness in his life and he was glad it was over.

“Some things are better kept secret.” Severus said in his usual calm and controlled tone. “We wouldn't want to repeat that incident from just a few years ago now, would we.”

Of course Snape was referring to the trouble with the Philosopher's Stone. Things like that, for whatever reason they were once created, always attracted the wrong kind of attention and it certainly made even the quietest people greedy. Well and it certainly attracted the wrong kind of attention to himself as well. He knew that he was the first person people suspected when bad things happened. They just never really trusted him and he certainly didn't blame them, still it didn't make him feel any better about it.

“Well, someone has to make sure everything is in order.” he then added rather seriously. But then again, that was his nature. Although, he didn't think that comment about him in the Slytherin Common room was funny, he let it slip. He knew of his reputation among other professors, still, he was respected. “I have my ways to keep them where they belong.”



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TAGGED :: Arabella
OUTFIT :: his usual black robes
NOTES :: that was a good question... why indeed is he walking around the corridors at night? XD

Cocking her head to the side, Arabella silently studied the man before her. Oh how he'd changed since his school days. But then, they both had. Whether for the better or for the worse was all very subjective. If she were honest though, she wasn't sure that she liked this new change of his. He was kinder in his school days, despite Potter and Black tormenting him; now by the whispers and murmurs not only in the staff room but between the students made Belle think that he'd turned a rather dark leaf since their school days together.

Not that she was exactly one to talk. She had turned a few rather shocking leaves in her time too. She too wasn't exactly the same innocent flower that she had been when she'd been studying. She wondered sometimes what that younger version would have thought of her now; it wasn't always a comforting thought. She'd made a lot of mistakes, but she'd managed to pull through, and that was all that really mattered. Besides, she'd completed her childhood dream of becoming an author, so that had to count for something.

"I know, but it's so tempting," she confessed with a soft laugh. "I never could resist a keep-out or do-not-touch sign. Blame it on the Scottish genes." Another soft laugh left her lips and she shook her head slightly, almost to herself. This particular trait hadn't surfaced until her later years at Hogwarts when she'd begun experimenting with potions and transfiguration. After that, everything that started with 'do not' instantly became a challenge to Belle. But he was right, of course. A thing such a Philosopher's Stone would be much too dangerous to have around. As long as humans would continue to be, there would always be someone who would want to use such immense power to satiate their own greed and hunger for power. Even the most innocent could be corrupted that; Quirrell had been proof of that. "It'd just be a fun challenge to see if I could do it. I love me a good challenge," she added with a casual shrug.

"Y'know, we could put some ears on you and you can be the new Mrs Norris, seeing as you wander the corridors so often," Belle commented, the corners of her mouth turning up in a slight smirk. Despite his reputation and her subsequent teasing of him, Belle begrudgingly respected the Potions Master. His talent for his subject was astounding, and despite his favoritism, he was a good teacher. For the most part. She bit back a laugh as a thought of him with cat ears on surfaced and she instantly shoved that thought to the back of her mind, into the drawer where thoughts never to be thought of again resided. It was just too odd a thing to dwell on. "Anyhoo, I'm thinking of getting a night-cap. Would you like to join me?" she asked after a short pause, pushing herself off of the wall and brushing some fringe from her eyes. "I have a most inventive range."

TAGGED``: snape
OUTFIT``: blue knit dress, black stockings, black boots, blue cloak
NOTES``: erm, yeah, don't even ask about the cat thing. it made sense when i wrote it... -__-

He let the woman study him for a moment. He was used to people studying him by now. Almost everybody seemed to be doing that these days. As long as they were just studying him, Snape didn't care much. However, as he rewarded Arabella with the same studying look for just a few moments, Severus could not help but notice just how much she, too, had changed over the course of years. He remembered her as a smart young woman with talents and goals, but just by looking at her, he could see that time and events had changed her. Unfortunately, or fortunately as he put it, Severus had decided to leave those memories of his time as a student in the past. Some of them were just too painful even for him.

Back then, he hadn't seen the things he's seen now. And he didn't know about the dark times that lay ahead... but he did know now. He knew what part he played in it before and he knew what part he had to play in it, when he came back. If he ever would. Snape was convinced that he would, so was Dumbledore. But he could not dwell on those dark thoughts now. It would only send him down that road again that he swore to leave behind. Although part of him never could let go.

"Temptation is such a powerful thing. And believe me... it has nothing to do with genes." he said quietly, deciding to look into the distance for a moment, before he turned his brown eyes back to her. "Given enough time... I think you'd be one of the only wizards who could replicate that stone. Not that anyone should."

Even though he was already being serious, that comment about cat ear on him was absolutely not funny. Still, deep down somewhere inside of him, he couldn't blame Arabella for it. He might even consider it funny, if he ever let that side of him decide anything. For the most part, he did not. And with good reason, because it never got him anywhere in his life. It only caused harm to him and others. Especially to those he cared about. "I like my ears just fine, thank you."

Severus sighed inwardly. He knew it was only a joke, but he was never in the mood for jokes. But he would let it go with just the comment he's made. He knew better than to make a scene over some silly comment. Besides, Arabella was one of the few around Hogwarts who knew the old Severus and the new one and the only one whom he'd allow to tease him. At least a little bit. It didn't hurt anyone. Yet.
"You go ahead. I have corridors to watch and students to keep in bed." Severus then replied. As tempting as it was to join her, his reputation just did not allow it. "Perhaps another time."



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TAGGED :: Arabella
OUTFIT :: his usual black robes
NOTES :: I'm not quite satisfied with some parts of the reply, but I'm not toally into Snape yet.