Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Snape watched Lupin accompany Luna to a seat at the same table they had sat at the night before. This time, however, a young woman with a shock of red hair stood to greet her. It was Ginerva Weasley, the last, and to Severus's way of thinking, admittedly the best of the string of Molly and Arthur's offspring to offer him their impertinences, and to feel the benediction of his scathing criticism in return for their efforts. No sooner had one lot disappeared, than another lot appeared on the horizon, Snape thought sourly, having been informed that Bill Weasley's son was coming to Hogwarts in a couple of years, and not caring to wonder the mathematics of just how many redheads Molly's seven would produce between them; they'd need a ruddy annexe to the castle for themselves.

Severus sat at the empty table next to the one Lupin had left Luna at, and it wasn't long before it became apparent that he wasn't returning immediately. The girls began chatting, firstly about families, before turning to more confidential matters. Severus didn't think twice about eavesdropping; he had heard so many derogatory things said about him to his face, that he didn't worry much about how people could improve on their endeavours behind his back. He had almost switched off, flicking idly through the book he had brought with him, when his interest piqued.

'Are you expecting again, Ginny?' Luna asked, and Severus supposed her speculation led him again to the answer to why the Gryffindors always outnumbered the Slytherins. 'Only I thought you had decided that one was enough... especially if you're not going to be around for long enough for Harry to assume joint parenthood.'

'I had,' Ginny replied. 'Harry decided otherwise, so I shall let him believe what he wants to believe... for the time being.'

'Ah well,' Luna replied. 'Two is an even number.'

'There is no baby, Luna, not one that belongs to Harry-I-saved-the-world-and-allowed-you-to-be-my-wife-Potter. And what about you?' Ginny asked, in a way that made Snape think she wanted to change the subject quickly away from her husband, just when he had developed a keen interest for the first time in his life.

'Oh, no, you silly thing. Severus and I have got quite enough with the three babies we have for now,' Luna replied, as Ginny stared at her, and Severus split the tea that Rosmerta had just put in front of him.

'Any progress in your master plan, I mean?' Ginny went on, seeming to dismiss Luna's remark, whilst Snape felt rather anxious that she returned to it, so that any misunderstanding could be cleared up.

'I just don't know,' Luna replied, as Snape moved his seat as close as he dared. 'Sometimes I think it's all going well, and other times I wonder if I should ever have let Remus talk me into coming.'

'Where is he anyway?'

'Who?' Luna asked. 'Remus?'

'No, silly. I always know where he is,' Ginny replied with a little smile. 'Where's Snape?'

'Babysitting the Snorkacks,' Luna replied, as Snape held his breath, and Ginerva Weasley rolled her eyes in what he thought was tolerant amusement.

'Subject change time, Luna. Here come the others,' Ginny said, glancing across to a noisy party, who had just come in the door, and had stopped to allow some sycophants to fawn over them. 'Talk about Christmas shopping, or something.'

'Oh, I'm thinking of giving everyone a Niffler,' Luna replied. 'That way they can have all the shiny things they admire on other people, and it wouldn't really be stealing when they just acquire them.'

'Severus too?' Ginny asked, in a way that made Snape realise that she was happy to listen to Luna's odd reasoning, without wasting her time with criticism.

'Of course not,' Luna replied. 'What would Severus want with something shiny? I wonder, though, if he could smuggle one into Gringotts, and that way he could buy all the books and cigarettes and whisky he wants, without having to pay for it with his own money.'

'I'm not sure the Goblins would care for that,' Ginny replied.

'I wish I hadn't come,' Luna said as the party began to move again. 'I wouldn't have, if Remus hadn't talked me into it last night.'

'It's okay, Luna. None of them know anything about anything,' Ginny replied, reaching her hand over the table to put it on Luna's, the way Lupin had done the night before. 'I know you did it for me and Remus, and we love you for that.' She moved her hand, smiling over to the bunch of Gryffindors Snape had expected to see the night before, as he hugged his charms closer to him.

The Granger-Weasley twosome, Harry Potter, and a rather bored looking Lupin all sat at the table and began to talk at once, so that it was almost impossible for Snape to get the drift of any sensible conversation, and he had to resist the urge to lean over and tell them to speak one at a time. He was so busy straining to listen, that he didn't notice McGonagall and Aurora come into the bar, and scan the room, looking for a table.

'Would you mind if we sat here?' Aurora said, startling Severus, who was in two minds whether he should leave, spill his tea again, or just trust his charms under Minerva's sharp eyes.

He nodded curtly, and stumbled slightly to his feet until the two professors sat, with their back to the table where the Gryffindors sat, in a way that made Severus smile to himself, almost tempted to let Potter and his horrible clan, Luna and Ginerva and maybe even Lupin excepted, of course, know that not only was he listening to their pathetic little conversation, but Minerva quite clearly had the same intention.

'She wants to get out more,' Potter said, addressing himself to Ginny, and dragging Snape's scattered wits back to the table next to the one he sat at. 'You and Hermione should take her out somewhere nice; introduce her to guys her own age.'

'She's here, you know. You don't need to talk about her as though she's not,' Ginny responded with a flare.

'Harry just means that it's not healthy for you to spend all your time cloistered at Hogwarts,' Granger said, poking her nose in, and addressing Luna as though she were a child who was hard of understanding. 'Either down in the dungeons or making up imaginary animals, Luna,' Granger went on so patronisingly that Severus actually felt his wand hand itch, and he had to restrain himself from hexing her into the next week.

'I'm not unhealthy,' Luna objected. 'And I don't imagine things, and perhaps you're all crazy, and I'm the only sane one?' she offered, smiling around them. 'Anyway, I work in the dungeons, in case you didn't know.'

'Yeah,' Ron Weasley put in. 'That's another thing. Dad's managed to get you a position in the Ministry. That's what we wanted to meet you for. It's a great job, Luna, perfect for you, good money, and best of all, you wouldn't have to suffer Snape all day.'

'Perhaps she's quite happy where she is, guys,' Lupin offered, surprising Severus by winking at Luna, and then pulling slightly closer to Ginny Weasley than Severus thought was quite appropriate, given the fact that her husband was sitting at her other side, and her brother was sitting opposite, and he began to wonder just how many women the werewolf had tucked under his belt.

'I'm very happy where I am,' Luna declared. 'And guess what?' she added, and Snape groaned to himself, anticipating she was going to talk about Snorkacks. 'Minerva's going to ask you all to the Yule Ball,' she said, just to prove him wrong, but equally horrified. 'We've got three Snorkacks too,' she added, as Potter and Weasley rolled their eyes.

'Luna,' Hermione said impatiently. 'You're twenty-six. This has got to stop.'

'Yeah, I agree,' Potter supplied. 'In fact, I'm going to have a word with McGonagall. Maybe she can get you another post in Hogwarts, if you're so keen to stay there. I'm sure she'll be more than willing, if I have a word with her,' he went on importantly. 'I mean, I can understand you staying there, but if she got you away from Snape, I think you'd be better off.'

'Better off than what?' Ginny asked. 'So she can be like all of you, peering into someone else's life, and criticising what you don't understand?'

'We're doing this for you, Luna,' Hermione reasoned, speaking to Luna, and ignoring Ginny in a way Severus didn't care for, and seemed to leave the werewolf even less impressed. 'We hardly ever see you now, and you've become... well, quite frankly, you've become even more odd than you ever were. Damnit, Luna, you're wearing two odd shoes, cutlery as jewellery, and your school skirt.'

'So?' Luna asked, and Severus wondered if her mode of dress were deliberate, after all, and then he wondered why, apart from the odd mention of potato earrings, he had never actually commented much on her little foibles, and was very pleased that he hadn't.

'It's got to stop, Luna,' Weasley said, imitating his wife's words, and Snape agreed wholeheartedly with him, as he suddenly saw a larger picture, one that painted the abominable Potter-Weasley-Granger trio in the foreground, and everyone else in the wings, as though they were bit part players in the wizarding world. He understood too that that was why Potter had failed to even notice the werewolf's quite obvious closeness to his wife, and wished Remus Lupin well in whatever his efforts were, as long as they didn't include Luna Lovegood.

'Leave her, Ron. it's not your place to criticise anyone,' Ginerva said, glaring at her brother, and turning to her husband and Granger. Severus was taking rather a shine to Ginerva Weasley, the fact that her name was now Potter notwithstanding. If he recalled correctly, Luna and Ginny's year had been a fairly easy one by Hogwarts standards. Then again, coming in the immediate wake of Potter and his cronies, not to mention Draco Malfoy, anything would have been. 'You two, as well. I don't see why what one person does is another's business,' Ginny added.

'Nonsense, Ginny,' Granger said, as though dismissing her opinion as of no importance, as though only what she or Potter or even Ronald Weasley thought was what should be believed, and everyone else was just there to make up the numbers. 'Harry's right, of course. We'll sort it all out for you,' she said, patting Luna's hand in what looked like insincere sympathy, as Severus stood up before he leaned across the two tables and ripped Granger's arm off for daring to touch Luna.

He went out to the street, changed his appearance to his own, and made his way back through the bar to where Luna was still being bombarded with bad advice. He took a deep breath, and forced himself to use her name.

'Luna... I hoped I would find you here,' he said, ignoring everyone else, except for a curt nod to Lupin, who gave him what he failed to recognise as a knowing look, and a brief neutral glance to Ginerva. 'The Snorkacks were awake again. I gave them water, but I don't know what else to give them.'

'You shouldn't be encouraging her,' Potter snapped at him.

Severus turned slowly, fighting down the urge to hex the sanctimonious little prick. In fact it was only Lupin's intervention that stopped him

'Leave it, Severus,' he said quietly, then looked across to where Weasley and Potter were watching Snape with unconcealed dislike. 'Why don't you two guys leave it too?' he suggested, slightly more firmly than Snape would have given him credit for. 'It seems that Luna's quite happy, and who are you to criticise that?'

'She's not happy,' Weasley objected, but Luna had already stood up, and was following Severus into the street, with not only the Gryffindors watching them, but McGonagall and Sinistra too.

Luna turned to him once they got outside. 'I didn't think you'd want to leave this,' she said, handing him the book he had forgotten he had left on the table before he went outside to drop his charms.

'I have never seen that before, Miss Lovegood,' he said blandly.

'You know something, Severus,' she said, 'you tell as many lies as I do.'

He walked on a little with Luna at his side, mulling things over and wondering how to frame his question.

'Are you going to ask me about what you think you overheard?' Luna asked.

'About Lupin and Ginerva Weasley?' he replied, cocking an eyebrow.

'I don't really think that's any of our business, Severus,' she said, somewhat primly in view of the fact that she had broached the subject in the first place, if that were indeed what she was referring to. 'But I think she's going to have Lupin's child. Isn't that lovely... a baby werewolf? I wonder if it will be pink or blue.'

'I thought you said Lupin was old enough to be your father,' Snape pointed out, instead of the multitude of other observations he could have made. 'And Ginerva was in the same year as you.'

'You were in the same year as Remus, weren't you?' she said, as though that made any sense at all. 'By the way,' she added, turning so her teaspoon necklace tinkled, her eyes flashing in what looked ominously like some kind of victory, 'it was Minerva who slipped the book to me.'

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