Chapter Twenty One: Florence
Sometime in February, James, Sirius and Peter managed the Animagus transformation. At first, Peter had resented the inevitable teasing of James and Sirius of his rat form. But then, it had become clear to all of them how useful it was for sneaking around and spying on others.
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Florence Anderson was a Ravenclaw. Severus would much have preferred a Slytherin girl, whom he could have approached in the safety of the Slytherin common room, or at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall. But it had become crystal clear that no Slytherin female would associate with someone of lower blood, and he was still at the bottom of the scale as far as that was concerned. As it was, he would either have to approach the Ravenclaw in public, with all the implications for public humiliation, or somehow get her alone, and risk a Marauder attack.
Severus had Arithmancy with Anderson. Unfortunately, it was not a class that ever required teaming up, and the students were all at separate desks, rather than sharing tables. Still, the first step was to at least sit at a desk closer to the girl. He got to class early, and chose the desk to the right of where Florence sat. When the usual occupant of the desk, another Ravenclaw girl, came in, she saw the Slytherin and walked over.
"What are you doing?" she asked, in genuine confusion.
Severus glared at her. "I'm sitting here now. You sit over there." He waved over to where he used to sit. She went over to the other desk, still puzzled.
Florence came and started over to her desk, then paused. Maggie was in the wrong place. But everyone else who sat near her was right, so she continued over and sat down.
Severus was pleased. He started talking to her during class about their homework and other Arithmancy related topics.
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After several class periods of this, Severus decided it was time to move to the next step. "Meet me in the library by the Restricted Section at three p.m.," he told her during one Arithmancy class. She nodded in agreement.
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Severus was in the library by 2:30 p.m. to stake his claim to the private table he wanted. The couple already snogging there gave him a dirty look, but didn't dare refuse to leave. Now he just had to hope none of Potter's gang showed up.
Florence came in to the library at about 3:15 p.m. and went back to where the restricted area started. She hadn't realized that Severus had chosen an isolated section of the library, never having paid attention to such matters before.
"Are you going to hex me?" she asked him curiously, as she went over to the table.
"Why? For being late?" the Slytherin asked, surprised. He knew the Ravenclaw wasn't known for her timeliness, and had planned accordingly.
"No. Because they told me that's what you do," she answered matter-of-factly.
"Not in this case," he said with a smirk. "Sit down." He indicated the chair next to him.
She sat down, and had barely laid her books on the table when he turned to her, took her face in his hands, and kissed her. There was nothing shy or tentative about the kiss, and he reached out his tongue to touch her lips. She didn't open them, but she didn't pull away either. Then he broke off, leaned back, and looked at her.
"You're not very good at that," she noted, as if they were discussing an Arithmancy problem.
"No doubt," he responded. "I've never kissed a girl before. But you're supposed to be pretty good at it."
She grinned. "I like kissing," she agreed, and leaned over to Severus. It was quite some time before they got to their Arithmancy homework.
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After that, they both looked for opportunities to snog. It was still winter, so the grounds and the Astronomy tower were too cold, but they took advantage of the library, empty classrooms, and quiet corridors. Florence noted that other boys had started avoiding her, but she didn't mind. Severus was enough. He'd been an adept learner.
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It was unseasonably warm for a March afternoon. Florence had just finished Care of Magical Creatures, and Severus had just finished Herbology. He waited for her by the greenhouse after the others had left.
Bertha Jorkins hid behind a bush, and watched Snape and Anderson snogging. It wasn't the first time she'd spied on a snogging couple, or on this couple in particular. She considered herself nearly pure-blood, and disdained the attentions of anyone less pure-blood than she was. Unfortunately, the other Slytherin boys didn't have the same view of her ancestry as she did.
"Severus," Florence said, after they broke their kiss.
"Mmm hmmm," said Severus, face flushed, eyes lazy.
"Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?" she asked.
"What? Of course not," he murmured. "Everyone knows you're my girlfriend." They damn well better. He'd made it quite clear that no other boy was to go near her.
"Then why don't we ever do anything together in Hogsmeade?" she asked.
He gave a heavy sigh. He had no money for Hogsmeade weekends; he was selling books from the Prince library, as it was for ingredients for his father's potions.
"I'm sorry," he said. "How about the next Hogsmeade weekend? What do you want to do?" That would give him two weeks to come up with the money somehow.
Then Severus saw a movement in the bushes out of the corner of his eye. He stepped back from Florence and drew his wand. It was inevitable Potter's gang would try to mess this up eventually.
Bertha saw that her cover was blown, and stood up. So what? she thought. I'm not doing anything wrong.
Florence looked at her with curiosity. Severus was angry and relieved at the same time. "Get out of here," he said in a soft but dangerous voice.
Bertha missed the danger in his voice and thought he was just embarrassed at being caught. "Why? So I won't see you getting dirty with your Mudblood girlfriend?" she taunted. She was quite pleased with her clever wordplay on dirt and mud.
When Severus was finished hexing her, she had boils, green skin and was throwing up slugs. And he was wearing a very pleased, malicious grin.
Florence found the look on his face disconcerting. "That was a bit ... extreme ... wasn't it, Severus?" She got out her wand, "Finit -." But Severus grabbed her wand hand before she could finish.
"Why don't we let Madam Pomfrey take care of it? I'm sure Jorkins is capable of getting herself to the Infirmary." He smirked as the hexed girl coughed up another slug.
Florence jerked her hand back and finished the spell. The boils were gone, but Bertha's skin was still green and she was still coughing up slugs.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" the Ravenclaw said, as if she were observing the unexpected results of an experiment.
Severus frowned, then his face turned impassive. He said nothing.
Florence helped Bertha up and walked with her up to the Infirmary.
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Florence met Severus at the usual time and the usual place in the library the next day. Instead of sitting next to him, she sat across from him.
"Severus, you don't need to worry about taking me anywhere on the next Hogsmeade weekend," she said calmly, as if she were doing him a favor.
"Look," he said, "I know I went a bit overboard with Bertha yesterday, but she deserved it."
"Maybe, maybe not," Florence answered, as if considering the possibility. "But that's not exactly the problem. You enjoyed it too much."
Severus said nothing for a moment. She's throwing me over, he thought.
"You know, you can be a bit embarrassing. I was thinking of moving on to someone else anyway."
"Oh, good!" said Florence, her face brightening up. "Does that mean you won't hex me or any other boys I go out with?"
Severus scowled. If he'd had any reason to believe she was anything but totally sincere, he would have hexed her right then and there, even though they were in the library.
"I'm dumping you," he sneered. "Why should I care who picks up my leavings?"
Finally, he saw a flicker of hurt cross her face and he curled his lip. She sighed heavily, picked up her books, and left.
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It had been a while since he'd met Lily by the tree, or anywhere else. He had been spending most of his spare time with Florence, and Lily had also usually seemed otherwise occupied.
She stomped toward him, with a scowl on her face, and cast Muffliato. "What the hell did you think you were doing?"
He sneered down at her. Their height difference was not as much as it had been. His growth spurt had ended, and it looked like he wasn't going to be particularly tall, although he would certainly not be short. She, on the other hand, had just gotten hers.
"What are you talking about, Evans?"
She couldn't believe the look on his face. "Don't look at me like that! I'm not your enemy, you know."
He composed his face to blankness. "Sorry. But I still don't know what you're talking about."
"What you did to Florence. I found out what you told her."
"It was the truth. She'll snog anything male with a pulse."
Lily slapped him. "You hypocrite!"
He drew his wand, and turned it on her.
"What're you going to do, Severus, hex me?" she sneered.
He lowered his wand. "Lily?"
But she was still furious. "You've got to apologize to Florence."
"I can't do that!"
"Well, maybe you'd better learn," the fiery redhead answered. "Until you do, maybe we don't need to see each other anymore."
"As you wish," he said coolly. "I believe I was here first, Evans."
She looked at him in amazement, her mouth open, but his face and his stance did not change. She closed her mouth and walked back toward the castle.
Posted by Madmaxime at January 2, 2007 06:30 PM