shiv5468 (shiv5468) wrote in adventdrabbles, @ 2008-12-23 08:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | contributor: shiv5468, dec23, fandom: harry potter, prompt14, prompt15, prompt16, prompt17, prompt18, prompt19, prompt20, year: 2008 |
Dec 23: Harry Potter, HGLMSS, Catching Up (part two)
Title: Catching Up
Characters: HGLMSS, ST and the mystery character is revealed!!!! (Resorts to desperate measures to capture attention after long break due to flu. ~shows ankles~)
Prompts 14-20, in quick succession.
It is bad enough waking up the morning after the night before with a throbbing headache, the memory of snogging someone unsuitable, and the sensation of a warm body pressed against yours with all the attendant possibilities for the rest of your day to go south when there is no longer alcohol to add the cheerful glow to people’s appearances and personality.
It’s worse when the sobering up process happens in three seconds, and you’re still in the middle of the snog, and the upside of not having to explain to a naked and grumpy person precisely where that new tattoo came from isn’t quite compensation for the lack of barely-but-fondly remembered grappling.
And in mid-kiss too.
Severus staggered as the full weight of reality hit him with the force of a bludger.
“Fuck,” he said.
“Mmm,” Hermione said agreeably, and kissed Severus again, before saying something guaranteed to destroy his libido. “Trelawney.”
Severus took another kiss by way of compensation, then turned to Lucius. “So, any ideas?”
Lucius shook his head. “We all know she’s nuttier than the finest fruitcake, but underneath all that zaniness, she always had some slight talent. Merlin knows who is using her.”
Up in her Tower room, Sybill was carefully peeling chestnuts, still warm from the fire.
On the mantelpiece, nestling between a Christmas card with three teddy bears apparently carol singing, and another with a plum pudding that burst into flames every minute, was a large, black stone. It looked incongruous against the card behind it – two kittens wearing mittens, and a horrified expression as they tried to back as far away from it as possible.
“Is that all you’re going to do?” said the voice.
Sybill examined her latest work carefully, then popped one into her mouth. She chewed it, relishing the flavour, and then swallowed. “Yes.”
“You aren’t going to try to stop me?”
Sybill shook her head. “I’ve never been brave, you know that.” She tilted her head to one side, looking more than usually detached from reality. “You relied on that, often enough.”
The voice said nothing, but its silence was contemplative.
“Besides,” Sybill added, “when you know what the future brings....”
There was a sense of a large question mark hovering in the air.
Sybill smiled, and selected another chestnut.
“Trelawney isn’t the most stable of people, I grant you,” Severus said with the air of a man who was a connoisseur when it came to instability. “But she’s not entirely crackers.”
Lucius and Hermione looked at him with curiosity.
“Once you put all the clues together – the absent portraits, the attack on Lucius and on me, I think the answer is clear enough,” he continued, watching curiosity turn to expectation (tinged with respect for his superior deductive skills).
“Well?” Hermione asked, being too Gryffindor to adopt the proper pose of amused superiority.
“Who can you think of, no longer with us in body, with a taste for megalomania?” Severus asked.
“Merlin, not Voldemort? Not again,” Lucius protested. “Isn’t twice enough? My hair has barely recovered!!” He nearly whimpered at the thought of having to deal with split ends.
“Worse,” said Hermione. “If I’m reading Severus right. Far worse.”
Severus nodded. “Yes. It’s Albus.”
Will catch up the rest tonight...