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Essery Elizabeth Oakby ([info]oakbye) wrote in [info]wished,
@ 2010-10-03 21:21:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:!2003: 10, !complete, essery oakby, severus snape

Who: Essery and Snape
What: Chess & Kittens
Where: Snape's office
When: Tonight
Warning: TBA


Essery came back just a bit earlier than she thought she might, but it was still after curfew and, on seeing what she'd brought back, Sinistra had offered just to keep watch until the last few lights went out about Hufflepuff, too. Which left Essery with her hours free - and with one very new tenant in her rooms to contend with. Honestly, she hadn't been expecting to come back with one, her jokes last week aside. Still, how could she resist that smooshed up face and those blue eyes peering up at her from the box outside the M&S?

It did leave her with a problem, though. She'd wanted to spend the night in another hard fought chess game - Severus was quickly becoming someone who she looked forward to talking with, and after their last conversation... Well, she had been looking forward to playing. And she doubted he'd want the kitten running about his office. Still, she couldn't leave it in her rooms alone, and she couldn't stand him up. So she found herself at his office door in a pair of jeans and an old charity tee-shirt, knocking, with the kitten purring and trying to climb out of her arms.

As soon as he opened the door, she was already apologizing. "I know that you likely don't want him here, but I didn't want you to think that I wasn't interested in playing. I can't leave him alone in my rooms, though, so I was going to take a rain - " before she could finish excusing herself, the kitten had managed to jump out of her arms and past him, into his office, and she was cursing under her breath and nursing a new scratch to her forearm.



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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-04 02:40 am UTC (link)
Severus didn't quite look affronted when he found himself face to face with a writhing, wild-looking cat, but he was looking down his nose at it with a blank, unfathomable expression as he so often did at unlucky students - and didn't jump or flinch when it ran past him, but only followed it slowly with his eyes until it stopped, poised to pounce, on his desk. It seemed very interested in the pendulum of a nearby wall clock. He raised his eyebrow, and turned back to her.

"Well. Do come in. It seems you're both staying." He stepped aside. Part of him was irritated, but he couldn't deny that he was pleased to see her, or that he was glad to know she had wanted to come, and had wanted him to know it. It didn't make him any better disposed to the thing that was scattering fur all over his possessions, but it was enough that he wasn't in a terrible mood. "I didn't realize your charity had expanded its mission so."

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-04 02:44 am UTC (link)
"Charity?" She asked, then remembered and rolled her eyes. "Oh, no. I found him ... after. When I was shopping." It wasn't quite lying, since she had gone by the Society offices. But only to get an address from an old file. As she went for the kitten, it snapped out of it's fugue at watching the pendulum and moved to jump into his chair, where it promptly decided to make itself at home and she sighed, even though she was smiling fondly at the ball of white fluff. "Are you sure?"

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-04 02:56 am UTC (link)
"Yes, yes. Make yourself comfortable." He waved vaguely toward the table by the window with the chess board, still watching the cat. He'd have simply immobilized it and dropped it out in the hall if it had been up to him, but ... he could well imagine her reaction, and it wasn't quite worth it. "He seems to have done so. So long as he doesn't tip anything over, he'll probably make it out in one piece." He meant it to sound like a joke. It might not have.

It hardly mattered - no more than a couple seconds later, the thing was out of his chair and dashing around the back of his office, clearly searching for an escape. "... I'm guessing you didn't find him indoors."

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-04 02:59 am UTC (link)
"No, but he's harmless..." She watched as the kitten seemed distracted by something she could only imagine was a shadow and nearly flipped over as he tried to jump it, and she was laughing, and her hand ended up on Severus' arm. "How could I resist that? He's adorable."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-04 03:08 am UTC (link)
"How, indeed," he deadpanned, wondering why anyone would take home anything with so much energy unless they had been well and truly Confunded. The first hint of a smile pulled at his mouth, a little sly, as he glanced briefly down at her hand. "Well - we can hope he makes himself useful and chases Headmaster Nigellus away for the evening. He's been an intolerable bore ..."

When there didn't seem to be any impending disasters, no sudden crashes or exploding files of papers, he finally let his eyes leave the little beast, and turned to the table again. Maybe it would just fall asleep, or something. "I hope you don't have too much cause to regret him. Adorable as he is."

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-04 03:10 am UTC (link)
"You don't regret pets, Severus..." pointed out, still smiling at the cat, who was still chasing the shadow about. Then she noticed her hand still on his arm, and smiled a bit more at that, but blushed, too, and let it drop after a moment. "Well, as long as we're here, I suppose we should play? I didn't have time to get the wine, though...." Maybe they could summon up a bottle. Did the elves stock that? She had no idea.

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-04 03:23 am UTC (link)
"Some people surely do." Like the ones whose collections of fragile, bottled rarities were put at risk by scurrying animals. He drew his wand and sent out a little crackling ball of light, to keep it distracted away from things that would stain the carpets if they broke - and for a split second smiled back at her, before her hand fell away and he replaced his wand and the chairs pulled themselves out from under the table. "That's quite all right. We have an impressive cellar, or so I'm told." He sat, waving her along to do the same. "It's your turn, in the meantime."

I was hardly any work at all to summon up an elf, ask for something a little more dry this time, and set the glasses to one side.

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-05 01:07 am UTC (link)
"None that are as cute as him, though..." She smiled at the kitten again, then turned her attention to him as she sat down and watched up call up the wine. Dryer, she noticed, not nearly as sweet, and she should have guessed at that last time, too.

"He really needs a name, but I'll worry about that later. I'm sure he'll tell me what he needs to be called eventually. Give me some sort of sign about it." She stared off with a cursory first move on the board, then smiled across at him. "No catastrophes tonight, I'm told."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-05 01:18 am UTC (link)
"A name would only be appropriate if you intended to keep him." Which seemed like something very few people would feel compelled to do after this display, but ... she was a rare sort of person, that was true. He hadn't grown up around animals. He truly did not understand the appeal. "But better you than one of your less creative students, I suppose." At least they didn't get into trouble. He moved a pawn, parrying the usual open, and poured out two glasses of wine. "No? How encouraging. One night at a time, as usual." It probably had to do with the fact that she didn't abandon her post for entire nights at a time, unlike some others he could have named."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-05 01:26 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-05 01:36 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-05 01:49 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-05 01:54 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-05 01:59 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-05 02:10 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-05 02:12 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-05 02:21 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-05 02:24 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-05 02:34 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-05 02:37 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-05 02:45 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-05 02:47 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-05 02:53 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-05 03:01 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-05 03:14 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-05 11:45 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-06 12:14 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-06 12:21 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-06 12:52 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-06 12:57 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-06 01:11 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-06 01:18 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-06 01:25 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-06 01:27 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-06 01:37 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-06 01:41 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-06 01:51 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-06 01:54 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-06 02:07 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-06 02:10 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-06 02:21 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-06 02:27 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-06 02:35 am UTC

[info]oakbye
2010-10-09 12:03 am UTC (link)
"Well, I read too..." She said with a roll of her eyes. "I'm not illiterate." She just had other hobbies, and obviously didn't read as voraciously as he did. She moved a pawn to meet one of his, almost to the point of taking one but not just yet, and peeked under the table when she heard the kitten purring even louder. His robes were spattered with white hair, and she laughed but didn't mention it as she sat back up. "He likes you," She pointed out, then added, "He has good taste, apparently."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-09 01:15 am UTC (link)
"I never meant to imply." He slid his pawn through the gap his pawns had created. "Most people who write tend to spend quite a lot of time reading, don't they."

He glanced down underneath the table, looking decidedly skeptical. "He likes my shoes. I don't know about the rest - I've never had a cat. He doesn't insist upon experience, does he." But the cat's taste was neither here nor there, as pleased as he was to hear her say it. "I hope he likes you, as he will not be sleeping here." He arched his eyebrow at her.

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-09 01:18 am UTC (link)
"Oh, he'll sleep wherever I sleep," Essery said with a laugh, only just blushing when she realized how that could be taken, and looking decidedly back at the board until the blush faded and she could laugh at herself again, moving a bishop to take a pawn.

"Though, I was always led to believe cats could generally take care of themselves. They're not as needy as dogs."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-09 01:34 am UTC (link)
"Dogs aren't worth the trouble," he said, glancing up at her for a moment - with a satisfied sort of smile. It faded a bit as her bishop smashed his pawn to smithereens. "Curious choice. Not many Heads that I've known would choose to burden themselves that way."

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-09 03:03 am UTC (link)
"With pets?" Essery sounded surprised. "Pomona had bunnies. I'm not sure they qualify exactly, but she kept such close attention on them that they might as well have been pets. She always claimed they were helpful for the plants, or whatall, but still..." She trailed off with a laugh. "I don't suppose Flitwick had one." A cat would have been almost as big as he was.

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-09 03:13 am UTC (link)
"No." And Minerva had been her own, and ... well, he hadn't really engaged with the other heads of houses unless it had been absolutely necessary. "It's possible I simply wasn't paying attention; it was nothing I was very interested in. Did you grow up with animals?" The only ones he'd dealt with had been strays. And Lily's cat. Nothing of his own that he had ever given a damn about.

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-11 02:03 am UTC (link)
"Not really," Essery shrugged, "we had a few pets here and there, but being away at school... mum was so busy, we didn't really have anything other than our school pets. My owl, you know..." she smiled across at him, then looked down at the kitten again. "I think I'll like having one, though."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-11 02:16 am UTC (link)
"Owls are a bit different, I should think." They were useful, for one, and lived off in their own habitat, at least here in the castle. "But he seems ... good-natured enough, at least. I've never had one, but I do remember some nasty specimens in the neighborhood." He nudged the cat away with his foot, gently enough that it could probably pass for something like petting.

He picked up his rook, considering moving it along. "I suppose it makes for decent company, if you don't mind the side effects." He brushed some of the fur off the front of his robes, or tried.

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(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-11 02:19 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-11 02:33 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-11 02:37 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-11 02:50 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-11 02:56 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-11 03:08 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-11 03:11 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-11 03:22 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-13 10:11 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-13 10:47 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-13 10:50 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-13 11:12 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-13 11:36 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-13 11:44 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-13 11:47 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-13 11:54 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-14 12:46 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-14 01:04 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-16 01:41 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-16 01:51 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-16 01:55 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-16 02:08 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-16 02:12 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-16 02:21 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-16 02:25 am UTC

[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-16 02:33 am UTC (link)
"Who?" He didn't sound particularly impressed. Chic was nothing he ever expected to achieve. "I don't mind it, really. It keeps the children quiet when I walk into the room. You might cultivate one or two shadowy rumors for yourself, actually. Discipline problems all but evaporate." Of course, that might be a little more difficult for her, as she had actually written something like memoirs. "Do you have any evil deeds to build upon? It helps to have a few."

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-16 02:38 am UTC (link)
"Are you encouraging your staff toward debauchery?" an eyebrow crooked up, and then she all but dissolved into quiet laughter, settling back more comfortably in her chair. "I've a few secrets buried that I wouldn't like having dragged out in front of people, but nothing too dire. My marriage was a spectacular failure, but I doubt that counts as evil as much as it does stupid."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-16 02:49 am UTC (link)
He raised his eyebrows at debauchery, and smiled as she laughed, savoring her reaction more than he had expected to. He was about to object; but then his expression stiffened very slightly when she raised her marriage. He hadn't realized that she had been married, and it seemed like the sort of thing he shouldn't have missed, major life event that it was. ... But he hadn't investigated. "No, I hardly think that constitutes evil. Unless it was much more interesting than most dissolved marriages. It must have been before you started teaching," he said, at least mostly sure that he wouldn't have been so ignorant about one of his own employees. What he was really thinking was that she must have been very young. It amounted to the same thing.

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-16 02:52 am UTC (link)
She saw the slight change in his expression - the new tightness around his lips and eyes - and wondered at that. Was he surprised? Diapproving? She found she didn't much like that idea.

"Just before, actually. And it hadn't lasted that long to begin with. We divorced right before I came back to the wizarding world, as it were, and then the position at Hogwarts came vacant." Which was, really, why she'd been so easily convinced to apply. Hiding away at Hogwarts had seemed like a nice alternative, at the time, and she'd never regretted it. "I was young, he was ... a cheating bastard, actually. Weren't we meant to be talking about you?"

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-16 03:02 am UTC (link)
There was a measure of disapproval involved, but it wasn't directed at her. He loosened up a little with a strangely familiar relief that came from hearing someone else being abused. "Coming back to Hogwarts is quite a plunge, as far as returning from Muggle society. You must have had a bit of a shock." He sipped at his wine, and finally realized that she was out; it seemed rude, at least as far as he knew about such things, to leave her dry while he was not. He summoned another bottle, and it settled itself on her side of the table. "I am sorry," he said, and it might have referred to her empty glass, to her cheating bastard of a husband, or to his side-tracking of the conversation. "We were, weren't we. But I've been at Hogwarts for twenty-two years, and it's had only intermittent periods in which it's been at all exciting."

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-23 02:31 am UTC (link)
"And the rest of it all given way to drudgery?" Essery smiled, but there was something duller in it thinking about her ex husband. "That's what I was hoping for, really, when I applied here. But I got myself out of the funk of wanting to hide, and decided I actually enjoyed teaching..."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-10-23 02:40 am UTC (link)
"Drudgery indeed - essays, detentions, Potter, and the rest of it." He didn't knows why anyone would ever hope for that sort of unpleasantness. It wasn't just tedium; it was deadly boring and infuriating at once. "I'm glad to hear it, though. Not that there's nothing to be said for mind-numbing pursuits every now and then ... but they're rarely sustainable. And I don't like to lose faculty." That was a shameless generalization, of course. Everyone knew there were plenty of people he had been all to happy to lose, and probably still were. "And hiding never lasts, does it."

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[info]oakbye
2010-10-23 02:42 am UTC (link)
"I always thought you got a bit of a thrill out of losing faculty, actually..." She smiled at him again, and it was a bit brighter than it had been a moment ago. "But I suppose with ... well, some of those rumours about you must be true. So I suppose with a history like that, you're glad for the moments of quiet drudgery?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-23 02:50 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-23 02:54 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-23 03:02 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-23 03:12 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 12:57 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-24 01:10 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 01:34 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-24 01:42 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 01:51 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-24 01:54 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 02:05 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-24 02:12 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 02:20 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-24 02:35 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 02:42 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-24 02:46 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 02:56 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-24 03:02 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 03:13 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-24 03:17 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 03:31 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-24 03:37 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 03:50 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-10-24 04:01 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-10-24 10:39 pm UTC


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