Isadora and Scarlett ended up leaving the lake quicker than they had been planning. Soon after Severus had taken his leave, storm clouds had rolled in, and a rather loud thunderclap had sent all of the students hurrying to the entrance hall, just barely escaping the pouring rain.

“Do you fancy him?” Scarlett asked out of the blue as they made their way down to the common room.

Isadora stopped in the middle of the corridor, balking at the words that had just come out of her friend’s mouth. “Fancy Severus? Are you out of your mind?” she hissed.

“Well, I don’t know, Isadora!” Scarlett shrugged as they continued to the blank space of wall in the dungeon hall. “You two have been spending a lot of time together, and I don’t really see you with any of the other guys in the house, so I thought it was the logical question to ask.”

Isadora muttered the password, and the wall slid apart, allowing them access to the Slytherin common room. Dark leather armchairs were gathered around a large fire as several students tried to warm themselves up from the rain they had just been caught in. Dark mahogany tables were spread around the room with high-backed chairs circling them; classmates were hunched over their books as they took notes and tried to complete homework.

“Well?” Scarlett pushed as they made their way down a second flight of stairs to the sixth year dormitory.

“No, Scarlett,” Isadora said quietly as she threw her bag onto her bed, rattling the dark green hangings as she went. “I have no interest in Severus as anything more than a friend.” She could feel Scarlett’s stare on her shoulders; she turned around. “What part of that sentence wasn’t clear enough?” she growled.

Scarlett backed off. “I was just wondering, Isadora. Nobody spends much time with Severus, and before this year the only time you two were ever seen together was during that study group you were in. It just seemed a bit curious, is all,” she said, defending herself. “What are you two doing every Friday night, anyway?”

Isadora rolled her eyes. “How many times do you and Callum have to ask, Scarlett?” she yelled. “We’re studying Potions! My father doesn’t want me failing my N.E.W.T.s, he hired Severus to continue tutoring me through to graduation. What about that is so difficult to understand?”

At this point, Isadora was fuming. Scarlett had been asking her since early October what was going on between her and her Potions tutor; yet no matter how many times Isadora explained the situation, Scarlett always seemed to think there was something more. Maybe it was because she and Severus got along well enough that they weren’t constantly snapping at each other – which was mostly on account of neither of them getting anywhere in the tutoring sessions while they were arguing and yelling. Severus never seemed to look at any of the girls in their house with anything beyond contempt and scorn, the same way he looked at all of the other boys in the house. The only reason he wasn’t constantly berating Isadora was because of the unspoken threat of her father.

Scarlett hung her head and sighed. “I’m sorry I asked,” she said as she stuffed her books back into her trunk.

Isadora rolled her eyes as she rifled around for her towel. “Just stop asking me about it, Scarlett. It’s incredibly annoying,” she whispered. “I’m going to take a shower, I’ll see you later.”

With that, she left the dormitory and walked silently back through the common room, out into the corridor. The girl’s bathroom was down at the end of a particularly dreary dungeon hall; the floor always seemed wet, and the ceiling was always dripping condensation onto unlucky passers-by. Many students, by the time they made it to sixth year, had learned to quickly dart through to the door, which was a dank tapestry of a sinister looking mermaid. Only speaking the password would allow the students to lift the heavy corner of the tapestry to enter the bathroom.

The bare soles of Isadora’s feet padded softly against the rough stone floor as she made her way over to one of the showers. An ancient-looking wrough- iron showerhead jutted out from above her; she let the water flow for a few minutes. Being so far under the school, the water always took forever to warm up. A steady lukewarm stream hit her back as she stepped in, letting the water flow over her. She hadn’t had time to shower before breakfast and Transfiguration. Her hair was soaked and heavy as she rinsed the soap from it. As she stood with her face under the showerhead, she felt some of the tension and irritation caused by Scarlett’s unreasonable line of questioning wash down the drain with the rest of the water.

Half of the reason she made a point to be seen hanging around with Severus was to impress upon other potential followers of the Dark Lord the support that Zachary Starbuck (and by proxy Lucius Malfoy) was giving to Severus should he decide to take the Dark Mark after graduation. Isadora looked down at her left forearm and ran a finger gently over the skin. If she so desired, after graduation next year, she would have the symbol of the Dark Lord forever branded by magic into her flesh. Her family expected it of her, and she honestly didn’t know what else she would do.

“Are you alright?” a voice called from the entryway.

Isadora sighed and leaned against the stone wall, shocked by how cold it was. “Scarlett, are you following me around?” she asked with a twinge of aggravation.

“You’ve been gone almost forty minutes, Isasdora. We’ve got Ancient Runes in fifteen,” Scarlett answered, her voice coming closer. “I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t fallen asleep in here is all.”

A smirk ran across Isadora’s face as she pushed strands of wet black hair out of her face. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, don’t worry,” she said quietly as she stuck her head out from behind the shower curtain. Scarlett smiled briefly at her before turning around and leaving the bathroom.

Isadora shrugged and stood under the water for a few more seconds before deciding she really should get ready to go to class. With a jerk she shut the water off and stepped out into her towel. Hopefully Ancient Runes would be more interesting than Transfiguration had been.

***

The rain from earlier refused to let up, and hammered at the windows of the library as Isadora sat alone, trying to concentrate on a particularly difficult runic translation. Professor Babbling had assigned two feet of translations to be due next class, and Isadora was already behind enough in this class. Scarlett, Callum, and even Erik Strathborne had all tried to convince her to put off the homework for a few hours to join them in a game of Exploding Snap, but Isadora knew she wouldn’t have time between now and Monday to complete the assignment the way she wanted to. Several books were stacked around her, making a sort of wall between her and the rest of the library, which was now humming with students reduced to doing homework for lack of anything else to do. A few of the books were helping her with her rune charts, and the rest were thick, musty tomes with maps drawn on the covers.

When she was young, Isadora had stumbled upon a rather large atlas in her parents’ library. It was no ordinary atlas, however, because her whole family was full of wizards; this atlas was enchanted. Depending on what page you turned to, this atlas could tell you the exact temperature of any location you happened to be looking at, the current population (which was constantly ticking upwards), the wizarding population of the country you were interested in, or any number of other statistical charts a witch or wizard could possibly need to know. She had been fascinated by one map, which changed with the seasons; she could watch as Russia slowly went from evergreen to white and snowcapped, while the monsoons made their yearly sweep across the Indian subcontinent. She spent hours of her childhood watching the maps, concerned with little else.

It was because of this fascination that her uncle, who owned a wizarding bookshop in Derbyshire, suggested that Isadora try to become a magical cartographer after she graduated. There was no direct way to do this at Hogwarts, though; Isadora had lengthy discussions with Professor Slughorn on the matter, trying to choose courses to take that would best increase her chances of learning the secrets of enchanted map-making. Astronomy helped a little; learning the position of stars was one of the first things she had to learn as a cartography student, so she made sure to pay extra attention when gazing up at the sky with the rest of her class. Her father had sent her away one summer to France, to work with a wizarding firm responsible for the atlas in the Starbuck library. Isadora returned with a better understanding of how to create the enchantment behind each of the maps, and was given an invitation to return after she graduated, as an apprentice.

Her interest in map-making had attracted the attention of the Dark Lord as well. Having a witch who could create a map showing all of the Muggle-born witches and wizards in England was something Lord Voldemort was very keen on. When Lucius Malfoy had visited the summer before sixth year had started, he had conveyed a message from the Dark Lord, requesting that when she graduated, Isadora consider joining his ranks. As she would be the only one with the skills to make his maps, she would be a special asset. The compliment made her rather proud; it made her father crazy with honor.

Isadora shook her head, freeing herself from the memory of Lucius’ visit. She told herself she wouldn’t think about it until she returned home for the summer holidays.

“Ow!” a shout echoed from the table behind her. “Was that necessary?”

Someone else chuckled. Isadora turned around and peered through the bookshelf separating the two tables; she could just make out the face of James Potter, his glasses askew on his face, covered in scorch marks. The familiar voice of Sirius Black replied, “It was just a small one, no harm done!” He must have set off a firework.

“I’m trying to work, Sirius. I need to have tomorrow night free,” Potter hissed, leaning further over his parchment.

“Why, you finally have another date with Evans?” Black asked; a chair scraped against the stone floor as he sat down. “Tomorrow’s a Hogsmeade trip, isn’t it?”

Isadora heard Potter sigh. “Yes, it is. I was thinking about taking her somewhere in the village for tea, but unless this massive pile of work gets done, that won’t be happening,” he said sternly.

She rolled her eyes, turning back to her own work. She had just begun scratching down the translation of a rather long runic sentence when Black said with a laugh, “I heard a rumor about her and Snivellus.” Isadora froze; she knew that was the insipid nickname he and Potter had given Severus back in first year. She put her quill down and leaned as far back as she could without seeming suspicious, trying to better hear their conversation.

“Oh, did you now,” James said offhandedly, his quill still scratching away.

“Come off it, James!” Sirius moaned. “I’d rather hear it from you than from some fourth year.”

She heard a book close. Glancing back through the books, she saw Potter placing his quill on the table and staring up at Black, a concerned look on his face. He looked around, trying to make sure nobody was listening. He didn’t see Isadora.

“Alright, you can’t repeat this to anyone, d’you understand?” he said quietly. Sirius must have nodded. “Apparently, Lily and Snape grew up near each other. He’s the first one that told her she was a witch, way back when odd things were happening she couldn’t explain. Remember how she was always defending him, always hanging around him and nobody could figure out why? Turns out they were good friends!”

Sirius stifled a laugh. “Lucky we saved her from that,” he said, his tone laced with acid. “Wonder what happened?”

“You were there! That day last year, when he called her a…a Mudblood,” James whispered so no one would hear, “because she tried to help him. That day when we flipped him over for a bit of fun.”

“I’m surprised it took her that long to get rid of him. Snape calls all Muggle-borns that awful word.”

“It gets better, though,” Potter said, so quietly Isadora almost fell out of her chair as she strained to hear him. “Lily reckoned good old Snivellus had a thing for her. Always acted a little possessive, she said.”

Sirius pounded on the table, muffling his laughter with the sleeve of his robes. “You have got to be kidding me, James! Severus had a crush on your girl!”

“James!” a high voice called from the end of the row. Isadora recognized Lily Evans’ brilliant red hair as she made a beeline for Potter and smacked him across the face. “You swore you wouldn’t say a word to anyone!”

“Lily!” James whispered. “I’m sorry, I –”

“I heard a rumor in the common room, Lil,” Sirius said quietly, as always, coming to his friend’s defense. “I didn’t know if it was true or not, so I came to James…”

Isadora saw Lily’s face turn as red as her hair. “Yes, Sirius, it’s true. Severus and I were friends. We are no longer. End of story,” she hissed.

“Did he really fancy you, though?” Black pressed.
“Yes,” she sighed, staring at the floor. “And I forbid either of you to use this against him!” She glared at the two young men across from her.

“We promise, Lil,” Sirius whispered reassuringly.

“C’mon, let’s get out of here,” Potter said, cramming his books and parchment into his bag.

Isadora quickly moved away from the bookshelf and back to her table, trying to make it look like she hadn’t heard a word of the conversation. Out of the corner of her eye she watched the three Gryffindors walk past her, watching as Potter tried desperately to hold Lily’s hand, though his efforts were for naught. An annoyed groan echoed from a few rows over, and Isadora smirked as Lily hissed, “Our date is off, Potter. Don’t ask me again until you’ve grown up a bit.”

As soon as they were gone, Isadora exhaled a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding in. She stared blankly at the homework she was supposed to be working on, unsure of how she was going to continue, now that she had this information. Severus liked Lily Evans? It didn’t seem possible. Severus threw around words like Mudblood more often than half the purebloods in Slytherin, why would he be friends with one, let alone have feelings for her?

She looked over her runes homework again before deciding it was going to be impossible to keep working on it now. Tomorrow was a tutoring session; there was no way she’d be able to ask Severus about Evans then. With her luck, he’d end up using her as potions ingredients, he’d be so angry. It would have to wait until the weekend.

With her mind made up, Isadora replaced the stopper on her ink bottle and tossed it into her bag, along with her parchment and quill. Tomorrow night was going to be amazingly awkward.