Coming to apologize

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie slipped into the Slytherin Common Room unnoticed and began looking for Severus. She felt really bad about not showing up the night before. The vision she had seen of what happened at the ball was too disturbing and although she had rushed down to try and stop it, she had been too late. Just like always. She had at least been glad that Severus had missed the horrible scene. Now she only hoped he would understand why she had not come for him...

[Severus Snape]

Severus woke up and dressed and walked down to the common room, he spotted natalie and said in a cold tone "Your about 10 hours late, but i'm glad you made it" he then walked over to the chair by the fire he liked and plopped down into it.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry I didn't come. Something terrible happened at the ball. I got lost in the castle, but I was on my way here and I heard screaming, so I looked in and saw. My cousin went crazy and stabbed a woman. the ball got cancelled, and everyone was sent to bed. I was going to come tell you, but my uncle dragged me out of there before I could find you."

[Severus Snape]

"Really?" he said only just slighty less sullen. “I’m not very fond of listening to apologies or excuses, no matter how heartfelt they are,” Severus said quietly. How many times had he heard that HE was sorry that he didn't mean to yell or hit or forget.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie nodded. "I understand," she said. "And if I were you, I'd be mad and hurt too. I couldn't do anything about it, but I understand if you don't want to talk to me." She turned and started to walk out.

[Severus Snape]

"Wait!" he said standing from his chair "I'm hurt not telling you to leave!" he said bemused. "You're just different from everyone. I'm still deciding if that's good or bad..." he said taking a step towards her.

[Natalie St. Clare]

She turned back and smiled slightly. "I could say the same about you," she said. "But... I think you're good. I just think you've been hurt a lot and it makes you act differently. I didn't want to hurt you, and I wish I'd been able to come last night..."

[Severus Snape]

"Well...i can't say i wanted to see some one get stabbed..." he said looking at the ground, he wasn't going to say out right that he accpect her apology.

[Natalie St. Clare]

"I didn't see it, either, I got there just after it happened. I got pushed out of the way by someone who thought I shouldn't see it. I just know there was a lot of blood on the floor." She shuddered, not wanting to tell him that she's seen the stabbing in a vision while she had been on her way to the Slytherin Common Room. The rest of her story had been true, but she still didn't want him to know about her "gift..." or curse, as she preferred to think of it. "It was really horrible."

[Severus Snape]

"That's good... Can you sleep well?" he asked noticing she looked pale." You kinda look like i do after a holiday" he said still standing in front of her.

[Natalie St. Clare]

She shook her head. "I never sleep well," she said. "Too many dreams. Bad ones." She looked away, not wanting him to ask any questions about her dreams.

[Severus Snape]

"Is there anyway i could help? My ...mama sometimes slept with me so i could sleep" he said blushing that he just said mama. he didn't want to seem like a baby to her, since she was younger he figured she'd be just as mean as her sister was about not being as good as potions as he was.

[Natalie St. Clare]

She didn't notice his childish comment. "Sometimes Mommy used to give me a potion that would make me have a dreamless sleep. I liked that. I don't like dreams. If you could make that potion or get some for me, that would help a lot."

[Severus Snape]

"yeah! i know how to make that! Mama and I make that and sell it when i'm at home!" he said excitedly "But she said there are some addictive plants in it so you can't take it so often... But i could research of different plants to use!" he said excitedly "Do you want to help me? I have books in my dorm." he said gesturing towards the door on the other side of the room.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie smiled. "Thank you. I'd like that. I used to help my mom with potions, too. She was really good with potions--she was an Auror." She started toward the dorm. "Am I allowed up in your room?"

[Severus Snape]

"I don't see why you'd be different, Catherine Blustrode goes in there as she pleases" he said frowning. "But anyway she's not here at the moment so come on. I think i know of a few alternatives, but we have to make sure it's not going to change the out come of the whole potion." he said walking over to the door and pushing it open into the boy's dorm. which was neat and had four four poster beds. His was at the end of the row, with an old truck at the foot of the bed.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie followed him and looked around the room. "I thought boys' rooms were always messy," she said, with a hint of a smile.

[Severus Snape]

"I don't like being messy. " he said cryptically, he opened his trunk and took out three books. One was a small seeming journal type book, the largest of them was a tattered tome, it dwarfed the other books, and the last was the schools text book. " the small one is my mum's. She was writting it and i borrowed it, but she didn't know so she started another one." he said putting the book on the foot of his bed. "This one is a monster, but it has lots of different plants and stones and theories of how to make different effects in potions" he said putting the monster on the floor with a THUMP "And you can never go wrong looking at the basics" he said putting the text book on top of the monster on the floor. "I was thinking i'll write out the way we make the original and we'll try different things from that." he said taking out a piece of parchment.

[Natalie St. Clare]

"You really know a lot about this," she said. "Thank you for doing this for me. You're a really good friend."

[Severus Snape]

"Thank you" he said blushing in the tops of his ears. He took out a quill and wrote the procedure on the parchment and underlined the addictive plant, Wormwood. "This normally is used in potions that cause hysteria or delusions. But since it's picked on a night of a new moon the properties are inversed. So instead of wild dreams of nonsense or grandeur, there's an absence of them entirely. but it does change the fact that it's a narcotic." he said to her handing her the journal. "This book has some information on it, but some of the pages are sealed" he said handing her the journal. "All the front pages...I think it belonged to some one else before my mum" he said suddenly feeling ashamed that he had taken it from her, but he shoved that emotion away. "Maybe you could understand how to unlock it more than me. I don't know what to do with it" he said still holding the book.