The first days apart were incredibly difficult. Tori had grown accustomed to having his arms wrapped around her during the night and found herself lying awake for hours, unable to find a comfortable spot. The days weren’t much better. When she saw him in the Great Hall or at staff meetings, she had to suppress the urge to slap him in the face. He seemed to ignore the fact that there had ever been anything between them. *Ugh, he’s such a jerk!* But when she was alone, reading in the library for instance, she daydreamed about their time together. Even while talking to other people her thoughts often wandered to the dungeon. How strange that a place so sinister could hold such warm memories! She was eternally grateful for Flitwick’s presence. He never talked to her about Snape, but his excited babbling about his upcoming retirement was just what she needed to take her mind off of things. He let her teach most of the Charms cases now and listened carefully to her suggestions, giving her advice when she needed it and praise when she earned it. After a week, her relationship with Snape seemed like a blurry dream and she found that she could actually look at him without having her stomach turn. Not that she dared to look him in the eyes, no, that was something she was rather reluctant of. Although she didn’t know what frightened her so much about it: fear of what she would see in them or that she wouldn’t see anything in them at all.

Snape wasn’t any better off. He had thought he could get things back to the way they had been before without much trouble. He couldn’t have been more wrong! Each time he saw her in the Great Hall, looking paler than ever, the heartache was almost unbearable. He had to fight the need to go to her and shake her up to make her see sense. Instead, he tried to appear as inscrutable as always while he buried his pain deep inside. No one must know how deeply this had affected him, least of all Tori. He didn’t need any sympathy and wasn’t asking for it. Luckily they all left him alone, including Lupin. While he managed to convince most people that he had been unaffected by the break-up during the day, the evenings were pure horror. Everywhere he turned, something seemed to remind him of her former presence in his domain: a short note in her small, but clear handwriting, the scent of her delicate perfume on his pillow – which he refused to replace, long strawberry brown hairs on the floor of his bathroom… He tried to avoid his room as much as possible, returning only to sleep and then he buried his head in his pillow, absorbing her perfume, dreaming that they were still together. Simon Carter’s detentions gave him the perfect excuse to escape from his room. After the first session, the boy seemed to have left behind his worst fears for his teacher and was actually beginning to learn something. Snape found that he rather enjoyed this private tutoring. He was careful not to hand out any other detentions on the days that young Carter would be there, knowing the boy wouldn’t be as comfortable when others were there to witness his ignorance. Gradually he got back to the routine he had longed for, creating an unnatural escapist reality for himself.

Dumbledore had watched his two teachers with concern. He was happy to see that their break-up didn’t result in them ending up as total wrecks, although he noticed that it wouldn’t take much to get them there. Severus seemed a little bit too unaffected by all of this and Tori worried him even more. The girl didn’t look good. Knowing that she had skipped meals before, he carefully kept his eye on her in the Great Hall, but she served herself as usual. He sighed. Maybe he was too old for this kind of stuff and had been wrong in assuming that it would all work out. He knew that they could be great together, but apparently Tori was not ready to deal with a complex personality like Severus’. Oh that boy surely knew how to trouble an old man! One might think he had learned his lesson by now. Clearly both of them had some growing-up to do. He patted Fawkes on the head, murmuring: “It seems that your gift was in vain, my dear friend.” And then he turned to see green sparks hissing in his fireplace.

Dumbledore was surprised to see Molly Weasley stepping out. “Molly!!” he welcomed her, “What a surprise to see you here! I trust everything is all right with Arthur?”

She needed a moment to find her sense of direction again before she spoke: “Fine Albus, but I needed to see you right away. Actually, I think you might assemble your staff as well.”

“I think so.”

Only minutes later, the staff, including Bill Weasley was gathered in Dumbledore’s office.

“OK, I’ve asked you all to come here because Mrs. Weasley has something to tell us, go ahead Molly.”

She looked a bit overwhelmed by being in the center of attention, but when she caught Bill’s encouraging smile, she found her voice again. “I got a letter from Fred and George today.”

Everyone smiled when they thought about the Weasley twins that were taking America by storm with their inventions.

“They wrote that they could have sworn they saw Lucius Malfoy the other day.” Those words had the effect she had anticipated. Everyone was looking very worried now.

“Of course, they don’t know he escaped, but knowing them I think that they might suspect something, so I’ve sent a message back to warn them not to go after him.”

Dumbledore raised his hand to stop them from talking in confusion.

“I know we’ve tried hard to keep the news of Lucius’ escape out of the papers, but maybe that was a mistake…Molly, do you know where they might have seen him?”

“Err…I remember Fred saying they were in Florida, but planned on going to New Orleans, so it could have been anywhere along…””

“He’s in New Orleans.” Snape cut her short. All looked at him.

“That’s where all dark wizards like to go when they’re in America. I assume he’s looking for some kind of support.”

Dumbledore scratched his beard. “Might he try some voodoo of his own?”

“No, I don’t think so. Whatever he’s planning, he doesn’t want to do it alone.”

“Right,” Dumbledore was ready to get into action. “I’ll inform Alastor and the Ministry. We must remain vigilant now that we know he is back and up to something. Molly, you did well to tell your sons to stay out of it, he’s a powerful wizard and a very angry one to say the least.”

The next day, Dumbledore was able to tell them that the Ministry had sent two Aurors to New Orleans to track Lucius Malfoy down.

They increased the security on Draco, who was informed of his father’s whereabouts. He didn’t know of any family property in the New Orleans region, so the search might take some time.

With all of this new excitement going on, Tori hardly realized that it had been two weeks since she had left the dungeon. She still felt an aching emptiness inside her, but was happy to know that she was able to function almost normal again.

December kicked off with a bang. She – and assumed Snape as well – received an invitation for the ‘Honoring the Heroes Reception’ later that month. She had almost forgotten about it and felt a little twist in her stomach when she thought she might have to have her picture taken with him. The news of the break-up hadn’t left Hogwarts yet, which was strange. Maybe Dumbledore had asked everyone to be discreet about it?

Shannon seemed deliriously happy lately. Tori found out why when she met Bill on one of her strolls along the lake.

“Draco proposed to her.” He told her, laughing at the look of astonishment on her face.

“Wow, that’s some news!”

“Yep, it’s going to be a very intimate ceremony in July, when they both have graduated.”

“This is really great. Oh…” she giggled, Bill looking at her in amusement.

“Something funny?”

“Oh yes! Just think about Ron’s reaction when he hears his little ‘sister’ is going to be a Malfoy.” She burst out into laughter, but Bill stopped her.

“No, no. Actually Ron already knows and wished good luck to the both of them. And Shannon is not going to be a Malfoy since Draco has asked if he could go by the Richards-name as well.”

Tori’s mouth dropped. “Wow, talk about giving up everything.” And then she laughed again. “If they ever find Lucius and tell him about this, they won’t need to kill him, I think he will explode at the very thought of his son becoming a Richards and forsaking the family name!”

Tori enjoyed being able to laugh again, but when she got back to her room the differences between her situation and Shannon’s became all too painfully clear to her. Shannon and Draco had as much troubles to overcome as Snape and herself, but somehow they had found a way to deal with them. Why had those two succeeded where they had failed? Not that she didn’t want them to be happy, far from it, but she couldn’t help but feel incredibly sad when she thought of what might have been.