InsaneJournal

Brainy and the Beast

                "You're the son of a farmer," they would remind him. "What use are books to you?"

                They're a way to escape, he wanted to tell them, a way to ignore the fact that farming was bland, and that father was quick with his fists. But he would merely say he was trying to better himself.

                "Think you're too good for all this, Snape? Look around, no, really look, and chances are that you're not. You're no worse or better than the rest of us." Sometimes he even believed it. Other times, of course, he liked to take matters into his own hands.

                "We'll see," he'd say to himself when he was alone. "We'll see."

                His best friend growing up had been Lily Evans. She had red hair that shone in the sun and she never complained about hard work. She was always joking, not like James or Sirius joked, but in an intelligent, beautiful manner. If he didn't know better, he would think he was in love. But he knew better. He didn't fall in love, and he certainly wasn't going to mess up his one true friendship.

                James Potter liked Lily Evans quite a bit too, in fact he may have loved her, but Snape wouldn't have it, if he had any say in the matter at all.

                "He's harmless," Lily would say.

                "If you call leaving me in the woods harmless."

                "Well that's where you saw that castle, isn't it? The one out past the river. The one we've heard about since we were babes."

                "You believe me, don't you?" he said, suddenly looking tense.

                "Well . . . honestly, Severus, I don't know what to believe."

                He hissed like bacon in a scorching pan.

                "I want to believe, but you're always telling me to use my head."

                "For a girl, you're awfully logical," he said with a scowl.

                "I don't know whether to be glad or upset."

                "Forget about it," he said, leaning down to pick up a wildflower, handing it to her. "But I bet I could find the castle again if I tried. Would you like to see it?"

                "What castle?" said Sirius Black from the window of the house nearby.

                "Stop listening in!" said Lily with a frown.

                "What castle?"

                The tension was suddenly palpable. Lily looked from one scowling face to the other before answering. "The castle from the legend of the Beast."

                Sirius stared at them. "You have got to be kidding me," he scoffed. Perhaps they'd been working out in the fields for too long.

                "No, no. It's quite real," said Severus impatiently.

                Sirius turned to look at Lily.

                "Well, at least he believes it's real. I've never seen it myself."

                "Of course not!" said Sirius. "It is not a woman's place to be traipsing about in the woods at odd hours."

                Lily scoffed. "I wouldn't want to traipse in the woods anyway. It doesn't sound remotely appealing."

                "Sounds appealing to me," said Sirius.

                "Sense of adventure intact, if only for a lack of brains," said Severus amusedly. "Well, I accept."

                "Accept?"

                "A mission to the castle. You and I and whoever else."

                "And what will we do with this Beast once we reach his castle?"

                "Nothing," said Severus with a shrug. "We will return home and you can tell James that I wasn't making it up after all."

                "What's seeing a castle going to prove?"

                "Well, it's a rather odd castle. Enchantments seem to be going rampant."

                "How do we know a Beast is inside?"

                "Fine," said Severus with a sigh. "One glimpse of the Beast, but that's it. Is it a plan?"

                "It's a plan."

                They shook on it. Lily muttered something about boys and their idiocy. Sirius and Severus just smirked at each other.

                They claimed it was a hunting trip. This fact alone was why Snape allowed James Potter to come along. James was an excellent marksman and trapper and they would have a much more legitimate excuse if they came back with actual kills. Peter was an excellent fisherman. Sirius and Snape were not much of either, but they were the entire reason the "hunting party" excuse had been cooked up in the first place. To hide the fact they were going to get a glimpse of the Beast.

                That night after they'd finally stopped trying to find it in the dark, despite Sirius's protests, the boys all fell asleep. Well, all except for Sirius himself. Sirius got up again and used the light of the almost-full moon to try and find the place. When he was just about to give up, when the sky turned that deep sort of almost-sunrise blue, he saw a large stone building flicker into sight and gasped.

                This had to be it. It had to be the castle. His toes and his fingertips tingled. He walked forward, hardly breathing lest the flickering image die completely as some sort of forest mirage. The closer he walked, the odder he felt. He was filled with both apprehension and boldness, and really had no idea how the two could mix so well, but they did. The place was eerie. He could hear the soft music of a harp in the distance, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that there most probably was no harpist at all, nor any instrument for the harpist to play upon. The desolation was evident, and yet he tingled.

                His compulsion and apprehension mated at last in a flurry as he touched fingertips to the entrance to the castle. There was no door to the large wall surrounding the palace. He chewed at his lip and then crossed the threshold. Crossing the threshold was, perhaps, not the greatest idea.

                Even in the darkness he could tell that the Beast was much younger than he had expected. "Hey there," he said with a small smile, trying the friendly approach, even as his voice quavered slightly.

                "Sirius Black," said the gruff voice of the Beast, speaking through fang-like teeth as wide as a man's finger.

                Sirius was actually scared now, caught completely off-guard.

                "You're here in the forest trying to find me. Well, take a look," said the Beast. There was a moment of silence in which Sirius did indeed size him up. "Good. Now that's over, go get me my Severus Snape."

                "I'm not sure I can find my way back to them," said Sirius softly.

                "Then follow me," said the Beast. He led Sirius to the camp, which took a shorter time than it probably should have, and then he hid behind some trees while Sirius woke Snape up hesitantly.

                "What is it?" grumbled Snape. "It's not something stupid, is it?"

                "No," said Sirius. "In fact, I found the castle. Took a good while, though. Flickered in and out of sight, it did."

                "Really? It was . . . elusive? It didn't seem to draw you in, rather?"

                "No, drawing me in is not how I would put it."

                "It's grand, the castle, isn't it?"

                "I met the Beast."

                Severus raised an eyebrow. "Met?"

                "Yes. And he speaks. And he knows who you are."

                The Beast chose that moment to slip out of his hiding place, to a gasp from Severus. "You're Severus Snape," he said. "You read books. Your father hits you, sometimes. Other times he leaves you alone."

                Severus, though frightened, scowled. "Presumptuous."

                "Or merely correct," said the Beast. He turned back in the direction of the castle, and within minutes they were not only through the gates, they were inside the castle itself.

Great. More bloody contradictions. It was all at once foreboding and warm, the interior of the castle. Really it was, for lack of a better term, quite royal. The ceilings were high, but the walls were covered in paintings anywhere from paintings of a garden, to the sea, to former inhabitants (all except the Beast, of course), to scenes of dragons, of unicorns, of Heaven and Hell alike. Beautiful works of art, with nearly no room devoid of them, even in the library where there was a depiction of a wintry scene on a blank wall, and the snow actually seemed to drift down.

Fabrics were the finest available, the finest imaginable, and gold and jewels glittered wherever necessary, and even wherever it almost seemed superfluous. Sirius found he would not object much to being stuck inside with such splendor, or at least he didn't think so. He was grateful and joyous that the Beast offered, therefore, him a place for the night. He accepted with all haste. Severus was less enthusiastic, Sirius could tell, but he agreed to the arrangement as well.

The soup was warm, served by bowls and cutlery that moved on their own, as Sirius supposed the stove did as well. But, hey, he didn't much question a good thing. He was no Severus. Not only, in fact, was the soup warm, but it was delicious, with the finest ham he'd ever tasted. And the supply seemed to be endless, until they were all finished and the leftovers vanished right in the pot.

Severus was getting more and more tired as the night progressed, what with all the walking necessary for the tour and with the hot, filling meal. He stifled a yawn. The Beast waved a hand to clear the dishes away and led them to two adjacent rooms.

"We've no idea what his motivations are," said Severus after the Beast left, gazing longingly at the luxurious bed that was all his for the taking.

"Well we won't know until he reveals them to us, will we?" said Sirius. "In the meantime, we can study him. Get some rest, why don't you, Snape? You need it."