š„ : does my muse have any ā unusual ā habits, interests, and / or talents? do they hide it, or are they proud of it?
severus is particularly adept at sleight of hand; the sort of tricks that pass for magic to muggles who donāt know any better. itās not something he would ever willingly reveal. it began as something of a necessity, to him, having grown up without much money at all. it already took enough of his motherās scrimping and saving to afford to buy his wandĀ āāĀ the yearly need for textbooks and new uniforms and clothing after each growth-spurt put far too much stress on the prince household. he hated seeing the purple shadows under his motherās eyes, hated knowing how hard she worked to keep them under that leaky roof and safe from his father. so he began to alleviate as much of the pressure to provide as he could, and began to shoplift. at first, it was only the bare necessities, the things he absolutely neededĀ āāĀ textbooks, a pair of uniform trousers when his only other pair were already threadbare, and the like.Ā then came around the very first christmas he spent at the evans household: invited by lily, welcomed by her parents, tolerated by petunia. how could he possibly dream of attending empty handed?Ā the first christmas was one of small, nervous prizes. a green scrunchie the same color as her eyes. a bottle of shimmery nail polish. these were the sort of things that girls liked, right? he was so wrapped up in his nervous hope to please lily that heād entirely forgotten about petunia. petunia didnāt seem all-too-surprised.
the next few christmases and birthdays were slightly different; as his friendship with lily grew, so did his talents for stealing, concealing, and disappearing. it all had to be done without a single trace of magic, of course, but he managed just fine.
charm bracelets. books: muggle fiction at first, and then more costly tomes pertaining to magical theories and histories. music albums. a polaroid camera. a pair of soft dragonhide gloves charmed to keep her hands warm even on the coldest of days. a bottle of firewhisky when they were sixteen. at some point, severus got a job over the holidays and stopped stealing completely. the tricks and gestures heād perfected over the years, however, stuck and became a secret habit of an entirely different sort. when heās thinking or focusing particularly hard on something, it helps to flip and twirl a galleon over and under his knuckles, revealing and concealing the coin as if by magic āā but entirely without.Ā small and moderately-sized objects, likewise, seem to wink out of existence for moments at a time whenever he handles them, his hands performing the movements and gestures by memory alone and without conscious permission. once or twice, someone has mentioned these absentminded habits to him, and he met each query with flushed cheeks and a sharp denial.
