Author's note: SS/OC and HP/HG will be in the future but not in the near future. SB also will be one of the central characters (and he is not going to die). English is not my native language, so sorry for mistakes. I hope you will like it. READ, ENJOY and REVIEW!:)
Harry Potter universe belongs to the J.K Rowling. I don't own it. Only OC is mine.
Chapter 1. The encounter
It was nearly midnight. With a faint pop a woman appeared out of nowhere at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. She outstretched her arms to find balance and after making sure she was standing safely on the ground she looked around. Her gaze briefly stopped on the Hagrid's hut that was seen in the distance before she raised her eyes and enjoyed a beautiful view of Hogwarts for a few moments. She was not a frequent visitor at Hogwarts, in fact she was here only once in her life six years ago. Hogwarts School was so much different from Beauxbatons Academy where she had spent almost ten years of her life. And she liked that difference: it was far less pompous, less sumptuous; contrary to Beauxbatons this castle was in perfect harmony with the outside landscape.
After a few seconds the young woman started making her way through the school grounds to the castle. She walked fast and completely soundless making light, quick strides. Her long dark blue cloak was flapping around her ankles almost touching the grass. Finally she reached the large wooden doors which were opened just enough for one person to come in. She quietly slipped in and continued her way. As she passes by, some of the portraits hanging on the walls of the corridor were sending her curious looks. After making the last turn she went through the Gargoyle Corridor towards Headmaster's tower. But unfortunately she was stopped by the Stone Gargoyle that stood in her way.
"Let me in," Elsie said in the most imperious tone she could master. As it was expected the Gargoyle was unimpressed and remained motionless.
She was tired after a long day and wanted to sleep which was quite natural desire at this time of night. But this evening she had received a letter from Dumbledore who being as eccentric as always without giving any reasonable explanation just asked her to come here immediately. She could not just ignore this request as it was from Dumbledore and it could be something extremely important after all. So she just wanted to get through with it as quickly as possible, return back home and enter into the world of dreams. Now when she thought about that letter she particularly recalled the last sentence, it was completely out of place: "I enjoy Canned Cannanoodles ", it said.
"Canned Cannanoodles," Elsie said looking at the Gargoyle again with a slight smirk on her face.
The statue reluctantly leapt aside and the wall behind it slid apart revealing a moving spiral staircase. She stepped onto it and thus was carried up to the door that led to Dumbledore's Office.
She knocked on the door several times and patiently waited but the only answer she received was silence. Elsie shrugged, opened the door which was surprisingly unlocked, and entered the large circular room. It was just as she remembered, only the number of silver instruments on spindle legged tables as well as books on the shelves increased. The same shabby tattered hat was sitting on enormous claw footed table, though there was no gorgeous phoenix, which was present the last time she visited this place. The portraits of headmasters and headmistresses were sleeping soundly, not at all disturbed by her appearance.
She came closer to the headmaster's desk, sat on one of the chairs in front of it and looked around. Her eyes once again followed the rows of books on the walls, the old hat, she saw the silver sword with rubies on the hilt. Suddenly she noticed a path of silver light dancing on its glass case and turned around on her seat wondering where this strange light came from. At that moment the office door opened abruptly.
Severus was standing on his knees on the cold ground of graveyard in front of Lord Voldemort. He was looking straight ahead but not focusing his eyes on anything in particular. Recent rain turned the ground into the mud and he could feel the fabric of his trousers around his knees quickly became wet.
"As I was saying, Severus, I believe your story," the Dark Lord continued his speech, every "s" pronounced by him was like snake's hissing.
Severus slowly raised his head and looked at his supposed Master.
There was nothing human left in the Dark Lord's appearance anymore. His eyes, which were hazel with occasional gleam of red before his resurrection, acquired a livid scarlet color and the pupils became serpentine vertical. He did not have a nose anymore as well as hair, only the two slits for nostrils and the absolutely bald head with his skin whiter than a skull. Overall the sight was as repulsive as it could be.
Severus knew better than to believe that the Dark Lord was completely persuaded by his explanations, he would have to prove his loyalty in the future somehow before the Dark Wizard would trust him entirely again but before that he would be still under suspicion. He had no idea how he was going to manage it. Severus fought the desire to pinch the bridge of his nose.
The Dark Lord fastened his red eyes on Severus' black ones, probing his mind once again, once again trying to expose Severus in his lie. Potions Professor saw memories flashing before his eyes but he skillfully concealed all episodes of his life the Dark Lord did not need to know. One more time Voldemort found nothing contradictory to Severus' words.
"I understand that you arrived later than you should for quite a good reason but this still does not release you from responsibility of Potter boy escape. You are just as guilty as my other Death Eaters, so you are going to receive the same punishment," the Dark Lord said taking out his white wand and pointing it straight at Severus.
Severus knew very well what punishment that would be but he by no means could prepare to the terrible burning pain that seized all his body as the Dark Wizard calmly, almost lazily said the horrible spell.
"Crucio," his high-pitched voice died in the silence of the night.
Like thousands white-hot knives were piercing and severing every inch of Severus' skin, it seemed every bone in his body was caught on fire. At that moment he was quite sure, his hair and nails were in pain too.
Severus fell on the ground trying very hard to stifle the scream. Finally his scream broke through his clenched teeth. Writhing in front of the Dark Lord Severus unconsciously dipped his fingers into the earth and the rusty sharp old nail pierced his right hand. But being in such extreme pain he did not even notice it.
Severus was not aware how much time he had spent like this but by the end he was ready to do anything to stop this torture, all his being wanted to die. All at once the pain stopped. His body relaxed as he limply lay on the ground panting.
The Dark Lord looked at Severus indifferently for a few seconds.
"You may go," he finally said. Severus heard the faint rustle of the robes and the pop indicating that the Dark Wizard disapparated away.
Taking a deep breath Severus put his hands in front of him trying to stand up. Suddenly he became very aware of a nail in his right hand as an unexpected searing pain shot through his hand causing him to hiss and fell back on the ground. He made a second, more successful effort to stand up, this time leaning only on one hand. Finally he straightened himself up swaying a little from light dizziness. His muscles and back were very tired and ached, he also felt the growing pain in the head. Sixteen years ago he recovered from these punishments way easier and faster. He noticed that surprisingly he did not become younger over the years, he did not become healthier either. Apparently constantly being in the dungeons and doing his not-so-favorite job would not help to improve his state too.
Severus lifted his right hand. A deep ragged gash spread across his palm, blood was issuing from it profusely. Grimacing he extracted the bloody nail out of his hand and threw it disgustedly in the bushes. He sighed wondering about his evident "luckiness". The Fate clearly did not like him much but there was no surprise here, this day was just another proof. He loathed all this so much and it was only the beginning.
It was so thoughtless of him not to take any Essence of Dittany as it was so needful right now. He would not admit it to anybody but he did not know any spells to cure his hand. It was really ironical that he could deal with very serious magical wounds but had no competence to cure a simple gash from the nail. He hid his bleeding hand in the folds of his robes, then took out his wand with his left hand instead of right. But it felt so unnatural there that for a moment he even began to doubt if he would manage to apparate without splitting himself. Shoving second thoughts aside he turned on the spot and dissapeared.
Severus appeared a few meters away from the gates with the tall pillars on either side of them. He went fast towards the castle. His long Death Eater cloak was billowing behind making him look like a giant bat more than usual. He crossed the school grounds, quietly came inside through the large wooden doors and headed straight to Dumbledore's office through the countless hallways hoping to meet none of the professors or ghosts or all the more students on his way.
Finally he was standing in front of the Stone Gargoyle. He murmured the ridiculous password through clenched teeth thinking that sooner or later he would force Dumbledore to choose a normal word for that purpose and knowing at the same time that he would never do such a thing. The statue slid aside revealing the circular staircase which began to move immediately. He stepped onto it and was carried up to the familiar door with the brass knocker. Not even bothering to knock he opened the door, came in and immediately stopped.
A young woman was sitting on the chair beside Dumbledore's desk; she was looking directly at Severus with her big bright-blue almond shaped eyes. For several seconds they were motionless, their eyes locked. Suddenly Severus took the ebony wand out of his pocket, releasing that Dumbledore was absent, and pointed it straight at the unfamiliar woman. He reacted purely out of reflex with his nerves stretched like the strings of the guitar after the night's events. He completely forgot about his wound at that moment, so the sharp pain that shot through his hand kindly reminded him about it. He grimaced, which did not go unnoticed by Elsie, and took his wand in another hand.
"Who are you?" he asked slowly with a threat in his smooth voice.
Elsie stood up hastily smoothening her dark blue robes with her hands. Her eyes darted quickly to the wand directed at her before she looked straight into his black ones.
"I received a letter from Dumbledore this evening, he asked me to come here," she said with a slight French accent.
This man looked very strange and she had no idea who he might be, certainly he could not be one of the professors. His black hair was slightly disheveled. His face was unhealthily pallid with dark circles under his eyes, he was wearing formerly black robes but now they were all covered in mud. And something was clearly wrong with his right hand, which he carefully hid in his robes.
Looking again uneasily at his wand Elsie added:
"Sir, I don't like to be the target of your wand. I am not going to attack you in any moment, so, please, put it down."
Glancing at her appraisingly Severus finally decided that he actually overreacted and put his wand away. But he still did not know who this woman was and what she was doing in Dumbledore's Office. In appearance she could not be more than eighteen years old. Elsie had a thick wavy dark chestnut hair which went almost down to her waist, a small braid ran down from the back of her head and was almost unnoticeable in the rest of her loose hair. Her skin was pale; she had a small, a little bit upturned nose, which gave her somewhat arrogant look. Her face and body seemed too slender for her crown of hair. While she was in no way beautiful, she possessed a certain charm but Severus did not know about it yet.
"Where is Dumbledore?" Severus asked eyeing her suspiciously.
"I honestly don't know. He was absent when I arrived, so I decided to wait -" She stopped speaking.
A few drops of blood slowly fell on the stone floor from his right hand. Her eyes widened slightly. Noticing her strange look he made an attempt to hide his hand again in the folds of his robes but it was too late.
"Monsieur, your hand … it's bleeding," she stated, uncertainly coming closer to him.
"I don't know what you are talking about," he took a deep breath, "It's probably your imagination, whatever it is," he retorted sternly stepping back from Elsie who frowned at the movement.
"You can't deny this. I can see blood on the floor," she replied obstinately pointing at the spot on the floor near him where the drops of blood fell. He gazed there briefly but then looked back at her, his eyes burning with annoyance.
"It's absolutely none of your business," he snapped at her.
"Give me your hand," she said making a step forward and putting out her hand towards him, "I can heal it."
But it seemed the rudeness of his answers increased with every persistent request of hers.
"I have no notion of doing this, woman. I can do it very well by myself when I'll return to my quarters," he replied through clenched teeth sending her one of his most intimidating glares.
Nevertheless she was not affected by his behavior at all as she had no intension to let it go.
Another few drops of blood fell on the floor as if to contradict Severus' previous words. He was extremely tired and the only one desire was left in his head: to sink in the comfortable chair near Dumbledore's desk and drink some Strengthening Solution, but he absolutely refused to show any sign of weakness in front of this woman. They continued staring at each other intently, determined not to back down.
Not much time was needed for Elsie to figure out that the man was very stubborn and would not accept her help. And she sincerely could understand him as she herself was always reluctant to show her weaknesses in front of others, especially unknown people. Therefore she decided to use another approach instead of just clearly pointless convictions. She folded her hands behind her back and quietly took out the wand from her sleeve.
"Let me heal your hand," she requested for the last time but it sounded more like an order. Then she flicked her wand behind her back casting a silent Confundus Charm.
The biting words had already formed in his mind when he opened his mouth to answer her but suddenly all rude words flew out of his head. His mind went blank and as if mesmerized Severus pulled out his bleeding hand and put it in her small, very soft hand.
Elsie inhaled sharply and her lips formed a thin line as she looked at his wound. She took his hand in both of hers and closed her eyes, a tiny wrinkle formed between her eyebrows showing her concentration.
At first her hands seemed a bit cold, then they started to warm up till they were almost hot but still it was a pleasant sensation for Severus. Slowly the pain in his hand began to cease until it disappeared completely. Still she continued holding his hand, her eyes still closed. Gradually this pleasant, yet strange sensation began to leave his hand and spread throughout his body bringing Severus long-awaited relief from the Cruciatus curse. Some color returned to his face and he breathed deeply, he felt himself far better. After a few seconds he blinked coming out this dream like state but he still was somehow confused. The spell made him think for a while that everything was as it should be.
Finally she opened her eyes, looked at his palm and smiled slightly at him, it was a weary smile. Absent-mindedly Severus noticed that her big eyes were not just blue but they became slightly green closer to the pupil.
The gash was healed completely, the thin layer of new pink skin covered his palm.
"There will be no scar," she informed Severus quietly but she was not quite sure if he heard her.
At last she released his hand and stepped back returning Severus his personal space. Nothing in Severus' expression showed his complete and utter surprise about her unusual abilities as he stood there, deep in thought about it. Their previous conversation was completely forgotten by him for the time being.
Eventually Elsie disturbed the course of his thoughts making him return to reality:
"Sir, I advise you to clean your robes up a bit before Dumbledore comes."
Severus glanced down at his robes and at once understood that she was right. He grimaced: the state of his robes was deplorable to put it mildly. He retrieved his own wand for the third time and quickly cast several spells to clean his dirty robes and make them look at least satisfactory, then he vanished the drops of blood from the stone floor. He did it just in time because the next second the door opened and Albus Dumbledore entered the room.