Disclaimer: I do not/will not/cannot own Harry Potter. It belongs with its creator J.K. Rowling and, unfortunately, always will be.
Summary: A teenage girl can't sleep. What happens when our favorite Potions Master shows up? Chaos. A special guest and a visit from an old friend are included. DBCA fic challenge.
A/N: Okay, I wrote this for a fic challenge, I have yet to see if I won or not, but many people enjoyed reading it. However, parts of this story are going to be a little odd, so let me explain, To comply with the parameters set up, I used the following prompts:
A teen aged girl, lying in her bed under the covers, early in the morning as the sun rises through pink and white curtains. Why doesn't she want to get out of bed?
Would You Like Fries With That?
And the following articles:
An unusual weapon
Fish
An emerald
Use the word "actually" or any version of it 10 times.
A purple cat
A reference to video killing a radio star
So, without further ado.
"Ung…" A young teenage girl tossed in her bed, to the naked eye asleep, but as she moaned, rolling over, she blearily opened her red eyes to reveal that she was not actually, peacefully asleep.
Sitting up, she draped her legs over the side of the bed and rubbed her stabbing eyes. Blinking constantly, she peered at the fire-truck red numbers burning on her digital alarm clock. "Three minutes past one in the morning," she whispered hoarsely, her voice cracking slightly.
She hung her head despairingly. For the past five hours she'd been tossing on her twin-size mattress, begging her mind to empty itself and let her exhausted body rest. But in spite of her heartfelt and increasingly hysteric pleas, her mind remained perfectly awake, showing her a train of thought moving at a mile a minute, much too fast for her current state.
Letting out a long breath that was part groan and part wearied cry, she closed her roasting eyes and held her face in her hand, letting her lips catch and distort. "Why can't I just sleep?" she muttered incoherently to herself. "Because-" someone answered, but was unable to finish their statement because the girl was screaming.
She instantly pulled the covers up around her bare legs and tugged them up to her throat. The person, whoever they were, tried to shush her and in the end, had to muffle her by holding their hand over her mouth, "Easy, easy… now I'll let you go if you promise not to scream again," the person, a man by his voice, looked into her stinging eyes. She nodded; she didn't much like the feeling of being gagged, actually.
"Okay," he took his hand off her mouth. "Who are you? What are you doing here? What do you want from me?" scared stiff, she hissed her questions in a shaky voice. "Well… um… I, uh… I… Well actually I'm-" But he was cut off by another voice.
"He's with me," and with no further ado, Severus Snape flicked his wand and a beam of light was shone directly into her blazing eyes. She closed them promptly and screwed them up tight against the beam's intensity. "You know you could just turn on the light," she turned her face away so she could better try to get used to the light. She heard some scuffling, something light falling and then the light over her bed was on.
"Mphf," she blinked several times before her watery eyes adjusted. Looking cautiously up into the beetle black eyes of one lip curled ex-professor; she breathed the name, "Snape."
"Demon," he returned with cold civility. Though he was now a hero in her eyes, he was still the slimy git he always was and proud (he still hadn't forgiven her for all those past years of hating him so ferociously). They then embarked in a staring contest. Actually, it was more of an 'I'm-have-too-many-mixed-feelings-to-do-anything-else' contest. After several moments of immobility, the teen dubbed Demon turned away and glanced behind Snape-a-doodle.
"Could you pick up whatever fell?" she asked quietly. A blonde mop bobbed in and out of sight as he bent to pick up what had fallen. Demon did a bit of a double take as she turned back to Snape. She could have sworn she'd seen those blue eyes before… and recently! Forgetting the blonde for a moment, she returned t the unforgiving Snape, "What are you doing here?" she snapped slightly to conceal her clashing thoughts about the long-time potions master.
He pulled out an official looking scroll of parchment, meaning it was actually quite crumpled and torn at the edges. "The DBCA has been alerted to a severe breach of security and requests the help of every available member, muse, and angst." Snapping his long white fingers, the note crumpled itself back up and flew into his pocket. "'severe breach of security'?" she echoed, "Why do they need me? And why'd they send you?" She yawned loudly.
Snape closed his eyes, counted to ten, and sighed pityingly at the rather thick and sleepy eyed teen. Answering snidely, he said, "All the available information on the security breach was on that slip of notebook paper. As to why I'm here, you have the queens to thank for that." His face darkened slightly as he said it, but continued, "They sent every angst out to collect as many members as possible." Demon snorted a little. Snape's eyes narrowed as he glared at her. "Now get out of that bed and come with us or I will make you." Part of Demon was sorely tempted to take him up on that offer, but her better half told her that it probably wouldn't involve physical force.
Pursing her lips in a sudden change of demeanor due to Snape's arrogance, she asked sarcastically, "Mind if I change first?"
"Why do you-?" Before he could finish, she pushed the covers down, revealing some thigh. Snape gave a slightly defeated sigh as she covered up and the blonde snickered, blushing. Where had she seen him before? Snape cast him a lingering dirty look that might actually have been beyond the average man. "Fine then," Snape retorted.
"Would you mind stepping out of my room then? I mean if you want to stay that's fine, I'm just giving you fair warning it won't be pretty if you do…" Snape twitched slightly, and with a curt nod shoved his assistant out the door, slamming it behind him.
"Gah…" rising from her sheets, Demon turned on her CD player and opened her closet door. "DBCA trouble huh?" she wondered aloud, rooting through her undergarments, "I suppose I'll need fighting gear then." Pushing various articles of clothing out of the way, she pulled out some long flared slacks; black of course, a crimson tee shirt with a ¾ length, black, fish-net v-neck over it. The outline of a rose was embroidered on the left side in red. Changing CDs, she put on "Skylines and Turnstiles" and actually sang pretty well to it. "That's if you've still got one that's left…" she paused the music and meandered down the hall into her parent's bedroom looking for dress socks. Though she knew that Snape had put a sleeping charm on her parents, she still padded quietly and tried to muffle the sound of the squeaky dresser.
Upon returning to her room however, Demon noticed a warm golden light flooding from the partially closed door, which she found terribly odd as she had firmly closed the door. Wondering which of her 2 companions was inside, she silently pressed her face close to the gap and saw neither of her 2 guests, but a third young boy, close to her own age, with lank greasy black hair. His back was towards her, but Demon had an inkling of who it was.
Actually, she was 99.9 certain of it and had an evil plan to prove it. Opening the door slowly and closing it just as carefully, she snuck up behind the new visitor and whispered, "Severus." In the blink of an eye, the boy Snape had jumped around and held her at wand point. Fury and fear smoldered in his dark eye, but the fear swept away as he recognized his giggling opponent. Snarling he said, "Do that again and I'll-"
"And you'll what?" Demon taunted stupidly, batting her eyelashes in a girly fashion. He glared at her a moment longer before pocketing his wand and turning his back to her.
Dropping her teasing, the teen's face melted into a deeply apologetic look resulting from the pained gaze that crossed his face just before turning away. In a soft voice she spoke, "Severus I'm sorry." He twitched slightly in her direction, but did not turn around. "Severus," she tried to walk in front of him, but he maneuvered around her. Sighing in slight annoyance, she addressed his back again. "Severus, this is childish. I apologized, didn't I? I really didn't mean to upset you, I just-"
"Wanted to have a bit of fun?" he finished for her, turning to look her in the eye. For a moment, Demon saw immense sorrow, regret, and resentment in the deeper-than-the-sea black eyes, but then he dropped his eyes again. In that instant, Demon, the once Snape-hater who had sworn vengeance against him, felt a swell of pity and empathy for the tortured man and for the first time, she allowed herself to contemplate how attractive he was, in his way.
Shaking the thought out of her head mentally, she sat on the edge of her bed and pulled on the socks she had gone to fetch, but the hidden beauty of him refused to be forgotten. Getting up again and turning off her CD, she opened her closet, looking for some shoes.
"Did you know you have her eyes?"
Demon froze. She knew exactly who 'her' was. Swallowing, Demon raised anxious eyes to Snape who was looking back at her from his seat on her bed so intensely, she nearly jumped. It was as she had feared.
He got up and Demon felt the bottom of her stomach drop out as unrelenting fear passed over her body. Snape slowly got up and began to advance toward her. Demon saw the deep, unfulfilled hunger and lust in the unusually opaque blackness of his pupils and irises. But it was the greed and determination that she read that really scared her. The intelligent and conscious man was gone, replaced by a lawless beast of savagery.
"Snape," she breathed, trying to reach him. He progressed further. "Severus," she called louder, "Severus…" She backed against her closet wall as he continued moving forward. Though her room was not lengthy, he seemed to take time in his approach to her. "Severus!" louder and shriller than before as she lost her grip on her wits. He was nearly there. "Severus! Severus! Please!" He reached out a hand towards her. She fell to the floor in her desperation to remain out of his touch. He bent towards her. "SEVERUS!" she screamed in panic, tears spilling rapidly onto her fevered skin.
The tears seemed to do it and suddenly the opaqueness had disappeared and the real Snape returned, looking somewhat shocked at the girl clutching herself in a tight ball with hot, messy tears falling onto her shirt. "Demon?" he asked in a concerned voice. He leaned down to help her up. Demon flinched away from his gesture of kindness, afraid there might still be lingering lust. Discouraged and slightly disappointed, the young ex-potions master backed away and Demon picked herself up, wiping away the tears from her panic. But they continued to fall heedlessly for reasons unbeknownst to her.
"Demon?" he tried again. She glanced up at him in some surprise and then an unending spring of tears flooded her eyes with new unshed tears. Blinded by the onslaught she futilely tried to sponge them away, but found the flow continuous. Looking up in hopes of finding a tissue, she instead saw a black clothed chest for an instant before it was blurred over by a rush of yet more salty water.
Why couldn't she stop crying? What was causing this need to weep?
But her confusion was only increased when a pair of arms came around her, if not in a comforting way, at least an attempt at it. Actually, for someone with no known past experience at hugging, he was quite good. Almost against her will, she latched onto him tighter than she'd ever hugged anybody in her memory. The flow of wetness leaked from her tightly closed eyes, but it slowly decreased and at length stopped.
Demon remained tightly wrapped around the man in black and he did not seem to mind, but Demon, bearing little self-confidence, let up sooner than she would have liked for his sake (she would have liked to have held on forever, so let's be reasonable here). Stepping out of his embrace, she tried not to notice the wrinkles and clutch marks she'd left on his… whatever it's called.
"Sorry," she mumbled, looking down and rubbing her tired eyes. "Stupid of me… silly emotions and all that…" Swallowing nervously, she chanced a look at him. He was regarding her with shameful disappointment and shock, which she was not expecting. But as Snape was about to scold Demon for her condemnation of feelings, there was a loud bang, followed by a crash from the kitchen.
Before you could say 'video killed the radio star' Demon was out the door with the light off and half way down the stairs with Sev at her heels. Actually, it was even faster than that.
"WHAT THE WINKIN', SON OF BLINKIN', KING OF NOD, IS GOING ON?" Demon roared as she sped into the room, skidding to a halt. Snape entered with slightly more grace.
"Sorry about that," said someone standing in the middle of the kitchen, brushing herself off, "I really must get better at apparating quietly." Demon immediately cooled off because she actually recognized the intruder! There was only one person Demon could think of who would apparate into her kitchen with a bang, wear a long black hooded cloak, glasses, and carry a towel that she was currently shaking out.
"Cricket?" Demon asked, slightly shocked, but grinning at her friend's appearance. "Yepiddydo," Cricket answered without looking up from her examination of her towel. "But I heard a crash…" Demon looked about suspiciously, expecting to find something broken.
"That was me," said a voice behind her. Whirling around she saw the full face of the blonde in the dim light and could only stare at who she now recognized through the other side of the fish tank. "I was down here and heard the bang. I came running, but I hit this fish tank first, which fell to the floor, but don't worry! I fixed it…" At this point Demon regained bother speech and movement. She used both pointing and shouting, "Leonardo DiCaprio!"
"Really?" asked Cricket, peering over her shoulder. The accused Leo looked from one girl to the other before saying nervously, "Um… no actually, I'm Jack, Jack Dawson. Who's this Leonardo person?" He stepped back slightly as though he feared he was about to be used for target practice.
"Ooooh…" Cricket nodded thoughtfully, "a new muse? Or an old one returned? Borrowed perhaps? Or are you lost?" This last question she directed at Jack who shook his head. Demon finally answered slowly, "No… he… came… with… Snape…" And as she said it, her head turned, almost mechanically, and rested on the before named on the last syllable.
Severus, sensing he was in trouble, swallowed, "Erm… I can explain," he began. "Make excuses more like," it was Demon's turn to growl through gritted teeth. "I was going to tell you!" he exclaimed hastily, "he was sent to keep the peace between us… it's just that after-" He was over ridden by Demon screeching, "There's nothing more relevant than telling me I have a Leo character in my house!" She stepped forward, flames leaping in her eyes and Severus correspondingly flinched, but her hand never descended.
He looked up and found Cricket had a restraining hand on her raised right arm and Jack was holding her back on the left. Demon's jaw worked furiously, but she finally spat, "I won't," and relaxed. Jack and Cricket let up, but she added in an undertone to Sev, "…while they're here." She smiled satisfactorily as he paled. She turned to Cricket, "Now… why are you here?"
"Ah, I hoped we were getting to that," Cricket grinned wickedly. "Some malevolent villain, or it was an easily befuddled nitwit, unlocked many of the jail cells of nasty fantasy foes. We weren't the only ones affected. We saw ringers, trekkies, some mugglenet people! And it wasn't just your usual sue and fops, it was the bad guys from every fanfic and I even saw a few from the original works. Either that there recreations were recreations were very well written.
"Well in any event we, slayed them and the situation is under control now. It'll be all over the presses tomorrow, DBCA will have a new alerted topic in the Attic, from yours truly, and MuggleNet will read, "Mass Break-out of Fantasy Foes from Azkaban!", but we did our share and it's all over with.
"Myself and others are going about explaining the situation to everyone else. I however, am going to go change when I leave though. I came here almost directly from the battlefields. I made a side trip via Finland!" Cricket winked at me and grinned. I laughed.
"Um… hate to interrupt, but if you haven't changed, then what's the towel for?" Severus tentatively re-entered the conversation, his incredulity over powering his common sense.
"A weapon," said Cricket with a shrug, as though everyone fought with a towel.
"A weapon? I cannot possibly conceive any way a bit of fabric could inflict a wound beyond skin irritation in the middle of a battle." Snape could not keep an air of arrogance out of the statement.
Cricket's eyes sparkled with a trickster's glee as she asked calmly, "Would you like me to demonstrate?"
"Be my guest!" Snape practically cheered as he pulled out his wand and strode forward to stand in a dueling position facing Cricket. He relished the chance to prove himself right. Demon, however, knew Cricket, knew her style, and also knew about the unique and powerful properties of the towel, especially in a pair of competent hands, such as Cricket's. It was a menacing opponent. Fearing, almost for his very life, she tugged on his sleeve, "Don't," she warned, "Please. You've already underestimated this…"
Seeing that he was not paying the slightest attention to her she sighed with a shrug and sat in a kitchen chair. "At least I tried to warn him," she muttered to herself as she waited for the count to begin, prepared for the worst and with a grim, slightly twisted humor, she felt that Sev was about to get the rough side of her tongue… err, towel.
"1," Snape smirked at Cricket.
"2," she smiled dangerously in return.
"3," Demon whispered.
Severus whipped his wand about and a jet of purple shot toward Cricket. She had wound her towel up and she promptly caught it in the folds and threw it back at Sev like a slingshot. Too stunned (his mouth had fallen open actually) the jinx hit him smack in the chest which sent him flying back against the cabinet with legs that were quite obviously moving of their own accord.
Demon smiled grimly at the still open mouthed man as if to say, 'I did tell you'. Behind the counter, Jack was laughing as if he'd never seen anything do humorous as the ex-professor flat on his back, mouth agape, and legs that belonged to Fred Astaire.
Actually, Demon and Cricket hadn't seen anything this funny either, but they were too compassionate to laugh at him aloud, although Cricket had the widest of grins on her face and appeared to be bothered by an invisible fly because her face kept twitching.
Snape quickly realized his predicament and muttered the counter-curse. Leaping up to stand over Cricket at full height, he growled, "That was unfair and absolutely NOT funny!"
"Actually," said Jack coming around while wiping his eyes, "I hate to be the one to tell you, I really do, but-" He broke off in new hysterical giggles, leaning on Demon for support, "that's the funniest thing I've ever seen!" He gasped before continuing, "And believe me when I say, I've seen some pretty funny stuff."
He quit snickering and gave Demon's shoulder an affectionate, and unnecessary, squeeze. Snape's eyes grew wide and burned pure loathing and envy. Demon did not react at all. She neither encouraged Snape nor Jack, but she never hindered either. Cricket, seeing a new, and somewhat less amusing fight, about to spring up, promptly said her good-byes and departed with another loud boom of displaced air.
Severus stared lividly at Jack a moment longer before loudly, and somehow rudely, announcing that he was going up to Demon's room and that he could be found there. Without another glance at either, he stumped off, fuming.
Demon could not help following him longingly with her eyes and allowing herself a short, quiet sigh. Turning about, she found Jack in abnormally close proximity to herself and had to take a step back. Actually, she took two for good measure.
"Demon," he said softly, gazing at her a little too fondly and taking a small step closer. She did not meter his gaze and quickly tried to cover up her blushing. Another step closer.
What was it with the men in her house tonight? Had someone slipped them some kind of love potion? Lust potion more like. Demon thought on that for a bit and wondered if anyone at DBCA had somehow been behind this.
She was about to put the clues together when she had to drop that train of thought because she was nose-to-nose with Jack, again. Actually, it was closer to nose-to-collar-bone, but that's a technicality. Looking up, startled she barely had time to utter 'Jack' before he besieged her open mouth. She tried not to respond, but he was a very good kisser, very pretty, and very available (Sorry Rose, you're not in this one).
However, gathering her scattered wits, she mustered the will to push him away and after swallowing a few moments, attempted to confront him sternly. "Jack-" He cut her off, "You're not interested, I shouldn't have done that, it was inappropriate, it would never work… have I said it yet?" He looked up at her through his ruffled bangs with a slightly hurt and darkened expression.
"Well…" Demon tried to come up with something, "it's not that you're not great, it's just that… I feel I should be loyal to Snape right now," she jerked her head sadly in the direction of the stairs.
"Yeah I know," Jack scuffed his boots on the floor, "still- I was sent to keep you and Snape from killing each other, which as you know, means I have to flirt with you." He smiled slyly at her. She grinned, but adopted an offended tone, "Have to flirt with me? What's that supposed to mean?" She laughed giving up on all pretense of being cross with him. Jack laughed too. "So," she said finally, "I better be going, but if it doesn't work…" She gave Jack a significant look.
He nodded, but as she departed he said, "Wait!" She turned back, surprised, but slightly eager. Jack took a step forward and embraced her. She squeezed him tightly for a moment, but quickly released him and turned straight around and headed for the stairs without looking back. As she started to climb she heard the soft pop of disapparation.
Reaching the top, she opened her door to find Snape pacing anxiously. "Is he gone?" he asked quickly, coming over to her as she shut the door. "Yeah," she said quietly. Sev leaned in and- "Wait!" Demon shrank back against her door. "First I have to ask, how're you like this?"
"Like what?"
"Young! ...er!" Demon maneuvered herself farther into the room by now, but Snape followed her like a trained dog. He embraced her as he said with a shrug, "The Purple Cat." He leaned in again and-, but Demon ducked out of it. "The what?" she asked, straightening up again.
Severus sighed despairingly, giving up all hopes of a kiss until after this was sorted out. "The Purple Cat," he repeated, "it's a magical being that obeys no law but its own. It travels wherever it wants, whenever it wants, and pretty much does whatever else it wants. It's untamable and is the most powerful magical creature in existence. Some think that there were more like this one, but no one has any record of them so it can't be proven. The Purple Cat goes back into history since before the Egyptians. We know this much because according to their writings, they were the first to notice it, that's why they worshipped cats."
Sev paused in his explanation, seating himself on Demon's bed, while she stood watching him. He took a breath a plunged back into the riveting back story, "No one knows for sure how old the Cat is and it's still under deep speculation. But the curious thing is that for years, decades, the Cat may not ever be sighted. This leads us to believe that the cat is either invisible, or it can journey to other planets, ot it can go into other realities. Most of us doubt that the Cat is invisible or else someone would have noticed. We also think that the Cat is centralized with humans only, so that rules out other planets, so far as we know. The final theory is sketchy, but you can't disprove it either."
Demon now sat down next to him. Snape grinned to himself and continued, "Of course, you can argue about the Cat for days. How all of this has to do with me being young is it came to me."
He paused again, allowing Demon to take it all in. She did not react much, just looked at him expectantly. Not getting the effect he wanted, his mouth twitched in a very familiar way (see Chamber of Secrets smirk) and trudged on quickly, confident that the rest of his story would show her awe.
"When I stepped out of your room with Jack, he went downs and I checked your family to make sure the spell had worked. As I was coming back, I saw something move on the floor. I looked down and saw a cat, I could not tell its color, but a little wand-light revealed that it was purple. Gasping in recognition, I also noted a unique, diamond-shaped, emerald green patch of fur on its chest. The Cat mewed and I frowned as I studied it, but the emerald patch had begun to glow. It grew so brilliant, I shielded my eyes. I looked up a moment and saw another me, then the light glowed strong again and I hid my eyes. The light faded, I looked down, the Cat mewed once more, gathered itself, leapt as if to pounce, and vanished as if it had jumped through a portal. At this moment your door began to open. I quickly threw a disillusionment charm over myself and-" Demon interrupted him, "Why?"
"Because… actually, I don't know. Reflex I suppose… Anyway, I crept into your room and saw my reflection as I was closing the door. Well… you know the rest of it." Severus sighed wearily. He stretched his arms behind him and leaned back.
Almost unintentionally, his right hand nestled beside Demon's right hand. She took no notice as she was lost in thought. Of its own accord, her hand moved slightly and brushed Snape's. She let out a yelp and instinctively wrenched it away as quick as lightning.
She glared at Snape accusingly, "You did that on purpose." Her voice was at odds with her eyes. Snape, actually quite honestly, had not done it and said so. "Demon, I really didn't. Don't you think if I had had that intention I would have laid my hand on your shoulder or back or something?"
Having had no real heart to argue with him, she surrendered. "Yeah I guess so," she smiled slightly and subtly scooted closer to him. This time he reached his arm around her waist, laying his hand on her slightly meaty rib-cage. She turned her head toward him. He leaned in and yes!
No one moved for a moment as he very softly, very gently kissed her. It was so chaste their lips had barely brushed each other. It could have been an accident. They looked up. Demon carefully reached her hand up and stroked his face. The kissed again, wizard and fan girl. It was so soft and delicate, but behind his back, the naughty ex-potions master flicked his wand and the lights went out.
The next morning, a teen aged girl, lying in her bed covers, early in the morning as the sun rises through pink and white curtains refused to face another day. Demon refused to even open her eyes. She didn't want it all to be over. She didn't want to believe that it was all a dream.
It had happened! It had! She didn't care if disapparation was impossible and that Severus Snape was a greasy haired, not to mention dead, character in a book. But her mother came upstairs and yelled at her to get out of bed and that was that. No handsome Jack behind the fish tank today. No sudden appearances from friends across the nation. No Purple Cats or magic towels.
Demon lay dismally on her couch, watching a boring, dumb show that she didn't even follow. The noise just helped focus how utterly unhappy she was. The only good thing about today is that it was Sunday. No school and no homework. But right now, Demon would actually have loved to have been at school just so she could have some mind-numbing task to do.
Sighing, she got up and slipped her sandals on to go outside. But here comes mom to spread the joy. They had a coupon for McDonalds and they were going out on errands. On the way back they'd have lunch there.
Demon shrugged impassively and opened the garage.
Sitting in the hot car, waiting for her sister and mom, she wondered if she could get dehydrated enough to go to the hospital in five minutes. Alas, her mom and sis were always party poopers.
Demon stared blankly, unfeelingly at knick-knacks and miscellaneous items at Wal-Mart, feigning interest. They drove to Mickey D's and walked in. Demon asked for a regular cheeseburger.
"Would you like fries with that?"
Demon's eyes bulged and she gripped the counter in case of feinting, that voice!
"Would you like fries with that?" The voice repeated. She dared to hope, only one person had that voice.
Her eyes wandered up, thin figure, uncommonly pale skin, the tips of greasy black hair, and then rich, bottomless black eyes. She felt her legs turn to jelly. The cashier smirked, "Fries then."
Fin