Prologue
"Miss Travian, Can you hear me?" Severus Snape knelt down next to the girl. The class was silent.
"Everyone out right now" he said his voice was low and it had a 'don't question me' tone to it. Everyone left whispering as they went trying to work out why their fellow classmate had just collapsed during their morning potions lesson. After the students had left, Severus tried again except this time his tone was gentler
"Katarina, can you hear me?" he checked her pulse it was faint, it probably wasn't helping that she was lying on a cold dungeon floor. He carefully lifted her into his arms and swiftly made his way through the back door into his private quarters. Severus gently laid her on his bed and tucked the duvet around her; she looked like a sleeping stone angel, her white skin shining against his black sheets. He quickly conjured his patronus and sent it to both Poppy and Dumbledore. He sat in the chair next to the bed and took his students hand feeling for a pulse again. He sat back and sighed, as he waited for them to arrive his thoughts flicked back to the past six months and all that had happened to both himself and the girl lying in his bed.