Another character / relationship building chapter with a couple of sweet scenes in it. Hope you enjoy!
Professor McGonagall was in for a surprise the following week when she entered her classroom. She only been gone for a few moments to sort out an argument in the hall between two paintings, but when she got back her classroom was unrecognisable.
Green goo was splattered everywhere – over the walls, ceiling, desks and students. One of the girls screamed.
"We're stuck together!" she wailed.
Her hand was stuck to the Steven's back. Laura tried to prize it off but got stuck too. They pulled and tugged but they became ever more stuck as the goo fused.
"Professor McGonagall, what do we do?" a girl called Toni asked. She'd pulled on McGonagall's sleeve and was now stuck to her. Her foot was also attached to a bit of goo that was fused to the heavy side bench.
"Well I won't be doing anything now." the Professor sighed.
Trix however had calmly been picking her way through the rest of her class mates careful not to touch any of them. Fortunately the only part of her coated in goo was her hand. She made her way to the sink and successfully washed it off.
However as soon as she'd dried her hand it wizened and the skin cracked. Sophia jumped back and crashed into a tight group of people causing all seven of them to stick together. Pain started racing through Trix's hand.
"Come and let me examine you." Professor McGonagall said. When she saw the extent of the damage she was shocked. "I don't think Madame Pomfrey will be able to fix this."
"Stay here." Trix said an idea coming to her as she hurriedly left the room.
"Well I don't think we have much choice." McGonagall said.
Trix ran down the corridor asking portraits where her father was. They all said they didn't have a clue but to try his office.
"Hey, Half-Blood Prince!" She called as she knocked on his office door and entered.
"Trixabelle?" he asked coming round the corner. "What is wrong?" he asked noticing her pain and urgency.
"Recon you can fix this?" she asked holding up her hand. Even moving it casued her pain, not that she was about to adimit it. "Something came flying through the window courtesy of Peeves. Green goo stuff that has half the class stuck together. I tried washing it off and – agh!" she gasped and pulled her arm back as Severus turned her hand over to examine the other side.
"Is it getting worse?"
"Yes." She ground out swaying on her feet from the pain but she offered her hand back to her father. "I am going to kill that poltergeist."
Severus gently pushed her into a chair he had made come towards them. It was a large wing-backed chair that there was no chance she could fall out of if she fell unconscious.
He spoke to his owl, "If she faints find me." to Trixabelle he said, "I will be back soon. Stay here."
"Well I don't think I have much choice in the matter." She weakly laughed.
Severus didn't hesitate a moment more but hurried down to the transfiguration classroom. All the way the paintings kept talking to him telling him different versions of what happened. Somewhere he could also hear the Bloody Baron Shouting at Peeves. Other people had heard the all noise as well and were poking their heads around classroom doors along with their teachers. When they saw him striding down the corridors looking obviously worried their interest heightened.
"Fair amount of unusual stuff happened here since Miss Snape arrived." He heard someone say. "Poor girl. Poor Professor Snape. Poor poor things."
The door to Minerva's room was open and he quickly took stock of the situation. Some of the students – all the ones who could see him anyway – looked glad to see him and relieved smiles lit their faces. Minerva turned as much as she could towards him making the person she was attached to lean round with her.
"Oh, Severus you've arrived. How is Trixabelle?"
"Worse for ware. One of the Weasley joke shop products I'm sure." He finished disgustedly. "It'll ware off in time." He turned out of the room and went in search of any of the Weasley children. Or Hermione. She'd probably know what was in it.
The arithmancy room was on the other side of the building. Instead of wasting time he apparated straight into the middle of the room.
"Professor?" Hermione gasped. When she was shocked to see him or they were discussing a sensitive topic she always reverted to calling him Professor. Sometimes it was touching now it was just plain annoying.
"The green goo, what is in it?"
"Green… oh you mean Fred and George's?" she opened a draw of her desk and pulled out a wrapper.
Severus levitated it to his hand and quickly read it. It also warned on using more than two buckets of it at the same time as they would have to buy the antidote.
"Floo powder." He said and Hermione rushed to get it.
Severus went to Diagon Alley and strode into Weasley's shop still wondering how to help Trixabelle. A new potion would be needed he was sure.
The shop was unusually busy for the off season time of year and a crowd of people were walking around looking at things taking far too long to move out of the way. Annoyed he made his way to the staircase that was mercifully empty.
"Professor Snape! Well fancy seeing you here." George said bounding down the stairs to greet him. "Finally here to make a purchase? Well I'll show you our latest–"
"Peeves the poltergeist has ensnared a whole class in your green goo. I need the antidote."
"How much? Seven buckets for a class sounds about right. Well that'll be –" he noticed Severus's flat glare. "Free for such a loyal customer. And I'll apply it myself." he turned to his shop. "Closing early! The shop is closed!"
People grumbled but shuffled out anyway into the cool mid September air. George then picked up a crate of the antidote and floo'ed to Hogwarts. Filius was in the room that they landed in and Severus trusted him with most of the antidote but took a bucket with him and beckoned George to follow after telling his short statured frined what was needed to be done.
George followed without question and stayed silent the whole time they walked up to the office where they found Trixabelle barely clinging onto consciousness. Tears streaked her face.
"It really hurts." She whimpered.
"Water did this when she tried to wash it off."
George knelt before her for once no joking in his demeanour. He didn't touch Trixabelle's hand but studiously looked at it. The skin was gray and splitting but not bleeding at all. Nails had grown out a little and looked brittle, yellowed with age.
"I don't think the antidote will help. I've never seen anything like this before." George whispered.
"What do you mean? Don't you know how to help her?" Severus growled fear making him quickly turn to anger and distain.
"I don't think so."
"What do you mean you don't think so?" Severus roared and flew into a standing position. "Fix this!"
"Shut up." Trixabelle complained. "You're the potions master not him. Do something. I need to lie down."
George picked her up and took her to a sofa that was in the more private part of the office and covered her with a blanket. Severus wated fury in his eeys. That was his job. He was supposed to make it all alright and do whatever it was to make her more comfy even if it meant carrying her there. She fell asleep instantly.
"If I can't fix this Weasley, I swear you will be the first to know about it." Severus then swiftly left the room still holding the antidote bucket and wrapper that Hermione gave him.
Down in the dungeons he threw a class out of what used to be his potions room and began working. He laid the lists of ingredients side by side and compared them. None of the combinations were familiar to him but he could still picture the effect they'd have when put together and the two potions mixed. The antidote would be slightly acidic to cut through the goo.
If one was acidic the other had to be alkali but nothing explained why water had had the effect it had. Water was supposed to neutralise things not make them volatile. Not make them worse. What he really needed were phoenix tears but he didn't have one. Harry Potter had kind of inherited Dumbledore's and he was the other side of the world and it would take three weeks for it to get here by which point it would be too late. He would write to him anyway asking if the phoenix would help and if so to send it over right away.
He then broke the two potions down into their base components and laid them out on the table so he had visual aid as well as the images he had running through his head. For a while he just stared at them wondering what they all had in common – if anything at all. It was just as he was sorting all the ingredients into groups that George entered the room.
"Madame Pomfrey is doing her best to make her more comfortable and ease the pain. I'll stay until we figure this out." he quickly looked at the groups. "Gillyweed goes into that one as well."
Severus broke the weed in half and split it between the groups.
"Those two cancel each other out." Severus said pushing two groups of ingredients away. "As do those."
"None of the others have the same antidote though some of the ingredients are the same." George spoke them out loud and with a flick of his wand Severus wrote them on the black board.
For hours they worked like that concocting first of all the green goo and replicated the effect of washing it off with water on a rat. They watched the transformation of the skin for a long time seeing how far it would go.
Neither of them could explain it apart from likening it to what happened when dementors are around – plants ageing, freezing over. That effect wore off after a while. But this wasn't the same. Not quite. The subtle difference changed everything.
When the fire had burned low and both were yawning they sat down at a table with hot drinks and poured over their notes once more.
"You should check on her." George yawned. "And we can start fresh after breakfast. We won't get anything done this tired."
Severus seemed to agree and moved away from the table rubbing his aching neck and quietly left the room.
Madame Pomfrey was sat by Trixabelle's side when he got back to his office. She was slowly falling asleep. He nudged her awake and asked what had been done to ease her.
"Pain reduction treatment. It's all that I know is safe to do."
"I'll watch over her tonight."
Madame Pomfrey left a bottle of the pain medicine on a table next to the chair Severus lowered himself into. He didn't stay awake long, induced into sleep by the proximity of the fire and the comfort of the chair.
In the morning the bell woke him. Annoyed that he'd fallen asleep he irritably flicked his wand at the desk where a quill wrote a note to Harry Potter explaining what was going on and asking for the uses of the phoenix.
Trixabelle then stirred. Severus knelt by her side and waited for her to wake up.
"I need food." She mumbled. "Marge on toast with sugar. Toasted tea cakes. Glass of milk."
"You should go to the infirmary." He said softly.
"Are you asking me to walk there?" Trixabelle winced in pain and slowly sat up and reached for the medicine. She pulled the stopper out and took a swig straight from the bottle. "Do you have a quick way to get to breakfast?"
She looked pale and purple bags hung under her eyes. As she set the bottle of pain reduction potion down on the table her whole arm shook. Another symptom to relieve – whole body exhaustion. The puzzle was getting more and more complex.
He looked at her with masked concern. There was no need to worry her further as she already knew how bad it was. What she needed was for him to look and act calmly which by all accounts he was supposed to be good at. Supposed to be being the main words in that statement. It seemed to be that his skill in keeping calm had also come under threat along with the tidiness of his office a couple of weeks ago.
"I'll bring some food up for you."
The door to the staff room slowly opened. Knowing it could only be one of three people, all of whom they were anxious to see, the rest of the school's staff went silent. Filius slowly, wearily walked in. People moved aside to let him through and he headed for his usual chair by the fire.
"Don't ask me questions yet, Pomona." Filius said shakily raising a hand to his temple. "Don't ask me yet."
Instantly all of the teachers moved forward as one all trying to get closer only letting Minerva push to the front. All had been wanting to hear what Filius had to report back such was their extreme worry for the way Severus was reacting to his daughter's plight.
Minerva sat opposite him in a wooden chair and Pomona sat on a foot stool she pulled over. Filius and Pomona were the staff who knew Severus best and Minerva was the one who would be left to decide how to act upon what Filius said and so they were the people to sit closest to him.
Minerva patiently waited knowing that when he was ready Filius would tell them exactly what he'd seen and would be better able to answer any questions if he was left to order his thoughts for a few moments.
All of the staff had agreed that they had to find some way to help Severus and so had asked Filius to do some spying for them.
He left the staff room at quarter past seven already dreading what he had to do. He knew where he'd find Severus and so headed straight for the dungeons. The shadows down there seemed darker and longer than usual and the air felt colder. No ghosts floated down the corridors. The door to the classroom Severus had taken was closed with a charm which was complicated to break and took him a few minutes.
Inside George and Severus were working at separate cauldrons whispering incantations and adding ingredients. Filius watched from the door scrunching his nose against the acrid, smoky smell that filled the air and permeated the walls. The only light in the room came from fires under the cauldrons and the faint glow from wands. Writing was scrawled on the many blackboards that had been brought into the room. As he was watching, Severus was making a quill write what he was thinking on a piece of parchment.
The cauldron bubbled over.
"Go for a break, Severus, you didn't have any dinner." George said extinguishing the fire that was under Severus's cauldron and added something to his own potion. "Go, Severus."
Severus looked up for the first time and Filius could see the stress and worry lines on his face and the angst in his eyes. He hadn't seen him like this since he deflected from the Death Eaters – when Lily Potter was killed. Severus saw him and tried to hide his emotions but for once Filius wasn't fooled and saw straight through it.
He followed Severus through the school noting his rigid shoulders and back. Severus also seemed to look around a lot more than usual which Filius put down to fear. He strode up the steps to his office and curiously left the door open instead of closing it behind him. Filius took this as an invitation to let himself in. He did, however, stay a respectful distance away.
Contrary to normal the rooms felt depressed instead of happily busy. The people in the portraits looked forlorn, even Dumbledore looked concerned. Hesitantly Filius stepped forward through into the main room. Trixabelle was lying on the sofa covered in a heavy blanket. The fire was gently glowing and warmth filled the room.
Severus knelt by her side just looking at her for a moment. Something soft took over his face. Reverently he took her unharmed hand in both of his and struggled with his words for a moment.
"Tell me what's wrong." He said his deep voice quietly flilling the room. It was definitely the softed Fillius had heard it in a long time and it seemed to wrap around and encompass everything. There was warmth in his voice that hadn't been heard in over two decades. Maybe even nearly three decades. Certainly not heard since he last spoke to Lily.
The great man looked small as he crouched on the floor and hunched over his hands. Black robes made him seem somehow even samller still.
Filius had seen enough and silently left the room quietly closing the door behind him. He took a slow walk back to the staff room trying to order his thoughts. The last time he'd seen Severus like this…
"Bad things happened." Filius said still looking into the fire of the staffroom. He hadn't looked away from it the entire time he'd been talking to the staff.
Pomona put a comforting hand on Filius's arm as much for her benefit as his. Even though she hadn't seen this for herself seeing her friend's troubled expression heightened her worry. After a few moments silence everyone turned to Minerva.
"Everyone is to go about their business as normal tomorrow. I will talk to Severus in the morning."
Hoped you liked it! We got to the actual plot beginning to unravel soon before that though I'd like to know what you think of the story so far - good or bad!
J.K. Rowling owns the Potterverse, not me.