JK Rowling owns Harry Potter

Christmas Break

The weeks and months that followed were some of the worst. Snape had been right of course when he had said that Umbridge would be making life a living hell. She was hell bent on giving nearly everyone in the school detention and it seemed that anyone with the last name Potter were her favorites to torture. Kyla had heard from her brother that he was merely trying to tell the truth, but had earned himself a detention with her; the words I must not tell lies embedded on the back of his hand. Kayla's hand now read I must learn my place. Kyla's hand read I must learn to control my tongue. Hers was now firmly imprinted into her skin and would probably never go away. She had learned a glamour charm that would hid it from Snape. She would keep her promise and that meant that he mustn't find out about it.

As things in the school were growing tenser and Umbridge was swiftly gaining more control, the bond between Snape and Kyla was slowly growing. She was learning more things about him, and he was doing the same exact thing. He was frequently called to Death Eater meetings, where she would come and watch. Included in that, she usually felt the majority of the pain of the Crucio spell that was placed upon him. He was slowly becoming more and more frustrated with the Order as well. They didn't trust him, but he kept suffering for them. While Kyla was feeling the same way with the Order, she was feeling more anger at Dumbledore than anyone else. He had been avoiding Harry, keeping him in the dark. Something bad was bound to happen with that. He was also demanding more from Snape, putting more strain on the already overstressed man.

But of course, Dumbledore could never be satisfied with Snape's work. No, felt he needed to add more. This happened after Harry received a vision showing him the attack of . He was sent to Grimmauld Place and Mr. Weasley had made a remarkable recovery. However, with this new development, Dumbledore wanted Snape to teach Harry Occlumency. Kyla knew that this would not bode over well when she heard Dumbledore ask Snape to do it.

"Please Severus." Dumbledore begged. "As you well know, I cannot. I fear that something may happen with his connection with Voldemort—"

"Are you bloody insane, Headmaster?" Kyla was astonished that both her and Snape had shouted that at the old man at the same time. She continued however. "Dumbles, you're worried about his connection with Voldemort correct?" He nodded. "Then why in the bloody hell would you have your most important spy teach him, when Voldemort can so easily access his mind and see that his spy is not loyal to him!" Snape let out a snort. She whipped her head around and looked at him. "What the hell Snape?"

"I was merely admiring your point of view. Yes, while you are correct on the fact that the Dark Lord can see in his mind and find out about this, I would think that you would be more worried that I might end up strangling your…brother" he spat the last word "and therefore, losing your only hope."

"Snape, I trust that you know… well…shit." She threw her hands up in the air with an exasperated sigh. She didn't know what she was thinking. Part of her knew that Snape would not be able to teach Harry anything due to his hatred for her brother's father. However, she also knew that Harry wouldn't even try to learn it, and that could potentially cause problems for them. Dumbledore refused to see it, but maybe he did and was just setting them up for failure. This whole thing was making her head spin. She was tired, for she had not had a good night's sleep in several months, actually since her week in Azkaban. Her ring was sending her a wave of emotions right now and those also made her head hurt. She closed her eyes and put a hand over them.

"Amidala-Potter." Snape's voice was heard, but she didn't dare look at him. "I will do my very best to teach Potter…however unhappy I am about the situation. I also will try not to strangle him."

Kyla spoke without opening her eyes. "Did I set some kind of unspoken challenge or something?"

She imagined that if she would have looked at Snape right then and there, he would have smirked before saying, "Yes and I accepted."

Dumbledore clapped his hands together and said, "Well, I'm glad that that is settled. Now Severus, when will you be going to Grimmauld Place to tell Harry."

Kyla let out a groan at the same time Snape let out a long strain of curse words.