DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Well, besides this story.
POTIONS AND TEENAGED MUGGLES
Chapter Ten: Hogwarts, Here I Come!
I'm incredibly nervous this morning, and my bottom lip is bearing the brunt of it.
"Punishing yourself by mutilation of your lip will not ease your anxiety or help the situation." Snape chimes in cynically.
He is sitting across from me, looking up from his magical newspaper. I stop biting my lip.
"…'Kay."
My father is under the impression that a few friends and I are at Disney for the break to celebrate good grades- I did ace every subject after all- (okay, almost aced, I got two B's.) Nothing could be farther from the truth.
I'm actually in one of the many offices at the Ministry of Magic, awaiting the results of several practical magic tests and ability standards. Finally, a man with a trim white beard and bushy eyebrows emerges and summons Snape into his office.
I'm left in a rather disconcerting cloud of frustration and uncertainty.
I pick up the newspaper and nearly have a heart attack at what I see. The front page displays a moving picture of my great-grandfather looking sinister and waving a wand, and a smaller image of my face inlaid in the text. The headline reads:
"HEIRESS OF SINISTER EVANS BLOODLINE RETURNS!"
I almost rip it to shreds. Curiosity wins me over, and I frantically read through the article, discovering more about my family in five minutes than I had in my entire life. But I can't completely swallow it.
My ancestors were dark wizards?
-Bullshit! The article states in fanciful language that there was a great schism generations back in the Evans family and that the good diverged from the evil, creating two separate bloodlines.
…Oh, and something about some association with Vollymort, who I concluded at the end of the article was some great big 'bad guy.'
Suddenly Snape bursts from the office and snatches the paper from my hands.
"I did not mean to leave this behind. You weren't supposed to r-"
"Who's Vollymort?" I cut in.
"SHH!" He grabs my arm and lifts me from my chair, tugging me into the office like a disobedient seven-year old.
The grey-haired man sits behind a desk, and I'm placed promptly down in a chair before it. There's an oppressive silence as Snape twists the newspaper angrily in his pale hands.
"So. Yep," I chime in, waiting for something- anything. "Ok, I'll go first. Is it true?"
There's more oppressive silence as they both avoid my inquisitive eyes.
"Hello-o-o-o? Should I take your silence as a 'Yes, Tamara, you're borne of pure, unadulterated evil?'" More silence. "Anything?"
Snape finally looks at the gray man, back at me, at the grey man again, at the paper, the gray man, me, the gray man, paper, me, grey man…
"Ok, ok- you're making me dizzy with the looking and the glancing. Out with it. What's going on?"
"Yes," he finally says.
"Oh, Christ. Yes what? Stop being ambiguous!!"
The grey man finally speaks up, stuttering and nervous, "It's, um, it is sort of true. You do c-come from an infamous bloodline, to be perfectly concise, but you're several generations from the last dark, uh, um, dark wizard."
"Several?" I laugh, "Try three."
He actually looks frightened and I find this funny. "Yes, well, all members i-in this bloodline are, uh, well, expected to serve in the employ of," he lowers his voice to a whisper and looks around, "You-Know-Who."
I cock my head to one side. "Uh…no, no, actually- I don't know who."
Snape chimes in with his distinct baritone drawl.
"I'll explain back at the castle. I have someone I must talk to immediately."
Ohhh…castle. I grin.
#~~?~~#
I burst into Dumbledore's office, looking irate, as I would imagine. Dumbledore's eyes meet mine as though he was already expecting me.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I forcefully inquire.
"Tell you what, Severus?"
"WHY you wanted me at that school so badly. WHY you played my debt to you on such a meaningless token?"
"Are you inferring that I knew of the girl?" Dumbledore looked as though he might grin.
"Don't toy with this, Headmaster. Seems to me that this is serious. Was she being hunted? Watched? Scouted? What, what is so damned special about her?!"
"What's special about her, Severus, is that there is nothing special about her at all."
Stoicism strikes me at hearing this comment. How very characteristic for the beloved Headmaster to dance around the subject and speak in riddles. I sit down and sigh.
"Okay, I'm listening. What's really going on?"
Dumbledore offers me tea and I accept. He seats himself and begins to speak, "This wasn't supposed to happen. The girl's name was on my American colleague's list when she was born; she was supposed to go to Wizarding School. That only happens when one is born a witch- but she shouldn't have been, because the gene should have skipped her. By the age of five, her name was fading- literally fading off of the parchment. I've only ever seen that in the case of dying children, Severus, and I was worried. When the American Headmaster checked on her, she seemed disturbingly normal."
He paused for a long moment and I looked at him expectantly.
"She is a perfectly normal muggle, my friend, without charting any magical ability. And even her genes say she is not a witch. It makes no sense. I have no precise explanation. Her dormant gene is having periods of dominance for no reason at all. Other than during her outburst, it doesn't seem to interact with her body, leaving her essentially non-magical."
I stare, dumbfounded. "And Voldemort-?"
"-obviously knows her name. He has for a while. Granted, she's not a priority, not even remotely, but getting his hands on heirs and heiresses to the Evans' bloodline is doubtlessly on his secondary agenda." The Headmaster was visibly concerned.
"And I come into play, where?"
Another pause. The Headmaster shifts in his chair, unsure of how to explain why he used me. At least, I think he used me.
"I needed you to bring her back. Of course, I would have asked you near the end of your stay, but the unexpected event moved up the time table. We just need to be sure."
"Sure of what, precisely?"
Dumbledore pauses and tries to grin slightly, but it is a faint attempt at concealing his worry.
"That she's not…well, how do I put it- that she's truly not dangerous."
/*\*/*\
"Dangerous?" I ask.
"Yes, very dangerous. Ingesting that pure herb will kill you and skin contact can cause a seizure."
I quickly withdraw my hand from the row of jars before me and turn to face Snape.
"So what's the word, homie?" I jokingly ask. "You did talk to the Principal, right?"
Snape cocks an eyebrow at my use of 'lingo.' I smile brightly.
"…He is a Headmaster."
"Yeah, okay. Thanks, but you British people call underwear 'knickers,' so I'll stick to American-speak."
I'm for a moment unsure if he is offended or amused. He turns his back to me and speaks.
"I don't want this to seem to dramatic, but you've already learned about the dangers of your bloodline, and now we need to see if it's- ah, if you are, well, normal."
"Normal by whose standards? Really, I think I'm a sort of half-breed freak to both ends of the spectrum; wizards and humans."
"Muggles, Ms. Evans, call them muggles; wizards and witches are human as well."
"Yep, mmhm. Well to tell you the truth, Snape, buddy, Severu-"
"-Don't… do that. I am still 'Professor Snape' to you."
"Oh, you loooove correcting people," I laugh loudly and continue, "Anyhow, I may not know what's going on-"
"Obviously…" Snape mumbles. I shoot him a nasty look.
"-but I know after that crap in class happened I felt like my head had imploded. I've felt absolutely fine lately- nothing magical or paranormal or head-bashingly painful going on." Snape looks at me. "Nada." I repeat. "Zilch, zip, zero," I pause, and get still nothing from Snape, so I go on, "cero, kotonashi, nil, niks, nih-"
"Do shut-up anytime."
I smile and sigh. "Such love and fuzzy vibes coming from you." This earns me a very viscous glare.
"I do try." He drawls out silkily.
I laugh, "Cynicism…cynicism…you are quite good at that."
"Ah, but it's in my nature." He draws a long breath and tells me to seat myself.
"You, ah- you'll be needing to stay here a while longer, Ms. Evans."
"Yeah, sure- but what about the tests?" I try to conceal my anxiety and hopefulness.
He looks at me for a while, his face devoid of emotion as usual. "You're a muggle, Ms. Evans, a squib. We don't know exactly why or how you did what you did, but to my knowledge it shouldn't be happening again."
For the second time in two weeks, I feel my spark of hope fizzle, and I am once again entirely alone.
+-_-_-_-_-+
She tries to hide it, but her face clearly betrays her upset at hearing this news. I find myself almost wanting to tell her everything will be fine, but I cannot. I don't yet know if it is true.
I show her to her quarters and tell her she has free reign on the library and great hall, but wandering other places like the student's houses or classrooms is potentially dangerous. She is a hall and an (unmoving) staircase away from me.
I retire to my quarters and attempt to sleep, but only find myself staring blankly into my fireplace. Poetry floods my mind, just the way it always does when I am unable to rest… "I betook myself to linking fancy unto fancy, thinking what this gaunt, ungainly, ghastly…" ~~~
I am awoken by a frantic pounding on my door, accompanied by the voice of none other than Ms. Evans. Her inhuman screaming brings me to consciousness instantly, and I run to my chamber door.
"Professor Snape! HELP! OPEN THE DOOR!"
My hand reaches the door handle and I pull it open.
CHAPTER ELEVEN COMING SOON.
Author's Notes: Oh, don't you HATE me?! Ok, I know where I'm going now. I have a decisive plan, and it involves my original gut feeling. You will see….::evil cackle:: Oh, and happy news! Either the author the plagiarized me or FFN removed two of my stories that had been stolen by a certain someone. Yay. Happy Holidays! I spent $116 on my family! :(
Avivagirl- YOU totally rock. Great reviews, you're really feeding my creativity. Yes, Julie and Jess are exaggerated, but sadly, not so much. Snape, I think, always sort of 'owes' Dumbledore, and his urgings were sort of the basis for the story. And I was definitely planning on the dormant gene thing, as you can see. Thanks!!
KarenDetroit- Yes, yes, little yellow monkey. Check my profile pic…oh, wait…
Barbara Kennedy- Thanks! Sadly, I'm not making moving animation, just still drawings depicting certain scenes. It shouldn't be much longer, I have Chapter One through Three done.
-Tam