The day of the punishment

It's dark, unbearably so, blindingly so making it impossible to distinguish where I am. It's as if I've walked into a room with no windows and the door has been shut-the door locked. I feel trapped, trapped within my own mind...my own life. Although, I have come to believe that my life is not my own, that it's merely a pawn in this chess game between Albus Dumbledore and Voldemort. I've come to believe that I'm nothing more than a knight on Dumbledore's side of the board and Dumbledore is the king I must protect. This is the point, my life is controlled by someone that isn't me...yet I don't have a choice. As I said, I'm merely a pawn in an elaborate war. Nothing more, nothing less.

But a part of me doesn't want to believe it. It doesn't want to succumb to it. I have hope...

...Harry snapped awake, effectively breaking his dream off. Today was Saturday and he was dreading the oncoming afternoon where he, Hermione and Ron would be spending it with Snape getting ingredients to refill his stock. The thought made him groan audibly and cover his eyes with his hands.

"Dreading it too, mate?" Ron asked from his crossed legged position on his bed, blue pyjamas covering his body and his ginger hair ruffled up from sleep.

Another groan was Harry's only reply as he forced himself to get out of bed and grab his glasses, at the same time he noted how depressed Ron looked with black bags under his eyes. Ron seemed to be staring off into space, a frown and crestfallen look upon his features, obviously thoughts of Ginny flashing in his mind. He suddenly looked up at Harry with worried eyes.

"Do you...think she's ok...all alone in Mungo's?" Ron whispered his biggest concern, face looking deeply upset and Harry really felt for him as he got changed into his grey muggle jeans after muttering a cleaning spell.

Harry didn't answer for a while as he dressed in his informal attire. Zipping up his grey jeans he then threw on a red, long sleeved, T-shirt and grabbed his black hoody which he slipped on over the top. Putting black socks on, followed by his black and white sneakers, he straightened himself out before turning to the depressed Ron.

"She's a strong girl, Ron. She is probably driving the doctors crazy, not the other way around," Harry attempted to lighten the mood but Ron's lips only twitched slightly in amusement. "Besides, she's probably eagerly awaiting your visit so hurry up and get ready you lazy ass!"

Ron's eyes lightened up at the comfort given and Harry turned his back on the ginger to look in the mirror. The Weasley then instantly bolted up to get changed himself, unbuttoning his pyjama top and taking it off he playfully threw it at Harry who whizzed around at the last second and caught it with ease.

"Bloody Quidditch reflexes." Ron mocked with a grin as he continued getting ready.

XXXX

Charlie had decided to come to the Great Hall to join the Gryffindor's for their breakfast, his entrance being welcomed instantly as Ron shuffled over so he could sit next to him. Charlie was giving his usual happy smile, eyes twinkling as younger students suddenly crowded around asking for more dragon stories.

"Ah, I think I may have one, shall I tell?" Charlie playfully tapped a finger against his chin with a charming smile and the girls in the group instantly melted, although he didn't pay much attention to them.

His eyes suddenly flicked to the Slytherin table and caught the beautiful sheen of pearly white hair instantly, he raised an eyebrow appealingly with his signature charming smile when Malfoy felt the staring and looked up questionably. At seeing the older Weasley he blinked and sneered before immediately turning back to his conversation with Goyle. Charlie just smiled wider, not seeming to be affected in the slightest.

My goal is to make you crack, blasted weasel! Draco thought determinedly as he wasn't actually paying attention to what Goyle was saying as he politely sipped his pumpkin juice.

My goal is to tame you, little moon dragon, Charlie thought determinedly as he turned to the crowd of young Gryffindor's to begin his tale of the `Dragon Whisperer`. Moon dragon seemed to fit Draco's appearance perfectly, with his pearly white hair that glowed in the light and his silvery eyes looking like moonlight on grey waters. To Charlie, Draco was a beautiful dragon worth taming, although he knew it would be a challenge with the Malfoy's fiery attitude.

The two had separate goals, goals that didn't mix and in turn contradicted each other. Therefore it made each others goals incredibly more difficult to obtain.

"You do know about Ginny, don't you Charlie?" Ron suddenly interrupted his tale.

At Charlie's abrupt stop as he whipped his head around to Ron in concern it was obvious he didn't.

"Is something wrong with Ginny? Has something happened?" Charlie no longer had his charming smile but looked gravely worried as Ron paled and picked at his food. Ron wasn't eating like a pig-bad sign.

"Well..." Ron trailed off as if he didn't know where to start and this just concerned Charlie further. "She's in St Mungo's, I'm visiting her after breakfast. Can you come with me?"

"Of course Ron," Charlie instantly replied and rubbed his little brother's back reassuringly. Ron only nodded in agreement and kept picking at his food in disinterest.

Hermione also noticed Ron's uncharacteristically slow eating and tentatively chewed on her lush bottom lip in worry, also eating her morning scrambled eggs with less of an appetite than usual.

Harry, however, was too busy doing the glare stare down with Snape that he had promised himself he would do at breakfast to notice; his green eyes unwavering as onyx eyes drilled into them. Snape accepted the challenge with distain for the Potter and placed his pale chin upon the tops of his hands in an elegant action. It seemed he wasn't stopping anytime soon.

Hermione had noticed Harry's tense and unmoving body opposite her, as she stared at the back of his head with confused brown eyes she switched her gaze to follow his glare. At spotting Snape she actually had to withhold a snigger at their quite childish behaviour with her fork filled with bacon frozen halfway to her mouth. These two really had it in for each other, it was unreal.

"Honestly, Harry," Hermione spoke up and at his annoyed twitch of his hand on the table she knew that he was putting everything he had into not breaking the glare down, if only he put that same amount of effort in class. "Absolutely unbelievable."

"My dear boy, did you sleep well this time after the spell?" Dumbledore asked kindly as he ate without looking up at the black haired wizard.

"Yes," Severus stated bluntly, his tone low and silky as usual. His chin was still atop of his hands, glare never breaking with Potter's.

At noticing the brush off reply Albus lifted his pale eyes to stare at the other; at noticing his eyes were somewhere else he followed it to spot Harry. He actually chuckled loudly which luckily didn't affect Severus' end and his eyes twinkled merrily.

"Will you ever let it go?" Dumbledore inquired, his voice had suddenly become strangely serious as he watched the never ending glaring exchange. "He is not James in anyway."

"Is your visible sight impaired? He looks identical to his arrogant father!" Snape sneered and his glare automatically turned colder and intensified at seeing only James in his frozen black eyes. Harry, being a stubborn Gryffindor, only levelled up too.

"I see...all you see is the outside which is the part that looks like James Potter and force everything else aside. If you could just put physical appearances aside you would see that, deep down, he is his mother. He is kind and caring and puts everyone else before himself...like Lilly."

This nearly made his glare break at hearing Lilly's name spoken aloud, he almost decided to let Potter win as he suddenly saw Harry's glaring green eyes as Lilly's ones instead. It was Lilly glaring at him, angry at him. It was Lilly looking at him in disappointment and Severus felt his glare falter for the first time in history, Harry James Potter had always had Lilly Evans eyes. However, at the last moment, he decided he wouldn't let Potter have the luxury of success and only glared more icily than previously. He wouldn't let James Potter best him!

Dumbledore just shook his head slowly in dismay, his long white beard following the action. He needed to get to Severus, but until he cooled off he was trying to get through a brick wall-without magic.

Luckily Harry was saved from the sudden strengthened up glare of Severus Snape by Hermione forcefully tugging his arm. He was forced to look away making Snape automatically the winner.

"Come with me to the Hospital Wing, I want to talk with Pomfrey." Was the brunettes demand and Harry didn't have a choice as she quickly stood up on the other side of the table.

Sighing with his loss he also got up, luckily he had eaten before the glaring or he would have starved. As he walked down the narrow gap in-between the tables of the Great Hall, he tried to persuade his mind he hadn't seen Snape's glare all of a sudden falter for no reason.

His black and white muggle sneakers thudded softly on the stone floor as he exited the large room with Hermione in front. Closing his eyes gently he pictured Snape and when it had happened, a large part of him believed he had truly seen the unexpected soft look that had appeared in the heartless man's orbs. What had the man thought about?

XXXX

Hermione and Harry travelled to the Hospital Wing in comfortable silence, neither needing to talk in each others presence as they finally finished ascending the moving staircases. On arriving through the open doors of the Hospital Wing Harry noted how every single bed was positively empty. At noticing their calm arrival Madame Pomfrey instantly knew there was nothing majorly wrong and stopped neatly making the beds. She calmly headed towards them with a smile.

"What can I do for you, dears?" She asked curiously and put her hands on her hips with a cheerful air about her.

"I wanted to ask you about permanent blindness, now that Ron's not here I feel like I have to ask." Hermione replied and sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck.

"Gone to see Ginny then? Poor soul, he has been badly affected by this," Poppy muttered in sympathy and changed her position to crossing her arms. "I knew you would ask eventually, there are not many books on the subject and your thirst for knowledge is as keen as a Ravenclaw's. Come and sit down on a bed."

"I have already checked the library for any books, but it seems the library does not have any." Hermione admitted and sat down on a soft hospital bed.

Harry followed suit and sat closely beside her, wondering how the hell Hermione did what she did with neither Ron nor himself detecting it. The Wing was comfortingly quiet today and it seemed Poppy Pomfrey had nothing major to do; otherwise she wouldn't be doing this right now. The woman sat with a sigh on the bed opposite to talk face to face.

"A simple fact dear, permanent blindness is the only one of the five senses of the human being that can't be repaired with a spell. There is no known cure," Poppy began to explain and Hermione looked slightly crestfallen. "Although...I have heard about something that could heal blindness, although no one has ever found it."

Hermione's face instantly lit up with expectation and interest. Harry clasped his hands together in front of him and locked eyes with the medic in anticipation.

"I think it was something called...the Celestial flower," Poppy told them as her eyes looked up to the ceiling as she pondered it. "But I am sorry to say I know nothing about it, I'm sure you will find someone in Hogwart's that does though."

With that Poppy stood up with a wave and a warm smile before heading for her destination of her office, obviously to do some paperwork of some sort.

"Lovely...now what?" Harry chimed into the silence and Hermione elbowed him in the ribs with a grin.

"Oh come on, Harry. Who's the only person in this school that's a fanatic on plants?" Hermione questioned his little knowledge with a raised eyebrow and a smirk worthy of a Slytherin plastered across her lips. Harry instantly knew.

"Neville Longbottom." Both Hermione and Harry stated in unison and left the infirmary to head for the greenhouses, Neville was always helping professor Sprout on the weekends.

XXXX

Entering the greenhouse was like entering a writhing jungle, green plants of many species housing snapping heads swayed and weaved around each other. Brightly coloured flowers of yellow, blue and violet opened and closed their petals in the sun that could scarcely break through the ceiling covered thickly in vines. The beautifully exotic smell of the plants wafting through the air was simply enchanting.

It didn't take them long to locate Neville wearing his gardening gloves, who was surprisingly not alone since they instantly spotted the golden blonde hair of Luna sitting on a wooden table near him. She was wearing a skirt made of blue jean material and thick white tights; as usual her strange self wasn't wearing any shoes. This was noticed when her legs began to swing playfully back and forth as she fell into her own little world. She was wearing a purple T-shirt that was mostly covered up by her matching, buttoned up, blue, jean material cardigan. Her dreamy look in her pale blue eyes was ever present as a lovely smile graced her pink lips.

"Oh, hello Harry and Hermione. What brings you here?" Luna questioned quietly at spotting them first, her dreamy voice as sweet and soft as a butterfly's wing.

Hearing this from his companion, Neville sharply turned around with green stains splattered on his brown coat that protected his body and said, "Hello Harry, what are you doing here?"

"We've come to ask you about something called the Celestial flower, I mean if you don't know anything it's fine. Heard of it?" Harry informed the plant expert, for Hermione had decided to go wondering and explore the greenhouse curiously.

Neville seemed to think it over for a moment before answering.

"I have, actually," Neville answered as he sat on the edge of the table next to Luna, who was looking extremely interested in their conversation. "It's an extremely rare flower that is meant to heal all illnesses and problems; it isn't the plant itself that does this though. The nectar in the flower is supposedly drank by the person you wish to sort out and it cures them-"

"Supposedly?" Harry interrupted suspiciously as he picked up the uncertainty, Neville just shrugged indifferently.

"No one's ever found one to know for sure, it's only a myth to us," Neville continued and Harry felt his heart drop in dismay. "But the rumour among herbologist's is that it can only grow in particular conditions. One of the main rumours over fifty years ago was that it could only grow from a corpse of a witch or wizard who had significantly strong magic. It was said that the Celestial flower lived off magic in the blood of the corpse instead of water."

Harry had actually become quite interested even though plants weren't really his thing; it seemed this flower was very unique. Luna suddenly cleared her throat gently catching both of their attention, of course Luna would know something if it had to do with Myth's and strange creatures.

"Apparently, my great grandmother interviewed someone who had actually discovered a Celestial flower by accident for the Quibler," Luna notified them with her bell like voice and Neville especially looked interested. The young woman continued to swing her legs back and forth absentmindedly as she spoke. "But...the journal that contained her notes from the interview was lost in the fire that also took her life away. I still miss her, sometimes."

Harry and Neville both gave her a look of sympathy as Luna averted her gaze to watch a red flower in the corner release green dust; they all knew that when she did that she was secretly upset. Harry was feeling a little disappointed though, he had hoped for a description of some sort.

"OH SHOOT! Harry we are going to miss lunch and Snape's punishment is in forty two minutes!" Hermione suddenly yelled from somewhere unknown and Harry felt his heart drop at remembering it, he had completely forgotten.

"Can you see your Bildred yet?" Luna called to her gently as Hermione appeared from behind a huge plant quite a distance away.

At the genius' confused shake of the head Luna just smiled, dreamily looking up at the vines writhing on the ceiling as she softly stated, "Pity."

"Thank you, both of you, you've been a tremendous help." Harry thanked and both of them waved at him cheerfully, waved as he rushed from the greenhouse at a run with Hermione by his side.

xXEnd of chapterXx

Hope you guys are excited because, you guessed it, the Snarry adventure begins next chapter! YAY!

Problem is there won't be an update for several days because I am visiting my dad, haven't seen him in over a year. Patiently wait and the `lost` part begins next, hope you're excited because I sure am for when I write it!XD

CLAIMER: The Celestial flower is my own invention.