A/N: To my readers, thank you very much for taking time to read my story! Your input and critique is most appreciated.
DGM
.
.
.
Chapter Nine— Keep Away from the Derigible Plums
.
.
.
Severus awoke to the low-level buzzing of his alarm, his senses alert and hyper-attuned to his surroundings. He looked up to find Luna seated before him, eyes dreamily staring at him from above the blanket covering her.
She had been doing so for a while, but his senses had not felt her doing so; it was just another measure for him in how much he trusted her. How much her mere presence comforted.
Inwardly, Severus groaned. She was his student first, his soul's mate second. She could not be made aware of that fact. It was a condition upon their return. Besides, as her professor, he held a position of authority over her. Grimacing in disgust, he straightened his posture in the chair, his hips giving a slight protest from where he had taken the bruises from her from earlier.
"You were going to speak to me, sir?" Her eyes held a hint of curiosity.
Sitting up, Severus took a moment to gather his thoughts. At length, he stated, "Yes. I would like for you to use this room as a hideout for other students; the Carrows will use my actions tonight against you, as well as others targeted for their abuse, and you will all need a safe place to go. Dobby." Severus summoned the elf, and he appeared instantly at his side.
The diminutive creature had its ears down; his poorly knitted hat sat askew on his head as he looked up at him in fear. "Yes, Hogwarts' master. How can Dobby serve?"
"Dobby, you are being reassigned to Miss Lovegood. Watch over her, care for her, make sure no harm befalls her, and always listen should she call. Miss Lovegood, this is Dobby. He will provide you and the other students you feel who need to take advantage of the comforts and accommodations of this room, food and drink from the Hogwarts kitchens as well as medical supplies from the Infirmary. Thank you, Dobby, that will be all."
Severus dismissed the little creature with a nod of his head, and watched as his mate gave the elf a tentative smile. With a small pop, he apparated away. "The Room will provide everything else you shall need. Do not leave it for any reason Miss Lovegood. The Carrows will be out for blood and will see in you the cause of their recent misfortune, never mind the fallacy of their thinking. It would be best if you stayed out of sight."
She nodded slightly showing she understood. "Good. Now, I need to set you a task." He contemplated her over his steepled fingers, his eyes never once leaving her. She sat up straighter, slightly more attentive, and he nodded.
"I have tried over the course of several months to penetrate your mind through legilimency, and I have been markedly unsuccessful. Can you tell me why that is so?"
He raised one eyebrow as she smiled slightly, enigmatically. "My thoughts are my own, professor, but I do not consciously seek to keep others out of them nor invite them in."
His eyes narrowed. "Are you telling me you are completely unaware that you are occluding, Miss Lovegood?"
She nodded hesitantly, and Severus took a moment to think. If she were to go before the Dark Lord, then he would automatically see her as a beacon due to the very absence of thought activity going on inside her mind. However, if he could teach her how to broadcast low-level thoughts while keeping the rest hidden, he might be able to have her help him with more than just renegade students.
"Look into my eyes, Miss Lovegood." Severus watched as she blinked and her abstract focus settled on him. "Ligilimens."
Immediately, Severus saw an image of dirigible plums and received for his pains a crushing, crippling headache. He immediately pulled out of her thoughts. "Could you feel my invasion, Miss Lovegood?" Clutching his temples, he rubbed slightly.
"Yes, professor. It felt like a small buzzing, almost like a wrackspurt attack, in the back of my skull." She gestured to the part of her head that was affected by the spell. He nodded, and conjuring a glass of water, Severus downed a vial of headache relief potion.
"What you have, Miss Lovegood, is an impenetrable mind. Under normal circumstances, this would be considered an excellent thing to have. However, your lack of superficial activity is a beacon to those that are masters in the art of legilimency."
She smiled slightly, "And therefore I make myself more of a target?"
"Precisely. You'll find those with such skill are very much lured to mystery. And you present them with far too tempting a challenge. To force their way past your defenses would cripple your mind and all but kill you." He narrowed his eyes in thought. "However, if we can keep your mind impenetrable but send out low-level thoughts—"
"Like a camouflage?"she interrupted excitedly, "The Gristlevald Fangletooth uses such a technique to escape detection from those that would seek to do it harm."
His lips twitched as he looked over at her in exasperation, remembering just in time the role of Professor Snape that he was supposed to be playing, he stated, "Do not interrupt me, Miss Lovegood! And keep that mind of yours focused on realities not extemporaneous fiction. Now, as I was saying, if you were able to allow low-level thoughts to penetrate your defenses but kept your mental fortress impenetrable, then you would be all but undetectable according to cursory scans. I want you to think of your mind as an ocean instead of a wall. Can you consciously do this?"
He watched as she shut her eyes in concentration. "When you are ready, look at me." At length, she opened her eyes, and bracing himself, Severus muttered, "Legilimens."
Cool water surrounded him, calm, tranquil. The sea on a calm night. There was no longer pain from where he entered her. He looked around. The wall was still there, obvious and tempting. He spoke aloud, still keeping within her thoughts, "See if you can subvert the wall, Miss Lovegood. Bury it in the sea like Atlantis. Protected but hidden away." As he watched, the wall began to sink into the ocean with nary a ripple. Great Merlin! Her mental agility was incredible. It had taken him years to perfect that kind of thought imagery.
She had done it in a manner of seconds, and he mentally shook his head, slightly in awe of his mate.
"Now, what did you have for a snack a moment ago, Miss Lovegood?" He saw a thought bubble its way to the surface. A picture of the honey-oat cakes and gurdyroot tea floated before him. "Good. And how do you perform a lynxanthra charm?" He saw an image of herself float to the surface muttering the correct incantation as well as performing the correct wand movement.
He gave a mental nod, and with her distracted, began to push and find her subverted wall. Finding it, he received a crippling headache for his pains. He grunted, "Reign in your wall, Luna—Miss Lovegood. You are over-defending, and therefore, making yourself more vulnerable. Ease your defenses." he finished quietly. Severus immediately felt an easing of the crushing on his skull as more thoughts, more emotions began to float up from the tranquil sea.
He saw her that morning in Transfiguration explaining to her classmates how the Venomous Tentacular Hydra could transfigure at will into an office chair. She then proceeded to transfigure her orange effortlessly into a purple patterned umbrella and back again much to Minerva's exasperated amusement. She had had to give the girl full marks even though she had been admonished, yet again, to stay on topic.
He saw her being teased by her housemates that evening. As he watched, she was taunted by a group of younger students, calling her that absurd nickname. She took it in stride even as they took her belongings and began hiding them all over the Ravenclaw common room. Gathering up her completed homework, she shrank and pocketed it, then tucked her wand behind her ear and left them to it, leaving the common room for the Owlery.
She stayed up there for hours, it seemed, grooming and caring for the birds; only coming down when it was close to curfew. Seemingly in a tangent on her way to the Ravenclaw common room, Luna veered left near a relatively empty wall devoid of paintings. Taking her wand, she wrote in brilliant gold, silver, and blue letters, Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. -Khalil Gibran, muggle. Upon completion, she turned, and that was when the Carrows had spotted her and brought her to the Muggle Studies classroom.
Severus watched with renewed fury as the two taunted and belittled her, having disarmed, bound and gagged her upon seeing her quotation. When they could not get a reaction, they decided to try a host of stinging hexes aimed at various parts of her anatomy. Luna bore this all with stoic grace, not even making a sound.
Amycus began to play with her hair, pinching and slapping her body—her rump, trying to talk his sister into letting him abuse her. And then his talk grew to action, and Severus saw himself as he burst through the door, looking, through Luna's eyes, as some dark, demented avenging angel swooping in a billow of blackened fury. Severus did have to admit his expression was murderous. The memory drifted back into the water, and gently, Severus left her thoughts.
"I thought you'd like to see, sir; they did nothing that could be considered lasting or severe." Severus was dumbfounded by her words. Her tone of voice was even and could be construed as kind. No one would think she was talking about attempted rape. Her voice, her manner. So even and placid: to hear her side of it, it would be akin to the pranks he watched performed on her earlier this evening by her housemates!
Something within him snapped as he rose to his feet, pacing in front of her. "And this is your problem, my girl. You never hold anyone else accountable for his or her actions towards you! You see it all as part of the grand design. Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls, indeed." He gestured grandly, not bothering to hide his expression of disgust as he came to a stop inches before her seated form.
He leaned down until he was right in her face, snarling, "You were almost vilely abused, and yet, I get the feeling you would have taken that in stride as well. Can you honestly tell me after everything you've been through, everything you've had to endure, that you have no sense of self preservation? No sense of self?"
He saw her smile the slightest bit in his direction, her hand coming to rest upon his cheek. And his temper ratcheted up further. He turned away and continued to pace, his black robes billowing furiously, "NO! Oh no. Of course not; I have forgotten to whom I'm speaking! Rage at injustice—rage at anything at all—any violent or turbulent emotion you do not deign to feel."
He gesticulated wildly, "Always logic, resignation and acceptance. Well, those emotions that you refuse to feel are there for a reason, my girl. They're there for self-preservation; something for which, time and again, you have shown a distinct lack of regard. Luna—" He stopped before her chair, breathing heavily, and cupped her cheek.
Her eyes and mouth were opened in sheer astonishment. With a start, Severus came back to himself and quickly removed his hand. Turning his back, he stated lowly, "I—….I apologize, Lun—Miss Lovegood. I forget myself; it will not happen again." He made for the door. "Remember, you are not to leave this room until I give my explicit permission. Do I have your word?" Severus placed his hand on the handle and waited for her reply.
"I—I promise…professor." He closed his eyes at the sweet sound of her voice even as she addressed him by his title.
His shoulders drooped. "Very well. Call Dobby should you have need of anything the Room does not provide. Also summon him if you have need of me. I will come as soon as I'm able. In the meantime, work on refining your occlumency. I expect a marked improvement come tomorrow evening."
Opening the door, Severus strode out and then shut it softly behind him. He watched as it disappeared becoming a solid wall once more, and he leaned against it, drawing several deep breaths trying to calm his emotions.
And this was exactly why she vexed him!
It wasn't so much that she was foolishly brave, even though at times she could be as much as any Gryffindor. And it wasn't so much that she was incredibly kind even though her benevolence of spirit and generosity towards her fellow man were equal to that of any Hufflepuff. No. It was in her innate intellect where the problem lie:
If one looked at a house afire so abstractly as to not see the details, knowing they're there but paying them no heed; if one just saw the artistry, the philosophy of it all, seeing the colors and the pattern, and where it all fit so seamlessly in the grand scheme; if one can see and know all of this innately, but doesn't have enough common sense or sense of self to get out of the goddamned building, then where exactly did that leave one?
Violently jerking himself away from the wall, Severus began to stalk the corridors once more, his expression thunderous, his robes a billow. Remembering Flitwick's pension for jinxes and hexes just in time, he managed to make his way back to the headmaster's office relatively unscathed.
Silence greeted him upon his return as he had yet to remove the still-life spells from the portraits. Having lived through all of this before, there was nothing new Albus could say that he didn't already know or could not infer. And so, for the rest of the night and on into morning, Severus completed paperwork and stewed about his mate's shortcomings all the while feeling petty satisfaction in having effectively shocked the hell out of her by his behavior.
.
.
.