Gumby

Chapter 11: Ask Me Questions

The first Quidditch game of November took place in the second week. Samara sprinted down the hallway, groaning because she was going to be late. For the past two months she kept waking up and violently throwing up. She didn't care very much for she always felt that her health was a little off. However, needing to throw up just before she was heading out of Slytherin to meet her friends! She was sure she was going to be late, now.

Her eyes went wide as she suddenly skidded to a stop when she saw that a door was opening, however, it was too late and she fully slammed into it, falling to the ground quite painfully and slamming her head on the stoned floor. "Ouch," she muttered as she lay on the ground. She groaned for a moment as she lay there, staring at the ceiling, all of her back feeling very sore.

It was just an oh-so-perfect Saturday. First she was late to meet her friends, now she might need to head down to the hospital wing and then her friends would kill her for not going to their first game in the Quidditch season. Ethan and Drake would both be furious, Nate would just make fun of her for not being able to make it down to the field without getting hurt and Tim, Tim would look at her with disappointment all over his puppy dog, chocolate eyes.

She lay there lost in her thoughts in the moment, not having the energy to stand up. And she didn't right see a reason to. If it wasn't for the nausea that forced her to rush to the washroom to throw up and six in the morning every day, she guessed that she would never get up out of bed. It was far too difficult.

"Miss Green, are you all right?" Severus asked as soon as he peeked around the door of his Private stores and noticed that Samara had run right into it. He hurriedly rushed to her side and kneeled beside her, concerned if she had hit her head against the stone floor and wondering why she was just lying there, not moving.

"I don't know, hold three fingers in front of my face to see if I can count how many you are holding up," Samara said, trying to keep a straight face and succeeding at sounding dead serious.

Severus hardly heard what she said, but realized too late that she was joking for he held up the three fingers. Samara rolled to her side and started to laugh. Severus turned a blotchy shade of red as he stood up. "I suppose you're perfectly fine," he said through gritted teeth as he watched her lying on her side on the floor, cracking up laughing. "Get off the floor Miss Green," he said imperiously.

Samara lay back onto her back and sighed, trying to catch her breath. "Actually Professor, I hit my head a little hard, think you can help me up? I might get lightheaded and fall back," Samara said, her tone very serious and stern. She almost reminded him of Pomfrey for a moment.

He regarded the girl that was lying on her back warily for a couple of seconds. He'd have to touch her again? He sighed once more before bending over and reaching out for her arm, which he took steadily and helped her to her feet. She did falter for a moment, and he had to grasp onto her arm more tightly, looking worriedly at his student.

She shut her eyes tight against the sudden wooziness she felt. "Are you all right?" she was vaguely aware of Professor Snape asking her. She smiled at her head of house when she opened her eyes. He always seemed concerned about her lately, she wondered why that was. Although, she almost laughed at herself for the thought, it was bloody obvious why almost every teacher looked and her with so much concern. It wasn't like she was oblivious to how they were all watching her.

She was very fond of them all, but she wanted them to leave her alone and stop worrying. She'd gone through heart-ache before, sure it had never before been so extreme and this was certainly a different kind of heartache, but she was sure that she would make it through. It wasn't as though she was going to make any plans to quit.

"I think so, ask me questions, just in case I got a concussion," she said as she reached to the back of her head and set her hair lose. The bun she'd put it up in today was a very tight and well-made one, compared to the usually sloppy ones she hurriedly made. However, it was beginning to add to the pain of her already slightly throbbing scull.

"Why were you running through the halls, it's against school rules," he said as he stared down at her, trying not to think about how beautiful she looked with her raven hair lose. Samara squinted as a particularly nasty shock racked through her brain.

"OH yeah, I have to go down to the Quidditch field. I was late to meeting Jessica and Marietta in the entrance hall so that we could go down to the pitch together," she responded, staring to pull him down the hallway. "We're going to be late, Slytherin is playing against Griffindor!"

"Shouldn't we get you to the hospital wing?" he asked, wondering why this short, young woman was pulling him along. GIRL, his mind corrected him. Though, the logical side of his brain stated that Samara was actually nearing the wizarding age of adulthood. In a mere couple of months, she would be a legal adult. However, these thoughts were easily shaken off as he was concerned about the girls' health.

"It's a minor head injury, I'll perform a check up once we're there, but if I'm late Ethan and Drake will kill me," she said. Severus walked along, wondering why she was still holding onto him. He was going to head down to the game as well before she'd ran into the door; however, he didn't think that he liked being dragged there by one of his students.

Ethan and Drake, he guessed that they would be the ones to get angry. After all, Drake was the captain and keeper and Ethan was a chaser. He pictured Timothy Elias, another chaser; that boy would have probably become morose and depressed if god-forbid Samara didn't show up for his game to cheer him on. Knowing Nate Matthews, who was the seeker, the clown would probably care the least, or just torture Samara with his annoying jester jokes and tricks.

"It isn't necessary that you hold onto me, you hardly have to pull me along," he said once he was walking alongside her down the hallways.

"I'm holding on because I feel light headed," she said a bit irritated. "I told you to ask me questions, I'm getting sleepy."

"If you're getting sleepy we should take you to see Madam Pomfrey," Severus said. However, he stopped and wondered what he was saying. He was the adult and authority figure here! He didn't have to ask her permission!

"Or it could be because of the lack of sleep," she retorted. However, she suddenly came to a stop and held her head.

"Come on, we're taking you to the hospital wing," he said.

"NO!" she said defiantly, her anger flaring up as it had on two previous occasions that he recalled most clearly. He raised a brow at this, he wasn't in the mood to argue.

"Miss Green, we could do this the easy way or we could do this the hard way," he said in a lazy drawl as he turned to look at her. Samara suddenly doubled over laughing. "Well you asked for it," he said as he scooped her up in his arms, she was as light as ever, perhaps more so as she seemed to have lost a bit of weight. However, that did not stop the way that each part of him that touched her burned and tingled.

He paid it no mind, setting off down the hallways very quickly. However, it was a little hard to ignore the way her small little arms had slipped around his neck out of horror that he might drop her. She leaned her head against his chest and closed her eyes. "Sudden movements make me nauseous, you should have warned me," she complained as she buried her face in his chest, to avoid seeing anything and ignore the motion sickness that she felt.

Severus felt his breathing hitched to have her head resting against him. His head hardly even hovered over hers and he could vaguely smell the woman-child that he held in his arms. He could actually smell her if he dipped his head slightly, and no surprise at all to him, he found that she smelled very good. It was some kind of fruity smell that he didn't recognize.

"I did warn you, you wouldn't listen," he responded very curtly, his voice very terse.

"You smell like wormwood," Samara said.

"I'm sorry I don't smell appealing to you Miss Green, I am a Potions Master," he said very sarcastically, his voice dripping with disdain.

"I wasn't complaining," Samara said sleepily, leaning her head against him and breathing in deeply. "It's nice."

TBC…

A/N: All right, new chapter. WOot! Anyway, please Review!