Emily stared at the potions master. The normally hard and dark man who was both her antagonist and mentor was no longer the mean indifferent man she was so used to. The lines on his face had softened from the hard shield he always wore, and his eyes held such an intensity, Emily felt fear struck into her heart. However with her fear the massive rush of emotions that flowed through her rendered her incapable of speaking. She simply stared at the man before her, the physical ache in the middle of her chest was like painful icy veins that traveled through her blood out across her chest and out to her very finger tips and back again.
"I had… NO idea…that you were alive." He gasped out to her. She stared at the man, the icy feeling rooted her to the spot, the headmaster completely forgotten and the man standing in the corner of the room was all she focused on. "If I had known, if I ever had ANY indication to contradict what I had seen… I held your body! It's-it's impossible…" He said, his eyes were wide and he watched her. Emily watched him take a hesitant step towards her and he then stood before her, kneeling down to her level.
XxXxXx
Alex wondered through their quarters trying to find his father. Eventually he went to his Dad's private office, expecting to find him working, however he found his office empty, save for an experiment set up on his table.
"Dad? Are you here?" Alex called, wondering if he had simply stepped out, but he heard nothing. Alex stepped up to his father's desk ot see what he had been working on, curious as to what could have kept the man occupied. He spied the setup before him. A medium cauldron filled with a clear shimmering potion sat, most of the potion scooped out and seemingly used on the table before him. There were three small bowls of a dark red substance, and then two floating vials. Alex caught one nad read the label.
"ss.?" He murmered, letting the vial float once more. He looked to the other one and read the initals ea. And he could feel his confusion rolling. What business did his father have with blood? If that was what it was, and he was pretty sure that it was, he wasn't a Ravenclaw for nothing after all. He decided to make his way to his father's private potions lab, but upon entry he found the room just as baren as the rest of their quarters. He walked around the tables, looking at what his father could possibly have been working on and found a large tome sitting closed at the end of the counter top.
"Parentis Entalis?" Alexander asked to no one in particular. He stared at the book, wondering why his father was doing blood testing.
XxXxXx
"You-you hate me!" She managed to get out in a breathy voice. She got up from the chair, backing away from the man. He immediately stood, watching the girl.
"I don't hate you." He said in a quiet voice. Emily simply couldn't process everything that was happening.
"n-no! In class, you hate me! You, you, all of this? It…" At this point emily was gaping for words, and she simply couldn't sort out what she had to say.
"Emily, there are many reasons, I do not hate you, let me explain." The potions master tried, but the girl was shaking her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. Without another word, she ran to the door, and fled down the stairs.
The room was silent after her departure, save for the sound of various whirling gadgets that made up the headmaster's office. The dark man was rigid, frozen, staring at the door where the child had just departed.
"Give her sometime Severus… She does not know you as Alex and I do." The headmaster said in a very quiet voice. The dark man nodded, his back to the headmaster. A few moments more the potions mater stood in the headmaster's office before three long strides delieved him through the door.
XxXxXx
Emily sat silently at the top of the astronomy tower inside the small room. The window revealed a fairly barren landscape, the lake had iced over for the most part, and the ground was coated in a thick blanket of white that obscured all of the features normally present. It had been a few hours since Emily had left the Headmaster's office. By now she had convinced herself it wasn't a dream, and then she started to think of Professor Snape.
"My Father." She breathed out, correcting the thought. The way he had acted in the headmaster's office was nothing like how he normally acted towards her. Was he someone she could trust? She forced herself to stand, and she paced back and forth for a few moments, holding her arms tightly around her chest. She could feel the hairs on her arm raise in the dark and the moonlight cast shadows on her arm and all around her. By this time the moon had risen high into the night sky, but she simply had no idea what time it was. She looked to the door of the small room and she summoned every ounce of Gryffindor courage she possessed and she excited through the heavy wood entrance and very quietly chose a path that would lead her towards the dungeons. As she walked she was very aware of the snoozing portraits and the silence of the normally active staircases. As she continued her treck, she noticed the air became colder and stiller, and her light footfall were the only sound. She turned the sharp corner at the bottom of the stairs and made her way down the nearly pitch-black corridor. She could hear her heart beat as she found herself outside of her potions master's office. She stared at the large cast iron door, the features which she could just barely make out in the dark. Emily raised a hand to knock, but she froze in place, looking at the shape of her pale hand. Did he really want to see her? What would he do if she just knocked and announced her presence uninvited. She stared at the door, backing away and letting her body rest against the opposite wall. The cold from the stone wall easily slipped through the layers of her jumpers and sent a chill down her spine. She stared at the dark color of the heavy iron and wood, it seemed so dark and uninviting.
"Lumos." A low-quiet voice said. Emily felt her heart start in her chest. She was blinded by the sudden intrusion of light, but as the light was moved away from her face to illuminate the coridor, she felt her body rise into a panic once more, staring at the dark eyes of the man who stared at her with a very unreadable face. They were frozen like that for a long moment, simply staring at one another, trying to discern what the next move was.
"I-I j-ju-jus-t…" She tried to force out, but she found that her voice stopped working as her throat thickened with emotion. She suddenly felt much smaller than she normally did, looking up at the tall man, feeling terribly intimidated. This was the potions master. The horrid man who assigned her detention on her very first day of Hogwarts. She could feel her breath speed up, and she turned away from the man who was lighting the dark hallway and pressed her hands to her face, trying to stop the tears that had started up once more. It felt like an eternity standing there, trying to compose herself in the presence of the intense man, but her body was betraying her. She took deep breaths doing everything she could to force the hard lump of feelings in her throat back down but nothing seemed to be working.
She felt a warm hand slowly placed on her shoulder. Tears escaped down her cheeks and she let out a chocked sob as she was gently turned around. Hands lightly grasped her upper arms, and they gently pulled her hands from her face. She immediately tucked them in tightly to her chest, almost too afraid to look up him. There was no movement, and she finally forced her eyes to meet his. She looked at the man kneeling before her and she felt a short rush of surprise as he gently pulled her into his arms and held her tightly.
A/N Hey, really sorry I haven't updated in a while. First I needed to get into the proper mindset for this chapter to do it *right* but also Art School has laid it on pretty thick here in the last few weeks, so life got away from me a bit! Just a bit on the very busy side, nothing too rotten -AND- Stay tuned! I will be updating with Chapter 13 later tonight/today for wherever you are in the world! xxxxx
