A/N- Final bridge chapter - Part two will begin following this. Still projected finish at 60-80,000 words total. Thank you again for all the reviews. Time to shake it up a little.

Snow

Of Gold and Steel

Chapter Twenty

She made her way toward Dumbledore's office, her steps quiet on the bare floor. Severus was sleeping, or at least he had been when she'd left him an hour before in his chambers and then promptly gotten lost. Finally, after a bit of a chat with a ghost who was curiously, damn near headless, she found herself standing just in front of the door to the headmaster's office. It was pulled open and she found herself face to face with a beaming Albus Dumbledore.

"Sara! So good of you to be here." He patted her hand lightly before gesturing to the chair across from his desk. To her surprise he seated himself in its mate, rather than the massive affair behind his desk. "Thank you for coming. Dare I ask what you told Severus about our little meeting?"

Amusement twinkled in faded blue eyes as Sara offered him a broad smile, lowering into the chair he'd indicated. "Not a thing, Sir. He's sleeping. We were up late last night."

The Headmaster studied her for a moment before a knowing smile lit his eyes. "Playing exploding snap, no doubt. He was never very good at that game. No wonder he's still sleeping and it's already past dawn."

Sara cleared her throat as she folded her hands in her lap. "You got it."

The Headmaster lifted a hand, his wand flicking to the low table between the chairs they occupied, a tea service laden with a plate of toast and chocolates nestled by the steaming pot appearing on its top. The teapot rose on its own and began to pour, as Dumbledore sat further back in the chair, lowering his want to rest it on the table beside the tea set. "I know you're wondering why I asked you to meet with me."

Sara lowered her gaze to flick her eyes toward the spoon that hovered in mid air over her teacup. She gestured to the sugar and held up one finger, only to watch the spoon fly to the sugar bowl, smoothly lifting a sugar cube and lowering it gently into the tea. Polite enchanted spoons. Just another day at Hogwarts, she would guess. She accept the teacup and saucer as it levitated into her grasp, her gaze shifting toward Dumbledore. "You did tell me you'd call in that favor someday. And whatever I can do, you know I will. You saved my life, Professor. And what's more, you gave me a great gift. I can't repay you for that, but if there is something I can do to be of help to you in some small measure… "

Dumbledore's smile returned as he lifted his own teacup and took a sip of the steaming brew. "You are right. I couldn't put this in a letter, things in Britain are not safe right now." Sara watched him as he toyed with the cup, spinning it in the saucer. "I must ask this favor of you now, my dear, and I do not do it lightly."

Her eyes flicked back to his face, blue meeting blue in a curious battle of the wills. Dumbledore continued more gently. "I have had to ask something of Severus, something which I cannot divulge and for reasons, I am not at liberty to disclose. But there will come a time, in the near future, Sara, when he will need you."

Sara's brow furrowed as she took a sip of her tea, once more, lowering it the saucer once more and lowering that the balance on her knees. "Anything he needs, Albus, I will do. You should know that by now."

Dumbledore smiled, though this time the expression held a note of sadness mingling with something undefined. "I'm not sure when, but sometime soon, you must make preparations for his arrival at your home. He doesn't know yet where he will go after … what must be done is done. It is crucial you do not tell him any of this. I would not ask you to keep a secret from him were it not of the utmost importance, Sara."

She drew in a breath, the gravity of what he said gripping her. She nodded without hesitation. "That's all you need? A place for him to stay for a while? Headmaster, he's my Kel, wherever I am, he is always welcome."

Albus held a hand up to stop her and she instantly trailed off into silence. "That's not all, Sara. When this happens, you must be prepared. He will not be himself. He is being forced to commit an act that goes against his very nature, and despite what you may think, he is a good man, at his core."

Sara broke into a genuine smile then. "Preaching to the choir, my friend. I'll make the arrangements you ask for. And anything that I can do… beyond that…"

The Headmaster merely directed his gaze at her, curiosity shining in his eyes. "When Mrs. Potts sent you to me for help, Sara, you were 23 years old, and you had barely opened your eyes to the world. Some would think it cruel of me to place you with Severus. He can be cold, distant. But your warmth, Sara, your light… what you are is as much a factor of his redemption as his own willingness to learn to move on."

She shifted in her seat, acutely uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken. The teacup in her hand was deposited on the table on with a soft thunk. "Headmaster. You seem to misunderstand. Severus does not want your pity, and neither do I." She lifted her eyes to him boldly, though her voice remained respectful. "We fit together quite well, even if we are not perfect. But I don't believe anyone in this world is a perfect fit with another person. The function of a Kelsalis, my function, is something I don't think you understand completely."

Albus smiled once more, that same enigmatic smile that she remembered and it still infuriated her now as much as it had in the past. She gritted her teeth. Dumbledore spoke as gently as he ever did. "The primary function of a Kelsalis, when she is smart enough to use her power, is that of healing, Sara."

Sara shook her head abruptly. "I'm no healer. I couldn't even heal Severus after he was tortured by that crazy loon of a man you guys are all so scared of." She rose from her chair, more disturbed by the fact the man seemed to know more about what she was, what she'd inherited from her mother, than even she did. Steady steps carried her on a circuitous path around his office. "Headmaster, I spend half of my time in a classroom explaining to students the endless lists of ways to identify how muggles manage get themselves killed. I spend the other time alone in a room with dead bodies slicing them open to find out they managed to die. I was the only person in my class in med school to manage to weasel my through without having to tend to living patients and I only managed that because I slipped a charmed bic pen into hand of the head of my department when he was doing the scheduling."

She leaned against his desk, peering at him, her confusion obvious. "I'm nothing special, Professor. I'm a glorified throwback to a time when women were something else. I'm abnormal, and I'm weak. Severus doesn't need saving. He doesn't need redeeming. Don't you see? What Severus needs, is to be respected for who he is now, for being the man he's become, faults and all. And that is exactly what I'm going to do." She squared her shoulders as she regarded the older man, her voice softening. "Telling me that I'm some kind of mystical healer who can fix a lifetime of wounds… it's cruel and it's unfair to Severus, it's tantamount to saying he's not good enough and so you've given me to him to 'fix' what's wrong with him. I'll do whatever you ask of me, Professor, but I won't try to change him. Ever."

He calmly took another sip of his tea. "You will understand, Sara, when the time comes, what it is that you have to do. Remember, you are the sheath to his steel. Never doubt that when the time is near, you will know what you must do."

Sara pushed a hand through her hair as she pushed herself upright and turned for the door, her voice flat. "I'll make the arrangements you ask for. But you can't ask the impossible of me. Healing Severus … was not part of the bargain and I'm not capable of it. I'm going now, Professor. Merry Christmas."

Dumbledore remained silent as she slipped out the door and toward the stairs, her mind spinning. Heal Severus. What a load of bullshit. He wasn't broken. Severus wasn't broken. He was the strongest person she'd ever met in her life. Dumbledore must be losing his touch in his old age, because there was no possible way that Severus needed her. It was the other way around. She need him. She craved him, as she craved air. Though her body ached with the evidence of the long night in which he'd fulfilled the dark promises he'd made, the bruises that were painted over her skin were worn as badges of honor, they were proof that he wanted her, at least in some small measure.

She fumbled her way blindly back to the dungeons, only getting lost twice on the way, a vast improvement. And hours later, Dumbledore's words still rang in her ears, she sat against the arm of the couch, her feet stretched out and propped on Severus's lap. He was absorbed in whatever he was reading, Sara herself was glaring at the book she'd long since abandoned even the pretense of reading. Frankly it was astonishing that she even had managed to keep quiet that long. Without thinking, she drew her feet back, in preparation to rise. Severus's grip landed on her ankle, holding her legs in place, not even looking up from his page as he spoke. "I require your presence. Your quiet presence."

Her cheeks reddened as she shifted her eyes to his face. It was half-obscured by the inky black strands that fell forward. Her fingers itched to touch it. "I don't want to go home tomorrow, Severus." She spoke softly, the admission coming without conscious decision to speak the words.

He lifted his head then. Severus's expression was guarded and for a moment she wondered if she was getting better at reading him, or if he was simply growing more open. His fingers skimmed up her bare shin idly. Slowly he closed the book he held and set it aside. He moved with a quickness that she hadn't expected, given the sheer size of his much larger frame. He stretched out over her, his hands slipping to hook behind her knees as he settled between her thighs. Her eyes dropped to half-lidded slits, responding instantly to his touch, a soft gasp emitting from her. He stared down at her as his fingers swept up the line of her side, not stopping until his hand rested at the base of her throat lightly.

Severus's eyes lingered on her lips for a moment before his own brushed hers lightly. A shudder ripped down her spine as he murmured the words against her lips gently, his voice holding that familiar note that she'd come to know so well over the past twenty four hours. "I told you, Sara. I require your quiet… presence."

As he claimed her lips in earnest, his hand tightened at her throat and she found herself incapable of making more than the softest gasps. As the haze of pleasure descended on her, the worries and cares that he conversation with Dumbledore had evoked faded, dissolving like a mist over water when hit by the first rays of sun.