Hello again everyone!

Ok, so I know some things that must happen in this story will take place… but now I am beginning to fidget with them, as I am nearing them more and more. Help? Not sure HOW you can help but… argh!!

But Onwards nonetheless! Chapter 25

***

Rasmus walked into the infirmary, his eyes burning. He hated crying, absolutely loathed himself when the tears came, but he couldn't ever help it when it happened. When younger, growing up with his peers in Athens, it had been the cause for many brawls until he managed to beat it into the other boys not to tease him about sniffling when … when it was difficult. Tearful did not by any means mean soft- and that Rasmus had proven well enough.

"Shyte," he muttered in Greek as he dabbed at his eyes with his robe's sleeve- the tears just rolled when he saw Nikos still deep into unconsciousness, lying like that on the bed. He approached at Nikos' bedside. He looked peaceful enough, but somber. Rasmus sighed as he touched the man's shoulder tentatively with two fingers, and whispered besides himself as he blinked the blur out of his eyes.

"I already did this for mother and father, godfather. Is it already your turn? Why must it always end like this?" Or rather, when will it really end? Rasmus didn't want to think just who it was who managed to render a wizard like his uncle in this state. Nobody of that caliber was supposed to have been left alive after mother. Nobody.

"Mr. Snape," Professor Frideswide's voice made him flinch. Rasmus cringed, trying to dab at his face before turning around to face her, wishing it had been Pomfrey and not her in the infirmary. It was somehow less embarrassing for just the nurse to see him cry, rather than a teacher. Fortunately, the tears seemed to be abating.

"I'm sorry," he rasped, then cleared his throat. "I am here for my potion."

Erna handed it to him, and he drank it in one swallow almost. Then he sighed, lingering, not wanting to leave Nikos' side or wanting to face anyone in the main hall.

"Shouldn't you be going to eat? Your friend Mr. Finn was here earlier, and I told him you would be meeting him there."

"I honestly can't eat right now," Rasmus' eyes were fixed on Nikos' prone form. "Not until he wakes up."

"That won't do," Frideswide said. "He might sleep for a while yet."

"Has the Apperception…" Rasmus trailed off, not knowing how to put the question without making the potions professor defensive. But Frideswide simply patted his shoulder.

"He will be okay. But he does need rest. We had bargained at a full night's sleep before … well, today, him and me. Now, we'll just multiply by ten," she giggled with a dangerous glint in her eyes. Rasmus couldn't help a small lopsided grin.

"He'll hate that."

"Then, we'll do it," winked Erna and gestured for Rasmus to go and eat.

***

Professor Bai flooed into his office with a decidedly smug expression in his face, holding what seemed to be a paper cube in his hand. He cleared his desk of all the stacks of paper, discarded quills, empty coffee cups, assorted books and other paraphernalia that consistently cluttered it, and placed the item in the very middle. Upon enlargement it burst into a huge pile of papers, all colour coded, that covered nearly the entire desk surface. Rita Skeeter's dirt stash was now his to look through.

"Sort by date," Bai swished his wand, and a whole stack of bright pink papers nearly hit him in the face. The ex-auror pushed the rest of the papers aside and conjured up an ashtray. He pulled his pack of cigarettes and settled down to study. He would inform McGonagall later, just before going to his first year class with a pop-quiz. Lighting up with his wand, he started reading the paper filed only 24 hours before her murder.

And his eyebrows nearly merged with his hairline.

***

"Snape! Merlin, I thought the castle had swallowed you up," grinned Finn as Rasmus made it to the main hall, sitting down at the Slytherin table to eat. Immediately, tea, milk and scones popped before him, still not as hot as they should normally be- the house elves were overcautious.

Rasmus smirked.

"I noticed our points were down. Was that all you, or is there someone else to blame as well?"

"You wound me, Snape. Mortally wound me," Finn lamented dramatically as he dipped his cookies in his steaming milk. "Most of those points were Hodd, for the courtyard, and then some idiots that don't know how not to get caught by Filch after hours. Firsties- they are paying their dues."

"Mmm," token smiled Rasmus as he picked up the cup. Silence occurred, until Finn broke it again, this time in a less buoyant voice.

"And do you think you could tell your buddy what is going on?"

"Nothing's going on," Rasmus said coolly.

"Right," snorted Finn. "Your uncle is unconscious in our school for nothing."

Rasmus glared at him and Fill raised his hands.

"See? You don't use the death glare over nothing."

Rasmus stared back, widening his eyes on purpose.

"There. No death glare."

Finn winced, ducking from the sight.

"Creepy! Creepy! I'll take the death glare please!"

Rasmus grinned and chuckled picking up the cup and eyeing the scone.

"Maybe you should use that look on Gaunt when she comes flashing around her Prefect badge. She'll bolt!" Finn elbowed him.

"I don't need a glare to make Gaunt bolt," Rasmus smiled, glad the subject had been effectively changed.

***

Osiris squinted, walking out into the sunlight after… a very long time, Isis at his side.

"How long has it been, Usat?" he asked. "None of these things look familiar."

"Quite long," Isis nodded. "Those vehicles use the power of petrol and fire to propel themselves- itja, not sorcerer invention. The rest you will find are not too changed from the norm."

"As always," Osiris smirked, glancing at his muggle clothes that Isis had provided. "When will we move to Salazar's hewet?"

"Castle, not a house," Isis corrected. "After we prepare ourselves. Tomorrow."

Osiris nodded. It annoyed him to have to always be the second in their team, but Isis had control, had had it ever since Seth had nearly killed him, mutilating him so horribly. She had kept him alive, anchored him while she found all his pieces, and put him back together. That was how great Isis was- and he was bound to follow her. He had lived for millennia because of her, more than any other of the time they Ruled.

It just annoyed him, that it was her. And not him.

Osiris sighed and smiled at Isis as she led him through extremely noisy streets with vehicles that were far too fast for their own good, and forced himself to think of the Keys. When they got them, he would not need Isis to keep him living and he would make things right- as they should be, between Pharaoh and Queen.

***

Harry knocked on Professor Bai's office a few minutes before official ending of office hours and the day, to make sure he would be alone. The door swung open and Bai grabbed Harry from his front and pulled him in. Harry made a face.

"This place has so much smoke there's no room for air!"

"We are in the brown stinky stuff so deeply I think that prim hauty minister will be smelling her armpits," Guiren said, a cigarette butt hanging off the side of his mouth. "I'm so sorry that Skeeter is dead- I'd have love to book her."

Harry's eyes were watering as he gazed around. There were papers floating in the air, and little notes spelled to float next to them, and Guiren was skimming new ones all the time, and waving them into their place in the air feverishly.

"We got a new gang of dark ones in our hands, may be worse than Death Eaters, and there may even be a new dark lord into the mix-"

"It's a cult, and it's not new, it's actually ancient," Harry said, plucking one of the papers to fan the air with, "and we may need to be on the alert- really quiet like."

Guiren simply stared, and Harry braced himself.

"What!"

Just wait it out, Harry thought as the man began shouting and asking questions for which he did not pause to hear the answers, and he'll be ready for instructions in two minutes.

***

It's not your time yet. Go back. GO BACK!

But it wasn't easy to go back- he felt as if wading through mud, or quicksand, and no matter how much he tried, his energy was stolen, and he made no progress. But Nikos knew- he knew very well that he had no time to be sick, that he could not afford to let his body sort itself out, just like Aello had said it sometimes had to be. He didn't get himself killed, but he now had to get himself to not be a vegetable. Nobody but him knew that Isis was still alive, that she had brought Osiris back again. He could not remain unconscious!

Poppy frowned as a spell tingled in her ear, warning her to wake, that someone needed her help in the dead of the night. She muttered crankily, expecting it to be the Snape boy, sneaking back in to keep vigil for the greek. Stubborn Snapes. She was certain she had barely managed to threaten him out, although she had acquiesced to let him study next to the man's cot. She thrust her feet into her fuzzy pink slippers and waddled quickly towards the infirmary. But upon the sight, all sleep left her.

Nikos was sprawled face first on the floor, otherwise looking as unconscious as before.

"Mr. Galanos? Nikos?" Poppy cried, but got no response. Quickly, she used her wand to get him back to bed, and checked him over carefully. There was increased heart rate, and his breathing was deeper. The man's brow was also furrowed. Poppy gasped, realizing that the man was somehow trying to come to, to resurface from his slumber. She had never seen it happen before, but she could not deny what her diagnostic spell was telling her.

She also realized that if she just stood there and let him struggle with his own exhausted body, he would end up killing himself before he could succeed in waking. He simply wasn't ready for the exertion. What to do? She would not let him die on her watch, and if that meant keeping him in unconsciousness, then so be it. Poppy nodded to herself. Frideswide had said that it wouldn't be safe to wake him before three days had passed, and the potion she had given him was to sedate Nikos for that long. He was fighting it, obviously; so she would enhance it.

"Somniferus," she murmured, and the man's muscles relaxed, his heart rate slowed to a safer beat, and his metabolism stopped requiring energy he had not yet replenished.

"There, Mr. Galanos; you will be safe from your own self," she said in triumph, and went back to bed.

And Nikos was left screaming in the dark void in despair, trapped in his perfectly relaxed and healing body, unable to break through to the surface, unable to wake and warn everyone that Isis was coming, though everyone thought her dead- and she was coming now, to get what she needed for Osiris' body.

Rasmus!

***

And that's that! Ach, I hate transition chapters, but this was quite important. And let me tell you- characters never behave like you want them to. We love 'em and hate 'em for it. Tomorrow, we got action! Probably not what you imagine, but action nonetheless. ;)

Don't you hate it when nurses just thwart your efforts?

Zoe Bright: thank you so much! And yeah, Salazar probably taught Snape everything he knew. Somehow, before Snape was born- maybe in the waiting room of 'before birth and after death'. :p I'm also tickled that you say for Rasmus and Harry to watch out (and rightly so) but don't warn Minerva she is up for getting her heart carved out. *ducks* oh, and yeah, Rasmus still has lots of issues over the deaths of both his parents, and quite a bit more about how they handled their lives.

Duj: I figured he had to have something more out of his life… and voila! :D As for your logic on Harry and his capacities, yup that makes sense, but I tend to blame JK for that fickleness more than Remus. In my book, heart is key for battles, but you also need strategy and skill, so just heart won't cut it. And my villains tend to go for the kill right away, so I must really be careful with them and the heroes, too. ;)

Mandya1313: thanks! Updated!

RebeccaRoy: yay! Glad it works, that's what I wanted. Rasmus doesn't share that much, but I think so too, he was quite loved by both parents.

Sindie: thank you! I like that sort of thing too :) There may not be enough time for flashbacks to weave in the plot but we'll see. And aieee! Yes, I meant Phineas. Darn it! x(