"Well, though the lab was fun, I don't think it will be helpful to go back." I note, leaning back in a puffy chair and sipping my milk contemplatively. I look over at my mother and sigh.

She frowns. "I don't like you going off and doing these dangerous things. We just got you back; I don't want to lose you again."

"I know, Mom, but I have to go back. I made all this mess and I have to try to clean it up. Plus try to understand what the hell is going on."

"Language." She says, reflexively. "It does seem surreal. How can any of this be happening? How is it possible that you can levitate things and… whatever. It just feels like a weird dream that I will wake up from at any moment." She rubs her eyes tiredly.

"Oh, don't I know it." I laugh without humor.

Shaking herself, she tries a different topic. "So, what did you do to closet Severus in his room all day today?"

"Frankly, I have no idea what his problem is. Well, I know that it is me, but I don't know why exactly. Only that I can't ever do anything that makes him happy in any way. Everything I do seems to make him more miserable. Granted, at first that was my intention, but that was before I knew that he wasn't just a figment of my imagination." I put the milk down and cross my arms over my chest. "He's just so damned sensitive, but at the same time completely unwilling to explain a thing. How can I help but step on his toes?" I ask rhetorically.

"Do you want to make him happy?" She asks.

I snort. "I would settle for him not being completely miserable all the time."

Mom looks pensive. "That isn't something that you can change, necessarily."

"It is when it's me making him that way." I sigh.

Mom looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "We are talking about the same man, correct? Professor Severus Snape, of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?"

I frown. "Ye-es…"

She laughs lightly. "Dear heart, then there is nothing you are doing that is making him miserable. He is always miserable. You are simply his latest excuse."

ooooOOOOOoooo------

Snape throws down the book entitled "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" in disgust and picks up the "Order of the Phoenix" with a faint look of trepidation. He mutters to himself about foolish Muggles and their lack of anything vaguely approaching knowledge as he settles down and opens the cover.

ooooOOOOOoooo------

"This is absolute rubbish." Snape storms into the room without warning, waving the large hard-cover of OoTP above his head dangerously. "You expect me to believe these things about Potter? Ridiculous."

I look up at him in surprise. "Good morning, Severus." I say, mildly.

"I'm the one dealing with the brat every day. And though he has become somewhat tolerable, you cannot expect me to believe Dumbledore left his Golden Boy in such a horrid place. Muggles, indeed!"

"As far as I know, it is the same in your world as in the books. Except this past year, of course." I scratch my neck meditatively. "There could be slight differences, of course."

Snape sneers at me. "Why couldn't our world be one of those 'fan fictions' that you felt the need to leave strewn about the castle? This," He shakes the book over my head, making me fear both for its safety and my own, "is after all a work of fiction itself, is it not?"

I hum in contemplation. "Yes, you are entirely correct. You could very well be from a non-canon universe. But I rather doubt it. And if you are, it is from one that is very similar to canon."

He shoves the book into my chest and I grab it reflexively. He crosses his arms and glares at me. "Why do you think that?" He asks, with a sneer that clearly says, 'since you obviously have little to no mental capacity.'

I put the book down on a side table and glare back at him. "Well, for one thing, you are still a prickly, defensive bastard who jumps to ridiculous conclusions from little to no evidence. It is a wonder you survived as a spy."

He leans very close to me, his mind pressing with his gaze with dark roiling currents of anger. "You don't know anything about that." He hisses.

I glare back, pulling on the coiling darkness from his mind. "Fine, then show me." As the world winks out, I contemplate that I probably shouldn't have said that.

ooooOOOOOoooo------

Pirhanis wipes his hands on each other in satisfaction. "Well, those new spells should have us safe here, from the Dementors at least." He looks down at the unicorns gleaming in the sunlight from a combination of the nice day and the spells that had just been placed on their person. "Kills two birds with one stone, so to speak. Keeps us safe and keeps them from easily being killed by wizards for foul purposes." Pirhanis smiles and the herd leader bows to him before the unicorns canter off back into the forest. With the couple hundred in the Forest's herds carrying both a modified Patronus/Dementor repelling spell and a key-in to the ward's alert system, whenever Dementors got close to the castle, they would respond and be able to drive them off. In return for the help, the spells had been made both permanent and able to be passed on to their offspring. The spell itself, when added to the unicorn's natural repulsion to evil, greatly multiplied their ability to ward off those that would harm them, avoiding the rash of killings that Dark Wizards who-shall-remain-nameless had been putting the herds through recently. All around beneficial to everyone. Pirhanis smirks. "Although," he turns to Deritine, "it was a bit of a surprise that they like you so much. What with them not being able to touch non-virgins and all. Even Harry was irritating to them, and he's only kissed a girl."

Liked might have been a bit of an understatement. The unicorns had almost rushed the poor guy in their rush to be near him. He had transformed into a dog and run howling about the green as the others watched, helpless due to incurable bouts of laughter. "It wasn't funny." Deritine huffs. His affinity for the creatures had destroyed his reputation for sleeping around, as dubious as that was. So his fans had simply wanted to brush and pet him in dog form and were mostly younger students missing dogs from home they couldn't bring with them. So what?

With some more chuckles the group looks over toward the lake. "Well," Dumbledore says, shaking his head in amusement, "we certainly have the castle well guarded for now. I want some more research done on anything further we can do to secure Hogwarts. I don't want to have to rely on only one system. But it was an excellent idea, Pirhanis, I must say."

"Why, thank you, Headmaster. One never knows when reading too much Mercedes Lackey will come in handy. One only needs an appropriately glowing white horse to spark one's memory."

Dumbledore mutters a confused affirmation before turning back into the castle. "Well, as that is done, I believe a late lunch is in order."

ooooOOOOOoooo------

Lucius sits on a throne made of GM bones, drinking some Sarnak Blood to wash down his flambéed Gnome Parts. He surveys his new world acquisition with a look that would do a cream-supplied cat proud. He is oblivious to the havoc he is causing, nor would he care if he knew. The fact that across the globe in a connected dimension thousands of people are falling into comas at their keyboards has no bearing on his dominion, except that they are becoming his subjects. So, perhaps he would care, but not that he was taking vast numbers from their families. After all, their own gaming tendencies were doing that. And, in fact, whole families do play together. He would care in that he would want as many as possible to come to him, so that his rule could grow.

ooooOOOOOoooo------

I blink and take in the clearing that we have landed in. It is dark and filled with floating white orbs… no, faces. Oh, crap. I close my eyes and groan as I take in the Death Eater meeting. "When I said 'show me' I meant in your head, not to transport us to one!" I hiss at him, uneasy.

"Silence!" He snaps back at me, grabbing the collar of my shirt and pulling me back. I choke and stumble a step backwards.

A voice from in front of us freezes both of us. "Ah, Severus. You have brought me a Muggle. How kind, I was going to ask for one this evening, but you have anticipated my need." Several Death Eaters turn to us and seem to glare. Voldemort gestures to me. "Come here, Muggle. I would look at you."

I step forward but feel a tug back on my neck. Hoping that this will work, I project a thought to Snape. Let go and play along, we're not back. When he lets go I walk toward the snake-like Dark Lord. As I get closer I wonder what I should do: Bow? Kneel? Punch him in the face? Fortunately that choice is taken away from me as he lazily casts Crucio on me. I drop to the ground and let myself scream. Why not? I figure. I could do with some stress relief. It seems that recent experiences have left me with something of a resistance to the curse. I'm not sure if that level of pain is no longer as crippling or if the actual effects of the curse are less, but either way it feels more like a stubbed toe than any kind of real pain.

Regardless, it still hurts. I let my attention wander down the link toward Snape. There I find a seething mass of every negative emotion possible. Anger and fear are there in large parts. Most of the anger is directed at me and most of the fear at Voldemort, but there are interesting cross-overs. There is also old pain, disgust, confusion, annoyance and some fuzzier emotions that border on concern. I wonder vaguely if it is for me, himself or someone else. I mentally announce my presence with what equates to a clearing of the throat. I feel him repressing an instinct to jump. Well, regardless, I suppose it is nice to know that we can speak telepathically if the situation so necessitates it. I comment as his attention focuses inward.

His anger spikes hot against my mental self. It is certainly not nice to know as now you have yet another way to infringe on my privacy.

I sigh… or try to. It is weird being disconnected from the body. I wouldn't be inside your head now if it was any better in mine. I'll just ask permission next time when I'm being tortured. I feel distantly that Voldemort has switched curses and has opened the floor up to the circled Death Eaters.

I don't see why you would feel the need to as you both enter situations where you are tortured and then jump into my head regardless. I flinch back towards my body slightly at the spiked anger sent my way.

I would have thought you would expect such things from me, seeing as the other three sides of my self were sorted into Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Really only leaves me one place now doesn't it?

Claiming Gryphindor idiocy does not eliminate your responsibilities for your actions. Severus' mental attention focuses away from me for long enough to throw a particularly nasty curse at my person.

Oh, thanks, I didn't know you cared. I comment sarcastically.

You could perfectly easily remove yourself from this place. That you do not is entirely your own fault. Snape crosses his arms over his chest.

Not only would that leave you in trouble, dearest, but then I would be mucking up this world's reality as well. And as much fun as we've been having with that recently, I think playing along until we figure a way out is much better. Even if I have to put up with a little mild torture on the way.

Even if we have to put up with a good deal of skilled torment. Snape scowls.

I sigh. Oh, fine. It can't be too bad because I hardly feel a thing. But I'll go back and block you off. Hopefully someone Avada Kedavra's me soon. Then I can beat an elegant exit. I sink back into my (two-headed, nail-puking, purple scaled, blood boiling) body and shrink the connection between the two of us as much as possible. Which isn't too much, to be honest, but is probably better than when I'm hanging out in Snape's skull. Fortunately, they seem to be pretty much done with the whole torture bit. Voldemort casts a curse-ending spell, leaving me panting air instead of less desireable things.

"Was there anything else to test out?" Voldemort asks frostily. The circle remains still. He frowns and looks down at me. I wonder if I should be doing something, like begging, perhaps, but it seems that glazed expressions and faint panting are fairly up to par for torture victims. Voldemort looks at me intently. I look back at him, puzzled. I feel a vague tug in my center. It is reminiscent of at Dementor's touch and I only barely refrain from panicking and doing something rash. Finally, he looks away with a wince, peering into the darkness behind him. "Nagini!" Voldemort calls. I groan in some parts relief and some parts dismay as the huge snake slithers from the shadows. I try to remember if she is poisonous or not before being strangled and swallowed.

ooooOOOOOoooo------

Snape watches me slide down the snake's gullet with mind firmly Occluded and a dispassionate look on his face. Inside he feels much satisfaction and a hint of worry. No one is as yet comfortable either with true immortality or its ability to continue. He certainly does not want to be left in an unfamiliar reality alone.

He waits through the Dark Lord's interrogation of the Death Eaters who had been set missions, himself thankfully not included in the above group. He cannot totally ignore the proceedings of the meeting, but he sets a large portion of his mind to annoyed contemplation. Obviously it was too much to ask to stay in a relatively safe place, not to mention the same dimension, for longer than a couple of days. Listening to a somewhat less stable megalomaniac than he is used to makes him want to hex the man into another stage of existence, regardless of the fact that only Potter could make such a transition permanent. Another reason to hate the brat, one of the many he seemed to have recently forgotten.

Watching the still struggling bulge that is my person inside the snake, Snape contemplates whether I will continue to be reborn in my same body, currently being digested, until it dissolves enough to be no longer considered a body, or whether I will die and spawn somewhere else. These happy considerations keep him through the end of the meeting.

ooooOOOOOoooo------

Having finally died, I respawn slightly above a tree branch somewhat behind and to the left of where Snape is standing. I land on it with little grace and spend a minute panting to regain stolen breath. By the time I get my eyes uncrossed the others have left and there is only a disgusted looking Snape looking up at me from the ground. Grinning sheepishly I slip off the limb and float down to the ground. "Well, that was fun."

Snape continues to glower. "I am ecstatic that your little side-trip has gone so smoothly for you then."

I gape at him. "My side trip? No no no. You were the one who brought us here!"

He sneers back. "Surely you jest. You are the one with the uncontrolled powers, not I."

I cross my arms over my chest. "You might be in denial, but it doesn't change the fact that you have the same sorts of powers that I do. You just haven't had your habitual affirmation of reality ripped from your skull."

He leans forward, eyes flashing and points one long finger at my chest. "You," he spits, "are the one with the perpetual need to be the absolute center of reality. You are the one that has warped everything about you into a vague caricature of normalcy! Do not blame these…" he throws his arms in the air, "abnormalities on me." With that he Disapparates with a crack.

ooooOOOOOoooo------

Snape appears at the edge of the Forbidden Forest and stalks toward the castle, mind seething. He prowls through the corridors before he is stopped by a wall that is where the entrance to his rooms should be. He attempts to remove the wall through sheer glare power alone. I pop in next to him, eyeing the spidery cracks with trepidation. "Your rooms are probably somewhere else, here. In fact, you might be in them, a different you… I mean… er…" I trail off, having confused myself. "Well, I look in there and see what is in there…" I contemplate the stone briefly before stepping through.

Snape steps back from the wall and turns around; right into a rather dangerous looking man with brown hair. "Professor, it is good to see you." The man says, with a look that implies he means more by that statement than merely meeting in the hallways. "Professor Dumbledore wanted to see you." The man continues, with a concerned look at Snape. "Are you all right?"

"Fine." Severus snaps, spinning to walk down the hallway. The strange man follows him as he makes a quick journey to the headmaster's office. I notice the strange exchange from within the wall and follow, keeping as invisible as possible and nursing a sneaking suspicion. At the gargoyle the two pause. Snape looks at the other. "I confess I do not… recall the password."

With a strange look the other man says "Snikerdoodle" to the gargoyle and steps lightly onto the rotating staircase. Snape follows him the conventional way. I sneak slowly under the staircase and make my way up through the pillar of stone in the center. I'm beginning to like the whole travel-through-stone thing. It's getting to be quite amusing. I get distracted by a pretty quartz vein in the stone and the novelty of passing through it with different parts of my body.

Inside, Snape and the other sit down in front of the headmaster's desk. Dumbledore's twinkle is subdued, his face serious. "Are you all right, Severus?"

Snape smirks. "If by that, you mean was I a victim of the Cruciatus curse, I am quite 'all right.'"

When he doesn't elaborate, the other continues. "What happened, then? You seem… distracted." The brunette looks concerned.

"We did have a rather entertaining time torturing a particularly deserving creature. She seemed to have particular fun with the blood boiling curse."

Both the other men's mouths drop open. I tune back into the conversation at the silence. Dumbledore gives the other a look and the blond starts to move his fingers purposefully. I try to reconstruct what had just been said, but am unsuccessful except that Severus just said something suspicious and that now Something Is Up. I move forward, trying to sneak behind the blond man to see what he is doing and wondering if Dumbledore is evil or good.

A screeching wail splits the air just as I get in position behind the strange man. Grabbing my head I fall into the room. Snape gets knocked over a chair and out of the way by the strange man who then moves into a defensive position between me and the rest of the occupants in the room, wand and… knife (?) at the ready. All this before I have finished falling to the ground. Which I actually do, with a loud thump and liberal cursing, as his speed has amazed me into forgetting to not land smack flat on my face.

Snape pulls himself up, dusting off his robes with sharp irritated sweeps. "Next time you feel compelled to knock me over, I would greatly appreciate it if you would restrain yourself." He growls at the strange man, sparking recognition in my subconscious and making me think that perhaps I do, in fact, know him.

Without taking his dark brown eyes off of my still form, the other replies, "That's right, last time I promised to throw you in front of the attacking monster."

My jaw drops open. "ASH!" I yell, confusing the hell out of Snape and mildly confusing the other two. I point at the brunette with a shaking finger.

His eyebrow quirks up. "Yes?" Ask asks me.

I feel a flutter of emotions- awe and happiness that quickly turns to annoyance and despair. "Oh fuck me, you were right Snape… it must have been me, you wouldn't have thought of the Mirror of Maybe."

This earns me a sharp look from Ash, who, before I can blink, has gotten me pinned to the wall with a binding spell. I choke slightly. "What did you do to the Professor?" he questions me intently. "And how do you know about the mirror? Where did you encounter it?" This earns an intrigued look from Dumbledore. I note that Snape has sat down on one of the plush chairs and is serving himself some tea and ignoring everything.

I think for a second. "I put Snape under… Imperious… and I er… made him tell me about the Mirror."

"You are lying." Ash states.

"Well, you're right. I've never been really good at lying when asked a direct question… but I'd really rather not tell you how I know, and what is going on. It would make everything so much more complicated." I can see that isn't going to cut it. I wince at the continued screeching noise. "I don't suppose you could shut that off?" I ask.

Dumbledore raises an eyebrow but gestures to the small revolving object and it ceases its racket. "Why do you not want to tell us these things?" he asks.

I sigh heavily and eye the still back-turned professor. "Well, I'm not sure what exactly is going on myself and recently it has come to my attention that just charging ahead and hoping for the best is not a good way to go and only ends in huge messes that are impossible to clean up." I pause and review what I just said. A run-on and a bit of a babble, but I don't know how else to put it.

Dumbledore seems to have gotten the point of it, though. And Ash is looking less likely to kill me. Dumbledore looks over at his snoozing familiar and turns back to me, twinkle restored to his eyes. "And why do you suppose it is that the Sneak-O-Scope went off, but my phoenix is quite calm?"

I shrug as much as I can within the binds. "Probably because I was sneaking up on you, but I don't want to hurt you." I smile wistfully. "Not well, apparently."

War Mage Ash looks at me contemplatively. "Just how did you sneak up on me? I had no idea you were there." He says it mildly, but I can feel the steel under the words.

I close my eyes, willing myself to be somewhere else. I open them cautiously. They are still there. Crap… haven't gotten the hang of it yet. "Well… I was kinda… in the wall."

The disbelieving look makes me wince. A comment spikes from the corner, Snape finally deigning to help me out a bit. "You might as well tell them everything. Otherwise we aren't going to get anywhere." Or not. "And it would be beneficial if I knew what was happening as well."

"Yeah, you're probably right." I try to twitch but am held still by the spell. I would try to fight it, but one: that would be kind of bad if it broke and two: seeing as it's a War Mage's spell, my likelihood of getting out of it is much diminished. It would probably take hours even so. Unless maybe I went into the wall, or tried to… hmm. Well, better to let him take it off anyway. "War Mage, if you would take the spell off me I will tell you. My arm is starting to itch and it is making me a little cooky not being able to scratch it." I smile as innocently as possible. Ash takes off the spell and I gratefully run my nails along the underside of my forearm, sighing in bliss. Maybe the shirt was bleached or something. I don't know, but am certainly rather glad I'm in something other than pajamas for once. I feel a crackling of power right before I'm stuck to the wall again. I look, confused, at the now irate War Mage and the even more inscrutable expression from Dumbledore. Snape is still facing the other way and sipping his tea. "What?" I ask. I follow their gazes to my arm, which is beginning to itch again. With the sleeve pushed up, the blackened Dark Mark is visible. "Oh fuck me gently with a chainsaw!"

"Would you please go get some Veritaserum, Professor?" Ash asks, without taking his eyes off me.

Severus makes a humming noise of assent but then adds. "I seem to have forgotten the way to my chambers. Perhaps you would like to fetch it?"

Ash turns around so quickly he may as well have not turned at all but done an in place teleport. "Professor, there are no spells on you. Whatever this one has done to you should have been reversed with the tea."

Snape sets the empty cup down and turns to face the tableau. "Indeed. You assume that were I under her control, I would not have noticed the characteristic flavor. However, your thoughts are flawed in that regard. Regardless of her appearance, she is quite the accomplished brewer." My mouth hangs open. Had he just said something nice about me? Ash looks concerned. "Worry not. Having ascertained that the potion would do nothing beyond merely flavoring it, I drank it along with the tea. As I had no spells on me, I quite enjoyed the cinnamon in the Stripping Potion."

He walks over past the War Mage, who is eyeing him with concern and trepidation. "But, why are you acting so differently, Professor?" Ash asks in puzzlement.

Snape rubs his chin with a long index finger and thumb. "That I suspect, is an explanation that will become quite involved. Allow me to begin at a relevant point." He smirks at me and I smile back weakly. "She was at the Death Eater meeting that I just returned from, where she was tortured for approximately half an hour with various curses." Albus chokes and Ash's eyes widen. "After that, she was eaten by Nagini." Both men frown. "She has the most annoying habit of not dying in such situations and becoming re-incarnated somewhere close by in a novel body. As she has somehow attached" he gestures between us with his hand in disgust, "the two of us together, it seems the Dark Mark was copied in her new form."

I nod. "Either that, or he put it on me right before he fed me to Nagini- I felt this weird tugging sensation in my middle. Sort of like when you died the first time, Sev." I muse. Ash and Dumbledore's metaphorical ears perk at that. "Although, it was rather more like the Dementors kissing me than what I imagined having the Dark Mark put on would be like."

"You've been Kissed?" Ash gasps out. I open my mouth to explain, but he cuts me off. "Regardless, did it feel like your soul was being touched?"

"Hmm… I suppose you could say that, though why that… oh!" I get epiphany #2 for the day. "We're after chapter 19 then… Voldie has made himself a Soul Mage and Sev was supposed to find out at this meeting the details about all that." Snape looks at me in confusion. "Trust me, you don't want details." I tell him.

Dumbledore clears his throat for attention. "So, you have experienced his new powers, then?" he asks me.

I nod. "I think it would be fairly safe to say that he has become one. What that means here I haven't the foggiest. But hey."

"This is ill news indeed. I had hoped that you were incorrect, War Mage." Dumbledore looks sad again, twinkle receding to the back of his eye.

Ash shakes his head. "I wish that I was wrong as well, Albus."

Snape looks at Ash quizzically. "Why do you address the Headmaster by his first name, but myself by my title?"

Ash looks pained by the question. I hasten to answer. "It's a War Mage thing, Snape… I'll explain it to you." I look hopeful. "Can I get back off the wall now?"

Ash looks at me, evaluating. "After you tell us everything we need to know. I will go get the Veritaserum. Albus, if you would watch the professor?" With that he sweeps out of the office.

I sigh. Mentally I feel out the connection between Snape and I. I don't suppose you could do a little refresher on resisting Veritaserum before he comes back?

He sneers at me. You can tell them both all the wretched things you have done down to every toy you have stolen from your brothers. I care not.

They weren't even using them any more! That doesn't count!

o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o

A/N- I'm sorry it took me so long! I was having a huge mental block. Not that that is an excuse… but I'm just really delayed in updates anyway… Gomen. Also- if the little border works out, it's a neat little optical illusion- seems to bulge out. How cool!