Thanks to all the new favorites and follows and to notwolf, OCfan, and MamaNanaJane for the lovely reviews. irze, another one of your preceptive questions should be answered in this one.

Sometimes Summer Stinks

"Never again!" Brie exclaimed as Evan picked her up at the airport.

"Brie, you say that every summer..." He said as he grabbed the back of the wheelchair she was sitting in and started to roll her toward the car.

"Never. Again. Evan." She emphasized as she waved him off and used her crutches to haul herself out of the chair so she could hop the few steps over to the passenger side. Evan took the crutches from her and threw them into the back before he took the wheelchair back to the airport entrance. She settled herself into the car as best she could and they drove home.

She'd torn several ligaments in her right knee and had been all but incapacitated for the last two weeks of filming. Luckily the last two weeks had been centered around beach and ocean life, so she hadn't had to try trekking around the rain forest on one leg, but it had still been an annoying experience. Her crew had had to carry her from place to place as they filmed because makeshift crutches did not work well on sand. They'd set her down in different places and bring whatever animal they'd found over to her so that she could talk to the cameras about it. Later Jill would edit it as best she could to match the rest of the film. It had been demoralizing. She'd managed to convince Jill to let her paddle around and film in a single person kayak for a day so that the entire beach series wouldn't be of her on her butt in the sand, but she didn't think that it was going to do much for that section of the film.

The only small bright part of it had been watching the crew chase around after everything. There'd been a fair amount of bumps and bruises and scrapes and bites for her to tend to which, for once, weren't hers. Jill had filmed it all. She was working with the production company on the new TV series they were putting together. She'd filmed pretty much every single part of the trip so that she could use the different types of footage for the documentaries and the show. The documentary would continue to be pure information, the TV series would be more about the behind the scenes making of the documentaries. It would feature clips from the documentaries cut in with footage of what it had been like to film each section. They'd had two extra cameramen this year whose job was to film the crew filming Brie. There were even several times that Brie had grabbed one of the simple hand held cameras to film the crew from her perspective as they prepared for each take.

This Easter break Brie would be recording voice overs for both projects along with new voice over information for the already made documentaries that Jill was currently piecing out into 30 minute TV episodes and adding additional footage they had from the old trips. Brie hoped that there was enough footage of the film crew from those old trips. They hadn't been in the habit of filming the crew back then. She was still tickled by the idea of so little extra work for something that was considered a totally different project. For her anyway. It was a mountain of work for Jill, but that's what Jill loved to do.

Brie was glad that Jill had been chosen for the project so that she had year round work that she could do at home and didn't have to go searching around for jobs during the months when she wasn't working on Brie's stuff. Brie had pretty much insisted on Jill when she'd signed the release forms, but even then there had been a chance that the company would want someone else for the job. Jill had been looking peaked lately and Brie had the horrible feeling that she was hiding new developments in her health. She'd been relieved that she'd managed to cut Jill's travel times down to these yearly trips where she could keep an eye on her. Jill had no idea Brie had been behind the job offer and that's just the way Brie wanted it. She'd never voluntarily agree to more time in the editing room and less in the field if Brie had suggested it.

"So, not the best trip?" Evan asked.

"No, Evan." She said peevishly, "Not the best trip."

"Hey, don't yell at me. I told you Madagascar was too ambitious for a summer filming trip."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's not that. We got it all done. I'm just not relishing the idea of having to limp around that huge castle for the better part of the year. Do you know how many stairs that place has?"

"Oh, so you'll still be going right away then."

"Of course I will, I told Dumbledore I would at the end of the school year when he had to bring me home early for this whole fiasco of a trip. Lucky for me he generously agreed to score the end of year exams for me so the students could have their grades before they went home."

Madagascar had been horrible from beginning to end. They'd gotten lost, gotten soaked, gotten eaten alive by bugs, and they'd all managed to get the jungle runs by the second week in. She wasn't sure if it had been the water or the food that did the entire crew in, but it had been highly unpleasant. The only high point was that there had been no shortage of animals to find and film when they'd been able to stop squatting in the bushes long enough. Jill should be able to work her editing magic and come out with a spectacular looking film.

"I just thought you might stay home for a week or two so you can heal a little." He took a sharp turn that bumped her leg into the car door and had her sucking in a painful breath.

"No honey, I have to start classes with the rest of them or my students will be behind all year." She said gently. She knew where this was going and felt incredibly bad that she hadn't been able to spend any real time with Evan since Easter break when they'd gone out to California to see Jill.

Evan pouted. "You weren't home at all this summer and I'm not going to be around for your Christmas break this year."

"You're not?" This was new news. She and Evan had spent every Christmas and Easter break together since she'd started at Hogwarts.

"Nope, my uncle wants me to come up for the holidays and I haven't seen him in years, so I'm going to go."

"OK. I'll hold down the fort at the facility then." This was going to be a lonely Christmas.

"Oh you don't even need to worry about that. I've already got everything covered. Niles and Gimmery are going to run the education center and I'll already have filled all the venom orders before I leave. You don't even have to come home if you don't want to. Maybe you could stay and celebrate with Severus. He stays over the holidays, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, he does..." She trailed off. She hadn't told Evan about not being able to be seen with Severus. He wouldn't understand and would be mad at him. "Maybe I'll do that."

"Well that just means we'll have to make the rest of today really count." Evan said as he pulled into Brie's driveway. "That ridiculously old guy should be here for you tomorrow."

"Dumbledore. He's called Dumbledore."

"I can never remember that."

She chuckled as Evan ran around the car and got her crutches from the back seat while she hauled herself out and stood teetering on one leg for a second. Her other leg was encased from thigh to calf in a strap on brace to help support her weight and keep her from bending it too much. She was in a fair amount of pain but she and Evan still managed to have a good time that night. They made dinner together and watched movies since that was about all Brie could manage. She was so beat down that she'd even had to sit at the table to chop veggies. He'd made sure she ate several helpings of lasagna and many pieces of cheesy bread. She knew he was concerned about all the weight she'd lost due to the stomach problems this trip. Every member of the crew had come back at least twenty pounds lighter. They'd all looked like walking skeletons at the end of it all but Brie was especially bad. She'd spent the trip sneaking parts of her food onto Jill's 'plate' because Jill had started to look especially sickly.

The next evening Brie sat in the darkened lab and idly looked at some blood samples under the microscope while she waited for Dumbledore to arrive. Her backpack was sitting on the floor next to her, packed and ready to go. She'd added dozens more books this year than she usually took. She knew she was facing a lot of time sitting in one place and getting bored. She was worried about how long it was going to take her to get from one place to the other as well. If Quirrell got near her and she felt weak and fainty it was going to be harder to get away from him now that she had use the crutches.

When she heard the loud pop that told her someone had Apparated into the next room she turned expectantly on her stool. The door to the storeroom opened and Severus walked out, looking guilty, and holding a brightly wrapped package. She squealed and remembered just in time that she couldn't get up quickly. Instead she bounced on her seat, threw up her hands and motioned for him to come over. He gave her an odd look as he did. She figured that he was confused that she wasn't getting up. She was wearing a long flowing skirt over her brace because it was more comfortable than strapping it on over her pants. He couldn't see the brace yet and possibly didn't notice the crutches propped up against the table, or didn't know what they were.

"Hi." He ventured as he came over and offered her the present. Dumbledore had asked him if he'd like to go pick Brie up again this year and he'd jumped at the chance.

"Hi!" She chirped and took it from him with a curious look. "What's this?"

"I forgot your birthday." He said guiltily. "And then you were gone." He had decided that he would still get her a present over the summer but hadn't had a clue about what it should be. He had finally had an epiphany as he'd thought back on the knife he'd seen her receive from Evan last year. When he'd quipped about believing women liked jewelry she'd commented that she could never resist a pretty necklace. After he'd remembered that and found one he liked, the rest had been easy spells to make it what he wanted. He'd actually been glad for the distraction over the summer. It kept him from brooding on the prospect of another year baby sitting Little Potter.

"Oh! But you gave me more potions. I thought that was my present."

"No those were for my own piece of mind." He replied and she stuck out her tongue at him.

She looked down at the package. "This is pretty. I'm still going to open it. Since it's here and all." She undid the ribbon and pulled the paper off of the little box underneath. She lifted the lid and pulled out an elaborately etched silver oval shaped locket on a long chain. Inside was a smaller version of the picture she'd sent Severus for Christmas, which he'd duplicated and shrunk. She grinned as she put it on and it fell down to the same level as the chain with the two rings on it. "I love it!" She exclaimed as she tried to get up to hug him. "I was sad that I couldn't have a copy."

He noticed her struggle and lent a hand. "I know. It's charmed so that only you can open it, like your bag." He said as she wobbled to her feet. "What on earth did you do now?" Not only was she wobbly, but she was thinner than ever and had large raw patches all over her skin.

"Oh geese, don't even ask. This trip was a nightmare, healing potions, bluebell fire, or no. Just awful. I was sorely tempted to use that lucky gold potion I still have." She filled him in on her summer and how she'd torn the ligaments in her knee when some rocks she'd been walking over gave way and she'd gotten her leg wedged in a crevice. "And now I'm gimpy, covered in bug bites that I can't stop scratching and none of my clothes fit." She held up her arms to let him see just how saggy they hung on her frame now. "This is the first year I'll be glad for those awful professors robes."

"Poppy can fix it." He said. "Your leg, I mean. And your skin. The house elves and all Albus' feasts will fix the weight."

"Albus does love a good feast. Poppy can really make my leg better?" Brie asked. Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all. She really had been dreading the stares she was bound to get from the students as she crutched her way here and there. Not to mention the extreme discomfort when she wasn't on the painkillers that made her feel loopy.

"Poppy can make just about anything better." Severus said, thinking of all the times she'd fixed him up after he'd turned spy for Dumbledore. Toward the end of the first war the Dark Lord had been very tightly wound about the prophecy and it was rare to come away from a Death Eater meeting without some horrid spell flying at you. Poppy had always been there with her gentle hands and numerous spells and potions to put him right again.

"I'm sorry I couldn't catch you before I left, by the way." She said suddenly realizing how long it had been since she'd seen him. What was it about this past year? She wasn't able to spend any meaningful time with the people she cared about.

"Don't be. I was spending most of my time keeping one eye on Quirrell and one eye on Potter." He filled her in on the end of the year events.

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait. So that Lord Voldenfort was IN the school? IN Quirrell? All year?" Her brain started to work at rapid speed. "He possessed him?"

Severus nodded.

"So all that stuff that was happening to me was because of him and not actually Quirrell? Because of all the Dark magic surrounding him?"

Another nod.

"So I really should have told Albus about it, huh?"

"We both should have." He confessed. "It kept slipping my mind until after it was all over."

"I never mentioned anything because I didn't want to bother him. Also, I don't want people to think I can't handle all this magic." He raised an eyebrow at her and she blushed and continued, "So Quirrell was looking for ways around the enchantments and stuff guarding the stone all those nights in the library?"

"I assume."

"And that scrawny little Potter kid beat him again?"

"More like delayed him."

"Still impressive. That little squirt must weigh eighty pounds wet with rocks in his pockets."

"Dumbledore says it was because of the lingering protection of Lily's sacrifice. She apparently threw herself between the child and the Dark Lord."

"Oh wow. That's crazy. Are you OK?"

"Mostly." He didn't bother to tell her that his summer had been punctuated with dreams of Lily sacrificing herself. He hadn't known that she had and had been deeply disturbed by the images the idea conjured. He'd always assumed that the Dark Lord had simply killed her on his way to the boy. Albus had explained it to him when they'd gone down to extract Quirrell's body from the chamber where the stone had been hidden.

He'd looked into that blasted mirror again afterwards, this time on purpose, and had seen Lily, alive and well with her green eyes and pretty smile. It had been a mistake, he hadn't realized until then that his memory of the adult Lily had grown fuzzy. He had the one picture of them together as children, but none from Hogwarts as they'd grown. Her face had become hazy to him. Like he'd been looking at her through a cloud of steam. Purposely looking into the mirror had brought it back into focus, especially in his dreams.

It disturbed him more than he could say, to see her again so clearly in his mind, but he knew there was nothing he could do to change anything so he'd been trying hard to push the thoughts away and not let them consume him all summer. He'd been more successful awake than in dreams. "We should go. The rest of the professors arrived yesterday and the start of term meeting should be starting up soon. There is a new Defense professor to introduce this year. Some adventure book writing hack."

"Oh he passed you over for the position again." Brie stated, disappointed for Severus because she knew how much he'd like to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. He wanted the opportunity to really prepare students for wizards like that awful Dark Lord. He didn't feel that anything he'd learned at Hogwarts during his school days or anything that was being taught now was at all useful in truly horrible situations. She couldn't understand why Albus didn't think it was a good idea. Especially if Holdensnort was supposed to be making another appearance.

"He feels my talents are better suited to the Potions classroom." Severus said shortly as he held out his hand for Brie to take. She grabbed her backpack and her crutches and took a deep breath before taking it. Once she had, he turned on the spot, into the crushing darkness, and in seconds they were in front of the castle gates and he was catching Brie as she swayed and slumped into him. She moaned and wretched a bit this time and Severus could feel her skin go hot, then cold and clammy as he propped her up.

"My poor body wasn't ready for that yet." She said breathlessly. "I need a minute." He made her a chair with his wand and she lowered herself into it with a heavy thump and put her head between her knees for a minute or two. "OK," She panted, "I'm good now." She tried to get up and winced at the pain in her knee as Severus handed her the crutches she had dropped.

"Let me make a stretcher. I can float you to the castle." He said as he watched the pain walking caused her.

"Absolutely not." She answered as she started to hobble up the hill and he had no choice but to follow her painful steps.

She at least allowed him to open the heavy front door for her, but then tried to send him on ahead to the meeting so her crawling pace wouldn't hold him up. He waved her off and they inched their way to the staffroom where everyone was gathering for the meeting.

"Oh my, Brie, what did you do now? You crazy Muggle." Poppy was the first voice she heard before she'd even gotten fully in the door. Severus found a seat as Poppy fussed at Brie while Minerva and Pamona looked on, sweetly concerned. Both had developed a soft spot for Brie. Filius was particularly fond of her as well. Even looney old Sybil Trelawny had developed a liking for her, though it probably stemmed from the fact that predicting horrible deaths for her was fairly believable reasoning. "You come with me after this and we'll get you all fixed up." Poppy summoned a chair over so Brie wouldn't have to go far and prodded her tender knee with her wand.

"OK, Poppy. Ouch." Severus tramped down on his concern as she screwed up her face.

"You just get that elevated now." Poppy ordered as she called another chair over and propped Brie's leg up onto it. "That's what the Muggle first aid book I read over the summer said to do with these types of things. I figured, after all your dizziness last year, that I should start looking into Muggle ailments and methods."

"Oh, that's sweet," Brie started to say, but was cut short by the staffroom door opening, letting Albus and a tall blond haired wizard in bright lavender robes into the room. The blond wizard flashed them all the toothiest grin she'd ever seen as Albus introduced him as Gilderoy Lockhart.

"No doubt you've all heard of me and my grand adventures." He said to the room at large and Brie immediately disliked him and wrote him off as a hack as she heard Severus snort behind her and held in a laugh as she guessed he'd come to the same conclusion she just had. "But not to worry, I still put my robes on over my head like the rest of you! No doubt there will be some hub bub from the students for the first few weeks, but worry not! It's nothing I don't know how to handle."

He stood near Albus, seeming to expect something, maybe applause. When none came after a few seconds Albus cleared his throat and said, "Thank you Gilderoy. We've never had a speech quite like that from a new professor before.", as he shooed Lockhart into a seat and started the meeting.

Afterwards Lockhart went around the room with signed head shots of himself and gave them out to all who couldn't escape fast enough. Brie, in her handicapped state, was one of the unlucky ones. "You must be the Muggle Professor everyone was up in wands about a few years ago!" He said as she tucked her crutches under her arms and tried to make a break for it, but there were too many chairs in the way and she couldn't navigate through them with any speed. "Waters, I believe it is. I've heard some things about you in the Muggle world. Another adventurer, like me! Of course I deal in banshees and vampires, but the concept is the same. Here, take a head shot. I've personally signed them all. I'd love one from you."

He talked so much and so fast that Brie's head spun as her knee ached. She just wanted to get away to the hospital wing so Poppy could fix her. "Oh, well, I don't travel with mine. I'll have to catch you some other time." She said as she pushed aside chairs with her crutches and tried again to hobble off.

"Oh of course, of course. Perhaps someday you'll need to carry some on you always. There's always hope!" He trailed after her out into the hall and she cursed under her breath. "Now, which way are you heading?" He asked. "I feel like I should accompany you to your room to make sure you don't fall along the way." He indicated her leg and the raw patches on her arms. "You seem to be quite accident prone."

She was just about thank him and tell him it wasn't necessary when Severus stepped out from around the corner and rescued her. He'd hung back when he'd noticed her unable to quickly get away. "Professor Waters," He said as he strode up, "Poppy asked me to come take you to the hospital wing so she could fix your leg. Come along, I have an abundance of other things I could be doing."

"Oh thank goodness. I mean, thank you Professor Snape. Lovely to have met you." She said to Lockhart as they slowly walked off in one direction and Lockhart shrugged and wandered off in the other. "Thank you." She whispered when they were out of earshot. "I couldn't shake him. Come on, I think it's really important that I be totally mobile this year if that was any indication." Severus dropped her off at the hospital wing before going to his classroom to finish prepping it for the year. The next time she saw him, she had traded her skirt for pants and was skipping up and down the grand staircase to celebrate the peach of a job Poppy had done. Not only did her leg feel better but her skin looked great too. She'd looked in the mirror afterwards and thought that maybe Poppy had taken a year or two off her face. She wasn't complaining, but she was curious.

When she saw Severus she slid down the banister and bounced ahead into the Great Hall for the last student free meal of the year. Severus had to hang back for a second to compose himself. For some reason watching her slide down to the entrance hall had made him chuckle. He'd always wanted to do that as a student, but never had.

"Ah, Brie." Albus said as she walked between the empty house tables. "All buttoned up again, I expect?" She took a few skipping steps and launched into a series of simple cartwheels and handsprings, ending with a flourish in front of the head table. A few of the other professors looked impressed and Hagrid clapped outright. Severus, who was still behind her in the doorway, was downright dumbfounded. What didn't this woman know how to do?

"Good as new!" She chirped as she took her seat and started to load up her plate. "Poppy gave me some kind of energy potion too. Way better than caffeine. I haven't been able to do that since I was a kid."

Albus just laughed, his eyes twinkling. "I knew it would take more than that leg to bring you down. Well done! Now tell me what took so much of your time this summer."

She smiled at him, noting that the warmth of magic in her chest was slowly growing. She knew from past years that it would take a few weeks for the feeling to even out. She thought about it as she chewed and cursed herself for not asking Severus if she could try his wand while they were back at the lab. That would have been valuable data. She wished again that they could spend time together whenever they wanted so that she could make an actual experiment out of all this wand testing, but if she couldn't try at regular intervals, especially over these first few weeks back, it was wasted energy. She frowned as she tried to figure out what she would do this year for research into magical bloodlines. She might have to break down and ask Pince to help her find useful books because last year she'd had bad luck on her own. She didn't want to have to tell her why she wanted to research that specific subject though.

She tried to tell Albus about her summer, but it was hard with Lockhart constantly interrupting to add his own practically non related experiences to the story. She wondered if Dumbledore would consider changing her seat at the head table again this year.