A shorter chapter than last time, but I hope you like it all the same!

As soon as she stepped into the hospital wing Trix knew there was something drastically wrong. The air didn't feel right. Too many emotions charged it trying to boggle the mind and make the heart weak. Severus stiffened as soon as he entered the room obviously feeling it too.

Minerva and Poppy were sat on chairs near Sybil who was sat on a bed staring into space. Rachel was stood at the end of the bed and looked more worried then the other two.

Slowly Trix and Severus walked over, apprehension filling them as the emotions flying around the room wrapped around them. Fear was the strongest emotion, all consuming and taking away any hope there was left in the world. Trix felt her heart sink. She already had a pretty good idea of what had happened and it was always a sad day when it did. A day not unlike a funeral. Suddenly the red cloak she was wearing seemed too bright. Black would have been more appropriate.

Severus pulled out his wand to make a chair appear but Trix gently lowered it and took a chair from next to another bed. Placing it between Minerva and Poppy's she sat directly opposite Sybil.

The older woman seemed to notice her presence and looked down from the ceiling. Light sparkled in her eyes and a smile came to her face.

"My dear girl!" Sybil said rising from the bed and came to kneel on the floor. "The things you will see will be great I hope… Now I need my equipment. The stars are speaking to me. They want me to make many predictions. My crystal ball, cards, tea leaves will all be needed before the night is out. Will someone be willing to give me their palm?" although she spoke in her normal, airy voice she sounded unhinged. Her face was calmer than usual and, Trix expected, looked like she was in the relaxed state that one slipped into before having a vision.

"Get her everything she asks for apart from her wand." Trix said after a moment feeling all eyes on her. She also passed Sybil her hand.

Sybil's hands were clammy but cold and she used an unusually firm grip. She began talking, making predictions. Poppy went to make tea, Minerva headed to the Divinations classroom.

"Trixabelle?" Severus asked.

She didn't answer. Instead she looked at Sybil with a soft expression. She was hunched down, her nose almost touching Trix's palm. She didn't even listen to the prediction. She already knew some of what was in her future and didn't need to have anything else predicted for her. Especially not by reading her palm. Instead she opened herself to the energy surrounding her professor.

It was cold and warm at the same time. Happiness and sorrow. Love and a hate so strong it almost made her cry. How could one woman harbour so much hate? She knew Trelawney to be a kind hearted, well meaning woman who, although sometimes unstable, meant the best. But those emotions weren't the only ones in the air. Joy and gentle calmness. Acceptance. Acceptance of her fate. A fate she would never have chosen for herself.

As the emotions washed over her Trix felt a stirring in her heart. She had never really taken the woman seriously unless she was actually predicting something with the sight. She thought her an old bat who was an excuse of a teacher, a person who would be better off living in a house with someone to help look after her. Now she knew that the airiness Sybil put up was a front to keep herself in goods spirits – she was afraid of having the visions and just wanted them to stop.

For the first time Trix felt sorry for her. So sorry that her own fear was replaced for a moment.

Minerva came back with the equipment Sybil had asked for. Sybil dropped Trix's hand and took the crystal ball from Minerva before she had even put anything down. Taking the ball to her bed Sybil waved her hands over it and looked at the swirling clouds that appeared. She began to look afraid and she pushed the ball away from herself. She picked it back up and began laughing.

The sound wasn't of this world. The reasoning behind it, although no one knew what it was, wasn't for any good reason they could tell. It was the laugh of a person who was truly descending into madness.

She moved onto the cards after a while and laid ten out on the bed. Trix quickly glanced over at them and saw that the prediction would make no sense when Sybil spoke it aloud.

This time Trelawney fell into a stare of desire, a hunger for something she had never had but always wished she did. The desire quickly turned into remorse and regret and tears shone in her eyes.

She turned away from the cards and turned to the now cold tea. A single glance at the leaves and the cup shattered. Sybil jumped off the bed. Poppy and Trix sprang to their feet and began to shuffle back they weren't quick enough.

Livid anger, boiling and as hot as molten rock and fiery as the pits of hell shook the woman. Her face contorted into that of a devil's minion, full of hate and promising death. She screamed and lunged at Trix. Trix had just enough time to throw her hands in front of her face before talon like nails dragged their way across her skin. Sybil pulled hair, screamed damning curses in the same unhinged, unearthly voice she had used before.

In a flash people were all around them trying to prize the Seer off Trix who was doing all she could to keep her eyes. Hands grappled around her, telling Sybil to calm down and let go.

Then, just as quickly as she was there, she was gone.

A wretched sobbing filled the room. Trix stood properly and saw that Rachel was guiding Sybil to a bed. The healers and Minerva left the bedsided to talk amongst themselves. A hand was on Trx's shoulder. She muttered that she was fine and went to pull a blanket over the suddenly peacefully sleeping Sybil. Before going to talk to the adults to tell them what was happening she gently squeezed Sybil's arm and looked forlornly down at her, sorrow in her eyes.

She really didn't want to speak the words out loud. It made them all the more real. Official. Once again she felt abject fear rise in her chest and threaten to take over. She glanced at her dad and felt security wash around her as she made her way to the group of taking women. She could do this. She had to do this.

"Professor Trelawney… Sybil… She had the Deathday vision." She had to force the word out and glance at her dad for support before continuing. "Basically she saw how she's going to die."

Poppy gasped, Minerva and Severus looked even grimmer than before. Rachel looked like she already knew the consequences of the Deathday vision but for the benefit of the others, even though saying it cost her dearly, Trix carried on.

"Whenever that happens the Seer in question loses her ability to See things. We're born with the power to do it and it's like losing part of oneself. Like losing an arm. She'll never be whole again. Never be able to tell dream from reality." Her voice broke her fear getting the better of her for a moment. She took a breath. "She can't teach, Minerva… She can't do anything anymore… She'd be better off at St. Mungo's."

Minerva looked crest fallen. Trix knew that Minerva thought Divinations was generally a load of rubbish but Sybil was a woman she'd known for thirty years. Even if they didn't agree on much of anything they were still friends, still used to having each other around.

Minerva nodded slowly. "Very well." She sighed.

"I was about to discharge Severus anyway and go back. I'll take Sybil with me when she awakes." Rachel said quietly.

The bell for breakfast tolled.

"I'll announce it to the school." Minerva said finding her resolve and walked out the hospital wing.

Severus and Trix followed her and Rachel and Poppy went back to Sybil's bedside.

The people in the Great Hall all began cheering when Severus sat in his chair at the staff table. He sat stone faced and inclined his head once. Minerva called for silence and sombrely made her announcement. Reactions were mixed – all were saddened to hear the news but some were glad she was gone in a way because they thought she should have gone a long time ago.

Trix was more upset than most, fear still lingering in her heart.

"Well we have you back, finally." Sam said and brought his arm around her.

In the time that Severus had been injured and not working Trix hadn't had time to do anything much but mark work and go to the hospital wing catching only a few hours sleep a night. She couldn't actually remember when the last time she conversed with her friends was. Mid January perhaps? It was now the fourth of February.

Even so she was too tired from the morning's events to talk much. The emotional drain was hitting her pretty hard and was still continuing to take her energy away. She had to force herself to eat.

Severus was glad to be back in his place. He'd been sat in his rooms for the past week wanting to go back to work but knew that Trixabelle would never allow it. How much he'd changed since she'd come into his life. The only person he'd ever obeyed when given a strict 'no' after Lily died was Dumbledore. Now he was following the orders of a seventeen year old girl.

"She has done very well." Minerva observed following Severus's line of sight and saw that he was looking at Trixabelle. "Better than we could have hoped."

"Yes." Severus mused not really listening to what Minerva was saying.

There was still something wrong with her. She was tired that much was obvious. He'd been having the healings the entire time he was off work and Trixabelle had been there for all the ones in the evening and during the night getting less sleep than he was. Only now that he was fully healed would they stop. She could get some rest soon. He'd give her the day off if she wanted it. There was something else though. Something about Sybil that had bothered her in a much deeper way than it had everyone else.

She still seemed scared, he realised.

He watched her though out the day but all the time that fear stayed with her no matter how much she tried to push it away or hide it. Several times he tried to get her to talk about it but the answer was always the same: 'I'm fine'.

After dinner he asked her to go to his office with him under the pretence of 'collecting some things'. What he really wanted to make her do was talk. They walked there in silence.

Severus opened the door and stepped in noticing that everything was distinctly less dusty. Tidier. Three people rounded the corner. Ronald, Hermione and Harry. Hermione was the first to speak.

"We thought you might like a clean office, Professor." She explained. "It's good to have you back."

Harry sneezed. "We just put all the papers in a couple of piles on the other table. Not sure what you would do with them."

"Hand them back I suppose." Trixabelle said. "You didn't take them out of order did you? Took me ages to mark them."

"Ron dropped them a few times." Hermione said.

Trixabelle shot him daggers.

Ron gulped recognising that look from his childhood potions classes. "Good to have you back, Professor." He said and shook Severus's hand. "Bit strange isn't it." he said to Trixabelle. "Professor Snape being your dad."

Hermione elbowed him in the ribs. Severus gave him a flat look.

"No." Trixabelle deadpanned and walked further into the office.

Hermione lead her husband and friend out and Severus looked round. Everything had been dusted and polished, books lines the shelves in what looked to be by subject and then alphabetical order. Class equipment sat on a different set of shelves and the sneakoscopes were all repaired and working. His desk and been left clear and two proper chairs rather than stools sat opposite it. Further into the large office was a table that seated six people and further in a couple of sofas and chairs sat around a coffee table. A glass cabinet held refreshments. And thank Merlin, there wasn't a sheepskin in sight.

Severus sat at the large table opposite Trixabelle who was looking at the stacks of papers. They all seemed to be in order.

"Look at these, the sixth years all got 'E' and 'O's' on their sneakoscope unit." She smiled and passed the relevant stack of parchment to him.

Severus flicked through them hiding the surprise on his face.

"Someone always fails." He whispered to himself.

"I had them repair all the ones over there as well as do the book work. I've understood them ever since I made mine."

"You should consider teaching." He said remembering how not so long ago on his illicit escape from the hospital wing he had thought the every same thing.

"I used to want to be an Auror." She sighed. "Can't though. The Sight makes it impossible."

"How so?"

"Well I can't exactly be catching a dark wizard and have a vision in the middle of it can I? And what if… if I have the Deathday vision?"

So that was what she was scared about. Today she'd had her greatest fear laid out in front of her. She'd dealt with it well on the outside, so well he hardly suspected there was anything wrong with her at the time.

He didn't want her to have to feel that pain anymore but he couldn't very well tell her that it wouldn't happen to her. He had no way of knowing that it was the truth and he didn't want to lie to her or give her false hope. He knew what that was like to deal with when hope was shattered.

"That's why you called it a 'curse'."

She just nodded and looked down at the table.

"I'm going to bed." she said a few moments later and left the room before he could say anything else.

Hope you enjoyed it. Well I suppose it isn't a chapter you can enjoy for light heartedness sake but I hope you liked it all the same! Please leave a reveiw!

Next time... Trix has a dream that has more impact than a dream should deserve to have.

J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. If I owned it Snape wouldn't have died. Or Fred. Or Tonks and Remus and Sirius. Oh how I wish I did own it just to bring them all back!