The year started for Snape and Azalea in a routine of work and seeing each other as often as they could. Soon after the beginning of term Azalea was in the potion classroom at Hogwarts making a potion as practice for the practical exam she would have to take later in the year. Severus sat at the teacher's desk marking some of his students' homework and planning lessons for later that week. They worked in companionable silence for an hour or so when a thought struck Azalea.
"Severus," she asked. "When I do the actual practical for the NEWTS will the exam be limited to potions that can be made in under 3 hours?" He shot a questioning look and she explained further. "Some potions have particular ways of being made, you know things like using freshly collected dew on a winter's morning, leaving the potion to marinate for 3 days, or stirring it widdershins under a full moon while dancing naked around the cauldron" she said flippantly.
He raised his eyebrows and said in mock seriousness "I'm not aware that nudity is a requirement of potion making."
Azalea flashed into his mind an image of the two of them dancing naked around a cauldron under a full moon on a warm summer's night. Severus smiled at her, the smile she loved, the one that lit up his face and made his eyes turn soft and gentle, the one that made her go weak at the knees. "I rather think we'd be doing a different type of dance in that scenario," he said suggestively. This time it was Azalea's turn to smile, it was a smile just for him, a smile that reminded him that she loved him and made him feel the luckiest man on earth. His voice turned serious, "In reply to your original question, you are correct that many potions take considerably longer than 3 hours to make. You might be given a part made potion and instructions on how to complete it."
"I can make any potion in under three hours," she said, "using my quicker method."
"You will not use your quicker method in the exam," he said severely, "it would be cheating and unfair to the other students."
"I know, I won't use it, honestly," she said.
At that moment the door to the classroom opened, Snape looked down the room to see who had entered. Azalea saw by the slightest narrowing of his eyes that he wasn't pleased to see the visitor. Most people wouldn't have noticed any change in his expression but Azalea was so attuned to his moods nothing about him escaped her. She turned in her seat to see who had come into the classroom and saw the squat figure of Dolores Umbridge walk up to Snape's desk. He stood up and stepped around to the front of the desk to speak to her. Whilst not a tall man, he loomed over Umbridge but she was not intimidated.
"Professor Snape," she said in her high pitched voice, incongruous with her physical appearance, "I saw the light on in the classroom and heard voices, I thought I should come in and check that there weren't any students up to no good."
"I thank you for your concern but as you can see all is in order here," replied Snape and made to return to his seat. Umbridge looked around the classroom and seemed to notice Azalea for the first time.
"What are you doing here?" she said to Azalea, "you are not a student at Hogwarts."
"Miss Bennett is here at my invitation," said Snape and returned slowly towards Umbridge, "I am tutoring her for her NEWTs in potions." He was also tutoring Azalea in Defence Against the Dark Arts but didn't mention that to Umbridge, who had a strange way of teaching the subject to her own students.
"You're giving private lessons," said Umbridge making it sound like something lewd, "here in Hogwarts?"
"I have the headmaster's permission," replied Snape ignoring the inference of her tone, "and it is in my own time. My duty to the Hogwarts' students is unaffected."
"I see that you are, however, using the potion supplies intended for Hogwarts students, in these ..um.. private lessons," Umbridge said in a manner which made Azalea's skin crawl.
"The ingredients are from my own supplies," Snape lied.
"Really?" responded Umbridge stepping forwards and was now standing very close to Snape. Azalea knew he didn't like people to invade his personal space and he must be feeling very uncomfortable by her proximity. Umbridge, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying his discomfiture. Azalea felt a basic emotional response to the threat of another woman towards her man. She strode to stand next to Snape, much closer than she normally stood when in public. "Yes really," Azalea said loudly and took a large step towards Umbridge forcing her to move backwards and out of Snape's personal space. "Are you suggesting that Professor Snape is lying?" Azalea said threateningly with flicker of red in her eyes.
Umbridge was caught in Azalea's gaze and for a second was unable to look away but it was enough for Azalea to perform legilimancy and deduce that Umbridge was a ruthless, self-serving power seeker. "No," said Umbridge regaining her confidence, "I'm sure the Professor is an honest man. But as High Inquisitor of Hogwarts it is within my authority to ban all teachers from giving private tuition," she said maliciously, "whether or not it is done in their own time or with their own supplies." With that parting shot she left the room.
"I don't like that woman," said Azalea heatedly. "I suppose that means I can no longer have my lessons with you, Filius and Minerva."
"It won't stop me, neither, I suspect, will it stop Filius and Minerva, but why did you intervene? It is possible that she would have just left if you'd said nothing? She may not have even noticed you."
"Maybe, but she's noticed me now. She's already noticed you." Azalea said. "I think she's dangerous, Severus, please watch yourself around her."
"Don't worry about me, Leah, we all watch our step and our words when she's around."
Despite having been banned from tutoring Azalea, all three of Azalea's teachers continued to do so, but they no longer held the classes at Hogwarts. Azalea had completed her latest practical potions lesson at Severus' house one Saturday night in March and they were now in the post coital glow of another sort of practical session. Azalea lay with her head on Severus chest and listened to his heart beat and the sound of his breathing. After a while she lifted herself up on one elbow and looked into his face, his beautiful dark brown eyes were fixed on a point in the middle distance. She leant over so she was in his line of vision and said quietly, "Is there something wrong, darling, you seen a little pre-occupied?"
He refocused his eyes to look at her. He loved to hear her use endearments – it was something his parents had never done and it made him feel valued and wanted. "No, I'm fine," he replied.
"No you're not," she asserted. "I know you well enough to recognise when something is troubling you. Tell me what's wrong."
"It's Harry," he said thinking it might be helpful to discuss his concerns with someone else and who better than with Azalea.
Azalea noticed he said Harry rather than Potter which alerted her to the depth of his concern. "Is this something to do with the occlumency lessons?"
"Yes."
"How's he getting on?"
"He's not as good as you were, sometimes he shows flashes of competence. In fact, on a couple of occasions he's broken through my defences and seen things I would rather he had not seen."
"What things?" asked Azalea out of curiosity.
"My childhood, images of my parents fighting, me locked up alone in my bedroom when I was a teenager, being laughed at on my first attempt to ride a broomstick."
"That's not so bad is it? It seems to me that the two of you have had similar childhood experiences surely you can sympathise with each other?"
"It's not so much that he broke into my memories – it's the way he did it. He used a shield charm rather than the legilimency techniques that I'm trying to teach him. On another occasion he stopped me from seeing his thoughts by the use of a stinging hex and not by closing his mind to me."
"If it works does it matter?" asked Azalea.
Severus sat up and fixed her with a disappointed look, "Of course it matters," he said sharply. "The purpose of the training is to always be ready with a tried and tested technique that comes to your aid instantly and without thought. There won't be time to invent new ways, which may or may not work, when the Dark Lord is accessing his mind." Severus had a look close to despair on his face as he continued, "and for all the time we've spent training the incursions by the Dark Lord seem to be getting more frequent. If anything the training is making him worse not better. He lacks discipline and allows his emotions to take over."
"Harry is a fifteen year old boy," Azalea reminded him, "He's only just learning the power of emotions; you know what teenagers are like, hormones all over the place. How old were you when you learned occlumency?"
"About 21, Dumbledore taught me, shortly after Lily died."
"And I was 32. We were adults and should have already learned more control over our emotions."
"That might explain some of Potter's problems but the connection Potter has with the Dark Lord seems to deny the normal protection an occlumens can give himself, even one as poor in the technique as Potter." Snape said.
Azalea, who by now had sat up in the bed next to him, suddenly had an idea. "May be it is a different type of connection," she said. "You and I are able to telepathically link to each other, share our emotions and project images. I'm not able to do that with anybody else, are you?"
"No, only with you."
"Is it common among wizards to be able to do that? Is it something that only lovers or soulmates can do?"
"Not as far as I know."
"Then why can we do it?"
"Ah I do have a theory," Severus said. "I think it's related to the bee attack when we were children. Dumbledore told me that the bees were magna honey bees and had a reputation to be able to increase a wizard's power especially if they were stung as children before their magic abilities manifested themselves. There was a risk that a child's magic ability could be delayed by years or a risk that they would never attain their magic and the person grew up to be a squib."
"Well," said Azalea thoughtfully, "that might explain why my powers didn't appear until I was an adult but why weren't you and Lily affected, you were both stung too? Also it doesn't explain why you and Lily couldn't communicate telepathically."
"I have a theory about that too," responded Severus, "I think it might have needed the attempt at legilimancy to trigger the telepathic ability and I never tried legilimancy with Lily. As to whether or not the bee stings increased mine and Lily's powers, it is possible that they did: we both improved significantly at Hogwarts after that."
"All the same, these theories don't explain the link between Harry and Voldemort. I'm certain Harry's never been stung by the magna honey bee," said Azalea.
"I know, but I'm sure it has something to do with Potter's scar, every time he has a vision from the Dark Lord the scar hurts. At the last lesson Potter experienced something that could only have come from the Dark Lord. I've shouted and urged Potter to practice occlumency. How can I protect him or teach him to protect himself if he won't even try?" Severus said in exasperation.
"Maybe this connection between Harry and the Dark Lord is beyond the protection even a skilled occlumens could do. If I wanted to, Severus, I could force my way into your mind using our telepathic link and there's nothing you could do to stop me. Perhaps it's the same with Harry and Voldemort, especially as the link only seems to be one way."
"You could really do that?" Severus asked quietly.
"Yes, but I never would except in a dire emergency, or if I lost my soul again," she said glancing across at him.
"That will never happen again at my hands. I promise," he assured her.
"I believe you. But back to Harry, does Voldemort know that Harry can share his thoughts? asked Azalea.
"Yes he does," Severus told her.
"Then it's possible for him to feed Harry false images."
"Yes, he could," agreed Severus.
"We need to warn Harry not to believe everything he gets from Voldemort," said Azalea.
"How would Potter know the difference between what was real and what was false?" he asked.
"That's why we're here to help him and help him we must. We should do it because it's the right thing to do. Never mind that he's my cousin or Lily's son, he just a boy who has been marked for death by a madman. We owe it to him and the future of the wizard world to give him all the help we can."
"I know and I will but I find it so difficult at times, I don't think I will ever like the boy."
Azalea touched Severus' arm, "You don't have to like him - you just have to help him, but don't let your dislike of him get in the way of doing the right thing."
"I'll try not to," he said and at the time he meant it.
-oOo—
Three weeks later Snape's good intentions went awry. The previous week had been eventful, Dumbledore had disappeared after Umbridge had discovered the self-styled Dumbledore's Army practising Defence Against the Dark Arts skills. The headmaster had claimed that the students had been doing it on his orders, something which Snape knew to be untrue. Following Dumbledore's departure Umbridge had appointed herself Headmistress of Hogwarts. The day afterwards there had been a commotion in the school buildings when Fred and George Weasley had set off a spectacular display of fireworks. Like the other teachers, Snape had reacted slowly to help Umbridge sort out the situation. He had a sneaking admiration for the Weasley twins and thought Umbridge deserved all she got.
The following day he had an occlumency lesson with Potter. Snape knew that before Dumbledore had left, he had exhorted Potter to continue with the lessons and do exactly as Professor Snape instructed. Potter was uncharacteristically late which Snape remarked upon as he removed his memories into the pensieve. The lesson had barely started when they were interrupted by Draco barging into the office, Snape would have to remind him about the need to knock (but not in front of Potter). Draco informed Snape that Montague (a member of Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad) who had disappeared a few days ago when the Weasley twins had shoved him into a vanishing cabinet, had turned up and Professor Umbridge needed his help. Snape didn't want to antagonise Umbridge by refusing her request, so he told Potter the lesson would be postponed until the next day and he swept out of the room.
He followed Draco to the fourth floor where he found the unfortunate Montague trapped inside a toilet. It didn't take Snape too long to release the boy and Madam Pomfrey took him to the school's hospital. Snape wondered why Umbridge couldn't have done the relatively straightforward release spell herself, the fact that Montague was Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team was irrelevant and she shouldn't have prolonged his predicament. He concluded that she was just trying to show the staff who was in charge by demanding that Snape attend. By the time he returned to his office he was feeling irritated that his time had been wasted. The door was slightly ajar and as he slowly pushed it he could see the movement of the silver light from the pensieve reflected on the door frame and his insides turned to ice. He silently opened the door and saw Potter with his face in the pensieve spying on Snape's memories. Although he had forgotten the detail of the memories he had stored he remembered that some of them were deeply personal and he was filled with anger. He reached out and grabbed the top of Potter's arm in a vice like grip and pulled him away from the pensieve.
"Having fun?" he growled noticing as he did so a faint image of James Potter standing by a young Snape in the pensieve. "So," he said gripping Potter harder, "So … been enjoying yourself Potter?"
"N-no.." stammered Potter trying to release himself from Snape's grasp.
Snape felt his anger build inside him, he knew there were precious memories in the pensieve, secret things that mustn't be found out, someone's life may depend upon it, someone he knew was dear to him. He needed those memories back, unsullied and untouched. He had seen James Potter in the pensieve so he started there, "Amusing man, your father, wasn't he?" he said shaking Potter so hard that the boy's glasses slipped down his nose.
"I didn't…" Potter began and Snape threw him in rage across the room and he landed heavily on the floor.
"You will not repeat what you saw to anybody!" Snape bellowed.
"No, no of course I won't…" Potter said scrambling to his feet and heading towards the door.
"Get out!" Snape shrieked, "Get out and I don't want to see you in this office ever again!" He picked up a jar of cockroaches and launched it towards Potter, the jar hit the wall above the door and exploded over Potter's head as he wrenched open the door and ran from the room.
After he'd gone Snape stood in the room panting for breath. He rushed to the pensieve, and saw that only the uppermost memory seemed to have been disturbed, the one with James Potter in it, silver threads whirling around the top of the bowl. Snape removed his wand from his pocket, used it to pick up the memory as a long silver strand and inserted it back into head. In the bottom of the bowl remained a silver pool shimmering like mercury that was calm and still, Snape repeated the action with his wand and inserted the memories back into his head. His life with Azalea flooded back into his mind, these were the memories he treasured; this was the person he needed to protect. He was fairly certain now that Potter had not seen these images but it had been a close thing. He would never remove anything involving Azalea from his head again, she would stay with him there until the end of his life, always there, forever with him. His ability as an occlumen made those memories safer inside his head than being in a pensieve.
Only now that his memories were whole again did he begin to wonder if had overreacted with Potter, he was Azalea's cousin and she was fond of him. If Potter ever told her how angry Snape had been and how he had thrown him across the room, Azalea's disappointment in him would be unbearable. Snape knew that, despite his faults, Potter was capable of honouring a promise not to tell and he would just have to have faith that Potter would keep it this time.
