It was almost Christmas by the time Draco's first attempt at killing his Headmaster became apparent. As Severus had predicted, it was cowardly, half-hearted, and bound to fail.
"Professor Lake!" Serena looked up from where she had been browsing the charms books in the school library. A second year Ravenclaw girl stood before her, panting nervously.
"Yes Jennings. What's the matter?"
It was Saturday, and Serena had been making the most of the quiet calm of the castle. Severus was brewing at Spinner's End and the majority of the students were in Hogsmeade. She was glad that she had not been on duty that weekend: the weather was awful. A horrible snow blizzard blew against the windows and the wind was bitterly cold.
"It's, it's Madam Pomphrey, Professor, she-she needs you urgently."
Serena set her book down and looked the girl deep in the eyes to make sure she was telling the truth.
"Thank you Jennings," she said curtly. "If you don't mind putting my books away, thank you."
She almost sprinted through the castle, glad of her trainers as her black robes flew along behind her. The hospital wing was directly on the other end of the castle to the library, but she made it there in less than five minutes.
She was surprised to see Minerva standing worriedly beside the hospital bed Poppy was tending to. Serena pulled off her encumbering outer-cloak and threw it on a chair, rolling up her sleeves and pulling out her wand.
"What's going on?" she panted. Her eyes fell upon a sixth year Gryffindor, Katie Bell, lying unconscious in the middle of the bed. Her eyes were half-open, and something about them made the hairs on Serena's arms stand up.
"She's been cursed," Poppy said quickly, waving her wand dramatically over the girl. "A cursed necklace, she touched it just very slightly, but I need your expertise. I have tried to contact Severus, but-"
"He's not in the castle, I'll send for him immediately," she replied, her eyes looking Katie over cautiously. It wasn't just her arm hairs that were on edge now, her whole body was tingling with awareness, as though some of the magic within Katie had been recognised by Serena's own body.
"This is dark magic," she muttered, more to herself than the others. "Dark and… conscious…"
In a swish she conjured her patronus and sent a direct message to Severus. Then, she cast a protective bubble around the bed, making sure that whatever magic this was, it could not jump to anyone else.
"What happened?" she asked sharply, casting as many spells as she could think of over Katie's still figure and paying close attention the resulting colours and numbers that flashed before her.
"We believe she was tricked into touching the necklace. She said she was bringing it for someone in the castle…"
"This is… She is very lucky to be alive…" Serena finished as the swirls of light from her wand turned various colours. "Severus will need to look at the necklace, but… from what I am seeing here… it's a type of life-seeping curse … she should be dead," she concluded, stunned. "She should have died instantly, she must have touched the necklace with only the slightest of skin particles…" She was talking more to herself now, her brain working as quickly as possible, bringing up images of antidotes and spell books, a paragraph here, and snippet there, anything she had read about this kind of curse.
"What would you recommend?" Minerva asked nervously.
"I… I suppose a draft of living death to keep her vitals steady and put minimum charge on her body," she murmured. "And there are several potions, but, again, we really need Severus, and I don't even know if we would have the necessary ingredients or manpower- I… St. Mungo's may be the best shout… we- oh- Severus, good."
Severus swept into the room, his robe billowing behind him and his dark stubble littering his unshaven chin. He began casting the same spells as Serena immediately and quickly came to the same conclusion.
"She needs a draft of living death," he said curtly. "And I must see the object she was cursed with."
Poppy rushed off to get the potion whilst Severus and Serena poured around the ugly necklace Minerva now levitated before them.
Serena watched as Severus studied it intensely.
"This type of curse manifests itself in the nearest living being… Once it has seeped the life from them it jumps to the next. St. Mungo's would be safer and surely the most efficient route to recovery for Miss Bell," he said quietly. "And this necklace should be sent with her. I will write a list of recommendations, and I can assist in the brewing of a treatment. Poppy," he said quickly, turning to the medi-witch who had just returned with a small black vial in her hand. "Three drops of the potion, no more. I shall contact Healer Fillip I must be notified of even the slightest change."
With that, he turned on his heel and marched out of the room.
"Serena!" he called over his shoulder when she hadn't moved.
"Oh." She hurried after him, her heart pounding in her chest. "Are you thinking what I am?" she asked as she met his stride.
"Of course I am," he said darkly. "And Miss Bell was very lucky. How in merlin's name the stupid boy thought this would work, I don't know! He is well aware of every single security check at the entrance to the castle, the necklace would never have got past the aurors… And he could have finished by killing a fellow student."
"He still might," she said coldly.
"Let's hope not," he said quietly. "I must write to the head healer. Accompany me, if you will?"
She followed him to his office and sat patiently whilst he wrote out a small list. "Here," he handed it to her. "These are the ingredients necessary. Ask Slughorn for the first three. The others should be found at Spinner's End. Assemble and prepare as written the necessary quantities in my lab and I shall join you shortly."
Serena looked at the list, stunned and suddenly sweaty at the thought of so much responsibility. She hadn't even finished Grade Three of potion brewing yet, and Severus was trusting her with something as important as this?
As though sensing her doubt, he looked up from the second letter he was writing.
"Go, Serena," he said firmly. "You are more than capable. Now hurry."
She sped through the castle and down to the dungeons that were once so familiar to her. The potions classroom, although the same, felt different to her, and Severus' presence was clearly absent.
Slughorn gave her the ingredients she needed without a fuss, and she flooed straight to Spinner's End, hunting down the remaining items and laying them out on his wooden work station in the basement.
Okay think, she said to herself urgently. He trusted you, think, think.
She pulled the first ingredient towards herself. Clawed wolf root. Must be crushed with a silver knife, her knowledge came flooding back to her. She checked the amount twice and began the preparation.
It took her forty-five minutes to have all the ingredients chopped, cut or powdered on the work bench before her, and when Severus arrived she was happy with her work.
He surveyed every single crumb minutely and then gave a satisfied nod.
"Good, I will take this to the hospital immediately. I'll come to your chambers when I am finished, but don't wait up, this will take at least seven hours."
She watched him gather up the ingredients individually, and sweep back up the stairs. There was little she could do now except wait and wonder whether she should be more worried about Katie Bell, or Draco Malfoy.
…
The news about Katie Bell spread like fiendfyre. The castle, which had been buzzing all week about what had happened seemed slightly in shock. Only a handful of people knew for whom the necklace had been destined, and even fewer knew who it had been given by.
Malfoy was making a poor job of acting as though everything was normal. He was even paler than usual, and instead of being one of the best in the class, he had seemed to have lost all interest for his studies, and merely endured her lessons now. He would sit at the back, away from his friends, doodling in a notebook and barely listening to her. He looked tired and unkept and his entire demeanour alerted the staff to a problem, although most put it down to the fact that his Father was in prison.
Severus, who was insisting on being anonymous in his assistance to Katie and the St. Mungo's team, had tried to corner Draco twice more, even putting him in an undeserved detention, but Draco was adamant in avoiding him, which only frustrated Severus further.
"Whose failure is this?" he snapped one morning whilst they braved the icy track around the frozen lake. "Is it my failure? Should I have coddled him more? Should I have made my path different to that of his father's? Given him a way out?"
Serena ran alongside him, listening, knowing that he just needed to vent his thoughts.
"Is it Albus' failure? He always pushed Draco to the side and never saw the good in him. Do you know what he calls him? The Malfoy boy. As though he doesn't even know his fucking name," Severus' breathing was becoming more laboured now, and his pace slowed. "And meanwhile, Albus is running off with Potter, having private lessons that are the worst kept secret of the castle, and showing his favouritism even more clearly than before!"
Severus paused for breath, panting loudly, the vapour visible in the winter air before him.
"The raid at the Malfoy's house found nothing," she stated as a question.
"Of course not," he snapped, stretching his hamstrings next to her. "What a worthless spy I would be if I couldn't even warn them about a raid by Arthur Weasley."
Serena looked out over the lake at the castle in the distance. Sometimes she wondered how Severus juggled it all inside his head, and how one human could have so much power, and yet so little control.
"What- what did the Dark Lord say about Draco's attempt?" she asked, risking a glance at his sweaty face. She hadn't asked Severus the question before, she had always promised him not to ask what happened in his meetings, but she knew he was aware that he could easily avoid the question if he wanted to.
Severus scowled across the lake too, following her gaze. "Cissy was punished for his failure, yet the Dark Lord was pleased that Draco attempted something… But… his patience will soon grow thin… If Draco does not show more balls soon then I fear it will be futile… The Dark Lord will kill him or Cissy at the quickest opportunity."
"And at what point will you interfere?" she asked lightly.
"When I have to," he said bitterly, his eyes narrowing and his mouth thinning into what she could only describe as a miserable expression. Her heart broke for him.
They ran in silence for the rest of the route, and Serena didn't miss how Severus avoided her gaze once they had arrived back at the forest.
It was almost Christmas… Almost Christmas and they were still together, almost the holidays and Albus was still alive… but the scary truth was that if Draco or Severus didn't kill him soon, the curse in his hand surely would. One way or another, Hogwarts would soon be without its Headmaster.
…
"Oh, no, honestly Remus I don't think I will, I'll pop round in the morning to give Vinnie her presents, but-"
"You have to come," Remus interrupted, smiling as Lavinia grasped his hands and managed to unsteadily pull herself to her feet. "It's Christmas, why wouldn't you come? Everyone will be there."
Serena bit her tongue. Christmas this year was going to be at The Burrow and everyone had been invited, including her. But it wasn't only Molly's comments over the summer that put her off, but the knowledge that all of these people would soon loathe her. The more time went by, the more she worked herself up, running scenarios through in her mind, imagining what would happen, and how she could react. Could she really lie to them all? Bad-mouth Severus? Act heartbroken? Treat him as though she didn't love him? Listen to the others hating him and talking about him like a filthy traitor when he was the one making the biggest sacrifice of all?
"What's up?" Remus frowned, looking at her closely.
She checked her Occlumency shields were thoroughly in place and smoothed her face over. "Nothing, nothing," she sighed. "I just… since this summer I know Molly has been completely against Severus and… I think she's starting to turn against me, too."
"Don't be silly," Remus said calmly. "Molly invited you, if she didn't want you to be there then she wouldn't have. And you have always known that Severus isn't the most popular person everywhere he goes… don't let it start bothering you now."
She watched as Remus helped Lavinia take some wobbly steps across the kitchen floor.
"Well done Vinnie," she praised, clapping her hands at the infant's delighted grin. "Okay, I'll come for a quick drink in the morning before dinner and that's it, after that I'll be returning to Hogwarts. That's my final word!" she added quickly as Remus went to interrupt.
"Fine," he conceded quietly, "but we'll miss you."
…
The Christmas holidays were soon upon them, and despite the breather from work-life, Serena felt more stressed and on edge than ever. Severus was slowly sliding down into his darkness and every time she touched him she had to focus on not openly shuddering as his anger and resentment overwhelmed her.
Sometimes it nearly drowned her, being with someone who was filled with such unhappiness and dread. Sometimes just being next to him sucked the hope out of her and pushed her head underwater until she suffocated on the inevitable wave of fear that filled her lungs.
The only thing that kept her going was the fact that he was feeling that way constantly, and yet, bound by duty, he carried on, keeping his head down and his shoulders up and bearing the weight of it all.
It was her duty now to make sure that he survived, and to not let him forget himself. When at the end of an evening together, his anger had dissipated and his darkness had been replaced with something that felt more like warmth, she felt lighter, even if it was temporary.
"I shall be back on Thursday," he said quietly as he folded robes into his black, leather travel bag. It was Christmas Eve at Hogwarts and Severus was readying himself to leave for the Malfoy's.
"No problem," she said from where she was lying on his bed, her guitar in hand, mindlessly playing a gentle tune. "I'll be here or at Grimmauld… No, take the dark purple cravat with those robes, not the green."
He looked at her, startled, from where he was sorting through his wardrobe. "Trust me," she sighed, looking back up at the ceiling. "You look very handsome with that one on. The green is nice with your black robes, but I prefer the purple with those… Plus," she couldn't help but adding sourly, "you'll have two witches catering to your every need this week, you should try and look your best."
"Don't say that as though it pleases me," he replied in a slow, warning voice.
Serena's fingers hesitated on her guitar. "I didn't, I merely stated the truth," she retorted. "Narcissa without her husband and Bellatrix without… well, her mind, I suppose-"
"Stop it," he snapped, throwing the two cravats onto the bed. Serena lifted her head to look at him, unfazed by his anger.
"Stop what?" she sighed, "I haven't started anything."
"Sentimente Assimile."
Serena glowered at him in rage. "That's not-"
"Fair?" he finished for her, snarling. "Don't be a hypocrite."
She sat up, putting her guitar on the floor. "That's not what I was going to say," she snapped back at him. "You can't read my mind anymore, remember?"
Severus looked as though he was fighting an inner battle. His fists clenched and unclenched and his left eye twitched slightly.
Serena watched him, waiting. She didn't know what she wanted, other than a reaction, and as childish as it was, she knew how to push his buttons.
Strangely, when Severus spoke his voice was surprisingly calm, and his hands moved graciously back to his packing.
"You need some fresh air. Take your broom, go for a fly. I'll make you some dinner before I leave."
Serena looked at him and frowned. "I don't-"
"Go, Serena," he said more firmly, looking at her with narrowed eyes.
She shrugged and rolled off the bed. "Yeah, okay, whatever."
She felt strange with his eyes on her as she left the room. She didn't know what he had felt through her spell, she barely knew what she was feeling herself. All she knew was that she was ready to explode.
With the icy wind in her face and the sleet wetting her hair, she finally felt free and alive, whizzing through the air on her broom. She span twice around the castle before weaving in and out of the Quidditch hoops, to several students' delight, and then heading out over the great lake, skimming the tips of her trainers in the water before rising up dangerously high over the mountains.
Severus was right, she had needed air. She couldn't breathe in that castle with the knowledge of what would soon happen hanging over her.
She couldn't stand Grimmauld Placed anymore, not knowing that she would be cast out, and she certainly didn't want to go and play happy families at the fucking burrow. If it wasn't for Remus and Lavinia, she would have long shown a finger to them all.
She had tried to provoke Severus, she realised, because he was literally the only person she could actually get angry against. He was the only one who would understand, and who would challenge her and push her until she tipped over the edge. She had poked and prodded, but this time, he hadn't taken the bait. She felt glad. He was about to spend four days in Malfoy Manor, with a boy that hated him, his mother, and his crazy murdering aunty. And if that wasn't all bad enough, the Dark Lord would surely be keeping a close eye on them all.
At least she could stay at the castle.
They hadn't discussed why they hadn't headed back to Spinner's End the moment term finished, as they usually did. They hadn't talked about how their previous safe haven had been slowly emptied of Severus' precious and personal belongings, or how he rarely went there except for brewing anymore.
She had been confused at first, but then she'd worked it out.
Severus' secret keeper was none other than Albus… If Severus killed Albus, then the location of his house would quickly become common knowledge, and there would surely be a long queue of wizards ready to burn it to the ground. She had cried the night she had realised that. Severus' home… gone, and a target the size of a dragon on his forehead.
The thought suddenly made her want to get back to him, and her insides squeezed with shame as she pulled her broom around and dived back towards the castle. When she arrived at his rooms once more, she was soaking wet and freezing cold, but she felt so much better. She trampled through to his kitchen, a hearty smell coming from the warm room.
"Mushroom soup," he said from the stove without turning around. "The bread is from the kitchens."
"I'm sorry," she spat rather abruptly.
Severus' shoulders dropped slightly and he turned slowly around to face her. He let out a huge sigh and shook his head, pulling out his wand and moving closer to dry her clothes. He ran a hand through her dripping hair and pulled her against his chest.
"You have a right to be angry," he said softly. "I had expected you to get angry a lot more often."
"I don't have a right to get angry against you," she corrected softly. "Not now, not ever. I really am sorry."
"You are forgiven," he hugged her tighter and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "I must leave… May I give you your Christmas present before I go?"
Serena looked up at him, startled. "We said there would be no presents this year!" she said in a high-pitched voice. Neither of them could exactly go shopping at the moment and she hadn't wanted to put pressure on him.
Severus smirked. "We did, this didn't cost me anything and… I have one myself, so I can't really call it a present."
Serena frowned deeply and then nodded against his chest. "Okay, I'm intrigued."
He let go of her and went to fetch something from his bedroom. Serena smoothed down her hair and looked at the bowl of soup under the stasis charm on the table. She was so lucky.
Severus came back quickly and handed her a small, black card about the size of a matchbox.
She raised her eyebrows. "It's… a business card?" she turned it over in her hand and read the back. "For Quality Quidditch Supplies… erm… thanks?"
He chuckled and summoned his travelling cloak. "You're welcome. Have fun trying to work it out."
She pulled out her wand immediately, but Severus tutted. "Wait until I'm gone at least." He gave her a long, lingering kiss and cupped her face gently.
"Be safe. Don't take risks."
"Same to you," she murmured against his lips. "Be safe and do whatever you have to do… I'll always be waiting for you when you get back."
He grimaced and then nodded, gave her a small peck and left the room, leaving Serena marvelling over her little black card, and the bowl of homemade soup waiting for her.
Not many chapters left now! We're getting to the end of this huge adventure...
Any ideas for the business card? Let me know in the comments.