Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe is not owned by me but by the lovely J.K Rowling. I wish I was as brilliant as her. In that regards, this fanfic is 100% original and something that I dreamt one night. I just added onto it as I went along.

AN: Welcome to another installment of The Queen of Hearts! I am so happy that you are all still following and reviewing. It brings me a lot of encouragement to continue on. Here's a second chapter for you guys today cause I'm kicking ass on editing the chapters I already have. So here's a treat for you. Here's a short AN, so let's carry on.

Chapter 5

Natalia stood at her post stoically all throughout the evening as the festivities went on. The only time she left was to get a drink of punch or to escort a student to their common room. She was starting to get tired and woozy after just a few hours, but she tried to fight through the drowsiness as much as she could. She thought perhaps it just from not eating dinner earlier. As the time got later more students needed to be escorted to their common rooms, so two chaperones were required to go with the larger groups so they did not lose anyone along the way. One would be at the front of the group and the other at the back.

On one such occasion, Natalia was grouped with Severus to take a group of Slytherins. The short trip to the dungeons was uneventful, but Natalia felt dizzier with each step. She blinked her eyes and tried shaking her head to clear her mind, but it only made it worse. Seeing stars behind her eyelids, Natalia grunted in the effort to feel better. Severus looked at her curiously, but she hadn't noticed as she breathed deeply. She was suddenly nauseous and covered her mouth. Just as the last student was through the entrance in the dungeon wall, she turned on her heel and ran to the nearest niche to hide in, heaving the contents of her stomach at the feet of the suit of armor that stood there.

Enchanted as it was, it seemingly grimaced as it lifted its left boot to get it as far away from the putrid vomit as possible. Natalia groaned and with a quick wave of her wand, wordlessly vanished the mess. She turned slightly, leaning against the wall and slid down the length of it, sitting on the cold marble floor. She put her head on her arms that were crossed on top of her knees. After a moment, someone cleared their throat and Natalia stopped breathing. She peeked up over her arms at the noise and groaned.

Severus frowned. "Does my presence displease you, Ms. Rook?" he asked. He took a few steps closer to her, checked around the armor and seeing that it was sufficiently clean, albeit annoyed at being puked on, he looked back at Natalia.

"I am mortified that you saw that, Professor. How embarrassing," she groaned out. Her throat felt hot from the bile. She grimaced as it seemed that she would get sick again, but with a deep breath, she calmed down.

"How much have you had to drink, Ms. Rook? Need I remind you that you were here as a chaperone?" he asked, a disappointed tone in his voice.

"No! I haven't drunk anything besides some punch throughout the night. But it tasted fine; just like a normal punch." She tried to think if there were any weird tastes as she was drinking the refreshment, but she couldn't remember clearly. She was adamant that if she had noticed any alcohol, she would have reported it. She frowned, placing her forehead against her arm again. "Oh, Merlin. I am going to get fired before I even begin."

Severus rolled his eyes. He did a silent summoning spell and a few vials of assorted potions zoomed directly into his hands. He stiffly handed them to Natalia. "Here. Take these. Hangover potion for tomorrow and a pepperup potion if it is needed as well. Meanwhile, why don't you let me help you up? The headmaster will want to know about this. You couldn't have possibly gotten sick like this from a regular punch and if you couldn't taste any alcohol, then it very likely could have been something else."

Severus reached down offering his hand for her to take. She did so shakily, so he gently grabbed her elbow as leverage to help her up. She stood for a moment before stumbling again. Severus rolled his eyes and went to swipe her legs up into his arms as he carried her upper body in his other arm. She groaned at the sudden movement, but otherwise didn't protest and laid her head on his shoulder.

Severus could smell the shampoo the girl used. It was a mixture of lilac and something citrusy. Oranges, that was it. It was an interesting smell, but something that was fitting for her. He almost smiled until he realized that he was already at the Headmaster's office.

"Bogey flavored beans," he said clearly to the gargoyle that stood sentry. It just silently nodded, stepping aside as the spiral staircase descended for Severus to step onto. He went up the stairs, careful as to not hit Natalia against any of the walls as they turned in the staircase. Once he was finally at the top, he kick 'knocked' the door and waited until it opened a moment later. Dumbledore was standing at the door, his robes looking disheveled and his face flushed. Severus quirked his eyebrow at the headmaster then shrugged, and looking down at the still unconscious girl in his arms, he pushed through to the headmaster's office.

"My dear boy! What on earth happened to dear, Ms. Rook?" Dumbledore asked, the twinkle in his eye instantly disappearing.

"It seems that Ms. Rook partook in some spiked punch, headmaster. She doesn't remember if there was alcohol, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't indeed imbued with something besides sugar. I thought you should know and seeing as I know not where she lives, figured you would take her home to sober up," Severus said simply.

He gently placed the sleeping girl on the most comfortable chair in the office, laying her so her legs were over one arm. 'She looks quite peaceful,' he thought. He shook his head just as he was about to move some of her hair out of her face. He quickly looked up seeing Dumbledore look at him with a slight twinkle back in his eyes. Severus rolled his and stepped away.

"Unfortunately Severus, my dear boy, you have interrupted some personal business of mine and I am rather fond of finishing it." He wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to Severus. "There you will find Ms. Rook's address. You may take my floo directly there. I am quite sure her floo network is open. I am also sure her familiar would appreciate some nourishment after all these hours being home alone. If you would be so kind as to help an old man out." Dumbledore was smiling as he said this and Severus just sneered in response.

"Very well, sir. If you think that is best."

"I do, my friend. I do, indeed. On your way back, you should be able to just floo back into your office. I'll arrange it. Have a good night!" Dumbledore exclaimed as a dismissal. Severus just nodded, went to the fireplace and threw some grayish powder in. The flames went green as he went back to pick up his apprentice that was softly snoring. He walked into the flames, said the address and added "Natalia's Home!" In a flash of green flames and a 'whoosh', they were both gone.

"You can come out, Minerva. They are gone. Where were we, my love?" Dumbledore asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. A soft chuckle was heard from the adjacent private chambers.

Severus stumbled a step before catching his balance unused to the added weight of his apprentice. A low growl was heard and he looked around until he saw the source. He rolled his eyes. 'Of course, the witch would have a cat as her familiar,' he thought to himself as he sighed.

Severus walked carefully around the small cottage and looked into two different rooms before finding her sleeping quarters. He looked around at the deteriorated room before laying her gently on the bed. He took the potions out of his dress robe pockets and set them on the small bedside table that was next to the bed. The tabby cat twisted lithely around the table, curious as to what this strange man was doing. It protested loudly as it saw its human laying on the bed. The cat jumped gracefully onto the bed and immediately curled up next to Natalia's side.

Severus rolled his eyes at the feline and growled softly as the animal was now making his job a bit harder. He sat on the edge of the bed on Natalia's other side. He gently shook her. "Ms. Rook. You must take these potions. Or at the very least the hangover potion. It will make you feel better and you won't have a raging headache in the morning. Wake. Up."

Natalia stirred, blinking her eyes slowly. When she came to and was lucid enough to realize where she was, she started.

"Professor? Why are you in my house? What is wrong? What happened?" she asked curiously. Severus just put the vial of the potion into her hand.

"Just drink. I will explain later. How are you feeling?"

"Sick. Like my head is full of cotton, and my stomach is churning. Why am I home? What happened at the dam-"

Severus interrupted her, raising her hand to silence her. "Just drink." She did so, after unstoppering the vials and taking a quick sniff and waited for him to continue. "It seems that someone had spiked the punch bowl and you drank too much. I told the headmaster. I am sure he is handling it. There isn't any reason to worry." He looked at her for a moment, then frowned.

"Except the fact that a potential potions apprentice couldn't tell that the punch was spiked. That is something to be worried about."

Natalia frowned but nodded silently. She looked down at her knees, ashamed. "You are right, Professor. I should have realized. I just didn't think the students would do something like that. There was so much entertainment as it was."

Severus nodded. "So you would think, but the students are all dunderheaded fools. Now, rest. I must return to the school and see what all I can do to figure out who did this." Severus stood after saying that and turned to leave the room.

"Thank you, Professor. For everything."

Severus stopped in his tracks and turned, but Natalia was already asleep. With a quick wave of his wand, the blankets on the bed rearranged themselves to lay atop of her sleeping form. With that, he left.

Severus returned to Hogwarts by apparition. He quickly walked up the small hill to the gates and entered the school. It was still early in the morning, about Two, and students were still dancing and cavorting merrily. He went right up to the drink table and saw, to his dismay, that the punch was still on the table. He growled to himself, irritated that Dumbledore hadn't handled the situation, and a few nearby students squealed in fear before running to the other side of the room.

He summoned an empty vial and filled it with the punch, then vanished the rest after calling for a house elf to replace the lot. He quickly turned, his robes swaying behind him as he made off to the dungeons. He got to his office and slammed the door behind him. The other professors would be enough to handle the few remaining dunderheads that were still dancing. This way he could focus on whatever it was that was slipped into the punch. With that thought, he got to work.

Severus wondered why he even cared what they spiked the punch with. He knew the answer of course. It's because it had affected her. Natalia, his apprentice, and ex-student. The girl -No, woman- he was trying to steel himself against. Only to keep a professional relationship of course and not because he was deathly afraid of relationships. No, that wasn't the reason at all.

If he was completely honest with himself, he didn't care what his dunderheaded students spiked the punch with other than the fact that his apprentice couldn't even tell if there was alcohol in it. Which meant one of two things; Either he had more work with his apprentice than he originally had thought or his blockheaded students had spiked it with something that was colorless, tasteless and odorless.

'Hmm,' he sighed. This could become an interesting night as the alcoholic beverages he was aware of all had a distinct taste and smell. This meant that his idiotic students had got their hands on something they shouldn't have been able to, too easily. Now it was time to discover what it was.

Severus pushed all thoughts of Natalia to the back of his mind and got to work. The first thing he did was place a replenishing charm on the vial. This would ensure he had enough of the spiked punch to work with, as a vial wasn't really all that big. He waved his wand over the vial casting various poison detection spells. They all came back negative just like he thought they would. He had to check, though.

Seeing as it wasn't poisoned, Severus filled a small dropper with the punch and dropped a small amount into his own mouth. Just enough to taste and a small enough amount that it wouldn't actually do any damage if it was something else. He swished the little bit around in his mouth trying to taste anything out of the ordinary. He didn't taste anything abnormal, just the fruity flavor of the punch. "Well, well," he murmured. "It seems like my new apprentice wasn't mistaken after all." He was relieved that Ms. Rook wouldn't be as much as a disappointment as he thought with this incident.

Severus started to get frustrated. He had run various tests for most everything he could possibly think of and everything he had run came back negative. He knew something was in the punch but he just was coming up with zilch. He waved his wand over the vial once again putting a 48-hour detection charm on it and decided to go to bed. He wasn't going to be able to think with lack of sleep and being frustrated wasn't helping. He would try again with a fresh mind later.

When Severus woke up after a short nap, he decided he would check his detection charm and go check on Natalia. He walked over to where he had left the vial that morning and looked at it with a very confused look on his face. He was completely positive when he went to bed that the punch had been a ruby red but now, now it was a soft pink. "Well," he murmured to himself. "That is definitely a strange effect for alcohol to take. I'm starting to think this isn't just any alcohol if it's alcohol at all."

Severus turned away from the vial. Walked over to his fireplace and took out his jar of floo powder. Throwing some of the grayish powder into the fire he said "Natalia's home," and put his head in the fire. "Ms. Rook," he called. "Are you decent?" When he didn't get a response he started to worry that something was wrong. "Natalia," he called again. "I'm coming through." With that, he pulled his head back and stepped through the flames, and returned to Natalia's cottage.