A rapid heartbeat intermingled with flashes of gnarled hands, pointed teeth, and red against the white snow. This way of waking had become a common occurrence for Severus as he would sit up trying to collect and shield his thoughts. Nightmares were never a foreign concept to him; shortly after his mother's death, he would be flooded with images of her bleeding and dead on the grimy wooden floors of their house. He also dreamt of Lily's death after he found her the night she had put herself between the Dark Lord and her son.
These didn't feel like nightmares like those of his mother or Lily. It felt like a warped memory but not of his own. He had wondered after the third occurrence if it was something that he had seen during his instruction of occlumency with Granger. It wouldn't be that far-fetched to think it even though he couldn't find anything in the literature, what little there was, of memory from someone else becoming a dream or nightmare to the one performing Legilimency. He had seen many of her memories as he worked with her. The more haunting of them finding her parent's bodies in her childhood home, their glassy eyes staring at nothing as they lay where they had been tortured and subsequently killed. Then the odd memory of jade eyes was so eerily familiar to him.
He was lucky that she was a quick study in everything she did. Only a day after she had been discharged from Poppy's care that they began, it took only a week for her to create a shield around the tormented memories of the loss of her innocence. After that week, she had acted as if she was okay; all that had happened to her was a tumble, the story that had been told to her two dunderhead friends. Her smiles still never reached her eyes, he doubted anyone in the emotional-fueled house of Gryffindor would ever notice, especially the two worthless boys she called her best mates.
Rubbing his eyes he knew that there was no way he would return to sleep and opted instead to start his day, his thoughts moving towards the pain in his arse, Harry Potter. The boy had somehow gained access to Nigani's eyes and saw what she saw and did. He supposed it could be seen as a blessing that that sight saved Arthur Weasley's life. A disaster in the making if the Dark Lord had even an inkling that there was an interloper within his most beloved familiar.
Despite Dumbledore's orders to teach the boy to shield his mind, it was not successful as with Granger. Snape knew this but Dumbledore believed that Potter would learn from Snape because like the boy's father he could do no wrong and accomplish whatever was put in front of him— he scoffed at the thought. No, James Potter didn't amount to much in his short life with the only memories of being a menace and not to just Severus but other students around, the house irrelevant when it came to "harmless bullying and pranks" at the hands of the Mauraders.
The lessons between Potion Master and Potter had ended almost as quickly as they had started. The boy had gained access to Severus' pensive and when caught the boy became white as a sheet and left before he could be given punishment. Snape met with the Headmaster after that and stated that the boy was a lost cause. The old coot just nodded in understanding before he stroked his beard and informed him that it would be in the best interest of Potter to have Granger tutor him. After all, the boy followed her instruction well enough and he was competent after five years to take her lead when it came to these types of things. Severus wanted to rail against the idea but the binds of servitude tightened in his chest, there was nothing he could do but inform the bushy-haired witch that she would need to teach Potter.
He just hoped that she would be able to successfully instruct him to shield his thoughts so the Dark Lord would not gain the upper hand. He was gaining followers just as readily as he did two decades ago. A new group of youth ready to follow the mad man's philosophy of pure-blood supremacy.
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Daphne Greengrass kept her head high as she walked through the hallway of the dungeon. Her hand continued to burn from the evening before, the pain wasn't something she was accustomed to, at least not physically, but she refused to show any sign of weakness. Even among Slytherin House, you weren't safe from your peers especially now with whispers of the resurrection of the physical body of Voldermort. Parent's demanding their children to join ranks, she pitied many of her housemates. When she had come to Hogwarts five years ago, she mingled with those in her house because she wanted to, now it had become a game of survival. Not just for her and her sister but their father.
Footsteps against the stone rang out like a bell in silence breaking Daphne's thoughts. Her gaze caught Hermione Granger coming down the hall. How odd for a member of Gryffindor House to come down on their own. Many if not all of the students of the other houses avoided coming to the dungeons alone, she couldn't blame them even before the whispers of the Dark Lord returning, her Head of House was notorious and cold even to Slytherin.
"Oh," Hermione gasped "is Slytherin not safe from her?" Her gaze fell upon Daphne's hand. The glamour she had on her hand had been removed when her Head of House demanded to see the markings that were there.
She was hoping that she could make it to Madam Pomfrey without anyone noticing the words etched into the back of her hand, family is meaningless. Her punishment for standing up for her sister during a fit Astoria had with Umbridge present. A punishment she would gladly take for her little sister again.
"Speaking against our DADA professor while your sister is ill is not looked up upon," Daphne murmured.
She watched as Granger looked around where they were before grabbing the blonde's hand and pulling her into a small corridor before she quickly silenced Daphne to say nothing with the shaking of her wild curls. The Slytherin witch felt warmth as the wild-haired witch ran her hand and whispered words causing the pain from her hand to evaporate. The words were still there but no longer as angry as they had been.
"My house seems to always be on the end of her medieval punishment. I have had to learn quickly to heal them." Hermione confessed.
"Do they always rely on you to mother them?" She sneered but was quickly diminished as she caught the sad smile on Hermione's lips.
"No, just two of them," she smiled genuinely at the blonde witch "but the spell is more advanced than I thought and it's hard to teach."
Both witches jumped at the sound of voices coming down the hall as dinner was soon and students were leaving the Slytherin rooms to feast. Hermione stepped away first and as if nothing had happened she began to head back on the path of her destination.
"Granger," Daphne spoke gaining the other's attention, "just to let you know that Professor Umbridge is taking up Professor Snape's office hour." She turned leaving the brunette behind. She couldn't be caught saying thanks, especially to someone like Hermione Granger but perhaps she could give a warning instead.
Daphne would deny it but she liked Hermione Granger. There was something about the witch that could draw you into a state of comfort, like Daphne's mother was like when she was still alive. It was also enjoyable to see someone, a muggle-born no less, put Draco Malfoy into his place. It was such a shame that the current climate did not allow for friendship to bloom or that she or Astoria could join the whispered club, Dumbledore's Army.
Hermione had heeded Daphne's warning and had treaded softly to Snape's office, preferring to not incur wrath from either the professors. She could handle Snape's wrath but the pink toad was something else nor could she trust herself to be alone with the elder witch without something unfortunate happening to her. She could feel the anger beginning to churn within her at seeing yet another student's hand. House loyalty was meaningless to the inquisitor when it came to corporal punishment. A known Slytherin punishing other snakes was something she thought she would welcome but torture wasn't the kind of punishment Hermione could or would get behind.
"I will not have you speak to me in such a fashion," the shrewd voice of Dolores Umbridge rang out.
"Perhaps you should inform me of my student's," Snape paused as if to find an appropriate term to state in a public setting "transgressions."
"You may be Head of Slytherin, but if I come across them I will take the necessary means to punish what needs to be punished." Her sickly sing-song voice made Hermione's stomach roll and her anger resurface.
A gasp broke as the glass vial Umbridge was holding shattered. The blood was starting to drip from the older witch's hand.
"I would recommend Madam, that you have that looked out and not bleed on my floor." His gaze caught Hermione's as he noticed her standing outside the opened door. "Miss Granger, what do you want?" He sneered out. It seemed bad enough to have Dolores Umbridge bleeding in his office now Granger was in the doorway.
"My apologies sir," she spoke softly "I wanted to check in with you about the project you are having me work on to make up for my time missed in your class," her chin was held high as she deliberately refused to look in Umbridge's direction.
"If you would excuse us, Madam, I have a student to advise," Snape droned, his words matching the bored expression he was displayed on his face.
It took all of two seconds before the amphibian-faced witch left the two alone. With a wave of his hand, the door slammed behind the pink monstrosity. Hermione could feel the magic of a silencing charm placed upon the room.
"Have you finished?" He picked up his quill and continued to mark the work that was interrupted by the meeting between Greengrass and Umbridge.
"I believe so," Granger's voice seemed unsure. He had no doubt that he looked up she was biting her lower lip "I am not skilled to just drop into his mind but from using the spell he is able to redirect and at times block me."
"I will inform the Headmaster," his tone was that to dismiss her.
"Yes sir," he heard her shoes scoff against the stone and the door opening to signal her departure.
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Cold. That was all Severus could feel around him, a cold so deep it entered your bones to never leave. It reminded him of the winters as a child, there was rarely money to pay for heat leaving the house so cold he thought he may freeze to death if his mother hadn't layered him in his blanket and her spare before she cast an inconspicuous warming spell around him. It was weak but enough to give him the warmth his malnourished body needed.
Opening his eyes he was met with an unfamiliar room. A dark unfamiliar room. Panic ran through him before light filled the room and a murmuring came from all around him.
"Oh," a deep voice croaked "you are awake and still here." Severus looked towards the voice to see a creature, it reminded him of an elf and a goblin mixed into a malformed hairy body. "This is a first," the creature chuckled "you are always gone the moment you wake." It ran its grotesque fingers ran through its ginger beard.
"Where am I?" The wizard felt all around him his wand nowhere near him.
"Oh, you have no wand here boy," the creature laughed.
"Where…am…I?" His teeth gritted as he tried to call any magic to him. Nothing.
The creature looked around, its wide eyes taking in everything as if it had never seen the place they were in. "You are in a place that until recently I thought was gone forever." Bony hands waved as the fire came to life, giving the room more light and instant warmth.
Just as quickly as the creature had come it was gone. There was no pop of an apparition, no noise to speak of. It was unnerving, to say the least, and Severus' mind was instantly racing as he looked for an exit, any exit.
The heat disappeared; the dark wizard was no longer in a room but outside in a deep forest, trees gnarled gaining an appearance of evil within the darkness. The snow was coming down in large flakes, its brightness giving an ambiance of calm like a wolf pretending to be friends with the shepherd before it went for the kill. Like his father during the lull of sobriety.
"Careful boy," the voice of the creature came and so did the room return around him, its warmth a comfort he didn't realize he missed. "Don't be stupid and think you could find an exit if you aren't familiar with the land," it scolded Severus as if the wizard was a boy of eleven.
This time the creature looked up at Severus, its orange eyes softening. "You are in a realm that unless invited you could never get to." A table and two chairs appeared, tea coming to rest atop the table its hot contents filling the room. "Sit, before my mistress finds out I haven't been kind to her guest."
Obeying, Severus sat his eyes never leaving the creature. If the creature was offended it didn't say anything. It only climbed up on the chair opposite of the potion master and began pouring the tea and placing the cup in front of Severus.
"It's not poisoned if you are worried," the creature huffed. "It is just plain, I will never understand the custom of this plain black tea with a small amount of sugar."
"Who is your mistress?" Severus finally asked his senses coming back to him. Embarrassing that it was taking so long to come out of the shock he found himself in.
"You know her and she knows you." It shrugged as if that was everything Severus needed to know.
It slurped its tea before placing the cup down. "She has been trying for the past lunar cycle to get you acclimated but," it reached over to tug at its beard "you have not been very responsive." It seemed to put all the blame on Severus and none on whoever his mistress was.
"Will your mistress be joining us…anytime soon?" he gritted through his teeth. The unfamiliarity of it all was leaving him restless and angry.
"Oh, you should calm yourself," the creature scolded "The mind-walker is here as well and if he catches wind of any disrespect I doubt you will be leaving alive."
Severus had always disliked being left in the dark despite the life of a spy that left him in the state. Not only was he somewhere he was unfamiliar with, his magic not around him, a creature he had never seen, a woman who brought him here, and now something or someone called a mind-walker. Yes, this was making perfect sense. A vague memory of his mother reading him Through the Looking Glass came to mind and the feelings of confusion when she would read the parts of the Mad Hatter or the Cheshire Cat.
Huffing a breath "Can you tell me who you are then?" Severus inquired the creature.
Sharp, dirty teeth showed as the creature smiled at him. "Oh, I suppose I could introduce myself. I am called Sedaya Boroda." Sedaya Boroda looked over his charge, his orange gaze leaving Severus feeling exposed. He coughed, "You do not need to introduce yourself, I know you very well."
The Potion Master's eyes narrowed at the creature's words. He dared not speak, caution was the best course of action for this. "May I ask how you are familiar with me?" Snape asked, his mind was on high alert as he felt the familiar occlumency shields take their place. At least something worked.
"Oh," Sedaya Boroda once against moved his digits through his ginger-colored beard yet again. "I have followed my mistress to Hogwarts for the past two years." He poured more tea into his own cup before he continued, "I will tell you something if that will ease your mistrust of me."
Snape nodded unsure if anything could lessen the uneasiness he felt. However, this creature seemed to take his job of keeping watch over his charge to be important, and if he could get a grasp on who this thing's mistress was he may be able to gain some insight on how to get out.
"You saved my mistress' life. I already could smell that you were a wizard to be trusted but to put your life on the line when she could have killed you says something else." His orange gaze once again caught Severus' obsidian eyes, "You are bound like she is and this is her way to give you some freedom from the madman."
It didn't take Severus long to piece together who Sedaya Boroda was speaking of. Yet it was impossible to accept that Hermione Granger was skilled enough in mind magic to create something so elaborate as the state he was in. Though he was starting to question if this was even a form of mind magic. She was skilled in magic, he could even admit that she had a good understanding of occlumency but this unknown state was beyond even something he was familiar with. Elemental, his treacherous mind reminded him. He had no idea she has a grasp on elemental magic until a month prior and she did have a grasp of it as she had admitted to it when he worked with her.
Before he could even form words to challenge the creature in front of him the door he didn't even realize was there opened as the cold air came in. Standing in the doorway a diminutive figure covered in a blood-red cloak.