" He is a danger, not only to the other students, but I speak from experience when I say that in his present condition Ron poses a serious threat to himself." Charlotte paced Dumbledore's office.
Minerva considered for a moment, " But Charlotte, are you sure you know enough, can you give him proper instruction, we don't know for sure what this is. It could have been a coincidence.."
" Professor Mcgonnigal, There were hundreds of vials in that cabinet, for petes sake, it's not like just fell over on it's own, they exploded. That is no coincidence."
Mcgonnigal shook her head. " Are you sure you can handle this, I mean you already have so much on your plate this year, what with classes and Serverus. Are you sure Professor Dumbledore couldn't help Ron instead?"
Charlotte stopped pacing and eyed Dumbledore suspiciously . Albus sat quietly, shifting slightly in his chair. " No, I regret to say that I do not have sufficient knowledge or control of the gifts to be much help to Mr. Weasley. Unlike Charlotte, I was not born into Asha's gifts, I have had to earn them, it's been the study of my life. No, if the situation is indeed as serious as Charlotte believes it is, then she is the more qualified one to help young Ron."
Charlotte sat down, nodding slowly, more to herself than to anyone else. " There is something else." She began, not entirely sure she should tell the two professors. " Something I haven't told you. Earlier today, just after the incident, I spoke with Ron briefly in the Great hall. It was entirely unnerving, the first time I discovered a gift, I was terrified. But he, he was so calm, so dead calm, it was like he didn't even realize what he had done."
"Well perhaps he was in shock."
Charlotte thought for a moment, recalling the afternoons events in her mind. " Perhaps, but I think it is unlikely. He spoke to me about Draco Malfoy, he said he wanted to gouge out his eyes, I asked Madame Pomfrey later, apparently Malfoy did sustain some serious damage to his eyes, naturally he was one to the first to be treated, I don't think Ron saw………………Something else strange just occurred to me……funny…I didn't think about it until now. .. Harry, Ron and Hermione, they are quite good friends right?"
Minerva rolled her eyes slightly, " those three couldn't be separated for love or money."
Charlotte bit her lip. " It's so strange, after the explosion, the only two people who were unhurt were Ron and Hermione, Harry's lips were cut to shreds, and there was glass in his chest, he took one of the worst hits. I don't understand………."
An uneasy silence settled over the office, as the three professors sat contemplating.
" It doesn't make any sense." Began Minerva, those three are as inseparable as James and his friends when they were here. Why wouldn't Ron protect him?"
Dumbledore sat forward and took a sip of tea. " Indeed." then another sip. " At any rate I believe Ron's family should be contacted, all of them should be notified, and perhaps we could bring them here for a few days to discuss what this training might entail………….. Yes I think that might be best. It is important that they understand Ron's power, he must not be made to feel alienated amongst his own family, they are the strongest support he has."
Minerva nodded. " I agree, Charlotte you'll have to do most of the talking, I'm afraid I don't know a lot about…the old ways. " Charlotte nodded in agreement. " Well then I'll send an owl right away."
" No wait." Charlotte stopped her, " Send Segolene, my dove, she'll be faster. She's up in the owlry right now…."
Professor Mcgonnigal quietly left the office.
"Ron Weasley,………blessed with a gift from Asha….I have lived to see strange days indeed." Mused Albus. " Come now Charlotte, I'm sure with your instruction he'll learn to control it."
Charlotte remained silent for a moment. When she did speak it was barely more than a whisper. " I pray you are right Albus. But you didn't see him this afternoon. He has so much anger in him, so many dangerous things….I just hope we didn't find out too late."
****************************************
Serverus Snape lies unmoving in his hospital bed. His condition confounds doctors and medical experts in the magical world the entire world over. It is clear he is not in a coma, and should be able to be roused by anyone, he lives on the verge of sleep and waking. The puzzled nurses who take turns watching over him imagine he exists in a permanent fever dream. However behind his shut eyelids, Serverus Snape is re-living his life, in perfect clarity he sees what he has made of his life. Serverus Snape remembers.
He enters the Slytherin common room, outside a storm of epic proportions is raging , Serverus is soaked through, his lips are blue and he is shaking with cold. That afternoon he had received a howler from his parents, a reaction to his near failing marks in divination. Serverus had laid it aside until classes were over, almost immediately he had visited professor Mcgonnigal and dropped divination from his course load. Knowing how the rain and hail were falling and how loudly the wind was howling he had taken his howler outside and opened it near the entrance to the dark forest. He felt so indifferent towards his parent that it was a comfort to hear the wind take them and their endless torrent of criticism far far away from him .
He crosses the common room and quickly descends the stair case to the boys dormitory. An acid green fire crackles in his room, but Serverus feels no heat from it, hurriedly he changes his clothing. The others are at dinner now, as usual Serverus is not hungry. He doesn't want to stay in his empty little room at the moment, so he heads back up to the common room with it's warmth and books and soft chairs.
It is then that he sees her, Catherine Riddle. She sits alone by the fire, covered by a thick green blanket her hair like his is sopping wet. She looks up as he enters the room and flashes him a brilliant grin. Serverus feels his heart skip a beat. Her smile quickly disappears into a look of concern.
" Your soaked through," she says, " Come sit by the fire, you look half dead, you should have come in sooner."
Serverus gladly complies and sits down next to her on the sofa. " It looks as though you were outside too."
She nods and slips the blanket off one shoulder wrapping in around Snape. " I just went for a walk, I could never resist a rain storm." She smiles at him again.
He enjoys the intimacy of that smile. The two of them wrapped up together on the couch, this is everything he's dreamed of since their flirtation had begun at the beginning of term nearly six months ago. He wished he had the courage to act on the feelings he had for her. In fact he isn't even sure why he's held back for so long, since it has been obvious for sometime now that she reciprocates his feelings. For some reason his advances are always clumsy and trivial, he enjoys her savvy, so he waits for her to make the first move.
Catherine leans against his chest and Snape arms naturally wrap around her. She takes his hands in hers and begins slowly massaging them. " Your hands are like ice" she croons enjoying the feel of those fine hands in her own.
" And yours work wonders." he murmurs kissing the top of her head.
She smiles devilishly. " You aint seen nothing yet" She chuckles and turn back to the fire.
They sit silently for a while Serverus is wary about disrupting the perfection of the moment and still there has been a question on his mind for a while, he finds himself asking before he even has a chance to phrase the question properly.
" You didn't sleep well last night?"
Catherine is silent.
" Lucille tells me you've been having nightmares again, haven't you been taking the sleep potion professor Wright has been making for you?"
Catherine shakes her head. " The potion doesn't work anymore…"
Serverus frowned. " What do you mean?"
She remained silent for a moment. " I mean that it worked at first, but my dreams, the terror, what ever it is, it's changed, it's gotten stronger."
He sighed inwardly. Catherines' nightmares had increased in number and force ever since the time the muggle born wizards had begun disappearing. She had told him she had dreams of innocent people being murdered by the thousands, she dreamed of the one who called himself Voldemort coming into power. She dreamed of Armageddon. Catherine had been suffering nervous episodes for the past few months, the " terror" as she called it plagued her more and more often. Serverus was deeply worried for her.
" You make me feel safe" She whispered melting in his arms. " You make me feel stronger."
" I'll do whatever I can to protect you Catherine, just tell me what it is that you are afraid of."
" The world is no longer a very safe place." She told him.
"You're talking about this Voldemort person again?" Serverus knew of the man and his doctrines, indeed he had friends who had encouraged his coming to his meetings, in recent days Serverus had given it considerable thought. " Well if that's it you've nothing at all to worry about."
Catherine sat up and turned to face him, her brow furrowed in confusion. " What on earth are you talking about, this man poses a serious threat to the wizarding community, he already has countless supporters, he's growing more powerful everyday, Even Dumbledore is worried."
Serverus smiled , reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, his delicate hand lingered on her cheek. " Catherine, you and I have nothing to fear from Voldemort. After all we're both pure blood. Voldemort only wishes to make the Wizarding community stronger, by extracting the muggle element."
Catherine eyes flash with angry accusation, roughly she pushes his hand away. " You're just as blind as the other Slytherins . I knew they were blinded by his lies, but Serverus I never expected this from you. You're too smart for this kind of mindless propaganda. Voldemort doesn't have the best interest of the magical world at heart, all he wants is power, lord knows he's blood thirsty enough to get it, no matter what the human cost."
" That's hardly fair, we don't really know his agenda, and I think he's right to think that the muggle- borns weaken us all, if we could just-"
Catherine flew off the couch and glared down at him disgusted. " If we could just what? Get rid of them? How do you suppose he plans to do that Snape. He's killing them Serverus, my God how can you not see what's happening here? Why do you think his inner circle are called the death eaters?"
Snape sat for a moment, staring up at the enraged girl who just moments before had been resting lovingly in his arms. " You've been spending too much time with Joshua Wildsmith." He spit out the name of Charlottes best friend and fellow seventh year (albeit a Ravenclaw).
Catherine looked down at him, contempt creeping over her. " At least he isn't delusional." It chilled Serverus to the core to have someone he cared for so deeply look at him in that way. " I pray someday you will understand this Serverus, but everything magical, pure blood or not, it's all a part of a collective, a whole. Serverus, you cant cut off your legs and ever expect to walk again. What's bad for one part of our collective will undoubtedly lead to the destruction of us all. Try and remember that when you pledge allegiance to the man who proclaims himself to be the dark lord."
Serverus Snape watched as Catherine turned away from him. He felt his heart ache, and for the first time in years tears began running down his cheeks.