By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: You recognize it? It's J.K. Rowling's. All I own is Alex Farrell.
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Snape dreamed. It had been a long time since he'd had this particular dream, and thankfully, it was mostly sense impressions.
Flickering orange firelight casting eerie shadows on the wall.
The sounds of his 'brothers' chanting.
Blasts of heat as the fire was stoked higher.
Her eyes, brown and loving, knowing what he was going to do, and forgiving him for it . . .
He woke up, her name on his lips, his heart pounding. He turned over and tried to go back to sleep, but had no luck. It was difficult to sleep when you had just relived your darkest hour.
He got up and moved to the living room, but was far too keyed up to get involved in his novel, so he picked up his notebook and Ever-Ink Quill went for a walk instead. It had been a long time since he'd visited the centaurs.
Alex spent part of the night trying unsuccessfully to get comfortable on the Army cot-style bed in her bedroom. Then she moved to her sofa but found it to be uncomfortable as well.
Finally, sighing, she got up and put her blue robe back on and headed for the Astronomy Tower. It was a warm night and she yawned and stretched, then sat down on the railing, looking down at the ground in the shadow of the castle.
A figure darted out through the front doors of the castle, moving determinedly towards the Forbidden Forest. The man, she was sure it was a man and not a woman, looked neither left nor right. As if he'd done this a million times before, he simply stepped into the forest, no hesitation showing in his step.
She continued staring for a moment, wondering if she'd seen correctly. If she hadn't been mistaken, the man she'd just seen walking into the Forbidden Forest was Severus Snape.
As soon as he'd reached the concealing shelter of the Forest, a centaur came forward.
"I'm here under the protection of Salazar Slytherin to speak with Rhetor." It wasn't quite an accurate translation, they had told him the first time he'd come for a visit, more a transliteration - the words were correct, but the sense was a little off. In fact, he doubted that 'Rhetor' was the centaur's name at all, being the Latin word for an orator.
The centaur nodded silently, walking quietly deeper into the woods.
Soon, the centaur that Snape knew as 'Rhetor' walked into the clearing. Snape had upon occasion passed the night talking to Rhetor about the centaurs' memory of Salazar Slytherin. Snape had known there had to be more to Slytherin than was recorded in human memory, and according to the centaurs, he was right.
"It has been a long time, Severus Snape," the centaur, handsome, with a strong jawline and curling auburn hair and beard, said.
"Right. Well, ah, I've been busy." Snape stammered.
The centaur smiled. "I did not say it was a good thing or a bad thing, Severus Snape. Just that it was." He gracefully folded himself to the ground. "Would you like to have a seat, Severus Snape?"
"Thank you." Snape sat on the ground across the clearing from the centaur, with considerably less grace than the centaur had.
He heard a rustling in the leaves behind him, and the centaur looked up sharply. He looked directly at something that Snape couldn't see, and then back down at Snape.
"Now, we were talking about Salazar Slytherin, as I recall . . ."
I can't believe that I'm letting my curiosity get me this carried away. Alex thought as she walked down the steps of the school and out the front door. Who'm I kidding? I've always been nosy. She walked in the direction of the Forbidden Forest. I just hope that Severus is safe.
As she stepped beyond the boundary of the Forest, the atmosphere changed. Suddenly, the sounds of the nighttime birds and insects stopped. The only sound was voices just a few feet over, if she could only see . . .
She moved closer to the sound of the voices, and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness under the trees, she could see Snape, sitting on the ground, across the clearing from a centaur. She gasped, and the centaur looked up, making eye contact with her.
She fled.
The next morning, she wanted to ask Snape why he'd been in the Forbidden Forest conferring with the centaur, but she also didn't want him to think she was snooping. On the other hand, she knew that Snape was the kind of man who didn't give his trust freely, and she could tell that if she wanted to earn it, keeping secrets from him was not the best way to go about it.
Since she didn't want to go to breakfast until after she'd made her decision, she debated both sides of the argument with herself as she paced around the lake. She looked up and saw Hagrid and Sprout examining the ewer-plant that had burst the previous day.
She walked over to them. "So?" She asked. "What happened?"
Sprout spoke first. "We don't know." She admitted. "But it looks intentional."
Alex felt the blood drain from her hands and feet. "Intentional? Like someone *tried* to make it rupture?"
Sprout nodded. "Whoever did it might have scored it with a knife hoping it would split later, or could have used something like the laceratio hex on it as you walked past. We won't know for sure until we've done some tests on it."
Hagrid had cut off the damaged flower and was packing it into a metal box. "This will hold it until we can find out what happened to it."
Alex walked to breakfast as if she was in a trance, where she sat down next to Snape.
"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" He asked.
She shook her head, distracted. "I didn't sleep at all."
"Oh. I'm sorry. I had a touch of insomnia myself."
This would have been Alex's opening to tell him that she'd seen him with the centaur, but it never occurred to her. All of her police training drained out of her as well, since she'd never been friendly with a victim of a crime she was investigating before. "It was sabotage."
"What was sabotage?" He raised his fork to his lips.
"The ewer-plant. Yesterday."
Snape's fork froze near his mouth, scrambled eggs dribbling from it. "Sabotage? You're sure?"
She nodded. "Yes. Well, Hagrid and Sprout seem to be. They've taken the flower and are going to examine it to see what they can determine."
By now, Snape's fork was empty, and his lap was sprinkled with bits of egg. He noticed this and put the fork down, starting to pick at the eggs on his lap, but his hands were shaking too badly to accomplish much. Finally, frustrated, he grabbed a handful of the fabric and gave it a vigorous shake, spraying bits of egg all over the table, the floor, and Alex. "Sorry." He mumbled, glancing up at her.
"That's all right. It was pretty disturbing news." She smiled at him gently.
"Say," she said in a jovial tone that very nearly didn't sound forced, "I'm going in to Hogsmeade today to do some shopping. You're welcome to join me."
For a brief moment, Alex thought he would accept. Instead, he shook his head. "I can't. I've got a lot of work to do . . ."
"Planning new ways to torment Gryffindors?" She grinned at him.
He gave her a genuine, yet watery, smile in return. "Yes. That sort of thing. Drink a butterbeer for me, though."
He stood and left the table without another word.
As soon as he walked out of the Great Hall, he leaned against the wall to support him. Oh, my God. He thought, feeling himself start to hyperventilate. I was nearly killed yesterday. On purpose. Could someone be trying to kill me?
This news, on top of his nightmare the night before, left him shaking. He went up to Dumbledore's office.
"You look like hell this morning, Severus." Dumbledore cheerfully informed his friend as Snape plopped down in one of the guest chairs.
"Thank you." Snape said sarcastically as he took a pastry from the plate on Dumbledore's desk.
"You were out working on your Salazar Slytherin book last night, I take it?"
Once again, Snape stopped with his food nearly up to his mouth. "That was you I heard last night in the Forest?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "No. I looked out my window and saw you coming back from the Forest this morning."
"Oh."
"Someone was following you last night? That's not good."
"I know it isn't." Snape snapped. "And then this morning, Professor Farrell tells me that Hagrid and Flora think that my run-in with the ewer-plants was intentional. It's very probable that someone is trying to kill me."
Someone else knocked on Dumbledore's door then.
"Come in!" Dumbledore called out and the door opened to admit Alex.
"Oh. I didn't realize. . . I'll come back later." She turned to leave, but Snape interrupted her.
"Don't leave. I was just going anyhow." Snape stood and walked to the door.
"Severus?" Dumbledore called out.
"Yes?"
"I'm sure that Flora will figure out exactly what happened. She is a Hufflepuff, after all, and once they start on a task, they don't stop until it's done."
"I know. Thanks." With that, Snape left the room.
"So," Dumbledore turned his attention to Alex. "What did you need?"
Alex looked sheepish. "I know it's nothing compared to finding out what happened to Professor Snape," she admitted, "but I was wondering if I could have some different furniture put in my apartments?"
"Filch didn't change out your furniture?" Dumbledore snapped.
"I guess not. Unless burlap furniture and Army cots are standard issue for your teachers." She responded wryly.
"I'll get Filch right on that. You'll have more appropriate furniture by lunchtime. Is there anything specific you would like? Two-person-sized bed? Upholstery in any specific color?"
She shook her head. "No. Whatever you have is fine with me. And it doesn't need to be that soon. I'm going spend the morning in Hogsmeade to purchase a few things. And while I'm there, I may Apparate home to pick up some personal things as well, which will take me probably a little past lunchtime."
"Very well. But I will make sure that Filch puts getting your furniture corrected at the top of his list anyhow."
/87
"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore." Alex said as she stood to leave.
"And Alex?"
She paused in the doorway. "Yes?"
"If you have anything to contribute to Flora's investigation of the incident with the ewer-plant, I'm sure she'd be happy to have your input."
"Well, I can't think of anything I'd be able to contribute at this point, but if I do, I'll be sure to let her know."
Snape spent the day wishing he'd taken Alex up on her offer to go into Hogsmeade with her. He'd just gotten some old potion books from a former student, but as he flipped through them, he realized they were written in Goblin, and the last thing he needed that day was the headache of trying to translate a language he wasn't particularly good at when he was on form.
He tried to go for a walk, but only got five feet from the door of the castle before memories of acid gushing onto his robe made him head back inside.
So, he resorted to pacing the hallways. His fifth circuit down the hallway that led past the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower, Nearly-Headless Nick appeared in the corridor in front of him. "Snape?" He asked, "What're you doing here?"
"Not trying to break into your Tower, if that's what you're thinking." Snape snapped.
"That wasn't what I was thinking at all." Nick said in an affronted tone, which only confirmed in Snape's mind that was exactly what Nick had been thinking.
"How do you take it?"
"Take what?" Nick was surprised by Snape's desperate tone.
"Being stuck here. Year after year. I've only been here for a few hours and I'm already going insane."
"Some can't take it." Nick intoned morosely. "Peeves, for example. As for the rest of us . . . We adjust. We have to." He placed a curious accent on the word We.
Suddenly, Snape realized that being around the Gryffindor house ghost was making him even more depressed. He decided to find out how Sprout's investigation was going.
Alex was having somewhat better luck with her shopping trip. She'd found one of the three-dimensional compasses that Snape had told her about, along with some enchanted parchment that drew a map following your path.
She'd also worn a Muggle t-shirt and jeans under her robe, so she Apparated back to her parents' house, where she'd stored most of her personal belongings to pick up a few of her favorite Muggle art prints and mementos.
She'd left a note to her parents, promising an owl catching them up in the next few days, then Disapparated back to Hogsmeade.
Her belongings all packed into a second trunk that she'd purchased in Hogsmeade, she was about to head back for Hogwarts, when Snape's request that she have a butterbeer for him came back to her.
She headed for the Three Broomsticks, and just as she was about to order her butterbeer, she changed her mind. "Is there any way I could get two butterbeers to go, please?"
"'To go'?" The woman behind the counter asked, clearly confused.
This woman was quickly pushed out of the way by another, who said, "I'll take care of this one, Blossom."
"Yes, Ma'am." The serving maid said as she moved on to help someone else.
"You're a Muggle-born, right?"
"Yes."
"The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, unless I miss my guess."
"Right again." Alex smiled. "Alex Farrell."
"Rosemerta. I own the Three Broomsticks, and fortunately, I've seen a few Muggle-borns in my day." She smiled. "And yes, you can get butterbeers 'to go.'" She said as she went to get Alex's butterbeers, then disappeared into a back room.
She brought the two mugs with some kind of transparent force field across the top to Alex. "You have to drink them within about . . . half an hour of getting back to school, mind." She admonished Alex. "You use aperte to open them."
Alex thanked her and paid her and then, levitating her trunk before her, returned to Hogwarts.
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A/N: Yes, we will see the results of Snape's research. It will be in a side fic. Once I get it finished.