Hey! It's me! And look! Not twenty years later
on an update! See, I got a laptop and I can take my work everywhere so... tada! Bryn has
gone nuts on me, this is not how i wanted this chapter to go. So, Chapter 5 might be short
in coming considering I have NO IDEA WHAT I'M GOING TO DO! Expect it eventually... erp.
Since I'm the author, I'm shamelessly plugging noir, my shrine to Snape. http://snapenoir.envy.nu and asking all who have Snape
pics, fics or opinions to mail them to me!! Argh!! I mean, Please? Enjoy!
Harry
Potter and the Liberi Fatali _____________________________ Surgite. Ardente veritate Valete, liberi, After Harry told Ron what the flashback (if it was a flashback) entailed, he waited for a response as Ron leaned back further into one of the many red chairs scattered in the Common Room. Ron scratched his ear and frowned, finally shaking his head slowly. "So whoever these people are that you're dreaming about have Dumbledore's bird. Did they have Fawkes or are they going to have him? I don't know Harry it could mean anything I don't think a lot of people would have phoenixes, and if they did, not a lot would name them Fawkes." Ron bit his lip, his eyes taking on that inward stare for a moment. "At the risk of sounding too much like Hermione, do ya think we could find something on Fawkes in the library?" Harry stared at Ron. The redhead blushed and stood up. "Yeah, yeah, we've got to stop hanging around each other so much." The library proved useless. Of course, that was most likely due to the fact that both Harry and Ron had very poor book searching skills. Harry grimaced as he turned pages in a book and jumped when Ron slammed a fairly large gold and red book beside him. "Any luck?" Ron asked, his hunter green eyes telling that if Harry did, it'd be ten times better than what he'd found. Harry held up the book in his hands. "I found a whole book on phoenixes, but it only mentions Fawkes' name once, and that's as Dumbledore's bird in the Famous Phoenixes' section." Ron let the book he was holding fall open and pointed to a picture. A man with crimson hair, glowing red eyes and a smile that made Harry feel brave again stood in the center of the page, surrounded by text and a large bird that flew in front of him, occasionally opening its beak at the reader. "That's Godric Gryffindor. Says that he and the other Founders had a mutual pet phoenix but that's all. I don't know about life spans, but I don't think it's Fawkes." Harry sighed and closed the huge book Ron had brought and his smaller book. The corridor, empty but with Aurors running rampant somewhere, seemed colder than before. "We should bring Hermione by, Harry. No doubt she'll find twenty books we've missed." Glancing around him and noticing for the first time that neither his shadow nor Hermione were with them, Harry felt a bit guilty. "Where is Hermione? Or Bryn, for that matter." *** "This is just the sort of thing that's gotten us in trouble before. I think Harry and Ron's need to break the rules is rubbing off on you." Hermione stopped walking and leaned against a wall, crossing her arms. "We're not going to get into trouble Granger," Bryn bit out, glancing down the corridor. "We're just going to the bathroom. There's not much harm in that." At Hermione's glance, "All right, we're not going to the bathroom. But there's something down here, can't you feel it? Something important" "Well of course, the Ravenclaw Common Room entrance is around here." She let out a yelp, a hand flying to her throat. Bryn, trying to be indifferent but failing, stepped closer to her unwilling partner in crime. "What is it?" Hermione's eyes had widened considerably and it made Bryn more than a little uncomfortable. "I... I shouldn't know where Ravenclaw's Common Room is. The entrances are hidden from all except those in that House." Bryn watched Hermione lean against a wall, pressing a hand to her forehead. "Then how did you know where it was?" Hermione jumped from the wall, stalking forward. "That's just it! I don't know! I'm... I'm so confused. Let's go back up to our Common Room... Please." For once, the blonde didn't argue and they made their way back up the stairs. Ron and Harry didn't meet up with the two girls until dinner, and then Harry was hesitant to say anything with all those people around. Finally, over custard, Ron spilled and Bryn told the boys her and Hermione's own little adventure. Both duos sat, stunned, and processed the information. "Well," Hermione started slowly, poking her custard more forcefully with her fork. "We go to Hogsmeade in two weekends where I know there is a library. We can look up more about phoenixes. You do know that the reason you couldn't find a lot about those birds is that most of those books are in the Restricted Section, which means that-" "-that there is something secret we aren't supposed to know about that will end up being vital to whatever is going on." Harry finished with a sigh. Why couldn't things just be simple for once? Bryn was looking thoughtful, having formed her mashed custard into a rather good sculpture of Hermione's cat, Crookshanks. "What exactly is the Restricted Section?" "It means we aren't allowed to use any of the books without a teacher's permission. And the only time we got permission was from some dunderhead two years ago." Ron had tried to make Snape's face with a giant snake eating him. It turned out to be oddly shaped like Africa with Madagascar way out of proportion. The girl with long white hair looked up from her art piece and grinned. "I believe I can get us permission." The original Trio frowned at each other; this couldn't be good. "From who, exactly?" Bryn just smiled. *** "How did I get volunteered for this again?" Bryn was leading the way down to the dungeon, where Snape's office was located. After confirming that Bryn was indeed the lunatic they all thought she was, they determined that if Snape was to -oh say- murder Bryn, there had to be a witness. So a game of Exploding Snap was played and the loser had been picked to go with Bryn. And Harry was usually so good at that game. "You lost three times in a row to both Ron and Hermione Harry Potter, I believe that is why you are with me." It wasn't the only reason. Hermione had been paired off with Bryn earlier and Ron didn't have a good reputation for keeping his mouth shut around Snape. Both of Harry's former friends hadn't been lax to point out that he had the Invisibility Cloak either, stating how useful it would be. Harry didn't bother to tell Bryn it was a rhetorical question. She'd obviously been born in a place where no one was bad and they all routinely got together for singing or something. It was a good way to get her killed, being around him wasn't making it any better. The boy frowned. When had he gotten so bitter? "Wait wait!" Bryn hissed, tightening her grip on Harry's arm. "Look! There's someone going into Professor Snape's office!" Sure enough, a dark cloaked figure slipped through the door, leaving it open enough that when Harry and Bryn came closer, they could see into the office and hear every word. Snape had been grading papers, probably the quiz on magical viruses that Harry had failed, but was now standing behind his desk, ridged as ever. The expression on his face wasn't the normal one of dislike, or that utter hatred when he saw Sirius, but more of a... well more of a sadness. "Aren't you going to offer me a seat Severus?" That voice was the one who had gotten Harry and Ron off the hook when they first decided to sneak out of the Common Room. It was also the voice of their MIA Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Whitelighter. She sat without being invited to. "I had hoped you wouldn't be staying that long." There was that bitter ol' Snape Harry had come to know. But he still sounded sad, disappointed. It was definitely unnerving. Bryn was motionless beside him, caught in rapt attention with the conversation. There was a strange tone to Whitelighter's voice. "Severus..." Snape sat down, folding his hands across his desk. "I am a very busy man Professor Whitelighter. Do you need something?" "What do you think I came down here for Severus?" Angry, and hurt. Well, Harry thought, what did you expect from Snape? "I do not know. But I hope it isn't for something trivial-" Whitelighter stood, bursting out. "Since when has anything between us ever been trivial?! I had thought my being here would help! Albus had said you were being reclusive and the last time I talked to Amaryllis she said-" "DO NOT MENTION THAT NAME!" The voice was thundering and Bryn jerked back, almost making Harry fall. He grabbed her and they both tried to subside anything that threatened to burst out. Both teachers were standing. Whitelighter had taken off her Auror's hood and revealed her long white hair with a face too young to have those old blue eyes. Snape looked like hell in black, fists clenched into white balls at his sides. Harry was immensely glad neither of them had their wands. "What name Severus? Amaryllis? She was my friend too; I can mention her name as often as I wish. You can't go on living in the past anymore. It's over. James is dead. Hilde is still listed as missing but we both know she's dead too. Amaryllis is- We are the only ones alive but that's not who we are Severus!" "Do you still have it?" Whitelighter was so taken aback that she sat down hard, shaking the chair. Snape stared at her, his glare melting her bones or at least it should have been. " It'? It' as in... No! No of course not, it left when you..." Whitelighter let her gaze drift to the floor, hands pulling at the sleeves of her cloak. "I still do." Snape whispered, leaning forward. "I still have it and I can't forget James (the way he said it, Harry knew Snape was talking about his father), I can't forget Hilde, I can't forget Amaryllis, I can't forget you and I can't forget anything that happened while it's still inside me. Don't lecture me Karina, don't lecture me and don't try to help me. Stay at Hogwarts as long as you wish, for I cannot make you do otherwise, but leave me alone." The woman had stood, backing away from Snape and staring at him with despair, sympathy and anguish riddling her eyes. Harry managed to move himself and Bryn out of her way before Whitelighter practically ran out the door. Snape stood in the doorway, looking after the long gone teacher. His face was expressionless, but his eyes held so much that Harry couldn't begin to decipher all that was in there. He glanced down, at the exact place Harry and Bryn stood, before a strangled noise left his throat and he turned back into his office, slamming the door shut. Harry dragged Bryn to the edge of the stairs and tried to get her up them. It was rather difficult since she was impersonating a rock. Her face hadn't turned from the slammed door. "Come on Bryn!" He hissed, pulling on her arm. "There isn't any way we'll get permission tonight!" "I'm going in there." She'd gone bloody nuts. That was the only explanation. "What?! What are you thinking?! Snape will murder you!" Bryn darted out from beneath the Invisibility Cloak before he could stop her. "Bryn!" All he could do was sit on the steps and wait. *** Bryn raised her hand to the wooden door, frowning and knocking lightly. She was starting to regret her rash decision. Perhaps Harry Potter had been right in trying to prevent her coming. There was no answer at the door. "Professor Snape?" But she had to press onwards, had to do what she knew was right. Back home, you wouldn't leave someone upset. Professor Whitelighter had done just that. Of course, Ron had said that Professor Snape was always upset. There was no answer again. "Professor Snape? I need to ask you a question about Potions." Her feet got uneasy and she began shifting weight from side to side. Surely he was still inside his office. She'd just seen him slam the door and there was no way he'd have been able to leave. There was still no answer. "Professor Snape! I found Harry Potter in the girl's bathroom." She heard faintly a sound of protest from the invisible Harry but it was drowned out by the sound of the door creaking open. Professor Snape stood glowering in the entry way to his office. Bryn swallowed a few times and put most of her effort into not backing away. "What is it Ms. Valfreyja?" "I-I was having a problem with some of the homework you gave us." A lie of course. A line appeared between his dark eyebrows. "Hermione Granger is in your dormitory. Any troubles you have I'm sure she could help you with." Bryn wasn't very familiar with sarcasm, but she could detect it in his voice, which meant it was fairly heavy. "But I don't like her." It jumped out of her mouth before she could think a better excuse. It was a mild bit of truth, considering Bryn and Granger didn't get along very well, but it wasn't completely true. There was a searching look on Professor Snape's face, one that should have been (according to Harry, Ron and Hermione) disgusted. To any other student, he would have told them off about it being their problem. Bryn was beginning to think that perhaps the Potions Master tolerated her a bit more than the others. Maybe because they were both outcasts. Maybe it was something else... "I don't blame you Ms. Valfreyja. Ms. Granger is intelligent, but she can become quickly vexatious." Bryn smiled and both stood silently for a few moments. Perhaps... "I forgot my book. If you have a copy, I could show you what I am having trouble with." The professor looked at her, seemingly judging if her reasons sincere and her person worthy. Finally, he swept back his robes and allowed Bryn to pass under his arm. For being fifteen, she really was quite short. Professor Snape pulled a book off the shelves behind him and set it down on his desk. Bryn searched for the chair Professor Whitelighter had used to sit on, but it was no where to be seen. A closer inspection of the floor revealed tiny wood fragments. Bryn swallowed the lump that had built up in her throat. I guess I'm standing. "It was on..." She looked at the book in front of her. Considering what she'd been involved in, there hadn't been any time to even crack open the book and she had no clue what to fake as having a problem in. The pages fell through her hands and she stopped on a rather interesting drawing. It showed a man ripping what looked like a wolf's skin off his back. " Wolfsbane Potion'." She read the title of the page. "I can understand why, since that is a hundred pages past your homework and by itself a potion only few can make." Bryn tried not to bite her lip and stared at the picture. There had to be an answer that would get that growing look of anger off Professor Snape's face. "I saw that Granger was ahead of the class to this section and I didn't want her to be better than me." The lies got a bit easier, but still hurt to tell them. Professor Snape accepted her excuse with what was beginning to look like pleasure. To her great surprise, Professor Snape stood and left his office through the door connecting to his classroom. He returned a few moments later, carrying a cauldron and setting it on the floor. Bryn hadn't realized that she scooted so her back was pressed against the bookshelf behind her. "If you are so eager to be ahead, Ms. Valfreyja, then you need to have kinetic experience." He thrust a bag of something into her hands and pointed to his desk. "Shred these." So Bryn, flabbergasted and somewhat scared, shredded what she later learned was lunacticite picked during a new moon. Professor Snape walked her through creating the wolfsbane potion, omitting the names of quite a few ingredients, telling her that she shouldn't know exactly how to make such a powerful potion. When the potion was finished, he made her bottle it up in strangely shaped vials. The cauldron they had used was disgusting and when she inquired as to if she'd be made to clean it, Professor Snape only replied that it would make a terrific detention. Bryn sat on the floor, looking up at the teacher who had reclaimed his chair at the desk. She was supposed to leave now, because he had finished helping her with her homework'. But the real reason she came was still hidden. For most of the time she had entered his office, Bryn had been lying, now, she figured that the truth would be best. "Professor Snape I... I heard your conversation with Professor Whitelighter." There. She's said it. Now all she had to do was wait for her head to explode so she could move on to the afterlife. When nothing happened, Bryn dared to crack open one eyelid and saw that Professor Snape hadn't gotten out his wand and turned her into a worm, but instead formed an inner gaze, where he couldn't see anything that was present in the room. There was the sadness on his face again. The one that had left when he had been dabbling in his passion. The one that Professor Whitelighter had invoked. "And you decided that you'd try to see if you could get any more out of the poor old Potions Master did you? Well then, let me tell you something worth going back to your friends for-" Bryn stared at him, horrified. This had not worked out at all! "No! That's not it at all! I just... I..." She looked down at the floor, not being able to handle his scalding eyes anymore. "I didn't want you to be sad anymore." The professor said nothing, so Bryn spoke up before he could. She wouldn't let him think anything bad anymore. "There so many people in the world who have true happiness. They can't accept that they are truly happy, so they obsess over the little things in their lives. That is how most people are, with a few who can actually see that happiness and those few use it. "Then there are people who have a very deep sadness in them but that sadness is so overwhelming and they bury it so deep, these people appear naive, and ignorantly happy. "And there are a few people like Harry Potter, where the sadness is real and living inside just underneath the surface. These people try to be happy, they try to fight that sadness inside them but it still peeks through sometimes. "Lastly, there are people like you Professor Snape. People who have the same real and living sadness inside them like Harry Potter but they decide to deal with it by giving that sadness to others. They try to get rid of that sadness by giving it to others. But that doesn't work, and those people only end up confused and bitter. "I don't want you to be one of those people." Professor Snape had changed while she was talking, his face coming to one of understanding. "You're an empath." It was a whisper, an almost curse word. Bryn could understand why. "Only partially. If I were more, I have no doubt I'd have gone insane." She dared to glance back up at the professor, who seemed frozen above her. "So you understand why I want you to be happy. Sadness is such a harsh emotion to feel all the time." "Empaths will do anything to control the emotions around them." Bryn nodded, folding her hands in her lap. "I will help in any way I can. It's- what I'm supposed to do." Professor Snape had sat back in his chair, folding his long hands in front of him and looking very much like he did during class. "Then listen." So Bryn listened. *** "You aren't planning to do it anytime soon, are you?" She was very worried, he could tell. Her voice quivered and her hands clutched her stomach. He patted her head. "No. We've too much to do before that big of an operation. Don't worry about it." The woman nodded and headed back into the tent. He stroked his stubble of a beard and turned to see one of his companions, smiling that huge grin she always had. "You look positively delighted." She laughed and threaded her arm through his. "I am positively delighted. You know how he has been hesitant to take any part in planning the future of... What are we calling it?" He shrugged, leading them towards the clearing they had made. "Haven't decided yet. Kakon thought it should be an inside joke of a name. I think it should be something noble." The girl laughed again. "You always do. Anyhow, he has come up with an idea for us to have competitions and I think it's delightful." His back hurt and lying in bed shouldn't have made his back hurt. Harry managed to open one eye and take a look around. The reason for his back hurting became apparent. Sleeping on stairs was never a good idea. Harry glanced down at his watch. It was about thirty minutes before breakfast. He wanted to pull up his covers and hide until lunch. Of course, he didn't have covers. The stairs let him leave their grasp and he studied his surroundings more carefully. He was on stairs, sure, but where? "Oh bloody hell." The dungeon. He was still in the dungeon! If he was still in the dungeon, that meant that Bryn was... "He's killed her. He's gone off his rocker and killed her." Harry stumbled towards Snape's office door and opened it slowly. It would be almost ironic if he died from a teacher gone nuts. He peeked inside, grimacing at whatever sight he'd see. Bryn was propped up in the corner of the room, head slumped forward. Harry glanced around the room. Snape had his head down on his desk, apparently asleep. Slowly, Harry pulled out his wand and whispered the levitation spell. Bryn rose a few inches off the ground and followed him out of the room. They were halfway up the stairs when Bryn suddenly sat up, letting out a small scream. Harry couldn't help but yelp and both tumbled back down the stairs. The blonde had landed sprawled on Harry and it didn't help his back any. "Harry Potter?" He clasped a hand over her mouth and shook his head, motioning towards the top of the stairs. They climbed once again, this time under the protection of Harry's Invisibility Cloak. Once they got to the top, Bryn turned on him again. "What are you doing?" "What am I doing? What were you doing?! I thought Snape had turned you into some human sacrifice!" Bryn looked shocked and laughed, heading back to the Gryffindor Common Room. "Nothing bad happened. I just fell asleep." She said after a while, pausing in the middle of the stairs. Harry just looked at her and frowned. "I'm just glad you got out of there alive. Going down there was a waste." Harry moved past her on the stairs. She grabbed his arm and smiled, pulling something out from her robes. "Not a complete waste." Bryn handed him the paper and Harry felt a reluctant grin spread over his face. I, Professor S. Snape, give my permission for Bryn
Valfreyja and company to use any book located in the Restricted Section of the library. To be continued... Good ne? I know I promised Halloween and the next Quidditch match but... this popped
up. Bryn is taking me for a spin If you are confused, don't worry: IT IS TO
BE EXPECTED!! hehe |