Chapter 2

Author's Note:
I didn't like the way this was going so, I have redone it and am redoing it. Not enough time, mystery, intrigue, etc. So, here goes the new version.....

Chloe was sore. She dragged herself to the Great Hall for breakfast after a hot shower. Minerva McDonagall asked what was wrong, as she was moving so stiffly.

"I started exercising again. Oh pain..." she said.

"Perhaps I have something that can help with that." Chloe turned to see that Snape was standing behind them. "Like what? A massage?" Chloe challenged. He gave her an icy look.

"No...I was thinking along the lines of a potion. Come with me after breakfast. I'm sure I have something that could help."

"Oh it's okay...I don't want to take up your time..." she began, "I'll live!" Then she groaned as she sat down in her chair, and looked at him again. "Okay, I'll come see you." He took his seat a few chairs down from her, and the breakfast was served. Again, Chloe selected cottage cheese and fruit and some pumpkin juice.

"You're really eating a healthy meal there," Minerva commented.

"Yes, I need to get in shape again. I have a shape; it's round!"

After breakfast, she followed Snape to his dungeon. She hadn't been in there before, it made her think of a chemistry lab. He silently opened up a cabinet which contained several labeled bottles. She noticed every label faced perfectly out of the cabinet and it was in alphabetical order. A neat freak? Doesn't explain his hair...she thought to herself. He found what he was looking for and handed her a small bottle.

"Try that. Just drink it down."

She took the stopper out and sniffed it. It smelled like cherry cough medicine, and she made a face, then drank it down quickly.

"YUCK! Tastes like Triaminic..." she began.

"It tastes like what?" Snape asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's this horrid cold medicine I used to have to take when I was a kid. I used to have colds and allergies all the time," she said, handing him the empty bottle. To her amazement, she started to feel better.

"Hey that stuff works! Thank you."

"You're welcome," he told her, in his usual icy tone. Just then, some students began filtering in, so she said good bye and went to her classroom. By the time she got there, she felt like she hadn't exercised at all; the soreness and stiffness was completely gone. Maybe he's not so bad, she decided. But she had been killing him with kindness. Whenever someone gave her the cold shoulder, that's what she did. At least that way she knew it was nothing she did to earn bad treatment.

That night, she went back to the lake again. Her feet immediately cramped up on her and she wondered if Snape might have a potion for that problem. The next day at breakfast, she was once again stiff and sore, but not as bad.

"I see you've been exercising again. I'll make you a bottle that you can keep," Snape remarked as she walked in stiffly.

"That would be wonderful. Do you have anything for foot cramps?"

"Foot cramps?"

"Yeah, when I first put my sk--running shoes on, my feet cramp up," she said, almost saying skates.

"I can figure something out for you, I'm sure."

"I don't want to trouble you--"

"Miss Kelly, it is no trouble. I enjoy the challenge of creating new potions, unlike my students," he said. It was strange to hear him be nice but the tone of his voice was icy as usual.

"Okay thank you."

"Just come to the dungeon after breakfast again and I'll get you the potion to make the lactic acid in your muscles dissipate."

"Is that what it does?"

He nodded and took his place at the table, as did she. She remembered riding her bicycle to relieve soreness--but 80 miles of brisk riding couldn't come close to the relief she felt after drinking the potion. Afterwards, he gave her two of the bottles of potion and said something about brewing a larger quantity for her. She thanked him and turned to leave.

"Miss Kelly--"

Chloe turned.

"I'll let you know about the foot cramping potion when I have completed it."

"Thank you."

I guess he really isn't so bad, she decided. He was positively evil to most of his students, and civil to the staff, but he was a strange bird, in her opinion. "Still waters run deep..." she muttered to herself.

Her classes went well that day and she was teaching the second years about boggarts. That was always fun. That night, she was suiting up in her sweats and had her skates laid out when there was a knock on the door. "Come in!" she said, and the door opened. Snape stood there with two stoppered bottles. She quickly threw her sweatshirt over her skates which were on the bed.

"Good evening. Take this for your feet, and this tomorrow morning for the stiffness, just this much," he said, pulling an eyedropper out of the large bottle, on which there was a line.

"Great. So I take the foot stuff just before I go exercise?"

Snape nodded and then glanced over at the bed where Chloe had thrown her sweat shirt, and wondered what was under it. Whatever it was, she clearly didn't want him to know. Probably her knickers or some other feminine undergarment, he decided, and bade her a good evening.

Chloe waited until she was sure he was gone and then took the potion for her feet, grabbed her skates, and left for the lake. The anti-cramping potion worked wonders, and she was able to effortlessly glide across the ice without any pain. She set up a spin and was able to hold it this time. It wasn't particularly fast, but it was centered. She confirmed this afterwards by the print in the ice. Her jumps felt better too; her timing was coming back.

# # #

It didn't take Chloe long to drop 20 lbs--by mid October, she had done so. She was getting back into shape very well and didn't need the potions anymore to keep away foot cramps or get rid of the soreness. No one had discovered her secret, and she went out almost every night. She had done an illumination spell on moonless nights so she could have proper lighting, and sheltering spells if it was raining or snowing. She needed it to be her private place; fearing if she told anyone, she would have a 'crowded rink' to deal with. This was her special time and place where she could be alone.

Her students were doing well and she was getting more and more adjusted to life at Hogwart's. She missed her family and often would go home on weekends via floo powder for visits. Her mother noticed her weight loss and commented on it.

"Well I was tired of being so bloated feeling."

"Maybe now you'll meet someone," she told her daughter, whistfully.

Chloe shook her head. "Nope. Men are a pain. I don't care to go down that road again, you know that."

Chloe had been married for 11 years. During her marriage, which had its definite ups and downs, she swore if that marriage didn't work out, she wasn't going to try it again. About 4 years into her marriage, she had gone from clingy, needing a man, to being quite happy with her own company. Her marriage ended when she discovered that her husband had not only been unfaithful to her, but had impregnated a co-worker. That had been 8 years ago and Chloe was quite happy to be by herself. No one to bug her if she had wanted to watch a 'girl movie' on muggle TV, or do some reading, or lay in a hot tub with fragrant bubbles--or steal away each night to skate under the silvery moon.

Back at Hogwart's, the buzz was all about Halloween and the large banquet they put on each year. Chloe agreed she'd go, just to check it out, plus she was on a shift to be a chaperone. They all had to do that; they paired up faculty members in 2 hour shifts during the dance portion of the event.

After the dinner, the tables were cleared away and she went to Dumbledore to report in for her shift, and she cursed under her breath when she saw who she was teamed up with--Severus Snape. He saw her look of disdain as she walked over to him.

"Good evening, Miss Kelly."

"Good evening. Are you on this shift?" she asked, thinking maybe that wasn't the case. She sighed and muttered, "Well it was a good evening."

"Excuse me?"

She looked up at him and met his piercing gaze. "Oh nothing." She had never learned to keep her mouth shut. She looked away and out at the students. He was amused, and smiled as much as he ever smiled. He liked the fact that she always dared to say what she was thinking. Most of the others--particularly the other women on the staff--wouldn't stand up to him the way she did.

The older students were dancing and some of the faculty members had guests they were dancing with also. That was the only time when Chloe felt like she wanted anyone around to be paired up with--but only for social occasions. Otherwise, she felt like a fifth wheel.

"How are your classes going?"

Chloe turned around. Was he engaging her in conversation?

"Mine?"

"I don't see anyone else within immediate earshot who might be teaching classes."

"Um, oh, fine. I have a couple of smartasses in one of my classes, but I'm handling them."

Malfoy and his cohorts. Had to be, he thought to himself.

"How is your exercising coming?"

"Very well. I don't need to take potions anymore, but thank you." Oh this polite conversation was escruciating. She checked her watch. Another hour and 45 minutes. Tick tock.

"Do you have somewhere to go?" he asked, noticing she had checked her watch.

"Later on."

"That's a bit dangerous, don't you think Wandering around late at night?"

"Naw. I always take my gun and my wand and I don't worry about it," she said, testing him.

"Your...gun?"

"Yep. It's a muggle weapon, I know, but it is pretty darn big and powerful. .44 magnum, weighs 36 ounces...and you know I'm not serious."

He frowned at her. That figures; he has no sense of humor, she concluded.

"So, what do you do, besides sit in your dungeon all day and into the night?"

"I read."

"Oh yeah, you have that extra book of mine. Get through it yet?"

"Yes, I'm re-reading passages of it and marking them. Quite intriguing."

"You don't go outside much, do you?"

"Nooo...why?"

"You ought to. You're kind of pale," she said and looked away again, bringing another unseen smile. She was too much.

The rest of their shift was uneventful. At 11, it ended and they were relieved by Minerva and Dumbledore.

"Good night," Chloe told Severus.

"Good night." Chloe hurried out of the hallway, with Snape watching her.

"Everything okay, Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, everything was fine. Nothing happened."

"Where's Chloe running off to?" Minerva asked.

"She said she had somewhere to go," he replied, wondering where.

Chloe ran to her classroom where she had stashed her skating gear. It was much easier to keep it there in case she was seen carrying it up to her quarters, since her room was on the outer edge of the castle. She changed, grabbed her skates and a water bottle, and made her way to the lake.

It was a cold, crisp night with a hint of winter coming in. She took a deep breath and froze and cut the ice, then put her skates on after stretching a bit. She took to the ice and began her warm up laps.

Her spins had come back pretty quickly, and now she was working on her timing, setups, and her jumps. Her waltz jumps were sailing again, as was her salchow and loop. Her flip was a pain and her lutz was sometimes executed off the wrong edge at the last second, and then there was her axel.

An axel is a jump which is taken off going forward, the skater turns 1 and a half turns in the air (for a single axel), and lands on the other foot, on a back outside edge. She had her axel intact for 6 months, years before, and then it disappeared. That had been the last time she was skating actively, regularly. She was working hard on getting it back. The thing that was strange was that her double salchow, which is what a skater learns after the axel, was coming back quickly. But that had been the case before. She had been doing double loops before also, without her axel.

Of course, this had been in her early thirties, and what a difference 8 years makes. Older bones and joints doing things that 15 year olds do...not a simple task. But with every pound she lost, it became easier.

She skated for about an hour, then unfroze the ice and headed back to her room and dropped off her gear and changed. She left the room, turned a corner and found herself face to face with Snape.

"What are you doing here?" she squeaked, startled.

"I might ask you the same question."

"I was out."

Severus took a look at her. Her hair was all tousled and she had a light sweat on her forehead and cheeks.

"You look like you've had quite a workout," he commented, thinking she must have a secret lover.

"I have. I did my run."

"Dressed like that?"

She was still wearing her robes from the banquet. "No, I changed. Left my things in my room...and why am I defending myself?" she asked, anger flashing in her eyes.

"I wasn't asking you to defend yourself. I just wondered why you might be out and looking rather...disheveled," he said, a hint of amusement in his voice and in his expression.

"Good evening, Professor Snape," she asked, not liking the implication at all.

"Good evening. Shall I accompany you--it's not very safe for a young woman to wander the grounds at night, as I mentioned."

"No. I'm fine. Good evening," she said, and turned on her heel and walked quickly away from him.

Running. Hmmm. Where might a person run this late at night? he wondered. He hoped she knew better than to run into the forest. He hoped she would be careful. But, then again, he wasn't exactly sure that she hadn't been with a secret lover somewhere. Why was she so mysterious?

Returning to his quarters, he reminded himself that was exactly why he had never taken a wife. Too many mysteries...