"On est seul aussi chez les hommes"

Dumbledore walked to a shelf and brought back a vial of potion. "Here you go," he said handing it to her. She swallowed the sour tasting potion quickly. She downed the entire vial in one swallow and closed her eyes as the potion took effect. It was then that she noticed that there was a peculiar feeling of unnatural calmness sweeping over her body.

            "What did ya putinhere?" Isabel slurred feeling the arduous task of reopening her eyes not worth the effort.

            "I put a bit of Relax-Me-Now in it," Dumbledore said. "You are fighting the pain, which is not good for you. With the relaxing potion, your muscles will relax enough for you to sleep off the pain." Dumbledore turned to Severus. "Severus, take her to the guest chamber closest your own. As you well know, the aftereffects are the worse, and she may need your expertise." Severus nodded and picked Isabel and her detached arm up. When they reached the guest chamber, he laid her on the bed.

            "Best try to sleep now." He said as he walked away. Isabel shut her eyes and tried to not feel the pain. Why hadn't Dumbledore mentioned that she would actually feel the pain if she didn't fall asleep? She laid there for thirty minutes until she finally decided that she would never fall asleep. She walked out of the bedroom into what looked to be a living room. There on one of the couches sat Severus. "Why are you all alone down here?"

            "How do you know I'm all alone down here?" Severus asked not turning from the fire.

            "Because I have very good listening skills and there has been no sound from anywhere down here." Isabel said limping over to the couch. Dumbledore certainly was right, the aftermath hurt like hell.

            "Why aren't you asleep?" Severus asked finally looking over at her.

            "Are we playing a bad version of 'Questions Only'?" Isabel smiled. "Okay, bad joke. I'm not asleep because I'm a wuss. I can't handle the pain, so it keeps me awake."

            "How'd you lose your arm?" Severus asked as he stood up and walked behind her.

            "Muggle ran me over in a car. I didn't want one of those silvery fake body parts, so I went the muggle way. Little did I know it would magnify the effects of the Cruciatus curse…" Isabel said. Suddenly she felt a prick in her arm. "What was that?!"

            "It was a shot. Something I use often myself. It should ease the pain in a matter of minutes." Severus said sitting down.

            "That was clever….Keep me talking about something else to catch me unawares. How very civilized of you, Mr. Snape," Isabel commented. It did work, the pain did lessen. She looked around. The furnishing was sparse but fancy. There wasn't a personal touch to anything in there. Then again, it was the guest chamber.

            "It's so lonely down here. Don't you ever want company?" Isabel asked her visual examination of the room complete.

            "No, company tends to ask too many questions." Severus said and leaned his head back. Isabel laughed.          

            "So you isolate yourself because of questions one might ask? You're a strange and lonely man, Mr. Snape." Isabel chuckled. Her eyes were beginning to feel heavy and sense Severus didn't seem to be responding, she closed her eyes. Immediately, she was swept off to the distant shores of Dream Land. Severus opened his eyes and carried her back to the bed and laid her down again.

            "One is also alone when among men." Severus whispered as he walked back out.

Translation: "You are also alone in the home of men."  Please don't knock my translations…they're close enough… : )

I know it's short, but with all the bugging for updates, beggars can't be choosers, eh? Enjoy…