All disclaimers are in place. Refer to the Prologue section for details.
PART SEVEN: REVERIESeverus Snape lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. Being that there were metal bars on the other side of the glass, his body had simply bounced off and landed on the floor beneath the window.
There was no doubt about it: Halo was in shock.
She sank to her knees beside him, unaware of the glass shards that cut her palms as she attempted to hold herself steady.
What have I done? Saliva pooled in the back of her mouth and her stomach twisted violently. Please don't be sick… please don't be sick…
It took more than a few minutes of deep, shuddering breaths to push down the acid rising in her throat, and then she sat back on her heels and looked at her stinging hands. Blood oozed from countless tiny cuts and ran in the parallel creases of her palms like crimson rivers.
Glass scraped on stone, and more shards fell to the floor. The Potions Master was regaining consciousness.
Snape was dimly aware of the glass around him. His heavy robes had taken most of the impact, leaving him unharmed in that respect but he could not escape the high-pitched ringing in his ears or the dull throbbing in his head. Using the heavy fabric to protect his hands, he pushed himself to a sitting position and sat back against the dungeon wall, rubbing his eyes. Then he remembered.
Halo was visibly shaking when Snape turned his glare on her.
"Follow me." Those were the only words he spoke for a long time. There was no conversation while he led her to a student table and made her sit while he pulled the tiny shards out of her hands with a pair of cleansed pincers. After the glass had been removed and dropped in a dish, he muttered Reparo in the direction of the shattered window. The shards, including those he had just removed and those that clung to their clothes had whisked away like shiny, schooling fish to the broken window frame and assembled themselves in their original pattern. Then Snape turned back to her. The fact remained that Halo was in very deep trouble.
"You don't have to say it," Halo braved, pushing herself out if the chair with aching, blood-encrusted hands. "I'll go pack."
"Oh no you don't." Snape stepped into her path. "Your lesson isn't over." The ringing in his ears hadn't stopped… it was irritating, but he pushed past the incessant noise to the task at hand. He lifted his hand toward a shelf and called, "Accio flask."
A large tapered vial raced into his outstretched hand, and he grasped the cylindrical neck and set it on the desk in front of her. "Break it."
Halo looked at him like he was crazy.
"Well, what are you waiting for, mass-colonization in the arctic? I said break it!"
She gulped, reaching for the flask.
"NO! Without touching it!"
Halo heaved a sigh and turned her eyes to the flask. She studied it for a few moments, then turned back to him. "I don't know how."
Snape grabbed her by the arm and shoved her onto her stool to face the glass container more directly.
"Don't touch me!" Halo shrieked, yanking her arm away from him with such force that she almost fell over.
"That's right, you just be angry with me! Why don't you hate me! Anything, just break it!" Snape shouted.
"I-don't-know-how!" Halo shouted right back.
"Yes you do!"
"I can't…"
"Of course you can't, you foolish girl! You can't do anything right!"
"Why are you doing this?" She demanded.
Snape slammed his fists onto the desk. "Break it, you stupid girl!"
"I hate you!" Halo screamed, and the flask submitted to the sound.
So did many of the larger glass containers that lined his shelves.
But not all of them.
It was several seconds before either of them moved.
Remains of the shattered flask were strewn across the desk surface, spilling into her lap and onto the stone floor below. The room was spinning and darkness was caving in on her. She whirled to face him, exhausted disorientation quickly replacing the look of bitter triumph that had flashed across her features. "There, I did it…"
Snape caught her as she fell to the floor.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
What is this place? Halo discovered the sensation of floating… she had entered a dark place. She heard a light drip… drip… drip… coming from somewhere far away and the thick cloud of fog encompassed her. It was terribly comforting.
The fog cleared all too quickly to reveal, sitting at a broken oak desk surrounded by a mess of melted candles and hastily rolled parchments, a much younger Severus Snape scribbled furiously a map of sorts. It was him, without a doubt. The same black hair and determined air about him. He didn't notice her arrival.
"Hello?" she called.
No answer.
Funny, she thought. I wonder what this place is.
THUD.
Halo jumped a mile.
Scowling in irritation at being bothered during the night, he shoved the parchment into the desk, sealing the secret chamber as he left. He passed straight through Halo, as though she weren't there.
"Wicked!" she mused.
Another thud on the door.
Snape swung open the outer door, charging his expression of impassive hostility. It was one of many faces only Severus Snape could pull off.
"I realize that I owe you a life debt, Linnaeus, but that does not mean I have to wait up for you at all hours of the night. Now out with it… what news?"
"My visit is of another nature." the visitor hobbled through the doorway. "I don't have much time. Death Eaters are tracking me." His cloak dripped puddles on the stone floor.
"Well then why in Merlin's name did you lead them here, Linnaeus?" Snape's voice hissed like a feral cat. He grabbed the smaller man by the collar of his cloak and backed him into a wall. "You wish to have us both discovered? You know what sort of information I keep here!"
"Of another nature, Severus! I plan to lead them away from here when I leave. I won't expose your name or any others I know if captured. What I must ask of you will save a very important life."
"Hopefully my own." Snape considered for a moment, tilting his head to the side. He loosened his grip on the other man's collar. "Spill it, before I end your miserable existence myself."
Linnaeus inhaled with a shudder. "I am going to give you… something. And you must not ask me of it's nature before you accept it. You must give me your word that you will keep it safe until such time that I can return for it."
Snape sighed heavily. "I assume that it's discovery by the Dark Lord will have many on our side killed." He had not offered to take the man's dripping coat. He did not wish the man to stay long… he rather irritatedly wished the man hadn't come dripping into his home in the first place.
"If the Dark Lord gets ahold of it, he will one day use it to bring destruction on those we are fighting to protect."
"You could have just said Yes."
"I'll consider your life debt to me void, Severus."
The words hooked his interest. "I don't suppose there's any other choice. At least it'll get your proverbial claws off me." He held out his arms. "I give you my word. But you must lead them away from here immediately."
"You're doing the right thing. Please be careful with it." Linnaeus handed over the object wrapped in dark gray wool, rather hesitantly, Snape noted.
Snape took the bundle rather clumsily.
"Be careful!" the other man hissed.
Snape screwed up his face in an unpleasant scowl as he slightly more carefully unwrapped the bundle. He nearly dropped it when he saw, horrified, what the cloth contained.
A scrawny, newborn infant.
"What in Hell's name do you mean by giving me this… this thing!" Snape spit the words out like venom.
"You gave me your word, Severus! You must protect her at all costs." He backed away as Snape moved to hand the child back to him. "The note will tell you all you need to know. Thank you, my friend."
He Disapparated.
And Snape descended into a nearby chair in raging disbelief. He looked down at the child, sleeping peacefully in his arms, completely oblivious to the moment of shouting that took place around her own little ears. Note? What Note? He searched the bundle for a piece of parchment which had nestled itself in a fold of cloth near the child's foot. He brushed against the child's skin as he moved to retrieve it.
The touch froze him; he could not break the contact he had made with the child's skin. Brilliant blue light flashed from the point of contact and grew until it surrounded them both.
"Oh no," Snape whispered. And he felt the bonding curse take him over.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Light swam into painful view as Halo's eyelids were peeled back, then released.
"Her pupils are dilated," announced a self-important voice. "She's not going anywhere tonight, so you can forget about taking her out of here." Was that Madam Pomfrey?
"Will the child suffer any lasting damage?" A wizened, age-softened voice queried.
Halo blinked, able to make out the silhouettes of three people standing over her through barely cracked eyelids. Her head throbbed painfully, and she didn't dare move for fear the pain would only increase.
"She looks all right to me. Wake her up." That one was, without a doubt, Snape.
"I will do no such th…" A shrill, appalled Pomfrey.
"She has been through enough, Severus. She will remain here tonight, undisturbed." He led the younger man away from Halo's bed.
"Headmaster, I must insist that she finish what she started!" Snape asserted.
"I trust you were able to reach her?"
A long sigh. "Yes."
"And?"
"She threw me into a window."
"Ah. I suppose the shattered glass explains what happened to her hands."
Snape nodded.
"It was unfortunate that you both were hurt in this exercise. Do you believe it is safe to have her removed from her private room and placed in the Slytherin dormitory? She needs the support and friendship of her equals. And from you." The Headmaster raised an eyebrow at the last statement.
"I will not discuss that particular issue with you, Albus, and I will thank you not to push the issue. That decision was and is mine alone to make, and I made it a long time ago." He paused for Dumbledore's silent understanding.
"The girl has no equals," he continued. "Perhaps after further training…" Snape lowered his eyes as he felt the need to press a bothersome issue. "… Headmaster… I do not wish to be responsible for her education any longer. Get someone else to do it."
He heard Dumbledore sigh.
"That's just not possible, Severus. You know that no amount of training will suffice, whether it be from you or someone else. Her immediate future lies with you… others in the distant future, perhaps… but now, it is only you."
"The situation is exceedingly difficult to manage. The fact remains that she despises me. It will be impossible to complete her training with her worsening demeanor, which to my extensive knowledge is highly unbreakable."
"The reality is that you are taking offense to her negative feelings toward you, Severus. Might I remind you that no other student's opinion of you has ever held your attention long enough to evoke a response? Their actions surely do, but their opinion of you is an entirely other matter."
Snape shook his head in disbelief. "Headmaster… I took Halo in against my better judgment. Our… relationship… has never reached beyond formality. She cannot stand to be near me, and while I feel the need to despise her in return, that somehow feels… wrong. Damn it all, Albus, I'm not fit to be the girl's father." He turned away from Dumbledore. "I'm going to track down Linnaeus Mandelor and have him retrieve her. Perhaps he can reverse the bonding curse he so nicely cast upon her while he's at it." He headed for the Hospital Wing door.
"Linnaeus is dead, Severus."
Snape froze where he stood. His horribly warm wool cloak provided no protection against the ice that rushed down his spine and diffused throughout his body. The feeling that one was totally screwed was a vile sensation indeed.
"That's… not possible…"
The ancient wizard placed a consoling hand on the younger man's black-robed shoulder. "I'm afraid it's true."
Snape sighed in utter defeat. "I'm stuck with her, then."
"That also, I'm afraid, is true. Linnaeus Mandelor was reported killed by the Death Eaters shortly after he left his meeting with you thirteen years ago. I assumed you had been told."
And then Severus Snape, a man of solid stature and a reputation for being hard as stone, sank to his knees. And all this time I thought you were alive, Mandelor, but in hiding. How could I have been such a fool? To think you would actually come back for her, as you said. But you sent your daughter here to haunt me. I hate you… I BLOODY HATE YOU!
Dumbledore sighed. He knew the man's reaction had been coming for a long time. It was a rare thing to see the man break down like this. Having dealt with matters far worse on the scale of badness and coming through with an iron will was Snape's specialty. Dumbledore wouldn't dare compromise the man's dignity by consoling him further, though the denied ability to soothe the poor man hurt him deeply.
"There's more," the old man told him as Snape struggled to repress further emotional weakness and stumbled to his feet.
Snape swayed a bit once he had come to a standing position. His blank expression told Dumbledore that no words could possibly faze him. The younger man had completely shut down.
"The curse that was imposed upon the two of you has a side effect that no one could have expected…" the old man paused.
Snape didn't flinch, or even show the barest trace of interest. His opaque stare never once fixed on the Headmaster. "If you're waiting for a reaction, I suggest you tell it to someone else. Otherwise, I urge you to get on with it."
"The curse was not completed, as you well know. The incantation that seals the bond has been waiting to be performed since you first touched her…"
"I will not complete it," Snape interrupted, his gaze remaining fixed on a stone wall. "I will not subject myself to an imposition of foolish emotions that I have not built of my own free will." His jaw was set.
Dumbledore submitted to resignation of the subject. He sighed in defeat.
"Then she will die."