Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own any of the characters in this story. They are all creation of the wonderful J.K. Rowling. The only characters I do own are Angeline, Lyle, and a few lesser characters who will pop up to visit from time to time.
~Chapter 6 ~
Angeline dusted off the remains of an enumerations puzzle she had given her last Arithmancy class. Seamus had almost solved his problem when he added too many factors and his cube exploded. Angeline had felt as though maybe she had started on too difficult a lesson, but Hermione had assured her that Seamus blew things up on a weekly basis.
As she finished, Lyle entered the room, arms crossed. "How was your first class?"
"Interesting. We have some very promising students here."
"What are you cleaning up?"
"Oh," she smiled. "Beware of students who get a little too excited and blow things up."
Lyle nodded. "Thanks for the warning." Lyle closed the door and walked toward Angeline's desk. "Listen, sis, I have to talk to you about something." Angeline looked at him curiously. "I need to know if there's anything going on between you and Snape."
"What are you so worried about? Whatever I feel, I'm sure is one sided." Feeling embarrassed, she quickly changed the subject. "Don't you have class in a few minutes?"
"Ange," his expression softened, "you know I'm just looking out for you."
"Thanks, but I think that I can take over from here." She hurried him out the door. He gave her an annoyed glance and proceeded to his next class.
Angeline sat in silence for a few minutes, but shortly the silence was shattered. Someone in the hall began shouting, "Troll!" Angeline heard it moving down the hall. She jumped to her feet, pulled her wand out of her robe, and ran out the door.
The troll was no where in sight, but several students were screaming so she followed the sound. Upon rounding the corner, she saw the troll. He had several first years trapped in a corner. The troll raised a huge, wooden club and began to swing at the students. Angeline held out her wand and yelled, "Reducto!" The club broke into a million pieces and showered the hallway, and the first years screamed. The troll, confused, turned to face Angeline. "Don't move, and don't scream. Trolls hate sharp noises!" she directed at the students. One small Hufflepuff with blonde hair and blue eyes had tears streaming down her face.
Angeline had to get the students out of harm's way before she dealt with the troll. She started to think quickly.
Across the school, around ten students rounded a corner, terrified, out of breath, and desperate to find Dumbledore. Luckily, Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall were approaching at the same time. All ten students panicked and began to talk at once. "Calm yourselves. Walden, tell me what all the excitement is about."
"Troll. . . there's a troll, Sir, in the middle levels. . . near Arithmancy and Charms!"
"Stay here, and do not allow anyone to come down the stairs to the middle levels."
"Accio, troll!" Angeline yelled, and the troll was moving across the hall toward her and away from the students. The troll was furious and once it had control of its movement again, it pounded over to where Angeline stood. "Come on, ugly. Just a little further," she kept moving backwards at a pace the troll would match. When they reached the next corridor, the troll followed her, infuriated. "Run, now!" she yelled at the first years. They obeyed, except for the young Hufflepuff who was literally scared stiff. The troll saw the children run past him and turned. He saw the Hufflepuff and decided that she would be easier to catch than the one with the red hair. He turned and pounded back across the hall.
"No!" Angeline screamed at the troll. The young Hufflepuff fell to her knees and began to cry uncontrollably. Angeline raised her wand and yelled, "Locomotor Mortis!" Immediately, the troll's legs stopped moving. It's upper body was thrashing about, trying to free itself. Angeline struggled to make the spell hold. It was easier to gain control over a fully grown mountain troll when there were at least three mages, due to the fact that trolls were four times taller than an average person, and they had the strength of at least twelve strong men. "Susan. . . run. . . now," Angeline spoke brokenly, not wanting to break her concentration. Susan stood just as the troll grabbed at her with one of its huge hands, and she fell back against the broken shards of club.
"Mobilicorpus!" The three professors pointed their wands at the troll, and Angeline fell to her knees. They were just in time. She could not have held the troll any longer. Weak kneed, Angeline stood and ran past the troll, who was now hovering in the air. She grabbed Susan by the arm to help her up. Just as they turned to run, the troll, in its fury, busted the wall to its left, and the bricks went flying in every direction. Another swing busted the ceiling causing huge stones to fall down on them.
Angeline held up her hands and summoned an invisible shield around Susan. She almost had the shield around herself, but a stone crushed her leg before she could finish. She cried out in pain, but held the charm in place around the frightened student.
Dumbledore also called a Shield charm and placed it successfully around Snape, McGonagall, and himself. Wand contact was lost, and the troll fell to the ground triumphant. The troll grabbed at Angeline, and she closed her eyes and prepared for the worst.
Snape summoned every ounce of energy within him, held up his wand, and commanded, "Petrificus Totalis!" The beast became completely stiff and proceeded to fall forward.
"Leviosa!" Dumbledore and McGonagall held up their wands and floated the troll out the hole in the wall and sat him down.
Angeline dropped the protection charm. "You all right?" She smiled at Susan despite her pain. The girl was terrified, and it showed. "It's okay, love, it's over. I promise." Susan clutched to Angeline, and Angeline hugged her and patted her hair in a motherly fashion.
Snape floated the stone off of Angeline's leg. She winced and kept Susan's eyes hidden in her robes so that she could not see the blood. McGonagall came over and took Susan by the hand and led her to the medical wing to be examined.
"I must send this troll back to the mountains immediately. Take care of Angeline, Severus. We'll repair the damage to the corridor later." Snape nodded and Dumbledore patted Angeline gently on the shoulder and proceeded out the hole in the wall.
"I'll summons a stretcher. Just stay still."
"No. No stretcher."
Snape looked confused. "You can't walk like that. Your bone has been crushed."
"Just help me up."
Snape hesitated but did as she asked. He lifted her to her feet and she held onto him for support. "Do you know how humiliating it is to have to be hovered around like you're hurt? She grinned at him.
"Stubborn," Snape replied, allowing his concern for her to show through his normally expressionless face. He allowed her to use him as a crutch until they reached the stairs.
Angeline felt goofy having to hop around, but anything was better than everyone watching her being taken by stretcher. She had been in that position before and had not liked it. They were almost at the stairs when Angeline grimaced. It was a long two flights of stairs, and her pain was almost unbearable.
Snape felt warm up against her. Too warm she thought. At that moment, Snape stopped. They were at the stairs. He picked her up and began to carry her up the stairs. He was sweating profusely.
"You're burning up!" she exclaimed in a concerned tone.
"I'm fine." Snape didn't feel fine, however. His fever had returned as they were fighting the troll, and now his head was swimming.
"No, you're not. Stop. Put me down."
Snape did as she requested and she leaned up against a window ledge. She summoned a stretcher and hopped on it, not lying down. "It won't kill me to be a little humiliated. Perhaps Madam Pomfrey should check you out~"
"No. Let's go," he spoke sternly.
The stretcher levitated up the stairs and down the hall toward the medical wing. Angeline kept a watchful eye on Snape, but did not push him any further.
Madam Pomfrey moved Angeline to a bed. She was about to rub a blue potion on the injured leg when it began to glow. Seconds later, the bone was repaired and there was no sign of damage. "Amazing," Pomfrey muttered while stepping forward to examine the leg for herself.
Snape looked at her curiously. "You never said you could re-grow broken bones."
"I've never tried to before," she said simply. "I'm finding that there are many things I can do now that I could never have managed to do before this year."
Snape had potions in ten minutes, and he knew better than to leave Slytherin and Gryffindor alone for too long. "I need to go," he said simply as he turned to go out the door.
Angeline watched him as Madam Pomfrey declared she could leave. A feeling of concern and irritation filled her as she hopped off the bed to return to her classroom.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Harry, Hermione, and Ron whispered excitedly about the rumors that a troll had gotten into the school. "Who could have let it in? This hasn't happened in four years since Professor Quirrell tried to steal the Sorcerer's Stone."
Across the room, Draco Malfoy turned and faced the Gryffindors. "How does it feel to not be at the center of attention for a change, Potter?" he remarked snidely.
Harry rolled his eyes and continued to talk to his friends until Snape entered through the back doors of the dungeon class room. The students hushed immediately.
"Take down the following notes and follow them to the letter. They will be tested at the end of class." Snape turned and began to write the ingredients for a shrinking potion. He ached from head to toe. He was freezing, but he could feel the heat emanating from his own body. "Blasted fever," he thought to himself, "good for nothing..." His thought was interrupted by the sound of books hitting the floor. Neville Longbottom had reached for his quill and had accidentally knocked his books off of the table. Snape turned, irritated. "Five points from Gryffindor for clowning around when you should be taking notes."
"I'm sorry, Sir. It was an accident," Neville offered.
"Five more points for talking out of turn," he hissed.
Neville's mouth dropped open, but he offered nothing else. The other Gryffindors were furious, and a Slytherin in the corner of the room laughed.
"Five points from Slytherin. What must I do to have complete silence?"
No one said another word or made another sound. Everyone knew that Snape favored the Slytherins, being their Head of House, and had never before taken points from his own house.
Snape sat down at his desk hard. He fumbled through the papers on his desk, attempting to look busy, but not truly paying any attention. He had not come across any of his potions that were effective on the fever that the Dark Magic had left him with. He wiped the sweat from his face and wondered if things would be like this for the rest of his life.
At the end of class, the students each drank the potion they had concocted, and each shrank to half their normal size. Snape administered the counter potions and sent them on their ways without a word. To everyone's relief, all had gone well.
As the students exited to the hall, they began their normal conversations. Harry couldn't help but wonder why Snape was in a particularly foul mood. "He looked sick," Harry thought. He decided to abandon all logic and go back in the dungeon to ask him if he was alright. After telling Ron and Hermione that he would catch up with them in the common room, he turned to go back down the stairs.
The door was still open, and Harry entered silently, a tightening feeling forming in his stomach. He liked to avoid confrontation with Snape when possible, but that had seemed almost impossible this year.
Snape was sitting at his desk with his head in his hands, messaging his temples as if he had a headache. "S-sir?" Harry managed to stammer out.
"What is it, Potter?" Snape didn't look up, but he did sound annoyed.
"Are you alright?"
Snape looked menacingly at Harry. "Did you need something, Potter?" He was in no mood to entertain questions.
Harry looked thoughtfully at Snape. "You don't look well. Is there something I can get you?" Harry braced for the worst.
"No," Snape said in an almost kind tone, and then added, "thank you, but I have a lot to tend to. Please shut the door on your way out."
Harry did as he was asked and headed to meet his friends.
~Chapter 6 ~
Angeline dusted off the remains of an enumerations puzzle she had given her last Arithmancy class. Seamus had almost solved his problem when he added too many factors and his cube exploded. Angeline had felt as though maybe she had started on too difficult a lesson, but Hermione had assured her that Seamus blew things up on a weekly basis.
As she finished, Lyle entered the room, arms crossed. "How was your first class?"
"Interesting. We have some very promising students here."
"What are you cleaning up?"
"Oh," she smiled. "Beware of students who get a little too excited and blow things up."
Lyle nodded. "Thanks for the warning." Lyle closed the door and walked toward Angeline's desk. "Listen, sis, I have to talk to you about something." Angeline looked at him curiously. "I need to know if there's anything going on between you and Snape."
"What are you so worried about? Whatever I feel, I'm sure is one sided." Feeling embarrassed, she quickly changed the subject. "Don't you have class in a few minutes?"
"Ange," his expression softened, "you know I'm just looking out for you."
"Thanks, but I think that I can take over from here." She hurried him out the door. He gave her an annoyed glance and proceeded to his next class.
Angeline sat in silence for a few minutes, but shortly the silence was shattered. Someone in the hall began shouting, "Troll!" Angeline heard it moving down the hall. She jumped to her feet, pulled her wand out of her robe, and ran out the door.
The troll was no where in sight, but several students were screaming so she followed the sound. Upon rounding the corner, she saw the troll. He had several first years trapped in a corner. The troll raised a huge, wooden club and began to swing at the students. Angeline held out her wand and yelled, "Reducto!" The club broke into a million pieces and showered the hallway, and the first years screamed. The troll, confused, turned to face Angeline. "Don't move, and don't scream. Trolls hate sharp noises!" she directed at the students. One small Hufflepuff with blonde hair and blue eyes had tears streaming down her face.
Angeline had to get the students out of harm's way before she dealt with the troll. She started to think quickly.
Across the school, around ten students rounded a corner, terrified, out of breath, and desperate to find Dumbledore. Luckily, Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall were approaching at the same time. All ten students panicked and began to talk at once. "Calm yourselves. Walden, tell me what all the excitement is about."
"Troll. . . there's a troll, Sir, in the middle levels. . . near Arithmancy and Charms!"
"Stay here, and do not allow anyone to come down the stairs to the middle levels."
"Accio, troll!" Angeline yelled, and the troll was moving across the hall toward her and away from the students. The troll was furious and once it had control of its movement again, it pounded over to where Angeline stood. "Come on, ugly. Just a little further," she kept moving backwards at a pace the troll would match. When they reached the next corridor, the troll followed her, infuriated. "Run, now!" she yelled at the first years. They obeyed, except for the young Hufflepuff who was literally scared stiff. The troll saw the children run past him and turned. He saw the Hufflepuff and decided that she would be easier to catch than the one with the red hair. He turned and pounded back across the hall.
"No!" Angeline screamed at the troll. The young Hufflepuff fell to her knees and began to cry uncontrollably. Angeline raised her wand and yelled, "Locomotor Mortis!" Immediately, the troll's legs stopped moving. It's upper body was thrashing about, trying to free itself. Angeline struggled to make the spell hold. It was easier to gain control over a fully grown mountain troll when there were at least three mages, due to the fact that trolls were four times taller than an average person, and they had the strength of at least twelve strong men. "Susan. . . run. . . now," Angeline spoke brokenly, not wanting to break her concentration. Susan stood just as the troll grabbed at her with one of its huge hands, and she fell back against the broken shards of club.
"Mobilicorpus!" The three professors pointed their wands at the troll, and Angeline fell to her knees. They were just in time. She could not have held the troll any longer. Weak kneed, Angeline stood and ran past the troll, who was now hovering in the air. She grabbed Susan by the arm to help her up. Just as they turned to run, the troll, in its fury, busted the wall to its left, and the bricks went flying in every direction. Another swing busted the ceiling causing huge stones to fall down on them.
Angeline held up her hands and summoned an invisible shield around Susan. She almost had the shield around herself, but a stone crushed her leg before she could finish. She cried out in pain, but held the charm in place around the frightened student.
Dumbledore also called a Shield charm and placed it successfully around Snape, McGonagall, and himself. Wand contact was lost, and the troll fell to the ground triumphant. The troll grabbed at Angeline, and she closed her eyes and prepared for the worst.
Snape summoned every ounce of energy within him, held up his wand, and commanded, "Petrificus Totalis!" The beast became completely stiff and proceeded to fall forward.
"Leviosa!" Dumbledore and McGonagall held up their wands and floated the troll out the hole in the wall and sat him down.
Angeline dropped the protection charm. "You all right?" She smiled at Susan despite her pain. The girl was terrified, and it showed. "It's okay, love, it's over. I promise." Susan clutched to Angeline, and Angeline hugged her and patted her hair in a motherly fashion.
Snape floated the stone off of Angeline's leg. She winced and kept Susan's eyes hidden in her robes so that she could not see the blood. McGonagall came over and took Susan by the hand and led her to the medical wing to be examined.
"I must send this troll back to the mountains immediately. Take care of Angeline, Severus. We'll repair the damage to the corridor later." Snape nodded and Dumbledore patted Angeline gently on the shoulder and proceeded out the hole in the wall.
"I'll summons a stretcher. Just stay still."
"No. No stretcher."
Snape looked confused. "You can't walk like that. Your bone has been crushed."
"Just help me up."
Snape hesitated but did as she asked. He lifted her to her feet and she held onto him for support. "Do you know how humiliating it is to have to be hovered around like you're hurt? She grinned at him.
"Stubborn," Snape replied, allowing his concern for her to show through his normally expressionless face. He allowed her to use him as a crutch until they reached the stairs.
Angeline felt goofy having to hop around, but anything was better than everyone watching her being taken by stretcher. She had been in that position before and had not liked it. They were almost at the stairs when Angeline grimaced. It was a long two flights of stairs, and her pain was almost unbearable.
Snape felt warm up against her. Too warm she thought. At that moment, Snape stopped. They were at the stairs. He picked her up and began to carry her up the stairs. He was sweating profusely.
"You're burning up!" she exclaimed in a concerned tone.
"I'm fine." Snape didn't feel fine, however. His fever had returned as they were fighting the troll, and now his head was swimming.
"No, you're not. Stop. Put me down."
Snape did as she requested and she leaned up against a window ledge. She summoned a stretcher and hopped on it, not lying down. "It won't kill me to be a little humiliated. Perhaps Madam Pomfrey should check you out~"
"No. Let's go," he spoke sternly.
The stretcher levitated up the stairs and down the hall toward the medical wing. Angeline kept a watchful eye on Snape, but did not push him any further.
Madam Pomfrey moved Angeline to a bed. She was about to rub a blue potion on the injured leg when it began to glow. Seconds later, the bone was repaired and there was no sign of damage. "Amazing," Pomfrey muttered while stepping forward to examine the leg for herself.
Snape looked at her curiously. "You never said you could re-grow broken bones."
"I've never tried to before," she said simply. "I'm finding that there are many things I can do now that I could never have managed to do before this year."
Snape had potions in ten minutes, and he knew better than to leave Slytherin and Gryffindor alone for too long. "I need to go," he said simply as he turned to go out the door.
Angeline watched him as Madam Pomfrey declared she could leave. A feeling of concern and irritation filled her as she hopped off the bed to return to her classroom.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Harry, Hermione, and Ron whispered excitedly about the rumors that a troll had gotten into the school. "Who could have let it in? This hasn't happened in four years since Professor Quirrell tried to steal the Sorcerer's Stone."
Across the room, Draco Malfoy turned and faced the Gryffindors. "How does it feel to not be at the center of attention for a change, Potter?" he remarked snidely.
Harry rolled his eyes and continued to talk to his friends until Snape entered through the back doors of the dungeon class room. The students hushed immediately.
"Take down the following notes and follow them to the letter. They will be tested at the end of class." Snape turned and began to write the ingredients for a shrinking potion. He ached from head to toe. He was freezing, but he could feel the heat emanating from his own body. "Blasted fever," he thought to himself, "good for nothing..." His thought was interrupted by the sound of books hitting the floor. Neville Longbottom had reached for his quill and had accidentally knocked his books off of the table. Snape turned, irritated. "Five points from Gryffindor for clowning around when you should be taking notes."
"I'm sorry, Sir. It was an accident," Neville offered.
"Five more points for talking out of turn," he hissed.
Neville's mouth dropped open, but he offered nothing else. The other Gryffindors were furious, and a Slytherin in the corner of the room laughed.
"Five points from Slytherin. What must I do to have complete silence?"
No one said another word or made another sound. Everyone knew that Snape favored the Slytherins, being their Head of House, and had never before taken points from his own house.
Snape sat down at his desk hard. He fumbled through the papers on his desk, attempting to look busy, but not truly paying any attention. He had not come across any of his potions that were effective on the fever that the Dark Magic had left him with. He wiped the sweat from his face and wondered if things would be like this for the rest of his life.
At the end of class, the students each drank the potion they had concocted, and each shrank to half their normal size. Snape administered the counter potions and sent them on their ways without a word. To everyone's relief, all had gone well.
As the students exited to the hall, they began their normal conversations. Harry couldn't help but wonder why Snape was in a particularly foul mood. "He looked sick," Harry thought. He decided to abandon all logic and go back in the dungeon to ask him if he was alright. After telling Ron and Hermione that he would catch up with them in the common room, he turned to go back down the stairs.
The door was still open, and Harry entered silently, a tightening feeling forming in his stomach. He liked to avoid confrontation with Snape when possible, but that had seemed almost impossible this year.
Snape was sitting at his desk with his head in his hands, messaging his temples as if he had a headache. "S-sir?" Harry managed to stammer out.
"What is it, Potter?" Snape didn't look up, but he did sound annoyed.
"Are you alright?"
Snape looked menacingly at Harry. "Did you need something, Potter?" He was in no mood to entertain questions.
Harry looked thoughtfully at Snape. "You don't look well. Is there something I can get you?" Harry braced for the worst.
"No," Snape said in an almost kind tone, and then added, "thank you, but I have a lot to tend to. Please shut the door on your way out."
Harry did as he was asked and headed to meet his friends.