Second Chances



Chapter 07: This gets weirder with every passing moment!



Severus blinked, and it took him a moment to process the scene before him.

Lily stood facing him behind a tall, hooded stranger, the blade of her sword pressed against the figure's neck.

"A bit jumpy today, aren't we?" came the dry voice of a woman, speaking with a slight French accent. Lily relaxed immediately.

"Merlin's beard, Claire! One of these days I will be too tired to stop myself in time and you will find yourself decapitated! And tell you what? It will serve you right, sneaking up at me like this!" Lily exclaimed angrily, putting the sword in the scabbard slung across her back.

The stranger, Claire, just shrugged and pulled back the hood of her heavy gray cloak. She had long, blond hair and ice-blue eyes, matched by very pale skin.

Regarding Lily coolly, she merely said: "I highly doubt that. I have trained you too well for such a thing to happen."

Lily just swore colorfully.

Claire raised a pale-golden brow. "You must be tired indeed, if you fail so miserably in keeping a reign on that fiery temper of yours."

She shifted her gaze to Severus, who was still trying to put up with the sight of a person he had only ever seen act kindly and calmly, now exhibiting such a fierce behavior. "So you finally woke up. Surely took you long enough." Looking back to Lily, she continued: "Are you going to introduce us, once you get your vocabulary out of the gutter again, Lily?"

Lily glared at her, but she just smiled, showing pointed canines.

'A vampire!' Severus thought faintly. 'This gets weirder with every passing moment!'

Dropping the glare and sighing tiredly, Lily returned to her seat by the fire. "Claire, this is Severus Snape. Severus, this is Claire DeLaCroix, a very old friend of my family. And yes, I know she's a vampire, and no, she won't drink your blood unless you invite her to. And I would appreciate it if you could stop gawking at me. I hate being stared at."

Realizing he had done just that, he quickly looked away to Claire, who stood near the entrance, still smiling her amused little smile.

Inclining her head, she said: "Didn't think I would talk civilly to a Death Eater ever again, but then, you never know."

She shrugged, turning back to her friend. "So you found him worthy of our help?" It was more a statement than a question.

Somewhat surprised, Severus turned to look at Lily as well. Their eyes locked one more time, hers seeming to look directly into his very soul, as if still searching for something. Apparently finding it, she nodded.

"Yes, I do."

Seemingly satisfied, Claire moved forwards and came to stand by the fire, facing both of them. With a glance at Severus' puzzled expression, she commented: "You better stop wondering, boy, and start to gather your senses. You are going to need them dearly, if you want to get back to that school of yours in one piece."

'What the...' "How do you know?"

She sat down gracefully and just said mysteriously: "I am old. I know many things."

Lily rolled her eyes at that. Ignoring the redhead and making herself more comfortable, Claire continued.

"Lily can fill you in on some of the details later. We don't have the time for idle talk. Since the search for you only brought about the death of four of your former colleagues, the rest of them has called for the Soulsuckers to take over their task."

Severus breathed in sharply, but Lily just nodded.

"I was wondering how long it would take them to figure out that the Dementors are one of the few species we cannot prevent from traveling the forest unharmed."

Claire shrugged again. "It is difficult to control them. Voldemort must want his prey alive, otherwise he would not have risked the loss of his followers."

She flashed a grin at Severus. "You must have greatly annoyed him. I haven't seen him making such an effort for quite a long time. However, with the prospect of the Soulsuckers coming here, we have eight, perhaps ten hours left to get you ready to leave. It is our luck that no one can apparate in the wood, or we wouldn't have that much time. You will both eat now, and then go get some sleep. I will prepare everything for your departure and watch over you."

To Lily she added: "I already sent your watchdogs over to catch some sleep as well. Now no further discussion. Time is precious."

With that said, she took two bowls from a bag next to her, filled them with the stew Severus had smelled before and handed one to each of them, along with a spoon. She also refilled his cup with tea. They ate in companionable silence, which was fine by him, as he was still occupied with all he had learned so far.
The food was good, and eased away the last bits of his dizziness. On the other hand it made him feel quite sleepy. Looking over to where Lily sat, he saw she had already fallen asleep over her half-finished bowl.

Chuckling, Claire took it gently from her limp hands, laid her down and covered her with a blanket.

"She couldn't get a proper night's rest since she found you." she told him in a low voice. Before he could say something, she continued. "You better get finished, too. You are going to need the rest. It is a long ride to Hogwarts."

He nodded, too tired to question any further, emptied both his cup and his bowl, and handed them to the vampire before lying down as well. Though he was still quite uncomfortable about sleeping in Claire's presence, Lily trusted her, and what did he have to lose anyway?


Wondering what tomorrow would bring, he drifted off into sleep.



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A/N: Now I'm done with my hand-written chapters, so updating will probably take me longer. Staring at my computer's screen unfortunately seems to put a damper on my creativity. But I'll manage. *smile*

What will tomorrow bring for Severus? How will he get back to Hogwarts? Will he get there at all?



Greetings,

Scheckie