Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS! Everything belongs to JK Rowling who is releasing her new book on the 28th of JUNE!!! YESSSSSS!!!!! Woohoo!

Author's Note: I have updated finally.... this is really weird ask me not what I'm doing... I kinda don't know till I do it anymore. Anyway please read and review... I feel sad when I don't get any reviews... reviews inspire me to write more. Thank you to those who have reviewed.... Dunno what you'll think of this. Oh yeah... there are words to a song near the beginning of this... I don't own that either just thought I'd say. PLEASE REVIEW!

Nothing's Changed...

Terminal Velocity

Severus wasn't sure what was wrong with her - but she was giving up the most amazing thing he had ever seen and she didn't even want to see what she had created. This couldn't be a natural reaction to her child it had to have been forced. Where would she have run to?

::~::~::~::

Raine in a bemused state found her way back to the Prefects bathroom - the hall ways seemed to have been scorched on the way and the school was still pretty quiet after what happened. The students were only just being released from the Great Hall after the Death Eaters tried to demolish the place, but it all seemed abnormally - normal. Sure - the students were buzzing about what happened but nothing out of the ordinary to them appeared to have taken place. Raine had yet to cross anyone on her way to the Bathroom - and she didn't even know how she ended up in there. Normally you needed a password and - she didn't have it.

Mother looking at me,

Tell me what do you see?

Yes, I've lost my mind.

She blinked, and took a step back from the sinks. Why was she here? There was a second click at the door after she locked it. It was like getting deja vu.

All the things you said,

All the things you said,

Running through my head,

Running through my head,

Running through my head.

All the things you said,

All the things you said,

Running through my head,

Running through my head.

This is not enough.

She looked at herself in the mirrors, nothing was staring back, nothing but a tired aging woman whose face was too withered to remember all the things she had ever believed to be true without question. All the things that her dead tutor had told her... everything that she had taught her own students. She had once believed that it was possible to protect people from the Dark side... now she was beginning to become a sceptic like Quentus... maybe joining them was the only way to keep yourself safe... she couldn't make herself believe it... she was trying so hard to remember why she did what she did for a living. Looking at her reflection now she was loosing her bloom... her youthful looks falling with her loss of faith in what was good and right... maybe that's why Voldemort was an ugly old bastard?

She wanted to return to her normal way of thinking... she wanted to keep her mind watchful, but she wanted her family back... her life not something she had borrowed to be hidden and deceptive... she wanted her mother. There was just one problem... her mother was dead.

Mirror looking at me,

Will I ever be free,

Have I crossed the line?

"Professor Stark?!"

"I can ask you to do me a favour can't I?" Raine said turning on her heels to face Hermione - she looked almost deranged - Hermione jumped and took and uneasy step back.

"A-are you okay Professor? I thought you had left!" Hermione said her voice shaking, Hermione knew that Raine hadn't actually left but she wasn't going to let on.

"Can you do something for me or not?!" Raine snapped, Raine appeared not to care anymore.

"I... guess - depends what it is."

"I need you to kill me and then send an owl with this message to the ministry of Magic." Raine thrust a letter in Hermione's direction.

"Kill you?!" Hermione blanched and took a further step back - next minute Raine's wand was at her throat.

"Do you have a problem with that Granger?" Raine's eye's seemed to be shaking in their sockets. "You see - I have done something terrible - but it isn't as bad as what I am due to do in the future. The only way to stop it would be to kill me now! You can save the world fear and pain if you are to kill me now! I know I'm going to do something terrible and I know that no matter what happens... no matter what I do it will be my doing without my thought... and it will have been me that directed it even though will all my heart I will be trying to stop it. Kill me and nothing will happen."

"But Professor... you can't be serious. This is illegal - and immoral - and I will not do it." Hermione looked at Raine with pleading eyes.

"You will!" Raine snarled drawing her wand back - Hermione let out a gut wrenching scream as Raine roared, "Imperio!"

Hermione was over taken by the impervious curse, her mind went blank and all she could hear was a quiet voice in the back of her head... draw your wand... without thinking - the bliss of nothing to worry about getting to her, drew her wand.

Aim it... something strange happened, she didn't want to.

Aim it at Professor Stark... she wasn't doing what it was telling her, she had her wand out ready to use it. But she couldn't aim it.

Kill her... you know you want to. There was a dark voice in her head. It was horrible - like having something foreign roaming her brain trying to pull at string and find out what was making her resist to break it. She's a murderer you know... killed several innocent men to join the Death Eaters. She's one of them... she'd kill you all. Hermione's eyes began to water - she wasn't thinking but was any of this true? Don't trust her... Kill her now and it can all end here, you can save everyone. Hermione dropped her wand and followed it to the floor as someone behind her threw her out of the way and knocked Stark to the floor.

Hermione woke up suddenly, knocked back to the sink was Professor Stark, blood running down her head where she had been thrust against the basin and knocked out cold.

"Are you okay Miss Granger?" Snape offered her a hand up and she took it looking stunned down at Stark.

"I... what happened?" Hermione blurted out.

"Professor Stark is having a slight crisis, she had you under the impervious curse. What did she try and have you do?" Snape was being civil for once, Hermione couldn't believe it.

"I think... she tried to have me kill her," Hermione looked at Raine again - then to Snape. "Why would she risk a sentence in Azkaban?"

"Because she wasn't planning on being alive to serve it," Severus said wiping the blood from Raine's face and waking her up.

"Will she have to now?" Hermione said looking slightly afraid of the teacher who was just coming round.

"I believe so," Snape said sadly, "that was an unforgivable curse, she was trying to get you to use one on her. The most cowardly form of suicide." Raine blinked and looked unfocused on Snape.

"Am I in hell?" She groaned... "Oh Severus your here too... hell isn't the fiery pit I imagined it to be... am I there yet?"

"Not yet," Severus said calmly.

"But - she didn't succeed, surely, that would mean... if I were to not say anything," Hermione started.

"Then she might do it again," Severus snapped. "Besides you can't hide an Unforgivable Curse from the Ministry, they'll swarm the place soon... Hogwarts is a masterful place, and Unforgivable curses do not go unnoticed by it."

"But... I don't think I could stand having her arrest on my conscience - if, as you say she is under emotional stress."

"The very worst kind... But it's no excuse!"

"But I want nothing done, I managed to fight it off didn't I?"

"Not completely, and next time you may not be so lucky."

"Why does she want to die?" Hermione asked.

"Because she has to give up something she would dearly love to love," Severus said scooping Raine up and walking her back to her office. Hermione watched them leave a tear in her eye, even if she wasn't supposed to know it was sad to think that Stark, would have to let go of her child.

::~::~::~::

Severus now had what he wanted... but she had just done something illegal. There was a conflict in his mind... did he let he get away with it? If she'd done it once she could well do it again but she was under stress - he'd tell Dumbledore and ask his opinion. He would know what to do about it.

On his way back through the corridors to her office he noticed the students looking at him panic stricken as he carried Raine's limp figure through the passages as if she weighed no more than a leaf. Her hair hung in twisted loops flowing from her head as it bobbed up and down as he walked. He couldn't help thinking this was a little unusual and didn't quite know what to do. It wasn't like he had much time left either. He couldn't hide her from the Ministry, he had no idea what to do, it wasn't as if Fudge would listen to him.

There was a groan from Raine who seemed to have awoken a second time, her head was lifting and she looked at him, eyes blinking rapidly.

"Where are you taking me?" She said.

"To Dumbledore, perhaps he knows what we should do with you, the Ministry will be here any minute to drag you off to Azkaban," Snape didn't have time to stop her, Raine had already managed to grapple him to the floor and sped down the corridor kicking her shoes off and stalking to the end of the corridor as if she knew something were about to come around the corner.

"Raine you won't be able to get away with it, so why try, the best you can do is convince Dumbledore you were de-ranged."

"I'll not go back there again Severus, not again. I'd sooner die." She said looking back at him from down the corridor, her face had developed the most frightened look he had ever seen upon her. "Are you going to help me get away or let them take me?" A moment ago she wanted to die... now she was refusing to let them take her, Severus thought. Perhaps she wants to die on her own terms.

"I've learned not to stand in the way of the ministry, I'll only end up worse off for helping a criminal, I do enough of that as it is. Take my advice Raine, go to Dumbledore, he'll know what to do, I can't insist upon it more."

"Then I'm on my own... I understand." She looked around the corner. "It's too late now isn't it Severus... I'll never get out of the building alive if I run."

"Sorry Raine," Severus couldn't believe what he was doing, he was basically selling the woman he felt so much for to the law to save his own skin. Coward! His inner monolog spat.

"Then I'll just have to do my best to fend them off..."

"Fend them off?"

"You know, they'll have to take me kicking a screaming. I'm no going of my own accord."

"But Raine... please just go to Dumbledore..."

"I was going to kill one of the students... I deserve all I get."

"Raine please!" There appeared to be nothing to change her mind... and the sounds of many men running towards them made it hit home... he was losing her.

"Shut up Severus! You want to be found talking to a criminal? If I have any idea who's after me then I'm screwed... Ambrose is not the most pleasant of men given my history," she looked back at him again. "Get out of here Snape..." He stood at the other end of the corridor looking back at her, frozen to the spot. "Go!" She shouted, he didn't move. "Leave now or you'll be killed." She stood behind the door.

"I..." He gave up and started walking slowly in the other direction. She was going to let them take her... kill her. He swallowed hard, she wouldn't take his help... why should he offer it?

"I'm glad you finally understand... now please Severus! GO!" She turned her head to face him, her eyes were cold... she didn't have her normal face... if that could be a way of envisioning it. She seemed like someone else within herself.

"You don't want my help... so I guess I'll have to visit you in Azkaban..."

"I will have lost my mind by then... last thing we need is for you to lose yours... leave now!" Without a backwards glance Severus walked away from her. After all that he had been through he was going to walk away. After all his words, all his thoughts, lusts and struggling passions... perhaps she was right. She wasn't worth dying for, just was just one of them, a person meant to just disappear and she wouldn't care - that was clear - Why should he?

He got to the end of the corridor... the foot steps at the other end were getting louder, Raine appeared to have disappeared he stood crouching behind the door at the other end watching through the glass. The two large oak doors were blasted open and Raine swung down from a beam knocking the first one into the door and out cold. One thing they both appeared to notice at the same time though was that these were not ministry operatives... A tall thin cloaked black figure swept into the corridor followed by many hooded figures... the deeds of the night before were not over...

Severus couldn't look. He sat crouched behind the door, there was a squeaky scream and rushes of sound, spells rebounding around. Snape had never felt so afraid.

"What if you weren't alone?"

Severus couldn't think where the sound was coming from... a melodious sound... like an angel, a small girl like mist stood before him...

"Who are you?" He asked the angelic child.

"The question is not who am I... but who are you?" She asked and seemed as if she wanted him to search himself... she was a silvery mist... a beautiful cascade of mists, complete in places and fading in others. She had what looked like long black hair, and burning silver eyes.. she had no other features other than a mouth eyes and then the attributes to the body like that of a ten year old.

"I'm Severus Snape... what are you?"

"I am what you want to see. You have summoned me Master Snape, are you alone?"

"No longer... you're here." Seemed like a logical answer, she disappeared but the voice continued more echoic than before.

"Look at your shadow... ever felt that it didn't belong to you?"

"What?" Snape brow furrowed, he looked at his shadow... it had always been the same.

"Where is the light coming from to cast it?" Severus looked around. He was in a corridor completely vacant of any direction light to cast his shadow... it started not to make sense anymore. He could always see his shadow in the dark but because he could always see it he assumed it was normal until she mentioned it.

"I... don't know."

"You're not alone Severus, never think that you are," this voice was different, deep, powerful... this was like his fathers. The shadow moved all around him. "Abendigo!" A small shadow like cat appeared walking through the wall. "Follow the cat, boy... it's going to show you what to do."

He blindly obeyed the voice like he had done as a child.

The screams a shouts continued in the corridor and no one seemed to have done anything... Severus just followed the cat away... back down to his office and into a small chest that he had never had the guts to open since his father died.

You can see me filling out a parallel,

They're out there and your not worthy.

Last time I'll be your prisoner,

No name.

No number.

Shooting for the trap door,

While things don't matter any more.

(Baby's got a temper, The Prodigy)

::~::~::~::

Author's Note: Hope you liked it... please review... what'll happen next? Where is he going? Who was the weird girl... moo! Only I know who she is at the minute.. hehe! Email me! Wee!

I.C. Fire

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