Ok - so I am currently re-editing everything here! Sorry about the lack of
Quality on grammar, and continuity to this point. Big love to all my
wonderful reviewers - thanks for your patience!
II
AS Snape left the headmasters office and went down the spiraling staircase,
he marveled at Dumbledore's uncanny ability to know when things were amiss
around the castle. He also wondered how long he had been waiting for
Severus to come and talk to him about this particular student.' I wonder
where I might find her,' he mused ' and I wonder what state she will be in
when I do.'
Out of sheer habit, Snape wound up back at the Slytherin common room, having been brooding over what to do next. The fire was out, and all seemed quiet. He went down to the girl's dormitory, listened for a moment, and then knocked on the door. Silence answered him. He turned the handle and opened the door to find that as was quiet, but, as expected, Cassie was not in her bed.
"Damn it" he swore under his breath. Not in the common room, out of bed, where in hell could the girl be? In any other circumstances this would mean a plethora of house points lost, but at the moment he was far more concerned about the girls well being and safety. What The Headmaster had mentioned about Minerva's concerns weighed heavily on Snape's mind. A variety of unpleasant images came to mind, and he steeled himself for a long night's search.
"Alohamora!" The door out of the common room swung out into the hall, and he began his search.
'As a prefect, Cassandra has access to more areas than a common student does. I don't think she would have gone down to the kitchens, as she would have to deal with the house elves down there.. Possibly in to the library, or would she be scared the Filtch the caretaker might find her there?' That would mean uncomfortable questions, and all the students avoided Filtch like the plague as it was. Snape was in the Great Hall by this time and looking out onto the grounds lit by moonlight and having seen no marauding teenage girls, he decided to go up to the fifth floor where the prefects bathrooms were. There was a possibility she had simply decided to take a bath, after all. He didn't want to think of how uncomfortable THAT situation might be to walk in on.
On the way up the stairs, he asked one of the suits of armor if anyone else had been by that night. The one he asked just laughed at him, a hollow, booming laugh, and had it been anything other than a suit of armor, Snape would have felt compelled to smash that laughing helmet in on itself. It didn't matter who or what you were, mocking Professor Severus Snape was a very dangerous business. Fortunately, one of the other suits spoke up with a thick Uncston accent. "Young girl. Crying lots. Thought it was Moaning Myrtle at first."
Enough said. Snape knew now that he was on the right track. Part of him was pleased, and at some level, a dread entered him that he would have to deal with a distraught young GIRL very soon. Dealing with women was not his strong suit on the best of days, let alone teenagers in hysterics. Putting his hand up to his head and muttering a charm to ease the deadly throbbing, he continued on, remembering last minute to leap over the trick stair that had caught so many unawares. He continued up the stairs and turned down the corridor, head bowed, and deep I thought over how to handle the situation. A part of him was gravely concerned as to why Cassie would be gone at this hour, and what exactly she might be doing. His skills at healing spells were poor, and he hoped they wouldn't be required tonight.
"Oi! Who's there? Who's out after hours - don't bother hiding, I've got you, you rotter! I can't wait to write you up - you've been down here every night for two weeks! Wait'll you see how many house points are taken off for this! You might even get expelled!" Filtch's voice cackled down the hallway.
"Lumos."
Snape's wand lit up, and answered in a silky tone "Really Argus, I am shaking with fear at your awe-inspiring ability to take so much pleasure in being a COMPLETE FOOL!" His voice rose to a snarl. "Are you trying indeed to wake up the entire castle? What's this nonsense all about?"
Filtch came rushing over, gasping as he did so "Professor Snape, did you catch the student. have you got 'im? Every bloody night for the last two weeks - can't get a peck of sleep around here no more without students taking over and rampaging around the castle!" He huffed.
"Hey" he looked Snape up and down suspiciously. "You wouldn't know what house this student is from, now would you, Professor Snape?"
Sneering down at the scrawny little man, Snape laughed. "If it's predictions, telepathy and psychic babble that you want, Filtch, you better go up and see Trelawney in the Astronomy tower. I was merely going to the library to see if they had a specific book that I wanted. Has that become criminal now, Filtch, that a Teacher might be in the corridors after hours?" Eyebrow raised, Snape gave Filtch one of his most searing looks.
"Right," Filtch grumbled, turning to walk away. "I am left here to run everything, trying to keep all these ruddy students in line.." His voice faded away as he turned to go back down the stairs.
Snape sighed, pulled a small bottle out the right pocket of is robes, unstopped the bottle and rubbed a small amount of the slave on his temple. A cooling potion had a good effect on migraines, knocked it down a bit. Re- stoppering the bottle, Snape continued on his search, grateful that Argus had unwittingly given him so much information on his missing students past behaviors.
At the end of the corridor, he turned down towards the Prefects bathrooms. It was after all, worth a try. He could hear the water running before he got to the bathroom. 'So,' he thought, someone IS out and about and using up a fair amount of the Castles hot water by the sounds of it.'
'What had Filtch meant,' he wondered ' by every night for the last two weeks. surely Cassie couldn't have been.' He cut the thought short. He was directly outside of the bathroom now. He couldn't hear any noise other than the water running.
He knocked on the door, not sure what to do. Barging in would be highly inappropriate, and yet.. Silence. Snape knocked yet again, more assertively this time, and yet still no noise but the sound of running water.
For the second time that night, 'Alohamora" was muttered and the door clicked before swinging open. Looking around, he could see that the bath was empty, the mermaid in her frame looking cross. "Will you tell her to get lost and go to sleep so I can too?" She complained. Snape sent her a look and muttered something about canned tuna, at which point she hid herself behind her rock.
"Miss Caliga?" he called out.
The shower was around the corner, the curtain drawn. 'That's funny,' he mused looking closely around the room 'there are no robes lying around. what can she is doing?' A cold chill set into his belly, and he knew he had to go and check the shower now. 'Gods, let her be all-right!' Dark visions of over-reacting over-dramatic past students clouding his mind, Severus walked over to the shower, calling out her name again. Still no sound, but sticking out from under the curtain was a soaking wet corner of a robe. Taking a deep breath, Snape swung open the curtain, quite unprepared for the sight that met him. \ *** Oh, it would have been SO VERY FUN to have stopped here, wouldn't it????****
She was standing with her back to him, fully robed under the streaming hot jets of the shower. Even so, her skin was a dead gray color, and she was crouched over, hands wrapped around her head rhythmically rocking back and forth.
"Make it stop, please go way, make it end." She was whimpering. "I'll do anything, please, please; I can't take this anymore."
Shaking slightly, Snape reached over and put his hand to her shoulder, turning off the shower as he did so. He called some towels off the shelves over to where they were; water still streaming down from the girls bowed head.
"Miss Caliga! Whatever is the meaning of this?" It came to him that perhaps the irate Head-Of-House/Gryffindors Hated Potions Teacher voice might not be the most appropriate course of action right now, as the child's violent shaking continued, possibly increased, but the girl made no other sign that she had heard him.
Sighing inwardly and cursing himself for being such a bloody Jackass, Severus decided to try again with a slight different tack. "Cassie! Cassie child, what is the matter, what's going wrong?" He could feel the child tense as he spoke, still rocking herself back and forth. He was beginning to wonder if she was not catatonic, or perhaps had a nervous breakdown.
She lifted her head for a moment, suddenly aware that someone else was there with her. Looking up at Snape, or looking through him, seemingly unaware of what was happening or who he was. "It won't stop, it never stops, and I can't go on, too much pain, unbearable." Her voice was a mere whimper.
"Please," she whispered agony written all over her face "end it."
For the first time, looking down into this child's face, Snape realized two things. One, there was a part of him that actually liked children, and it pained him greatly not to be able to help this girl with the cause of her anguish. His second pondering was that the girl had black eyes - the only person he had ever seen who had black eyes, other than his occasion brave sojourns to look at himself in a mirror. Interesting. The magical world WAS a small community, and he wondered if perhaps this child was a distant relative. Pushing the thought aside for a moment and grabbing a towel, he wrapped it around her and placed a warming charm over the girl.
"Come with me" he said in his softest possible voice. "We need to go where I can get something to help you. Staying here will do nothing." She looked through clouded eyes at him, seemingly confused but not resisting.
She allowed him to guide her out of the bathroom, and by halfway down the corridor she was so blinded by the pain that she was doubled over. Snape was supporting her completely, his strong sinewy arms wrapped around her waist. As his mind churned to find a solution to what was happening to the girl, (always liked a scientific challenge, hey Severus old boy? His inner voice jibed at him) his head gave a threatening "doom-doom". Like a flash of brilliant lightening amidst the roar of thunder, it came upon him. This fragile little thing in his arms suffered from migraines. The sudden surge of joy he felt from this epiphany was instantly shot down with criticism for not working it out sooner.
In that moment it all made sense. The nocturnal excursions; leaving her dorm so her classmates wouldn't hear her cries, the drop in her grades, being distracted even in potions, her best subject, and the episode by the fire. Changing his mind about handing the waif off to Pomfrey, Snape turned abruptly away from the hospital wing, and down towards the dungeons, where he kept his most potent pain killing and headache reducing elixirs.
"Come Cassie, we are almost there." He was going painfully slow, half stepping to match her inconsistent staggers, forced to stop every few steps as the pain overwhelmed her. They had made it to the corridor of his chambers when she clung to him very sharply and gasped, knees buckling.
Snape grabbed her just before she hit the floor, and scooped her up into his arms. Pausing only to pull down the wards, he swept into his private quarters, amazed at how light she felt. He laid her on the couch nearest the hearth, muttering 'incidio' while rushing over to his private stores. Swinging open the great cupboard and scanning the various elixirs, a dilemma faced him. 'Some of the potions I have aren't even legal - dare I risk using them on a child? It would take extreme magic to cure a pain that caused unconsciousness, however. Better start with the tame ones.' Once the decision was made, Snape flew into fevered action, moving his hand back to a small green vial, reaching for a few more, and taking the vial he had used on himself earlier out of his pocket. Heading back towards the now warmer sitting area, Snape placed the tip of his wand to the girl's forehead.
"Reducto injurius!"
Confident that the spell would ease the majority of the issue, he then drew the jaw down allowing three drops of the headache elixir to fall to the tongue. Taking a moment to watch the girls face, he got the uncomfortable feeling he was looking at himself at 15. The younger version of himself was found in about the same state the night that Dumbledore had first taken him to the infirmary. Uncanny really how life repeats itself. However, there was no time for reminiscing (as painful as it was) now. Reaching down to rub the etched brow with a cooling salve, he then waited for the cures to work their combined magic. Within a matter of seconds, her face relaxed dramatically, softening the sharp angles of her jaw and letting the deep clefts on her forehead ease away. Snape allowed a sigh of relief to leave his lips. This was going to be an easy fix, for once. About bloody time SOMETHING was uncomplicated.
Cassandra had always been an eye catching young lady, in a very austere and regal way. More beauty than pretty, really. Very thin, too. Perhaps too thin. Perhaps he worried too much, or was projecting himself on his poor charges once again. Perhaps he should allow them to go ahead and live their lives. Thinking of that, it really was time for Miss Caliga to return to her dormitory. Lifting up his wand, he touched her head and said "Enervate". Automatically, her hands went up to cover her head, and her robes fell back, revealing arms that were simply skin stretched over bones.
Snape could not hide the quick intact of air as he saw this. Perhaps he didn't worry ENOUGH about his charges. Simply unacceptable, this. The child was not much more than a mere skeleton. How could he MISS such a thing, in one of his PREFECTS none the less? He had always known that Albus' blind faith would cause problems.
Confounded Snape went to his wardrobe to get one of his extra robes, wrapping the child protectively in it and flicking his wand to increase the heat of the fire. She moaned in her sleep, turning blindly over towards him. "Mama?" she asked, reaching out.
Something in him twinged, and a piece of the protective layer of ice covering his heart chipped off. A flood of empathy poured out towards the girl for what she had been through and was still going through. It occurred to Professor Snape that it might be a woman's touch which would do the most good at this moment. Without further delay he spoke.
"Miss Caliga, er, Cassie, it's Professor Snape. You've not been well, I gave you something for your migraine, but we need to go up to the infirmary and see Madame Pomfrey." Snape lifted her in his arms, as she was so light that it would be faster to carry Cassie than to transport her by magic; she was in no shape to go by Floo. The light bundle in his arms began to struggle against his hold. "No, I don't want to go there." She cried out, but her resistance was weak. She suddenly went quiet, clutching her head, and the tremors began anew.
His mind raced at the latest turn in events. ''The Potions couldn't have worn off that quickly. 'I gave her an adult dose and she is a mere wraith.' Nevertheless, glancing at the child she had indeed returned to her previous state of pallor, now accompanied by and insistent grinding of teeth.
"Damn it!" He swore under his breath to himself, not for the first time that night. "It will be alright, just hold on" he whispered. Placing her back on the couch, Snape returned to the cupboard, pushed all other bottles aside to reach the tiny black bottle in furthest corner.
"Merlin be with me, it's the best I've got. Don't let it kill her." He unstopped it and poured 2 drops onto a spoon. His usual dose was 10 drops, and this should be plenty for a child. Highly addictive, border lining on Toxic, this specialized mixture was the only thing that permitted him to continue functioning, let alone working, when he was in a migranous phase.
Snape placed the spoon in her mouth commanding "enervate!" and then "swallow". Obediently, she did as he asked, and the effect was instantaneous. The shaking stopped, all her muscles gave and she fell asleep. Scooping her up, Snape swept from his chambers at a run. Uncertain of how the potion would affect her, it was imperative he got her to the infirmary before she awoke again, as Pomfrey was needed to deal with the side effects.
Out of sheer habit, Snape wound up back at the Slytherin common room, having been brooding over what to do next. The fire was out, and all seemed quiet. He went down to the girl's dormitory, listened for a moment, and then knocked on the door. Silence answered him. He turned the handle and opened the door to find that as was quiet, but, as expected, Cassie was not in her bed.
"Damn it" he swore under his breath. Not in the common room, out of bed, where in hell could the girl be? In any other circumstances this would mean a plethora of house points lost, but at the moment he was far more concerned about the girls well being and safety. What The Headmaster had mentioned about Minerva's concerns weighed heavily on Snape's mind. A variety of unpleasant images came to mind, and he steeled himself for a long night's search.
"Alohamora!" The door out of the common room swung out into the hall, and he began his search.
'As a prefect, Cassandra has access to more areas than a common student does. I don't think she would have gone down to the kitchens, as she would have to deal with the house elves down there.. Possibly in to the library, or would she be scared the Filtch the caretaker might find her there?' That would mean uncomfortable questions, and all the students avoided Filtch like the plague as it was. Snape was in the Great Hall by this time and looking out onto the grounds lit by moonlight and having seen no marauding teenage girls, he decided to go up to the fifth floor where the prefects bathrooms were. There was a possibility she had simply decided to take a bath, after all. He didn't want to think of how uncomfortable THAT situation might be to walk in on.
On the way up the stairs, he asked one of the suits of armor if anyone else had been by that night. The one he asked just laughed at him, a hollow, booming laugh, and had it been anything other than a suit of armor, Snape would have felt compelled to smash that laughing helmet in on itself. It didn't matter who or what you were, mocking Professor Severus Snape was a very dangerous business. Fortunately, one of the other suits spoke up with a thick Uncston accent. "Young girl. Crying lots. Thought it was Moaning Myrtle at first."
Enough said. Snape knew now that he was on the right track. Part of him was pleased, and at some level, a dread entered him that he would have to deal with a distraught young GIRL very soon. Dealing with women was not his strong suit on the best of days, let alone teenagers in hysterics. Putting his hand up to his head and muttering a charm to ease the deadly throbbing, he continued on, remembering last minute to leap over the trick stair that had caught so many unawares. He continued up the stairs and turned down the corridor, head bowed, and deep I thought over how to handle the situation. A part of him was gravely concerned as to why Cassie would be gone at this hour, and what exactly she might be doing. His skills at healing spells were poor, and he hoped they wouldn't be required tonight.
"Oi! Who's there? Who's out after hours - don't bother hiding, I've got you, you rotter! I can't wait to write you up - you've been down here every night for two weeks! Wait'll you see how many house points are taken off for this! You might even get expelled!" Filtch's voice cackled down the hallway.
"Lumos."
Snape's wand lit up, and answered in a silky tone "Really Argus, I am shaking with fear at your awe-inspiring ability to take so much pleasure in being a COMPLETE FOOL!" His voice rose to a snarl. "Are you trying indeed to wake up the entire castle? What's this nonsense all about?"
Filtch came rushing over, gasping as he did so "Professor Snape, did you catch the student. have you got 'im? Every bloody night for the last two weeks - can't get a peck of sleep around here no more without students taking over and rampaging around the castle!" He huffed.
"Hey" he looked Snape up and down suspiciously. "You wouldn't know what house this student is from, now would you, Professor Snape?"
Sneering down at the scrawny little man, Snape laughed. "If it's predictions, telepathy and psychic babble that you want, Filtch, you better go up and see Trelawney in the Astronomy tower. I was merely going to the library to see if they had a specific book that I wanted. Has that become criminal now, Filtch, that a Teacher might be in the corridors after hours?" Eyebrow raised, Snape gave Filtch one of his most searing looks.
"Right," Filtch grumbled, turning to walk away. "I am left here to run everything, trying to keep all these ruddy students in line.." His voice faded away as he turned to go back down the stairs.
Snape sighed, pulled a small bottle out the right pocket of is robes, unstopped the bottle and rubbed a small amount of the slave on his temple. A cooling potion had a good effect on migraines, knocked it down a bit. Re- stoppering the bottle, Snape continued on his search, grateful that Argus had unwittingly given him so much information on his missing students past behaviors.
At the end of the corridor, he turned down towards the Prefects bathrooms. It was after all, worth a try. He could hear the water running before he got to the bathroom. 'So,' he thought, someone IS out and about and using up a fair amount of the Castles hot water by the sounds of it.'
'What had Filtch meant,' he wondered ' by every night for the last two weeks. surely Cassie couldn't have been.' He cut the thought short. He was directly outside of the bathroom now. He couldn't hear any noise other than the water running.
He knocked on the door, not sure what to do. Barging in would be highly inappropriate, and yet.. Silence. Snape knocked yet again, more assertively this time, and yet still no noise but the sound of running water.
For the second time that night, 'Alohamora" was muttered and the door clicked before swinging open. Looking around, he could see that the bath was empty, the mermaid in her frame looking cross. "Will you tell her to get lost and go to sleep so I can too?" She complained. Snape sent her a look and muttered something about canned tuna, at which point she hid herself behind her rock.
"Miss Caliga?" he called out.
The shower was around the corner, the curtain drawn. 'That's funny,' he mused looking closely around the room 'there are no robes lying around. what can she is doing?' A cold chill set into his belly, and he knew he had to go and check the shower now. 'Gods, let her be all-right!' Dark visions of over-reacting over-dramatic past students clouding his mind, Severus walked over to the shower, calling out her name again. Still no sound, but sticking out from under the curtain was a soaking wet corner of a robe. Taking a deep breath, Snape swung open the curtain, quite unprepared for the sight that met him. \ *** Oh, it would have been SO VERY FUN to have stopped here, wouldn't it????****
She was standing with her back to him, fully robed under the streaming hot jets of the shower. Even so, her skin was a dead gray color, and she was crouched over, hands wrapped around her head rhythmically rocking back and forth.
"Make it stop, please go way, make it end." She was whimpering. "I'll do anything, please, please; I can't take this anymore."
Shaking slightly, Snape reached over and put his hand to her shoulder, turning off the shower as he did so. He called some towels off the shelves over to where they were; water still streaming down from the girls bowed head.
"Miss Caliga! Whatever is the meaning of this?" It came to him that perhaps the irate Head-Of-House/Gryffindors Hated Potions Teacher voice might not be the most appropriate course of action right now, as the child's violent shaking continued, possibly increased, but the girl made no other sign that she had heard him.
Sighing inwardly and cursing himself for being such a bloody Jackass, Severus decided to try again with a slight different tack. "Cassie! Cassie child, what is the matter, what's going wrong?" He could feel the child tense as he spoke, still rocking herself back and forth. He was beginning to wonder if she was not catatonic, or perhaps had a nervous breakdown.
She lifted her head for a moment, suddenly aware that someone else was there with her. Looking up at Snape, or looking through him, seemingly unaware of what was happening or who he was. "It won't stop, it never stops, and I can't go on, too much pain, unbearable." Her voice was a mere whimper.
"Please," she whispered agony written all over her face "end it."
For the first time, looking down into this child's face, Snape realized two things. One, there was a part of him that actually liked children, and it pained him greatly not to be able to help this girl with the cause of her anguish. His second pondering was that the girl had black eyes - the only person he had ever seen who had black eyes, other than his occasion brave sojourns to look at himself in a mirror. Interesting. The magical world WAS a small community, and he wondered if perhaps this child was a distant relative. Pushing the thought aside for a moment and grabbing a towel, he wrapped it around her and placed a warming charm over the girl.
"Come with me" he said in his softest possible voice. "We need to go where I can get something to help you. Staying here will do nothing." She looked through clouded eyes at him, seemingly confused but not resisting.
She allowed him to guide her out of the bathroom, and by halfway down the corridor she was so blinded by the pain that she was doubled over. Snape was supporting her completely, his strong sinewy arms wrapped around her waist. As his mind churned to find a solution to what was happening to the girl, (always liked a scientific challenge, hey Severus old boy? His inner voice jibed at him) his head gave a threatening "doom-doom". Like a flash of brilliant lightening amidst the roar of thunder, it came upon him. This fragile little thing in his arms suffered from migraines. The sudden surge of joy he felt from this epiphany was instantly shot down with criticism for not working it out sooner.
In that moment it all made sense. The nocturnal excursions; leaving her dorm so her classmates wouldn't hear her cries, the drop in her grades, being distracted even in potions, her best subject, and the episode by the fire. Changing his mind about handing the waif off to Pomfrey, Snape turned abruptly away from the hospital wing, and down towards the dungeons, where he kept his most potent pain killing and headache reducing elixirs.
"Come Cassie, we are almost there." He was going painfully slow, half stepping to match her inconsistent staggers, forced to stop every few steps as the pain overwhelmed her. They had made it to the corridor of his chambers when she clung to him very sharply and gasped, knees buckling.
Snape grabbed her just before she hit the floor, and scooped her up into his arms. Pausing only to pull down the wards, he swept into his private quarters, amazed at how light she felt. He laid her on the couch nearest the hearth, muttering 'incidio' while rushing over to his private stores. Swinging open the great cupboard and scanning the various elixirs, a dilemma faced him. 'Some of the potions I have aren't even legal - dare I risk using them on a child? It would take extreme magic to cure a pain that caused unconsciousness, however. Better start with the tame ones.' Once the decision was made, Snape flew into fevered action, moving his hand back to a small green vial, reaching for a few more, and taking the vial he had used on himself earlier out of his pocket. Heading back towards the now warmer sitting area, Snape placed the tip of his wand to the girl's forehead.
"Reducto injurius!"
Confident that the spell would ease the majority of the issue, he then drew the jaw down allowing three drops of the headache elixir to fall to the tongue. Taking a moment to watch the girls face, he got the uncomfortable feeling he was looking at himself at 15. The younger version of himself was found in about the same state the night that Dumbledore had first taken him to the infirmary. Uncanny really how life repeats itself. However, there was no time for reminiscing (as painful as it was) now. Reaching down to rub the etched brow with a cooling salve, he then waited for the cures to work their combined magic. Within a matter of seconds, her face relaxed dramatically, softening the sharp angles of her jaw and letting the deep clefts on her forehead ease away. Snape allowed a sigh of relief to leave his lips. This was going to be an easy fix, for once. About bloody time SOMETHING was uncomplicated.
Cassandra had always been an eye catching young lady, in a very austere and regal way. More beauty than pretty, really. Very thin, too. Perhaps too thin. Perhaps he worried too much, or was projecting himself on his poor charges once again. Perhaps he should allow them to go ahead and live their lives. Thinking of that, it really was time for Miss Caliga to return to her dormitory. Lifting up his wand, he touched her head and said "Enervate". Automatically, her hands went up to cover her head, and her robes fell back, revealing arms that were simply skin stretched over bones.
Snape could not hide the quick intact of air as he saw this. Perhaps he didn't worry ENOUGH about his charges. Simply unacceptable, this. The child was not much more than a mere skeleton. How could he MISS such a thing, in one of his PREFECTS none the less? He had always known that Albus' blind faith would cause problems.
Confounded Snape went to his wardrobe to get one of his extra robes, wrapping the child protectively in it and flicking his wand to increase the heat of the fire. She moaned in her sleep, turning blindly over towards him. "Mama?" she asked, reaching out.
Something in him twinged, and a piece of the protective layer of ice covering his heart chipped off. A flood of empathy poured out towards the girl for what she had been through and was still going through. It occurred to Professor Snape that it might be a woman's touch which would do the most good at this moment. Without further delay he spoke.
"Miss Caliga, er, Cassie, it's Professor Snape. You've not been well, I gave you something for your migraine, but we need to go up to the infirmary and see Madame Pomfrey." Snape lifted her in his arms, as she was so light that it would be faster to carry Cassie than to transport her by magic; she was in no shape to go by Floo. The light bundle in his arms began to struggle against his hold. "No, I don't want to go there." She cried out, but her resistance was weak. She suddenly went quiet, clutching her head, and the tremors began anew.
His mind raced at the latest turn in events. ''The Potions couldn't have worn off that quickly. 'I gave her an adult dose and she is a mere wraith.' Nevertheless, glancing at the child she had indeed returned to her previous state of pallor, now accompanied by and insistent grinding of teeth.
"Damn it!" He swore under his breath to himself, not for the first time that night. "It will be alright, just hold on" he whispered. Placing her back on the couch, Snape returned to the cupboard, pushed all other bottles aside to reach the tiny black bottle in furthest corner.
"Merlin be with me, it's the best I've got. Don't let it kill her." He unstopped it and poured 2 drops onto a spoon. His usual dose was 10 drops, and this should be plenty for a child. Highly addictive, border lining on Toxic, this specialized mixture was the only thing that permitted him to continue functioning, let alone working, when he was in a migranous phase.
Snape placed the spoon in her mouth commanding "enervate!" and then "swallow". Obediently, she did as he asked, and the effect was instantaneous. The shaking stopped, all her muscles gave and she fell asleep. Scooping her up, Snape swept from his chambers at a run. Uncertain of how the potion would affect her, it was imperative he got her to the infirmary before she awoke again, as Pomfrey was needed to deal with the side effects.