Author's notes – Elements from Severus's story were inspired by Dennis McKiernan.

Also, I would like to thank Diana, my beta extraordinaire, for her help and suggestions.

In The Shadows Of The Mind –

Chapter 16 – A History Lesson

Sophie awoke the next morning and practically hopped out of bed.  Fresh from dreams of silver snakes and hot springs she jumped in the shower to cool off.  Sometimes one doesn't need to take courses in the deciphering of dreams to understand the meaning behind them; sometimes they smack you in the face with the force of a freight train.

She sat in her study, unsure of what to do with herself.   She tried reading a psychiatric journal, but found she lost any ability to concentrate.  She toyed with the idea of getting a ridiculously early start on Neville's birthday gift, but opted against it.  For some inexplicable reason, her hands were slightly shaking.  Most would probably not even notice, but it was enough to make an ordinary sewing machine, an implement of torture. 

Her fingers involuntarily played an invisible piano.  It was a nervous habit of hers from many years ago.  Her subconscious was playing, Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, 'Moonlight': Presto Agitato.  David Preston Steele, her music teacher, used to love to hear her play that.  She had a crush on him as well.

A soft knock roused her after nearly two hours of fidgeting.  Severus Snape stood on her doorstep.

Immediately she noticed a change in his behavior.  There was a fluidity in movements, almost as if he were dancing, yet eager and, somehow, childlike.  He seemed really pleased with himself and was outwardly trying to stifle a smile as if he alone knew a very special secret.  Sophie found her curiosity peeked by this sudden change in Snape's demeanor. 

"Good day, Professor," she greeted politely.

"Good day, Doctor," he gave a small bow. "Are you ready for a trip?"

"A trip?……Dear Professor, you have me quite intrigued."

He could no longer contain his smile.  "Sometimes my ingenuity impresses me as well."

"Indeed….So what is on the agenda?"

"Hop on," he instructed huskily.

"Pardon?"  What exactly was she supposed to be 'hopping on?'

She looked over his shoulder, as he indicated, to find a highly polished, brand new broom.

"You bought me a broom?"  she said, utterly baffled.

He mounted the broom and motioned for her to do the same.

"You're serious, aren't you?"

He did not say a word.  She went around behind him and sat on the broom placing her arms around Severus's waist.  Before she knew what was happening, they were in the air. Higher and higher they flew over the treetops, around the castle, skimmed the surface of the lake and towards the mountainside.

The feel of the air rushing by her face was exhilarating.  Her hair came out of the clasp and was flowing behind her.  She felt as free as a wild horse running across a vast open field. There were no longer boundaries, no longer constraints. 

She found herself embracing Severus.  What had begun as a simple maneuver to keep herself from falling off the broom, had now turned into a full blown affectionate hug.

Sophie watched the landscape beneath them pass in a blur of colors and shapes. She took in every sight she could, mesmerized by her surroundings.  The sensations were exactly as she had remembered as a child on those stolen nights with Anna, like nothing else mattered in the world because they were above it all.  No matter what happened below they were free and could escape on command.  Uninhibited, uncontrolled, suddenly there was no problem she could not solve, no person she could not help.  The emotions swept over her as she held Severus closer to her.  She giggled in his ear as she exclaimed, "This is magnificent!"

"This is only the beginning," he returned.  When she pressed him for more information, he refused to elaborate.  Nearly an hour later, they arrived at their destination, landing on a small plateau on the side of a mountain. It was one peak in a dark range Sophie was sure she had never seen before. They stood on a crevice that looked impossible to reach by any other method than broomstick.  "Where are we?" she asked curiously.

"This is the Cave of Polyhymnia.  It is the only known location of a very special stone.  Follow me."

Sophie knew this was the most she was going to get out of him, so she followed quietly.  They entered a dark cavern carved into the mountain.  They walked through the winding labyrinth, in silence for several minutes until Sophie spotted a bright light ahead of them.  They crossed the threshold and found themselves in the bottom of a great grotto.  Looking up, it seemed to extend the length of the mountain, endlessly upward.  The walls twinkled as if dotted with a million stars all of varying colors.

He relished the look on her face, the sheer joy and awe as she asked, "What is this place?"

"If you follow folklore, this is called the Cavern of Creation."  He waited for some sign of recognition but none followed.  "Legend has it that during the time of The Parting, when the world became divided between those who could do magic and those who could not, this cavern formed.  The greatest wizards of the day banded together at a field, and from their joined abilities, this mountain range rose from the earth.  This cavern grew in the middle. It is the birthplace of all magic in the world."

"The Parting?  Were we all magical at one time?"

"That is how the story goes. At one time the world was full of magic.  It was pure and powerful.  Nothing like it exists today. Then, it changed.  No one really knows how it started, but through time a portion of the population could no longer see the pixies in the forest or the gnomes in their back yards.  They became oblivious to the magic that surrounded them.  Afraid of extinction, these wizards created this place so that from these tiny pebbles, magic could grow and flourish even after they died away."

He spoke as if simply telling a story but Sophie was spellbound.  "Is that true?  Do they work?"

He smiled at her ebullience.  "I am afraid it is just a fable.  But these stones are the rarest gems in the world.  They only exist here and the ones you see are all that survive.  Moreover, we are the only two people in the world that know it is not just the subject of fairy tales but a tangible place."

"How do you know about it?" she inquired.

"I…inherited the information."

The elementariness of his tone astounded her.  "Are you telling me you are descended from one of the wizards who created this place?"

"If you believe that this place was actually created and not discovered, then yes."

"And no one else knows about it?" Intriguing.

"No."

She looked at him for a long minute before asking, "Why tell me?"

He watched her silently for a few minutes trying to carefully construct the next few sentences that he would utter.

"I have come to believe that I made some incorrect assumptions about you and your abilities," he said with only the smallest trace of acrimony and an even smaller trace of concession. "Though I find your practice nothing more than an exercise in futility and the dredging up of incidents past a grave misuse of energy, I can no longer say you are completely useless." 

"Apology accepted," she smirked.

He smirked back.   "Pick a color."

"Pardon?" she found herself saying for the second time today.

"Pick a color."

"Blue."  She paused for a moment. "Robin's egg blue."

"Excellent choice."  Without another word he took to his broom and flew further into the cavern.  After nearly twenty minutes, he returned.

"Let me see it," she said with the patience of a child on her birthday.

"No."

"No?"

"The stone needs to be prepared before you can even handle it," he explained. "Only a wizard can pass it on to a Muggle.  The premise being the magical ability will only go to those we deem worthy.  Otherwise any Muggle with the inclination can try to gain power."

"I thought it was all a fable?"

"Most of it is.  I think the story was made around the basis that only those who possessed magic could touch the stones.  It will burn through your hands otherwise."

She stared at him, his eyes shined and he was smiling.  He was the same as he ever was, but different as he could be.  She could not place what it was that had changed, but she liked it.  Frankly, she liked him before.  She had a hard time admitting to herself that she has a soft spot for this man; a man she could never hope to comprehend.  But one thing she did understand, whether he wanted to admit it or not, and she knew he would not: he had feelings for her as well.  This very private man was sharing a part of his life with her that he hadn't with anyone else for decades.  The connotation was strangely exciting.

He was staring back at her. 'Dear Merlin, she's analyzing me.  I should have known better.'  He did this for her as a gift.  He hoped she would not read more into it than that.  One of the more vocal parts of his brain was not buying that, however.  No, that part of his brain reminded him what it felt like to have her arms around him as they flew.  That part of his brain reminded him that he was sharing his history and sacred secrets to this person he was claiming to simply be thanking for a gift. That part of his brain also reminded him that he was not done.

"It is time for the last part of your gift."

"There's more? I can hardly stand it."

He led her quietly up the path they came, back to the entrance of the cavern on the hillside in time to watch the sun starting to set.  Against the backdrop of dusk the dark mountains became alive with color -- red and blue and gold.  It truly became an enchanted place.  Sophie took a deep breath and turned to Severus who again had mounted his broom.  "Hop on.  You're driving."

"What?" she said with a gasp

"You will be leading us back."

"Can I do that?"  The idea of her flying had her head spinning.

"I make it work; you can tell it where to go."

In all the years she had flown with Anna she never once led.  She never presumed to be able to.  Now she found herself grasping the front of the broom as it levitated into the air.  She was suddenly very nervous.

"Could you put your arms around me?  I feel like I'm going to fall off any second," she said with trepidation.

He hesitated.  There was a very specific reason he did not want to sit so close to her.  After they hovered in the air for seemed like an eternity, he leaned closer,   putting his arms around her waist and his head on her shoulder.

"Thank you." she said.  Her voice trembled, whether from the anticipation of flight or the feeling of his embrace, even she could not tell.

He nodded and swallowed hard.  He needed to keep his concentration on the task at hand.  They began to glide through the air.  The ride was jumpy at first.  She kept starting and stopping, unsure of how to make this thing go where she wanted.  But, before long she was soaring, gathering speed and confidence.

He found himself smelling her hair as it whipped against his face.  Vanilla…and almonds.  She smelled of vanilla and almonds.  He closed his eyes for a moment. It felt so good to hold her.  He wanted to stay there forever.  He felt her breathing in his chest and heard her delighted laughter as they made the journey home.  When he finally spotted the castle over the horizon, his heart dropped.  Why did the trip home always go so much faster that the trip out?

He landed the broom in front of her home, fearing that she would crash if he let her do it.  She jumped off the broom and swung her arms around him, crushing him in an almost vice-like grip.

"That was the most amazing thing I have ever done….I don't know how I could ever thank you." she exclaimed, the excitement vibrating through her hug.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it.  I wanted to give you something as special as what you had given me."

She pulled back.  "My gift was a token of a budding friendship.  This was so much more….In fact,"  she paused to demonstrate deep contemplation, "considering how strongly you feel about giving in turn, it would seem to me that I owe you something more."

"I assure you that is not necessary."

"Oh, but I insist."

"And what did you have in mind?"

"Therapy."

He stiffened at her words, fighting the anger that swelled immediately in his chest.  After all this she still sought to analyze him. "You still think I need therapy."

"Oh, I think you need the most critical kind of therapy." 

He could no longer contain his indignation. He tried.  He tried to be pleasant.  He tried to befriend her and all she wanted was to pick his brain further.  "And what would that be?  The kind that has me hooked up to electrodes, or the kind that has me deciphering ink spills?" he said archly.

Her facial expression did not change.  "No. The kind that has you coming into my home and making love to me all night long."

He stared at her.  'What did she just say?'  He was befuddled, positively befuddled.  She did not say anything further.  She just opened her front door and smiled at him.

"Right," was all he managed to say as he walked inside.  She quietly closed the door behind him.

Author's notes -

Chapter 17 of "In the Shadows Of The Mind" entitled Need is between an R and an NC-17.

Personally, I consider it more a hard R than anything else, but it is a sex scene, and it is somewhat detailed. In complying with Fanfiction.Net's policies, I have not posted that chapter here. You can go straight to Chapter 18 without losing too much of the story. If you want to read that chapter, you will find it on Checkmated.com (Requires a password) and the Hogwart's_Boudoir Yahoo Group, in the Snape "R" section. I posted it in the "R" section because it is more romance than sex, and the NC-17 portions really make up so little of the story. Each site has different criteria for how things are rated and I tried to abide by those criteria.

I hope you will continue to read and review this story wherever you find it.

Thank you for your consideration,

The Treacle Tart.