There was a deathly silence in the Great Hall. All eyes were fixed on
Lierin, but she didn't seem to notice. Had she looked into Snape's eyes,
she would have probably been amazed by the look of concern in them. But,
she didn't. Slowly, Lierin rose from her seat, her wine red robes flowing
downward as she did so. She moved away from behind the staff table. Her
eyes fixed on the doorway. She tried to convince herself that as long as
she saw the doorway and not the students in the Great Hall, she wouldn't
break down and cry. She knew she had to try to get to the girls' bathroom
as fast as she could, because she was a hair's breath away from disgorging
herself. Her feet, however, allowed her very little speed in her flight.
But as the terrible sensation grew stronger, she forced herself to move
faster. When she was half way out of the Great Hall, she took off at a run.
After Lierin had rushed out of the Great Hall, the students started to
whisper and everybody wondered what was wrong with her.
Remus and Severus approached Dumbledore at the same time.
"I'll go after her," said both of the men in unison.
Dumbledore smiled sadly. "You do that, I'll inform Poppy."
Severus glared angrily at Remus, trying to warn him NOT to go after Lierin. But, Remus just glared back defiantly and both men set off at a run. Remus was at an advantage, of course, with his wolf-like senses, but in his panic, he ran to her private quarters. Severus, however, followed his impeccable instinct.
Lierin ran through the hallways as if a ghost were pursuing her. Tears were still flowing from her eyes, soiling her cheeks, but she kept running, fighting the ever growing need to regurgitate. Peeves was floating through the hallways as well and was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of a deranged-looking Professor Heartilly.
"Crazy Heartilly, Crazy Heartilly," he started to sing, his song only interrupted by an occasional cackling laughter as he zoomed away to tell the rest of Hogwarts the good news.
The girls toilet came into view and Lierin desperately tried to forbear the terrible urge. She was going to make it!
Snap!
Lierin tumbled forwards and, at first, she wondered what was wrong; why was she falling? But, a sudden flare of hot pain surging through her leg told her what was going on.
"No! Not now!" she cried out as she collapsed on the ground. The sudden shock that surged through her body as she made contact with the solid floor was too much. She lost the battle. As she knelt on the floor, both hands placed firmly on the ground, it was as if her body wanted to disgorge the very memory of all she had seen out of her. After a few moments, however, her mind overpowered her body as she realised that it was futile to rid her mind of the poison that way. Weakened from the effort, she crawled on her hands and knees to seek support near a wall. A sudden feeling of calmness and serenity waved over her. Her silence only broken by a singular sob now and again. But this feeling of serenity proved to be no more than the silence before the storm. She shook and trembled as, once again, she began to relive her visions. Whimsical cries of delirium escaped her lips and calmness was replaced by despair. Despair was followed swiftly by irrational anger, grief and more contradicting emotions. Her mind could not accept the fact that she would have to live with those terrible images forever burned into her memory.
If she couldn't get them out of her memory by expelling the poison, she would have to smash it out of her memory. She rose from the floor with renewed strength and hurled herself against the wall. At first, this proved ineffectual as her body resisted such punishment by slowing down her movement at the last possible moment to minimize the impact.
"Leave me be! Go away! Leave me be, leave me be, please just leave me be!" cried Lierin, not sure who or what she was yelling at. It did seem to work, however, because her mind gained in strength and soon proved to be stronger than her body. A stream of determination flooded through her veins and with great will and force she hurled herself against the wall repeatedly, shouting at the tormenting visions to leave her alone.
Severus Snape found her in this state of derangement and his eyes widened in disbelief when he saw her ramming herself against the wall over and over again.
"Poor girl! She's gone mad" Snape exclaimed. Lierin's face was a bloody mess and her body was showing signs of pain and fatigue. Before Lierin could steady herself for another self-inflicted blow, Severus, with his lightning fast reflections, was with her. "Stop this madness, right now!" he commanded.
Snape grabbed her by her arms and forced her to look at him. He was shocked to notice that she really had a deranged look in her eyes, eyes from which tears still trickled down on a bloodstained face.
"Dear Merlin!"
Snape collected her in his arms and, to his surprise, she didn't fight him. Somehting he expected after their last 'encounter'. Sure, he had kissed her, but that moment, which he thought to be a temporary weakness of both him and her, had occurred weeks ago and the more he thought of it, the more it seemed like a surreal fantasy. But he had to admit, it was a nice fantasy to think about and he did remember the exact sweet taste of her lips. Sometimes, when he thought back to that moment, he wasn't so sure whether it had been a passing moment of weakness or not. Because, if you liked to think back to a certain action, you couldn't have done that action in "a temporary state of weakness," could you? Wondering about these things, Severus kept stroking Lierin's head and her back and to his wonder, she relaxed in his arms and allowed herself to lean against his masculine chest. One second she was there and in the next she was gone. She collapsed in his arms and Severus caught her just in time. He set off on a run towards the Hospital Wing and on his way there, he got caught up with Remus who came running back from Lierin's private quarters.
"Dear Merlin! What happened to her?" asked Remus, slightly out of breath. It was quite an achievement to be only 'slightly out of breath' if you figured that Lierin's quarters were at least three miles away from the Hospital Wing - if you counted all the turns and stairs going up and down, that is. Severus only snorted. Remus was fidgeting with his long slender fingers, as if he were anxious to hold Lierin himself.
"She's gone mad - a nut ready to be cracked in the loony bin. She was ramming herself into the wall near the girls' room but first she treated the caretaker with a nice heap of substance that came from her intestines, she smeared it all over the floor while hurling herself against the wall."
Usually, Remus was quite an endearing person; a person you couldn't anger very easily. Also, he was a person who was very loyal to his family and friends - and, well, Lierin was one of his most beloved relatives.
"You really are getting a kick out of this aren't you? You think it's tremendously funny that you get to carry Lierin to the Hospital Wing again. For this, in your -I'm sure- humble opinion, proves that Lierin wasn't fit to teach to begin with."
"Ah, on first name base aren't we? Oh yes, of course. I'd forgotten about your little 'hospital incident.' Silly me."
Severus didn't want to admit it, but he really had forgotten that awful scene he had witnessed in the Hospital Wing. Or maybe he had just wanted to forget it because of the way she had kissed him.
"And you can't stand it, can you?" said Remus, "You can't stand the fact that a 'shabby' old werewolf like me could gain the affection of such a lovely young woman."
"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you. You see, a few months ago, not long after that very tasteless scene you put on, she kissed me."
"She kissed you?"
"Yes, she kissed me."
At first Remus shook his head, convinced this was one of Snape's sick little jokes. But the closer he observed the man who carried his sister, the more convinced Remus got that Snape wasn't joking. By Merlin, what had gotten into his sister that she would allow Snape, of all people, to kiss her? Well, she had admit to him that she felt attracted to the man, but he couldn't believe she would... Unless...
"Right, and by "we kissed" you probably mean that you forced yourself upon her. If that is true Severus, so help me ... No place in hell be safe enough for you!"
"Oh, what does it matter who took the first initiative! The point is we kissed and Lierin didn't seem to object."
"That's Professor Heartilly to you. And hand her over to me, I'll bring her to the Hospital Wing myself!"
"I can manage just fine, thank you."
"Let...her... go...NOW!" Remus cried out, his voice a few tones higher than normal and maybe - slightly - not entirely human. Snape could feel a shiver rapidly running down is spine, as if a hundred little elves, who had been playing in the snow barefooted, were trying to get their feet warm again by running down his vertebral column. Yet, Snape refused to hand over Lierin while they were just one corner away from the Hospital Wing. He knew very well that with that protective gesture, he was indicating something that he himself wasn't entirely sure about, namely that he had stronger feelings for Lierin than he was ready to admit. A quick glance down at her wounded face caused his heart to cringe, the proof was evidently there.
A sly look through his black, greasy curtain to the right of him confirmed that the riot of emotions inside of him hadn't passed by entirely unnoticed, for Lupin observed him with quite an unsettling look in his eyes.
"What is it now, Lupin? I do hope I'm not wearing something that you consider yours."
"No, you're carrying something that I consider mine." Remus almost gave himself away by nearly laughing out loud at the ridiculous look that crossed Snape's face. Snape, on the other hand, was ready to stab Remus down with one of his snide remarks. But, Dumbledore's voice kept him from doing so.
"Oh, thank goodness, you found her! What in the world is going on!"
"I have no idea, Professor Dumbledore. But I was fortunate to arrive just in time. She was going to kill herself by banging herself against a wall near the girl's bathroom."
"That's not like her at all. Why did she leave the Great Hall in the first place and why was she in such a hurry?"
"I don't think she was feeling at all well during breakfast. At least I have every reason to believe so."
"Severus, you were sitting next to her during breakfast, did you notice something... odd about her? Something curious?"
"Well, yes actually. She seemed to be very... absent-minded... during breakfast. She didn't seem to have much of an appetite, but she's been like that a few weeks now. It never got this serious, though. But, considering her conduct this morning, I'd say something scared her immensely. Perhaps she had some sort of premonition, a vision?"
"A vision you say. Curious, very curious." said Dumbledore.
Maybe she had started to remember something - something from the book? But, if she had indeed remembered parts of Rowena's diary, why would she have run off like that? But what if Evoke had evoked long forgotten memories, memories she had tried to forget because they were too horrible, too painful to remember? He didn't have any control about her selective memory. But what had scared her so, IF it had been a vision or a memory, that she would run away from the very image itself?
Snape carried Lierin into the Hospital Wing. Poppy already had a bed prepared for her and was busy with a little bit of this and a little bit of that to make Lierin's stay at the Hospital Wing as comfortable as possible.
"Poor thing," said Poppy Pomfrey as she stroke a lock of hair away from Lierin's bloody face. Soft, painful moans escaped her lips and every now and again Lierin would writhe in bed with a haunted expression on her face.
Dumbledore, Lupin, Snape and Pomfrey were all gathered around her bed with worried expressions on their faces, each person absorbed in their own train of thoughts. Poppy had taken up the delicate task of washing away the blood with a cloth, rinsing it, and repeating the process. Snape drew a sharp breath when the several cuts and bruises became clearly visible. Remus noticed this, of course, and again a quizzical expression appeared in his eyes. One could only wonder what that man was thinking.
"She really needs a good night's sleep. I reckon it will do miracles for her. I'll just give her the Dreamless Potion to make sure she gets her much needed rest. She doesn't need nightmares or bad dreams right now. What happened to her, anyway?" said Poppy.
"No one really knows. She's been in bad shape for several weeks but this morning things really seemed to stagnate. At first, it seemed like she was in some kind of trance and suddenly she just got up and ran away. I found her ramming herself against a wall over and over again. That reminds me, I think it might be a wise thing to warn Mr Filch. You see, Miss Heartilly didn't achieve ... 'her goal'... when she hurried to the girl's room."
"I'll go warn him straight after I can get Professor Heartilly to drink the Dreamless Potion. Here, you can help me a little."
"Of course."
Remus and Dumbledore said nothing. Though Madam Pomfrey and Professor Snape had never been close friends, they had a wonderful understanding when it came to teamwork. Madam Pomfrey disappeared into her office to fetch the Dreamless Potion and Snape knew that she expected him to revive Lierin, for just a moment, so she was able to actually drink the potion. He bent over Lierin, savouring the moment by inhaling her mildly perfumed scent. His long, slender fingers found their way on her forehead and from there, in soft massaging circles, to a delicate spot in her neck. Gently, his fingers pressed against this spot and then traveled upwards again until they found a resting place against her temples. Here, his fingers increased pressure and he found the reaction he had hoped for. Her soft eyelashes fluttered against her skin and slowly her eyes opened. Lierin had trouble focusing and her reactions were slow. She could hear voices around her, but the sounds seemed to come from very far away, they almost seemed to come from another time. Four shadowy figures moved along her bedside, whispering words she didn't comprehend. But she did recall one of the figures to be the tormentor of the young woman in her visions.
"You!" gasped Lierin and she struggled to get up, but soft yet firm hands forced her backwards again. This gesture was followed by another stream of words that went by Lierin unnoticed. The figure she had recognised stood still and moved closer to her bed.
"Why are you so surprised to see me here? Don't you remember..."
"Of course I remember you. You... you are the reason she cried. Because... you were the one who left her."
"Heartilly, what on earth are you ranting about now?" asked the voice in a clearly agitated manner.
"Why did you leave her? She..."
Lierin couldn't speak any further because some sort of potion was administered to her. Her thoughts immediately drifted away from her visions into the direction of a real man, a man of flesh and blood, a man she secretly had come to admire. She made a face at the sour taste of the potion yet managed to create a weak smile.
"Severus, now are you trying to poison me?"
Lierin had said this to herself, unaware of the fact that Severus was standing near her bedside, the latter almost beyond himself with worry and confusion. For, at first, she addressed him as if she were not aware of his identity and then she insulted him by accusing him of poisoning her. He shot a quizzical look in the direction of the headmaster but Dumbledore merely shrugged his shoulders.
"I think it's best if we leave her alone now. I was able to administer the Dreamless Potion, she should be able to get some rest now," said Madam Pomfrey.
Lierin had closed her eyes and considering her regular breathing pattern, Lierin had fallen sound asleep. Gently, but with a voice that didn't allow objections, Madam Pomfrey ushered the men out of the Hospital Wing to leave the patient to her much needed rest. But, as soon as Remus neared the exit, Lierin woke up with a start and called out for Remus with a look of bewilderment in her eyes. Worried, Remus hurried over to her bedside, grabbed her pale and delicate hand in his weather-beaten one, and tried to soothe her with tender words to assure her of his presence. Lierin calmed down a bit. She looked up at Remus and squeezed his hand tightly.
"My notes, I forgot to take them with me... in the library... dangerous information for the children... you must find them. Maybe you can figure out where to look next. We're close, Remus, I can feel it. Find them, a part of the solution is in there somewhere! But... I can't remember."
"Yes, yes of course. Don't worry dearest, you sleep now. Take a rest. Everything will be all right." Remus had no idea what she was talking about, but one thing he did understand, Lierin had been close to a great discovery and the key was in her notes.
Her eyes closed again, and again Lierin drifted away in a peaceful slumber.
Remus rose from the chair beside her bed and turned around to leave the Hospital Wing. There he found Snape still standing near the door. He glared at Remus with quite an enraged look on his face. Remus walked over to the exit but it was clear that Snape didn't have the intention of letting him pass. Remus sighed deeply in an utterly annoyed manner.
"Prey tell me, Severus, what have I done to you this time that I, in your eyes, deserve to die?"
"What was that all about?"
"What was what?"
"Lier... Miss Heartilly called you back and I want to know ... why?"
Remus arched an eyebrow indicating Snape that he had noticed his little slip up. "Severus, why don't you try and learn that not everything is of your damn business and that you really should try not to stick your aberrant crooked nose in everything that doesn't concern you."
Severus face grew pale at first and then a little flushed of excitement. Normally he would have struck back with a snide remark, but in this case he didn't have any right to object, for Remus right. Though he rejected being accused of being an all-round meddler, this case indeed didn't concern him. He just couldn't stand it when he heard Remus consoling Lierin and calling her -heaven forbid- dearest. Yet, Snape would not be insulted without retaliating.
"It's not crooked... it's ... ... aquiline."
With those words Snape rushed away, his only consolation being the fact that, even though he had been insulted and he had been unable to strike back, with his black robes billowing behind him, he was still intimidating.
Remus and Severus approached Dumbledore at the same time.
"I'll go after her," said both of the men in unison.
Dumbledore smiled sadly. "You do that, I'll inform Poppy."
Severus glared angrily at Remus, trying to warn him NOT to go after Lierin. But, Remus just glared back defiantly and both men set off at a run. Remus was at an advantage, of course, with his wolf-like senses, but in his panic, he ran to her private quarters. Severus, however, followed his impeccable instinct.
Lierin ran through the hallways as if a ghost were pursuing her. Tears were still flowing from her eyes, soiling her cheeks, but she kept running, fighting the ever growing need to regurgitate. Peeves was floating through the hallways as well and was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of a deranged-looking Professor Heartilly.
"Crazy Heartilly, Crazy Heartilly," he started to sing, his song only interrupted by an occasional cackling laughter as he zoomed away to tell the rest of Hogwarts the good news.
The girls toilet came into view and Lierin desperately tried to forbear the terrible urge. She was going to make it!
Snap!
Lierin tumbled forwards and, at first, she wondered what was wrong; why was she falling? But, a sudden flare of hot pain surging through her leg told her what was going on.
"No! Not now!" she cried out as she collapsed on the ground. The sudden shock that surged through her body as she made contact with the solid floor was too much. She lost the battle. As she knelt on the floor, both hands placed firmly on the ground, it was as if her body wanted to disgorge the very memory of all she had seen out of her. After a few moments, however, her mind overpowered her body as she realised that it was futile to rid her mind of the poison that way. Weakened from the effort, she crawled on her hands and knees to seek support near a wall. A sudden feeling of calmness and serenity waved over her. Her silence only broken by a singular sob now and again. But this feeling of serenity proved to be no more than the silence before the storm. She shook and trembled as, once again, she began to relive her visions. Whimsical cries of delirium escaped her lips and calmness was replaced by despair. Despair was followed swiftly by irrational anger, grief and more contradicting emotions. Her mind could not accept the fact that she would have to live with those terrible images forever burned into her memory.
If she couldn't get them out of her memory by expelling the poison, she would have to smash it out of her memory. She rose from the floor with renewed strength and hurled herself against the wall. At first, this proved ineffectual as her body resisted such punishment by slowing down her movement at the last possible moment to minimize the impact.
"Leave me be! Go away! Leave me be, leave me be, please just leave me be!" cried Lierin, not sure who or what she was yelling at. It did seem to work, however, because her mind gained in strength and soon proved to be stronger than her body. A stream of determination flooded through her veins and with great will and force she hurled herself against the wall repeatedly, shouting at the tormenting visions to leave her alone.
Severus Snape found her in this state of derangement and his eyes widened in disbelief when he saw her ramming herself against the wall over and over again.
"Poor girl! She's gone mad" Snape exclaimed. Lierin's face was a bloody mess and her body was showing signs of pain and fatigue. Before Lierin could steady herself for another self-inflicted blow, Severus, with his lightning fast reflections, was with her. "Stop this madness, right now!" he commanded.
Snape grabbed her by her arms and forced her to look at him. He was shocked to notice that she really had a deranged look in her eyes, eyes from which tears still trickled down on a bloodstained face.
"Dear Merlin!"
Snape collected her in his arms and, to his surprise, she didn't fight him. Somehting he expected after their last 'encounter'. Sure, he had kissed her, but that moment, which he thought to be a temporary weakness of both him and her, had occurred weeks ago and the more he thought of it, the more it seemed like a surreal fantasy. But he had to admit, it was a nice fantasy to think about and he did remember the exact sweet taste of her lips. Sometimes, when he thought back to that moment, he wasn't so sure whether it had been a passing moment of weakness or not. Because, if you liked to think back to a certain action, you couldn't have done that action in "a temporary state of weakness," could you? Wondering about these things, Severus kept stroking Lierin's head and her back and to his wonder, she relaxed in his arms and allowed herself to lean against his masculine chest. One second she was there and in the next she was gone. She collapsed in his arms and Severus caught her just in time. He set off on a run towards the Hospital Wing and on his way there, he got caught up with Remus who came running back from Lierin's private quarters.
"Dear Merlin! What happened to her?" asked Remus, slightly out of breath. It was quite an achievement to be only 'slightly out of breath' if you figured that Lierin's quarters were at least three miles away from the Hospital Wing - if you counted all the turns and stairs going up and down, that is. Severus only snorted. Remus was fidgeting with his long slender fingers, as if he were anxious to hold Lierin himself.
"She's gone mad - a nut ready to be cracked in the loony bin. She was ramming herself into the wall near the girls' room but first she treated the caretaker with a nice heap of substance that came from her intestines, she smeared it all over the floor while hurling herself against the wall."
Usually, Remus was quite an endearing person; a person you couldn't anger very easily. Also, he was a person who was very loyal to his family and friends - and, well, Lierin was one of his most beloved relatives.
"You really are getting a kick out of this aren't you? You think it's tremendously funny that you get to carry Lierin to the Hospital Wing again. For this, in your -I'm sure- humble opinion, proves that Lierin wasn't fit to teach to begin with."
"Ah, on first name base aren't we? Oh yes, of course. I'd forgotten about your little 'hospital incident.' Silly me."
Severus didn't want to admit it, but he really had forgotten that awful scene he had witnessed in the Hospital Wing. Or maybe he had just wanted to forget it because of the way she had kissed him.
"And you can't stand it, can you?" said Remus, "You can't stand the fact that a 'shabby' old werewolf like me could gain the affection of such a lovely young woman."
"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you. You see, a few months ago, not long after that very tasteless scene you put on, she kissed me."
"She kissed you?"
"Yes, she kissed me."
At first Remus shook his head, convinced this was one of Snape's sick little jokes. But the closer he observed the man who carried his sister, the more convinced Remus got that Snape wasn't joking. By Merlin, what had gotten into his sister that she would allow Snape, of all people, to kiss her? Well, she had admit to him that she felt attracted to the man, but he couldn't believe she would... Unless...
"Right, and by "we kissed" you probably mean that you forced yourself upon her. If that is true Severus, so help me ... No place in hell be safe enough for you!"
"Oh, what does it matter who took the first initiative! The point is we kissed and Lierin didn't seem to object."
"That's Professor Heartilly to you. And hand her over to me, I'll bring her to the Hospital Wing myself!"
"I can manage just fine, thank you."
"Let...her... go...NOW!" Remus cried out, his voice a few tones higher than normal and maybe - slightly - not entirely human. Snape could feel a shiver rapidly running down is spine, as if a hundred little elves, who had been playing in the snow barefooted, were trying to get their feet warm again by running down his vertebral column. Yet, Snape refused to hand over Lierin while they were just one corner away from the Hospital Wing. He knew very well that with that protective gesture, he was indicating something that he himself wasn't entirely sure about, namely that he had stronger feelings for Lierin than he was ready to admit. A quick glance down at her wounded face caused his heart to cringe, the proof was evidently there.
A sly look through his black, greasy curtain to the right of him confirmed that the riot of emotions inside of him hadn't passed by entirely unnoticed, for Lupin observed him with quite an unsettling look in his eyes.
"What is it now, Lupin? I do hope I'm not wearing something that you consider yours."
"No, you're carrying something that I consider mine." Remus almost gave himself away by nearly laughing out loud at the ridiculous look that crossed Snape's face. Snape, on the other hand, was ready to stab Remus down with one of his snide remarks. But, Dumbledore's voice kept him from doing so.
"Oh, thank goodness, you found her! What in the world is going on!"
"I have no idea, Professor Dumbledore. But I was fortunate to arrive just in time. She was going to kill herself by banging herself against a wall near the girl's bathroom."
"That's not like her at all. Why did she leave the Great Hall in the first place and why was she in such a hurry?"
"I don't think she was feeling at all well during breakfast. At least I have every reason to believe so."
"Severus, you were sitting next to her during breakfast, did you notice something... odd about her? Something curious?"
"Well, yes actually. She seemed to be very... absent-minded... during breakfast. She didn't seem to have much of an appetite, but she's been like that a few weeks now. It never got this serious, though. But, considering her conduct this morning, I'd say something scared her immensely. Perhaps she had some sort of premonition, a vision?"
"A vision you say. Curious, very curious." said Dumbledore.
Maybe she had started to remember something - something from the book? But, if she had indeed remembered parts of Rowena's diary, why would she have run off like that? But what if Evoke had evoked long forgotten memories, memories she had tried to forget because they were too horrible, too painful to remember? He didn't have any control about her selective memory. But what had scared her so, IF it had been a vision or a memory, that she would run away from the very image itself?
Snape carried Lierin into the Hospital Wing. Poppy already had a bed prepared for her and was busy with a little bit of this and a little bit of that to make Lierin's stay at the Hospital Wing as comfortable as possible.
"Poor thing," said Poppy Pomfrey as she stroke a lock of hair away from Lierin's bloody face. Soft, painful moans escaped her lips and every now and again Lierin would writhe in bed with a haunted expression on her face.
Dumbledore, Lupin, Snape and Pomfrey were all gathered around her bed with worried expressions on their faces, each person absorbed in their own train of thoughts. Poppy had taken up the delicate task of washing away the blood with a cloth, rinsing it, and repeating the process. Snape drew a sharp breath when the several cuts and bruises became clearly visible. Remus noticed this, of course, and again a quizzical expression appeared in his eyes. One could only wonder what that man was thinking.
"She really needs a good night's sleep. I reckon it will do miracles for her. I'll just give her the Dreamless Potion to make sure she gets her much needed rest. She doesn't need nightmares or bad dreams right now. What happened to her, anyway?" said Poppy.
"No one really knows. She's been in bad shape for several weeks but this morning things really seemed to stagnate. At first, it seemed like she was in some kind of trance and suddenly she just got up and ran away. I found her ramming herself against a wall over and over again. That reminds me, I think it might be a wise thing to warn Mr Filch. You see, Miss Heartilly didn't achieve ... 'her goal'... when she hurried to the girl's room."
"I'll go warn him straight after I can get Professor Heartilly to drink the Dreamless Potion. Here, you can help me a little."
"Of course."
Remus and Dumbledore said nothing. Though Madam Pomfrey and Professor Snape had never been close friends, they had a wonderful understanding when it came to teamwork. Madam Pomfrey disappeared into her office to fetch the Dreamless Potion and Snape knew that she expected him to revive Lierin, for just a moment, so she was able to actually drink the potion. He bent over Lierin, savouring the moment by inhaling her mildly perfumed scent. His long, slender fingers found their way on her forehead and from there, in soft massaging circles, to a delicate spot in her neck. Gently, his fingers pressed against this spot and then traveled upwards again until they found a resting place against her temples. Here, his fingers increased pressure and he found the reaction he had hoped for. Her soft eyelashes fluttered against her skin and slowly her eyes opened. Lierin had trouble focusing and her reactions were slow. She could hear voices around her, but the sounds seemed to come from very far away, they almost seemed to come from another time. Four shadowy figures moved along her bedside, whispering words she didn't comprehend. But she did recall one of the figures to be the tormentor of the young woman in her visions.
"You!" gasped Lierin and she struggled to get up, but soft yet firm hands forced her backwards again. This gesture was followed by another stream of words that went by Lierin unnoticed. The figure she had recognised stood still and moved closer to her bed.
"Why are you so surprised to see me here? Don't you remember..."
"Of course I remember you. You... you are the reason she cried. Because... you were the one who left her."
"Heartilly, what on earth are you ranting about now?" asked the voice in a clearly agitated manner.
"Why did you leave her? She..."
Lierin couldn't speak any further because some sort of potion was administered to her. Her thoughts immediately drifted away from her visions into the direction of a real man, a man of flesh and blood, a man she secretly had come to admire. She made a face at the sour taste of the potion yet managed to create a weak smile.
"Severus, now are you trying to poison me?"
Lierin had said this to herself, unaware of the fact that Severus was standing near her bedside, the latter almost beyond himself with worry and confusion. For, at first, she addressed him as if she were not aware of his identity and then she insulted him by accusing him of poisoning her. He shot a quizzical look in the direction of the headmaster but Dumbledore merely shrugged his shoulders.
"I think it's best if we leave her alone now. I was able to administer the Dreamless Potion, she should be able to get some rest now," said Madam Pomfrey.
Lierin had closed her eyes and considering her regular breathing pattern, Lierin had fallen sound asleep. Gently, but with a voice that didn't allow objections, Madam Pomfrey ushered the men out of the Hospital Wing to leave the patient to her much needed rest. But, as soon as Remus neared the exit, Lierin woke up with a start and called out for Remus with a look of bewilderment in her eyes. Worried, Remus hurried over to her bedside, grabbed her pale and delicate hand in his weather-beaten one, and tried to soothe her with tender words to assure her of his presence. Lierin calmed down a bit. She looked up at Remus and squeezed his hand tightly.
"My notes, I forgot to take them with me... in the library... dangerous information for the children... you must find them. Maybe you can figure out where to look next. We're close, Remus, I can feel it. Find them, a part of the solution is in there somewhere! But... I can't remember."
"Yes, yes of course. Don't worry dearest, you sleep now. Take a rest. Everything will be all right." Remus had no idea what she was talking about, but one thing he did understand, Lierin had been close to a great discovery and the key was in her notes.
Her eyes closed again, and again Lierin drifted away in a peaceful slumber.
Remus rose from the chair beside her bed and turned around to leave the Hospital Wing. There he found Snape still standing near the door. He glared at Remus with quite an enraged look on his face. Remus walked over to the exit but it was clear that Snape didn't have the intention of letting him pass. Remus sighed deeply in an utterly annoyed manner.
"Prey tell me, Severus, what have I done to you this time that I, in your eyes, deserve to die?"
"What was that all about?"
"What was what?"
"Lier... Miss Heartilly called you back and I want to know ... why?"
Remus arched an eyebrow indicating Snape that he had noticed his little slip up. "Severus, why don't you try and learn that not everything is of your damn business and that you really should try not to stick your aberrant crooked nose in everything that doesn't concern you."
Severus face grew pale at first and then a little flushed of excitement. Normally he would have struck back with a snide remark, but in this case he didn't have any right to object, for Remus right. Though he rejected being accused of being an all-round meddler, this case indeed didn't concern him. He just couldn't stand it when he heard Remus consoling Lierin and calling her -heaven forbid- dearest. Yet, Snape would not be insulted without retaliating.
"It's not crooked... it's ... ... aquiline."
With those words Snape rushed away, his only consolation being the fact that, even though he had been insulted and he had been unable to strike back, with his black robes billowing behind him, he was still intimidating.