Chapter Eight

A/N: Sorry I didnt update sooner...or make this longer. Don't worry, longer and better chapters are to come!

Ginny Weasley was screaming. On the edge of his consciousness, Severus could hear her high pitched screech echoing through the great hall like a banshee's cry. A single though seized Severus's mind and he tried to block out that horrid scream.

'She killed Harry Potter.'

A sudden darkness rushed over him that was profound it nearly made him forget ever having seen the light. And still Ginny would not stop screaming.

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"Are you alright?" A voice demanded from out of the darkness.

Severus fought to open his eyes, his head hurt like he had been hit with a brick, and his mouth was dry. Two hands reached out and shook his shoulders. Severus moaned, which was apparently good enough for the voice.

"Thank Merlin. For a minute I thought you stopped breathing."

"Potter..." Severus moaned, flittering his eyelids.

"What about Potter?"

"Is he dead?" Groggily, and ever so slowly, Severus was starting to come back into the world of the living.

"What are you talking about?"

Severus opened his eyes; a dark figure was hovering over him, silhouetted in the light. He blinked his eyes until the slowly adjusted, and was shocked to see Katherine's face leaning in so close to his.

"You didn't kill him?" Severus asked.

"No. Was I supposed to?"

Thankfully she didn't sound serious. Severus let out a shuddering breath. This was going to give him a heat attack.

"Where am I?" He asked

"Hospital wing. You fainted."

Severus should have guessed as much, he had woken up here too many times before.

"What happened?"

Katherine smoothed out the blankets covering his thin body before he spoke; she suddenly looked very maternal and protective.

"I thought that Weasley boy was going to attack Draco Malfoy, so I turned him into a mouse. How was I supposed to know that his sister was afraid of mice?"

Severus moaned. He couldn't believe this.

"Are you sure Potter's alright? You had your wand pointed at him."

"For a second, yes, I was trying to figure out what was going on. Apparently Professor McGonagall doesn't appreciate my particular brand of violence intervention, though Dumbledore found it amusing."

Severus tried to sit up, but his head felt like it was full of lead. He slumped back down and shut his eyes.

"You don't have to faint every time I cast a spell you know. I'm not here to kill anybody." Katherine whispered.

Severus looked up at her as if he didn't quite believe it.

"Then what are you here for?"

"It's better for the both of us if you don't know."

Katherine started to a bite a fingernail and looked at the empty bed across the way. Severus just sighed and shut his eyes. Sooner or later he would find out, he always did.

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Once Severus had fallen alseep Katherine crept out of the hosital wing, and then down to his chambers. She didn't really consider them hers, although the had the feeling that she might be staying a while. Today's events weren't helping either. She hadn't meant to turn Weasley into a mouse, she wasn't even sure why she had done it. Hadn't it been her greastest desire, to see the spawn of Narcissa withering in pain. To see revenge for what was stolen from her?

Katherine sighed deeply as the walked through the dark and lonely dungeon passageways. Her emotions were in turmoil, her head heart, and she had caused a grown man to faint. All in all, she was throughly miserable.