A/N: sorry i took so long to update. next time i put it off for too long, hit me or something!

oh yes, thank you to everyone who reviewed. i'd list everyone, but i have only a few minutes to get to work. youknow who you are.

the long awaited chapter with actual plot! YAY!

ok i'll shut up now.

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Chapter 8: the Witching Hour

The moon had rooted itself firmly halfway through the night sky before there was any stirring in the hall outside Severus' office. He had given up any notions of a visit that evening, and retired to bed a few hours later, when a pounding at his door woke him. With a groan, he climbed from the bed, pulling his trousers back on, not bothering to button his shirt just yet, mainly because he knew if he tried, he would button it wrong and make a complete fool of himself. Trying sleepily to shove his long, bedraggled hair from his face, Severus because mildly aware that the knocking at the door was becoming more persistent, and some notion of dread splashed over his mind, washing the sleep from his consciousness. As he opened the door, he was somewhat confused, and the dread fell over him tenfold. In the doorway, he did not find his favorite little flustered Head Girl, bashfully admitting that there had been some new ruckus in the dormitory, but instead, her younger cousin, devoid of her usual green headband, her dark strawberry blonde hair a bit mussed, barely touching her shoulders with the bottommost bend of the flipped halfcurls that tipped each strand.

"Professor!" Isamu gasped, grabbing his wrist, her emerald eyes sparking with tearstreaked worry. "It's Rakka. I..I went into our room, and she looked like she was still asleep.. So I didn't bother her, figured maybe she wasn't feeling well, still.. until I heard a noise.. she.. she's like that Sienna girl, but worse! There was blood.. all over her pillow.. hurry!"

The panicky girl bit her lip in worry, and Snape hurried down the hall after her.

"I.. I didn't know what to do... I was going to go get Zeke, or Tomas, but I .. I wasn't sure if they could go into the girl's rooms without Rakka or you there.. so I just went to get you.. I..I'm sorry.. Professor.."

As they ran, the girl rambled a little when she could catch her breath, wringing her wrists and biting her knuckles even as they hurried up the stairs toward the stone wall which hid the enterance to the Slytherin main room, then rushed down the echoing, flagstone steps to the bottommost room of the girl's dormitories, accidentally waking up a suprisingly small amount of the sleeping girls as they bolted down the stairs.

When they finally got to the bottom room, Snape didn't even realize that Isamu had remained in the doorway, frozen with fear. He rushed to the side of Rakka's bed, her figure curled up, doubled over in pain,blood soaked deep into her pillow. He gently cupped her chin in his hand and wiped the blood from her lower lip with his thumb, only to see it well up again, slowly, pooling in small divets that betrayed the cause of the bloodshed, lined up in a semicircle of small dents, bite marks, her own attempts to distract herself from the pain, gone amiss when she drew a massive amount of blood, chewing away at her own flesh for the hours of the school day.

"Professor, look out!" Isamu yelled, pointing wildly at the floor between him and her own bed. Snape turned quickly, getting to his feet and grabbing his wand, whirling to aim it at the attacker.

The snake had to be six feet long, a hideous shade of crimson, with dark, purple-black rings around its eyes, which glinted a beady, sickly olive green. It's tail was hooked, flicking, with what looked to be a stinger, the same purple-black of the scales around it's eyes.

"Think you're a scary little bastard, do you? Who sent you here?" Snape narrowed his eyes, glaring at the snake.

"I come to ssserve the Dark Lord..." the snake hissed back, suprisingly speaking the common tongue, which prompted Isamu to scream again, a yelp of horror. "I come to avenge the loss of hisss pride, hisss family, and hisss sservant."

"You did this to her, didn't you? And that poor girl, Sienna, as well! Why, why would even a servant of Voldemort stoop so low as to attack young girls, unprovoked?!"

"They are not worthy of your defenssse, sssir.." Snape could have sworn the snake was grinning. "They are of good sstock, yess.. but they do not dessserve their blood... ssso I am ssent to ruin it.. to take back a pieccce of what belongs to our Lord."

"To take back ....their blood..?" Snape trained off, a bit lost, but not wavering his firm grip on Rakka's wand, even as some primal, choked sob escaped her.

"Ssshe getss what sshe wisshed the masster to feel, yess," the snake crooned. "Now, if you'd jussst let me take thiss one lasst girl...and thosse three boysss... then I'll leave you alone, ssir."

"No," Snape said firmly. "You won't touch her!"

The snake recoiled, but Snape's wand was too fast. A bolt of blue light shot out, catching the writing snake and drawing it up into midair. Then, like sped-up film of a plant growing, the snake became human. Namely, Professor Ganner.

"Mitchell Gannor, tsk tsk," Snape shook his head in shame on Ganner's behalf. "I thought you would know by now, boy. Voldemort doesn't share power, so you should have given up while you were ahead."

"How did you know it was me?" Gannor hissed, pushing his reddish hair back from his face, his green eyes venomous, the purple rings from his sleepless nights spent prowling the girl's dorms more dominant now than they had been during the day, when they had been disguised, no doubt.

"Because I know Voldemort, fool he may be, is too proud to hire a true beast," Snape smirked. "Though a true snake may have served him better than some half wit animagus. I swear, how you managed to pull it off, I will never know. It takes guts to try such idiocy without proper training, but you couldn't be properly trained without having to register, right, Mitch?"

Gannor hissed and spat, tring to turn back to a snake, but only managing fangs and a puffed face, scales around his mouth, and the smallest little bit of a tail, which was barely more than a stinger sticking out of his trousers, but managed to regain his footing and pull his wand out from his belt, and yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Exsspelliarmuss!"

Snape skidded backward, crounching with one hand on the cobblestone, snatching his wand back up, but Gannor already had one hand on Isamu's wrist, pinning her arm back against the wall, her hand barely still clutching her wand, his wand poking her throat.

"Take one sstep, Sseveruss, and I'll use an unforgiveable," Gannor smirked. "Now drop the wand."

Defeated, Severus let go of his wand, which hit the floor with a slight 'clink'.

"Now, your turn, ssweetheart," he smiled wickedly at Isamu, who still gripped her wand, her knuckles white. He slammed her hand back against the wall and she cried out, finally dropping it as blood trickled down her wrist. Severus caught more movement from Rakka's bed as he inched toward his wand a little, praying that he could get her out before it was too late, but Gannor turned back to him too quickly.

"Crucccio!"

"Expelliarmus!"

The blankets flew back off Rakka's bed as Eana Remillius, her ears still furry and sticking out a little higher than they should have been, held her wand out firmly with a hand that had only just began to reform from a paw, still adorned with brown fox fur and black claw nails, which steadily melted away as she stood her ground, unmoving, and Snape, still blind with pain, was barely able to grasp his own wand. Isamu dove, grabbing her own wand and Gannors, smirking at him a little. He hissed at her, trying to transform back into his snake form, when Snape got back to his feet.

"Hmm.. that's enough, old boy," Snape said with more venom than the half-transformed man in front of him. " Petrificus totalus!"

Gannor lunged... and fell flat forward, frozen stiff, limbs glued to his sides.

"Sorry I took so long, Professor," Remi climbed out of the bed. "I was hiding under the bed in my fox form and had a hell of a time trying to change back under the covers where he couldn't see me.. Rakka kept kicking me and hitting me.. had some issues concentrating."

"Thanks for the daring rescue, miss Remillus, not a moment too soon," he nodded as Remi took Gannor's wand from Isamu, snapping it with a satisfying crack over her knee.

"Eana!" Snape turned to the doorway as he reached to pull Rakka into his arms. "Go get Dumbledore. I'm bringing Rakka to the infirmary. Professor Flitwick, I think, already taught you how to get this bumbling idiot to Dumbledore, right, Isamu? Follow Eana with him."

Isamu and Remi nodded as Snape hurried past them, Rakka gripped tightly to his chest. Her witch fever felt like a fresh kettle of tea was being shoved against his bare skin, and that which was covered wasn't faring much better.

"P...professor...Snape.." she murmured, looking up at him, shaking violently, the blood making her lips that much brighter against her skin, usually somewhat pale, now ghostly. Her eyes were watery, and a few tears flowed free of her damp eyelashes. "I'm.. so sorry.. to.. trouble you.."

"Shh," he murmured, running up the stairs. "Don't you worry now. We're almost there."

"It.. it hurts, I.... I can't..." with a bit of effort, she pulled one shaky hand from her abdomen, the nails and fingertips tinged red, and managed to get a shaky grip on his shirt's collar, resting her head against him as she shuddered, curling up. "I'm sorry.. I... it's all my fault.. should've seen it.."

"Madam Pomfrey!" Snape hollered, running into the infirmary, setting Rakka down gently on the nearest bed. "Poppy! Help!"

"What is it, Severus, child?" Madam Pomfrey asked, somewhat sleepily, reutrning from her adjoining chambers. "Oh my.."

"Get her some of the aconite potion, to ease the pain," Snape said firmly, wiping the hair away from Rakka's face, which was damp with tears and a few smears of blood, as she forced her hand to release his shirt collar,with some effort, and tried to force her body against the convulsions that pulled all her muscles inward. She yelped in pain, panting and whimpering, and Severus murmured small comforts, holding her hand, though she clenched it so hard he thought his own would break.

"Rakka, listen to me, hold on, please, its ok," he pleaded. She cried out, tears spilling, shaking her head in a panic.

"No.. I can't, no.."

She looked up at him, tears pouring down her cheeks, and Severus kissed her, hard, stunning her back to her normal self for a moment as his mouth filled with the bittersweet taste of her blood. He wiped her lip with his thumb and wiped his own mouth with the back of his hand.

"You have to. Just please, try to hold on, okay?" he smiled weakly, and she did the same before her face tightened with pure agony again.

It was then that Severus Snape realized that Rakka was suffering far worse than Sienna had.

He flashed back to Sienna's bite marks, two small, clean holes on the back of her neck, each ringed in purple, the evidence in it's entirety small enough to be hidden under a single finger. He looked down at Rakka, who was struggling for self control, with two much larger fang marks, though spaced just as close together, a bit torn, as though she tried to fight the snake off before he decided he was finished. The purple mark around it was like a large, grotesque bruise, a bit sickly green around its edges, no doubt evidence of how much more poision had seeped into poor Rakka. No wonder she had bitten her lip so deeply. The pain had to be Sienna's own, tenfold.

"I've got it," Madam Pomfrey approached Snape from behind, her words finally giving him some relief. "If you could restrain her.. we don't have much left, we can't afford to spill any."

"Rakka, it's alright," Severus cooed. "Just give me your hand."

"No, please it hurts! Nononono.." she moaned, and he grabbed her wrists, pinning them sucessfully on both sides of her head. She flailed, kicking out a bit, then curling up with a shudder. Taking advantage of her pause, Madam Pomfrey jammed her spoon in the girls mouth. Within a few short minutes, Rakka was lying flat, unable to move much,between the numbness and her own groggyness.

"Sweet Merlin," Severus and Madam Pomfrey gasped each in turn. When Rakka's hand finally fell away, they realized just how badly she had hurt herself, deep scratches all over her midsection, her shirt torn open, soaked with blood, the buttons ripped off. If Isamu had slept through the night, Rakka may not have been alive the next morning; even if she had survived the poison, she might not have survived her own attacks on herself.

"I'll get her bandaged up," Madam Pomfrey murmured. "You go off to bed, Professor."

"In a moment," he nodded, and she went off to fetch some bandages.

Severus realized he was still holding her hand, but didn't let go.

"Don't you give up on me," he said softly. "I'll find a way to fix you. Don't you worry."

He looked back up at Rakka's face. She was fast asleep. With a heavy sigh, he kissed her softly on her forehead, and let go of her hand, heading off to Dumbledore's office.