A few days later, Snape did not appear for breakfast. When he had not appeared by the beginning of morning lessons, Dumblefore, clearly worried, called Minerva and Kaira over.
"Would you two check Severus' favourite apparition spot?" he asked. "I fear he may have been to report last night and not returned. I will see that your classes are settled."
Minerva paled. Kaira tried hard not to flinch.
"Of course, right away," Minerva said, leading Kaira out of the castle and into the grounds.
"Do you think he's alive?" Kaira asked.
"I hope so, my dear. I hope so. It'll be the worse for all of us without him," Minerva replied.
It was extremely unlike Snape not to show up for his classes. There was surely something extremely wrong. Whether he had been delayed by some necessary task, or if he had been prevented from returning was the question Kaira kept asking herself. She told herself that he would have had to do something urgently and would stroll up to the castle with contempt in his eyes at the flap that everyone had been making. He would. He was too obnoxious to do anything else. He had to turn up, he had to.
But nonetheless, when they had left the grounds, and made their way to the place Snape most commonly apparated to and from, they saw a dark shape on the forest floor. Minerva hurried forward, bending down beside the figure.
Kaira's heart jumped. Something had happened to him. Something had gone wrong. He wasn't going to just stroll back. Please, don't let him be dead, she thought. Although she was furious with him, she didn't want him to die. Not even him. She watched, numbly, as Minerva tried to find signs of life.
"He's alive," she said, breathlessly. Kaira let out the breath she had been holding. Damn him, he couldn't even get killed properly! Minerva stood up and levitated Snape into the air and the strange party hurried back to Hogwarts. "Poppy! Poppy! Hurry!" Minerva called as they got to the hospital wing. "This is an emergency!"
Poppy appeared, clicking her tongue.
"I don't know, what now? Go on, get out, I'll take care of it from here."
The Headmaster looked down at the patient. He looked even paler than normal and looked decidedly ill.
"How soon can you get him conscious, Poppy? Even if it sets back his recovery, how long before you can get him to speak?" Dumbledore asked. "I have to know what happened." He looked both worried and compassionate.
"I know Albus," she replied. "But he's badly hurt. He should really be in a proper hospital."
"That's not possible,"
"I know. But he won't be conscious today, or tomorrow. Perhaps the following day. I will call you the minute he wakes up, or before."
"Very well,"
Snape recovered consciousness three days later.
"Severus?" it was Dumbledore.
"Headmaster," he croaked. Albus smiled in relief.
"What happened, Severus?"
"Don't worry. He accepted all I told him. This was merely a demonstration of the price of failure. The others are far worse off."
He watched as Dumbledore relaxed.
"I thought... when Minerva and Kaira brought you in, that..."
"No, it is well. Perhaps better than well. I told him that Kaira had reacted violently against the attack and was spending her time denouncing him and honing her defences. I said that to go after her again would be to risk failure for no reward, as it seemed she would never join him. I said that no-one knew of the attempt and that it would be better to concentrate resources elsewhere. He is considering it. Get her to act up her hatred of him in Draco's class."
"Excellent, Severus. Did he share anything else with you?"
"No. I was to leave and think how I was not to fail again and I will be called again soon."
Kaira was hovering. She had found herself, entirely unconsciously, walking towards the dungeons. When she had realised where she was heading, she stopped. Did she want to keep going? She didn't really want to see Snape, and she was sure he didn't want to see her. He had made it abundantly clear that he had never been interested in her other than to keep her out of the Dark Lord's clutches.
As she stood in the shadows, deciding, a stream of students came out of the dungeons, chattering away. Towards the back, a trio of her sixth years walked.
"What's the matter with Snape recently, anyway?" asked one. "He hasn't taken any house points off me all week."
"He hasn't called me a know-it-all either. He hasn't even been mean to Neville," the girl replied.
"He's stopped giving the Slytherins so many points too," the other boy said.
"He's been acting strangely ever since he was ill," the girl mused. "Maybe something happened."
"Well, never mind. We seem to be doing fairly well out of it," the second boy answered.
"Neville certainly appreciates it!"
That evening, Kaira glanced surreptitiously at Snape as she ate. He looked awful. He was paler than usual and had black rings around his eyes. He stared at his plate and didn't speak, except to offer a curt 'yes' or 'no' if someone asked him a question. Something was clearly on his mind. What was it? Surely he should be proud of himself? If what Dumbledore had told her was true, she was reasonably safe for the moment. He had succeeded in his little mission. Shouldn't that make him happy?
Snape ate his dinner as quickly as he could and excused himself. He needed the calm atmosphere of his dungeons, the distance between himself and the rest of the world.
He certainly had a wonderful knack, he thought. Not only had he managed to alienate the girl (which he hadn't intended), he actually had started to like her, to care about her. He missed her, even if she had been an irritation and a distraction. A distraction was something he would have welcomed around now.
The dungeons were dark and almost comforting.