Disclaimer: Snape, Dumbledore, Voldemort, etc are not my characters. They-unfortunately-belong to JK Rowling. The original ones-duh-are mine and exist in my mind!
Author's Notes: As I said in the previous chapter, this story is totally a work in progress. This particular story-A Siren's Song-has 29 chapters planned so far. I also have the beginnings for a sequel to this story figured out. I haven't settled on a name just yet, but I have a ways to go before I need to worry about that.
Chapter Two
Ever since she was a child, Emma was a somewhat outgoing person. She wasn't bubbly and energetic 24/7, but she did have moods. Sometimes she would prefer to just curling up and reading a book. Other times, all she wanted was to be surrounded by her friends and to be doing stuff. She could be very stubborn and was known to be a book worm. Dumbledore's brains and love of learning was one of the many traits she acquired from the talented wizard. She tended to lean towards being alone and dark, but this was not her only characteristics.
Although she could be quiet at times, she was always friendly to those around her, whether they were from her house or not, cool or not. She didn't necessarily say a cheerful "hello" as she passed them in the hallway, but she did stand up for those around her who couldn't do it for themselves.
One thing that she was known for was her courage-or stupidity sometimes-and unwillingness to bow or roll over for anyone. Even her grandparents has their hands full with her and her stubborn/brave streak.
Having been the first female Dumbledore child in exactly twenty-four generations lent to causing Emma to be not only fawned over, but also spoiled. The latter also increased exponentially after her parents were killed in a car accident. Seeing as her mother-Kaylee-was the first witch in her family line, she had been cut off from her family after they learned of her true nature. Thus, Emma's only real relative left were her grandparents.
Since her parents-Dan and Kaylee-death at the age of 9, Emma lived on the grounds of Hogwarts, helping her grandparents with oddeties as well as learning everything she could. She also grew very close to her grandparents and all the staff.
Emma wanders out the front doors of Hogwarts as millions of thoughts attacked her mind. How on earth did I ever get into this! There is no answer for her, but then there is no fear. Not yet. She is still in her stubborn streak and has yet to realize the full extent of how her life has just changed so drastically.
Severus Snape, 7th year student from Slytherin, is going to seduce me. Me, Emma Leigh Winters. If it weren't so true, it would be almost laughable. Not the part about him and I, but this whole thing. It's like it's out of some mysterious book and we aren't in control of ourselves anymore.
Hearing some commotion nearby, Emma turns her head and sees where the noise is coming from, and starts towards it immediately.
James Potter stands in front of Severus, wand pulled out and on the ready with his comrades and their wands aimed at Severus as well. "Come on, Snivelly. Do something."
"James, this is getting boring," Peter Pettigrew wines.
"Yea it is." A smirk slowly spreads across his lips as he glares at the black haired man in front of him. "Sirius, if you will."
"Gladly," the addressed man replies as he steps towards Severus. Sirius Black was always the real bully in the group. He had the muscle and had the physical presence to send the boys scurrying for cover and the girls dropping at his feet like flies.
As Sirius moves to hit Severus, Emma easily pushes through the crowd. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Sirius. Someone might get hurt."
"That's the point," he replies, never turning.
"I meant you. Incarcerous."
Immediately Sirius' hands and feet are tied together by ropes, causing him to teeter precariously and eventually fall to the ground.
James looks at Emma, eyebrows furrowing in frustration. "Stay out of this, Winters."
A sly smirk on her face appears as she casually crosses her arms securely across her chest. "Make me, Potter," she says in her daring drawl.
His eyes slowly glance down at her wand, possible hexes flying through his brain at speeds like that of a dying snail.
"Can you not think properly just when a person's wand is aimed at you, or is your brain void of activity at all times!"
"Dear me," came the worried voice of Professor McGonagall. "Miss Winters, please do put your wand away before something happens." The teacher's form appears as the the crowd parts for her to come through. At the sight of the Marauders, she sighs visibly. "Mr Potter, Mr Black, Mr Pettigrew, and Mr Lupin. You will now proceed to my office where you shall wait for me. Are we understood!"
All three boys-other than the rather tied up Sirius Black-nodded, muttering nonsense under their breath.
Without another word, Minerva McGonagall qiuckly rehearses the spell binding Sirius. "My office, boys. Now!" Her voice told them that she was not going to listen to even one word from them at the moment. "Miss Winters and Mr Snape, please accompany me." Turning, she walks away with the expectation of them following her.
Emma glances back at Severus before they follow their professor. "Professor, I can explain," she begins.
"I don't care to hear your explanation, Miss Winters. Your grandfather has had a word with me as have you. However, I expect to see both of you in my office at 8:00 tonight for a detention. It will be only us, however, so do bring some homework you may occupy your time with." At that, she walks off.
The teenagers watch her receeding back before Severus turns to Emma. "Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Out there."
She smiles at him with her mysterious smile as she keeps walking towards her bedroom. "Are you coming?" Emma's residence-both in school and out of it-were near the teachers quarters. Seeing how she lived on campus all year round, Dumbledore and the rest of the staff unanomously agreed that it would be easier for her if she lived in one room all year round. It also gave her easy access to her grandfather if he ever needed her, which he seemed to about once a week.
Severus glances back down the hallway they had just come down, before briskly catching up to her.
Coming to her door, she quickly gets rid of the wards before entering. As she enters the first room-her sitting room-a nice fire crackles to life in the marble fireplace. Passing by one of the chairs, she drops her books in it.
On the far side of the room is a small glass shelf with a few picture frames as well as a small carved wooden box that Severus can't quite tell what it is supposed to hold within it. Next to the glass is some dark cherry oak doors. He doesn't realize just how long he stares at it, but finally Emma speaks.
"That's my book shelf behind there. I've been collecting them since I was a child. About three quarters of those books-though-belonged to my parents."
"It's nice."
She smiles and walks over to a pair of double doors and closes them, not wanting to let him into the inner sanctuary, her bedroom.
"Is it true?"
"Is what true, Severus?" Emma sits down in the chair she had earlier deposited her books in after picking them up and putting them away. She watches him sit down in the other chair and staring into the fire.
"That you live here. All summer."
"Yea."
"Why?"
Swallowing hard, she looks away from him. "I brought you here to talk about what happened outside. Not my reasoning for living here."
Nodding silently, he glances over at her. "So why did you do it then?"
"Voldemort is expecting you to be befriending me. Seducing me. Getting me to fall for you. It would look mighty odd if I didn't help you if I had the chance. Lucius will report to his father and his father will report back to Vol.."
"What!" Severus interrupts her, cutting her off. "I never told you that Dacian Malfoy was anywhere related with Voldemort." His eyebrows furrow quickly, anger and confusion bursting at the seams.
Sighing softly, she avoids his gaze.
"Emma."
Emma looks over at him, realizing she hasn't to atleast tell him this much. "I see things."
"You see things? What does that.." Pausing, he thinks of something.
"Yea. It means I have what some people refer to as premonitions. I can see the future. Something similar to what Professor Trelawney can do, but unlike her, I've been proven right in every single one I've seen/made. And I don't see vague things, like those that can be fulfilled by chance. I see faces and names. I see places. I hear things and I feel things."
"Does Dumbledore know about these?"
Her head nods slowly as she sits silently for a minute. "He was actually there when I had my first vision."
"How old were you?"
"I was 6 years old. I was staying with Grandpa and Grandma at their house in London."
"You mean Headmaster's house?"
"Yea. See, my actual grandparents wanted to be called Opa and Oma, so that's what I called them. I called my great grandparents by Grandma and Grandpa. I'm not sure why they started that when I was little, it was just something they did. So one night my grandpa was tucking me into bed and telling me that there weren't any monsters under my bed, and even if there were, he was such a powerful wizard that he would be in my room before they even had the chance to blink." Smiling, she pulls her leg up towards her chest. "It always made me feel safe. Him telling me, in that rich and warm voice, that I was safe. I actually felt safe. But then I remember my body starting to tingle and it was as though I had suddenly been dipped in a tub of freezing water. I couldn't move or think, but I could hear Grandpa. He kept saying my name, but it started to fade. I was terrified, but at the same time, I wasn't. It's confusing, but it's true. There's no other way to explain it."
"What did you see?"
"Things. People. Deaths. Too much for something a 6 year old should see. Grandpa says that I was like that for only about ten seconds, but it seemed like an eternity to me. When it was finally over, I was shaking so bad. I could barely breathe and I was suddenly sweating so bad that the sheets were soaked within minutes."
"What did he say?" Severus asks, watching her with intrigue.
"He had a good idea what was happening to me, but he needed me to tell him what I remembered before he knew for sure. After that, he got my grandma to give me a bath before he layed in bed with me and spent the night there. I was so scared afterwards. I was like that for the next couple of visions until I kind of got used to seeing things. Things that I've never wanted to see."
"Can you control when you see them?"
"No," she shakes her head as she speaks. "They come whenever they want, but generally when I'm either very calm and relaxed, or so tense that I end up passing out afterwards."
The duo sit in silence as they soak in the words. Neither speaks nor looks at the other, just thinks. Severus stares into the fire while his hands rest perfectly on the arm rests of the chair while Emma gazes down at her hands fiddling in her lap. Minute follows minute, neither speaking.
"Do they still scare you?" He finally questions, breaking the pause in conversation.
For a few seconds, she doesn't answer. She then looks over at him, watching him. "Yea, they do. I've told my grandpa that they don't, but I'm not sure he believes me. He acts like he does, but I'm not sure. There's something about the way he looks at me after I tell him that just seems like he knows the truth."
"And what is that truth?"
"That my visions terrify me. They always make me so emotional afterwards and I feel so exhausted all the time. After over half of them, I can barely move. My eyelids won't stay open, my eyes don't focus, and my body just rebels against everything that I want it to do. It's frustrating because I have no say when they come or what I see. I can't control it, and I know it."
"Is that why you seem to throw yourself into schoolwork? So you have control over something?"
She chuckles softly, a sweet smile tracing over her lips. "No, Severus. The reason I am so hard on my schoolwork, is because I need to. I need to know things. Anything. The way I feel about knowledge is like most girls feel about boys. Someone once told me that I was addicted to knowledge." Shrugging, she goes on. "Maybe they were right, I honestly don't know. But ever since I was a child, I've had this hunger-this thirst-for learning and knowing. My mother told me it was a gift, being able to pick things up so easily."
"Well what do you think?"
"Honestly? I'm not sure. It confuses me, in all honestly. Confuses and sometimes unsettles me, but then life doesn't just show you it's cards to make sure you're ok with it. Does it?" Her sparkling hazel eyes look over at him, drawing him into their depths.
"No, I suppose it doesn't."
"Severus, what.." Pausing, she rethinks her words very carefully. "What made you decide to stop supporting Voldemort?"
He bristles and his jaw titches, but he he sits perfectly still otherwise.
"I'm sorry. I'm just wondering."
"My father. He was a Death Eater, so that's partly why I joined."
"Did Voldemort kill him?"
"No. They killed my mother."
Emma sucks her breath in sharply, eyes showing the sadness of his words. "Were you there?"
He shakes his head, still staring blankly into the fire. "I found out after the fact. But I wouldn't have wanted to be there anyways."
"They didn't just kill her, did they?"
He shakes his head again in silence.
"I'm sorry that you had to go through that to see."
"We need to discuss what we're going to do regarding Voldemort and my initiation."
"Yes, we do. I've been thinking about it and I've come up with a plan."
Severus raises an eyebrow, not saying a word.
"I'm a strategist. Just trust me." Pulling a book off the coffee table, she flips it open to a page as she settles in. "The Halloween Feast is coming soon and my grandfather told me that they have decided to add a dance to it, so it will be the usual feast but also a dance afterwards. We need to start doing things together, like this. That way, we'll be ready to go together to the dance when it comes."
"Alright."
"If you are going to seduce me, we can't just have it one dimensional. We need everyone to firmly believe that you are befriending and seducing me, and that I am so in love with you that I would do anything you want me to. So we should start to appear together more and more and make it look like we are slowly starting to date, possibly in secret. Alright?"
He breathes deep and nods, as the full affect of what is happening hits him in the chest. "You can always back out, Emma. Noone would hold it against you if you did!"
She smiles sadly and watches him. "I'm not backing out. I can take care of myself, Severus. I'm a big girl now. Besides, this is my destiny."
His eyebrows furrow in slight confusion. "How.." Before he can get out his question, however, the bell is heard throughout the castle alerting all the students and professors that the evening meal was ready and dinner was to be served.
"We should go," she says as she gets up. "We might as well walk in together. Get the little rumour mills going."
Severus follows suite and they soon leave her room, the lights dimming and then turning off after they exit. They go to dinner together, but he can't shake off her last statement and spends the next few hours pondering the meaning behind it, as well as the possible implications.
