Deception
"Now really, Severus, how do you expect me to know what's wrong if you won't say anything?" Dumbledore defiantly knew what was wrong, but he was getting extreme amusement out of the situation.
Harry watched them. He didn't have to move from where he had heard Sam and Snape fighting, to hear this one sided conversation. Dumbledore had come down the hallway right after Sam left.
"Oh, I see, Sam took your voice… yes well, that's a bit of a problem isn't it now… well I wonder where she went of to. You see only she can give you you're voice back. I know that might be a bit of a problem seeing as you hate each other… yes that is quite unfortunate indeed."
Harry had to stop himself from bursting into fits of laughter. Sam had outdone herself without intending to. Dumbledore took out his wand and recited a couplet. Sam appeared in the hallway in a burst of flame. She raised her eyebrow inviting an explanation. Dumbledore took the invitation.
"Severus tells me… or depicts to me rather, that you have stolen his voice. He needs to teach his class, and it would be good to have a voice in order to do that."
Sam sighed, "Fine, if it has to be done."
Snape opened his mouth and emitted a sound, then looked satisfied. Sam gave him a dirty look and turned to Dumbledore, "I need to find Mark. Do you know where he is?"
"I believe he's gone to walk out in the garden."
Sam thanked him and walked off. Dumbledore walked off in the other direction, Sanpe walked to the dungeons, and Harry blinked several times. Then walked off to the transfiguration classroom.
The term passed without any more strange happenings, or rather, as few strange happenings as can happen in a wizarding school. Harry had his breakouts of paranoia, Sam disappeared and practiced dancing, Hermione studied, and Ron… did Ron things. Mark and Sam decided that the students should have some basic defense against a serris, so they began classes.
The students filed into the class and sat down in their usual seats. Mark got up and addressed the class.
"If you ever find yourself in a one on one battle with a serris, run." Stange advice, but nobody said anything. "I have acquired Sam's assistance in basic defense against a serris, but try at all costs to avoid a battle with one. We'll start with stopping a serris from messing with your mind." Mark gave them their instructions and picked out Ron to go first. Just his luck.
He went up and faced Sam. She smiled and winked, "ready?"
"No."
"Well, try. Ready. Go."
It took Sam about .75 of a second to play mind games with him. Ron stumbled and fell. Sam walked over and helped him up. Mark smiled, "Sam give them a bloody chance."
Sam looked at Ron. "There is something you want to hide. I don't know what it is, but everybody hides something. You need to focus all your energy on keeping me out of your mind, I don't belong there, keep me away from you."
They tried again, and it took Sam five seconds to break into his mind. Not long but after several other students it turned out he was one of the best. Then it was Harry's turn. Harry had already had lots of practice with keeping Sam out of his mind, so they were there for about three minutes, before Sam pushed harder and broke in. The period passed and everyone walked away with a slight headache. As Draco left Sam and Harry heard him mutter something about going easy on Potter.
"Malfoy." Sam called out, she didn't seem mad but he still flinched at the sound of her voice. "Come here."
He walked over to her, she smiled. "Why would you think I would easy on Potter?"
"He lasted so much longer than everyone else."
She nodded, "He's my friend. I wouldn't cheat him like that."
"What?"
Sam grabbed him by the neck and backed him against the wall. The room got dimmer and the candles flickered. Malfoy could have sworn her eyes started turning black.
"If you're by yourself, against a serris, good or bad, there is nothing to help you unless you had training, there is no point in trying to train someone if you're not trying to make them better."
She dropped her hand, the light in the room came back, Malfoy stared at her. She looked in her eyes, their eyes locked and after about a second Sam's widened.
"You." She said in shock.
Malfoy looked at her, at a loss for words, he searched her face trying to figure out what had just happened. Then he had the same reaction. They stared at each other, both unbelieving. Then Sam broke the look and shook her head.
"How did I not recognize you?"
"It was a long time ago."
Sam nodded. Malfoy looked at her with pleading eyes, "Don't…"
Sam looked at him with complete seriousness "I won't." She looked away and without saying another word they left the classroom, Malfoy walked out, Sam went over to Mark, said something in hushed tones, and looked at Harry, then disappeared. Harry was left with a look of extreme confusion on his face. Mark breathed heavily and went into his office.
Later in the common room Harry, Hermione, and Ron tried to figure out what was going on.
"First Sam's here, so something bad must be happening, there have been other precautions taken but this is really extreme." Said Harry.
"Then she has some kind of background with Mark." Said Ron.
"And she appeared in Hagrid's hut with that huge gash on her back." Hermione remembered with a shudder.
"And now she has some weird thing going on with Malfoy." Concluded Harry.
"Well she's not lying to us." Pointed out Ron
"Maybe she's deceiving us." Suggested Hermione.
"What do you mean by deception?" Asked Harry.
"Yes," Sam said from a corner of the room. It was dark except the light from the fire dimly outlined her face and made out her features, "What do you mean deception?" They all looked at her suddenly ashamed of what they had been talking about. "Or rather, what kind of deception. Deception is the ability to smile when you think you're about to die, and to fake sleep when nightmares plague your mind. But it's also betrayal, and if you think I'm betraying you, you're sadly mistaken." She said distantly, and there was no hint of disdain, or anger, just pain. Not of this, but the kind of pain that would kill you, and give you nightmares. Sam was deceiving everyone, but it was simply putting on an act of courage and stability.
