Haunted

By Be Boring

Chapter 17: A Long Time Coming

Severus sat behind his desk with his head in his hands, half dozing as his tired mind ran over the events of last night. He had woken very early in the morning while Necia was still sound asleep. He had made a huge mistake, he'd known it the moment he made it, but the problem was what to do about it.

He had known perfectly well whose body he was making love to last night, but somehow the knowledge that it was Cassandra's mind changed everything. It wouldn't have mattered to him if Cassandra had been in any other woman's body, but he felt uncomfortable at the thought that he had slept with her daughter.

Being around him was obviously bringing Cassandra out more. It seemed that before last night, Necia had been in almost total control, but as soon as she was in his presence, Cassandra came out on top.

Listening to Necia move in her sleep in the other room, Severus's eyes wandered to the cauldron. As soon as she woke up, no matter what state of mind she was in, he was going to make her drink the antidote. He loved having Cassandra back again, even in the form she had come to him, but it was no use doing this to himself. The longer Necia remained this way, the more painful it would be for him when Dumbledore finally made him give her the potion. It was better to have it finished quickly.

Severus sighed and leaned back in his chair. He knew what he had to do.


When Necia woke up, everything that had occurred last night flooded into her mind. Instead of the self-disgust that had overpowered her last time, now a wave of hot fury rushed through her and she sat bolt upright, looking around for Snape. The first time she had blamed it on the potion, but last night Snape had raped her. There was no other word for it. He had known perfectly well who she was, and the fact that he had been remarkably tender only made things worse.

Some rays of murky, gray, early morning light were filtering in through the solitary window on the other side of the room as Necia pulled her robes on as silently as possible. Although she couldn't hear him, she strongly suspected that Snape was in his office and she didn't want him to know that she was awake yet. Her entire body was shaking as her fingers closed around her wand. She didn't know which spell was the best right now, but as it turned out, she didn't need to say any words. Sparks were already shooting out of the end of her wand, and remembering what had happened with Draco, she strode purposefully to the door and simply pointed her wand at Snape's back as he sat before his desk, scrawling something very rapidly on a piece of parchment.

The same white light burst from her wand and struck him squarely between the shoulder blades. His body snapped forward, colliding harshly with the desk as his head whipped around to find the source of the attack. Her feet were rooted to the spot, and after the initial attack, she didn't know how to do the spell again, giving Snape time to pull out his wand and snap, "Expelliarmus!" Her wand promptly flew out of her hand and landed in Snape's open palm.

Just as he stood up to approach her, she reached out and snatched a jar filled with small, slimy green eggs and hurled it at him. He managed to lunge out of the way, but he wasn't as lucky with the jar of eel eyes that followed. It struck him in the ribs on the right side with a dull thud, jolting the wands out of his hands so that they clattered onto the desk next to him, and crashed to the floor, shattering and splattering the bottom of his robes.

"You son of a bitch!" she screamed as she threw another jar at him, catching him in the stomach this time before it too smashed on the stone floor. "You're disgusting, you're perverted, and I can't believe you ever became a teacher!" She threw the last two jars within arm's reach and ran forward to grab a copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi from his desk, slamming it hard into his shoulder while he was distracted trying to catch his breath again after the last jar, which had hit him directly in the chest.

Before she could make firm contact with his head, he caught the book as it came at him again and threw it aside, grabbing her arms as she attempted to strike him without any weapons. Clutching her wrists firmly, he twisted her around, shoved her into his own chair, picked up his wand, and shouted, "Impedimenta!" Necia couldn't move, it was like her entire body was made of stone, so she simply glared at him furiously, silently daring him to try and rape her again. This time she was going straight to Dumbledore to make sure this foul excuse for a human being was fired, perhaps even arrested and sent to Azkaban. She didn't care that her body had been a very willing participant, this time it didn't embarrass her because Dumbledore knew what was going on, and he would be just as angry with Snape as she was.

"Do you still want to take your potion or not?" he spat out, stepping back so that when she regained the ability to move, she wouldn't immediately be able to kick him.

Struggling to speak through the spell, she choked out, "How…know…safe?"

"Foolish girl, I wouldn't poison you right under Dumbledore's nose," he growled in reply, stalking over to grab a beaker.

"Don't mind…doing…other things…under…his nose."

Snape froze halfway through dipping the beaker into the cauldron and turned to look at her, his black eyes glowing with something that she couldn't quite comprehend. "You're wrong," he said in a dangerously quiet voice, filling the beaker with the potion and returning to the desk, setting the beaker down next to her quickly before backing out of her reach again. She would be able to move again very shortly.

"I'll…tell him…everything," she gasped, wishing she could burn him with just her eyes, sear holes right through him and perhaps see if there was even a heart beating behind that angrily heaving chest.

"Go ahead, it won't matter," he muttered, suddenly sounding very tired as he sat down in one of the chairs usually reserved for misbehaving students on the other side of his desk. He reached over the desk and picked up the parchment he had been writing on earlier and held it up for her to see clearly. "I'm going to resign today."

Necia's eyes scanned the letter. Anger was still coursing through her, but now she was angry that he was taking away her opportunity to punish him for what he had done. "Why?" she asked furiously, her voice shaking with barely contained rage.

"Because I was never suitable to be a teacher, and last night made that very clear to me."

As memories once again flooded Necia's head that she knew weren't her own, something became very clear to her as well. She saw a young Snape running from the room as she lay next to another young, much more handsome man with black hair that gave him a rather roguish look, she felt the cold of a brick wall pressed firmly against her back as she hid outside the house of one of Snape's would-be victims with an antidote clenched tightly in her hand, and finally, she heard Dumbledore's soothing voice in another room, closely followed by Snape's voice, sounding the weakest she had ever heard it.

"Coward," she hissed, causing Snape's eyes to widen at first, then narrow into a very defensive expression. "You ran from my mother when she needed you most, and you took every precaution possible to separate yourself from her. You did everything that you knew she wouldn't want you to do, you refused to contact her, and you took out your anger at what you stupidly saw as a betrayal on everyone in sight. You probably only teamed up with Dumbledore when you realized that you weren't actually succeeding in killing anybody and the whole thing got a bit boring for you. When you finally came back here, which you saw as safe because she was no longer here, you were scared away by a mere copy of her. Don't try to make me believe that you're leaving because you feel guilty about what you did to me, you just can't stand the fact that now my mother will be gone again and this place once again holds too many memories that you don't want to deal with. You're a bloody coward, you always have been and always will be, and I can't imagine what my mother ever saw in you."

His fury quite matched her own as their eyes attempted to melt each other. "Not that it's any of your business, but I came back here as an excuse to be in a position to speak regularly with Dumbledore without raising any suspicion if and when the Dark Lord ever returned, and my reasons for joining Dumbledore had nothing whatsoever to do with Cassandra. I've seen things you couldn't even imagine and did a great deal of them myself, and that is both the reason why I joined Dumbledore and why I'm resigning today."

Necia realized very quickly that that meant he had raped women before, and without them being filled with the spirit of the woman he loved. She had no idea what to think about the man in front of her. She hated him now with every fiber of her body, not counting her mother's invading emotions, but she also felt a vague twinge of pity. The only things he knew were misery, pain, and death, and he just didn't seem to be able to live with anything else. He was capable of feeling proud, excited, maliciously pleased, and satisfied in certain areas, but happiness just wasn't within his realm of possibilities. She supposed he must have had some potential when he attended Hogwarts, otherwise her mother wouldn't have forged such a strong connection with him, but now he was a lost cause.

As they sat staring at each other, Necia became suddenly aware that she could move her limbs again. She picked up the beaker and paused, glancing back up at him. "It's too bad, she really loved you, I can feel it right now, but I really don't think you would have been able to make her happy." There was a flash of something in his eyes which looked remarkably like anguish, but she turned away from him and quickly swallowed the contents of the beaker, making a face as it slid with a squelch down her throat.

She didn't really feel any different, but she didn't care to wait in Snape's office for any side effects. If anything happened, she could go to the hospital wing. Without another word to him, she promptly stood up and walked quickly out of the office, heading straight for Gryffindor Tower.


Severus wasn't sure what he was feeling as he watched her go. Her voice, her mannerisms, and every facial expression that Necia possessed had once belonged to her mother, and to see those features radiating so much hate in his direction was rather hard to take. Still, even behind Necia's anger, some of Cassandra's softness toward him had been shining through, even right after Necia had taken the potion.

It was with a very heavy weight on his shoulders that he headed for Dumbledore's office. Dippet had said that Dumbledore should be back in the morning. It was still very early, but hopefully he was running ahead of schedule. He just wanted to be done with it.

To his surprise, Dumbledore's office door was wide open and the headmaster was sitting at his desk as though he had been expecting company. He smiled slightly at the sight of Severus and held his hands open in welcome. "Come in, Severus, and please close the door behind you." Once he was seated in the chair opposite Dumbledore, the older man said, "I've always known this day would come, but I would have thought you'd wait until the summer to give me the opportunity to find a replacement."

How had he known why he was coming? Severus looked stubbornly down at his folded hands as he answered, "Something has happened that makes waiting a very poor choice."

At least Dumbledore didn't seem as omniscient on this particular topic as he was on most others. "What happened?"

Deciding that the best thing to do was just to spit everything out as fast as humanly possible, he said determinedly, "When Necia Hol..Malfoy took that Channeling Solution and turned into Cassandra, her first reaction was to come looking for me. I had taken a Confusion Draught that evening and wasn't thinking clearly, I thought I was just hallucinating, and we had sex. Then last night after Draco Malfoy attacked her, I was treating her and she turned into Cassandra again, and we slept together again."

Dumbledore became very silent after this revelation. His eyes never left Severus's face, but Severus couldn't bring himself to look at him. "Has she taken the antidote yet?"

"Yes, this morning."

Dumbledore didn't comment, although Severus's reply obviously meant that Necia had spent the entire night in his room. "In that case, I'll have no choice but to accept your resignation, although I wish things had not quite turned out this way."

Now Severus glanced up. "What do you mean?"

It took a long time for Dumbledore to answer, he seemed to be debating about how much to actually say aloud. "What I mean is that I wish you had demonstrated more restraint during your second encounter with Ms. Malfoy, because not only was it a willful shattering of school rules and my personal moral values, which I would expect the teachers to at least respect even if they don't agree, but I also don't think you realize what damage you may have inflicted. When she first took the potion, it was just running its natural course, but apparently you brought out Cassandra after the potion should have been gone. You intensified her side effects, which may well remain with her even now that she's taken the antidote."

"Are you saying that the antidote didn't get rid of Cassandra?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "No, Cassandra's mind should be gone now, but more of her will remain in her daughter. What I'm referring to are personality traits, emotions, and perhaps a couple memories that Necia saw while she was experiencing the side effects. Because you brought Cassandra into full control long after the potion's effects should have left her body, it will naturally be more difficult for them to completely separate, so Necia will always carry a bit of her mother inside of her."

"I would just like to say that it wasn't my intention to draw Cassandra out. After I had a house-elf take her to the hospital wing, I caught her sneaking back to Gryffindor Tower."

"Yes, that was something I was meaning to ask you about. I assume that Draco attacked her because of his father's trial and his mother's following arrest?"

Severus nodded. It was almost worse that Dumbledore wasn't being more severe, they were practically talking like they always did, but he could sense Dumbledore's very strong disappointment in him. Perhaps he wasn't taking any other action because Severus had already made it very clear that he was going to resign. "That's not the worst of it. When I came across them, he was using the Cruciatus Curse on her."

He saw a glint of the old fire that Dumbledore had when they were fighting against Voldemort. Dumbledore absolutely despised the use of the Unforgivable Curses, and Severus was sure that he didn't like the thought of any of them being used in Hogwarts. "It's so unfortunate that an entire household may very well be going to Azkaban," he said quietly, "but I believe the circumstances call for it. As soon as the Ministry can send someone to take Mr. Malfoy, I would like you to give a statement about what you saw."

"Of course."

"I would also like for you to stay nearby, preferably in Hogsmeade. You're still a very valuable source in catching the remaining Death Eaters. I would like to be able to contact you very quickly in the event that you are needed."

Although he knew it was wisest not to say anything at all right now, seeing as how so far he had gotten off very easily, he couldn't stay quiet. He just didn't understand why Dumbledore wasn't having a stronger reaction to the announcement that one of his teachers had quite knowingly had sex with a student, no matter what the extenuating circumstances were. "Albus, I hope you know that I truly regret the incidents which brought me here today. I knew perfectly well that what I was doing was wrong, so I understand if you feel the need to pursue more than just my resignation."

Dumbledore looked at him with some of his customary amusement. "Any other man would have let the issue rest after I moved on, Severus." When he didn't reply, he continued, "Because of the circumstances surrounding the situation, I am willing to content myself with your resignation, although if Ms. Malfoy insists on further action, I will have no choice but to assist her. Frankly, I don't think she will unless there is less of her mother in her now than I thought. When I said that some of Cassandra's emotions will remain behind, that includes her feelings for you, Severus, which would have been very present in her mind in the hours before she took the antidote."

Severus hadn't really thought about that. As his tired mind tried to wrap itself around the idea that Necia could very well love him on some level, Dumbledore rose from his seat. Severus pulled out his letter of resignation and placed it on the desk before following suit. After sixteen years, it was time to go.


By lunch time, everyone knew that Snape was no longer teaching. Students that had Potions in the morning eagerly spread around that Dumbledore himself had temporarily taken over the position of Potions professor until a suitable replacement could be found. Necia listened to the speculations that Snape had been injured, maimed, fired, accidentally turned himself permanently into a bat, or even killed. Nobody ever considered the possibility that he had quit of his own volition, although she knew that if he hadn't quit, Dumbledore would have fired him and at least one of the crazy theories flying through the school would be partly right.

Then came the conjectures of why Draco Malfoy was currently unconscious in the infirmary. The Slytherins wasted no time in making it sound as though he had been viciously attacked, and although they never mentioned her by name, possibly because they were afraid of how Dumbledore would react, they strongly hinted toward her. The rest of the school, however, decided that Snape had gone crazy, attacked Malfoy, and now was on his way to Azkaban while Malfoy was stuck in a permanent coma. Necia honestly wished that was the case.

As the other students headed for lunch, however, Necia headed straight for the Room of Requirement. Now that the Slytherins more than likely knew about her little hideaway, she felt it was better to move back into Gryffindor Tower. Kreacher hadn't been there this morning, but hopefully she could catch him before he tried to slink away this time. Sure enough, the old house-elf was sitting in the middle of the living room, mumbling away.

Necia wasted no time. "Just exactly where did you live before you came to find me?"

He looked up at her with an expression of pure distaste. "Kreacher lived in the Noble House of Black."

"Then you can go right back there. Take care of the house and never contact or speak to anyone else again except for me. Got it?"

It took a long time for the house-elf to get up, but when he finally left, Necia was already busy throwing her robes into her trunk to take back to Gryffindor Tower. The corridors should be empty while the students were eating and she wanted to do her best to avoid everyone while she was moving her things. Unfortunately, she had no sooner closed the door of the Room of Requirement behind her than a hand closed around her arm. Startled, she whipped around and paled at the sight of Harry and Ginny. Ginny had actually grabbed her arm, but was now looking curiously down at her trunk.

"Were you living here?"

Necia nodded. "Yeah, but I thought I should go back to the dormitories after…" 'Dammit, I am such an idiot.'

"After what?" Ginny asked promptly.

Necia looked from one to the other, then figured there was no reason not to tell them. "Lucius Malfoy's trial was yesterday, and Draco found out from Kreacher that I was staying here and came after me. He's Stunned right now in the hospital wing. I bet he'll be going to Azkaban."

Harry raised an eyebrow curiously. "For attacking you? I could see him getting expelled, but you look all right, so why would it be big enough for him to go to Azkaban?"

Necia sighed and levitated her trunk so that she didn't have to drag it the entire way. "Because he used the Cruciatus Curse."

Ginny's and Harry's jaws both dropped briefly as Necia started walking down the corridor with her trunk floating ahead of her. "Were there any witnesses?" Harry asked as soon as he had recovered. "Anyone who will be able to testify against him?"

Necia paused. "Yes, there was. Snape saw it happen."

Just as they were approaching the Fat Lady, Ginny asked suddenly, "Did that have anything to do with why Snape's not teaching anymore?"

Necia didn't look back at them as she shrugged. "I don't know. I wasn't really conscious when Snape came across us, so maybe they fought, something big happened, and that's why he quit." The moment she said it, she wished she could smack herself on the forehead without looking suspicious. 'Dammit, dammit, dammit! When will I ever learn to keep my big mouth shut?'

"He quit?" they both asked simultaneously. "Why?" Ginny blurted out.

"How do you know?" Harry slipped in before she even had a chance to think about answering.

Necia muttered the password and let her trunk fall to the floor as soon as they entered the common room. Thankfully no one else was there. She sat down in a nearby chair wearily before replying, "I..don't know why he quit, but I saw his letter of resignation this morning in his office." Before either could open their mouths to ask why as they both also pulled up chairs, she started explaining, "When I was with Lucius, he gave me a potion that he said would let me talk to my mother. Ginny knows this already but I guess you ought to know, Harry, that I took it last Friday. I still hadn't figured out what it was, but I was upset and didn't really care if it was something dangerous. I still don't know what it was, but I've a lot of side effects. Snape's been working on making an antidote for it and that's why I was in his office this morning. He had just finished making the antidote and it was best if I took it immediately. That's when I saw the letter."

Silence followed her short story as Harry and Ginny let the information sink in. As she watched them, it occurred to her that they had been hanging around each other a lot since they discovered she was a Malfoy. She had rarely seen one without the other unless they were heading to classes in different parts of the castle. "I still have a few things to bring back," she said quickly, really just wanting a moment to be alone. Perhaps if she left them to their thoughts, Harry would come around faster and he and Ginny could warm Hermione and Ron up to the idea of being friends with her again. Ginny was already on her side, but Harry was on the edge and Ron and Hermione so far didn't seem to be even considering it. Of course, she hadn't seriously spoken to them since they had fought. Maybe they weren't as far away as she thought.

Striding back down the corridors alone, Necia was very surprised when she heard someone call her name. Turning, she was surprised to see Professor Lupin hurrying down the passage after her. "I'm glad I found you," he said as he drew even with her. "I've been meaning to speak with you for a while now."

As they stepped into his office, Necia had no idea what he wanted to talk about. Did this have something to do with her fight with Draco? Or rather, Draco's complete demolishing of her body. When he had seated himself behind his desk, Lupin smiled gently at her and said, "You didn't show up to my class yesterday afternoon, although I know why now, otherwise I would have approached you then. After Kreacher showed up on Saturday, I more or less figured out for myself that you are Sirius's daughter. I don't know if you knew it or not, but Sirius and I were very close friends. I just thought if you had any questions about him, perhaps you'd like to ask me. I did look around for a few things for you which I thought you might like."

Completely mystified, Necia took a brown paper package from Lupin's outstretched hand and opened it. Inside were several pictures of Sirius Black, most of them from when he was much younger, but a couple that must have been taken in the year before he died, when he had been helping the Order from his family's house. Harry had told her about that long ago, but she hadn't thought anything of it. She couldn't believe how much older he looked in the last two photographs. He was really only fourteen years older, but it easily could have been twenty-four years. Azkaban must have taken a lot out of him.

The longer she looked at him, the more she recognized little things about him that were very similar to her. She had obviously inherited much more from her mother, but she could still see her own features in his face. With everything that had been going on, Sirius hadn't been on her mind at all even though she now knew just who he was, but now numb shock was filling her as she looked at the man who was quite clearly her father.

Flushing at the thoughtfulness of the gift, she mumbled, "If you didn't know anything about it, then that definitely means that he…?"

"No, he didn't know about you. Believe me, if he had known, there is no way you'd have reached this age without meeting him, because he would have stormed straight through your front door just to see you. Real family was something he had always wanted because he was so estranged from his own family, and if he had known he had a daughter somewhere, he would have done anything to be near you. I really wish you could have met him. I know he would have loved you more than you may ever understand."

Necia was quite surprised to find tears prickling behind her eyes. "I know he was close to Harry."

"Yes, Harry was probably the most important person in the world to him. James was his best friend, and since Harry was orphaned Sirius really felt that he should be the one taking care of him. He sort of adopted Harry as his own son. I'm sure Harry would be happy to share stories about him with you."

She forced herself to smile at him, willing herself not to cry in front of him. If she was going to cry, she wanted to be alone. "Thank you for the pictures, that was really nice of you."

"Don't mention it, it was nothing."

As they stood up, Necia noticed something on his desk. "Is that a picture of Tonks?"

Lupin flushed and almost moved as though he was going to cover the picture, then thought better of it. "Yes, it is," he replied in a would-be casual voice.

Now an honest smile broke out on her face. "Are you two together?"

He was obviously unsure of how to handle the situation in a professional manner, but it was quite apparent that he'd never found himself in this position before. "Well, that's really not a school appropriate…doesn't really concern you…well, it's nothing serious," he finished finally, looking thoroughly frustrated with his inability to speak more clearly than an awkward mumble.

"I think it's sweet," she said with a shadow of a real smile on her face. It was nice to be reminded of something that she had contemplated before everything went wrong. Although her plan hadn't quite worked out how she would have liked, the end result was still the same. And judging by the fact that Lupin was truly embarrassed, which she would never have expected, things were working out very well. "I'll see you next class," she said when she finally decided she had embarrassed him enough, and headed down the hall with her father's pictures clutched tightly in her hand.