Spoilers: PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF, FB, QTTA.. Written between Goblet of Fire and Order of Phoenix.
Genre: Action, Angst
Era: Multiple Eras
Main Character(s): None
Ship(s): None
Summary: Siana Basilica has found the first of many answers, and Severus Snape has returned from his encounter with Voldemort. When Siana finds herself back at Hogwarts to continue looking for answers about her strange abilities, and her even stranger wand, she encounters a Snape entirely different to the one she knew before. The Death Eaters and Voldemort are hunting her, and she herself is experiencing unusual symptoms to the one thing that could possibly help her.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A Dangerous Play

Siana woke up anxious, she didn't sleep very well, her slumber was filled with a cross section of nightmares, though less flashbacks. She had a small amount of time left to make more Insidious potion, she was frightened, and she was nervous. After all, she was about to invade a teacher's private quarters, something which she was sure must be illegal...or at the very least against the 'rules' of Hogwarts. She was one to generally abide by rules, she had been abiding by the rules of her father and her Uncle all her life and to completely abandon them was against her view of rules.

She grunted, shuffled down the hall in her nightgown still half asleep, and still trying to piece together fuzzy methods of breaking into his office. She remembered vaguely that Harry Potter had an invisibility cloak, but how would she go about asking him for that? No. That was out of the question. James would have lent it to me. She thought then and sighed as she pushed her way into the bathroom that had been reserved for her.

Once the shower was going, spurting water of a comfortable heat, Siana stripped down and stood under the spray, letting the steam wake her up. As water streaked down her face she realised that the best and probably safest method was to just march in there...straight after he had marched out. His leaves from his private stores were extended. The only problem Siana could think of, was if he had put charms on his ingredients. She wasn't very good at breaking charms.

Siana face it, you're not very good at doing anything, the only thing you can do is Transfigure, and even then...it's pretty useless in the real world, you can't exactly spend the rest of your life doing it, unless you taught it, and you'd never get the students respect. She knew that was true too. As she scrubbed herself with the soap the school provided, she found her eyes travelling over scars that she normally ignored, or forgot were there. Little pockmarks, long, thin slashes that were only visible when she was very hot; simply because the scars stayed white when her skin was reddened. She didn't know why she had a lot of them, and had never really thought about it...but now she wondered if it would eventually be something that she would flashback.

She hoped not.

She washed her hair as the soap rinsed, scratching at her scalp as she did so to get rid of most of the dandruff which she would be damned before telling anyone she had. Yes fine, you're a freak Siana. Aberration. Squib. Almost a Squib. She chuckled in the back of her throat, it was humourless. The fact was, that a pall of despair was starting to worm its sneaky way into her soul. She was tired, and sad, and she missed the companionship of Athena, her beautiful barn owl.

I miss the companionship of an animal. Period.

She missed the days she spent deep in the heart of the Basilican forest, amongst the deciduous and evergreen pines. She'd lean against the bole of a tree, and Athena would make friendly hooting noises from the branch above, like giving a lecture in a foreign language. Athena had been a very special owl, she had never taken a mate, despite being very mature, and she had lent Siana more power to make spells work. With Athena around, she could do more in other fields than normal, she had not been an ordinary owl. Athena, for wisdom, for justice, she was a beautiful creature.

Her breathing was slightly laboured now, the shower was the place where she dwelt on the sorrow, on those she missed, and on those she would rather forget. She never cried, but her throat still felt sore, and her chest still heaved nonetheless.

She would never tell anyone of her grief, she didn't want anyone to know that she could possibly be weaker than she already was.

Twenty minutes later she was walking briskly from the bathroom, back to her quarters, dressed in a deep violet robe. She was thinking about which Death Eater would accept a familiar.

Well...it's not like you know a lot of them. Lucius Malfoy, Dad used to talk about him a lot. Then there's Frederick, haha very funny. Imagine being his familiar, I'd probably be skinned alive. It would be too suspicious for me to be the familiar of Snape...so...oh well. Maybe I'll just leave it to Dumbledore to choose. I wonder when I'm going to be sent out on assignment? I can't just show up at a meeting with Voldemort, I'm going to have insinuate my way into the person's life. Ugh. And then...meetings with Voldemort. Yuck. It's a shame cats vomit so freely, I'm going to have to not do that. Wouldn't go down well if I hurked my guts up every time I looked at him. Though it would be funny.

The corners of her lips quirked up at the thought of vomiting on Voldemort.

The rest of the morning was filled with a quick breakfast, some absent chatter with Professor McGonagall about her second Animagus (Siana couldn't remember that conversation) and watching Severus furtively from the corner of her eyes. Of course, Siana's furtive glances were never that subtle, and after her second sidelong look, he pinned her with an acidic glare.

Then she spent the rest of the afternoon studying Severus' movements, which weren't too regular. However the fact was, that when he went, it was for a considerable amount of time. Enough time to get what she needed. Score.

It was late afternoon when she finally got the courage to take advantage of his absence, and she ran to his quarters breathlessly, the parchment with the ingredient sigils clenched in her fist. As she pushed open the door, she managed to gut her cowardice. She was going to do this, no matter what. Come hell or high water right? Lets do this.

Severus was almost at Hagrid's hut when he suddenly felt something buzzing past his ear and swatted at it. The buzzing stopped and he continued to walk, and then suddenly the sound came back again, a high pitched whine. He frowned, looked around for the offending creature, couldn't see one and again, continued to walk.

That's when he felt the sharp bite of pain in his arm.

'Ah!' He cursed as the pain flared, exploded with the bite of venom. His hand crashed down clumsily against his forearm and he felt something squish against his robe. His hand then also started to sting and he looked towards Hagrid's hut, suddenly realising. Doxy, it's a bloody doxy. He started shaking his hand free of the tiny, squashed limbs.

'Hagrid!' he roared angrily, though he was fully aware of the fact that Hagrid would not be able to hear him. Hagrid had been talking non stop about the swarm of doxies that he had procured for Care of Magical Creatures. They were venomous creatures, covered with a thick black hair that had healthier breeding habits than both rabbits and mice. Despite their human appearance, they were not possessed of any humanity, acting like spiteful insects. He glared balefully at Hagrid's hut. He could no longer go and visit Svelte as he had intended, he would have to go back to quarters and get the antivenom. As far as he remembered, Madam Pomfrey no longer stocked it - after all, it wasn't as though the doxy was native to Hogwarts.

He swore under his breath, repetitively as he stalked back to the castle. The pain was flaring in his arm, and in his hand. Absently he took his wand out of his and pointed at himself. 'Desino Cruciatus.' He said, his voice hissing through his yellowed teeth. He was furious, angry that Hagrid could get away with not exercising more restraint over his creatures. What if it had been Svelte that had been bitten? Not him? She wouldn't have survived the venom.

His eyes narrowed. He abhorred the way Hagrid ran his classes. He would be having words to the Headmaster about it, there was no way the doxy could belong to anyone else after all.

The grass of Hogwarts disappeared under his feet as he rapidly moved towards the castle. He still had to visit Svelte, and didn't want to waste time preparing an antivenom. She'll have to stay with me now, what if she had been bitten at Hagrids? The bumbling fool. It's a shame Kettleburn stopped teaching the class, at least he had the presence of mind not to keep a free reign on dangerous creatures. First savage hippogriffs and now this...he has to learn. I'm going to take great pleasure in talking to Dumbledore about this, after all, he'll have to listen to me this time.

He marched up the steps, slammed open the doors, startling a few first years. The first years scuttled away then as Snape glared at them, and he continued to stare menacingly at any other student that dared to glance in his direction.

His robe snagged on a sharp piece of stone once in the dungeons and he ripped the cloth away, frowning at the tear. The pain wasn't overwhelming, but was ruling his anger.

He was just about to barge into his private quarters when he saw that door was ajar. This is exactly what I need.

'Oh no. Don't move,' Severus breathed, one wand tip pressed hard against the back of her neck. Siana jumped and practically had to swallow her heart back down into her stomach. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. Oh crap. Oh fuck. His free hand insolently curved down her waist as it searched for her wand, his fingers deliberately acting as though they possessed her body. When he found the wand, he threw it some feet behind her.

'Snape,' she began, her voice hitched with terror and she trailed off when his own wand tip all but stabbed into the back of her neck. Her head rocked forward from the force of it slightly but there was no where else to go. She was standing in front of an open glass cabinet filled with scores and scores of vials with sigils on them - and some without.

'Take a few seconds to think about where you are,' he purred, a dangerously comfortable purr.

Siana swallowed.

'Now I...' he breathed down her neck, raising goosebumps. His voice silky but perilous. 'Now I know you can't possibly be stealing from my potions stores to make a potion for yourself...because you can't make them. Here I am at liberty to infer two things. First, that you're stealing the ingredients for someone else, or secondly, you lied about failing potions and could make them all along.'

Siana blinked as the shock sailed through her.

'That's a dangerous implication...are you implying that I could have cured you in Sibilant Stow?' You think that I could watch you die? I can barely stand the thought of you getting hurt, unless of course you deserve it. You probably deserve it right now. Her neck was aching, she vaguely remembered Macnair, so many weeks ago, pressing his wand into the back of her neck. Do they train all Death Eaters to aim for the vulnerable parts of the body? Or just the really powerful ones?

'The ingredients were there...' Siana sparked with anger.

'I hate to say it, in this vulnerable position I'm in, but you're a bitter fool.'

Professor Snape said nothing for a few moments then knelt behind her, keeping his wand against her, but moving instead to her lower back. His hand reached inside her ingredients bag and she frowned, dread coursing through her. He's going to find the worst, and assume the worst.

'Snape, please...'

'I hardly think this is the time or place to be asking for my mercy.'

'On the contrary,' she mumbled to herself as he withdrew the tiny vials. She knew he'd realise straight away what she was trying to make. She dreaded his reaction.

Suddenly a hand on her shoulder spun her around and she was facing a scowl and a hand holding up some of the crucial ingredients. His eyes were black with malice, his face demonic.

'Explain yourself.'

'I-'

'You what? Who are controlling now?'

'It's not what you think.'

'Let me tell you what I think. I think, in my hands, are the potions ingredients of one Insidious Potion. These cannot be used for any other potion.' His hands turned white around the vials, and Siana for a moment was surprised that they didn't shatter in his grip. Then she remembered vaguely, Frederick's strange collection of potions, he had thrown some of those bottles against the wall, and they had never shattered either. She had no idea how to reply to what Severus was accusing her of.

'I -'

'Am I correct?' he breathed and Siana's face fell.

'Yes.'

'Who did you come back to bend to your will this time?'

'No one!' she shouted, a loud counterpoint to his quiet anger. His nostrils flared and a muscle clenched in his jaw. In his other hand, his wand trembled, a spark flared and died. Siana didn't exactly fear for her life, but she did fear for her personal safety...this was not someone who she could trust now, that much was clear. She hated the fact that she had kissed him once, felt those lips against hers. She hated the fact that she had known a part of him that did care and that did show kindness, hated that it contrasted so clearly with the monster that was standing in front of her.

'You have been found guilty of being a murderer, now you've been found guilty of being a thief. Your integrity at the very least, is dead.'

Siana winced, the anger that had been bubbling inside her started to die. She was feeling defeated by him, he was going to thwart her one attempt to rid herself of her father's influence on her personality. You're going to badger and badger me until I tell you, and if I don't tell you, you'll go to Dumbledore - and he can't know, because he thinks I'm safe. And I am...well currently, and god. God. I should have known I'd be caught, I mean, I'm not good at anything. She seemed to suddenly deflate with despair.

'It's for myself,' she said flatly.

'I don't bel-'

'Look in the bag, there's a log book that says so. You can test the pages for the truth if you like,' Siana whispered and Snape bent down again, this time forgetting to keep the wand trained on her. Momentarily Siana realised she could disarm him in this position. For a moment it was tempting, but she knew nothing would come of it. Better to let him have the upper hand. After all if she disarmed him, he'd only overpower her...and then he'd trust her even less. She noticed with some surprise that the hand holding the wand was red, it looked painful.

He was flicking through the black book, tapping his wand on some of the pages and reading out some of the symbols under his breath. Ah of course, he's going to see my paltry attempt at working with potions. At one particular page his eyebrows rose in surprise and he looked up.

'You want to transfigure the potion?' For a moment, the monster in him died, replaced only be sheer curiosity. Siana responded to that curiosity, wished that she could confide in him. She didn't understand why she wanted this, only understood that she saw more in him than he showed to others, that she wanted to see the other parts of him on a regular basis.

'I haven't been able to get the ingredients until now - apothecaries won't sell them unless you're a Potions Master, I can understand that. And then I was going to ask you...but you made it pretty clear you hated me when I came back.'

'You're a Basilica, it's not personal. Oh no, wait, you and your father are the reason why I hate the Basilican bloodline. It is personal,' he ground out and Siana shivered at the malevolence in his tone of voice. 'And I'm also assuming they could still control you through the potions effects, after all if you need the potion to recondition yourself, which is obviously what you want to do...then you're still a danger to yourself and others. Fancy that. You hoodwinked Dumbledore.'

'I did no such thing,' Siana said softly.

'And I believe you. How could I not when the situation so innocently presents itself?' Snape glared at her and then a moment later tucked the small vials of ingredients into his pocket. Siana blanched. No. I need those.

'I'll pay you for them,' she said hastily, her voice desperate, she was not beneath begging at a time like this. Short of procuring the ingredients, the only other option she had was making the potion herself, finding the ingredients herself. Finding a green rooster...getting some New Zealand Mandragora and worst of all, confronting a Boggart in the state of which it most feared her.

'They aren't for sale,' he said, and there was the hint of a self satisfied smile on his face as he said it. He thrilled in his power, in what he could do, in what he was doing.

'Severus you-'

'Professor Snape to you Miss Basilica.' The sign of the self satisfied smile went, replaced with sheer hatred. Siana ignored it, kept plunging into what she wanted to say.

'Professor please this is crucial to-'

'To you? Do you think I give a damn what is crucial to you at this moment?'

Siana shook, she was cold with fear, this was her last chance, her absolute last chance. There was no other way she could glean the ingredients without letting someone else know about her precarious predicament. She largely suspected Snape not only knew that, but was enjoying her desperation and hating her at the same time. She could feel her heart beating.

'We'll strike a deal,' she said hoarsely and Snape then smiled, a horrible smile. His eyes raked her body blatantly and Siana felt oddly, uncomfortably underdressed.

'There's only one thing of yours that I want, and I doubt you'll bargain with it. Though I could be wrong, you could be cheap.'

Siana blanched again. Oh no. Please no. 'Why are you being so horrible?' she said, her voice coming out smoothly, but the pain in it was evident. For a moment Snape was silent, as though steeling himself against her desperation, but a second later his words wiped out the thought that he could ever be reconsidering his cruelty.

'Would you be desperate enough to give me your body in return for some potions ingredients?' he taunted and Siana whimpered in the back of her throat. Would she? I daresay I would. I want this to be over, I want my past to be over now. I don't want it to hold me like it holds me now.

This was the precipice. If she didn't recondition herself with the Insidious Potion in the space of a fortnight all her work, six months of work would be wasted. She'd have to leave and start again. Leave and start again? Leave the only place I feel secure? Go back to Australia? Well it'd be nice to see them again but no! No! I can't do this, I swore to myself I was going to stop running, and I'm going to stop running, no matter what.

'Yes,' she choked, her face burned with shame. 'Yes I would.'

'Say it.' His voice was clipped, impassive, if she felt the shame before, it was nothing to the humiliation that rocketed through her now.

'If you give me those ingredients, I'll let you use my body.'

There was a pause, an odd light in Snape's eye. Finally he said: 'Fascinating. Now get out.'

Siana blinked.

'But I-'

'As nice as it is to know you're about as ethical as a common whore, I don't want your body. Now take your damned wand get the hell out of my sight!' he barked and Siana flinched. Recoiled away from the sound of his voice, from the message in his words, from the own humiliation that was destroying her.

Woodenly she moved past him, as she picked up her bag and book she found herself expecting him to move, or make another dry remark but instead he stood, motionless. She could feel her world disintegrating. She also felt uncomfortable and intrusive as she picked up and pocketed her wand, his silence was a clear wall between them. As she turned to go he cleared his throat.

She turned, thinking she'd forgotten something. He was starting to put the ingredients back in the store cupboard. Siana could feel herself painfully flushed from embarrassment. Even with his back turned, she could still feel all his focus trained on her, beating her down.

'If I ever see you in my private stores again Miss Basilica, I will make a point of killing you with your own wand,' he said slowly and Siana, not wanting to stay for another moment in his presence, nor wanting to arouse his wrath any further, decided to go.

Barely breathing, she turned and left.

He turned silently and watched her go, rage seething through him and the temptation to curse her anyway very strong. His teeth were clenched and he could feel a sheen of sweat on his forehead. He was tense, angry, shaking and at the same time concerned. Why are you desperate enough to make such a ridiculous gambit with your body? Why? And I nearly took you up on it too. Nearly. Filth. Without thinking his hand reached out to the bottle containing a general oral antivenom, he sipped the contents, immune to the foul taste and closed his eyes at the bliss as the pain left.

He took several deep breaths and then shelved the potion, closed the cabinets and minutes later was striding back to Hagrid's hut, his face burning with fury, his hands clenched at his sides. His robe billowed out behind him in the afternoon breeze, the fluttering annoyed him, and he let the irritation swell his anger to greater heights. He was the master of vengeful wrath, especially when it wasn't appropriately righteous.

He slammed the door of Hagrid's hut open, hating the look of surprise on the huge man's face.

'You have no idea how to be a teacher!' he snarled and pointed to the cage of doxies in the corner of his room, humming unpleasantly. 'I had just taken precious time out of my very very busy schedule to see Svelte when I find myself interrupted by the venomous sting of a doxy,' he snarled and Hagrid's eyes widened. 'Imagine that,' he added, his own tone of voice about as poisonous as a doxy sting.

'But I didn't let them out,' he stammered and Severus shook his head, his eyes narrowing. Hagrid I severely doubt that is true. Hagrid looked at the doxy cage and then his eyes suddenly widened in realisation, his face fell. 'Cept for when I was feedin' them,' he added and Severus growled in the back of his throat, damn you Rubeus, it was the invitation he needed to let go.

'Obviously you seem to assume that there actually is a brain in that head of yours, but Hagrid, I sincerely beg to differ. Your creatures are a menace, your teaching methods without discipline, your classes are not well received, I distinctly remember you causing Draco Malfoy a grievous bodily injury when you were first, mistakenly, assigned the job of teacher in the first place!' he said, working himself up into a rage, a target of the day's events. In reality he wanted to be cursing Siana, or Frederick, or even (though he would never admit it) himself.

'If those things had bitten Svelte, she would not have had the luxury of finding an antivenom in time like I did! Did you even think about asking Madam Pomfrey to stock up with the appropriate ingredients before you let those things loose in the school?' he barked and Hagrid shifted as he stood awkwardly. The Care of Magical Creatures teacher lost bucketloads of confidence when his prowess as a teacher was challenged, especially by another teacher.

'I...Sir, I just assume that you'd...you're a great potions ma-'

'Oh is that your excuse,' he cut in, his lips curling in disgust. 'A great potions master! What a placatory thing to say Hagrid, exactly the kind of thing to make me realise how underestimated your stupidity really is. Please tell me it doesn't run in the family, I would hate to discredit your parents, though I would not be surprised,' he sneered.

Hagrid looked extremely upset, though he was trying to hide it. Severus marched over to Svelte and instead of picking her up, he placed a gentle hand on the back of her neck, soothing her. The yelling was upsetting her.

'I'm taking her now. After I've placed her in the safety of my quarters I'm marching straight to Dumbledore and I'm going to...' he trailed off, his arm was hurting again. He looked at it, confused, and a second later had to close his eyes as the pain radiated so violently outwards that it nauseated him. Retching, he stumbled out of Hagrid's hut, unable to answer the concerned pleas of the Keeper of Keys.

Oh what in god's name is it now?

He was violently ill, falling to his knees by the water barrel, as the pain went straight to his gut and he vomited the contents of everything he had eaten not only that day, but the day previous. Agony ricocheted through his limbs, not the agony of the actual potion itself, but the agony of a rejected antidote, a severe allergic reaction, it felt as though his guts were boiling in hot oil. Through the dazzling white pain and nausea he was berating himself, for he realised that he had done this to himself.

You used an antidote you fool, an antidote, the very thing that you cannot use because of the bastard potion they force-fed you. You're lucky to be alive. Though if you want it enough, you could let the claws of death take you, Lilith only knows it's been tempting. You'd be lucky to find the shadow of death. You have precious little to live for.

Blackness surged across his eyes and he limply fell to his side, his last thoughts echoing in his mind...

Well. You may be lucky enough after all.