A/N: Well, here it is, the sixteenth chapter. Not that the number 16 has any significance to it. I have this weekend and then on Monday I am starting Language school for Danish. So, quiet obvious, the update rate will be slower.

And I know I've been updating almost too fast, but no one has yet answered my question. How would you guys feel about a sequel? Really, I want to know!

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, blah blah blahblah. BLAH!

........................................................................................................................

Chapter 16: Decency

Jessica lay in bed crying for nearly twenty minutes before Professor Snape returned. In fact, she was still sobbing when she heard him enter the hospital wing. She buried her head further in her pillow, trying desperately to escape from what she knew was coming.

"Look at me, Banks." Snape's voice scared her, for instead of the harsh anger she had seen earlier, it now held a dangerously calm quality. It was too calm for the circumstances and Jessica knew she was in trouble because anything Snape did now would be done intentionally, and with cold deliberation. Jessica pulled her face out of the pillow and slowly looked up at his face. As she had expected, the look in his eyes contrasted with the calmness of his voice. She cringed away from him, knowing that he was about to show her just how far he had been pushed.

"You lied to me," he said, his voice still deadly calm. Slowly, carefully, she nodded, finally admitting to it, knowing that denying it at this point would only make things worse, and waited for the explosion.

"The only potion which will help will cause you to feel worse before you feel better, but due to your circumstances, there is no choice." He pulled a bottle out of his robes and handed it to her. She took it carefully, and examined it. It was a small green bottle and through its translucent sides, she could see that there was just enough potion in it for two swallows.

"Drink it," Snape ordered, his calm demeanor evaporating as he hissed the words at her. "Drink it or I will make you drink it and I can assure if I have to make you drink it, you will not enjoy the experience."

Her hands shaking, she pulled the stopper out of the bottle and raised it to her lips. She hesitated momentarily but Snape's eyes flashed and she swallowed. As she did this, she noticed Snape conjuring a bucket out of the corner of her eye. Moments later she knew why he had conjured it as she sat up, bent over the bucket and was violently sick. Even after she had emptied her stomach her body kept trying to force something up and in her misery a cry for help wrenched itself from her throat.

"No one can help you with this, you stupid girl; it is a result of your own actions." The cold anger in his voice stung, and Jessica felt tears forming in her eyes. "This is your fault, Banks. If you hadn't been so stupid and overdosed yourself th-"

"That is enough, Severus," came Dumbledore's voice from behind Snape. Jessica collapsed to the bed sobbing, the impulse to be sick finally gone.

"You agreed to let me handle this situation," Snape said.

"That was before I knew that you were going to be overly harsh. I am disappointed in your behavior."

Jessica heard Snape set the bucket down and heard him leave the hospital wing but even then she could not stop crying. Then, suddenly, someone was wiping away her tears. She realized it was Dumbledore and gradually her sobs quieted.

Finally after a period of silence, Dumbledore said, "Why did you take so much at once Jessica?"

"He was going to send me to the hospital wing if I forgot to take it. I didn't want to go to the hospital wing."

"And lying about it has landed you here anyway," Dumbledore said, disappointment evident on his features.

"I'm sorry," she said, tears forming again.

"I am not the one you should be apologizing to," he said, his voice stern.

"I'm not apologizing to Snape!" she yelped.

"Professor Snape, Jessica."

"Professor or not, I'm not apologizing! He hurt me!"

"He did what was necessary to ensure your safety."

"He enjoyed seeing how miserable I was!"

"I can assure you he did not."

"He said it was all my fault; he said I was stupid!"

"You have betrayed his trust and made him angry with you. His anger is not entirely unfounded either, Jessica."

"Then you think I'm stupid too?" she demanded.

"On the contrary," Dumbledore said. "I think you are an intelligent young lady. But what you did today was both irrational and irresponsible."

"He hates me, he wants me dead," Jessica said.

"If that were indeed the case I doubt he would have searched his entire stock of potions to find one which could save you."

That shut Jessica up for a minute. "He only did it so you wouldn't be suspicious of him, because he knew you would find out if I died because of him."

"That is enough," Dumbledore said, and Jessica flinched because his voice held a similar type of rebuke to what it had held when he had spoken to Snape. In slightly gentler tone of voice he continued, "You need sleep. Madame Pomfrey will be back in a few moments." And he stood up and left the hospital wing.

x x x x x

Nightmares plagued her sleep and several times that night she awoke gasping for air and feeling like she had to be sick. After waking up the first time she sipped at some water and when it stayed down, she finished off the entire glass. That was a mistake, she woke up not long after that and this time she actually was sick. Nothing stayed down and finally she gave up, feeling completely miserable and helpless. In addition to the upset stomach she was hot and feverish.

She woke the next morning to find Madame Pomfrey by her bed with some broth. Jessica tried a few sips but after being sick only moments afterward she gave up on it and refused to have any more. Madame Pomfrey finally gave up and left, and Jessica lapsed back into sleep.

x x x x x

"Goodbye, Harry," Voldemort said, softly, and then, in contrast, he shouted, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" A flash of green light issued from the tip of Voldemort's wand and struck Harry right in the middle of the chest. Harry crumpled to the ground, his expression dead and gone. Jessica screamed in agony and the men laughed at her, and both sounds filled the air.

Voldemort stared down at Harry, and another cruel smile played at his lips. Jessica stared down at Harry as well, tears falling from her eyes down onto his cheeks, where they glistened like diamonds. "I love you," she whispered, hardly aware that she had spoken the words aloud. But she had indeed spoken them, for Voldemort turned to her now, his eyes expectant.

"How touching," he said, his voice filled with cold amusement. "She loved him." A few of Voldemort's followers laughed, but not too loudly. The air was tense, expectant, waiting.

Voldemort's cold eyes fixed onto hers and he smiled. "Who am I to separate lovers?" He raised his wand, and said, "Since you love him, join him. Avada Kedavra!" Green light flashed from his wand and reached up to engulf her...

Jessica sat up gasping. She might have taken to crying again, but then she noticed who was standing next to her bed and the notion of crying completely left her. Snape stood next to her bed. Closing her eyes she rolled over, turning her back to him.

"Look at me Miss Banks," he ordered, but this time there was no anger in it, only a note of annoyance.

Jessica ignored him, pretending she had not heard him. She wasn't going to do anything he wanted.

"No matter how much you believe it, imagining I am not here will not make it true. Look at me."

"Go away," she muttered sullenly. "I hate you."

Snape sighed. "While I cannot say I did not expect such a reaction, I did expect a bit more gratitude on your part."

"Gratitude?!" she said, sitting up and looking at him, outraged. There was a strange sort of look in his eyes but she ignored it as she said, "You make me feel like I'm dying and you want gratitude?! Oh, that's rich!"

"I also saved your life," Snape said, irritably.

"Nobody asked you to!" she snapped. "I didn't need your stupid help!"

"Refusing to help you would have been the same as intentionally poisoning you. No matter what you may think, I would not allow such a thing to occur."

"You might as well have poisoned me!" She shouted. "Now I can't eat, I'm probably going to starve and I can't even get a decent night's sleep because of the stupid nightmares brought on by your bloody potion!"

"It was necessary to purge the Occluding Potion from your body. And you are having nightmares?"

"Yes," Jessica said, sullen again. He wouldn't rise to the bait, wouldn't get angry with her, no matter what she did.

And to her complete and total shock, a look of relief crossed Snape's face. That strange look in his eyes, could that have been concern? Snape, concerned about her? How strange.

"I can give you another potion now then, if you are having nightmares," he said.

"What use would that be? I'd just be sick, nothing stays down because of your stupid potion."

"You fail to understand. Nightmares are a sign that the potion has cleaned out your system. You no longer have a fever do you?"

Jessica paused a moment and realized with shock that he was right. Her fever was gone. "No, the fever is gone," she said.

Snape nodded. "It will be safe to give you the other potion then. You'll still feel sick from time to time and there may be a few more brief fevers, but you are out of danger."

"When can I leave then?" Jessica asked, her rudeness coming back. The last time she had been nice he had been mean to her, she wasn't about to let him do that again.

"When I say you can," Snape said, his voice curiously flat as he said this.

"So until I've missed enough classes to make it impossible to catch up, is that it?" She snapped.

"Until you show me that you are capable of behaving responsibly."

"Will I at least be allowed visitors?" she asked.

Snape's dark eyes met hers and to her disbelief he said, "Yes. Tomorrow, when I can be certain you are not in any danger of relapsing." He turned and began to walk from the hospital wing.

"Thank you," she said, knowing that she was contradicting herself.

"Denying them the right to see you would only cause Mr. Potter and your other friends to sneak in here anyway," he said loftily. "And I assumed you would prefer it if I did not have to take away any more house points from Gryffindor." He walked out, not looking back at her.

Had Snape just done something decent? Not just semi-decent, but decent? And moreover, she thought she had detected a hint of amusement in his voice. Had he been making a joke? The notion of Snape joking was so ridiculous that she had to grin.

The grin faded though, when she remembered that Snape had promised punishment for her stupidity in overdosing. While she herself thought that the miserable feeling in itself was punishment enough, she knew he would have to do something official. Probably detention. Not relishing the idea of having detention with Snape, she tried to think about something else.

An even more dismal thought occurred to her. What would Harry, Ron and Hermione think of her when they found out what had happened? She could not remember how she had gotten to the hospital wing and she realized with a sinking sensation that they had probably been the ones to drag her up to the hospital wing, which meant that they probably already knew.

Sighing, Jessica pushed that out of her mind too, but that left her with only the memories of the dream for company and she did not want to think about that either. In a vain hope of getting some restful sleep she laid back down and closed her eyes. When Madame Pomfrey came to check on her a few minutes later she was fast asleep.

........................................................................................................................

Reviewer Thanks:

Trinka: Well, did I do a good job of portraying Snape? I feel like he was a bit out of character. Perhaps I should have made him a bit more sarcastic about the whole thing. And yes, Snape was an arse about the homework, but isn't that exactly the kind of thing he would do?

Read and review. If I'm quick enough, I may have another chapter out by tomorrow. I love you guys, in a non-yucky sort of way.