A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up, I've started Danish language school and I haven't had alot of time to write. Anyways, updating will probably be slow for a while and it will probably stay like that until I get a break from school, so, get used to not so frequent updates people. Ok?

Disclaimer: This disclaimer, which is disclaiming property rights, is not in bold. The author of this story disclaims any responsibility for the lack of boldness in the disclaimer.

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Chapter 17: The Forbidden Forest

The next day, after Snape had double-checked to make sure she was not going to relapse, he let Harry, Ron and Hermione in. Jessica smiled nervously at them as they came in. What would they think of her when they found out what she had done? They approached her bed rather cautiously, and from the expressions on their faces she knew they had heard what she had done. She looked down when they reached her bedside, almost afraid of what she might see in their eyes if she looked.

"Jessica," Hermione said, then stopped. "I wish I could have done something to stop you." Ron nodded rather solemnly. Harry didn't move and Jessica knew he was waiting for her to look up. So she did. And she felt relief wash over her as she realized that her friends were still her friends.

"You couldn't have done anything," Jessica said. "I made a stupid decision because I was trying to avoid the hospital wing. And all it did was land me in the exact place I was trying to avoid. It was a stupid thing for me to do."

She watched them nod slowly and sighed when smiles finally broke out on their faces. She smiled back, feeling strangely better after having admitted her own stupidity.

"Miss Banks," Snape's voice came. He was standing behind Harry, Ron, and Hermione. She hadn't even noticed him approaching. Had he heard her? "You will be released from the hospital wing as soon as Madame Pomfrey determines you are well enough. You will have detention every night for two weeks, starting the first night you are no longer in the hospital wing. Eight fifteen, the potions classroom. Potter, your detentions will now take place with Filch."

"Yes sir," both Jessica and Harry muttered.

Snape gestured to a bottle on the nightstand by her bed and said, "I expect that to be gone by the time I return." With that he turned and strode out of the hospital wing, his robes billowing in what Harry, Ron, Hermione and herself had deemed "a Snape-like fashion".

"You're actually going to drink that?" Ron demanded when she reached for the bottle.

"He's had plenty of opportunities to poison me Ron, and he hasn't done it once." She pulled the

stopper out of the potion bottle and downed its contents, faintly surprised when it tasted fairly reminiscent of lemonade. She wondered what had caused Snape's decision to release her as soon as she was well enough to leave. What was it he had said? "When you are capable of showing me that you can behave responsibly." She smiled when she realized that she had done just that by admitting her stupidity.

"McGonagall gave me the work for today, she said I could go ahead and give it to you," Hemione said as she reached into her back for the papers. Jessica shook her head.

"Save it for me, I'm not in good enough shape to play a decent game of Exploding Snap, much less do homework." Harry smiled slightly at her words. Jessica felt her heart soaring at that. It was going to be hard not to date him, she realized. He was so easy to fall in love with. Wait, fall in love with? I'm not going to think about that right now, Jessica thought as she pushed the thought to the back of her mind.

The four of them talked for about fifteen minutes, then Madame Pomfrey decided that Jessica wasn't resting and she kicked the three of them out. She made Jessica eat something, not that Jessica minded a whole lot; it was a relief to finally have food stay down.

Once she was by herself again she turned her thoughts to the thought that had occurred to her. Was she really falling in love with Harry? Jessica had avoided using that phrase all her life; she was sure she'd declare her love for someone and then decide that she wasn't really in love a few weeks later. She wanted to be sure she was in love, before she even considered thinking it to herself.

Am I really in love with him? Jessica thought to herself curiously. Her thoughts drifted to the nightmare she'd had just yesterday. While she was fairly sure it had been sent to her by Voldemort, she was also fairly sure that she could influence the dreams. Because when she had said, "I love you" in the dream, she was pretty sure it had not come from Voldemort. She was pretty sure it had been completely her own.

But if Voldemort sends the dreams and I influenced that one, that means he now knows that I love Harry, Jessica thought, stricken at that thought.

But I can't love Harry. I just can't.

Why not? That small voice in the back of her had was back. Why can't you love him?

Because. Because I promised that I wouldn't. I promised I'd keep him safe.

Love never follows what decisions you've already made, you know that.

But I can't!

Face it, you're in denial.

I am not! I'm not denying anything! I just can't afford to love Harry right now!

Open your eyes, you're already in love with him. It doesn't matter if you can afford it.

Shut up.

Denial.

Shut up! Just shut up!

The voice didn't respond to that one. Now thoroughly disconcerted, she tried to fall asleep. By the time Madame Pomfrey returned, she had managed it.

x x x x x

Two more bouts of stomach sickness, a fever and several headaches later, Jessica was finally

allowed out of the hospital wing. While she was glad to finally be free of Madame Pomfrey's clutches, this freedom also meant that she would now have detention with Snape, something she sincerely doubted she would be enjoying.

When eight o'clock rolled around that evening Jessica put away the homework and, as slowly as possible, made her way down to the dungeons.

As expected, Snape was waiting for her. When she stepped into the room the first thing Snape did was point to a glass on the corner of his desk and order, "Drink that."

Stepping up to his desk, she picked up the cup and looked down into the cup, grimacing when she realized that it was the very same potion she had overdosed on. She looked up at Snape, astonished that he would have her drink it.

He met her eyes and raised an eyebrow, his voice quite sarcastic as he asked, "Is there something you wished to ask me Miss Banks?"

"You want me to continue taking the potion? Even after what happened?"

Snape stared at her a moment, then said, "Yes, Miss Banks. Unless you enjoy having nightmares?"

"No," she snapped.

"Then you will come down here every night to drink the potion, until I feel you are responsible enough to be trusted not to overdose again."

Jessica picked up the glass and downed its contents as quickly as she could, feeling rather bitter about it. The whole situation was her fault, but that didn't mean she was enjoying the fact that she wasn't trusted. Setting the glass down on his desk, she turned to look at him, wondering what her detention would be.

Snape was standing at the other end of the room with two bags which were about a half the size of her bookbag. He held on of these out to her and said, "Take this."

She did, examined it a moment and then asked, "What's it for?"

"We will be going into the Forbidden Forest," he said. "There is a particular potion ingredient which can only be found in a few places in the country. The Forbidden Forest is one of those places, and since I do not trust Hagrid not bungle up the gathering of it, we will be collecting it." He strode out of the potions classroom and Jessica followed him.

She'd discovered that she had a grudging sort of respect for Snape. He had, after all saved her life and even if it was his responsibility as a teacher, he could have just as easily left it up to Dumbledore or one of the other teachers. But he hadn't, he'd made sure she wouldn't relapse before letting Madame Pomfrey take over. So despite the fact that he could be a real arse at times, Jessica respected him.

It was dark as they strode across the grounds, which made the forest seem even darker and more forbidding than usual. Despite herself, Jessica shivered. She'd never been in the Dark Forest herself, but she'd heard enough stories from Harry, Ron and Hermione to make her want to avoid that place forever.

Snape looked back to look at her as they neared the edge of the forest. "Get your wand out and keep it out!" he snapped. He waited until she had done this and then the two of them entered the forest.

Her first impression was of being led into a place blindfolded. The blackness of nighttime was complete under the trees and Jessica found she couldn't see her own hand. A strange, musty sort of smell lingered in the air, and a tense kind of silence surrounded her. Because of this silence she could hear Snape's indistinct mutter of "Lumos". She followed his example and when her wand tip lit up she had to look away a moment; in the darkness it was almost too bright to look at.

Snape did not speak, only set off into the forest and Jessica followed behind him, trying to move as silently as he did. She had a feeling that they were being watched, a sort of tingling at the back of her neck. While she knew it was probably no more than a few scared animals, her mind kept dredging up images of Voldemort and men in white masks.

Stop it! She scolded herself. Dumbledore would know if Voldemort were here.

Would he? The little voice asked. He didn't seem to know when Voldemort was possessing Quirrell in Harry's first year. Face it, Dumbledore is not as all knowing as he seems.

I'm not listening, I'm not listening, I'm not listening, Jessica thouhgt to herself over and over again in an annoying, sing-song sort of way as she tried to drown out that little voice. She was so busy with this that she nearly ran into Snape when he stopped rather abruptly. Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice, because he didn't comment. He instead pointed to something ahead of them.

They stood at the edge of a clearing. Jessica scanned it quickly but aside from plants it seemed entirely empty. It was a fairly large clearing, filled with small green plants that had soft yellow flowers.

"The flowers?" she asked Snape quietly. He nodded and stepped out into the clearing.

"You will sever the flowers from the plant using the diffindo spell. He demonstrated it for her, then pick up the flowers from the ground and placed them in his own bag. "There is another meadow quite close by, and I will be there. When you are finished send up green sparks. If there is an emergency, send up red sparks." Without even bothering to see if she had taken all of this in, he turned and walked off into the forest.

For a moment Jessica just stood there, and stared after him. Then she shook herself and thought, Come on Jessica, the sooner you get this done, the sooner you can get out of here. She pointed her wand at one of the plants and said, "Diffindo," copying the slight twirl she had seen Snape do. The flowers fell from the plant and she picked them up and put them in her bag. Nothing to it, she thought, absurdly pleased with herself.

She wasn't sure just how long it took to fill up her bag, but she knew it must have taken her awhile, because by the time she was done she could have fallen asleep right then and there. Yawning, she shot up the green sparks and waited for Snape to arrive. He did, only moments later.

"Are you finished?" he asked. Jessica nearly smirked, she had never thought that she would catch him asking a question with such an obvious answer. Instead of smirking, however, she merely nodded and followed Snape as he set off again, following the path they had taken to get out of the forest.

They were about halfway out of the forest when a high, shrill scream echoed through the forest. Both Jessica and Snape froze, listening carefully. The scream rang out again and Jessica began to move towards it the only thought in her mind that she had to help. Snape's hand grabbed the back of her robes and dragged her back.

"Don't," he ordered.

"But it sounds like Na-" she broke off, realizing that what she was about to say was completely impossible.

"Regardless of who it sounds like, I can assure you that following that sound will most certainly lead to your death." She realized that Snape's voice had become almost strained. His face had gone incredibly, so pale that his regular complexion would have seemed normal in comparison. She wondered to herself what he heard. Whatever it was, it seemed to be making him agitated.

"What is it?" she asked softly, knowing he would hear her.

"That can be discussed when we are safely back at the castle," Snape said, as the scream rang out again, closer this time. He started off again, not quite running, but not quite walking either. Jessica followed just as quickly. Once she made the mistake of looking back. She thought she saw a shape far back in the trees, and she moved faster, but not really looking where she was going. She tripped and fell on her face. Panic gripped her and she frantically tried to push herself up, and instead found Snape hauling her to her feet. She didn't look back once after that.

Only a few minutes later they emerged from the forest and were greeted by a normal, moonlit night. But Snape's pace didn't slow, not, even when they had reached the steps to the castle.

Inside the Great Hall, Snape turned and practically tore the bag from Jessica's fingers. "Get to your Common Room before Filch catches you and gives you more detention for being out after hours. Same time again tomorrow."

"And will we be doing the same thing, sir?"

"No," Snape said as he turned and began to walk towards the dungeon. "We will most definitely not be." And he disappeared down the stairs to the dungeons. Jessica headed up to the Common Room.

As she climbed into bed later she thought about the scream she had heard. Though she knew without a shadow of doubt that it was impossible, she had thought the scream had sounded like Nancy. Jessica made up her mind to ask Hermione about it tomorrow. Hermione would know. Hermione knew everything. And with this thought floating around in her head, she drifted off.

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Reviewer Thanks:

madderthanyou: Well, I'm flattered that you think so. I hope you keep reading.

This Time Imperfect: Well, you can call it all you want love, but I call the shots. But did I not do a good job of throwing in some sort of Harry/Jessica? I think I did. And Snape is awesome, though I don't know about him dying to save Harry. But that's me. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Bob: Good! Then I think I want you to keep reading it!

Trinka: Last, but certainly not least. Glad you like and again, I hope Snape is stay in character. He's annoying me. And Harry too, which is why we don't see too much Harry in this chappie. Anyways hope you liked.

Read and review! (Do I even need to say this anymore?)