She was down in the dungeons. What a place: you are feeling as if behind every corner somebody is waiting with a dagger and any second could stab it into your back. But that was nothing to her; she surely could protect herself from everything and everybody. The most disturbing thing for her was the sense of dread and loneliness; absence of children's laughter and cheerfulness. Even every wall was the same, pushing you to the ground, towering above you.
She was on a mission, sort of. She didn't like nuts, especially uncracked. That's why, on this September evening, she went down to the dungeons to meet professor Snape, but the problem was that she didn't know where his classroom or office was. She couldn't even ask anybody about their location: the dungeons were completely empty. And being in the Hogwarts' dungeons alone was not a pleasant experience.
After half an hour of wandering around, she collided with a forth year and asked him about Snape's office. He paled slightly, but told her the directions. Relieved, she went straight to the old oak door and knocked.
"Come in," said a creaking voice from behind the door. She accepted the proposal and went in. "I wondered when you would honor me with your presence, professor Halflife," Snape said without taking his eyes from the essays he was checking. Ok, she was a little startled, but with her work, she learned to keep her face straight.
"How did you know that it was me?" she found herself asking while he still sat with his back to her.
"The first time I saw you, I understood that your face is quite familiar to me. I thought about the place where this could have happened. After some reflection, I came to a conclusion that the only place I could have seen you, is the meeting of the Death Eaters. I assumed that it would be just a matter of time before you came here."
Only now he faced her, looking straight into her eyes. She was beyond shocked. How could he have seen her there, she did everything to disguise herself and...and...
"How?" was the only thing she mastered.
"Your eyes," was his simple answer in a-matter-of-fact tone.
"My eyes? What about my eyes?" She couldn't believe him, this was just impossible to remember anybody by their eyes.
"Nothing," he said with a tone, sweeping aside any more questions about the matter. 'I presume that Dumbledore has gone insane completely; two Death Eaters at Hogwarts especially at a time like this. Great! Not great, just perfect!' "So, what brings you down here?"
She was left speechless for a few seconds. "I...I wanted to meet you...You know, to talk for a while," she mumbled. She couldn't understand how her cover was blown so quickly and what consequences it would bring.
"We talked. What next?" His indifference was misleading; she couldn't say anything in return. Where were all the years of her training? He was definitely a tough nut and she hated nuts. "And why are you running from me so soon? It is common knowledge that nobody stands me; you don't know me so well to not stand me already. You can sit down, if you like."
'What game he is playing at?' She sat in the armchair he gestured to. "Some tea is also welcome." With a flip of his wand a teapot with mugs appeared. "Thank you."
They were eyeing each other for a couple of minutes, sipping tea and saying nothing. Studying each other like opponents on the battlefield. What? Practically the world was one now.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, professor Halflife asked, "I wanted to talk about your work here. I don't have any teaching practice, so I am talking to professors to gather some of their teaching experience to make some tactics of my own." This was a very neutral theme for a conversation. She didn't want to mention the Death Eater's subject now; she'd already walked on a thin ice.
"My teaching experience? You better talk to my students, they have plenty of reasons to hate me, so they'll spill everything you need not to include into your teaching tactics," he smirked.
'This isn't going anywhere, he won't say anything about himself. Ok, let's go from the other side.' "What is so special about your subject and why do your students, as you've just said, hate you so much?" A twinkle appeared in his eyes.. 'O, this is your soft spot?'
"There isn't anything special in my subject; it is special on the whole. Potions are the strongest thing in magic. Spells, charms, curses are nothing in the comparison with potions. You can find a potion for everything: cooking and poisoning, creating and destructing, loving and hating, healing and killing. Only this aspect can impress a lot."
She decided to keep the conversation in these calm waters. "But potion brewing takes time, while spells are quick and effective."
"Potions was not your strong subject in school, because if it had been, then you wouldn't be asking me this. The point of working on a potion is its making process. Measuring, stirring, looking at its bubbling in the cauldron, already feeling its effect...With spells, you see quick result and we can't live without them, but potions is a special area, where you can feel in your hands the magic itself."
Snape was looking at the wall now, without seeing it, being in his own little world. As he always was, everybody knew that he never left the dungeons. He was always in his office, laboratory, as if he didn't anything better to do, only to slave away at his beloved potions and snap at everyone who dared to disturb his work. But then, he really hadn't any other place to go.
She needed to cough to bring his attention to her again. "You didn't say anything about your students, or more likely their problems in your class. I don't think that it is that difficult to make a potion with an instruction and all the ingredients."
"What was your mark in Potions at school?"
"Is this important?" she frowned a little.
"Yes, because you are asking stupid questions, which can easily be answered if you know the subject," he was slightly irritated by her questioning.
"I studied here, in Hogwarts, it was before you took this position, but my grades were pretty high, even in Potions."
"I think you already know how stupid and clumsy they are. Can't do anything right. This Longbottom is a complete disaster; he blows up his potion every class! They wouldn't be able to understand a thing that I am talking to you about now. I know you barely understand it yourself, but I am only answering your questions. As for the reasons of their hate," he made a small pause and frowned thoughtfully. "It's easier for you to decide by yourself. You can visit some of my classes, if you like."
"This is a very generous proposal, professor Snape. I'll think it over. Now, thank you for tea and this pleasant conversation. I should go and prepare for tomorrow's classes."
She stood up and turned to leave. Snape didn't bother to stand up and say good-bye. He was very comfortable in his chair, why should he even move? She is a grownup woman and can find the door by herself. He was already turning back to his table to finish grading second year essays, when he heard a muffled shriek. 'What now?' he thought in frustration. Turning his head he saw professor Halflife, who was bending, tightly holding onto her stomach and clenching her teeth, not to make another sound.
"You didn't take anything from my table, did you?" he asked, his face emotionless. She didn't make a sound, but wasn't moving. Then she shook her head, trying to say no. "Then what is wrong with you?"
'Merlin, why now? And in front of him no less. Couldn't it have waited for just half an hour? Man, it hurts so much. And he didn't even ask if I am ok.' "Nothing. I'll go to my chambers and everything will be ok," she said through clenched teeth, trying not to look in pain, but failing miserably.
"Oh no, you don't!"
Her eyes widened a bit in surprise to his reaction, but then she screamed and fainted.
'A fainted woman. Nothing new to me already. Ok, what can we do here... ' Snape levitated her with his wand to his private chambers and put her on the coach. He couldn't leave her in his office because it was inappropriate behaviour for a professor to have a woman in his office, especially a fainted woman. But it was absolutely normal to have her in his room, wasn't it?
After closer examination, he understood that it hadn't been just a simple stomach-ache, but that was all he could comprehend. He wasn't a healer, but still knew some spells, and of course, potions to awake the dead from their grave, so it was more then easy to awaken a fainted woman. He made some manipulations in a cupboard and took out a simple but effective cure for such a condition. Snape then lifted her head up and poured the potion through her teeth, which was not simple at all. After 1 minute and 28 seconds she began coughing like mad. Snape smirked – perfect timing. As he said: simple and effective.
"What have you done to me?" Nothing was left of the polite professor Halflife. There was now a woman, and a very angry one at that.
"Nothing."
"What do you mean nothing?" she was already standing with hands on her hips. "I am coughing, and I didn't before I came to see you."
"You fainted and I used a potion to wake you from your peaceful sleep. If you didn't want me to disturb your beauty sleep, then before fainting, you should've said that you were going to watch sweet dreams on the floor of my office and you have all rights to do so," he was quite angry and his words were full of sarcasm.
"Me? Faint?" she couldn't manage to set her thoughts in one direction.
"Yes, you!" he pointed his finger at her. "And now I want to know what it was all about."
"And why should I tell you, ha? You are not my mother or my psychiatrist."
"Bless Merlin for it. I answered your questions all evening; I have a right to ask you one."
"It is none of your business," she hissed.
"Temper, temper. I am not eager to torture the answer out of you. But it is my business because it happened in my office, in my presence and I know that it's not some common stomachache."
"How…you…you," she didn't know what to say about his actions, she was so disgusted and pissed off.
"Well, if you really don't want to tell me, you can do what you initially wanted and go to your chambers. I have many sources and they can tell me all about your disease in the morning." Yes, he was bluffing, but he was a scientist and desperately needed to know what was wrong with her, maybe it was some unknown virus and he would discover it.
His bluff worked. The process of deep thinking was shown on her face. "All right. I'll tell you. But then you won't bother me anymore. Deal?"
"Deal."
"I am cursed by my family for becoming a Death Eater. Pleased now?"
"What kind of curse?"
"I am not going to tell you this."
"Is it that horrible?"
"Yes, and I don't want to talk about it. Why are you so interested, by the way?"
"Scientific interest. Have you done anything to take the curse off?"
"Of course I did, but nothing helped and I've tried everything!"
"Maybe we can sit down on this well-disposed couch and I will become your psychiatrist for a while."
"I don't think so."
"Pity." She saw a real pity on his face.
"Ok, only because of your scientific interest. As I already said, I have been cursed by my family. I don't think you know, but family curses are very powerful. My destiny is to have a creature in me that eats me alive, but the worst part is, that he asks to be fed. His voice – is the pain that I suffer from one day to another until I eat enough for it. It would be very easy to just eat more, but it feeds also on my pleasant emotions and dreams. When I am waking up I am going to hell, when go to sleep – fall to another. A pleasant life, as you can see."
"Anything else?"
"I can't give birth." Now she was near hysterics, tears were running down her cheeks and her face was red from crying and embarrassment.
He was shocked. How could a family do something like this to their own child, then something occurred to him. "There was another reason for the cursing." She looked at him with unfocused eyes, trying to understand his words, but all in vain. She was on the verge of hysterics and couldn't say a word. "You were cursed in such a horrible manner not because you started to work for Voldemort, but because you didn't want to, am I right?" he looked at her with his piercing look, but his eyes were calm and understanding. "No family that is on the good side would ever do such a thing. They would never curse their children."
"This is true," she said under her breath, still sobbing.
"But you are a Death Eater. That means you are working for the Ministry. At last they have done something worth!" he crunched his knuckles.
She was looking at him in shock. Her cover was completely blown. She was preparing for death and the end of all this Hell, because another Death Eater was sitting right beside her. Then what the Hell was he talking about?
"What the Hell are you talking about?"
"Meeting a colleague is always a pleasure." She was dumbstruck. Utterly. "I was wondering what Dumbledore had in mind, when he asked you to teach here. A person from the Ministry. Hm, he always knows what he wants, our old witty headmaster."
"You mean, you work for the Ministry too? I haven't seen you there."
"I work here."
"Then…"
"You said you have tried everything, what potions have you tried?" he interrupted.
"I haven't tried them," she said very quietly.
"And I thought you were smart! You must learn my lecture of today by heart! Every disease has its cure and that cure is potion!"
"Don't jump around the bush, say what you want!"
"I'll find the cure after taking some tests," he said calmly, but a slight twinkle could be seen in his eyes.
"What?"
"Not smart, but deaf too? What a disappointment!"
"You are saying that you will help me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Scientific interest."
Professor Halflife left Snape's chambers and headed to her own. Maybe that would mean the end of her torture and she would be able to live a normal life again. Have a home, loving family and children. And certainly give Voldemort a piece of his mind on a silver plate.
Tomorrow. Another day and another weight of pain and responsibility for her students. She must teach them how to defend themselves or every dead body of theirs will be a scratch on her conscience.
After professor Halflife left, Snape thought about the reason he offered to help her. There were two, actually. Scientific interest and those eyes. Those deep blue oceans. He could recognize them in a dark room full of people. If he could succeed, or rather they succeed because he couldn't do all the work. Malfoy and Weasley would help to save the life of a human.