Disclaimer: I don't own any characters.

Chapter 18

Her heart was pounding. She did not want to have to go through this again, but she knew it was for everyone's well being.

The cold stone walls of the dungeons seemed to leer at her as she walked. She unconsciously tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and stopped in front of the door.

She still hadn't gotten too used to wearing robes. She was used to comfortable clothes. Robes, to her anyway, felt constricting and conservative. And if there was something that Phoebe Halliwell wasn't, it was conservative.

She straightened her black spaghetti strapped shirt, glanced down at her black velvet like pants and silently thanked Chris for orbing some of her clothes over. She knew she would have to be comfortable to be able to endure the torture she was about to go through.

She knocked on the door and heard a cold voice answer from the other side, "Come in."

She opened the door slowly and noiselessly and saw a very perturbed looking potions master sitting behind his desk. He seemed to be grading essays and didn't look so happy.

"Completely wrong. Don't know what she was thinking. Dreadful. If she had added the monkswood after the mandrake root the potion would have exploded in her face," he was muttering to himself and she saw him put a big black 'D' on the paper in front of him.

He put it aside as though it were a pile of hippogriff droppings and picked up the next essay. "Potter," he snorted under his breath.

She saw that he was about to put a grade on it before even reading it and she cleared her throat to get his attention.

His head snapped up, glare already in place but his eyes widened slightly at the sight of her. He wasn't very used to seeing beautiful women in his office, especially one that wasn't covered by robes.

She looked at her watch hurriedly to check the time afraid that she had come too early but it clearly said seven. "Occlu-thingy today. Remember?" she asked smiling.

He nodded curtly and began to hastily stuff the essays in his desk. Phoebe, being the social butterfly she was, tried to start a conversation. "So, that poor girl got a D, huh? I remember when I was in high school I would have been glad to see a few D's instead of the F's I would get."

Snape looked at her genuinely puzzled. "And what exactly does F stand for?" he asked staring at her.

"Stand for? Well, it means you failed. A 'D' is failing too but it's better than an 'F'. Then there's a 'C' which is the lowest passing grade, then a 'B' and an 'A' is the best you can get. Well, actually an A plus, but that's getting technical. Why? Do your grades stand for something?"

"A 'T' stands for troll and is the most abysmal grade given here at Hogwarts. 'D' stands for dreadful, 'P' for poor, 'A' is for acceptable, 'E' is exceeds expectations and an 'O' is outstanding," he explained.

Phoebe nodded knowingly. "So I guess an 'O' would be like an 'A' to us. Hm. Who knew?" she shrugged and walked over to the chair in front of his desk and sat. "So, were you just about to grade Harry's essay without even reading it?" her voice was serious and she looked at him intently.

His dark and brooding composure wavered slightly under her gaze and he almost felt guilty. "That…is none of your concern. You are here to learn the art of Occlumency so that the Dark Lord does not use your secrets against you and your sisters."

Phoebe acted like she didn't hear the last part. "The past couple of days for him have been great. After seeing his parents and Sirius, he feels so much better. I even heard Piper saying that he's doing better in all of his other classes, so you might really want to read that essay before you give it a bad grade."

Snape's ears seemed to have stopped functioning properly. He could have sworn he heard her say that Harry had seen his parents and Sirius. "What did you just say?" he asked barely above a whisper.

"Oh, yeah he's doing really good in his other classes and -"

"No, not that. Before that," he snapped.

"The past couple of days have been good?" she asked not knowing where he was going with this.

"After that," he ground out.

"He saw his parents and Sirius?"

"Yes. That's not possible. They're dead."

"I know. We summoned them. You should have seen the look on Harry's face, and Lily and James for that matter. They were so happy. Harry looks just like James, except -"

"For the eyes! I know!" he snapped for the second time. "You can summon the dead?" He was beside himself.

All this time he had thought that bringing the sisters here had been a mistake. That they would only serve as distractions and not accomplish anything. Now he was beginning to see that perhaps there was more power to them. Maybe he had underestimated them. Maybe, just maybe, they could help.

"Yeah. We've done it a lot of times. Once I had jury duty and I had to summon the victim to prove her husband innocent. And once Wyatt summoned Grams, but he also summoned a dragon out of the T.V. but that's another story." She shivered remembering the Erasers.

Snape couldn't believe his ears. He wanted to know more. He wanted to know exactly how powerful the sisters were. He wanted to know everything.

He controlled the urge to ask more questions and quickly returned to his brooding state. "Let's start. I want you to close your eyes and empty your mind of all thoughts, good and bad. Now take slow deep breaths."

Phoebe concentrated on emptying her mind. She just listened to his voice, which she found oddly comforting, and steadied her breathing.

"Good," she heard his voice say. "Now stand up and ready yourself."

Slowly she got up from the chair but she still didn't open her eyes.

"On the count of three. One, two three, legilimens."

She felt him searching, prying through her mind. Back, back, back he went to a very early memory.

A very young Phoebe and Piper stood in the attic with Prue.

Phoebe had just vanquished the Woogie Man, which had turned her evil and against Piper and Prue.

"If it chose me then I must be more susceptible to it, right?" They said nothing. "Right," she concluded.

"You were the only one born in the house. You're connected to it. It's the spiritual nexus thing," Piper offered calmly.

This seemed to confirm Phoebe's fears. "Exactly. I could go either way, good or evil. It's kinda freaky."

The memory swirled away as another took it's place.

The walls were stone and hooded figures surrounded the couple in the middle who were clad in black.

Phoebe held Cole's hand as he was made the new Source of all evil…and she was his queen.

At Cole's apartment...

"Phoebe, get out here and help us damn it!" Piper yelled as her and Paige tried to corner Cole with the crystals.

Phoebe was huddled in the bathroom. She had to make a choice. Live forever with evil and the love of her life, or her sisters.

"Phoebe he's gonna kill us!" yelled Paige.

Phoebe emerged from the bathroom, last crystal in hand. All she had to do was place it down and Cole would be trapped. No way out.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to Cole's utterly shocked face. "I love you," and with that she placed the last crystal in place and walked over to Piper and Paige.

"Prudence, Penelope, Patricia, Melinda," Piper began the spell.

Phoebe hesitated. She looked once more at Cole and her eyes filled with tears. She could barely choke out the next line of the spell. "Astrid, Helen, Alora, and Grace."

"Halliwell witches stand strong beside us," Paige continued.

"Vanquish this evil through time and space," they finished together.

Cole gave a gut wrenching scream before exploding. The explosion sent a shock wave through the entire apartment and it was almost completely destroyed.

Phoebe collapsed on her knees sobbing…mourning her lost love while her heart slowly hardened. She didn't want to feel anymore.

In an under water cave...

Paige, Leo and their two innocents stood staring at Phoebe.

She was a mermaid. She had been turned into one to help track the Sea Witch, which they had just vanquished. She had golden shells that made up a bra and her hair was held up by small shells and seaweed.

But that's not what they were all staring at.

"Okay, Pheebs, time to turn you back," said Paige.

"No, I'm staying in the ocean, I'm not going back," she said as she backed away with one swish of her golden tail.

"Phoebe, I don't understand," said Paige.

"It's everything Mylie said it was. It's complete freedom," said Phoebe smiling.

Mylie, who had been a mermaid herself, knew what Phoebe was going through. "The call of the sea. It'll turn her heart cold it she lets it," said Mylie.

Now it was Leo's turn to try. "Okay, Phoebe, get out of the water," he said taking a step towards her.

But she backed away. "No."

"Phoebe take my hand," Paige urged.

"No!" Phoebe yelled.

"Phoebe, fight it!" Paige pleaded.

"I don't wanna fight it. I just wanna be free," she said seriously. Then she turned around and swam away.

"Phoebe!" Paige screamed.

The room swirled around her and she could still hear Paige's voice echoing in her head.

She had collapsed a few minutes before Snape had removed the spell. He couldn't help himself. He wanted to see more. It was selfish of him and now Phoebe was shaking uncontrollably on the floor sobbing loudly.

He grabbed a few potions off of his desk and rushed over to her. Her eyes were clamped shut and tears were streaming down her face.

He knelt down beside her and placed his arms around her. She was freezing and her breathing was rapid and shallow.

He pulled her close to his body in an attempt to keep her warm. He uncorked one of the potions with his teeth and forced it down her throat. She sputtered slightly before swallowing, but once she did her shaking slowed and her breathing became calmer.

No potion that Snape had could have stopped the tears.

Slowly he scooped her up in his arms and carried her back into his room.

It was fairly large with the same stone walls that made up the rest of the dungeons, yet the room was warmer. As soon as the door opened, the bed was visible. It was huge and covered with black silk sheets. Next to the bed on either side were torches each with flames already lit. It was among the only light in the room. A few candles were lit here and there on a dresser, but nothing else.

He walked over to the bed cursing himself the whole way. Why did he have to be so stupid? He just had to see what was in her past. He could have seriously injured her mind.

But he couldn't help himself. She had been through so much, all of them had. And he thought his life had been hard. He couldn't imagine having to kill the love if his life. When she said those words, when she had fallen to the floor, he had felt her pain and it was unparalleled.

He tried to lay her down softly but she wouldn't take her arms from around his neck. Gently, he pulled them off and she settled into the bed.

He tucked the sheets around her and he heard her whispering. "Why? Why Cole?" she kept whispering, barely audible.

He left the room and came back with a dreamless sleep potion. He tilted her head back and opened her mouth to give her the potion. Almost as if she knew what was coming, she readily drank the potion. After shifting around slightly for a few restless minutes, she finally fell asleep.

He could have watched her all night. Her tear stained cheeks, her chest moving up and down slowly as she breathed and the way her clothes disappeared into the sheets making her face stand out even more.

He left the room, with great difficulty, and returned to his desk. He pulled the stack of essays out again and stared hard at the first one.

After reading it thoroughly, trying his damnedest to find as many mistakes as he could, Severus Snape gave Harry his first 'O' ever in potions.

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

She found him sleeping when she got to the hospital wing. She sat next to his bed wondering how it would be when her sons were this old.

She reached over to move a small piece of platinum hair away from his eyes when she found her wrist in a vice-like grip.

"Hey!" she yelped. "What's your problem?"

He opened his eyes all the way and found Piper staring at him. "That's quite a grip you got there," she said eyeing him. "How do you feel?"

He answered her question with his own. "What are you doing here?" he asked groggily.

"I came to check up on you," she answered.

"Why?" he spat venomously. "You don't care about me. I'm nothing to you."

She was taken by surprise. "Well, you may not be family but I care if you die."

"Why?" he asked again but this time his tone was low.

"Because you did such a good job cleaning last time, and if you die we'll never be able to find anyone as good as you. Besides, you did look awfully adorable in that pink apron. We still have it, you know, if you ever want to wear it again."

He shot her a look of disgust that made her laugh.

He liked to make her laugh. But when he thought of what he was supposed to do, it made him feel sick to his stomach.

He averted his eyes quickly so he wouldn't see her smiling face. But then he felt a hand on his shoulder and he slowly looked back.

She was looking at him intently and her question was obvious: what's wrong?

But he didn't answer. Instead he shrugged off her hand and said, "You should have let me die."

Now it was her turn to ask why.

He looked her in the eye and pictured her dead just as he had seen her in his dream. Empty, surprised, wide eyes void of all life and he couldn't speak.

Murderer, his mind hissed at him again. You're going to kill one of the only people that might be able to protect you from the Dark Lord. Smart move.

"Shut up!" Draco yelled.

Piper was taken aback. "I didn't say anything. What is wrong with you?"

He shook his head trying to rid himself of the conscience that he didn't want, but it was no use. All he could hear was Paige' s voice screaming at him from his dream.

"I knew," she began, "I knew from the beginning that you were evil."

"What was I supposed to do?!" Draco yelled. "It was you or me!"

"You could have told us!" Phoebe now yelled.

Told us…told us…tell them…tell them…tell her…TELL HER!

She saw that his eyes were closed and he was breathing hard and she thought he might faint. "You need to calm down before you pass out," she said looking at him worriedly.

She really does care, he thought. That just made it harder to tell her. How could he tell her that he was supposed to betray her?

Don't be such a coward. Tell her! Have some courage!

I'm not a bloody Gryffindor! he yelled back.

He felt a hand on his face and opened his eyes.

She had cupped his face with her hand and turned it to face her. "Tell me what's wrong."

He shook his head violently.

She smacked him lightly on the side of the face. "Tell me!" she urged.

"I CAN'T!" he screamed back.

"Why not?!" she wasn't backing down.

"BECAUSE HE'LL KILL ME!"

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

Hope you liked it, it's a good length. Please review! They keep me going. I really need the feedback! Thanks!