Hey ya'll, sorry it's taken so long, life is long and busy. I got a lead in my school musical Once Upon a Mattress, it's basically the musical version of The Princess and the Pea. But yesterday I got my wisdom teeth out...does that mean I'm not wise anymore? Lol. Tell me what you think of this chapter and then I'll know if I'm wise or not. Lol.
Laragirl007--I think I'm glad your thankful for the chapter, I worked hard on it. As for shouting at Severus, she's got a lot of rage towards him. And she doesn't much care if he's made at her or not. I'm glad the scene was touching, that was how I wanted it to be. I needed toshow that he cares about her, no matter what's she said about him. Here's an update for you, actually here's two. Lol. I'm glad you're 'fond of my story', it makes me happy. That people like it.
Mysterious Man--I'm confused, did you join the site cause your name keeps changing. Lol. Here's another new chapter...and another just for fun. Answers from her father...lol...she doesn't get that very well last chapter. But she will. Soon. ; P As for the Weasley brothers, I love them. They're fun. I'm glad it was a nice Christmas treat.
A.S. Leif--Yup, that was my feeling when I wrote that chapter. GO LEO! GO LEO! Lol. Making Sev back off is just part of Leo's charm. As for the twins, there is a first time for everything! I'm a genius am I? Well...I hope the removal of my wisdom teeth didn't damage that fact. Lol. I think I told you already but I can't remember so I'm telling you again: ) , yes this story will follow HBP. Stupid finals, we have finals next week. : ( Anyway, I'll hear from you later (she asks hopefully, wishing for a bunch of reviews!) Lol.
Fudgesuks--OMG! HERE'S AN UPDATE! Lol. Thanks for the review. Tell me what you think of this chapter.
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Chapter Sixteen
Therapy
Lenore brooded silently in her room two weeks later. Ignoring all the fights about what she could or couldn't do she had had a pretty tame week. She glanced at the calendar that she had hung up in her room. She had been in England since June twentieth, five long weeks. And she had absolutely nothing to do at this moment. She had read through all the books in her room and had attempted to go to the library, which got her yelled at; so she began asking Fred or George to come over whenever they could, and, though it was mostly George, one of them was by every other evening until last week when Snape hit the roof big time and 'grounded her'. She took that directly to Albus and he scolded her, after telling Snape to calm down and having him leave, telling her she needed to try and get along with the man more.
She frowned and wheeled her way towards the desk. Though she had been doing physical therapy for her legs and back, with the help of McGonagall, she had been taking a few steps each day. Unfortunately, McGonagall was leaving to visit her family for the last portion of the summer so the only other person that could help her with the therapy was Snape and she was dreading their session in another hour or so, just before she was 'told' to go to bed.
She 'parked' at the desk and was reading for one of the novels Laura had sent her last week when the communication parchment started singing Fur Elise. She grinned and fished the parchment out. Laura had sent it to her a few days after she had found out about Lenore's accident. It was basically a magical form of instant messaging, where Laura had the other sheet and they could talk back and forth to each other immediately. It was a cool idea.
'Hey little one are you there?'
She grinned and grabbed her pen. 'Hey Laura, I haven't heard from you in a while.' She wrote quickly.
'Sorry, I've been busy planning the lessons for this year.'
'Oh.'
'So how have you been?'
'Mindlessly bored. Anything interesting happen back home?'
'Erica is getting hit up by the government to go to all these meetings. Apparently the U.K. has finally told the other schools the truth about what it going on in England. Erica has been asked to attend as a representative of our school.'
Lenore's eyes widened at the implications. 'What are they expecting to do about that?'
'I'm not sure. But according to Erica, Albus has been attending the meetings, did you know that?'
She froze. 'No.' she scratched out on the paper. They both didn't write for several moments. '…have you had any luck researching the sample I gave you?' A week ago she had mentioned to Laura about how she had been unable to take the necklace that she had found in the attic off and the peculiar liquid inside. She sent a sample, one almost the size of a single drop, to the Potions Teacher and had been waiting for an analysis of it.
'Yes…I'm not sure if I want to let you know what it is.'
'Why?'
'Because it's both Dark and Light magic combined.'
'So is the ring you gave me, I really don't care. I just want to know what it is.'
'Well…it's everything and anything.'
'You're not making any sense.'
'The potion has the properties of Felix Felicis potion as well as every shield that could possibly be made into a potion is also mixed in there as well any healing potion you can think of but times them by at least twenty not to mention there are several ingredients that I don't recognize. I'm not sure I understand it. But I think it works like the ring I gave you but if you want the full affects you must take no more than a drop.'
'But how can all those potions be combined? More than one of those could cause a horrible and fatal explosion.'
'The person who made this must have been a potions genius.'
Lenore's brow furrowed. Her mother was excellent at potions but she had never seen the woman create anything like inventing a potion. But she was sure the necklace was from her mother…right? 'My mom?'
'Most likely. She could have had my job or a job at the University but she wanted to paint and write. Those notebooks you copied for me of hers are amazing. Have you read any of them?'
She glanced towards the box that she had brought from her room the second night she was here. It was full of a lot of her mother's old things. Tears filled her eyes. She had yet to open it. Each time she gathered the courage to the moment she started to open it her mother's screams filled her eyes. 'No.' A tear hit the paper smearing the previous ink.
'I'm sorry, Leo. Are you still no able to open the box?'
She stared at the words for a good minute before she could write back. 'I've opened a few of them. I've hung a few of the paintings up. . . . . it's nice to see my mom smile at me. I just wish she had animated the artwork. I'd like to hear her voice again. She could tell me what to do.'
'Do you really want a piece of art to rule your life?'
'No...but it'd be a way of hearing her again.'
'Leo, have you spoke with Mr. Snape about this?'
Lenore snorted, partially because Laura, once she stopped talking about Snape as her father, started referring to him as 'Mr. Snape' and partially because of the idea of her speaking to that man about her mother. 'No.'
'Leo. Have you even tried?'
'. . . I don't want to try. I want to go back home, to you and Erica, and the others at Salem's; I've talked to Mary Anne, Helen, Astrid, and the others, a few days ago. They said that they will try to get out to see me around my birthday. Will you come too?'
'Of course. I was actually thinking of coming out there within the next few weeks, but only if it is alright with Mr. Snape. . . you did ask his permission before inviting them over right?'
'I didn't invite them, Garret, Isaiah, Ralph, Stephan, and Washington got together with the girls and convinced their parents all in one. They told me no arguments, their coming whether I like it or not. Lol. Which I really don't have a problem with. . . . I miss them,'
'That sounds like them. But I think they're kind of lost without you around though. According to their parents, who have been calling me about summer homework, they've been sulking.'
'Weirdos.'
'So says the girl who is called Queen-Empress.'
Lenore giggled. 'I didn't appoint myself as a Queen, it was a joke!'
'Sure it was.'
'Meanie. : P.' There was a knock on Lenore's door. She quickly covered the parchment. "Yeah?"
Snape opened the door. "You have five minutes to get ready for the therapy session."
She looked sharply at her clock. It would take her at least ten minutes to get dress into her work-out outfit and another three to fix her hair in a ponytail and get into the living room. "I still have twenty minutes."
He frowned. "I would like to attempt to see you walk longer than thirty seconds today. Five minutes."
She glared at him. "Fifteen."
"Five."
"It'll take me that long just to get my clothes out and get out of my chair, let alone changed."
He sneered at her. "You could always use magic."
"You told me not to become dependant on it." She retorted. "Besides, I want to get back on my feet a lot more than you think I do." He stared at her. "I'm not particularly fond of staying here with you breathing down my neck."
Something she couldn't quite place flickered across his eyes. "Ten minutes." He said before walking out.
She rolled her eyes. 'I have to go. Snape moved up the therapy session.'
'Leo,'
'I wasn't rude! He told me five I told him that it'll take me that long to get out of my chair get the clothes out.'
'That wasn't what I was going to say.'
'O.'
'What I was going to say is take care of yourself and I think that you should go through a few of your mother's things.'
Lenore glanced at the box again. 'I don't know, Laura.'
'It'll help with the pain and nightmares.'
'How did you—'
'I know you. Um…just to tell you, in the box of her books I slid the portrait of your parents at their wedding.' Lenore froze, the feelings of betrayal hatred and disbelief filling her. 'Leo? Look, I only did it because Mr. Snape might like to have it.' She didn't write back to Laura. Her eyes glued to the box in her room. 'Leo please, don't be mad but he'll want it if you don't.'
'And you would know that how?' she ground it into the paper.
'Leo. Behave yourself.'
'I'm sorry but I can't believe that you would put that into my box. How did you even know about it?'
'Remus told me before he left. He wanted me to see if I could slip it in unnoticed.'
Irritation set in. 'Then I'll have to kill him as well as throttle the picture.'
'Lenore Eileen Keller, I know you have more maturity than that, behave yourself.'
She frowned at the reprimand. 'I'm not sorry, Laura but I will try to hold my temper around him. But I really do have to go.' She wrote determinately but with a downcast look in her eyes, which had grown darker.
'Alright, little one. I love you, you know that right? I only want what is best for you.'
'. . . . . . . I know. I love you too, Laura. I just wish I could see why you want me to get along with him so much.' She tapped the paper with her wand and the words disappeared, severing the connection until she felt like opening it again.
Slowly she wheeled towards the dresser. She thought about changing by magic but then sighed. She might as well do it the normal way, she'd have to get used to the pressure on her leg and back sooner or later. Very gradually she took a few steps towards the dresser before summoning the balance bar that was hovering next to her bed over. She used it to help her stand as she pulled her sweat clothes from the top drawers and the moved towards the bed. She carefully slid her skirt off (she had opted over the last two weeks to wear them instead of pants because of how easy they were to get into) and then little by little brought each of her legs into the black sweats legs. Her back, as usual protested but not as much as it had the first time she had tried to change her clothes without magic. She pulled her black shirt off and pulled her baggy red shirt with the words 'Everyone Loves and American Girl' written across it.
She stood up and sat back down in the chair. For a moment she just sat there before moving over to the mirror and pulling her hair, which was loose on her back today, up into a ponytail. A few strands, too short to fit in the ponytail, fell in her face and she tucked them behind her ear before she opened her door (this time with magic) and wheeled out into the living room, a minute late but she didn't care.
The living room had changed into a sort of recreational room, very much unlike what McGonagall and she worked with. There was a mat that looked comfortable off to the left side of the room. Along the back wall was an assortment of balance beams for her to walk next to and between (something she at least was used to). But strangely in the middle of the room there was what looked like a mini pool that was steaming slightly, almost like a large bath (or small one if you compared it to the Perfects baths.) Snape at the moment was pouring several different things into the water, all of them looked to be potion vials and each one he emptied.
"What's this?" she asked uncertainly.
He poured two more in turning the water a soft green-blue. "I was unhappy with your progress with Minerva therefore I have read alternative methods. My goal is to get you walking by the end of the week for more than an hour at a time." He added a little more of one of the bottles, which caused the water to turn sea-green before he was satisfied.
A slight fear was alive in her. "Oh,"
He stood up and she noticed he wasn't wearing any sort of wizarding robes. He, of course, was still dressed in black, but he had a pair of what looked like stretchy-jeans on with a black collared shirt, buttoned down the front. "Head over to the mat." Lenore started to wheel the chair over but he stopped her. "No, walk over." Instantly the hovering bar from her room was at her side, without her even summoning. "Go on, I'll be back in a few minutes, I want you on the mat, back against the wall, stretching your legs with the stretches McGonagall taught you."
She stared at him as he disappeared into his lab. Frowning she struggled to her feet and made her way towards the mat. It took about two minutes to get situated and begin stretching. This was going to be a very interesting physical therapy lesson. She knew that even before it had started. A few minutes after she started stretching Snape came back into the room with a jar of some sort of cream in his hand.
He opened the container and the smell of a nerve-numbing cream hit her senses. "This will give a little bit more numbness to the pain in your back as we exercise your legs."
"All right." She moved forward slightly. "But I can't reach where I broke it."
He nodded and she lifted up the back of her shirt to reveal the fading bruises on her back, most of them still looking quite nasty but nothing could be done about it until she started walking again so she could get off of the pain medication. She gasped when he touched her back. "What is it?"
She nearly recoiled. He sounded concerned…did he really care? "The…the cream is cold." She said the half truth. If she was going to be completely honest, he had touched a tender spot on her back and the cold of the cream had sent a shock up her spine of both pain and surprise.
"I apologize."
For several moments they were silent as he rubbed the cream on her back. "There." She lowered her shirt and looked at him as he closed the lid. "Sit up straight. There'll be no pain."
"Not yet." She muttered obeying.
"Now, I've got a few new stretches that will make your legs gain muscle again." Snape sat on his knees. "Lay down on you back." She obeyed once again, but much more slowly and gently. "Now," he straightened her right leg, the one that had been broken in two places. "Lift your left leg up in the air." Her brow furrowed but she obeyed, lifting the leg that she had shattered up into the air slightly. "Now with this stretch, you must bend it while it is in the air." He explained with bending her leg in. She winced slightly but didn't say anything as a small flash of pain shot through her leg. "This will stretch the muscles in the back of your legs as well as your calves."
Lenore and Snape worked on a few new stretches for nearly an hour and by that time she was sweating from the physical exertion. "Here," he handed her a normal pepper up potion. "This will get you through the next half hour."
She stared at him. "McGonagall only went an hour per session."
He stood up. "Do you want to walk again?"
Her eyes darkened and grew hard. "Is that a real question?"
"Extending each session into two hours sessions will help that along fast." He said firmly. She glared at him defiantly for a moment before drinking the Pepper Up Potion and struggling to her feet. "Here," Almost as suddenly as he had spoken Snape had lifted her up.
She let out a small screech. "Whoa! What are you doing!" she exclaimed both trying to get down and flinging her arms around his neck so she wouldn't fall.
He stopped at the balance beams and set her up in between two of them. "No sense in you tiring yourself out before you even get to the balance beams." He moved to the other side of the beams. "Walk towards me."
She arched her brow. "Okay." She started towards him, grasping each balance beam as she walked. When she reached about half way, though, she didn't seem to be moving anywhere. "Why can't I get to the end?" she asked after a moment.
Snape almost smiled. Almost. "Because I have it rigged so that it would be like one of those Muggle things, Conveyer Belt or something,"
Lenore frowned. "So you just want me to keep walking." He nodded.
She sighed and did so. She kept walking and, for a while, all she felt where little spurs of pain. After about thirty or forty minutes the nerve-numbing cream wore off. Determined to keep going until he told her to stop she kept walking, her grip on each bar growing tighter as the pain increased. She bit down on her lip, lowering her eyes from the spot on the wall she had been staring at and glared at the floor, trying to block the pain.
"Stop," he said suddenly and she looked up, freezing but her grip on the bar didn't loosen. She was afraid if she did she would fall down. "I was hoping you had more common sense than that."
"Huh?" she managed to say.
"You should have stopped when the pain started getting too much." He half growled.
"It's not too much."
"That's why you're gripping the bar as if your life depended on it," he said moving towards the cupboard that was in the dining room. He pulled a vial out and walked back to the bath and dumped it in. "All right, last part. Make yourself a…what are they called…swim suit?"
Lenore's brow arched higher than ever before. "What?"
He moved towards her. "Make yourself one of those Muggle bits of clothes that let you swim in water, swimsuits."
"Why?" she asked suspiciously.
"By all means you can go into the pool in your sweat clothes but I think that you might find them a little heavy for a pool." He said with a smirk.
"But why—" He lifted her up. She let out a startled cry. "Warn me when you're going to do that!" she exclaimed, gripping his shirt because of the pain shooting through her back. "Why am I going into a pool?"
Snape set her down just out of reach of the pool but next to a bar that would lead her towards the pool. "It has many healing properties in it now, pain killers as well. I want you to stay in the pool a half hour before you can go either get some rest or summon one of the house elf's for dinner."
She stared at him before waving her hand at herself, changing into one of her three bathing suits. A black, one-piece took the place of her sweat clothes. On the swimsuit was a single vivid blue rose that extended from her left hip and bloomed on the upper portion of her right breast and lower part of her right shoulder. There were about a dozen purple, blue, green, and white fairies about the suit; each one had a tiny star of glitter near it. Gold words spelled out 'The Blue Roses Hide Them' just beneath the rose.
She pulled herself to her feet and inched her way towards the pool. She sat on the step of the pool, submersed to her shoulders in the water, which had immediately taking her pain away. With a wave of his hand classical music began to play in the back ground as he cleaned, by hand no less, the mat and bars before shrinking them and setting them on a counter. Lenore fought a sigh of contentment and tiredness as she began playing with the vial around her neck.
Lenore thought back to her conversation with Laura about the necklace. 'The potion has the properties of Felix Felicis potion as well as every shield that could possibly be made into a potion is also mixed in there as well any healing potion you can think of but times them by at least twenty not to mention there are several ingredients that I don't recognize. I'm not sure I understand it . . .' Laura's words rang across Lenore's mind. She was still pondering how her mother made the necklace when she noticed that Snape was staring at her.
"What?"
"The necklace," he said, not taking his eyes off it. "Where did you get it?"
She looked at the vial. "I found it when I was going through the stuff in the attic back home," She thought back to the box she had discovered. "It was hidden. Why?" Her voice grew defensive and accusatory. Her eyes locked with his. "What do you know of it?"
He didn't seem to be listening. "…I thought she would have gotten rid of it."
Lenore's heart skipped a beat. It hadn't occurred completely to her that Snape could have made the vial. Or maybe it was more she didn't want to think about that idea. "What?"
Snape snapped out of whatever stupor he had seemed to be in. "You should get out now." He said turning away from her. She stared at him before obeying. "There is a towel to your left."
"What do you know of the necklace?" she asked as her legs shook weakly. She sat down in her chair and stared at him, hoping that he would answer her. "Do you know why it won't come off?"
He began moving around the room, the pool had disappeared but he was still cleaning. "It has a protection charm on it, much like that Rune of Calling Protection that's on your hand." He said refusing to look at her. She glanced at the rune that was still faintly on her hand. "Only the adults that you trust more than anything can remove it or the person that made it."
She swallowed hard, her mind turning, thinking over the possibilities of who would be more likely to have made it. She looked back at Snape. "I sent a drop of the potion in it to Laura, my old potions teacher back home." He froze. "She said that it had almost any and every protection and healing potion imaginable. But I don't know how that could be possible, too many of them would act as catalysts to each other,"
"Perhaps the person who made it found a way around that." He said in a tight voice.
"Perhaps." She said before something hit her. 'The potion has the properties of Felix Felicis potion . . .' She looked away. "The Felix Felicis…" she whispered.
"What?" he asked looking at her.
"She said that the Felix Felicis was in here…if that potion was in here and because this thing is designed to work from inside the vial, thought it's stronger outside," she knew immediately that she had begun to babble but she didn't care, the realization scared her. "If I didn't have it…" she looked at him. "Would I have been dead from the fall?"
Snape didn't answer her. "I must work on a potion," he said before disappearing.
She stared after him before wheeling in her room quickly. She pulled the communication parchment out and 'signed on'. 'LAURA!'
For several minutes there was nothing. 'Lenore?'
'The Felix Felicis you said it was in the potion that's in my vial.'
'Yes.'
'If I didn't have the vial would I have died from the fall?'
There was nothing for a moment before Laura's determined scrawl came through. 'Yes and no. No you wouldn't have because of the ring.' Lenore glanced at the ring that she had been starting to forget about, just as she had almost forgotten that she couldn't take the necklace off. 'I knew something was wrong because one of the animals that is spelled to…well…die for you was caught in limbo until you awoke. Then it was fine. I was worried but couldn't leave. But if you had not had the necklace I am more than positive that you would be much worse off than you were when you fell and had you not had the ring you might have been dead.' She leaned back in her wheelchair. The idea scared her. 'Are you all right?'
'. . . . . yeah. I am. I'm going to get some rest now.'
'Have you eaten?'
'No. I'm going to take a nutrition potion; I don't think I can face food right now.'
'All right. Goodnight Leo.'
'Good morning, Laura.' Lenore teased before moving towards the bed and changing her clothes with a flick of her hand.
She dried her hair with a quick spell and braided it with another, too tired to do much else. She drank a nutrition potion, brushed her teeth, and did all this by walking around the room. She slowly climbed into the bed, knowing that it took her nearly a half hour to get ready for bed. She turned off the light and the last thing that entered her mind before she drifted to sleep was that this had been the first conversation she had had with Snape that wasn't an argument.
A/N--I know Snape isn't exactly Cannon here but hey, he's not going to be cannon in my story so : P! Lol.
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