FINALLY I'M BACK! I've been so busy! I haven't been able to type this up for ages. I've had it for about three weeks now and I haven't had time! AH! Anyway I have about five chapters to post and then you'll not hear from me for a while. Love you all...would it be too much to ask for a review for each chapter?
swoas--Keri, you'll get me up to a hundred reviews yet...
A.S. Leif--I think I already responded to your questions...if I haven't well...tell me and I will next time because I'm exhausted and I hve to stay up late all this week because this is hell-week of my play.Thanks for the review!
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Chapter Twenty-Two
Haywire Magic
Forty minutes later Lenore was still floating on the bed close enough to the ceiling that she could touch it without having to reach. Laura was busy shouting at the nurses outside and George was distracting her by telling her about his family. He had a lot of family members. He had gone down the list by age, his father, Arthur, his mother, Molly, his older brother, Bill, and now he was talking about Charlie, a dragon keeper in Romania. She was barely paying attention but hearing a familiar voice was nice. She wasn't really sure if she liked it up here or not. She enjoyed flying on brooms but this was making her stomach turn.
"…Then there's Percy…" George's voice considerably darkened. She dared to peer over and his face had gone sour. He looked as if he was trying to figure out how to put into words what he was feeling. "He works at the Ministry…he's…he's a bit of prick."
"Problems getting along with him?" she asked softly, speaking for the first time since she agreed to let him tell her about the Weasley family.
He looked up at her and smiled, face softening. "Fall out with him last year."
Lenore nodded. "Must have been hard." She stared back at the ceiling. She had taken to focusing on one spot and counting the tiny holes in it.
"Yeah…" he cleared his throat. "Then there's me and Fred. Don't think you need much explanation there." Lenore snorted. "My other brother is closer to your age, though. Ron, is our youngest brother, he was born in March of '80."
"Five months older than me." She muttered, her mind going over the argument between Laura and Severus for the fifth time. "What's he like?"
"Actually he's pretty neat; just don't tell him I told you that. He's best friends with Harry," Who is this Harry he keeps mentioning? Probably a family friend. Her thoughts detoured momentarily. "Been through loads of things with Harry, got in a mess at the end of last year though," He paused.
The shouting outside the room increased more voices joining in. Lenore tried to block them out, the shouts reminding her discovery earlier. Her discovery of how Severus only had her brought here on Dumbledore's order. "Go on," she said swallowing hard.
"Harry gets visions and he got one that said a friend of ours was trapped in the Department of Mysteries and he went with Ron, Ginny, my sister, Luna, one of their friends, Neville, another friend, and Hermione, Ron's other best friend. They nearly got killed. Ron got tangled in this tank of brains…it…it did something to him. He's slightly different now. He's got different memories from people. His temper has mellowed but he's still same old stupid Ron, who always puts his foot in his mouth and thinks about his stomach."
"Sounds interesting." She said shifting, her fists clutching the bedspread tightly as she did so. Dumbledore got involved and won't let me take full custody of you. Laura's voice echoed through Lenore's mind as George began telling her about the only Weasley girl, Ginny. I am not his pawn, I merely took his advice. Severus's voice snapped in her head. Tears burned in her eyes. She was alone. She had one adult who wanted her but wasn't a blood relation to her and another who was a blood relation to her and didn't want her.
"And she's got our mother's temperament. Sometimes she can—uh, Leo?" George said uncertainly as the bed started to move. "Leo!"
She swallowed hard again. "Um, shit. I want to get down!" she exclaimed as the bed moved in circles as did all the other objects that were floating in the room. The more agitated she became the fast the bed began spinning.
"HEY! SOMEONE GET IN HERE! IT'S GOTTEN WORSE!" She heard George shout.
Six footsteps thundered into the room. "Damn it," she heard Laura curse.
"Just get me down!" Lenore begged.
"We'd love to, Ms…Ms. Keller, but we're not exactly sure what is happening," said an unfamiliar voice.
"You are a fool," a voice sneered. A familiar voice…Severus.
She dared to look over. Laura, George and two Healers were crammed in one corner of the room and in the other stood the blonde nurse that ran in, Severus and…Dumbledore. The moment she saw the old man things began exploding in the room. She let out a small cry as the bed moaned, several bars bending. "MAKE IT STOP!"
More things shattered in the room. "Lenore listen to me," the no-nonsense voice of Severus Snape thundered as the others in the room (excluding Dumbledore) panicked as each thing broke. "This is nothing but your own magic."
"What!"
"What spell did you try to do before this happened?" he growled.
"A levitation spell," she muttered, closing her eyes, the bed was still spinning. "I'm sliding off," she exclaimed, fear in her voice.
"You have to stop the magic yourself!"
"How?"
"JUST STOP IT!" things began flying from one side of the room to the other.
"HOW!" she screamed as she began to fall off the bed even farther.
"Stop shouting at her!"
"SHUT UP YOU DAMNED WOMAN!"
Lenore frantically reached for the bars on the bed but several of them had been bent together giving her nothing to grab onto as she fell off. "HELP!" she cried out. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the impact. None came. She opened her eyes and gasped. She was floating in mid air. The things around the room were still flying but she was stationary, in mid air, but stationary. Her breathing was short and raged. "What is going on?"
"You're starting to come into your magical maturity, Lenore." Dumbledore explained calmly as he stopped a vase from flying at it and sent it the other way.
"What does that mean?"
"Because of what you are, your blood, you are going to have problems using your wand."
"So how does this stop!"
Severus sighed in exasperation. "Sit in the cross position that we do in therapy." She stared at him and then did so, her legs aching immediately at having to hold stiff. "Now close your eyes and breath. Concentrate on stopping the spell."
"Won't I fall?"
"Do it!" he shouted dodging a soaring table.
She drew in a deep breath, closing her eyes. She reached into her mind, searching for the magic strain. Her mother had taught her how to do this years ago. Stef would place a harmless spell on her and Lenore would have to find the magic strain and break it.
"OUT EVERYONE!" thundered Severus. She was shaking as she found it and started to break it. Things began to fall rapidly, herself included. She let out a screech stopping, her eyes flying open. "Break it slowly, you dimwitted girl!"
Lenore winced at the insult and shut her eyes again. She searched for it again and slowly began to sever the link of magic to the spell. Things began to settle on the floor. Dumbledore's pawn. The words flashed in her mind causing her to jolt, the connection to the magic breaking completely. She started to fall the last six feet to the ground when someone caught her, causing her to land hard in their arms.
Her eyes were still squeezed shut as she clutched the robes of the person who caught her. She was shaking like mad when she finally realized that she wasn't going to hit the floor. Lenore let out a breath that caused her entire body to relax, the tension releasing so rapidly she was limp in the person's arms. "Leo! Lenore, are you all right?" she heard a voice from across the room ask frantically.
"F-fine…just shaken." She managed to say opening her eyes. Severus's upper lip curled up in what looked like disgust as he deposited her gently on a chair and stepped back, as if detaching himself from her. Hatred burned in her as she looked away. "What happened? I still don't understand."
"I expected this to happen once you reached sixteen, not so soon before it though," Dumbledore said setting everything right in the room with a wave of his hand.
Laura gave Lenore a long hug before standing in front of the old man, a full two feet shorter, but strong. "Explain."
Dumbledore motioned to one of the other seats. "I shall. George would you like to contact your parents now?"
"Yes, Headmaster," George shot a smile at Lenore before walking out and the Healers didn't seem too interested in coming any time soon.
"Before we start can somebody change this hospital gown into something else?" Lenore asked desperately.
Laura smiled but the smile didn't reach her eyes and changed the blue gown into a pair of ratty jeans that Lenore loved (filled from the top of the leg down to the hem with various sizes of holes) and a baggy black sweater, a tank-top underneath. She nodded her thanks before the red-head sat down. Both women looked at Dumbledore as Severus merely drummed his fingers on the chair in impatience.
"Do you know what your mother was, Lenore?" Dumbledore asked kindly.
Lenore, not expecting to be asked anything, looked at him surprised and then thought. "Half elf and half Almost-Human, right?"
Laura regarded her in shock. "How did you know that? She always led you to believe that she was—"
"Human," the teenager cut her off. "I read her journal and asked Severus about it." She looked back at Dumbledore, feeling more calm than she had been five minutes before. "Her mother was an Almost-Human and her father was an Elf, right?"
"Correct." Dumbledore nodded. "Do you know what Severus's blood is?"
She looked at him as he whirled around. "I hardly see why this is prudent, Headmaster." Growled Severus.
"Don't want her to know," babied Laura in a mocking voice.
"Quiet woman."
Lenore frowned. "He's a pureblood isn't he?" Then it dawned on her, in all her readings there was never the name of a pureblood 'Snape'.
Laura smirked. "Making the connections?"
"His families not from the U.K.?" she questioned.
Laura snorted as Severus scowled. "He's a half blood, sweetie, his father's a Muggle." Lenore's eyes shot to Severus. He sneered at Laura. "A bit contradictory calling me a Mudblood when you're one yourself."
He turned his back on them. She stared at him for a good minute before looking back at Dumbledore. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Do you remember when Adem dropped you off and as an explanation he said: Conciliatrix ea alibi." Dumbledore repeated the words that had confused her that day. She nodded slowly. "They mean 'She who units is here.'" His blue eyes stared at her, twinkling. "Do you understand?" She shook her head. "You have the four bloods of our world,"
Her brow furrowed looking down. "The four bloods…" she whispered, the realization dawning on her. She looked back at him sharply. "She-Who-Units, I unit in my blood Centaurs, Muggles, Wizards, and Elves don't I?" He nodded, his smile growing. "Meaning…"
"Meaning you will come into as much power or more than Merlin himself," Laura finished the thought going through her mind.
The silence that followed that statement was like a climax of a suspense movie. Lenore knew this wasn't a movie and something would be wrong about this 'power' that she had. The ramifications of it were infinite. With that power alone she could be more dangerous than Voldemort…or worse. Her face paled drastically. She could be forced to become a weapon for either side. She had gone from a nameless girl, a cast away child from a Death Eater to a dangerous commodity in any world she would ever step foot in.
She looked at Dumbledore, fear in her darkening eyes. The twinkle in his eyes was knowing but still amused at something. She glanced at the wand in his hand, her wand before recoiling involuntarily. Her magic, no matter how strong it was, it was uncontrolled, untrained and when she came into her full potential it would be wild. Lenore had trained from seven to use a wand with her mother, unlike normal wizarding children who started at ten. She didn't have three years to get used to the feel of a wand. She didn't even have three months to adapt to the changes she would feel in a week July would end and the cycle would officially begin, her magic would grow each day until her sixteenth birthday.
Lenore had known she was powerful, the need for her magic-shield when she had random bursts of emotion was a large indication of her magic potential but…her mind still reeled. She needed to be trained, trained to understand and control her power. She cleared her throat. "How…how do we," She searched for the word. "Proceed?" Lord, I sound like Severus. She thought.
"You need to be taught how to harness this power," Severus said making it sound as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Who and how?" she asked quietly.
The three adults were silent for a moment, staring at her before Dumbledore spoke. "I will send for an Elvin and Almost Human trainer for you."
She looked at him sharply. "Elvin and A.H.?"
He smiled at her abbreviation for Almost Humans. "Yes. Those are the two strongest magic strains in your blood. Your wizarding strain had been trained in school and will continue to be trained. You must proceed with caution. If anyone finds out who you are there could be big trouble."
Lenore nodded slowly. "Am I…" she looked down. "Am I dangerous?"
"Of course not!" Laura exclaimed.
"I have an awful lot of power to—"
The redhead knelt in front of Lenore, grasping each of her arms. "Look at me, Leo. You are no dangerous and never will be, you want to know why?" She didn't even wait for an answer. "Because you're good, completely and totally. You don't want world domination or to rid the world of Muggle borns."
Lenore smirked. "Well the world domination sounds appealing." They shared a laugh. She looked at Dumbledore, frowning once more. "What would happen if anyone ever finds out what I am?"
He sighed, the twinkling in his eyes dimming. "I won't lie to you, Lenore. The Ministry of Magic has very specific rules about interbreeding and…magical creatures,"
Sn-Severus snorted. "Animals," he muttered.
Dumbledore went on as if he hadn't heard a thing. "If they ever find out about what your blood is you could be taken to Azkaban—("Not that it would do much good," muttered Laura.)—or be forced to become a weapon against Voldemort." Sn—Severus flinched horribly. "Now, Severus has told me of your living choice," She felt slightly guilty, only slightly. She nodded with a ashamed look. "All right then, Severus, would you please take Ms. Bent to Hogwarts, find her a room because she will be staying the night or until she wishes to leave. Now I must speak with Lenore in private for a moment, so run along to the school now."
Laura opened her mouth to object but George happened to pop his head in. "Um, 'ello. I just got back from talking with mum, Headmaster. Bill…um…in wild attempt to stop a stray cat from tearing through the house he tried to stun it and proceeded to wreck most of the house, so…Leo's room there won't be ready until tomorrow."
Lenore snorted, covering her mouth. Bill was the curse breaker or something and she pictured someone taller than George with thick muscles, maybe even in 'gangster' garb running around the house after a cat. It was funny. "That would have been funny to see."
George smirked. "Ron got pictures."
"Gotta share!" she exclaimed, her eyes glowing.
Laura cleared her throat. George looked at her and nodded. "Well, um, I just thought you should know. I have to get back to my shop. Fred is harping about running it alone."
"'Kay." Lenore said as he hugged her goodbye.
George saluted the Headmaster. "Sir, off to go destroy Diagon Alley one joke at a time!"
"Clever, come up with that yourself?" Laura asked amused.
He shrugged waving goodbye. "Fred thought of it."
Laura touched Lenore's hand gently. "Do you understand what that means?"
She nodded slowly, her uneasiness creeping back in. "I'll spend the night packing or something."
"Ms. Bent, you may stay at Hogwarts as long as wish, Severus shall show you to the room." Dumbledore said with a smile. Sna-Severus sneered. Laura shot him a glare. "Now, if you please, Severus." The man in black let something that suspiciously sounded like a growl out before sweeping from the room.
Lenore watched Snape leave in a stomp and Laura follow in a fuming rage after a quick goodbye. She glanced down, she wasn't sure she wanted to talk to Dumbledore. His eyes were on her as she shivered sliding her hand down her arm. "Lenore," he said softly. She looked up at him. "I know you have something to say, please, don't keep it inside."
Sighing she shifted, ignoring the pain throbbing up her back, it wasn't much but it was there. She swallowed hard, taking a breath. "DidSeverusonweebringmetoEnglndnyurordr?" she mumbled quickly.
The twinkle in his blue eyes darkened slightly. "Why would you think that?" Lenore fiddled with her nails, not answering. He nodded. "Ah, Severus and Ms. Bent."
"Shouting match," she said softly, picking at one of the holes in her jeans. "Said that you got involved and that's Snap-Severus won't let Laura take full custody of me." Why am I calling him Snape again? Her thoughts questioned. "Is that…is that true?"
Unbeknownst to her, her fist twisted around the hem of her sweater as she waited for his answer. Dumbledore sighed. His hand covered hers for a moment. "Yes." Her muscles tensed and she looked away. "But, Lenore, Severus did not do anything that he didn't not want to."
She shook her head, forcing herself up from the chair. "I can't believe that."
"Lenore."
She looked at him sharply. "No." Tears betrayed the hurt she felt. Hurt that she shouldn't be feeling. "I should have known. After almost seventeen years I knew he couldn't want me!" Her voice started rising in anger and pain. "How could I have been so stupid to trust you! To trust him! It was always a lie! He never wanted me! Never cared! And I was so dumb to start to trust him! To believe that he cared! All he's ever done has been your pawn! You're a chess master and he's always doing what you say! Nothing of what he really wants!" She shook her head ignoring the tears spilling down her cheeks. "I won't be a part of that! Stop screwing with my life! He doesn't want me and never has!" The lie in her worlds caused her stomach to jolt. Did she really believe that? "Please, just let him do what he wants so I don't have to keep second guessing what's you and what's him!" She backed into the bathroom and shut the door, leaning against it fighting the tears so willing to fall down her face in streams.
She heard Dumbledore get up. "Whether you believe it or not, Lenore, Severus does care about you." Lenore shook her head. It couldn't be true. "I'll wait for you by the floo in the lobby, five minutes." And with that his footsteps receded.
Lenore hit the door in anger with her open hand. It wasn't fair! This was too confusing! Why mom! Why did you have to die! Her thoughts screamed as she slid down the door. Why did you have to love him?
