Chapter 13: Her Words

'Severus, are you all right? What happened?' Severus came to a sudden stop as the green letters glowed before him. It was nearly curfew and he was wandering one of the many empty halls of Hogwarts. He was quite furious, had a swollen lip and a black eye. He'd been in a fist fight with seventh year Slytherin who was making fun of the fact that Viktoria didn't speak. His head was still rushing and his hands were shaking from his nerves as he slowly turned around to look over at Viktoria, she was staring at him with a furrowed brown.

"No I am not all right," he snapped as he stared over at her. He felt very uneasy on his legs and he felt very dizzy and nauseous. It was causing him trouble to look over at her and not see double. He said as he looked down and held his head. He walked over uneasily to the wall and held on so as not to fall over. Viktoria slowly walked over to him and took his arm. "I don't need your help," he said as he pulled his arm away from her, causing him to lose balance and come crashing down to the floor.

Viktoria's eyes widened, fearing that he might have severely hurt himself. She kneeled beside him and helped him sit up. Severus sat up slowly, his whole body felt sore. Going up against a boy who was not only about a year older then him and twice his size when it came to weight wasn't the best of things to do, especially when he had to handle the situation physically and without his wand. But had he been able to use his wand he would have definitely not been the one stumbling out of Slytherin in pain and humiliation.

'Oh Sev, what happened?' the words appeared in the air before him as she tenderly ran her fingers through his hair and caressed his face.

"What happened is that idiot Crabbe thought that it was funny to make fun of you just because you don't talk. I'm getting tired of everyone thinking that you're crazy just because you don't talk," he said as he tried his best to pull away from her, but she held him down and forced his head on her shoulder. He was too tired to struggle against her and besides, resting his head on her shoulder was what he really wanted to do, even if he was to proud to do so on his own.

'Sweetie, you should pay them no mind just as I do,' the words glowed before him. It was somewhat hard to read through his black eye, which was beginning to swell and close, but he tried his best to read it without getting too nauseous.

"No Viktoria, I love you. They shouldn't be so ignorant and I just want them to stop already," he said as he looked up at her. When she stared at him strangely he realized that he had just told her he loved her. He'd never said it before and they'd been going out for six moths already. He knew for a long time that he was in love with her, but he'd never said so for fear that he might scare her off or that she might not feel the same. Severus paled as he stared at her, his heart beating very fast.

'You love me?' she asked as she stared down into his black eyes. He swallowed a lump in his throat; he couldn't deny he said it.

"Yes, I've loved you for quite sometime now, but I was afraid of telling you," he said as he stared down at her. She furrowed her brow and he could see her question in her eyes long before the green letters appeared before him. "Because I was afraid that you might not feel the same," he said as he stared down at his hands.

"I love you too, Severus," she said as she stared at him. Severus raised his head at the sound of her voice. It sounded like a song, the most beautiful song in the world, being sung to his heart. He'd never before heard a more enchanting voice.

"You can talk? Why haven't you ever said a word before?" he asked as he stared down at her. She smiled as she looked at him and looked down at her hands. She leaned against the stone wall.

"When I was five, Remus and I were playing outside; it was a full moon out. It was Remus' first full moon since he'd been bitten and we didn't know that he was a werewolf," she said as her eyes clouded with the memory and she stared straight forward. She would never forget that night. Severus merely stared at her. He still couldn't believe the immense beauty of her voice. Despite the tragic and traumatic story she was telling him, it still sounded so beautiful.

"We'd wandered away, to play in the woods just as we always did. Viktor was asleep at home that night. When the full moon at last came out, Remus started to yell in pain and I didn't know what to do. I wanted to help him and all I could do was cry as I watched him turn into a werewolf and when the transformation was complete he started growling at me. I called out his name and asked him to stop, but it was like he didn't know who I was and I started to run, deeper into the woods and the deeper you go the more dangerous and dark it gets. I was able to lose Remus, but I'd gone so deep into the woods that I was lost and didn't know my way back," Viktoria said as she looked into the air. Severus stared at her and he could see that tears were welling up in her eyes as she told him her story.

"I wandered for hours through the darkness. I was so afraid of what might be lurking in the darkness, of never getting home again, of drying and I couldn't stop crying. And then, I ran into a man. He was a tall man with a very rugged beard and his eyes were as black as night. He was clothed in all black and had one of the most menacing gazes in the world. He picked me up and carried me off and I screamed and screamed but no one could hear me," she said as she looked down at her hands. She still had nightmares of that man. She looked down at her hands as tears slid down her cheeks.

"He was a sailor, descendant of a pirate and he took me to a large ship. A very dark ship and as they traveled around they treated me like a slave. And they would beat me so severely there were many times that I thought I would die, but I didn't. They would starve me for days and yet I endured. I was whipped so often, one time in particular he whipped me so hard it broke the skin of my back straight down along the spine. He had me tied up and forced to lay on a table as he poured salt into the bleeding wound, I still have that scar," Viktoria said as she sobbed softly.

"I guess they became tired of me because one day they tossed me right off the boat. I thought I'd drowned but I guess I washed up into the shore, because when I awoke I found that I was on a deserted island. There were dead bodies of men all over the beach, their skin and bones torn as if by some very powerful and large talons and there were wrecked ships all along the rocks," she said as she closed her eyes and shook her head, not wanting to think of the mangled bodies.

"I wandered through the island for days, never staying too far away from the beach and one day I ran into three Sirens. They were large vulture like creatures with the heads of women and their claws were so sharp and looked so powerful that it seemed that they would be able to tear through the bone very easily. The three started to discuss what should be done to me. Sirens are very vengeful against men, but they didn't know what to do with me. But they had to do something for I was looking upon them, and as they are so hideous they want no one to look at them. One wanted to kill me like the rest, the other wanted me to stay forever, but the last suggested that I should be cursed for the rest of my days," she said as she looked into Severus' eyes.

"And so they cursed me, by giving me the voice of a Siren. They said that with so much as speaking a word, any man would fall dangerously in love with me. So in love that they might even do me or any other person I loved harm, for they would be driven so mad with love. That even my father or any siblings would completely forget my age or my relation with them if I spoke a word. They said that my voice would corrupt their love and change it so that their love would be hurtful for it would be a romantic love instead. They said that I was doomed for the rest of eternity. That should I ever love a man and speak to him that the man would fall in love with me for my voice, but that I would never know whether it was truly because of my voice or because he truly loved me. Since that day I decided that I would never speak a word to anyone. Only to the man who I loved that fell in love with me, even when I was a mute," she said as she looked into his eyes. He stared at her, the story was horrible and he understood why she would speak, but her voice was still so beautiful.

"How did you get back home?" Severus asked as he stared at her.

"Afterwards one of them took me in her sharp claws and left me at the port I'd first set out from. But I couldn't go on from there and so I slept on the dock, left almost half dead from days of starving and of all the open wounds on my body," she responded as she looked into his eyes. "When I woke in the morning I was in St. Mungos being treated for my many wounds. They told me that they'd contacted my parents who'd been searching for me through the whole wizarding world for the past year. It was only then that I realized I had no concept of how much time had actually passed. But that one year felt like an eternity."

"Well your voice is really beautiful. However, I do not think that it would drive me so insane with love that I would do whatever it is you wished," he said as he stared at her. She merely looked over at him with her sad eyes a smile slipping onto her face.

"Its at it's most powerful when I sing or hum, all I would have to do is hum and think of what I would like you to do and you would do it," she said as she looked at him.

"Oh really, prove it," he said as he stared at her. She started to hum, a hum so bewitchingly beautiful that he felt his heart beating fast at the sound of it. He felt like he was falling into a trance, like he could see anything and all his awareness was slipping away, all he could hear was her voice, singing to his rapid beating heart.

"Severus, you're body is paler then you're face. It's as pale as snow," Viktoria suddenly said. Severus shook his head and stared down at himself. He flushed a deep shade of scarlet as he realized that he was standing in the middle of the hallway in nothing but his boxer shorts. He immediately reached down and put on his robes.

"All right you've made your point," he said as he stared down at her. She was merely smiling up at him.

TBC…