Eyes of Death

My hands were frozen. I couldn't even feel my fingers anymore. The heat Snape put off was enough to chase away most of the deadly cold, but not quite all of it. I shifted onto my back, staring up at the slick ice above me. A fat wet drop was collecting at one of the inverted frozen ripples that had formed when I had melted the ice. I watched enraptured as more and more water collected into it before it became too heavy and fell. It plopped onto my stomach and rolled until it hit one of the many jagged cuts in the fabric.

There were many rips in the fabric, especially around the arms and torso area. The bottom of my trousers were nearly shredded and blackened from the dragon flame. I tried to use the repairing spell on them, the one Hermione taught me in first year…but it didn't work. It wasn't until Snape explained the purpose of battle robes to me that I understood. Anti-magic was the word he used. Meaning it repelled all sorts of spells, and since I wasn't a master weaver, I wouldn't be able to do any alterations to them. Not even to fix them.

Merlin, this was so messed up.

Another drop fell from the ceiling and I sucked in a sharp breath when I it hit my bare skin. It was as cold as everything else in this place and I shifted around some more in the limited space to lay on my side. I could see Snape near the entrance of the tiny little cave I had dug for us in the snow. A well-placed bombarda followed by a round of incendio and one nifty banishment charm saw a diagonal hole dug deep enough to crawl into.

Once must of my body was inside, I used a few heating charms to melt a tiny little cave I could slide into once the water had been banished. It wasn't perfect, barely even functional…but it was enough to hopefully get me through the night and into morning.

A shiver racked my frame and I curled tighter to contain more heat. I didn't know what to do, I knew enough heating charms to keep me warm, but the more I used, the wetter my little cave became as it melted the surrounding ice. I was tired of banishing puddles that pooled underneath me.

"Cease your grumblings," Snape's voice was harsh in the quiet space, but I could tell he was as exhausted as I was. Probably even more so as he had to contend with magical exhaustion as well. I may not have been experienced in battle magic, but I knew some of those spells he had been slinging around a few hours earlier weren't small by any sense of the word.

And then there was the whole dragon thing, which…yeah, that. He was bitter about it; I could tell with the way he turned away and refused to even look at me. But it saved his life so fuck him! What did I care?

Except for some reason I kind of did.

"Enough!" Snape hissed at me and I recoiled into the ice wall behind me as he finally moved into the cave proper to glare at me.

"What?" I snapped, getting up on one elbow to glare down at him. I wish I could stand to better argue with him, because I knew a row was coming on when I saw it, but there just wasn't enough room to even sit. Already my hair was brushing the slick ice ceiling. "I wasn't doing anything!"

"You're whinging," he hissed again, his tiny head swaying back and forth like a serpent.

"No, I wasn't," I huffed at him, throwing myself onto my back in exasperation. The height advantage I had gained from him being so small did little to help make me feel like anything but a child. Even miniscule and adorably tiny he could still make me feel like I was five.

A low rumble came from his chest and I turned my head towards it. He was glaring at me, his eyes a spectacular purple laced with bright green that was fascinating to see. In the dim cave they almost seemed to glow.

"What are you staring at?" He snapped again, his little teeth clicking as his head swayed back and forth.

"Nothing," I replied uncomfortable. "It's just…your eyes."

"What about them?" Snape's tone was mildly hostile still, but he didn't sound as angry as he did before.

"They're glowing," I commented softly, flushing when I realized how stupid it sounded.

Snape snorted, probably thinking the same thing as me. "So are yours," he replied.

"What?!" I shifted up to sit and almost hit my head on the ceiling, only remembering at the last moment and quickly lying back down.

"I thought you knew," he commented dryly, retreating to the spot he had made himself near the edge of the cave.

"Why would I know that?" I touched my face, right below my eye as if I could see how my eyes were different. "What do they look like?"

"Green," he mumbled, lying his head on the ground, and closing his own eyes. "They glow green with lacings of –"

"Purple?" I interrupted him, voice hesitant.

One of his eyes cracked open, purple with green. "So, you do know."

"No," I replied, rolling onto my side to look at him. "Yours looks the exact same, just in reverse." I didn't say that I thought they were very pretty. Purple at the center framing his elongated pupil, only to have the iris fibers branching into bright green at the edges. I tried to imagine how my eyes looked, but it was difficult to picture it without a mirror.

He huffed but said no more and closed his eyes to go back to sleep. I thought the color of his eyes were from his species, but if my eyes were different then perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps the green came from me, as I shared a piece of him, not that he knew that yet…

That means that the purple must come from Death then. I remembered how her – its – eyes had changed from luminescent green to purple when it had presented the piece Snape's soul to me. I sighed again and wondered what it meant, shifting off of my aching hip.

"Cease doing that immediately!" Snape screeched from his end of the cave. It really was such a tiny space, I only had to reach out fully to touch the other end.

"I'm not doing anything!" I resisted the urge to yell. I didn't want to deafen myself again. I had to cast scourgify three times to get all the blood off my skin and I was still finding it flaked around my ears.

He stood once more, back arched like and angry cat while his tail lashed behind him. "You're sighing and shifting and generally being a pain. Stop it!"

"Oh, excuse me," I grumbled. "I'm sorry my discomfort is bothering you. If it annoys you so much go dig your own cave!" I snapped, fed up with this. I was fed up with everything.

He snapped his little teeth at me and turned away, pulling himself into the tunnel on uncertain and wobbly limbs. Panic seized my chest as he moved further and further away. "Wait!" I reached out to him, snagging his tail with a gentle grip. He turned so quickly I barely had time to snatch my hand back before he bit me. "I'm sorry," I whispered, my shaking hand clutched to my chest as I looked at the ground. "Please don't leave."

Silence stretched in the small cave for so long that I thought he had indeed left, but when I glanced up, he was still at the entrance of the tunnel. His dual-colored eyes stared into mine and his head cocked one way and then the other as the nictitating membrane slid slowly over his eyes. Finally, he moved back into the cave and I sighed with relief. Just the thought of being alone here, after what had happened earlier, terrified me.

He took a long moment to get comfortable, turning in circles like a dog and then curling into a tight ball. Snape moved his wings uncertainly, like he was trying to figure out how to best position them as he laid down. It couldn't have been very comfortable, and I was forced to remind myself that he didn't choose this. This was something I had done to him, and suddenly I felt a little ashamed.

"I am, you know," I whispered to him, afraid that if I spoke to loudly, I would break this sudden truce between us. "Sorry, I mean." I laid back down, pulling the bookbag closer and laying my head upon it as I tentatively glanced at him. Snape was staring at me.

"Explain it again," he replied as I rubbed my legs together to make heat through friction. I think I may be losing sensation in my toes. But I feared another heating charm would flood the cave – I had already cast several and it took nearly an hour before the ice stopped melting enough for me to banish the water and actually lay down.

"I already did," I groaned back, letting my hair fall into my face so I wouldn't have to look at him and see the accusatory stare. But I hadn't, not really. I told him the main parts, the dying, and the station, the two trains, and my choice. What I hadn't told him about were the souls…the thing beneath the bench and his soul, split apart and placed into two bodies.

I would have to, I knew – this wasn't something I could keep from him. I just – I just wasn't ready yet to talk about it, or that the visage of Death had been my mum. That part felt too personal to share, especially with someone like him.

"Explain it…again!" Snape's voice was sibilant, hissing the words at me in anger. He had every right to be angry, and even now I could feel the rage billowing low within me…deep inside in the spot that I knew wasn't me. I shook my head to pull myself away from the feeling, afraid that if I latched onto it, I would just end up feeding the anger between us like vicious cycle.

"Where do you want me to start?" I sighed, brushing my hair back and tilting my face so I could look at him. He really was adorably small, and I immediately banished the thought. The last thing I wanted Snape to find out was how besotted I was with new form. Merlin help me, he would probably set me on fire.

Snape shifted a bit more, trying to cross his forelimbs like he did when he was imparting a snide remark, but he must have forgotten about the wings as he turned his glare to his own body. He moved one limb away and then carefully folded the wing back, pressing the membrane together and tight to the arm before bringing the other one down over it.

Once he was settled, he looked back at me and immediately the small fins along his neck stood up in an aggressive display and I swiped a hand over my mouth to hide my smile. Look at him being all embarrassed. The rumble that he emitted was more cute than it was threatening, but I forced myself to behave and shot him a thoroughly chastised look and affected the air of apologetic. It seemed to work as the three rows of fins along his neck and back relaxed and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I needed to remember that though this tiny dragon in front of me was utterly adorable to look at, it contained the soul of my most hated professor and had the ability to breathe fire. Or at least I think it did, I didn't know when dragons started to breathe fire, though Norberta had been quick to do so. Hagrid still spoke of her, especially since Ron's older brother sent him monthly updates. Last I had heard, she had settled down with another Ridgeback and the Keepers were hopeful for a clutch of eggs soon.

"How about you start with what the hell you were thinking when you went into that arena," Snape bit out, his words scathing. I couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment or if he really was that upset about what had taken place during the tournament before we were all attacked, but I suppose it didn't really matter. In the end the result was the same, I was still in a confined space with a furious dragon.

I sighed again, shifting around to buy some time to think. I knew nothing I said would appease him, and if I didn't choose my words carefully, he would find a way to throw them back at me. "I was thinking I didn't want to die." I answered honestly after a long moment.

Silence met my words and I glanced back at him, taking his posture. His head was thrown back, neck erect and fins fluttering. I hadn't noticed before how the middle fin was taller than the two parallel to it, until I saw all three on display. If his body language didn't give him away, that tiny feeling of bewilderment deep inside of me did. "Don't look so surprised, professor. Despite what others may think I really don't have a death wish."

Snape's head snapped to the side as if I had slapped him, before lowering and swaying side to side as he growled, his eyes narrowing, before he hissed again. "Then what do you call whatever idiotic thing it was that you were doing?"

"Reading," I replied smartly, and flinched as he snapped his tiny teeth at me. He wasn't close enough to actually bite, but the movement startled me, and his teeth looked incredibly sharp. "Look," I sighed, shifting around some more. At this point not even I knew if it was to get more comfortable or to just get warm, but I couldn't seem to stop my fidgeting. Perhaps there was still some adrenaline in my system. "The goblet's binding effects mean I have to compete in the competition, nowhere did it say I had to participate."

"So, you thought to just…what, crack open a book in the arena and read until your time ran out, all the while hoping the Horntail would leave you alone?" Snape summed up my entire plan in one sentence and the way he said it made it sound incredibly stupid.

Is this what Hermione thought when I told her what I was going to do?

"Yeah, something like that." I grumbled at him. My plan was a little more complicated than that, as I had to convince Hermione to be in on it with me – which took weeks of whittling down her resolve – and then ages of research into dragon behavior. When that gate lifted, I entered that arena with only my battle robes, wand, and a ridiculous plan.

I moved immediately to high ground near the entrance, making certain to keep the Horntail in my sights but never looking directly at her. I made myself small and perched on a far rock. Those minutes in the arena, trying to watch the brood mother without making eye contact and appear threatening were the worst. My heart pounded so loudly in my ears I thought it would deafen me…but after a long while the Horntail settled back over her nest. She kept her eyes on me, but she didn't approach, and I didn't either.

Once she was more relaxed, I pulled my wand from the holster on my wrist – a gift from Sirius my last birthday – and made certain my body was shielding it. I knew that she had bad experiences with wizards, and she associated wands with pain, so I made absolutely certain she couldn't see me cast.

"I spent ages learning that spell," I confessed to Snape, rolling again onto my back so I wouldn't have to watch him watching me. "I mean, I knew the basics of the summoning spell, but I had no way of slowing it down." Hermione had done that for me. She spent days in the library, countless sleepless nights as she searched a way to summon something slowly so it wouldn't startle the dragon.

When I cast the spell, Hermione released her grip on her bag, and it floated gently from the stands into the arena. The movement caught more than the Horntail's attention and I remembered the way that everyone whispered in confusion as the bag bobbed in the air before coming to a stop in front of me. I had grabbed it carefully, still watching the nesting mother from the corner of my eye, but she seemed more curious than hostile.

The crowd had been chatting excitedly, probably thinking that I was about to make my move for the golden egg, but in the end I only pulled out a massive tome – because of course Hermione would have the densest books for light reading – and opened it to the first page.

Snape snorted next to me, and I couldn't tell for certain, but I think he was amused. That or disgusted. "Did you ever think what would happen if the dragon just decided to attack you?"

I shrugged at him, not willing to admit that I really didn't have a solid back up plan. Well, there was the idea to use my broom, but I knew if I admitted that to him, he would only start berating me again. "It worked, didn't it," and it had. The Horntail had nearly been asleep when the attack happened.

"You are an imbecile," he bit out, but I could hear the exhaustion behind the words. There was something else under them, something I could feel tugging at me and I frowned as I examined the feeling.

"Oh," I whispered, a smile splitting my lips as I rolled over and propped myself on one elbow. "Were you worried about me?"

My words were teasing, but I felt a flutter of – I wouldn't exactly call it affection, but it was definitely something as he spluttered, standing back up and arching his back as he hissed at me. "I most certainly was not!" He snapped, tail thrashing behind him. "You are the one who – and if I was worried that simply because of your idiotic tendencies to get in trouble – and if you had just thought! No, but you don't think, you just –"

My laughter cut him off and I had to fight control over my amusement as he went back to sullenly glaring at me and growling. I could see him gearing up for more yelling as I wiped a tear of amusement out of the corner of my eye, but then I had to wipe another and another and suddenly I was sobbing into my hands.

They wracked my body, great heaving sobs that I could barely breathe through. I curled on my side, holding my stomach as I cried and sniffled. Something warm and dry touched my forehead and I glanced up through blurry tears to see Snape standing by my head. He must have poked me with his nose.

"Potter, stop crying," he spoke not unkindly, but like the words didn't seem to help and I just sobbed louder. "Potter," Snape sighed, poking me again. He sounded awkward and uncertain. "Harielle," he tried again.

I sniffled, reaching for him slowly, wanting so badly to be back in the Gryffindor common room with Hermione's fingers playing in my hair to soothe me after a bad nightmare…but she wasn't here. Instead, I reached for the tiny dragon that my professor's soul inhabited, and he let me.

"I'm so sorry," I was able to the get the words out between my sobbing and his warm nose touched my cheek. Hot air gusted over me as I pulled his small form to my chest and held him gently like a kitten and cried into his warm hide.

"I know," he sighed. "Sleep, child. We'll figure this out in the morning." I cried long into the night, but eventually, I fell asleep.