Raven tried helplessly to wrench her arm out of Cassius's strong grip but it was to no avail.
"Let me go, Cassius!" She hissed.
The look on Cassius' face grew darker. "No. I tried being nice and I tried being civil, but you have something that I, and many others, want. You will give it to us, willingly or not." He growled and drew Raven closer to him.
She squirmed as he squeezed her arm tighter.
"I will never give you anything, let alone my fire magic!" Raven snapped.
She flinched as Cassius' chuckle echoed throughout the corridor.
"Mark my words Raven, I will take it from you. You are not worthy of such power, but me on the other hand, I will use it to set the world right again."
Raven was very aware that he was lying. He would never do what was morally or ethically right; he had already proved that by selling her out to the group of people who were after her and voluntarily letting Felix walk to his death. His version of 'right' would probably end in hundreds of innocent people being slaughtered for his pleasure.
Even when Cassius had been her friend, Raven knew that he wanted to be powerful; he wanted to rule over everyone and everything. During his time at Beauxbatons, Cassius had been a top student, constantly wanting to learn more about anything that would make him better at magic. But, deep down, Raven knew that his keen interest in studying was not just about educating himself, it was a means to gain power.
And the fact that he had chosen to be a Defence Against the Dark Arts apprentice spoke volumes. He had no interest in defending himself or others from the dark arts; he merely wanted to know as much about it as possible so that he could use it to get what he wanted.
Cassius most certainly did not have the best interests of anyone at heart.
The sound of approaching footsteps made Cassius finally release her arm and Raven stumbled backwards.
"No matter what you do or where you go, I will always be one step ahead of you, Raven." He hissed in her face, and with a sneer, he shot off down the corridor and out of sight.
Tears threatened to spill out of her grey eyes and Raven collapsed onto the hard, stone floor. She brought her knees to her chest and rubbed at the skin on her arm where Cassius' hand had been. She was certain that there would be a hand-shaped bruise decorating her skin the next day.
She felt utterly helpless. At that moment, Raven wished more than ever that Felix was there to comfort her. He had always known how to make her feel better, whether that was by letting her cry herself to sleep on his shoulder or distracting her by talking about magical creatures. But Felix was dead and Raven was alone.
The deep voice of the Potions Master drew her out of her thoughts and Raven quickly blinked back her tears.
"I hope finding you in a deserted corridor isn't becoming a habit," Snape said with a smirk.
Raven said nothing in reply and continued staring in the direction that Cassius had disappeared in.
Having expected a sarcastic, biting comment from the Ravenclaw, Snape became concerned and knelt in front of her.
"Raven," He said quietly. "Are you okay?"
Raven slowly moved her gaze from the end of the corridor to the man crouched before her. She blinked once and nodded her head.
"I'm fine." She said dismissively.
Raven went to stand up but stumbled slightly. Snape's hand shot out to steady her and she winced at the sudden pressure on her arm again.
Without hesitation, Snape carefully pulled her arm closer to him and saw the huge bruise forming under her skin.
"What happened?" He asked, looking into Raven's eyes as if he was searching for something.
"He... He cornered me..." She said slowly, tears forming in her eyes once again.
It took a second for Snape to realise that she was talking about Professor Stagburn.
"What did he do?" Snape asked a little too harshly, making the Ravenclaw flinch slightly.
Raven shook her head, refusing to talk.
Snape stood up straight and helped Raven to her feet.
"Come, I'll give you something for your arm." He said and saw her falter as she tried to move.
Her whole body was trembling and she was clearly not able to walk straight. With a small sigh, Snape bent down and picked Raven up, one arm under her legs and the other around her back.
He carried her down to his office and, even though Raven was too out of it to register the affectionate look he gave her when he glanced down at her shaking body in his arms, she felt him pull her closer to his chest as he walked. Instead of placing her down in the chair opposite his desk as she had expected, he walked over to a bookshelf and tugged on a tall, book that had no title on the spine. A second later, the bookshelf swung open to reveal the Potion Master's private chambers. He carefully laid Raven on a sofa in his living room and went over to a glass cupboard filled with potions.
Snape grabbed one of the bottles and handed it to Raven. She sniffed it cautiously.
"If I wanted to poison you, I would have done it long before now." He said.
Raven managed a small laugh and drank the potion swiftly. She instantly felt the pain in her arm subside and it no longer ached when she moved it.
"Thank you." She said weakly.
She yawned and her eyelids drooped in exhaustion.
Snape looked down at her as her eyes closed and said in a hushed tone, "You're welcome."
Raven awoke the next morning to the smell of coffee. That was odd. Students were not permitted to drink coffee and certainly weren't allowed it in their dormitories. She snuggled under the cosy blanket and smiled, drinking in the rich smell.
A few seconds past, then Raven's eyes shot open.
She threw the blanket off of her that Snape must have placed on her once she had fallen asleep, and followed the smell of coffee into a small kitchen. She leant against a kitchen counter and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
At that exact moment, Snape walked into the room and noticed the Ravenclaw. "I see you are finally awake." He said with a smirk.
Raven mumbled an intelligible response and Snape chuckled. "Coffee?" He asked and held out a mug to her.
Raven gratefully snatched up the mug and took a long sip. Merlin, she missed coffee. Never being able to drink it in school only made her drink it more often when she wasn't there.
Snape picked up his own mug and motioned for her to follow him out of the room. They walked back into the living room and Raven sat on the sofa she had slept on, tucking her legs underneath her and holding her mug close to her chest.
Snape sat on the sofa opposite her and gave her a meaningful look.
"Raven," He started. "I want to help you with whatever it is that is going on with you and Professor Stagburn. But to do that, I need to know what happened between the two of you in France."
Raven stared down into her mug of coffee, contemplating whether or not it was a good idea to tell another person, other than her brother, about the unusual power than ran through her veins.
At Raven's silence, Snape tried again. "I have known you since you were born, Raven, you can trust me."
Raven believed him. She really did. But she was scared of how he would take the news that she had hidden such a big part of herself from him. What if he thought that she should have told him the day she had discovered her power? The rational part of her mind told her that when she had told Draco, only a few days ago, he hadn't minded and had actually been incredibly supportive, but she was still scared.
She took a deep breath and met Snape's gaze. She could do this.
And so, Raven spent the next ten minutes explaining everything that had happened to Snape. From the moment she had met Cassius to the incident the night before, she didn't leave anything out.
When she finished talking, Snape placed his empty mug on the coffee table before him and leant forward, placing his elbows on his knees.
"I'm sorry that you lost your best friend." He said sincerely.
Raven gave him a small smile in thanks.
"These people that are after you, who exactly are they?" Snape asked.
Raven shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea. I've only seen them a couple of times when they almost managed to capture me, but they were always wearing hoods."
Snape's face darkened when Raven mentioned her near-miss with the group. He asked some more questions about specifics and Raven answered as best as she could, whilst continually sipping from her mug.
When she had drunk the last drop of coffee, she put the mug down on the table and turned to the Potions Master.
"What do you think I should do then? I mean, I can't exactly move to a new country again, even that didn't seem to keep them away."
Snape's brows furrowed in thought. "There isn't much you can do for now. The wards on Hogwarts are extremely powerful and no can enter this castle without permission from the headmaster. The safest thing for you to do is to stay inside the castle and keep away from Professor Stagburn as much as possible."
Raven nodded and bit her lip hesitantly.
"You won't tell my parents about this, will you?" She said slowly.
"Raven, I'm obligated to. Your life is in danger, they deserve to know-"
"Please don't tell them!" Raven interrupted, her eyes pleading desperately with Snape.
The Potions Master let out a sigh and nodded once. "Alright. I will not inform them, but if something happens, I will tell them without a moment's hesitation."
Raven thanked the professor again and her stomach rumbled loudly. Snape quirked an eyebrow and stood, walking over to a desk pushed against a wall and picked up a pile of clothes. It was then that Raven realised she was still wearing her school uniform from yesterday.
"I had a house-elf grab you some clothes from your dormitory. You can change in the bathroom." He said and pointed to a door down the hall. "You better hurry, breakfast in the Great Hall is almost over."
Grabbing the clothes from Snape, Raven muttered another thank you and entered the bathroom. She changed quickly and was soon heading out of the Potion Master's private chambers and up towards the Great Hall, hoping desperately that there was still time for her to eat.
She arrived with ten minutes to spare and plonked herself down next to Cassie at the Ravenclaws table.
"Oh, thank Merlin! Where were you?" said Nellie. "You never came back to the common room last night. We were worried about you." She had folded her arms and was giving Raven a very stern look.
"I slept on Snape's couch."
"What?!" All three said at the same time. Tessa almost chocked on her morning pumpkin juice.
"Professor Snape never lets anyone in his private chambers!" Cassie said, then shoved a spoonful of porridge into her mouth.
"Yeah! It's forbidden territory!" Tessa exclaimed and then as if suddenly remembering something important, she pulled something out of her robe pocket. "I took care of Pix for you." She grinned wildly at the little Bowtruckle who gave her a small smile then caught sight of Raven. Pix rushed over to the blonde-haired girl and hauled herself up Raven's arm so she could sit comfortably on her shoulders.
"So why did you stay in Professor Snape's chambers last night?" Nellie asked, keeping her voice low to not draw unwanted attention to the group.
Raven looked around, ensuring that no one was listening in, then explained that she had been hurt when wandering the corridors last night and Snape had found her and taken her to his chambers where he had given her a healing potion which consequently made her drowsy and she fell asleep before he could kick her out. Of course, she left out the part about Cassius. She had told more people in the last week about the situation than she had in months. As much as she had come to love and trust her roommates, she wasn't sure that the information was safe with them. Raven knew that they would never willingly give away the information, but she had to be cautious. The more people that knew, the more there were who could betray her.
Sooner than Raven wanted, breakfast ended and the four girls all made their way to their first class: Transfiguration.
Professor McGonagall gave them a four-foot essay as homework and, later that day, Raven was also set a three-inch piece of consolidation work from Professor Binns and a nine-inch Charms essay. To say the least, she had a lot of work to do. Thankfully, it was a Friday and she would have all weekend to do so.
At dinner that evening, Raven went over to the Hufflepuff table and asked Daisy if she wanted to spend the next day working on their project for music. The Hufflepuff had squealed happily and expressed her eagerness to get started.
Tired from a long day of school work, Raven decided to stay at the Hufflepuff table to eat. She chatted to Daisy and her friends and got to know the extravagant girl better.
By the time Raven's head hit her pillow that night, she was out cold. Cassie, Tessa and Nellie giggled at their friend before going to sleep themselves. They all had a lot to do in the coming days and a good night's sleep was in order.
A/N Reviews, Follows and Favourites are very much appreciated and I'd love to hear how I can improve my story!