Chapter 37: Dreams and Curses

Dreams and Curses

He kicked hard and followed the shark as it swam by him rather slowly. Something inside of him told him that it was important to see where the shark was going. He jetted through the water with ease. The shark was ahead of him and very hard to see. His heart was beating so fast, he didn't want to lose it in the darkness of the water. He had to keep up with it.

The water began to feel warmer around his skin and it appeared to be slightly lighter in color. It began to look more blue instead of black. He could see the shark more clearly now.

He swam forward towards it, but swallowed a mouthful of water when the full scene came into view. The shark was snapping at a prone Hermione struggling in the water. Next to a floating and unconscious Ron Weasley. Harry seemed to be meerly throwing a jagged rock at the shark, as if that were to help. There was a strange high-pitched screeching surrounding them. As he tried to propell himself forward, he realised that he could not move. The more he paddled, the more he seemed not to move an inch. He seemed to move farther backward even.

He exhaled deeply in frustration, slamming his fist into the water. He was flushed backwards farther away from the scene. The sound and feel of his heart pounding through his chest became more poignant.

His eyes flew open in a fury and he took a deep breath. He sat up and thrust his coverings off himself, as he woke to find his body in a deep sweat. He pushed his damp hair out of his face and stared around himself.

This was not where he should be, at least not now. Not with so many things going on at Hogwarts. How could he have tried to push the thoughts about the danger Harry was in out of his mind? The more he thought on it, the more he realized that it was foolish to try to surpress those thoughts in the first place. Those were the thoughts that were assets to him.

He had come to Lyon Llyonyss to learn more about himself, but he found he could not learn more about himself in such a state. Plus, he had been doing a lot more strengthen himself and not as much learning.

As his mind flew through his dream, trying to analyze it, he pulled on his pants and pulled a sweater over his head. All he knew was that he needed to leave this place. He needed to get back to Hogwarts. Whoever was plotting against Harry was planning to make another move during the next task apparantly. Sage had heard talk about it involving the lake. That had to have been what his dream was about.

He opened his trunk and began to thrust his belongings back into it. He gave no care to how his clothes went flying into it, only that they were going in. The faster he packed, the faster he could leave. It was still dark outside, he might perhaps have time to leave without being noticed. Objects flew in the trunk with even more fury now, some even missing their mark and landing on the floor.

As his door opened, he flung around. His eyes glared wildly at Sarmach. If the man was going to try and stop him, then he was so much the worse off. Sage began to realize that he had never had trouble using his powers when he needed them. His body was so aroused, he knew that he had definitely gone passed his threshold.

"What are you doing?" He asked, with a feigned disinterest.

"I am leaving," Sage stated, very plainly.

Sarmach scoffed. "You cannot simply leave Magi. You performed a ritual blood oath. You would find it quite difficult indeed."

Sage scowled, "I shall find a way, master. No matter how difficult."

After a few moments of staring in silence, Sarmach laughed.

Sage scowled darkly again and began to pick up his things which had fallen on the floor.

"I do not belong here now, I know it. I will not ignore what I am being told to do. I had a dream last night. I know that I must go back to Hogwarts. I will come back when my affairs there are settled. I will not allow my relations and friends to die, simply because I must cart around water and build fences. There will be plenty of time for that on summer holiday."

Sarmach glared at him again.

"You can go nowhere without my assent, Sage, no matter how much you should desire otherwise. You do not seem to understand what it is that you have undertaken."

Sage exhaled sharply, "Were you really desiring to keep me on my path, you would know that it is best for me to leave now. If my path is to fight against the darkness, I must be there when it rears its head. It is going to, very soon. I cannot be here when it happens."

"You intend to quit your Rite of Passage?"

"No, I intend to postpone it, as it should have been from the beginning. Had I known then, I would have asked to begin it at a better time."

Sarmach leaned against his staff.

"Magi, you have no hope to defeat anything in your state. You need what it is that you will gain from this."

"I know that, master. I do not seek to defeat anything right now, only to stave it off for awhile until I am stronger."

Sarmach sighed loudly. Then his face manifested his reflection.

"Your dream, Sage, you dictated it, you controlled it, did you not?"

It was Sage's turn to sigh, he had no desire nor patience to deal with questions. His inability to deal with questioning when he was in one of his moods, had never changed.

"What do you mean?" He asked, not turning around.

"What you saw was of consequence to you obviously, and did you see more when you wanted to see more? Did you come out of it only when you felt that you must do something, as you do now?"

Sage looked over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow.

"Indeed, yes, I did seem to have an abnormal amount of control. I came out of the dream when I felt that I must leave here. I then began packing," He turned back around, putting his final bottle in his trunk. "I am going to leave, master."

"You could, of course, simply ask for permission. Instead of seeming intent on forcing your way out."

Sage turned around once more, after slamming his trunk shut.

"May I go then," he asked hastily and half-heartedly.

"Yes go. You are in no fair state to be of any use to yourself or anyone else while here. The fact that you had control of your dream tells me that it must have been important."

At those words, Sage shrunk his trunk and pocketed it. He looked at Sarmach with his wide blue eyes. Perhaps Lyon Llyonyss was rubbing off on him, he had gained an amount of control in his prophetic dreams, and he had not even done any official learning yet.

After an awkward moment of silence and staring, Sage made the sign of eternity and strode out with a ferocity befitting of a Snape.

As Sage apparated into Hogsmeade, he felt as if he had just hit a brick wall at a dead run. He had not even considered what he was actually going to say and his uncle would surely not approve of him leaving Lyon Llyonyss because of a dream. His uncle would not have approved of him leaving for any reason. Yet here he was, with no plan.

When Hogwarts came into view, he couldn't help but notice that his heart was beating very fast. He was pleased to be back, but also very anxious about being back. Thankfully, he could get through the warding due to his many, many trips back and forth from Hogsmeade with Potions ingredients. He had not contemplated potentially being locked out either!

When he reached the doors to his uncle's chambers, he stopped and stared at the door. He would generally just walk in, but in considering, he figured that he ought not do that. His uncle would surely not be expecting anyone to walk in with his nephew gone, and Sage would likely get cursed to next week before he had even gotten passed the threshold. Especially with the Dark Mark getting clearer.

He knocked and then nervously straightened his cloak.

The door flung open with incredible force, and his uncle had a brutal look on his face for the person who had disturbed him. When he saw Sage standing there, the look went to stunned and then to outright murderous.

Sage stood like a statue, suddenly more at a loss for words. If he had little plan of what to say before, he was negative in plan substance at that moment.

The veins began to bulge out on Severus's forehead, and like an viper striking its prey, he reached out and grabbed Sage by the collar, pulling him into the room.

"What is the meaning of this," he spat.

"Something is going to happen, sir. I had to come back."

"Something is going to happen?" the man said, slowly. Said like that it sounded far into the land of epic foolishness.

"…Yes, sir…" Now he really was no so sure the wisdom of this decision. Harry Potter might not be worth it – twat, cousin, savior, Chosen One, no matter.

"You were not to come back," His uncle hissed. "For anything! Until you completed your Rite. Which you obviously did not do." He narrowed his stare, allowing the full force of his strong black eyes hit Sage square in the face. "Can you not once just do what you are supposed to do?"

Sage pursed his lips, "I am doing what I am supposed to be doing, sir. I had permission to leave, and I have permission to return later."

Severus shook him harshly, "It was not for you to decide. You need to be there. You barely exist here."

"Then I must learn to exist here sir, because I have to be here. And I didn't decide uncle, I had permission to go."

Waving a finger in Sage's face, he yelled, "You do not get another warning."

Sage scowled loudly, "People are in danger, the Mark is getting darker, and I need to be here. I'm seeing things now more clearly than I have ever seen them. You gave a blood oath that you would not interfere with whatever Sarmach had me do. He let me come back, and you are obligated to let me stay, sir."

Sage was not prepared for Severus to hit him, but he should have been. He knew he had pushed the line, but at the same time he knew that he had to do it.

Sage glared back. He knew that this would not be easy.

"What makes you think that you are in any position to do anything about the Mark getting darker or about impending danger? You can hardly even use wandless magic."

With this statement, he whipped out his wand and pointed it at his nephew. There were points that needed clear illustrating before the boy ran off and did ridiculously dangerous things like Potter, from the misconceived notion that the world revolved around him.

"You cannot even disarm someone adequately. You are standing there, staring at me when I should no longer even have my wand. You cannot hold someone off you for more than a few minutes without being sick. What exactly do you think you are going to do here is something happens?"

Sage's eyebrows were both stuck up as high as they would go.

Severus laughed sadistically. "Nothing to say to defend yourself? We all know you cannot act to defend yourself."

What was Sage to do? He had already tried disarming his uncle many times before. He watched his uncle turn and walk off a few paces, slowly.

"Perhaps given the right circumstances… I believe I can help with that," He turned back around suddenly, jerking his wand sharply.

With his wandless magic being so unreliable, there was little chance even with such warning. Sage had no idea what his uncle had said or what the curse was to even begin to stop it, but when it hit him and threw him against the wall, he felt as if his lungs had just been sliced through. He opened his mouth in shock.

When he said, "Bloody hell," he felt his tongue roll around in his own salty, warm, blood. He slid down the wall, with the look of complete shock still on his face, falling to his knees.

His uncle had cursed him, really cursed him, and it wasn't some beginner curse either. He fell onto his side and then rolled onto his back, gasping.

He couldn't breathe. He stared up at the man, not knowing for sure what emotion he was feeling, because he was feeling several.

"Not even with the proper circumstances," Severus said in a whisper, pulling Sage's chin up with the end of his wand. "Truly disappointing, truly."

His uncle intoned the counter and moved his wand over his chest, where it got quite warm.

As Sage felt the curse lift from him and the air course into his lungs, he felt his anger rise up in him as if his blood were boiling. He focused on his uncle's wand as the man walked away from him again.

What do you think about Snape's reaction to Sage returning to quickly? Drop me a note in a review. I appreciate you all!