A/N: I know it has been a long time since I have updated this, but a few days ago a very kind and devoted reader and reviewer, Adellameeka (who happens to be an author as well, I particularly enjoy her story "An Artists Touch") commented asking if I would update this at some point.

Though my statistics tell me that people are reading, I must admit that I had become slightly discouraged by the lack of reviews and so I decided to stop. This latest review has motivated me substantially however, and I have now not only finished this chapter, but also the next chapter, and the following chapters are being drafted right now!

So, please enjoy!

CHAPTER 7: The other side of the Mirror

Snape watched as Laenaya move away from him, not sure whether she was really hurt by his words or whether she was just pretending to be in order to win his trust.

How presumptuous of her to think that they were friends or even on friendly terms.

As the last undulations of her cloak disappeared behind the wall he had an unpleasant epiphany, a realisation of something that was in front of him the whole time. Why did he not see it before? It was obvious why he disliked her so, no need to question her unpleasant behaviour and her dangerous nature, but now he suddenly saw why she made him so angry.

She, in many ways, was like him. A vicious predator in the guise of an almost boring teacher at a school. Admittedly, it was not an average school; but it was a school nonetheless.

He had never been able to truly forgive himself for the crimes he had committed, barely believing that Dumbledore had done so; so how could he let himself believe that Laenaya deserved to be forgiven? Some of her crimes were most likely far worse than his.

These emotions of distrust were only strengthened by the fact that she had been the reason why the Dark Lord had cast yet another unforgivable on him so many years ago.

That is why he pinned her to the wall on her first night, he wanted to hurt her, be rid of her, and possibly even go to the extremes and cast an unforgivable on her. Of course if he did that, he would be just as much of a Death Eater as he was in his youth and then he truly would never be able to forgive himself.

Besides, who was he trying to fool? He had become so engrossed in his role as a double agent, that he had forgotten his true self.

It had been crucial for him to live out both his roles, force himself to feel what he was expected to feel, but now that skill which had been his judge over life or death, was completely unnecessarily consuming him. He knew very well that he couldn't care less about the children in this school. Especially considering most of them were the spawn of those who had taunted and unfairly judged him in his youth. The people that disfigured him, and had catalysed the metamorphosis of his life; from naive little worm, to monster, to an empty shell of a man.

He knew very well that all he had done had been for Lily.

His entire life's mission and purpose had been to chase the ghost of a woman who was long dead. He filled his empty shell with the roles of Death Eater, then teacher, then both; but now they were consuming him, and he no longer knew who he was. He no longer knew what he was even doing at Hogwarts. He had never heard of a soldier who had lingered at the battlefield after the final battle…but there was just no where else for him to go.

In some twisted way, he had hoped that if he protected Lily's child and his friends, she would return from the dead if only to tell him that she forgave him and would be waiting for him on the other side.

This never happened however, and though he knew that his fantasy had been utterly absurd, he had not known what to do when it wasn't fulfilled. All he had hoped to see after completing his quest was Lily, and when she never came, he lost all patience for people.

Minerva was the most bearable of all, yet even she tested his patience most of the time.

He didn't want to see anyone, as no one was Lily. He didn't want to see Dumbledore, who looked at him with such nauseating pity, or Lupin who looked at him with indifference; and least of all did he want his already over-crowded surroundings to be occupied by an obnoxious, naive and manipulative succubus that was that wretched woman.

Yet there she was, just moments before, enthusiastically speaking to him as she would were she a young human excited about a new job; and there she was, offering to train Luna Lovegood under his supervision, with her red hair, green eyes and most likely pretend philanthropy, she reminded him of Lily. Well, physically at least, her personality had been completely different.

Though immortal, Laenaya was impatient where Lily was calm. She was brutally honest, though fair, where Lily had been so gentle that it had sometimes bordered on falseness, but her excessively forced kindness made her believe even her own lies. Laenaya was nothing like Lily, but she was Lily.

A much more dangerous and darkly twisted Lily. She was Lily, yet at the same time she was him. This thought disgusted him and he shut it out as quickly as it had come.

He would simply ignore her. Rather than give her the satisfaction of his attention, albeit negative attention, he would rather simply ignore her and forget about all of it.

He would simply supervise her training sessions with Luna and once in a while, see what she was up to, but never speak to her outside of lessons. If she did turn out to be harmless after all then he would lose nothing, but if she was planning on killing anyone, well he'd know it instantly and would be able to deal with her then. Despite not making any difference to him personally if any students died, he would play along with his role of teacher. It was all that was left to him, and if he had nothing to fill his shell, he would be just that: a shell.

He would not give his enemies the satisfaction of that humiliation.

If all else failed, he could write a letter to Lucius, revealing her identity, and Lucius could then use his power as a governor to fire her and have her sent far and away. While he was at it he could even let Lucius know about Lupin as well, seeing as those two mythical aberrations seemed to get along so well.

'The demon and the dog.', The thought made him smile wickedly.

"Alright Luna, focus again" Laenaya created another dark orb and gently put it in Luna's hands. This had been their 4th lesson, and so far they had little to no success.

Towards the end of the 2nd session, Luna finally managed to get a hold of the orbs that Laenaya made, but it had cost her a lot of energy and Laenaya had had to decrease the size of her orbs substantially to keep the girl from fainting, as she almost had during the first lesson when Laenaya first tried to place an orb in her hands.

"The goal is to imagine the particles I talked to you about. In the same way that you know what Wrackspurts look like, even without your glasses, if you manage to become accustomed to the shadows, you can start working on controlling them." Though the theory sounded legitimate even to Snape, the slow progress and especially the toll it was taking on Luna was beginning to worry her.

"Professor, I feel faint again. May I rest a little bit?" The girl was plainly exhausted. Though she had tried her best, Laenaya was somewhat unjustly disappointed. Had she really expected too much of the girl, as Snape seemed to think?

"Of course." She said, trying to put on a reassuring tone.

The girl sat down on a sofa in the corner and Laenaya went to join Snape at the desk, which the room of requirement had conjured for him.

He had been reading a book and taking notes, but when she sat down he put everything away and looked at her wordlessly.

"I know what you're thinking," she said as he crossed his arms. "But I haven't given up on her. I must admit that I'm a bit at a loss at what to do now, but I know there's something about this girl."

Snape had managed to be more patient with Laenaya lately. His technique of ignoring her except when he was with her and Luna in their private sessions had proven to be a successful tactic. He had also come to notice that she had not tried to do anything with the girl. He knew that if it were Lupin supervising her, he would have gone sentimental after seeing how gentle she was with the Ravenclaw. Snape would have personally preferred a more distant method of teaching, but at least the woman had never tried to harm her; and for some reason he did not even suspect that her reluctance to attack the girl stemmed from his presence.

"Well Miss Darkstrom, in the wizarding world, not so much is known about umbrakinetics. However, as you once pointed out, it seems to be somewhat more common amongst other species - especially your kind." Laenaya did not like the way he emphasised 'your' kind, but she chose to ignore it.

"I have been reading and," he said, and pulled the heavy book which he had been handling earlier back towards himself. "have come across some rather interesting information. It seems this was not so much a waste of time after all, speaking from a scholarly perspective."

Before he opened the book, Laenaya managed to read what was written on the cover. 'Illumination of the Crepuscule by Viscount de Morieve' She did not recognise the name, but by Snapes tone she assumed the author had been a Vampire.

"Though the author seems to be a bit of an eccentric, it contains some rather interesting information on umbrakinesis, and I found one particularly notable passage, though the first part is simply silly," he warned before reading it out loud.

"Darkness thrives on light. The shadow is a child of the darkness, but it spawns wherever there is light, and the brighter the light, the more intense the shadow. Darkness, being a manipulative and ambitious entity, adapts to its environment and feeds on its greatest enemy. This is why, even though light is theoretically faster than darkness, the darkness is omnipresent, constantly feeding on its surroundings, and especially its enemies; in the same way as vampires on humans.

The light however, is not such a versatile entity. It is strong in the sense that it is necessary for all beings, even vampires - in the form of moonlight - to survive on; and in the sense that it can penetrate most anything. The more intense the darkness, the more visible even the tiniest light will be.

The drawback of this strength however, is the amount of energy it requires. Since the darkness feeds on the energy that is around it, the umbrakinetic does not need to use an extensive amount of energy in order to benefit from his powers, but as light requires high amounts of energy to be produced, the lumokinetic must exert tremendous amounts of energy.

If the user knows of this natural advantage, he can use his umbrakinesis to feed on the power of lumokinetics and -" Snape paused and closed the book "I think that makes it quite clear. At this point it is merely a theory, but,"

"But it would explain why she's always so drained from our sessions!" Laenaya interrupted, to Snapes obvious disapproval. She suddenly realised what he had just done.

"Severus," she put her hand on the book and traced the lettering with her finger "you made the effort of looking for a book on the subject and…" she paused and looked up at his face "you're trying to help Luna." She couldn't hold back the smile.

Snape frowned "I do not like to waste my time Laenaya. Since it can never be detrimental to gather knowledge, especially in relation to topics we are not well educated in, and since you seem to be keeping your so-called nature well hidden, I have had the time to research on the subject."

"Thank you so much Severus, it is a highly plausible theory and might save Luna from a lot of tiresome trainings," all her animosity towards him vanished in that moment and she wanted to thank him somehow, especially as she had not failed to notice what he had just said in his last sentence. It was the first time that -

Her thoughts were interrupted by Luna. "Professor, I think I am ready to continue now."

"No, go rest Luna. We shall try a different approach next session."

Laenaya had cancelled the rest of the training sessions with Luna for that week, and gave her the weekend off as well. If Luna really did prove to be a Lumokinetic, she would need all the energy and strength she could find.

September had been unusually cold and gloomy and thus Laenaya had not been able to profit from the properties of the magical ceiling in the great hall. She wanted to experience a day of full sun, after finally having become accustomed to the faint rays that would now and then pass through the clouds above the enchanted ceiling.

The weekend came and was almost done and all Laenaya could do was stay in the castle and wish for the time to pass. It was becoming increasingly frustrating that she couldn't see the sun, especially because, even though she could not go out, she could feel that it was warmer in the castle now in the beginning of October than it had been all of September.

Her suspicion was unexpectedly confirmed when she overheard a group of students talking in the hallways; just as she was making her way to check on the enchanted ceiling.

"Finally, we get to have a quidditch practice where I won't be covered in mud…it's nice to see the bloody sun for once." It was a muscular 3rd year Hufflepuff. He was carrying his broom and club, obviously a beater.

"Well, I'm a bit nervous. Stephanie Johnson said she would come to watch me practice when the weather was better…I think she's coming today." The second boy was also a beater, and he was blushing in a very obvious manner.

"Ha! You stud!" Laughed the other one as they turned a corner.

Laenaya quickened her pace, if the sun was out today she would hurry to the great hall and make sure she could see as much of it as possible. When she arrived however, she was disappointed to find that there were still clouds above it. It seemed that, although the sun was shining, there were still some clouds left just above the enchanted ceiling.

She couldn't take it anymore, the only place where she could get what she had so longed for, for so many years, was the place where the object of her desire was, ironically, not in view.

Well, there were the windows.

It couldn't hurt just to look. If she could not look through the mirror, she would look through the window. She ran as fast as she could, making her way to a hallway that led to one of the towers of Hogwarts. She remembered having seen one of the biggest windows in all the castle one time when she had past it at night.

Sticking to the shadows as much as she could, she soon found the first of a long line of large suits of armours that led to her window of choice.

Still in the shadows, she stopped in the hallway. A warmth grew around her heart and she had to shield her eyes. The sun must have been right on that side of the castle as the star of life was particularly large and radiant here.

She opened her fingers and tried to open her eyes in order to peer through, slowly at first. Even though her eyes were still half closed, the sight was already overwhelming.

Her heart began to race with glee, how could she have been so content with missing out on this for so long?

The longing grew in her heart as she recalled the warmth. Hundreds of years ago, so long ago that she could no longer form the visuals of the memory properly in her mind, but she knew. The light that was spilling over the carpet right now, had spilled over the fields, rivers and through the trees in the forests of her childhood.

Warmth.

She stretched out her arm, so slowly that it seemed to take an eternity. Even slower still, she opened her eyes fully and began to stretch out her fingers. One touch couldn't possibly hurt. Her skin began to tingle, but she pressed on thinking that it was only the memory of the warmth giving her goosebumps.

Maybe it was all a myth after all, that vampires can't walk in the sun. She couldn't recall the last time she tried to set foot outside during the day, she wasn't even sure if she had ever tried, so how could she know for sure that it was true?

Just one touch.

Her hand and arm outstretched, she began moving towards the window, her heart ready to jump out of her throat.

A single tear managed to slide down her cheek as her hand reached the light. It bathed her from fingers to wrist in glorious yellow life and she could feel the warmth reaching her chest and then face and then stomach. She couldn't stop herself from moving now but why was it this hot? Had she made a mistake after all? She tried to recall her childhood but she couldn't remember it being this burning hot.

So hot.