Chapter 4:
Well done to: WynterRavenheart and raion, who answered correctly in chapter 1
Oh, and Dark: yes, yes they will be.
Dumbledore had asked him if he needed any sleep. Shaun had replied in the negative, but when he yawned mid-sentence, Dumbledore told him to sleep on his couch. Shaun wasn't exactly comfortable. It wasn't that the couch gave him problems; it wasn't even that he distrusted the Headmaster. Everything that had happened in the last 24 hours was flying around his mind in a tornado, and he only got half an hour's actual sleep before the Headmaster roused him for breakfast.
Shaun stifled another yawn as he waited outside the Great Hall as Dumbledore announced his arrival. Random words floated through the door from Dumbledore's speech
'...arrived last night.....treat with respect.....helping a fellow student....has been Sorted already....please welcome...'
Shaun stood and stretched backwards, making the bones in his back crunch satisfyingly. He sighed in pleasure and straightened. Dumbledore's voice sounded again, louder this time. "Shaun, come in please."
Shaun felt anger colour his cheeks as he heard the man call him by his first name. He flung the heavy doors open with such force they slammed into the stone walls behind them. His eyes blazed with fury as the whole school turned and stared.
"I don't believe," he said softly, but as cold as ice, "that I gave you permission to use my first name Dumbledore."
Slytherins snickered as Dumbledore backtracked furiously. "O-Of course, Mr. Frost. I meant no offence; forgive an old man's mistake..."
"Of course," Shaun said, waving a dismissing in hand in what was to become his signature gesture when dealing with Dumbledore. "We can't all be perfect."
He smirked triumphantly as some of the younger Slytherins laughed outright. They were quickly hushed by their elders, who reminded them to keep their composure at all times.
Shaun turned on his heel and strode toward the Slytherin table as if that was the way he had been walking all his life, instead of toward the table decked out in red and gold. He slid purposefully in to the seat next to Snape.
"Hello," he said neutrally. Snape turned, perhaps recognising his voice. His look of shock when he saw who was sitting next to him was lost when he quickly schooled his face into submission.
"Good morning."
Shaun studied him carefully. "I never learned your name." He said politely, exactly as a Slytherin would say if they had saved somebody's life.
Snape looked pained, as if he didn't want to part with even this small piece of information. No wonder he had so little friends. "Snape. Severus Snape."
Shaun nodded, "Pleasure to meet you, Snape."
"Likewise Frost."
Breakfast ended quickly, but Shaun had no timetable as yet. He turned to Snape. He felt suspicion and disbelief falling off him in waves. But, buried underneath layers of negative emotions, there lay a tiny flicker of hope. Shaun shuddered to clear himself of Snape's emotions. What was happening to him?
"Snape," he said quickly, to cover his pause. "Do you know where we go next?"
"We have Potions now, Frost." Snape explained curtly. "Hurry, Professor Slughorn takes badly to latecomers."
Shaun dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Naturally. Shall we?"
Severus smirked in a way that could be seen as close to a smile. "I believe we shall."
They were just exiting the Hall when Shaun heard an oily, smarmy voice behind him. "Frost, isn't it?"
Shaun didn't bother to confirm his name. A Slytherin wouldn't have asked if they didn't already know the answer.
"What can I do for you, Mr?"
The man waved away his polite offer. "The question is, Frost, what can I do for you?"
Shaun resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the overused cliché. The 7th year Slytherin leaned forward, purposely shoving Snape against the stone wall. "You could be so powerful, Frost. My Master could offer you so much. What do you say?"
Shaun glared at the Death Eater and flicked his gaze to Snape, who was leaning painfully against the wall. As his eyes followed Shaun's , Shaun stepped smartly out of the man's reach.
"I have enough power, thank you. I don't hunger for more."
The Death Eater straightened, frustrated. "A true Slytherin is power-hungry," he hissed, parroting some of his Master's views.
Shaun turned to him coldly. "A true Slytherin is ambitious." he said. "They are two very different things."
He walked to Severus, eyeing him worriedly. "I think your arm is fractured," he said, feeling the ugly pulses from the man's left arm.
"I must go to the Hospital Wing," Snape said. He stiffened at Shaun touch, though he hadn't even brushed the area that was damaged.
Shaun recognised Snape's symptoms. The man wasn't comfortable with touch, and was suspicious of all those around him. It didn't take a genius to work out. So, either some of the Wizarding World's best minds were stupider than he thought, or nobody cared.
He felt sick.
Swallowing his anger, Shaun brought his voice under control, and spoke as if he was calming a patient in the Hospital Wing. "If you are willing, I can heal it now. It will be faster, and Professor Slughorn would so hate it if we were late for his class."
Snape appeared to think long and hard on this proposal. By the way his emotions would flash his hope and something akin to belief or confidence (he wasn't exactly and expert...yet) and then became clouded with suspicion and... a kind of fear. Not of, physical damage, more like... abandonment, he was wavering between trust and distrust.
After Snape had mulled it over for nearly a minute, and Shaun was close to just grabbing his damn arm, He made a decision.
"Very well." He said, and immediately closed his eyes, as if expecting Shaun to laugh and tell him it had all been a trick, or for the healing process to be excruciatingly painful. In actual fact, Shaun finished the fracture within a second (the clean crack across the ulna* had been nothing compared to the various aches and pains associated with a werewolf transformation) and had surreptitiously set about healing the many scars and badly healed bones left over from previous 'accidents' similar to this one.
He chuckled when he saw Snape's expression. Snape's eyes snapped open and Shaun felt the shimmer of hope wink out. Desperate to correct it, Shaun said gently, "The healing process isn't meant to be painful, Snape."
Snape's eyes widened, and wonder/curiosity overshadowed the negativity in his...aura? It was indeed, as if a haze of emotions hung around Snape, all of different 'tastes' that helped Shaun identify them. Negativity was in general, bitter. He imagined, from the hints of sugar in Snape's aura, that positivity tasted sweet.
Snape's aura was like eating a lemon. Whole.
Shaun was snapped back to the present by Snape's accusation. " Are you a fool, defying the Dark Lord that way? How could you be so reckless!"
Shaun's eyes widened fractionally. Snape actually cared.
"It was a calculated risk. What do you take me for? A Gryffindor?" he smiled at Snape.
The incredible thing was, Snape smiled back. It was small, granted, but it was genuine.
And the hope in Snape's aura exploded back into life.
*ulna- a bone in your forearm
Yay! Shaun and Severus have meeted!
Today's question is....
Who was the Dark Lord's messenger?
And a quick last note: Is anyone interested in being my beta for this story only? I'd really like one, and you'd get chapter's in advance, if you were a big fan ;)
Review, and I will love you muchly for ever and ever!
Urban Angel =)