A/N: I know in HBP Snape is evil, but in this story he's not evil, just mean.

Disclaimer: I don't own TT or HP.

Chapter 10: Winter Work

By the time winter break was coming around, half of the school was ill with the strange disease. Everyone avoided the corridors near the hospital wing. Even through the doors and walls, the wails of hallucinating victims, fever boiling their minds, rang through the castle.

Everyone was tired. The teachers were no longer seen in the halls except for in the early morning and late at night. Instead they were in the hospital wing administering medicine, in the dungeons researching a cure, or in the greenhouses growing ingredients. All but a few main classes were cancelled, and most of the students felt idle and useless. Raven, though, was just as exhausted as the teachers. Every morning she awoke before dawn and headed down to the dungeons, and she did not return to Gryffindor tower until late. Her friends were worried.

The night before winter break would officially begin, Raven groggily climbed through the portrait hole and plopped herself into a large red armchair by the hearth. The half-daemon closed her eyes and leaned back against the squishy chair.

"Raven," Dick began, "are you okay?"

Raven opened her eyes halfway and slowly nodded. "Just tired," she said in a quiet voice.

Harry looked at Raven with concern. His friend was dead tired and therefore more susceptible to getting the disease. She was working hard everyday to help students she didn't even know, while he sat like a lump. "Raven," said Harry. "Winter break starts tomorrow; can I help in any way?"

For a few seconds, Raven stared at Harry like he had sprouted another head. Finally a genuine smile spread across her face. "Yes." Raven sounded happier and almost excited. "Yes, you can help. Can you start tomorrow?"

Harry smiled, as well, but his smile was much broader than Raven's. "Of course!"

The next morning, Harry awoke as his face collided with the floor. Someone had pushed him out of bed. Harry stood and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. When his eyes had adjusted to the dark, he saw Raven standing before him. "Raven, what time is it?"

Raven replied in monotone, "Five o'clock. You need to get ready. Breakfast is in fifteen minutes."

Harry simply stared at her as she left the boy's dormitory. Five o'clock! What was she thinking! Harry quietly pulled out his wand and whispered, "Lumos." Harry the positioned his wand so that it threw its tiny light upon his trunk, and then he proceeded to get dressed.

Raven was waiting for Harry when he descended the stairs. "Come on," she said simply. She led him to the Great Hall where most of the teachers were sitting at the teachers table. Hagrid, though, was sitting at the far end of the Gryffindor table. He waved as they entered. Raven took a seat in front of the large man and Harry sat next to her.

"Hi," Hagrid boomed in his rough voice. "Harry, what are you doing here?"

Raven answered for him, "He's going to help me." As Raven said this, piles of food appeared on the table before them. Both Raven and Hagrid began to eat heartily. Harry on the other hand, poured himself a cup of tea and sipped it in silence. Raven turned to Harry and asked, "Is that all you're going to eat?"

Harry nodded. "I can't eat this early."

"Well, you're going to have to. We usually don't stop for lunch."

"Why?"

"You'll find out." Due to Raven's request, Harry forced himself to eat some eggs and toast.

After breakfast, Raven led Harry down to the dungeons. Raven took him to the lowest part of the dungeons, the area that was rarely used anymore. Now, however, one would not have guessed that these rooms were empty merely months ago. Two large white tents had been constructed at the entrance of a large corridor, cutting off any other access to the rooms beyond. One tent was guarded by Filch, while the other was guarded by a female professor he didn't know. Raven pointed to the tent guarded by Filch, indicating that he was to enter, as she entered to other tent. Harry entered the tent and Filch poked his head in after him. "Strip," Filch stated in a bored tone.

Harry turned to the caretaker and stammered, "Wh-what?"

Filch sighed, obviously annoyed. "Take your clothes off and leave them in here. I'll take care of them for you. Then go on to the showers. After the showers you'll find another tent with clothes in it."

"Okay," said Harry tentatively. After Filch gave him some privacy, Harry reluctantly started to take off his clothes. What if this is a trick from Malfoy? What if he jumps out with a camera and takes a picture of me in my underwear! Harry then shook off that idea. Raven would never help play a prank on him. Harry stripped completely and walked through the door into the next tent. The next tent was small and had many shower heads poking through the fabric. A large drain sat in the center. Harry was barely able to take in his surroundings before ice cold water began to drench him. Harry gave a short shriek at the freezing temperature. After he realized he wasn't being pelted with ice cubes, Harry stood in the chilly spray until the water was turned off. Shivering and rubbing his chest, Harry proceeded to the next tent. The next tent was small as well, but lying on the floor was a large towel and a pile of clothes. Thankful, Harry immediately dried himself off. The clothes consisted of a large robe that reminded him of muggle lab coats and some undergarments.

When Harry exited the last tent, he found Raven waiting for him. "Did you scream?" she asked.

Harry blushed. "The water was cold." Raven simply rolled her eyes. She was dressed similarly to Harry in a white robe. She had pulled her wet hair back into a short ponytail, though a few wisps escaped the bind. Harry thought she was beautiful though he would never admit it.

"Follow me," she said and led him to a large wooden door. The door opened easily, and beyond the barrier, Harry could see the bulk of his professors dressed as he was. They were carrying vials or mixing potions or using microscopes. Some were stirring dark fluids in tiny dishes with magic from their wands. Harry followed Raven inside.

He was walking over to a table with her when they were cut off by Professor Snape. Snape glared at Harry. "Raven," he snapped. "What is he doing here?" Snape said the word "he" with obvious contempt.

"He is going to be my assistant," Raven replied, not at all fazed by Snape's tone of voice.

"Your assistant? And how, pray tell, will this boy assist you." Harry was about to speak up in his own defense but thought better of it. This conversation was between Snape and Raven, and so far Raven had done a splendid job defending him.

"He will be taking notes. He is able to write, is he not?"

Snape's mouth pressed into a thin line. "If he touches anything-"

"I will take full responsibility for his actions."

"Raven, you know I trust you, but the company you keep-"

"If that is all, Severus, we really must be getting to work." With that said, Raven turned from Snape and continued on her way. Harry hurried to follow her.

"Raven," Harry whispered in her ear so as not to be heard. "You're on a first name basis with him?"

"I'm on a first name basis with all of the teachers." Harry stopped dead in his tracks at this. A student calling all of the teachers by their first names. It was unheard of. Raven stopped and turned to look at Harry. "Here nobody cares about formalities. After a few days, you might be doing it too." Harry nodded and the two continued on their way.

Harry and Raven finally reached their destination. The table they were going to be working at was tall so that a person could work at it while standing. Vials, beakers, a microscope, and other paraphernalia were already set out on the table. Harry studied the items a second before saying, "This all looks sort of mugglish."

Raven sighed. "It is. Unless the disease is rooted in magic, magic can do little but help find a normal muggle cure. The most magic you'll find here are in the microscopes." Raven then pulled a large pad of parchment from a drawer along with a quill and inkpot. She handed them to Harry. "Your job is to take notes. Write down whatever I say. Understand?" Harry nodded. "Good." Raven lifted a vial marked 1920065. Taking a pipette, she extracted some liquid from the vial. She then returned the vial to its originally place and lifted another vial marked 6A. Very carefully, Raven dropped two drops of the liquid from the pipette into the vial. Using a glass stir rod, Raven stirred the new potion. It remained the same. Raven let out an exasperated sigh as she returned the new vial to its place. "6A is negative."

Harry carefully took notes as Raven repeated these same steps with vials 6B through 6H. They were all negative. After the last vial was found negative, Raven pushed the six series of vials to the back of the table and gave Harry instructions to stay where he was while she procured series seven. Harry took this as a chance to study what she was doing. Inside each of the six series vials was a thick, dark red liquid: blood. Harry was about to hurl when Raven returned. Harry swallowed a few time to stop his gag reflex, before examining what Raven had now. More vials of blood. "Someone is testing series seven, so now we're prepping series eight."

"Um, Raven," said Harry still feeling nauseous by the sight of so much blood. "What exactly are we doing?"

"We're trying to isolate the disease."

"What?"

"You have to get the disease on its own, extract it from the blood. Unfortunately this step seems to be taking an unusually long time."

"Why?'

"We don't know. It's odd; it's almost as if the disease mutates so that it becomes one with the blood, so that it is indistinguishable from the normal blood." Raven sighed and gazed at the many vials before her. "If we can't even isolate this, we have no hope of finding a cure."

"Um, if the disease is in that blood, can't we catch it?" Harry asked nervously.

Raven shook her head. "The vials have been spelled so that things can go in but not out. We should get to work now."

Harry spent the rest of the day writing labels to put on vials and writing notes on what each vial contained. He and Raven worked without break until Raven finally stopped him. "Its dinner time," she said. "Go on."

"Aren't you coming?" he asked confused.

"No, we have dinner later."

"Then I'll have dinner then as well."

Raven shook her head. "You've done enough, and you're tired." Harry wanted to protest, but he was tired. He had no idea that taking notes was so tiring or frustrating. Nothing had yielded results today. "I'll meet you in the common room later Harry." Raven then returned to her microscope, and Harry knew he had been dismissed. He started to leave when she called to him once more, "Harry, get a good night's sleep. We're going to be working in the hospital wing tomorrow."

"We?" he said surprised. "What can I do in the hospital wing?"

"Believe me, there's plenty you can do."

The showers on his way out were just as cold as they had been that morning, though this time Harry was hungry and tired.

The Great Hall was packed with students filling their empty bellies with all kinds of food. Harry sat with Ron, Dick, and Hermione and quickly began eating himself.

"Where's Raven?" Ron asked.

"Still working. She gave me the rest of the night off."

"What exactly did you do?" Hermione asked extremely intrigued.

Harry told them everything from shower to shower. Ron laughed at Harry's initial shriek at the temperature of the water, and Hermione had to tell them of the importance of the showers. They all became extremely depressed, though, when Harry told them that they hadn't even isolated the disease.

Toward the end of dinner, Dumbledore stood to greet the eaters. The Great Hall fell into silence. "As all of you know, no one is allowed to leave the castle for winter break. So to lift your spirits, we have decided to give you all a special treat: this year Hogwarts will have a Yule Ball." A buzz ran through the hall as news of the ball was announced.

"I thought the Yule Ball was a Triwizard Tournament thing," Ron said, deeply confused.

"Oh, Ron, Yule simply refers to the winter solstice," Hermione explained.

"What's the Yule Ball?" Dick asked, but before he was given answer, Dumbledore continued.

"I will expect the older student to explain this to our second and first years. First, though, I would like to explain some changes we will have. All students, no matter what year, will be allowed to attend, and obviously we will not be able to have guests or a band. I hope everyone enjoys their winter break." Dumbledore sat back down, and the noise level in the Great Hall rose once again.

"So Harry, who're you going to go with?"