Chapter 2:

Emergency

"Wake up sleepyhead, we're going to be late for potions!" I hear a panicked voice in the distance and as I lazily open my eyes, an agitated Drax throws my uniform on the bed.

It's like an electric current going through me, I yank the blanket off me, and start to put my uniform on with haste. Everyone left the dorm already, that's how he was able to enter the girl's bedroom to wake me up. And boy was I glad he did. If I'm late from potions, the only subject I'm on a tightrope with; not only will I get detention, but I'll be hearing about my sleeping habits from the dungeon bat for weeks to come. So being late is not an option. Still, here we are, with five minutes after the bell rang, and me only pulling the zipper up on my uniform skirt. Drax is pacing in the room nervously, watching me get dressed, and throwing my books needed for the day in my backpack. Having missed breakfast, he brought me a makeshift sandwich from the morning feast, making sure I get a few bites after our first class. Watching him prepare my bag makes me realize just how grateful I am for this boy. He always helps me when I'm in trouble, and somehow knows what to say and when, to calm you down. I don't feel awkward changing with him in the room, we've been best friends since we were little, we know each other inside out, there's nothing to be ashamed of in front of him. I don't have time to comb my hair unfortunately, so with a smaller bird nest on my head, we sprint out the door towards the dungeons, hoping for a miracle that Snape won't say anything, but I know too well that the dark professor will be ruthless. At least with me, that is.

After last night's detention, I found falling asleep really difficult, tossing and turning in my bed for hours, with an inexplicable heat between my legs, and the image of Snape touching my skin and his sensual low voice repeating itself in my head. I was super frustrated with myself, so I stayed up nearly all night, not understanding what the hell was wrong with me. Some kind of strange reaction started to manifest inside me each time I thought about the potioner, and I was slowly sinking into consternation. Whenever I heard his hushed, stern voice it was like millions of little ants started crawling all over my abdomen and my nether region. It was such a new sensation and so... unnatural, that I found myself disgusted at the thought of having a slight crush on the very teacher I swore to be an enemy to. I've played this teacher like a string for three years, and now some random heat engulfs me upon hearing his voice? Fucking ridiculous.

Annoyance bubbles up inside me as we arrive to the closed door, there's complete silence around us, I strain my ears to hear the faintest noise, but no voices can be heard from inside. Taking a deep breath, I open the door slowly, praying we can just scurry to two hidden spots in the back. But as soon as we enter, I hear the voice that makes my hairs stand on end once again.

"Can you provide a reasonable excuse as to why are you two late?" Snape asks, a serious light in his eyes.

"I overslept. Drax came to get me." I say simply, trying to save my friend's butt, and also not having the slightest mood for dealing with him today. My morning is already hectic, and I slept only three hours, so he's the last person I want to face now. All eyes shift to me, some of my classmates stare at me with fear and pity in their eyes, some with resentment, some don't even dare to turn around, but they can tell, I pissed off the potion teacher first thing in the morning.

"You seem to take my class quite frivolously, Miss, seeing that you allow yourself to be late from it." he clearly didn't like my cheeky simple answer, and he stands up with a deep frown, coming towards us. I elbow Drax while keeping eye contact with the now quickly approaching blackness, sending him to have a seat fast, shielding him from what's to come. This is my fight, he's mad only at me. Snape couldn't care less about Drax, I am his number one enemy who stands up to him, who cannot be intimidated by anything he does. I sigh in relief internally, when I see Drax successfully sitting down to a desk, from the corner of my eye, and as I focus back on Snape, he already stands right in front of me. Again, with the total disregard for personal space! Bastard!

"You have some nerve, showing up late, looking like an absolute mess, not even uttering a pardon for your tardiness. You disrupt my class, and you disrespect me. Tell me just one reason why I shouldn't assign you some form of punishment." he growled, piercing me with his eyes. I can hear in his voice that his patience is wearing super thin, and I probably shouldn't overstep his boundaries, but in my current annoyed state, I open my mouth against my better judgment.

"Maybe if you didn't keep me in detention so late in the night, I would have had enough time to actually wake up, comb my hair and not be late, professor." I press the last word between my teeth, trying to blame my sleepless night on my teacher, rather than my arousal. The anger level is raising within me every passing second, and I don't like the fact that his proximity makes me hot and bothered all over again. Cursed body! Why do I react like this? And to make matters worse, we're in front of the class! If anyone notices me behaving weird with Snape, I can't imagine what kind of rumors will spread about me. I can't have that. So, I dig my grave deeper in order to hide my heated state.

"Oh, but don't tell me professor, your loneliness got so unbearable, that you feel the need for a student to keep you company until late at night?" I slam the nail in my own coffin with a forced smirk, and I watch as the air in the classroom freezes in mere seconds, everyone turning around with a gasp and the most shocked expression they possess. I feel my limbs go numb, as fear slowly seeps inside my body, like a drop of black ink in a glass of water, spreading like roots of a tree in the earth. I see Snape's eyes, they narrow threateningly, his facial muscles are tense, his jaw stiff, oh, he is livid. He takes a long inhale through his nose; I can see he's gritting his teeth.

"Detention." he hisses with an alarming tone, accentuating every single letter, his hands balled in a fist. The anger caused by me humiliating him making his body slightly tremble. I swear to Merlin, if I wasn't in front of a class, my feet would have given out right here, hearing him lose his composure. But not because of fear. No. Because of lust. And I despise my body for it…

Astrology class with Aurora Sinistra. We sit in the large amphitheater classroom near the Astronomy Tower, the shutters are pulled on the windows, so that we see the magical projection on the blackboard.

Today's lesson however, the triple star system, Alpha Centauri, is not interesting enough to keep my attention, so my thoughts wonder back down to the dungeons, recalling a horrible first-class disaster. I'm sure to lose a limb today, I've never seen Snape so furious. Mentally I'm preparing myself to receive a medieval torturing or something much worse, when I get interrupted by Drax elbowing me softly. We're lucky we're sitting in the highest row, farthest from the board, so we can see everything clearly and whisper to each other without being caught. Not that Sinistra would punish us for a little chat.

"What happened last night? Why did you oversleep, it's not like you to even miss breakfast. I was worried about you." he whispers with a concerned face.

"I… I got held in detention for longer than I expected, and I felt a bit… shaken up after I came back. That's all." I say, feeling a bit guilty for not telling him the full truth, but I want to investigate my own feelings about this dungeon bat situation before I lay out my cards to him. I don't intend on keeping anything from him, I just have to be sure about what exactly it is I feel.

"Did the bat torture you so badly? What did he make you do?" Drax asks with wide eyes, like I just told him Snape cut off my hand or something.

"It was no big deal, I had to extract the mucus from some Flobberworms, and he didn't let me use protective gloves." I shrug, because for me, what happened after the extraction mattered the most.

"That bastard! That's why your hands look like that!" he took my hand in his, dragging his finger lightly over my palm, feeling the newly grown layer of shiny, red skin. Snape's ointment really helped me a lot.

"Don't worry," I chuckled "It looked much worse, but Mr. Grumpy actually put an ointment on it when I finished." I send him a playful smile, trying to ease his mood a bit.

"He gave you some ointment? That's quite odd of him." Drax takes his chin between his thumb and index-finger, contemplating the strange behavior.

"Well, I'm sure he felt remorse for letting me burn my skin off, that mongrel." I say with a smirk.

"Yeah, probably." Drax still has a sad light in his eyes, but shrugs it off for the moment. He probably picks up on me not being in the mood to discuss this in detail right now, and I'm left alone with my thoughts again. No matter how hard I try, I simply can't concentrate today, so I feign sick, but tell Drax that I'm actually ok, and he shouldn't worry. I ask Sinistra to dismiss me. My last class is Herbology anyways, so I can skip that for today. I need to set my thoughts straight.

My detention is always scheduled after dinner, and I have an hour until the bell signals the evening feast. So, I thought a nice walk to the edge of the Forbidden Forest sounded just perfect to clear up the fog in my mind. I find the September air quite nice, the wind caressing my cheek as I walk in the grass, taking in the scenery. The sunset in the distance painting the sky in a pinkish hue, giving me a feeling of calm and that of a home. As I reach my destination, I see Hagrid's hut not far from me, and after looking around for potential danger, I enter the forest. Only a couple steps in, I barely pass a few trees when I start to feel dizzy, the world starts spinning with me, and as I'm about to lose my balance and fall, someone catches me from behind. Placing a wet napkin in front of my mouth and nose, the solution soaked in the napkin cleans out my airways immediately, and brings me back to my senses. I am dragged out of the forest, noticing my savior has black sleeves that cover the back of his hands and… oh shit. I'm done for. I'm truly done for. As I'm laid down in the grass when we get to a safe distance from the dangerous woodland, I finally come face to face with a heaving Snape, who looks at me with an outraged expression.

"Just how much trouble can you cause me in one single day?" he asks a bit out of breath, annoyed, looking around us, making sure we were safe. Then he gets on one knee next to my shoulder. I'm startled by his sudden act, my throat too dry to form words, but he continues to scold me, placing the napkin back on my face. His black robe like a protective tent flowing around me as he keeps his hand on the napkin covering my nose and mouth.

"If you had attended today's Herbology class, which you hadn't, you would have learned about the Befuddled Burgeon, a fungus that releases toxic gas this time of year, making anyone who inhales it lose consciousness and ultimately die." he explained berating me, and pointed toward a tree on the edge, hosting a lilac-blue mushroom family on its bark. "Your bloody luck, that I was in the vicinity to save you."

I stare in his black eyes, intense emotions swirling in them like a vortex, and I find myself relishing the fact that his hand is on my face, but also nervous because he found out about my skipping. I close my eyes, inhaling the solution some more, and I could swear I feel the smell of his skin through the napkin. Or am I just slowly going insane? My racing heart is calmed by his proximity, a change for once, since his closeness aroused me instantly these days. Seeing me regain my tranquility, he carefully lifts his hand from the napkin, and I take it away from my mouth, turning my head toward him, and for the first time, I don't have any revolt in my voice.

"How did you know I skipped Herbology, professor?" I ask gently, and from the outside I must seem quite vulnerable in this moment.

"Pomona came whining to me, that her best student is sick and how she pities you not being able to attend. So, when I saw you leave the castle from the window of a corridor, I knew you were up to no good." he said looking away, with a face like he was the most inconvenienced person on Earth.

"But how did you have the antidote with you? You couldn't possibly know I was coming to the Forest." I say, propping up myself on my elbows, lifting my torso off the ground, getting even closer to Snape with this movement. My move seemed to make him uncomfortable though, and he stood up, but not moving away from me.

"Merlin's sake, do you actually think the world revolves around you? I had the solution with me for my own purpose, I wanted to gather some of the mushrooms later, since it's an important ingredient in a few potions. You just happened to have the greatest luck of the century with me noticing you, right before I intended on coming out myself. Otherwise, I would have found your corpse instead." he says, returning to his hard-nosed style. I sit up, rubbing the tension out of my forehead with closed eyes.

"Thank you for saving my life, professor." I say in a serious tone, feeling too awkward to look up at him.

"I'm glad your manners are not completely lacking." he remarks, but shortly after, he turns away adding quietly, "You're welcome. I'm your teacher. It's my duty." and with that he starts walking back to the castle.

"Remember your detention!" I hear his reminder a few feet from me, and I snort at his subtle childish demeanor. My gaze drops to the handkerchief still in my grasp. I open it, driven by curiosity, and the warm feeling of knowing who it belongs to. It's a plain white textile, but upon closer examination, I observe the monogram 'S. S.' embroidered in the corner with dark green silky thread. The two letters are beautifully entangled, like two graceful snakes dancing with each other in the pure white snow. I gasp as realization dawns on me, this, in fact, is his personal handkerchief. Possessed by a sudden urge I hug the piece of cloth to my chest, enjoying the moment just a little too much, before the loud gong of the bell brings me back to reality. I must hurry to catch dinner. Standing up, I put the textile in the pocket of my robe, and jog to the entrance, admiring the sky as it changes its veil again to a darker blue, decorated with the first stars of the night.

Walking down the corridor towards the Great Hall, I suddenly hear panicked noises, rustling, quickened steps belonging to multiple people, and my attention is immediately there at the source of the commotion. Fortunately, I'm alone in the hallway, all the other students being already at the feast. McGonagall, Dumbledore, Sprout and Poppy follow two people dressed in lime green robes, they carry Mad-Eye Moody on a stretcher, the ex-Auror covered in blood, cuts and bruises, groaning in pain.

"Minerva, I can't help him, we should send him to St. Mungo's!" says Poppy in a hushed manner, trying not to attract any kind of attention.

"We cannot do that Poppy, you know very well that with these frequent attacks, they have their hands full with injured and tortured wizards!" McGonagall has a disturbed expression, the group heading to the hospital wing. They almost float away being in such hurry, and an unknown force pushes me to go after them, an inner voice whispers to me to follow the group. Suddenly changing my mind about eating, I sneak after them, making sure they don't notice me, silencing my steps by tip-toeing in the dark hallway to the infirmary. Once in, the teachers place Moody on the last bed at the end of the room, farthest from the door. I slide in, and hide behind a divider curtain placed next to the entrance, eavesdropping on them.

"What happened, Albus?" asks Pomona, with a somber voice.

"Alastor was attacked by death eaters. I sent him to gather information on Voldemort, but they caught him by surprise. He didn't have time to counter their spells or ask for backup." explained the old wizard, seriousness in his tone.

"And what do you expect me to do, Albus? These are gravely serious injuries caused by very dark magic, this surpasses even my domain expertise!" Poppy exclaims exasperated, and I can hear Moody's groans get worse as they speak. A deep sense of pity manifests itself inside my chest and before I can think of my actions, I let my mouth take control.

"I can help him." I state, my determined voice coming from behind the curtains, but in the next second I step out so the teacher's can see me. Each of them has their own face of bewilderment as I stand there, regretting my big mouth's ministrations on second thought. My healing wasn't nearly as good as mom's, and I had big doubts about my ability to heal this badly injured wizard, but oh well. The statement was out.

"What in the name of Godric Gryffindor are you doing here, young lady?" Minerva asks me outraged, looking like she just swallowed a fly.

"My sixth sense told me to follow you, so I did. Now please, let me try and help mister Moody." I say in a slightly pleading tone, not wanting to enrage the witch further.

"How on earth could a student like you help him? Can't you see the condition he's in? If madame Pomfrey, a skilled healer couldn't heal this wizard, what makes you think an inexperienced sixth-year student like you can do any better?" she said detractively, walking right into my pride. Well, that was a low blow, McGonagall. As an experienced witch, you should know not to judge a book by its cover, but who am I to give life advice? Her question hurt me, because I know I'm only at the beginning of my healing journey. I don't have too much experience with healing, I never healed major injuries, especially not injuries made by dark magic… On the other hand, I didn't dedicate nine fucking years of my life for nothing, McGonagall, so step aside and let me try.

I only send her a sarcastic smile as an answer and, approach Moody' s bed. Examining his wounds, I count every cut and bruise, the bloody spots, I find a few fractured bones also.

"Are we really going to let a seventeen-year-old intervene like that?" asked Minerva with desperation. Her inquiry is met with silence, I assume everyone's eyes are on me and what my next move is. I take a deep breath, and approach Moody's head. Stretching out my fingers in front of me, I close my eyes and concentrate on the glowing white strings as they leave my fingertips and cascade down on the pillow, then making their way to the ex-Auror's nape.

"Merlin's beard! The legendary Soul Strings!" Poppy exclaims, hurrying to the bed next to me, staring at my hand and the thin glowing lines.

"Soul Strings?" Pomona interjects curiously.

"The pinnacle of curing, the high school of healing, this is the highest level a wizard can rehabilitate the sick and the injured." described the matron with the utmost enthusiasm, a big smile appearing on her face. "There are only a few families possessing this miracle, but unfortunately they have to remain hidden, in fear of being hunted down by the wrong people." her voice turned sad a little, but she quickly regained her joyful mood saying, "But having a student with this power is all we ever wanted! I can make you my apprentice and teach you everything I know about healing! We will not have to worry about a single thing from now on!" Poppy dances around the bed, glee radiating from her features, no one saw the matron behave like this before. I feel kind of awkward, frowning at the fact that I didn't want to end up working in the hospital wing, I just wanted to help this man and be over with it. Dumbledore senses my discomfort, and prompts madame Pomfrey to compose herself a bit.

"Madame Pomfrey, I'm sure she will consider your kind offer; however, I think our priority should be rehabilitating Alastor here, who is quite in agony to be honest." he gives a meaningful look to Poppy, who stills herself and stands beside McGonagall, clasping her hands together on her apron.

I can finally concentrate on Moody's condition. I search for the right departments in his brain, and give the command one by one to the corresponding tissues to accelerate their cell division, and start making new muscle and skin patches. I reconnect and regrow bones, I make the muscle fibers push out the shards if I sense a comminuted fracture. The catch in this whole mess is, the dark magic constantly works against my ministrations, so if I grow two cells, the dark magic eats one, in very simple terms. My progress is slow but steady, Dumbledore steps next to me, seeing my work bearing fruit gradually. He asks quietly, trying not to disrupt my focus,

"How long?"

"About an hour." I whisper to him with my eyes closed.

Then, I hear receding footsteps behind my back, and the door opening and closing, only a single breathing remaining next to me. I assume Poppy will stay here to supervise my work. The loud ringing of the bell breaks my focus a bit, and I think Poppy noticed my disruption, because after a few seconds, she walks to the opposite side of the bed, takes out her wand, and I hear an incantation I never heard before. It makes the dark magic slowly seep out of Moody's body, giving me a straighter road to walk on. She offers me the greatest help her repertoire holds, aiding me with healing magic, smoothing out the path for me. It takes a lot of strain and hard work, but after more than an hour of relentless mending and giving orders to the body through the brain, I finally stabilize him, and now all he needs are healing potions, and a lot of bedrest.

"Thank you so much dear, you did a splendid job! You saved his life, you know." Me? Saved a person's life? Wow. That's definitely… new. I can barely register what I just did in the last hour, but one thing is for certain, my stomach is filled to the brim with butterflies, the feeling is so powerful and overwhelming. I saved a life. I helped a person escape death. This is ineffably great.

"Thank you for helping me too, miss Pomfrey." I thank her with a huge grin, basking in the warm sensation this experience brought.

"I think you deserve rest, dear, you should go and relax a bit." says Poppy with a smile, covering Moody with a blanket. I nod to her, bid her a good evening and walk out of the infirmary, drunk on the new feeling coursing through my veins. These butterflies are otherworldly, and I find that I can't get enough of this euphoria. Walking down the stairs, I place my hand on my stomach, where the butterflies buzz earnestly, tingling me on the inside. Hm, butterflies… reminds me of…

Oh shit. Shit shit shit!

MY DETENTION!