Snape had been unconscious for about five minutes when Rachel began to wonder if he was going to sleep through the night. He had looked wiped out. How long, she thought, had he been awake and hurt?
He looked much younger asleep, Rachel mused. Was it the pain, the exhaustion, or the scowling that added the years to his face? He really should do something about the hair though, she thought. As Rachel reached out to brush a few strands out of his face, a familiar voice interrupted her musing…
"Oh dear. It appears that Severus has had a bit too much excitement for one evening."
Rachel stood quickly and met Albus' amused gaze. "No, no, no one was excited… I mean, he was…there was no…um, he passed out." Oh, this was bad.She could feel the blood rushing to her face. Could she have sounded more like an idiot? Probably not, she thought, but if she'd really tried maybe she could have sounded trashier.
As he walked toward them, Albus said, "I meant only that Severus has recently been on the wrong end of several curses and hexes." Albus knelt by Severus and raised an eyebrow.
"But it appears as though Severus is physically undamaged," Albus intoned, catching Rachel's eye. His own were twinkling merrily. "I wonder how that could be?"
Okay, Rachel thought, he was not angry; that was amusement in his voice. So she took a moment to relax and order her thoughts. Prepared, she smiled. "I believe you know precisely how. I believe the only uncertainty at the moment is whether or not you are annoyed about it."
Albus chuckled. "No, I am not annoyed, but only because it is Severus. If it were anyone else, I am certain I would be quite upset. But I did, after all, tell you that I trust Severus implicitly. And I expect also that you have already guessed that it was he that sent the warning about Voldemort's recent activity."
Inwardly sighing, Rachel was relieved that her instincts had been correct. She opened her mouth to speak, but Albus raised his hand and said, "Tomorrow we will speak further. The three of us will need to discuss the situation in the morning, but now I must get Severus to his rooms." Conjuring a stretcher, Albus floated Severus onto it.
"I understand, but before you take him, let me grab…" Rachel walked to her desk, opened the first aid drawer, and removed a vial filled with a swirling, pearlescent blue liquid. "I may have healed his injuries, but Severus will still wake up stiff and sore from the muscle strain without some Liquid Massage." Handing Albus the vial, she issued instructions. "He'll need to swallow all of this."
"Thank you, Rachel. I'll see to it. This is quite considerate of you. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Albus. I'll see you both in the morning."
Albus nodded and guided the stretcher out of the room.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap…
After feeling around for the alarm clock for half a minute, Rachel's semi-conscious mind registered that the tapping sound was coming from the window. Window? "Oh!"
Rachel stumbled out of bed and over to the window. She opened it and the poor barn owl flew in with an indignant hoot and perched on her desk.
"I'm sorry if you were out there a long time," Rachel said as she untied the letter from the owl's leg and stroked its feathers. "I was up way too late." Once she began to unroll the parchment, the owl screeched angrily and flew back out the window. Leaning out, she yelled, "I said I was sorry!"
Shaking her head, Rachel read the note.
Rachel, please meet Severus and myself in my office at nine am for breakfast and a meeting.
Albus
She glanced at the clock on the wall; it was already a quarter past eight. Dammit, she thought, there went her leisurely morning. She'd just enough time to check her email, update her day planner and get ready.
First things first, Rachel thought as she got into her email account. She had two new emails, one from Aton, and one from Pascale. She decided to check Aton's message first:
Can't get rid of us that easy. We'll figure details soon. – Aton
Rachel chuckled. That was Aton, short and sweet, just the basics. Pascale's response would probably be at least 10 pages long and describe, in excruciating detail, her thoughts and feelings from the moment she got the news until the moment she sent the email. Ugh, that one could wait until later. For now, she pulled up her Planner program and set about updating it.
Saturday tasks (X-Cancelled, C-Completed, P-Pending)
X Sightseeing
C Meeting with Headmaster Dumbledore Hogwarts
C Call Aton, email John & Pascale
C Set up classroom
C Complete discussion outline for Thursday task: Call Mother, convince of sanity
C Give notice at apartment complex. Instruct to mail security deposit to parents' home.
P Explore Castle – make 1-week project
Sunday tasks
X Sightseeing
C Check email, pack response? "Can't get rid of us that easy."
P Meeting with Albus and Severus – 9 am
- 1. Discuss V, BSDs and security situation
- 2. Iron out details of Judo course:
- - - a. How many students will I have all together?
- - - b. Class size? Suggest 1st-3rd years together, 4th-6th years together, and 7th years alone.
- 3. Provide Albus with pattern and photos of Judogi. He will forward to robe shop.
- 4. Request permission for pack to be allowed to live in the forest or the Shrieking Shack.
- - - a. If shot down, prepare detailed argument for case, schedule follow-up meeting.
P Call Mother, convince of sanity discussion outline (link)
P Explore castle
Unscheduled tasks
Explore dark forest, in lupus (safer, Albus states). Identify all areas of Wyrm infestation.
Cleanse all Wyrm emanations from the forest. Albus' request: "Avoid killing anything, if
possible. Capture dangerous beasts and deliver to me, caged, for handling."
1. Delegate to pack should they be permitted to come.
Prepare vocabulary lists and other handout materials for Judo course.
Satisfied with her schedule, Rachel headed toward the shower.
Severus was having the most pleasant dream. He was warm and felt more comfortable than he had in years. Any moment now, the dream would fade. He would wake, feeling all the aches he was accustomed to and then some, as he'd been hit with Cruciatus and other various curses and hexes before he'd limped back to his rooms.
Severus sat up in shock. He was awake; he was certain of it. But he couldn't remember making it to his bed, or even to his rooms. And why, he wondered, wasn't he in any pain?
The last thing he could remember was that woman…a new professor, apparently intent on teaching the students to bloody each other with their bare hands. As if the students' keen interest in cursing one another wasn't already more than enough to keep the staff on its toes.
That thought he'd save for the pending argument with Albus. At any rate, that woman had looked right though him, seen that he was in pain and had immediately expressed concern for his well-being. She'd crossed the room and had her hand inches from his face before his brain managed to process her unexpected behavior. He'd known the shock had registered on his face, but had planned to deal with the highly unnerving situation with a harsh grip on her hand and a few scathing words. He'd not been profound, but had been properly intimidating.
It hadn't phased her in the slightest! For a moment, she'd actually looked amused, but that had shifted almost instantly to concern. But something had happened in between. For a moment, her eyes had unfocused and her breath had hitched as an expression, vaguely familiar yet impossible to name, flitted across her face.
He'd tried to keep his death grip on her hand, but she'd shaken it off all too easily. After that, she'd simply laced her fingers through his, and then nothing. Blank. Whatever happened afterward, he simply could not recall.
Scowling as his focus was broken by a knock on his door, Severus rose from his bed and stepped into his slippers. He snatched his dressing gown off its hook and slipped into it as he stalked toward the door. Feeling the familiar weight of his wand in the pocket, he paused momentarily, wondering how it got there. A second, sharper knock at the door had him moving once more.
"Blasted interruption," Severus muttered. He needed peaceful solitude so that he could puzzle out what happened, not a morning visit from some well-meaning, irksome colleague.
Pointing his wand at the door and muttering 'Quis', he was unsurprised that the name Albus Dumbledore wrote itself on the door. Scowling, he opened the door to the cheerful face of the Headmaster.
"Good morning Severus. Feeling well, I trust?" Albus asked lightly.
"Albus, isn't it a bit early in the day for a visit?" Even as he spoke, Severus backed up to allow Albus into the room.
"Perhaps Severus, but I thought it best not to let you stew for too long. I believe you have some questions."
He barely managed to tamp down the urge to call Albus a nosy ponce. "Indeed? So, what are they?"
It was just possible that he was being childish, but it was too early in the morning to play twenty questions. Albus would either volunteer whatever information he had or he'd take the hint and leave so that Severus could piece the events of last night together himself.
Albus cast a disapproving look over the tops of his spectacles, and then smiled. "After Miss Ayanami healed you, you passed out. I brought you here, tucked you in and gave you this," Albus said as he held up a vial. "Miss Ayanami is quite a thoughtful woman. She did not wish you to awaken in any pain, so she insisted I give you a dose of Liquid Massage. I do not believe I have heard of it before, but…"
With a snarl, Severus snatched the vial from Albus' hand. The words 'Liquid Massage' were indeed written in small, neat black script on the vial, along with the letters 'TM'. In a soft, threatening tone that he usually reserved for Potter, Severus asked, "You fed me a potion you had no prior knowledge of?" Severus paused and mentally replayed Albus' words, but got stuck on one phrase: 'Miss Ayanami healed you'. There were no spells that could heal the damage from the Cruciatus curse so quickly, or so completely. No witch could, the only thing he knew of that could was a…
Hoping against hope that hunch was incorrect, Severus pleaded to any higher power that gave a damn to, just this once, cut him a break. "Albus, what is that creature in my dungeon?"
Albus frowned disapprovingly. "She, Severus, is Garou and…"
Severus cut Albus off, anger apparent in his biting tone, "Have you lost the crumb of sense you were clinging to! Is Voldemort not enough! Must we find new and exciting ways to endanger the students?"
His tone placating, Albus attempted to continue. "Severus, Miss Ayanami is no more a danger to the students than I am."
"And as you hired the creature, I am inclined to agree," Severus sneered.
"Severus, is it truly too much to request that you reserve judgment until you get to know her?"
"Quite. Your scenario requires that I get to know her," Severus bit out.
"Severus, if Voldemort is successful in his attempt to recruit Black Spiral Dancers, Miss Ayanami will be an invaluable ally," Albus reasoned.
"Voldemort will certainly not be successful," Severus countered. "Once he learns how monstrous, savage, and uncontrollable those things are, he will certainly abandon the plan."
Albus shook his head. "Do you truly believe that is likely? Voldemort would have to admit that they are too powerful and dangerous to be allies, thereby admitting weakness to his followers and, more importantly, to himself."
Though Severus opened his mouth to argue, Albus raised his hand for silence. "We will continue this discussion in my office at nine o'clock. I expect professional behavior, Severus. This young woman has done nothing to incur your wrath. She has, in point of fact, shown you nothing but kindness. I will leave you to get ready."
Albus turned and left the room, closing the door behind him with a wave of his wand.
Severus stared at the door for a few moments after Albus left, trying to calm the rising panic. He would control it. He would not appear weak again. He could only hope that he had not already done irreparable damage.
At least, Severus thought, he was protected in other ways. He did have the potions and charms that made him more unattractive. If his natural appearance didn't repulse her, magic was guaranteed to do the trick. Even if this Miss Ayanami was the most attractive woman he'd seen in many years, Severus still had no desire to be used as breeding stock. He shut his eyes against his past, but the memories, the pain, the fear, the rage…all of it came rushing back at once…
'Drink this, love. It will protect you. I know darling; you don't want to look like this. It cannot be helped.'
'You can never tell your father about them, son. He must never find out. They would kill him…'
'So, you wish to stop your treatments because the other children tease you? Do you prefer the alternative, young man? You wish now to become nothing more than some Shadow Lord woman's plaything? Or would you rather have the chance to live your own life. I'm trying to protect you, my darling…'
'By making me hide who I am? Mum, please don't make me… I don't want to.'
'One day, Severus, you will. And you will thank me. Now, do as I say child.'
To this day, Severus wished she had been wrong. That she had judged their Garou relations too harshly. He'd been fifteen years old when he understood what his mother was protecting him from.
The dark, imposing man regarded Severus with cold eyes. 'I can hardly believe this is your son, Eileen. Small, ugly, weak…how could you suffer this creature to live? And why is there no suitable replacement for this…foul creature?'
His voice taking on a threatening edge, the man turned that cold gaze to Severus' mother. 'We were very generous, Eileen, permitting you to mate with that human you desired. We required only that you provide us with an acceptable offspring. I see now that we should have refused.'
The man placed a finger under Eileen's chin and forced her head up, looking her over with a critical eye. 'All is not lost, however. Your duty can still be performed. We can still be…satisfied.'
Leering at her, the man snapped his fingers and two huge ape-like thugs stepped from the shadows, advancing upon Eileen Snape. Severus reached for his wand, but his mother turned to look at him, terrified, tears streaming down her face. Her voice, however, was strong and steady. 'Severus, go back into the house. Now! Do not look back.'
Severus obeyed his mother immediately, cursing himself for protecting his own miserable skin…
'What's going on in this house while I'm away! Your mother has sent word that her uncle has taken seriously ill and she needs to stay with him. What do you know of this?'
'Only that she left this morning, father. Nothing else.' Returning to his room, Severus wept for the second to last time in his life…
He received an owl from his mother – the first owl he'd received all year, only days before the end of his fifth year at Hogwarts. She told him that he should know that his father had been long gone by the time she returned home, was sorry that she would be unable to pick him up at the train station, but had transportation lined up.
He'd been almost afraid to go home, but deserting his mother would have been unthinkable. That was what his bastard of a father had done. What he saw upon his homecoming changed the course of his life; his mother looked as though she'd aged ten years, and he quietly vowed revenge on the foul things that had destroyed her life. After retuning to school in the fall, he'd spent every spare moment plotting, delving into the Dark Arts for help.
'Severus Snape, I presume?'
Severus took in the tall, sinister-looking woman before him. 'Yes?'
'We received word that you have graduated near the top of your class, gotten the highest scores awarded on many of your tests. Is this true?'
'Indeed. You are?'
The woman looked him over with a critical eye. Severus felt a shock go through him, replaced by cold hatred. The creature standing before him was Garou; he'd bet his life on it.
'You are not pleasing to the eye, but that matters little. A sharp, cunning mind is the greatest asset one could have. You are acceptable.'
Severus' blood ran cold, and he recoiled in disgust. What happened to his mother would not happen to him. His revenge would be sweet indeed. 'While I am flattered, madam, I must decline. I do not find you acceptable. Leave at once.'
Before he could react, the woman had her hand around his throat. Squeezing slightly, she favored him with a malicious grin. 'Did I give you a choice, boy? Don't worry, my sweet, you'll love it.'
He froze for a moment as the haunted, broken look that had not left his mother's eyes since she returned home burned in his mind's eye. Growling, Severus uncapped the vial he kept in his pocket, throwing the contents in the monster's face. Instantly, a layer of pure silver began spreading over her entire body. Moments later, she was a shocked-looking silver statue.
'I said NO, monster.' Severus sat back, watching with detached fascination as the silver shell slowly shrunk, squeezing the life out of the thing. With cold satisfaction, he listened to the pained, terrified screams until they faded…
Severus shook his head, trying to banish the painful, shameful memories of his past. The past that had led him, inexorably, to Voldemort. Heading toward his bathroom, he began his morning routine.
At a quarter of nine, he was prepared. But just as he reached the door, Severus heard a familiar sound coming from his fireplace. He turned around just in time to catch the slightly sooty paper airplane that was hurtling toward him. Emitting a small sigh, he opened the note from Albus.
Severus, should it be your intention, please refrain from charming or otherwise altering your appearance. It would be unnecessary, as no children are to be present at today's meeting.
Albus
P.S. As always, feel free to floo straight to my office.
Severus narrowed his eyes at the implication that altering his appearance would be childish. And with the invitation to floo to Albus' office, he'd have enough time to reverse everything and still make it to the meeting on time. "Very well Albus," he muttered. "Anything that happens will be entirely on your head."
Pausing outside of Albus' office, Rachel smoothed her hair and clothing. She'd tried to go for non-threatening. She wore very little makeup and had curled her hair. And after much internal debate, she'd forgone her usual form-fitting, yet severe, black on black ensemble. Instead, she'd worn one of her birthday gifts, a swishy floral print skirt in shades of lavender, green, and gray, the matching pale green boat neck top, and a silver choker. She hoped Severus would at least make the connection about the necklace – she could not change forms without doing serious damage to her neck.
Though she thought she could be overreacting, Rachel was certain that Severus would be feeling vulnerable after what had happened. And though her experience with men was sadly limited, she believed that she could say with some authority that men hated to feel vulnerable. Rachel only wished she'd been able to think of a less stereotypical way to look harmless than dressing to look all girly. Inhaling a deep, cleansing breath, she pushed the door open.