A/N: New chapter, as promised. :D

Chapter Fifteen: Awakening

Feeling extremely weak, Jasna slowly returned to consciousness and when she did her first wish was to be unconscious again. Everything hurt – her chest, hands, her back…it seemed there wasn't a part of her body that did not demand her attention with a loud cry. In the last few weeks this was almost a constant and she hated the fact she couldn't wake up with a smile on her face once for a while. The majority of the pain making her uncomfortable even in the soft bed was located at her chest and she was well aware what was causing it. With a groan she lifted a trembling and slightly un-cooperating arm to place it gently over the area which hurt the most, hoping the warmth of her skin would sooth the twinges.

She looked around the room where the big and warm bed was located with eyes that where sharp despite her lack of strength. The walls were painted in neutral colours and the small, but still large enough room tastefully decorated with old furniture that had yet to be adorned with personal things like books and collectibles. This lack of human presence in the room was the first thing she really noticed and she guessed they've put her into another guest room, but when her eyes strayed to the window, the view presenting itself to her made her realise she was no longer in the Manor but somewhere else entirely. A dark forest was seen, and the height from which she looked down upon it told her she was in a tower or something similar. Just as she formed a derisive thought in her mind about stupid men and their dramatic sense for locking her up in a tower like some cursed princess, which was not amusing at all, when the sign of human activity on the patch of grass she could see made her scratch out the assumption.

"Where am I?" she whispered as a painful twinge of her heart made her lay back on the soft pillow once again, thus shutting out the view. There were wizards in long robes moving across the lawn, but they did not appear to her to be Death Eaters. But the one she was bound to – the disloyal dark wizard – he was not with them.

Jasna turned her gaze away from the window and pondered the dramatic and painful events of the previous days. She could hardly believe what she had done in that one desperate moment when magic itself seemed to be fighting her – the vessel of old powers. She had bound herself to him – to one of the high ranking Death Eaters - taking a leap of faith with the glowing strand of power. She groaned to herself at the mess this had made, but had to acknowledge that she truly could never return back to the Temple. She had broken yet another rule – she had married (if only in spirit and not in body), she had placed her loyalty to him…

Jasna closed her eyes and reached inside herself easily after years of practice. The new strand which incorporated fragments of her broken vows to the Temple was waiting to be upgraded, was waiting to be awoken… it was a bond like none seen before but she was nonetheless confident that she could live with it, that she could discover all its secrets with time. But one thing was sure – the man she had bound herself to was powerful. And an enigma…he was disloyal to the cause of the Death Eaters, but how far his disloyalty ran she was not yet sure. He appeared to be a harsh man - unyielding and dark with no love lost for the world… whatever softness he held inside himself was carefully hidden behind the stony facade. This made her cringe inside for she too was guilty of hiding her warmer emotions whenever outside the protective walls of the Temple and even inside she took a long time to warm up to new people. However, she knew that to live with him even remotely in peace and not strain their bond she would have to be the one doing the most to keep peace between them. But just because he had saved her did not mean she would let him boss her around – Oh no!

But before she could start plotting, she had to learn more about him - the new powerful string connecting and balancing her magical core needed fine-tuning before it could be activated fully. She didn't even deem to think they were separated – the Dark Lord was a fool in many ways but he would never put his most useful tool in danger. The dark wizard the High priestess marked was somewhere near, she could swear.

The monitoring spell put on her told her someone would be coming to look at her soon and the potions once again neatly arranged on a tablet only confirmed with their meticulous placing who had been administering them yet again. The amount of brews she had taken in the last days was sure to make her react badly to certain foods in the near future, but thus was the price paid for enhanced healing.

Suddenly a dark form that had appeared at the door grabbed her attention. She turned her eyes to him, but could not read his countenance sufficiently to say in what mood he was. She did, however, note the strain he was under and knew that her careful strengthening of the bond only aggravated his and her condition. Their new union was not one of the blessed but a desperate attempt at survival and it showed in the strain it put them under to maintain it healthy. The Dark Mark he had was neutralised with the brand of the Temple, but his inherent dark magic nonetheless had to be blocked form reaching her yet stabilising one. But how she would fare with his darkness was yet to be seen.

"Good. You are awake," he said and turned to the readings of her physical state. Jasna only sighed and closed her eyes – she was too tired to even offer a reply. He already sounded to be displeased with her, but she truly could have done nothing to speed up her healing process or stabilise the bond without giving her magical strength to it.

"How is the pain?" he asked her as he turned to the potions.

"Manageable…" she replied and sighed. She wanted to be fully lucid and able to enjoy said lucidness which was impossible with painkillers. He turned around with an eyebrow arched, but she did not change her answer. A corner of his mouth turned down as if in a scowl, but she did not care about his opinion. If she wanted no potions then this was her choice and she would have to live with the consequences.

He turned back around and brought with him a small goblet he filled with the required amount of a dark-hued potion she knew to be for her heart. She was grateful this condition was only temporary even if a potential for long-standing damage was always there. It was clear, though, she could not survive another attack of dark magic even if the power she still held as a priestess gave her great healing powers… What was too much was simply too much.

Obediently she gulped down the potion and water from a crystal glass and that seemed to satisfy him. "Where am I?" she asked for she was truly curious – the magic she could feel in the room was quite different from what she was used to by now. It was welcoming and nurturing magic, a greatly reduced power of the Temple almost.

"You are at Hogwarts School for witchcraft and wizardry," he said and added almost as an afterthought, "And I am the Headmaster here."

She arched her eyebrow and gently shook her head, "Poor children…" she muttered. "How many will survive the Dark Lord's idea of education?" It was clear that if he was here to look after them then whoever opposed Voldemort and his followers was in great danger.

He scowled and she could see he had a sharp retort ready but he held it back. She had asked him what he himself had been asking himself and he could not rebuff her as he did his staff. She already knew of his betrayal so he did not need to hide himself from her completely, but show her enough to distract her from things she had no right to know of.

"Do not try my patience," he said and she could feel herself bristle internally at his tone. "You live because I convinced the said Dark Lord that you still could be of use; that I could corrupt you through the bond, but we both know that is a lie since I'm marked by the Temple too."

"It is not entirely a lie," she told him while looking into his dark eyes to show him she had said the truth. Jasna knew that giving him valuable information would only benefit her in the long run – she wanted to change the bond as soon as possible and return back home, but for that she needed his trust, books and freedom to move around to contact her people. All this would be impossible to achieve if he hated or mistrusted her, so she offered him an olive branch of peace, knowing his temper from the clashes she had had with him in the past. She trusted in her restoring power to be in no danger from his magic, so she told him something that would make his deceit of Voldemort easier. The more she encouraged his separation from Voldemort, the closer she would be to the downfall of the abomination that paraded in Britain. Oh, yes, she would see him destroyed.

The dark eyes of Severus Snape were glued to her, so she elaborated, "There is a slight possibility of your magic overpowering mine if I were to get magically depleted, but since I can take and twist yours since the ritual, it is a very small possibility, but a possibility nonetheless."

He looked at her as if he tried to reach inside her to see what she was plotting, but decided that whatever reasons he came up with were not interfering with his own plans. "What of the mark," he asked her and gestured with a terse movement of his hand to his chest. Shad to bite back a laugh at the irony – they both were held in chains by the Temple and the Dark Lord. If she could live (albeit with heavy feelings of resentment) with the chains to him and thus to Voldemort, so he could live with the link to one of the oldest Temples. She told him so much and they both looked as if they had bitten something sour, which in turn made them reach a new level of understanding of each other. They were just two players, nothing more and would have to live with that.

"I will stay out of your business," she told him, "and you will stay out of mine as much as possible with him behind your back." If that was not a generous offer, she did not know one.

"Agreed," he said and she could feel the strand connecting them strengthen with their oaths.