{Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books. I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern, and a few random Death Eaters whom of which are all parts of my twisted imagination.}
Chapter 10
Grand Entrance
**The ignorant man wonders. The wise man asks. William Shakespeare**
Severus Snape locked the door to his house in the small Muggle development. It was the last day he would ever spend in that house until next summer. It had been a quiet season. He was glad of that. He didn't like excitement. The only major event had been the attack on Diagon Alley in early July. A brief thought of Andromeda McGee flashed through his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. She had her own problems that were not of his concern.
He took one last look around to make certain that everything was set before he apparated back to the outskirts of Hogwarts. Everything he needed was in the castle, having been Floo-ed there earlier in the day. Snape walked down the path leading to the school and billowed through the ornate doors leading inside. Dumbledore was waiting for him.
"Head Master," the younger man's voice was carefully kept devoid of any emotion.
"Welcome back, Severus. I need to speak with you, in my office, if you will."
"Certainly." Snape knew that this could not be a good thing. Dumbledore rarely waited for people. He wondered briefly what circumstances had brewed that would either require his expertise in potions or general knowledge.
The Head Master settled himself in the chair behind the large desk. "I believe you remember Miss McGee's conundrums earlier this summer?"
Snape narrowed his eyes. Why was everything always about Andy? "I do."
"It seems that she somehow succeeded in self healing herself and then proceeded in locking herself in her rooms for the past week and a half."
"Any ideas on how she did it?"
Dumbledore smiled sadly. "That brings me to the point I wished to discuss with you. When this occurred, I had received a letter from Romania. I had just sent both Sirius Black and Remus Lupin to that country in order to continue researching on a project. The letter stated that both men might be dead."
The Slytherin's brow furrowed. "Both men, dead?"
"It is so believed. Now the village in question was attacked by something, probably dragons." Dumbledore paused expectantly, knowing very well Snape's thought process.
"You wish to know if it was Voldemort's doing."
"Yes, that is my question. I thought you might have some insight on this incident."
"I am afraid I do not. My 'Master' does not tell everyone everything. He prefers to keep his events secret from those who do not need to know about them. I can't help you with whether or not the blame was his."
The Head Master nodded gravely. "I understand. You do all that you are able to."
"Anything else that you need?"
"No, that is all. You may go. There are things that need to get done before the semester begins."
Snape stood, inclining his head slightly at the Head Master before exiting the room. He had not heard of any attack on a small Romanian village, but he guessed that it probably had been Voldemort's creatures that had done it. He did not doubt that his 'Master' had the capabilities to destroy villages. In fact his master could probably take over the entire world if he attempted it. Yes, there would be grand losses if he did, but he could probably do a large amount of damage in the process. Those weren't the thoughts that he needed to be thinking right now.
He slammed the door to his rooms shut. It crashed with a hollow, unsatisfying bang. He kicked it just because he could. His chair sat in the same spot it had for the past few months. He collapsed into it, mentally beating himself for not being able to stop the attack. A deep throbbing beat in time with his anger. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't his mind's imagination. It came from down the hall: Andy's room. It was some sort of music or so he hoped.
Snape pulled himself out of the chair. He would go complain to her that it was too loud. It would take out some of his aggression. Andy's door was still locked. He twisted the knob, finding that it was stuck shut.
"It's locked, you know," an insolent voice snapped from the painting on the door.
The Slytherin looked down at the figures. He recognized most of them. The dog was an exact replica of Black's animagus form. That meant the wolf was Lupin, the stag was James Potter, and the rat had to be the illustrious Peter Pettigrew, now deceased. He was not certain about the other two creatures. It figured that she would have that picture hanging by her rooms. "I realized that. She's not allowing anyone entrance?"
"No one at all, you large-nosed, greasy prat," the stag spoke.
"Go rot in hell!"
"Sorry, I'm stuck here," the creature returned.
"Prongs, don't taunt him. It's not nice," the hawk chirped from a perch on a branch.
"But, Red, it's fun!"
"I don't care if its fun, it's still not nice. Don't do it. It's not often Andy has a man at her door, wanting to see her. I mean with a little bit of fixing he could be nice looking."
The cat opened one yellow eye. "He needs a hair cut, but you're right, Red. He's not as bad as some I've seen. That one guy…Ick! Now he was terrible!"
"You mean the one with the beer belly and Coke Bottle glasses who wore a pocket protector?"
"Yeah, him. He was horrible. This one isn't too bad compared to him," the cat twisted her head up at him. "I suppose you want to talk with Andy?"
"I was hoping so, yes," Snape answered coldly. These creatures were grating his nerves.
"Alright, we can do that. Red, you want to go? She'll listen to you. Tell her that there's a hot guy standing outside her door." The cat turned back to Snape as the hawk flew off. "I know it's a bit exaggerated, but it might get her out. She's been locked in there for the past week and a half."
The hawk glided back into the scene. "She says she'll consider it. I give her less than a minute before she shows up."
The creature's prediction had been correct as the door squeaked open to reveal Andy's tousled head. She blinked owlishly at the man standing there. "What the hell do you want?" Her voice cracked halfway through the sentence. She sounded dull and lifeless, nothing like the vibrant woman he knew before.
"I was wondering if you would have the decency to turn down whatever abomination that you are listening to."
She looked at him, considering it for a moment. "No."
"No?" It was in 'how dare you say 'no' to Severus Snape.'
"Definitely not. It's staying exactly where it is." She went to close the door, but Snape stuck his foot in the way. Andy attempted to close it again, despite that his foot was still there. "Go away!"
"McGee."
"What?" she spoke as she walked away from the door, fully realizing that Snape was not going to let her close it.
Snape gently pushed open the door, finding no resistance. He shut it as soon as he was fully in the room and grabbed her by the wrist. "I don't know what they did to you, McGee, but it has to stop."
She refused to speak and tugged to get away. A low growl escaped her throat.
The Slytherin sighed. This was going to take a long while. He reached down and scooped her up in his arms. Placing her on the couch, he turned the volume knob all the way down. He glanced over his shoulder to check that she was still there. Andy hadn't moved though a single tear dripped down her cheek. He sat down next to her and wiped the tear off her face.
"Leave me alone," she hissed as she struggled to get away from the arm he had placed around her.
"I am afraid I cannot do that. School starts in three days. The students will arrive and expect you to teach them Potions. Right now, you are a complete wreck. We need to fix that." He figured that she was physically sound, just mentally unstable. She looked clean, at least. He figured she probably attempted to drown herself at least once a day. The House elves kept close tabs on the water ways so that no person would kill themselves in such a matter.
"There is nothing to fix. I'm fine."
"McGee, you are not fine," he fell into the voice that was normally reserved for small children and mental incompetents.
"I don't care if I am fine or not, just get your fucking hands off me!"
He tightened his grip as she squirmed to find a way out. "Listen to me, McGee. You are extremely depressed from hearing of your friends' deaths, if they are dead at all. You cannot teach the student if you are that way. It is not healthy for them or you."
"Fuck you." She stopped struggling and sat perfectly still. Maybe if she behaved, he would let her go.
"No, thank you. I would prefer not to. Now tell me something, McGee, how many years were you in Azkaban?"
"Sixteen," she answered quietly.
"Very good, you do remember."
"I remember it all quite well, Severus Snape. You do not need to remind of them."
"Oh, I believe I do. That means you spend sixteen years without Black or Lupin."
"So what?"
"You spent sixteen years without them, why are you having problems surviving without them now?"
"Because I know them now!"
He patted her lightly on the shoulder with the hand that protectively held her. "Maybe you do, maybe, you don't. Think about it, McGee, how much can a person change in sixteen years? I'll even answer that for you. A person can change a whole lot. They can do a complete turnaround. So did you really know them?"
"They didn't change! Sirius Black and Remus Lupin do not change!"
"I think they did. Sirius was on the run for at least two years, if not more after he escaped. He turned into a common thief." Or so he hoped, but it did sound good.
"No, he didn't!"
"How do you know?"
Andy paused, thinking. How did she know her friend would not resort to common thievery to survive? "It was to survive!"
"He could have used his infinite wisdom to find ways of surviving."
"Have you ever tried to survive when people are chasing after you, trying to kill you?"
"Actually I have. I survived just fine without resorting to thievery."
Her eyes narrowed. "I'm sure you did." It was laced with sarcasm.
"And Lupin…How could we forget the werewolf, hiding from society because of his curse? He spent the last sixteen years, give or take a few random jaunts into society, locked away as a hermit. Do you know much being a hermit changes people?"
Andy's head dropped to her chest before she answered, "A lot?"
"Yes, a lot. People get strange ideas, learn occult things. Do you know why Lupin was made the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor?"
"Because he is a Dark Creature?"
"You almost have it. Not only is he a Dark Creature, but he is a practitioner of the Dark Arts." This Snape knew for certain. Lupin did practice some spells, charms, and curses dealing with the Dark Arts. They were not necessarily used in Dark reasons, but they were dark none the less.
"He is?"
"Yes, he is. Who better to hire than one with a secret that needs to be kept, but knows what need to be taught?"
"You're lying!"
"No, I am not lying to you, McGee. I would not lie to you." Stretch the truth maybe, but never lie…
"Yes, you would."
"McGee, have I ever lied to you?"
"No, but…"
"Exactly." Snape knew that the barbs he had set were sinking in. "So think about what I've said to you. Think about Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Yes, it is perfectly normal to mourn for them, but not for obtuse amounts of time. I'd suggest you snap out of it if you want to keep your life and your job." He stood up, letting her go.
Andy stayed on the couch, staring straight ahead. Was what Snape had said true? Could he be right, that Sirius and Remus were different from when she had known them? Of course they would be, but how different was the question? Did they still like her or were they humoring her because of her mental instability? She looked up to ask Snape, but he had already disappeared.
Snape stalked back to his rooms, feeling not at all better than he had before. He knew he shouldn't have done that to Andy, but something needed to be done about her state of mind. She had always been precariously close to the edge, but now she was in imminent danger of falling off. He hadn't lied too much, only stretched the truth slightly to fit his ideas of what had happened. Andy would believe him. She was a person like that, willing to trust what people said without questioning them. He only hoped it would snap her out of whatever doldrums she was living in. They needed Andy to teach, and to fight.
{Author's Note: And so we have the return of everyone's favorite Slytherin, Severus Snape! Woo-hoo! For all of you Snape fanatics, he is most definitely here to stay from now on, especially with all I have planned. ::laughs evilly:: I told one of my friends what I was going to do and she called me evil. Oh, yes, I'm very evil. My boyfriend even called me evil. Just a note, he did proof the first two pages of this chapter since that was all I had written when he decided to play with my computer. Mind you, he has not read any of my stories up to that point, but they were proofed! Ha! So there! I swear the drama teacher has something against me. She cast my boyfriend and me as brother and sister in Les Miz. He's the Bishop; I'm the Bishop's sister. If we can't be married, then we're forced to be related. Mind you, we're also factory workers, beggars, I'm a thief and he's a student and I can't spell the names of either of them. It's going to be awesome!
Frogboy: You wanted to know what Shaolin Kempo Chi-Sao Karate was. I know I attempted to explain it earlier, but I found a better explanation. I was reading a book written by a man named Fred Villari, who used to run the schools in which I train before my current Master took over, and I found this explanation. It stated that, and I quote, "It is based on the movements of five animals and is a fighting method consisting of extremely powerful techniques for delivering blows and punches."
I apologize for not responding to any of the other comments and reviews. My computer, for some odd, unknown reason, will not let me access the reviews I have thankfully received for this story. So, no, I am not ignoring you guys, I appreciate all the positive support I get from you guys, but AOL sucks, so…Hopefully I will get back to you guys with responses eventually, but if you have any comments, concerns, questions, threats, et cetera, feel free to e-mail me at: greenchipmunk313@yahoo.com. Thanks!
Peace, Love, and Hot and Sour Soup, Nataly Ravenlock}