{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 the random figments of my own imagination, including Andy McGee and Wyvern the Cat.}
Chapter 13
Unwell
**I'm not crazy/ I'm just a little unwell/I know right now you can't tell/ But stay a while and maybe then you'll see/ A different side of me/ I'm not crazy/ I'm just a little impaired/ I know right now you don't care/ But soon enough you're gonna think of me/ And how I used to be. Unwell Matchbox 20**
There was only a single day left before the students would come pouring back to Hogwarts. All of the professors were there, planning, researching, some plotting against the students they knew they would have to teach in the up-coming semesters. Severus Snape skimmed through his lesson plan for the seventh time that day. It was a hopeless endeavor; he already knew it by heart. He had everything planned since before Dumbledore had first asked him to take the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. The first years would learn the basic Dark creatures, spells to ward them off, and properties of the milder Dark plants. The second years would go a tad bit more in-depth. Year three would introduce some curses, including Crucio, Imperio, and Avada Kedavra. The fourth years and the fifth years would go even more in-depth on the topics. He would start the actual physical defense at the end of the fifth year. The sixth years would learn more of the advanced physical combat skills with weapons, not wands. For the seventh years, everything and then some would be covered so that they would be prepared for the worst. He feared that the worst would be upon them sooner than they thought it would be.
The only thing that bothered him was teaching the actual physical combat without the use of wands. It wasn't that he couldn't do it, but more of he was reluctant to teach it to the immature dunderheads that he normally got in class. With their dumb luck, someone was bound to get grievously injured and it would be blamed on him. Naturally that would happen. The student would then write home, complaining to his parents that he got hurt and it was all evil, greasy Professor Snape's fault. Yes, that would be what would happen.
He slammed the book shut, causing it to slide across his neatly organized desk. It landed with a hollow "thump" on the floor. Snape stood up and kicked it. People would always find ways to make his life completely miserable. He stomped out of his classroom and slammed the door behind him. It crashed in way that only made him more miserable. The Slytherin billowed down the dark hall, black cape swirling menacingly behind him.
Severus just wanted to get away from people. He knew there would be many more of them at Hogwarts come tomorrow night, too many for his liking. He stormed outside, glad of the gloom from the cloud covered sky. To him, it was a perfectly pleasant day. Anything stormy, even the tad bit dreary was absolutely wonderful. It suited his mood. He honestly hated sunny days. They tended to give him a headache.
He approached the pond to find it already occupied by a lone person, namely the only other person he knew who would actually enjoy the dark weather: Andromeda McGee. He never figured out why she loved the overcast, stormy days, but remembered that she had told him many times that she did. It never made sense to him. She was naturally a more vivacious person, always coming and going, never in one spot for too long. Somehow she once reminded him of a bumblebee or a hummingbird, always moving, flitting from place to another, never stopping to rest. Yet, she still loved the rainy, dreary days.
Snape remembered earlier days at Hogwarts when they had been students. Every thunder storm without fail, Andy would climb to the tallest tower and watch the downpour from the window. He had joined her a few times, sometimes dragged up there, other times, by his own ideas. It had become a habit. Every storm that was after the time when classes were over, they would end up meeting in the tower. More often than not, Andy would be the one to poke her head out the window or climb to the flat part of the roof nearby and dance in the flowing rivulets of water. He had been dragged out once or twice against his own free will.
At the moment, as he watched her, Andy was simply sitting on the ground poking something on the ground. He shook his head, hiding a slight smirk. Yes, Andy would always remind him of a small child, fascinated with the world. He guessed that she had probably found a bug or small creature that she would torment until it ran away from her. She pounced at whatever she was studying and promptly missed it. The creature moved again and Andy watched with careful eyes. She leapt at it, missing again, and tripped over her own feet onto the ground. Snape chuckled without realizing it.
Andy heard the laughter and glance up from her position on the ground. She glared at Snape for a moment before seeing the movement of her prey from the corner of her eye. Once more she went after it, this time, succeeding in capturing it. "Got it!"
Snape still laughed quietly at her. Andy would never change from her perpetual state of child-like amazement.
"Would you please tell me what exactly you find so hilarious?"
The Slytherin stopped his sniggering. "You, McGee, that is what I find hysterical. You never fail to amuse me."
Andy pulled herself off the ground, not letting go of her find. "I'm glad I amuse somebody." She peeked inside her cupped hands. It was still there. She looked up to see Snape gazing at her curiously. "What? I was sitting out here and I saw a grasshopper and I decided to try to catch him."
"I never asked what you were doing, McGee. I was simply pondering how much you remind me of a five year old child."
"Are you attempting to insult me?"
"No, I was making a common observation."
Andy bit at her bottom lip as her eyes lit up. With a flick of her wrist, she threw the captured insect at Snape. He jumped back, not expecting it and peered at the greenish brown creature perched on his shoulder. With a sigh, he plucked it off and set it back on the grass. It hopped quickly away. "Don't you have anything better to do than terrorize helpless creatures?"
"No," she grinned innocently at him. "Wait, yes, I could be terrorizing you."
"You could be, but you are not going to do so."
"Of course I am! What a wonderful ideas you always have, Sev! I think I'm going to stop terrorizing the helpless insects and terrorize you instead."
"McGee," he warned her, fully aware that she would attempt to terrorize him in some way if he gave her the chance to do so.
"What?"
"No."
"Yes," her face broke into a huge grin.
"No," Snape said a bit more forcefully.
Andy only smiled wider, "Yes." She punched him straight in his stomach.
The strike caught Snape off guard. He hadn't expected Andy to do anything like that. If she wanted to punch him that she would get it. No one struck Severus Snape and got away with it, except for Voldemort, but that was a completely different set of circumstances. "Alright, that's it, you!"
Andy put her hands up in a guard position, shifted her stance and bending her knees to give her balance. "I can take you on."
"No, you cannot, McGee. Stop trying to convince yourself." Snape took a similar stance after removing his heavy cloak.
Andy threw a quick set of three strikes to Snape's ribs. He easily blocked them and countered with a jab at her face followed by a kick aimed at the same area. Andy ducked the punch, sliding closer to him with another round of punches. She executed a quick right hook to his temple, lightly brushing against his skin. She jumped away from him, "That's one."
"It's only one, McGee. You still haven't proven anything yet." Snape countered her attack with a flurry of fast punches. Andy blocked and dodged, forcing his arms up. She came around with a spinning crescent kick, followed by a back-fist to side of Snape's head. Severus had expected this, knowing how Andy fought and succeeded in blocking it. He threw a front kick aimed at her stomach with a strike to her head and another kick. The second kick broke through her guard and tapped her lightly on her ribs. "One for me."
"That makes us even." Andy came back at him with a round of punches all aimed at different parts of his body. Snape blocked and countered with another kick. His long legs were the only advantage he had over her. Andy was small and agile enough to move out of the way of his strikes, but she had shorter arms and legs that made it so she had to be close to hit him. By kicking and keeping her away from him, he would not get hit. Andy, on the other hand, knew very well that Severus had long legs and that he would attempt to kick to keep her away. Therefore, she would have to get to inside of his kick to get close enough to hit him.
Andy captured his leg as Snape came at her with another kick. She pulled it up and Snape fell over from his balance being lost. Andy ignored the rule of not attacking a person when they were down and jumped at him with her heel connecting with his stomach. Snape grabbed her ankle, pulling her down as well. He rolled on top of her, pinning her to the summer grass.
"What now, McGee?" He questioned maliciously as he sat on top of her stomach, holding her wrists above her head.
"I do this." Andy used her feet to push herself forward enough to gain leverage against him. She pulled Snape off balance and as she did so, brought her knees up to chest to kick him just hard enough to let her go.
Snape was pushed off as Andy scuttled backward across the grass. "You little bitch!" He sprung up, diving at her. His shoulder caught her in the gut, knocking the wind partially out of her. Andy fell back, breathing hard, allowing Snape to slide over her from his momentum. She stood up, one arm protectively around her midsection, and ran at him as he got off the ground.
Severus turned just in time to catch Andy around the waist and swing over his shoulder. He straightened up nonchalantly as she continued to beat him from her new perch.
"Put me down!"
"Not until you apologize."
"Apologize for what?" She was completely indignant. "What did I do?"
"You punched me."
"So what? You fought back."
"That's because no one hits Severus Snape and gets away with it."
"Ah," from her place over Snape's shoulder, Andy nodded and stopped pounding on his back with her fists. "Not even me?"
"Especially not you, McGee."
"Well, then I refuse to apologize because it is not fully my fault."
"You do realize that I have no problems holding you like this for long periods of time, don't you?"
"Oh, yes, I fully understand that, Sev. You are perfectly capable of carrying me like this. You've done it before and you're doing it now."
"Good, you do realize it. Now apologize."
Andy sighed. "Fine. I apologize for striking you." Snape lowered her to the ground and she continued, "But, I am most definitely not sorry for starting that wonderful sparring match."
"I never said anything about the sparring match. I just wanted an apology for the first strike of which you had no reason to hit me."
"Sure I had a reason," Andy defended her motives.
"What, pray tell, would that be?"
She thought hard. "I don't know, but I will think of one eventually."
The first few rain drops fell as the skies above opened up. Fat drops of water tumbled to the earth in a sudden drenching downpour. Andy lifted her arms, spinning in a circle under the droplets. Snape turned to hustle inside, not appreciating the concept of being soaked. It came to him that Andy would stay there until the rain had dried up and would most likely give herself double pneumonia. That would be highly likely, knowing Andy well enough. He picked her up again over his shoulder since she was near enough and in position to do so. Snape jogged inside, depositing his burden only after they had reached the inside of the Great Hall.
"What the hell was that for?" Andy was perturbed at having been dragged away from her fun and excitement.
"That was because you would only succeed in getting yourself sick from staying out in the cold rain too long for your own good."
"I would have come in eventually."
"It's not you that I am worried about. You have to teach tomorrow and therefore we cannot have you coming down with some grave illness that will but in the Infirmary for another couple of weeks. No Potions Master in this school, especially while I am still here, will ever be considered infirm for any reason what so ever."
"What gives you that authority?" Andy snapped.
Snape stopped mid stride and spun to face her. "Because I am Severus Snape."
{Author's Note: I apologize for the long delay. This chapter gave me a complete mind block and took at least three or four rewrites to get it partially the way I wanted it to go. But it is now done and posted. Hopefully Chapter 14 will not take as long. Needless to say, I've been busy. We had parade season for Marching Band and it rained out one of the two parades. We had the Junior Prom on the Friday before that. I got my boyfriend to dance with me willingly. It rocked! School sucks, but we're almost out for the summer. I think we have two weeks until Regents exams. I only have three this year: Physics, U.S. History, and English. I also had AP exams in Physics and History. Those were a blast, especially Physics. I've had good things happening, so we're doing better than what we were doing earlier.
Kute Citty: The sequel is supposed to be a continuation of the first fic. It will get better. There was just a bit of a lull between the action and I have had a mind block for the past month. In my mind, Death Eaters are extremely evil and based on what I want to happen with the plot, I wanted to put the rape in there to show how evil they could be.
Lily Skylo: Welcome aboard! Thank you for reading both of these fics. I hope to write more soon, too.
Morgaine: Its understandable. Life is busy. English is fun. Cappuccino is much better though. I like cappuccino. Its yummy but my friends have learned that giving me anything with caffeine is extremely dangerous.
Lunatic: Thank you. I liked my Death Eater/ Voldemort thing. It seemed very appropriate at the time.
Sora: I know not much has been happening. That's mainly because I have been attempting to get everything in place so that my master plan can go into effect.
Peace, Love, and Cappuccino, Nataly Ravenlock}