Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harry Potter.

Chapter five: Promise

He went after the sorcerer's stone and at first the fae was happy that he at least had the foresight to bring along his friends. They would most likely help him see the foolishness and danger that the entire endeavor was comprised of. They were children after-all and once they saw the difficulty of the task they would give up and return to their beds.

Now she cursed them.

"Chess? Wizard's chess?" she growled, pacing back and forth as if caged. "Did they poll his classmates for their strengths before they set up these protections or something?!"

She threw up her hands and sat down on her haunches. She growled in displeasure as the little red-headed boy won the game by sacrificing himself.

Something inside her was thrumming. A swelling heat that stole away any semblance of thought stretched across her mind and filled her with blank certainty of what was to come.

A smirk was the last expression to grace her face as the Granger girl pondered the riddle with the potions. It was a decent one, but posed no challenge. The child would probably be able to hold her own in the company of faeries. Thought the fae. They did love their word games. She shook her head and stopped thinking as the boy began to speak to Quirrell.

The heat was the only thing in her mind when she heard her enemy's voice once more.

So he did dare.

She wasn't looking through Harry's eyes anymore, she became something undefinable again and she was there with Harry. Somewhere in the green of his eyes, where his mother resided.

"How touching." the evil face on the back of Quirrell's head hissed. "I always value bravery…Yes, boy, you parents were brave…I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight…but your mother needn't have died…she was trying to protect you…Now give me the stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."

"NEVER!" they screamed.

The enemy tried to hold unto the boy and she felt every red hair on her head burst into flames. In the back of her head she acknowledged that Harry was in pain but she could not help but be delighted at the sight of Quirrell's blistering flesh.

Rage and delight.

Dancing in her mind as the man dared to touch her boy again.

Then the boy was grabbing the enemy and she used every ounce of the fire she had been given to reduce the man to ash.

Suddenly she was standing by herself, panting and staring at what used to be a man.

Where was she?

She looked around.

"HARRY!" she screamed and threw herself down next to him. "Harry!" she yelled again as she turned him over. Oh Merlin, she had hurt him. She grimaced with clenched teeth as her hand shook and hovered over his forehead. Clenching her hand in a fist, she closed her eyes and fought herself for a moment.

"Harry." She said, voice breaking as she brought her fist back and hugged it to her chest. Instead she reached out with her magic and felt for his life. It thrummed steadily and greeted her happily.

She took a steadying breath. In, deeply filling her lungs and out, shaking as it went. She could do this.

She looked up sharply as a man in black ran to Harry's side. Through narrowed lids, she watched as he knelt next to the boy and looked him up and down for injuries with a frantic expression.

Snape's hand went to touch the boy's forehead and the fae nearly hissed. She didn't have to though; the potion master's hand froze before it came in contact with the boy. Slowly he curled his fingers into a fist and withdrew his hand.

Snape watched the sleeping child's face and the realization of the kind of man she was looking at dawned upon her.

"That's right." She said "We don't get to touch him with love and affection."

She reached across the boy and grabbed his robes in her fist.

"We are here to protect him and we will do it the best we can. Even if it hurts him in the process."

Magic was not required for this promise. She could feel it already living within the dark man; her words only strengthening his resolution.

"Now pick up the boy and take him to the infirmary."

She released the black fabric with a disdainful shove and lost consciousness.

A/N: Please review.