51 reviews? WOW guys you are all sooo incredibly amazing and i cannot thank you enough for supporting me through my minds ramblings :) I'm still on a high from getting my first R.S G.C.S.E result... i got an A! AAAHHHH! I'm so happy :) But that's enough about me :)

Okey doke, i'm sorry this took longer than usual but i left a huge cliff hanger on my Mortal Instruments fanfiction which i HAD to sum up... needless to say that i just left it on another cliff hanger, but it's not as bad as the previous one... and the one before that. Oh well it keeps them coming back for more. :)

So yeah this is quite short but i hope you don't mind :(

READ ON :)

Chapter 14

The inhabitants of Grimmauld Place had disappeared into the kitchen once more when Dumbledore had arrived.

They had wandered guiltily down the stairs to the sound of yelling and had barely opened their mouths when there was a loud explosion in one of the cauldrons of potions Severus had been brewing over the fire.

Needless to say, seconds later Snape himself had run into the kitchen, wand at the ready and began to fix whatever had gone wrong, adding herbs and powders silently here and there until it was bubbling calmly with no sign of exploding again.

All was silent as several pairs of eyes bored into Snape's back, willing him to explain what had just happened, but the Potions master kept his back to them in hope of avoiding such an event.

After a silence that set Snape's teeth on edge he slammed the jar of rats' tails he had been using down onto the table and spun to stare right back at the group.

Some people averted their gaze but others stared back; George, Sirius, Molly and, surprisingly, Ginny, were in that category.

Fred had never been staring at him to begin with; he was sitting on the steps in front of the door no one ever used that also led to the hallway. He was too emotionally exhausted to deal with it all.

What had Sam meant when she had said that she wished he would leave her to avoid getting hurt?

Well, he knew the basic meaning of what she was saying: she thought that she was going to hurt him, so she wanted him to realise that and break up with her; because she couldn't hurt him by doing that herself.

That thought warmed his heart slightly. She did care for him; that was for sure. She wanted to protect him; but she was worried that by doing that she would hurt him.

Fred could only imagine how penned in she must have been feeling and he didn't even know the full extent of her reasons behind them.

Sam was becoming more and more complex with every passing moment.

"Okay. What was that all about?" Sirius said exasperatedly.

"Oh, look. Sirius Black is asking me for answers. This truly is a day to record in history." Snape drawled sarcastically.

"Severus—" Sirius said impatiently.

"No." Snape cut across him. "I am not saying a word. This isn't my past; therefore, it's not mine to tell." He gave everyone a look that said 'it ends here' before he turned and picked the jar up again, dropping a few of the tails into the potion as he huffed out a tired breath, rubbing his eyes as he yawned.

Fred came and hopped up onto the table where Severus was leaning against in order to observe his potion.

Snape cast a sidelong glance at him and returned to his potion making.

"You know—" Fred began, looking down at his hands guiltily.

"No. I can certainly say that I do not know and I never shall." Severus said as he peered over the top of the cauldron, looking innocently out of the corner of his eye at Fred who was glaring at him.

"Fine." Fred sighed as he swung his legs back and forwards through the air, hands either side of him as he pouted, eyes downcast.

Severus groaned before turning to wave the sprig of Wolfsbane he had been using to stir the potion with, allowing it to gradually release it's flowers; not many people knew this, but if you ripped the flowers from the stem, then the flower lost all of it's magical properties; so Severus had to stir the potion with the plant until the flowers detached themselves from the stem on their own.

So he pointed the now bare stem at Fred who looked up in amusement and hope.

"Look Fred. Sam cares for you; a lot. But she has some—" Severus paused, frowning as he thought, "inner demons, which she has to battle on her own. There is no use trying to help her, because you do not know what she has been through; very few do; and although I am extremely privileged to count myself among those few, I cannot help her as much as I wish I could. No one can. So don't ask her about it, don't think about it; don't fret, don't worry; just forget about it. It won't do either of you any good to let its shadow hang over you both and to let it taint your relationship. If she wants to tell you, then maybe someday she will. But I wouldn't count on it happening any time soon. Sam is haunted by her past every single day, what she needs is to be surrounded by people who don't look at her and know her past; she needs people who will help her forget, who don't judge her and treat her as if she is a piece of glass, ready to break at any moment because of her past and the implications of it. I am embarrassed to admit that I do treat her as if she is fragile, but that is because I know what she has been through. Don't follow my example Fred; Sam is a lot more capable of protecting herself than I give her credit for. I'm just afraid that, what if one day I am not there, protecting her and treating her as if she is a precious treasure, and she gets hurt? Then it will be my fault. I live with that fear everyday, because I am afraid her past will come to get her; when deep down, I know that I am being a paranoid twit. She is and always will be fine. So, having you is just what she needs; but also what she doesn't need."

Fred, who had been listening with a frown suddenly snapped into motion.

"What do you mean?" He asked roughly.

Snape sighed and looked at him with pity in his dark eyes.

"In a few days, she will disappear until the summer. No contact, no meetings, no nothing. Yes, you may be at school and you wouldn't get to see her anyway, but she will not be able to write you, no owl will ever find her; no force on this earth will be able to find her. Will you be able to handle that?" Severus' unusually kind eyes were searching Fred's face.

"Yes. Of course I will. I'll see her in the summer. Won't I?" Fred said, panic fluttering in his eyes.

"If the circumstances are good I can only say that maybe you will see her. This routine we have had in the past couple of days is extremely abnormal for us. We move from place to place, never visit the same place twice, and never venture out in public. She is one of the most famous witches of our time;" Snape shrugged. "Yet she is also the one the Wizarding World sees at most once a year; sometimes, they don't see her for years running. But no one, aside from those who see her in the flesh, has ever seen her face. No picture has ever been taken of her; no matter how hard they try, something is always in the way. For example:" Snape leant past Fred to pick up another copy of the most recent 'Daily Prophet', handing it to the teen who, once he had looked at the picture, saw that Snape wasn't lying.

"Oh." Fred frowned.

"Fred, just—just don't push her; be careful—with your words I mean. Sam is slightly paranoid because of her past, and she's afraid she'll hurt anyone she gets close to, but pay her no attention on that issue, she will not hurt you physically, nor emotionally if you can handle her sketchy routine as you say you can; and I must say that I believe that you are strong enough." Snape smiled wryly at Fred who smiled back, rocking from side to side as the subject was thoroughly dismissed.

Of course, Fred was curious about Sam's past, but he took Severus' words to heart and shunned the thought from his mind.

"That goes for all of you." Snape called over his shoulder as he turned back to the potion.

A few murmured assents could be heard from the previously silent group. Slowly, the conversation picked up and Fred hopped off the table to peer into the cauldron Snape was now adding…pepper to.

"Pepper?" Fred asked watching the spice sink into the silvery potion.

"Mmhh." Snape nodded as he continued to add more pepper.

"What does that do?"

"Well, it brings out the flavour and makes it taste delicious." Snape grinned as he stirred the potion.

"Ha-de-ha." Fred said monotonously. "I'm serious." He spoke honestly as he leant over, looking into the large cauldron and listening as his voice echoed back at him.

"Oh my, Fred Weasley, are you taking an interest in potions? My mind is blown." Snape said, with wide eyes. "You've never shown any concentration before, you much preferred to make weird and wonderful concoctions and see how many ingredients you could add before it blew up."

"That is creativity in its rawest form for starters, and dare I mention that I didn't exactly enjoy potions then because you were always mean to me." Fred said indignantly, mock glaring at his potions master.

"I was always mean to you because you seemed to enjoy making my job even more difficult than it already was."

Fred scoffed.

"Yeah right! In my first lesson, you yelled at me to sit down, then, even though I hadn't said a word, you gave me a detention for looking at you."

"Yes, well, you were glaring not looking, and I do not enjoy being glared at; also, you were the only one standing and the lesson had already begun." Snape said as he dropped a bezoar stone into the potion with a 'plop' and Fred heard a hollow noise as it fell straight to the bottom of the cauldron.

"Someone in the lesson before had spilt acid,"

"And?"

"On the seat."

Snape tried to keep a straight face but gave up and laughed loudly, dragging a hand down his face in an attempt to calm himself.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh; can you even begin to imagine how awkward that trip to Madame Pomfrey was?"

Snape grinned, completely missing the look of gratitude he was receiving from the doorway as Sam watched two of the most important men in her life getting along as if they were old school friends.

So there you go :D

I will try to get the next one up soon. But i am travelling all day tomorrow up to Yorkshire to visit my grandparents... i am not exactly excited about this.

But i will try to write more A.S.A.P.

Love you all a bunch and thank you for reading

From

Alicia

xxxx