Thanks for the reviews :)
Since I haven't said this before, Harry Potter and his world does not belong to me.
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it!
Jas awoke to a throbbing sensation in her arm, wrist, and hand. She opened her eyes and blearily looked around. She appeared to be in what she guessed was the hospital wing of Hogwarts. She attempted to raise her throbbing right wrist to examine the damage that had been done to it.
"AHHHH!" Jas screamed in horror. Her entire right arm, from her elbow down, was limp and rubbery. Jas lifted her rubbery skin with her left hand, her mouth hanging open.
SF bolted into the room, looking slightly frazzled. "What is it?" he snapped.
"My- my arm," Jas said, not caring if he was angry, "It doesn't have any bones."
"Of course it doesn't," SF said, relaxing slightly. "Madam Pomfey removed them."
"Why?" she howled, her eyes still transfixed on her limp arm.
SF sat down on a chair near her bed. "You have a large number of bones in your wrist and hand. The snake that attacked you nearly took your hand completely off. Your bones were mangled beyond repair, so we had to remove them."
Jas felt a burning in her chest. "Can you fix it?" she asked, tearing her eyes away from her limp arm to stare at SF pleadingly.
SF looked annoyed. "I should probably tell you 'no,' and let you think you have irreversibly damaged yourself for the rest of your life. Perhaps that would make you think twice before engaging in a duel in the corridor." His voice was hard and his eyes glittered dangerously. Jas was silent, willing him to answer her question.
SF sighed. "Yes, we can fix your arm. Regrowing bones is not… pleasant, but Madam Pomfrey should be able to fix you in no time."
Jas breathed a sigh of relief. Now that she knew she was not maimed for life, her mind took on a different path. "Was anyone else hurt?" she asked, feeling rather guilty. She had not produced the snake, it was true, but she had been the one to pull out her wand and she had been the one to send the first hex.
"No, no one else was hurt, aside from Mr. Crabbe, who was hit with your Stunning Spell," SF said, glaring at Jas unpleasantly.
"Oh," Jas mumbled, avoiding looking at SF. She was definitely in trouble.
"Dumbledore should be coming in shortly. He was gone at the time of the incident, but now that he has returned, he will need your account of events-"
"Professor Snape! Did I not tell you that I am perfectly capable of healing Jasmin? Will you stop hovering-"
"I am visiting, actually, Madam," SF interrupted coldly.
Madam Pomfrey stopped short, looking slightly embarrassed. "Oh." After a beat of silence, Madam Pomfrey removed a jar labeled Skele-Grow from a cabinet and crossed the room to where Jas lay. "I apologize, Severus, I wasn't aware she was awake."
SF said nothing. Pomfrey carefully measured out a portion of the disgusting-looking liquid in the jar. "Drink this," she ordered, "If you're going to get to classes tomorrow, you'll need to start regrowing immediately."
Jas took a gulp of the liquid and almost spat it back out, it tasted so foul. She coughed for a minute before finally glaring at the nurse. "Go on then," Madam Pomfrey said impatiently, "Drink the rest!"
Jas cast a doubtful look at SF when the nurse thrust the potion at her. "Drink it," he ordered, apparently noticing her hesitation. Pomfrey rolled her eyes. Grimacing, Jas hastily gulped the rest of the potion, screwing her face up against the taste.
"As I was saying," SF continued, ignoring the nurse's presence, "Dumbledore will want to hear your account of events before deciding on the matter."
"Dumbledore?" Jas asked, feeling a prickle of fear. "Why doesn't McGonagall or someone do it? Or you?" Jas did not care to explain what had happened to SF, but she was certain that she would care to explain it to Dumbledore far less. He wasn't renowned for being the most powerful wizard of their era for nothing. Jas sensed the old wizard played down his power and that he could be immensely intimidating when he so desired. She wondered with a small shudder if he ever used his power to intimidate students.
SF looked grim. "Dumbledore must investigate the matter because a student nearly died- it is likely you and Mr. Malfoy could be facing expulsion."
Jas blinked. "Who nearly died?" she asked, puzzled. SF had said the only other one hurt was Crabbe, and she'd only Stunned him…
"I nearly died?" Jas asked dubiously as SF opened his mouth to speak, undoubtedly with a sarcastic comment.
"You lost a tremendous amount of blood. You are still alive by sheer, dumb luck," SF confirmed, still looking grim.
Another thought struck her. "I'm facing expulsion? But I didn't nearly kill anyone!"
SF turned the full force of his glare on her. "No, you did not foolishly cast a spell you could not control," he said, looking vaguely uncomfortable as he said so, "But you did provoke the duel in which that spell was cast, and you did Stun a fellow student. Stunning spells are dangerous and it is a serious offense to use them against a classmate."
"They aren't that dangerous," Jas muttered, gazing forlornly at her limp arm, which was beginning to prickle unpleasantly.
"They can-"
"Jasmin, Severus," a voice greeted them. Jas turned to see Dumbledore standing in the infirmary doorway, smiling at them. "I'm glad to see you're doing well, Jasmin. Gave us all quite a scare."
Jas tried to smile at the headmaster, but was only able to grimace. He seemed harmless enough, but Jas could not help but feel wary of the man, particularly in her weakened state. "You're not leaving, are you?" Jas asked SF nervously. She did not trust SF entirely, but she knew even less about Dumbledore. She would not like to be left alone with him.
SF cast her an odd look. "I can stay," he acquiesced.
Dumbledore seemed to not notice their exchange. "How are you feeling, Jasmin?" Dumbledore asked cheerfully, taking a seat next to SF.
"I'm- okay," she said falteringly, "My arm's really starting to hurt, though," she added, frowning down at the limp skin that was her arm. It was hurting, and quite intensely. She felt as if small, white-hot knives were being shoved into her arm.
"That would be the Bone-Regrowth Potion working, if I am not mistaken," Dumbledore said.
"Oh," Jas muttered, frowning. How long would it take? She was no stranger to pain, but this hurt.
"Lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked, pulling a candy from his pocket and popping it into his mouth.
Jas shook her head. Dumbledore liked lemon drops?
"Now, if you don't mind, could you humor me with your tale of how you received this most grievous injury?" Dumbledore asked
Jas haltingly told the headmaster what she remembered, up until she lost consciousness. She avoided looking at Dumbledore or SF as she told the tale, preferring to look instead at the wall across from her bed. A brief silence fell after she finished. She felt a burning in her stomach. She'd only been there for one day and she'd already managed to completely flout school rules, not to mention almost get herself killed. And despite what she thought of the two men sitting next to her, they had yet to do her any harm, which was quite unusual, in her opinion, for authority figures. In fact, both of them had been arguably kind to her at some point or the other. In return, she had made a spectacle of herself. Jas bit her bottom lip nervously. If she was expelled, what would SF do? He was a professor, he couldn't very well watch her all the time. Would she be allowed to go to a different school? She was running out of schools to attend! What if he decided to send her back to a group home? Could he even do that? As much as she thought SF was a cold-hearted git at times, the idea of going back to a foster home was terrifying. What if she encountered another Mr. Proust? She'd have to be on her guard all the time. And she'd already proved to herself that living on her own was impossible to do without using magic and thus drawing the attention of the magical authorities.
Jas chanced a glance at the silent Dumbledore to see him peering down his crooked nose at her. "Jasmin," he began slowly, "I must impress upon you the seriousness of what you did. Stunning another student is completely unacceptable. Any number of things could have gone wrong, and your Stunning Spell would have led to Mr. Crabbe's death." Jas felt her stomach bottom out. She was going to be expelled. Her arm throbbed intensely, but she ignored it, as her pulse sped up.
"However, I believe you did not intend serious harm," Dumbledore continued. Jas felt a surge of hope. "As Mr. Malfoy also did not. Therefore, I will leave your punishment to Professor McGonagall and Mr. Malfoy's punishment to Professor Snape. Normally, I would write to your parents, but, conveniently, he's right here." Dumbledore smiled at SF, who had not lost his grim expression. Yes, she thought, her gloom returning, conveniently he is right here. She had not been expelled, but SF may kill her yet.
"I must take my leave," Dumbledore said. "I hope you have a speedy recovery, Jasmin," the old wizard said cheerfully. "Good day, Severus."
Jas watched Dumbledore leave with mixed emotions. He seemed relatively harmless, after all. Although perhaps that was the effect he went for. She leaned back, feeling somewhat relieved. With any luck, SF would at least wait until she was recovered before he attacked.
"Jasmin," SF growled. Or maybe he wouldn't, Jas thought forlornly, grimacing against a sudden sharp pain in her arm. "As the headmaster attempted to impress upon you, what you did today was extremely foolish. You could have been- you very nearly were- killed. No matter how another student provokes you, dueling is never the answer."
Jas struggled to control herself as the pain in her arm increased. "Didn't you ever duel when you were in school?" she demanded petulantly, trying to focus her attention on the conversation. SF's eyes narrowed and she hastily added, "Sir. I was just curious."
SF hesitated, frowning at her. "It doesn't matter what I did when I was in school," he stated coldly.
She fought back a smile. That almost certainly meant he had dueled. "You could always just teach me how to be a better dueler," Jas suggested innocently, biting the inside of her cheek as the pain in her arm rose to an almost intolerable level.
SF glared at her narrowly. "We'll see," he said finally, surprising Jas.
Further pain in her arm finally forced her to turn to look at her arm and she bit back a gasp. The skin had gone from pale and rubbery to a mottled gray with a spider-web of faint lines tracing their way across her skin. The pain grew in intensity with each passing moment. She blinked back tears that were suddenly stinging her eyes, although she wasn't sure if it was from the pain or the discomfit of seeing her arm look like a cracked statue.
"How are you feeling?" SF asked, standing so he could see her arm. "I will give you some potion so you can sleep," he added, noticing her pained expression.
Jas nodded vaguely, desperately trying to think about anything besides her arm. SF walked over to a cabinet and extracted a bottle of potion, examining it carefully. He poured a portion of it into a glass, which he offered to Jas. Without hesitation, she gulped it all down as quickly as she could. She was considering chopping her arm off to rid herself of the horrible, aching pain in her arm, and she was ready for anything that would distract her from it.
Almost immediately, the potion took effect and she began to feel drowsy. The last thing she saw was SF standing over her bed before her eyes fluttered shut.
Jas finally left the hospital wing at nine that night, after Madam Pomfrey had fussed over her sufficiently, all while SF observed silently in the background. As far as Jas could tell, SF had not left the hospital wing during her ordeal, something that had apparently caused Madam Pomfrey quite a bit of annoyance. Jas was relieved to discover, upon awaking, that her arm was back to normal, besides feeling a little stiff and a faint white scar running across her wrist, from the deepest gash from the python, that Madam Pomfrey had been unable to completely rid Jas of.
SF walked her back to the Gryffindor common room, informing her that she was to see Professor McGonagall about her punishment tomorrow morning, before classes began. Jas did not relish the idea of getting up even earlier in order to be chewed out, but she did not complain, knowing how close she had come to being expelled.
"Do be careful," SF said dryly, before leaving her in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady. Jas stared after his retreating back. SF had been acting very, very oddly. She had no time to consider his strange behavior, however, as she had homework to do and classes to catch up on. She'd missed Defense Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures. As she stepped through the portrait, a hush fell over the common room. Jas looked around, feeling awkward for many reasons. For one, she was now certain everyone knew that she was Professor Snape's daughter. For two, she was pretty certain that Malfoy had probably told everyone that she'd been an orphan up until yesterday. Finally, she had also just returned from almost losing her life in a duel against a fellow third-year, which was just embarrassing.
She pretended not to notice all the curious stares she was getting and the whispers around her.
"-see her wrist?"
"No, it was her wand arm-"
"-no! I can't believe he actually shagged someone!"
"They actually do look a bit alike-"
"Only she's attractive, which cancels out the similarity-"
Jas hurried into the girl's dormitory, deciding she would rather do her homework in her bed than in the common room. She was just pulling out her books, resolving to ask about homework in the classes she'd missed tomorrow since she did not care to face the crowd in the common room to ask someone, when Millie came into the dormitory.
"Hiding?" the blonde girl asked casually, surveying Jas and her books.
"No!" Jas protested indignantly. "I was- I was just- er-" her voice faltered and she sighed. "Yeah, hiding," she agreed.
Millie smiled. "S'okay," she reassured Jas. "I'm glad you're all right. It was really scary, what happened…" her voice trailed off slightly and she gave Jas a sideways glance. "I'm sorry I didn't help more. I tried to get the snake off you but everything bounced off it and then I couldn't even pry its jaws open-"
Jas stared at her with interest. "You tried to pry its jaws open?" she asked curiously.
"Yeah, me and then this fifth year boy tried and neither of us could get it off you. It's a good thing Harry showed up when he did," Millie said fervently. "Even if it is a bit creepy what he does, he definitely saved your hand, at least, if not your life."
"Harry saved my life? Harry who?" Jas asked, puzzled. SF hadn't mentioned anything of the sort, just saying she had lived by 'dumb luck.'
"Harry Potter, of course," Millie said exasperatedly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He happened to take the same way down to the Great Hall as us and when he saw the snake attacking you, he told it to stop and it did. Would've been better if he could've come along about five minutes earlier, of course, but I suppose it all ended well-"
"He told the snake to stop attacking me?" Jas asked disbelievingly. "Wait- you mean Harry Potter is a Parseltongue?"
She had read about Parseltongues briefly in some books she had read for interest and, from what she had gathered, usually only dark wizards were Parseltongues.
"Of course… you didn't know?" Millie asked.
Jas shook her head slowly. "So he saved my life," Jas mused. "SF- er- Snape didn't tell me."
"You call him SF?" Millie asked, looking interested. "Does his middle name start with F or something?"
"Er- no- just a convenient name," Jas said vaguely.
Millie didn't seem to notice, as her face darkened slightly. "I suppose Snape wouldn't tell you. I wonder if he feels guilty," she said contemplatively. "He should, in my opinion," she said, seeming somewhat angry. To Jas' bewilderment, Millie cast her a somewhat apologetic glance.
"Why should he feel guilty?" Jas asked, puzzled.
"Well…" Millie hemmed, "You didn't hear it from me, but Snape taught Malfoy that spell in second-year during our dueling club. I guess he didn't bother teaching the stupid git how to cancel the spell," Millie added darkly.
Jas stared at the other girl, slightly shocked. That didn't sound like SF at all. "Why would he teach a second-year that spell?" she demanded. "And why didn't Malfoy learn how to cancel it? How'd he get rid of the snake during dueling club?"
"Well, I suppose it wasn't all Snape's fault. Our mind's weren't really on the spell after it was all over," Millie amended. "That was the night the whole school found out Harry Potter was a Parseltongue. Malfoy cast the spell and the snake got out of hand and Harry Potter talked to it… I don't even know what he supposedly said to it… but anyway, everyone pretty much freaked out."
"Oh, right," Jas nodded, remembering. "That was the year you guys had a big fuss about the Chamber of Secrets. We did an essay on it in our History of Magic class."
"Really?" Millie said, looking pleased.
"Yeah," Jas confirmed, deciding not to tell her the essay had been about common historical myths.
Millie grew sober again. "Anyway, I didn't mean to be so freaked out about hearing that Snape was your dad, but it's just sort've…weird."
"I can see why," Jas agreed. She still found it hard to believe she was his daughter. In fact, she planned on double checking whether that was a fact as soon as she could.
"I can't believe that git Malfoy didn't get expelled," Millie complained, taking a seat on Jas' bed and opening a Chocolate Frog package. "Chocolate Frog?" she offered to Jas, indicating her pocket.
Jas shook her head. "I almost got expelled," she said, still feeling the nerves she had felt at how close she had come to getting chucked out. "I had to talk to Dumbledore and everything." Of course, it wouldn't have been the first time she was expelled, but she doubted it got any easier the second time around.
"What?" Millie exclaimed indignantly, through a mouthful of chocolate. "What for?"
"Because I Stunned Crabbe," Jas explained.
"Oh," Millie said, looking at the Chocolate Frog card. "I forgot about that." Millie frowned at the card. "I've already got four of her," she complained. Then she glanced at Jas' books. "You want my notes for the classes you missed? I know you had Defense, what other classes did you take?"
"Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy," Jas answered promptly.
"I'm in Care of Magical Creatures too," Millie offered, "But I took Muggle Studies instead of Arithmancy or Divination. I'm from an old wizarding family, so I don't know anything about Muggles."
"Really?" Jas asked, fascinated. "I grew up with Muggles so I didn't know a thing about magic until I got my letter from Beauxbatons."
Millie gave her an odd look. "Why'd you grow up with Muggles? Wasn't Snape there?" she asked uncertainly.
Jas flushed slightly. She'd assumed Malfoy would tell everyone what he knew. Maybe he hadn't, after all. "No," Jas said hesitantly. "He wasn't."
"Oh," Millie said, obviously deciding not to press the issue. "Well, I bet it was a bit of a shock finding out about being a witch-"
"I actually just found out Snape was my- er, dad the day before yesterday," Jas said quickly, before she could think better of it. It would eventually come out, anyway. It might as well come out on her own terms.
Millie gave her an incredulous look. "What? " she said, her eyes wide. "You're joking."
"Nope," Jas said, grinning slightly at the look on Millie's face. "Turns out your professor had an illegitimate daughter in France he never knew about. Sounds dramatic, doesn't it?"