Chapter 9

Will You Stay With Me?

J.K ROWLING STILL OWNS HARRY POTTER AND ME IF SHE WANTS TO.

Alana was sitting on a stool attending carefully to the Angel's Trumpet Draught that she had been brewing for the past three hours. Instead of exhaustion, tiredness or hunger she felt only excitement. She was excited to finally be able to get out of her bed, of the house… She did like Grimmauld Place and their inhabitants, but they were all so busy that nobody really paid that much attention to her, and being stuck in bed all day was really getting on her nerves. On the opposite side of the room Snape stood vigilant to his own potion, a blood-replenishing one for the school's hospital wing.

Once they were done and Snape approved of Alana's work they climbed the stairs so she could be taken home. He checked the clock that was hanged in the wall, three past six. Alana became distracted by the pouring rain that hit the living room window harshly. In the floor beside the window was a piece of parchment addressed to Snape. He picked it up recognizing the handwriting and unfolded it,

"Severus,

I do hope you get this on time. If you haven't read today's Daily Prophet there's a slight chance you'll know that our means of transportation will be down starting today at six until tomorrow morning due to some maintenance spells being required. Therefore, you should get Alana to Grimmauld Place before that time unless you wish to walk or use muggle taxis.

Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

"Crap!" Alana's eyes seized her professor.

"Sorry… there's been a little problem" Before she could ask him what was going on a phoenix burst into the room, causing Alana to back down a few steps in shock.

"Don't worry, this is Fawkes, it's your grandfather's"

"I thought phoenix didn't have owners…"

"It's a little bit more complicated than that… anyways, here, this will explain…"He handed her the first letter while he unfolded and read the second one.

"Severus,

I stayed in Sirius's house until one to six and as you have neglected to appear I trust that you didn't get my previous letter in time. I really do hope you won't take Alana out in the middle of this storm, as you know her health is still fragile and catching a cold wouldn't be good. However, I do believe this will prove to be an excellent opportunity for the both of you.

Use it well,

Albus Dumbledore"

While he examined the second letter, hoping to find some hint that this had all been orchestrated by Dumbledore, Alana went back to staring at the pouring rain.

"I guess you'll have to spend the night here" She turned around and eyed him, surprised. "Our regular means of transportation are down, and there's no way we'll get a taxi or a bus to stop in the middle of this storm" She didn't say anything, "I do understand this is not the ideal plan for a Friday night, especially when you're fourteen but there's no way around it"

"I don't mind, I hope I didn't ruin any plans"

"If I had any they were ruined by the storm, not by you" She gave him a half smile and replied,

"I can cook if you want; I'm fairly decent at it"

"Don't worry; you don't need to do that"

"It's fine, just point the way to the kitchen" He looked at her, puzzled but still walked her to the kitchen and showed her around it. "OK, no shoo!"

"What?"

"You've heard me; go away so I can get started!" For absolutely no reason that he knew or could understand he turned around and walked back into the living room, pulled out an old book flipped through its pages while he sat in a love chair.

"Dinner is ready!" Alana stuck her head through the door that connected both rooms but got no reply. "Professor…" She walked closer to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Whaa…?" It seemed as he had just woken up from a dream. Quickly, he closed the book and stood up.

"Dinner is ready" She smiled. He followed her into the kitchen where she had already set the table and served the meal. "I hope you like ñoquis"

"I'm afraid I've never tasted it" He sat down in the head of the table, where she pointed out.

"Well, you are in for a treat! My mum taught me how to make it, it's Italian and it's really good" She said sitting down to his left. Snape looked down at the strange balls of pasta covered in a yellowish sauce.

"I prepared curry sauce; there wasn't any meat so I couldn't make the red kind"

"This is fine" He took a piece on his fork and put it in his mouth while Alana looked at him expectantly.

"Well?"

"This is really good actually" She gifted him a smile and went to start eating herself.

After they were done she got up to clean the dishes.

"Stop it, I'll do it" She looked, not at him, but to his hand grabbing softly to her arm, holding her to the spot she was standing on. He let go of her as soon as he realized what he was doing and with one move of his wand the plates, stove and everything else in the kitchen were cleaning themselves.

"Come, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping tonight"

She followed him out of the room, through the living room and up the stairs. She saw a long hallway with five doors, two to the left and three to the right. He pointed to the second door to the right; "This is where you'll sleep tonight and that's the bathroom" He signed her to the first door on the right.

"Which one is yours? He looked at her, puzzled, as if he didn't understand why that piece of information was relevant.

"This one" he placed his hand on the knob of the first door on the left.

"And what are those two?" He sighed, getting slightly annoyed at the amount of unnecessary questions.

"This one is my bathroom, and that one" He pointed to the door that was far on the right "is empty"

"Oh…"

"Now, would you like to go to bed?"

"It's roughly ten… I'm not that tired"

"Madam Pomfrey said you should take things easy and rest a lot" Getting the hint, she opened the bathroom door.

"I'll wash up and then I'll go to sleep" The answer seemed to suffy Snape, who turned around and went into his room.

Once Alana came out of the bathroom Severus was standing in the hallway, holding an old t-shirt in his hand. "Here, I thought you could need something to sleep in, you can use this". She grabbed it and thanked him.

"I'll wake you up tomorrow morning so you can return to Grimmauld Place" With that he went into his room and Alana did the same.

The room wasn't very big but everything seemed to fit perfectly. This had obviously been Snape's room growing up. It was painted in a very boring shade of gray with a single naked window facing the street. The twin-sized bed was perfectly done and it seemed as it hadn't been slept on in years. The dark green covers were embroidered with silver "S" shaped like a snake. Alana's hand travelled across the writing, her fingers following the curves.

"I'm not too tired to snoop for a little while" Slowly she began opening drawers doing her best not make too much noise. The only things she found were old boy clothes, and pieces of old games. One particular drawer contained a few children books but nothing interesting. In the midst of her fight against the bottom one that refused to open, she heard a knock on the door.

"One second! I'm changing!" She jumped into bed while changing her clothes. She took a quick look around; making sure everything was in place. "Come in"

"I'm going to bed now. So I would appreciate if you stopped snooping around and did the same" She looked at him, eyes wide open, he didn't say anything else and closed the door as he was exiting the room.

Alana turned around, covering herself all the way up her face, with that same feeling of being a kid all over again every time he would point something out to her. She closed her eyes; thinking about the bizarre situation she was in, because it's not every day one sleeps on their teacher's old room. With that final thought and the snake covering her body she fell asleep.

She was sitting in the corner of a dark room, unable to tell if it had been days, weeks or months since she had last seen the light of day. The chains wrapped around her heels prevented her from moving across the dungeon where the voices came from. Many times she tried to scream but not even a whisper would come out from her mouth. All of the sudden a bright light broke into her prison, through it, a hooded figure stood, and as it came closer to her she could see the yellow taint in his horrid hands, and the holes in the middle of his face, where his nose should had been. Next thing, she was supported by thin air only, her body shacking in pain at the word that kept on coming out of that creature's mouth. Suddenly, the pain stopped and she was falling down a tower, body still. Up, in the tower where she had fallen from, she saw two silluets, watching her as she fell. Then it hit her, the floor, hard and moist from the rain, but she couldn't feel any more pain. Her body lay there, still as a rock, numb.

He had a rude awakening, taking him a second to figure out what was going on. His instincts made him jump out of bed and run across the hall into the other room. Wand in hand he burst through the door of Alana's room only to find her in bed shacking, screaming.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her trying to wake her up. Her eyes, now open, were filled with tears that went down her cheeks and to the blankets. The only thing she found reassuring in that dark, unfamiliar room was the face of her Potion's Master and so she threw herself into his arms and whipped. Slowly, Snape let go of his wand, tightly gripped around his fingers and ran one of his arms through her back, hugging her and placed his other hand on the top of her head, running his fingers through her hair. When Alana stopped crying, she slowly pulled away from him.

"I'm sorry professor…"

"Are you OK?" He cut her off, worried about her. This girl was in fact going to be the death of him, if it wasn't by Voldemort's hand, then definitely she would scare him all the way to his grave.

"I had a terrible nightmare, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to wake you up"

"Don't worry about it child, tell me, what did you dream about?"

"It was weird; it felt so vivid, like something that actually happened, but the places, I've never seen them in my whole life… but the feelings, it was like a was in complete despair, lost, surrendered, the pain… it was like nothing I've ever felt before" She explained everything to Severus. It took her a long time to do so, because by the time she was done the first rays of sun were starting to push through the window.

"I think you should try to sleep a few more hours, you need to rest" She laid back into the bed and closed her eyes, still frightened.

"I'll stay here" Snape didn't know why he had said that, but it seemed to like the right thing. It also proved to be of use because Alana took his hand and fell right into a deep sleep.

He stayed there, afraid to even breathe too loud and wake her up. His eyes went from her hand, caught up under his to her face. It was hard to believe that she had been in such a state not that long ago. His thoughts circled around Alana's dream and the "creature" she had described. There was only one "person" that could respond to that description, and the idea of him torturing that poor child haunted him.

After he made sure Alana was still sleeping peacefully when he left the room he decided to head downstairs and write to Dumbledore.

"Albus,

As we were not able to meet yesterday I couldn't inform you of some new developments. On Thursday night after I came home I found an unexpected surprise, so to speak. The Dark Lord sent Lucius to inform me that his plans regarding the girl have changed. He wishes me to inform you of his previous ideas and let you to believe that he's forcing me into this relationship. This way you'll pull the girl closer to you in order to protect her. When I ultimately reveal the truth to her it will be easier for the rest of the plan to take place as the Dark Lord believes that with time she will end up hating you.

One more matter to inform you of, is that the girl did in fact sleep here. She had a bad nightmare, or what I believe to be a premonition. I will talk to you about it tonight.

Severus"