Chapter 4! Year 4. Late night studying gone slightly awry. Lauren needs to take better care of herself.

After this chapter some years will have more than one chapter! Just thought I'd let you know. =3

Super duper big thanks to PandaWong, who also sent me a review just a bit ago, thanks for that! SandyLovesKittens, XenaHades, nightworldangel, FonzFan, The Yoshinator, and Isa'ralia Faradien. I hope you all enjoy this next chapter and all the ones after it.

And thank you to all you wonderful people who just read and go on your way. Hope you can enjoy my little fic too~

Chapter 4 – Little Miss Foolish

Fourth year wasn't going as smoothly as Lauren would have liked. As in previous years she was barely achieving a grade of Acceptable in Transfigurations and in Potions. The Transfigurations wouldn't bother her usually but, given that she was to take her O.W.L's next year it was a bit disconcerting. And no matter what she did she still couldn't brew a potion.

To make things worse, she was distracted out of her mind. The tri wizard tournament was going on and while she hadn't been initially interested, not a sports fan, Harry had gone and gotten himself roped up in things. She shouldn't be surprised, and she wasn't, too much, but she was terribly worried. They weren't close but she liked him. He was a good friend, someone she could talk to and someone who came to talk to her often. She cared for him and she didn't want him hurt.

Oh, and the Yule Ball. There was that too. She was worrying over if she should get a date or just go by herself, what she should wear, if she should dance or not. She knew how to dance, quite well, but would people think she was being showy? How was she even supposed to get a dress? Just write her parents and ask for it? She didn't know which one to choose and what if she wanted a new one.

All of this worry was enough to make her crazy and with a flustered sigh she brought her head, rather aggressively, to the table top.

She winced at the pain but didn't move, just laid there with her face down in the wood for a while. It was cool and smooth and soothed what she thought might be a fever coming on. It was cold and she hadn't been sleeping well lately, her immune system was probably down. She needed rest.

With a slow, large yawn she sat up slightly, pulling off her glasses so that she could put her head down again and rest her eyes.

She could use a bit of a break from the studying. A little five minute desk nap wouldn't hurt anything…

"Ms. Dari?"

The deep, unamused voice and gentle shake brought her jumping out of sleep and she looked up with bleary eyes at one Professor Severus Snape.

"Oh… Hi professor" she said softly, stifling a yawn behind her hand. "Can I help you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Do you not think a bed would be a better place to sleep?"

She smiled. "Yeah, probably, but I was just taking a quick nap. Bet I've only been down for five minutes. I'll get back to studying now."

He gave her a rather exasperated stare as she turned back to her work only to cry out in shock.

"M-My notes! What happened?" Her eyes widened and she pulled her glasses back on to see if she was seeing right. Her notes were, in fact, nothing more than unreadable smudges on the paper now. How?

"I believe they are on your face" he pointed out and she slapped a hand to her cheek. Drawing it away she saw clearly the ink there and hung her head.

"O-oh no."

She bit her lip and he watched her with raised brows. "Ms. Dari, what time do you believe it to be?"

She turned to him, blinking curiously. "I-I dunno. Maybe half past seven?"

He shook his head, black hair fluttering slightly. "Add four hours and you would be correct."

"Four… It's eleven?!" she shot from her seat with the exclamation and he scowled.

"Regardless of the time you are still in a library. Quiet down!"

She whimpered and fell back into her chair. Elbows on the table she dropped her head into her hands and gave a flustered groan. Four hours, she'd spent four hours sleeping at the table, she'd wasted four hours of her precious study time… she'd stayed out past curfew.

Another groan when she realized she would probably get detention for this. "I'm sorry…"

"I am assuming you fell asleep some time ago then?"

"Yes."

"Studying?"

"Yes."

"Would it have not been more lucrative to return to your common room after dinner rather than venture here where you may be caught out after curfew?" His voice hinted at more of that exasperation.

She shook her head, frizzy, dusty hair bouncing in its pigtails. "I can't concentrate in there right now. Everyone's all worked up over the tournament and the ball and no matter how hard I try to study in there I always get dragged into a conversation but I don't wanna talk I wanna study. I've gotta do well on my O.W.L's"

It came out in a rush, almost one long sentence, and he frowned. "Over eager are we? Shouldn't you be consumed with the tournament and ball as well?"

"Should I?" she asked. "I don't really know what I'm supposed to do. I just wanna do well but I don't know what I'm supposed to do." She sighed. "I wish I could sleep, maybe then I would, I wish I could sleep but the nightmares…" she shuddered. "This is the longest I've slept all week."

"Nightmares?" he inquired, then realized he was asking her quite a few questions.

"Yeah. The carbuncles come and drag me to other world. They lock me away in a crystal egg and I can't escape. It's dark, very dark and lonely. There's no light, no light but the dark is red and it grows and grows and then it swallows me and I have to wake up or I'll fall."

Near the end her ranting got frantic and he noticed the flush in her cheeks and the tears in her eyes as she thought on what he assumed must be a great fear of hers.

He took a seat beside her, resting a palm on her forehead to check his own suspicions. Yes. She definitely had a fever, a high one.

"W-what are you doing? Your hands are cold Professor" she said, shaking her head away from him despite the pleasantness of the cool. She pouted and he could hardly believe the sight before him. He'd certainly seen some interesting things in his days as a professor but never this, never a five foot girl with fever flushed, freckled chocolate skin and dusty brown hair, staring at him sleepily with clouded ivy green eyes and pout on her face. His students did not pout in front of him. She was obviously sick and delusional.

"You have a fever Ms. Dari" he explained "and need to go see Madam Pomfrey before you return to bed… A proper bed."

She frowned and shook her head. "I can't Professor. I've got to redo my notes…" her eyes trailed to the smudged paper. "Oh…" she whimpered again. "All that work… Why do I keep messing up so much?" Her hands went back to her face again and he saw drops of water fall from between her fingers. She was crying.

He rolled his eyes. She shed tears far too easily. Perhaps she would have been better suited to Hufflepuff, that damn hat didn't know what it was doing some times.

He pulled out his wand and cast a spell he had always found rather useful, used to clear spilt ink and restore smudged writing. It was a wonder Flitwick hadn't taught it to his little star student yet and Snape made a mental note to send another written note.

The papers repaired he examined the books spread about the table along with several pieces of parchment. They were Advanced Potion-Making, Moste Potente Potions, Magical Drafts and Potions, Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, and Intermediate Transfiguration. He noted that one of these books was available only in the restricted section of the library and would be sure to question her on it later but for now he could only find himself colored impressed that she had been reading and taking notes on all of these books, and there was evidence of notes from every one.

He looked back at her, still crying softly to herself, and scowled again.

"Stop that and gather your things" he demanded and she looked up at him with yet another pout.

"Why are you so mean Professor?" she cried and he felt his eye twitch.

"Because children like you have exhausted my patience with foolish questions. Stop that blubbering and gather your things. You're going to see Madam Pomfrey."

"No." she shook her head. "I've gotta study. I've got to redo my notes."

He rolled his eyes. "Look at the paper you dolt."

She did, despite the insult and her eyes widened. "H-How?"

"Ask Flitwick."

She accepted that but still hesitated. "Do I really need to go to the nurse? I could just go back to the common and study."

"That is precisely why you're going to see her." He knew her type. He used to be, and still sometimes was, the kind that would push and push with studying or work, not sleeping or eating, continuing till they dropped. He'd always suspected her of it but since he did not see her outside of class, mealtimes, and detentions he had no founding proof, till now. She was obviously not caring for herself properly, was obviously sick, and would obviously not seek help for herself.

And he knew that usually he would not be doing this, going out of his way to help. Usually he would have just ordered a detention and sent her on her way, but he sympathized. Once again he found the small girl a shadow to himself and it still unsettled him. He wanted no one else to suffer as he did.

She whined at him as he thought, but slowly began to pack her things. She muttered something under her breath containing the words study and nurses office, and realized he'd have to take her notes or she would be revising them till dawn, even without the books.

Gingerly he plucked the note book from between her dainty fingers, glaring at her for her sounds of protest.

"I will be taking these Ms. Dari, and while you rest I will read over them and see where you need improvement."

She whined again and puffed out her cheeks. "But… But professor."

"But nothing" he practically growled, though it lost a bit of its aggression when he looked at her face again, pouting and looking absolutely juvenile with the ink blot on her cheek. "Wipe your face and come along."

She obeyed one of his commands, but not very well as she pressed her fist against the blot and succeeded in spreading it wider. She dropped her hand back into her lap and looked at him in a way that asked 'better now?' and he sighed.

"You look positively foolish" he stated bluntly, flicking his kerchief, it was getting a lot of use from her, and wand out of his sleeve. Placing her note book down but out of her reach he cast a weak Aguamenti to wet the cloth and then leaned forward. One of his hands braced itself on her shoulder, the other one wiping the stain from her skin.

She squirmed under the attention, furrowing her brow and crinkling her nose, looking like an unhappy child. He didn't ease up and kept his grip firm till her face was clean, every blotch of ink removed.

There, much better. He looked her over after he let go, absently cleaning the cloth as he did. Without the dark patch on her cheek he could see the flush of her skin much better and his hand was still warm from when he'd held her shoulder. How high was this fever?

As she tried to reach for her notebook, attempting and failing at being surreptitious, he snatched it back up in one hand and used the other to coax her to her feet. She was sick enough at least to be disoriented, along with a little delusional.

She held out her hands like a toddler asking for a toy and he turned, grabbing her by the arm as he went to get her moving.

She followed with little complaint after that, though a serious look covered her face from library to hospital wing, as if she was concentrating on walking, or studying in her head which was far more likely.

Madame Pomfrey was shocked to see him at that late hour, it had rolled around to midnight, and even more shocked to see Lauren trailing behind sleepily. Her eyes had, at some point glazed over and she looked rather worse for the wear.

Ushering her into a bed the quick diagnosis of a virus was made. It was in no way magical but still potent and with a high running fever.

She gave her a potion to lower that, another to help expel the virus as best as they could, and then made the girl lay down with a wet cloth on her forehead.

Lauren didn't put up too much of a fight, rather complacent she was after she sat and then laid in the bed, feeling comfortable. She wasn't quite sure of when her clothes had been changed and she wanted her note book, she needed to study, but the bed… it was so soft and the pajamas were so warm.

She watched sleepily as the two teachers beside her bed talked, but she didn't hear their words. Pomfrey left a moment later, smiling at her, Snape stayed behind.

"Do you have any other notes among your bag Ms. Dari?" he asked, sure that if she did and remembered them she would find a way up and out of bed to work on them.

"No sir" she replied with a sleepy smile a feeble shake of her head. "Can I… My note book please? So much studying…" she sighed and he almost, almost laughed.

"You may collect it once Madam Pomfrey releases you from her care. For now, sleep."

He nodded to her, blew out the candle by her bed, and turned to leave but lurched when a tight tug came at his robes. He turned on her terribly unamused and ready to scold her but the look in her eyes made him stop short, a chill coming over him. She looked positively terrified.

"What-"

"Don't leave" she pleaded suddenly. "Not in the dark, don't leave me in the dark." She whimpered, holding to him tighter. She looked about ready to cry and he really wished she wouldn't, he thought she did that too easily, made it too easy for people to read her, to hurt her, but he couldn't tell her not to. She looked genuinely scared, petrified even at the prospect of being left in the infirmary in the dark and he recalled her words from earlier. A darkness that was red and that grew, that swallowed her, a darkness she was afraid of. She was afraid of the dark.

The candle on the table was a small thing and he didn't think it would last all the way through the night. He supposed he could charm it but what if Poppy came along and blew it out… How had she survived these last four years if she had such a crippling fear of the dark? Looking into her frightened eyes he found her mind was an open book and before he could think better of it he dove in, trying to find some reason to this spastic behavior.

What he saw chilled him with sadness and made his blood boil in anger. Such a tiny thing she was, so larger the other child, and the closet, so much darkness in all that space, suffocating though there was room to move.

He pulled free of her mind and of her grasp, gently, and searched through her bag. The memory of a gifted lamp had also been at the forefront of her though and he found it with ease. The tea light in the little cage was enchanted to last much longer than average and he was able to leave a note for the medical witch under its metal frame letting her know of Lauren's fear.

He turned back to the girl in question and she was significantly calmer now. The tears on her cheeks were fresh but still and he wiped them away with a gentle thumb this time.

"Better?" he asked.

"Better" she nodded. "Sleepy."

"Sleep."

And for the first time that whole night she obeyed him the first time and followed his instruction properly. In mere moments her breathing evened out and she fell to the land of dreams.

He touched her forehead gently, he was being unusually gentle it seemed, and turned again to leave. This time he went unhindered , able to make it all the way to the dungeons without a word spoken. He thought as he walked, thought of her and her fears, what he had seen, and of the book in his hands, her notes.

In his quarters he sat, as close to relaxed as he was going to get tonight, and began to read her entries. What he saw was… extremely interesting to say the least.

So, what do you think? Yet another teen issues chapter. It get's a lot cheerier after this I promise. =D Hope I did okay with Snape. Once again, I feel like he's a bi of a softie once you get down in there, you just have to get down in there.

Um, just wondering, I'm going to write a little Yule Ball chapter, just cause, would any of you be interested in seeing it? If not I'll just keep it in my files XD It won't be anything romantic. More like, character analysis. It'll focus on Lauren, Harry, Draco, maybe a little bit of Luna, and of course Snape and be a sort of cheery friendship thing. Not sure if I'ma post it or not so I thought I'd ask.

Anyway, got any questions or comments, send em my way. Disliked it? Give me some advice on how to get better. Or, if you have nothing to say at all, have a nice day/night/other!