A/N- Oooo, two chapters up just within days of each other...my my

I hope you like it, should get some action right? But look at this, not one review yet for either new chapter...makes me sad...I CAN NAG if I want!!

Chapter Twelve

The next week had gone by without incident and their working atmosphere was actually quite decent. She stopped with the questions when he asked her to and he wasn't snapping at her and was actually putting effort into conversations.

Samantha still didn't know if it would last though, sometimes he looked as if he were holding something back and her curiosity fought to win with her restraint. Her friends had given her hell about why she didn't just work alone and she told them that she'd rather suffer the next few months and come out with one of the top grades in the class than struggle as she worked alone and failed. On the Wednesday of the following week they found themselves yet again in the Room of requirement, working on the Felix Felicis.

"It's actually quite lucky that we had started when we had. When we put in the unicorn hair the Friday before Christmas break we don't have to add anything else until the second week of January." He told her as she stirred the potion the way he had instructed her to.

"I can't believe that Christmas break is less then two weeks away already." She mused and continued counting stirs, alternating their directions.

"Indeed." He said from behind the Potions book he was reading.

She noticed the Authors name and grinned. "You actually read Arnold Mellcrow's texts?"

Severus looked up at her, "I am surprised that you actually know who he is."

She suppressed a laugh; he didn't know that half of it.

"Potion critics don't tend to have that many nice things to say about him, since a lot of his creations are farfetched and dangerous to be distributed, but the theory and practices, not to mention some of the great creations he has added to the Wizardry Medication Vault are remarkable." Severus said and continued reading.

Samantha beamed; there weren't that many people that spoke so highly about her father's work with so few words regarding to his sanity. He was respected for his ideas by many, yes, but ridiculed far more then praised. She wondered if she should tell him that that was her father but decided against it. He'd probably bombard her with questions about why she was so horrid when her father was a Potion Master. Not many people did know about it.

"What are your plans for the holidays?" she asked innocently enough.

"Nothing." He answered, not looking up from the book.

"Are you going home for the break?" she asked.

"I do have something that needs to be done so yes." He said as she finished stirring the cauldron and turned the fire temperature back down to a simmer.

"You don't sound at all excited." She pointed out.

He looked up then, "I'm not." He said simply.

"How come?" she dared to ask.

"This goes into questions involving family, Cromwell." He reminded her.

So, she dropped it. They were silent for a long while after that. Samantha's mind was running around the usual Christmas events at her home in the country and wondered if everyone that had come last year would come again this year. She had a huge family, which was great…sometimes and other times….not so much. She smiled as she thought of all of her cousins and aunts and uncles, her grandparents and friends of the family. Her parents had hosted Christmas for as long as she could remember, mainly because their home was the midpoint between everyone's home but more so because they were the only family members brave enough to allow everyone into their home for almost two weeks.

Samantha looked over at Snape, his forehead was furrowed and his brows almost touching as his eyes moved across the pages he was reading. She wondered what it was like at his home, and then thought better of it, thinking that he might not have the same pleasant thoughts about his family as she did about hers. Well, she knew for a fact that he didn't, he wasn't happy about going home for the break and he never wanted to talk about them. Obviously there was something he didn't want her to know. She tried to push these thoughts out of her mind; she didn't want to imagine why anyone would not love their family.

She was just lowering the heat of the flames yet again when she heard a dark curse come from Snape. She looked over at him and he was still reading the book. Not her father's any longer but yet another one of those books that he is always reading.

"How could I have missed that?" she heard him mumble.

They were done for the day and she headed over to where he sat on one of the two two-seated couches. She sat across from him. "Is something wrong?" she asked as he navigated back and forth between two different books now.

He looked up, startled that she was there. She found that sometimes unnerving and sometimes irritating, that he seemed to forget that she even existed sometimes.

"Well, we'll find out tomorrow when I ask Professor Slughorn about it." He said and continued to read.

Thank you, so much. That completely answered my question.

"What is it?" she asked, not swayed.

He didn't seem to hear her so she rolled her eyes and asked again. He looked up and finally sighed and said, "What we need to add from the Unicorn might actually prove to be impossible to get."

She frowned, "You said that all we needed was a hair from a Unicorn tail." That didn't seem to be too hard; Professor Slughorn had hundreds of Unicorn hairs.

"Yes, and what Professor Slughorn has in storage will work, however I believe, and my readings have concurred that a hair from the tail of a unicorn with the root still attached would get our potion to the maximum performance level. I think that all Professor Slughorn collects are cuttings of Unicorn tail hairs." He said and referred back to the books, nodding to himself.

"So, even though what we have available will work, you want that more?"

The next day, Potions was their was class and as Samantha finished up her essay on that weeks root, Severus, already finished with his own essay, was at the front of the classroom asking Professor Slughorn about the Unicorn hairs. She wasn't too worried about it though, because he had said himself that the cuts of Unicorn hair would work fine.

A few moments later Snape sat heavily into the seat next to her.

"Well?" she asked without looking at him.

"He doesn't have it and said that though it is a great suggestion that we should be more than fine with the Unicorn hairs he has in his supply." He said. But the way he said it as though it was a horrible loss made her look over at him.

"You sound heartbroken." She said teasingly.

He scowled at her. "It wouldn't matter to someone like you, but I have the opportunity to make the perfect Felix Felicis, I know it, and I'm not going to settle for an almost perfect potion if I can make the perfect one."

She watched him and knew that he was planning something. But how would he get a Unicorn tail hair with the root still attached if no teacher would have it in their stock?

"What are you planning?" she asked.

He looked over at her and with their close proximity she felt his breath touch her cheek. He seemed to think for a moment and finally looked like he made up his mind. He shrugged and said, "Never mind. I guess we'll settle for a almost perfect potion." With that he started to reread his essay.

Samantha frowned and watched him. He was lying. She knew it from the faraway look on his face, the way his eyes weren't moving over the paper as quickly as they usually did and by the way he just gave up his perfect potion just like that.

"You're lying." She accused and he glanced back at her, a blank look on his face. "What are you planning?"

"Don't be ridiculous Cromwell. What would I be able to do to change the situation?" he said.

She was about to force him to tell her the truth when she was interrupted with professor Slughorn clearing his throat to tell them all their homework essays for the next Monday.

Samantha sat on her four-poster and was itching to leave for supper. She would have looked for Snape now but hadn't any idea where he would be. She knew what he was planning and she had to stop him.

"Sam?" she quickly looked over at Lily and Annabel, who were sitting on the floor over their own potion.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked.

"Yes, why?" Samantha asked.

"You seem really agitated." She said.

And Annabel added, "And you haven't said anything to us since Potions class." She stirred the potion again.

"I'm fine; I just have a lot on my mind today. Ugh, with the potion and stuff." She said. She couldn't exactly tell them that the reason why she was all worked up was because of Snape. She couldn't really tell them what he was thinking about doing.

"I know what you mean." Lily said, "One of us has to take this stupid potion home, because we have to add one crab claw on the twenty-five of December."

Annabel groaned, "Can you believe it? One thing. I can't imagine how people can love potions, they are so demanding." Samantha watched as her stirring became jerky and inconstant. Snape would have strangled her if he caught her stirring their potion like that. She almost laughed imagining the horror on his face.

"I don't know how your dad could love it so much." Lily mused. "Severus too. He must be such a dictator when the two of you are working together."

Samantha glanced at her watch and quickly said, "Sure. Hey, are you both ready to head down for dinner, I'm starving."

Samantha barely ate as she watched the doors of the Great Hall. Lily, Annabel and Alexis gave her curious stares and she just shrugged them off.

"Lily, you coming to the game this Saturday right?" James asked. He sat opposite Lily with Sirius and Remus on either side of him, and Peter next to Sirius.

"I can't, no." she said and James face fell. "Annabel and I have to add more ingredients to our potion, and it has to be during your game." She continued without looking at him.

"Oh." He said, disappointed.

Sirius groaned, "It's our first game and only two of you can make it."

"What do you mean?" Samantha asked, giving her eyes a break from staring at the door.

Peter answered, with his lispy voice, "Lily and Annabel have to work on their potion and Alexis and me have Ancient Runes detention – missing the game."

"I guess you and Remus are all alone." Alexis said and gave Samantha a smile.

Samantha gave her a hard warning star and looked over at Remus who at the same time looked over at her. She returned his smile. They got along great but she didn't want her friends to push her all over him. She had tried to explain that to them after the Halloween dance but obviously they think they knew what was best for her and are keeping to it.

Almost a quarter of an hour later, Samantha glanced over at the Slytherin table to see if he had slipped in while she wasn't looking, but he still hadn't arrived. What if he had already gone? But he couldn't have been that stupid to have gone while there was still light shinning off the snow?

She excused herself and got up from the Gryffindor table. She said she needed to go to the rest room and before one of the girls should decide they too needed to go she quickly walked over to the door of the Great Hall and stepped outside. She had closed the door behind her and quickly turned the corner and crashed into another body.

She heard a hiss and a groan and from the floor looked up into the disgusted faces of Bellatrix and Rodulphus. Already on his feet Severus looked down at her with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Watch where you're going." Bellatrix warned.

"Where's the cub heading off to in such a hurry?" Rodulphus mocked as he stepped over her.

"Ugh…" Samantha glanced back up at Snape when Rodulphus was no longer hovering over her and wondered why she was even thinking about what she was going to say. It was not of his business, and she told him so, with a few extra words.

"Don't you dare speak to him like that again!" Bellatrix exploded and she swung back her hand.

Severus quickly moved his hand to get his wand and had it out when Bellatrix's hand stopped just inches from Cromwell's face. He lowered his wand and hid it in the fabric of his robes as he watched Cromwell back away from Bellatrix's reach as Bellatrix realized what she had just done.

Bellatrix cursed Samantha and struggled to get at her. She tried to reach for her wand when her other hand stopped moving. Rodulphus who had had his hand wrapped around the handle of the door stormed back, his face drawn and his eyes wide and rage on his face. "You filthy, Half-" he started. He was almost upon Cromwell who was still inching away on her backside and aimed his wand at her skull but she had hers out before and yelled, "Expelliarmus!" his wand flew across the corridor.

Again Snape found himself hiding his wand again. She could actually hold her own he realized but noticed she hadn't done anything else to stop Rodolphus and he was still advancing on her.

"Enough." He said and Rodulphus actually stopped mid-step. He had his eyes trained on her and his fists clenched but Samantha watched as something dawned on him and didn't turn when Bellatrix let out a horrible growl.

"You would listen to him? Obviously he is trying to protect her." She growled, "What exactly are your motives, Severus?" she hissed.

Severus raised his wand as Samantha turned to look at him. She watched in horror as he aimed it at her. She couldn't hear what spell he was using on her, just saw the flash of bright light and everything went dark and quiet. She felt herself move; she was still conscious but was blinded and deaf. She tried to yell out and ask what they hell was going on, but nothing came out. She hadn't even seen it coming. Her heart rate speed up and was all she could hear. She backed away from where the three Slytherins had been in front of her and panicked when her back touched the wall. But no one had done anything to her yet. She squeezed herself against the wall and decided there was nothing she could do. Snape wouldn't let them hurt her if there was anything he could do about it right? Her heart sank, he was the one that had just done this to her. She fought back tears. She wasn't going to please them by showing them that they were affecting her this greatly. That she was terrified, that this was one of her top fears - to be blind and deaf, to be invisible. As the fear gripped her, she tried to push it back with all her will and was surprised when a light flashed before her eyes, though they were closed. She felt nauseous and was going to be sick but she fought it off.

"He's right Bellatrix." Rodolphus said in warning yet again. He held a restraining hand around her now free arm. "He is forever stopping us from getting caught. Look around, we are right outside the Great Hall anyone could have come out and we might have been investigated."

Severus watched as Bellatrix forced herself to relax. She had fought them both to get to Cromwell and accused him of alternative motives towards the girl sitting against the wall looking around blindly and deaf.

"Yes," she finally said, "We mustn't draw attention to ourselves yet." She gave Severus a cold look which he returned. She no longer trusted him, and he had never trusted her.

Rodulphus gave her a kiss and told Severus to take care of the Half-blood as they entered the Great Hall for supper.

Severus let out a breath and turned to Cromwell who was still shaking her head wildly. She was such nuisance. Bellatrix already doubted him and thought he was going soft, but what could he do? It was true, they shouldn't draw attention to themselves he told himself. It had only been two minutes that Cromwell had sat there but she looked terrified and looked like she was having trouble breathing. He lifted the spell.

Samantha collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily and had to keep her eyes shut tight as the familiar creaks of the building and torch lights can back. She listened to her raged breathing and slowly looked up to find Snape staring down at her from where he stood a few feet away. She tried to get up but paused.

She narrowed her eyes at him and used the wall to get to her feet.

"How dare you…" she huffed and held a hand to her chest, holding back tears. She was fine but the ordeal had terrified her and right now she just wanted to lash out and attack him but has to weak at the moment. He moved towards her and as soon as his hand wrapped around her arm and he pulled her to her feet, the Great Hall doors opened and Alexis and Annabel stepped out.

There was about a second of awkward silence as the door swung closed by itself. Alexis and Annabel stood frozen as they took in the sight of the shaken Samantha, breathing hard and looking shocked and Snapes' clasped hand around her arm.

"What going on here?" Annabel asked.

"Get away from her." Alexis warned.

"No." Samantha said. "No…it's not-"

"Did he attack you?" Alexis asked as they both snapped back to life and pushed Snape out of the way.

"Ugh, no." Samantha said and took on last calming breath and glanced over at Snape who just stood there quietly watching her. She then noticed that none of his friends were there and it suddenly dawned on her. "He didn't. Actually, I think that he sort of saved me."

She watched as he frowned and walked off into the Great Hall.

"Samantha?" Annabel asked. "What did he save you from?"

She looked at them and they gave her a disbelieving look. They weren't going to believe anything but the truth so she told them what had really happened. They looked mad and curious when she was done.

"She's such a bitch." Alexis said.

"How could she love that horrid boy so much?" Annabel scowled and they headed to the girl's bathroom, since that was the reason they had all actually left the Great Hall for.

"They are a pair made in hell those two." Samantha agreed.

"But why freeze all your senses?" Alexis asked suspiciously.

"Right," Annabel added, "He could have just stopped them in front of you." She said, looking thoughtful.

"I don't know." Samantha stated. She has now wondering the same thing.

"It doesn't make sense." Alexis said again. "Maybe he got a sick thrill of it? He still is a monster."

Samantha didn't say anything.

"Or perhaps because you might have said or done something to interfere or get them worked up again." Annabel suggested. They both looked at her. "Well think about it, you would have retorted or done something if they had said anything, so if you couldn't hear and see what you were doing then you wouldn't have provoked them further. You know what a smart ass you are Sam."

Samantha and Alexis shared a look. They smiled and formed a huge around Annabel.

"Sometimes you truly surprise me Annabel." Alexis said. "It makes so much sense that it was implausible to our minds."

Samantha agreed and Annabel pouted and said, "I am smart you guys."

"Yes, but usually very naïve." Samantha said and the laughed as they headed back to the Great hall.

Severus had felt her eyes on him since she had reentered the Hall. What was her problem?

He had arrived late for supper and most of the students and teachers had already left when he finally got up from the table.

When he entered the corridor he walked down half of it and leaned against the wall with his back and pressed a foot against it as well as he stared at the ground and waited. A few moments later, like he knew she would, Cromwell stuck her head out into the corridor and when she saw him walked over to him.

"You don't have to thank me." he said as she stopped right in front of him.

"Thank you? Why would I do that?" she said and he looked up to find her hands clenched and pressed to her waist. She looked really stern.

"I save you and you don't wish to thank me?" he raised a brow.

She looked irritated now. "Look, no I am not thankful that you took advantage of me and put me into a horrible dark place. But that's not why-"

"Took advantage of you?" he scowled, "I did no such thing. What because you couldn't speak and get yourself into greater trouble with them your actually mad at me? I-"

"Look let's just drop it. You stopped me from going too far and made me look like an even greater fool. But I wanted to talk to you about something else." She interrupted.

"Which is?" he asked irritated.

"You cannot go into the Forbidden Forest." She said.

He looked at her blue eyes and said, "Why would I do that?"

"Don't act like a fool and don't lie to me, you and I both know that you're going in there to get what you really want." She gave him a look daring him to deny it.

"Look just leave this alone, Cromwell." He warned her.

"I'm not letting you go in there-" she said.

"What are you going to do, Cromwell, report me?" Severus asked.

She looked him over, he had his arms crossed around his chest now and the irritated look was gone but an annoyed look lingered with determination etched into him face. "If I have to." But she knew she wouldn't and she knew that she couldn't stop him from going.

He took a step closer and was about to say something further when she continued, "But I don't think I will."

He stopped, and asked her suspiciously, "Why is that?"

She didn't know why so she avoided the question and said, "Well, I'm coming with you."

A/N - REview please? Be kind and...review lol