A/N: Thanks to those for reviewing! Especially the last five reviews, very encouraging :)
Well here's 14!
Chapter Fourteen
Samantha walked down towards the great lake off to the side of Hogwarts castle. It reminded her of the lake near her home which you had to use an old deer path to get to. It was her favorite spot in the woods around her house. She had played there as a child, played there with Toby when he had still played with toy trucks, when he hadn't known about the female anatomy. She sat down on the bank and watched the glistening water's surface thinking back.
She heard a noise behind her and looked up to see who it was, but there was no one there. She turned back and sighed, she had hoped someone would have been there. Then she felt something stir at her side and whirled to find Snape sitting next to her. He had his arms crossed, resting them on his knees and his head lying on top of them. His hair was in his face, as it always was. She touched his elbow and he looked up at her slowly. She looked into his black black eyes and saw something in the shift, lightened somehow even though his eyes were midnight black. His breathing, as ever was slow and a whisper, as hers as usual was ragged and loud. His eyes moved over her and he suddenly looked angry. He looked away, and she sat their waiting for him to say something, he looked back at her, his eyes narrowed. "You are beautiful." He said. He said it as if he had finally given into something he had thought he was right about, but now knew he was wrong.
He reached out and she watched as his long fingers neared her face. He hesitated a moment, his features conflicted. Confusion touched his eyes and pain settled over his face. His cheeks heated and he wouldn't meet her eyes. He dropped his hand. Her heart fell. They were quiet for a long time after that and she unconsciously slid closer to his body. She leaned her head on his shoulder and he practically growled at her but didn't push her away. She brought her hand up, took one of his in her own and touched his cool skin.
She lifted her head slightly to look at him and slowly, somewhat reluctantly he looked at her. She licked her suddenly dry lips and his gaze fell to them. He pursed his own lips; his brows came together in that always present frown and then he leaned in. Samantha's heart beat faster as she waited. Her lips parted, needed help breathing. She decided he wasn't moving fast enough and also leaned in, he lifted his hands and cupped her face, she grabbed fistfuls of his robes and…
…Heart beating fast, Samantha sat up in her four-poster bed.
What was that?!
That was weird…too weird, she thought as she looked over to her clock. She was going to be late for Defense Against the Dark Arts if she didn't leave soon.
Had she just dreamed about almost kissing Severus Snape? No!
It's all Annabel and Alexis' fault that she had dreamed about…that she dreamed that she almost…well! All that talk about them thinking that she had been kissing SNAPE out in the corridor last night. She tried not to think about it as she pulled on her clothes and tossed her robes on over them.
Some friends she had, not only do they plant horrible images in her mind but they don't even have the decency to wake her up, when they all have the exact same class that morning.
Dressed and exhausted, Samantha ran down the stairs, two or three at the time, to the first floor where the DADA classroom was. She hadn't had time for breakfast, assuming that they were still serving it at this time, and also hadn't had time to brush back her hair. She was doing amazingly to not think about the images of her in that somewhat unlikely situation with Snape...until she got to class that is.
She had been running and nearly ran past the classroom. In her attempt to brake she swerved and lost her footing landing flat against the DADA classroom door. This would have been fine had the door been closed, she could have recovered easily and she wouldn't have caused a scene. However, in this case it hadn't been closed and as she landed on it the door swung open and she landed face first into the classroom.
At the loud crash from the corridor every one of the students and the Professor turned to see what had just happened, all except Severus, who continued to read his book. He listened as some people laughed and two girls' shrieked. Severus raised his head from the seat where he sat in the back of the classroom and watched as Cromwell got to her feet, her cheeks were slightly pink and yet there was a huge dopey grin on her face.
He watched as Remus was at her side the same time the Professor was. Mutt, so disgustingly in love with her it was sick. He watched as she assured the Professor that she was alright and then, he assumed, she explained why she was late. He had a pleasant thought that he was sure that he was the only person that truly knew why she was late. He didn't know why but he was sure that she hadn't told her friends that she had gone into the Forbidden Forrest with him.
He still had his eyes trained on her when she finally looked up from the Professor. Her eyes met his before anything else. He was about to nod at her, expecting to respond slightly to her wave or smile which was how she usually greeted him but today her eyes widened and she dropped her gaze. Her hair, which was unbound, though she almost always had it up, was shadowing her face as she went to her seat and he couldn't have seen her expression.
Oh Merlin, oh Merlin. Why had it been his face that she had had to have seen first. He wasn't even sitting in the front yet her traumatized eyes sought him out. Samantha hastily thanked Remus and the Professor again, ducked her head so that her hair was hiding the deeper blush that she knew was spreading unwarrantedly across her face, and headed for her seat to the left of the classroom where Lily, Annabel and Alexis were waiting. She didn't know why she felt like Snape could probably read her dream in her face, but she was not looking forward to her next Potions class when she would be forced to confront him.
Why was she so embarrassed by that stupid dream? It didn't mean anything. When she thought about it nothing even really happened. She let out her breath and sat down next to Lily.
"You okay?" Lily asked, through a grin.
"Sure." Samantha said. Stupid dream, didn't mean anything, she was fine.
"What took you so long?" Alexis said.
Samantha turned to glare at her, "What took me so long? Why didn't any of you wake me up?"
Annabel frowned, "We did. You even sat up and said that you really hated first periods. I guess you must have still been sleeping."
"Sorry." All three said sheepishly.
After a few more minutes of everyone in the class chatting and fooling around, the Professor cleared his throat and silence fell across the room. Their DADA Professor was a mildly eccentric individual, with crazy wiry white hair and thick brows and mustache to match. He clearly loved his job, was always excited and itching to move from the theory part of the topic onto the practical.
"Well, students. We are moving onto a new topic today. It will be actually be a double course of Legilimency and Occlumency. Though most Professors choose to teach on both separately I find it far more interesting to teach them at the same time." The Professor said in his somewhat squeaky voice. "Now, who could tell me what Legilimency is?" When no one raised their hand but Lily and one of the boys from Ravenclaw, with blond hair and a name that always seemed to slip Samantha's mind, the Professor frowned disapprovingly and said, "Sirius Black? Care to add your input today?"
Sirius grinned, "Sure, thing Prof. Its mind reading isn't it?"
Lily scowled while Samantha and Alexis grinned to each other over Annabel's daydreaming head.
The Professor seemed a bit dumbfounded, "Well, yes Mr. Black, it is in a sense 'mind reading'."
"Sirius, sir, just Sirius."
"Yes, well, does anyone have a more…intelligent response to the question?"
Lily's hand shot up again and so did the blond boy in Ravenclaw.
The Professor, who was one of the most animated Professors they had ever had for a DADA teacher, even if he was one of the oldest in the school, skipped around the rows of seats and did his best to ignore their waving hands. They were always the same students to want to answer every question.
"What about you, Miss Cromwell?" he asked, halting in front of her desk, and leaning onto it with his hands splayed wide he stared at her from under thick white brows. "Since you came late to class, you owe me!"
"Legilimency is an ability to extract and correctly interpret emotions or memories from another person's mind. Eye contact is usually essential unless the practitioners are masters of the art. Those who practice it are known as Legilimens and," she looked over at Sirius, "would find Mr. Sirius' description of what they do naïve and somewhat offensive." Some people including James, Remus and Peter laughed. Sirius narrowed his eyes at her mockingly but grinned as well.
"Excellent! Five points Gryffindor." The DADA Professor said and smiled wildly at her. He hopped up and down and asked, "Now who could tell me exactly what Occlumency is?" His dark eyes skittered over the reluctant faces landing on a boy sitting in the far back of the room. He had his head bowed and his nose stuck in a book with his black hair hanging over his face. "Ah, Mr. Snape. One of my brightest students." He chirped, "You master every practical I throw at you yet you have never actually raised your hand once in my classroom for verbal input." He skipped down the rows again until he reached Snape's desk and took the book right out of his long gripping fingers. With the book in hand he skipped backwards towards the front of the class again. "Occlumency, Mr. Snape."
Severus looked up slowly from his desk. He waved his fingers towards the front of the class from under his desk and the book flew out of the Professor's aged hands and into his outstretched hand. Students stared and one or two gasped.
The Professor, however, laughed, "Hadn't uttered a sound, the cheeky lad." His eyes twinkled as he asked again, "Occlumency, Mr. Snape."
Snape felt the other student's eyes on him. He looked around and saw that he had Cromwell's full attention as well. A few of the faces that were staring at him looked intrigued, some of the girls looked a bit wary and stupidly fearful, but most just stared at him in disdain.
"Occlumency is the art of defending one's mind against the penetration of one practicing Legilimency. In its basic form it is emptying the mind so that no emotion or memory can be detected. However more advanced practitioners can manipulate what the Legilimens will find by suppressing the emotions and memories that the Occlumens doesn't wish the Legilimens to see and forcing them to see something else." Snape supplied. He reopened his book and finding the page he had been reading ignored the whispers and ignored the praise from the Professor.
"Five points Slytherin." The Professor was saying.
Samantha tried to ignore what people were saying around her. She really didn't see how someone that didn't even know Snape, or had never even talked to him could make up such crap about him. Sure he wasn't the nicest or social of people, he kept to himself and maybe some of the things said about him were true, but lots of it wasn't.
Just then Bellatrix and Rodolphus walked into class. The Professor headed over to get their excuses and after a moment everyone was in their seats again as the Professor was clearing his throat for the second time.
"Now, it isn't exactly in the syllabus that we practice Legilimency or Occlumency but we have already covered everything that I had planned to cover before the Christmas break, so we'll spend the first few lessons next week covering the history and theory of the two topics and the rest to practice the arts." His face wrinkled even more as a wide smile spread across his face showing two teeth missing on either side of his upper jaw to the sides. He templed his fingers to his lips and gave a jittery jump, excitement evident in his voice as he said in a rush, "Besides wouldn't it be fun to learn if we have any naturals in the class?" he looked at the old grandfather clock to the right of his desk and his smile brightened even more. "I might as well put you all in pairs now and we can spend the rest of the class putting what you know into an amateur attempt of the two arts."
"You are putting us into pairs, sir?" someone asked from right behind Samantha.
The Professor smiled, "We'll yes, of course." He continued to smile as he raised his wand and pointed it at their register which tore into little pieces which then floated into a bowl on his desk.
He picked out to pieces of paper and read out the two names, "James Potter and Lily Evans." James beamed and Lily groaned.
Two minutes later half the class was paired up. Alexis was with the Blond RavenClaw, who's name was Tom McKinley. Annabel was with Sirius and Remus was paired with a mean looking Slytherin girl.
As more and more of the class were paired up and as more of them ended up to be two people who wouldn't have talking in the corridors, Samantha's heart sank. The only likely pair in the room was Bellatrix and Rodolphus. And when there were only four people left to be paired, and she and Snape were one of them, Samantha thought about how unfair this whole situation was. She didn't even have a chance.
"And I believe that just leaves Samantha Cromwell and Severus Snape." he looked up from the last two ominous pieces of paper and slipped off the spectacles that made his eyes extremely owlish. "Okay everyone go sit by your partner."
James came and stood behind Samantha waiting to sit next to Lily. Lily shared a helpless and understanding glance with Samantha as she got to her feet, gathered her things and went to sit next to Snape. He sat alone she realized as she made her way through the rows of desks. He had his head bent over his book and didn't seem to realize what was happening around him. The only good thing about this situation, Samantha noted was that Bellatrix and Rodolphus were sitting on the other side of the room.
She glanced over to where they sat. Bellatrix, who had a leg thrown between Rodolphus' outstretched legs, was staring straight at her. She looked livid, sick even and she felt a complete accusation washing over her from the girl's intense stare. Giving Bellatrix what she hoped was an 'I don't even care what you have to say' look, and including an arched brow she straightening her back and got closer to Snape.
Severus felt the chair next to him move and looked up to see Cromwell sitting there. He was a bit surprised and he quickly looked around the classroom to see that almost everyone had moved seating.
"Let me guess Cromwell."" He said and looked back down to his book, "We had to be put into pairs and you practically begged to be my partner."
Samantha stared at him and was about to tell him that sarcasm was not a good trait when he looked up at her with a smile on his face. Her heart fell and she sickly imagined him leaning towards her. Why is he smiling like that?
Severus watched her unusually shy expression. She looked rather nervous. He raised a brow, "Are you alright?"
Samantha tried to smile back at him but from his amused yet suspicious expression knew that she was just making a crazy face at him. Get it under control. Nothing has changed, you are Samantha and he is Snape. She let out a breath, "Nothing. Why would there be something wrong with me?" she asked.
Severus watched as her mood lightened, as her face slowly went from the hysterical smile to something looking like an 'I'm not crazy' smile to something somewhat more normal for her. "Indeed." He said slowly, still watching her skeptically. He knew she was lying but didn't want to peruse it.
"Anyway, you wish." She snorted after a moment.
"I beg your pardon?" he asked.
"You only wish that I begged to work with you." She said. She felt better now, she realized. She sat there and told herself that she was just going to pretend that that dream had never happened. Nothing significant had happened in it anyway, he had just leaned towards her, maybe she had come to the wrong conclusion, and he might have just been going to swat a bee away from her shoulder or pick a leaf out of her hair or something. Alright perhaps that is ridiculous but either way no one knew about it and she was never going to tell anyone anyway. But still…why would she have leaned in? She had been expecting it…wanting it. Forget it! Who knows why we dream the dreams we dream, it doesn't mean anything.
"Alright as I said before let's take what you already know and see if any of you have any raw talent." The Professor said from the front of the room.
Samantha almost died. How had this not processed in her mind! They were learning Legilimency! They were practicing the stupid thing!
"Professor, let's be realistic. Most of us do not know anything about either topic and practitioners of them are rare to come. This is a waste of time." Lily said from where James was trying to enter her mind. She pushed him away from her. "Further more sir, this is completely going against our right to privacy. We hardly know our partners and what if-"
The Professor interrupted her, "Miss Evans, is there something you wish to hide?" she was about to answer but he continued, "Then I see no problem. If it's the possibility of them finding something embarrassing in your mind I believe we have nothing to worry about since, as you have just informed us all, practitioners of Legilimency and Occlumency come rarely. Just humor an old man, my dear."
Lily scowled but didn't say much more.
This was what people meant when they called the DADA Professor eccentric. He held little regard to rules and other people's comfort zones or limitations. He taught in his own way and though he was an excellent teacher there were many things that he did in the class and allowed them to do in class that they were sure he wasn't allowed to let them do. No one however told on him because of the fact that he was an excellent teacher and because he let them do things they might not have been allowed to do by other teachers. "Begin." He finally said, waving his wand and doing a little dance.
Samantha looked over to Snape who was staring at her with his normal empty stare. "Ugh, what should we do now?" she asked stupidly.
Severus watched her. He had never looked into anyone else's mind before Rodolphus, Bellatrix and Muliciber. He was meaning to practice on other people, to get better at his art but had spent his time reading up on Occlumency for the past few weeks. It was very important that he learned it. He knew that it would be unwise and probably fruitless to look for someone skilled in Legilimency to practice with so he again had to turn towards books and his mind. Which was why he had been looking forward to these classes hoping that he would be able to learn enough form the theory to teach himself how to defend his mind against Voldemort's talent in Legilimency. And now as he sat here looking into Cromwell's unusually shy, averted eyes he was somewhat looking forward to seeing into her mind, to find what truly dwelled there. Which was a rather strange thought, so he pushed it back and out of his mind. It was probably something prissy and useless, her mind.
He suggested that they first relay what they both knew on either subject. He was surprised that she knew almost everything that he did about the two and when he asked her about it she answered, "When I was younger I heard my father talk about someone in the family being talented in both, which I have read is uncommon. When I asked him later who it was he told me that that had been a private conversation I had listened into and refused to tell me. After that I made it my own little personal mystery to solve. I have read probably every book written on it." she laughed.
"I find it very sickening to say that I can actually see you sitting outside a cracked door listening to people talking about private matters." He said grudgingly.
Samantha laughed, "I was sitting outside a cracked door." She smiled and leaned in conspiratorially, "Though, usually I sit under open windows."
Severus found himself smiling at the thought, but stopped at the sudden cold feeling at the back of his head. Steeling his face to show no emotion he turned to find Bellatrix staring at Cromwell in disgust. As he turned she glared at him and the suspicion and distrust in her eyes was utterly evident. He narrowed his eyes at her and she did the same to him. After a moment she turned back to Rodolphus who was practically sleeping in his seat.
Snape turned back to see Cromwell staring up at him with knowing eyes. She glanced quickly over at Bellatrix and then quickly back to him, "She doesn't like me very much." She said.
"Not everyone has to like you Gryffindor." He said harshly because he was mad. Mad at her, it was partly her fault that Bellatrix was now questioning him.
She opened her mouth to say something back to him but stopped herself. She had the audacity to look hurt as she said, "No, not everyone has to. And I don't like it that you think that I am that self centered to actually care about that." She scowled and huffed at him then said, "That wasn't my point though, ass. I was going to also say that she doesn't like it that you have to work with me."
He just looked at her and she looked at him expectantly. She was waiting for him to say something but he didn't so she asked, "Why is that?"
"Because she doesn't like you." He said plainly.
Samantha clenched her fingers. She could really hit him right about now. Of course she knew that Bellatrix didn't like her but she felt that there was more to it than that. And she assumed that Snape would read that in her question but apparently he didn't. She didn't however know how to approach the subject so she just dropped it. "Okay, as reluctant as I am to do this, and as wrong as it seems to be doing this on school grounds, I admit this is interesting. What should we start with?"
He knew that she hadn't finished with her earlier concerns about Bellatrix but that was good, because he couldn't exactly tell her that the reason Bellatrix hated her so much was because it threatened his worship of the Dark Lord, to whom he will slave for until the war was over and then finally move on with his life. And no, he wasn't as naïve to think that he could just leave his Death Eater post, but he knew that when it was time to leave it all behind he would be ready. Ready for anything.
"It doesn't particularly matter to me." he said and watched the relief flow over her.
"Great, then um, I guess I will try my amazing Legilimency skills on you." She said it sarcastically, through a smile.
"Indeed." This was all he said. He wasn't sure if anyone else was practicing, the rest of the students were probably just sitting around chatting and doing nothing constructive. He was glad that Cromwell actually wanted to work.
Samantha sat up straighter and looked straight into Snape's eyes. She found it sort of difficult to do at this moment but since he didn't remove his gaze she wouldn't either.
She looked guarded again; Snape noticed and saw that her grip on her wand had tightened. He doubted that she would be able to look into his mind, so he refrained from using what he had learnt on Occlumency, to give her at least a fair try.
Samantha waved her wand in the way she had read about and whispered the incantation. She didn't remove her eyes from Snape's and noticed that the corners of her vision were blurring a bit. Maybe she was concentrating too hard, she thought.
Snape could tell that she was trying but curiosity overcame him and he pushed forward with his own mind. He felt a bit of resistance but then he felt a wave of concentration flow off her. Then, in his mind, his surroundings darkened and he was looking through a cracked door into a room.
She tried to think back to what she had read and was actually taken back to the time she was eavesdropping on her father and grandfather. Trying to ignore the thought she concentrated fully on Snape but the thought continued to play in her mind, however what she saw was not exactly what she had remembered.
Snape was looking through the cracked door into a spacious library. It had books on every shelf from the Cromwell's view point; books also littered the desks and floors. Off to the side was a couch which he only saw the back off. Sitting on the couch were two men, one being her father and the other her Grandfather.
Samantha felt herself lean further towards Snape and tried not to blink as his eyes intensified. She felt her own thoughts moving in her mind but knew something was wrong. The memory then quickly went to a flash back of when she had confronted her father about what she had heard.
Then she heard Snape's voice, as if it were an echo in her mind. 'It was probably something prissy and useless, her mind.' She felt the echoed words rather then heard them. It was a strange feeling really and she tried to push a bit further. Suddenly, still staring at Snape, in the back of her mind she saw a darkened place. It was wooded and the full moon shown down in areas. She heard whispers but couldn't make out what they were saying. Then she saw herself. She was laughing, skipping even her mouth moving quickly but still the sounds were too low.
Severus was too stunned to react for a second but when he realized that she was trying to go deeper he broke the connection by closing his eyes quickly.
Samantha took in a deep breath as if she had just come back to the surface from being stuck under water for too long. She looked up at Snape and found him staring at her dumbfounded.
"Did you see anything, my dear?" came the soft whisper of the Professor from behind Samantha's ear.
She jumped and twirled to look at him, "Excuse me?" she asked. "Ugh," she looked back at Snape who just stared at her, "no, sir." She said hastily, though she didn't know why she was lying. She had actually seen into someone's mind!
The Professor looked as though he might have asked her one more time, but he suddenly jolted up right. "Class is over, students. We pick up next week with the theory. As Miss Lily had foreseen, we have no raw talent as of yet but fear not! We try again towards the end of next week!" with that everyone left the classroom.
Except for Samantha and Severus.
A/N:- I wonder what this all means!!
and Arwen, what your hoping for will come eventually lol :P
Remember, though i remind and i remind...READ AND REVIEW!!
HaPpY rEaDiNgS!!!!!!