Snape slowly opened his eyes and saw light; it wasn't very bright, but it still hurt his eyes that were accustomed to the dark, so they quickly closed themselves and he groaned slightly.

A semi-warm hand touched his forehead. The lying man hastily opened them again and tried to look around him, but the environment was still blinding him. He groaned frustrated, shook the hand gently away and turned his head to the couch.

His body froze when he heard a movement behind him. It could be possible that his mind was hallucinating that sound, but he heard more movements and he immediately dismissed that idea. They tried to be silent, but he could hear their muted footsteps.

The door to his quarters was closed: a password was required to enter and he had wards surrounding his chambers. The spells would alarm him if someone tried to force their way in. But, perhaps the intruder was experienced enough and had founded a way to enter his rooms unnoticed.

A small voice tried to whisper their thoughts, but he was too engrossed in his deranged assumptions to hear the most logical answer.

His disarrayed and drained mind continued its frenzy thoughts and circled his first suspicion: a trespasser.

If he was fast enough, he could overwhelm the unwanted visitor. A second was all he needed: if he could grab his wand, that person would be easily overmastered.

The thinking wizard took a deep breath and tensed his body. The next second, he was on his feet and half dived to the wooden table to grab his wand. While he crouched down, a human form could be seen in his eye corner and he quickly fired a nonverbal spell in their direction before they could react. The crouching wizard glided away to evade an oncoming spell, but he didn't hear the sounds of his own charm. Or another spell: his ears detected a slightly raised and very surprised voice.

"Stop, Severus!"

The astonished voice sounded very familiar to him and he knew at that moment who the visitor was. After all, he was the most sensible possibility, but a large part of his mind had strangely ignored it. But, more importantly, he had attacked him without hesitation. It was a foolish fault on his part, but it had occurred. He groaned, closed his eyes and tried to forget the last five minutes, or, even better, the past few days.

"Severus?" A semi-warm hand touched his shoulder and gently coerced him away from his mental thoughts. Opening his suddenly fatigued eyes, he gazed at the crouched man and abruptly remembered his last actions.

"Albus, I... Are you all right?" Snape stared at the bent body.

"Of course." The bewildered man didn't believe the other's words and examined his body, searching for an injury.

"But-"

"Your spell did not hit me." Snape quickly looked at the blue eyes again.

"How?" Dumbledore disregarded his question and looked at the other's body.

"Are you all right?" The Potions Master frowned his eyes at the irrelevant inquiry.

"Why are-"

"Can you stand up?" Snape became confused. Again.

"What-"

"Yes or no?" He froze at the strange behaviour of the old wizard and continued to stare at him with his quizzical stare.

"Severus." His voice had an almost commanding tone and an unfamiliar quality he didn't recognize.

"Yes... I-"

"Take my hand, I'll help you." There was something wrong. The Headmaster was acting very peculiar in a way he had never seen before. He saw a hand extending itself to him while the the fingers on his shoulders left him and he shakily grabbed its assistance. He was raised with an incredible strength of his aid and was guided to the couch.

Snape observed the tall man. He was pacing around the room and would occasionally look at a different direction, as if he was looking for something, but couldn't seem to find it. After two minutes, he stopped in front of the seated man.

"Have you started?" The Potions Master turned his eyes to the blue orbs.

"Sorry?" Dumbledore sighed deeply.

"The potion." Snape widened his eyes. It was very odd. He hadn't told anyone about his secret assignment, not even the Headmaster, so the other couldn't possibly know a thing about that particular potion.

"I don't know what potion you're talking about." It was a gamble, and it could fail to favour his wish, but he tried it nonetheless. He looked at the blue eyes and saw immediately that he was unsuccessful.

The weary man averted his gaze. If he already knew about his mission, it was better not to fake his ignorance any more. He was already too tired to argue and time would not wait for him. The sooner Dumbledore left, the more chances he had to successfully brew the tedious potion.

"No... I have not started." Snape purposefully omitted a word, hoping that the Headmaster could speed up his departure.

"When is your next meeting?" The sitting man thought for a moment.

"Tomorrow, or today's evening."

"Good." Dumbledore nodded once and walked to his supply room. A minute later, he came back with a handful ingredients. He narrowed his eyes when he examined them: they were the ingredients that were needed to brew the potion.

"You are missing an element. Do you have a substitute?" He paused two seconds. "No matter, I will make an alternative ingredient." The Headmaster set the jars and bottles on the table and searched for a cauldron.

Snape began to notice what the other wanted to do. "Wait... what are you-"

"Where is- ah! I see it." The Headmaster located his used cauldron and levitated it to the rest of the supply. Then, he transfigured the table so it was a more suitable furniture to brew a potion. The flame was ignited and the cauldron was set atop the small fire.

"Wait!" Dumbledore turned his questioning eyes to him, before he answered.

"You should rest."

"I – What?" Snape was getting more confused and puzzled with each passing second. His mind was still too bewildered to think clearly, but it seemed that the Headmaster was planning to make the potion, his modified potion.

"You should get some much needed sleep."

This was getting too absurd: first, the Headmaster came to his chambers, uninvited and unwanted, next he acted like nothing had happened after a harmful spell was fired, and Dumbledore's abruptly changed behaviour was not explained, then he volunteered to make his potion, without his consent, and the old wizard somehow knew that he hadn't slept very well. His mind couldn't digest it any more and he was too fatigued to ask a question. He suddenly felt the tiredness both mentally and physically, and leant back on the very soft cushions while he closed his heavy eyes. But he opened them one more time to gaze at the working man a few meters away from him.

Snape thought that the tall man was focused on his brewing, but when he looked at his eyes, he saw that the blue orbs were concentrating intently at him with a strange, mixed look of anxiety, concern and that foreign glint.