With thanks to heartmom88 and ofankoma for all their help and support.

Chapter Nine

Emma Apparated them back to the little path under the canal bridge; the loud crack! scaring the ducks out of the water and up into the air. Severus let her stay with her head resting against his chest until she finally felt able to pull away. His smell, though not particularly pleasant, was oddly comforting and familiar all the same. The ubiquitous smell of teenage boy; sweat, cheap aftershave and a slight underlying mustiness.

Even though she felt ridiculous, hanging off him like this, it took her a moment longer before she was willing to let go.

She had never considered why she had been so willing to trust him, just overwhelmingly relieved that he had been willing to help her. Maybe she had a brother somewhere or a male best friend that he reminded her of. Or maybe it was just Severus himself.

Looking up, she found he was watching her with a strange look in his dark eyes.

"Will you be okay?" he asked, his voice grave.

"I'm not sure," she replied truthfully, "but I'll cope."

He studied her for a further full minute before nodding tersely and stalking away down the towpath, not bothering to say goodbye. Emma moved along the path until she found a patch of evening sunshine and settled back to watch as the disgruntled ducks slowly returned to the water.

No one else was using the path that evening, and she was able to sit in silence, watching the ducks and the strange patterns of the weeds as they swayed underwater. The mingled smells of the canal were strong but not unpleasant, and it was a relief to simply sit and let things pass her by. Although she had been quick to let her anger brush aside her fears in London, she could feel the anxiety building low in her stomach. She had been so certain that today would provide answers. Now she was uncertain even what questions she was supposed to be asking.

How could her wand belong to this world when she didn't? Why did she have no recollection of her true self? Why the half-memories and false memories? When she had first arrived she had thought she had known two of the very first people she had met. Yet in London she had walked passed hundreds of witches and wizards, studying their faces, and not a single one had been familiar to her.

She twisted the stubby grass between her fingers. Perhaps she had lost even more memories since arriving. Perhaps the person she once was was simply slowly unwinding until there would be nothing left.

Severus must have bolted his food, as he was back in very little time at all, his shoulders oddly hunched as he suggested they walk down the towpath. Together, they concealed their disillusioned cloaks under a tired-looking laurel near the bridge and trudged along the side of the canal, the litter-strewn banks towering up on either side. After a while, the banks levelled out, and Emma was able to catch glimpses of the industrial landscape on either side, endless masses of concrete and brick, wire fences and patches of scrubby-looking grass, broken up by the occasional row of tiny houses, their red bricks stained almost black with dust.

They talked quietly, mostly about inconsequential things, for which Emma was grateful. After her outburst in the pub that afternoon, she had found herself wanting nothing more than to shy away from the subject of herself entirely. She knew it was cowardly, but she just didn't have enough information to even begin to think of a solution. She still didn't even know what the true problem was. Ollivander's off-the-cuff query about where she was from had set her mind reeling.

She was tired, too. It had been early evening when she had been swallowed by the strange, spinning darkness that had carried her to this morning. Her waking day had been a good seventeen or eighteen hours long. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed and just forget about all of this until tomorrow morning.

"Come on."

She looked up to find that Severus had left the towpath and was gesturing towards the dusty-looking field that ran beside it. Glancing back she realised they had passed the last building some time ago without her even noticing. Feeling guilty at her obvious distraction, she followed him cautiously into the long, desiccated grass, picking her way carefully across the uneven ground. It was a warm evening, and soon she had shrugged of her jacket and tied the arms around her waist as she stumbled forwards. When they reached the sparse trees on the far side, she was happy to rest a while in the cooler air under their branches.

Further ahead, the trees grew more closely together, and Emma realised they were at the beginnings of a little woodland. Her spirits lifted as Severus led her on in silence into the cool darkness of the trees, and the undergrowth became thick and lush under foot. It was like a little oasis, so close to the dusty, industrial landscape they had just left behind.

"This is lovely," she breathed as they came to rest in a little clearing. She could hear water close by and knew they weren't too far from a stream. She spread her jacket on the ground and sat, pulling her knees up to her chin.

Severus sat down across from her, his long legs stretched out in the dappled evening sunshine. It was hard to be certain in the gentle, greenish light, but Emma thought he might be blushing again, but at least the odd, pinched look had finally left his face. "I like to come here to think sometimes," he admitted. "Not many people know it's here."

"It's perfect," sighed Emma, resting her head on her arms. She could hear birds in the trees and the slight evening breeze rustling the branches overhead, and she felt herself start to relax. It was impossible not to in a place as lovely as this, and she suspected that was why Severus had brought her here.

"Stay with us tonight," Severus offered quietly. "We'll work something out tomorrow. And if we can't figure everything out in one day, then you can stay that night, too. Someone must be able to tell us something about you, after all."

It was just the right thing to say, mused Emma dreamily as she lay back against her jacket, the last of the sunshine filtering down on her face through the canopy above.

-x-

He hadn't liked to rouse Emma from where she lay so peacefully, one arm resting behind her head, the other draped casually over her stomach. As such, it was dark when they finally began to pick their way back across the field, Emma's wand carefully lighting their path. Both his parents were in bed already when they got back, so sneaking Emma upstairs with the aid of a Silencing Spell was far easier than he had feared.

He dug the spare blankets out of the airing cupboard and made himself a rough bed on the floor of his room. Ideally he would have slept on the sofa again, but his parents would doubtless find him, and questions would be raised. He got changed in the bathroom, shrugging on his most covering pyjamas despite the warmth of the night. When he returned Emma had changed into the old shirt of his father's that he had found in the back of his wardrobe. The blue cotton reached almost to her knees. It wasn't until she folded her arms over her chest and cleared her throat that he realised he was staring.

She opened her mouth, but didn't have chance to speak as she suddenly began to flicker.

Severus lunged forward and grabbed at her, his long fingers closing round the top of her arm and yanking her towards him. She stumbled, wincing as he bruised her arm, and the alarming flickering stopped.

He cautiously let go.

She rubbed her arm ruefully. "How long was I away?" she asked in a small voice.

"You didn't go at all. You just flickered, like before. It stopped when I grabbed you." The relief on her face pushed him to ask, "How did it feel?"

She shivered. "Like before. The light faded and it felt like I was being towed away," she straightened suddenly. "But you stopped it. I didn't go anywhere."

"No," he agreed.

"This is important," she insisted, crossing over to the desk chair and picking up her jacket to pull loose the old pencil and the crumpled piece of parchment. "Do you have any more paper I can borrow? I need to get this all down."

Severus leafed through the papers on his desk until he unearthed the Muggle notepad he had bought at the beginning of the summer. He was careful to remove the pages he had already written on, before handing it over. Emma sat at the desk and began scribbling furiously. After a few minutes, Severus sat on his blankets on the floor and stared at the pages he had removed from the notebook. It was his potion's notes. He had hardly looked at them since Emma had arrived.

He folded them carefully and tucked them under his pillow. While it didn't bother him just how much she had upset the careful order of his life, he found the fact he wasn't bothered ever so slightly disturbing. Her previous disappearance had cautioned him not to get too attached to her. Perhaps taking her to the woods had been a mistake.

Emma muttered quietly to herself as she scribbled but for the most part she simply chewed on her bottom lip and stared at the paper. "It's no good," she sighed after a while. "I'm too tired for this to make any sense. You were right; this can wait until tomorrow."

She stood up, yawning widely, and pushed the chair back under the desk. He watched her slyly through his hair as she crossed the room, apparently too tired to remember she was still dressed in just a shirt. It felt wrong to watch her like this but he wasn't about to stop; it was her fault he was on the floor, after all.

When she began to flicker again he dived forward, but his position on the floor meant he didn't have the momentum to carry him to her. Instead he was forced to watch in horror as she flickered out of existence before him once more.

-x-

The heavy darkness had returned, pressing down on her uncomfortably. She felt a rushing, spinning sensation, like being caught in freak wave, being tumbled under water.

She could feel herself spinning, falling, fading.

And then it stopped.

The darkness receded slightly, but to Emma's dismay, she found that she was still stood in the gloom. She blinked furiously in an attempt to clear her vision, but unlike her dizziness, the darkness wouldn't shift. She held herself still, waiting for her eyes to adjust and for the darkness to form into shapes, feeling the ice cold stone floor underneath her bare feet.

Where was she? And what, for that matter, had happened?

How would she get back?

As her eyes began to adjust, she found she was stood between two towering, dark shapes. They were tall, perhaps six foot high and at least six foot long. Peering out into the shadows she saw there were others in the room, maybe six or seven altogether, although it was hard to tell in the darkness.

Four-poster beds, she realised, letting go a breath she hadn't known she was holding. Beds with their curtains pulled drawn tight against the night.

She was in a dormitory. Hogwarts, perhaps? she wondered as she shifted uncomfortably.

Judging by the darkness, it was late at night and she was alone, dressed in just an oversized blue shirt and her underwear. Even if she was in Hogwarts, there was no way she wanted to be discovered like this. If it were somewhere else that used dormitories, maybe somewhere outside of the wizarding world, then she could be in real trouble. Without her jacket, she had no money, and her wand was still sitting on the desk in Severus' bedroom.

You mustn't panic, she told herself firmly. You must think this through. But what good was that when she couldn't see? When her wand was so very far away?

Her breathing began to hitch, and she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold herself together. She was in really big trouble. She was lost, miles away from her only friend, and the cold floor was beginning to make her feet and legs ache painfully.

Shifting her weight onto one leg, she raised the other off the floor slightly, hoping that warmth might return. She stumbled slightly, catching herself before she knocked the curtain beside her. As she straightened, a strange buzzing seemed to fill her ears. She shook her head, but, like the darkness, it refused to shift.

Terrified, half blind and half deaf, she staggered again, her hand reaching towards the velvet canopy to steady herself. Before she could reach it, she felt the heavy magic return to press upon her as she was swallowed once more by blackness.

-x-

When the dimness receded she found a distraught-looking Severus waiting to catch her. She stumbled forward into his awkward embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck. She knew the strength of her grip must be uncomfortable to him, but he submitted quietly to her tears and her clinging, his own arms wrapped loosely around her as if unsure how to hold her.

"Don't let me go," she begged. "Please, Severus, don't let go of me!" She could feel hysteria beginning to bubble up inside her until his arms tightened around her and she felt herself being pressed tightly against him in return.

"It's okay," he told her, his voice uncertain, as if reassurances where not something he was usually required to give. "I won't let you go."

-x-

Emma had managed to magically extend the bed by four whole extra inches without it becoming obvious, but Severus was far from comfortable. It wasn't as if she snored or talked in her sleep. but she may as well have done, for all the rest he was likely to get. The quiet sound of her breathing and the weight of her hand in his were strange and unsettling, as was the proximity of her limbs to his. He had been sharing quarters since he was eleven. He couldn't think of a single time when he had ever shared a bed, even as a small child.

It was a warm night, the air close and uncomfortable, and what little breeze made it through the open window was too heavy and sluggish to help much. Instead it simply carried with it the smell of the canal and the sounds of the cats in the alley outside.

Even without all these factors keeping him awake, Severus doubted he would have found it easy to sleep. Too much had happened. From Emma's startling and somewhat unlikely reappearance and their conversation with Ollivander to her bizarre flickering that evening.

Her description had been confused, her voice choked with fear and exhaustion, but he had understood enough to gather that this time she had moved through space, rather than just time. It had been night-time in the room she had described, but there was nothing to say it had been the same night as this. Her description of cold could well suggest it had been winter or perhaps somewhere far to the north. There was certainly nothing cold about the weather Britain was currently experiencing; some areas were already reporting droughts.

He stretched as quietly and gently as he could, attempting to ease the muscles in his neck and back. He would have loved to have shifted position completely and curled onto his side but he had promised Emma that he would not let go of her.

He had assumed that the journey she had made to his family's doorstep had been the first she had made. It definitely was the point where her memories began from. The second, when she had vanished so suddenly for two days, had also delivered her to his house. The third had carried her somewhere else entirely. The theory that somehow his family had been targeted by whatever magic she was caught in seemed void now. She was simply skittering about through time.

It was oddly deflating to realise her appearance and this strange, intense friendship were all just a bizarre coincidence.

Outside, one of the cats began to yowl aggressively. Another voice joined it, and soon the two were fighting in earnest.

Severus stared into the darkness, surrendering any thoughts of sleep.