DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Potterverse characters. They are owned by JK Rowling.

Aurelia and a handful of other characters you don't recognize, along with the story, though, are mine.

Timeline: HBP and beyond.

Rating: Mature for language and sexual content … I swear it's coming :)

A/N: I am too tired to write an author's note.

Severus.

"He is insufferable!" Aurelia's fists hit the table, spilling her tea.

Severus sat quiet for a few moments, hoping to wait out her fury. Honestly, he was glad she was focusing on Albus and not asking questions about Father Crowley. It would have been a long conversation that wouldn't end well.

"We're just pawns to him, aren't we? Are we that transparent that he knows exactly how to twist and bend us to his will? So even the ideas we think are ours, are actually his? Planted to make us more susceptible? Make us so we think we are actually in control of our own lives?" Aurelia clenched her jaw and finally met Severus' eyes. Her shoulders sank as if just realizing she wasn't alone. "Sorry."

"By all means, carry on," he smirked, allowing the girl to come to terms with the facts he had long ago accepted.

"You know I had to beg him. To go to university in Glasgow. And it makes sense now. I thought I was getting away with something every time I visited." She looked up suddenly, her features growing dark. "What about Cormac? Was he a part of all of this too? To keep me coming back to Ireland?"

"I am unaware of anyone named Cormac," Severus said carefully. That was a touchy subject that he would rather not delve any deeper in.

She took a deep breath, glanced down at the table, noticing the spilled tea. Severus waited patiently as she pushed herself away from the table and disappeared into the kitchen. She returned with a hand towel and cleaned up her mess. She took the cup back into the kitchen and returned with two steaming cups. She set one in front of Severus.

The sweet aroma instantly hit his nostrils. This was not the same tea she was drinking earlier. He frowned and picked the cup up to his nose, smelling it closer.

"Strawberries?" he asked, trying to place the smell.

"Strawberries, apples, papaya, raisins," she stopped listing ingredients when he took a sip.

"White and green tea, beet root." He took another sip. "I can't place the last ingredient. It's familiar though."

"You're good," she praised openly. "I suppose that comes from being a Potions Master. It's popcorn," she finished.

"This is horrible tea," he said scrunching his nose up. "Albus would love it."

She actually laughed. "I have a black tea if you would prefer?"

"Yes," he said handing her his cup. "And no fruit." He was relieved the conversation had turned to the neutral topic of tea preferences. He wasn't used to dealing with angry women.

"You're teaching Defense against the Dark Arts now, aren't you?" she called from the kitchen.

"Yes?" he asked cautiously, amazed at how quickly she could change trains of thought.

"What are you currently teaching?"

He frowned. "In which year?"

She returned from the kitchen and sat down, taking a sip of her awful tea. "What year are Draco and Harry in?"

"The sixth."

"All right, the sixth. What are you teaching the sixth year students?"

"Repelling curses."

"Would you teach me?" she asked tilting her head to one side. When he didn't respond immediately, she continued. "Why? Do you have somewhere else to be this evening? Or, I guess this morning?"

He shook his head. "I do not."

"Well, if Albus is going to send me out there on some mission, I think I should be able to do a few things." She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms across her chest.

"All right," he conceded. "Get your wand."

She quickly uncrossed her arms and sank down on her chair. "I don't have a wand."

"You don't have—" he stopped mid sentence. He realized she had performed magic a number of times in his presence but he had in fact never seen her wand. "Albus never gave you a wand?"

"No."

"What is that man thinking?"

"He has been teaching me a fair amount of wandless magic. He seems to think I'm getting pretty good at it."

The kettle in the kitchen began to whistle. She sighed at the distraction but went back to the kitchen. She returned a few minutes later, this time with black tea for him.

She took a seat next to him and waited until he took a sip of the tea. "Better?"

"Better," he conceded.

"All right. Stand up." She did as she was told. Severus flicked his wand in the air and all of the furniture flew across the room to the far wall and flattened to no thicker than sheet of parchment. One more flick and the room expanded.

"Has he taught you any Legilimency at least?"

"Yes, quite a bit."

"Ok, good. I'll start off by using only wandless magic as well." He tucked his wand in the waist of his slacks. He started circling Aurelia like some sort of prey. He was in professor mode and he knew it. "As wandless magic is more unfocused, you must concentrate harder and therefore your reaction time is slower. When a wizard," he paused and then added, "or a witch, casts a curse, they must focus their thoughts and energies on that specific curse. Even the best Occlumens will usually drop their concentration for just a moment when casting a curse. This should allow you to know what they are going to cast by reading their thoughts the moment before they actually do."

Without waiting for her to prepare, he threw a vetement spell at her. Reflexively, she moved her right arm and the spell missed its target hitting the wall behind her in a puff of white feathers.

Severus was impressed, she moved faster than he had seen before, but he wasn't going to let her know it.

"You're supposed to be repelling, not deflecting," he growled in a way that usually drove first years to tears. She simply frowned. "You can deflect anything, but to repel, you must know what your opponent is casting."

She moved to a physically defensive position, her weight on the balls of her feet.

He moved again, this time casting the Confundus Charm. Again she deflected it and the spell landed on the wall.

She growled, clearly frustrated.

"Concentrate!"

She locked eyes with him and he could feel the magic build in the room. There was a bright ball that flew from his hands and she moved quickly, holding her arms together extended in front of her chest. The ball of light paused for a fraction of a second just millimeters from her palms and then shot back at Severus. He flicked his wrist as if batting away a fly and the ball changed course and hit the wall behind him.

A smile threatened to pull at the corner of his mouth, but he caught it. "Good," was the only praise he offered. "Again!" And the next spell flew without any warning.

They continued that way for a solid thirty minutes, the difficulty increasing to actual curses. Finally, when she could only deflect the last four curses in a row, he decided to call it a night.

He brought a cup of her disgustingly sweet tea to her study where she was collapsed on the couch.

"My brain hurts," she said taking the cup from him. He sat across from her at the table. "You're not easy to read."

He simply raised his eye brows. He wouldn't still be alive if he was easy to read.

"So you are expecting your sixth years to perform Legilimency?"

"No. My sixth years are using wands and casting all of their curses verbally. However," he paused, thinking about the last lesson with the Hufflepuffs. "Even with those advantages, they are not nearly as successful. At least you have the sense to deflect what you can't repel. The dunderheads in my class just let the curses hit them. I spend more time reversing the damage inflicted than actual teaching." It was meant as an insult to his students but Severus could tell by the smile on Aurelia's face she had taken it as a personal compliment.

"You still have a long way to go. If someone actually meant you harm it would be a great deal more difficult."

They were both silent for a moment until Aurelia sighed.

"What is it Albus expects me to do?" Aurelia asked.

He took a moment to decide what and how much he should tell her. He settled on the truth. "To pose as an Irish Muggle to acquire something. And from what I know of Father Crowley's background, I would surmise it's some sort of artifact."

"A Horcrux?"

He frowned. She sure seemed to know a lot. "I don't believe so."

She made and exasperated sound in the back of her throat. "Guess you are on a need to know basis as well. I hate only getting half of the story. And usually it's after the fact. Do you know when?"

"That is apparently one of the many things I didn't need to know."

She chuckled under her breath and then a yawn took over. He had to fight the urge to repeat the gesture.

"It's been a long night and I still have to meet with the Headmaster," he said standing.

She didn't move from her seat. "Tell him he's a bastard."

Severus chuckled as he left the room. It wouldn't be the first time.

Aurelia.

The sharp pain in Aurelia's jaw had faded slightly into a dull throbbing. She was sure there would be a bruise the next morning. A small perverse side hoped Severus would be back the next day and feel sorry for the damage he had caused. Although, looking at him now, she wasn't sure he would. Feel sorry for the damage, not not return. She knew he would be back. He had begun to make a habit of visiting her every few nights, instead of once every few weeks, preparing her for the covert task she was to do. She smiled.

Their training sessions were getting more difficult as he was now using his wand and no longer holding back. She had yet to be able to throw a curse at him that he wasn't able to repel. Thank goodness she was getting better though, otherwise she would most likely be milking more than just a bruised face.

He was now sitting at the table, her table, grading homework, completely unmarked. Watching him, she realized he was tapping a finger on the table in time with the music playing.

She had gone through the music in her collection and he agreed to some classical album she never really listened to. She recognized the song playing but wouldn't have been able to name either the composer or the song.

She watched as an almost evil smirk spread across his lips. He scratched a quick mark across the paper he was reading and then scribbled some notation in the margin. She was suddenly glad she was never one of his students.

Aurelia pulled the ice bag from her face and leaned forward slightly so she could get a better look at him. "How do you do the whole double agent thing?"

Severus didn't even look up from the essay he was grading. "Very carefully."

"You're loyalties have to lie somewhere and both Albus and Voldemort are extremely talented Legilimens."

Severus finally looked at her. "You are smarter than Albus lets on." He leaned back in his chair talking a moment to choose his words. "Both Albus and the Dark Lord have a shared weakness. Amour-propre. Pride," he clarified. "Now, don't get me wrong, we are talking about the two most powerful wizards in the entire world, but because of that power, they both underestimate what others are capable of. If you were to simply use Occlumency with either of them, they will know you are hiding something and will only push harder and eventually will over power the mental barrier. So, you must cover the secrets with fabrications."

"But fabrications are easy to see. I mean it's the whole reason Slughorn is at Hogwarts."

Severus' eyebrows raised ever so slightly, momentarily surprised she knew of the falsified memory Albus was planning on using Potter to break. He quickly continued. "Slughorn has a weak mind. Most memories that are tampered with have seams, where reality and fabrication meet. Most wizards try to avoid those seams in hopes an on looker won't notice. However, the more you focus on the seams, learn every detail, the more they are overlooked."

"Can you do the same thing when you are tampering with someone else's memory?"

"That's trickier. Every witch and wizard has a signature tied to their magic. And with every spell, they leave their mark. When you are fabricating your own memory, no one will notice because they would expect your signature."

"Hmm, you must be extremely talented then."

"Why do you say that?"

She smiled. "Because you're still alive. You're lying to at least one of them, and they both still trust you."

Very slowly his tongue wet his bottom lip and was followed by his teeth. Then he spoke. "The Dark Lord's weakness is that he doesn't trust anyone, Albus' is that he trusts everyone. I simply exploit those traits in each of them. But you …" he leaned even further back in his chair. "You don't trust, you don't think. You," and he let the word linger, "feel."

Her smile was brilliant, like he had finally found the way out of a maze she had designed just for him. It was a look of pride. "You finally picked up on that. Although it was still far faster than Albus. How did you know?"

"That you can read my emotions? It was how you always redirect when I get close to a negative emotion."

She bit her lip, trying to control her smile. "I'm dying to know, when did you first suspect?"

He sat forward in his chair, straightening the parchment on the table. "The first night. When you caught me looking at your legs. It was confirmed when I watched you react to Crowley."

The same smile she gave him on the night they met then graced her lips again.

"Can you teach me?" And he was grateful she continued yet again to steer him away from the awkward emotionally charged subject of him noting her legs. "I mean how to sharpen the edges between real memories and fake?"

"I spend all day teaching and then when I finally get away you have me teaching all night," he said standing.

Aurelia crossed her legs on the couch as he sat down next to her. "Ah, but I have far better legs than any of your students."

"A fair point." And Aurelia laughed out loud at his deadpan joke. "All right. I will use a memory that you and I share, so you know where the fabrication begins and ends."

He only flinched slightly when she reached out and touched his face. When he relaxed she placed her hand fully on the side of his face.

"Legilimens," she whispered and was pulled into his mind.

She knew instantly the memory was that of the first night they met. She watched as Severus slipped into the house and made his way to the partly open bedroom door. He slowly pushed the door open. She stepped into the bedroom after Severus. He turned to the bed, the moon filtering through the sheer curtains and lit the room just enough to make out the empty bed.

A soft whistle startled both Severus and Aurelia. She realized the figure behind the door was her, just before the curse flew. Severus dove beneath the bed and pulled his wand out. The faux memory Aurelia was wearing the same clothes she was that night, a gray tank top and black knickers but she was holding a wand.

Severus reached around the end of the bed and hit her square with a disarming charm. They both dove for the wand that flew at the real Aurelia's feet. There was a brief scuffle on the floor but Severus quickly gained the upper hand rolling her onto her back. He quickly climbed on top of her and straddled her legs. He grabbed her arms and pulled them up above her head. He wrapped one hand around both her wrists and grabbed her chin with his other hand.

"Albus Dumbledore sent me."

The memory Aurelia stopped struggling.

"We don't have much time. I'm going to let you go, please don't struggle." He let go of her arms.

There was a jolt of excitement and Aurelia wasn't sure if it was from her or him. She had to lean forward to see the memory Severus' face, and there was no mistaking it, he was enjoying this fabricated memory more than the real one.

He slowly climbed off the memory Aurelia. "We have five minutes. Pack as many of your personal belongings as you can." He looked down at her, just short of a leer. "And change into something warmer. Do you understand?" She nodded. "Move," he demanded standing.

Aurelia realized the fabricated memory moved seamlessly into what really happened.

She was then falling out of Severus' mind. There was a pulling sensation at her back and then too quickly for her to react, a pushing sensation at her chest and she felt Severus push her out of his mind and then push himself into hers.

The mental projection of her and Severus were standing in a long white hallway with an endless line of doors on either side. Before Severus could move, all of the doors slammed shut and their outline faded into the white walls so there was no trace of the doors left.

They were both shoved back into the physical world. Both Severus and Aurelia were panting trying to steady their breathing. Aurelia was sitting up on her knees, leaning on Severus, her hands on his chest. He was leaning against the arm of the couch with the shoulders of Aurelia's shirt in both of his fists.

"You're hiding something," he growled.

She relaxed and he followed in suit. "Of course I am." She slowly pushed away from him and sat back on her side of the couch. "So are you. You're just better at it."

"Do not lie to me, girl."

"I have never lied to you," and her eyes met his, allowing him to see the truth. There was a long time where they just looked at each other.

Finally he stood. "I should leave."

"No!" she gasped and was embarrassed at the sound of desperation. "Please don't go," she spoke again, this time her tone was neutral. "You haven't taught me how to make seamless memories." She broke eye contract. "And when you're here, I don't feel alone."