Disclaimer: All belong to J. K. Rowling

The Collabration

Severus woke up around midnight. His neck and back ached badly. He tried to rub his neck and realized that he slept on the chair. His eyes moved slowly to the bed and found Lalla slept soundly with her back facing him. It had been a month since he agreed to be her partner. They went to multiple locations across England to seek for the box. Each time, they only stayed for three days and left, even earlier if she could not sense the box's presence. She had a strange habit of not staying anywhere more than three days. At least, this made their enemies less likely to find them. He stood up and headed to the bathroom. He needed a hot bath right now. Every single joints in his body were aching like ants were biting them off.

A few minutes later, Severus buried his body deeply in the water. His head leaned back to rest. He closed his eyes and his body's muscles began to relax. His mind turned off from thinking and it was nice to have a moment without worrying what would happen next. Lalla kept her promise of not being a burden to him. She did most of the works, even had a mystery financial support from anonymous source. All he had to do was guarding her and kept her safe most of the time. However, since the day they departed from Rosewood Gardens, not a single soul continued to pursuit them. He did notice the strange change, but nothing else appeared to rise his suspicion. He let the matter died down for now. Therefore, he did not do a thing since he met her.

"Bathing at mid-night is dangerous, Severus," Lalla suddenly popped her head into the bathroom without warning and made Severus jumped up horrifying.

"Damn it, Miss Bloodworh. What is wrong with you?" Severus grabbed the the curtain and closed it immediately. And he heard she chuckled to his reaction.

"It's not like I haven't seen a naked man before. And with all of these steam, I barely make out of what exactly you are hidden down there," she could not stop her giggling.

"You're fourteen for Merlin's shake. Why do you talk like you are ten years older? Act your age!" he shook his head not understanding her odd behavior.

He was waiting for her reply, but she did not. She stared at the shadow of the man on the curtain for a moment then she turned around and left the bathroom. He remained there until he made sure that she left the room, then he quickly got out of the bathtub. It supported to be relax. Damn it!

When he stepped back to the bedroom, he saw Lalla laid a map on the floor. She marked the one they went before and circled the next locations. He wanted to say something, but decided not to make the night more tense than it was. He moved his chair close to the window and sat there, staring clueless through the glass. Her behavior was a bothering to him since they began their journey. She spoke, acted, and thought completely different than a teenager.

The room went silent for an hour until a raven appeared at the window. It used its beak to knock on the glass. Severus recognized the bird, it was from Lalla's anonymous source. He opened the window and took the letter it was carrying. The raven departed immediately after that. He opened the letter and his eyebrows knitted together.

"Miss Bloodworth, you need to read this," he came close to where she sat and handed her the letter.

"The name is Lalla, Severus," she took the mail from his hand without making any eye contact and reminded him about their agreement of using their given name.

She opened the letter and scanned them quickly. She sighed and threw the letter on the floor.

"Stupid Aurors," she cursed.

"Welcome to my world, Mis-Lalla," he smirked but coughed awkwardly at her given name.

"Yeah, right, thank you," she chuckled.

"So what do we do now?" he asked. "With their interfere, our mission will get more complicated."

"I know but we have traveled by Muggle transportation, and minimize the use of magic. We will be fine as long as we stick to the plan," she sounded confident in her plan.

He nodded as he agreed with her. They had prepared their plan to the smallest details. He trusted her instinct and she believed in his promise.

"I wonder what triggered them," she walked close to his chair and leaned to the wall with arms cross below her breast.

"Well, we did make a marvelous scene at the last location," he said sarcastically.

"It was not that bad," she did not seem to agree with him. "Was it?" But then she started to question herself as well.

This incident happened a week ago when Severus and Lalla reached to their next destination, Witley Park in Surrey.

They arrived late in the evening. Usually, they would rent out a room to rest and began the work in the morning. However, Lalla had no plan in booking a room, she headed straight into the ruin mansion. Severus followed her and kept a very close distance between them. The evening was cold but bearable. Witley Park at night spread out a mysterious atmosphere. He had heard about the place before but stood there and looked at it brought up a different sensation.

Inside the ruin, it was dark and quiet. Severus saw Lalla trailed her finger along the broken walls that led out to the underwater ballroom. She was humming a lullaby. The first time, he listened to it, he did not quite understand the sound. It was a mix of an old children's song and something else that was not easy to detect its origin. He had asked her about the lullaby, but she refused to answer. She only said that it helped to relax her mind.

The path led them out to the lake located behind the mansion. He could see a broken statue in the middle. Underneath the statue, there was a dim light tried to reach out of the dark water, flicking like stars in the night's sky. It was fascinating beautiful scene. Lalla carefully got close to the edge between the water and the ground, where she saw a round iron crossed-bars that secured on the mouth of a big well. They both looked down and barely saw a thing below.

"I think we should go back here tomorrow's morning. Tonight is too dark to investigate anything. We cannot even see our hands clearly." Severus grabbed Lalla's arm and pulled her back from leaning to low to the well. He feared she might lose her balance and fell in.

"As much as I want to go in the morning but this particular location needs to investigate at night," she felt her body drew close to him, the weather was getting chillier.

"Fine. Then go tomorrow's night. We're both exhausted from a long day. We need to rest and bloody eat as well," he said grumpily but subconsciously put his arm around her shoulder as he noticed the change in the temperature.

"Well, now that you mention it, I do feel sleepy and hungry," she yawned tiredly and almost buried her face in his chest but she turned around and grabbed his hand along with her.

That night they found a motel and quickly drifted off to sleep in their room. It was indeed a long day.

The next morning, Severus woke up at four in the morning. He looked to Lalla's bed and found the girl was still snoring softly. He rose up and headed to the bathroom. After taking a quick shower and changing to a new set of clothes, he woke the girl up. It took her nearly thirty minutes to fully awake.

"What time is it now?" Lalla rubbed her eyes and kept yawning.

"Five in the morning," Severus replied.

"That's early!" she said horrifying. "I do not need to wake up at five, Professor. Why did you wake me up?"

He gave her a look that she could not identify. Do they look nervous? That is interesting. She tapped her index finger on the mattress as a habit while she was thinking. Then he continued, "Today, I don't want to go out alone." His eyes shifted to a notebook that laid opened on the desk. A date was underlined and small note appeared next to it, Sev's Birthday. His finger was lingering at the note. That was not his handwriting. Lily...

She actually rose one of her eyebrows up and looked at him disbelieving, "When did the infamous Potion Master afraid to be alone?"

She saw a flick of change in his eyes and she sensed that nervousness increased. She slipped off her bed and got close to his side. She put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently, "I will go out with you today." Then she leaned in a bit more and pressed a soft kiss to his temple before heading to the bathroom.

Sitting in the bathtub, Lalla breathed in and out, trying to calm her mind. Seeing him like that made her heart strangely ached. She knew her feeling toward him, but if the plan failed, all of these nonsense would die as well. Why do I keep torturing myself? But she made a promise to him, to let him free from this world once everything was back to normal. Normal… the word echoed in her head again and again. And if it could not get back to the way it supported to be, she would keep that promise. She exhaled deeply as she brought up her left hand. The set of silver rings were beautiful. She smiled faintly at them and tried to rest her mind for a little bit.

Meanwhile, Severus still sat on his bed, unmoved. His entire senses gathered at where her lips touched softly on his skin. He could not identify the feeling that was rising. I don't understand. Well, I don't understand any of these. He groaned and brushed those hairs that hung in front of him to the back. He looked to the window across from his bed and saw the sky brightened up. Today is January 9th.

An hour later, they finally got out of the motel. They remained quiet on the road. Lalla tried to look at Severus's face a few time, but he kept his emotions hidden well. It was weekend so the street was not busy. Lalla could hear the sound of his boots hitting the ground. The sound was faintly soft but when she tried to focus on it, it became the only thing occupied her mind through the walk.

When they saw the first diner, they picked it right away, not wanting to spend more time outside. It was cold and too quiet.

Inside the diner, there were not many customers. An old couple sat at the far end of the room. A young man with glasses sat near the entrance. And three teenagers were chatting happily in the middle of the room.

Severus quickly spotted a table that sat lonely near a window. She followed him without asking where they headed too and surprised at his choice. That was the spot she wanted too.

"What do you want?" Lalla sat close to Severus and poked at his arm while asking.

"Miss… Bloodworth, please behave yourself in public," Severus coughed uncomfortably and covered his face with the menu. "Coffee." He did notice that she never sat across the table, but always on his side.

Lalla chuckled at his reaction then ordered a cup of black coffee and omelet with sausage for him, and hot chocolate and a bowl of soup for her.

"What do you want to do for the rest of the day?" She took another sip of her hot chocolate and stole a look at him.

"I… don't really know," he shook his head and took his coffee up. His thumb ran along the side of the cup. He honestly never spend a day for himself. What did I usually do on my birthday? He wondered and found out that he was either dealing with a bunch of dunderheads or meeting with the Dark Lord. Birthday and the Dark Lord were a bad combination. However, today, there were no students to deal, no Dark Lord to serve, and no plan to occupy his time.

He looked lost and her eyes curiously studied him. She watched his thumb rubbing the side of his cup.

"We can stay here and enjoy some family time," she put her small hand on the back of his palm and patted it softly.

She could see his hand jerked slightly but he did not move it away. She smirked and did not remove her hand either.

The diner started to play some musics in the background and it was enjoyable. She recognized that song, it was The Color of The Night.

[…]

'Cause all I want is just once
To see you in the light
But you hide behind
The color of the night

[…]

An image appeared in her head immediately as the lyric hit her ear. Her eyes moved to where her hand was and found out that he did not make a move. His food is getting cold. She withdrew her hand and covered her mouth tried to hide her giggling. Meanwhile, he quickly got back to his breakfast which tasted oddly warm. He looked at her from the corner of his eyes, she just did a wandless warming-spell for him. Wandless at fourteen? He frowned at the question but decided not to bring it up now.

[…]

I'll give you everything I am
And everything I want to be
I'll put it in your hands
If you could open up to me oh
Can't we ever get beyond this wall

[…]

Lalla sung quietly along without noticing that Severus was watching her. His eyes locked on her lips. Her lips' movement was very attractive. He felt his lips began to sync with each word of the song. Until the diner's door open blew the cold wind in, he snapped out of his mind. This is awkwardly wrong. Focus on something else, old man. He tried to move his eyes elsewhere but soon they drew back to her again. Yet, this time she caught his eyes and he flinched away.

"Ah… uhm… are you done yet?" He cleared his throat and tried to look normal.

She just nodded and looked at him curiously. The music in the background was still playing.

[…]

'Cause all I want is just once
Forever and again
I'm waiting for you,

I'm standing in the light
But you hide behind
The color of the night
Please come out from
The color of the night.

She walked slowly behind him. His broad shoulder and his tall frame were more obvious now. She put her hand up and tried to measure her height to his. She barely made to his mid-waist. If she grew well, she might get closer to his shoulder. Yet, she seemed to doubt it. She was a small girl to begin with. Puberty would not favor her.

He opened the door and another wind blew in. His leather jacket moved slightly. She smiled as she remembered about his robe, he had not used it since they began their mission. She definitely missed his fabulous movement with it. But he still favored his black color, and she liked that. She liked that color.

Leaving the diner, they headed back to the motel. The road on the way back was silent as before but it was more enjoyable.

"Thanks for today," Severus spoke up as they settled down in their room.

"Anytime," Lalla turned around and smiled at him, but quickly got back to her work.

Severus did not take his eyes away from her. The edge of his lips rose up a bit but hardly noticed as he looked at her. She always focused hard when it came to her work. He liked to see her sitting with her legs cross and scratching madness in the notebook. Sometimes, he wondered what she was writing there. Then he turned his attention back to his own notebook, where he wrote random potion's ideas. He missed his lab. He always thought that his love for Defense Against the Dark Arts was greater than Potion. However, he had not touched the ingredients or smelled their strong fragments for sometimes, and this made his hands felt itchy. Also, the heat of the lab, the boiling sound, and the sleepless night were something that he might not able to experience again. He closed his eyes as he let his mind drifted off to some of the old memories.

By the end of the day, they packed their stuffs and readied for the night. They took the cab and it did not take them long. After thirty minutes, they stood in front of ruin mansion again.

This time, they did not waste any minute. They headed directly to the well. Severus unlocked the lock and lifted the bars with his wand. Lalla, on the other hand, took out a small silver knife and held it with her wand.

He walked down first and lumos his wand. The way down was incredibly dark and the stairs were slippery. He offered his hand to Lalla and she took it. He guided her down slowly and once they were at another locked door, he had not released her hand.

After unlocked the second door, they continued following the stairs. It took them almost twenty minutes to walk down to the underground ballroom. Even with the light from their wands, they hardly saw their surrounding. He still grabbed her hand tightly. If there was enough light and he turned around to look at her, he definitely saw her cheeks were burning red.

Finally, they reached to the ballroom. To their surprise, there was electricity light down there, not much but enough to see the room.

"They should have these on the way down here," Severus complained, still not realized of their hands.

"Probably, they don't expect people to go down here in middle of the night," Lalla commented, finally pulled her hand away from him slowly. Her fingers touched faintly at the tip of his fingers. She did not want too, but she had a mission to finish.

In the meantime, it took him almost a minute to process what happened just now. By the time, he registered the event, he quickly walked across from where she was standing, and hid away his embarrassment.

Lalla did not pay attention to him or her surrounding anymore. She let her eyes scanned the whole room from top to bottom, left to right. Then she walked to the middle of the room and took the knife from her left hand. She mumbled something in her throat. Once the chanting ended, she used the knife and quickly cut a small line on her index finger. The blood soon run slowly out and blended to her wand. She began another chanting.

The blood from the tip of her wand dropped to the floor, one by one. Each time it touched the floor, a glowing of crimson light appeared and forming a line maze. The lines quickly spread through the entire room and within a minute, it covered the room completely.

When the chanting ended, a small hole appeared on the floor. She took her wand and plugged it inside. She turned her wand circularly back and forth five time and when she heard a click sound, she took her wand out.

Severus walked close to Lalla and they waited. Not a minute away, they felt the ground began to shake.

"Shit," Lalla cursed under her breath. "Professor, run now."

Severus looked into her eyes for a second and without saying a word, he carried her out of there. It was a crazy run since they got chased by their enemies. Gladly, he was quick, they escaped the underground ballroom before it collapsed and disappeared under the water. Light broke out and flew messily to the sky.

They stood near the well and saw the whole thing crumbled down. Severus still carried Lalla in his arms. Her arms hung around his neck and she did not want to get off. However, he soon noticed what he was doing, he coughed awkwardly, "Miss Bloodworth… you can get off me now."

She sighed softly but did not protest. She looked at the light was still faintly visible in front of them.

"We should go now," Severus urged her. "The Aurors will soon track down the magic's energy from here. We cannot stay here for long."

"I know, just…" she was trying to say something but shook her head and tugged her arm into his. They apparated out of there.

Author note: Yes, a new chapter is here. I was planning to have it out on Snape's birthday, but it took me longer than I expected. Anyway, enjoys the story as always! Love 3