- Alex?
The chance to recognize the owner of the voice from so afar and with so many people around was very small, if not inexistent, but Alexis heard it,and when she catched her name in the quiet and trembling whisper, she began to descend the couple of stairs that divided the teacher's zone from the benches of the students with a smile, hopping like a cheerful tiny rabbit while looking straight in the shining eyes that Hermione blinked rapidly to free her eyelids from the tears she felt rolling on her cheeks.
However, the more Alexis advanced towards her table, the more Hermione seemed distressed by her approach, distress that the people seated with her seemed to notice too while a heated buzz began to fill the air as the nest of restless bees.
Not that Alexis was bothered by the whispering and the pointed fingers, she actually liked them.
The curious gazes.
The moving lips.
The attention she was drawing on herself with each, confident step.
She could not blame them, after all.
How could not they look at her?
It was impossibile for her to go unnoticed.
Not her overbearing presence.
Not even her bold attitude as she chose to shrug off the old man's strong voice that was ordering her to reach the Slytherin's table where she should have been, where she should have sat, but no one could demand anything from her.
She was the one to take control.
To command.
Thus, she kept on advancing with confidence, even if Hermione's eyes did not smile at her as she had expected, making her frown darkly for the unusual outcome of her wonderful plan as she shushed with an irritated move of her hand what Dumbledore was saying to her.
Could not the blasted old fart see that she was already busy?
Hermone was still crying despite her presence, after all, how could not she feel bothered by it?
Her magnificent entry should have been welcomed with a row of applauses and some whistles too, it wasn't a reason to cry a river, but just as she tried to touch her shoulder, a pale, male hand grabbed her wrist even before she could barely graze the wool of her sweater, shifting her attention on the tall, frowning dark-haired boy who was looking at her threateningly behind a pair of old fashioned glasses.
A threath Alexis would have dismissed as the recklenssness of a foolish teenager in full hormonal crisis if he had not done something as foolish as that, because no one, no one could come between her and her best friend without suffering the consequence of it.
Not even the boy who lived.
- If you don't want to lose your state as the survivor of an attempted murder, you will let go of my hand in this moment, sweetheart.
After all the death threaths he had received since he was eleven years old, Harry Potter should not have flinched as he did, he should not have shuddered as he did, but there was something in the sickingly sweet voice of the young woman who was looking at him through stange purple lenses to make him flinch. And shuddering.
And almost letting her go, but bravery soon shone in his eyes when the image of Hermione's crying returned to burn in his mind, making him strenghten his grasp around the thin wrist with renewed force.
- What do you want from Hermione?
What a brave boy.
Yeah, Alexis thought to herself with a light chuckle.
Brave, but too rush, too emotional, a dangerous combo when you have crazy, rich, old men with great resources and high social positions who tried to kill you every other day instead of thinking about what to eat at noon.
Actually, Alexis found it hard to believe that the scrawny boy could get to the end of the day without being impaled by the angry teenagers she could hear hissing behind her back, but she knew that the boy's so called survival capacity wasn't something granted by magic, by luck, but something the young woman who was sitting beside him had achieved on her own.
Hermione had always been a clever child, after all, and she had to be the reason why the boy was still breathing, still alive.
She had to be the brain of the Golden Trio.
The nickname still made her laugh as a psycopath inside, but well, between NIF and Golden Trio, it seemed that humanity could only think of ugly names for important things.
Now..now…no digression she chided herself, cocking her head to the side to have a better look at the foolishly brave boy that the world would have remembered as the boy without an arm if he had not followed her kind advice.
What a well-mannered young lady she was, wasnt' she?
Of course she was Alexis complimented herself, patting herself mentally, after all, she was informing him about the consequense of his foolish actions, she was giving him the chance to be smart.
Arthur would have been so proud of her.
No blood had been spilled yet, just as he had asked her, she was behaving wonderfully, so why people didn't try to collaborate?
Hm?
She was doing her best to be…balanced, but despite her good intentions and kindness, the smart boy wasn't so smart as she had thought at the beginning, however, even before she had the chance to bend back every single finger of his hand, something caught her off balance.
The hit with the ground was harsh, but not a breath or a complain left Alexis's full mouth when she found herself with Hermione completely wrapped around herself, the witch's trembling body a weight Alexis was happy to bear, every sign of tension gone from her face and limbs as she hugged her back with a smile.
- Even when death do us apart, have you forgotten Mia?
Alexis's shoulder muffled the broken sob that was tightening Hermione's throat while a soft hand began to stroke her back reassuringly, Alexis's arms a panic room where the witch could break with the certainty to be unreachable from what waited for her outside.
Harry's worried and confused voice.
Ginny's concerned whispers.
Ronald 's foolish chocking.
The curiosity and piercing gazes of the hall.
The questions.
Alexis would have kept her safe from all that, just as when they were children, when the room seemed too dark, the night too silent, the loneliness too heavy to fight off alone.
Nothing could harm her until she was in Alexis's arms, it was alright, becase she had not lost her.
She had not lost her.
A quite girglish heap escaped Ronald Weasley's pale lips when the hand he had just tried to stretch towards Hermione's trembling back was crushed by the short, sky-blue nails that Alexis sunk in the pale skin when the red-haired boy tried to free it from her clutch, but the more he pulled back, the more her nails sunk in his skin.
- I hate people who could not read the air.
When Alexis let go of the hand of the foolish teenager, she didn't do it for compassion or because she took pity of his obvious mental disorder judjing by the way he was looking at her with a goofish, horrified gaze, but because Hermione was trying to stand up on her own, and she needed both hands to help her best friend on her feet, a beaming smile to welcome the teary eyes that the witch blinked a couple of time before the entity of the current situation fell on her with a loud crash.
Because, despite her relief on seeing her muggle friend again, the same muggle friend who was smiling at her should not have remembered her, she should not have been there at all, not among wizards, and above all, not dressed in those colors that made her lips curling up while the gears in her brilliant mind began to swirl and her fingers sunk in the soft black sweater that hugged gently Alexis's shapely body, with something very similar to hysteria.
- What are you doing here?
The panicked voice echoed in the silent hall as the scared whispering of who had met the grim look of the Bloody Baron for the first time, but there was nothing frightening about the pretty black-haired girl who was now watching the Gryffondor's Head Girl with a frown, her full lips twisted into a confused curve.
- You don't seem happy to see me, Mia. Why aren't you happy to see me?
Usually, Alexis's sulking and childish behaviour would have been, for Hermione, an adorable display of trust for which, usually, the young witch felt elated and proud.
Proud to be one of the few people with who Alexis allowed herself to be so open, so emotionally vulnerable, a vulnerability that, however, the witch did not find so endearing now.
Not with all those people to watch them with curiosity and suspicion, as they knew that the frowing young woman in front of her was different, that she was not one of them, a diversity that Hermione knew to be deadly, in her world, something for which someone would have killed her, tortured her, just for who she was.
Soon, the panic turned in hysteria, the hysteria in horror, and when her eyes fell on the Slytherin's table, a gasp of horror escaped her lips when she noticed the way Malfoy's silver gaze had just narrowed on Alexis's back and how his comrades were already exchanging whispers and dark looks while watching them.
Alexis.
Alexis who was a muggle. The smarter muggle she knew, but a muggle neverthless.
A muggle dressed as a Slytherin.
If the situation had not been so nerve-wreking, Hermione would have laugh fot the absurdity of the situation, but Alexis did not seem really conscious of the danger, of how unsafe was for her to be there.
To be seen with her.
- You should not be here, Alexis.
The worst.
The day Alexis had waited with trepidation for so long, the day she had dreamed about so much was becoming a nightmare.
Nothing was going according to the plan.
Hermione did not seem happy to see her as she had hoped, actually, she was so sick with worry to make the young witch shaking so much to not be able to stand properly, but for what reason, Alexis did not know.
Alright, she knew why.
But she had already planned that.
Everything was ready, already organized in her brain.
She had even practised it in her mind as the rehearsal of a theatrical work.
Her explanation would have been clear and easy to accept without too much angst, since she hated angst.
Hermione was an understanding child, after all, she would have understood why she had not told the truth about her job, her "school", her lifestyle, she would have accepted it, her.
She was sure of that, and even if now Hermione was watching her with so much worry, concern and fear to make her shake like a leaf, she would have smiled after hearing her out.
Yes she comforted herself, taking a deep breath to focus on the right words to say, the better way to explain to her best friend the reason behind her presence, the color of her robes, behind what would have happened now that she was there, now that she could protect her as she had always wanted, but just as she was ready to speak, someone anticipated her.
Someone who did not know how lucky he was to be still alive.
- Miss Jones, I will not repeat myself a second time. Return to your seat.
Ignore him.
Yes. Ignore him.
- I know it's difficult to understand, Mia, but I -
- Miss Jones.
Ignore. Ignore.
- I have a reasonable explanation, you know? Did you remember my school? Well, it wasn't really a …
- Miss Jones.
- It wasn't really a school, yeah, it was a school, it's just that it is a little different from what I told yo-
- Miss Jones.
Alexis's jaw stiffened a little as her voice came out a little sibilant for the way her teeth had begun to gnash together, but she kept on ignoring him, the whispering around her, everything but Mia, Mia who was still watching her with worry, Mia who didn't seem to really understand what she was saying, not with the damned old fart who kept on talking at the same time with her, confusing Mia and pushing her to her breaking point.
- But I-
- Miss J-
Even before Dumbledore, just after banging his hand on the table to demand attention, could end the sentence or adjust the spectales on his nose for the sudden move, even before Hermione's brain could associate the sudden hiss of gears with something she could explain easily without blacking out, Alexis's arm had already left her side, reaching for the pale face on which the hall could see a small, red dot shaking on the forehead that Albus Dumbledore knitted in confusion while his eyes focused on what the young woman was aiming to him.
No more a small, pale hand with splindly fingers, no more sky-blues nails or a middle finger, but an intricate system of wires, sleek metal and hissing gears that, for who had seen a science fiction movie or had read a comic book about giant, robot warrior, resembled a robotic arm that Alexis stiffened along with her back when she felt the gasp and the sudden absence of Hermione's gentle hands on her.
And even if Alexis had not to be a genius to understand what it meant, even if it was obvious of what the gasp was, she tried to deny it. Firmly. Strongly.
Because it could not be.
Hermione wasn't scared of her, she could not be scared of her.
She was just confused, she had not let her go, she….she…
She had just rejected you.
Such was the burning in her eyes that, for a moment, Alexis believed to have become blind, but her eyes were perfect, her sight was flawless, and yet, she could still feel the burning that, instead of weakening, was getting stronger and spreading everywhere.
In her eyes.
In her throath.
In her chest.
A feeling she knew too well, a burning that usually preceded the coldness in her limbs, the emptiness in her eyes, the bloodlust in her gut.
- Low profile Jones, do we understand each other?
A little too late for that, Schmditty, Alexis joked darkly with herself, a cruel smile to make her lips twitch while her eyes lost the warmth and humanity she had forced in them to make her appear less threatening, less dreadful.
Unfeeling.
Unfeeling of the panic she could feel burst around her as she began to walk towards the teacher's table with her weapon aimed at the head of the powerful wizard who had just ruined the dream of her life.
Unfeeling of the calling of who Alexis could not look without grimacing, without spatting cruel words that would have hurt Hermione. Gentle, kind Hermione.
But what about Arthur? The small voice in her head whispered with a light scolding tone.
Yes. What about Arthur?
Arthur who was waiting for her report.
Arthur who would have been disappointed in her if she had broken her promise, her vow.
Arthur who would have scolded her, and Alexis hated Arthur's scolding, too similiar to her dad's rebuke, that kind of reproach able to make her feel almost guilty, wrong.
But she was never wrong rebuked another cold, metallic voice.
She was too smart to be wrong, to make mistake.
She was never wrong, just as she had not been wrong before.
Killing the old fart would have really saved them the trouble, but death, for him, would have been a relief rather than a punishment, and Alexis wanted him to suffer, to take responsability for what he had done.
So no death for him, not yet, or at least, not until she had decided to put an end to it with her bare hands, but just as she diverted her mind from the image of his motioneless body on the floor, something else caught her attention, something she had not noticed before, too busy on analyzing her surrounding to see something for which her eyebrows flew to the hairline in a thunderstruk look.
The aviator glasses fell on her chest as she bent towards the wizard to sniff him, breathing deeply, filling her nostrils of the smell she knew so well before returning on her feet with a stone cold gaze and a new awareness that made her realize that the dark times Arthur had talked about were darker than she had believed at first.
Much darker than she could accept.
- You stink of her.
When the words left her frozen lips, something changed in his eyes, a flash of surprise that tensed his jaw while her eyes, as prickly as pins pinched every part of his face, dissecting every expression, every move, landing on the arm the old wizard had left on his side in a relaxed pose that could not fool Alexis.
He could not fool her.
Her eyes.
Because she knew that smell, she had seen what was eating him alive, slowly, face to face once, when she had done what the dark wizard the magical world feared so much had only tried to do without succeding.
Not like her.
After all, it was what she did better, succeding in what the world failed to accomplish, doing what no one could do, what only her could achieve.
And as she let the nanomachines in her body altering her form while the ghostly light of her cannon lightened up her eterochromatic eyes, Alexis would have made the surprised wizard in front of her eyes, the gentle child she loved as a sister, and the people she would have shielded as Arthur's knight realize that there was something far scarier than a pale wizard without a nose.
Someone far scarier than anything they had ever known or could dream of.
Someone who could do anything and fear nothing, not even her, not even Death.
A Death Alexis had looked in the eyes at fifteen years old with the certainty, that, between them, the abyss inside her soul would have been the bottomeless one in which making the other one fall, drown.
Klaus Schmidt had never been a man easy to surprise or to intimidate, not even when he was still at war.
Non even when he was still alive.
And yet, since the man bathed in light who had saved his soul to repay him for his good deeds in life had presented himself with a child on his side, something had told him that his world and the one of his saviour, his King, would not have been the same.
And he had been right, so hideously right to hate himself for his flawless instinct.
Because, even after all that time, Alexis Mary Jones was still impossible for him to decipher, to explain, to hate without loving, at the same time, her quirk and the hidden fraility that he and his King had been able to see just once, but it had been enough.
A grimace twisted his usually stony expression when he seemed to hear it again in his head, clear as the first time.
Alexis's shrilling screaming.
And even if he would not have admitted it to himself, he had still nightmare about that night, about her breakdown.
It had been unsettling for him to see her like that, to see how much pain a heart could contain.
How her cutting voice could become so small and broken.
A pretty child with smart eyes, that one had been his first impression of her when the young child had been left in his hands.
His to form, his to train, his to guide towards a path that, more than once, the young lady he had learned to fear and respect had forsaken for one of her shortcuts.
Shortcuts the man had never been able to take, an inability given by his limits, limits that Alexis had never had. No even one.
Too good.
Alexis had always been too good at everything she had done. In any task he had given her.
Therefore, when General Schmidt had found the message on his desk, he had thought of a joke. A bad one.
Because Alexis had never asked for help, not even once, in truth, he doubted that someone was even able to help her, not even his King, the most powerful being he knew, and yet, no one could be so foolish to joke about that.
About her.
Too deep was the fear Alexis had instilled in the heart of who she had met in life to risk her wrath for fun, a wrath able to hunt you like a plague that would have eventually hit so hard to make you want to die as soon as possible to escape it, her, so, when the shock had subsided, Klaus Schmidt had reached for his coat, but not before squinting his eyes to read the small note on the footers that, again, had shaken him to the core.
- Fuck you.
A grimace twisted his face when the scum he was dragging with him in the thick, dark forest manifested his frustration in stumbling yet again on then same blasted root.
Actually, General Schmidt doubted it was the same root, perhaps.
They could be really lost for what he could know.
Finding a dark, high castle should not have been so difficult, after all, not even in that darkness, but if the said dark castle was a magical school no outsider was supposed to see, well, it could be a problem spotting it.
He could sharpen his eyes, or trusting his trained senses, or pricking up his ears, it would have never been enough, not if someone would not have helped him out, a help he suddenly received in the form of a strict, female voice in the middle of nowhere.
- I am going mad.
Ignoring the man's hysterical whisper, Klaus waited for the voice to return, to guide him towards it, but instead of the voice, what literally reached him and his tensed back was a wrinkled hand that Minerva McGonagall brought back against her chest when the man, turning, met her eyes and closed expression.
- Mister Schmidt, I presume.
- You presume well, ma'am. I am –
- That child's assistant.
General Schmdit could not help the annoyed curl that twisted his lips while a light chuckle behind his back attracted the old witch's hard gaze on the tall, elegant white-haired man that did not surprise her as it should have done, as Schmidt knew, the presence of a new unexpected guest should have done.
- And you had to be the Big Boss.
That little brat.
Unlike his King who seemed quite amused by Alexis's little introduction, Klaus did not like to have been degraded as the little devil's assistant.
He was her caretaker, not her subject, but Alexis had always failed to respect the hierarchy and their roles.
For her, he was simply a funny, old guy who wanted to play with her all the time while his King, his King was … how did she usually call him?
Oh yes.
Daddy long legs.
It was almost rude to simplify such a historical figure as his King with that silly nickname, but as much as indignant Klaus might feel, Arthur Pendragon had never minded her quirks, actually, despite his neutrality about everything, he had always had a soft spot for Alexis.
She was his precious ward, after all, or, how Alexis liked to describe herself, his shield to use as a battering-ram to clear the path, and his sharp blade to stick in his enemies thick skulls.
Harsh words that hid a deep affection that Alexis, despite her rude manner and outspoken personality had always shown and declared for them openly.
The simply fact that she looked for them was a proof of how much she loved them since she literally used to ignore her surrounding, people she did not care about, what and who she believed useless for her.
So, under another's point of view, Klaus Schmidt should have felt lucky to be liked by her, and sometimes, when Alexis was behaving like the sweet girl he knew that she was deep, deep, deep down, he really felt lucky to be considered a part of her exclusive world.
Of her family.
However, unfortuately for him, the times that he was treated like the buffon of his King's court were much more frequent than the ones in which he was simply a funny guy who Alexis liked to hug in the middle of the corridor just because she felt like hugging him that day, melting him inside despite himself.
- This way.
Without even giving him the time to collect himself and his thoughts, the old witch began to walk towards the darkness, sure that she had to say no more to make them follow her blindly, and indeed, his King had already begun to follow her while he, well, he could not move freely since he was slowed down by the scum Alexis had asked him to bring with him.
He. Not his King. Alexis had requested his precense, his aid, but just as Alexis considered Arthur Pendragon a common, worry-wart young boy she had to protect from his foolish spirit of sacrifice, his King considered his ward a frail child he had to protect like only an overprotective mother would have done.
He just sounded like her.
Grimacing for the offensive mental paragon and asking for forgiveness with his eyes, Klaus began to follow the path, holding back his breath like a fool child when, out from nowhere, a real huge, dark castle showed himself in all his magnificence.
- Don't tell me this is …
- Shut up!
Yanking the magical chains on the man's wrists and throat to silence him, General Schmdit resumed his walking, frowning for the heavy aura that encircled the area and that seemed to thicken as they went further.
- I had imagined it more cheerful.
- Oh, it was indeed cheerful, Mr. Schmdit - Minerva McGonagall retorted without even skipping a beat or looking back at him, the ticking of her heels haunting in the empty corridors of the deserted castle.
- But I fear that all the cheerlfuness had been lost the moment your ward had cut off the arm of Hogwarts Headmaster in front of his students.
- She did what?
Klaus wasn't used to raise his voice or to scream at all, but his throat began to burn after chocking those words, his hands cold for the rage that was going to squeeze his chest if he had not heard the quiet whisper to his right.
- She had her reason, General. We both know how she works.
Calm and soothing like the gentle rain, Arthur's vocie echoed around them like a gentle whisper, but Klaus recognized it, the edge tone in his quiet but strong voice.
A warning to not judje Alexis too quickly and too wrongly like others had done before him, like who didn't know her, and despite it all, General Schmidt believed to know her. At least a little.
In truth, it was impossible to completely know her.
He was not his King. No.
No one knew Alexis like his King.
Their bond was an odd one, it always had been an odd one.
They could talk without actually speaking.
They could understand each other without even explaining themselves.
They trusted each other blindly, something Klaus could not to do so easily, not when he knew how cruelly Alexis could behave, how unforgivable she could be.
How deadly she could become for a whim.
Because she was still a child, even if a powerful one, too emotional, too instinctive, but he trusted his King, and if he had said that she had her reason, he believed him.
However, if really she had acted on a whim, he would have hidden her sweets for a whole week.
- For one who hates laggard, you are more than a little late, Schmditty.
When General Schmidt followed the low voice up to the marble stairs that led to a long, dark table, he blinked a couple of time to readjust his sight to the pitch darkness of the hall they had just entered.
But, it did not matter how long he kept on blinking, or how much he kept on hoping to be imagining it, the scene didn't change, it didn't get better, or less dark.
She was still there, seated on what he presumed was the Headmaster's seat with her elbow planted in the hard wood, her sharp chin sunk in her palm, a bowl of poc corn on her side and a ripped, human arm in front of her bored gaze.
- What have you done, Alexis?
The rumble of a thunder covered the crackling of the poc corn that Alexis finished to chew before filling again her mouth, rolling her eyes for the horrified tone of her caretaker.
What a drama queen.
- Me? Why is it always my fault, Schmditty? I didn't do anything – she grumbled sullenly, throwing a handful of popcorn towards the General who kept on looking at her with that look, as if she was the one to blame.
- Nothing you said? – Minerva McGonagall's horrified voice echoed in the hall like the cry of a wounded eagle, attracting the gaze of a still shocked soldier to the pale wizard without an arm that the old witch reached with trembling steps before being caught from the elbow by a tall black-haired man who snarled when he felt the General's eyes on him.
- Again with this story, Miss? – Alexis grumbled darkly on her chest, breeting deeply when she felt Miranda's hand on her shoulder, and she didn't want to scare the poor woman with her rage, she did not deserve it, not like that insufferable witch- I have already explained it. I saved his life.
- Saved his life? – the old witch cried out, outraged for the way the young woman kept on lying despite the horrible things she had done – You cut off his arm.
- Excuse me, I cut off his arm to save his life. It's not my fault if the old fart was so stupid to let the curse spread so much.
- Curse?
Despite what one could have believed , the one who whispered those words had not been the upset witch or the baffled General who, however, had noticed how stiff the black man had become in hearing Alexis's accusation, but the only one who had believe what the young, angry woman was spatting from the beginnnig.
- What kind of curse, child?
Deflating like a balloon ready to burst, Alexis let the kind call of her King reaching her angry mind, soothing the headache that was beginning to become annoying while Miranda's hand squeezed her shoulder to calm her.
Thanks to heaven she had Miranda.
If it had not been for her and her poc corn with honey she would have already burned the caste to ashes with its foolish Headmaster.
She had been right, he was not suitable to protect Mia.
- The kind of curse you could only attract when you play with dead things. Foolish man.
Alexis whispered the last words with fatigue, massaging her temples to free her mind and thinking.
Thinking about what she had to do, what she had to fix because of him.
- The curse could not be erased. Not with magic, not with such a brutal and primitive act.
A thick silence followed the flat sentence that Severus Snape had just expelled from his cold lips like everything that left his mouth, with a cutting sarcasm able to make you feel stupid, and insignificant, petty, but when the wizard met the eyes of the young woman who had brought havoc in his school, what he found wasn't what he usually received from others.
Anger.
Frustration.
Hate.
Disgust.
No. She wasn't looking at him with that kind of feelings.
She seemed almost curious, a curiosity that persuaded Alexis to have a better look at the man who had just spoken to her with such a tone.
Tall and dark.
She already liked what she was seeing.
Pitch-black eyes were staring at her devoid of any emotion, but the snarl that twisted his long, thin lips, making him look more hideous than he was in reality, told her otherwise.
He was annoyed.
By her.
By the situation.
By everything around him.
- And you are so sure of this because…
- Because I have tried and failed.
And if I couldn't do it, no one else could.
He did not say it aloud of course, but Alexis could still hear it in her mind, she could read it in his eyes, eyes that despite what he might believe, were more expressive than he thought.
When he saw her moving, Severus Snape readjusted the hold on his wand, a movement that Alexis caught in the corner of her eyes and that made her smile a little while standing.
He wasn't stupid like the others.
He could see it, the danger.
The threat she could become, and as Alexis reduced the distance between them with each, calibrated step, she could see him shifting his stance, getting ready to strike, but she did not want to fight him.
She was just curious, really.
Beautiful.
Despite what other people could think about his sexual preferences or the fact that he could have something with whom feeling physical attraction at all, Severus Snape could appreciate the beauty of things when he saw it, and when the young woman stopped in front of him, so close to feel her warm breath on his eyelids, he could only repeat with a flat thought that yes, she was indeed beautiful.
A beautiful young woman who was challenging him with the strangest eyes he had ever seen.
Severus Snape had never seen heterocromatic eyes before, but something told him that they should not have been like that.
The dark one wasn't natural, its color was too dense, too deep to be natural, not forced, mixed with something, while the lighter one was of a green so hard to make him raise an eyebrow.
Green was usually a vibrant color. Not so sharp. So cold.
Lily's green eyes had always been beautiful for him, soft, warm, while the green of the young woman's eye was as hard as glass, with golden lights and dark spots around the pupil, a complex whirpool of colors where one could have drown, if she had wanted to, but Alexis was simply staring at him.
She was just reflecting him on the sleek surface of her gaze.
- How odd. Yours are not the eyes of a Death eater.
When those words left her full lips, something changed inside him.
His stance stiffened, his gaze hardened, but when she noticed the way his hand had tightened in his robes, around his wand, Alexis took a step back, smiling apologetically.
- Now, now, I wasn't bullying you. I was just stating aloud something that I already knew.
- Something you know? – the wizard hissed darkly, tensing his jaw – You don't know anything about me.
- Sorry to disappoint you, handsome – and Alexis loved the way he knitted his eyebrows when she called him handsome – but I know everything about everyone. Right Schmditty?
- Show off – was the answer the soldier mumbled under his breath, but Alexis heard it anyway, and she would have smiled if she had not sensed the movement to her right, a shift of air that made her left her arm snap towards the open entry with the hissing of the gears to fill her ears once again.
- I hate sneaks.
Suddenly, the air that filled Severus Snape's lungs became hot, stifling, the hairs on his arms and neck raised up like if he had been striked by an electric discharge, and even if his body told him to step away, to run, his feet did not move, nor his eyes left the strange occurence that had costed one of Dumbledore's arm.
Hot.
When one of the sky-blue sparks touched his cheek, the wizard could feel the warmth seeping in skin before disappearing like a snowflake melted in the sun, a spark his finger tried to clutch when the arm of the young woman in front of him turned into something he could not explain, something that could cut like a razor or burn like flames, the strange sky-blue light that emerged between the dark layer that composed her arm so blinding to make him narrow his eyes to keep on looking at her.
Oddly enough, even the color of her hair had changed, a deep violet had replaced the dark locks that fell to her back and that curled on her florid chest like hissing snakes.
What strange magic.
A shapeshifter?
No. He doubted it. A shapeshifter could emulate someone, it could not create.
- Show youself or this time I will blow your head, pal. I will not repeat-
- Wait!
- Potter.
Snape's caustic voice made the young wizard squeeze his eyes while Hermione threw away the invisibile cloak to run towards the young woman who, for the second time, found herself with her ass on the floor.
However, this time, Alexis was too stunned to wrap her arms around her best friend's back, not that it would have mattered, since the young witch had already hugged her with so much strenght to block her arms or moves.
- What have you done to her!
Hermione's angry scream echoed in the hall like the dying cry of a banshee, so full of pain and anguish to make the ears bleed, but it was Alexis's heart what wringed painfully in her chest while the Gryffindor, turning her head, pointed her wand against the two men who had to be responsabile for Alexis's change.
And maybe, Alexis would have laughed for the way Schmdit was looking at them, or the way her King's eyebrows had flown to his hairline if her eyes had not recognized what the boy who lived was clutching to his chest while looking angrily to the Potion Master.
- Stupid boy!
When Severus Snape saw her standing up so abruptly with a startled Hermione close to her chest, when he saw her marching angrily towards a pietrified Harry Potter with her strange arm still fuming, something began to burn inside his chest, something he did not think to be able to feel anymore.
And yet, it was fear what made his face ugly and his magic cruel, unforgivable, but even before the curse could hit her or even touch the tip of Hermione's swirling curls, even before he could understand what he had just done, something invisible but thick as glass prevented the red light to reach them, to do the irreparable.
Hermione Jane Granger fell to the ground with a soft thud, her face pale, her breath erratic, but the strong hand around her wrist prevented her to crumbling up on herself, to shut off for what had just happened.
- You tried to hurt her.
Severus Snape did not know if he had shivered for what he had done or for the cold voice that echoed in the hall like the frosty breath of an Ice Giant, a chill he could feel sinking in his bones, crawling under his skin, crystallizing his eyes when she turned, when she let his reflex drown in her eyes.
- You tried to hurt me.
The way she said it sounded almost like if she had expected it, like if she wasn't so surprised by it, and she wasn't, really.
People tended to hurt her, to try to kill her, all the time, it was just that he had been slower than others.
So much slower.
- I am a little disappointed, but I could not expect less from someone with such a bad taste in tatoo.
Stung from her words, the Potion Master recoiled from the shock, pulling out his wand when Alexis changed target, leaving a still trembling Hermione to the ground with a soft caress on her hair, like if she was reassuring her that everything would have been fine, now that she was there, now that she would have taken care of it.
Of everything.
- I think we should interve.
- You can try, old friend. But I fear that your intrusion would only anger her more.
Oh, he knew it, but General Schmdit was beginning to find the whole situation maddening.
It helped a little that the scum had fainted for the fright once recognized her, but he was still concerned about the wizard's well being and why they were there if she was able to take care of everything.
- Mione?
When she felt the gentle voice above her head and the soft touch on her elbow, Hermione jumped in fright, but she let Harry take her in his arms neverthless.
They clung to each other with strenght, confused, disorientated, but when they felt a soft touch on their shoulders, they could only stare dumbfounded at the blonde, pretty woman who was smiling at them with sweets in her hands.
- Chocolate?
Alexis's ears twitched like the ones of a cat when she heard the word chocolate, but she dismissed the thought, she could eat the chocolate after killing the man in front of her.
Pity really, that he had to do something so stupid.
Severus Snape.
Potion Master. Death Eater. War Hero.
Loyal lover.
The words were linening one after the other in front of her eyes like if an invisible pen was writing a summary of him.
Because, that he could believe it or not, she was not joking about knowing everything about him, about everyone.
You had to know everything if you had to mantain the balance, and how could you mantain the balance if you didn't know everything about the people who could change it?
He could not know it, but Severus Snape was an important piece on the scale plate of destiny.
A powerful wizard who could change the war, who could alter its end, if he wanted.
Really, he seemed a wonderful, elegant and intelligent man, someone she would have liked to know better, to befriend.
What a waste.
- Since I hate rude people, I will introduce myself before killing you.
- One more step, and I will be forced to stun you.
An amused laugh rumbled in her chest when he said the word stun with so much seriousness, as if he really believed to be able to harm her.
- Stun me, handsome? I would have liked to be stunned by you, really, but usually it is the other one who goes down.
- Mine is a warning, not a joke.
- So it is mine.
Maybe, it had been the way she had said it, without the light smile with which she had spoken until now, or the way her eyes had become, if possible, darker, harder, but when he saw her pinching with her sky-blue nails an invisible gown while bowing to him, her long, soft and curly hair a pool of black ink around her, the comical gesture disturbed him more than seeing her fuming arm pointed at him.
- My name is Alexis Mary Jones. Eighteen years old. Sexually active.
- Alexis!
Schmdit's outraged cry made her smile a little, but she kept on looking at the floor like a well-mannered lady, bowing deeply while her hands began to itch and her skin turned black, hard as steel, sleek as the feathers of a black crow on a rainy day.
- The best scientist of robotic and nanotechnology history had ever known. Muggle.
At that, a couple of gasps were heard around her, but she knew that he had not been the one to gasp. Maybe the insuffurable woman. Or even the boy who lived.
But not him.
Not Severus Snape.
He was surprised. Of course he was. She could tell it by the way his breath had itched a little, even if only for a moment, a second.
- Hermione Jane Granger's best friend. Arthur Pendragon's blade and shield. Head of the Viewless.
Master of Death.
And here it was. The gasp.
Composed as he was, as were the eyes Alexis met when she raised her head, a smile to bend the full lips now covered by the mask she wore only for who earned to receive his death by the hands of her true self.
- People know me with many names, but if I have to choose my favourite, I would like you to call me with that one.
How beautiful.
With the silver light of her energy cannon to light up his strong features, Alexis could not help but to appreciate the man in front of her eyes once more.
Tall. Dark.
And fearless.
Of her.
Of death.
Of what was about to come.
A flash of surprise darted in her eyes when, suddenly, she heard his wand falling to the ground with a sickening clink, when she saw him surrending once the wizard realized that all his curses, even the most terrible ones were being dispelled by something he could not even see like stones that a foolish child kept on throwing in the void with the hope to hit something, his shoulders relaxed as if she wasn't aiming at him a deadly weapon, as if she wasn't on the verge of killing him, as if he didn't care about his death, his end, and it was that what changed her mind, what made her aim for something that was not his head.
Severus Snape fell to the ground without a sound, his knuckles white for the effort to keep his body above the ground where he refused to collapse like a puppet, his bleeding knee planted on the hard floor without mercy.
However, despite his strong behaviour, he could feel his eyelashes getting wet.
He was getting old.
He had never cried since that night, since Lily's death.
He had no reason to cry anymore. He had believed to have no more tears to shed. But he had been mistaken.
Pathetic.
- And what can it be?
Blinking, Alexis cocked her head when she heard him speak, her eyes unreadable as Severus Snape raised his chin to meet her gaze from below.
Without fear. Withour anger.
Only tiredness.
Tired of the war.
Tired to fight.
Tired to keep going. To survive.
- Your favourite name. What can it be?
The way she came to kneel in front of him with a single, smooth move made him think about a lynx he had seen once during a snow storm when he was still training as a Death eater.
Powerful despite the small form, with eyes so bright to pierce the night and his soul.
- Queen.
Maybe he had died.
Maybe he did not.
He did not care, but if he had really died, then Death wasn't so horrible.
Because his Death had a beautiful face, strange eyes, soft, warm palms he could feel on his cold cheeks, and the smile of who was watching something that was worth to spare.
- You can call me Queen.
Despite the light humor, the next chapters will be a little darker. I will explain the reason behind Alexis's strange form, and why she was so shocked by discovering some of the Deathly Hollows. Until the next chapter!
Thanks for reading!