Severus stepped into the hidden room, not surprised to see Allyna waiting there for him already. She had conjured a candle and was reading over her Transfiguration textbook while she waited for him. When she saw him, she immediately closed the book after making note of the page she'd left off on. She placed the book on the table that held the blades and turned to face Severus. He once again had his hair tied back out of his way, but he was wearing his dragon-hide boots.
"We're going to work on something a little different today, Miss Wilson." he said, and with a flick of his wrist, music filled the room. Allyna's eyes widened. She had certainly not expected this. Severus stepped into the middle of the room and bowed to Allyna as he had done earlier in the evening. Surprised, Allyna curtsied to him. He wrapped his hand around hers, his other coming to rest at her hip. "Follow my lead, Miss Wilson, right foot, step back."
Allyna took a step back as Severus stepped forward and they began to move around the room. Severus was pleased to see that Allyna caught on quickly. Within moments, she had the movements of the dance memorized, but she was still having issues with her balance. Looking down, he saw that she was wearing simple "sneakers" as she'd called them. "Those won't do." he said softly, stepping away from her. "Take them off," he ordered and Allyna quickly obeyed.
Severus closed his eyes for a moment, picturing in his mind what he wanted. He opened them and with a few swishes of his wand, Allyna's sneakers had transformed into high-heeled emerald-green strappy sandals. "Put them on. We will continue practicing with them instead," he said. Allyna bit her lip as she looked at the shoes. She'd never worn heels before, she had always been frightened to with her balance issues. But she did as she was told and pulled the heels on, strapping them around her ankles and standing, unsteadily, on the pointy heels. She wobbled a couple times and felt she was surely going to pitch forward onto her face. She managed to catch herself, though and finally stood straight.
Severus had to fight back a grin, watching her. The heels did excellent things for her posture as well as her legs and breasts. Wait, what? No, don't even go there, Severus. That is a road straight to hell, if you're not going there already, he thought. Another, insidious, little part of him reminded him of the fact that Allyna was eighteen, of age by the standards of the wizarding world for more than a year. He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts and brought himself back to the matter at hand.
He stepped up to Allyna and bowed. She oh-so-carefully returned it with a curtsy. Once more he enfolded his hand around hers and placed a hand at her hip. The music began again and he waited until he saw Allyna take the first hesitant step backwards and began to step forwards. He saw the look of relief on her face when her first step didn't take her down. As they moved, she began to gain a little more confidence. Her movements were more fluid and natural, not as hesitant or jerky.
Soon even her face began to change. It was no longer tight and pinched-looking with worry. She began to smile and no longer kept looking down at her feet. Once again, Severus was struck by how Allyna's smile seemed to bring lightness to the entire room. He couldn't stop staring at her, but kept telling himself it was because he was making sure she was on point and not distracted. He tightened his grip on her waist and hand, as they spun faster. Finally the song ended and they bowed to one another. Allyna's smile seemed to have gone up in wattage and Severus was hard pressed not to smile in return.
"We will break for a few minutes to rest. Walk about a little so that you get used the shoes, Miss Wilson. There will no doubt be a reporter from the Daily Prophet at the Yule Ball, and as you are a visiting student, there is a very good chance that you will be interviewed and photographed. Knowing that Skeeter woman, if you take a tumble, she will be there to document it," Severus explained.
Allyna nodded and began to walk around the room, stumbling a few times, but when Severus called her over to begin again, she was a bit more comfortable walking around in the thin-heeled shoes. She once again took her place, Severus's hand at her waist, as the music began. It was a much livelier tune this time and Allyna had serious worries that she was going to break her ankle. She squeaked in surprise when at a part of the song, Severus's hands went around her waist and lifted her before putting her down again. This move was repeated several times during the dance, though somehow Allyna managed not to make such an undignified noise again.
When their two hours were up, Severus helped Allyna to a chair he conjured. He helped her get the sandals off and checked that she had no blisters. "Good. We'll practice again tomorrow night, Miss Wilson-" Whatever Severus was going to say next was cut off as he hissed in pain, his hand wrapping around his arm where his Dark Mark burned.
Allyna jumped to her feet in surprise. "Professor?" she asked, worriedly. She rushed to his side, pushing his sleeve up without thinking. The Dark Mark was black, and wriggling, on his arm. She heard Severus gasp in surprise as she placed her hand over it.
Severus watched in both horror and wonder as Allyna placed her hand over the burning Mark. Her touch was strangely cooling and the Mark did not throb and ache as it had. But he knew he had to go, Voldemort was calling him. "Forgive me, Miss Wilson, I will not be able to escort you back to your room. The wards will close behind you, go to your room, now, please," he whispered, a piece of him, long hidden, not wanting to send her away.
Allyna bit her lip and nodded. "Yes, Professor Snape." She watched as he hurried from the room, to the Disapparating point outside the wards of the school. She made her way to her own room, and saw by the clock that it was only ten in the evening. She went into her bathroom, taking a swift shower and dressing in comfortable muggle-style pajama bottoms and a white tank top. She built up the fire a little and tried to settle in with some of her homework, but her mind was too busy worrying about Professor Snape.
Finally deciding that she wouldn't be able to relax, she cast the Muffliato spell on her room and turned on her solar-powered CD player. A CD of classical music, almost similar to what Professor Snape had been playing, began to play and Allyna closed her eyes, moving to the melody of the music in the dances that the professor had taught her. Before long, her body was tired and so she sat in the large, squashy comfortable chair (that was perfect for reading) before the fire and stared into the flames. While the music played, Allyna watched the snapping, popping and whispering of the flames.
A few hours later, her eyes flew open; she'd fallen asleep. The flames of her fire had turned a brilliant green and she heard a muffled moan as a body tumbled into the room. Allyna screamed and clasped her hands over her mouth. The body was decidedly familiar. The black robes and hair..."Professor Snape!" Allyna exclaimed. He moaned, obviously in pain. His skin was cool to the touch and almost blue.
Knowing what she had to do, Allyna ran into the bathroom, turning the taps on the bathtub to slightly warmer than lukewarm. "Levicorpus!" she cried, Severus's body levitating as she raised her wand. She "carried" him into the bathroom. She carefully laid him on the floor, cringing at the muffled moan coming from him as his body landed softly on the floor. She quickly began to strip him of his robes and frock coat. She unbuttoned his white shirt and winced as she saw the damage, he was striped with slashes. Her anger began to rise, as she saw each raw, open wound.
She started to swear under her breath, calling Voldemort and his followers all sorts of vile names. She blushed as she tried to decide whether or not to remove his trousers. Surely that would be inappropriate, right? But what if he was injured further. "Damn!" she exclaimed in a whisper and began to unbutton and remove them. While she was glad to see no other wounds, she was blushing brightly red. Allyna carefully levitated him closer to the edge of the bathtub. She stepped down into it, setting her arms behind Severus's head and released the spell. He landed heavily in the water, causing much of it to splash out onto the floor. She was able to keep his head out of the water, however.
Knowing what could happen if he stayed cold for much longer, she slowly began to massage his hands and feet, slowly working the cold blood in his body into warmth and moving it to his heart. She noticed his eyes open twice, but he slipped back into unconsciousness almost immediately. She drained and refilled the tub twice, each time with water that was a bit warmer than the one before it. Soon Severus's skin was back to it's normal dungeon-pale, no longer the blue tinge of cold and death.
Allyna wrapped him in towels, but didn't want to put his blood-soaked clothes back on him. She took one of the towels and transfigured it into a long nightshirt and pulled it over him. She used a little magic to dry his shorts as much as she could, but she was exhausted and her control was slipping a little. She didn't want to take the chance of hurting him, so she half-carried, half-walked him to the bed. She pushed him onto it, wincing as she saw blood seeping from his wounds and into the nightshirt. She pulled the shirt up over his chest, biting her lip. She knew instinctively that he would not want to go to the infirmary. She sensed that he was entirely too used to taking care of himself. "Stubborn ass," she muttered.
She walked to what she called her version of a first-aid kit. From it she pulled blood-replenishing potion, essence of dittany and carried them to the nightstand. She lifted Severus's head a little and poured a little of the blood-replenishing potion down his throat, carefully making sure he didn't choke. She slowly dripped essence of dittany onto his wounds, but they wouldn't close. She knew that the dittany most likely wouldn't work, these wounds were inflicted by dark magic. She dearly hoped that one day she found out who'd hurt him like this, the anger rising in her, the protectiveness rising in her making her wanting to hex whoever had done it, then curse them into oblivion.
Allyna sighed, she knew there was only one thing she could do. She closed her eyes, looking deep inside herself and placed her hands over him. She remembered the lessons her grandmother had taught her well. Within seconds, her palms pulsed with a blue-white light, the healing power of her grandmother's Shamanic training. She touched Severus's chest, feeling his entire body jump under her hands. She watched as the black blood that had crusted the wounds turned to bright red, healthy blood. The slashes began to smoke, as Allyna's magic chased out the poisoning of the curse from them. Finally the skin began to draw together, seamless but for the long slash-like scars that remained. Allyna knew that Voldemort would look for the scars, otherwise Severus may have to suffer the "lesson" again. "Bastard!" Allyna cursed under her breath.
She pulled a chair close to the side of the bed, and looked at the clock. Four in the morning. She sighed and used her wand to conjure parchment and paper. She wrote a swift note to the Headmaster, asking him to come immediately. With a flick of her wrist, it sped through the halls of Hogwarts to land beside Professor Dumbledore. It immediately began to whistle and shrill loudly until Dumbledore awoke. He read the note and hurried to pull on robes and hurry to Allyna's room.
The knock on the door woke Allyna from her doze as she sat in the chair. She hurried to the door, unlocking it and opening it to allow the Headmaster in. He hurried to Severus's side. He looked him over and stared at Allyna. "You know you're going to have to tell me how you did this." he said, and Allyna nodded. "But not right now, you need some sleep, Miss Wilson. I will move him to his own quarters." Dumbledore pulled out his wand.
"No!" Allyna cried, stunning both herself and Dumbledore. He looked at her questioningly. "Sorry, Professor. It's perfectly all right if you leave Professor Snape here until morning, Sir. I'm afraid he may try and get out of bed and move too soon and injure himself again. And I know he probably wouldn't go see Madam Pomfrey if he did. " Allyna explained, blushing.
Dumbledore looked at her consideringly. How quickly she had become attached to Severus. But in his heart, he thought that the girl might be good for the rather grumpy professor. "Very well, Miss Wilson. Being as it is so late, I will inform your teachers that you will not be in classes today and will have Severus's classes canceled for today. Good morning," he said, leaving and placing a ward on the door. Dumbledore hummed all the way back to bed.
Exhausted, Allyna conjured a large, long pillow across the bed, as she was sure Severus would make some big case for impropriety for sleeping in the same bed with a professor. But Allyna was too damn tired to care. She climbed into bed, pulled the blanket over her shoulders and within a breath, was asleep. Several hours later, she awoke to find a pair of black eyes staring at her. Some time while Allyna was sleeping, the pillow had gotten tossed off the bed and Allyna was snuggled against a rather annoyed-looking Potion Master's chest.