Severus and Allyna stared at each other, their breathing still harsh. "Severus?" she said again, even softer this time. His black eyes were wide, dazed and a sense of shame flowed through him. It had only been a dream, right? He looked at her. "What the hell was that!?" he exclaimed.
Allyna blushed and sat up, her legs folded under her, a pillow held against her chest and her chin leaning it. "H...have you ever heard of Dreamweavers, Severus?"
"That's Professor Snape to you, Miss Wilson. And no, I can't say as I am familiar with the term." he glared at her.
Allyna sighed and looked into his eyes. "Among my Mother's people, there are those whose abilities are beyond even the strongest of the others with their healing and earth-nurturing. They are Dreamweavers. They can enter the dreams of others, and...change them."
"Change them? Is that what you did with my memory. My dream?" he asked. She nodded.
"I'm sorry Professor. I can assure you, I had no control over it," she said, her cheeks pink.
"Why, because you're untrained?" He asked harshly.
"No, because Dreamweaving has never been a gift in my family line. I've never Dreamed with anyone before," she said, her voice soft and Severus could hear the tinges of worry in it. She cleared her throat, "Dreamweavers are highly prized and value in my Mother's culture. Teenagers who show the trait are take and trained vigorously. They are often asked to help healers, to slip into the mind of those who need healing of a different sort. A trained Dreamweaver can erase years of trauma with a single dream. They can help to alleviate guilt, fix the wounds of the past, help heal a loss. I've never known one, though. My father kept me away from my Mother's people as much as possible after he killed her."
"So it was a memory then, not just a dream?" Severus asked, thoughtful.
Allyna nodded. "He obliviated me, but he didn't know that when I turned thirteen and became a healer that the enchantments he'd used would be negated. I remembered immediately and was horrified. After that night, he became the perfect man, perfect, if indifferent, father. He was seeking a position of power, you see, and everything had to appear perfect. I was only too happy to keep up the premise. I don't know if he still abuses anyone, but I have my suspicions. Several young muggle women who look vaguely like my mother disappear every time we have moved. But unfortunately, I have to evidence to support it and so I can't do more than hope it's not him."
Severus felt a small bit of rage in his guts for this brilliant, sensitive woman who lived with such fear. She knew as well as he did that at any moment, her father could snap. He could decide that she looked so much like her mother that she had to be eliminated. If he found out that she knew the truth of what she'd done, she'd be eliminated. No wonder she felt so safe at Hogwarts. As it had been a sanctuary for him as a boy and later a young man, it was a sanctuary for her as well. A place she felt safe.
Severus sighed and looked at the clock. "There's a few more hours before we must rise, Allyna. Sleep for now. We'll speak again this evening at our lessons. He was astonished at the power of her smile. He looked at her questioningly.
"I was afraid that you would want to cancel them, now that you know about me," she said simply.
He smirked. "You'd have to try a lot harder than that to get out of those lessons, young lady. Rest now. "
She nodded and let herself slump to her side, placing the pillow under her head, pulling the blanket around herself and closing her eyes. Within a few moments he heard her breathing slow and deepen. She was asleep. He stood and walked on silent feet to her bookshelf. He was surprised at some of the titles, Moste Potent Potions, Ganymede's, and smirked when he saw a popular muggle book from his own school years. Interview with the Vampire. He sat down and lit the candle closest to him on the nightstand and opened the book, letting it pull him into a mysterious world of vampires.
He closed the book two hours later when he heard her whimper. He stood over her bed, before sitting at the edge. Her face was distorted in fear and anger. "Allyna, wake up," he said softly. Her head began to thrash from side to side so hard that he was afraid she'd injure her spine. He shook her lightly. Nothing. Finally he leaned over her and whispered into her ear. "Allyna, you're safe. It's only a dream," she began to still, but her face was still fearful. Severus sighed, wishing he could take that fear away. Without conscious though, his long fingers stroked over her cheek. He gasped when she seemed to try to nuzzle into his hand. As he stroked her cheek, her face softened and cleared of fear. He stood to leave, but something made him feel impulsive and leaned quickly and kissed her forehead. "Sleep well, Allyna," he whispered before walking to the fireplace and flooing to his own office.
He berated himself as he showered and dressed. It was entirely unlike him to spend time with a student. It was a scandalous idea to kiss a student. Especially a sleeping student. Especially a sleeping student who wasn't aware that he'd spent the better part of two hours staring at her instead of reading a book that normally gripped and held his attention.
He sighed and combed out his hair, looking into the mirror. He was disgusted with himself. What would someone as beautiful as the girl in that bed ever see in a man like him? Not only was he many years her senior, he was ugly, his nose was too big, he was pale and sallow. His hair looked greasy from spending hours bent over cauldrons. And he was an asshole, to boot. He didn't beat around the bush about it. He knew very well that he was snarky, his temper short and he had a tendency to lash out at the least little thing that got on his nerves. How was he supposed to face her for potions twice today? First with first fourth year Ravenclaws. God help him, she was going to be in a room with that lunatic Lovegood girl. And again later with first year Hufflepuffs.
He left his quarters and headed for the Great Hall. He hoped to catch a glimpse of her, even though he was constantly putting himself in danger every time he did so. And even though he kept telling himself that fact over and over again. If the Dark Lord ever saw her in his mind...he shuddered to think. He would try to acquire her for her power. If she rejected him, he would end her, pure and simple. And worse, he would most likely make Severus destroy her himself. He gripped his fork harder, stabbing a sausage as if it were the offensive thought.
"Good morning, Severus," Dumbledore said, a twinkle in his eyes.
Severus had a sudden urge to stab him as he had the sausage. Interfering old bastard. Instead he inclined his head politely. "Headmaster," he said, before turning to apply himself to his breakfast. His eye was caught by a blonde head entering the room. He watched Allyna furtively as she headed for the Slytherin table. As before, everyone moved away from her. He thought his ears caught several slurs thrown at her, the least of which was "Blood-traitor". But she said and did nothing, simply pulling a few bites of scrambled eggs and a couple of sausages and slices of toast onto her plate. She ate swiftly, as if in a hurry to get away.
Suddenly there was laughter and Severus and the rest of the teachers looked up to see that Draco Malfoy's constant companion, the twit Pansy Parkinson, was standing behind Allyna with a smirk on her face. She had dumped an entire pitcher of thick, sticky maple syrup onto Allyna's head. It dripped and dribbled down the girl's face and over her uniform. "Miss Parkinson! That's 25 points from Slytherin!" Minerva shouted out. The Slytherins booed and hissed, but Parkinson merely shrugged and sat down, laughing with Draco and his friends, miming the pouring of the syrup.
Minerva stood and walked over to Allyna, who Severus could tell was so mad that she wasn't thinking straight. Minerva helped the girl to her feet and escorted her back to her room to clean up and change, since Allyna had Minerva for Transfiguration first class.
Allyna was positively fuming. The nerve of that stupid girl, pouring syrup on her! If the stupid wench hadn't been so busy laughing, she would have seen Allyna's eyes glowing a pale blue and her palms glowing as well. Allyna had clenched her hands closed. People often forget that the ones who know how to put you together also know how to take you apart. She had seen what had happened to a healer whose anger overtook him. Just once.
Allyna shuddered as she remembered, when she was twelve, a man had killed the wife and son of a healer. The healer had stalked the man until he'd relaxed his guard and had been laughing in a bar with his friends over the murder. The healer had warded the doors closed and had slowly driven everyone in the room mad with pain. Then, using his power, the healer had pressed his hands against the murderer and inflicted every wound and pain that had been bestowed upon the murdered woman and child. There had been not a single unbroken bone or a stretch of skin that hadn't been bruised or sliced.
She let Professor McGonagall escort her to her room, where Allyna turned the shower as hot as she could stand it and spent fifteen minutes washing and rewashing her hair until every single trace of syrup was removed. While the water flowed over her, she let the tears flow with it. It was safe to cry here, in the privacy of her own bathroom. But she would not cry for Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy. Finally, she cried herself out, washed her face and dried herself off. She pulled on her clean set of school dress robes and uniform.
She glared at herself in the mirror. So, Pansy thought she was the hottest girl in the entire school? Well, Allyna though, it's time for a little competition. Allyna worked swiftly, pulling her hair back in soft waves down her back, her hair pulled back to frame her face. She didn't bother with foundation, her skin was perfect. She used eyeliner in deepest black to allow her eyes to truly stand out, a few flicks of a mascara wand and her eyes were wide and flirty. She slicked on pale rose lipstick and blush, completing her makeup.
She clipped long diamond drops to her ears, showing off the length of her throat. She grinned and used her wand to tighten her top a little so that her breasts were more prominent. She transfigured her shoes into thick-heeled pumps which made her legs look longer. Finally, she spritzed on a sexy, alluring perfume. She gave herself a once-over in the tall mirror and smirked. They wouldn't know what hit them. She grabbed her bookbag and left her room, it clicking into "locked" mode behind her, the wards powerful.
She made her way to class, catching male eye after male eye, on her way to Transfiguration with Pansy's classmates. She opened the door and walked to her desk at the front of the classroom. She heard many gasps and "Wow!"s She grinned evilly to herself when she heard Pansy's shriek as Draco's eyes followed Allyna. Mrs. McGonagall seemed to understand exactly what Allyna was doing and Allyna would have sworn she saw Minerva wink at her. She chuckled to herself when Minerva called Allyna to the front of the class to help her with the lesson.
"Miss Wilson, can you show the class how to turn this pumpkin juice into wine. The spell is "Vina permina"."
Allyna nodded and stood there smiling at Minerva for a moment before speaking a very clear voice to be heard. "Vina permina!" and with a touch of her wand to the cup, the pumpkin juice shimmered and began to swirl into a deep, fine, rich red wine.
"Well done, Miss Wilson," Minerva praised. She picked up the glass and took a sip. "And a fine vintage, as well, Miss Wilson. Five points to Slytherin."
While the rest of the class began to work on their Transfiguring, Allyna sat and read. When the hour was up, only Hermione had managed to change the juice to wine, but hers was rather weak and tasteless. It was petty that Allyna was happy about that, but it made her feel better. Allyna gathered her books and head to Potions with her new friend Luna. She sat beside the girl everyone considered strange, not noticing how they stared at Allyna herself.
They all considered her so strange: wildly beautiful, but not condescending. Older than all of them, already of age for more than a year, but wishing to continue her studies farther than any of them, except for perhaps Granger, would ever want to. And she was always, always infinitely kind. She spoke to Luna Lovegood as if they had been friends for years and seemed to take in stride every odd thing the girl would say. And in fact would often stop Luna for a second to interject a thought of her own as to the weird animals and creatures Luna professed to see.
Suddenly the door slammed open and Severus entered the room. Luna jumped a little and nearly fell from her stool, but Allyna quickly steadied her. Words began to appear on the board, and Allyna smiled when she saw they were going to be making a bruise potion for the hospital wing. The bruise potion was quite simple, really, compared to many others. And Ravenclaws were smart students, there would be few accidents today. Suddenly her name was called. "Miss Wilson?"
Allyna had to force herself not to shiver at his voice. Severus crooked his finger at her and she hurried to his desk. He handed her a piece of paper. "This is the potion you'll be working on. It's a variation of the bruise potion, but stronger." Allyna nodded and smiled. "Yes, professor."
Allyna went to the supply cupboard to get her ingredients, humming to herself without realizing it. She took her ingredients back to the desk she shared with Luna. Luna noticed the ingredients were different. "What's that?" She asked. Allyna looked up from her sheet and smiled. "It's the same potion, just stronger."
Luna smiled and nodded, and went back to her own potion. Allyna began to measure, crush and chop her own ingredients, adding them to the cauldron. An hour later, the cauldron was bubbling with a brilliantly-blue potion. She felt rather than heard Severus come up behind her. He leaned over and sniffed the potion. "Well done, Miss Wilson," he approved, nodding at her.
She gave him a brilliant smile that mentally kicked him backwards. "Thank you, Professor Snape." she said politely.
"I'd like to see you after class, Miss Wilson," he said and walked away, leaving Allyna wondering what he wanted. When class ended and all the students were leaving, Allyna began to pack her bag and get ready for a free period. The door closed suddenly, drawing her gaze and she nearly jumped out of her skin when she realized Severus was beside her. How had he moved so quietly?!
"Miss Wilson, I'd like an explanation," Severus said, his eyes glinting dangerously.
"P..professor?" she asked, startled.
"Your appearance, Miss Wilson. This is entirely unlike you, you know?" he said, waving his hand up and down to make his point. He watched her blush deep red.
"Oh. Yes, professor, it is." she sighed. She peeked up at him and crossed her arms over her chest, unconsciously making Severus even more aware of her breasts. As if I hadn't been already with that outfit, he thought. "I was angry this morning after the incident with Pansy and the syrup. So I figured if she's so insecure, I'd give her something to be insecure about," she explained, and it rang with the truth.
Severus smiled. "You truly are a Slytherin, aren't you?"
She grinned at him, and it nearly took his breath away. "The sorting hat put me in Slytherin for a reason, Professor, and not just because I wanted to study Ptions with you," she said, making him look at her in surprise before she left. She realized the door was locked and looked at him and smirked. She raised her wand, "Alohomora!" she said out loud. Even with one of his strongest protections on it, the door swung wide and Allyna smiled and waved at him as she walked out of the door, leaving him stunned.