Chapter Ten
Danu jerks from her sleep, drenched in sweat with her hair plastered on her face and neck. She does not remember her dream, only the screaming within it. Her heart races and her hands tremble and she tugs the blanket tighter around her body. Nightmares are nothing new to her, she has had them as long as she can remember. She never seems to remember what they are about, only her heart racing after she's jolted awake.
In fact, even in her waking moments, she rarely remembers anything at all from her past. She taught herself many years ago, as a very small child, how to build a wall in her brain to block out and forget any unsavory feelings or memories. It is her own theory that this wall she has created is what helps her forget the dreams, even in her sleep. Of course, she has no way to fully evaluate this theory, as her brain is a mystery even to herself most days.
Today is Saturday, the first weekend in June, and the first day it has not rained in over two weeks. Danu is beginning to get cabin fever. She wanted to visit Professor Sprout, or perhaps Hagrid. But, Sprout is busy with fifth year O. , and Hagrid is to go with McGonagall to take a group of students who failed their apparition exam down to Hogsmeade for a refresher course with the instructor before their make-up exam. Danu wished desperately to take the courses, but she did not have the required 12 Gallons, and does not turn seventeen for another few weeks. With any luck, she can save a bit of her ministry gold and take the course next year.
That leaves her alone. Danu quickly dresses and places the newest book Snape loaned her into her foraging basket and makes her way down to the great hall. Once there, she loads her basket with a few bottles of pumpkin juice, muffins wrapped in waxed paper, and several pieces of fruit from the center of the table. She quickly drinks cup of tea, then slips out before anyone even notices that she was there.
The morning sun warms her to her core as she spreads out beneath a large elm tree on the edge of the Black Lake. She has spread her small feast before her and lays on her stomach in the shade of the tree practicing her non-verbal magic. While first through sixth years are required to use their wands, seventh years must practice non-verbal magic at all times, especially during Charms and Transfiguration. Other students, especially the ones from wizarding families, are at an advantage. They can practice all summer long, Danu on the other hand, cannot. She must perfect this before school lets out in just a few short weeks.
Her biggest issue, she just can't seem to do it, no matter how hard she tries. The most she has been able to do is levitate a teacup a few inches off of a table and light a candle across the room. On the other hand, the other students her age are having full on duels non-verbally. All she wanted to do was turn the damned pumpkin juice bottle into a dragonfly, like she had seen sixth years do every single morning for half of the year. No matter how hard she concentrated and scrunched up her face, she simply could not do it. The most she had been able to achieve was to give the bottle tiny wings.
"What is your wand made of?" She had been so concentrated on the bottle before her that she didn't even notice anyone come up to her. The figure before her blocking the sun was none other than Professor Snape. He seemed to pop up wherever she was more these days.
"Holly, Sir. With unicorn hair core." Danu pulls herself up off of her stomach and sits on her knees before him.
"Hmm. Holly is quite loyal and protective to its owner, pair that with unicorn, which is exceptionally faithful and attached to the owner, the problem does not lie with your wand as I previously believed." Snape stands tall and straight before her with his hands behind his back. She can't see the expression on his face due to the sun behind him, but she can imagine it is an emotionless as ever. Without a word, or even producing his wand, Snape turns the bottle into the dragonfly that she had tried to produce for the better part of an hour. They watch as the dragonfly zooms between them and lands on a leaf floating on the water of the Black Lake.
"Everyone makes it look so easy. I've tried all year and can never do it." Snape says nothing as he looks down at her. "How will I ever pass my N.E.W.T next year if I can't even turn a stupid bottle in to a dragonfly?"
"Start smaller." Snape turns to walk away, his black cloak swirling in the dirt around his feet as he does.
"Can you help me?" Snape stops in his tracks and turns his head towards her.
"I am not, the last I checked, a professor of Charms or Transfiguration." With that, he was gone.
The next several days passed with a blur, and Danu resigned herself to the knowledge that she would simply never be able to do non-verbal magic. Even "starting smaller" as Snape had so helpfully suggested, did no good. All she had managed to do was given an apple a tail in an attempt to turn it into a mouse, and even that small feat took her hours to accomplish.
As she walks in to Snapes office that Tuesday night for their private meeting, she finds him standing in her usual workstation with an extra copper cauldron next to her pewter cauldron. Next to the extra cauldron lies two pairs of dragon-hide gloves and a large bundle of Aconite. Snape stands with his back towards her, grabbing ingredients from the shelves to the front of him. She notices the snake fangs that are already in his hand, and the Billywig stings he grabs next.
"Will we be brewing Wideye Potion tonight, Sir?" she asks, as she places her bag on the stool closest to her and reaches for a pair of gloves.
"You will be brewing Wideye Potion. I have my own potion to brew tonight." Glancing around the room, she notices that Snape has already begun brewing his potion, the ingredients sit in varying degree of preparation. The black quicksilver already pulverized, pickled myrrh laid out and ready to be slivered, and the giant moonwort freshly sliced, the only ingredient remaining was the stewed aconite.
"Wolfsbane Potion?" She asks politely as she makes her way around the room to stand next to Snape.
"You are correct." Snape slips the additional pair of gloves onto his large hands and grabs a small bundle of the aconite; he gestures to her to grab the remaining bundle for her own potion. Knowing that she will not need to add the aconite to her potion for 23 hours, she places her small bundle on a silver try and pushes it to the back of their workstation to remain safely out of the way.
The two of them work in comfortable silence for majority of the evening. Danu's potion bubbles lazily next to her, all she has to do now is clean up her ingredients and come back the following night to finish the potion. She stops to examine Snape for a moment; he is not as bad looking as everyone makes him out to be. She, of course, believed him to be completely vile both inside and out when he made her life hell. Now though, that he seems to be indifferent towards her, he is not the dungeon monster that he is often compared to behind his back. His hair, while seemingly greasy, actually is not. It is sleek and pitch black, giving it the impression of being greasy by candlelight. His skin, while very pale, was not sallow at all. In the correct light, it was actually under-toned in pink and had the tiniest of freckles across the bridge of his nose. The sallow appearance, again, being tricks of the candlelight. Admittedly, his nose remained large and aquiline in nature no matter the light. That is not to say that it was unfortunate, or even unattractive, it fit his face in a sort of way that no other shape would.
Snape continues working in silence, his hands moving gracefully as they reach for each ingredient. He seemed to be comfortable, at peace with his work.
"The wolfsbane potion is for Professor Lupin, isn't it?" She catches a small smirk from the corner of Snape's mouth.
"Some people might take offense to that, Ms. Black." Snape waves his wand over his cauldron and turns to her, a mischievous look in his eye.
"I meant no offense, Sir."
"None taken." He laughs. "How, may I ask, did you come to that conclusion?"
"It is pretty obvious, if one pays attention." Snape raises his brows at her. "Well, for starters, you bring him potions regularly. You taught third years about werewolves when you stood in for him, during the week of a full moon. His Boggart took the form of a full moon when he taught Riddikulus. And last, but certainly not least, he cancels class the morning after every full moon."
"I must admit, Ms. Black, you are far brighter than I gave you credit for." Danu blushes at his compliment and looks down at the floor. "Are you not afraid?"
"Not necessarily. You brew his potion, obviously. Dumbledore would not allow him around hundreds of children if he believed there to be a threat, would he? Plus, I haven't seen an influx of werewolf children each month." She meant this last part to be a joke.
"Professor Dumbledore allows a lot, Ms. Black." Snape says, with a sigh as he turns back to his cauldron.