Special thanks to everyone who favourited, followed and left a review, you helped me push through when it got difficult, ily: AwesomeFangirlOtaku01, LauraB90, metamorphstorm, Milla Blakemore, Fin0739, Writer of Wonder, JimmyHall24, Alyvia01, Aqua644 (and all the Guest accounts)! Enjoy.
The remainder of Saturday evening was spent pacing up and down the length of his office carpet, agonizing over every conceivable plan the Dark Lord could have for Holly. It was already Sunday morning when Severus finally killed the torches and climbed the hidden spiral staircase leading to his private quarters above his office, his journal pinched under his arm.
Two hours after breakfast, he was roused by a muffled boom of firecrackers resounding through the corridors overhead. It reminded him so much of Weasleys, he was forced to get up.
A dull headache had started to bloom behind his eyes. Severus blamed the inflexibility of the cover of The Heretical Warlock's Handbook to Dream Defences, he had unintentionally utilised as a pillow.
Professor Severus Snape frequently fell asleep reading, only usually it was with lighter stuff – like paperback potion publications or some botanical text. He rolled out of bed, extending his arms above his head in a languid stretch, his left shoulder joint giving a satisfying pop.
Although he was not especially hungry, he knew he would need energy for what he had to achieve today and so summoned a house-elf to bring his standard breakfast of oatmeal with a pinch of salt, two hard-boiled eggs and strong black coffee.
His private quarters and office previously belonged to Professor Swoopstikes and were located in a corner-turret on the castle's eastern face. The rooms were circular with a high, cavernous ceiling. The tower's roof beams would have been shrouded in shadow were it not for a single pin of light shining from a small hole in the centre of the roof. The pin of light was currently resting on the spine of one of the innumerable books crammed into the curved bookcase dominating the entire wall apart from the alcove containing a writing desk and a large stained glass window with an arch leading to the wash closet.
The window of the turret was finely crafted with amber glass disks wrought together with black lead. It was cut into the cliffside a few meters above his office, which was submerged just below the freezing surface of the Lake.
In a rare yellow shaft of late morning sunshine, Severus continued reading at his desk. He could smell damp pine needles through the glass and hear the icy water lapping at the ancient stones of Hogwarts.
He had hoped for a gloriously peaceful weekend, but instead, he got even more to do. And on top of everything, he could not stop mulling over the newest developments brought to light in Holly's last detention.
Shuddering and running his hand through his hair, he remembered with a lurch that he had implied his love for her– albeit cryptically – by admitting he still loved Lily and then continued to provide proof in the form of a corporeal Patronus identical to her own . . .
A moment of weakness with only unpleasant consequences by his calculations.
And then she willingly came to me . . .
Severus traced his lips with an absentminded finger.
It was as if he could still see every detail of the scene: Holly hovering over him, drawing his hands to her face, taking his thumb in her mouth. Half asleep, he had lowered his guard and lost control of the situation. He did not plan to compromise his delicate role in her life by acting on any feelings of attraction, no matter how powerful.
Professors are trusted in positions of authority and, of course, they will sometimes be the objects of student fantasy. It came with the territory. He was both physically and emotionally more mature than her peers and in a position of power. It was natural for Holly to be curious about him, but boundaries were becoming increasingly blurred and he was starting to lose trust in the amount of sheer willpower he had left to fend her off.
Dumbledore clearly overestimated my objectivity. I should involve him immediately.
But the Headmaster was distracted with the Ministry interfering in the School of late. Perhaps it was best not to disturb him until he could produce a written report with progressed evidence and theories.
Besides, he did delegate the safety of Holly's mind to me. I need to take control of whatever this has become.
He evoked again the delicate swell of her lips, her tongue sliding over his skin, slightly sucking… and her green eyes never leaving him.
Severus reread the same two sentences for the fourth time.
"The magician aims to gain full access to the dream plane and to assume control of it. The attempt to do this invariably involves the magician in a deadly and bizarre battle with his own psychic censor –."
He had discovered an impregnable vessel of memories in Holly's mind, sealed with old magics. It was most definitely the Dark Lord's spell work; delicately made and distinctively brilliant. Although Severus was forced to fill in some blanks, he assumed He was using Holly's sleep, the time when she was especially vulnerable, to manipulate her toward some goal. And whatever it was, it was to be avoided at all cost . . .
It would take an equal or greater wizard to break the spell and Severus would never dare consider his abilities equal – never mind superior – to the Dark Lord's own –
Except in my capacity as Occlumens and Legilimens . . . He had proven this without failure to date.
But to break any spell, one must deconstruct it first, which meant extensive research.
Consequently, Professor Snape took a whopping total of two breakfasts and one dinner in the Great Hall from Sunday to Wednesday. He did not talk to anyone outside class hours, avoided the staffroom and spent every other available moment working through a long reading list.
He even paid a Floo-visit to his private library in Spinner's End and pulled down a few texts from the Hogwarts Restricted Section.
By chance, he had found valuable information in a tome bound in human skin from the Hogwarts archives. The Dark Lord's enchantment seemed to be inspired by 'Persephone's Fountainhead', a spell predominantly misused by seventeenth-century Warlocks to stimulate sexual euphoria in others through Legilimency. The question was how the Dark Lord was casting any variation of memory spells at such an impossible distance.
He was all the more certain that establishing the reason for Holly and the Dark Lord's connection was key to solving the riddle. Severus was not surprised that he had been unable to breach the 'stronghold' now that he knew more: Whilst Holly was awake and conscious; she was interfering with the well, keeping it intact. When she slept, it would come undone in her relaxed mind and poison her dreams.
He checked his class schedule for the next day, tapping absentmindedly on the block marked for fifth-year potions after lunch.
666666
Professor Snape stood behind his desk, watching with folded arms as students quietly trickled into his classroom. He waited until the scuffling stopped before flicking his wand at the board, revealing the list of ingredients and detailed instructions to the class.
"I think it appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions."
He was pleased to see a few students looking greener at his mention of their upcoming O.W.L.S.
"Today you will be brewing the Volubilis Potion. Additional information can be found on page eighty-four."
Amidst the noise of handbooks, quills and cauldrons being dragged out onto tables, Severus strode along behind the rows of students.
He made sure to end his round by the Gryffindor table where Holly was paging lazily through her handbook, lucky for her, she had lit her cauldron burner already.
"Miss Potter." She did not flinch at the sound of his cold voice behind her; perhaps she'd been following his progress about the dungeon.
"Fetch the basket of mint sprigs from my stores and hand three to each of your classmates."
She mumbled something that sounded like "Yes, sir" and got up without looking at him.
Choosing not to see it as a slight, he watched as Holly disappeared into the door at the back of the class before following her, doing random check-ups at workstations as he moved toward the storeroom.
Severus blocked the light from the small room as he strode through the doorway. Holly was kneeling on the floor, pulling the basket of fresh mint from a low shelf. She pushed herself up and glanced at him.
She brushed her knees off and he could not help but to look away curtly when she tugged on her skirt, folding the hem down where it had doubled over.
He exhaled through his nose and forced his eyes back to the girl now carrying the basket of strong-smelling herbs on her hip.
"Yes, Professor?" She said softly, looking questioningly up at him.
With a soft rustle of robes, Severus drew close to her, pulling the basket from her grip and speaking in a firm, low voice. "Take this, Princess –"
He placed a new vial of Dreamless Sleep in her hands, his Mark burned red-hot at the contact.
She swept a lock of hair springing loose from a deteriorating braid out of her eyes, and pocketed the bottle.
"Come to my office at nine. I have a plan." He said.
"Nine? Er. Okay. What is it?" She added hopefully.
"I will explain tonight. Bring your cloak and that map you try so hard to hide from me."
His lip curled into a sneer at her expression of falsified confusion.
"Do you still want me to hand out the mint?" She whispered conspiratorially, recovering quickly.
"Of course." He snapped. The basket creaked as he pushed it back into her arms.
He turned, sweeping from the room and letting the light back in.
Holly
He can be such a prick. Holly thought as she held the basket to her chest, facing the empty doorway.
Holly busied herself with making a passable Volubilis Potion for most of the afternoon, finally ladling it into a bottle and taking it to Professor Snape's desk for marks.
She got away with an Exceeds Expectations, because he said it was more orange than the shade of buttery yellow specified in the handbook.
He only glanced at her once as he filled out the rubric.
It was as if the shadows underneath his hard black eyes grew deeper every time she saw him again and she had the sinking feeling it was because of her. She couldn't work out what the wizard was thinking, but she knew that tonight would at least be illuminating.
Holly tried to fit all her emotions into a single smile when he handed her rubric back, but he just called the next student closer.
The rest of the day Holly couldn't seem to get her mind off Professor Snape. He was getting more and more obsessed about the Occlumency-thing and although she wanted Voldemort to stay out of her brain, she still thought it useful to occasionally see inside his. It saved Mr Weasley's life, after all . . . Who knew who else she could help?
It would have been better had Hermoine and Dumbledore not also agreed with Professor Snape though, it only made her feel worse about not really wanting to be a better Occlumens.
In her defence, Holly did learn valuable things during Occlumency so far: like how much easier it was to get information from Professor Snape than it was from Dumbledore, who still had not spoken a word to her almost all year.
She also knew her Professor was 'active' – to whatever degree – in Voldemort's inner circle and that if she was going have to defeat him, there was a lot more she would need to know. Holly had so many questions and nobody had answers. No one but Severus Snape.
It frightened her when she woke up with no recollection of any dreams she might have had, her scar prickling and Hermoine insisting that she'd been hissing things in Parseltongue during the night. It was like she wasn't in control of her own head. Like everything was slowly falling apart since the night in the graveyard.
She held onto the hope that Professor Snape would figure out what was going on and make it stop before Hermoine had to hide another Prophet article covering The Chosen One's mental instability from her.
Holly moved to the common room to finish homework before dinner, but her mind kept wandering.
By the time Ron and Hermoine left for Prefect duty, she was only just starting with Potions homework. Professor Snape had assigned them twelve inches of parchment on the uses of powdered moonstone and reading on maturing processes for a 'spontaneous' pre-holiday class test.
Holly made her letters as big as she could without him noticing and kept a ruler on the parchment, intending to not do an inch more than necessary.
After finishing the essay, Holly started to make her way downstairs. She was just thinking about going to visit Hagrid when Cho rounded the corner a few feet in front of her.
His thick black hair was combed back perfectly as always and he carried a notebook in one hand.
"Holly! Fancy seeing you here, how are you?"
Holly smiled at him uneasily. The last time they spoke was about Cedric, and that wound was still open.
"Hi Cho, I'm fine, thanks. Saw you on the pitch yesterday, you guys are looking good."
"Yeah! We have a strong team this year, we might even beat you guys."
Feeling that the conversation was over, Holly started to push past Cho, but he had other plans.
"Do you want to go for a coffee next Hogsmeade trip?"
At first, she couldn't even think of an answer. The audacity of this boy to ask her out as if he wasn't crying over his ex on her shoulder, just a few days ago.
Did he really think I would say yes again?
"Sorry Cho, but I don't think that will work, if last time was any indication . . . But best of luck on the Quidditch season and have a good night." She didn't mean to sound angry, but she couldn't hide it well enough.
"Look, Holly, I'm sorry about last time. I'm better now, just give me another chance."
"Cho, we both know you're not over him yet, just let this go."
Holly was just past him when his next words made her stop dead at the top of the stairs.
"You really are a bitch. Just be honest and tell me that there's someone else. Who is this secret lover? Maybe it's that Weasley you hang around with. Or is it someone older? Your daddy issues must make the older ones look more tempting?"
Holly tried to hide the fact that Cho had just struck a nerve, but her anger got the better of her.
She gripped her wand handle in her pocket as she turned.
"Just because I reject you, you assume I have 'daddy issues' or that I'm seeing someone else? Have you ever considered that maybe I just don't want to be with you?"
"That's rich coming from you!" Cho gave a cynical laugh. "Not so long ago you were desperate for any kind of attention from me."
Holly felt a terrible rage twisting her gut. Deciding to leave before she gouged his eyes out with her wand, she stormed off.
When she spotted Peeves at the end of the hall, she quickly threw her invisibility cloak over her head. Her hands were already shaking with anger and an argument with a Poltergeist wouldn't help.
Holly didn't think about where her feet were carrying her, so when she stopped in front of the Potion Master's door there was nothing more to do than burst inside.
Professor Snape sat at the table in the corner where she always served detention, scribbling in the margin of a book he was reading.
"Has no one taught you to knock, girl?" He said, not looking up.
"Sorry." Holly whispered. She was far too angry to care if he thought she was being disrespectful.
She pulled off her dad's cloak, regretting upsetting Snape so quickly.
"Close the door." He barked.
She was glad to see his eyes flick up to her now-visible form, as she tucked away the cloak into her bag. Holly ran a hand over the back of her head, trying to flatten her hair.
"You are far too early." He drawled apathetically, his quill still moving deftly between his fingers.
"I know. I just-"
"What's wrong?" He said sharply, looking up at her through the curtains of his hair.
"Nothing!" she said quickly, seeing he was jumping to the worst conclusions. "Just a stupid boy."
Holly could feel a blush creeping up her neck.
"Ah." He sat very still for a second. "Well. They are a waste of time anyway." He cleared his throat. "You have a bright future ahead of you, don't waste it on some idiot."
"If Voldemort doesn't kill me first." His black eyes snapped to hers. She knew how much he hated it when she said that name, but it just slipped out.
Instead of getting angry, Severus sighed deeply and rose from his seat, striding over to a spindly table in the corner.
There he opened a silver tin of powered coffee beans and measured a few heaped spoons into a complicated-looking silver contraption with twisting tubes and a rope fuse he lit with his wand.
Holly watched closely as he worked, as always mesmerised by the meticulous way he seemed to approach every task.
The smell of coffee soon hung in the cold air.
Hesitating before pouring the dark brew into two small cups, he turned to her with an unreadable expression.
"You look like someone who takes milk." He paused, frowning. "Unfortunately, I only have snake milk in my stores. I will have to send for an elf."
Not knowing exactly why, she laughed, the sound ricocheting through the room.
"It's fine. I'd love to know what you like."
She could feel her cheeks warming even before she fell silent.
His brows shot up and he sent one of the steaming cups floating through the air until it hung over the armchair she was starting to see as 'hers'.
She noticed that the chair had been moved closer to the hearth, a grey woollen blanket folded over the armrest.
Holly settled into the seat and snatched the saucer out of the air. She felt his eyes on her as she took a small sip, letting the strong black coffee warm her mouth and knock her breath away.
She grinned up at him as he swept closer with his cup.
"And?" He looked unconvinced. "Do you like what I like?"
"It is quite strong." She decided not to lie. "You don't add milk or sugar?"
Professor Snape sat down gracefully in front of her. "No." He brought with him the smell of fresh ink and coffee.
Holly giggled at his tone and took another sip. "I could have finished your twelve inches on Moonstone quicker with this."
For a long time, they sat in silence like two veterans, each nursing their warm drink.
"We should probably start." He said finally, his cup disappearing into thin air.
When he spoke, Holly realised that when he opened her mind tonight, he would be able to see all her memories of both Cho and Cedric.
"Could I use the Pensieve tonight, sir? Please?"
"There is nothing I should not see at this point, Holly." It looked as though he might apologise but he did not.
"I told you earlier that I have a plan." He steepled his fingers casually. "I have been researching memory enchantments since we last met and determined that my only option is to put you asleep before I enter your mind."
"Is that why you look so tired, Professor?"
His head jerked and he slowly parted his thin lips to retort.
"Thank you. Is what I meant." She added hastily, hoping he would understand.
He closed his mouth and contemplated her for a long while.
Professor Snape then picked up his wand, summoning an elongated vial and holding it out to her. The strip of parchment around the neck read 'Sleeping Draught'.
Of course.
"You need not fear my intrusion. I am not interested in your social endeavours. My purpose is to untangle that spell in your mind." Professor Snape's voice was firm and calm when he said this.
"I know that." Holly squirmed, unsettled by the idea of being defenceless in front of him. "Fine, we can do it."
Sitting forward, she took the slim bottle and flipped it over in her palm before releasing the cork and throwing her head back to swallow the contents.
"So how long does it take to -"
Thank you for reading, friends! I finished baking a STEAMING LEMON PIE for the next chapter and it's practically oozing all over my desktop. Would love to know what you think so far!