CW: Disturbing imagery

You get a point for every reference you catch ;P

I really need to stop waking up here.

Not that the hospital wing is a particularly bad place, it's more the connotations of why Melissa was there. Today held that feeling in particular, as she didn't actually know the reason this time.

"Good morning, Miss Bennett." The matron approached her.

"Good morning, Madam Pomfrey." She gave the woman a wry smile. "So, how am I feeling today?"

The woman huffed. "That depends. What is the last thing you remember?"

"Well… I had dinner. Studied for my exams. Then I went up to my room and meditated a bit, and…" I opened a door… She shuddered slightly at the memory. "That's about it."

Madam Pomfrey tutted at the answer. "So you have no memories after Tuesday?"

"No?" The question confused her. "Why? What day is it?"

"Saturday." She answered, much to the girl's alarm.

"I've been asleep for three whole days?"

"No… not exactly. I'm afraid you were under a curse of some sort. It was affecting your ability to speak and act appropriately, though I'm not quite sure how you recovered. Perhaps it simply faded after Professor Quirrell… no matter. You will need to remain in bed for today. I need to ensure that there aren't any lingering effects."

"Um, okay." Melissa blinked dumbly. "Wait, what does this have to do with Professor Quirrell?"

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips slightly, and sighed at the inevitability of the question. "I will explain in a moment; but, first, I need to run some tests."

When Melissa finished her lunch, she was glad to hear that a visitor had come to visit.

Well, glad was probably not the right word for it.

"So." She began sharply. "A gryffindor, a hufflepuff, and a slytherin walk into a trap." She looked at Harry square in the eye, her finger tapped lightly against her crossed arms. "I'd say that sounds like the start of a joke, but the punchline isn't all that funny."

Harry, to his credit, didn't let her tone phase him. "In that case, have you heard the one about about the slytherin who got kidnapped by Voldemort?"

"I have. Not a very fun joke."

Oddly, Harry smiled slightly. "Did you hear the part where she spat on his face?"

Melissa gaped at him like a codfish. "I did that?"

"Among other things." Harry shrugged. He walked over and sat at her side. "I take it that you're mad at me for rescuing you?"

She glared at him, but Harry simply kept that cheeky smile on his face. "Or maybe, just maybe, I'm mad at you for going down the dangerous obstacle course after I told you not to worry about it. Twice, so I've been told."

"Well I did, and you should be grateful. Honestly, if anyone ought to be apologizing, it's you."

"Me? What did I do?"

Now it was Harry's turn to look unimpressed. "First, you knew Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort and that they were going after the philosopher's stone, and didn't tell anyone."

Melissa sputtered at the reveal, but acted quickly. "Well he wasn't going to get i-"

"Two." Harry interrupted. "You knew about my mom's protections, didn't tell me, and shoved my hand on Voldemort's face." Melissa looked at him with wide-eyed shock. Then her lips pressed into a thin line, threatening to turn upwards as she tried to stifle laughter. After a couple of snorts, Harry spoke again. "That wasn't funny. It hurt a lot."

At once her fist covered her mouth, more audible laughter coming through. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, but…. Hihihihihihihihi! I shoved your hand in his FACE!" She curled in on herself in quiet laughter.

"...Glad to see you enjoy hurting me."

"I'm sorry." It sounded disingenuine with the fading laughter. "I didn't realize that would hurt you. I thought it just burns him?"

"It burned him and hurt me."

"Aw, man, hih, I'm sorry about that one, then. That's on me."

"Okay." He didn't sound too impressed with her, but let the matter slide. "So, then there's three-"

"Wait, wait, can I ask a question?" Her hands waved frantically in a stopping motion.

Harry groaned. "Fine."

"Since you touched his face… how come Quirrell didn't die right then? Madam Pomfrey says he died the next morning?"

Harry looked at her strangely. The obvious question of "Was she trying to get me to kill him" clearly on his mind. "Professor Dumbledore says that he died after Voldemort abandoned him."

"So he's still out there." It was more matter-of-fact than a question.

"He is."

Melissa groaned and leaned into her pillow. "Ugh, damn, opportunity lost. Guess no one was around to see him still being possessed?"

"Just me, Ron, Barbary, Dumbledore, and I guess you, but that doesn't really count."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." She muttered sarcastically. "If I get my memories back I can totally make a statement to the aurors about it."

Harry opened his mouth to answer, closed it, then opened it again. "Melly, do you not remember how you've been acting the past three days?"

"...I was babbling a lot and dancing around, right?" Harry seemed too embarrassed to answer. The look forced her to sit back up, twisting to face him. "Harry… what did I do?"

"Well…" He lifted a finger for each answer, "you told Draco that he was "funny as a ferret" as if he's ever been one, told Hermione that she has a "paper doll mouth", and dragged Ron around the room while singing the Mr Whippy jingle. Later you told the Headmaster that he should…" Harry groaned, his face flushing. "...told him that he should find a nice boy and get laid."

Melissa put her hands over her mouth. "Oh my god! I didn't?"

"You also kept calling him Socks for some reason. Oh, and then you grabbed me and refused to let me go until I promised to give someone named Dobby a sock."

Melissa bit her lower lip. She was already expecting her own funeral after all of this. "Anything else I should know?"

"Well, I've been told that you accused Cedric of being a sparkly vampire." That one made Melissa snicker slightly. "You also somehow managed to put Snape in a hospital bed for a few hours."

"Wait, WHAT?" That had her straighten at attention.

"That's what I heard. I'm not sure how you did it; but yesterday he came to the hospital wing to check the potions stock, and was found unconscious next to your bed."

Melissa was flabbergasted. "How did he-? What? None of that makes sense!"

"I know, and everyone else is wondering about it, too." He commented. "Snape was so mad about it he actually docked 30 points from Slytherin."

Well, it's official, Melissa's a dead girl walking. What the hell did I do? She was completely at a loss for words. Slowly, she sank back down onto the bed. Then lifted the covers over her face.

"Melly?"

"It's over. I'm dead. Wake me up in the next life."

"Would it make you feel better that he gave Barbary 50 points for saving us?"

The figure under the sheets didn't answer at first. "I still cost 30 points. I beat the record. I told Dumbledore to get laid. Who knows what I did to Snape?"

She couldn't see Harry's face anymore, but he did sound hesitant. "You know you'll have to come out eventually."

"No. It's over. There's no good reason to ever show my face in public again."

"...Not even for the exams on Monday?"

"..."

"..."

"FUUUUU-"

*Two Days Ago*

"You're sure?" Severus asked the headmaster. Despite his grudging respect for the old man, he had to admit that this idea sounds far fetched.

"I cannot guarantee it," Albus admitted, "but some of the young girl's remarks were… uncomfortably accurate, when looked at from the correct angle."

Severus pondered the idea over for a moment. "I doubt in her current state that Bennett will be able to confirm much of anything, Headmaster."

"Perhaps not with words. However, I am more interested in her thoughts, and memories."

*One Day Ago*

Severus excused his presence in the hospital wing with ease, and Madam Pomfrey was more than happy to inventory her potions stock while he waited. With her out of the way, he approached Bennett's bed and closed the curtain. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the girl was well awake and regarding him with an empty-headed smile.

"Miss Bennett."

"Sheriff." Her smile then twitched to a frown. "Or is it Hans? No, no, I know this one…" Her hand smacked twice against her forehead, in an effort to remember. Her head tilted downward in the action.

Severus sneered at the nonsense, though perhaps insanity could excuse the dreaded nickname the Weasley boys called him by. "Miss Bennett." He said firmly. "I need you to recall the events surrounding Professor Quirrell, and his involvement with the Dark Lord."

"Squirrel wanted to roller skate." She babbled.

Severus fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Miss Bennett, I have a way to recover the events of two nights past. Now, I will count to three, and when I do-"

"There will not be a four." Her head bobbled, the words in a mocking mimicry of his voice.

His sneer twitched distastefully. He was getting nowhere with this child. Still, some amount of cooperation will ease his efforts. "Girl, I will be entering your mind to see what has occurred. Now, you will cease your incessant rabble and show me what I need to see. Do you understand?"

Despite its downward turn, the girl's head cocked with her right ear turned upwards. Slowly, she turned to face him. Her narrowed eyes regarded him in what he hoped to be a lucid moment of comprehension. "You know, for a guy who was bullied most of his life, you sure are a complete ass to children."

The pointed comment surprised him. Still, Severus schooled his expression. It appears that Dumbledore suspicions may have more foundation than he thought. He tucked the disrespectful comment to the back of his mind and produced his wand. Willing eye contact was close enough. "Legillimens."

In a swirl of magic, Severus found himself within a bedroom. Old stone walls, green bed sheets, five beds -ah- a dorm room. He eyed the surroundings suspiciously. This isn't right. An untrained mind is meant to be a wild wind of memories, without physical manifestation. The girl knows occlumency. That considered, the room was not well organized. An assortment of crystal balls floated about or lay on the floor or on cushioned pedestals. One, in fact, was floating out the door, as if rolling down the stairs. He walked further, emerging into the Slytherin common room. Around him, voices whispered. In some instances, soft music played. He gandered at one of the crystal balls, an image of four children of varying ages played in a park. In another, a young Bennett was practicing on the viola. He scanned the crystal balls, searching for hints. He reached over to grab a ball passing by.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

Severus turned at once, wand out. A man sat, lounging on a high-back chair. A strange figure, no doubt, with one eye bright blue and the other dark, and a mass of blond hair. He bore no resemblance to the girl, though the combination of fanciful cape, sickle shaped pendant, and obscenely tight trousers would suggest someone of mixed heritage. "Who are you?"

"Wrong question." The man replied casually.

Severus regarded the man with only a flicker needed to process his words. "I suppose you want me to ask "what" are you, but it's rather obvious that you are some form of defence system meant to guard the mind."

The man's face grew mockingly cheerful. "You're brighter than you look, but you're only half right. My task is to arrange the girl's memories, and provide feedback, as necessary."

Severus sneered at the figure. He clearly is a failure of the girl's imagination considering the state of this place. "Then you would know which of these is the memory of the kidnapping?"

The apparition raised his unusual brows and looked disdainfully in another direction. "Those thoughts have been divided already, and sent to the lower levels."

"Lower levels?" He followed the other man's gaze until it caught onto an anomaly. A door beside the fireplace that does not exist in the real common room. He approached the door, pulling at it. The door refused to budge.

"You must ask it to open as a Slytherin would."

Severus considered the guide for a moment, and began to recite a series of common slytherin passwords. Still, the door refused to open.

"As I said. As a Slytherin would."

Severus glared at the door. "I have no time for riddles." Instead, he merely blasted the door open. He can repair it later once he has the information he needs. For now, he has more important things to do.

Severus panted heavily against the fourth door. Biting down on the sleeve of his cloak, he pulled the second dagger from his shoulder and let it clatter on the floor. He was sick of this place. Absolutely bloody sick of it! He has been stabbed by an interpretation of a norse god, had a duel against a gold-skinned fable, and been shot in the bloody leg by some smirking muggle bitch! At least with the muggle he was able to retrieve fragments of the memories, but then the bitch smiled darkly and informed him that the rest was in the fifth layer. The fifth layer. So not only is the girl insane, she's also a complete and utter idiot!

When the last dagger was removed, Severus staggered to his feet. One more layer. Just one more layer and he will be done with this madhouse! He blasted the door open and stepped through.

At once, his feet fell from under him. Severus found himself floating in ...it couldn't be called a room. All around him was an expanse. A world of colour and incomprehensible pigments swirled about. Crystal balls and coloured bubbles floated by without pattern. Over him, a strange sun burned.

He moved in swim-like motion towards a crystal ball. His hand was just about to touch the one closest to him. Then the sun went dark.

"Well, well, well, well, well, well, well!" A shrill, distorted voice called out. Severus looked up, to where the sun had gone out. The sun then twisted, spun, until it looked back at him with a cat-like slit of a pupil. Suddenly the sky shifted. A triangle glowed around the eye-like sun. Solidified. It ripped from the fabric of the void, sprouting arms and legs and… a top hat?

"Well looky who it is! Severus Snape! I didn't expect to see you here for at least three more years."

A strange, ethereal fear shivered up his spine; but it was foolish to have that emotion against an illusion. "You know who I am?"

"Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!" The strange, triangular figure jittered up and down in glee. "Yessir I do! Severus Snape, the doe, the traitor, the Half-Blood Prince, King of the Incels -what with your crazy obsession over a dead girl." The figure rolled its eye. "Man, you really need to get laid. Don't you know it's bad to keep jizz corked up that long? Or are you planning on putting Lightning Bolt in a red wig one night and just going for it?"

Disturbed. That was the sensation. A completely appropriate one in this case. There is no reason for it to call him by his teenage moniker. Whatever this creature is, it is dangerous . "And who are you supposed to be?"

"Me?" Its body floated into a backflip. "I'm just your friendly neighbourhood nightmare. The name's Bill Cipher. Here, have some bats for hair!"

Every hair suddenly stood on end. His entire skull quivered, with every strand its own miniature earthquake. Before he could even comprehend it, live bats sprouted from his head. They flew about, screeching into the void. Leaving him completely bald and entirely unnerved. He fought through the emotion, firing a curse at the figure. Only for the figure to shift its body so that it had a hole in the middle, allowing the spell to fly through it.

"OoOOOoo! Look at you! Trying to be all tough with your little magic stick. Pfft! Humans using magic. How adorable!"

"My 'little magic stick' has brought down the rest of Bennett's defences. You don't stand a chance."

The figure chuckled. Then he cackled loudly. "Oh that's precious! You think I'm the same as them." It floated down to be at eye level with Severus. Its expression was playfully uncaring. "Sure, don't get me wrong, technically the kid did bring us here. But this place doesn't follow the same rules as the other parts of the brain." The creature, Cipher, leaned his body into a lounging position and floated around him in a circle. "Everybody else is just a boring guard dog. They keep people out, give a bit of snark, and that's about it. Me, though, Quaver and I have an arrangement. I get to warp this place however I see fit, and the only rules are that I don't do anything to her stupid little memories, and wreak havoc on anyone dumb enough to try and look at them." His singular eye furrowed menacingly at him. "And she did say AⁿyoNₑ!

A beam of bright blue light shot out from Cipher. It struck Severus, propelling him backwards. He twisted his body upward, shooting the monster with a curse. It dodged it. Laughing cruelly.

"Come on, Doe, is that all you got!" Cipher swept a hand across. At first Severus saw nothing as a result, only to notice two coloured bubbles at the last moment flying towards him. One brushed past his leg. It didn't hurt, per se. Though he felt an odd sensation like it had transfigured in form. The bubble passed, and the leg was normal. Then another went through him entirely. His body unravelled. Skin and vein and flesh and bone dispersed. His eyes twisted in all directions, unhindered by eyelids. Somehow, his body managed to scream.

The bubble passed, and he was whole once again. He gasped. Convulsed under the terror of the sensation.

I have to leave!

But this mind is layered. The safest way out is UP! He struggled, propelling himself in retreat to the entrance. Then strange tentacles enveloped him as Bill floated to him, face-to-face. "Leaving so soon?" Severus gulped unintentionally. The monster seemed to enjoy his fear. "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk." He shook the upper tip of his triangle. His voice, mocking. "Not even a minute and you're already running away. Can't imagine how you'll last another six years with Ouroboros around when you break so easily."

"Wha- What are you talking abo-"

"Whoop-sie!" It looked up innocently. "Guess that was a little "TMI" for you. But don't you worry. By the time I'm done with you, Ouroboros won't have anything left to play with!"

This is bad. No, not bad… Severus tried to dampen his fear ...it's gone on long enough! It doesn't matter the risk. Nothing could be more dangerous than staying here any longer! Collecting his will, his emotions, his sense of self, he twisted his mind with an order and RIPPED!

*That night*

Severus marched up to Dumbledore's office. Not caring to knock, he blasted passed the door so hard it swung against the wall.

Dumbledore looked up from his desk in alarm. "Severus?"

Severus didn't slow his pace. He got right up to the desk. His hands slammed down on the desk. His arms trembled. His breath was ragged. Just moments before, Poppy had insisted he remain in the hospital wing; but, from the moment he woke, there was no way he could possibly stay in that place any longer.

"Never, and I mean never, have me go inside that girl's head again!"

"I don't understand. What happened? What did you see?"

"Things I never wish to see again." He repressed the urge to shudder. "That foul little creature has conjured demons to guard her mind!"

"Demons, Severus?" Dumbledore couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "Surely you are exaggerating a child's imagination-"

"I don't care what you think of it, and I don't care to explain!. All that matters is that I will never endure a nightmare like that again!"

Dumbledore allowed the man's anger and, dare he say fear, to percolate in understanding. "Very well, Severus. I promise you that I will not ask this of you again." He waited a moment. "Were you at all able to discover her memories of that night, and of any seer abilities?"

Severus huffed, with an air of disgust. "That girl knows things. Things she shouldn't. Though I doubt she can recall any of her predictions, if you ask. She's damaged her mind too severely for it to be otherwise."

Dumbledore nodded sadly. "How terrible could these visions be?"

"Whatever they are," Severus thought with disturbed bitterness, "she considers them secrets worth protecting, even at the cost of her own sanity."