Severus could sense something was off as he sat at his desk, almost enjoying the blissful quiet, free of dunderheaded children for the weekend.

He'd assigned all of his detentions to Filch — who was particularly ornery since contracting a nasty flu — which left Severus time to work on a prototype of a potion he'd been researching. He barely had any time to himself since term had begun and this weekend would be the first time since summer that he could focus on the only thing that mattered – creating something that would protect Miss Evans. He'd spent the majority of the week prior following the girl from a distance, gauging Lockhart's interest and whether or not it was going to become a problem. He must have caught wind that something was stirring amongst the staff on the matter because he had acted normal — or as normal as the Narcissus-wannabe could be.

This had finally freed up the sliver of free time Severus rarely got to himself. He tried desperately to keep himself busy, the quiet the only time he was alone with his guilt. He could push it away, though, let the Occlumency hold it at bay if he was doing it to assuage himself. Severus even planned to discuss his intentions with Dumbledore, who, despite being maddeningly cryptic on these matters, would be able to tell Severus if what he proposed was even possible.

Severus knew that it was too good to be true when he heard several noises from beyond his classroom door, which one of the cretins had left open a crack. Almost as if she knew, Severus heard the girl's voice in the distance, carrying itself in the form of an echo.

"I can't believe you — I told you not to!" Miss Evans' voice said, sounding terrifyingly Granger-esque from the dark hallway.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea —" Granger's voice replied fretfully.

"Do you have a better one?" Miss Evans demanded, sounding both exasperated and frantic.

"I am not going to Snape for help —" Weasley-twerp's voice protested, and then there was an awful retching sound, followed by the girls letting out yelps of panic. "Do you lot have to do that every time?"

"That's right, you're not, I am." Miss Evans sounded exhausted. "It's either this or everyone in the school sees you spewing slugs from here all the way to the Hospital Wing."

Whatever Weasley-twerp had done, Severus had decided as soon as he'd heard the little shit speak that he wouldn't be getting involved. He was still furious about the damn car, whatever trouble they'd gotten into, they could deal with it themselves. This was outside of his duties regardless, if something had happened to Weasley-twerp, they needed to go to Minerva, not Severus. The very idea of Gryffindors coming to him for help would break the minds of other students, they're little brains barely functioning as it was.

From outside his door there came the sound of nervous shuffling. Severus wished he had a trap door that would launch them into the depths of the castle. The dungeons were full of snares, it was a sin that his own classroom was not equipped. Perhaps if he did so without Dumbledore knowing –

"Let me go in first." Miss Evans said in what Severus could tell she thought was a whisper but carried through the door like she'd shouted it. The girl wouldn't last two seconds as a spy.

Weasley-twerp retched again before something went splat against the stone floor. "I told you already, I'm not taking anything that greasy git gives me!"

"Ron!" Granger snapped.

"Just stay here, okay?" Miss Evans pleaded. "I'll be right back, just give me a minute."

Severus massaged his temple forcefully as the door slowly creaked open. It was almost comical how slowly she did so, as if every second it took wasn't plying into his brain like a screwdriver. Children were so moronically indecisive in the simplest of things – except when Miss Evans put herself in danger. Then she did so with a determination that was unbending.

She poked her head inside, looking relieved when she saw him sitting behind his desk. His glare had no effect on her whatsoever as she stepped inside.

"What?" he grouched, annoyed beyond belief by the interruption.

Miss Evans rolled her eyes. "Nice to see you too."

He thought about throwing her out, but she would be cross with him. "What is it, Miss Evans?"

"Ron is vomiting slugs." she announced.

He stared at her, unphased. "And?"

"I need your help."

Severus went back to writing, hoping his indifference would deter her. "Take him to Pomfrey."

"C'mon," she begged, walking further into the room. "He's mortified —"

Weasley-twerp gave a cry of outrage from the other side of the door. "No I am — blurgh –"

"And we'd have to take him all the way back upstairs." Miss Evans put her hands on her hips, challenging him. "You've got to have a Potion to help."

Severus covered half his face with his hand. "Why is Weasley vomiting slugs?"

Her expression darkened. "Because Malfoy Hexed him." she opened the door and Granger and Weasley-twerp walked inside, a bucket in the boy's hands. If Severus hadn't known better, he might've thought Granger had a wand to the boy's back.

His eyes narrowed. "You had better not have retaliated."

"I didn't, actually." Miss Evans lifted her chin proudly. "I should have, though, but the slugs were getting everywhere. Hard to concentrate on fighting back with all that going on."

Severus felt like putting his head through a wall. "Do I want to know what happened?"

Weasley-twerp retched again before he growled: "Malfoy called Hermione a Mudblood —"

Miss Evans shot him a look of panic that Severus almost did notice. Something was rioting inside of him, something shameful and irrevocable, cutting through his Occlumency like a blade. He could feel it burning a path from his head to his sternum. Around them, bottles began to rattle.

I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her

I will spare the Mudblood for you, as a reward

You've chosen your way and I've chosen mine

I may be a Mudblood but I'm not stupid

Not even being a Death Eater?

"Do not," he said, his voice dangerously low, the swell of each syllable rising like a tidal wave. "use – that – word."

Miss Evans looked shocked but hesitated before she spoke. "He wasn't using it like that —"

"I don't give a damn how he uses it!" Severus shouted, surprising not only himself, but nearly sending Weasley-twerp toppling on top of Granger. "If I hear any of you say that word in any context, so help me I will make you regret it!"

He stormed from the room, leaving the three little idiots standing there with their jaws hanging open like goldfish. In the dim light of the storeroom he fought to fortify his walls and reign in his temper. It had been a while since he'd heard someone use that word so openly and as much as Severus loathed to admit it, it tore open a brand-new wound knowing that the girl would be subjected to it as well. He could not protect her from wizarding world prejudices – a world he had helped to build.

"Merlin's beard…" Weasley-twerp muttered. "What's his problem?"

Severus thought about the boy choking on one of the slugs. It only made him feel slightly better.

"I told you not to tell him!" Miss Evans hissed angrily.

"I don't bloody care," Weasley-twerp snapped back. "It's not like he's going to punish Malfoy for it! I bet you didn't even tell him what he said about your mum, did you?"

Your mum –

Filthy little Mudbloods like you –

Drag it down drag it down down down – he had to choke this thing before he did something he regretted.

Severus pondered if Lily had known what their daughter would face, giving her a Muggle surname. The girl was still a Halfblood, despite being Severus' and not Potter's, but he wondered if the stigma would have been lessened by bearing Potter's name. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Lily certainly didn't help, but for a brief moment, Severus couldn't help but wonder if his relief that she bore her mother's face and name was a curse rather than a blessing in disguise. He recalled the horrendous things said about Lily once the Dark Lord had made them his target. How the Dark Lord had laughed, thinking that a Muggleborn could have created his undoing…

But it hadn't been Miss Evans, in the end. It had been Lily.

Lily – her shining defiance and the fact that she would rather die than live without her daughter. She hadn't known that dying would be the only way to save the girl, but she had hoped. In the end, it had ended a war – ended a reign of terror so great that they all still felt the aftershocks almost a decade later.

Almost a decade later and all that was left to protect their daughter was Severus – from the Dark Lord and the raucous insults of insipid Pureblood fuckwits. That pompous little brat needed to be taught a lesson. Between him and Lucius, Severus was dangerously close to ending the Malfoy line once and for all.

Everything was still red and shimmering, making it impossible for Severus to read any of the labels in the storeroom, let alone tell them apart by their contents. It felt like ages that he stood there, struggling to steady his breathing, and let go of the urge to go and murder someone – that someone being Lucius at the moment – and create a problem that Dumbledore would undoubtedly have to fix. Murder would also be very hard to explain to Miss Evans.

"What are you doing?" Granger whispered suddenly.

There was no response as someone slipped into the room and stood beside Severus for a long moment.

Miss Evans said nothing, but he could hear her breathing, quick and fast, like a hummingbird's.

"Bicorn horn," she finally said.

Severus felt his Occlumency collapsing back into place at the sound of her voice. He glanced down at her and met her eyes, which were searching his face like a light in a barren wasteland.

"It slows down the movement of your stomach and intestines, right?" the girl stood on her tiptoes, trying to look over a shelf that she couldn't reach. "Anti-nausea."

Warmth was replacing the endless emptiness, stretching out farther and farther as she shuffled around him.

"I know what bicorn horn does, Miss Evans." Severus said, shooing her out of the way. "I don't need you reciting my notes back to me."

"You haven't taught us that one yet." she ignored him and wormed herself between him and the shelving, using the bottom panel to lift herself up. Severus' heart lurched as she wobbled and stumbled back into him, but instead of dropping down, she continued to climb. "I read ahead – we haven't even done Pepper-Up."

With a snarl he grabbed her by the arms and put her back on the ground before she caused the entire storeroom to come crashing down on them. She scowled as he grabbed the ladder, giving it and then the girl a pointed look before grabbing what Weasley-twerp needed. If the boy got any slugs on his floor, he'd be back tonight scrubbing them with a toothbrush.

"Here," Severus shoved the vial into her hands. "It's no cure – you'll need Pomfrey for that – but this will ebb the symptoms."

Miss Evans gave him a small smile and flew back into his classroom. Severus could hear the three of them murmuring to each other before Weasley-twerp belched, earning himself more chastisement from Granger. When Severus re-entered, they went silent, all three of them frozen with apprehension.

"Miss Granger, you will take Weasley to the Hospital Wing." Severus ordered, his eyes locking on Miss Evans. "You will stay with me for a… chat."

She bristled, the air around her crackling with indignation. "I didn't do anything!"

"I didn't say you did anything." Severus bit out. "Go now, Granger, before I take points from all of you for disrupting me."

Weasley-twerp gave him a withering glare as they hurried out of the room, along with an apologetic look for Miss Evans. Severus rolled his eyes and settled back behind his desk, motioning for the girl to take the chair across from him. She sat reluctantly, seeming nervous all of a sudden, which confirmed Severus' suspicions – there was something she wasn't telling him.

"When did this happen?" Severus asked as she sat, keeping his voice even.

She shuffled her feet before staring down at them. "Well, Malfoy used that word the other day… Ron's been furious and when he saw Malfoy after class, they both sort of lost it on each other. I guess it's Malfoy's new favorite phrase or something."

He leaned back in his seat and tried to decipher the emotions flickering through her face. She hadn't told him – not that he expected to be told everything, but last year, the girl had barely been able to contain herself when it came to Lily. That had been the Dark Lord's way in, the night she had broken Draco's nose and clung to him in the alcove like a lifeline. Any sliver of Lily, though, had been stripped and searched… until the memory. The girl didn't speak of her any longer and Severus hadn't realized until now.

"Are you – alright?" Severus managed to strangle out, the sentence foreign and forced.

Miss Evans gave him another startled look. "I – yes, I'm fine."

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "There was nothing else?"

Her face rippled, like a rock skipping on a lake. "I would've told you."

"You didn't tell me what was said." he shifted in his seat. "And far be it from you to keep things from me."

Her eyes darted away, to some distant thought she was having perhaps, or the memory itself. "I didn't know Mum was Muggleborn." she said after a moment. "I'd never heard that word before either, so I didn't know what it meant when Malfoy said it. Hermione was more upset than I was, I think."

Severus only stared at her, not even knowing where to begin in having this conversation. "Your aunt is a Muggle. You never knew?"

"Yeah but, if a wizard and a Muggle have kids together, isn't there a chance one could have magic and the other not?"

He tilted his head. "It is, but your aunt would not have grown to hate it so much if that had been the case. Your mother was the only witch in the family. That was the seed of hatred – she couldn't stand that Lily had been special and she was not."

"That makes sense," Miss Evans muttered. "It doesn't matter, anyway. I don't see what the big deal is. Hermione is Muggleborn and she's the smartest witch in the school. Do people really care about that stuff? I don't think about the fact that I'm a Halfblood, but Malfoy makes his blood status his entire personality."

"The Dark Lord built an entire army upon it." Severus said, his voice cold and callous. "Do not underestimate him. It holds no weight in reality, you're right, but that does not change what certain Pureblood families believe. It threatens their way of life, their very existence. All the sway they have over others means nothing if there isn't a divide."

And you were a part of it, Conscience whispered. You were a catalyst. You were her beginning and nearly her end.

Her expression was deep in thought. "Must've been an army of pretty stupid people, then."

He was horrified to feel the shame barrel into him, his stomach dropping like he'd been dropped into ice water.

"Thank you." Miss Evans said softly. "For the potion."

Severus grunted in response before letting out a heavy sigh. "Run along, then. I'm sure Granger and Weasley are withering away in your absence."

She gave him a wave before scampering back out the door. She forgot to close it behind her which would have bothered Severus, but he was more concerned with the finality of the silence.

I didn't know Mum was Muggleborn

"No," Severus murmured to himself as he stood. "you didn't."

Halloween snuck up on Ariel that year, bringing with it a reprieve she'd been sorely needing. Colin had finally started to leave her alone after her standoff with Malfoy, which meant Lockhart had almost completely lost interest in her. If there wasn't a camera around, Lockhart acted like she didn't exist.

In the meantime, Ariel had been kept busy with her new side business, which wasn't really a side business since she wasn't making any money. Ron had thought she was completely mental, not charging people, but it had started with Lavender and Parvati getting that nasty flu that had begun going around. Hermione had just about had a fit, worried that if she got sick, she'd start falling behind in classes, which had only begun stressing Ariel out. Luckily, she'd managed to sneak into the greenhouse and grab the ingredients needed for Pepper-Up with her own… modifications. Anyone who had taken one of Ariel's Pepper-Ups felt better within a few hours. A rumor had begun spreading out that Snape had been purposefully watering down the batches he made for the infirmary so that they'd all get sick, which had made Ariel feel both uncomfortable and incredibly smug. Subpar potions — she would show him.

Well, she'd do it one day. Snape would probably string her up by her toes if he found out. Ariel was doing what Fred and George called the Good People's Work. There was, of course, no way for anyone to trace the potions back to her — the twins had been distributing them on her behalf, not wanting to draw any more unwarranted attention to herself. Ariel would just about die if Lockhart found out she was trying to stop a plague amongst her House.

Ariel was also trying to make sure Ginny wasn't running herself into the ground. She'd had a fever on and off all weekend but refused to go back down to the Hospital Wing, stating that the lumpy mattresses were unbearable.

"I'm just tired," Ginny yawned as they draped a blanket over her in the Common Room. "I don't see what all the fuss is about."

'You're the fuss, and rightfully so." Hermione gave her a pointed look. "We're worried about you! You need to go downstairs and get checked over."

"Madam Pomfrey's potions don't do much," Ginny admitted, her cheeks turning pink.

"I can brew you something, if you'd like." Ariel offered. "I'm not half bad."

"She's bloody brilliant," Ron interjected. "She's cured half of Gryffindor in a week — those stupid Slytherins are dropping like flies."

Ginny's eyebrows hit her forehead while Hermione shook her head in disapproval. "She should really go to a professional." her voice rang with finality, but Ariel had already begun heading upstairs, Ginny only a few paces behind her.

Ginny rolled her eyes as they settled on the floor. "There's nothing wrong with me, I'm just having a string of bad luck."

Ariel frowned, Summoning her cauldron and Potion's textbook. "What do you mean?"

"I'm just really tired," she yawned, stretching her hands towards the ceiling. "Haven't been sleeping well, that's all."

"I wasn't at the start of the year either." Ariel admitted, levitating a pillow and quilt for Ginny to lay on. She looked like if a strong gust of wind blew by, she'd fall over.

Ginny's eyebrows knitted together "Really? You?"

"Yeah, I was…" being threatened by a house-elf, missing the meanest professor in the world. "distracted."

She was quiet as she wrapped the quilt around her shoulders, watching as Ariel began to stir the potion with her wand. "The Slytherins don't help either, I'd imagine. Ron mentioned what they called Hermione…"

Ariel shrugged and sighed. "I try to ignore them. You should too if they ever start bothering you."

"I don't think they will," Ginny said softly, looking away. "You've at least got that scar for them to be jealous of."

She didn't know what to say to that, unable to convey her deep hatred of her scar without upsetting Ginny, but the comment had stung in an unintentional way. Ariel decided not to say anything, reaching for the bag of jewelweed she had stashed behind her left bedpost.

As soon as Ginny's head hit the pillow, she was out cold. Ariel watched her chest rise and fall and tried not to stare at the dark circles under her eyes that were starting to look like bruises. Even the freckles on her face seemed like they were fading, like Ginny were disappearing inside herself. The thought made Ariel feel uneasy and cold. She wondered if any of her brothers had written to Mrs. Weasley yet – if Ginny was really sick, she'd surely need to see a Healer.

The potion was simmering now and needed a few more minutes before it would be ready. Not wanting to wake Ginny, Ariel tiptoed over to her trunk and pawed around the inside until she found what she was looking for – her secret ingredient.

"Why didn't you hurt him this time?"

Ginny's sudden question almost had Ariel fall straight into her trunk. In the light of the fire, Ginny's eyes almost seemed to turn from warm brown to the color of rust, the color of dried blood. They stared straight through Ariel as if she were trying to see through to the other side.

She steadied the cauldron as the potion began to sizzle and popped, trying to meet Ginny's penetrating gaze, finding it hard to do so. "Who?"

"Malfoy," Ginny cocked her head, like a predator sizing her prey.

Ariel tried to ignore the hard twist her stomach did. She focused on using her wand to suck the potion into a vial – they'd learned the Charm just this morning. Ron had broken every glass they'd used; he really needed a new wand.

"Because he's not worth it." she finally said, her voice quiet and cool. She wondered who had told her – although, she still overheard students talking about it from time to time. "He's a horrible bully. All he wants is a rise out of me. When it comes down to it, he's all talk. Don't you remember what his father was like? Anyone who isn't them is second class."

The Dark Lord built an entire army upon it, Snape had said.

Ginny smirked, the lines in her face warped as the fire crackled just behind her. "Do you always take the high road? It's got to be dreadfully boring. You don't want him to think you're boring, do you?"

"I don't want him to think of me at all, actually." Ariel said coolly. "I'd sleep just as well at night knowing Malfoy doesn't get off on me twisting myself into a knot because of all the rubbish he says."

Ginny chuckled and laid back down. Ariel was aware of her breathing loudly and tried to picture the beach – we're going to go where everybody goes – but she couldn't shake the instinct that something was very wrong.

"He likes you; you know." Ginny said suddenly, in a funny sort of voice, like she was gargling water and speaking at the same time. "He thinks you're incredibly entertaining."

Ariel blinked a few times, unable to decipher the strange look spreading across Ginny's face. "What're you talking about?"

She cocked her head at her and gave a sickly-sweet smile. "Who do you think?"

She went back to pouring the potion into the vial. "I thought we were talking about Malfoy." she said slowly.

"He thinks you're pretty." Ginny whispered, each syllable hanging in the air like smoke. Ariel recalled last year when Parvati and Lavender had insinuated that Malfoy fancied her, but it was such a ridiculous thought that she rarely thought of it. The very idea made her queasy.

"I don't see what that's got to do with anything." Ariel said as she corked the potion, handing it to Ginny. "I think he looks like a weasel — and he's got the personality of Hagrid's compost pile."

Ginny laughed, but it wasn't right — it was hollow and somehow… cruel. "You just don't see it, do you?"

She was going to ask what that meant, but Ginny had already stood up and left the room, chuckling to herself in that not-Ginny way. Ariel sat there and wondered what that had been about. The fire in the hearth had grown dimmer, and Ariel shivered from the cold. It had been roaring away when they'd come in at first.

The icy feeling didn't leave her bones for a long time, the room darker and emptier than it had been before. For some reason, Ariel felt she'd been the brunt of a joke she didn't even know how to begin to untangle. It made her feel very small.

She wondered when the people around her would stop pretending like she didn't pick up on things.

Ariel was really trying to enjoy the Feast as everyone clamored around her, laughing, and partaking in the food, but she felt like she was inside of a bubble she couldn't pop.

There was something not right — not like Smoke-Monster-wrong — but she had this thing in her brain she couldn't shake, a feeling that swirled around, driving her a bit mad. At first Ariel had thought it was deja vu, but it felt more like she'd lost something and couldn't remember what it was…

On the other hand, she didn't seem to be the only one not having a grand old time. Snape was sitting at the staff table like he was sitting on a bed of nails and eating them for dinner, too. He was sitting right next to Lockhart too, who had been talking Professor Sprout's ear off the entire time. She didn't look thrilled either, but Ariel could've sworn that she saw Professor Dumbledore lean back in his seat a few times now to give Snape private looks. Ariel briefly wondered if they could tell what the other was thinking, like her and Hermione could sometimes.

That was all she'd been doing the entire Feast — staring at the Staff Table. Luckily, no one else seemed to notice. Hermione had been grilling Percy on the existence of house elves within Hogwarts, which Ariel had only been half-interested in — while Ron talked about Quidditch. The first match of the season was coming up —

It hit her like a lightning bolt, then. The first match of the season, the rogue bludger last year —

A whole year. She hadn't been at the Halloween Feast last year because she'd been reading the letter with Hermione.

There was a nagging feeling now, tangled up in the back of her mind, messy and cluttered like Mum's old trunk. Snape had been reluctant to talk about Mum in any capacity and after seeing her in that memory last winter, feeling her breath on her forehead and her smell — not anything specific, but comforting and familiar — filled Ariel's heart with a terrible ache. She understood, now, why he wouldn't speak of her unless he had to.

Ariel excused herself to go to the loo, just to give her brain a break from the ruckus. She found herself enjoying the quiet, letting it take her in a different direction.

She stood in the alcove she had a year ago. The candle wax was still on the floor, and Ariel vanished it with a flick of her wand without even thinking. She hadn't thought about this place in so long… unable to wade through the thorns of everything that had happened. So much had happened and yet… it felt like nothing, sometimes.

What dies doesn't necessarily stay dead

Ariel pondered Mum's words for a long time until she noticed that she was hearing something.

Someone — or something — was breathing heavily behind her.

She screamed and drew her wand, but a hand flew over her mouth. She thought about biting until she heard a familiar, very angry, snarl.

"Goddammit — it's me!" Snape's voice hissed.

She whirled around and nearly collided heads with him, his hooked nose inches away from hers. The end of his wand burned yellow, the same color of faded bruises and sunflowers. It pulsated in the dim light of the alcove, making him look like he was some creature peeled out of the shadows.

Ariel ripped free of his grasp and fought the urge to kick him in the shins. "What are you doing here? You scared me!"

"I should be asking you that." he seemed to swell with anger, the darkness of the alcove sucking him back into shadow. "You are once again somewhere you shouldn't be — alone."

"It's not against the rules to walk around the castle!" Ariel shot back hotly.

Snape grabbed her shoulder, his fingers curling into the spot between muscle and blade. "It is when a credible threat has been made against your life."

She rolled her eyes. "Nothing's happened —"

"The voice?"

"I haven't heard it since."

"How comforting." he said flatly.

She shook free of his grasp and gave him the worst scowl she could muster. "If you're just going to insult me then leave me alone."

Snape made a sound like rumbling thunder. "Gladly — as soon as you collect your wits and return to the Feast."

"My wits are just fine, thanks very much." she snapped. "I didn't just end up here, you know."

His eyes darted behind her. Ariel saw the recognition pool into his eyes like rainwater, where indifference and anger had been stewing a few seconds ago. It was replaced with The Something — she hadn't seen it since Quirrell had tried to kill her. It was the insurmountable sadness she saw in little flickers, like candles in a window.

Ariel took a steadying breath, letting her anger with him dissipate. "It's been a year — I didn't realize it until just now. I just — I just needed a minute by myself."

Snape had stopped moving altogether, his face shuddered and eyes dim. He was so different from Mum. Whenever Ariel recalled her now, she pictured Mum's green eyes, staring straight into hers without knowing she would even stand there, in that special place between memory and time. Mum was almost the exact opposite of Snape — her feelings had been practically palpable. Sometimes Ariel wondered if she touched Snape she might just end up with air between her fingers, like Memory-Mum.

Ariel breathed in and out through her nose, feeling the air burn, and it felt good — different than the ache, and anything was better than that. She desperately tried to shove the lump in her throat into the pit of her stomach where something else was growing, something she didn't want to admit. She ached with it and the more she tried to unravel why, the more it hurt.

"I hate this night." Ariel said. "I didn't know just how much, but I do."

He said nothing. When she turned her gaze upwards, Snape leaned against the doorway and crossed his arms tightly across his chest. He looked like he was waiting for the moonlight to slice through the dark and evaporate him.

"How do—" Ariel chewed the inside of her cheek before continuing, not wanting to ramble but needing to acknowledge it out loud. "How do you do it?"

She knew that she wouldn't have to be more specific. He practically made pretending not to feel an art form.

"It will change," Snape finally responded, his voice so low she could feel it reverberate inside her skull. "Some days it will be all you think about. Others you won't think of them at all. You'll feel immense guilt after those days, but it does not mean they mean any less. If anything it will mean more… more grief over forgetting them for even a short amount of time. It is loss that teaches us the worth of things."

Ariel sagged against the wall and set her chin on her knees. "I'll never forget them."

"She —" he swallowed, then. "They would not have wanted you to torture yourself."

"That's why it's sad — I don't know what they would've wanted."

He stared at her for a long time, so long that after a while Ariel began to feel uncomfortable and had to look away. She could still feel his gaze on her, burning a hole right between her eyes. It was still strange to look at Snape sometimes and see her eyes reflected in his own. They were different but… also not. It scared her a little when she was being honest with herself.

"Do you not recall?" Snape asked in a hard voice, like he was offended by what she'd said. "She made it quite clear."

It was getting more and more difficult for Ariel to speak. "I know nothing about her. She wanted everything for me — for you too — in that memory, but you won't tell me anything else. She's like a puzzle full of holes"

He stiffened. His whole body curved forward as he hunched, head bowed and hidden by the curtain of greasy hair.

"Will you ever tell me?" Ariel asked quietly. "It's been a whole year, after all."

Snape sounded like he was having all the air sucked out of him with a straw. "You don't want the answer to that."

She sighed resignedly. "You always say that."

"It's the truth of the matter."

"Yeah, well, the truth is pretty shit if you ask me."

There was a long pause. If Snape took points for the swearing, Ariel was going to throw her shoe at him.

"Yes," he finally agreed slowly. "it is."

"It can't be that bad. She wouldn't have written that letter if it was."

"You deserve far better. I told you I will never be able to give you what you want."

"I don't want whatever you think I deserve." Ariel stood up and wiped her dirty hands on her jeans. "I just want… this. To be able to talk. I hate when you pretend like I'm invisible."

He gave her some long, unfathomable look, the cold indifference falling off of him like sheaths of ice. She pretended to ignore it while she cast a Warming Charm on herself, freezing from the floor. When Ariel finally looked back to Snape, he seemed deep in thought, eyebrows knitted together.

Ariel was about to tell him that they should probably return to the Feast before their absence was noticed when —

Need… kill…

— she heard it.

Kill… tear… rip…

Her heart stuttered, launching itself into her throat. She made a choking sound as her words fell away from her, badly startled.

So hungry… so long…

Snape locked eyes with her, a flash of something familiar passing through them. He started to say something, but Ariel quickly shushed him, holding up a hand.

"It's back." she strangled out. "Can you hear it?"

Kill… time to kill…

Her blood ran cold.

(tell me what it said)

No, this voice was different — no no no —

Snape knelt in front of her, his hands on her shoulders, face set in a mask of grim determination. "Where? Where do you hear it?"

She strained her ears. "I don't know, I can't tell."

"Try." he said in a hard voice.

She tried to steady her breathing, inhaling through her nose. "It's like it's all around me — "

He made a long sound, like a snake's hiss.

So long… my time…

"It's getting fainter, it's moving away!" she tore free of his grasp, craning her neck to the dark stairwell behind him, like the culprit would be standing there.

Kill… need to tear… need… NEED…

"It's going to kill someone —" Before Ariel knew what she was doing she had taken off in pursuit.

She focused on the sound of something moving behind the walls as her feet slammed against the stone. Her cloak had even begun to slow her down, the wind pulling at her back, and so she shed it and pushed herself forward even harder as the voice traveled.

After what felt like an eternity of chasing, it was silent. Ariel hunched forward with her hands on her knees and tried to steady her breathing. It hurt on every inhale, her lungs burning and heavy.

She'd forgotten that she'd run away from Snape. As he swore loudly from behind her, she recalled that this was the second Halloween in a row that he'd gone chasing after her. She would have laughed if she wasn't immediately horrified by the sight in front of her. He pulled the back of her jumper so sharply that it was a wonder she didn't throw out her neck, shoving her beneath his cloak. Her face smashed into his ribcage as he gave her another violent shake.

"If you ever do that again —" he began in a deadly voice, but Ariel wasn't listening, she was looking at the wall in front of them.

She tugged on his cloak and pointed. "Look —"

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE