Home | Members | Help | Submission Rules | Log In |
Recently Added | Categories | Titles | Completed Fics | Random Fic | Search | Top Fictions
SS/OC

To Travel Through Time: Part Two: Untouchable by Melvacaea [Reviews - 4]

<< >>

Would you like to submit a review?

Trickie Woo, Luna Snape, and theatre_geek (as well as anyone else I might have missed as I write this). You guys are the engine behind me!

****
~22~ Secretus S. Snape's Supplication~


When Albus Dumbledore stepped through the door in the middle of Achlys' fifth-year class, she didn't know what to expect. The students looked up and about from their practical quiz.

"Get back to work!" The snap echoed around them and she watched a Hufflepuff boy reach for the boomslang skin.

"Put in that boomslang skin, Mister Humphries, and we'll all be covered in rather nasty rashes. I'd rather you didn't, if it's all the same with you," Achlys drawled, and the boy blushed before scrunching his nose and looking at the ingredients he had left.

"Try the ground beetle eyes," Albus whispered.

"Headmaster, I would appreciate it if you didn't help my students in the middle of a quiz. They had all week to study."

Albus smiled at her and she watched the dawning comprehension on the young boy's face as he took the half-filled mortar and measured out the correct amount. Albus signaled for her to follow him into the supply closet.

"The Headmaster wishes to speak to me. I expect for not one potion to go awry while I'm gone... for both our sakes." She followed him and leaned against the small counter, crossing her arms and watching him warily. "What is it, Albus?"

"It is young Severus' father."

Achlys slowly froze up. First, she had to let Severus in to make Veritaserum for his father. Then, she had to allow him passageway to her chambers so that he could inform her on what his father wanted. What did the blasted man want now?

"He has received his orders from Tom." Achlys paled. "Tom wants Severus to make Phoenix Leaf Poison."

"Shite, you have to be kidding me!" Achlys groaned, burying her face in her hands.

"I'm sorry, Achlys."

"How did you find this out?" she asked through her hands.

"Arthur Weasley heard Lucius and Rodolphus talking with him in a Floo at the Ministry. Of course, it's his word against theirs and I doubt that anyone will take him seriously."

"Poor Arthur," she whispered. "He must feel so useless."

"It's funny," he told her as he left. "He said the same thing about you."

****
It was the last class of the day, her N.E.W.T. class, and she swore that everyone could hear the beating of her heart. She walked down the desks, looking into the potions, snidely correcting the Gryffindors, loudly praising her Slytherins, quietly praising Kingsley Shacklebolt and a very pale Remus Lupin, by far her favorite students, sniffing at her Hufflepuffs, drawling at her Ravenclaws. Praising Snape, however, was her favorite pastime. The looks on people's faces when she did so always made her smirk wider. When the owl swept through the open door (open to allow ventilation of fumes), she didn't know what to expect. Acting indifferent, she read the short note.

Professor Ashling:

My name is Secretus Snape and I am Severus Snape's father. I have heard that you are the Potions professor at Hogwarts and that you have bountiful information up your sleeves. Not only that, but that you are an avid and loyal follower. I ask you to help my son in making a poison for Him. He shall tell you which.

Your faithful servant,
Secretus S. Snape


"Mister Snape, see me after class," she said casually as she sat down again.

Oh, this is NOT good. Not good AT ALL.

/Calm down, all right? Drama queen./

Oh, shut up.


"Bottle your potions and clean up. I want five feet on the effects of this potion and the theory behind it. You may go."

The vials were set in the open box she always left for them and she busied herself with grading her sixth-year essays, hair falling into her face.

"Hey, Snivellus!"

"Not again!" Achlys groaned, and she stood up and swept outside.

She saw Sirius Black hex Severus Snape and James Potter taunt him. She saw Severus spit curses at them.

Kestrel boiled in rage and Achlys fed off that rage.

"Stop!" she thundered, and the two Marauders froze. "Thirty-five points from Gryffindor for hexing a student and provoking him. Release him at once!"

Severus was released from the Body Bind.

"Mister Snape, go into the classroom. You two, over here!"

Once the door was closed, she rounded upon them furiously.

"You had better be damned glad that I have a soft spot for your lupine friend or else you'd find yourself in the supply room organizing and labeling ingredients tonight. As it is, I will add another detention for you two the night after Thursday's detention. With Filch."

They didn't dare complain.

"I expected better of you both. You are Head Boy, Mister Potter, I expected better from you. And what would young Miss Evans say, Mister Potter, if she had been there?" James looked guilty. "Both of you, to your classes. And I had better not catch you tormenting Severus Snape again, Mister Potter, for there are worse things than detention and point deduction."

She stalked back into her classroom, fuming, and saw her young charge sulking in a corner. She sighed.

This was not how I wanted to find him to tell him about the poison.

/Tough luck. It was the only way you were going to. No one's ever seen him in any position other than being tormented by the Marauders./


"Come here, Severus."

He stepped up to her, looking down his hooked nose at her, black eyes piercing. She gave him the letter and he scanned it. If it was possible, he had just paled even more.

"Severus?"

He fell into a chair.

"I thought... Oh..."

"You do know what poison it is?"

"Yes."

"Which?"

"Phoenix Leaf."

Achlys made no comment, no look of surprise, but kept her face carefully neutral.

"Come to the lab tonight, five minutes before curfew. We have to plan and talk."

As it was, they could not meet that night in her lab. They met at the Dark Revel.

****
"You know what you have to do," he told them that night after the meeting. Snape, sporting a bruise, and Achlys, holding in post-Cruciatus effects, nodded and then disappeared when he gave them leave.

Severus was forced to support his professor all the way to her rooms, where she collapsed onto the sofa, trembling madly. He touched her forehead with the back of his hand and winced as he felt her fever.

"Potion... bathroom cabinet... dark blue... red stopper..." she said hoarsely, and he found what she asked. She downed it quickly and the trembling and fever reduced. "Bloody bastard."

"Mister Malfoy seems to hate you," Severus said quietly, sitting on the floor.

Achlys unconsciously started running her fingers through his hair, fiddling with the black elastic. She gave a hoarse laugh.

"Hate me. He hates me... and he loves me. He hates me because he loves me. What a complicated world this is."

"What are we going to do?" he asked her.

"We are going to make the poison. We are going to meet with your father. We are going to be the loyal servants we are... isn't that right, Mister Snape?"

"Of course," he said stiffly. "When do we meet, Professor Ashling?"

"Tomorrow night we shall plan. Saturday night, we begin."

She watched him go with sad eyes and fell asleep on the sofa, black hair mussed over the dark green cloth.

****


*crosses eyes* *mumbles* Hopefully it didn't turn out as boring as I think it is. I like the next one though. The plot speeds itself up -- and Remus is used.

I have a soft spot for the werewolf. :)

Reviews appreciated!
-Mel

To Travel Through Time: Part Two: Untouchable by Melvacaea [Reviews - 4]

<< >>

Disclaimers
Terms of Use
Credits

Copyright © 2003-2007 Sycophant Hex
All rights reserved