A House Homecoming for All

A/N: What has made me want to separate this lovely tale into parts? Crime and Punishment ;)

****************************************** Part II ******************************************************


\"Watch that clematis over there - and that bougainvillea! You\'re going to bludgeon the poor plants with your gangly boulders you call arms if you\'re not careful!\" Snape stalked over to where the struggling oafs, Crabbe and Goyle whee lifting several veyr pertinent ingrediants he would need in order to conjure up a potion to heal Jessica as soon as she returned from whichever chamber Lucius was storing her in.

\"In fact, it would be best if you\'d both do nothing right now - tarnishing my eyes at just the sight of you! Go!\" Above that Death crowned king sat an opus, as if in midflight of song; the bird rushed at him unexpectedly and he collapsed with the weigf itf its package.

As always, when anything just landed silently in his lap with a whoosh, Snape was curious yet wary an took out his wand to examine it before he red the name on its tag. Ripping the discarded cardboard asunder, he found an oblique satisfaction, not nearly as fruitful of the whatmighthavebeen alone and under Lucius\' thumb at the manor.

Yes, Snape had been suspecting Lucius to switch sides again; after all, it was one of the many intrinsic qualities in a Slytherin, the ability to bounce unscrupulously from one playing field to the next... Snape however, never did play Quidditch.

Suddenly, he heard a faint rustle and a crunching noise from behind him and cocked his head only slightly whilst gouging the letter\'s seal with a knife.

\"Honestly, Crabbe, quit your gormandizing - both of you!\" but before Snape could spit, \"detention!\" he was pulled backwards out of his nice plush Italian leatherback and onto the ground only to be dragged and locked away in some cupboard. It had to have been those two dunderheads supposedly there to have helped him when they\'d mostly hindered; after all, he wasn\'t exactly a small man and it would take two to clamber over his twiggy form and restrain him. He had to think being entrapped in a tight enclosure wasn\'t exactly the best position to be in when trying to rescue a helpless girl.

Snape was just about to sit down in the clostrophobic little niche when he felt something warm and squishy by his left foot that seemed to be breathing. Cursing himself for not slipping his wand back into its rightful place after opening up the package in a rare concentrated moment of pure selflessness, not impunity for once. It wsa definately Goyle.. or Crabbe, it really didn\'t matter, as long as one of them had a wand tucked under anywhere but his pants; he really didn\'t think he could cope with that traumatization on top of everything else.

How he wished he could somehow abrogate whatever sort of influence Lucius had over Voldemort so as to be his second in command... true, he was still and would always be, a spy for the light but that didn\'t necessarily mean he had forfeited any sort of political rally in order to gain prestige within the ranks. After all, he knew he was no God (contrary to the blonde), but lhe wouldn\'t mind mkaing a thorough attempt at emulating one in garnering such fear, and of course, with that fear comes respect. No, instead of remaining some sequacious boor for the Dark Lord\'s own sordid festivities, Snape wanted to submerge the dank crypt that was his master\'s collective with a new sort of more pedant route.

Lucius would, of course, be one of those who would immediately oppose the notion, he knew, for simply being different and the most progressive campaign ever to float through the ears of the nondescript gang of fudge the Death Eaters were gradually morphing into as the years passed and each member got a bit older and little less interested in raping and pillaging - ironically and inadvertantly micking those muggle vikings they would in every way wish to mangle and destroy if there ever came to terms with their own frailty as a cabal.

Snape couldn\'t locate a wand on either of the boys as their agressor would\'ve stripped them as well; so, Snape had the sedom retained opportunity to ponder in darkness so like the bat he yearned to become and fly away from this entire mess. Why should he even bother? It was just another student in his house who happened to enjoy the same things and preserve an outlet of engaging and intelligent conversation.

Though he could wager she\'d never been the recipeient of such ostrasization by pillorying teens in her short life, he gathered from the way she looked at him, that she could empathise on some level, no matter how purposely repressed. Snape recalled his own... discomfiture and he face contorted into the very same dour expression of his youth, illiciting a brick white wall for anyone who deigned to galnce at his depleted face. Then he wondered just as seriously, what Jessica\'s own school had been like; regardless of his skill in surmising whatever acrimonious plans to be hatched upon his own house\'s door, he was incapable of asking the one who delved so deep into the river of his blood without a paddle, just where she had come from.

And that blood was tarnished a pale blue from so many beatings and adanabtube adjustments so now it was just a pale reflection of his eyes\' most base stripping - his soul\'s most dischordant layer to the rest of his song. There was little he could do but just think about her in that dingy little cubicle; ina welter of lumpy skin and freckles, it was a benison to reflect upon something so well formed and affable.

Snape scowled at his own discharged rationalization and shook his head forlornly; a girl like her should be with a sycophant twit sooner to buy a whore than treat her properly at Malfoy manor, pandering her virginity away like some cheap cloth to the highest bidder at the meeting tonight. The scar was merely an emblem now, nothing more; he no longer visualized the branding process in his dreams and felt content to stare menacingly at it, willing it to dissipate into his very skin to be quickly absolved by necrobiosis... the nieve clout.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

\"Miss Gryffindor, I believe that if this baby dies, than so will Miss Slytherin,\" Pomphry paced her all too familiar catalogue of beds none too proudly for once,as if she simply couldn\'t cure one of her students.

Cait\'s chin wobbled as she gawked at the little bundle she\'d named Resin - now that it had warmed under some heavy blankets, it had turned a dusky yellow, the colour of resin.

Pomphry turned aound suddenly with murder in her usualy determined but amicable eyes, \"This is a curse, is what this is.\"
And with that,s he zoomed off downstairs knowing that the gryffinor wouls stick by her condemned friend, along with all the other misguided reprobates sorted into that desperately fated house.

Rushing down the stairs, she heard an urgent banging from the bottom stoop and the loud cursing of a very acidic Potions Master. Releasing the lock, Pomphry helped Snape up with a wince from his unrelenting malice transfered through his grip and beckoned him eastward back to he infirmary but snape broke away.

\"What were you-\"

\"Damned if I know-\"

\"Where are you-\"

\"Come with me - now!\" Pomphry rolled her eyes at another maculae display of confidence and she followed blindly into what would undoubtedly become another one of Snape\'s patented forays.

\"Professor, I must tell you that is Slytherin\'s fate resides inside that child she brought!\" Snape waved a hand for silence irritably and proceeded to finish reading the letter which had already been fully opened and doused with some sort of replicating substance.

\"Yes, that\'s just as she surmised... though she is safe, she is frightened and attempting the remain aloof in the face of potential peril...\" Snape looked back up at the fidgeting Pomphry and allowed his shoulders to slump in a pithy gesture of reluctance.

\"There is nothing I can do - the baby is well, but-\"

\"HERE!\" And clicking some ridiculous makeshift rewet. Andrew clambered in and fired his muchly augmented wand at a black hooded vigure in Death Eater garb just lurking behind Pomphry when Snape was turned. Snape audibly gasped and rocked back on his heels, then sunk to his haunches in polaxed relief, his features softening and for a moment, if anyone had paid much attention to the usually frustrated beast who rocked backwards and forwards comfortingly, they would\'ve seen him as Jessica saw him - without a false line of demeanor present and carefully at ease.

Still somewhat paralysed, Snape abashedly motioned for Andrew to lift the hood and there laying sprawled out and barely breathing, was Jessica.