The Shattering of Souls

well, let me see.... how to put this. ok. here goes... i don\'t own any of this except for three characters. the rest all belongs to j.k. rowling. bloody lucky one she is, too. but i\'ll save my grumbling. i mean, i\'m not the one slaing over a typewriter or word processor or computer. i\'m not the one who has more money than.... just about everyone. i\'m not the one who owns or created the master or anyone else. i\'m not the one who.... ~sobs loudly~ and i\'m not making one red cent off this. ~sobs again~

ok.... i\'m not sure when smut will pop up again. i\'m sure it\'ll be soon. i mean... this has got to be a record for me.eleven chapters and no snape smut? i must be ill. that has to be it.... at any rate... warnings abound. watch your step. they can be quite messy. and they\'re so hard to clean off one\'s shoes. you understand, i\'m sure....

finally, please let me know if you like this, if you think it needs some help.... you know. a review, some constructive criticism..... that kind of thing. please, no flames! i will use them to raost your ass. and my momma always told me that if you didn\'t have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all. oddly, she\'s under the impression that i didn\'t listen to her.... hmmm

Chapter Twelve: The Quest for Answers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lucius Malfoy watched the cloaked figure scurry from his office, a frown wrinkling the normally smooth expanse of his forehead. The hood of the cloak was pulled up to cover the wearer\'s face, obscuring the look of utter fear he was sure the hidden being was sporting. He waited until he knew he was alone, then growled in frustrated anger. His little informant had, so far, been unable to unearth any information on the Potter brat. It was as if the boy had dropped off the face of the Earth after the capture of his bodyguard.

Both he and Bella had sent spies out across the land in search of any information on the location of Potter\'s hideout. They had all come back empty handed. He was not amused by their failure. The death of Voldemort at the hands of the impertinent whelp had secured Lucius\' desire for revenge. he could have, eventually, let Potter\'s release of Dobby from the Malfoy household go. But the demise of the Dark Lord was the catalyst that saw the desire for revenge locked firmly into place. He wanted the little shite dead with every fibre of his being. He\'d have seen the little snot dead already, had it not been for Bri Wallace.

The corners of his lips were pulled up into a feral grin, while his groin tightened in remembrance. Now there was one pleasant thing to come out of the entire, sordid mess. The girl had been such a sweet and succulent piece of meat for him to spoil. She had been so tight around him that he ached at the memory of it. Her ass had been a virgin orifice. He\'d set about ridding her of that small amount of purity straight away. And while she had obviously not been a virgin in the traditional sense of the word, she had not been used too much. All the more fun for him.

Debauching her time and again, using which ever opening he preferred, had been amost as orgasmic as torturing her. She\'d proven remarkably resilient to his persuasive techniques. He was still amazed at how long she\'d kept the information she held to herself. So many of the women he\'d \"interrogated\" previously had broken so easily. Too easily. They\'d been no fun at all. But Bri Wallace... He\'d had every intent on keeping her, making her his personal toy. He\'d been most aggrieved to find her gone.

Lucius was still at a loss to explain how she\'d gotten out of the dungeon cell he\'d locked her in. He\'d asked the guard that had been on duty that day how she could have escaped. The ignorant waste of humanity had claimed that no one but the torturer had been there. He\'d been to the cell, then left with the claim of needing supplies, only to come back once more about half an hour later. The tortured himself swore to only being there once. Lucius had lost his temper, and the Death Eaters had lost two members that day. He supposed, looking back on it, that Dumbledore had had something to do with the girl\'s escape. But how? He was still trying to puzzle that one out. Her absence had made him determined to find her again. He wanted to show her just how much he had missed her.

\'Brooding again, are we?\' Bella asked from the doorway. He looked up at her, gifting her with a scowl. She chuckled softly.

\'Better to be merely brooding than to be completely mad,\' he retorted. She took no offense, only moved into the room in a graceful, gliding manner. Her robes whispered along the floor and about her ankles as she walked.

\' I take this to mean that our little spy has been unsuccessful yet again? she queried.

\'Nothing. There is no trace of the Potter git,\' he replied angrily. One hand fisted, curling in on itself in an expression of his feelings. She studied him for some time, her eyes glittering in the candle light. The room was silent as both slipped into their thoughts. Bella broke the silence with a sharp bark of laughter. Lucius glanced up at her, the thought that she was starkers plain to see on his face. \'What do you find so amusing?\' he demanded tersely.

\'Potter is not the only one to occupy your thoughts, is he?\' she cocked a brow at him, not bothering to hide her smirk.

\' I have absolutely no clue as to what you\'re talking about,\' he replied in as casual a tone as he could manage. Bella laughed, a hearty sound that contained not a hint of the madness that plagued her. He looked up at her, scowling. It brought forth another round of laughter before she sobered.

\'She was quite the sweet bit of baggage, wasn\'t she? Such fun to play with. I miss her, too,\' Bella told him, her voice leading him to believe that the woman was in the middle of one of her few lucid moments. \' I intend to have her again. Before I see how long it takes to break her. I want her a screaming, quivering mass of spiritless flesh before I kill her. Like her mother was when I ended her miserable life.\'

\'You knew her mother?\' he asked, thoroughly interested in her response.

\'So did you. Every Death Eater in Britian knew Bri\'s mother,\' Bella grinned at him. When he gave her a blank stare, she went on gleefully. \'Diana Wallace.\'

\'You mean she?...\' Malfoy would have goggled at her, had he been less disciplined. Bella nodded, a foul smile spreading across her face like the plague. \'You killed Diana Wallace?\'

\' I did,\' Bella merely nodded.

\'You\'re lucky the Dark Lord is dead. If he knew it was you who killed Diana...\' Malfoy drawled, getting slowly to his feet.. He gave her a chilling smile. \'He\'d have had you begging for his mercy within moments.\'

\' I know,\' she stated simply, still grinning at him. He felt his cock twitch at her reckless nature. It always had been the one thing that attracted him to her.

\'Come here, you black hearted bitch!\' he ordered softly. She grinned wider, then went eagerly into his open arms. He didn\'t even bother to clear the clutter from his desk when he laid her upon it. His hands had already freed his straining erection from his trousers then dispensed of her under garments, her robes tossed haphazardly up around her hips. She wrapped her arms and legs about him, welcoming him into her hot flesh hungrily.

~*~*~*~*~

\'Stop! Intruder!\' the low, gravelly voice rumbled up the stairs like thunder, startling Albus from his light doze. He was sitting behind his desk, and had been in the process of filling out some paper work he was behind on. He hadn\'t realized he\'d dozed off until the call had woken him. He stood up, moving for the door.

\'What do you think you\'re doing? Who are you? Come back here!\' Minerva\'s voice rang out shrilly in the silence. Albus hurried down the circular stair fron his office, making note that it was not moving of it\'s own volition. At the bottom, he found Minerva staring up the hall. The gargoyle was standing in his usual place, his wings quivering with rage. His eyes glowed blood red, a sure sign that he had been woken to protect the Headmaster. His arms were lowered to his sides, his clawed hands balled into fists.

\'What happened here, Penrith?\' Albus asked the guardian of the stairs. The gargoyle\'s gaze swung to the Headmaster\'s face, and the stone lips compressed into a thin line. The beast crossed his arms over his chest, casting a glare up the long, empty hall.

\'Someone,\' he hissed, the faint sound of stone grinding against itself fitting into the current of words that flowed from the statue\'s mouth. \'Tried to break into your office, Headmaster. I could not see who or what it was. They were wearing a cloak with the hood pulled up to hide their face.\"

Albus nodded absently, then noted that there were small chips of stone on the floor near the bottom of the statue. He looked closer at the guardian and saw that there were places where it looked as if he had been hit with something sharp. Like a chisel. Absently, the Headmaster waved his wand and used a repairing spell to put the chips back where they came from. Penrith looked at him and managed a smile that most people found to look more like a sneer. \'Thank you, Headmaster. That feels better.\'

\'What does this mean, Albus?\' Minerva asked him, her gaze filled with worry as she looked from him to the statue, then back up the hall where the culprit had obviously gone.

\'This means, Minerva, that there is a traitor in our midst. It seems,\' he sighed, rubbing a hand over his beard covered chin. \'That Miss Wallace was correct and someone close to us is working for the powers of the Dark. I was afraid of this. And I was hoping that what Harry told me was unfounded. But I see that it is just as she suspected.\'

Albus stopped moment and looked to Minerva. He flashed her a grin that was slightly out of place, given the severity of the situation. \'She always was a smart one, that girl. She could have done so much better at her school work, had she only put her mind to it. Still, it is comforting to know she is on our side.\'

\'But she doesn\'t even know who she is, Albus,\' Minerva insisted. Albus nodded, stepping over to pat the statue. His eyes no longer glowed red, but he was far from calm. \'How can she be on our side if she has no clue what our side is?\'

\' I have every faith in the abillities of Severus and the others to bring her back to herself, Minerva. And there is something about that girl that I cannot put my finger on,\' he smiled. \' I cannot tell you why I think this, but I do. I have, since she was in attendance at Hogwarts, thought there was something odd about the child. Did you, as her Head of House, see anything out of the ordinary with her?\'

The normally staunch woman, now standing in the middle of a deserted hallway with her hair thoroughly mussed and her clothes askew as if she\'d simply thrown them on, gave serious thought to the question for several moments before shaking her head. \'No. I saw mothing terribly unusual with her. She seemed to stay to herself much of the time, but she didn\'t ever strike me as being odd.\'

\'No matter now,\' the Headmaster shook his head. \'Go back to bed and get some sleep. I do not think our intruder will show up any time soon.\' Minerva stared at him a moment, then nodded and turned to retrace her steps to her private rooms. He watched her go, then turned to the gargoyle. The statue was still awake, watching him silently. \' I must thank you, my friend. You did an admirable job at stopping the intruder.\'

\' It is my job, is it not?\' Penrith asked, his gravelly voice easily filling the silence of the hall. He sounded indignant, as if he should not be given thanks for something he deemed his duty. Dumbledore smiled at him, reaching up to pat the statue upon his head.

\' It is, but I must thank you anyway. I hate to imagine what would have happened, had you not been on guard,\' he returned, staring up at the stone being with kindly eyes. The statue, if it was at all possible, donned a look of disgust. It was known to the staff that the guardian of the stairs to the Headmaster\'s office was no mere statue. He had been carved from a block of stone that had once been a part of a circle of standing stones. Legend had it written that it was a stone from Stonehenge itself, but no one knew for sure.

The founders of Hogwarts had decided to gift the guardian with the ability to come to life when it felt that there was a threat to the Headmaster. The spell used to achieve this had never been recorded and so had faded from conscious thought. No one in present day knew what the spell was or how it had worked so well. They only knew that the stone gargoyle hadn\'t needed to come to life more than a handful of times in over a thousand years. Dumbledore was not happy that he had felt the need to do so now.

\'Do not thank me for simply doing my job, Albus. I am here to protect you. And that is what I shall do,\' Penrith insisted, his tone of voice conveying his disdain. The look the gargoyle gave him told him the matter was closed to discussion. Albus nodded wearily, then stepped onto the stairs to return to his office. He could feel the statue\'s eyes regarding him all the way to the top. Before he could step into his office, the stony voice spoke once more. \'Get some rest, Albus. You look as if you will drop when hit with a feather. Your task is not done yet, and it will only get worse before it gets better.\'

\'A wise suggestion from a wise guardian. I shall do just that. Good night, Penrith,\' he stepped into the open doorway, then turned to look at the gargoyle, his eyes twinkling merrily. \' And, again, thank you.\' Before the statue could speak, he stepped into the room behind him and quickly shut the door. A loud \"harumph\" sounded on the other side of the closed panel, and Albus could not stop the chuckles that shook his frame.

He moved over to his chair, taking a seat behind his desk. He had hoped that Bri had been wrong about the traitor. He didn\'t want to think that someone the Order trusted had turned from the Light and gone over to serve the Dark Lord\'s memory. The Death Eaters were not as many as they once had been, but they were still strong enough to pose a problem to any who opposed them or Voldemort\'s delusions of conquering the Wizarding World. He propped his elbows onto the table, placing his head in his hands. He was so weary of this battle.

Penrith was correct. There was surely more to come, and he needed his strength and wits about him to come out of it. Preferrably alive and on the winning side. He was growing too old to carry on the battle as he once had. It had been his hope that Harry would be able to carry on where he could not, but he was not certain that his hopes would come to pass. The boy was lost and confused, caught up in the madness that was threatening to consume him. There was still hope that he would find himself back, become the man Albus was certain he could be. But it needed to happen soon, lest Harry be drowned by the waves of insanity that were already dangerously close to pulling him under.

With a sigh, Albus stood to move to the window. He stared out upon the darkened landscape, already running through possibilties in his head. He would need to strengthen the wards on the entire castle before he could find rest this night. Not to mention the wards on Penrith. It saddened him to think that someone would hurt the statue in an attempt to break into his office. He was certain whoever it was had been intent on finding the location of Potter. That information was well hidden. Not even Minerva knew where he had sent the boy. It was better off for her that way. He heaved a heavy sigh. There was so much to do.

Albus turned from the window, seeking the solace of his private quarters. This was a fine mess. It made him wish, in some small way, that he was with Severus and the others. That thought brought a smile to his face. He could only hope that the Potions Master was having better luck with his charge than Albus was having with the Death Eaters. Then again, Severus might be thinking by this time that he would rather face all the Death Eaters than Bri Wallace.

~*~*~*~*~

Severus stared at the woman with a faint frown. She sat upon a rock, her nose buried in a book. It was an annoyingly familiar pose. He couldn\'t stop the comparison it brought to mind of the Know-It-All Granger. He gritted his teeth at that. There was no way he could try to woo the woman if he saw Granger\'s face every time he looked at her. He decided he needed to break the image. He returned to the house a moment, retrieving one of his personal books and Bri\'s wand. He\'d collected it from Potter shortly after they\'d arrived, and he thought that now would be a good time to introduce it to her once more.

He stopped at the door, schooling his features into the one she\'d become accustomed to seeing. He plastered a smile upon his face, then pushed the door wide and stepped outside. He knew the others were of the opinion that he was starkers or planning something. He didn\'t bloody care what they thought. He only knew he was going to make this woman pay for making his life a living hell. The only way he could see doing that was making her feel something other than hate for him. Then leave her. And it would be all the better, all the sweeter when she regained every last one of her damned memories.

Bri glanced up when his shadow fell over her shoulder, covering her book with it\'s length. A smile lit her face almost immediately, and she shut the book without a word from him. He held out his free hand to her. She took it silently, allowing him to pull her up and away from the rock where she\'d been sitting for the better part of the morning. They walked in silence, his hand at her back as he guided her over into a clearing that was some distance from the house. \' I think it is time that you became reacquainted with your wand, pet.\'

She looked at him in confusion as he held up the smooth piece of wood. He motioned to her hand with it, and she held the appendage up for him. He set the instrument in her hand, curling her fingers over it. Almost instantly, she felt a sudden flow of energy about her, as if the thnig she held was telling her she was it\'s one owner. She looked from the wand in her hand to him, feeling rather silly. \'Erm, what am I supposed to do with this?\' she asked him.

\'This is your wand. You shall learn how to use it again. Perhaps it will jog your memory,\' he replied. She looked as if she didn\'t believe him, but she nodded her head anyway. He opened the book he held, sifting through the pages until he found the one he was looking for. He moved to stand beside her, holding the book at a level she was able to see on. She scanned the page, then looked up at him. \' I want you to try casting this spell. It is a rather easy one, as it\'s taught to the first years. The magic is in you, so it shouldn\'t prove too difficult for you.\'

Bri nodded, her wand held in her hand in such a natural postition, it was hard to believe she was starting over again. She read the small entry on the page, then glanced around the clearing. A small rock, not very large or heavy, lay only a few feet from where she stood. She pointed the wand at the rock and spoke very clearly. \'Wingardium Leviosa.\'

Nothing happened. The rock did not move. She bit her lip, her brows drawn together as she puzzled out the lack of reaction. Without looking up, she went back to the entry in the book. Rereading the paragraph carefully, she once again pointed her wand at the rock. \'Wingarium Leviosa.\'

Still nothing happened. Bri made a noise of frustration, looking up at the book once again. He fought the urge to laugh at her. She was a witch who couldn\'t do magic. The humor of that statement was not lost on him. She attempted to lift the rock a third and fourth time. The rock stubbornly refused to move. She looked up at him, tears brimming in her eyes. He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the emotional display. Crying women was not one of those things he dealt with. Most other things could be thrown onto that list, as well. But he disliked crying women with immense passion.

She refused to let her tears fall. Instead, she focused on the book once more. This time, she took as long as she could to study the spell before her. He watched in fascination as she dragged the tip of her finger along each line of words as she read them. Her shoulders squared in determination, and she gave all her concentration over to the rock on the ground. Pointing the wand once more, she took a deep breath and called out in a sure voice, \'Wingardium Leviosa.\'

Slowly, the rock pulled free of the small amount of dirt the bottom was buried in. It lifted up into the sky, hovering only inches from where they stood. She held it suspended above the ground for some time before letting it drop down. It hit the earth with a dull thud. Bri wore a smile of surpeme satisfaction on her face at the minor accomplishment. He found it slightly laughable that she would be so proud of such a small feat when she had literally knocked him on his arse with a mere wave of her hand. He was still trying to puzzle that one out.

\'Let\'s do another,\' she insisted, her blue eyes once more locked to the pages of the book before her. He nodded wordlessly, then flipped pages back and forth until he found another that was still simple, but harder than the first. This one took several tries as well, before she managed it flawlessly. Each triumph made her a little more enthusiastic about spell casting. Severus watched as Bri went page to page, studying and trying to cast spells. Some of the more difficult ones didn\'t want to come, but she would not give up now that she had managed with previous spells.

The sun was beginning to drop down to the horizon for the night when she flipped a page and looked at the spell on it. He felt is stomach rumble, telling him that they had been at this for some time, and they had missed the noon meal. He was about to snap the book shut when she slapped her hand down, preventing it from closing up. He glanced down to find her bent over the exposed pages, her wand held up and emitting light. She had mastered \'Lumos\' easily enough, and was now using it to read by. His gaze slipped over the words quickly, only to go quite round when the name of the spell she had chosen actually filtered through his brain.

\'You cannot mean to try this one?\' he asked, looking up at her in concern. She nodded, not looking up from the page. Surely this was above her talents at present. Severus was of the opinion that she should wait until she was better able to cast the easier spells before tackling something as demanding and difficult as the Patronus Charm.

\'Why not?\' she seemed honestly confused by his question.

\'This spell is rather hard, pet. Perhaps you should get better at the simpler ones before moving on to something of this magnitude,\' he suggested. The Patronus charm was not an easy one, and she still hadn\'t even begun to explore her magic. She\'d picked spells at random, but they had all been easy for the beginners.

\' I wish to try this one,\' she insisted. He could see by the light of her wand that she was going to be stubborn about it. He\'d found that, despite her lack of knowledge in the area of her past, she still maintained traits he knew from her time in his class. She still had, much to his dismay, a very stubborn nature. She was not going to let him rest until she attempted the Patronus charm. Which meant they would be out here until well after dawn the next morning if he did not help her understand what it took to cast such a spectacular spell.

\'Very well,\' he sighed. She smiled up at him and turned eager eyes back to the book in his hands. Shifting the tome to one hand, he used to other to point to each part of the spell, explaining as he went along. \'The Patronus is used when one is confronting something dark. Typically, the spell is cast in the presence of the Dementors. It will drive the Dementors away, as it is the embodiment of all the caster\'s positive thoughts. The Dementors thrive on sorrow and depression. They cannot stand the guardian shape the spell summons forth. Do you understand?\'

\' I think so. In order to make this work, I must think happy thoughts and put them into the casting of the spell. Right?\' her voice was soft, and he could tell by it that she was lost in thought. It was another one of those things she did. He nodded at her, secretly pleased that she caught on so quickly. He\'d known when she was a student that she\'d been gifted with a sharp mind. She had just never used it. That had been part of the reason he had always been so abrupt with her in his class. Had she only applied herself to Potions making... Well, there was no telling what she could have done.

\'That is correct, Bri. The Patronus is used in times of great fear, and it will take great joy to summon your personal guardian,\' he explained. She nodded again, looking off into the darkened woods just a few paces from where they stood. \'Now I want you to think of the most frightening, mind numbing thing you can. Once you are properly afraid, try to think of the greatest joy in your life. Then you can cast the Patronus.\'

He watched as she continued to stare at the encroaching dark. He knew it was the black of night and the long shadows that scared her most. She would have no problem with that. But what could she have to think of that was happy enough to bring forth the Patronus. She could recall nothing of her life, so there couldn\'t possibly be anything to make her joyful enough to summon her guardian. He felt her shiver and knew it was nothing to do with the mild temperature around them. She was recalling her darkest days in Malfoy\'s prison.

She took a breath, muttering something he couldn\'t hear. The light from the tip of her wand went out completely. The dark was almost complete now. He waited a moment, his wand in hand should he need to cast \"Lumos\" once again for her. Instead, he felt her step away. Then her voice came to him from a few steps away. \'Expecto Patronum!\' she called out loudly.

As with her previous attempts, this one failed on the first try. She did not give up. Instead, he felt her step farther away and cast the spell once more. This attempt was no more productive than the first. He opened his mouth, ready to tell her they could work on it in the morning. She merely stepped a litte further away and cast the spell yet again. This time, it worked.

The bright silver light shot immediately from her wand toward a large clearing before them. It swirled, then coalesced into a looming figure. Severus was shocked to find a large dragon winging it\'s way toward them. He\'d never seen anyone produce a Patronus of a dragon before. When he looked over to where she stood, her face was turned up at the ethereal shape. It made several passes over them, then slowly disappated. The clearing was returned to darkness. He made his way to where she stood.

He dropped a hand onto her shoulder, drawing her face around to look up at him. \'That was impressive, pet. I\'ve never seen a dragon Patronus before. You have a powerful guardian there.\'

\'Thank you,\' she smiled up at him.

\'Might I ask what memory you used to make it appear with such strength?\' he questioned her.

\'You,\' she replied simply. He stared, not sure he\'d heard her correctly. Her smile became shy and she glanced down at the ground a moment before lifting her head once more. When she looked up at him, she chuckled softly, then lifted up on her tip toes. He was startled when her lips pressed his in a chaste kiss. She was down and most probably blushing before he could do anything else. The unexpected gesture sent his mind reeling.

Severus stood there dumbly a moment. No one had ever willingly planted a kiss on his lips. Her spontaneous action was flustering. And far more appealing than he dared to admit. Her lips had been soft on his. Her scent, something normally mild and unobtrusive, clung to the interior of his nose so that he could still smell her as if she were standing against him. To a man who dealt with potion ingredients, it was a bewtiching scent. He couldn\'t be certain, but he thought she might use a shampoo with vanilla in it. Her skin held the faint perfume of Victorian tea roses. The combination was heady. He found himself looking down at her lips with a flare of hunger coursing through his veins.

Severus slipped his arms about her, tugging her forward with gentle motions until she was standing so close, her body rested against his. She looked up at him, uncertainty in her eyes. He gave her the smile she was accustomed to seeing, slipping his hands up until they cupped her face gently. He felt her tense, so he dipped his head to place a kiss on her forehead. She sighed, relaxing into him. When he moved lower, her eyelids slid shut and he placed a tender kiss on each one of them. His hands tipped her head back, his mouth dropping down to take her lips.

She tensed again, for only a moment or two, then let the stiffness ease from her limbs. She pressed closer as his mouth moved over hers slowly. Bri lifted her arms, slipping them around behind his back. His tongue licked at her lips lightly, gently prodding them apart. The feeling of his tongue probing her mouth startled her a moment, but he made no other moves toward her. She sighed, loosening up enough that he felt he could continue to explore the interior of her mouth.

It was some time later when Severus slowly lifted his head from Bri\'s. Her eyes, when they opened, were unfocused. She blinked and looked up at him in wonder. Before he could say anything, she turned and ran for the house. He sighed, knowing somehow that she was blushing profusely. He picked up his book, forgotten and dropped in the heat of the moment. Ensuring that no harm had come to the tome, he strolled idly toward the house. His mind was a whirl of thoughts.

The fact that Bri had allowed the kiss was a sign that his plans were working. Soon, he was sure he would have her hooked. The look of sincerity on her face when she\'d told him she\'d summoned the Patronus while thinking of him was proof of that. Though he did find it mildly disturbing that she associated him with her joyful memories. Also disturbing was the fact that the Patronus she had summoned was a dragon. He\'d never seen anyone call up such a guardian before.

The one thing he\'d found the most disturbing was his kiss. How he had reacted to it. He\'d expected her to either run in fear, or do as she had. He hadn\'t expected to find himself enthralled by the action. Her lips had been pliant beneath his. She had almost completely melted into him, given herself to him then and there. And he had almost let himself forget the plans he\'d made. He\'d wanted to do more than just kiss her, more than just slip his tongue into her mouth and taste the sweetness of it. He\'d wanted to slip his tongue other places to taste her sweetness. If the annoyingly stiff piece of anatomy between his thighs was anything to go by, he wanted to slip more than his tongue into her.

It woudn\'t do to let himself forget who she was. She was Bri Wallace, the woman who had taken everything from him. She didn\'t deserve anything but his hatred and contempt. He certainly didn\'t intend to reward her for taking his life away by allowing her to make a mockery of his emotions. He had none. At least, none that the public saw. He kept all that to himself, except for his anger and dislike. He shared that with everyone. And she didn\'t even deserve that. He could not afford to allow himself the luxury of emotions now. He had a score to settle.

~*~

Remus watched the couple break apart, his mouth set in a thin line. He\'d known Bri Wallace for some time, and she hated Severus Snape with every ounce of her petite frame. To see her kissing him in a very intimate way was shocking, to say the least. He\'d spent enough time in Severus\' presence to know the man held no fondness for the woman, either. So it was even more shocking to see him initiate the kiss. He was far enough away that neither would have spotted him, but he had heard and seen most everything that had gone on. He\'d smelt some of it, too.

He\'d watched Severus teach Bri to use her wand again. The woman had struggled with each spell. Once she had it, though, it was as if she had it mastered. That she had decided on the Patronus charm was odd. That she had produced the results she had was completely bizarre. As far as Remus knew, no one had ever brought forth a dragon as a guardian. And certainly not one as formidable as the one Bri had summoned. How she had achieved this was a mystery to him. He knew a great deal about the Patronus, as he had taught Defense to the students. To see such a large and majestic creature answer the call was astounding.

Watching the two of them in the aftermath had been frightening. Two people who hated one another kissing as if one was the lifeline of the other. It was amazing. And then had come the scents. Bri had been full of confusion, but underlying it all was the faint smell of need. He knew she was afraid, and he was certain she had good reason. The woman had been Malfoy\'s captive for two months. A stay like that was bound to be full of foul abuse and terrible memories. But the fact that she might want Severus to begin with was still... well, shocking.

As was the smell he\'d gotten off the Potions Master. Even if the man would not admit it to himself, he wanted Bri Wallace. Remus was fairly certain that there were darker reasons surrounding that desire at present. But Snape wanted the woman. He would never believe anyone if they made comment, so Remus would keep that knowledge to himself. But he would be keeping an eye on the two of them. He was fairly sure that one of them would come out of this on top. But he really didn\'t think he could say who.

Remus was so absorbed with his thoughts, he wasn\'t aware that he was being studied as thoroughly as he\'d done with Severus and Bri. Tyler was only a few feet away, downwind so Remus would not scent her there. She knew that he was a lycanthrope. She\'d smelled it on him that first day. It made her curious and anxious. She hadn\'t been around people much, and certainly not a shape shifter. She wanted to speak to him, but she was afraid he wouldn\'t want to talk to her. She knew how hard the were tried to hide who he was.

She heaved a quiet sigh, watching him in the growing dark. He was the first person she\'d met who interested her in some time. She wasn\'t certain why, but she knew that he was someone she wished to get to know on a more intimate level. She thought perhaps she should come right out with it all, but she didn\'t know if it would work. She knew he didn\'t trust her. It was obvious everytime he looked at her. But there was something else there, too. She couldn\'t name it, but it was there.

If only she could find a way to confront him with everything. Perhaps they could actually learn to trust one another. She was so tired of being alone. Casting one last glance at him, she turned and moved away silently, heading deeper into the trees. She needed time alone to think about what she wanted to do. About what she needed to do. There was so much no one knew.

end chapter twelve.
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thanks, as always, go to madam shark for her help and constant support. it also goes to red, kenly, and simone. always there to give me a lift up.

please let me know what you think. i\'m up to a few constuctive criticisms, but please don\'t flame. it\'s a waste of everyone\'s time, and i wouldn\'t do such a thing to anyone else. i am no more in position to tell you you scuk than you are to do the same to me. thanks ever so much.