Sub Rosa

Chapter 15 – Earthquake Weather

Severus watched Kathryn murmur soothing words to his student. He stood silently in the shadows of the door, observing as she rocked the girl to sleep and then slipped her under the covers. She rose in obvious pain and he moved quickly to her side, offering an arm. She smiled at him in gratitude and leaned on him heavily as he led her from the hospital wing.

“As soon as I get you back to your rooms, you are to take a pain potion, Kathryn.” He hadn’t intended to sound so fierce but she just gave him an impish grin.

“Yes, mother.” Her cheeky reply made his lips twitch, but he restrained the smile.

“I seem to find myself thanking you a very great deal, Kathryn.” He mock grumbled.

“I am sorry; I’ll try not to rise passionately to Slytherin’s or your defense anymore.” Her eyes danced as she said it and he grimaced to keep from smiling.

“See that you don’t.” He muttered primly. Her laughter was the best thing about the whole evening.


The next day, planning for the “Unity Project”, as Kathryn laughingly dubbed it, began in earnest. Sprout and Flitwick joined in and Minerva and Severus were shocked to discover that the two had been thinking along the same lines as Kathryn for some time. They had simply been too nervous to bring up the subject to Minerva and Severus. Severus wondered what else he had been missing while he had been preoccupied with the dance of survival.

After several hours of throwing ideas around, they decided to start the Project the beginning of November and then they broke up for the evening.

Severus returned to his dungeons to begin the next step in the potion he was creating for Kathryn’s recovery. He had worked out three different solutions to the problem. Regenerating the nerve damage was a greater challenge than healing the burned flesh. There were several potions for healing burns, though they weot sot strong enough for such extensive damage. He would have to concentrate on the nerve damage first and then work on a more potent version of Drexel’s Burn Ointment. Hmm, he could even create something entirely new. There was that new shipment of aloe vera from America.

He set to work, ideas percolating through his brain as he sliced, chopped, cubed and dissected. Occasionally he would stop to stir one of the three cauldrons, add an ingredient or mutter an incanon. on. It was very late when he finally crawled into bed.

He awoke to the sensation of the world jerking and dancing underneath him. Weak dawn light filtered through the window above him and he cursed the early hour.

“Not again!” He groaned and rolled out of bed, gathering his clothes. Dressing hurriedly, he rushed towards the Slytherin common room, knowing that the earthquake that continued to rock the castle would panic the younger children. “Palladium” he muttered and the doors swung open for him.

The common room was filled with frightened Slytherins. They were shrieking and dashing about in terror.
“Stop that infernal racket at once!” He shouted and the whole room became still except for the rumbling of the earth. “Have ALL of you forgotten that Hogwarts is charmed against earthquake damage?” Looking sheepish, the students began to quiet and finally the rumbling died down and all was still again.

“It is in ‘Hogwarts: A History’.” Minuet grumbled as she pushed one of the first years off of her and stood up. She had only been released from the hospital wing last night and looked peeved to have her first day back in the common room disrupted like this.

“Correct Miss Ravagienne, ten points for Slytherin.” His voice was sarcastic and none too pleasant. The children pulled themselves together and began to head off calmly to the Great Hall for breakfast. When they were all gone and only the memory of Minuet’s rolling eyes and Draco’s sneer remained, he sighed and headed for his own breakfast.

The High Table was filled with bleary-eyed irritated Heads of House and Snape grimaced as he entered. Kathryn was sitting in her seat already, a thoughtful look on her face. He paused a moment, feeling the impact of her presence. He could forget when he wasn’t around her how strongly she affected him. It wasn’t even attraction so much as just how very alive she was. It was as if she was slightly more real than other people; he couldn’t describe it better than that.

“Good morning, Kathryn.” He sat down next to her, still feeling tired and stiff.

“Good morning, Severus. Lovely earthquake we had this morning.” She smiled at him from behind her teacup, mischief in her eyes.

“Humph.” He grunted in reply. “You didn’t have forty little Snakes running in circles and screaming to deal with this morning.” He rubbed his forehead and watched her smile widen.

“Well, you didn’t have a pack of Lion Cubs jumping out the windows and running through the halls, or a flight of Ravens who wouldn’t come out from under their beds or a herd of Badgers who were in hysterics and convinced they were all going to die. ” Kathryn’s smile was definitely malicious. “Ah, how I love not being a Head of House.”

“Wench, there was a time around here when I could have ordered you flogged.” He growled, but his mood was mucprovproved by the news that the other houses had fared even worse than his. “Really, out the windows?” Severus raised an eyebrow and cast a glance over at Minerva, who looked uncharacteristically flustered.

“On their broomsticks mostly, but a few levitated down.” Kathryn speared a sausage and began to slice it.

“I do wish I could have seen that.” He sighed wistfully. Kathryn’s snort beside him, as delicate as it was, went a long way to restoring him to a fine good humor.

“Abandon castle!” She whispered and he almost choked on his coffee as he laughed.

He noted the acute interest the Slytherins were giving to this conversation, especially Minuet. Kathryn’s eyes followed his gaze and she smiled at the young girl who smiled and waved back.

“I will never know how you manage to balance Potter and Ravagienne the way you do.” He shrugged as Potter smiled at Kathryn from the Gryffindor table and she nodded back.

“It’s simple actually.” She looked up at him from under her eyelashes, her lips twitching. “I’m nice to them.” Severus frowned at her forbiddingly, but she just gave him that Madonna smile of hers and he sighed.

“You don’t have the Dark Twit and his lovely friends to play with though, now do you?” Her smile vanished and he felt a pang at her altered mood. He hadn’t meant to vent his aggravation quite so freely. She reached out gently and placed a hand on his sleeve, for the barest of moments.

“I have eat eat deal more freedom in this situation than you do, that’s true.” She smiled again, with a touch of sadness about her eyes. “However, I have been where you stand now.” He nodded and let that be the apology. It was all he could give in a room full of students who watched them both with avid attention.