Choosing Darkness

The trip back to Hogwarts was uneventful. Arista tucked herself into the corner, her eyes never leaving the window of the rolling carriage. Snape\'s eyes never left her form as he continued to battle conflicting thoughts. The other professors seemed oblivious as they chatted about the day\'s events.

The woman was a Necromancer. The very word meant romancing death. How could she just sit there and gaze out of the carriage window as if nothing was going on? How could she ignore the fact that her mere presence was against they were fighting for: life?

And now Voldemort wanted her. Perhaps she could bring eternal life. Severus\' eyes narrowed with that thought. She seemed to be very good at that, too; his erection had been semi-hard ever since she tore away from him. As an afterthought, he shifted in his seat to adjust the fall of his robes and cloak. There, nothing to see, should anyone dare to look.

His eyes then slid back to Arista, who never once moved. He wondered if she was aware of the danger she\'d been in today. Lucius was not a man to toy with and he always got what he wanted, regardless of the consequences. Though she seemed quite capable of caring for herself, he couldn\'t forget her Promised\'s words, no could he forget the man\'s hazels eyes. His cock twitched unexpectedly.

Snape sighed as he shifted again. That damnable woman. How dare she sit there, unaware of his torment. How dare she run off like that, leaving Snape with the potential embarassment for exposure! How dare she be so captivating that he forget his job, to allow himself to be vulnerable out in the open like that.

How dare she not look at him with those flinty, fiery eyes.

Her seduction was a familiar feel with another he knew. The Dark Lord tempted him with fame and prestige. Snape would be able to conduct experiments and concoct new potions without the Ministry hounding upon his every breath. He would be a Master above masters, if all he would do was accept his mask of Death and his Dark Lord\'s \'occassional\' requests.

Arista didn\'t promise him fame or fortune. She didn\'t pressure him into anything at all, with the exception of her custom made sleeping potion. She promised warmth and life, even some form of understanding his plight. All he had to do was accept the Death he could never escape from.

~ ~


Arista gazed blankly out onto the treed horizon, her thoughts returning to her home. The rolling grasses would bow to her in welcome, the animals at Project Alicorn would still be under Heidi\'s and Psy\'s care. She was certain now that Kohl would have the mods completed on her bike. She even missed that freedom.

Arista sighed softly, choosing to close her eyes and set her head on the sill. The lull of the carriage could soothe her enough to slip into a cat nap; one of those semi-lucid dream states where it seemed as if she was aware of everything around her, but when she came to full wakefullness she wouldn\'t remember a thing.

The thought of her home, imaging it would almost be time for the first snow. If she was lucky, kohl would have bedded down the garden for the winter. If she wasn\'t lucky, the unicorns would have eaten all the bulbs long before now. The house was either a disaster or impeccable, depending on his mood. More than likely, she\'d have to clear out the various car parts that were by now littering the living room. It didn\'t matter that he had his own machine shop.

Maybe the first thing she\'d do once she got back home was take a horse out for a good, long run, then her Ducati. The quidditch players zipping around on brooms made her miss the natural power of four good hooves pounding on solid ground. She was more than certain that Potter and company had not experienced the liberating effects of giving a horse his full head. Arista had forgotten that they would be coming over the winter break. That was something she didn\'t look forward to, bringing potential danger to her own home. She could imagine it now, those dreaded Death Eaters invading the DEN and Haven, taking her friends hostage, maybe even killing them off to get to her. Huge, dark robed figures with white Death Masks invading her home, searching each and every roon for the fugatives she harbored. And she defended them and her home with fierce determination. She swung her sword against the intruders, believing she had the upper hand-until she stiffened and fell upon the couch as if dead.

The rafters need dusting.

That was a stupid thing to think about, Arista thought to herself. Then a Death Eater mask popped into her view. Funny, those little masks...they looked too much like his Divine Shadow, really...

\"Fancy meeting you here, Little One,\" the oddly distorted voice commented from behind the mask. Arista could feel a weight crush her body into the couch, and she couldn\'t move even thought she screamed at her own body, demanding it to do something.

A black gloved hand reached up to the mask and ripped it off, revealing chocolate brown eyes and not quite shoulder length hair. Arista\'s eyes narrowed as she recognized her cousin. Then the face changed to Lucius and she tried to escape. Why wasn\'t she in control of this dream?!

\"You are such a beautiful creature.\" Arista\'s eyes widened when she felt something prod at her groin. \"You have no idea how, happy you\'re going to make me, because once I have you, I\'ll then have your powers.\" Lucius began to laugh with his big, wide mouth becoming larger all the time. Finally, his mouth slpit and the top of Lucius\' head fell away. A moment later and a new face erupted from the gaping hole from the robes, with dark hair and flashing dark eyes glaring smuggly at her. His velvet voice jolted her nerves with lust and fear. Then she found her voice.

Arista screamed as she was wrent in two.


~ ~

She fell out of her seat as she shrieked. Arista didn\'t immediately recognize her surroundings as she fought to surface from her nightmare. She opened her eyes to Severus\' hard concerned gaze.

\"Arista! What-\"

\"Get away from me!\" She lashed out fiercly to escape form her dream. She felt her fist connect with something and she saw Snape\'s head whip around. He glared at her again, gripping both her shoulders.

\"Get a hold of yourself, woman!\"

The sight of blood dripping from his split lip almost brought her back to the waking realm. But then she heard a voice when he spoke- \"I will bind you in iron until your soul begs for my salvation.\"

Some part of her knew it wasn\'t his voice. It was too thready and high pitched. But there was so much adrenaline running through her veins that she reacted on instinct, kickiing back and trying to bite his hands away.

\"Stupefy!\" she heard a woman\'s voice call out, and Arista felt the effects of magic try to ravel around her. Her shields blocked the hex and fragments of the spell fell around her.

\"You\'ll never take me alive or dead,\" she declared in a low voice. At that moment, she recognized the cramped confines of the carriage and four of her collegues staring down at her. Snape\'s face was the closest since he still had her by the shoulders.

\"What the bloody hell is going on?\" he snarled.

Arista\'s eyes were cast down as she forced herself to relax under his bruising grip. \"I...had a bad dream,\" she answered softly, suddenly feeling like one of his Potions students.
She had lashed out at someone else! Arista had reacted to a dream she neither could control, nor could she had escaped from. This Voldemort...she\'d underestimated him.

That realization was nearly as bad as the look in Snape\'s eyes. Arista was vaguely aware that the carriage had stopped; were they already at Hogwarts? She managed a weak smile. \"Are we there, yet?\" Arista felt her shoulders fall back against the carriage wall as Severus turned away from her and exited the transport. Her ears and eyes were bombarded with the other two professor\'s concerns as Flitwick followed after Snape. She managed to get up on her own, muttering about her expediant recovery and rushed past the charms professor. \"Sev-\"

Severus did not turn. He headed straight into the castle with his angered, billowing cloak flapping behind him. The destination was his lab so he could lock that woman out. He could feel his blood trickle down his chin. It was an easily healed injury, but hw had no desire to hear any apologies from Arista. From her reaction to the claimed \'bad dream\', he already knew that Arista was a target, that Voldemort would stop at nothing to get her cursed powers and claim them for his own. And she had barely seen the extent of the Dark Lord\'s strength. No, he was better off in keeping as much space between her and himself as humanly possible, given the situation.

Unfortunately, Arista didn\'t understand the \'situation\' and continued to persue him. Snape dared a glance back; she was gaining ground at a brisk walk and she was a full head shorter than he! No, he thought with fierce determination, she would NOT make me run to my rooms! He picked up the pace of his brisk walk, but he stubbornly kept his fists at his sides.

\"Sev\'rus, will you wait?\" came the exasperated call. Snape could only smirk as he heard the determined foot falls of the DADA Professor at a jog. No, he wouldn\'t slow down for her at all, not after what she put him through. He was only a few feet from his lab door; once he was inside with the strongest wards in place, he could finally relax and drown his memory of her in a nice warm glass of aged brandy.

\"We need to talk,\" Arista declared a little breathlessly as she darted between the Potions Master and his beloved Potions Lab Door. \"I didn\'t mean to hit you. Gut instinct did that.\" She reached up to touch the dried trickle of red on his face, but Snape jerked away. She lowered her hand, not letting her disappointment show through her eyes.

\"I don\'t need and explanation.\"

\"But I didn\'t know what I was doing-\"

\"Exactly,\" Snape growled, his scowl deepening as he moved his face closer to hers. \"You have no idea what you are doing. You do not have the expereince to understand it all.\"

Arista\'s expression turned from guilt to disbelief. \"What the hell\'s that supposed to mean?\"

\"Move out of my way, Starfyr, I have work to do.\"

\"I\'m not moving.\" The blonde woman stood her ground as if she was guarding the portal of eternal youth.

\"Go do something within your field,\" he sneered, refocusing his frustration into his words. \"I\'m certain there are some mouse skeletons in the owlry in need of reviving.\"

Arista was stunned enough at that statement to allow herself to be brisquely moved aside so that Snape could easily slip into his lab and close the door. She stood there for a few minutes more, her jaw slack in shock as she stared at the closed oaken door. Of all the people she would think would have some understanding of being odd-man-out, it would have been Snape. How mistaken she was on so many levels...

Refusing to allow her tears to fall, she strode away in measured, determined steps, opting to find solace astride her ink colored friend.

Snape waited for Arista to come barging through the door. He had imagined she would slam it along the wall,andianding an explanation on his crude rudeness and magically rascist remark. He would reply smoothly that he was, in fact, the Head of House for Slytherin, and, to the detriment of the evil concept of ASSUMPTION, was not a nice man. He would then continue on, stating very clearly that he had no room in his life for \'nice woman,\' nor did he have room for her, either. She would then stalk around his deep mahogany desk, appearing insulted beyong belif- him knowing because she\'d say so- and re-affirming that he was indeed a vile, greasy git that needed a lesson or two. She\'d swing his chair around, probably leaving deep scratches on the slate floor, declaring that she was \'bound and determined\' to show him, the high and mighty Potions Master Snape, a thing or two about humilty.

Ah, he always looked forward to Power Struggle Sex.

But Arista never entered the lab. In fact, after he\'d slammed the door (practically in her face) he\'d heard nothing after the thump. Snape then realized with a disappointed heart that she would not play this game of cat and mouse. Arista was coy, but not to the point of misleading the heart. As he recalled, she\'d never mislead him once. Avoided the truth, yes, but she did not deliberately lie or cloak the trith from him. The topic of her Promised and her magical preference did not come up in common conversation. Actually, her magical preference did come up once or twice, but she\'d declared herself a Draconin, and he was about as familiar with that sect as he was with Necromancy.

Snape pulled out his flask of brandy from his drawer in one frustrated movement. It scorched his throat and filled his stomach with acid instead of its normal delicious warmth.


*~*

Rumors of the strange black unicorn visiting Hogwart\'s grounds moved like wildfire through the ranks of students and faculty alike. It was unusual for a white unicorn to stray so far from the Forbidden Forest and it was positively scandelous for the elusive Black \'corn to come near. In fact, most had believed the creature left to terrorize new lands. But here the unicorn was, standing serenly as if he were a trail horse as Arista rumaged through a tool box. She picked up a hard rubber curry and started to brush the caked on mud off the stallion\'s back.

Arista was not the only one out in the yard. Many students had gone off to the quidditch pitch to watch thtesttest game. She had preferred to stay behind and mediate with the help of her friend. A few other students not interested in the game watched her with whispers amongst themselves. She knew of their presence, but continued to ignore them as did the Black.

Her hands were sure in their strokes, paying special attention to her friends\' itchy spots. The unicorn suddenly stretched his neck, wriggling his lips in extreme pleasure as she hit one spot. She chuckled when he shook out the very equine behavoir and sneezed. \"Feel better?\"

\"More so if you did,\" he murmured softly. All whisperings stopped as the students gaped at him.

\"Hmm...\" She chose another comb and began to untangle his mane.

\"What does Dragon have to say about it?\"

\"Oh, the usual support. He understands what he got himself into when he Promised me, yadda yadda yadda. Then it\'s I shouldn\'t push him too fast, since his history was less than stellar. Basically, he cannot stand the fact that I am who I am. I cannot change the fact that the line of Stardancers are Necromancers. I cannot stop being who I am, just like he cannot stop being who he is.\"

\"Professor Starfyr?\" asked a quiet girl with large, blue eyes. \"I couldn\'t help but notice-\"

Arista turned to face the student. Ah, she remembered her. Most of the time, the girl had a dreamy, far away look on her face. \"I\'m sorry, Luna. What is that?\"

\"Is that a cross between a thestral and a unicorn?\"

The Black raised his head a fraction of an inch, but settled when Arista placed a calming hand on the animal\'s neck. \"No. He\'s a Black. Those unicorns who are all black have souls that originated from Earth.\"

\"You mean the white ones are not from this world?\"

She shook her head, smiling a little. \"It\'s a long story. But I\'ll say that Blacks are very rare, and usually people are afraid of them.\"

\"Why is that?\"

\"Their other name is Death Bringer. They tend to be a bit wild.\" Arista continued to comb out his mane, more for the unicorn\'s distraction from the conversation than actual knots in the hair. \"People are not familiar with them.\"

\"So he\'s tame because you\'re a Necromancer,\" Luna stated softly. She reached her hand up to touch his nose and the Black took a step away. \"Can I touch him?\"

\"The Black is calm because he\'s my friend and he trusts me,\" her professor responded carefully. \"As for touching him, you\'ll have to ask him yourself.\"

Luna\'s eyes moved to the coal black creature. \"May I?\" she asked softly, holding her hand out palm open.

Snape watched on from a discreet distance. The large black beast was gentle only when Arista was around, and did not protest when Luna touched its cheek. The two spoke softly to each other as if they were sisters, sharing secrets that no one else knew. A few minutes later, Luna left, leaving human and unicorn alone once again.

The Black snorted and shifted in place, his neck craning as ears laid flat. Arista didn\'t turn to the new-comer, in fact, she didn\'t even acknowledge the approach. Arista knew it was Snape. What she didn\'t know was why he was coming to her. Her supply of sleeping potion was well stocked and he had pretty much declared to her a month ago that he was not going to persue any sort of relationship with her. Since then, meetings had been strained and brief. Everytime she was near him her body reacted. It was a side effect of the potions used to repair damaged magical matrices, no doubt Snape would feel the longing for togetherness as well. The problem was that if he didn\'t feel comfortable enough with her, then she would force herself to be satisfied with her hand and that finely smoothed polished wand.

\"He can be calm,\" the Potions Master observed. \"What spell do you use?\"

\"One that can catch the wind without use of a net,\" Arista replied smoothly. \"I could teach you, sometime, but you don\'t seem to be the receptive sort.\"

Snape first scowled at the back of her head, ready with some retort, but noticed the unicorn eying him suspiciously. \"It is Hallow\'s Eve, tonight.\"

Arista paused in combing the Black\'s tail, then resumed. \"Did you slink out of your dungeons to inform me of the obvious, or was there and actual reason why you\'re here?\"

Severus clamped his mouth tight before answering. \"Since you said that this was an important holiday for you-\"

Arista swerved to face him, the grooming project quickly forgotten. \"And why would you suddenly have this extreme interest in my well being and interests?\"

Severus had very little to say at that one. Arista was upset, and rightly so, but she simply did not understand. \"It is not common practice to associate with your kind.\"

\"My kind? MY kind?\" She folded her arms across her chest, noting how Snape\'s eyes trailed to the swell above her arms. Arista refused to smirk. \"Pray tell, Severus, what. Exactly. Is my kind? Because it seems that I\'ve lost sight of it, considering you\'ve expended all this energy in coming near me and acknowledging my exist-\"

\"Enough!....I apologize for my behavior!\" Snape blurted out, trying to get Arista to shut up. His voice was suddenly quiet when he noticed a few others watching. \"I came to see if you had plans for this evening.\"

\"Yes, I do. I intend to go out to the forest this evening and have ritual.\" Her voice was civil, and doing odd things to the bottom of his belly. \"Nothing fancy, just a quick hello.\"

\"The Forbidden Forest is dangerous.\"

\"If one treats the forest\'s inhabitants with courtesy and respect, there is no problem. However,\" Arista mentioned with a glint in her eye, \"I keep to the east side. There\'s more civilized folk, there. We meet at the \'draw at ten o\'clock, then. And Severus,\" Arista drew away from the unicorn\'s side and stepped far into Snape\'s personal space, \"I know that much of it is due to the potions we exchanged, but...I truly have missed your company.\" Her fingers brushed the back of his hand before she turned. Arista lifted the grooming box and headed back into the castle. The Black Unicorn had long since disappeared.



Snape barely touched his food at the Feast that night. Lit jack o\'lanterns were suspended over the inhabitants of the Great Hall, clearly oblivious to whatever discomfort he had. Arista sat on the other end of the table, conversing with Madam Sprout about some innane topic. He caught himself stealing glances at them, wondering why she was so calm about this meeting they had arranged. He could barely keep his erection hidden since she touched him. He no longer cared if she had someone waiting for her back home, either. All he could do was stare at her and wish it were ten.

\"Something wrong, Severus?\" Minerva asked. \"You\'ve hardly touched your plate.\"

\"Nothing\'s wrong,\" the Potions Master snipped as he quickly returned his eyes to his currently untouched dish.

\"You must be ill,\" she declared with certainty. \"Rack of lamb is your favorite.\"

Snape ignored her, pushing his food around on his plate as he stole another look. Arista\'s peals of laughter raised the inferno of his ardor another notch. Dinner, evidently, was hell bent on torturing him as well.