Blackeyed Girl

@Daughter of a serpent: Here a shorty to keep you fed ;)

But this is in fact an important chapter!

Thanks to Ari again for betaing!



------------------------------------------------------



Chapter 19

The Wall



Just after 1 am at midnight Snape and Eleanor apperated to the filthy river bank of Spinner’s End. Eleanor was glad her mind had been functional enough for her to change out of her dress as she now tried not to step into anything ugly as she followed Snape with wide steps.

She swayed as she tried to avoid an old sandwich in the grass. Snape turned to look at her and frowned.



He waited for her at the top of the street but did not give her a hand to help her.

Then they continued till they reached the house. Snape closed the door behind him and Eleanor walked past to throw herself in the armchair and exhaled deeply. Snape observed her. She did not seem to notice. He found her unusually sluggish and boneless in the way she carried herself and yet her eyes were wide and awake and she seemed to be nervous as she started fidgeting with her fingers and chewing on her lips.



“Is something the matter with you?” he asked suspiciously. She looked round to him with a jerk of her head as though he had asked her something entirely unexpected and outrageous. He had never experienced her like this.



“What? No! What should be the matter? –With me?”



“I don’t know…” Snape said calmly. She stared back at him as he slowly approached her until he stood right before her. Once again he looked incredibly tall, towering above her, “you are acting… a little odd.”



Eleanor sat up a little straighter, still staring back at him expectably. Snape hesitated, then he suddenly bent down over her and sniffed once. He slowly regained his towering position and stated emotionlessly.



“You have been drinking”, he paused but she did not reply, “Where… I wonder did you get alcohol? You had not had anything when you left the ballroom.”



Eleanor blinked silently at him and then said quietly: “It was just a bit of champagne.”

“And who gave it to you?”



She hesitated, but then a strange grin came over her that she tried to hide childishly behind her hand and she felt herself blush. She considered. She was not sure if it was harmless to revile this information or not.



“Look at me!” he suddenly ordered sternly. Her head jerked up again, “Who… gave you the champagne?”



She shrugged: “Just… someone. What does it matter?”



“It matters that it is in fact a crime to offer alcohol to underage girls.”



“But you gave me wine on Christmas.”



“So because I let you try some of my best wine on Christmas Eve you think you can get drunk at parties with strangers?!”



Eleanor did not answer. She shrugged again and started to chew on her index finger.

Snape frowned at her odd behavior.



“You will tell me now, exactly who gave you the champagne and how much you drank and… whatever else happened!” he ordered sternly again.



Eleanor only blinked as though she did not understand his demand.



“Now!”



Eleanor blinked again: “I don’t want to do that, Sir. I can’t.”



“Why?” he asked, suspicion growing in his face again.



“I must be able to have the one or other secret, don’t I?”



“Excuse me?”



Again Eleanor only looked back at him but then she added rather maturely: “I can’t tell you everything. Some things are private.”



Snape looked almost startled: “Really? I believe I told you before that nothing is private for you. How dare you hide something from me? Are the Malfoy’s to blame for your defiance? Did they put this privacy non-sense and the weakness for alcoholic drinks into your head?”

Eleanor cracked a grin again and blushing looked away.



“What are you laughing about?”



Snape grew instantly angrier. He was fuming inside. Faster than Eleanor could see he pulled his wand out of his robes and pointed it at her. As she realized it her eyes widened and she tensed: “What are you…!”



No spell or hex came over his lips but his eyes were determent and the next moment Eleanor felt like someone had hit her in the face with a large hammer. She was thrown back in her chair and felt strangely immobilized, out of control and darkness was all around her. Then only a moment later it stopped and with a sick feeling of dizziness she grabbed the arms of her chair to steady herself. She gasped for air.



Snape only looked down at her and slowly put his wand away.



“Where did you learn that?”, he asked quietly.



“What?” she asked still trying to focus.



“Where did you learn Occlumency?”



Eleanor frowned, wrecking her brain where she had heard that word before. Then she remembered having read about the magical power of reading the mind and the magic to counter this.



“I… I haven’t learned it.”



“Do not lie!”



“I haven’t!” she said more firmly, “What did you do to me?!”



She steadied her head with a shaking hand. Snape took note of her shaking and smoothed his severe face a little.



“Are you telling me, that you were able to block out my legitimacy instinctively?”



“I don’t know. I suppose so.” She started chewing her lower lip again, still shaking.

Snape stared at her, contemplating whether to believe her. He had never heard of a case of intuitive occlumency and in fact he had never encountered such a solid wall around a persons memories. She was not only capable of occlumency she was the best occlumence he had ever encountered, without a doubt even better than himself and he had trained from an early age and never stopped to strengthen his skill in all those years. And here sat this 15 year old girl and acted as though she had barely heard about such a thing as occlumency. His invasion into her mind had bounced off her like a tennis ball of a concrete wall.



Could he believe her? Was it possible? Finally he said:

“Go to bed. We will return to Hogwarts tomorrow afternoon. And this… is not over.”



Eleanor gladly returned to her lovely bedroom. It made her feel so comfortable and safe. The Malfoy’s guestroom had been luxurious but it was lacking this kind of safety. Molly obviously was a lot more aware of this difference as she walked across the room in a relaxed and comfortable pace and jumped onto the windowsill to roll herself up with no trace of that kind of behavior she had displayed day in and out at Malfoy Manor. Eleanor frowned at her with a soft, loving smile and also went to bed immediately. She noticed just how exhausted she was. During her time with Mr. Malfoy her adrenalin had been pumping without a break and after she had returned to her room it had continued as she had been walking up and down, excitedly trying to understand what had just happened. He had kissed her. He had kissed her! Mr. Malfoy, owner of that beautiful Manor, father of a boy who was a year above her at school had kissed her!



She felt as though she had suddenly fallen into a fantasy she would have never dared to even take seriously. And she wondered what it meant. Why had he kissed her and what was he thinking now? Did he really like her like that? And was his wife suspecting? She recalled her strange conversation with Mrs. Malfoy earlier that day and suddenly her strange remarks made a lot more sense.



She was truly blown away by what had happened and the more she thought about it the more confused she got. She tried to not think about the consequences or meaning of it anymore and just recalled her memory. That kiss… her first kiss. So that was what it felt like. She finally knew and she already knew that she had a taste for it. She wanted to do it again. What would it be like if she ever met the man again? Oh she simply had to see him again! She was scared of the thought at the same time. It would be weird. She would be even more embarrassed. In her dreaming mind she imagined herself to walk towards him and kissing him back, being the active seductive lover and kiss him first, but she knew she would never have the courage.



There was something overshadowing this evening. Snape’s attempts to ruin her evening were forgotten since her kiss with Mr. Malfoy would probably not have happened had she not been so frustrated with Snape that she wanted to leave the party and go to her room. Though his attack of her mind had cast a depressing, even creepy feeling inside her. She felt a light headache and as though something was heavily shaken up inside her head. It felt like someone had used a large hammer on her head and only through that violent thud she had become aware of something hard inside her mind, like a stone or a shell that would not crack through the attack of the spell. It felt so odd. She had never been attacked with legilimency before so she could not say for sure but she had this feeling that it was not supposed to feel so violent and that it was not supposed to be thrown back that hard. She could not shake off the nasty feeling that something was wrong inside her head.