The Name in Red **COMPLETE**

Hey everyone! I apologize for making you wait for another chapter! School has been pretty busy. The wait this time, though, was significantly shorter than last time, I think :)
I sincerely thank those of you who have left me great reviews-- they definitely spur me onward in my story! Keep leaving them!!!

Here is Chapter 21! I hope you enjoy it!


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The Name in Red.

Chapter 21: Disaster.
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After dinner was over, Sarah bid her friends good evening and began making her way down to the dungeons for her lesson. It was not until she was strolling down the dark, chilly corridors by herself that she really began to think about the events of that afternoon. She had been too nervous and preoccupied with Apparating by herself for the first time, and also about dealing with Griphook. She had all but forgotten the tension which occurred in Professor McGonagall's office while Harry, in the presence of Snape, had asked the Headmistress' permission to show her his home for her holiday stay. Sarah took a deep breath and began thinking of ways she could possibly diffuse the situation. She was also hoping, however unlikely it might be, that Severus had forgotten all about it.

As she reached the door to his office, she opened it herself and entered without knocking, as was now customary and acceptable between them. She proceeded casually into the room. He was seated at his desk as usual, dressed in his normal teaching robes, going through an assortment of parchment laid out before him. He seemed to have taken no notice to the girl's presence. It wasn't until she drew right up to the edge of his desk that he raised his eyes to look at her.

"Good evening," he said neutrally, his tone smooth.

Sarah cocked her head slightly. It wasn't exactly a cold reception, but it was a far departure from his usual behavior, where his eyes were attentive of her every move from the moment she stepped in the door, greedily drinking her in constantly. He definitely hadn't forgotten about what happened in Professor McGonagall's office. Taking a steadying breath, Sarah attempted to diffuse his sour mood.

"You'll never guess what I did today," she said, smiling.

"Went gallivanting about unsupervised with Potter yet again?" Snape drawled, his voice dripping with dislike and jealousy. Before Sarah could retort, he once again turned his attention back to the parchment on his desk.

Sarah bit the inside of her lip. Ignoring his comment for the moment, she pressed on.

"I Apparated to somewhere and back, all by myself. No Side-Along at all," she said proudly.

Snape's eyes widened, and he looked up at her immediately. He had not been aware that the girl was learning Apparition.

"And where, pray tell, did you acquire that little skill?" he asked dryly, already knowing the answer.

"My friends," Sarah replied, "Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny have all been teaching me when we go to Hogsmeade on the weekends."

"So," Snape said, rising from his chair swiftly. Its legs scraped harshly against the stone floor. He now sounded displeased. "Potter has been teaching you to Apparate illegally, has he?"

Sarah watched him as he rose from his chair and rounded his desk, his arms folded across his chest. He looked down at her as he approached her, his expression severe. Her heart jumped into her throat; never since they had first interacted with each other months ago had he looked at her so menacingly. Until now, she had forgotten just how much she feared his anger.

"Well I can't exactly walk into the Ministry and ask for a license, can I?" she replied, careful to keep her tone as non-confrontational as possible. The last thing she needed was for him to feel that she was challenging him in some way.

"It was irresponsible," Snape continued, his voice rising in volume, "You are lucky to not have been killed while trying to learn something so dangerous with a bunch of children as teachers."

Sarah jerked forward slightly in reflex, tempted to retort that none of her friends were children, but she remained silent.

For several more moments, Snape continued staring down at the girl in his anger. At least he was now at a point where he could honestly admit to himself that he wasn't truly all that angry about her learning Apparition illegally; although he would never admit it aloud, he was more angered by her decision to choose Potter as a teacher for such an important skill, and most importantly by her decision to not tell him about it. If she wasn't telling him about learning Apparition with Potter, what else might she not be telling him?

These thoughts raced through his mind as he observed the girl before him. Her neck had receded submissively into her shoulders, and her expression was a mixture of fear and disappointment. With an effort, he took a deep breath. She was expecting me to be pleased with her for learning to Apparate, he thought to himself, and instead, I've frightened her again. After a few calming breaths, his expression became more gentle.

"I could have taught you," he said to her softly. As he spoke, he reached out to her and placed his hands on her shoulders reassuringly. "You need only to have asked."

Sarah's expression melted into one of relief as she looked up at him.

"You're teaching me so much already," she said, "I couldn't possibly ask you to teach me anything more."

"There is no limit to what I can teach you," he said, his voice almost a whisper. The fingers of his right hand stroked her jawline affectionately. The girl blushed deeply.

Everything seeming to have been repaired between them for the moment, Snape took a small step away from her.

"Shall we begin, then?" he asked.

He was about to take a major risk. As he did some time ago, he was once again going to shift the evening's lesson plan to Occlumency. His fears and jealousy could not truly be put to rest unless he again saw for himself what was going on inside the girl's mind pertaining to Potter. Last time, she had correctly deduced his true motive behind having an Occlumency lesson. Fortunately, she had not become angry. This time, he would phrase it to her differently and, ever the Slytherin, still be able to work toward his own ends.

Sarah nodded in reply.

"I am sure you recall our Occlumency lesson some time ago," he began casually, "We barely scratched its surface, but I feel that you have at least grasped a solid understanding of its basic principle to be able to expand your studies on it quite easily. It was an introduction, of sorts. Tonight, we will be doing the same thing with its counterpart. An introduction."

"To Legilimency?" Sarah asked, trying to mask her sudden onset of nervousness. Thus far, she had been fortunate enough to steer her tutelage away from these particular subjects since her first experience with Snape probing into her mind. It had been a lingering fear that the subjects would someday resurface. After all, she had quite a bit of incriminating information tucked away inside her mind. She swallowed hard.

"Yes," Snape replied, "It is impossible to fully understand Occlumency or Legilimency by themselves without learning about the other. Tonight you will be attempting to penetrate my mind."

Sarah's eyes widened, some of the color draining from her face. She might as well have just been told that she would be attempting to break into a Gringotts vault with a toothpick. She knew full well what an accomplished Occlumens he was reputed to be. At least this meant that he wouldn't be poking around in her mind... or so she thought.

"Will you at least go easy on me?" she asked. "It's not exactly a level playing field."

The corner of Snape's lip twitched into a tiny smile.

"I'll see what I can do," he told her smoothly. "Do you recall the spoken incantation?"

"Legilimens," Sarah recited, remembering all too well the fear that had accompanied that word when she was fighting to conceal her more incriminating memories from him.

"Very good," he nodded, watching the girl as she positioned herself several paces away from him. He leaned up against his desk, relaxed. "There are two elements to this little lesson, however. If you manage to gain access to my mind, you have essentially made your mind vulnerable to me if I were to be able to turn the tables on you. You must also be able to keep me from pushing you back into your own mind along with me, and should I gain access to your mind, to shut me out with Occlumency. Do you think you can do that?"

Sarah's heart was racing. Fear would be too light a word to describe what she was experiencing. She was only a beginner at this type of magic; how did he honestly expect her to be able to accomplish all of that? She had only gotten off clean last time by being able to successfully distract him, and he would no doubt not fall for that trick twice. Were his same ulterior motives for their last Occlumency lesson at work here? Did he just want to be sure that she was not fooling around with other young men like Harry? If so, Sarah knew somewhere deep inside that refusing to participate would be tantamount to the admittance of infidelity in Snape's mind. She would have to play along.

"I'll try," she said meekly, already afraid to meet his eyes with her own lest every secret in every corner of her mind be revealed to him.

Cognizant as ever of every detail in the girl's behavior, her obvious air of nervousness did not go unnoticed by Snape.

"You may begin whenever you are ready," he told her, his black eyes studiously watching her every movement. "You need not give me the advanced warning that I gave you, I shall be prepared. Begin when ready."

Slipping her hand inside her robes, Sarah withdrew her wand. She took a deep breath.

"Are you sure I'm ready for this?" she chanced, one last slim thread of hope to avoid exposing her mind to him once again.

Snape gave a single, slow nod, still leaning up against his desk in a relaxed pose.

"Of course," he replied, "This is no different than any other field of magic that you have excelled in thus far, and remarkably less dangerous as well."

A small shiver ran down Sarah's spine at his words. Remarkably more dangerous, for me, actually, she thought to herself.

Sarah raised her wand to his eye level. When she spoke the incantation, her eyes were directed at his boots, and it was completely without any true focus or conviction.

"Legilimens," she said.

Instantaneously, she felt as if her head hit a solid wall of brick. Eyes shut tight, she staggered backwards, only remaining upright with extreme difficulty. When she opened her eyes again, Snape was still leaning up against his desk relaxedly, his eyes on her. She huffed out a sigh.

"Do you recall the importance of eye contact to employ Legilimency?" he asked, watching the girl stagger back to the center of the office with some concern. "Without it, you are almost literally running blindly into a wall, as I am sure you noticed." It was all too obvious now that the girl was extremely fearful of him gaining access to her mind once again. This made him even more eager to look inside for himself, but he would have to be patient.

"I can see that, yeah," she said gruffly. Sighing again, she raised her wand toward him. This time, she locked his dark, black eyes in her gaze.

"Legilimens," she spoke again.

Fortunately, the sensation of ramming her head into a brick wall was absent. Instead, the entirety of Snape's office seemed to stretch away from her and fade into nothingness. It seemed as if she were in a completely different place. Everything about her was a complete haze. She could see nothing, and hear nothing. The emptiness swirled around her in a smoky, indistinguishable fog. Maybe she had entered Snape's mind, she thought, but she had no idea what she was supposed to be doing next.

"Hello?" she couldn't help but blurt out. Her voice echoed infinitely inside her own mind and without.

Only a moment later, there was an invisible force pushing on her. Snape's office re-congealed itself around her weirdly, leaving her dazed. When she looked up at Snape, he was exactly as he had been a few seconds ago, lounging against his desk, his eyes intently on her. The corner of his lip twitched again.

"What did I just do?" she asked, glancing around at the office's walls. She knew that it was extremely unlikely that they had spontaneously melted away into a strange, empty void. She must have done something right.

"You did exactly what you thought you did," Snape replied, "And I must admit that I found your confusion amusing."

Sarah nodded once; apparently Snape had heard every thought she produced in her own mind while inside his. She also knew that he had hadn't actually gained access to Snape's mind on her own power so much as she had been let inside without any resistance. After all, if Voldemort hadn't even been successful at it, what chance could she possibly stand against his mental defenses?

"This time," he continued, "When you find yourself in that place again, do not lose focus. Begin searching. Apply your mental focus as much as you possibly can. Make the haze disappear and reveal thoughts and memories."

Sarah nodded again, taking another deep breath in an attempt to slow her racing heart. She knew it was only a matter of time until Snape attempted to push her out of his mind and back into her own, forcing her to try and block him out. She raised her wand, locking eyes with him.

"Legilimens,"

She was immediately in the middle of the fog again. Focusing as hard as she could, she attempted to peer through the fog this time, instead of being content only to stare at it. As she did, she began to see flickers of movement beyond the fog in places. Intently redirecting her focus to these tiny flickers, she peered even harder, determined to see something more than nothingness. As soon as she did, memories raced forward toward her, and she was suddenly in them, as vivid as reality. She was once again seeing the same bizarre, fast-forwarded movie reel, but from the opposite perspective. These memories and perspectives were not her own. She watched as Snape sat uneasily in the stands on the Quidditch pitch, watching her first attempts to pilot a broom; a moment later, Snape was simply sitting at his desk, grading parchments; a moment later, he was standing in Professor McGonagall's office, conversing with her, but about what Sarah could not hear... Then, the invisible force was pushing hard against her, and the memories raced away from her, receding back into fog.

She abruptly found herself back in reality, standing in the center of Snape's office. Despite all the memories she had just seen racing by as vivid as reality, nothing here had changed. Snape was leaning against his desk, still watching her. Sarah blinked at him.

"Good," he told her, "That time you were able to reach a few memories. I was, however, able to force you out quite quickly and completely. This time, I want you to not only focus on accessing thoughts and memories, but also focus on staying there. Attempt to resist my efforts to push you out."

Sarah nodded but did not give a verbal reply. Again, she locked eyes with him and raised her wand.

"Legilimens,"

The fog surrounded her again. Without wasting any time, she peered into it intently, her focus strong. Soon, memories were once again racing forward at her, and she was suddenly inside them. Snape was sitting before the fire in his study, reading a book and sipping firewhiskey; a moment later, he was in his office, all of his potionmaking equipment and supplies laid out in full array as he worked on brewing a complex potion; next, Sarah watched as he was seated at the staff table on one of those rare occasions he had gone to a meal in the Great Hall instead of taking a meal in his rooms... Before she could view anything else, the invisible force had returned. It was pulling on her firmly, causing the memories she had been viewing so vividly to begin fading away from her as if by distance, shrinking away back into the fog.

Sarah registered the force's presence immediately and gave a great heave of focus, keeping her eyes on those memories shrinking into the distance, attempting to bring herself into them once more. This caused them to momentarily draw closer to her again, the fog clearing, but the force's persistence thwarted her small progress. She was being dragged backwards by it. The memories again faded back into nothingness and she found herself once again staring into the haze without even the slightest thing to discern. She quickly found herself back in Snape's office.

"A bit better that time," he told her. "You managed to resist momentarily. Now that you know what it requires, you will be able to do it more successfully."

Now it was time to get down to business and do what he really wanted.

"This time," he continued, "I will not only stop when I push you back out into reality. I will push you back inside your own mind, and I will follow, until you can employ Occlumency to push me out, or prevent me gaining access to begin with. Do you understand?"

Sarah simply nodded again. It unnerved her that Snape looked so completely relaxed.

Snape watched calmly as the girl raised her wand again, pointing it at his eye level. In truth, he wasn't calm at all. He felt terribly angry with himself for what he was about to do, but the jealous and possessive side of him would not let him rest until it had been done. He would allow the girl into his mind again, yes, and show her more mundane memories of everyday activities, but when he would push her back out and begin probing her mind in turn, he had no intention of letting her push him out until he had seen what he wanted to see. The fear of the girl's reactions loomed over him. Surely she would realize what he was doing. She might very well become cross with him afterward. His possessiveness and jealousy, however, won out on any reservations he had.

He heard her speak the incantation.

"Legilimens,"

Sarah found herself in the fog again, and she was immediately focused, actively pushing through it to access the memories and thoughts which lay beyond. She made quick progress this time, and soon she was observing Snape teaching one of his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, strolling up and down the classroom as he lectured his students, Sarah noting idly that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in the classroom. Sarah might have laughed aloud in Snape's mind when she observed Harry and Ron passing humorous notes back and forth, while Hermione scribbled away feverishly as she took down Snape's words. Next, Snape was patrolling the corridors of the school late at night, on the prowl for students breaking curfew... Sooner than she had expected, Sarah felt the invisible force pressing on her once again, dragging her away from the memories that she had been examining, making them fade away before her.

She struggled against it as hard as she could, but felt as if she were running in place and making no progress. The memories continued to distance themselves from her, becoming fuzzy and indistinguishable. They faded more slowly this time as she struggled, but she could not seem to regain whatever footing she had in Snape's mind. The memories slipped away into nothingness, and the force was still pushing on her.

This time, Snape's office did not reappear around her. The force continued pushing on her, pushing her back so far that she would soon be inside her own mind, watching in terror as Snape reigned free in her thoughts.

She attempted to steady her mind as much as possible.

Don't panic, she told herself silently, Don't panic.

She tried to blank her mind completely, and make it into the same hazy, indistinguishable place that she had inhabited inside Snape's mind.

Snape was determined. He hesitated momentarily, his conscience nagging him again, but his fears and jealousy would not allow him to stop now, not after he had gone this far. After his moment of hesitation, he easily pushed past the girl's weak attempt to empty her mind. She was quite obviously ridden with nerve, and it was her undoing. He waded through her mind with ease, searching for anything to do with Potter. He immediately came upon several memories of time spent alone with Potter, but as they contained no physical content, he glossed over them quickly; he watched as she and Potter took tea with Hagrid in his hut; he came across several memories of their secret Apparition lessons in Hogsmeade...

As Snape methodically searched through her mind, Sarah was paralyzed. She had attempted with all her might to keep him from getting in, and now she was futilely trying to push him out. She was sure that her mental protests could not possibly go unnoticed by him. She realized then that he must have no designs whatsoever of leaving her mind until he had seen everything he wanted to see, and that the catalyst for it was her frequent time spent alone with Harry. She watched, helpless, as Snape riffled through her mind, unrelenting in his hold on her.

Snape continued searching for every thought or memory having to do with Potter, even seeing again some of the memories which he had seen previously when probing her mind many months ago. When he reached one particular memory, however, he became confused. There he was with Sarah, locked in a passionate embrace inside his storeroom. Potter was not in this memory, yet he had come upon this memory before when searching the girl's mind for anything pertaining to Potter. Why had this memory come up when he was searching for Potter? He had to delve deeper. Using his best skills as a Legilimens, Snape pressed deeper into the girl's mind, searching for any memory or thought related to this particular one, trying to discern why it would come to the surface when he was searching for anything about Potter.

Sarah screamed inside her own mind.

Snape was watching. He saw Potter sitting upon the girl's bed in her room, handing over to her what appeared to be a small bottle...

A small bottle of...

Polyjuice Potion?

That was his bottle of Polyjuice Potion, the small bottle in which he had stored the remnants of Slughorn's brewing. The small bottle of Polyjuice Potion which was always kept safe and secure...

Inside my storeroom...

How could Potter have come to possess his Polyjuice Potion from within his secure storeroom?

Snape observed the storeroom memory again, more closely; something had silently and unnoticeably disappeared from one of the shelves.

Watching in indescribable shock, Snape delved even deeper; Sarah was in a London alleyway, directing a stunning spell at a passerby; some invisible force dragged the man's unconscious body into the alleyway and through a doorway; Potter ripped off his invisibility cloak and tossed it to Sarah; Potter was now transforming into the likeness of the unconscious man, and Sarah donned the invisibility cloak, following Potter into...

The Ministry of Magic?

"No," Snape spoke aloud, echoing in Sarah's mind. He pressed on, viewing the entire memory in detail as Sarah watched, helpless, a silent prisoner inside her own mind. The sheer amount of adrenaline and terror in her system made the entire memory pass by in excruciating slowness.

When the memory had drawn to a close, Snape relinquished his hold on Sarah's mind completely. He had seen enough.

She was thrown to the stone floor, trembling visibly.

When she managed to raise herself into a sitting position, her eyes trailed upward to the man standing before her. He was no longer lounging against his desk in a relaxed pose; he was still leaning against it, but his hands were clutching the edge of the desk, white-knuckled, as if he needed it for support. When their eyes met, neither said a word. Sarah's eyes were already welling up with tears, and Snape's expression was one of shock. Several excruciatingly long moments of silence passed between them.

"You..." Snape began, letting go of the desk and straightening up to his full, terrifying height. Sarah remained prostrate on the cold stone floor, looking up at him. "It was Potter. It was you."

Sarah inhaled as if to speak, but no words came from her.

"You two broke into the Ministry," he said, reality dawning on him bitterly.

"We only wanted--," Sarah attempted to begin, but was promptly stifled.

"Have you any idea what you have done?" Snape continued, his voice loud and forceful. "You could have been killed! Potter may have a lust to gamble his pathetic life away so easily, but you should have known better than to enter in with him on something so dangerous! You are fortunate to be alive after that!"

"We just--"

"Do you even appreciate the seriousness of what you have done?" he continued to rage. "Potter might be above the law because of his status, but I could have you locked away in Azkaban this very night for what you have done!"

"We only--,"

"Not to mention the fact that you could have been KILLED," he shouted, "What if they had set Aurors on you? What could you have done? How could you have been led to do something so foolish? POTTER! You stole from me," he spat, "Is that all this is to you? Just to seduce me at Potter's behest? I should have known that there couldn't possibly be a good reason for your interest in me," he hissed.

"No! I love--,"

"Get out,"

"If you would only-- Please, just listen--,"

"GET OUT!" Snape roared. In an instant, his wand was in his hand, and he slashed it blindly at the walls of his office. Many of the bottles, jars, and other delicate potionmaking equipment shattered loudly in an explosion of glass. Shards were sent flying everywhere.

Sarah scrambled to her feet as quickly as she could, some jagged shards of glass cutting into her hands as she pushed herself up from the floor. As she ran for the door, she heard more bottles and equipment shattering behind her. When she reached the door, she hesitated for a moment, turning back to look at him.

"OUT!"

He sounded like an anguished, wounded animal. His deep, black eyes were alight with rage. She saw him slash his wand blindly again, and something was sent flying in her direction. She flung the door open and slammed it behind her; as she did, she heard something shatter against it on the other side.

When the girl had gone, Snape was left standing alone in his office, breathing heavily. Much of the former contents of his shelves lay shattered about him. He felt some errant shards of glass biting into his skin in places, but he was in too much pain to care. He began to tremble. Never since Lily's death had he felt something akin to this. The wand dropped out of his hand, clattering as it landed, the hollow sound echoing. He slowly sank down to sit on stone the floor, leaning up against his desk, his head in his hands.

Had the girl just been about to say that she loved him?


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Sarah had sprinted the entire way back to the seventh floor corridor. When she reached the sanctity of her room, she slammed the door shut, slunk down against it, and cried; her hands, and her heart, bleeding.


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The atmosphere during the short amount of time left at school before the holidays had become gloomy. Sarah had suddenly become extremely despondent, as her friends immediately noticed. She was also completely unwilling to reveal the origin of the cuts on the palms of her hands, and constantly rebuffed their attempts to take her to the hospital wing and get them properly looked after. Instead, she simply bandaged each hand up on her own and seemed not to care. In fact, it seemed to Harry that she did not care about much of anything anymore. Sarah had usually been eager to escape the solitude of her own room, spending a significant amount of time in the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall.

Now, however, Harry was having to fetch her for meals. It seemed that she would completely neglect to eat otherwise. She was also absent from the common room. In her absence, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny had all pestered Harry to tell them what was the matter with Sarah, but he told them truthfully that he did not know. He had attempted to ask several times, only to have Sarah give no reply whatsoever, or supply an automatic 'nothing'. He was tempted to inquire if something had gone wrong between she and Snape, but he dare not ask. Hermione and Ginny had tried their own line of inquiry, cornering Sarah by themselves in the thought that she might be more apt to discuss something with other girls instead of Harry, but they were equally unsuccessful.

Even if Harry had asked about Snape specifically, Sarah would not have told him. He did not need the added worry that would accompany finding out that Snape knew all about their stealing from him, and also about their grossly illegal adventure into the Ministry of Magic. If Harry were to find out, he would probably be paranoid at the thought that Snape would turn them over to the wizarding authorities. This same thought had also crossed Sarah's mind, but somehow she knew that he wouldn't.

Her lessons with him, as they were required to continue, were now completely clinical. He was her professor and nothing more. She would be assigned a menial task or assignment, and he would go about his own work in silence as she went about hers. He gave no hint or recognition whatsoever that anything more had ever transpired between them. It made every lesson extremely painful for Sarah; she would often struggle to hide quiet sobs, and she always returned to her room with a tear-soaked sleeve. She wanted nothing more than to fix things between them, but his previous display of unbridled anger had made it quite clear that he was unwilling to listen to her.

Because of this, she was glad that the Christmas holiday came quickly.

It was late on Friday evening. Most of the students had already left. Those poor few that remained behind were probably the few students who were not leaving for the holiday. She would now go home with Harry and not have to worry about seeing Snape again for a few weeks. There was, however, the worrying prospect of dealing with Griphook tomorrow, and their subsequent adventure into the bank. It had all seemed so daunting to her before, but now, she would rather break into Gringotts a hundred times than face Snape again and deal with her heartbreak.

She was seated on her bed, her room almost in complete darkness. The fireplace only held a few burning embers now, and they barely lit the room enough to see. Next to her on the bed was a moderately sized duffel bag containing several changes of clothing. She had also packed her the left-over Decoy Detonators and Peruvian Instant Darkness powder from their trip into the Ministry; both she and Harry had agreed that the items would most likely still be of invaluable use to them when going into Gringotts. Also within her bag was her small bottle of Amortentia which she had brewed what seemed like so long ago. All of these things, plus a random assortment of necessary clothing, were all haphazardly jammed into the bag.

Sarah was dressed to leave in the cold weather, bundled up in several layers, with her Gryffindor scarf wrapped snugly about her neck. She was also still wearing Snape's traveling cloak, the one he had given her. As she sat upon her bed, she stared blankly into the dying embers of the fire. She let out a deep sigh, but instantly regretted it. When she had breathed in deeply, she breathed in Snape's scent from the cloak draped about her. She felt a sharp pang of emptiness inside. She idly wondered what he was doing for the holiday. She wondered what his home might be like. If only I hadn't been such an idiot, she thought to herself, I might have been able to find out.

A soft knock on the door broke her away from her depressive thoughts. Sighing again and shouldering her duffel bag, she stood and went to the door. Opening it, she found Harry waiting for her in the corridor outside. He was also dressed for the cold, but he was carrying nothing with him. He had enough of his own things already in Grimmauld Place that it eliminated the need for him to pack. When Sarah stepped out into the corridor, he gave her a small smile.

"Ready to go, then?" he asked, approaching her and reaching out for her duffel bag.

Sarah hesitated momentarily, but allowed Harry to take her bag from her.

"I guess so," she breathed, turning back and shutting the ornately-carved wooden door behind her.

After Harry had taken Sarah's bag, his brows furrowed and he shook it experimentally.

"Sure you've got everything you need? Seems like you packed a little light," he commented, eyeing her with concern.

"I don't want to have too much to carry with me when we're on the run from the law after breaking into Gringotts, you see," Sarah jested in a bored way, turning and beginning to make her way down the corridor.

Her tone certainly wasn't jovial, but at least she had made a joke, albeit a somber one. With this, Harry gave an amused laugh and shouldered the duffel bag, walking beside her down the hall. The door to Sarah's room vanished back into bare wall behind them.

"Smart plan," he replied, smiling.

The pair continued winding their way through the castle on their way to the outside grounds. Everything was lit as it normally would be, but the absence of most of the students scurrying about the halls made the castle seem like a huge and lonely place. They did not run into a single person on their way out of the castle, their footsteps echoing in the empty corridors as they walked along silently.

When they reached the grounds, they trudged their way along the lawns toward the school's perimeter. What had previously been a light dusting of snow was now a respectable accumulation. The bottoms of their pant legs would probably be wet by the time they reached their destination. They continued on toward where they could Disapparate from, leaving two perfect trails of footprints in the snow behind them.

Reaching the line which marked the end of the school's grounds, Harry stopped and turned to Sarah. Maybe because of her completely downtrodden mood, he thought, she might feel like going by Side-Along rather than Apparating by herself. She had not had more opportunities to practice with it since they had gone to Grimmauld Place and Diagon Alley in their quest to bribe Griphook into helping them.

"Do you want to--," he began, but he was cut short, watching as Sarah simply continued over the school's boundary line and disappeared with a crack, as if Apparition was second nature to her already. Harry's eyes widened.

"Erm, right."

Hurrying after her, he quickly walked to the place where she had disappeared from, turning on the spot and stepping into that irksome sensation which he could never seem to get used to. When he re-appeared, Sarah was already across the street, standing on the top step and waiting for him to unlock the door. He was across the street in a few long strides, withdrawing his wand from inside his robes as he climbed the front steps. Reaching the door, he tapped it with his wand.

After the door had unlocked itself, they stepped inside. The inside of the house was much as it had been on their last visit; pristine, glowingly lit, and welcoming in its warmth. The door was not closed half a second before the old house-elf rushed into the entrance hall.

"Master!" the elf croaked, making a low bow. It was already quite obvious that the elf could barely contain himself for all his excitement about having people in the house again. "Allow me, master, allow me!" the elf insisted, rushing forward and attempting to strip Harry and Sarah of their traveling cloaks and scarves while they were still working to remove their snowy shoes from their feet. When he had succeeded in removing them, he meticulously hung them on hooks beside the door.

"Thank you Kreacher," Harry said, setting his shoes and Sarah's boots aside to dry.

"Not at all, master, not at all," the elf croaked, bowing to his master again. Once he felt that he had given his master the proper respect, he turned to Sarah. "Welcome, Miss," he said to her, the golden locket dangling off his chest as he bowed to her. The elf then approached the duffel bag which Harry had set aside while removing his traveling clothes, picking it up.

"That's alright, Kreacher," said Harry, gently taking the duffel bag from him, "Those are Sarah's things, we'll take care of it. Come on," he said, gesturing to Sarah, jerking his head in the direction of the staircase, "We'll get you set up in the study, the couch in there is pretty big and there's a fireplace."

Harry proceeded up the staircase carrying the duffel bag, Sarah following after him.

"Tea in ten minutes!" Kreacher called after them hoarsely. "Kreacher can also make supper!"

Sarah followed Harry up into the same room from which they had retrieved the sword of Gryffindor. The room was brightly lit, and the fireplace was roaring. Aside from the large glass display case which the sword had rested atop (and was still resting atop, although unceremoniously bundled up in linens), much of the room's walls were lined with bookshelves. The tapestry of the Black family tree hung on the far wall. There was also an overlarge, comfortable-looking couch with matching chairs and small tables in the section of the room nearest the fireplace.

Harry approached the large couch, setting Sarah's bag down on it.

"I'm sorry that it's not much," he said, turning to Sarah, "But Hermione might be able to transfigure it into a bed for you when she gets here. I was planning on giving Ron and Hermione the empty guest room and having Ginny stay with me." His face colored slightly as he said this aloud.

Harry had embraced Sirius' old bedroom as his own, completely refurbishing it aside from some of the old photographs which his godfather had decorated the walls with. Aside from that room, Harry left the master suite and Regulus' old bedroom just as they were, mostly to please Kreacher, who might become angry if Harry were to completely clear out his old mistress' and master's rooms.

"It's more than enough," Sarah assured him, staring into the fire. "Thank you, Harry."

Unable to refuse Kreacher's gracious offering of tea, they joined him in the basement kitchen, watching with amusement as the elf bustled about. Sarah insisted several times that she was not hungry and the elf's efforts were not necessary, but Kreacher would hear none of it. In short measure, Kreacher had prepared them a simple meal of freshly baked bread and delicious onion soup.

"It's best just to let him do what he wants," Harry whispered to her from across the table as they ate, smiling. Sarah could not help but crack a smile at the elf's antics.

When Sarah returned to the upstairs study, she found that the large couch had been made into a makeshift bed, sheets tucked snugly into the cushions, with a luxuriously soft blanket already turned down for her, all topped off with the softest pillow that Sarah had ever felt. She could not help but smile again, but she also began to wonder how someone could find such sheer and utter joy in servitude. That was just the way of the house-elf, she thought, or some of them, at any rate. House-elves like Kreacher, at least.

Not long after, Sarah fell asleep while staring into the now lowly-burning fire, thinking on the unpleasant guest they would be receiving tomorrow, and what would become of she and her friend while attempting something so dangerous... She could distantly hear herself being shouted at for it by a familiar voice as she drifted off to sleep...


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Late at night, Harry, unable to sleep, was making his way down to the kitchen. As he passed through the upstairs hall, he could not help but pause in the doorway of the study, peeking inside. Sarah was fast asleep on the couch, her small bottle of Amortentia clutched tightly in her hand. Also, her large black traveling cloak had somehow found its way into bed with her during the night.

Harry sighed. Her sudden depression definitely had something to do with Snape.


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A/N: There you have Chapter 21! I hope you enjoyed it, even though it was quite a sad and upsetting chapter :( Trust me, it was very difficult for me to write it!! Snape sure was angry, huh? I wonder what he was truly so angry about? >;) I apologize for leaving you at such a cliffhanger in terms of the relationship between Sarah and Snape. I guess you'll just have to stay tuned to find out what happens! ^.^

I can say, with a good degree of confidence, that the next chapter will be quite long, and hopefully extremely exciting! A lot of big things are going to happen next time, I think! I hope you all stay tuned.

Again, thank you so much for reading. Please leave a review if you would be so kind!

Also, to LunaSnape, who asked what accent Sarah might have, she's from the midwest, so she doesn't any kind of dramatic accent one way or another, unless you imagine midwesterners having accents like some people think they do!