Eye of the Beholder

Once again, my continued thank to all that have made the effort to read and review (White Lilac, FireMage6, and Fadingimage)

Chapter 25. The Past Unveiled
Lucius excused himself from the elegant dining table, and casually walked towards his study. He took his time and selected a silver travelling cloak and leather gloves for his journey, and picked up his walking stick. Very carefully, he inserted his wand into the tip of the walking stick, pushing it down until he heard the satisfying click, and he felt it fit snugly into place in the shaft.
 
Tonight was the night he had decided to pay Snape a surprise visit. With any luck his little love interest would be there as well, and I can have a bit of fun this evening, he thought with a sly grin. He absolutely detested travelling by the floo network. It was a filthy way to travel, and it was mainly used by the lower class wizards, such as the Weasleys. However, he conceded, it was the fastest way into Hogwarts considering there was no way to apparate there. His spies in the Ministry of Magic informed him a few days ago that a floo connection had been opened into the fireplace in Snape’s private office. How fortunate for me, Lucius thought, as it will make my plans go so much smoother.
 
With that thought, he walked over to his own fireplace and pocketing a handful of the silvery floo powder for his return trip, he took another fistful. He stood there, and carefully enunciated his words.
 
"Private office of Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." With a flash of green he was gone.
 
**
 
Sasha was alone in the lab when she heard a sputter and gurgle from the fireplace. She looked up from the potions book she was reading to see clouds of steam billowing out from the top of her cauldron. It was sputtering and belching in a way she had never seen it do before, and she had no idea what to do. She leapt up and was just about to remove it from the fireplace when she hesitated. What if this is what it is supposed to do? she thought frantically. What if removing it from the fire will stop the reaction? Severus, she thought panicking, she needed to find Severus right away.
 
Sasha dashed out of the lab and into the office. He was not there. "Severus!" she yelled. She opened the door to his private chambers, but he was not there either. This was not good. She dashed out into the potions classroom, and not seeing him there, she kept running. A sense of urgency was making her legs move faster. She opened the large door leading out to the hallway and started to run through it when she caught a glimpse of him at the far end of the hall, walking towards her.
 
She did not have time to admire his tall frame, and the elegant way his robes billowed out around him as he walked. She ran towards him, her heart thumping and her stomach in knots. Snape instantly realized something was wrong, and quickened his pace.
 
"Sasha, what is it," he asked, concerned.
 
She was out of breath. "The potion. It’s different than usual. Lots of steam and large bubbles," she panted out. Without another question, Snape had turned and was striding past her towards to potions lab. She took off right behind him.
 
Snape entered the lab and immediately went over to the spitting and hissing potion. He looked at it a moment, then taking a wooden spoon, stirred it briskly. It still continued to exhale clouds of greyish-green vapour but the hissing was somewhat reduced. He kept it over the flames.
 
He turned and looked at Sasha sternly. "Did you remove it from the heat at any time?" he asked carefully, watching her for any tell-tale reaction.
 
She looked up at him, frightened she had done the wrong thing. "No. I almost did, but I thought it would be best to get you first," she replied hesitantly. He was watching her for the tell-obvious signs that she had lied to him. He was satisfied she wasn’t.
 
Snape turned back to the cauldron. "It is a good thing you didn’t," he said. "It has reached a critical point in its chemistry, and removing it from the heat would have stopped the congealing reaction. Adding anything to it at this point will ruin it, irreversibly," he said quietly.
 
At this news Sasha felt weak, so she made her way over to the stool by Snape’s table. She sat down, relieved. She could not believe she almost ruined it by reacting, and not by thinking. As her panic started to subside, she almost became a bit angry with Snape.
 
"Why didn’t you warn me it would do this, so I would have been better prepared?" she asked, an edge to her voice.
 
He looked back at her, his eyes narrowing at her tone, and an arrogant expression on his face. "Because it is obviously ahead of schedule, Sasha." He came and stood over her. "If I knew it would start this so soon, I would have."
 
He kept looking at her in his controlled, emotionless manner. "Tell me, Sasha, why do you think the potion is reacting this way – so soon ahead of schedule? What are the variables that would allow this to happen?" He pushed her, wanting her to think about what they were doing, not just for him to hand her the answers on a silver platter.
 
She took a deep breath, thinking. "It can’t be the methods, as we have been consistent with them. The heat?" she asked. "Variation in the temperature?"
 
Snape looked at her disappointingly. "Sasha, you’re guessing. That is not good enough. What else," Snape countered coldly.
 
She felt like she was back in her potions class all over again. She thought harder. It could not be what they were doing. Maybe what they were working with?
 
"The ingredients. It has to do with the ingredients," she said. Snape nodded his head a fraction of an inch.
 
"What about them? What makes the difference between batches of potions, even if you have brewed the same one a hundred times?" He was pleased she was trying to reason out the possible explanations.
 
She closed her eyes and quickly compared the list of ingredients they had added. Most of them were organic, either fresh or dried parts of various animals, insects or plants. The remainder was basically salts, or buffering solutions. It had to be the variation in the organic ingredients.
 
She looked up at him with certainty. "The organics," she said firmly. "It must be either the age, or the potency of them if they were dried. That is the one thing we cannot control when you obtain these types of ingredients. We must have used very potent ingredients to allow the potion to progress so quickly," she theorised.
 
Snape let just the hint of a smile reach the corner of his mouth. "Very good, Sasha. You live up to your reputation as a Ravenclaw." He walked over and lay his hands on her shoulders to show her he was not mad at her.
 
"And I do appreciate you coming to me when you noticed that something had changed, rather than trying to ‘fix’ the potion yourself." She looked up him and lay her head back against his chest. It was only then that it had begun to sink in that she could have easily ruined the potion, and wasted all of the hours they had put into it so far.
 
Lucius silently walked into the lab and saw Sasha with her head against Snape’s chest, and his hands on her shoulders. He began to slowly clap his hands, as if congratulating an award-winning performance. The sound startled both Snape and Sasha. Lucius continued to clap, the sound eerily resonating in the hallow room.
 
"Bravo, Severus, Bravo. What a tender moment for the two of you," he said in his mockingly. "Severus, I never knew you had it in you to actually care about someone other than yourself. The two of you make such as wonderful couple." He finished clapping and smirked at the look of shock on Sasha’s face and the careful mask of cold indifference that quickly appeared on Snape’s.
 
Snape stepped away from her and walked over to stand directly, threateningly, in front of Lucius. Snape leaned in and his black eyes bored into the watery blue ones.
 
"What do you want Lucius?" Snape hissed. Lucius smiled as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
 
"Business first, Severus, business first," he replied in a bored tone, and walked over to where Snape had the series of smaller cauldrons set up to brew the potions for the Dark Revel. Lucius peered into each of them in turn, then peered back towards Snape, a disgusted look on his face.
 
"They are coming along as planned?" he asked briskly. Snape nodded once. "And they will be completed in three days?" he continued.
 
Snape was surprised. Three days was earlier than he had expected, however they would be ready by then. He kept his appearance cool and detached, not giving Lucius any margin of satisfaction by reacting this earlier date.
 
‘Yes Lucius, your precious potions will be done by then."
 
Lucius was disappointed Snape never took the bait, and did not react to his little surprise. He walked back over to Snape, and cocked his head to once side, peering at him intensely.
 
"And you will deliver them yourself, in person?" he questioned softly. "I would really hate to have to explain to the others the reason for your absence. Why you had the time to make your potions, but do not have the time to attend the Dark Revel yourself, Severus," he threatened. Lucius looked over at Sasha, sitting on the stool. "It would be most, how shall I say, unfortunate, if I had to give you a good reason to come to my little party, now wouldn’t it?" he said dangerously. Lucius smiled, and left the threat hanging heavily in the room. All three of them did not miss his intentional use of the word unfortunate, and his implication towards Sasha.
 
Snape was trying very hard to keep his emotions under control. He would not give Lucius any reason to harm Sasha. However, he was in such a position that he had no choice. He had to go to the Revel.
 
"Of course Lucius, I will deliver them myself. Three days from now. I think I can remember how to find your dungeons again," he said.
 
Lucius smiled, and his manner lightened considerably. This was just the opening he was waiting for. He positioned himself such that he could observe both Snape’s face and Sasha’s.
 
"Good. I will be looking forward to seeing you participate." He made to gather up his silver cloak, as if getting ready to leave.
 
"Oh and by the way, you are more than welcome to bring a guest with you to the events, Severus," Lucius said indicating Sasha with a nod of his head. "Avery would so much like to see her again after all these years. It would be like a small reunion between the four of us, now wouldn’t it?" he said lightly.
 
Snape stopped dead in his tracks. He felt the first tendrils of ice appear in his guts, snaking their way through his intestines. His eyes narrowed, and his teeth clenched in his jaw.
 
"What are you talking about, Lucius?" he said. His voice was deadly calm.
 
Lucius looked back at him with mock surprise. "You don’t mean to tell me you don’t remember, Severus?" He looked between Snape and Sasha, who was riveted to her chair, all colour quickly fading from her face. It made her scar stand out clearly on her face.
 
Lucius began to laugh. "Oh my this is just too much." He clapped his hands once, and brought them up to his lips. He closed his eyes savouring the moment, before turning to face Sasha. "I am not surprised you don’t remember, my dear, as you were but a child." He turned back and looked at Snape, the evil smile snaking its way from his lips up to meet his eyes.
 
"Let me refresh your memory. Years ago, you, Avery and myself were to meet wi Mug Muggles merchant, who never did show. Avery came upon a child playing in the grass with a puppy, and decided to have a bit of fun while we waited." Lucius paused until he recognized the spark of recollection in Snape’s eyes, as he remembered the incident. Lucius continued.
 
"You made some sort of half-hearted effort to persuade Avery to leave the child alone, but, well, you know Avery. Once he sees something he desires," Lucius stepped closer to Snape to see his reaction before continuing, "there is no stopping him," he taunted.
 
"You left, Snape," Lucius yelled, his face contorting to push the point home, "you left that child," he pointed to Sasha, "to suffer at the hands of Avery. And look at what he did to her," he shouted. "She is scarred for life thanks to you. Maybe, if you had put a bit more effort into it, Severus, you could have prevented your girlfriend from g mag manhandled and mauled by that monster, Avery!" Lucius stood there, a look of triumph on his face.
 
Snape was in shock. He remembered the incident clearly in his mind. How he had tried to dissuade Avery from hurting the girl, but not succeeding, and not wanting to be a part of it, how he had left. He had no idea it was Sasha when she was young. He thought quickly. The timing would be right, as she would be about the appropriate age. An intense wave of guilt flooded over him combined with remorse, and anger. Anger at Lucius. Anger at himself for not asking Sasha about her scar. He still had no idea what Avery had done to her. If he had molested her, or just maimed her. Snape turned to look at Sasha and his heart stopped in his chest.
 
She was very slowly getting up form the chair, her hand half-way stretched out in front of her. Her face was dead white from shock, and she was shaking all over. She was muttering something under her breath. He could just make it out. Light and dark, light and dark, she was repeating over and over.
 
Sasha could not think. She had listened to Lucius as he revealed the events. It was just as she remembered them, only it was like someone had lifted the veil of haze from her memory. She now remembered clearly that day, the warm sunshine, the smell of the grass and the happiness of her puppy. And she remembered Lucius and Snape, standing there side by side, watching as Avery squeezed the breath out of her, terrifying her. Lucius with his white-blond hair and pale blue eyes, and Snape in his dark cloak, with his jet-black hair and eyes. Light and dark. The contrast between the two of them, Lucius and Severus, had made such an impression on her. And then the pain. She remembered the pain as it was seared into her memory as much as it was seared into her face.
 
She could not help herself as she slowly stood up from the stool and reached out to Lucius. She was finding it hard to breathe, and it was like she was reliving the memory all over again. Lucius watched with morbid fascination as Sasha slowly reached up towards his hair. It was as if she had to touch it to make sure he was real, and not just part of a distant memory. As she slowly ran her fingers down the shining white strands, she looked him in the eye. Reality came into focus for her, as she saw his obvious excitement at her mental anguish. She tightened her hand in those luxurious locks and pulled, her anger and hate surfacing uncontrollably.
 
"You! You stood there, watching everything!" she yelled. Lucius snarled in pain and pushed her away from him. "You never lifted a finger to help me! You bastard!" she screamed. Lucius scrambled for his walking stick and whipped out his wand from its’ sheath. He pointed it at her dangerously.
 
"Touch me again, and you will not live to regret it you filthy girl," he spat menacingly. The both froze, before Lucius looked up to see Snape standing above him with his own wand pointed at him. The look on Snape’s face was terrible, and it was enough to give Lucius pause. Snape addressed Sasha, but kept his deadly gaze on Lucius.
 
"Leave now Sasha, if you value your life."
 
She bolted out the door, not looking back at either one of them. She needed to escape, to get away from there. She was so confused, and her mind and emotions were in turmoil. She blindly let her feet carry her up to the Ravenclaw common room. She needed to be safe, to hide somewhere they would never get her. She ran into her room and stared at her bed. It was too open, and she would be too exposed. Not good, they would find her there. She looked around the room wildly. The closet. She would be safe there.
 
Still shaking, Sasha turned towards the closet. As if in a nightmare, she opened it, and crawled in, shutting it firmly behind her. It was small and secure. She closed her eyes and leaned up against the back of the tiny compartment. She finally let the tears and the emotional pain come. She felt anger and hate at Lucius and this person Avery, but mostly, she felt betrayed by Severus. He was the one man she had ever begun to love, and yet he had abandoned her the one time she had needed anyone in her short life.
 
She stayed in there for hours, eventually coming to grips with her new reality.